PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 HIS LIFE AND LABOURS
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
 
 Just Published. 
 
 (1) THE FACE OF A SOUL. A Story of Art and Life. 
 
 Crown 8vo, cloth gilt, 6s. 
 
 [Readers of "Peter Mackenzie: His Life and Labours,'' 
 will be interested to know that in this story though written 
 three years ago, and before the author had any idea of be- 
 coming his biographer Mr. Mackenzie figures as a preacher, 
 and (chaps, vi. and ix.) his style and manner are most 
 vividly reproduced.] 
 
 Scotsman. "An interesting tale. . . . Well written, and embodies a good 
 vein of thoughtfulness." 
 Newcastle Daily Leader. "A wholesome and entertaining story." 
 
 (2) THE SOUL OF THE SERMON (Including THE 
 
 MINISTER'S MONDAY and the PERSONALITY OF THE 
 PREACHER). Third Edition, cloth gilt, is. net. 
 
 Christian World. "Most stimulating reading. . . . Mr. Dawson is a 
 prophet of his time." 
 
 Methodist Times. "We predict for Mr. Dawson a wider sphere in the 
 literature of to-morrow. " 
 
 Methodist Recorder. " Essays from a gifted pen. 
 
 New Age. " Full of good things." 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 .3U tbe (flmcorn |)rrss, 
 
 26 PATERNOSTER SQUARE AND 211 GRAY'S INN ROAD.
 
 From a Negative by G. Kidsdale Cleare, Clapton. London, N. 
 
 r>
 
 PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 HIS LIFE AND LABOURS 
 
 REV. JOSEPH DAWSON 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 "THE FACE OF A SOUL" AND "THE SOUL OF THE SERMON' ETC. 
 
 SEVENTH EDITION 
 
 fanbon : 
 CHARLES H KELLY 
 
 2, CASTLE ST., CITY RD. ; AND 66, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.G. 
 1897
 
 PREFACE 
 
 rTlHIS biography was begun on December 16, 1895, 
 and completed on March 21, 1896, a period 
 of three months and five days. Ordinarily such haste is 
 greatly to be deprecated, but in this case urgency of cir- 
 cumstance rendered it unavoidable. To have delayed 
 the publication of the book until the autumn would 
 have seriously jeopardised its success. The forced speed 
 at which it has been written will perhaps be accepted 
 in explanation, if not excuse, of such defects as may be 
 discernible in its style and contents. Every endeavour 
 has been made to ensure accuracy and fulness of detail, 
 and to furnish a satisfactory presentation of Mr. 
 Mackenzie's personality and work. 
 
 Grateful acknowledgments are hereby tendered to 
 the many friends who have kindly supplied information, 
 granted the use of letters, or in any way assisted in the 
 preparation of the work. The names of such have, as 
 far as practicable, been noted in connection with their 
 several contributions. Two persons, not so named, 
 Mr. R J. Phalp of Haswell, and Bailie Doig of 
 Dundee, demand special thanks for valuable infor- 
 
 V 
 
 2000600
 
 vi FftEFACE 
 
 mation relating to Mr. Mackenzie's earlier life and 
 surroundings. 
 
 It only remains to be added, that the aim of the 
 writer has been to portray the hero of these pages in 
 that larger outline clear to those who knew him best; 
 and his gratification will be abundant if what has been 
 to him a labour of love should succeed in securing for 
 Mr. Mackenzie ampler appreciation as a man of genius, 
 a friend of the people, and a servant of Jesus Christ. 
 
 BRADFORD, March 23, 1896.
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 BIRTHPLACE AND CHILDHOOD 1824-1836 ... 1 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 WAXING INTO MANHOOD 1836-1844 . . . .12 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 FKOM THE FARM TO THE MINE 1844-1845 . .22 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 ENTRANCE ON MARRIED LIFE 1845-1847 . . .32 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 DECISION FOR CHRIST 1847-1849 . . . .41 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 GETTING UNDER WAY 1849-1850 ... .51 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 FIRST ATTEMPTS AT PREACHING 1850-1852 . .59 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 EXPERIENCES AS A LOCAL PREACHER 1850-1852 . . 69 
 
 vii
 
 viii CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 GROWING POPULARITY EMIGRATION* THWARTED 1850- 
 
 1854 .... 79 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 BISHOP AUCKLAND AND REGIONS BEYOND 1854-1858 . 87 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 PROPOSED FOR THE MINISTRY 185S . - 100 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 THE YEAR AT DIDSBURY 1858-1859 . . . m 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 His FIRST CIRCUIT BURNLEY 1859-1860 . . . 123 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 MONMOUTH, Ross, AND FOREST OF DEAN 1860-1862 . 135 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 AMONG THE WILTSHIRE VILLAGES 1862-1865 . 147 
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 BACK TO THE NORTH GATESHEAD 1865-1868 . . 157 
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 SUNDERLAND SANS STREET 1868-1871 . . .167 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE BLENHEIM STREET 1871-1874 . 173 
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 LEEDS ST. PETER'S 1874-1877 . . . .180 
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 LEEDS WESLEY CIRCUIT 1877-1880 . 194
 
 CONTENTS ix 
 
 CHAPTER tXI 
 
 PAOK 
 
 BRADFORD SHIPLEY CIRCUIT 1880-1883 . . 203 
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 DEWSBURY CIRCUIT 1883-1886 .... 214 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 RETIREMENT FROM CIRCUIT WORK 1886-1895 . . 222 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 THE LAST DAYS ...... 240 
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 REST AT LAST ....... 248 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 THE MAN His COURTESY ..... 256 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 THE MAN His JOYOUSNESS ..... 269 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 THE MAN His GENEROSITY . . . 277 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 THE MAN DIVERS TRAITS AND INCIDENTS . . 285 
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 THE PREACHER His MENTAL AND SPIRITUAL QUALITY . 292 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 THE PREACHER ILLUSTRATION HUMOUR DELIVERY . 298 
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 THE PREACHER His PRAYERS . . 307 
 
 b
 
 x CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE LECTURER Ton, AND TRAVEL . . , 312 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIY 
 THE LECTURER DRAMATIC REALISATION . . 319 
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 THE LECTURER His HUMOUR . . . 326 
 
 APPENDIX 
 THE MAN AND HIS WORK . 333
 
 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 SPITTAL, GLEN SHEE ... 3 
 
 TAY FERRY STEAMER .... .7 
 
 NEWPORT FROM THE WEST ..... 17 
 
 MINER AT WORK . . . . . .24 
 
 MINER AT REST ..... 26 
 
 "HAND-PUTTER" ...... 28 
 
 WHERE THE WIFE-BEATEU WAS CHASTISED . . 33 
 
 MACKENZIE'S HOUSE WHEN FIRST MARRIED . . 37 
 
 PONY AND TUB ....... 42 
 
 HASWELL COLLIERY ... 45 
 
 HASWELL CHAPEL ..... 48 
 
 WHERE MACKENZIE LIVED WHEN CONVERTED HOUSE ON 
 
 RIQHT WITH CLOSED DOOR . . . .52 
 
 CHAPEL LANE, HASWELL ... ,63 
 
 MAIN STREET, HASWELL . . . .71 
 
 MACKENZIE AT THIRTY . . 95 
 
 LITTLE DEAN HILL CHAPEL . .136 
 
 WESLEY CHAPEL, CINDERFORD . . . 138 
 
 MR. MACKENZIE'S DRAWING-ROOM . . . 225 
 
 MR. MACKENZIE'S STUDY ... . 233 
 
 REV. PETER MACKENZIE 257
 
 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 BIRTHPLACE AND CHILDHOOD 1824-1836 
 
 Autobiographical Scraps Birthplace Scenery of Glen Shee 
 Early Influences Journey to Dundee Little Peter Lost 
 Links of Comerton Leuchars and Logie Meagre Schooling 
 Lesson of the Cock-crowing. 
 
 TTNLIKE Rembrandt and other masters, among all 
 v> the canvases he painted, Peter Mackenzie in- 
 cluded no portrait of himself. Ceaseless activities 
 crowded out of his life all possibility of autobiography. 
 What a story he might have written had leisure been 
 allowed to nurse him in her lap awhile before death 
 struck the pen for ever from his fingers ! 
 
 He made a beginning, but it was a mere scrap ; 
 covering only five pages of note-paper, hurried in style, 
 and meagre in statement. Swiftly, indeed, must he 
 hurry on, when in so brief a chronicle he travels from 
 Glen Shee, in the north of Scotland, to Didsbury, on 
 the skirts of Manchester, and covers a period of over 
 thirty years. Yet, hurried and bare as the history is, 
 like a half-clad beggar in too much haste to gather 
 
 i
 
 2 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 alms, what interest it awakens, and how valuable, in 
 the absence of other witnesses, are the few ragged, 
 disjointed details it lets fall for us as it scurries 
 onward ! 
 
 I was born in Glen Shee, North Highlands of Scotland 
 on the llth of November 1824. 
 
 Glen Shee is a romantic valley, flanked on the east 
 by Mount Blair, and on the west by Lamh Dearg, 
 through which the road from Blairgowrie climbs 
 patiently up towards Braemar, a distance of thirty- 
 five miles. The road is designated the Royal Eoute, 
 owing to its having been chosen by the Queen and 
 Prince Albert as the way to Balmoral before the 
 Deeside Railway was constructed. The surrounding 
 mountains rise to a height of from three to four 
 thousand feet, and listen with haughty brows to the 
 brawling of the river Shee in the valley below. 
 Before the road enters the glen, it clambers up a steep 
 hill, and beyond it hugs the shoulder of Cairnwall, 
 until, having threaded a sharp zigzag, called the Devil's 
 Elbow, and climbed to an elevation of two thousand 
 feet, it reaches the summit of the pass, near where 
 the small loch of Brotrachan sleeps quietly on the left. 
 This is the watershed, from which the road rapidly 
 descends, by Glenclunie, to Braemar. 
 
 The inn at the head of the glen is known as The, 
 Spitted, a corruption of the word hospital, the name 
 having its origin in the fact that a hospice of the 
 monks or Hospitallers of St. John once stood here, and 
 served as a refuge for travellers. 
 
 Here, among these rugged mountains, the strength 
 and largeness of which seem to have passed into him,
 
 EARLY INFLUENCES $ 
 
 freshened by the free air, browned by the unhindered 
 sun, hardened by the wholesome fare common to the 
 household of the Scottish peasant, the man whose 
 course we have to follow through these pages spent 
 the first three years of his life, reminding us involun- 
 tarily of that other child, of whom Wordsworth 
 sang 
 
 Three years she grew in sun and shower. 
 
 And the poetry that lay at the heart of all his 
 thought and speech in after years would almost lead 
 one to picture him saying of himself, in the words of 
 the same writer 
 
 Not in vain, 
 
 By day or star-light, thus from my first dawn 
 Of childhood didst thou intertwine for me 
 The passions that build up our human soul : 
 Not with the mean and vulgar works of Man ; 
 But with high objects, with enduring things, 
 With life and nature. 
 
 We catch the tone of our surroundings in childhood 
 as readily as the lake at midnight takes the imprint 
 of the stars, and it is hardly a freak of fancy to scent 
 in the strong bright speech of Peter Mackenzie some 
 of the breeziness and rugged vigour of his early 
 environment. 
 
 Left the Highlands for the Lowlands in the county of Fife 
 when three and a half years old. 
 
 Hurried little sojourner ! How soon he was jostled 
 out of the nest of that quiet little valley ! How early 
 those wanderings began that were to extend so 
 far and continue so long ! " The child is father to
 
 6 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 the man," and in that red-cheeked, barelegged 
 little mannikin, trudging by his father's side, or 
 borne, when tired, on the father's shoulder, or maybe 
 seated proudly on the cart that carries to a new 
 home the plain belongings of the Highland cotter, 
 see we not the rudiments of the after Peter 
 man of many journeys beginning to foreshadow 
 themselves ? 
 
 The route would be the same as that followed to-day ; 
 for the road, having been constructed by General Wade, 
 dates further back than this journey of seventy years 
 ago. It follows the right bank of the Shee to where that 
 stream joins the Ardle, to be known henceforth in its 
 fuller flow as the Ericht. The scenery is grand and 
 picturesque, the Bridge of Galley, where the Ardle, as 
 if delighted at its approaching union with the Shee, 
 dances joyously over a rocky bed, being truly a 
 romantic spot. Then is passed the mansion of Craig- 
 hall, said to be the Tullyveolan of Waverley, towering 
 from the edge of a precipice at a height of two 
 hundred and fifty feet above the river, and surrounded 
 by woods and rocks and fields that make a pleasing 
 combination of the sylvan and the rugged. Thence 
 the road presses onward through Kattray and 
 Blairgowrie, and forward by Coupar- Angus, and a pass 
 in the Sidlaws, to Dundee. All along the way, from 
 the wild Highland glen, downward through the rich, 
 peaceful valley, well watered by the Ericht and the 
 Isla, parents and child would travel in the company 
 of pleasant landscapes, and, let us hope, equally 
 pleasant thoughts. 
 
 How pathos is spattered with humour in our next 
 quotation ! How the older Peter writing more
 
 LITTLE PETER LOST g 
 
 than sixty years afterwards seems to chuckle at 
 the younger through its odd capitals ! 
 
 In coming to Dundee, remember being lost in the town when 
 waiting for the boat. One of the Bobbies, the Gentlemen in 
 Blue, took care of me. All my sorrowing friends found me by 
 the assistance of the Bellman. 
 
 Fate evidently does not intend this child to be 
 ordinary : she rings the people up to look for him, 
 even as in later years she rang them up to look at 
 him. Other bairns keep the path, and pass on un- 
 noted ; this one loses his way, and all the town is 
 stirred. How came he to be lost ? The history does 
 not say ; but not unlikely the quick, prankish spirit 
 of after days was stirring in him then, making it 
 difficult for the parental eye to keep him within 
 range. 
 
 The boat for which they waited was the ferry that 
 crosses the river Tay to Newport in Fife, a distance 
 of nearly two miles. Steamers had been plying on 
 the ferry for six years prior to this date. Poor 
 strayed Peterkin ! Was he unconcerned, or did his 
 little heart heave and thump as he watched the wide 
 river and the distant hills, and the passing folk, and 
 saw none in whom his tearful eyes could spell the 
 name of friend ? The bellman of Dundee, too, at 
 this period, was a character and a wit, as bellmen 
 often are, and one cannot but query whether, through 
 any twinge of affinity, he had inkling, not of the 
 humour of the situation, but of the humorist in 
 embryo who was playing so prominent a part 
 in it. 
 
 Across the river our little hero was carried safely,
 
 io LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 and some miles beyond, for his scanty history 
 proceeds 
 
 Eemember living on the Links of Comerton, by the sea. 
 The storms, the wrecks, the dead men, and the big trees. The 
 rabbits and the traps, the whins and sand. 
 
 Comerton Links are in the neighbourhood of 
 Leuchars. They form a section of a vast plain, Tents 
 Muir, extending from Tayport, on the south shore of 
 the Firth of Tay, to the Firth of the Eden, and con- 
 tinued south of the Eden to the far-famed golf links of 
 St. Andrews. 
 
 What a Victor Hugo-like grouping of the ghosts 
 of memory looms upon us from the above extract, and 
 how suggestive the order in which their shadows are 
 made to pass before us ! First, the large, dark, 
 dreamy things that touch the poet in the man the 
 storms, the wrecks, the dead men, and the big trees ; 
 then, the common interests of the country child 
 rabbits, traps, furze bushes, and sand. Such a 
 passage suggests at once Taine's characterisation of 
 the style of the Saxon poet : " In his impassioned 
 mind events are not bald, with the dry profundity of 
 an exact description ; each fits in with its pomp of 
 sound, shape, colouring. He emits the word that 
 comes first to his lips without hesitation ; he leaps 
 over wide intervals from idea to idea." 
 
 Again we read 
 
 Lived at Leuchars and Logic, near Cupar-Fife. Went to 
 
 school, remember the tasks that I could [The word is 
 
 illegible. It looks like supplant. Probably he means the 
 tasks he could evade], and the old dominie or schoolmaster. 
 
 Leuchars is a village on the road between Dundee 
 and St. Andrews, and about seven miles distant from
 
 MEAGRE SCHOOLING n 
 
 the latter place. It has a primitive aspect, with 
 houses one storey high, covered with red tiles. The 
 parish church is remarkable as a fine specimen of 
 Norman architecture. A notable Scottish ecclesiastic, 
 the Kev. Alexander Henderson, who drafted the 
 famous Solemn League and Covenant, and was one of 
 the Scottish Commissioners that sat in the Assembly 
 of Divines at Westminster, was minister at Leuchars 
 before he removed to Edinburgh. Logic, the other 
 place named by Mackenzie, is also a rural Fife village 
 of no pretensions, unless it be that about a mile and 
 a half to the north of it, on the banks of the Moutrey, 
 stands the parish church of Kilmany, where Dr. 
 Cb aimers first began his labours. 
 
 In these humble villages, "far from the madding 
 crowd," was laid the groundwork of Mackenzie's 
 education ; an education that was probably carried on 
 with far more zest in mature life than amid the mis- 
 chievous distractions of boyhood. Measured by his 
 subsequent attainments, it cannot have been of a very 
 elaborate character. Probably it included no more 
 than the mere rudiments, reading, writing, and arith- 
 metic, and the wonder will always remain how such 
 results as his life achieved could be produced with so 
 slender an equipment. It can only be understood as 
 we keep in mind that there is a higher teaching than 
 any school can supply, an education at the hands of 
 life itself, of which Mackenzie himself gives us a 
 suggestive hint in the quaint remark on another 
 Peter in one of his lectures : " Peter learned more from 
 the cock-crow in three minutes, than a classical tutor 
 could have taught him in a fortnight."
 
 CHAPTEK II 
 
 WAXING INTO MANHOOD 1836-1844 
 
 Ripening into Youth Herd Laddie First Good Impressions 
 " Cotter's Saturday Night " Revisits Old Scenes Laird of 
 Logie Hard Experiences " More Jog than Trot " Three 
 Times in Peril Cupar Hirings Saving and Giving 
 Return to Dundee Manhood. 
 
 WE have followed Mackenzie along the simple 
 paths of childhood by the welcome aid of his 
 milestone sort of notes. We have seen him open his 
 eyes on life, and look around him under the broad sky 
 and among the big mountains of his native glen ; we 
 have heard him tell how the storm-maddened sea, 
 flinging its wrecks and dead upon the shore, the large 
 trees, spreading their arms across the road, or per- 
 chance stretched like stricken giants on the ground, 
 the timid rabbits peeping from under the gorse, or 
 scuttering among the sandhills, or caught in the fatal 
 trap, all left their varied impress on his mind. We 
 have gone with him to where 
 
 In his noisy mansion skilled to rule, 
 The village master taught his little school. 
 
 And now, as the pathway urges under more serious 
 
 skies, we have still to be guided by the meagre blurts 
 
 12
 
 FIRST GOOD IMPRESSIONS 13 
 
 which his rapid pen flings upon the road. The child 
 has now disappeared in the youth, and in the next 
 extract we behold the lusty stripling, proud, doubt- 
 less, that he can do work and receive wages of his own. 
 
 Lived at Mildean about two years. During that time went 
 to service for ten shillings with Janet Fife, married to David 
 Lonley. Good man ; family prayer. Made my first good 
 impressions. 
 
 Mildean was probably a farm somewhere between 
 Cupar and Logie, where he acted in the capacity of 
 herd laddie, and the ten shillings would be his wages 
 for twelve months, with board and lodging in addition. 
 This was about the standard of remuneration for such 
 service at the time. 
 
 The reference to his " first good impressions " is 
 interesting and significant. We are prone to err in 
 our endeavours to trace the awakening of the life of 
 God in the human soul. We generally pin such 
 awakening down to a fixed point and a specified 
 agency, whereas it is usually a gradual process, the 
 outcome of many diversified impressions. This hard- 
 working David Lonley and his wife pursue the even 
 tenor of their way, and dream not that the un- 
 obtrusive piety of their home is silently moulding the 
 soul of their youthful helper. The mention of their 
 " family prayers " sets before us at once the scene so 
 vividly sketched by Burns in his " Cotter's Saturday 
 Night." 
 
 The cheerfu' supper done, wi' serious face, 
 They round the ingle form a circle wide ; 
 
 The sire turns o'er, wi' patriarchal grace, 
 The big ha' Bible, ance his father's pnde :
 
 14 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 His bonnet rev'rently is laid aside, 
 
 His lyart haffets wearing thin and bare ; 
 Those strains that once did sweet in Zion glide, 
 
 He wales a portion with judicious care, 
 And " Let us worship God ! " he says, with solemn air. 
 
 In the year 1868, Mackenzie revisited these 
 scenes of his boyhood in company with Mr. Henry 
 Eeed, whom he always acknowledged as the means, 
 under God, of bringing him to Christian decision. 
 Recalling this visit, he writes in his autobiographical 
 chronicle 
 
 Went to see the old spot about '68. The time that I was first 
 there would be about the year '36. [That is when he was about 
 twelve years of age.] The old people remembered me and my 
 boyish pranks and peculiar sayings. We had a good time, 
 temporally and spiritually. They gave us curds and cream ; and 
 prayer and thanks and backsheesh made it all right on both 
 sides. 
 
 The distribution of what he humorously terms 
 " backsheesh " was to Mackenzie, as is well known, what 
 the dropping of showers is to the clouds, a natural 
 and inevitable exercise. He began the practice early, 
 and it grew upon him to the end. It would be easy 
 to summon a cloud of witnesses from the cabmen, the 
 railway porters, the engine-drivers, the servant-maids, 
 and many others, upon whom his gratuities rained, 
 not only in unusual profusion, but with an accom- 
 paniment of happy word or genial wish or appropriate 
 prayer that won for them a doubly grateful acceptance. 
 
 Once more he carries us forward 
 
 From Mildean to Logie. Lived there two years. The Laird 
 of Logie said that boy would be either a good man or a great 
 scoundrel. The Laird was glad to see me after thirty years' 
 absence, and delighted to hear that I was a minister.
 
 HARD EXPERIENCES 15 
 
 The remembrance of his "boyish pranks and 
 peculiar sayings," after so long a lapse of time as 
 thirty years, and this prophecy of the laird, serve to 
 show what, without such evidence, it would be 
 natural to infer, that a character so accentuated in its 
 singularity afterwards would begin early to manifest 
 an angular formation. Peter the boy on the farm 
 would no doubt be a true miniature representation 
 of the points that, standing out more strikingly, won 
 attention and popularity for Peter the preacher. 
 
 Again he gives us brief enlightenment 
 
 During my stay at Logie the house took fire. Great fear 
 among the folk. In '37 went to place with Mr. Peter Barrin- 
 galla. Got on pretty well. Plenty of hard work. 
 
 Though he " got on pretty well," his condition can- 
 not have been greatly overcharged with comfort, for 
 on the heels of this grateful exclamation comes the 
 confession that the hen-roost was either within or so 
 contiguous to the room in which he slept that, for 
 reasons best left in a decent haze of reticence, he was 
 often compelled to leave his bed and sit out the 
 night by the kitchen fire. Poor lad i the hands that 
 fortune held out to him were certainly not over- 
 burdened with enjoyment. He had known little of 
 the sweetness of home. As far as can be ascertained, 
 his mother died when he was very young, and those 
 hours in which he drowsed over the kitchen fire, with 
 his much-needed rest so untowardly broken in upon, 
 must sometimes have passed very dolefully. Fortun- 
 ately, he was healthy and had a good appetite, which 
 the nature of his employment tended to make even 
 better, as is humorously illustrated in the following
 
 16 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 reminiscence, given by one who heard him relate 
 it: 
 
 " When I was a lad, I lived in farm service, and 
 we had to get up very early to go to market. I had 
 to get the conveyance ready, and put in two bundles 
 of straw for the old man arid the old woman to sit on. 
 I was the driver, but the cart had no springs, and off 
 we went jog-trot over a good many miles of rough 
 road. I remember how the old woman gave the old 
 man and me a sermon and lecture all in one. I can 
 assure you we were all ready for a second breakfast 
 when we got to our journey's end, for we had more 
 jog than trot." 
 
 To return once more to the written record, we 
 find 
 
 I was very fond of the horses, and three times was placed in 
 imminent peril. The cart backing against the wall ; the two carts 
 that met, and I was between them ; the horse that struck out, 
 hit me in the mouth, cut my lip, but did not disfigure me. I 
 was too near him, etc. etc. 
 
 Laconic descriptions these of what at the time must 
 have been exciting incidents. Would that time had 
 been more liberal with him, and allowed him to en- 
 large on them in his own graphic manner ! What a 
 vivid description he would have given us of the burn- 
 ing house and the frightened folk of which he speaks ! 
 How we should have held our breath, as he made us 
 see the youth against the wall and the cart going 
 back upon him, or smitten in the face by the heels of 
 the -horse, or wedged without apparent hope of escape 
 between the two carts that are closing on him like a 
 vice. Too provoking, Peter, to fling these bald, excit- 
 ing sentences at our heads, and leave us standing in
 
 SA VING AND GIVING 19 
 
 unsated curiosity ! We might have been informed in 
 what manner the miracles of deliverance were 
 wrought ; or is it better, after all, that each should 
 work out his own conception of how, in the providence 
 of God, this venturesome laddie was spared for greater 
 things ? 
 
 Once more the story proceeds 
 
 Went home for a few months. Then hired myself at St. 
 James's Market, Cupar of Fife, to David Arnot, Wester Colsel, 
 near Auchtermuchty. Stayed three years as boy and man. 
 Saved five pounds out of the thirteen that I had for three years' 
 hard work. 
 
 Cupar is the county town of Fife, situated on the 
 banks of the river Eden, thirteen miles south of 
 Dundee. It is a clean, pleasant little place, with a 
 population of about five thousand. St. James's 
 Market is held in Cupar, about the month of August, 
 for the hiring of servants and other business, and still 
 commands a large gathering of people. Thirteen 
 pounds for three years' service strikes us as a small 
 sum; but from four to five pounds a year was the 
 regular wage. The social condition of Scottish 
 agricultural labourers sixty or seventy years ago was 
 low. Ploughmen were hired by the year or half-year, 
 the highest remuneration not exceeding eight or nine 
 pounds per annum. For labourers in quarries, and 
 other kinds of out-door workers, the wages ranged 
 from eight to nine shillings a week. Houses were 
 small and poor, food plain ; peasemeal, oatmeal and 
 potatoes forming the staple diet. 
 
 It speaks volumes for the careful habits of this 
 youth of sixteen or seventeen, that out of so scanty a 
 pittance for three years of hard work he should be
 
 20 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 able to save five pounds. The proverbial Scottish 
 thrift was evidently not lacking here. And how may 
 it be accounted for that Peter Mackenzie, Scottish by 
 birth, and with the national proclivity for saving, 
 strengthened in him by the hard, penurious experiences 
 of his youth, should develop into one of the freest of 
 givers ? Explain it as we may, the fact should always 
 stand to his credit, that his was a generosity that 
 triumphed not only over the natural selfishness of the 
 human heart, but over a national tendency that early 
 experience might have been expected to harden into 
 habit. 
 
 After having expended so little over him in the 
 shape of wages, and received so much from him in 
 that of hard work, it is not surprising that he should 
 be able to write of his employers 
 
 They were pleased to see me when I went back after some 
 thirty years' absence. Henry Reed, Esq., and his good wife were 
 with us. We prayed, and parted for ever as regards this world. 
 
 He means that he and his company parted for ever 
 from his old employers and acquaintances. His next 
 removal was to bring him into contact with town life, 
 and to judge from his own words, and from other 
 evidence, the new experience was not altogether 
 beneficial. Continuing his chronicle, he writes 
 
 Went to Dundee. Lived two years. Neither did nor got 
 much good, but saw a good deal of town life. We had a dairy 
 and a coal yard, and cart on the quay- side. Left there in '44 for 
 Oxclose, in the county of Durham. 
 
 There is indubitable evidence that he lived in Dundee 
 from May 1842 until July 1844, for there are records
 
 A BRAWNY YOUNG FELLOW 21 
 
 of his having had to answer before the authorities for 
 furious riding, and also for striking with his whip a 
 fellow-carter's horse, and starting it off in a dangerous 
 scamper. Such escapades reveal to us not a vicious 
 disposition, but a nature fraught with a mischievous 
 energy it was difficult to hold in check. 
 
 Born, as we have seen, in 1824, he departs from 
 Dundee for the North of England in 1844 ; that is 
 as a young man of twenty. These fragmentary auto- 
 biographical notes, of which nearly the whole has now 
 been quoted, set before us, then, with sundry intermis- 
 sions, the leading events of the first twenty years of 
 his life. What emerges for us, as the record closes, 
 is a brawny young fellow, with muscles hardened by 
 manual labour ; with keen dark eyes that look out 
 upon us unabashed from an open, pleasant face, and 
 that dance with the play of a rollicking humour. We 
 see, too, a heart in which the seed of the kingdom of 
 God has been sown through the influence of at least 
 one godly Scottish home, and where, though retarded 
 by less pure and kindly ministries, it will continue to 
 grow, and, in due season, bring forth fruit.
 
 CHAPTEE III 
 
 FROM THE FARM TO THE MINE 1844-1845 
 
 The Book of Job on Mining Into the Pit Darkness and Silence 
 Miner at Work " Hand-Putters " Training of Mackenzie 
 Influence of Environment Son of Soil and Rock 
 Methodism, Mining, and Agriculture Colliery Phraseology 
 " Men like Pigs " Year at Oxclose Good-heartedness 
 Incident of the Harvest Field. 
 
 IN the twenty-eighth chapter of the Book of Job 
 there is a magnificent description of the toils and 
 discoveries of the ancient miner, as he digs into the 
 heart of the earth in search of the precious metals. 
 " In a few deft strokes," says the Kev. Samuel Cox, 
 " the writer brings out the pathos of the miner's life 
 and occupation its peril, its loneliness, its remoteness 
 even from those who stand nearest to it." 
 
 He maketh an end of darkness, 
 And searcheth through all its limits 
 For the stones of darkness and the blackness of death ; 
 He sinketh a shaft far from the habitations of men, 
 He is forgotten by those who walk above, 
 He swingeth suspended afar from men : 
 
 He putteth forth his hand against the quartz, 
 He turneth up the mountains from their base ; 
 He cutteth out canals among the rocks ; 
 
 22
 
 DARKNESS AND SILENCE 23 
 
 And his eye detecteth every precious thing ; 
 
 He bindeth up the waters so that they weep not, 
 
 And bringeth that which is hidden to light 
 
 That is the poetry of mining ; the prose is steeped 
 in a yet deeper pathos. If the hardship of the miner's 
 life of old, searching for gold, or silver, or copper in 
 some lonely region like the wilds of Sinai, was great, 
 that of the modern miner, digging for coal, discloses 
 even a sterner condition ; and forty years ago it held 
 in its black heart a still vaster armoury of perils and 
 privations. 
 
 Let us picture its details. Borne by the cage that 
 glides with the stealthiness of a snake down into the 
 cavernous jaws of earth, the miner threads his way in 
 the glimmer of a frightened candle, or the duller gleam 
 of a carefully-guarded lamp, often with his body bent 
 and crouched into the semblance of some misshapen 
 creature, along rugged, interminable galleries hewn out 
 of the solid rock by the toil and sweat of past 
 generations. Around him presses a padding of thickest 
 gloom, and within the gloom a voiceless quiet, eager, 
 whenever the cranch of his footstep on the roadway 
 ceases, to fold him in its ghostly arms. What a 
 silence, dumb as the lips of death, a huge encircling 
 thing, with hollow, tongueless heart, out of which 
 issue no sounds, save such as make the stillness more 
 sepulchral the creaking of strained timber, or the 
 dripping of water, or the moan of liberated gas ! 
 
 Farther and yet farther into this weird, sunless 
 depth does he make his way, cramped and perspiring, 
 hugging his heavy tools, until he arrives at what is 
 termed " the face " of the coal, where all farther 
 advance is barred. The face is the limit to which the
 
 24 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 gallery in which he finds himself has been carried. 
 Here his mate, or " marrow," toiled yesterday. In the 
 rock are traces of his pick, and on the floor of the 
 passage lie still perchance some of the fruits of his 
 excavations in the form of a heap of loose coals. 
 
 Here the man we have followed drops his tools, 
 wipes the sweat from his brow, swallows a hasty sip 
 from his tin of cold tea or coffee, and then, one by one, 
 lays aside his rough flannel garments, until nought 
 
 MINER AT WORK. 
 
 remains save his heavy shoes, his coarse stockings, his 
 short breeches, and a thin armless shirt that covers 
 loosely his chest and shoulders. In the dim glimmer 
 of the candle we can descry how labour has knotted 
 the muscles into firmness and might, and how un- 
 friendly blows and bruises, followed by the tattooing 
 of the black dust, have wrought uncomely scrawls 
 upon his skin.
 
 UNDERGROUND TOIL 25 
 
 And now the toil of the day begins. Into that 
 hard, rocky face he must dig his laborious way. 
 Striding half double, or squatted on a rough wooden 
 " cracket," or seat, which raises him a few inches 
 from the floor, or crouching almost flat upon the 
 ground, he plies his various picks, slowly carving a 
 deep gash at the bottom and another at the side of 
 the seam, until a huge segment of the coal is on two 
 sides severed from its surrounding, and ready through 
 the push of some explosive to be dislodged. 
 
 Now a hole is drilled at the unhewn corner, a 
 charge of gunpowder inserted, a match applied, and 
 so lighted as to leave a moment for the workman to 
 find shelter from the explosion, and then, if " the 
 shot " proves effective, he returns through the blinding, 
 suffocating smoke, to find the floor of the gallery 
 covered with a huge heap of shattered spoils. This 
 loose, broken coal he at once shovels into the " tubs " 
 or small waggons that convey it along dark, rumbling 
 ways to the mouth of the shaft, and thence to the 
 good daylight above. 
 
 In the collieries of the North of England forty years 
 ago, the youth who brought these tubs or waggons to 
 the hewer and took them away when filled was called 
 a " hand-putter." His work was to push the heavy 
 vehicles with hands and head along the low, dreary 
 passages that led to where the hewers were engaged, 
 and back again to the " flat " or station, whence they 
 were dragged by horses or ponies along the more lofty 
 galleries to the mouth of the mine. 
 
 Here, then, tugging and toiling amid these hard 
 conditions, surrounded by men and youths of rough 
 ways and ofttimes uncomely speech, we find our
 
 26 
 
 LTFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 Scottish laddie in the year 1844, and we cannot but 
 pause to reflect on the wonderful training through 
 which Providence is ordering that he shall pass. 
 
 For nearly twenty years he has drunk the sweet- 
 ness and the glory of the fresh air and the bountiful 
 sun, in regions where the black fingers of modern 
 industry have not fouled either. He has seen the 
 dew on the grass, and heard the lark in the sky, and 
 
 MINER AT REST. 
 
 caught the young look on the face of the sun at 
 early dawn. The smell of the fresh earth, that most 
 primitive of odours, pungent, invigorating, the whole- 
 some heritage of the tiller of the ground, has been 
 his. And now he is made to enter into the fellowship 
 of silence and gloom, broken in upon by ugly toil and 
 unshapely noise. He has scanned the face of the 
 earth as only the patient farmer knows how, and now,
 
 PROVIDENTIAL TRAINING 27 
 
 as far as man is so permitted, he plunges into her 
 bosom and listens to the beating of her mighty heart. 
 
 Training of no trivial order must there have been 
 in all this. An old dweller in a wild Yorkshire 
 valley, when asked why the people were so stolid, 
 answered, " You see they have been bred and born 
 among these rocks and scrogs, and they have gone 
 into them." Things pass into us whether we will or 
 no, especially the things among which we move in 
 the opening days of life, and our nature receives more 
 fully than we dream of the imprint of the outward. 
 Peter Mackenzie was, in his early years, first a son 
 of the soil, and then a son of the rock, and it is not 
 simply a poetical vagary that discerns in him after- 
 wards the wholesome freshness of the one and the 
 enduring hardness of the other. 
 
 Such training not only moulded the man, but 
 stretched serviceable links of fellowship between him- 
 self and others. To agriculture and mining belong 
 two of the most numerous classes of British work- 
 people, and in the work of fashioning these to spiritual 
 issues, the Methodist Church has borne no inglorious 
 part. The warmth with which it has expounded, and 
 the sociable forms in which it has given expression 
 to Christian doctrine and experience, have enabled 
 it to capture them by thousands, and among the 
 ministers to whom these classes have turned with 
 appreciation and affection, few, if any, have occupied 
 a higher place than Peter Mackenzie. Born and 
 fashioned among these children of the people, never 
 ashamed of acknowledging his connection with them, 
 impregnated with their spirit, conversant with their 
 ways, not free even from their faults, he was enabled
 
 28 
 
 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 to make them feel, in fuller measure concerning him 
 than they felt concerning most, that he was one of 
 themselves. The colliery vernacular probably never 
 had such an innings as it obtained in his sermons 
 and lectures, and the aptitude with which he manipu- 
 lated its stock expressions when addressing an audience 
 of pitmen, lent wonderful vividness to his diction. 
 How expressive to remark, when puzzled by a theo- 
 
 " HAND-PUTTER." 
 
 logical question, that he could not get his pick round 
 it! On one occasion he was relating how he had 
 taken part in the opening services of a new chapel, 
 his being the sixth service of the series. The five 
 ministers who had preceded him were the best men 
 that could be secured. He likened them to hewers 
 who had worked so well, and filled their tubs so full, 
 that when these tubs had to pass under the low
 
 MINE AND FARM 29 
 
 planks supporting the roof, much of the coal was 
 raked off, and all he could do in coming after them 
 was to gather up their leavings. In this way, how- 
 ever, he succeeded in scraping together no less a sum 
 than 87, which he considered a good day's work 
 for an old miner. On his last visit to Haswell, in 
 returning thanks to the chairman, who was also the 
 colliery manager, and who had not by a lengthened 
 introduction robbed him of any part of his lecture, 
 he said : " The chairman has behaved in a most gentle- 
 manly manner. He did not take away my steel 
 pick, nor rob me of my shovel, and he left me a ' led 
 tub ' for a start." A " led " or leading tub is an 
 empty tub left for the hewer by his mate from the 
 day before, and is in several ways a great convenience. 
 Both master and men understood Peter's terminology, 
 and enjoyed it immensely. How the knowledge he 
 had gained on the farm could also be happily utilised 
 is well illustrated by the remark made when address- 
 ing an audience in which sons of the soil were 
 numerous : " Some men are like pigs : they never look 
 up till they are laid on their backs." At a harvest 
 thanksgiving, too, on a week-day afternoon in October 
 1895, how effectively he provoked gladness and 
 gratitude among the countrymen in his congregation 
 during prayer, when he exclaimed : " Thou hast blest 
 Thy servants in the fields. They sowed a handful, 
 and they have reaped an armful ! They stuck in 
 half a potato, and they dug up a boiling." 
 
 It was at Oxclose, near Washington, in the county 
 of Durham, that, as a " hand-putter," Mackenzie, with 
 three other young men who had accompanied him 
 from Scotland, was introduced to the work of the mine
 
 30 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 He remained there a year, and then removed to 
 Haswell, a colliery village in the same county, con- 
 sisting at that time mainly of one long street of 
 miners' cottages and small shops, with a few smaller 
 streets or rows abutting from it on either hand. In 
 one of these, called Chapel Lane, Peter played many 
 good-natured pranks in those lively, but never wicked, 
 earlier years. He soon became at Haswell what he 
 had also been at Oxclose, a great favourite with his 
 fellow-workmen, one of whom says : " He was always 
 a canny sort of chap : the most he liked was fiddling 
 and dancing." The word " canny " in the vocabulary 
 of the North of England has not exactly the same 
 significance as in Scotch, but leans more to kindliness, 
 geniality, and general good-nature. 
 
 Miners in those days had their location in the 
 pit settled each quarter by the drawing of lots. 
 These lots, or " cavils," would vary greatly in quality, 
 some being unremunerative and disagreeable, while 
 others were of a more favourable nature. Two men 
 generally worked a " cavil " together as mates, taking 
 successive spells or " shifts," which in former days 
 lasted from eight to nine hours, but are now con- 
 siderably abridged. It seldom happened that these 
 work-mates would be peers in strength and dexterity, 
 yet it was customary for what they earned to be 
 regarded as common to both, to be shared equally 
 when the pay-day came round. In a matter of this 
 sort, how generous-hearted a man Mackenzie was, 
 even in those unregenerate days, was strikingly 
 evident. Of powerful build and agile movement, he 
 was able to accomplish more than an ordinary work- 
 man, but he was never known to begrudge extra
 
 KINDNESS OF HEART 31 
 
 labour, nor to hesitate for a moment to divide his 
 earnings equally with his mate, even when that mate 
 chanced to be an old and very much feebler man. 
 In a similarly disinterested spirit, it was a common 
 thing for him to share his " bait," or provision of food 
 and drink, with any fellow-worker who seemed not to 
 have enough. No wonder his mates admired him, 
 for there was never a spell of hard work to be under- 
 taken, or a deed of kindness to be done, but he was 
 always ready. 
 
 The disastrous strike among the miners in 1844, 
 shortly before Mackenzie came to England, had sadly 
 disorganised industry and trade throughout the 
 counties of Durham and Northumberland, and brought 
 impoverishment and privation to many families. In 
 these circumstances, wives and mothers often sought 
 to supplement the scanty earnings of husband and 
 father by employment in the harvest-field, shearing 
 the corn with a sickle, and binding it into sheaves. 
 One fine day, young Mackenzie was leaning over a 
 fence, watching the harvesters at their work. His quick 
 eye caught sight of a poor delicate woman, struggling 
 vainly to keep pace with her stronger-armed com- 
 panions. His tender heart was touched at once. 
 The fence was cleared at a bound, and, stepping up 
 to the astonished woman, he said, " Let me have your 
 sickle, hinny, and I'll gie ye a hand while ye 
 straighten your back a bit." One who witnessed 
 the incident said that the willing heart and practised 
 arm of the young miner soon completed the woman's 
 task, and enabled her to take a welcome and greatly 
 needed rest.
 
 CHAPTEE IV 
 
 ENTRANCE ON MARRIED LIFE 1845-1847 
 
 Punishing a Wife-Beater Dancing Parties The Public-House 
 Then and Now Mackenzie's Father His Marriage Books 
 and Bowling A Quoit Match Sacrifices of his Family. 
 
 FT1HE kindly spirit that prompted his deed of help- 
 J- fulness in the harvest-field led Mackenzie about 
 this time to enter on a somewhat more difficult 
 adventure. There lived in the village a man of 
 violent, overbearing disposition, whose hapless wife 
 suffered much from his brutal behaviour. One day, 
 as he was using the woman in a shameful manner, 
 outside his house, Mackenzie happened to pass. The 
 young Scotsman was not yet a Christian, but he had 
 a noble soul, a soul that hated tyranny, so he 
 paused to remonstrate. The infuriated brute not only 
 declined to abate his cruelty to the woman, but 
 threatened also to punish her defender. The latter 
 was no pugilist, but he took the cowardly boaster in 
 hand at once, and conferred upon him a very much 
 needed thrashing. He has been spoken of as addicted 
 to fighting before his conversion, but it was not so. 
 This was really the first and last encounter of the 
 sort he ever had. " Didn't I dust the coward's jacket 
 for him ? " he exclaimed years afterwards, to a friend 
 
 82
 
 CHOICE OF A WIFE 33 
 
 who had witnessed the incident, and to whom he was 
 recounting it. The man whom he thus chastised 
 was not prosperously circumstanced in after years, 
 and it was entirely like Mackenzie that, whenever he 
 went to Haswell to preach and lecture, he invariably 
 sought the poor fellow out, treated him to the public 
 tea, and rendered him other assistance to an extent 
 only known between themselves. 
 
 WHERE THE WIFK BEATER WAS CHASTISED. 
 
 Since his settlement in England, that is, for a 
 period of about a year and a half, Mackenzie had 
 lived as a single man in lodgings, but he now began 
 to take steps towards obtaining a home of his own. 
 Not far from where he lodged dwelt John Thompson 
 and his wife, a respectable, industrious couple, em- 
 ployed in agriculture, and it was upon one of their 
 daughters that the choice of the young miner fell. 
 
 3
 
 34 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 Dancing parties were common at the public-houses 
 in the district. They were frequently held in 
 connection with what was called a " Wife's Feast " ; 
 that is, a tea given by some married woman to a 
 number of friends of both sexes. After tea, dancing 
 would begin to the inspiring strains of some local 
 fiddler one famous scraper of the catgut being a 
 man named Tom Lamb, who rode on a donkey from 
 one of these gatherings to another. The fiddler's fee 
 up to a certain hour was paid by the publican. If 
 the party waxed merry, and more dancing was 
 demanded than had been agreed upon, then the door 
 of the room was locked, and a hat passed round for 
 contributions, and so long as the pocket of the 
 fiddler was thus replenished, so long were his strains 
 lengthened out. Harvest festivals were also favourite 
 occasions for the indulgence of this form of amuse- 
 ment, of which Mackenzie and his sweetheart were 
 both passionately fond. It was at one of these 
 dancing parties that they first became acquainted. 
 
 It may not be amiss to remind the reader that in 
 those days public-houses were often the only place 
 where refreshments could be obtained and social 
 gatherings held. The cafe and coffee-tavern were as 
 yet unborn. The moral influence of the public-house 
 then is not to be measured by what it is to-day, 
 especially in large towns, nor was the feeling in 
 regard to it the same. I remember, when a boy, 
 going frequently with my father and mother to 
 Durham market, and when the business was finished, 
 retiring with them, as a matter of course, to a small 
 inn, where they partook of refreshments, in the form 
 of bread and cheese and ale ; nor, good people as
 
 TEMPERANCE AND PUBLIC-HOUSES 35 
 
 they were, was such a practice regarded as at all 
 unbecoming. 
 
 The temperance movement has created a different 
 sentiment. It has placed the public-house to some 
 extent under a ban, while sundry changes in our 
 social habits and conditions have also tended to render 
 its character less reputable, and its employment in 
 social functions less desirable. It may be worth 
 consideration, however, whether in severing completely 
 one section of the people from the public-house, and 
 leaving another section to be its patrons, we have not 
 on the one hand stiffened unduly the sense of virtue, 
 and on the other over-emphasised the appearance of 
 laxity. It might not be unprofitable to ask whether 
 a wise and loving adoption of the Master's policy in 
 relation to those whom we regard as morally deficient, 
 would not be mutually beneficial. Be this as it may, 
 it must be borne in mind that attendance at such 
 festive gatherings as we have described did not then 
 wear the same moral or even social complexion as 
 would be indicated by it now. 
 
 About this time the father of Peter Mackenzie 
 travelled from Dundee to Haswell, in the hope of 
 inducing his son to return to Scotland. Mackenzie, 
 however, preferred to remain in his present employ- 
 ment. The remuneration was probably larger than 
 he could hope to win in agricultural labour, and, 
 moreover, his affections were partly engaged, and as 
 a consequence, the colliery village had grown more 
 attractive. His mother having died when he was 
 quite a child, his father had married a second time, 
 and it would seem that the family relations were 
 hardly of such a nature as to tempt him back. But,
 
 36 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 though the father was disappointed, and had to return 
 to Dundee without him, friendly intercourse was not 
 broken. In after years, when the son was a popular 
 minister in the Gateshead circuit, the old man came 
 and sojourned with him for a few weeks, and perhaps 
 on other occasions. Under date November 10, 1869, 
 I find the following brief record in his own hand 
 concerning an appointment at Eyhope Colliery in the 
 Sunderland circuit : " Missionary Meeting. Not 
 there Scotland father's funeral " ; from which it 
 would appear that the father died at this time, and 
 that the son went to Dundee to render due respect 
 to his memory. 
 
 " Eh, but ye're a braw lassie ! " were the charac- 
 teristic words with which the young miner saluted 
 his sweetheart the first time he addressed her. Then 
 followed a visit to the mother, and a conversation 
 with her concerning her daughter, succeeded by a 
 long first walk, round by Old Hetton, Houghton-le- 
 Spring, and West Eainton, a distance of many miles, 
 on a lovely Sabbath afternoon, terminating only when 
 the evening shadows had flung their sombre mantles 
 over field and wood. 
 
 After a courtship of a year and a half, and a never- 
 forgotten visit to Durham city to purchase the ring, 
 Mary Thompson and Peter Mackenzie were quietly 
 married in Shadforth Church, on Sunday, April 25, 
 1847, the bride aged twenty and the bridegroom 
 twenty-two. They set up housekeeping in a cottage 
 of two rooms, an " upstairs and down," beginning thus 
 "a married life which, had it lasted seventeen months 
 longer, was to have been honoured by the celebration 
 of a golden wedding.
 
 FAVOURITE BOOKS 
 
 37 
 
 Mackenzie was at this time a very happy-go-lucky 
 fellow, dancing, fiddling, and reading being his favourite 
 pastimes. He never attained great proficiency on the 
 violin, his most lively strains being, as one of his old 
 companions puts it, " like pulling the cat's tail," still 
 it was a great delight to him to let the merriment 
 with which he was brimming over find vent through 
 the squeaking strings and the accompanying clatter 
 
 MACKENZIES HOUSE WHEN FIRST MARRIED. 
 
 of heel and toe upon the floor. Some of the books 
 from which he is remembered as reaping much enjoy- 
 ment were the Tales of the Borders and St. Clair of the 
 Isles. These and other volumes he secured the loan 
 of from a friendly publican, and read aloud to a 
 comrade during his illness in so lively a manner that 
 he is spoken of as having acted as well as read the 
 books.
 
 38 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 In the out-door sports of the miners, especially the 
 bowling practised in the lanes and on the commons, 
 it was impossible that a man of his active and viva- 
 cious temperament should not be interested. The 
 bowls consisted of whinstones dressed down into 
 smooth round pellets of a specified weight, and as the 
 winner in the game was the one who could throw the 
 bowl the farthest distance, an exercise of arm demand- 
 ing both strength and skill, picked men were often 
 matched to contend against each other. In this sport 
 Mackenzie, who was an adept at " handling the whin," 
 would frequently be entered as a competitor against 
 some fellow-workman for a few shillings, but he never 
 indulged in big matches as a professional gambler. 
 
 Quoits was another favourite game among the 
 colliers, and an incident is recorded in connection 
 therewith that illustrates Mackenzie's determination 
 to succeed in whatever he undertook. A great quoit 
 match had recently been played between Tom Charlton, 
 a miner, and Tom Brown, a Tyne keelman, at which 
 Mackenzie was present. A few evenings afterwards, 
 in a public-house which he frequented, the conversa- 
 tion turned on quoits, and in reply to some remarks 
 of a miner, named William Eawlings, Mackenzie 
 asserted that he could play quoits quite as well as he, 
 Kawlings, could. Eawlings, who was considered a 
 good player, retorted that he could easily become the 
 champion if there were no better competitors than 
 Mackenzie. The outcome of the contention was that 
 he was matched to play Eawlings for 2 a side, the 
 match to take place a month after the final deposit. 
 He had shown no special skill in the game up to this 
 time, but during the period intervening, he practised
 
 DA Y OF SMALL THINGS 39 
 
 so incessantly that when the appointed day arrived 
 victory was easy. 
 
 Amid all this apparent indifference to a higher life, 
 better thoughts were working in his mind. For 
 months before his conversion, partly, no doubt, as the 
 result of his Scottish training and impressions, he was 
 in the habit of reading the Bible aloud on Sunday 
 evenings, and would not infrequently remark to his wife, 
 that while this might be good as far as it went, still, 
 he thought, they ought to attend a place of worship. 
 
 On his last visit to Haswell, he went once more to 
 see the cottage in which his married life began. 
 After surveying it for a moment, he laughed and said, 
 " Look at it ! There it is and that's the place to 
 which the popular lecturer brought his bride ! " And 
 then he passed on, murmuring something about not 
 despising the day of small things. 
 
 Mrs. Mackenzie is a woman of kind heart and good 
 sense. Her educational opportunities, like those of 
 her husband, were exceedingly limited, and after days 
 did not provide her with such prompting and facilities 
 for self -improvement as they brought to him. It is 
 possible that at the beginning of his ministerial 
 career she found it difficult at all times to adapt 
 herself adequately to the new condition of things. 
 The change was tremendous. To be lifted all at once 
 from the life and associations of a mining village to a 
 position that involved entrance upon a wholly novel 
 range of manners and ideas, was no ordinary trial of 
 mind and character, and the wonder is, not that there 
 might be hesitancy at first in sustaining the new 
 demands, but that they met with so fair, and, on 
 the whole, satisfying a response. Her unobtrusive
 
 40 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 ministries as wife and mother, during the many years 
 her husband left her to travel to and fro throughout 
 the land, deserve more generous recognition than they 
 have sometimes received. While he was footing it 
 bravely on the boards, stimulated, as all men in such 
 a position are, by the blaze and shouts of popularity, 
 she was working quietly in the dim light behind the 
 scenes, little known, and but faintly appreciated by the 
 public for whom her husband was using up his strength. 
 In estimating the service rendered by Peter Mac- 
 kenzie to the Wesleyan Methodist Church, there must 
 not only be a column in which we place the number 
 of his converts, and a second in which we write down 
 his financial achievements, but a third in which we 
 shall vainly endeavour to register the losses laid upon 
 his family by his almost uninterrupted absence from 
 home, and their consequent deprivation of fatherly 
 influence and example. A solemn responsibility is 
 undertaken by the religious public when for forty 
 years it lays appropriating hands on nearly the whole 
 of a man's time, and leaves him only snatched 
 moments in which to fulfil his duties as husband and 
 father. It may be questioned, indeed, whether any 
 man acts wisely in acceding so fully to such demands ; 
 whether, without inflicting injury on himself and 
 others, he can sacrifice the claims of home to those of 
 pulpit and platform. Whatever view is taken of the 
 matter, it must never be overlooked that the wife and 
 children of Peter Mackenzie relinquished no small 
 part of the true wealth of life when they gave up so 
 ungrudgingly, and for so long a period, the brightness 
 and charm of a presence that carried warmth and 
 sparkle everywhere.
 
 CHAPTEE V 
 
 DECISION FOR CHRIST 1847-1849 
 
 Never a Vicious Character His Donkey " Houghton Feast " 
 Good Company A Curious Wager His Integrity Mining 
 Reminiscences Squire Reed His Conversion An Exciting 
 Scene A Shout from the Gallery. 
 
 husband, in his younger days," says Mrs. 
 Mackenzie, " was full of life and kindliness, 
 but I never knew him to be a swearer, or a drinker, 
 or a fighter." " Before his conversion," writes one 
 who knew him well, " he was known to all around as 
 a hearty, good-tempered, jolly young fellow, physically 
 strong, with a good constitution and a cheerful dis- 
 position. His ready wit and genial humour made 
 him a striking personality among his mates in the pit, 
 and the soul of merriment in their amusements and 
 social gatherings." His love for dancing has already 
 been referred to. He was what his oldest friends 
 describe as "a clinking dancer," nimble in action 
 and graceful in movement. 
 
 In addition to the sports already named, donkey- 
 racing was a prevailing form of amusement among 
 the colliers. Shetland ponies had been recently 
 introduced into the pit, and the donkeys which they 
 superseded were sold at a nominal cost to the work 
 
 41
 
 42 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 men. Mackenzie owned one for some time, and as 
 might be expected, was not content to have a common- 
 place, ordinarily - behaved animal, but must needs 
 keep one of an untamed nature and restive habits. 
 It was while adding one more to the already long list 
 of wicked tricks which this creature had been taught 
 in the mine, that he gained, through a bite, the 
 crooked finger which he carried to his grave. 
 
 PONY AND TUB. 
 
 I remember him relating to me how he went once 
 to Houghton-le-Spring, to enjoy what was called " The 
 Feast," a species of rustic fair and merrymaking held 
 annually. He sported for the occasion a pair of 
 white pantaloons, and what was his chagrin, on re- 
 turning from the fair to the inn where he had stabled 
 his donkey, to find saddle and bridle gone, and as if 
 that were not enough provocation, the perverse animal
 
 A CURIOUS WAGER 43 
 
 had rolled itself vigorously in the mire of the inn 
 yard, and was not fit to lay a hand upon. White 
 trousers and a mud - plastered donkey formed an 
 incongruous combination, and the disgusted sportsman 
 returned home with the conviction that the way of 
 transgressors can not only be hard, but at times dis- 
 agreeably soft. It was probably to this incident he 
 alluded on his last visit to Haswell, when, in reply 
 to one who was urging him to come to Houghton-le- 
 Spring for a day, he answered playfully, " Nay, no 
 more Houghtons for me ! You behaved badly the last 
 time I was at Houghton Feast. Somebody stole both 
 my pad and bridle." 
 
 The ludicrous side of things, the humour that 
 contrives to thrust the bright edge of its smile through 
 all the tragedy of existence, had unceasing charm for 
 him. A wealth of amusing anecdotes, enriched and 
 garnished by his graphic recital of them, made him a 
 constant fountain of entertainment to his companions. 
 At the street-corner or round the alehouse table he 
 would be the centre of a circle whose hilarity swelled 
 into boisterous overflow beneath the charm of his 
 witty sallies, his comical gestures, his laughable 
 stories. It has often struck me that, in the wonder- 
 ful vivacity of his nature, and the piquancy and charm 
 of his conversation, there would be in those days a 
 somewhat striking resemblance between him and his 
 famous countryman Burns. 
 
 One evening, when he and a number more were 
 enjoying a merry time at the Grey Horse, one of the 
 public-houses of the village, a wager was laid that 
 Mackenzie would drink a pint of ale with a table- 
 spoon in shorter time than one of his companions
 
 44 LJFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 could eat a penny roll of bread. They sat opposite 
 each other, and no sooner did the other man commence 
 operations, intending to abbreviate his task by bulky 
 bites, than Mackenzie also took up the game ; but, 
 with every spoonful of ale, he made such comical 
 grimaces, that his opponent could neither masticate 
 nor swallow, and had no choice but to join his com- 
 panions in shouts of uproarious laughter. Meanwhile 
 the Scotsman, who handled his spoon like one to 
 whom early familiarity with porridge had lent 
 dexterity, proceeded imperturbably with his task, and 
 won his wager in triumph. 
 
 Not only was he characterised at this time by a 
 constant flow of humour, but by an unbending 
 integrity. Whatever spiritual religion might have to 
 do for him afterwards, the task of converting him 
 into an honest man would not be laid upon its 
 shoulders. He hated all deceit and shams, and 
 admiring commendations of his inflexible uprightness 
 mingle with the gossip of the village still, even after 
 forty years of absence. 
 
 At that time, the identification of each miner's tub 
 by means of a " token " fastened inside was not in 
 vogue, but each as it came out from the hewer was 
 noted by a boy in a wooden book. Nor was it un- 
 common for unscrupulous men to insist on having 
 more tubs chalked to their credit than properly 
 belonged to them ; a species of fraud not always avoided 
 by those from whom better things might have been 
 expected. The memory of an old miner who worked 
 near him dwells still, with a pride that has in it an 
 unconscious homage, on the fact that such methods of 
 adding a shilling or two to his wages were always
 
 a
 
 A MINING INCIDENT 47 
 
 scorned by Peter Mackenzie, even in his unconverted 
 
 On one occasion, when visiting the North, he was 
 asked to call on a man with whom he had formerly 
 worked in the pit, and who was now noted for 
 religious fervour. To the surprise of those who made 
 the request, Mackenzie declined. The reason he gave 
 afterwards was this. Mackenzie was detained one 
 night, when a hewer, to work near the shaft, while 
 his mate went forward to their usual place of toil. 
 During the shift an accident occurred which compelled 
 those farthest in to suspend operations and return to 
 their homes, but did not interfere with Mackenzie's 
 toil. The natural thing, of course, would have been 
 for his mate, when interrupted elsewhere, to join and 
 assist him ; indeed, he could not reach the shaft 
 without passing close to the spot. What he did was 
 to pass stealthily by, without a word of greeting or 
 inquiry. No wonder that Mackenzie had scant 
 respect for the man afterwards, in spite of his per- 
 fervid ejaculations, saying, " I thought it rather mean ; 
 for I made six shillings that night, of which he got 
 three, and he made one and sixpence, of which I got 
 nincpence." 
 
 In the year 1849, Mr. Henry Eeed of Hurrogate, 
 commonly designated Squire Eeed, a well-known and 
 successful evangelist of a past generation, went to 
 Haswell Colliery to conduct a series of special 
 religious services. Mr. Eeed, who had spent several 
 years in Australia, was a man of considerable gifts, 
 and a powerful preacher. The first Sunday morning 
 service was thinly attended, but strenuous efforts 
 were made during the afternoon to induce the
 
 48 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 villagers to attend, and in the evening things assumed 
 a much more promising appearance, and quite a 
 flutter of excitement passed through the congregation 
 when one of the least likely men in the village was 
 seen to enter and take a seat near the door. It was 
 Peter Mackenzie, who. during his residence at the 
 colliery, had not been known to attend any place of 
 worship. His presence now was due to the earnest 
 
 HASWELL CHAPEL. 
 
 invitation of two simple-hearted men, James Lumley 
 and H. Elsbury, who had called at his house and 
 urged him to come to hear the mission preacher. He 
 had given them a kindly welcome, and a promise of 
 his presence at the evening service. 
 
 The sermon was cogent in its appeals, and of all 
 the listeners, no one gave it greater heed than Peter 
 Mackenzie. The truth went home to heart and con-
 
 A MEMORABLE SCENE 49 
 
 science, and under the warm rain of its influence and 
 the powerful stirring of the Divine Spirit, the good 
 sowing of past days in the farmer's kitchen at Mildean, 
 and of the Bible readings at his own fireside, began to 
 germinate. 
 
 At the conclusion of the ordinary service, anxious 
 glances were directed towards the stranger, to see 
 whether there was likelihood of his remaining to the 
 prayer - meeting, and when it was found that he 
 waited, the feeling among those present rose to 
 exultation. One of the friends, Mr. Matthew Young, 
 spoke encouragingly to him, and then, while the hymn 
 beginning, 
 
 "Rock of Ages, cleft for me," 
 
 was being sung, he went forward, knelt at the 
 " penitent form," sought in earnest supplication the 
 forgiveness of his sins, and consecrated himself to 
 Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world. One of his 
 remembered petitions at that moment has in it an 
 earnest and prophecy of the devotedness of his after 
 days " Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do ? " 
 
 The scene has lived in the memory of all who 
 witnessed it. The excitement was profound. Men 
 little accustomed to ebullitions of emotion made the 
 chapel echo with their prayers and exclamations. 
 Mr. George Minto, a quiet, sedate man, lost all control 
 of himself, and shouted a thanksgiving at the top of 
 his voice ; while Mr. Hunter, cashier of the colliery, 
 one of the chief supporters of the church at the time, 
 and also one of the grave, steady-going sort, stood over 
 the penitent and wept like a child. It seemed, 
 indeed, as if the conviction was driven home upon 
 
 4
 
 So LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 every mind that night, that a great trophy was being 
 won for the Lord Jesus Christ, that a flame was 
 being kindled in the village sanctuary, the gleam of 
 which would blaze afar. 
 
 An incident characteristic of the fervour of 
 Mackenzie's nature, and of the lasting impression 
 made upon his mind by the experiences of that 
 evening, has been communicated by Mr. George 
 Parkinson of Sherburn. About twelve months after 
 the events just related, Squire Reed was announced 
 to preach in the Wesleyan chapel in the city of 
 Durham, and Mackenzie, with others, walked from 
 Haswell to hear him. During the service, Mr. Eeed 
 referred to the revival at Haswell, and spoke of a 
 good Scottish brother who had been brought to Christ 
 a very promising case of conversion. " I wonder 
 where he is now, whether he has held on his way," 
 said the preacher ; and in a loud voice from the 
 gallery came Mackenzie's answer, " I am here, Mr. 
 Reed. Praise the Lord, I am here ! "
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 GETTING UNDER WAY 1849-1850 
 
 Hindrances Sceptical Literature A Persevering Class- Leader 
 A Narrow Escape The Monkey and Cromwell His Head- 
 ing A Miner's Library A Spiritual Impetus His Ex- 
 uberant Happiness The Reform Agitation Missionary 
 Meeting Incident Introduced to Punshon Happy Inter- 
 ruptions. 
 
 THE conversion of a man so well known, and whose 
 personality had made so deep a mark on the life 
 of the village, could not but create a sensation. That 
 the jovial miner should become a Methodist seemed 
 incredible, and many were inclined to regard it as 
 only another of the practical jokes of which he was 
 known to be especially fond. Time demonstrated the 
 reality of the change, however. It was evident that 
 he had become a new man in Christ Jesus. Without 
 leaving on him a shade of gloom, the frivolity passed 
 out of his life, and religious earnestness took its place. 
 The moor, with its bowls and betting, the street-corner, 
 the public-house, were all avoided ; the thoughtless 
 desecration of the Sabbath became a thing of the past, 
 and amid new associations there was commenced a 
 new life. 
 
 It was not with unhindered steps, however, that he 
 
 61
 
 52 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 walked at first. A neighbour, who ought to have 
 known better, made strong efforts to undermine his 
 new-found faith in Christ. This man, it seems, was 
 in the habit of distributing sceptical literature, and 
 pressed its acceptance upon the new convert with 
 such persistency that for some two or three months 
 
 WHERE MACKENZIE LIVED WHEN CONVERTED HOUSE ON RIGHT 
 WITH CLOSED DOOR. 
 
 his mind was considerably perturbed and his ardour 
 abated. The strong accent of disapproval with which 
 Mackenzie always referred to this man afterwards 
 would seem to indicate that he was not one of that 
 nobler class of unbelievers, who are simply anxious 
 that the disciple should be able to give a reason for 
 the hope that is in him ; but one of the baser sort, 
 who feel an unworthy delight in the mischievous 
 endeavour to unsettle the minds of others.
 
 A NARROW ESCAPE 53 
 
 The leader in whose class Mackenzie began to meet 
 was greatly concerned about him, and spared no pains 
 to rescue him from this and other unfavourable 
 influences, and to retain him in connection with the 
 church. In this commendable endeavour he was 
 seconded by Mrs. Mackenzie. She was shrewd enough 
 to see how important it was that her husband should 
 continue in the course he had entered upon, hence 
 she furthered as far as in her lay, and to an extent 
 that probably Mackenzie himself never knew, the 
 effort that his class-leader made to preserve him from 
 turning aside. Speaking of these endeavours and of 
 the man who made them, Mackenzie said afterwards : 
 " I tried hard to get rid of him, but it was impossible. 
 [f I missed my class-meeting, he would be at my house 
 the following day, at a time most inconvenient to 
 me, but a time that he considered to be the only 
 chance of catching me. If likely to meet him in the 
 street, I would either seek shelter in a friend's house, 
 when one chanced to be near, or slip through an open- 
 ing, and try to evade him by changing my route ; but 
 I seemed to meet him at every turn." 
 
 An incident that occurred about this time, in con- 
 nection with his daily occupation, seems to have made 
 a deep impression upon his mind, and to have seconded 
 very effectively the efforts of his ubiquitous leader. 
 He had just finished the toil of the day, and was 
 putting on his garments a few yards from the face of 
 the coal, when a huge stone fell from the roof on 
 the very spot where a few moments before he had 
 been seated at work. What a wonderful deliver- 
 ance ! How narrowly he had escaped the instant 
 and cruel death which overtakes so many like
 
 54 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 workers, who, amid unsuspected perils, toil for their 
 daily bread. 
 
 This deliverance reminds one not unnaturally of 
 another with which Mackenzie used to illustrate one 
 of his lectures, and which has been communicated by 
 the Eev. Thomas H. Hill of Stirling. Mr. Hill says : 
 " I remember, many years ago, hearing one of Peter's 
 first lectures, at Melsonby, in the Darlington circuit. 
 The lecture was on Providence, and in it he related 
 a most remarkable incident in the life of Oliver 
 Cromwell. Eichard Cromwell, the father of Oliver, 
 kept a monkey, who made himself very much at home 
 in his master's house, and became head nurse to Oliver 
 when an infant. One fine summer day, when the 
 windows of the house were open, and Oliver sleeping 
 peacefully in his cradle, in came the monkey through 
 one of the windows, and, taking up the infant, climbed 
 to the housetop, and there sat hugging and tossing 
 up the baby with the kindness and care of a practised 
 nurse ' Look at this picture ! ' cried Peter, with his 
 wonderfully expressive face, and throwing up both 
 hands and arms as if he held an infant there. ' Look 
 at this picture ! The English Commonwealth in the 
 arms of a monkey ! The English Commonwealth in 
 the arms of a monkey ! ' The household of Cromwell 
 were greatly alarmed, and how to recover the child 
 could not tell. If they fired at the monkey, they 
 might shoot the child ; if they chased him, he might 
 throw the child down. It was resolved at length to 
 leave him alone, and, going out of sight, they waited 
 to see what would be the result. After a good spell 
 of nursing, down came the monkey with all possible 
 care, and, passing again through the open window with
 
 THE FELLOWSHIP OF BOOKS 55 
 
 the young Oliver in his arms, laid the little one in his 
 cradle once more, without a broken bone in his body 
 or even a scratch on his face." 
 
 It was natural that Mackenzie should be greatly 
 moved by his own narrow escape from death, by 
 what seemed to him almost a miraculous intervention 
 of Divine Providence on his behalf. His heart went 
 out towards God in a great swing of gratitude and 
 fresh resolution. On reaching home, he found his 
 pertinacious class-leader waiting with a special invita- 
 tion ; but coaxing and persuasion were no longer 
 required. Filled with the recollection of his marvel- 
 lous preservation, he went gladly to the meeting that 
 evening; and resolved henceforth to give himself 
 unbrokenly to the service of Jesus Christ. 
 
 He now sought with greater eagerness the fellowship 
 of books, with an earnest desire for self-improvement, 
 and probably with an unspoken wish to fit himself 
 for future usefulness. The Bible and the Wesleyan 
 hymn - book were then and ever afterwards great 
 favourites, and it was impossible to hear him preach 
 in after-life without recognising how deeply he had 
 imbibed the spirit and letter of both. As a supple- 
 ment to these, the local preachers, among whom he 
 now formed companionships, were ever ready to place 
 at his disposal whatever they possessed in the form 
 of literary or theological treasures. 
 
 Their resources in this respect were not so scanty 
 as a stranger to North of England colliery life would 
 suppose. In many of those humble, unpretentious 
 homes would be found, and, what is better, would be 
 read and studied, selections of the best in English 
 literature. I knew a miner of that day, and he was
 
 56 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 an example of many others, in whose library I could 
 lay hands on Chambers's Encyclopaedia of English 
 Literature, Orr's Circle of the Sciences, editions of the 
 best poets, treatises on philosophy and religion, besides 
 yearly volumes of what were then some of the better 
 and more popular magazines. Nor can I forget that 
 the only man I have known who could claim to have 
 gone five times through Milton's Paradise Lost was a 
 collier from the county of Durham. The pastures 
 on which Mackenzie would browse might be limited 
 in extent, but it does not follow that the grass would 
 be poor in quality. It was his custom to keep a box 
 of books under the bed, and when sleep had repaired 
 the energy wasted in the pit, he would, without 
 rising, draw forth his treasures, and read for hours 
 where he lay. 
 
 While this quiet intellectual cultivation was pro- 
 ceeding month by month, he received also a spiritual 
 fillip in a revival of religion, the outcome of Sunday 
 school sermons preached at Haswell by Mr. Thomas 
 Elliott of Swalwell, a man widely known throughout 
 all that district for the vigour and fervour of his 
 pulpit ministrations. In this revival Mackenzie took 
 a ready share as a worker, and, as an old acquaintance 
 of his expresses it, the fire within him was fanned 
 into a flame that never afterwards died out. 
 
 What we behold in him after this is an ardent, 
 demonstrative disciple of Christ, filled with godly 
 zeal and overflowing love, and especially remarkable 
 for a joyous exultation of spirit, that found outlet 
 in those explosive shouts of " Glory ! Hallelujah ! 
 Praise the Lord ! " and the like, which his lips 
 never afterwards lost the knack of producing, and
 
 EXUBERANT HAPPINESS 57 
 
 which often broke alarmingly on people not accustomed 
 to such emphatic methods of expressing religious 
 emotion. As an illustration of this exuberance of 
 soul, it is related of him that he was one day sent 
 by the man in charge to assist a fellow- workman in 
 carrying from one part of the mine to another a 
 long heavy baulk of timber, such as is commonly 
 employed in supporting the roof. As the two crawled 
 along, almost crushed beneath their burden, they were 
 met by an old Methodist, who cried, " Hulloa, Peter, 
 how's tha gettin' on, lad?" "Praise the Lord!" 
 shouted Peter in reply. " Ay, but thou would praise 
 Him better with the baulk off thi back," rejoined his 
 friend. This was doubtless true enough, but all the 
 answer that could be evoked from the happy toiler 
 was, " Hallelujah ! Praise the Lord ! " 
 
 It was during these early years of Mackenzie's 
 religious life that the Methodist Church passed 
 through the strain of what is known as the Eeform 
 Agitation. Two parties had come into existence, 
 with opposing views of ecclesiastical policy and pro- 
 cedure, and, as is common in such cases, personal 
 prejudices and antipathies were allowed to sharpen 
 the edge of public controversy. Strong feeling pre- 
 vailed on both sides, and found vent at times in 
 bitter remarks. Fortunately for the growth of the 
 young convert, Haswell was but little disturbed ; a 
 strong spiritual life dominating the little church, 
 and its work being more than usually prosperous. 
 When the annual missionary meeting came round, 
 the chapel was filled to overflowing, the deputation 
 for that year, 1850, being the Reverend William 
 Morley Punshon, then in the dawning flush of his
 
 58 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 popularity in the Brunswick circuit, Newcastle-on- 
 Tyne. The Eev. John Wilson, superintendent of 
 the Durham circuit at the time, referred in his 
 address to how that very day in the city one of the 
 opposed party had pointed a finger at him and cried, 
 " There goes an enemy of God ! " Mr. Wilson went 
 on to remark that he was not aware of being an 
 enemy to anyone, unless it was the prince of dark- 
 ness. Mackenzie, who was seated near the platform, 
 called out immediately, " Ay, hinny, ye are an 
 enemy, and lang may ye live to be an enemy to the 
 prince of the power of the air ! " His cry rang 
 through the chapel, the audience cheered enthusiasti- 
 cally, and Punshon, joining heartily in the laughter 
 and applause, made vigorous use of the incident in 
 the eloquent and well-timed speech with which he 
 followed that of the superintendent. At the close 
 he shook hands with the impetuous miner, little 
 dreaming that in a few years this unlettered and 
 somewhat boisterous working man would, as lecturer 
 and preacher, win a fame as wide as his own. 
 
 This faculty for happy interruption was one that 
 Mackenzie never forfeited. I remember, years after- 
 wards, when a serious discussion was proceeding in 
 the District Synod anent a solitary station, the 
 occupant of which was a brother unduly stout, he 
 threw the meeting into roars of laughter by rising 
 and saying with mock gravity, and in tones that 
 gave unutterable raciness to the words, " I move, 
 Mr. Chairman, that the ministerial staff be reduced"
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 FIRST ATTEMPTS AT PREACHING 1850-1852 
 
 Christian Development Sunday School Work "Walk to 
 Sherburn Hill His First Sermon Interview with a 
 Hearer Misgivings and Questionings Wise Counsel 
 How to get Warmed His Dress and Appearance "A 
 Bad Time" Winning a Suit of Clothes A Memorable 
 Watch-night. 
 
 IN every normal development of the religious life, 
 the convert passes by natural, almost insensible 
 steps into the worker ; and, where there are suitable 
 gifts, the disciple develops into the apostle the man 
 sent to others to tell of what has come to him. The 
 rock of the smitten heart cannot but send forth 
 streams of gratitude and helpful love. What form 
 the new-born activity shall take is usually decided 
 by the verdict of circumstance and ability. In a 
 large number of cases it is the Sunday school that 
 absorbs the early zeal and devotion, probably because 
 that form of endeavour is most easily accessible, and 
 is generally, though erroneously, supposed to require 
 but the minimum of qualification. This was the 
 service on which the converted miner at Haswell 
 tried his apprentice hand. " Worked in church and 
 school about one year," he says, in his autobiographical 
 
 60
 
 60 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 notes. He also frequently accompanied the local 
 preachers to their appointments, gleaning from them 
 such instruction as was attainable on the way, and, 
 doubtless, secretly anticipating and preparing for the 
 time when he should himself be similarly employed. 
 
 That time came, perhaps somewhat unexpectedly, 
 one Sunday afternoon in the year 1850. He had 
 been requested by Mr. William Phalp, an intimate 
 friend, to accompany him to the village of Sherburn 
 Hill, at which place the latter was appointed to 
 preach that day, afternoon and evening. Mr. Phalp 
 has been for many years resident in Australia, but 
 has confirmed the accuracy of this narrative in 
 recent letters. 
 
 The two friends chatted together on the way, and 
 Mr. Phalp, who was not feeling very well, asked 
 Mackenzie, half in jest and half in earnest, whether 
 be would take the service that afternoon. " Yes," 
 answered his companion, " I will try. I have been 
 asking the Lord about it, and I believe it is all right. 
 I have an impression that I ought to preach." Mr. 
 Phalp was hardly prepared for so ready an assent, 
 and as he was himself but a probationer on the 
 circuit plan, felt slightly uncertain about the course 
 to which he was being committed. Having gone so 
 far, however, it was difficult to retreat, and Mackenzie 
 was allowed to take the pulpit. His appearance 
 and dress were altogether unusual, while his abrupt, 
 unconventional manner at once aroused attention, 
 and possibly in some excited ridicule. But the stream 
 of enthusiastic eloquence which he poured forth on 
 the story of blind Bartimseus, moving the people to 
 laughter and tears at will, held his audience spell-
 
 HIS FIRST SERMON 61 
 
 bound, and from that hour he was marked out as one 
 to whom the crowd would be glad to listen. 
 
 This account of Mr. Phalp's is substantiated by 
 the relation of an interview between Mr. Cuthbert, 
 then a resident at Sherburn Hill, and Mr. 11. Garnett 
 of Coxhoe, which the latter communicated recently 
 to the Northern Weekly Gazette. 
 
 " I think, Mr. Cuthbert," remarked Mr. Garnett, 
 " it was at Sherburn Hill, in the county of Durham, 
 that Mr. Mackenzie made his first attempt at 
 preaching ? " 
 
 " Yes ; I distinctly remember the time. It was in 
 a building that was used both as schoolroom and 
 chapel." 
 
 " Can you give any valid proof that the time you 
 refer to was Mr. Mackenzie's first effort in the 
 pulpit ? " 
 
 " From his own statement at the time I am 
 satisfied of this. In his apology at the beginning of 
 his discourse, he reminded his hearers that they 
 were not to expect much from him, as he had never 
 been in a pulpit before, not even to snuff the candles. 
 It may be necessary to explain that ' moulds ' or 
 ' dips/ forty or fifty years ago, were an indispensable 
 requisite in village chapels during the long nights, 
 and the snuffing very often had to be done in the 
 pulpit by the preacher himself. If the manipulation 
 was not very expertly performed, and any mishap 
 took place, a general titter would pass through the 
 congregation at the preacher's expense." 
 
 " Was there anything in the preacher or in his 
 discourse that impressed you as being out of the 
 ordinary ? "
 
 62 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 " I remember his intense earnestness, humour, and 
 witty remarks made an impression on my mind which 
 I have never forgotten." 
 
 " Do you remember if this, his first effort in the 
 pulpit, was regarded by the congregation who heard 
 him as a success, or was it considered a failure ? " 
 
 " It was certainly regarded as a success, and much 
 appreciated and talked about for a long time 
 afterwards." 
 
 " Do you remember the subject of his discourse ? " 
 
 " The subject, I think, was blind Bartimaeus, but 
 I cannot say positively." 
 
 " Do you remember anything as to his personal 
 appearance." 
 
 "Yes, I remember distinctly. His appearance 
 was that of a working man. He had on a short 
 jacket, and looked somewhat odd and unclerical." 
 
 It is interesting to note that Mackenzie's first 
 sermon was on a Bible character, and those who 
 watched his after career cannot but have observed 
 that it was to this class of subject that his peculiar 
 genius lent itself with most freedom and power; 
 that, in both sermons and lectures, he was most 
 effective when biographical and descriptive rather 
 than when doctrinal or argumentative. 
 
 On the way home that night the two young men 
 were not without disturbing thoughts. Mackenzie 
 had begun well, and produced an exceedingly favour- 
 able impression, but had rule and usage been observed ? 
 He had occupied the pulpit almost by accident. 
 Neither superintendent minister nor Local Preachers' 
 Meeting had been conferred with. Would not 
 trouble and difficulty arise ?
 
 A RUSSIAN INCIDENT 65 
 
 When Haswell was reached, they observed that 
 the chapel was still lighted, and, proceeding thither, 
 they encountered several of the leading brethren at 
 the door, just leaving after a protracted prayer- 
 meeting. A few were called aside for consultation, 
 and after the young men had related the experiences 
 of the day, Mr. George Wardle, a local preacher and 
 one of the more sage and elderly, was appealed to. 
 " Give yourself no concern, brother Phalp," he 
 remarked very wisely. " The Local Preachers' 
 Meeting may do as it pleases ; this is a divine call. 
 Brother Mackenzie is called to preach the gospel, 
 and the local preachers will do their duty when the 
 proper time comes." Sensible words, and fully 
 supported by subsequent events. Before the Local 
 Preachers' Meeting came round, Mackenzie's popu- 
 larity was established, and his acceptance placed 
 beyond dispute. 
 
 After this brief colloquy at the chapel door, one of 
 the friends grasped Mackenzie by the hand, and 
 congratulated him on having got into harness. In 
 his reply, he related in a graphic manner the following 
 incident, evidently gathered from his reading, and 
 showing how the prompting to use what gifts he had 
 was strong within him. In Northern Eussia, two 
 travellers driving a sleigh came upon a man who 
 had fallen exhausted, and was lying helpless in the 
 snow. The horses were stopped, and one of the 
 travellers was eager to render assistance. The other 
 declined. His more benevolent companion descended 
 from the sleigh, and ceased not to tug and lift until 
 he had placed the perishing one in it. The other, 
 meanwhile, sat shivering in his furs, grumbling at the 
 
 5
 
 66 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 detention. " You ought to have helped," rejoined 
 his friend, " and then you would have been as warm 
 as I am." 
 
 " You see," observed the newly-fledged preacher, 
 applying the incident, " when one does nothing, one 
 grows cold. When you sit still in the gospel 
 chariot, you get frozen up. If you want to be warm 
 yourself, you must warm others." A teaching of 
 which the whole of his subsequent career was a 
 striking illustration. 
 
 The attire and general appearance of Mackenzie, 
 during the days of his first pulpit efforts, can hardly be 
 described as glaringly clerical. A fastidious taste 
 would probably have shuddered when he stood up for 
 the first time to address an audience at Haswell. The 
 service was held in a cottage on a week-evening. 
 Having done so well at Sherburn Hill, there was 
 naturally a strong desire abroad to hear him. His 
 appearance was certainly striking ; in any but Peter 
 it would have been accounted grotesque. Imagine a 
 black coarse velvet coat, such as is now worn by 
 sportsmen and gamekeepers ; a blue vest, with two 
 rows of buttons ; broad - ribbed corduroy trousers, 
 ripped from the bottom to the knee, and secured tight 
 to the leg with fancy buttons, after the manner of 
 gaiters ; strong heavy boots ; a coloured neckerchief, 
 fastened in a gigantic bow ; hair brushed into glossy 
 obedience ; and white handkerchief, well sprinkled 
 with scent, crushed between the strong fingers or 
 held fluttering aloft. To what singular uses, from 
 the slaying of giants and Philistines to the persona- 
 tion of babies, were the successors of that white 
 handkerchief destined to lend themselves, and how
 
 A RIDE FOR A SUIT 67 
 
 the liking for perfume followed him to the end of his 
 days ! 
 
 When referring to this effort, years afterwards, he 
 said, " There were too many locals there that night. 
 I had a bad time." Such was not the impression of 
 his hearers. They felt the service to be one of no 
 ordinary power and success. The preacher's attire 
 was not to them of great moment, convinced, as they 
 were, that underneath the queer, staring garb there 
 beat the heart of a true man and a genuine Christian, 
 and that the uncouthness held in its crooked branches 
 the promise of a notable aftergrowth. 
 
 As was customary, the house of one of the friends 
 was resorted to after the service for social chat, and 
 the company, being in a playful mood, chaffed 
 Mackenzie about his unclerical appearance. "Ah," 
 said he, " you would never guess how this suit came 
 into my possession, but I will tell you." Then he 
 related how certain sports were held near where he had 
 lived in Scotland. One of these was a donkey race, 
 the conditions of which were that not the first, but 
 the last to arrive at the goal should be accounted 
 winner. His rival and he exchanged animals at the 
 start, and Mackenzie's interest was to urge his 
 opponent's ass to go quicker than his own, a task in 
 which he succeeded perfectly, his own donkey bringing 
 up the rear, and winning for him the variegated suit 
 as a prize. 
 
 The Watch-night Service of that year, at Haswell, 
 was rendered memorable by sermons from the two 
 young men, Mackenzie and Phalp. The chapel was 
 filled. Both men, though direct opposites, were 
 vigorous preachers, and each had made special
 
 68 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 preparation. Phalp preached on the parabla of the 
 barren fig tree, and Mackenzie on that of the man 
 who had not on a wedding garment ; and the older 
 inhabitants speak of the service still, as one unpa- 
 ralleled in all their experience for its wealth of 
 spiritual influence
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 EXPERIENCES AS A LOCAL PREACIIEK 1850-1852 
 
 Worker in the Church A Popular Probationer His Preaching 
 How he got a Commentary Sociable Habits Learning a 
 Tune A Late Night and Early Morning The Outwitted 
 Donkey The Donkey Cart A Suggested Frontispiece. 
 
 IN the autobiographical fragment already quoted 
 from, after recording his removal from Dundee 
 to Oxclose in 1844, Mackenzie continues: 
 
 " Lived there nearly a year, then went to Haswell. Lived about 
 four years without Christ. Got converted in 1849, under Mr. 
 Reed. Worked in church and school about one year. Then 
 became a local preacher, was favourably received, saw good done, 
 and rejoiced exceedingly." 
 
 The exact date at which he became a local preacher 
 I have not been able to determine. It was probably 
 towards the end of 1850. A circuit plan, preserved 
 by himself, and where his name stands among those 
 on trial, is for the quarter beginning February 22, 
 and ending May 16, 1852. Impressive evidence 
 of his already abounding popularity, as well as of 
 his readiness in preparing sermons, is afforded by 
 the fact that on this plan, though still on trial, he 
 
 60
 
 70 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 has no less than thirteen double appointments, with 
 one afternoon in addition ; in other words, he is not 
 allowed one free Sunday during the whole of the 
 quarter. 
 
 Mr. George Parkinson says of him at this time : 
 
 " His early efforts as a local preacher were marked 
 by striking originality of thought, apt illustration, and 
 intense earnestness. His natural cheerfulness, wit, 
 and humour were as irrepressible in the new life as 
 they had been in the old, and as gifts of the Master, 
 they went into the Master's service, to which he had 
 given himself, with all that he was, and all that he 
 might become. I was occasionally with him in 
 conducting Sunday services, and have a vivid recol- 
 lection of some of the sermons he then preached, and 
 which I have the impression were never excelled in 
 after years. One sermon on the final judgment 
 especially impressed me, and another on John iii. 16, 
 in which his own experience and appreciation of the 
 love of God were strongly marked, and the pathos 
 and tenderness of his own nature strikingly illus- 
 trated." 
 
 The books that aided him in those earlier years, 
 among which are named Dwight's Theology and Whit- 
 field's Sermons, were mostly borrowed from willing 
 friends. Such biblical and homiletical apparatus as 
 he could call his own was as yet limited to scanty 
 proportions ; but one aid that proved of great service 
 came into his possession unexpectedly, and in rather 
 an amusing manner. 
 
 A branch of the British and Foreign Bible Society 
 was formed at Has well, and, to give more efficiency 
 to its operations, the village was divided into districts
 
 EXCHANGING BIBLES 71 
 
 for regular visitation. The district appointed to 
 Mackenzie and another young man, George Phalp, 
 brother to William Phalp, was one that abounded 
 with public-houses. The two young men went round 
 systematically with sample Bibles, taking each house 
 in turn, and Mackenzie's humour and geniality were 
 valuable aids in securing orders. On entering the 
 Oddfellows' Arms, the landlord, a professed infidel, 
 
 MAIN STREET, HASWELL. 
 
 opened on Mackenzie a teasing fire of chaff about his 
 changed life, but found the object of his badinage 
 quite a match for him in good-humoured and pointed 
 repartee. When their samples were exhibited, the 
 landlord said, " I have a better Bible in the house 
 than any of these." Mackenzie asked to see it, and 
 the book was produced. Observing how enviously 
 he turned over the leaves and conned the pages,
 
 72 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 the landlord remarked good-naturedly, " Now, mate, 
 have ye any swaps ? " That is, " Are you willing to 
 exchange ? " Mackenzie answered eagerly in the 
 affirmative, a bargain was struck, and, handing the 
 landlord one of the best of his samples, he departed 
 with the newly-acquired treasure under his arm. 
 When they got outside, he poked his companion in 
 the ribs, and exclaimed laughingly, "The devil has 
 outwitted himself again. He has influenced that 
 man to give me a Commentary." The book thus 
 obtained proved to be a well-bound copy of Burkitt's 
 Notes on the New Testament, and as the young local 
 preacher possessed no such work of his own, but until 
 now had always been indebted to the generosity 
 of others, it will be understood with what joy he 
 carried home a volume likely to prove so service- 
 able. Better exegetical works could be found, at a 
 subsequent period, in his library of nearly three 
 thousand volumes, but the commentary so quaintly 
 acquired was never disposed of, and stands on his 
 shelves to-day. 
 
 The practice of consecrating all things to God in 
 prayer, so notable in his ministerial career, was often 
 exemplified in those early years. His friend William 
 Phalp, having recently married, set up house not far 
 from Mackenzie. As was customary among the 
 villagers, the neighbours called to offer their congratu- 
 lations to the young couple in their new home. 
 Among the rest came Mackenzie ; and after surveying 
 with pleasure the bright new furniture and attractive 
 appearance of the house, he exclaimed, " Eh, but she's 
 grand ! Has she been consecrated yet ? " " She " is 
 the term a miner naturally employs to describe the
 
 A LATE NIGHT 73 
 
 house in which he lives, the coal he hews, the colliery 
 at which he works, and a multitude of other objects. 
 In reply to his query, someone answered, " Not yet, 
 Peter." " Then let us have her consecrated, friends," 
 was the immediate rejoinder, and in a moment he 
 was on his knees, pouring out an earnest and appro- 
 priate supplication for a blessing on the newly- 
 married couple and all their belongings. 
 
 Mackenzie's contemporaries among the local 
 preachers speak of him as having a propensity to remain 
 to a late hour when out on the Sabbath fulfilling an 
 appointment. He was exceedingly sociable, and the 
 friends who entertained him delighted in his bright 
 and genial society, and were eager to prolong his visits. 
 On one occasion, when appointed to Coxhoe, eight 
 miles distant, he agreed to meet the two brothers 
 Phalp, who were, one at Kelloe and the other at 
 Quarrington Hill, places from six to seven and a half 
 miles away from Has well in the same direction. The 
 arrangement was that Peter was to proceed to Kelloe 
 to supper, after which he and William would move 
 on to Quarrington Hill for George, who was much 
 younger, and just beginning to preach. Losing all 
 sense of time in a prayer-meeting that seemed to 
 have no end, and that was succeeded by singing and 
 talk and cheery hospitality in the house of one of 
 the Coxhoe friends, Mackenzie did not reach Kelloe, 
 where his companion had waited two hours, until 
 about ten o'clock. Turning their faces homeward, 
 they called at Quarrington Hill, and satisfied the 
 younger brother that he was not left behind. All 
 three then proceeded to Thornley, where it suddenly 
 occurred to Mackenzie that someone at Kelloe had
 
 74 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 spoken of a new prayer-meeting tune, which Michael 
 Watson rejoiced in the knowledge of. Michael 
 Watson was another friend, musical in his tastes, 
 who resided at Thornley, and, despite all protest, 
 Mackenzie insisted on proceeding to his house. It 
 was eleven o'clock when the trio arrived at the door, 
 and all was closed for the night. In response to 
 a thrice-repeated knock, the inquiry came, " Who 
 is there?" "Glory! hallelujah!" shouted the dis- 
 turber. " Get up, lass ! " cried Watson, in great glee, 
 to his wife. "There's Peter at the door." The 
 door was speedily opened, coffee prepared, and the 
 interview prolonged until the new revival tune was 
 mastered. 
 
 Thornley was not left behind until midnight, and 
 when they arrived at Haswell, the caller (a man 
 employed to waken the boys and men in the early 
 morning) had already entered on his rounds, and 
 was breaking the stillness with his unwelcome clatter 
 and pitiless cry of " Get up, lad ! call the lads up ! " 
 It was Mackenzie's turn to begin labour at this hour, 
 so, without a moment's rest, after preaching probably 
 three times, and walking sixteen miles, he had to lay 
 aside his Sunday dress, clothe himself in working garb, 
 and proceed literally from the pulpit to the mine. 
 The same unpalatable portion awaited his companions. 
 
 About the middle of the shift, that is, about four 
 in the morning, the two brothers had to pass the spot 
 where Mackenzie was employed. He was hard at 
 work, swinging his pick with a vigour that seemed 
 to have in it no trace of the toil of the previous day. 
 They stood for a few moments in quiet admiration, 
 then one of them called, " How do you feel now,
 
 AN OBSTINATE DONKEY 75 
 
 Peter ? " He threw down his pick, and, coming 
 towards them, said, " Ah, lads, this won't do. We 
 must get home sooner. She's hard. I have hardly 
 strength to knock her down." 
 
 Such an experience was probably repeated at 
 frequent intervals. It could hardly be avoided, in 
 a circuit so wide that some of the appointments were 
 as far as fifteen miles distant, with hardly any other 
 alternative than trudging on foot. There were times 
 when he was able to indulge in the luxury of a ride 
 or a drive, but neither was of such an order as to 
 excite greatly the envy of pedestrians, as the following 
 incidents, supplied from several trustworthy sources, 
 will show. 
 
 Having an appointment at Pelton Fell one Sunday, 
 a distance of twelve miles, he borrowed a donkey of 
 one of his friends, his own having by that time been 
 disposed of. In returning, a brook had to be forded, 
 and its usually narrow dimensions had been swollen 
 by rain. The moon was at the full, and when the 
 donkey reached the edge, its own reflection peered so 
 uncannily up out of the water that it came to a 
 sudden stop. "Whether he saw the Man-in-the- 
 Moon," said Mackenzie, " or only his own shadow, 
 I never could tell ; but I coaxed him, clapped him, 
 pressed him hard, said nice words to him, even put 
 my shoulder against him and pushed like a ' putter 
 down the dip/ all in vain. He would not stir. Then, 
 thinking a little craft might be useful, I led him back 
 a bit, put my coat off and wrapped it round his head 
 and face, and after turning him round several times, 
 so that he could not for the life of him tell the 
 direction of the North Pole, I gradually brought
 
 76 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 him on to the path, and led him across the foot- 
 bridge that crossed the stream, landing him safely 
 on the other side before he knew where he was. I 
 took off the blinkers, put on my coat, and, pricking 
 up his ears, he trotted briskly on to Haswell, where 
 we arrived in time for a short sleep, and then off to 
 the pit." 
 
 On another occasion he started early on the donkey 
 for Chester -le- Street, a somewhat similar journey 
 Not far from the village, a man, whose very unpre- 
 tentious residence he had to pass on the way, made 
 a generous offer of his donkey-cart as an easier method 
 of travel for so long a journey. 
 
 " But have ye any harness for the animal ? " asked 
 Peter. 
 
 " I've plenty of ' towts,' " answered the man, " and 
 we can soon tie him in." 
 
 " Get him yoked, then ! " said Peter. 
 
 " Towts " is a provincialism for rough hempen 
 cords, by the help of which the donkey was duly 
 fixed into some shattered old harness, and the preacher 
 started once more on his way. 
 
 On reaching Chester-le- Street he drove up to the 
 inn, called for the ostler, and gave the quadruped 
 into his charge, requesting that he should be well fed. 
 The man, examining the animal on both sides, stood 
 amazed, and asked 
 
 " How am I to get him out ? " 
 
 " If you cannot loose him," said Peter, " cut him 
 out, and deal gently with the brute, and we can tie 
 him in again to-night." 
 
 One of the leaders, a saddler by trade, and who 
 had considerable regard for the proprieties, happened
 
 A FRONTISPIECE 77 
 
 to pass while this colloquy was proceeding, and was 
 greatly impressed by the spectacle. He had heard 
 of Peter Mackenzie, the man appointed that day, as 
 an eccentric individual, and could not help murmur- 
 ing to himself, " I hope this is not he." At the close 
 of the morning service, however, his misgivings had 
 begun to vanish, and in the evening, after very success- 
 ful services, crowned with the salvation of souls, he 
 was eager, with several others, to accompany the 
 preacher to the inn, and see him safely started on 
 his homeward journey. This was just what the 
 preacher himself, remembering the shabbiness of his 
 turnout, was most anxious to avoid. He thanked 
 them heartily, protested there was no need for such 
 kindness, and so on, but in vain. They were not to 
 be shaken off, so, putting a good face on the matter, 
 he led the way to the Lainbton Arms. When the 
 donkey had been strapped into his motley harness, 
 and the eccentric preacher seated upon the cart, he 
 cried, " Now, friends, just one verse before we start 
 
 When he first the work begun, 
 Small and feeble was his day." 
 
 When relating the incident years afterwards, he 
 suggested merrily that if ever his biography were 
 written, there should be placed as a frontispiece a 
 picture of himself in that donkey-cart, and underneath 
 the words 
 
 When he first the work begun, 
 Small and feeble was his day ; 
 
 Now the word doth swiftly run, 
 Now it wins its widening way. 
 
 Which merry suggestion shows at least one thing
 
 78 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 that while there may be men who climb high, and 
 then blush to admit that they were ever low, Peter 
 Mackenzie was free from the ignoble pride that is 
 ashamed of the rock from which it was hewn, the pit 
 from which it was digged.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 GROWING POPULARITY EMIGRATION THWARTED 
 
 1850-1854 
 
 Demands on his Services Rev. Joseph Hall's Recollection " No 
 Houses to let in Heaven" " A Locomotive Devil " Heavy 
 Collection Mr. George Parkinson's Testimony Depressed 
 Conditionof Industry Carlyle's England The Gold Fever 
 Desire to Emigrate Visit to the Rector Frustrated again 
 A Run for Life Visit to Escomb Reminiscences of Rev. E. 
 Dodd Characteristics of his Preaching. 
 
 IT was impossible for a man so richly gifted as 
 Peter Mackenzie to remain shut up in a corner. 
 The Durham circuit, extensive as were its boundaries, 
 was not wide enough to hold him. His fame spread 
 abroad, and a demand for his services set in from all 
 the district round. School and chapel anniversaries 
 soon began to make heavy calls upon him. It has 
 not been without interest to me to discover that an 
 uncle of my own, Mr. William Burdess of Grange, in 
 the Durham circuit, a staunch old Methodist in his 
 day, was the first to seek Mackenzie to preach at an 
 anniversary. When reminded of this, only a year ago, 
 by Mr. John Burdess of Jarrow, he answered quickly, 
 and with as vivid a recollection of the occurrence as 
 if it had only transpired the day before, " Ay ; and a 
 
 79
 
 8o LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 wonderful figure I- cut, with my velvet coat and red 
 muffler, when I went into the pulpit." 
 
 As an evangelist his presence was even more 
 eagerly sought for. He became a sort of religious 
 stoker for the district, and wherever the fire of spiritual 
 life and activity had burned low, his assistance was 
 invoked to give it a new stir and fresh fuel. In this 
 capacity he was often absent from home for weeks 
 together, and extended his labours far beyond the 
 immediate neighbourhood 
 
 The Eev. Joseph Hall writes : 
 
 "I went to reside in Durham circuit in 1852, 
 shortly after Mr. Mackenzie's name appeared on the 
 plan, and found his services in great request on every 
 hand. Myself and a few other young men walked 
 several miles one Saturday evening to hear him at 
 Coxhoe. The text was John iii. 1 4, 15:' And as Moses 
 lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,' etc. It was a 
 blessed time, and at the close of the service there was 
 a rush scores of penitents came forward in a few 
 minutes. 
 
 " In those days I frequently heard Mackenzie 
 preach, and there was always ' something to stick.' 
 At Grange, near Durham, I heard him from John iii. 
 16. In speaking of the everlasting life, he said : 
 ' Everything will last for ever in heaven, an everlast- 
 ing throne, everlasting songs, everlasting palms, 
 everlasting robes, everlasting habitations. You will 
 never be turned out, and, bless you, you will never see 
 it written up Houses to Let ; for there shall be no 
 more death, but everlasting life.' 
 
 " In preaching at Sherburn on the narrative of the 
 Syro-Phoenician woman and her daughter, he said
 
 A HEAVY COLLECTION 81 
 
 that when the girl had a worse fit than usual, certain 
 present-day gentlemen would have said that it was 
 because the moon was at the full, but not so Satan 
 was looking through her eyes and speaking through 
 her lips ; in i'act, she was a locomotive devil going 
 about her mother's house. 
 
 " The people at Sherburn Hill had a great day one 
 Sunday. Peter preached morning and afternoon in a 
 marquee, and in the evening outside, as the crowd was 
 so immense. The evening collection was so heavily 
 weighted with copper that it required two men to 
 carry the vessel in which it was removed." 
 
 These reminiscences of Mr. Hall throw an interest- 
 ing light on the character of Mackenzie's preaching at 
 that time, and enable us more intelligently to bring it 
 into comparison with his style in later years. The 
 following from Mr. George Parkinson also aids in the 
 same direction : 
 
 " The ready facilities offered by the Methodist 
 Church for utilising the services and developing the 
 talents of its members, afforded Peter Mackenzie the 
 opportunity of active Christian usefulness among those 
 of his own level of life, and at the beginning of his 
 work as a local preacher he was the means of leading 
 hundreds to God. Forty-five years have passed since 
 he entered on his evangelistic labours in the colliery 
 villages of Durham, but there are numbers yet to be 
 met with who owe their conversion to his efforts, 
 and many of them in their turn have led and are 
 still leading others to Christ. I have known many 
 men engaged in this work, but never a more single- 
 minded soul - winner than Peter Mackenzie was in 
 those days."
 
 82 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 When the mind dwells on those years of glorious 
 onslaught on the kingdom of evil, and on all that 
 came in their train, it cannot but be grateful that a 
 project formed by Mackenzie early in his Christian 
 course was not carried out. Though not generally 
 known, it is an undoubted and noteworthy fact, that 
 his thoughts had been strongly drawn in the direction 
 of emigration. 
 
 About the time of his beginning to preach, the 
 condition of the industrial classes was extremely de- 
 pressed. Among the miners, strong men were often 
 not able to earn more than from eighteen to twenty 
 shillings a week, while provisions were exceedingly 
 dear flour, for example, ranging from three shillings 
 to three-and-sixpence a stone. Writing only a few 
 years before, Thomas Carlyle, in his Past and Present, 
 says : " The condition of England, on which many 
 pamphlets are now in course of publication, and many 
 thoughts unpublished are going on in every reflective 
 head, is justly regarded as one of the most ominous, 
 and withal one of the strangest, ever seen in this 
 world. England is full of wealth, of multifarious 
 produce, supply for human want in every kind ; yet 
 England is dying of inanition." Speaking of her 
 fifteen million workers, he continues : " Some two 
 millions, it is now counted, sit in workhouses, poor- 
 law prisons ; or have ' out-door relief ' flung over 
 the wall to them the workhouse Bastille being 
 filled to bursting, and the strong poor-law broken 
 asunder by a stronger. They sit there, these 
 many months now ; their hope of deliverance as yet 
 small." 
 
 The discovery of gold in Australia in 1851 caused
 
 DESIRE TO EMIGRATE 83 
 
 a sudden rush thitherward from nearly all parts of the 
 Old World, but especially from Britain, and was not 
 without its influence on the colliery villages of Durham 
 and Northumberland, Indeed, it created in them a 
 great excitement. The gold fever became an 
 epidemic. Large numbers of miners emigrated, and 
 several met with singular success. The reports sent 
 home to Haswell by some of these men awakened in 
 many minds a desire to share their good fortune ; and 
 among those so influenced were Peter Mackenzie and 
 his two friends, George and William Phalp. 
 
 Mackenzie was the only one of the three men who 
 was married, though the other two were on the verge 
 of being so. All three had fully decided to leave the 
 country, and try their fortune in the colony of 
 Victoria. They proposed to go as Government-assisted 
 emigrants. The necessary papers had been obtained, 
 and properly completed, with the exception of the 
 rector's signature, whose place it was to testify to the 
 respectability of their character. To obtain this 
 signature, the three friends wended their way to the 
 rectory at Easington, a distance of about two miles. 
 On examining the papers, the clergyman discovered 
 that they were all made out for married men. In 
 reply to his inquiries, the two bachelor brothers 
 stated that they were on the eve of marriage, that, 
 indeed, their names had already been entered at the 
 registrar's office. The rector waxed very indignant. 
 What ! they were about to be married away from the 
 church, and yet they had the effrontery to come to 
 ask him to certify to their good conduct ! It was 
 monstrous ! In vain did Mackenzie plead for his 
 friends, urging that all the young folk desired and had
 
 84 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 intended was to be married quietly, and that, but for 
 the greater publicity of it, they would be quite content 
 to have the ceremony performed at the old church. 
 His words were as rain upon rock. Ecclesiastical 
 dignity was affronted. They had declared themselves 
 to be Dissenters, and whatever was said after that 
 only added to their offence. Mackenzie waxed elo- 
 quent, but the angry rector snatched up their papers, 
 flung them indignantly back to them, flatly refused 
 to append his name, and ordered them to leave the 
 house. 
 
 This unlooked-for rejection ended for the present 
 their emigration projects. Without the consciousness 
 of what was involved in his action, the offended 
 clergyman had rendered Methodism a signal service. 
 Instead of helping him to become a digger of gold 
 abroad, he had unwittingly aided in keeping Peter 
 Mackenzie to dig in richer mines for nobler treasure 
 at home. 
 
 About two years afterwards, a second endeavour on 
 the part of the three friends to go out, this time at 
 their own cost, was thwarted by the illness of one of 
 them. William Phalp eventually sailed for Australia, 
 where he did well, and still remains. His friend 
 Mackenzie was exceedingly anxious to accompany 
 him, but was prevented through lack of means. 
 
 Frustrated in his attempts to go abroad, he con- 
 tinued to labour with intense earnestness, and, as we 
 have seen, with most gratifying success, at home. His 
 library increased, his knowledge widened, his thinking 
 attained greater order and strength, and every week 
 made it growingly evident that preaching, not mining, 
 the winning of souls from evil, rather than the
 
 A RUN FOR LIFE 85 
 
 winning of coal from the ground, was to be his 
 vocation. 
 
 Meanwhile, though his spiritual life was so vigorous, 
 and his efforts to save and strengthen others so 
 successful, he was still made to feel at times that he 
 had not yet passed beyond the possibility of returning 
 to the old ways. More than once did he relate in 
 the love-feast an exposure to spiritual peril about this 
 period that almost wrecked him. He had been speak- 
 ing at a meeting somewhere beyond Durham, and was 
 on his way home. It had been hiring day, there were 
 numbers of farm lads and lasses in the city, and at 
 one public-house which he had to pass, a dance was 
 in full swing. The fiddlers were waking merry strains, 
 and the shouts and laughter of the revellers could be 
 plainly heard. For a few moments Mackenzie stood 
 and listened. As he did so, there swept through his 
 veins a passionate longing for a draught of the old 
 delights. The rhythm of dance and music seized his 
 limbs, and he all but rushed inside to join the rollick- 
 ing throng. The struggle was of brief duration, but 
 his whole future seemed at that moment to tremble 
 in the balance. Suddenly the sight of Bunyan's pilgrim 
 fleeing from the City of Destruction flashed through 
 his mind, and, thrusting his fingers into his ears, he 
 ran from the place, crying, " Life ! life ! eternal life ! " 
 
 So was he preserved by the grace of God from 
 having such writing placed against his name as is 
 recorded of another : " Demas hath forsaken me, 
 having loved this present evil world." 
 
 The next chapter describes Mackenzie's removal 
 to the Bishop Auckland circuit, but the following 
 testimony from the Rev. E. Dodds shows us that he
 
 86 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 was already no stranger there, and also furnishes 
 interesting glimpses of his pulpit style : 
 
 The little village of Escomb had the honour of introducing 
 Mr. Mackenzie to the Bishop Auckland circuit. His fame as a 
 popular preacher, who filled the chapels wherever appointed in 
 the Durham circuit, reached there through a friend, a relative of 
 my own, from Haswell, where Mr. Mackenzie then resided. 
 This report issued in an invitation to preach anniversary 
 sermons at Escomb. He arrived on the Saturday evening, and, 
 according to announcement, preached that night. The text was 
 Job xxxiii. 27-28 : " He looketh upon men, and if any say, I have 
 sinned, and perverted that which was right, and it profited me 
 not ; he will deliver his soul from going into the pit, and his 
 life shall see the light." On the Sunday the little chapel was 
 crowded with friends from far and near. The evening text 
 was Prov. ix. 12: "If thou be wise, thou shalt be wise 
 for thyself : but if thou scornest, thou alone shalt bear it." 
 These sermons, though by no means equal to many which 
 followed, yet indicated very unmistakably the natural power 
 which was soon to develop so gloriously and usefully in 
 the pulpit. 
 
 He was blessed with a retentive memory, and a rare gift of 
 imagination. His illustrations were graphic. Speaking of the 
 impotence of all attacks against the truth of God, he said, " Ye 
 might as well try to knock down Durham Cathedral with a pop- 
 gun" ; and of the vision of God to those who pray "The saint 
 upon his knees can see farther than the tip-toed philosopher 
 through Rosse's telescope." Again, of the might of angels " One 
 of them could take this globe of ours in the hollow of his hand, 
 and skew it into the wilds of immensity, where neither man nor 
 devil could ever find it any more." He had wit and pathos, and 
 a natural eloquence which ministered very greatly to the effective- 
 ness of his preaching. His choice of topics and texts was very 
 varied, and sameness could never be laid to his charge. He was 
 fond of Bunyan and some of the poets, and would sometimes 
 quote Pollok by the page in the pulpit. Those who heard him in 
 those days, can scarcely have forgotten his terrible sermon on Job 
 xxxvi. 18 : " Because there is wrath, beware lest He take thee 
 away with His stroke : then a great ransom cannot deliver thee."
 
 GRAPHIC ILLUSTRATIONS 87 
 
 His earnest reiteration of the word Beware ! was very telling. 
 It should be remembered that this was before the Eevised 
 Version had furnished a somewhat different reading of the 
 passage. Despite eccentricities of manner and quaintness of 
 utterance which did not suit all tastes, his preaching was 
 exceedingly popular and useful.
 
 CHAPTEE X 
 
 BISHOP AUCKLAND AND REGIONS BEYOND 
 
 1854-1858 
 
 Bishop Auckland Kemoval from Haswell Letters to Mr. P. 
 Cooper Engagement as Circuit Missionary Mr. Thomas 
 Greener's Becollections Visit to London and Use made of 
 it Variety in His Preaching Testimony of Rev. Thomas 
 M'Cullagh Plums for his Cake Progress of Bishop Auck- 
 land Circuit his Text-Book Brief Extracts Good Work 
 at Coundon and Crook Visits to Ramshaw and Lanchester. 
 
 THE town of Bishop Auckland possesses " few if 
 any attractions," says a local Methodist historian, 
 " but its surroundings are acknowledged to be both 
 beautiful and picturesque. It is situated nearly in 
 the centre of the county of Durham, standing on an 
 elevation surrounded by other hills still higher : is 
 bounded on the north and west by the river Wear, 
 and on the south-east by the river Gaunless. In its 
 precincts is a very fine park, adjoining the main 
 entrance of which stands a venerable castle, for many 
 centuries the residence of the Bishops of Durham." 
 
 At the September Quarterly Meeting, 1854, of 
 this Bishop Auckland circuit, the following resolution 
 was adopted : " That a committee be appointed to 
 arrange for the employment of Peter Mackenzie, as
 
 CIRC UIT MISSION A RY 89 
 
 follows : the two circuit ministers, the two circuit 
 stewards, and a representative from every place in 
 the circuit." Again, in March 1855, it was agreed 
 " That Peter Mackenzie be engaged as Circuit Mis- 
 sionary, on the same terms and under the same 
 regulations as before." The circuit at the time when 
 Peter Mackenzie made its acquaintance was large and 
 laborious, comprising within its boundaries, besides 
 Bishop Auckland itself, some twenty-one villages, 
 chiefly occupied by colliers and ironworkers. 
 
 It was not as Circuit Missionary that Mackenzie 
 went to Bishop Auckland in the first instance. While 
 resident at Haswell, the continuous demands made 
 upon him for evangelistic services made it very 
 difficult for him to attend to his ordinary occupation. 
 After a while, Mr. Philip Cooper, the under-manager 
 at the colliery, kindly took him from the hard toil of 
 hewing, and gave him employment not only lighter, 
 but of such a nature as made it easier to arrange for 
 his frequent absences. Other privileges, such as 
 house and coals, were also allowed him, although his 
 work in the pit grew increasingly irregular. In the 
 year 1854, Mr. Cooper removed to the Black Boy 
 Colliery, in the Bishop Auckland circuit, and, owing 
 to his kindness and consideration, Mackenzie was 
 induced to follow, and obtained employment under 
 him at the same place. His own autobiographical 
 record, after speaking of his becoming a local preacher 
 at Haswell, is 
 
 " Two or three years after went to the Bishop Auckland circuit. 
 Preached and worked at the Black Boy for six months under P. 
 Cooper. Was employed by the Auckland friends for some four 
 years. Saw three or four hundred brought in."
 
 go LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 Through Mr. E. P. Phalp, Mrs. Balderstone of 
 Castle Eden has kindly favoured me with two letters 
 written by Mackenzie to her father, Mr. P. Cooper, 
 about this time. Mr. Cooper, himself a member of 
 the Wesleyan Church, had evidently written Mac- 
 kenzie about special services. The following is an 
 extract from his reply : 
 
 TO ME. P. COOPER. 
 
 HASWBLL, April 18, 1854. 
 
 DEAR SIR, Yours came to hand to-day, and I was glad to 
 hear that all were well. Thank God for His goodness. We are 
 doing nicely here too. . . . Matthew Child had his leg broken 
 to-day ; he lives next door to me. Burne's son was killed on 
 the waggon-way last Thursday, and my place came down to-day 
 [the place in which he worked], but I got out. Dangers stand 
 thick through all the ground to push us to the tomb. Lord, help 
 us to number our days, and apply our hearts unto wisdom. God 
 willing, I will be with you on Saturday, and I have no objection 
 to preach Christ to the people. Such as I have I will give unto 
 them, balm or brimstone, or both, if the Lord please. We had 
 a good time at Pelton Fell on F. and S. Good companies, good 
 influence, and souls saved. Hallelujah ! 
 
 The next letter, in which he speaks of giving notice 
 to leave his present employment, would seem to in- 
 dicate that Mr. Cooper had engaged him for Black 
 Boy Colliery during the visit referred to above, and 
 that his removal was only a question of a few weeks. 
 
 TO ME. P. COOPEE. 
 
 HASWELL, April 26, 1854. 
 
 DEAR SIR, I got safe landed in Haswell again on Monday 
 night, and found them all well, praise the Lord ! We had a very 
 good day at Byer's Green [a village in the Bishop Auckland 
 circuit]. Several were awakened. May the Sun of Righteous- 
 ness ripen them for glory. A great many friends have been
 
 WORK CONCENTRATED 91 
 
 inquiring for you since I came back. Our pit has been off to- 
 day. I preached in our chapel last night. Good company. I 
 have not given in my notice yet. I should like to see the new 
 plan. I hope that you are all well. May the blessing that 
 maketh rich and addeth no sorrow, and the peace that passeth 
 all understanding, and the presence of Him who dwelt in the 
 bush be your portion for ever. Amen. 
 
 PETER MACKENZIE. 
 
 After living for about six months at Black Boy, 
 Mackenzie removed to the large colliery village of 
 Coundon, a few miles distant ; where he lived when it 
 was arranged that he should undertake the duties of 
 Circuit Missionary. By this arrangement greater 
 steadiness and concentration were imparted to his 
 labours as an evangelist. Efforts that up to the 
 present had been to a large extent desultory were 
 brought within a more defined compass, focussed on a 
 more limited area, with hope of more specific and 
 abiding result. He became an auxiliary of the circuit 
 staff, without the status and responsibility of a 
 minister. But, though more regular in its character, 
 his work was still mainly that of an evangelist : hold- 
 ing special services for a week or ten days at the 
 various places in the circuit and also beyond its 
 boundaries. 
 
 Mr. Thomas Greener of London, then resident in 
 the circuit, has kindly furnished me with some in- 
 teresting recollections of this period. He writes : 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie's movements were at that time directed by a 
 committee, of which I acted as secretary. Previous to this, his 
 services were in great demand, applications reaching him from 
 many quarters farther north, where he was well known. Always 
 willing to oblige, he sometimes made arrangements that required 
 almost superhuman efforts to carry them out. I remember, on
 
 92 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 one occasion lie preached at Escomb on the Sunday morning at 
 ten o'clock. After the service, he partook of some hasty refresh- 
 ment, and, mounting a horse, which had been lent him for the 
 occasion, he rode off at full speed for Chester-le-Street, in the 
 Durham circuit, a distance of about twenty miles, where he was 
 due to preach in the afternoon. From there he had to return for 
 the evening service at Coundon, and was obliged to go to his 
 work in the pit at a very early hour on the Monday morning. 
 
 It was under such circumstances that a committee was formed 
 to free him from work in the mine, and to enable him to devote 
 his whole time and strength to his evangelistic labours. The 
 committee appointed a treasurer, to whom all moneys due from 
 the places at which he laboured should be paid ; he, in return, 
 having to defray the stipend and other expenses of the evangelist. 
 As secretary I had to reply to all applications for his services, 
 and soon found the duties to be very onerous, having often as 
 many as twenty letters in a day, not only from places in our own 
 circuit, but from other circuits far and near. These I had to 
 tabulate in readiness for the committee, of which the super- 
 intendent minister was chairman. At the meeting Mr. 
 Mackenzie's work was fixed for three months, and a list of the 
 places handed to him, he always cheerfully carrying out the 
 arrangements. 
 
 In July 1857, Mr. Mackenzie visited London, to carry on re- 
 vival services in connection with Brixton Hill Chapel. This was 
 in fulfilment of an application made by Mrs. Kirsop, then of 
 London, who agreed to pay his expenses, not only for the time 
 employed, but also for an extra week, that he might have the 
 opportunity to see something of London. 
 
 An account of these services has been communicated 
 by Mr. J. Eeed of London, from which one gathers 
 that they were of an exceedingly lively and effective 
 character. 
 
 Mr. Greener continues : 
 
 The visit was very successful so far as the evangelistic work 
 was concerned, and the week's holiday was an immense treat. 
 It was his first sight of London. He went about with eyes and
 
 VISIT TO LONDON 93 
 
 ears open ; nothing seemed to escape him. How refreshing it 
 was to hear him speak of that visit ! One use which he made of 
 what he had seen, I shall never forget. On the first Sunday 
 after his return, I went with him to a large village chapel, filled 
 principally with pitmen and their wives and children. The packed 
 and eager listeners were ready to welcome their old friend. He 
 took for his text " In My Father's house are many mansions." 
 After a very lively introduction, he gave a description of the 
 Crystal Palace, which, for clearness and fulness of detail, I have 
 never heard surpassed ; making the Palace and the surrounding 
 grounds live before the congregation. Then he went on to draw 
 a vivid picture of Solomon's temple, which, if possible, riveted 
 the attention of his audience even more intently. At this point 
 he paused, and said, in a very solemn manner : " Those of us 
 who are loving God with our whole heart, who are serving and 
 honouring our Lord Jesus Christ, and are allowing ourselves to 
 be filled with the Holy Ghost, may look forward with confidence 
 to dwell in a mansion of God's own making, a house not built 
 with hands, eternal in the heavens. Hallelujah ! Won't you 
 keep on preparing to be worthy to live in such a mansion ? I 
 have tried to show you a grand earthly man-built palace, also a 
 temple of world- wide fame for its beauty. Look at them both 
 again ! See them ! Grand as they are, compared with the 
 mansion that Christ is preparing for us in the Father's House, 
 they are just like back pantries. 
 
 You can imagine the effect on such an audience. Speaking 
 for myself, I can never forget it. Only Mr. Mackenzie could 
 have produced such an effect. 
 
 My acquaintance with Mr. Mackenzie began when he first 
 came into the Bishop Auckland circuit. He was invited to hold 
 three weeks' services at Toft Hill, now Etherley ; and stayed 
 in my house during that time. He spent a certain portion of 
 each day in visiting the families in the village, and preached 
 every evening except Saturday. I attended all the services, and 
 was very much struck with the variety of expression and phrase 
 in those eighteen sermons. I did not detect any repetition. 
 New thoughts and fresh illustrations were found in every 
 discourse. 
 
 Many men, women, and children, during his four years' con- 
 nection with the Bishop Auckland circuit, were brought into
 
 94 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 membership with the various societies. I know that the sub- 
 sequent effect upon the character and action of large numbers 
 was such as affords the best evidence for Christianity that of 
 turning men from darkness to light, from the power of Satan 
 unto God. If Mr. Mackenzie had finished his course at the end 
 of those four years, he would have lived to do a great work, and 
 would have done it well. 
 
 To this testimony of Mr. Greener may be added 
 very fittingly that of the Eev. Thomas M'Cullagh, 
 second minister in the circuit when Mackenzie came 
 into it, and who has written thus : 
 
 He soon became remarkably popular, especially amongst the 
 colliers and ironworkers about Bishop Auckland, with its 
 episcopal castle and picturesque park. His labours were 
 attended with great success. The plainness of his language, 
 the adaptability of his illustrations to his collier congregations, 
 the directness of his aim, and the unction of the Holy One 
 brought home the word with power, and numerous conversions 
 were the result. In prayer-meetings he agonised in oft-repeated 
 prayers, body and soul. When with him on such occasions, 1 
 have seen vapour rising through his coat from the sweltering 
 perspirations of the strong, well-knit frame beneath. I was so 
 struck with his originality, wit, raciness, shrewdness, and withal 
 simplicity and artlessness, that he soon won my admiration and 
 affection. I found him athirst for knowledge, and teachable. 
 
 One day, in my study, he looked through a small volume of 
 sermons by James Parsons of York, while I was writing a 
 letter. Addressing me, he asked if I would lend him the book. 
 I replied, " I will make you a present of it, if you will honestly 
 confess for what purpose you want it." 
 
 " I want it," said he, " to get some plums for my cake." 
 
 There are few circuits in Methodism that have 
 made such rapid strides, materially and spiritually, 
 during the last forty years, as that of Bishop Auck- 
 land. Where, in Mackenzie's days, there was but 
 one circuit, with only two ministers, there are now
 
 GRATIFYING PROGRESS 
 
 95 
 
 four Crook, Spennymoor, and the Shildons having 
 since then gained an independent existence ; while the 
 ministerial staff has increased from two to nine. 
 How much of this gratifying progress is to be at- 
 tributed to the spiritual impetus imparted by 
 Mackenzie's labours it is impossible to say ; but there 
 can be no doubt that his enthusiastic fervour and 
 
 MACKENZIE AT THIRTY. 
 
 intense devotion gave to the work an onward push, 
 of which it still reaps the benefit. 
 
 The committee under whose direction Mackenzie 
 laboured did not, as we have seen, confine his labours 
 within the boundaries of their own circuit. In re- 
 sponse to numerous appeals, he was permitted to give 
 at regular intervals a week or a fortnight to places at 
 a distance. In this way the benefit of his services 
 was extended to the Wolsingham, the Durham, the
 
 96 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 Shotley Bridge, the Stokesley, the Barnard Castle, and 
 other neighbouring circuits. 
 
 I have before me a manuscript volume, on the first 
 page of which is inscribed, in Mackenzie's own hand- 
 writing, the words " Text Book. P. Mackenzie." 
 Underneath this is written by his second daughter, 
 who for years acted as his secretary, the words 
 " Dora Mackenzie. Given to me by father when he 
 is done with it. May it be many a year yet ! 1889." 
 
 How many hearts echo alas, that it should be in 
 vain ! that simple, tender-hearted, pathetic little 
 wish ! 
 
 The entries in this well-fingered little register, 
 extending from 1856 to 1886, are of the briefest 
 description ; the records of a man too much engrossed 
 in the action of life to stop to bestow upon it 
 anything but the briefest comment and criticism. 
 Brief as they are, however, comprising in most cases 
 little more than the place, the date, the text, and 
 about three words characterising the service, it is 
 impossible to turn over the pages and scan the 
 hasty jottings without feeling how deep and impas- 
 sioned was the devotion of the man who made them, 
 what longing for the salvation of men blazed quench- 
 less in his soul. Here are a few of the comments 
 on the work of those earlier years, taken almost at 
 random. 
 
 Very gracious move, thank God 1 
 
 Heavenly feeling. 
 
 Glory to God ! some seeking 
 
 Many seeking. 
 
 The Spirit's work. 
 
 Souls saved. 
 
 The Divine influence powerful.
 
 FER VENT EJA CULA TIONS 97 
 
 Lord save them 1 
 
 Good time. Glory 1 
 
 He will save souls. 
 
 The Lord is working. 
 
 A mighty coming. 
 
 A glorious shower. 
 
 Lord, save them by hundreds ! 
 
 What copious and glowing pages these fervent 
 ejaculations would enlarge into, could we place them 
 in their full and proper setting of circumstances and 
 emotion ; could we background them with the rich 
 colouring of experience, and feeling, and incident, of 
 which they are but the disjointed patches. Meagre 
 scrawls and splashes as they are, imagination can 
 spread them out and fill them in, can behold them 
 grow into a space marked out for war, a field of battle 
 crowded with contending hosts, waging deadly combat, 
 and can see in the midst of the conflict a strong form 
 moving to and fro, flaming with zeal for God and love 
 for man ; now pleading for the intervention of Heaven, 
 now smiting heavily the face of wrong, now cheer- 
 ing the faint-hearted, now kneeling tenderly by the 
 wounded and comforting the mourner, now venting 
 great shouts of triumph ; never tiring, never pausing, 
 eager as a flame, impetuous as a cataract, resolute as 
 fate, strong as one whose power is that of the Spirit 
 of the living God. 
 
 At Coundon, where he resided, the Society greatly 
 increased, and similarly pleasing effects were wrought 
 in many others of the colliery villages. At Crook, 
 now the head of a circuit, a very gracious work of 
 God was developed and fostered ; many of the present 
 office-bearers, including the circuit steward, being men 
 who decided for Christ at that time. Mr. James 
 
 7
 
 98 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 Elliott of Howdon-le-Wear informs me that it was 
 the late Mr. John Kellett of Crook, brother to the 
 Eev. Featherstone Kellett, who, impressed with Mac- 
 kenzie's great fitness for such work, was one of those 
 mainly instrumental in bringing about his employ- 
 ment as Circuit Missionary. 
 
 The Eev. William Lees, speaking of occasional 
 services at this time in the Shotley Bridge circuit, 
 describes Mackenzie's preaching as most impressive and 
 original ; and a writer in the Methodist Recorder says : 
 " The respect in which he was held in the remotest 
 villages was simply phenomenal, and anything that 
 Peter as he was familiarly called either said or 
 did was considered next to sacred. Whilst conduct- 
 ing a successful revival mission at the village of 
 Ramshaw, at the western extremity of the present 
 Shotley Bridge and Consett circuit, the ceiling of the 
 chapel being low, he raised his fist too high, and left 
 an indentation in the roof. Because Peter had made 
 it, it had to remain as a memento of his visit and 
 work there, and for more than thirty years, to the 
 writer's knowledge, it was referred to with pride both 
 by the preachers and people." 
 
 At Lanchester, in the same circuit, he held services 
 for a week in 1857, and for a second week in the 
 October of the same year. His own record of them 
 is that there was a " mighty feeling," and that souls 
 were saved, and this is amply borne out by the 
 testimony of Mr. Eobert Eobinson, who describes 
 them from personal recollection. There appears to 
 have been great excitement, accompanied by physical 
 manifestations, somewhat similar to those witnessed 
 in Wesley's day. His preaching, as described by Mr,
 
 ABIDING RESULTS 99 
 
 Eobinson, was of an awakening character, intensely 
 earnest, and accompanied with great spiritual power ; 
 but in the prayer-meeting after the service, he never 
 used pressure to bring people to decision, nor would 
 he allow it to be used by others. Observing an over- 
 zealous brother so engaged, he called out at the top 
 
 of his voice, " Don't force them, Brother ! Don't 
 
 force them ! " 
 
 About fifty conversions were the result of these 
 services, and it is pleasing to have Mr. Robinson's 
 testimony to the fact that, though nearly forty years 
 have passed, yet, if we include those who during that 
 time have died in the faith of Christ, about eighty 
 per cent, of the awakened have maintained the spiritual 
 life then kindled within them. 
 
 During the month of April 1857, and also part 
 of May, Mackenzie appears to have taken his turn, 
 Sunday and week-night, with the ministers at each of 
 the places. in the circuit; and on May 19th we have 
 the following characteristic entry in his Text-Book : 
 
 The commencement of my regular work again. Lord help 
 me ! My soul shall live for Thee alone. make me a man after 
 Thine own heart ! Stand by me, and according to the ability 
 that Thou hast given me, I will declare Thy will. I am Thine 
 for ever ; I feel it. Glory be to Thee for ever and ever, world 
 without end. Hallelujah to God and the Lamb 1 
 
 So burned and was cherished in the quiet of his 
 own chamber the fire that was carried forth and 
 kindled to such high issues in others.
 
 CHAPTEE XI 
 
 PROPOSED FOE THE MINISTKY 1858 
 
 Last Year in Bishop Auckland Shall he enter the Ministry ? 
 Fervour and Consecration The District Synod Recollec- 
 tions of the Rev. H. Mole Scene at Family Prayer Trial 
 Sermon Call to Preach Right Use of Scripture Before 
 the July Committee Rev. T. M'Cullagh's Story His 
 Manuscript Sermon Exuberant Thanks Desire for a 
 Prayer-Meeting Accepted by the Conference. 
 
 DURING the last of his four years' residence in the 
 Bishop Auckland circuit, Mackenzie was less 
 employed in special services, and filled what was 
 practically the position of third minister ; and at the 
 Quarterly Meeting in March 1858, he was "unani- 
 mously recommended to the Conference as a fit and 
 proper person to be received iato the Wesleyan 
 ministry." 
 
 In the course of this semi-ministerial year, he had 
 occasionally to attend to the collection of moneys for 
 the superintendent, which to him was a new ex- 
 perience, and, speaking of the many things which 
 claimed the care and attention of the ministers in 
 addition to pulpit duties, he exclaimed, " I wonder 
 their sermons are not as dry as a stick." 
 
 In his History of Methodism in the Bishop Auckland 
 
 Circuit, Mr. Matthew Braithwaite observes : 
 
 100
 
 A MARRIED CANDIDATE 101 
 
 " Such was the demand for his labours, it soon 
 became evident that his future life would have to be 
 spent in the work of proclaiming the gospel, and 
 whilst some thought he should go into the ministry, 
 others were of opinion that he should continue as a 
 lay evangelist. His being married increased the 
 difficulty of his getting into the ministry, and the 
 inquiry was made whether he could not be engaged 
 by the Conference as a lay agent. This, however, 
 could not be done, as there was no provision for such 
 a class of workers in the Connexion at that time, and 
 after much deliberation it was resolved that he should 
 be recommended as a candidate for the ministry. The 
 step was taken with some degree of hesitation, as it 
 was contrary to the rules of Methodism to admit 
 married men into the ranks of the ministry. No doubt 
 his great usefulness in the position of a lay evangelist, 
 and the urgency of those who believed the ministry 
 was his right place, led the Conference to make special 
 arrangements whereby he could be received, and it 
 certainly has never had occasion to regret that 
 Mr. Mackenzie was one of the several candidates 
 the Bishop Auckland circuit recommended to its 
 notice." 
 
 Among those " who believed that the ministry was 
 his right place," the late Eev. Richard Brown, then 
 superintendent of the circuit, was fortunately included. 
 He was a scholarly man, logical and lawyer-like in 
 the cast of his mind, not at all likely to be much 
 in sympathy with the type of mental development 
 represented by Mackenzie ; yet he took up his case 
 with great zeal, and argued and pushed it with great 
 pertinacity and with ultimate success, and often ex-
 
 102 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 pressed his deep conviction that he was rendering the 
 Connexion good service by so doing. 
 
 The intense fervour of Mackenzie's own inner life 
 at the time may be gathered from a record in his Text- 
 Book : 
 
 Coundon, March StZnd, 1858. I received the seal of God's 
 sanctifying power while reading Mrs. Palmer's Faith and its 
 Effects, pages 111 and 112. Glory to God and the Lamb for ever ! 
 
 Thou from sin dost save me now, 
 Thou wilt save me evermore. 
 
 I do believe, and I do possess the land of rest from inbred sin, 
 the land of perfect holiness. Glory ! Glory ! Glory ! 
 
 The May District Synod was held that year at 
 Barnard Castle, and through the kindness of the 
 Eevs. W. Fern, K. H. Mole, and E. Dodds, all of whom 
 were present, we are enabled to gather a fairly com- 
 plete impression of the proceedings. 
 
 Mr. Mole writes : 
 
 I am thinking of the past, of the memories that come with 
 vividness and cheer ; my first District Meeting at Barnard 
 Castle, in the year 1858 ; my home at Mr. John Steele's. There 
 were three candidates for the ministry that year ; one of them, 
 Peter Mackenzie, stayed with me. His remarkable and eccentric 
 character was a continuous study for three days. I could not 
 decide whether to admire or disapprove his sayings and doings. 
 I felt tossed about, unable to understand this brother, so 
 vivacious and energetic. One morning, at family prayers, when 
 he was supplicating for a blessing on the District Meeting, the 
 homes, and the church generally, such a manifestation of the 
 Father's presence was given as thrilled our souls and bowed our 
 spirits. There was weeping all around. Then, suddenly, 
 thinking of Barnard Castle, he broke forth : "0 Lord, Thou 
 knowest the wants of this town. There are hundreds who never 
 darken the door of the chapel, who are off to the bar-room, 
 drinking and swearing and taking Thy name in vain. hasten
 
 CALL TO PREACH 103 
 
 the time when they shall come to Thee ; when every publican's 
 tap shall be stopped, when atheism shall have the ague, and 
 infidelity turn blue." 
 
 Mr. Dodds, himself one of the candidates, says : 
 
 On Wednesday, May 19, he preached his trial sermon, at five 
 o'clock in the evening, in the schoolroom, when a large number 
 of the ministers attended. The text was 2 Cor. viii. 9 : " For ye 
 know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ," etc. There was 
 warmth and zeal and power in the service. The peculiarity of 
 the hour and place of the service was doubtless owing to the fact 
 that there were three candidates who had to deliver trial 
 sermons. I had preached that morning at six o'clock, and the 
 other brother had to preach the next morning at the same hour, 
 while the Rev. Richard Brown occupied the pulpit in the chapel 
 that evening. 
 
 Concerning the theological examination, Mr. Mole 
 says : 
 
 Then came the Thursday morning, when the candidates were 
 to present themselves. Two came in quietly and decorously. 
 Dear Peter, in his own inimitable way, I can never forget it, 
 fell down on his knees, with uplifted hands, in silent prayer. 
 Then he stood before us. There were old men there that day, 
 men who had not shed a tear for many a year, stolid, thoughtful, 
 and perhaps prejudiced ; cultured men were there, refined in 
 taste and habit, the very acme of propriety ; young hearts were 
 there, ready for the fray : but, concerning this man, filled with 
 indescribable bewilderment. What would he prove to be ? 
 
 Two of the young men had spoken, and now Peter gave an 
 account of his conversion. But the call to preach what of 
 that ? He told us that he could not believe it at first. He flew 
 to prayer, and having, in a weak moment, promised some friends 
 to go with them to a country appointment, he heard them asking 
 for him below, while he was on his knees. Then, he said, he did 
 what he would not recommend others to do he opened his Bible, 
 shut his eyes, placed his finger on a passage, pleading all the 
 while for guidance, and then, opening his eyes, read : " While 
 Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold,
 
 104 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 three men seek thee. Arise, therefore, and get thee down, and 
 go with them, doubting nothing ; for I have sent them." 
 
 The unction and thrill of that moment can never be told. 
 There was a silence electric in its power. I think, when it came 
 to the vote, every hand was raised in his favour. None dared to 
 say no. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie preached again on the Friday evening from 
 " This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation," etc. 
 This was a different deliverance from the trial sermon, an 
 evangelistic outburst, followed by a prayer-meeting, in which, 
 now on the forms beseeching the people to come to Christ, and 
 then on his knees praying, he sought with all earnestness to save 
 some. 
 
 We had a walk to Kokeby, and having to shelter from the 
 rain in a neighbouring house, Peter began to speak of Christ to 
 the inmates, and then, outside, recited poetry "by the yard," 
 and amongst other pieces, "Morn among the Mountains," in 
 his dramatic, unequalled manner. 
 
 It will be observed that there is a slight dis- 
 crepancy between the account of Mackenzie's first 
 attempt to preach as related here, and that given on 
 the authority of Mr. William Phalp in a previous 
 chapter. This is hardly surprising after the lapse of 
 so many years. The point has been thoroughly sifted, 
 and Mr. Phalp's account may be taken as substantially 
 accurate. It is possible that Mr. Phalp not only 
 asked Mackenzie to preach when on the way to 
 Sherburn Hill, but may have called at his house and 
 said something to him on the subject before starting. 
 Mr. R. J. Phalp, writing me on the point, says : 
 
 " The two men Mr. Mackenzie refers to may have 
 been Nathan Macree and my uncle, William Phalp. 
 My father describes Macree as a simple-hearted man, 
 an enthusiast in his way, and says that there is 
 nothing more likely than that he may have asked Mr.
 
 MISGIVINGS AND FEARS 105 
 
 Mackenzie to preach unknown to my uncle, and that 
 both may have afterwards called at Mr. Mackenzie's 
 house. The three were inseparable companions. 
 Macree died a few years ago, or might have cleared 
 up the point." 
 
 There is another alternative available to those 
 whose minds are yet unsatisfied. The service referred 
 to by Mackenzie at the District Meeting, and subse- 
 quently at the Conference, may have been one of a 
 later date. In spite of his successful attempt at 
 Sherburn Hill, he still had serious misgivings, and 
 considerable pressure had to be employed to ensure 
 his continuance in the work ; his fear being that he 
 would not be able to sustain the demands it would 
 make upon him. The existence of this timidity and 
 reluctance at the commencement is confirmed by a 
 letter from Mr. Thomas Elliott of Swalwell, who says : 
 
 " My first meeting with him was soon after he began 
 to preach. I preached Sunday school sermons at 
 Haswell, and it was decided to follow these up by 
 special services, for which I remained. Mr. Mackenzie 
 took one of the services during the week, his text 
 being, ' Wilt thou be made whole ? ' At the end of 
 his first division, he wished to close, but as I sat 
 behind him in the pulpit, I held him between my 
 knees, and compelled him to conclude a discourse 
 which had a remarkable effect." 
 
 Let us hope that the guidance afforded to Mackenzie 
 by the passage of Scripture on which his finger 
 rested, marvellous as it was, will not encourage others 
 to use their Bibles in a similar manner. Such a 
 method of arriving at a decision seems to have struck 
 even the raw young convert as somewhat dubious.
 
 io6 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 It was not the course he would have pursued in 
 later life, and even at the District Meeting, he 
 hesitated to recommend it to others. Enlightened 
 views of what the Scriptures are, and of how 
 their teaching is to be utilised, will lead us to 
 drink in of their spirit rather than to lean upon the 
 letter. 
 
 An incident, occurring in my own experience, has 
 so appropriate a bearing on the point, that I may 
 claim indulgence for recounting it here. I was meet- 
 ing a class for the renewal of tickets one evening, 
 and the subject conversed upon was the right use 
 of Scripture. A young man, recently arrived in the 
 town, said : " Before coming here, I lived in the south, 
 and was uncertain whether I should remove. I 
 prayed about it, and resolved to be guided by the 
 words that met my eye on opening the Bible. The 
 words were these To the north. So I had no further 
 doubt, but came at once." A good woman spoke 
 next, and said : " Our young brother goes to his Bible 
 for signs. I did so years ago, but was rebuked. I 
 had received a great blessing, but could not accept 
 it as a reality, so I prayed earnestly for assurance, 
 and said in my prayer that I would take the first 
 words my eye fell upon in the Bible as an answer. 
 I did so, and the words were ' An evil and adulterous 
 generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall be 
 no sign given them.' I read the words, and have 
 never gone to my Bible for a sign since." 
 
 Having been accepted by the District Synod, 
 Mackenzie's next ordeal was an examination in 
 London before the July Committee. The Eev. 
 Thomas M'Cullagh gives interesting details of this
 
 THE MANUSCRIPT SERMON 107 
 
 portion of his career in an article in the Church 
 Record: 
 
 This examination in those days, 1858, lasted nearly a week. 
 He sat first for his paper examination in Greek, Latin, French, 
 English, mathematics, algebra, arithmetic, history, geography, 
 etc. This was called the literary paper, after which came the 
 theology paper. At the close he hastened to my house. 
 
 "Well, Peter," I asked, "how have you got on with your 
 papers ? " 
 
 " Oh," he replied, " that literary paper ! She was hard ! I 
 couldn't get in my pick at all ; but when I got to the theology 
 paper, I was able to hew a bit." 
 
 Knowing that some candidates found rejection a greater trial 
 than they could well bear, I said to him 
 
 " Now, Peter, you must not make too sure of passing ; your 
 case is peculiar : you are thirty-four years of age, which is several 
 years beyond the age at which candidates are received ; you 
 have a wife and three children, and the Conference very seldom 
 accepts a married candidate." 
 
 "I am not making sure, Mr. M'Cullagh." 
 
 " What will you do if you are rejected ? " I asked. 
 
 " I will go back to Bishop Auckland," he replied, " shouting 
 Glory!" 
 
 I thought to myself, This man has in him the stuff of which 
 saints and heroes are made. I went to the oral examination of 
 the candidates, as a member of the committee, the only one of 
 a large committee who knew Mr. Mackenzie personally. A 
 small sub - committee reported, as usual, on the manuscript 
 sermons of the candidates. The late John W. Greeves, when 
 reporting Mr. Mackenzie's sermon, asked permission to read a 
 few passages from the sermon itself. The paragraphs read 
 excited much wonder and admiration by their simple and 
 unborrowed beauty, and even sublimity. This is the only 
 instance in which I have known this to have been done, although 
 I have attended many of these examinations. 
 
 In reference to the manuscript sermon here spoken 
 of by Mr. M'Cullagh, the following interesting
 
 io8 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 particulars have been communicated by S. J. Inglis 
 Smith, Apperley Bridge : 
 
 My father, the late Kobert Inglis, then at Spitalfields, was 
 chairman of the Manuscript Committee for that year. Knowing 
 something of the eccentricity of the candidate, already appreciated 
 as a genius, the queer-looking document was passed. Evidently 
 this was very gratifying to Mr. Mackenzie, for when he heard 
 that he and his sermon had been accepted, he took a cab from 
 Westminster Training College, where the candidates were billeted 
 in those days, and drove to Spital Square. Unusual sounds were 
 heard as a head was thrust out of the window of the cab 
 " Hallelujah ! here we are ! Stop, driver ! glory, glory ! " Then, 
 when he stepped out, there came another shout of " Glory ! 
 Hallelujah ! Where is that blessed man of God 1 I have come 
 to thank him for passing my sermon." When my father 
 appeared, the rough but jubilant and grateful Peter clasped him 
 round, and almost danced for joy. When a little calmer, he 
 was asked how he managed to write it all, not having been 
 accustomed to use a pen. " Well," he answered, " glory to God ! 
 I wrote a bit, and then I prayed a bit, then wrote more, but 
 it was the hardest job I ever did in all my life." Then, with 
 another loud shout of praise, he sprang into the cab, and the 
 last we saw of him was his bright, happy face and waving arms, 
 as he drove back to headquarters. This incident made an 
 impression on all in the manse, and as it gives a glimpse of the 
 goodness and gratitude of this noble man and true gentleman 
 in heart, I am glad to put it on record for the first time. 
 
 Mr. John B. Langler says : 
 
 At the July Examination of candidates for the ministry in 
 1858, Mr. Mackenzie, during an interval, was wandering about 
 the Westminster Training College, in company with the late 
 Kev. James Dixon, and found his way to the top of the octagonal 
 turret which crowns the building. The sight of so many 
 housetops, and the thought of the numbers of people who 
 crowded the slums below, caused Mr. Mackenzie to seize his 
 companion suddenly by the coat collar, and cry, " Down on your 
 knees, brother Dixon ! " while at the same moment he himself
 
 THE JUL Y COMMITTEE 109 
 
 knelt on the leaden roof, and poured out his soul in loud and 
 earnest prayer for the perishing multitudes. Mr. Dixon himself 
 gave me this account of the first prayer-meeting held on the 
 tower of Westminster College, 
 
 The Rev. E. Dodds, who sat with Mackenzie as a 
 candidate at the July examination, says : 
 
 An incident occurred which was for the moment amusing, 
 but quite characteristic. He was not so much at ease in the 
 treatment of the literary paper as with the theological, which 
 remark would apply to others besides himself. The Kev. 
 William Jackson, one of the secretaries of the Examining Com- 
 mittee, walked up the room, and perhaps detecting some per- 
 plexity in his appearance, said, "Well, Peter, how are you 
 getting on 1 " To which Mackenzie promptly replied, " Oh, I 
 should like to turn this into a prayer-meeting, sir." There 
 was a titter through the room, but many, had they spoken their 
 minds as frankly, would have responded Amen 1 
 
 Looking down at his paper, Mr. Jackson said, 
 " Why, Peter, you have not taken the easier questions." 
 " No, sir," he answered ; " I had to get into a softer 
 seam." Mr. Jackson also states that in the committee 
 the Rev. W. M. Bunting would have the manuscript 
 sermon read, and when it was finished, he exclaimed, 
 " Now, you dare not refuse that man." 
 
 The account given by Mr. M'Cullagh goes on to 
 say: 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie got the highest mark for his oral examination, 
 for his theological paper, and for his manuscript sermon. I 
 forget the exact marks he obtained for his District Meeting 
 sermon and his July sermon ; if not the highest, they were 
 certainly high. For his literary paper he received a blank 
 nothing. 
 
 At the Conference of 1858 his case came up for settlement, 
 and there was a considerable debate. I remember that Mr. 
 Arthur pleaded eloquently that he should be accepted for the
 
 I io LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 ministry, and asked what John Wesley would do in a case like 
 this. Would he decline the services of such a man ? 
 
 The Eev. Thomas Kent says : 
 
 It was my privilege to attend the Conference of 1858, which 
 was held in Hull, and of which the Rev. John Bowers was the 
 President. The two things of which I have the most vivid 
 recollection are, first, the remarkable sermon preached by the 
 ex-President, the Rev. Francis A. West, in Waltham Street Chapel, 
 from the words " Be ye filled with the Spirit " ; and, second, the 
 fact that in the list of candidates for the ministry, the name of 
 Peter Mackenzie was included. 
 
 So deep and general was the interest which his case excited, 
 that it occupied the attention of the Conference the greater part 
 of a day. The Rev. William Arthur brought the discussion to a 
 close by stating that he had heard Mr. Mackenzie preach, had 
 also been in his company, and had opportunities of becoming 
 acquainted with his spirit and character ; and, said he, " It is 
 my opinion that if you do not accept Mr. Mackenzie, you will 
 commit a sin against God's providence." This utterance, com- 
 ing from such a man as Mr. Arthur, at once settled the 
 question, and Mr. Mackenzie was placed on the list of accepted 
 candidates for that year. 
 
 He was to be sent to Didsbury College to be trained, 
 and Mr. M'Cullagh relates that a friend of his met 
 Mackenzie on his way thither, and asked him if his 
 wife and children were to reside in the college with 
 him. 
 
 " No," said he ; " they have furnished a little cottage 
 for me all mahogany."
 
 CHAPTEE XII 
 
 THE YEAR AT DIDSBURY 1858-1859 
 
 No Technical Training A-Might- Have-Been Demand for 
 his Services Unspoiled by Popularity Appearance as a 
 Student Asking the Doctor to Pray Rev. A. Barber's 
 Description A Night of "Wrestling Scenes at Grantham 
 Reconsecration Sunday Services Attack on Public- 
 Houses Brief Records A Thousand Seeking. 
 
 ONE of the most remarkable features of Mackenzie's 
 life at college was the little time he spent there. 
 A house was taken for him and his family, but while 
 his residence was nominally at Didsbury, he practically 
 lived elsewhere. In evangelistic work this was really 
 one of the busiest years of his life. 
 
 It soon became evident to the authorities that, for 
 a man at his age and with his temperament and 
 religious enthusiasm, hampered also by the disabilities 
 of the past, to settle down to hard grinding at the 
 elements of a literary and theological education, to 
 say nothing of classics, was scarcely to be expected ; 
 hence they allowed him to give himself at once to the 
 work on which his mind and heart were so fully set. 
 Whether a special course of training might have been 
 
 devised for such a man, the aim of which would have 
 
 m
 
 112 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 been to furnish him with hints and methods for after- 
 study, rather than with the dry details of technical 
 cultivation there and then, is a point on which we 
 have hardly sufficient data to decide. It is difficult 
 for training institutions, in their legitimate anxiety to 
 overtake the wants of the many, to give special and 
 individual attention to cases that manifest a departure 
 from the ordinary type. Still, it is interesting to 
 ponder for a moment what Mackenzie might have 
 become, if it had been possible for that initial year, or 
 a more extended period, to have given him some of 
 those principles and methods in the acquisition and 
 classification of knowledge of which every student 
 knows the value. A Peter Mackenzie chipped and 
 sand-papered into commonplace uniformity would have 
 been a deplorable, if not an impossible spectacle; but 
 a Peter Mackenzie guided by wise and sympathetic 
 training into tracks along which his individuality 
 might have marched with unfettered tread, and yet 
 with even a grander sweep and surer step than that 
 to which it did attain, would not have been an 
 undesirable consummation. 
 
 A writer in the Methodist Recorder says : 
 " It was soon seen, that it would be impossible to 
 get Mr. Mackenzie to groove into college lines. Mr. 
 Bowers, the President, was the very pink of pro- 
 priety, a stickler for decorum, but, having a great 
 admiration for honesty and earnestness, he wisely 
 resolved to follow the indications of Providence. 
 Applications for Mr. Mackenzie's services poured in, 
 and the Governor-President, who was necessarily much 
 away from Didsbury, gave his assistant, the Eev. 
 Charles H. Kelly, full authority to enter into
 
 IN GREA T DEMAND 1 1 3 
 
 engagements for Mr. Mackenzie to preach through the 
 year, irrespective of any college work. This, it is 
 said, entailed on Mr. Kelly the task of answering 
 nearly, if not more than a thousand letters. There 
 were often letters in the teens and up to thirty in a 
 day, asking for Mr. Mackenzie, or remonstrating that 
 he could not be sent he was not sent because a 
 certain law in physics could not be set aside in his 
 case, and one body could not be in two places in the 
 same instant of time. 
 
 " But all this popularity did not spoil him. It did 
 not make him talk of his piety. It did not make him 
 boast ; he never told people that he never preached 
 without conversions, but people knew that he rarely, 
 if ever, did. He retained his simple piety. He was 
 constant in prayer. Wherever he went, he was the 
 same humble, earnest Christian. During all this time 
 he preached with great power. He had the magic 
 witchery of genius. His sermons cost him more than 
 people supposed. He read widely for them, thought 
 much, and prepared carefully. He held congregations 
 under a spell. Their interest was intense. There 
 were times when men who had seen marvellous effects 
 produced by oratory could have said that, whatever 
 they had seen of public excitement was stone and ice 
 to the burning interest that hung upon every word 
 of this remarkable preacher. With the crowds his 
 declamation, his entreaties, his eloquence, his happy 
 hits had wonderful power ; they listened, as to the 
 words of life and death ; they went to hear what they 
 must do to escape the death that never dies, and how 
 to flee from the inexorable wrath to come. They were 
 eager to know what they must do to be saved ; and 
 
 8
 
 114 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 they heard, for he told them in burning words, which 
 they understood." 
 
 An interesting account is furnished by Mr. W. R 
 Burgess of Withington, of one of the first services 
 conducted by Mackenzie as a student. Mr. Burgess 
 describes it as his first service after going to Didsbury. 
 This can hardly be correct, for, according to Mackenzie's 
 own Text-Book, he was at Guisborough on the 5th 
 of September 1858, at Barlow Moor on the 9th, at 
 Accrington on the 12th, and did not go to Pendleton 
 until the 19th. The date, however, is not a point of 
 much importance. Mr. Burgess says : 
 
 I have a very vivid recollection of it. It was at the Brunswick 
 chapel, Pendleton, not the present elaborate structure, but the 
 plain, unpretentious old building. 
 
 A student was appointed, and as he came the night before, his 
 home was with an aunt of my wife. On the Sunday morning, 
 waiting for my wife to accompany me to chapel, I stood looking 
 through the window ; as I did so, I saw approaching the aunt 
 referred to, accompanied by an extraordinary-looking personage. 
 His dress and his deportment arrested attention. He had on a 
 short black alpaca jacket, a soft black felt hat, a pair of short 
 and shapeless trousers, and low shoes. His linen was clean but 
 coarse, made, I think, of what formerly was called " Dowlas " 
 linen. His burly form was in strong contrast with the somewhat 
 diminutive lady by his side. I need not describe his features, 
 which afterwards became so well known. There was the uncon- 
 ventional play of features, the same restless action of hands and 
 fingers as they loosely hung by his side, which were characteristic. 
 His appearance was so uncouth, eo unparsonlike, so opposed to 
 the trim and natty appearance usually associated with the name 
 " Student," that I remember thinking, if not saying aloud, Bless 
 me ! is that the student ? What will they send next ? 
 
 We went to chapel expecting anything but the food which was 
 provided for us. His appearance in the pulpit excited attention, 
 then surprise, some little amusement, wonder as to what was 
 coming next. We were not accustomed to such vigorous and
 
 A NOVEL STUDENT 115 
 
 vivacious conduct. From head to foot he was all alive with a 
 life so different from our own. The way he gave out the hymns 
 made us prick up our ears and expect something out of the 
 common. His reading of the lessons was accompanied by 
 suggestive action. I may almost say he read with his hands as 
 well as his tongue, as they were made to indicate almost as much 
 as the tongue expressed. The second lesson was out of the First 
 Epistle of St. John. His prayer was a revelation and a forecast 
 of what was yet to come. We had a few men in those days who 
 were not afraid or ashamed to respond when their hearts were 
 touched, and many and deep were the responses that prayer 
 called forth. His text was John iii. 16. 
 
 I must not attempt to describe the sermon. The subject was 
 one in which he revelled. We were all fairly carried away with 
 the stream of eloquence, of warning, and of appeal to which we 
 had listened ; our mental attitude was revolutionised ; we had 
 expected so little, we had received so much, and that of such ex- 
 cellent quality, that we marvelled, and felt constrained to ask, 
 How knoweth this man these things ? 
 
 The effect of this service was electric. It was felt that a new 
 power had come amongst us, and that we must utilise it promptly, 
 and to the utmost. A series of special services was at once 
 arranged for, to be conducted by Mr. Mackenzie. The power of 
 the Holy Spirit was manifested, many were pricked to the heart, 
 many were added to the Church. 
 
 The Kev. Alfred Barber, who was a student at the 
 same time, says : 
 
 " When Mr. Mackenzie had to take his turn in 
 preaching before the Didsbury Institution authorities, 
 as we were all accustomed to do, he chose for his text 
 John iii 1 6 : ' For God so loved the world,' etc. There 
 was good and remarkable thought, beautiful language, 
 and great unction. At the close, addressing himself to 
 the theological tutor, the Rev. John Hannah, D.D., he 
 stretched out his hands, quivering with emotion, and 
 said, And now, the dear Doctor will give us his 
 blessing.' Had any other student dared to make such
 
 Ii6 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 a suggestion, he would have received a rebuke for his 
 impertinence; but such was the ardent and loving 
 simplicity of good Peter Mackenzie, that the Doctor 
 at once acceded." 
 
 It is impossible that there can have been any 
 attempt at consecutive study during this year at 
 Didsbury, for his Text-Book shows that, even in the 
 September immediately following his admission to 
 college, he was preaching, and in some cases holding 
 special services at Guisborough, Accrington, Oswald- 
 twistle, Pendleton, and Blackburn. At Guisborough he 
 records twelve as having been brought to decision, at 
 Oswaldtwistle twelve, at Blackburn a number, while of 
 Pendleton he writes, " I hope there will be a hundred 
 at least that shall be found at the last to have got 
 good at Pendleton." In the month of October he 
 labours at Withington ; Eegent Street and Irwell Street, 
 Manchester ; Swinton ; Bishop Auckland ; Gravel Lane, 
 Manchester; and again at Pendleton. At all these 
 places there is the usual record of success, with this 
 note concerning Irwell Street: "A great many 
 awakened. Glory to God and the Lamb ! Surely 
 there will be 5 forthcoming out of this week's labour. 
 Lord, help them ! " November and December find 
 him at sundry places in the Wigan circuit, as also 
 at Altringham, Bowdon, Sale, Chorley, Manchester, 
 Grantham, Eeeth, and Oakendale. 
 
 Speaking of this period, the Eev. Alfred Barber 
 writes : 
 
 From the first he was immensely popular. His preaching was 
 very attractive. He drew to his ministry not merely the working 
 and middle classes, but persons of position and wealth. Sir 
 James Watt of Manchester, who entertained the Queen on her
 
 PR A YER A T MIDNIGHT 1 1 7 
 
 visit, was among his hearers, whilst ladies and gentlemen, with 
 their man-servants and maid-servants, wept for their sins at 
 the communion rail. Amongst the number might be seen a 
 gentleman taking off his spectacles that the tears might flow 
 more freely ; a delicate little Quakeress, daintily attired, seeking 
 mercy from God ; Roman Catholics, carried away by the strange 
 eloquence of the evangelist, confessing their sins ; and young 
 ladies, who ordinarily would have scorned to mingle with the 
 multitudes in such scenes of excitement, overwhelmed with 
 distress of soul, penitently seeking the Saviour. 
 
 On one occasion, having no preaching appointment on the 
 Sunday, I resolved to go to his assistance in Manchester, where 
 he was conducting special services. The people never tired of 
 his company, and it was difficult for him to be alone. A long 
 and exhausting prayer-meeting followed the evening preaching, 
 and the usual success in a number of souls seeking for salvation. 
 Subsequently a great many friends sat down to supper in the 
 house of our host. It was quite a social gathering. We were 
 unable to retire to rest before two o'clock on the Monday 
 morning. Mr. Mackenzie and I occupied the same room. Very 
 quickly I fell asleep, but was soon to be roused. At the foot of 
 the bed was Peter Mackenzie, praying as though his very life 
 depended on the issue. It was a very cold night, freezing hard, 
 yet, though thinly clad in his night apparel, the perspiration 
 was streaming from his face. With all the energy of his nature 
 he was wrestling with his Maker for the help he needed. I 
 thought it better to leave him alone, and again fell asleep, only 
 to be roused a second time, and to find my companion in the 
 same position. " Peter," I exclaimed impulsively, " if you go on 
 at this rate, you will kill yourself." He replied, meaning the 
 people, " Well, if they will not leave me alone in the day, I must 
 pray at night." The memory of that night of wrestling has 
 followed me ever since. 
 
 In respect to Mackenzie's visit to Grantham in the 
 December of that year, the Rev. George Barnley 
 writes : 
 
 During his first year of probation at Didsbury, Grantham 
 asked for a fortnight's allotment of his services, and obtained it.
 
 Ii8 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 It fell to my lot to meet him at the station. Amongst the 
 passengers no one appeared answering to my idea of the expected 
 student. The nearest approach was a youngish, thick-set man, 
 whose movements were quick and peculiar, and who swung him- 
 self round occasionally with a searching gaze, as if uncertain 
 what course to take. Approaching him with an apology, and 
 asking if his name was Mackenzie, his reply came accompanied 
 hy a downward bend and a flinging upward of both hands above 
 his head " The same, sir," followed instantly by a "Hallelujah !" 
 and " Glory !" such as startled the good people near, and fixed all 
 eyes upon him. As we moved onward through a quiet street or 
 two, these gestures and exclamations found frequent repetition. 
 Arrived at the dwelling of his host, and entering by the shop, 
 in which were many customers, his first proceeding was to make 
 one of his downward bows, half-way to the ground, with arms 
 upraised, and to cry, " Peace be to this house, and to everyone 
 who dwells beneath its roof, as long as there is one brick left 
 upon another ! " In the same breath, as he straightened himself 
 and grasped the hand of his entertainer, came the ordinary 
 salutation, but as Peter only could utter it, " How do you do, 
 my dear sir ? " 
 
 Supper was ready, and we took our seats at the table, but 
 the meal was unique, from its frequent interruptions, not only 
 by short, sharp cries of " Hallelujah ! " and " Glory ! " and such 
 remarks as "If we had been serving the devil, he would not 
 have given us beef or mutton or any of the good things of this 
 life," but by Peter dropping down from his seat and uttering a 
 few impassioned words of prayer or praise, in which we all 
 accompanied him as if it had been our regular habit. Before 
 saying good-night, he insisted that two or three of the company 
 should pray, and so contagious had the spirit of our visitor 
 become, that responses waxed very loud. We learned after- 
 wards that a policeman had paused under the window outside, 
 wondering if some breach of the peace required his intervention. 
 
 Similarly exciting were the scenes night after night when the 
 public services had closed. Mackenzie, having changed his 
 clothes, was now ready for an hour or two of the most enthusi- 
 astic religious exercises I have ever known. The conversation 
 was of the sprightliest, prayer the most fervent, and the singing 
 such as carried the friends away heavenward, and during which
 
 A RETROSPECT 119 
 
 Peter's own face shone with wondrous radiance, while every 
 nerve in his frame quivered, and to him a sudden translation to 
 the better world would have been evidently the least possible 
 change. Many conversions attended this fortnight of services ; 
 while the effect upon our people, especially those brought into 
 closest companionship with the preacher, remained as a rich 
 blessing for months and even years afterwards, and probably its 
 traces have not even yet passed away. 
 
 The Eev. Thomas Kent speaks in a similar strain 
 of services held at Bollington in the Macclesfield 
 circuit, and describes Mackenzie's ministry as not 
 only exceedingly popular, but wonderfully powerful 
 and effective, especially among the young. 
 
 At the end of December 1858, Mackenzie inscribes 
 the following record in his Text-Book : 
 
 " Friday, the last night of 185 8. In looking back 
 I see that goodness and mercy have followed me all 
 the way. Glory, glory be to the Triune Deity for 
 the blessings of the past year ! The Lord has helped 
 me through gloriously, thanks be to His Name ! At 
 the District Meeting He helped me, and at London 
 He was with me, and here, in bringing me to Didsbury, 
 I can see His divine love displayed. And, glory to 
 His Name, He has awakened and converted sinners 
 nearly every night that I have preached. To Thy 
 Name be all the glory, O Lord ! And now, God 
 the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, here I give myself 
 afresh to Thee, through the blood of the Everlasting 
 Covenant. At the coming Conference, if I am spared, 
 do what Thou wilt with me, only let Thy Name be 
 glorified, either by using me or laying me aside. I 
 am Thine for ever. My sins are forgiven through 
 the blood of Christ, and Thou dost sanctify my soul 
 from all iniquity, from all Thou dost my soul redeem.
 
 /20 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 In Jesus I believe, and shall believe myself to Him. 
 Lord, fill me with Thy Spirit, and save souls by 
 thousands for Jesus' sake. Amen." 
 
 The year 1859 opens and continues with this 
 evangelistic work at various places, some of them at 
 a considerable distance from Didsbury, and of each 
 one there is some brief, hopeful comment recorded. 
 
 Bolton. This has been a wonderful week. The Lord has 
 been graciously pleased to answer the cry of His people, and souls 
 have been saved by scores. Glory to God and the Lamb for 
 ever ! His kingdom is coming with mighty power. Hallelujah ! 
 hallelujah ! 
 
 Euncorn. Many coming to Jesus. This has been a very happy 
 week, and I have had divine help. And my home has been a 
 heaven upon earth, at Mr. T. Hazelhurst's. May they be pre- 
 served as the apple of God's eye. Amen. 
 
 Rawtensiall. Mighty . struggle, but God gave the victory. I 
 find that there is nothing like believing through the hardness, 
 through the darkness ; the victory is certain to mighty faith. 
 
 Rawtenstall [Later]. Truly the Lord hath bared His arm in 
 this circuit, the people have overcome through the blood of the 
 Lamb. About forty -one the last night. Glory to God and the 
 Lamb for ever ! Many very wonderful cases of conversion. It 
 will all be known at the last day, and God shall have all the 
 glory through eternity. He is worthy. Honour for ever to His 
 name. 
 
 Louth. Salvation to our God and the Lamb for ever ! I believe 
 that there has been everlasting good done here this week, fruit 
 that shall be forthcoming in eternity. 
 
 Grimsby. This has been a good week to many. Some very 
 glorious triumphs. The power of God was manifested, and souls 
 have been saved. Hallelujah to Jesus 1 He causeth us to glory 
 in His salvation. 
 
 Speaking of a visit to Prescot, St. Helens circuit, 
 during this busy year, the Eev. John L Britten 
 says :
 
 PITY FOR DRUNKARDS 121 
 
 " One prominent feature of his work then was his 
 attack upon the public- houses. He walked boldly 
 into them, and I believe he visited almost every one 
 in the place. If he saw a drunken man going in, he 
 rushed u[? M 1 tried to snatch him from the snare. 
 If he saw one come out, he went in, and soundly, 
 though kindly, rated the landlord. Then he would 
 kneel down and plead, oh, so earnestly and tenderly, 
 for the man. In some cases the landlord was wroth, 
 and would turn him out, but he found it was only 
 going ' from the frying-pan into the fire ' ; for Peter 
 would fall on his knees on the road outside, and soon 
 gather an astonished crowd as he made the street echo 
 with his stentorian pleadings." 
 
 In the beginning of May he preached for a week 
 respectively at Sunderland Street and Brunswick 
 chapels, in the Macclesfield circuit, and the record is: 
 
 Sunderland Street. A good many in the net. I find them in a 
 good way here. They pray short, and get hold on God, and there 
 has been good done. To God be all the glory ! 
 
 Brunswick. Many in distress, and a few found peace. 
 that the Lord would lead them in safety, and land them in the 
 world of light and joy, and the glory shall be His for ever. 
 
 That Mackenzie was occasionally at Didsbury 
 during this year may be gathered from the following : 
 
 Didsbury. Spoke at the Missionary Meeting. Had a good 
 time. Dr. Hannah spoke with great power, to the great benefit 
 of all that heard him. Thanks be to God for such men. 
 
 Here are a few of the remaining records : 
 
 Oldham. Spoke at the Missionary Meeting. Kind-hearted 
 ministers and warm-hearted members, thanks be to God. 
 
 Nantwich, May 7-12. Souls saved. A large crowd of people, 
 and many of them came from far.
 
 122 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 George Street, Manchester, July 2. Good time, and good was 
 done, and 17 gathered for the chapel, thanks be to God. 
 
 Sherburn Hill, Durham, July 9. A speech. A very great 
 gathering. July 10. A divine feeling all day, and good done, 
 and I think they would realise 50, or rather better, for their 
 chapel. 
 
 Lanchester, July 11. Good times and good done. About 40 
 for the chapel. Lord, save ! 
 
 Alnwick, July 12. A very gracious feeling. Thanks be to 
 God, He has a few names even in Sardis. 
 
 Hetton-le-Hole, July 17. A great congregation. The chapel 
 would not hold one-half of them, so we went into the field, and 
 had the prayer-meeting in the chapel. About thirteen saved. 
 
 Ireland, Portadoum, Aug. 24. Gave an address out-of-doors, 
 got a good congregation in ten minutes. Glory to God ! Preached 
 in the chapel in the evening. Very bad singing. Felt some 
 degree of liberty in preaching. Two or three striking cases. 
 
 Aug. 25. Preached in the morning in the street; gracious 
 time. Went to Armagh. Felt well. Saw a good many striking 
 cases. Preached from Acts ii. 38. Surely this is a work of 
 God. 
 
 The story of this remarkable year cannot be better 
 closed than with the final sentence of that brief 
 autobiographical record, of which we gave the first in 
 our opening chapter : 
 
 Went from thence [Bishop Auckland] to Didsbury College. 
 Saw about 1000 seeking mercy in the country during the year.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 HIS FIRST CIRCUIT BURNLEY 1859-1860 
 
 The Town and Neighbourhood of Burnley Mackenzie not a 
 Stranger There Letter to Mr. Braithwaite Sermon at the 
 District Meeting Fifteen Hundred People at 5 A.M. 
 Mission Services at Padiham "The Devil a Bankrupt " 
 Revival Services at Barrowford Chapel Speech at Nelson 
 Work at Park Hill Second Letter to Mr. Braithwaite 
 The Penitent Thief Bag and Baggage Letters to Mrs. 
 Pincott Missionary Speech : The Stream and Mr. Stagnant 
 Success at Burnley Regrettable RemovaL 
 
 THE thriving town of Burnley, in Lancashire, 
 about thirty miles north of where he had 
 resided in 1858, with its cotton and worsted mills, 
 and sundry other industries, with numerous collieries 
 in its vicinity, and a population of impressionable, 
 good-hearted working people ready to be wrought 
 upon, was not an inappropriate place in which for 
 Mackenzie to curb the wanderings, though not the 
 spirit of the evangelist, and to enter on the steadier, 
 less exciting work of circuit life. He was well 
 received from the first ; and speedily won as great 
 a popularity among the lively enthusiastic Lancashire 
 operatives as he had previously done among the 
 Durham miners. Homely, frank, warm-hearted, over- 
 flowing with good-nature, they took to him as the 
 
 123
 
 124 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 coals take to a kindred flame, and soon blazed round 
 him warmly and cheerfully. 
 
 He did not, in fact, go among them as an entire 
 stranger. In the May of this same year, 1859, the 
 District Synod had met at Burnley, and Mackenzie 
 had preached to an immense congregation during its 
 sittings. A letter written to an old Bishop Auckland 
 friend gives us an interesting glimpse of that 
 gathering, as well as of his own personality. 
 
 TO ME. MATTHEW BKAITHWAITE. 
 
 BOLLINGTON, MACCLESPIELD, May 23, 1859. 
 
 DEAR BROTHER IN JESUS, I think that it is high time for 
 me to write to you. I have thought of doing so again and 
 again, yet it has always got put off. I hope that you will 
 forgive me, nay, I am sure that you will. God bless you ! 
 Amen. We had a very good District Meeting at Burnley this 
 last week. There are about 1200 increase, and about 1800 on 
 trial. Thanks be to God for the times of refreshing that have 
 come from His divine presence. I heard Luke Wiseman preach 
 one night a most excellent sermon, great power attended the 
 Word, the Holy Ghost filled the place. The Eev. P. Hardcastle 
 held forth the next night. There was a great congregation, 
 and it was a very good sermon. I preached in the morning at a 
 quarter to five, to (it was supposed) 1500 people. I had a very 
 good time, and there was a shout of a king in the camp. 
 Hallelujah ! Glory for ever ! I have been a fortnight at 
 Macclesfield, and souls have been saved every night. I came here 
 on Saturday, and had a very good day on Sunday, a great many 
 in distress, and about twenty professed liberty ; to God be all 
 the glory. We had a prayer-meeting last night, and there were 
 about thirty in penitent grief, and some of them got made very 
 happy, thanks be to God. Salvation is of the Lord. I was very 
 
 much shocked to hear of the sudden removal of Mr. H . 
 
 that it may stir us up to more diligence in divine things ! 
 Afflictions tell us that we are mortal, the death of others reminds 
 us of our own, and loud speaks the silent grave. Everything in 
 heaven and on earth and in hell unites to give emphasis to the
 
 SA TAN A BANKRUPT 125 
 
 language of inspiration "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, 
 do it with thy might." May the Lord help us, for Jesu's sake ! 
 
 Mrs. H and the dear family will need all the help they can 
 
 get to enable them to bear this severe stroke. Let us remember 
 them at the throne of grace, as none but God can fill up the 
 gap that there has been made. May He dry their tears and 
 comfort their hearts, and grant them His grace, that they may 
 be enabled to acquiesce in the divine purpose, for it is among 
 the all things that work together for good to them that love God. 
 I shall be glad to hear from you. Drop me a line or two. 
 Remember me to your dear family and the rest of the friends. 
 Yours, for ever, P. MACKENZIE. 
 
 Not only had Mackenzie preached at Burnley 
 during the District Synod ; he had also held mission 
 services at Padiham, then in the Burnley circuit, of 
 which he writes : " Great congregations, glorious 
 feeling, and souls saved. Glory to God and the 
 Lamb ! " The connection thus formed with Padiham 
 was never afterwards broken ; Mackenzie returning 
 at frequent intervals to preach and lecture, and always 
 to crowded audiences. Of one of these visits the 
 Rev. William Allen (c) writes : " I heard him in 
 the Padiham circuit. He described Satan tempting 
 Christ with all the kingdoms of the world and the 
 glory of them. ' Poor, bankrupt devil ! ' exclaimed 
 Mr. Mackenzie ; ' he wasn't worth a pig ; he couldn't 
 go into the swine until Christ gave him permission.' 
 Speaking of the man healed in Decapolis requesting 
 to follow Christ, ' Ah,' said Mr. Mackenzie, ' he wanted 
 to be a travelling preacher, and the Lord appointed 
 him to be a home missionary.' " 
 
 He had also in January of the same year conducted 
 revival services at Barrowford, another place in the 
 Burnley circuit. The record of these services is
 
 126 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 most exultant. There were six sermons, and they 
 are characterised in order as follows : " Good done 
 Glory ! Hallelujah ! Praise the Lord ! " with a 
 concluding nourish of thanksgiving, applicable to the 
 whole " Bless the Lord, my soul, and all that is 
 within me shout His praise ! " 
 
 A correspondent says there were several striking 
 conversions during these services, and, among the 
 rest, that of Mr. William Tunstill of Eeedyford, 
 Nelson, now the senior lay treasurer of the Chapel 
 Committee. Mr. Tunstill has since remarked that 
 Mackenzie did more to develop Methodism in that 
 neighbourhood than any other individual. 
 
 After he had left the Burnley circuit, Mackenzie 
 was invited to attend a public meeting at Nelson to 
 advocate the desirability of a new Sunday school. 
 At that time the Sunday school was carried on in the 
 chapel, a building that would hold about four hundred. 
 Nelson was then a village of some two thousand 
 inhabitants, with no other Nonconformist place of 
 worship. The situation of the village made it capable 
 of immense development, being in close proximity to 
 the Lancashire and Yorkshire Eailway, and the Leeds 
 and Liverpool Canal. Trade was then also fairly 
 good, and the people well employed. Mackenzie, 
 with the prescience of a prophet, grasped the 
 possibilities of the situation, and in the course of 
 his address said that they had asked him to speak 
 in behalf of a new school, but his vision took in a 
 much larger scheme. Why not go in for a new 
 chapel, and make the present chapel a school ? The 
 suggestion was at once entertained, and the outcome 
 was the erection of the Carr Eoad Chapel ; while
 
 A BROKEN RULE 127 
 
 Nelson itself has expanded into a borough of twenty- 
 seven thousand inhabitants. 
 
 Not only at Barrowford and Fadiham had Mackenzie 
 preached during his college year, but also at Park Hill 
 in the same circuit. Of his first service there he 
 writes : " A wonderful day : the chapel would not hold 
 them. The collection amounted to 38, 5s. 8d., and, 
 best of all, souls got brought to Jesus." After speak- 
 ing in similarly glowing phraseology of two more 
 services, he adds : " I have fallen in with great kind- 
 ness hero. May the Lord reward them ! Mr. Dugdale 
 has given me a Bible, which I intend to use well by 
 reading it regularly. May the precious Spirit grant 
 me His gracious help, that I may learn the lessons of 
 His grace. Amen." 
 
 To this kindness of Mr. Dugdale, and also to the 
 services at Park Hill, reference is made in a second 
 letter addressed to Mr. Braithwaite. The latter had 
 evidently sought to impress him with the desirability 
 of being less violently demonstrative in his pulpit 
 action, and the letter shows how kindly he appreciated 
 such counsel, however difficult it might be to adopt it. 
 
 TO MB. MATTHEW BKAITHWAITE. 
 
 STALETBRIDGE, June 28, 1859. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, I was so glad to hear from you. 
 May heaven bless you for your many kindnesses, your fatherly 
 care, and your godly counsel. I have many times endeavoured 
 to act up to it, but alas, alas, how frail at best is living man, 
 how puny all his purposes. 
 
 This being a fresh place, I went with the determination to 
 act up to the old rule laid down by you, and, being doubly 
 impressed with having read your letter, I thought that I should 
 succeed, and so I did for some time, but towards the latter end, 
 and in the application, I so far forgot myself that I literally
 
 128 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 broke the book-board. Down it went, with all its sacred con- 
 tents, with a thundering crash upon the floor, shocking people's 
 nerves, and producing a peculiar sensation amongst the congrega- 
 tion. I have resolved and re-resolved to do better, and I hope 
 by divine help to succeed yet. There was a good feeling, and 
 a few came forward in the prayer-meeting, and I think three 
 got through. Glory to God and the Lamb ! " There is joy in 
 the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth." 
 I had a good time at Padiham last Sunday. The chapel was 
 full in the morning, a very gracious feeling in the evening. The 
 people could not all get in, about 1600 would be in. It happened 
 to be the day for the quarterly collection, so that they did very 
 well. When they are all at work, generally they get about 4. 
 This time, although they had been on strike for many weeks, 
 they realised 14, and, best of all, about sixteen found liberty 
 on the Monday night, and a good many more the other nights. 
 I was at Park Hill the week before, and a good many found 
 peace. Thomas Dugdale, Esq., gave me such a fine Bible, worth 
 1, 5s., and the friends gave me 3. I am sure I should be 
 thankful, for the Lord's people are kind to me beyond all pre- 
 cedent. You were asking how many black coats were there that 
 morning [referring to District Meeting service]. I cannot tell, 
 but there was a great number. I gave them the thief. We 
 bundled him up bag and baggage by the express, booking him 
 right through; he never halted at Hell's junction, nor put on 
 the brake at Purgatory, nor blew his whistle at Perdition, but 
 went right to Paradise. 
 
 P. MACKENZIE. 
 
 There has been a discussion recently in one of the 
 London dailies on Mr. Gladstone's use of the phrase 
 " bag and baggage," and much learned breath has been 
 expended in showing that he was not the first to 
 employ the phrase. Few people, save pedants, ever 
 imagined he was. It is quite pat here in Mackenzie's 
 letter, and has, to my knowledge, been a common 
 expression in the North of England for at least half 
 a century.
 
 A LARGE CONGREGATION 129 
 
 From what has been said, it is fairly evident that 
 Mackenzie did uot enter the Burnley circuit a stranger. 
 R. Harrison, Esq., J.P., Whalley, says : 
 
 " His fame had gone before him, and such a scene 
 as took place in the approaches to Wesley Chapel, an 
 hour before the time of service, baffles all descrip- 
 tion. Although that noble edifice will contain 2000 
 persons, more than twice that number struggled to 
 get in. After that day the trustees became greatly 
 alarmed to find that this mass of persons rising at 
 once to sing had caused the pillars supporting the 
 gallery to give way. Experts were consulted, and 
 before the famous preacher took the pulpit again, 
 measures had been taken to secure its safety." 
 
 Miss Pincott of Scarborough has kindly forwarded 
 letters, extracts from which afford partial glimpses of 
 Mackenzie's life in Burnley. Of one, written before he 
 went there, Miss Pincott says : 
 
 " It was the means of my dear mother's conversion, 
 who held on her way till God called her home, a little 
 more than a year ago. I was converted under a 
 powerful sermon he preached at Old ham Street Chapel, 
 Manchester, on January 10, 1859. He has some- 
 times stayed all night at our house, and we have been 
 awakened by his earnest, agonising prayers for the 
 conversion of sinners." 
 
 In the letter to Mrs. Pincott, referred to above, 
 Mackenzie says : 
 
 While pleading your cause before the Lord, the promise was 
 applied with power to my soul, as if the Lord had spoken it from 
 heaven" I have not appointed her to wrath, but to obtain salva- 
 tion through Jesus Christ." The ear of faith could hear the 
 beatings of the heart of Infinite Love, and Jesus said, in words 
 
 9
 
 130 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 sweeter than the music of heaven "Blessed are they that mourn, 
 for they shall be comforted." God is in deep earnest in asking 
 you for your heart, and you must give it to Him as it is, and 
 believe that God does take it, and praise Him for taking it. And 
 while you believe, God seals it for His own, and unless you take 
 it from Him again by doubting, He will keep it for ever. 
 
 TO MKS. PINCOTT. 
 
 BURNLEY, Sept. 17, 1859. 
 
 I should like to come and spend a day with you some time 
 next week, but we are so throng giving the tickets that I cannot 
 get away. But you are not forgotten at the throne of grace. 
 
 how sweet to feel the love of Jesus casting out all fear, tilling 
 the soul with unutterable delight, and giving strong foretastes 
 of the happiness that we are to enjoy throughout eternity. . .' 
 The Town Missionary has just come in. I hear him downstair?, 
 and shall have to go out to visit with him. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 BURNLEY, Sept. 30, 1859. 
 
 I am sorry that I have not been able to get to Manchester to 
 see you before now, but the fact is that I have been shut up to 
 this circuit, so that I could not get away. I am afraid I have 
 worn your patience to a thread. May the Lord bless you ! I 
 hope you still feel the Saviour precious to you. He is always at 
 hand, always looking, always listening, always disposed to help 
 us, infinitely disposed, thanks to His name. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 BURNLEY, Dec. 29, 1859. 
 
 We had a very large gathering at the tea meeting ; about a 
 thousand people, and a very good meeting after. We have had 
 our Quarter Day, and I am glad to inform you that we had an 
 increase of between thirty and forty members, and about a 
 hundred 011 trial. To God be all the glory. Amen and Amen. 
 
 1 have to preach at the Primitive Methodist Chapel this evening. 
 I am praying that good may be done. My help is in the Lord.
 
 PLAY OF FANCY 131 
 
 That help I feel I need, and have faith to believe I shall have, so 
 the devil may roar as loud as he likes. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 BUBNLBY, Jan. 2, 1860. 
 
 I preached three times yesterday, and the Lord helped me. 
 There were five penitents at night. Some of them wept aloud. 
 The Lord saw and heard and answered, and good was done. 
 Hallelujah ! I am going to Padiham to preach this evening. 
 May the Lord save sinners for Jesu's sake ! 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 BURNLEY, Jan. 4, 1860. 
 
 I have received both the books, for which I do desire to return 
 my best thanks. . . I had a very good time at Padiham. We 
 had some penitents, and last night at Park Hill one woman 
 cried out for mercy, and a man got good, and there was a very 
 glorious feeling. We have a bazaar here for the missions, it is 
 open to-day and to-morrow. They realised 30 this morning. 
 I hope that you are all happy, and that we shall have a glorious 
 year of it. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 BURNLEY, Jan. 19, 1860. 
 
 We had a Town Missionary Meeting last night ; it went off 
 well, a very gracious feeling. On Sunday last I preached in the 
 Burnley Chapel. There were a number of penitents, and a few 
 of them found liberty through the blood of the Lamb. I am 
 going to Wheatley Lane to-night, God willing, hoping to have a 
 good time. 
 
 Mr. E. Harrison, writing of Mackenzie in Burnley, 
 furnishes a reminiscence that illustrates well the 
 delicate play of fancy that hardly ever failed to glint 
 sun beam- wise, even through the more sober phases 
 of speech or sermon. The first platform speech he 
 heard him deliver was in the Burnley Chapel, and in 
 it he used the following illustration, though other
 
 132 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 memories have supplemented that of Mr. Harrison in 
 the reproduction of it : 
 
 THE STREAM AND ME. STAGNANT. 
 
 One morning a bright stream from the mountains 
 passed a large sheet of water, which he would call 
 Mr. Stagnant. ' G-ood-morning, my canny darling,' 
 said Mr. Stagnant. ' Whither away in such haste ? ' 
 ' Oh/ said the rill, ' 1 have a cupful of water, and 1 
 am going to the sea with it.' ' But,' said Mr. Stag- 
 nant, ' you had better be careful. We have had a 
 very backward spring, and there is every prospect of 
 a hot summer. I would therefore advise you to 
 husband your resources.' ' If that is the case,' said 
 the rill, ' there is all the more need for me to hasten 
 on, and do good with the little I have ; so good- 
 morning, Mr. Stagnant.' The little rill ran on, bless- 
 ing and being blest. It made such sweet music that 
 other rills were attracted, and glad to join it. Trees 
 gathered on its banks, and as though grateful for its 
 moisture, spread their broad arms over it during the 
 hot days of summer. The miller smiled on it, for it 
 turned his wheel. The farmer was glad at its ap- 
 proach, for it made his pastures greener. The birds 
 stooped and dipped their bills in it, and then soared 
 higher and sang sweeter. And thus it ran on till it 
 lost itself in the sea. But God drew up sufficient 
 water from the sea, condensed it in the atmosphere, 
 and, by means of His cloud- carriages, baptized ever 
 and anon the mountain tops, so that the little rill 
 never ran dry January nor June, Christmas nor 
 Midsummer. But what became of Mr. Stagnant ? 
 He had been quite right in his prophecy. There
 
 THE WINDOW REMOVED 133 
 
 ensued an exceedingly hot summer ; and he became 
 foul and fetid and stench-full. Birds came within 
 a dozen yards of him, and then wheeled round, sick 
 and dizzy and faint. Many, as soon as they smelt 
 his breath, turned aside, as though they had been 
 plague-infected. Toads came and spat in his face. 
 Hot cattle got three mouthfuls of him, and threw up 
 their heels as though they had advanced thirty stages 
 in the rinderpest. And Heaven, in mercy to man 
 and beast, smote him with a hotter breath, and dried 
 him clean up. 'There is that scattereth and yet 
 increaseth ; there is that withholdeth more than is 
 meet, and it tendeth to poverty.' 
 
 Mackenzie's ministry in the Burnley circuit was 
 remarkably successful. The congregations were 
 immense, and the quarterly collections are said to have 
 gone up two hundred per cent. On one occasion at 
 Higham, he duplicated an experience of Wesley's at 
 Haworth the front window of the chapel was re- 
 moved, so that he could address the crowd without, and 
 yet be heard by the crowd within. A glance through 
 his register of sermons and services shows that he 
 hardly preached once during that year without having 
 to record results in the form of visible decisions for 
 Christ. 
 
 With all this success, it is difficult to understand 
 why he should have been taken away at the end of 
 the first year. That the extent to which people 
 crowded to his services in town and country would 
 deplete the ordinary congregations, and to some extent 
 interfere with the regular work of the circuit, is quite 
 conceivable, and that in this way there should have
 
 134 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 arisen rivalries and misunderstandings on the part of 
 some is hardly matter for surprise ; but one cannot 
 help regretting that some way of escaping the diffi- 
 culty was not devised that would have created no 
 sense of inequity in the mind of the worker, and not 
 appeared to cast reflections on the work.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 MONMOUTH, ROSS, AND FOREST OF DEAN 1860-1862 
 
 The Itinerancy a Creator of Contrasts The Forest of Dean 
 Its Natural Features Methodism in Coleford House and 
 Pay at Coleford New Organ at Monmouth An Alarmed 
 Hearer " Cut it in Two, Brother "Teaching the People to 
 Sing A Blow in the Pulpit Dark Walks Illuminated. 
 
 THERE is hardly a better creator of contrasts than 
 the Methodist itinerancy. At the beck of Con- 
 ference a man is jerked from the soft breezes and 
 mellow landscapes of the Isle of Wight to the hard 
 hills of North Britain, or from the treeless wilds of 
 Shetland to the grateful umbrage of Warwickshire or 
 the wooded contours of Devon. Nor is the change 
 simply one of clime and country. The people vary as 
 greatly as the landscape, and the preacher finds him- 
 self as much in a new land of thought and habit and 
 usage, as of geographical site and conformation. 
 
 What a change for Mackenzie from the crowded 
 Lancashire town, with its smoky chimneys and 
 clattering mills, to the quiet folk, the sunny skies, the 
 rich, umbrageous hills and dales of Monmouthshire. 
 His new residence was at Coleford, in the Monmouth, 
 Ross, and Forest of Dean circuit, which then included 
 what are now the separate circuits of Ross and 
 
 136
 
 136 
 
 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 Cinderford. " The Forest of Dean is the property of 
 the Crown, and has been a royal domain as far back 
 as the time of Edward the Confessor. It formerly 
 covered all the triangular area between the Severn and 
 the Wye, from Gloucester to Chepstow on the south- 
 west, and from Gloucester along by the little river 
 Leadon to Newent, and thence to Eoss on the north- 
 
 LITTLE DEAN HILL CHAl'EL. 
 
 west, which seem to be its natural, as in the days 
 of Henry II. (A.D. 1200), they were its privileged 
 boundaries. The area of the Crown lands has 
 diminished considerably in the last six hundred and fifty 
 years, but the main features of the upland country 
 between the rivers remain substantially the same." 
 The scenery is charming, consisting of a succession of
 
 AT COLEFOKD 137 
 
 steep wooded hills and dells, with grand views of the 
 Severn valley and the Cotswolds beyond, on the one 
 hand, and on the other the beautiful cliffs and gorges 
 of the Wye. This affluence of the picturesque is 
 matched by an equal wealth of coal and iron below 
 the surface, so that industries and natural beauty are 
 brought into close relation, often to the detriment of 
 the latter. 
 
 From an interesting article by the Eev. J. E. Harlow, 
 in the last Winter Number of the Methodist Recorder, 
 we learn that Coleford is in the heart of the Forest, 
 and has three thousand inhabitants. It was visited 
 by Wesley in 1756, and again in 1763. He rode 
 from Chepstow to Coleford, and writes : " The wind 
 being high, I consented to preach in their new room ; 
 but, large as it was, it would not contain the people, 
 who appeared to be not a little affected, of which they 
 gave a sufficient proof, by filling the room at five in 
 the morning." 
 
 " The next landmark of Methodism in Coleford," 
 says Mr. Harlow, " may help to explain what had 
 become of the Society visited by Mr. Wesley. In the 
 year 1849, a Wesleyan chapel was opened by the Eev. 
 Thomas Jackson and the Eev. Eichard Eoberts. That 
 building superseded a Countess of Huntingdon church, 
 which did not survive the disastrous events of that 
 year." 
 
 In the house adjoining the chapel, Peter Mackenzie 
 took up his abode at the Conference of 1860. " It 
 was during the twilight of a day in the first week of 
 September that Mr. Mackenzie, his wife and two 
 daughters, and a lady friend, arrived at the quaint and 
 quiet town of Coleford. A house had been hastily
 
 138 
 
 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 obtained and furnished, and into this the little party 
 came. It was by no means a pretentious dwelling; 
 this Peter seemed not to notice, but, true to his 
 
 WESLEY CHAKEL, CINDERFOKD. 
 
 character, went straight upstairs with his family, and, 
 kneeling down, dedicated his humble abode to God and 
 the service of a Christian minister."
 
 SECRET OF HAPPINESS 139 
 
 The change from Burnley must have been very 
 great. There were long distances to be covered on 
 roads lovely by day, but fearsome and uncanny by 
 night, and the places to be ministered at were com- 
 paratively small and poor, and there were not the 
 great masses of population to draw upon to which he 
 had been accustomed. But there was no abatement 
 of zeal, nor the faintest diminution of that cheery glow 
 and whole-heartedness which he infused into all his 
 labour. Mr. R Harrison of Whalley, then of Burnley, 
 remarks that Mackenzie wrote him soon after reach- 
 ing his new appointment, and said, " I have walked 
 fourteen miles. Two souls saved. Hallelujah ! I 
 shall never have gout ! " If the secret of happiness 
 consists in enjoying what we have, rather than in 
 lamenting what we cannot get, then certainly 
 Mackenzie had found it. Of him might be said, in 
 the words of Goldsmith 
 
 Cheerful at morn he wakes from short repose, 
 Breathes the keen air, and carols as he goes. 
 
 There is living still in Coleford a venerable local 
 preacher, Mr. John Adams, who was born in 1809. 
 This good brother paid a visit to London during the 
 Conference of 1860, partly because of his interest in 
 the circuit appointment. He had read the newspaper 
 accounts of Mackenzie's admission into the ministry, 
 and knew something of his work at Burnley, and, 
 seeing his name down in the first draft of stations for 
 the Monmouth circuit, felt anxious to secure him. 
 As he loitered in the chapel yard, four ministers 
 stood in a group: John Eattenbury, who had once 
 been chairman of the district, Richard Roberta, who
 
 140 LTFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 had opened the Coleford Chapel, Luke Wiseman, and 
 the then superintendent of the Monmouth circuit. 
 Mr. Adams approached them, and promised that, 
 though no such provision existed then, it being a 
 junior minister's appointment, yet, if Mr. Mackenzie 
 were sent to reside at Coleford, a comfortable house 
 should be found for him. Soon afterwards Mackenzie 
 found himself the tenant of Mr. Adams in a furnished 
 house, for which, however, he insisted on paying 
 rent. 
 
 His residence at Coleford, and his work throughout 
 the circuit, are gratefully and vividly remembered ; 
 the only regret being that the claims of outside places 
 called him so frequently from home. Mrs. Mackenzie 
 was the means of resuscitating the Sunday school at 
 Coleford, which had been in a state of suspended 
 animation for some years, and which has continued 
 to flourish since. The appointment was such as 
 afforded Mackenzie an opportunity of emulating 
 Goldsmith's country parson, who was 
 
 Passing rich on forty pounds a year. 
 
 The allowance was very small, only about fifty-six 
 pounds per annum, but Mrs. Mackenzie bears most 
 grateful testimony to the exceeding kindness of the 
 people. Cream, eggs, potatoes, and all manner of 
 eatables were poured upon them in abundance, so that 
 they were enabled to say : " We have all, and abound, 
 and are full, having received the things which were 
 sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice 
 acceptable, well-pleasing to God." 
 
 I am indebted to Mr. Harlow for a rather interest- 
 ing extract from the circuit steward's account-book,
 
 A NEW ORGAN 141 
 
 dated October 1, 1860. It is the first entry in 
 connection with Mackenzie's name. 
 
 Rev. Pe ler Macken,ie . 2100 
 
 Quarterage 
 
 Washing 
 
 Books 
 
 Travelling expenses 
 
 District 
 
 Carriage of boxes . 
 
 440 
 1 11 6 
 1 1 
 15 
 15 
 200 
 
 12 16 6 
 
 The places in the circuit being so widely scattered, 
 and the distances so great, some kind soul provided 
 Mackenzie with a pony ; and it is remembered that 
 much amusement was created when, occasionally, he 
 would ride along with his silk hat on his hand instead 
 of on his head, so that the rattle thus made might 
 urge the beast to a quicker pace. 
 
 His visits to Monmouth, the circuit town, were 
 always occasions of interest and excitement. Not 
 long previous to his arrival on the ground, an effort 
 had been made to supersede the string band by a 
 harmonium. A Mrs. Bullock, who lived at Hadnock 
 farm, and a few others had even dared to dream of an 
 organ. One Sunday Mrs. Bullock, in commenting on 
 the attractiveness of the chapel, observed how pleasing 
 it would be to see it crowded, and even went so far as 
 to promise that when that not very likely contingency 
 arose, she would be pleased to make a present of an 
 organ. Soon afterwards the eccentric preacher arrived, 
 and the chapel was crowded. Mrs. Bullock was at 
 once reminded of her promise, and very generously 
 fulfilled it.
 
 142 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 Once Mackenzie preached at Monmouth to a packed 
 congregation, on the Deluge. A retired army captain, 
 a member of the Established Church, could only find 
 a fragment of a seat at the end of a crowded pew. 
 In illustrating the struggles of the people to escape 
 the rising waters, some of the preacher's actions were 
 so graphic and sensational, and in the rather high 
 pulpit appeared so perilous, that the stranger, turning 
 to the steward who had shown him in, whispered that 
 he could not stand this. He was prevailed upon to 
 remain, however, and afterwards never missed a service 
 at which Mackenzie preached. 
 
 The prayer - meetings after service on Sunday 
 evenings were remarkable. Numbers of strangers often 
 remained in the galleries, and conversions were by no 
 means infrequent. On one occasion a local preacher 
 was too lengthy in his supplications. Mackenzie 
 endured it for a while, and then cried out, " Cut it in 
 two, brother, and begin again presently." Mr. John 
 Histance, now in his eighty- first year, to whose good 
 memory we are indebted for many of these reminiscences, 
 says that he was greatly impressed in those days by 
 the seriousness of Mackenzie's preaching. There was 
 abundance of humour, but what always affected him 
 and many others most, was the intense earnestness 
 and pathos. 
 
 Mr. Isaiah Gadd of Wokingham also supplies 
 recollections that throw a pleasant light on this 
 period : 
 
 " I well remember the coming of the Eev. Peter 
 Mackenzie to the Monmouth circuit some thirty-five 
 years ago. I was a lad in my teens, and my home 
 was one of the beautiful villages near Monmouth.
 
 A WIDE CIRCUIT 143 
 
 This circuit of Methodism, as many a dear, good 
 minister and local preacher has found, at the cost of 
 shoe-leather and tired limbs, covered an immense area 
 of country, running far towards the mountains of 
 Wales on one side, and many miles right out to the 
 villages of Herefordshire in a reverse direction. It 
 spread up through the solemn woods and steep roads 
 under the shadow of the great Buckstone Eock, and on 
 into the Forest of Dean to Coleford, embracing nearly 
 the whole of the Forest on to Lydney, with its switch- 
 back roads, numerous quarries, disused pits and mines, 
 many of them unkept and unprotected. This was the 
 circuit to which Mr. Mackenzie came, and it was like 
 the coming of a comet, and, as with John the Baptist, 
 many people came out for to see, and we were soon 
 conscious of a great stir on all sides. 
 
 "The first time I saw and heard Mr. Mackenzie 
 was at our village chapel, five miles out from 
 Monmouth, and about ten miles from Coleford. At 
 the close of the morning service, coming down from 
 the pulpit to the communion table, he urged the 
 people that they should learn to sing well, so as to 
 attract others to God's house. Taking out of his 
 coat pocket a number of music leaflets, he said, ' Now 
 this is a nice one,' and, suiting the action to the word, 
 began to sing, ' I want to be an angel.' My elder 
 brother, who had helped to lead the singing at the 
 service with his concertina, and I, with my young, 
 shrill voice, closed round the new minister, and while 
 he poured forth a powerful lead, we each did our very 
 best at that pretty, simple, and then new bit of 
 music. By the time we had got through the verses 
 the good people behind us were catching on, so that
 
 144 UFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 it ran ' like oil from vessel to vessel.' An unmis- 
 takable invitation to the afternoon service followed. 
 Everybody was to tell somebody, and all were to bring 
 their friends to help to make a good company. The 
 short interval was soon over, and there was indeed a 
 good company and a blessed service. 
 
 " When Mr. Mackenzie came out again to preach in 
 the same little chapel, his fame had gone abroad, and the 
 people crowded to the afternoon service so much that 
 the building was packed from end to end. My father, 
 in his desire to make room for others, had vacated his 
 seat time after time, and now only the pulpit stairs 
 remained unoccupied. These, one after the other, were 
 filled, until, as a last resource, and to make room for 
 just one more, my father took refuge in the pulpit, 
 little thinking of the penalty to be paid soon for such 
 an exaltation. Mr. Mackenzie got well into his 
 subject, and made his sermon glow with life and 
 interest as he described poor sick ones coming to an 
 earthly physician, surrounded with bottles of medicine 
 and ointments for all kinds of maladies. He had all 
 these various bottles in full array on the pulpit 
 around him. Suddenly he swept them away with 
 both hands right and left as he introduced the 
 Heavenly Healer, saying, 'Away with your quack 
 nostrums ! Away with them ! ' My father at his 
 elbow was forgotten, and he, poor dear man, was in 
 the third heaven of delight as he drank in the blessed 
 gospel of Jesus Christ, when all at once the preacher's 
 powerful hand in its backward swing swept like a 
 sledge-hammer into his face, utterly blinding him for 
 the moment, and making the sparks fly from his eyes 
 like fireworks, and leaving him with a never-to-be-
 
 DARK JO URNE YS 145 
 
 forgotten remembrance of that immortal sermon. Mr. 
 Mackenzie, with his usual native tenderness, turned 
 quickly round, exclaiming sorrowfully, ' O my dear 
 brother, I hope I have not hurt you ! I am so sorry ! ' 
 It was certainly most instructive to see my father's 
 attitude of distance and caution towards the preacher 
 for the rest of the evening. 
 
 " This is but a peep at the popularity and work of 
 Mr. Mackenzie in this out-of-the-way circuit; where 
 trains and circuit horses were entirely out of the 
 question ; where distances were appalling ; where 
 roads, for the greater part, were very trying; and 
 where the minister had of necessity to leave home for 
 days together, and work his way back gradually from 
 place to place. But none of these things moved our 
 friend. Toiling and labouring on, he was faithful in 
 little and in much ; and with great reward he was then 
 and is now crowned. It will be admitted that it is no 
 easy thing to fill the Monmouth chapel, to command 
 full and enthusiastic congregations. This honour was 
 granted to Mr. Mackenzie. And how the country 
 people all round the circuit delighted to hear him ; 
 and to-day, his name is with them as ' ointment 
 poured forth.' 
 
 " My brother, who at that time was in his appren- 
 ticeship at Coleford, often accompanied him from 
 Coleford to Monmouth and back for a week-evening 
 service. Those otherwise dark and tedious journeys 
 were illuminated and made special treats by rehearsals, 
 orations, recitations of poetry and other good things 
 from the lips and soul of him who did not hesitate 
 thus to unfold to the eyes and ears of an apprentice 
 lad what was to make him, as the future lecturer and 
 
 10
 
 146 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 preacher, the delight of people everywhere. Who 
 can tell how many dear souls out in those country 
 places were cheered and toned-up by the visits of this 
 man of God, with his simple, cheery manner and his 
 soul of music and praise. Many of them have gone 
 on before, and to others of us heaven is all the sweeter 
 for his presence there."
 
 CHAPTEE XV 
 
 AMONG THE WILTSHIRE VILLAGES 1862-1865 
 
 The "Wiltshire Mission Eev. A. Barber's Testimony Two 
 Sermons at one Sitting Acting the Highwayman Letters 
 to Mr. Thomas Elliott " A Hard Cavil" First Lecture: 
 The Bible Admitted into full Connexion Examination 
 Incidents Visit to the Land's End Good Times at Bowden 
 Hill. 
 
 AFTER, labouring faithfully and with great accept- 
 ance for two years at Monmouth, Mackenzie, 
 at the Conference of 1862, was transferred to the 
 Melksham circuit, in Wiltshire. This circuit, like that 
 of the Forest of Dean, has undergone considerable 
 changes, and is now worked in three sections under 
 the general designation of the Wiltshire Mission. 
 This mission employs, at the present moment, seven 
 ministers and one lay evangelist. It directs and 
 sustains the work of Wesleyan Methodism, in other 
 words, Christianity in earnest, in forty-six towns and 
 villages of Wiltshire, including Melksham, Chippen- 
 ham, Calne, Devizes, Warminster, Westbury, Malmes- 
 bury and Tetbury. In all these places there are 
 chapels or mission-halls, forming accommodation for 
 a total of about seven thousand people. The area of 
 the mission is wider than that of the original Melk- 
 
 147
 
 148 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 sham circuit, though that was fairly extensive, includ- 
 ing no less than nineteen places. The conditions of 
 labour were here, as at Monmouth, hard and dis- 
 couraging ; long distances, small places, with a need 
 of constant effort to sustain the life of the struggling 
 churches. 
 
 The Eev. Alfred Barber says : 
 
 " In the year 1862, the President of the Conference, 
 the Kev. Charles Prest, directed me to leave the 
 Higham Ferrers circuit, to assist my father in the 
 Melksham circuit, who had broken down in his work. 
 This brought me again into contact with Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie, who resided as second minister at Chippenham. 
 For months I was his colleague, and was a witness 
 of his diligence and devotion. My father said it was 
 impossible to stir his bile. Though very much tried, 
 he never spoke an angry word. He was much from 
 home ; but in taking his country appointments he was 
 most diligent and conscientious. His custom was to visit 
 every house he could, and to pray with every family." 
 
 Of this conscientiousness in attending to the country 
 places a somewhat amusing instance is related of him 
 while in the Melksham circuit. One of the places at 
 which in turn he had to minister was Tinhead, a 
 romantic Wiltshire hamlet, not far removed, if tradition 
 is to be credited, from the spot where good King 
 Alfred burned the cakes ; and where the Methodist 
 chapel abuts on the far-famed Salisbury Plain, four 
 or five feet of the chalk down having been cut away 
 to make space for it. Owing to some other engage- 
 ment, Mackenzie was, on one occasion, unable to take 
 his appointment there. The matter was not forgotten, 
 however, and, regarding himself as in their debt, at
 
 DOUBLE MEASURE H9 
 
 his next visit he had no sooner finished one service 
 than he announced another to pay off the old score. 
 And more marvellous still, and what probably could 
 only occur in the experience of a preacher as racy as 
 himself, it is stated that of those who had listened 
 to the first sermon, only one failed to hear the second, 
 and that because an engagement demanded her presence 
 elsewhere. 
 
 An incident similar to this transpired, it seems, in 
 the Gateshead circuit, during Mackenzie's period in it. 
 Mr. John Burdess of Jarrow says : " I once remarked 
 to a friend, in Mr. Mackenzie's presence, that the last 
 ticket of membership I received in the Gateshead 
 circuit was from the hand of Mr. Mackenzie himself, 
 after he had preached us two sermons at one sitting. 
 Mr. Mackenzie, in response to the remark, at once 
 said, ' Ay, that was at Wreckenton.' He had come 
 into the circuit in September, and previous to the 
 visitation for the December tickets, he had failed twice 
 to take his appointment at Wreckenton, on account 
 of missionary meetings and other special engagements, 
 and there were some complaints of neglect. So, on 
 the occasion referred to, when he had finished his 
 week-night sermon, he said, ' Now, friends, I have 
 rather neglected you lately, so we will sing a hymn, 
 and I will preach you another sermon.' He did so, 
 and when it was finished, he remarked, ' Now, I have 
 two classes to meet for tickets, and some of you may 
 have to get up by the first caller, or I would have 
 given you another.' He thus made himself straight 
 with us at once, in accordance with his avowed 
 principle of paying as he went on, and having no 
 back -reckonings."
 
 i$o LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 A correspondent, Jesse Warfield of Chippenham, 
 says that Mackenzie's first service there was on a 
 Wednesday evening, when he missed his way to the 
 chapel, and arrived late. The first words in his 
 opening prayer so impressed one man who was present 
 that since then he has lived a Christian life, and 
 become a useful local preacher. This correspondent 
 adds that Mr. Mackenzie was always very kind to the 
 local preachers and to the poor ; and that the Chippen- 
 ham friends made him a present of a Bible when he left. 
 
 Devotion in Mackenzie always lived next door to 
 humour, and as neighbours the two were on such 
 intimate terms that they continuously exchanged 
 greetings. One night, in this circuit, he had to join 
 his colleagues on their way to a missionary meeting. 
 Instead of waiting for them exactly at the appointed 
 spot, he waylaid the phaeton, and, stopping the horse, 
 called out in stentorian tones, " Your money or your 
 life ! " This demand brought the full force of whip 
 and umbrella down upon his shoulders from those who 
 sat in front ; but the mistake was speedily discovered, 
 and the would - be highwayman welcomed into the 
 conveyance, and borne forward to expend the exuber- 
 ance of his spirits in graphic and racy descriptions of 
 missionary toil. 
 
 The following letters show the spirit in which 
 Mackenzie, at this time, entered into the toils of his 
 somewhat unpromising field of labour. 
 
 TO MR. THOMAS ELLIOTT. 
 
 CHIPPENHAM, WILTS, March 21, 1862. 
 
 MY VERT DEAR BROTHER, Many thanks for your kind letter. 
 I should be glad if the Lord would be pleased to appoint me
 
 M UL TUM IN PAR VO 151 
 
 near you by and by. I shall not move this next year, as the good 
 work is going on. Another year will, with the blessing of God, 
 put the circuit into working order ; and I do think that it will 
 be better to stay. They only give 100, and I keep a pony and 
 trap out of that. I don't get anything for the children, and still 
 I have Plenty. My dear brother, it is worth a great deal to me 
 that I had a few years in the pit ; that I know how to stick to a 
 " hard cavil," how to drive through nipped coal. She has been 
 cracking here for some time, and you may send the Barrowman 
 in when I get more in my head and also in my heart. 
 
 A "cavil," as has been already explained, is the 
 location appointed by lot to each miner at the 
 beginning of the quarter. "Nipped coal" is coal 
 which has been compressed between the floor of the 
 seam and the roof, and which, through the constraint 
 thus put upon it, has gained a tough, wooden consist- 
 ence, hard to deal with. At times the pressure is 
 so great as to crush the coal and make it break off 
 from the face in lumps or slices, with loud cracking 
 reports. This makes the work of the hewer much 
 easier, and this is what Mackenzie refers to above, 
 when he says, " She has been cracking here for some 
 time." " Barrowman " was another term for " putter " ; 
 and to ask to have the barrowman sent in was an 
 intimation that there was a good supply of loose coals 
 ready to be filled into the tubs. 
 
 TO MR. THOMAS ELLIOTT. 
 
 CHIPPENHAM, WILTS, June 25, 1863. 
 
 MY VERT DEAR BROTHER IN JESUS, Many thanks for your 
 kind letter, it did me good to hear from you. Thanks be to 
 God that we are still found with our faces Zionward. Hallelujah 
 to God and the Lamb ! It gets better and better, and still we 
 look for good things to come. What a glorious hope is ours 
 while here on earth we stay.
 
 152 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 The Lord has, is, and shall bless us in this circuit. More than 
 a hundred and fifty have joined with us, and they are doing 
 very well. May the Lord bless them for His name's sake ! If 
 I am received into full connexion I shall stay here another year, 
 God willing. Could you come up and see us for a week if spared, 
 some time this back-end, before the cold weather comes 1 Try, 
 you will enjoy it, and also get a few souls brought to the 
 Saviour. 
 
 It would appear from Mackenzie's Text - Book, 
 already so often quoted from, that it was at Chippen- 
 ham, on May 23, 1864, that his first lecture was 
 delivered, the subject being the Bible. This inference 
 is confirmed by Mr. Barber, who says : " It was in this 
 circuit that he first commenced to lecture. His lecture 
 on the Bible, given at Chippenham, was considered a 
 great success, and attracted immense notice. The 
 place resounded with his praises. No doubt he was 
 assured he had a talent in that direction, and the 
 necessity for aiding financially many a struggling 
 cause, induced him to put his energies into that sort 
 of work." 
 
 Mr. Barber also records the conviction, derived 
 from frequent encounters with Mackenzie in later 
 years, that amid the abundant labours which lecturing 
 entailed upon him, there was no diminution of his 
 piety. 
 
 The termination of"" the first twelve months of 
 labour in the Melksham circuit brought to an end 
 Mackenzie's four years of ministerial probation, and 
 at the Conference of 1863, held at Sheffield, under 
 the presidency of the Eev. George Osborn, D.D., he 
 was received into full connexion. At the Bath 
 District Synod, in the preceding May, he was 
 examined by the chairman, the Eev. Francis A. West.
 
 v A RASPER 153 
 
 Among the subjects of examination were Pearson on 
 the Creed and St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, and 
 the questions were very searching. Mr. West spoke 
 very strongly to Mackenzie on the necessity for 
 reading and study, saying, among other things, " Tap 
 an empty barrel, and what have you ? " Mackenzie, 
 who, with all his zeal, never lacked application, was 
 not likely to come under this designation, and perhaps 
 hardly relished the remark, observing privately of Mr. 
 West, to another of the candidates, " He is a rasper ! " 
 
 " The brethren," observed the venerable divine, 
 " think you will be more useful if you control your- 
 self, and take time to clothe your ideas." " Yes, Mr. 
 Chairman," answered Mackenzie, " but there are so 
 many of them, and they come so fast, that I haven't 
 even time to get their shirts on." In an instant the 
 fathers and brethren were convulsed. Mackenzie 
 solemnly retired, while the chairman looked slightly 
 disconcerted. 
 
 The Rev. Edward Dodds writes : 
 
 "In 1865 Mr. Mackenzie paid what was, I believe, 
 his first visit to Cornwall, and on Thursday, June 1, 
 came to St. Just, where I was then stationed. He 
 preached in the large chapel that night to a good 
 congregation, from Luke xxiii 3943, and announced 
 that he would preach the next morning at half-past 
 five o'clock, before the miners went to their ' core.' 
 At the appointed hour he was in the pulpit, and had 
 a capital audience. He preached an excellent sermon 
 from Matt. XL 28, etc. 
 
 " In the forenoon of that day I had the pleasure 
 of driving him to the Land's End, the coast scenery 
 of which, and the sea breezes from the Atlantic, he
 
 154 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 greatly enjoyed. There chanced to be a professional 
 guide on the spot at the time, who was one of our 
 worshippers in the adjoining village of Sennen, and 
 who freely discoursed on the stories associated with 
 the locality. He told us of the folly of a gentleman 
 who once laid a wager that he would ride his horse 
 to the farthest point of that narrow promontory. 
 The animal, becoming more nervous than its foolish 
 rider, began to plunge and go backward towards the 
 southern end of the cliff; whereupon, perceiving the 
 danger, the man slipped off the saddle, and the horse 
 the victim of the wild adventure fell over and 
 perished. Peter denounced the madness of the man 
 who could attempt such a feat. 
 
 " But the next recital touched him deeply. The 
 guide pointed to a flat piece of rock in the turf, and 
 said that was called ' Wesley's Stone,' because 
 thereon Charles Wesley had conceived the hymn 
 numbered 59 in our hymn-book, the second verse of 
 which begins 
 
 Lo ! on a narrow neck of land 
 'Twixt two unbounded seas I stand, 
 Secure, insensible. 
 
 " Brother Mackenzie listened to the end of the story, 
 then, planting his feet upon the stone, and with the 
 Bristol Channel on our right, the English Channel on 
 our left, and before us the great watery highway to 
 America, he solemnly repeated a portion of the hymn, 
 and then, taking off his hat, said, ' Let us pray.' 
 
 " He knelt on the stone and we on the grass, and 
 immediately commenced to praise God for raising up 
 the Wesleys, for the work they accomplished through-
 
 A GRATEFUL SPIRIT 155 
 
 out the country, and especially in Cornwall, for the souls 
 saved and the Societies formed, and for the continu- 
 ance of the work by their successors. He earnestly 
 implored a blessing upon Cornwall, upon the ministers 
 and Societies in the circuit, upon myself and our 
 companion. Prayer to him was seldom out of place, 
 and he could engage in it readily and appropriately. 
 That short open-air service was refreshing to us all. 
 He lectured in the evening at St. Just, to a crowded 
 congregation, on the Bible, and so finished services 
 which were full of power and blessing." 
 
 The entry made by Mackenzie at the close of the 
 record of the services held at Bowden Hill, in the 
 Melksham circuit, is as follows : " Blessed be God for 
 all the good times I have had here. The Lord has 
 built us a chapel, and it is paid for, and His name 
 shall be glorified. They made me a present of three 
 pounds when I left." 
 
 From information supplied by Charles Maggs, Esq., 
 J.P., of Melksham, it seems that the chapel here 
 referred to was built between Bowden Hill and Lacock, 
 that it might serve both places. It is now known as 
 Lacock, and is comprised in the Melksham section of 
 the Wiltshire Mission. This place, and the record 
 left concerning it, are illustrations of how easy it was 
 for Mackenzie's happy, grateful spirit to educe matter 
 for congratulation out of what to many would have 
 afforded only ground for discouragement. He blesses 
 God for all the good times he has had at a place, not 
 where there were crowds and cheers, but of which it 
 is stated that a very meagre society and congregation 
 have belonged to it through all its history. Perhaps 
 it was their genial quality, rather than their numbers,
 
 156 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 that led their minister to write of them in the same 
 gratulatory spirit that Paul manifests towards the 
 Philippians. Mr. Maggs says he knew Mackenzie 
 well, and though only a boy himself at the time, he 
 remembers the crowds who flocked to hear him, and 
 the hot haste to which he urged his pony, with a crack 
 of the whip and a shout of " Hallelujah ! "
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 BACK TO THE NORTH GATESHEAD 1865-1868 
 
 The Gateshead Circuit Missionary Meeting Episodes Fighting 
 a Bear Lighting up the World " Three Happy Years " 
 New Chapels Story of Whickham " 'Twas Peter" Home 
 Life Testimony of Rev. W. Calvert A Lively Pony A 
 Dashing Driver. 
 
 I HAVE a distinct recollection of the mingling of 
 trepidation and wholesome pride with which I 
 received the visit of the late Mr. Silas Kent of 
 Gateshead, who, on Friday, January 5, 1866, came 
 to invite me to take the place of third minister in the 
 Gateshead circuit, where Mackenzie was then labour- 
 ing as second. I had been sent as supply to the 
 Bishop Auckland circuit at the previous Conference, 
 was but an inexperienced youth, and could not but 
 feel honoured at being asked to become co-worker 
 with one so widely popular as Peter Mackenzie. 
 Many happy colleagueships have smiled on me since 
 then ; but for oneness of aim, thoroughness of brotherly 
 intercourse, constant co-operation on the part of the 
 people, and remarkable success, those Gateshead years 
 still wear for me by far the most shining garments. 
 
 Our superintendent was the Rev. Robert Haworth, 
 a man beloved wherever he laboured for his sincerity 
 
 167
 
 i $8 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 and devotion, his large-heartedness, and his overflow- 
 ing geniality. In the sunniness of his nature he was 
 hardly second to Peter himself. What a treat it was 
 to accompany those two men to a missionary meeting ! 
 The circuit was large, so large that it included sixteen 
 of those annual gatherings, and never, before or since, 
 have I known anything to equal them for attendance, 
 for enthusiasm, and general success. The superin- 
 tendent would open with a few cheery, heart-stirring 
 words, such as were likely to put the meeting into 
 thoroughly good humour, and then, when the " young 
 man " had spoken, Mackenzie would finish up with an 
 outpouring of humour, description, pathos, and ex- 
 hortation such as only he was capable of producing. 
 
 A favourite story with him during those missionary 
 campaigns was that of the man who, out in the Far 
 West, when his wooden shanty was invaded by a 
 prowling bear, escaped into the loft, drawing the 
 ladder up after him, and leaving his wife below to 
 battle with the dangerous intruder. From the man 
 above she received showers of encouragement as she 
 contended with the bear. As Mackenzie put it, " he 
 fairly sweated with sympathy," and when the brute 
 was slain, he hurried down and stood proudly over the 
 carcase, exclaiming, " Isn't he a big one ? Haven't we 
 done well ? " To see this incident dramatised in every 
 detail by the inimitable powers of the speaker, with a 
 running fire of withering comment on those who have 
 nothing for a good cause but sentimental sympathy, 
 was to gain possession of a picture such as the 
 memory could never forego. 
 
 About two miles from Gateshead, the main road 
 rises considerably as it passes through the small
 
 THREE HAPPY YEARS 159 
 
 village of Sheriff Hill. From this point, on dark 
 nights in winter, the lamps in the streets of Gateshead 
 and across the Tyne in Newcastle formed a striking 
 spectacle ; and among the most effective passages in 
 Mackenzie's missionary speeches was one in which he 
 described, with gesture graphic as his phrase, the 
 flashing of those lights into existence one by one, and 
 then, spreading before us the map of a darkened earth, 
 showed us the missionary lighting up one land after 
 another, until the whole world was gladdened with a 
 divine illumination. 
 
 Strikingly successful as were those missionary 
 gatherings, the ordinary services were in interest and 
 power but little behind them. The Sunday evening 
 congregation in High West Street Chapel was so large, 
 even as a regular thing, that forms had to be placed 
 in the aisles, and hardly ever did one of those services 
 pass without visible results in the form of conversions 
 to God. 
 
 How successful those years were, and how refreshing 
 to Mackenzie's own spirit, is evidenced by the record 
 he has left concerning them : " Three happy years. In 
 September 1865, 839 members, and in September 
 1868, 1500, with more than 200 on trial And during 
 the three years 4600 raised for chapels and chapel 
 debts. To God be all the glory ! " 
 
 New chapels were commenced, if not completed, 
 during this period, at Usworth Colliery, Winlaton, 
 Whickham, and Bill Quay, besides sundry alterations 
 and enlargements. The erection of the chapel at 
 Whickham was a case of more than ordinary interest. 
 The services were held in what at other times was 
 used as a butcher's shop, and for forty years the
 
 160 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 Methodist cause had been exceedingly feeble. When 
 the effort to obtain a new chapel was begun, there 
 were only eight members in church fellowship, three 
 of whom were over sixty and three over seventy years 
 of age ; and owing to the predominating and unfriendly 
 influence of the Established Church in the village, it 
 had been impracticable for years to obtain a building 
 site. All these difficulties were surmounted, however, 
 and when, in a moment of youthful enthusiasm, the 
 junior minister expressed a determination to raise by 
 his own endeavours the sum of at least one hundred 
 pounds, considerable sympathy was evoked, and generous 
 help forthcoming. 
 
 The story of this effort would not be related here 
 so fully were it not for the light it throws on Mac- 
 kenzie's character, and on the high estimation in which 
 he was held by the people generally. The photographs 
 of the ministers were taken in a group as well as 
 singly, and from the sale of these alone a profit of 
 twenty-six pounds was added to the building fund. 
 Then my generous colleague, one day on returning from a 
 lecturing tour, handed me his gold watch-chain, which 
 I exchanged at a jeweller's for three guineas. A sum 
 of ten pounds was also realised on the sale of certain 
 verses which, half in fun and half in earnest, I had 
 scribbled concerning Mackenzie. The verses are 
 given here, not because of any intrinsic merit they 
 possess, their poetic quality being of the slightest, but 
 because of the interest which the circumstances lend 
 to them, and because the writer, having failed to 
 suppress them entirely, and having met with several 
 garbled versions at different times, concludes it is 
 better on the whole, at whatever crucifixion of his
 
 A FAREWELL RHYME 161 
 
 taste, to let them appear as they were originally 
 printed. When Mackenzie left the circuit, farewell 
 tea-meetings were arranged at many of the places, and 
 it was at such a gathering, held at Blaydon, that these 
 rhymes were first recited, my magnanimous colleague 
 receiving them with as much enjoyment as any in 
 the audience. 
 
 'TWAS PETER. 
 
 LINES WRITTEN ON THE REV. PETER MACKENZIE LEAVING 
 THE GATESHEAD CIRCUIT. 
 
 My numbers are feeble and small, 
 And yet they may serve to portray 
 
 The likeness of one whom we all 
 Shall love and remember for aye. 
 
 His figure was portly and good, 
 His manner quite cheery and bland, 
 
 From your fingers he banished the blood 
 When he gave you a shake of the hand. 
 
 His face was as happy and fair 
 As the sun on a fine summer day ; 
 
 His voice cut the throat of all care, 
 And frightened ill-temper away. 
 
 His mind was a curious thing : 
 
 The classic, the comic, the sage, 
 With a rush or a roll or a spring, 
 
 Came out of this wonderful cage. 
 
 His heart was a nugget of love 
 Dug out of the mine of God's grace, 
 
 To old friends it stuck like a glove, 
 And for new ones could still find a place. 
 
 But, now, lest my verse should grow tame, 
 
 I'll venture to alter the metre, 
 In order to tell you his name, 
 
 Which was what? Was it Simon? No, Peter. 
 
 ii
 
 1 62 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 Who was it came to Gateshead town 
 When the Methodists were looking down, 
 Yes, came without his bands and gown? 
 'Twos Peter. 
 
 Who filled the chapels very soon, 
 Both in the country and the "toon," 
 And put the people into tune? 
 
 'Twas Peter. 
 
 Who was it won the love of all, 
 The young, the old, the great, the small, 
 By ways that did their hearts enthrall ? 
 'Twas Peter. 
 
 Who gave you lectures on the Tongue, 
 The Sabbath, if I am not wrong, 
 God's Providence and Samson strong? 
 'Twas Peter. 
 
 Who oft upon the Mission theme 
 Threw many a bright and witty gleam, 
 As from his lips the words did stream ? 
 'Twas Peter. 
 
 Who came to public meetings oft, 
 And made you laugh until you coughed, 
 With speeches neither small nor soft? 
 'Twas Peter. 
 
 Who dashed along the road like lightning 
 In Charlie's rapid speed delighting, 
 And many a timid spirit frightening? 
 'Twas Peter. 
 
 Who christened babies by the score, 
 And gave them kisses one or more, 
 As loud as breakers on the shore? 
 'Twas Peter. 
 
 Who is it now about to leave, 
 A thing we scarcely can believe, 
 Makes many a saddened spirit grieve? 
 'Tis Peter.
 
 HIS HOME LIFE 163 
 
 Who is it that when far away 
 We'll think about for many a day, 
 And for his weal and welfare pray? 
 Tis Peter. 
 
 Who is it that beyond the skies 
 We hope to see with gladdened eyes 
 Amid the light that never dies? 
 
 'Tis Peter. 
 
 Concerning Whickham, it only remains to be added 
 that with the aid of photographs, watch-chain, rhymes, 
 lectures, and subscriptions, the promised hundred 
 pounds grew into about one hundred and twenty, and 
 other friends helping freely, a pretty little chapel 
 was reared on a suitable site, which has since proved 
 the home of a successful Methodist Church. 
 
 An interesting peep into Mackenzie's home-life at 
 this period, which may be taken as a type of what 
 it was at all times, is furnished by the Kev. W. 
 Calvert. 
 
 " In January 1866, I was sent to supply a vacancy 
 that had occurred in the Gateshead circuit, where I 
 had the great pleasure and privilege of living in Mr. 
 Mackenzie's house until the following Conference. 
 During those months he was to me more a father 
 than a colleague. I think I had not been in his 
 house two minutes before we were kneeling together 
 in his study, and in his own impressive and original 
 way he was praying that we might be happy and 
 useful together. The next thing was heartily to 
 assure me that I was welcome to the free use of any 
 book in his library. It was generally at breakfast 
 that he inquired about my studies, and when he 
 knew that I had fixed on a new subject, or text, he
 
 164 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 would look through his excellent library, and bring 
 down into my room two, three, or half a dozen books 
 bearing on the subject. 
 
 " The unity of Mr. Mackenzie's character was 
 perfect. He was the same bright, cheery, happy, 
 racy man in private life as in public. Indeed, to 
 spend one evening in his company was to know as 
 much about his spirit and disposition as you would 
 learn from a longer and more intimate association. 
 I never saw him vary. I have heard him call up 
 his eldest daughter in the morning, after this manner. 
 Standing on the landing of the stairs, he would call 
 out in stentorian tones, and with his own peculiar 
 accent, ' Janet ! Janet ! are you in a horizontal 
 or a perpendicular position ? ' Or, ' Janet ! Janet ! can 
 you read small print ? } In the same bright 
 and cheery spirit he treated everybody through the 
 day wife, children, myself, or callers. By the way, 
 when callers showed a disposition to occupy more of 
 his time than he could spare, after the business in 
 hand was settled, he sometimes dismissed them with 
 prayer. He said, when the benediction was pro- 
 nounced, they seemed to understand that the service 
 was closed. 
 
 " His prayers in the family, if I may refer to them, 
 were powerful and pithy, exactly after the style of 
 his public prayers. I have heard him at the family 
 altar name separately almost every place on the 
 circuit plan, offering two or three brief petitions 
 suggested by the need and condition of each place. 
 
 "Always happy and cheerful himself, he spread 
 sunshine throughout his home. Now that we shall 
 see him no more in the flesh, I have been thinking
 
 GRAMMAR AT A DISCOUNT 165 
 
 the old times over, and I have no recollection of ever 
 having heard him say an unkind or uncharitable 
 word to or of anyone. He was a living embodiment 
 of the Christian spirit. 
 
 "As a companion and colleague, he was both 
 delightful and devout. At Gateshead he kept a pony 
 and trap. ' Charlie ' was well fed and in good 
 condition for work, and his master was a very lively 
 driver. We used to drive to our appointments at 
 no sleepy pace. When Charlie was going ahead in 
 fine style one summer night, Mr. Mackenzie exclaimed, 
 ' If John Wesley's doctrine of the resurrection of 
 animals be correct, if the laws of heaven permit, I 
 will have a race with Michael the archangel on the 
 plains of heaven.' Once when we started from the 
 stable, Charlie, being in unusually high spirits, turned 
 the wrong way up the street and reared and pranced 
 about considerably before Mr. Mackenzie could get 
 him turned about. Years after I heard him give 
 the following version of this little episode : ' Charlie 
 started for the moon, but his hind legs refused 
 to support the resolution.' 
 
 " When driving together once, he said, ' Do you 
 know any grammar, Mr. Calvert?' I answered 
 modestly, 'Yes, a little, Mr. Mackenzie.' His very 
 geniality provoked reprisals. I was in no dread of 
 my colleague's displeasure, and saw no reason why I 
 should not turn examiner, so I said ' Do you know 
 any grammar, Mr. Mackenzie ? ' ' Not a yard,' was 
 his cheery reply. 
 
 " But our conversation was not all of this nature. 
 It seemed perfectly natural and easy to him to turn 
 at once from what was so bright and gay to a talk
 
 166 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 on entire sanctification, or any other serious and 
 spiritual subject pertaining to our life and work. 
 
 " Mr. Mackenzie was a man to be loved, and the 
 more you knew him, the more you loved him. His 
 public gifts and character are well known, but to me 
 it will always be a happy recollection that I admired 
 and loved him most because of my knowledge of his 
 private life." 
 
 Mackenzie's pony was a great assistance to us in 
 our circuit work, for we had his permission to use it 
 freely when he was absent from home. As an illus- 
 tration of the happy terms on which as colleagues 
 we lived and worked together, I may relate here how 
 one Saturday evening I went to lecture at a country 
 place, and how the kindly superintendent took the 
 chair, and Mackenzie, in spite of his multitudinous 
 engagements, went also, and sat on the platform, to 
 clerk encouraging responses. One point urged in the 
 lecture was the importance of each man having and 
 maintaining an individuality of his own, instead of 
 becoming a second edition of someone else, and it was 
 very amusing, as we drove home together afterwards, 
 to hear Peter exclaim, as he touched the animal 
 lightly with the whip, "Now then, sir, get along, 
 realise your individuality ! " 
 
 He was a sure but dashing driver, enjoying im- 
 mensely a rapid spin when the course was clear, the 
 road good, and Charlie in fine condition. To a local 
 preacher who sat beside him in the trap one day, 
 somewhat alarmed at the pace, he said, " Don't be 
 afraid, brother, you are as safe as if 3 T ou were sitting 
 in Gabriel's arm-chair."
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 SUNDERLAND SANS STREET 1868-1871 
 
 Division of Sunderland Circuit Rev. Thomas Vasey A 
 Promising Appointment An Apparent Failure Misstate- 
 ments and Exaggerated Expectations Tides of Spiritual 
 Influence Sans Street Chapel Memorable Watch-nights 
 Extracts from Mackenzie's Text-Book Attempt to Garrote 
 Him Apocryphal Stories. 
 
 
 
 AT the Conference of 1868 the Methodist churches 
 of Sunderland were divided into three circuits, 
 Sans Street, Fawcett Street, and Whitburn Street. 
 To the first-named of these Mackenzie was appointed 
 as second minister. In the following year a third 
 minister was employed, and in that capacity I had 
 the pleasure of being associated with him once more, 
 with the Eev. Thomas Vasey as superintendent. 
 
 Mr. Vasey was one of the most devoted and power- 
 ful preachers Methodism has ever known. His memoir, 
 written by his widow, furnishes ample evidence of his 
 ability, his self-sacrifice, and his success in winning 
 souls. His ministry in Newcastle during the three 
 years immediately preceding had been characterised 
 by remarkable manifestations of power, and when our 
 work in Sunderland began, all hearts were big with 
 anticipation. For reasons difficult to divine, thig 
 
 iff
 
 1 68 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 expectation was not realised. The distance between 
 Newcastle and Gateshead and Sunderland is only 
 twelve miles ; the people were of a similar type, and 
 were kind and helpful ; the ministers who had worked 
 so prosperously in the former places were working 
 here in the same spirit, and yet there came not the 
 same success. 
 
 A writer in the Durham Chronicle, for November 
 29, 1895, referring to this period, says : 
 
 " Twenty-five years ago Mr. Mackenzie was one of 
 the Sans Street circuit ministers in Sunderland. His 
 colleague was the Eev. Joseph Dawson, and the 
 superintendent was the late Eev. Thomas Vasey. 
 Probably never in all his ministerial career did the 
 deceased meet with a heavier disappointment than he 
 did then, for during the three years the congrega- 
 tion dwindled to almost skeleton proportions. Mr. 
 Mackenzie could not have been to blame for this ; Mr. 
 Vasey was a very prince of preachers, and was to 
 have been nominated President of the Conference the 
 year he died ; while Mr. Dawson (who happily still 
 lives) was one of the younger ministers of the body, 
 and a man of high promise. With Sans Street pulpit 
 so splendidly manned, a rare success was looked for ; 
 but, instead, there was failure so manifest and so 
 unlooked-for, that it all but broke Mr. Vasey's heart. 
 In any current criticisms on Mr. Mackenzie's circuit- 
 work proper, let the above facts be borne in mind. 
 Congregations do not always prosper, even under the 
 most favourable conditions in the pulpit. ' The wind 
 bloweth where it listeth.' " 
 
 This account, while kindly in spirit, and animated 
 by a praiseworthy desire to shield the memory of
 
 MISSTA TEMENTS 169 
 
 Mackenzie from misunderstanding, betrays an im- 
 perfect acquaintance with the facts. There was dis- 
 appointment, but not to the extent to which the writer 
 seems to imagine. The congregations, either at Sans 
 Street or the other chapels in the circuit, certainly did 
 not dwindle, nor was there serious decrease in the 
 membership. When Mackenzie came on the ground 
 in 1868, the total number of members for Sans Street, 
 Fawcett Street, and Whitburn Street, which up to 
 that time had been returned as two circuits, was 
 1666; in 1869 it was for Sans street 794, and for 
 the three circuits combined 1847, being an increase 
 on the year of 181. In 1870 it was for Sans Street 
 864, being an increase of 70, and in 1871 it stood at 
 843, a decrease of 21. 
 
 The disappointment at not seeing sinners converted 
 in larger numbers in Sunderland was undoubtedly great 
 to both Mackenzie and his colleagues, and probably 
 exercised a depressing effect on the health of Mr. 
 Vasey, but it was a disappointment exaggerated by 
 over-sanguine and perhaps not altogether reasonable 
 expectations. The great wave of spiritual influence 
 which had passed over Newcastle and Gateshead 
 during the preceding three years was now subsiding, 
 .and it was no longer possible to be borne on its crest 
 to wonderful spiritual achievements. As the critic 
 just quoted observes, " The wind bloweth where it 
 listeth " ; and without attempting to account for the 
 fact, it is sufficient to note what must have impressed 
 every observant man, that there are tides in religious 
 history, exhilarating in their glorious flow, depressing 
 in their mournful ebb, but almost as far beyond our 
 control as those that break upon the ocean strand.
 
 170 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 A great thinker, speaking of the Divine Being and of 
 His action in the spiritual world, remarks very justly : 
 " Whatever He may be in Himself, His manifestations 
 to IAS do not lie still before us in the sleep of a frozen 
 sea ; they break out of this motionless eternity ; they 
 sweep in mighty tides of nature and of history, with 
 flux and reflux ; they are alive with shifting streaks 
 of light and gloom ; and have the changing voice of 
 many waters. And the clearer and more spiritual 
 they are, the more marked is this fluctuating 
 character: and they affect us, not as the dead of 
 noon or the dead of night, but as the quick-flushing 
 morning, or the tender pulses of the northern lights." 
 
 Sans Street Chapel at this period was suffering, 
 and continued to do even more severely afterwards, 
 from the fate that has overtaken so many fine old 
 Methodist sanctuaries, when, owing to changes in the 
 local surroundings, to fill and support them becomes 
 increasingly difficult. But in spite of the movement 
 towards the suburbs, the congregation was certainly 
 not thin, and on the week-evening was often remark- 
 ably good. A few earnest workers stood outside 
 every Sunday evening to give a kindly word to 
 passers-by, and as the result, at one service as many 
 as two hundred strangers have been known to enter 
 and join in the worship. 
 
 The watch-night service in that venerable sanctuary 
 was a sight to be remembered. The place was crowded, 
 and as the mystic hour of midnight approached, men 
 slunk in from the neighbouring public-houses and 
 stood in the porch and aisles, impelled by an irresist- 
 ible desire to spend the few final moments of the old 
 year in what they felt to be a more sacred atmosphere.
 
 FOILED GARROTTERS 171 
 
 I remember pushing my way into the crowded aisle 
 on one of those occasions, after conducting a similar 
 service elsewhere. Near me stood an elderly man, 
 whom drink had made loquacious, and as Mr. Vasey 
 went on speaking, he said : " Too long ! too long ! 
 There are two other fellows in this town, Dawson and 
 Bishop, both shorter ; they make the round, he makes 
 the square." 
 
 What Mackenzie's own estimate was of his sojourn 
 in this circuit may be gathered in slight measure 
 from the records he has left concerning the various 
 places. 
 
 Sans Street. Grand old chapel, and has been nicely filled, and 
 many good times, but in prayer the people are feeble, most 
 feeble ; and but few have been saved during my sojourn. 
 
 Herrington Street. The place is progressing slowly but surely, 
 and will do well. 
 
 This was a new chapel in a new neighbourhood, 
 and its subsequent history has fairly justified Mac- 
 kenzie's prognostication. 
 
 High Street, East. They want shepherding, and encourage- 
 ment, and help. A few brought in. 
 
 Whitburn Street. Kind, quiet people, with very little religious 
 life or fervour among them. About half of them stand with 
 their mouths shut when God's praise is being sung. 
 
 Ryhope. Our kind friends gave me the Life and Times of 
 John Wesley. Many blessings on them ! 
 
 Seaham Harbour. Generally good feeling, but little fruit. 
 Unity wanted. 
 
 Seaton Colliery. A few striving for the good of the cause. 
 
 It was while resident in Sunderland that an 
 attempt was made to garrote Mackenzie. A few 
 of ua had been invited to spend the evening at the
 
 172 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 house of one of the friends. Mackenzie's own house 
 lay about three hundred yards away, down a dark, 
 narrow lane with high hedges on either side, a 
 locality that has since then been entirely built over. 
 He had gone home for a season between tea and 
 supper to attend to some correspondence, and it was 
 while returning along the rather uncanny road that 
 two fellows sprang out upon him, and did their best 
 to relieve him of his watch and money. The task 
 was harder than they had bargained for. Striking 
 out vigorously, he sent them sprawling, and doubtless 
 begat in them the resolve that on their next exploit 
 they would select a victim with less power of muscle 
 and with less knowledge of how to use it. Mackenzie 
 returned to the company somewhat flurried and 
 dishevelled, and minus his hat, but little the worse 
 for the fray. A search was instituted immediately, 
 but neither then nor afterwards could any trace of 
 the assailants be discovered. 
 
 Several apocryphal stories have grown out of this 
 incident, such as his having been assaulted by a man 
 to whom he tendered half a crown, and to whom on 
 its refusal he administered a good thrashing, and his 
 having been set upon by three sturdy colliers who 
 wished to rob him of a collection-box, and others of 
 a similar nature. It is not surprising that round a 
 personality so remarkable there should gather a thick 
 incrustation of legend ; but it is somewhat astonish- 
 ing, to use no stronger word, that people who profess 
 to admire his character and to honour his memory 
 should aid in the circulation of incidents that are not 
 only devoid of foundation, but calculated to place 
 him in an unenviable light.
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 NEWCASTLE- ON-T YNE BLENHEIM STREET 1871-1874 
 
 Removal to Newcastle The Preachers' Meeting Testimony of 
 the Revs. John Fletcher and William Jessop Tribute in 
 British Weekly Numerous Engagements Letter to Mr. 
 Thomas Elliott " The Philistines and Blucher "Letter to 
 Eli Atkin, Esq. In a Railway Collision " The Block 
 System " The Question of Compensation Sympathy of 
 Friends " Text and Notes " Characteristic Comments. 
 
 rTlHERE is only the river Tyne between Newcastle 
 -L and Gateshead, so that in removing from 
 Sunder land to the first-named town, Mackenzie was 
 returning to scenes and people with whom his residence 
 in Gateshead had rendered him familiar. Indeed, he 
 was by this time well known throughout the North of 
 England, as well as farther afield, and eagerly sought 
 after both as a lecturer and preacher. 
 
 The Rev. John Fletcher, who was superintendent of 
 the circuit when Mackenzie entered it, says of him : 
 " He came to me in 1871 at Newcastle-on-Tyne. As 
 a colleague, he was everything I could desire, and my 
 children adored him. He had engaged to take the 
 work as planned, and he faithfully kept his engage- 
 ment One week in three was a clear week, so that 
 he could go off from Monday to Saturday. 
 
 173
 
 174 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 " On the weeks he was at home, he was very 
 regular at the preachers' meeting, and mounted to my 
 room singing the first verse of Hymn 630, generally 
 reaching the door with the concluding lines 
 
 When brethren all in one agree, 
 Who knows the joys of unity ? 
 
 And we realised the joy. I have lost a dear friend, 
 and the world seems the poorer for his departure. 
 My last interview was at Queen's Eoad, Peckham, on 
 the 9th of last April. He preached from Psalm evil 
 7, I think the best sermon I ever heard him preach. 
 Some of his week-night sermons at Blenheim Street 
 Chapel were very good. My daughter speaks highly of 
 his Sunday morning sermons those, of course, I never 
 heard." 
 
 The reference here made by Mr. Fletcher to his 
 daughter concerns an appreciative tribute written by 
 her for the British Weekly, at the time of Mackenzie's 
 death, in which she says : "A Sunday morning 
 discourse, preached in his own circuit chapel, showed 
 him at his best a man of native genius, true and 
 robust piety, and manly humour. He was not a 
 ranter by any means. There was good material, 
 carefully prepared, in his sermons, and he worked 
 steadily at preparation." 
 
 The Eev. William Jessop, Mackenzie's superin- 
 tendent afterwards in the Shipley circuit, makes a 
 remark similar to that of Mr. Fletcher in regard to 
 attendance at the preachers' meeting. 
 
 "Though, owing to his eccentric course, he was 
 unable to attend to the details of circuit work, he was 
 seldom absent from our missionary meetings and other
 
 HARD PRESSED 175 
 
 similar public gatherings. Knowing that his course 
 as a Methodist preacher was somewhat abnormal, I 
 intimated to him that he would be expected to attend 
 the weekly preachers' meeting, and requested him to 
 fix the day and hour according to his own convenience. 
 He fixed it at twelve on Saturday, and considering that 
 on the morning of the day he was often scores of 
 miles away, it was remarkable that he was seldom 
 absent, often coining in direct from the station, and 
 bringing a ray of sunshine with him. When his 
 attendance was impracticable, his inbred politeness 
 and courtesy induced him to send a telegram." 
 
 How hard it must have been for him to attend to 
 circuit work, and under what tremendous pressure 
 he lived always, may be gathered from the following 
 letter : 
 
 TO MR. THOMAS ELLIOTT. 
 
 NEWCASTLE, September 21, 1872. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, I should like very much to come 
 over and see you and your kind family and the Swalwell friends 
 again, and will try to do so before I leave the North. But for 
 the present, I am so hard pulled at, that it is quite an act of 
 charity to leave me alone. "Week after week, month after month, 
 at it, at it. If a beast were kept at it as I am, the officers of the 
 Humane Society would be down on the Methodist Connexion for 
 cruelty to animals. 
 
 What would you think of three services in Newcastle, two in 
 Yorkshire, two in Wiltshire, two in Dorsetshire, and one in 
 Bristol, all in one week ? Never mind, the Lord is with us, and 
 He is worthy of the best we can do. I had seven fresh ones 
 to one class on Sabbath last. " The best of all is, God is with 
 us." In much love. 
 
 A few years later, when in Leeds, some friends 
 sought to lighten the labour of his correspondence in
 
 176 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 respect to these multitudinous and ever-increasing 
 engagements. Mr. W. A. Millward, then resident 
 with Mr. Eli Atkin of Newton Heath, Manchester, 
 undertook to provide him a lithographed form of reply 
 to applications for his services. Both gentlemen have 
 since passed to their reward, but through the kindness 
 of Mr. Fred. T. T. Beynolds of Chapel-en-le-Frith, I 
 have been furnished with a letter of Mackenzie's 
 bearing on the promised circular. It will be observed 
 that the innumerable applications he was ever receiv- 
 ing are spoken of as " the Philistines," and the 
 expected form of reply as " Blucher." 
 
 TO ELI ATKIN, ESQ. 
 
 LEEDS, September 22, 1893. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, When I got here yesterday morning, 
 I found the Philistines in great force. I had only two hours, 
 but I drew up my reserved list, and slaughtered one-third of the 
 fresh army ; the others, occupying a strong position, I had to 
 leave in possession of the field. I again returned to the charge 
 this morning, but their numbers having increased during the 
 night, I was compelled to employ an electric battery four hundred 
 miles long, which blew, as you may suppose, a number into the 
 waste-paper basket. Tell Mr. Millward that my only hope of 
 clearing the field is in the upcoming of Blucher. I am holding 
 the fort, but the name of my tormentors is legion, for they are 
 many. In much haste. 
 
 It was during Mackenzie's residence in Newcastle 
 that he was laid aside for a season through the effects 
 of a railway collision. He used to remark humorously 
 that no harm would have come to him if the gentle- 
 man who occupied the opposite seat had kept his 
 place. Instead of that, as soon as the accident 
 occurred he was flung violently against Mackenzie,
 
 THE BLOCK SYSTEM 177 
 
 and came perilously near doing permanent damage to 
 the latter's nose and face. 
 
 Two gentlemen, one of them a doctor, visited him 
 on behalf of the Railway Company, to ascertain the 
 extent of his injuries and to report as to compensation. 
 He presented a somewhat pitiable aspect, though 
 partially recovered, for in addition to loss of flesh and 
 colour, the centre of his face was still occupied by a 
 batch of complicated strips of plaster, forming a sub- 
 stantial casing for the damaged nose. 
 
 The doctor, drawing his chair in front of the invalid 
 said, insinuatingly and graciously, " Now, Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie, tell us how this affair happened." 
 
 "Well," replied Mackenzie, instinctively throwing 
 himself into one of his grotesque attitudes, with 
 accompanying gestures, "I was travelling by your 
 train, and we had just left Thornhill Lees station. 
 In the same compartment with me was one of your 
 officials, and we began to talk of the absolute security 
 of the block system. Suddenly a great shock came 
 upon the train, and my companion's block was pitched 
 into my block, and the hard leather peak of his cap 
 cut into my face just between the eyes." 
 
 Mackenzie went on, " The doctors have done their 
 best to put matters right, and I have tried to help 
 them by pulling the nose into its proper place. I 
 have tried to walk straight through life so far, and 
 I hope still to be able to follow my nose." 
 
 The late Mr. Eitson of Hexham, among others, 
 called to see him during the period of his disablement, 
 and found him laid in bed, reading a newly-acquired 
 volume of theology. " I am reading this dry fellow," 
 he said, " and when I am not busy with him, I spend 
 
 13
 
 i;8 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 the time in pulling my nasal organ to get it straight, 
 so that when I get out again, I may not be likely to 
 turn the wrong corner in the street." When urged 
 by Mr. Kitson to seek compensation, he only enlarged 
 on the kindness and skill of the doctor the Company 
 had provided for him, and on the wonderful manner 
 in which they had carried him " from Dan to Beer- 
 sheba " for many years without doing him harm. The 
 spirit that urges some people to try to squeeze out of 
 a public company what they would be ashamed to ask 
 from an individual received from him no countenance, 
 and his answer, when pressed to demand a compensa- 
 tion to which he did not feel himself fully entitled, 
 was truly noble : " No ; I am not greatly hurt, and if 
 I got compensation, I might find the money heavy when 
 I came to cross the river." 
 
 The Kev. John Eeacher remarks that his first close 
 acquaintance with Mr. Mackenzie began in that sick- 
 room in Newcastle where he was laid for a while after 
 the accident. Mr. Eeacher accompanied the stewards 
 of the Leeds St. Peter's circuit to which Mackenzie 
 was engaged on a visit of sympathy, and describes 
 the interview as a loving and memorable one. Like 
 Eichard Baxter, the sufferer would have said, " Pain is 
 pain," but his heart was glad. The sympathetic 
 letters which poured into his chamber from near and 
 far afforded him cheer; but he was directly and 
 very richly comforted of God Himself; and there is 
 reason to believe that the lessons of that " little 
 while " of retirement were blessed both to the profit 
 of his own soul and that of his subsequent ministry. 
 
 The Eev. George Barnley, who also called during 
 that period, says : " He dwelt upon the kindness of
 
 TEXTS AND NOTES 179 
 
 friends who had sent him poultry, fruit, and other 
 delicacies. Then he referred to many letters of 
 sympathy which were lying near him. Some of them 
 contained, besides words of affection, certain slips of 
 paper of monetary value. Pointing to these, he said, 
 with roguish emphasis, ' The words of kindness are 
 very welcome. I like the text, and have no objection 
 to the notes.' " 
 
 The records left of his work in Newcastle from his 
 own hand are brief but characteristic. 
 
 Blenheim Street. [In reference to his last service there.] In 
 all respects a high day. To God be all the glory ! A great many 
 people could not get in. The collection more than as much again 
 as last year, namely 37 odd. 
 
 Park Road. I have had many happy times and a few souls. 
 
 Bentinck. Only feeble. May the good Master bless them 
 much ! 
 
 Newburn. Much room for improvement. No response, no 
 amen. Dead and alive ! Lord, bless them ! They need it. 
 
 Throckley. They have been good and reasonable. An odd 
 soul saved now and again. 
 
 Ponteland. Many good times, but little visible fruit.
 
 CHAPTEE XIX 
 
 LEEDS ST. PETEK'S 1874-1877 
 
 Altered condition of St. Peter's Hearty Welcome Popularity 
 in Leeds Letters to Messrs I. Gibson, J. Holdsworth, and 
 W. H. Briant Humours of a Cornish Missionary Deputation 
 Bribing a Speaker An Unfinished Meeting Nehemiah a 
 Home Missionary Lecture on Kuth Rev. John Reacher's 
 Reminiscences Kindness to Headingley Students Rev. S. 
 T. House's Tribute A Happy Reply. 
 
 AT the Conference of 1874, Mackenzie was 
 appointed to St. Peter's circuit, Leeds. The 
 compiler of From Coal Pit to Pulpit, describing this 
 appointment, remarks very justly : " St. Peter's, with 
 seating capacity for about two thousand hearers, had 
 seen better days. Once the stronghold of Leeds 
 Methodism, it had dwindled to an almost insignificant 
 position. Causes over which the officials could have 
 no control had brought about a great change in the 
 prospects of the Society. The environment of the 
 chapel had changed, we had almost said deteriorated, 
 in an extraordinary manner. Through the enormous 
 extension of the clothing industry of the city, a vast 
 number of foreigners have been attracted to it, and 
 on the west of St. Peter's there is now a colony of 
 some twelve thousand Jews, and on the east is the 
 
 180
 
 POPULAR A T HOME 1 81 
 
 Irish quarter, mostly Romish. Hemmed in between 
 these two anti-Christian and anti-Protestant classes, 
 there is little scope for evangelistic labour, and it is 
 therefore not surprising to find that the permanent 
 results of Air. Mackenzie's labours here are not equal 
 to his record in other places." 
 
 To this very sensible estimate of the situation may 
 be added the remark that Mackenzie's labours had now 
 assumed so Connexional a character and extent, that 
 he was hardly the most suitable agent to work up an 
 enfeebled cause. Such work requires a continuity 
 and concentration of effort, a daily and almost hourly 
 care, which the demands made upon him from the 
 outside rendered it impossible for him to give. In 
 spite of all drawbacks, however, his term of three 
 years at St. Peter's was one of great profit and 
 blessing to the people, and one which he himself 
 could describe at its termination as having been " very 
 happy." 
 
 The Rev. John Reacher, who was his superin- 
 tendent, says : 
 
 "In 1874 Mr. Mackenzie came to St. Peter's, 
 and the circuit was prepared to accord him a 
 sincere and most hearty welcome. A reception 
 meeting was held, at which the attendance was very 
 large, and the new minister won the hearts of all. 
 He spoke like himself now moving the people to 
 smiles and now to tears. It was a good beginning, 
 and his hold on the circuit never weakened. He 
 rendered it a kind of service that was greatly needed 
 and highly valued. Nowhere were Mr. Mackenzie's 
 lectures more appreciated than in his own circuit 
 1'opular all over the country, he was surpassingly
 
 1 82 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 popular in Leeds. On one occasion the town was 
 lost in fog, and our friend told us that he had not 
 been able to find a cab, a cart, or even a wheelbarrow, 
 in which to come to St. Peter's. In spite of the fog, 
 however, the chapel was crowded with sympathetic 
 hearers, and they had no common treat." 
 
 The following extracts from his correspondence 
 help us to see the man's wonderful outgoings and 
 incomings at this time : 
 
 TO MR. AND MRS. GIBSON, PETERBOROUGH. 
 
 LEEDS, September 4, 1874. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. AND MRS. GIBSON, We got here to tea last 
 evening, and they gave us a very hearty welcome. By the 
 Master's help I will try to be a blessing to them. The Newcastle 
 friends were very kind, and we left them in a good way forty- 
 seven added last quarter, one hundred and twenty-six on trial, 
 110 in hand, and a nice new ten thousand pound chapel ready 
 for the roof. . . . 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 LEEDS, September 25, 1874. 
 
 MY VERY DEAR MR. AND MRS. GIBSON, We got here, and 
 have had a most hearty welcome, and plenty of hard work. The 
 services have been successful last Sabbath packed, and a few 
 souls for Jesus. The sermons for the missions also good 38 
 instead of 14 at St. Peter's, and 25 instead of 9 at Richmond 
 HilL May the Lord grant us a good year 1 ... 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 LEEDS, October 21, 1871 
 
 MY DEAR MR. AND MRS. GIBSON, If you can do with me, I 
 had better return, so as to sleep all night at home by getting in 
 by the 11.20. 
 
 I have just come in from Crawshawbooth, Lancashire ; good
 
 CIRCUIT ROUTINE 183 
 
 day, and over 30. Eston on Monday ; grand time, and 70 for 
 the new chapel it is a beauty. Last Sabbath places crammed 
 and the Lord present and the collections doubled. I am off into 
 the country to help one of our places with a lecture. In much 
 love. . . . 
 
 The following shows how he not unnaturally 
 fretted sometimes under the routine which a circuit 
 entails. 
 
 TO I. GIBSON, ESQ. 
 
 LEEDS, May 1, 1875. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, I did hope to be able to come to 
 you in the first week in June, but am hard fast. I don't know 
 what to do. Our new five thousand pound chapel is opened, 
 and we have to work it as best we can. The Super has brought 
 me 400 tickets to renew. ... I have collected for the cause 
 this week by eleven services over 180. It is rather too bad 
 to shut me up for the most of six weeks. I will see what can 
 be done for you as soon as I can. In much love. . . . 
 
 The next letter is evidently in reply to one who, 
 having preferred a request, felt sure it would be 
 granted. 
 
 TO MR. JOHN HOLDSWORTH. 
 
 LEEDS, August 7, 1875. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, man, great is thy faith ! be it 
 unto thee even as thou wilt. P. MACKENZIE. 
 
 TO W. H. BRIANT, ESQ., WALSALL. 
 
 LEEDS, November 25, 1875. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, I have not been able to find a 
 day for Darleston. Our work here has been so irregular that 
 we hardly know when a day is at liberty Special Services and 
 Missionary Meetings, etc. I have only one day out for a fort- 
 night, and that is on a Friday.
 
 1 84 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 LEEDS, March 31, 1876. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, I have ordered the C. D. V., and 
 am waiting. We had a grand Quarter Day on Monday last 
 155 up, 90 on trial, stipends raised, money in hand. Hallelujah 1 
 In much love. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 LEEDS, April 5, 1876. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, I have got a few C. D. V. for 
 your bazaar. I will bring them on to Bradley on Monday. If 
 it is not convenient for any of your folk to be over, I will send 
 them by post. I have had a grand week so far, thank God. 
 At Otley, last Saturday, we got about 40, which was good for 
 a country town on such a day. In the country (this circuit) on 
 Sabbath. Monday, opened, or rather preached on the third day 
 of the opening at a little place in the Selby circuit, South 
 Milford. They got 20 the first day, 14, 14s. 9d. the second 
 day, and your old friend [himself] got them 47, that included 
 the tea. I was in Cheshire yesterday. Beautiful day, and 
 blessed time at a little place called Goosetree, in the Northwich 
 circuit. I am in the town to-night, and to-morrow night here. 
 The Lord be with you and your kindred ! In much love. . . . 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 LEEDS, April 8, 1876. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, Thanks for your kind com- 
 munication. I have not forgotten our Hill Top friends, and 
 
 have written to Mr. F . I will do my best, but am hard 
 
 up for spare days. This deputation work has thrown me back. 
 Leave here on Monday, and not get back again until the 28th. 
 In much love. . . . 
 
 Through the kindness of the Eev. Joseph Nettleton, 
 who has furnished ample notes, I am enabled to give 
 a fairly full and interesting account of the " deputa- 
 tion work " referred to in the foregoing letter.
 
 A CORNISH DEPUTATION 185 
 
 Mackenzie was appointed as Foreign Missionary 
 Deputation to the Cornwall District that year, in 
 conjunction with the Eevs. Marmaduke C. Osborn 
 and J. Nettleton. Peter was immensely popular in 
 Cornwall, and introduced himself on the platform 
 as the brown bread of the deputation, on which Mr. 
 Nettleton would spread his Fijian butter, after which 
 Mr. Osborn would cover it well with marmalade. 
 He had prepared three speeches, and expected to 
 work the round of the whole deputation with them. 
 To his surprise, the people nocked in hundreds from 
 place to place, so that there was a constant demand 
 made upon him for new material. At Penzance he 
 delivered the whole of his three capital speeches 
 one on the Sunday afternoon, one at the meeting on 
 the Monday evening, and one at the breakfast meet- 
 ing on the Tuesday morning. At St. Just he ex- 
 temporised a short speech. The next day, at St. 
 Ives, he requested Mr. Osborn to speak longer, and 
 excuse him. He had plenty of material in his bag, 
 but he had no time to look up his notes. Mr. 
 Osborn declined the request, saying 
 
 " I have arranged all my speeches over the District, 
 so as not to repeat myself, and Mr. Nettleton has 
 done the same. If I gave two speeches for one to- 
 night, I should soon be in your difficulty." 
 
 Peter replied, " It is my first experience on a 
 Cornish deputation, sir, and you must have bowels 
 of compassion." 
 
 Mr. Osborn would not yield. Then Mackenzie 
 appealed to Mr. Nettleton to change places in the 
 programme, and allow him to speak last. 
 
 " Give them a swing of the clock with your many
 
 1 86 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 Fijian facts," he said, " and I will give you a new 
 hat. By the time you finish, I shall have a short 
 speech ready." 
 
 Places were changed accordingly, and all went 
 smoothly till just as Mr. Nettleton was finishing, when 
 Peter sprang to the front of the platform and shouted, 
 " No ! you have five minutes more, or you do not get 
 your hat." The people did not understand the meaning 
 of the interruption, but, scenting some humour in the 
 proceeding, they cheered long and loud. Mr. Nettleton 
 filled up the five minutes with a Fijian boat-song, 
 and then Mackenzie rose in fine form. 
 
 " You owe the most of that speech to me," he said. 
 " Some of you listened to it with your mouths open as 
 well as your ears. He has given you a round of the 
 clock for the best new hat in Cornwall." 
 
 The incident was regarded as a mere bit of pleasantry ; 
 but when Mr. Nettleton was leaving Helston two days 
 afterwards, his host placed a new hat by the side of his 
 portmanteau, saying, " Mr. Mackenzie came this morn- 
 ing before you were down, and took your hat to Mr. 
 Mitchell's shop to get the size for this." 
 
 The new hat was put on, and the old one left 
 behind. Mackenzie had gone on before to preach at 
 Hayle, and when he saw the new hat shining in the 
 sun as the trap drew up at the door of Mr. Hoskings, 
 he cried 
 
 " Hallelujah ! Here comes Thakombau with the 
 swing of the clock on his head." 
 
 The missionary meeting at Helston that year had 
 to be left unfinished. The chapel was packed, and 
 many were unable to get in. Mr. Nettleton spoke 
 first, on the material advantages conferred by Christi-
 
 A SELFISH PRAYER 187 
 
 anity on savage races, and the new markets opened up 
 by missions for British manufacturers. Mr. Mackenzie 
 began : 
 
 " Mr. Chairman, when savages get converted, they 
 want Manchester calico, for they are no longer 
 satisfied to be dressed in sunshine. But we do not 
 seek to convert them by this Society in order to sell 
 calico. Our object is not to make new markets for 
 our manufacturers, but to bless the people and save 
 their souls. We must not have mercenary motives. 
 Selfishness will spoil our work, and selfishness often 
 spoils our prayers. In a Yorkshire village a farmer 
 and his son were converted, and, like good Methodists, 
 they attended the prayer - meetings, and exercised 
 their gifts. After some months had passed, the 
 farmer was taken ill. The son went to the prayer- 
 meeting, and pleaded for his sick father at home in 
 bed. His prayer was in good Yorkshire dialect, but 
 it was mercenary 
 
 'Heavenly Father, glorious King, 
 Look upon my faather Jim, 
 Tak' him to Thy Heavenly Throne, 
 Then farm and stock '11 be my own.' " 
 
 The people went off into hysteria, or what they call 
 in Cornwall " laughing happy." It was impossible to 
 quiet them. Peter said, " Sing a verse, Mr. Chairman ! " 
 They sang several, but the hilarity had spread, and 
 grew worse rather than better. 
 
 " Mr. Chairman," cried Mackenzie, " if anything will 
 sober a Cornishman, it is a collection. Make the 
 collection ! " 
 
 The experiment was tried, but the excited crowd
 
 1 88 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 made it difficult, and as a last resource the meeting 
 had to be closed with Mackenzie's speech unfinished 
 and Mr. Osborn's not begun. 
 
 He soon got over his difficulty about speeches by 
 converting his lectures into missionary addresses. 
 He first gave Nehemiah. Nehemiah was a home 
 missionary. He left the royal chaplaincy at the court 
 of Shushan, where he had a big stipend, when he 
 heard that Jerusalem had no circuit stewards to invite 
 ministers, and the church property was in ruins. He 
 gave up the best appointment to help a poor struggling 
 home mission station. Here turning to his colleague 
 on the deputation, Mackenzie said, " Mr. Osborn, a 
 few years ago, when you were stationed at City Eoad, 
 there was an appeal made for a minister for the 
 Shetland Isles. The people were poor and the chapels 
 were dilapidated, and in their distress they appealed 
 for a minister. But, sir, I never heard that you 
 offered to leave the Number One Circuit to help the 
 poor Shetland Methodists. Nehemiah would shame 
 many of us in these modern days who choose the best 
 circuits, and give the poor ones that need us most a 
 wide berth, or visit them once a year at the anni- 
 versary." 
 
 The following has interest as showing that the 
 lecture on Euth was now in preparation : 
 
 TO MR. AND MRS. BRIANT. 
 
 LEKDS, May 8, 1877. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. AND MRS. BRIANT, I have put you down. Tlie 
 Lord be pleased to grant us His blessing. If the new lecture on 
 Ruth be ready, you can have that. If not, is there any other you 
 would like ? In much love. . . .
 
 IN A CORNER 189 
 
 TO W. H. BRIANT, ESQ. 
 
 LKKDS, July 21, 1877. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, I would gladly do as you wish, but 
 as I am going into a new circuit, I do not think that I should 
 leave on the Sabbath. I will do my best for sermon and lecture 
 on a week-day. In kind love. . . . 
 
 P.S. Got 126 with Queen Esther the other week, on a Friday 
 night, and 45 in Leeds, and 43 in Hull. 
 
 The Kev. John Eeacher says : 
 
 " During the Leeds period, Mr. Mackenzie's preach- 
 ing varied considerably. When he was physically 
 fresh, and when the subject suited him, he preached 
 with great force, and the highest ends of preaching 
 were secured. But there were times when he came 
 to the pulpit weary and unready, and then the service 
 dragged. In those years my valued colleague was at 
 his best, probably, but he did too much. The super- 
 intendent eased him all he possibly could at home, but 
 his labours all over the land, added to his circuit work, 
 caused him even then considerable strain. And he 
 took no holidays, or rather, his holidays were spent 
 in constant work. But he was grandly happy, and 
 he made others happy. He beamed on all, for his 
 spirit was full of joy. No tenderer, no truer man 
 have I ever known. His pastoral visits to the 
 sick were marked by rare insight and sympathy, 
 and when the sick were also poor, he was a cheerful 
 giver. 
 
 " When he got into a corner, as he often did, he 
 had a wonderful way of securing help. One Sunday 
 morning, at an early hour, he thundered at our door 
 with his big knob - stick. His first words were : 
 ' Now, my dear Super, if ever you helped a lame dog
 
 1 90 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 over a stile, you must help me now.' Then he went 
 on to describe how the bills were out as long as his 
 body announcing him to preach and lecture at various 
 places to-morrow and Tuesday and Wednesday, and 
 what was he to do, seeing that he was appointed at 
 the same times to Seacroft and Halton and Colton. 
 ' Now, Mr. Super,' he said, ' if you will go for me, I 
 will give you a new hat.' I undertook to supply the 
 Monday, but had not another free night. ' Then,' he 
 cried, ' let us go to Mr. Brunyate.' Mr. Brunyate, 
 who lived next door, was also plied with the offer of a 
 new hat, and, in short, between us we met the difficulty, 
 and sent our colleague away relieved. 
 
 " The wit and humour of Mr. Mackenzie were never 
 bitter. At a meeting of ministers a brother entered 
 the room whom he did not know. ' Who is that ? ' 
 I told him. ' Why,' said he, ' his beard looks like a 
 superannuated scrubbing - brush.' One day in my 
 hearing, a minister's wife laughingly asked him 
 how it was that he was so much more popular 
 than her husband. ' Oh,' he replied, ' your husband 
 is a much better preacher than I am, but then 
 there is no accounting for tastes ; some people, 
 you know, like black pudding better than roast 
 beef.' 
 
 " His visits to Kingston-on-Thames, since my retire- 
 ment, have been pleasant very ; but when he was 
 with us in the autumn of 1 8 9 4, it was evident that 
 his labours were costing him a lot of life. His respira- 
 tion was more difficult. But he was still the happy 
 man, the godly minister, the warm-hearted friend ; 
 and his lecture was as racy, as pithy, as biblical as 
 any we had heard."
 
 KINDNESS TO STUDENTS 191 
 
 It was while stationed in St. Peter's, Leeds, that 
 Mackenzie allowed his naturally generous nature to 
 flow out in a very kindly action towards the Head- 
 ingley students, to show his affection and his apprecia- 
 tion of the service rendered by them to himself and his 
 circuit. The Eev. J. A. Aldington, then at Headingley, 
 says that Peter had made up his mind to invite the 
 students to a supper in Leeds, but found on inquiry 
 that the college authorities could not give their 
 approval. " Then," said Mackenzie, " I'll not be 
 beaten. If this cannot be, I will do something else 
 for them." So, when the new edition of the 
 Wesleyan hymn-book was issued in 187 6, he presented 
 each student with a nicely bound copy. 
 
 His chronicled notes on leaving St. Peter's are not 
 voluminous. 
 
 St. Peter's. Three happy years. 
 Richmond Hill. Good times and loving people. 
 Garforth. Good, kind-hearted people. I have had some good 
 times, and a few souls. 
 Halton. Good people. They like to help themselves. 
 
 LETTER TO ME. AND MRS. GIBSON. 
 
 LBBDS, July 14, 1877. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. AND MRS. GIBSON, I should be very glad to 
 visit you again, but, as I am removing, I have my fears. Here 
 are 367 tickets to give before leaving this circuit, and the 
 Wesley preachers told me not to promise out for September, 
 as I would be preaching and giving tickets there the most 
 of that month. We have done well here during the three years, 
 and I have had some good times lately. Got about 100 at 
 Haslingden last Sunday and Monday, and 126, 13s. 2d. with 
 Queen Esther the other Friday night. I have been very hard 
 worked, but am all the while in good order. In much love.
 
 192 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 LEEDS, July 20, 1877. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. AND MRS. GIBSON, I have just got in from 
 Hull. We had a Peterboro' time there. They began to prepare 
 me for a small do in the afternoon, as the friends were away. 
 But when the Kingston Chapel got such a number, they looked 
 amazed. They talked about downstairs and the low pulpit, like 
 a break-the-Sabbath shopkeeper with one shutter down, but the 
 number of people made them open out up and down. "We had 
 a powerful time. The circus was full at night, all but behind, 
 where they could not see or hear. They took about 43 at night, 
 which was good for dull times. . . . 
 
 The Eev. Samuel T. House, one of his colleagues at 
 this time, bears hearty testimony to his character and 
 services. He says : 
 
 " Speaking generally, Mr. Mackenzie did splendid 
 service in the St. Peter's circuit. When he entered 
 it, the people were dispirited, the circuit in debt. 
 Peter filled the chapels, lifted the circuit out of debt, 
 and gave the people new heart and hope, and new 
 confidence in themselves ; and this not merely by the 
 large congregations he drew and the money he raised, 
 but largely by his habit of speaking encouraging 
 helpful words on all occasions. I can testify that he 
 was greatly beloved, and though much away from the 
 circuit, the people did not complain of his absence. 
 They said, 'We were glad to have visits from Mr. 
 Mackenzie before he came to the circuit, and we shall 
 want to have him after he has left it, and we must be 
 willing to let him visit other places/ I commend this 
 good sense to other circuits. Mr. Mackenzie did not 
 neglect his circuit work. Arrangements were made 
 by which he was nearly always present at the anni-
 
 A HAPPY REPLY 193 
 
 versary, missionary, and other public meetings in the 
 circuit, which comprised nine chapels, and his colleagues 
 had the pleasure of speaking to the large audiences 
 that came to hear Peter. We had very little outside 
 help during Peter's term." 
 
 This generous tribute of Mr. House to his former 
 colleague may be fitly followed by an amusing tribute 
 to Mr. House himself, which, unknown to him, Mac- 
 kenzie bore. Mr. Henry Giles of Sowerby Bridge says 
 that he and Mr. House were boys together. Meeting 
 Mr. Mackenzie at Bristol, he said to him, " How is 
 Mr. House ? " " He is one of the best furnished houses 
 in Leeds," was the quick and pleasant reply.
 
 CHAPTEE XX 
 
 LEEDS - WESLEY CIRCUIT - 1877-1880 
 
 Removal to Hunslet Not Standing in Anybody's Way Letters to 
 Messrs. Briant, Gibson, Elliott, Higgins, and Jones Lecture 
 in Dundee Rev. S. R. Williams' Testimony Brotherli- 
 ness Naturalness Fidelity Interview with Marwood 
 Further Letters to Mr. Gibson. 
 
 appointment of 1877 did not entail a long 
 J- removal. Mackenzie remained in the same 
 town, simply exchanging circuits, leaving St. Peter's 
 for Wesley. In the fag and inconvenience of these 
 triennial removals, Mackenzie was too busily engaged 
 outside to take much part. Neither the holiday nor 
 the bustle common to such seasons was allowed to 
 break the continuity of his engagements. I remember 
 meeting him casually at a railway station at Confer- 
 ence time. To my inquiry as to the well-being of 
 his wife and family, he answered, " They are all well, 
 thank you. I left them busy packing. You see," he 
 added, with a mischievous twinkle, " I never like to 
 stand in anybody's way." 
 
 How difficult it was, even at the very beginning, to 
 make his circuit work square with outside engage- 
 ments, and especially to preserve his Sundays for the 
 use of his own people, is evident from the following, 
 
 194
 
 GLORIOUS TIMES 195 
 
 written from Hunslet, before he has yet opened his 
 commission in his new sphere. 
 
 TO W. H. BRIANT, ESQ. 
 
 LEEDS, August 28, 1877. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR MR. BRIANT, I am so sorry to find 
 that it is out of my power to give the Sabbath. The minister is 
 here, and advises me strongly not to leave on the Sabbath, or it 
 will get me into hot water. You shall have sermon and lecture 
 on the week-day. In much love. . . . 
 
 The next give us hurried glimpses of how the work 
 is progressing in his new circuit. 
 
 TO W. H. BRIANT, ESQ. 
 
 LEEDS, October 29, 1877. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, I thank you very much. Will 
 leave Ramsbottom a little before eight, and get into Manchester 
 at 8.50. We had a glorious time here last night, many seeking 
 Jesus. 
 
 TO MR. AND MRS. GIBSON. 
 
 LEEDS, December 3, 1877. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. AND MRS. GIBSON, I am so sorry to have put 
 you off from time to time, but so many things turn up in a new 
 circuit that it cannot be helped. 
 
 We had a glorious time at Beeston hist night. Some seeking 
 the Lord, and in such earnest. The lecture last Monday was a 
 great success. They got over 25, and that on a week-night ; it 
 would take them three Sabbaths to get it generally. 
 
 We have many classes to meet, seventy-five per quarter. I 
 have met one this afternoon, and other three to meet this even- 
 ing. I will not be able to give you a day before spring. All our 
 missionary meetings are to be held yet. Much love to all. What 
 month would you like best ?
 
 196 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 TO ISAAC GIBSON, ESQ. 
 
 LEEDS, February 11, 1878. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR MR. GIBSON, I am so sorry that 1 
 cannot give you the 3rd of April, as it is fixed for Derby. But 
 this I will do with pleasure if you think good. I have promised 
 Limehouse (London) the 30th of April, Tuesday. You can have 
 that, and I will let them have March 27. Glad to hear that 
 you are looking up hopefully. "We had a blessed time here 
 on Sabbath two fine cases, and others feeling. I gave them 
 " Samson " on Tuesday last. They got 30, for which they were 
 much pleased. 
 
 P./S. I am giving " Euth and her Eelations " this evening in 
 the circuit. "Queen Esther" has done well collected 2830 
 in eleven months. 
 
 Here, again, we have a sight of hard work, good 
 cheer, and glorious success. 
 
 TO ME. THOMAS ELLIOTT. 
 
 LEEDS, February 5, 1878. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. ELLIOTT, I am sorry that I cannot answer 
 
 your question about the Rev. , only having met him once. 
 
 The Lord be pleased to send you the right man ! 
 
 We are doing very well here. When I came in September, 
 they only had eleven on trial now fifty-seven. They were 
 82, 11s. in debt at the Quarter Board. Now all gone without 
 effort, like snow in May. 
 
 I was in my old circuit last Sabbath, Burnley then Padiham 
 now (divided). The place was packed, though Dr. Punshon 
 was at Burnley. One of the largest and the best love-feasts 
 that I ever held. The Holy Ghost came down, and the gift of 
 tongues was surely granted. the power melting, moving, 
 saving, and sanctifying ! It was not the large chapel in Padiham, 
 but the school chapel. The working folk would not let me 
 leave them. They got 75, Is. Id., and about 35 souls at 
 night. I wish you had been with me. One lady, when she 
 got mercy, stood up, and such a shout " I'll praise my Maker
 
 A REST WEEK 197 
 
 while I have breath ! " Had you seen the hands held up to 
 Heaven, the beaming face, the tears that tell the sins forgiven ! 
 But I have the lecture for our people here this evening, and am 
 published far and wide, and the deputations trouble me, and 
 here are 170 letters and two telegrams. Much love. . . . 
 
 P.S. I am afraid that the people will kill me before three 
 years. 
 
 TO W. H. BRIANT, ESQ. 
 
 LEEDS, February 13, 1878. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR MR. BRIANT, I never was harder put 
 to it in my life. Two hundred letters to look after last week, 
 and they are coming in a handful this morning. I am very full 
 up to midsummer. Please drop me a line by and by. You will 
 not expect me till after Conference. We had a grand time with 
 " Ruth " in our third place got about 20 ; and Tuesday week, 
 gave " Samson " here ; they got 30. Good for bad times 1 The 
 " great gun " from London only got 18, so little folk should be 
 thankful. We had two souls last Sabbath, and thirty-five the 
 Sabbath before, in my old circuit, Padiham. They got 75, Is. Id. 
 collections school, chapel, and working men. Much love and 
 best wishes and prayers. 
 
 TO ME. THOMAS ELLIOTT. 
 
 LEEDS, May 17, 1878. 
 
 MY VERY DEAR SIR, I should so much like to spend a day 
 with you and your dear family, but am hard fast. They keep 
 me at it night and day. This is the District Meeting week, you 
 would think a poor old fellow would get a little quiet. Here 
 is the week's work Beeston, Sabbath morning; Hunslet for 
 Stourton, afternoon ; Stourton, night. Monday, class at three ; 
 Wesley, preaching at seven ; Stourton, speech at 8.30. Tuesday, 
 District Meeting at Wakefield ; Wednesday, wedding at Wesley, 
 Leeds, Hunslet ; District Meeting at Wakefield, lecture at night 
 at Stanley. Yesterday, attended the District Meeting, and 
 preached and lectured at Wakefield. To-day, twice in the 
 Birstall circuit, and to-morrow Band Meeting at Wesley. This 
 is a rest week.
 
 198 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 Please give my love to your dear family. You might drop 
 me a line when I have had a little more time to look and look and 
 look at it. Kemember me to the friends. I hope the holy fire 
 is guarded and PANNED and FLAMING. 
 
 TO W. H. BRIANT, ESQ. 
 
 LEEDS, February 8, 1879. 
 
 HONOUEED AND DEAR SIR, I am BO sorry that our people 
 will not let me out on the Sabbath. But you shall have sermon 
 and lecture. We got over 50 at Keighley yesterday, and 45 
 last week with " The Patriarch of Uz," at Boston, on a wet night. 
 Let us make the best of it, and please not to be offended. Much 
 love. 
 
 TO MR. SAMUEL H1GGINS. 
 
 LEEDS, August 16, 1879. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR MR. HIGGINS, I will be at Wesley on 
 Monday night. Could we meet there, or would it be convenient 
 for the doctor to have the baby baptized after at the 
 house? Tuesday I am ticket-giving from 6.30 to 8.30, 
 Wednesday the same. Thursday on for South Wales, etc. etc. 
 Been to Beeston Hill and Shiney Row, and Newcastle and Stan- 
 hope-in-Weardale this week. Thanking you and your dear 
 family for all your kindness and honour you have put on me. 
 I shall never forget it. I send you a Newcastle paper. We had 
 a grand do. . . . 
 
 Much love to all your dear family, and not forgetting your 
 own dear self. 
 
 The Eev. E. Ashton Jones says : 
 
 " Mackenzie came to Dundee for the Young Men's 
 Christian Association in 1879, to lecture on ' Esther ' in 
 the Kinnaird Hall. I took the chair for him. His 
 lecture was very graphic, and when he turned and 
 exclaimed, " Who comes there ? ' all the audience 
 turned round, and a man who stood peeping in at the 
 door withdrew his head as if he had been shot. On
 
 IN DUNDEE 199 
 
 our way to the station he pointed out to me the street 
 where he used to live, and where his parents kept a coal 
 yard and dairy. He also told me that when a youth 
 he was taken before the magistrates for ' riding some 
 horses.' " 
 
 TO THE REV. E. A. JONES. 
 
 LHBDS, October 18, 1879. 
 
 REV. AND DEAR SIR, I am filled up for this visit to Dundee, 
 but shall be delighted to see you and my good country folk at 
 the Hall on the llth of November. I have a lot of love for you. 
 Please get me a good turn-out, and I will remember you next 
 time. I had 3000 at Oxford Place, Leeds, and 2500 at St. Peter's 
 last Sabbath for the Missions. Good times ! Much love. 
 
 In November 1879, the Eev. Eobert Ha worth, who 
 had been so happily associated with Mackenzie and 
 myself in the Gateshead circuit, passed away. I 
 was labouring with him in the Accrington circuit at 
 the time, and wrote to apprise our former colleague of 
 the loss. The following is his reply, in which the 
 sister referred to is of course the widow. 
 
 TO THE REV. JOSEPH DAWSON. 
 
 LEEDS, November 29, 1879. 
 
 REV. AND DEAR SIR, I have sent our dear sister a few lines to 
 cheer her in her sadness. God be very gracious to her and the 
 circuit and your dear self ! May the death of the good man be 
 made a great blessing to many, as his life and ministry has been 
 a joy and solace to multitudes of souls ! Yours in love. 
 
 The Eev. Samuel E. Williams says : 
 
 " I had the privilege and joy to be associated with 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie in Leeds in the years 1879 and 1880. 
 
 The memory of that association cannot pass away,
 
 200 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 though there are few definite incidents I can recall of 
 a kind that would interest the public mind. I can 
 only give you general impressions then made, and still 
 fresh and green. Let me note 
 
 " 1. His true brotherliness. There was not a trace of 
 assumption or ' stand-offishness ' about him. In every 
 relation of our common ministry he was frank, trust- 
 ful, communicative ; always inclined to push another 
 to the front, rather than take his own position there. 
 In days of bitter sorrow and bereavement I found him 
 a true yoke-fellow, full of generous and practical 
 sympathy. Our preachers' meetings were generally 
 held in his study, as being more convenient to him, 
 and were ' seasons of grace and sweet delight.' The 
 saintly wisdom of George Edward Young, and Peter's 
 full - orbed bonhomie (both mirthful and shrewd) 
 formed a blend of rare flavour and invigoration. On 
 other occasions, when he and I were alone, he would 
 start a consultation on some text he had in his mind, 
 or some (perhaps historic) question connected with a 
 lecture he was preparing. I cannot say that I ever 
 helped him, for he could mostly give a great deal more 
 than he got, but he always took the position of a 
 learner rather than that of a teacher. How he gained 
 all he possessed was often a puzzle to me, but he 
 never talked of that of which he knew nothing. These 
 private conversations and my measure of acquaintance 
 with his public work have left the conviction that he 
 never put all his goods in the window, but kept a 
 well - stocked warehouse behind. He was a true, 
 generous, disinterested colleague. 
 
 " 2. Fidelity. He was not a semi-detached minister 
 on his circuit. Necessarily he was often away, but
 
 A STRANGE VISITOR 201 
 
 never was a service left unprovided for : he took the 
 utmost pains that nothing should suffer by reason of 
 his absence, and if now and then a colleague had an 
 extra class or two to meet, it was an event much more 
 infrequent than might easily be supposed. Nor was 
 his pastoral work made light of. On returning from a 
 tour, he would bring a neighbouring cabman (nothing 
 loth) into requisition for hours at a stretch, and thus 
 cover much ground in limited time. A few minutes' 
 cheery, helpful talk, with, invariably, the bit of simple, 
 fervent prayer, left rays of sunshine behind in many 
 a struggling home. 
 
 " 3. Naturalness. He was not an imitator or an 
 actor. Peculiarities of expression or gesture which he 
 exhibited occasionally were not forced, but were part 
 of himself. By the fireside, in his own study, he was 
 just the same as people saw him in the pulpit or on 
 the platform. Indeed, he had too solemn an estimate 
 of his work to deliberately make a parody of it. One 
 of his distinct characteristics was his genuineness. But 
 he had no sympathy with the notion of religion 
 making a man long-visaged or gloomy. He enjoyed 
 religion himself, and lived a bright, happy type of it 
 at home and outside." 
 
 The interest Mackenzie felt in all classes of men, 
 and in all the sorts of experience that were likely in 
 the remotest degree to augment his knowledge of 
 human nature, and make him more capable of dealing 
 with it as a moral teacher, is somewhat weirdly 
 illustrated by an incident which Mr. Williams recounts. 
 He says : 
 
 " I called to see Mr. Mackenzie shortly after a 
 noted malefactor had been executed at Armley gaol.
 
 202 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 He said, ' Who do you think I've had here ? ' ' Nay,' 
 I replied, ' how can I tell ? ' ' Marwood,' he whispered. 
 ' I met him some time ago when I was out lecturing, 
 and he promised to call and see me if he came into 
 these parts. Yes, and he brought his bag with him, 
 and the rope was in it. I got him to show it me, 
 and I put my neck through the noose, but' and 
 he shook himself as he spoke ' it felt horribly cold 
 and slippery, and I soon had it off again.' " 
 
 TO ISAAC GIBSON, ESQ. 
 
 LEEDS, April 25, 1880. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. GIBSON, We have had a grand do at the 
 Deputation, York District, this last fortnight. Up at every 
 place, some of them as far as 20. The folk did flock out. 
 As I will have to leave at 5.55 on Thursday morning for Wins- 
 ford, near Crewe, please not to trouble Mrs. Gibson with folk to 
 supper. I do think it will be better to get soon to bed, having 
 to get up at such an untimely hour. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 LEEDS, May 1, 1880. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. GIBSON, I found it all right. Changed at 
 Bleswaith, and went right through to Winsford. They had a 
 great day for them. I understood them to say 55, including 
 about 27 which they got on Sabbath. That was good, and 
 your people did well. It is nine years since I have been at 
 Winsford (they say), and they have kept at me all the time. 
 Here are about fifty letters left to be looked after. Three 
 hundred and eighty-eight tickets to give myself the last time, and 
 the District Meeting coming on. So you see they keep me from 
 getting stiff. But I feel it a great honour that God has given 
 me favour with the people. May I do all to His glory and with 
 all my might ! Much love to your dear family.
 
 CHAPTEK XXI 
 
 BRADFORD SHIPLEY CIRCUIT 1880-1883 
 
 Letters to Messrs. Higgins, Johnson, Gibson, Holden, Elliott 
 Recollections of the Rev. Fred. A. Bell Lively Preachers' 
 Meetings " Face to the Wall " Humours of His Corre- 
 spondence Grim Humour "Fetch Me at Eight" An 
 Ambiguous Compliment A Slow Love-feast Comments 
 on the Places. 
 
 IN 1880 Mackenzie removed to the Shipley circuit, 
 his residence as second minister being at Saltaire. 
 
 TO MR. SAMUEL HIGGINS. 
 
 SHIPLEY, September 10, 1880. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, Been to Bradford Preachers' 
 Monthly Meeting good time I had to lead them in the 
 opening prayer, and my superintendent closed, so Shipley was 
 honoured. I did not tell you that Mr. Titus Salt called on the 
 chairman the day after the lecture, and left 50 to be put to it, 
 and said his brother would help. The chapel-keeper's daughter 
 told me he had chimed in with other 50. That is good and 
 kind and liberal. To God be all the glory ! 
 
 TO MR. JOHNSON, HEADINGLEY. 
 
 SHIPLEY, September 16, 1880. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, The present plan will be worked 
 out after the 17th of October. I will keep Mr. Camburn's letter, 
 
 203
 
 204 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 and try to find a day. But they have found me plenty of work 
 here during the few days that I have been with them. They 
 are, however, so kind and courteous that they make us feel very 
 comfortable. Been 'to Charlestown this evening. Mr. Edward 
 Holden went with me to visit the people, and a grand time we 
 had. He knows them, and is much respected. He can say Amen, 
 and give the needy temporal support. I could hear the silver 
 sounding. Such visiting is good for soul and body. We have 
 a good chapel at Saltaire and a strong Society. They have got 
 us a good house, Number 5 Victoria Park, and I hope to be 
 happy and useful. 
 P.S. This is 111 letters come in the fortnight. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 SHIPLEY, November 8, 1880. 
 
 We like this circuit very, very much. 
 
 The friends are so kind, and the congregations large. A few 
 dropping in, seats letting well, and the collections up, up. 
 Thank God ! Three good times yesterday. Missionary meeting 
 to-night at Tong Park, this circuit, and at 2 A.M. Dundee. 
 Tuesday, Dundee ; Dundee Wednesday (two nights) ; Aberdeen, 
 Thursday ; here on Friday ; Clithero, Lancashire, Saturday. 
 Not so bad for an old man, and not so many that could stand it, 
 and keep up their strength, body and mind. Many thanks to 
 the Great Master. Much love. 
 
 The following shows that the lecture on " Solomon " 
 was being brought into shape and use. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 SHIPLEY, December 4, 1880. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR MR. JOHNSON, I had not time to 
 thank you and your dear good wife for the grand treat you gave 
 us. I did enjoy meeting your family and the friends invited. 
 I think " Solomon " will go by and by. I liked the spirit of the 
 meeting, and felt well for a new subject. I do hope that Mrs. 
 Johnson will not have taken cold. Much love.
 
 DEA TH OF W. O. SIMPSON 205 
 
 TO ISAAC GIBSON, ESQ. 
 
 SHIPLEY, December 24, 1880. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, All the compliments of the 
 season to you and your dear ones. . . . 
 
 P.S. We like this circuit very much. They got 27, 6s. Id. 
 with the new lecture on " Solomon," Tuesday last, at Shipley. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 SHIPLBT, February 2, 1881. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, My good superintendent, Mr. 
 Jessop, has been laid aside with a broken arm for six weeks. 
 Last week I went at the letters might and main, but on Saturday 
 night found 40 that I do not know what to do with for this year 
 I see no prospect, no hope of my being able to give you a day. 
 Much love. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 SHIPLEY, March 24, 1881. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR MR. GIBSON, How would Wednesday, 
 26th May, or Thursday do Ascension Day ? It is a very hard 
 thing to find a day. I would have to return from Filey, and 
 back again for London for Sabbath. I am very wishful to give 
 you a day, but might do it better in June or July. 
 We are having good times at Shipley. Much love. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 SHIPLEY, May 23, 1881. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, We had a grand time yesterday 
 at Frizinghall. They got over 24 and the Lord's blessing. . . . 
 We are going to meet the President, and inter the body of our 
 dear friend Simpson. Lord help us ! Dr Jobson, and S. Coley, 
 and Dr. Punshon, and W. 0. Simpson missing no ordinary men. 
 Much love. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 SHIPLEY, February 4, 1882. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, ... I have about 600 milea 
 this week, and 10 services, six in the circuit and four outside.
 
 206 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 We have added a few in the circuit each quarter. About 90 on 
 trial, and 109 in the bank. Not so bad. . . . 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 SHIPLEY, April 6, 1882. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, I am sorry to find myself fast 
 until July. The Plan came to-day. The Super is out so much, 
 being Chairman of the district. I sent off 470 letters last 
 quarter, and here is such a hill that I have not had time even to 
 read them. . . . 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 SALTAIRE, June 3, 1882. 
 
 DEAR MR. GIBSON, I sent the card, but could not stay on 
 Saturday. Preachers' meeting on Saturday, and three times on 
 the following Sunday. I ought not to be out on any Friday. 
 But keep on foolishly, on until I am afraid it is now too late. . . . 
 I am keeping better, but rather weak. 
 
 The following letter, though written some years 
 later, has in it a reference to this period. 
 
 TO EDWARD HOLDEN, ESQ. 
 
 DEWSBURY, November 25, 1884. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, I have put it right with the Band 
 of Hope friends by giving them Tuesday, March 3rd. 
 
 Someone brought me your kind love the other day. It will 
 keep warm all through the winter, and onward till winter and 
 frosts are no more. Please to remember me to Mrs. Holden 
 and the young folks. Tell Mrs. Holden I have never needed or 
 taken anything since she brought me out three years come 
 May. . . . 
 
 Mrs. Holden says : " The reference in the phrase, ' I 
 have never needed or taken anything,' etc., is to a 
 serious illness which Mr. Mackenzie had whilst in the
 
 NOT DEAD YET 207 
 
 Shipley circuit, in which we then lived, when it was 
 my joy and honour to send him little things suitable 
 for his weakness. He always declared that I had 
 ' made him a teetotaller ' (though he was most abstemi- 
 ous at all times) ' through having sent him supplies of 
 Zoedone.' " 
 
 Through a curious coincidence the lady who lived 
 in the house next to Mackenzie's was ill at the same 
 time, and her affliction terminated fatally. The blinds 
 being drawn, passers-by mistook the house for Mac- 
 kenzie's, and a rumour spread abroad that he was dead. 
 The evening papers published the false news, and 
 letters of condolence were received. Having happily 
 recovered, he preached in the Saltaire Chapel on the 
 following Sunday, and said, "They had it reported 
 that I was dead ; but I am not dead ! " and then, with 
 a stride and a stamp of his foot on the floor of the 
 rostrum, he cried, " Hallelujah ! there is life in the 
 old dog yet ! " 
 
 TO ISAAC GIBSON, ESQ. 
 
 SHIPLEY, December 27, 1882. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. GIBSON, I was so sorry to hear of your loss 
 and trouble. The Lord be gracious to you at this time, your 
 time of need. Help needed, sympathy needed, resignation and 
 submission needed. Faith and trust in God and Providence will 
 be firm as a rock. 
 
 Ill that God blesses is our good, 
 
 And tmblest good is ill, 
 And all is right that seems most wrong 
 
 If it be His dear will. 
 
 So may you find it, and the New Year be the best you have ever 
 known ! In much love.
 
 2o8 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 SHIPLEY, February 28, 1883. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. GIBSON, I regret very much my inability to 
 give you a day this year. The work has got the better of me, 
 and I am hard fast. Here are over 40 places down, besides my 
 circuit work ; and in my last year they won't give me up. I 
 have come this morning all the way from Liverpool to preach 
 here this evening, and must return to Widnes again to-morrow. 
 I sent off 182 letters last month, and this month they have got 
 the upper hand of me completely hour after hour, letters, 
 telegrams, and deputations. You know I would come to 
 Peterboro' if I could, but I am fast for this year. Kindest love. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 SHIPLEY, March 10, 1883. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, Your kind favour is to hand. 
 Thanks for your kind sympathy. I will not get in till 4 A.M., I 
 think, by leaving at 11.10. It will be better to just drop into 
 the hotel for a few hours rather than keep you up all night. I 
 cannot get to Dunstable this year. Mr. Hart was missed last 
 year, and keeps ding-donging at me, so that for life's sake I must 
 be out of it. Then here are Oundle, Doncaster, and Marsh, and 
 High Wycombe, and Approach Road, and Foster Crozier's circuit, 
 after three years' pegging and promising. In fact, there are 
 about 50 places that I cannot get out of, and being in my last 
 year, they keep me to my appointments, or make it too hot for me. 
 This week I have had two ministers to help, the one to meet a 
 class, and the other got six times the usual week-night congrega- 
 tion. Still the good kind Super has just been at me for not 
 taking my work. He would not say a word, but some are always 
 ready to cry out. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 SHIPLEY, April 13, 1883. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. GIBSON, I got to High Wycombe all right, and 
 had a good day, and at Cleckheaton the Tongue seemed to take 
 after the old fashion. Kendall yesterday was very enjoyable.
 
 CROWDED WITH LETTERS 209 
 
 Wonderful for them, they got 27, 10s. Od. They had a "great 
 gun " last week from Liverpool, and they got 14 ; 10 of it 
 was sent from one man. They have not much money, but they 
 have built a beautiful house for God, and He will bless them. 
 Kindest love to all your dear family. 
 
 P.S. I have been at the letters from one o'clock till ten minutes 
 past nine, and here is such a host. Dreadful 1 
 
 TO MR. THOMAS ELLIOTT. 
 
 SHIPLEY, May 23, 1883. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. ELLIOTT, I thank you very much for your great 
 kindness. Had I been at liberty, and the Lord were to send me 
 North again, how pleased I should be ! I remember 18 years 
 since, when I accepted your kind invitation. How soon the time 
 has passed ! The Master help us to number our days ! 
 
 I am engaged to Dewsbury. Mr. will do well for you. 
 
 I am pressing him. He is afraid of the cold on account of his 
 wife. I never felt it colder than Yorkshire. I will press him 
 more and more, but he wants to go South. The Lord send you 
 the right man, and His blessing with him. 
 
 TO ISAAC GIBSON, ESQ. 
 
 SHIPLKT, May 25, 1883. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR MR. GIBSON, You are more to me than 
 any or all the Peterborough folk, and if I could have come for 
 you, I would have done so. But I have been put to it beyond all 
 reason. This ia the District Meeting week, and I have had four 
 sermons, two nights meeting classes, and three lectures. It is 
 fearful 1 
 
 The Eev. Fred R Bell gives an interesting descrip- 
 tion of his association with Mackenzie in Shipley : 
 
 " My intimacy and friendship with Peter Mackenzie 
 began with our colleagueship in the Bradford (Shipley) 
 circuit after the Conference of 1880. Our super- 
 intendent was the venerable William Jessop, a man 
 
 14
 
 210 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 very greatly beloved, and who, although a striking 
 contrast to Mr. Mackenzie, had a sincere admiration 
 and love for him. Our preachers' meetings were 
 always lively times. We held them on Saturday, at 
 noon, at the Super's house, and generally by that time 
 Mr. Mackenzie would manage to reach home from his 
 distant engagements. His cab would appear at the 
 gate, and then we would hear the cheery voice in the 
 lobby, ' God bless this house ! ' or ' Peace be to this 
 house ! ' or some other salutation. Perhaps the Super 
 would give Peter a sly dig at being late, or for 
 running away from the circuit, but he always managed 
 to laugh it off. On one of these occasions, it being a 
 warm day, the Super was wearing an alpaca coat, 
 and our friend exclaimed, ' Why, you're a shining 
 character, an illustrious individual.' Of course the 
 Super could do nothing but laugh good-humouredly, then 
 we sat down and reviewed our work. No. 1 and No. 
 3 recited the prosaic routine of preaching and ticket- 
 giving, but our popular No 2 would commence : 
 
 ' Well, my beloved Super, I will go back to . On 
 
 Tuesday I went to Sheffield and had a crowded house 
 at - . We got a thumping big collection, two 
 pounds more than last year, when they had Punshon. 
 Think of that now ! I licked Punshon ! think of 
 that ! Hallelujah ! ' And we sat and enjoyed it. But 
 with evident sympathy for Dr. Punshon, he added, 
 ' They said it was a wet night last year. Then,' he 
 would continue, ' I gave them a lift at Gloucester, 
 and took the mail for Bristol after lecturing, and I 
 landed with my face to the wall ! ' 
 
 " ' Where, did you say ? ' asked the bewildered Super. 
 
 " ' To the wall, sir ; ' and, poking me in the side, he
 
 HIS CORRESPONDENCE 211 
 
 would say, ' You know.' It was then explained that 
 Wall was in the Hayle circuit, where Mr. Mackenzie 
 was always a great favourite. Then it might be 
 Penzance for the Sunday and Monday, and other 
 Cornish towns, till, towards the middle of the week, 
 he would turn up in Lancashire or Newcastle to 
 breakfast for the Friday, and so home by noon on 
 Saturday. Many times he had a ten days' tour of 
 this kind, and the marvel was his exuberance of spirits 
 and energy after such exhausting journeys. 
 
 " After dinner on Saturday, I now and again made 
 my way to his house, to assist him with his correspond- 
 ence. It was his habit to throw his letters on the 
 floor in the study when completed, and then, at the 
 end of a long spell, he would say, ' Now count them 
 up. How many do you make of it ? ' Then the bell 
 would ring for his daughter to get him five shillings 
 worth of stamps, and put them on with, ' Lick them 
 well, hinny, lick them well ! ' and after that it would 
 be, ' Now, just sit a bit, to show there is no animosity ; ' 
 and he would light his pipe, and we would talk about 
 the work he loved so dearly. After a pleasant chat, 
 he would knock the ashes out of his pipe, and say, 
 ' Now, just a word before we go,' and on his knees 
 would implore a blessing on the work and on our 
 respective families. 
 
 " The letters he had were sometimes most pathetic, 
 and he always tried to help a needy cause. One day 
 an application came from a village Mutual Improve- 
 ment Society, asking him to lecture for them, as they 
 had a debt of fifteen shillings, and wanted to buy 
 some books for their library. ' Poor fellows ! ' ex- 
 claimed Mr. Mackenzie, and, ringing the bell for his
 
 212 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 daughter, he said, ' Go and get a postal order for 
 fifteen shillings, and I'll send it them, bless them ! ' 
 To another who reminded him of a promise to come 
 and lecture some time, and asked piteously that the 
 date might be fixed, he would say, ' Tell him that to 
 patient faith the prize is sure.' Writing to a brother 
 minister about his arrival the following day, he once 
 said, ' Shall arrive in time for the service at three. 
 Shall want no dinner, but plenty of grace,. You can 
 eat the dinner, and I'll take the grace ! ' " 
 
 It was the custom during Mackenzie's sojourn in 
 the Shipley circuit to hold a sort of camp-meeting on 
 the wide romantic upland known as Baildon Moor. 
 He and Mr. Jessop and others were driving to this 
 gathering on a Saturday afternoon in an open cab. 
 The day was fine, and Mackenzie was bubbling over 
 with merriment. As they went on, a funeral came 
 in sight a hearse followed by a procession of 
 mourners. The humour and laughter subsided, of 
 course, for a moment, but just as the hearse was 
 passing the cab, he leaned across to the driver, and 
 said, "Fetch me at eight o'clock." His companions 
 were horror-stricken for the moment at what seemed 
 so ghastly an order, but their uncanny sensations 
 wore off when they learned that the driver of the 
 hearse was the cabman to whom Peter generally 
 gave his orders, and that what he desired was to be 
 brought from the meeting at eight. 
 
 At the March Quarterly Meeting, when invited to 
 stay for a third year, he said : " Bless you, I thought 
 you would have pitched into me, and given me the 
 sack, but it is all right now. People ask me what 
 kind of a circuit Shipley is, and I tell them it is Al.
 
 A DESIRABLE CIRCUIT 213 
 
 It is the best circuit in Methodism ; there are one 
 hundred and eighty trains in the day, and I can get 
 away at any time." 
 
 In the second year of his stay, there occurs the 
 following curious record about a love-feast at Shipley: 
 
 Love-feast. Never want another here. If I can I will get 
 out of it. Good time, good feeling, and asked for the friends to 
 begin leading friends. The devil made them sit still. I leave 
 them to him. Lord have mercy on them ! 
 
 In spite of this and perhaps a few other untoward 
 and discouraging experiences, he writes at the end of 
 his term : 
 
 Shipley. Many times of refreshing. God be gracious to them ! 
 
 Saltaire. Many happy seasons, and some visible fruit. 
 
 Baildon. Many good times, and good done, but the people 
 much put to it with poverty. 
 
 Baildon Green. Few members, but looking up and living to 
 God. 
 
 Esholt. A loving little Society, full of goodness. 
 
 Tong Park. A good kind people.
 
 CHAPTEE XXII 
 
 DE WSBURY CIRCUIT -1883-1886 
 
 His Last Circuit Testimony of Mr. Lobley and RCA . E. A. Jones 
 His Aim His Pastoral Work His Popularity Letters 
 to Messrs. Gibson, Andrew, Holden, Higgins, Stevens 
 Foreign Missionary Deputation Large Collections Piles of 
 Letters Not Worn Out. 
 
 IN submission to the triennial jerk, Mackenzie left 
 Shipley in 1883, to find his next and final 
 settlement at Dewsbury. Writing of this appoint- 
 ment, Mr. D. K. Lobley, between whom and 
 Mackenzie there grew up a very warm friendship, 
 and who, along with Mr. Snowball of Gateshead 
 acts as his executor, remarks : 
 
 "Mr. Mackenzie came to Dewsbury in 1883, 
 and was welcomed very heartily at a large Circuit 
 Meeting held at Batley Carr. He was essentially 
 the Batley Carr minister, but laboured throughout 
 the whole circuit with great acceptance during the 
 three years of his regular term. We were told 
 before he came that the circuit work would suffer, 
 but we did not find it so. He was occasionally 
 away from his week-night appointments, but always 
 supplied the pulpit with one of the other ministers 
 of the town, either Methodist or Congregational, and 
 
 214
 
 ffTS PASTORAL WORK 215 
 
 the golden piece was always paid for the help which 
 they were glad to give. 
 
 " He was rarely from his work on a Sunday, and 
 his pastoral work was quite up to the average. The 
 fact is, he had such a good constitution, and was so 
 strong in physique, that when other ministers were 
 obliged to rest, he could still work on ; and after 
 his absence of a few days, preaching and lecturing, 
 he would return to his circuit work as fresh as 
 ever, and do more perhaps than some (always on 
 the ground) had done during the previous fortnight. 
 
 " His congregations both on Sunday and week-day 
 were very large, while all the funds of Methodism 
 benefited by the collections taken up during his 
 services. His sermons to his own people were strong 
 appeals, deep in thought, sound in theology, and 
 though his humour kept running out of his finger- 
 ends, the principal object he had in view was the 
 conversion of sinners and the building up of the 
 Church. In the prayer-meeting which followed the 
 Sunday evening services he is still remembered with 
 very great joy by many of the friends he came in 
 contact with. It was in such meetings that he was 
 seen to best advantage. He threw his whole large 
 soul into them, and one felt like Peter, James, and 
 John on the Mount, for he seemed to take one right 
 within the gates of heaven. 
 
 " At the missionary and other circuit meetings 
 his presence was always a guarantee of a good 
 attendance, a good meeting, and a good collection. 
 One of the most wonderful things about him was the 
 ease with which he could adapt himself to any kind 
 of meeting. He often asked me what sort of meeting
 
 216 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 it was to-night, and would immediately begin to 
 rehearse a speech for the occasion." 
 
 The Eev. E. A. Jones says : " He was highly 
 esteemed in Dewsbury and the neighbourhood, and 
 no one could attract such congregations. Even on 
 a Friday night, the worst night of the week, I have 
 seen the chapels crowded. One Friday night he 
 lectured at Batley Carr, and although it was during 
 an election, and raining in torrents, the place was 
 packed." 
 
 TO MR. AND MRS. HIGGINS. 
 
 DBWSBUET, December 1, 1883. 
 
 DEAR MR. AND MRS. HIGGUNS, Many thanks for your kind 
 letter inviting us to tea. I am so sorry that I will not be able 
 to get over until lecture time. The work, the deputations, and 
 the letters do keep me at it. I have just got in from Haslingden, 
 and have to start for Morley, and back after the lecture. Chapel 
 sermons here ; Earlsheaton to-morrow ; twice in Greenwich on 
 Monday ; Bedford, ditto, Tuesday ; King's Lynn, twice, Wednes- 
 day ; preach at Thornhill, this circuit, and give tickets, Thurs- 
 day ; Friday, preachers' meeting here. . . . On Saturday I 
 preach and lecture at Longwood, near Huddersfield. What do 
 you think ol that for an old man ? I have sent off 505 letters 
 and cards in the last three months, and did not count the 
 telegrams. 
 
 that every word and work 
 Might proclaim how good Thou art. 
 
 TO ISAAC GIBSON, ESQ. 
 
 DEWSBURY, January 28, 1884. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. GIBSON, I have sent Mr. Jones word that he 
 can have a day in May, and not having filled in that month, 
 thought you should have your choice. He will be dropping me 
 a line, and my Super is very kind, and will help me to keep the 
 day that you and Mr. Jones want for Peterboro'. Much love.
 
 GOOD TIMES IN CORNWALL 217 
 
 P.S. This is a good circuit in every respect. Grand house, 
 stipend 185, large chapels, and congregations filling them up. 
 
 TO MR. AND MRS. GIBSON. 
 
 DEWSBUEY, February 9, 1884. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. AND MRS. GIBSON, I have got Wednesday, May 
 14, put down for Peterboro'. May we have the Master's bless- 
 ing ! We have had such a good Band Meeting. Got a soul 
 last Sabbath, and all over the circuit we have been quickened 
 and comforted. How soon the years have passed ! God be 
 gracious to you and your dear ones, and may you live to see a 
 Golden Wedding Day, and still be fresh and green and growing. 
 Much love, 
 
 TO MRS. ANDREW, NEATH. 
 
 PONTTPOOL, August 30, 1884. 
 
 DEAR MRS. ANDREW, I will coine on about 12 noon on 
 Tuesday. We have had such good times in Cornwall. The people 
 came from far ; some of them in strange-looking conveyances. 
 The Lord was amongst us, and we felt it good to be there. I am 
 looking for a good time here, and also at Neath. We have 
 gathered the harvest, and now the beautiful showers are watering 
 the earth. Glory to the Giver of all Good ! 
 
 TO MR. EDWARD HOLDEN. 
 
 DEWSBUBY, November 25, 1884. 
 
 . . . Thank God we are having a few brought in through the 
 circuit. For four Sundays we have two persons appointed with 
 each preacher Sunday night, in all the places. They go and 
 sing and speak, then in the chapel a short sermon, then the two 
 join in and pray, and seek up the wounded, etc. Kindest love. 
 
 TO ISAAC GIBSON, ESQ. 
 
 DKWSBUBY, February 24, 1885. 
 
 . . . We have had about twenty brought in these last few days 
 at Batley Carr, and some more seeking.
 
 218 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 I go to York to-morrow with the Sheriff. He gives a tea to 
 all the Society. On Thursday we have the new chapel opened. 
 The last new one, at Eastborough, in Dewsbury, is doing well. 
 I had six or seven the first Sunday night. Much love. 
 
 The next gives us intimation that another lecture 
 has come into existence. 
 
 TO ISAAC GIBSON, ESQ. 
 
 DEWSBURY, May 15, 1885. 
 
 DEAR MR. GIBSON, Can you make Monday, June 15, do ? 
 Sermon and the new lecture on " The Gospel of Christ and its 
 Counterfeits." I have had to refuse 257, many of them needy and 
 worthy. Much love. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 DEWSBURY, June 13, 1885. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR MR. GIBSON, I will be with you on 
 Monday at 12.30. Please don't ask anyone to dinner, as I want 
 a little quiet. Kindest love. 
 
 P.S. Sunday School sermons on Sunday last in this circuit ; 
 Monday, twice at Tunstall ; Tuesday, preached at home ; 
 Wednesday, Cross Hills, preached and lectured ; Thursday, 
 lecture at home ; Friday, Selby, preached and lectured a very 
 good day. They got 33. Big chapel here to-morrow. Then 
 Peterboro', then Towcester, then here, then Newcastle, then 
 Keswick, then home. 
 
 TO MR. SAMUEL HIGGINS. 
 
 DEWSBURY, September 11, 1885. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, Thanks for your kind letter. I 
 trust we shall have a season of grace and sweet delight. I will 
 find my way to Becket Street in good time for preaching in the 
 afternoon. Then you may put me into some corner or den, like 
 Bunyan, that I may get the lecture in good order for my dear 
 old friends. This is nearly 70 letters in a few days, and 13 
 deputations. It worries me very much when they come and sit
 
 SUNDAY SCHOOL SERMONS 219 
 
 over me, and won't be said, Nay. I had to refuse some 400 last 
 Methodistic year, letters and all. Much love. 
 
 TO MRS. ANDREW. 
 
 DKWSBDRY, January 30, 1886. 
 
 MY DEAR MRS. ANDREW, Your kind favour is to hand. I 
 will do my best to come when our mutual friend [Mr. Bitson of 
 Hexham] can be with us. I am very full of work. Been to 
 Bradford and Hull and Hanley and Pocklington this week. We 
 have had such unfavourable weather. Still they got 45 at 
 Bradford, and about 50 in Hull, and did fairly at the other 
 places. I am appointed Deputation in the York District in the 
 fore part of April. But after that, by and by, you may look for 
 us. We keep getting a few here, and have money in hand. We 
 should be thankful, and I trust we are. Kindest love. 
 
 TO ISAAC GIBSON, ESQ. 
 
 DKWSBURT, March 29, 1886. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. GIBSON, Your kind favour is to hand. I 
 would do anything for you in my power, but am afraid that 
 I cannot get to see you before Conference. 
 
 I go on Foreign Mission Deputation work next week in the 
 York District. This being my last year, the good folk are 
 putting nearly all the Sunday School sermons on me, and they 
 look for me on the week-days. I have given thirty-five lectures 
 in the circuit this last two years and a half. 
 
 June 2, Savile Town S.S. sermons 
 June 20, Batley Carr 
 June 27, Dewsbury 
 July 4, Moorlands 
 July 11, Thornhill 
 July 18, Earlsheaton 
 
 And the last in July I am expected in Darleston, Staffordshire, 
 but for the life of me cannot see how. 
 
 When you get all your arrangements made, you might drop 
 me a line, and I will see about a week-day if it be possible, but 
 please not to be grieved if I am fast and cannot get to you. The
 
 220 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 Super and Mr. Sholl change circuits, and will be at Conference, 
 so I must stay in. Much love. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 MALTON, April 13, 1886. 
 
 MY DEAR MR: GIBSON, Just a line in haste. We are getting 
 on very well with the Deputation work, up all round, although 
 the times are bad. Sunday and Monday, York Great do. 
 Collection last night 160. We had Mr. Hill in the chair. He 
 would give (with his brother) more than half. Still it was noble. 
 Here they are in high expectations. Lord help us ! I have an 
 old colleague, Mr. Haigh from London, with me. Much love. 
 
 TO MRS. ANDREW. 
 
 NORTHALLERTON, April 15, 1886. 
 
 DEAR MRS. ANDREW, I am out on Foreign Mission Deputation 
 work since the 4th. Will get back on Saturday. You will be 
 pleased to hear that we have had such good times, and the 
 Master's blessing, and the collections up all along. The night 
 before last, at Malton, nine pounds up, and the farmers here are 
 hard up, some badly off. York Centenary, they got 160 it 
 was wonderful. We are up this afternoon. They say that they 
 have not seen such a congregation in the afternoon for sixteen 
 years. . . . 
 
 TO ISAAC GIBSON, ESQ. 
 
 DBWSBURT, March 15, 1886. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR MR. GIBSON, I would have sent a line 
 a little sooner, but we have been so throng with the District 
 Meeting at Dewsbury. We have had good meetings, but it has 
 been wet. You will be pleased to hear that the brethren have 
 kindly consented to let me free from circuit work after Confer- 
 ence. But no one knows the number of applications. . . . We 
 got 48 Is. last Saturday and Sunday. Much love. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 May 20, 1886. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. GIBSON, Will you have the lecture on John 
 Bunyan, the Hero of Elstow, and his Pilgrims, or the one on
 
 AOT QUITE WORN OUT 221 
 
 Jonathan the Son of Saul, a Type of True Friendship ? Sermon as 
 before. Both lectures new one three months, the other six. . . . 
 
 TO MR. R. STEVENS. 
 
 DEWSBURT, July 9, 1886. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. STEVENS, Your kind letter is before me. 
 When the good folk got to know I was likely to be a little more 
 at liberty, down they came upon me, and off they went with 
 1886 and thirteen Sundays into 1887. Dear old friends like 
 yourself have written for me to go spend a week or two, and 
 let them have a Sunday and Monday, but it is no use, all is gone 
 The Isle of Man, and Cornwall, Bristol, Birmingham, Leeds, 
 London, Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, Leicester, Luton, 
 Darlaston, Workington, Berwick, Newcastle, Sunderland, Nor- 
 wich, Lowestoft, Yarmouth, Outwell, Ashby - de - la - Zouch, 
 Winsford, Sandbach, Burton, Bridlington, Scarborough, Filey, 
 Driffield, Beverley, Hull, Barton - on - Humber, Gainsborough, 
 Lincoln, Market Rasen, Exeter. Much love. 
 
 P.S. We had a good Quarterly Meeting, a little over a 
 hundred up on the three years, three new chapels, and money in 
 hand at the Quarter Board. I preached the Sunday School 
 sermons in the great chapel. They got 87, 4s. Id., about 14 
 up without a stranger. I have given the circuit forty lectures, 
 and they got 45 with the last one, so your old friend is not 
 quite worn out yet-
 
 CHAPTEE XXIII 
 
 RETIREMENT FROM CIRCUIT WORK 1886-1895 
 
 WTiat Retirement Meant The Strain of Circuit Routine Gift 
 of Drawing-room Furniture Rev. John Nayler's Incident 
 Characteristics of his Correspondence Letters, 1886-1895 
 Reading "Tarn o' Shanter" Baptismal Incident Mac- 
 kenzie as Chairman Address to a Chairman His Prayer 
 for the Children The Top of the Milk "I've got my 
 Eye on You " His Letters Home. 
 
 AT the end of Mackenzie's term in Dewsbury he was 
 permitted by the Conference to become a super- 
 numerary minister, though such a term can hardly be 
 applied to a man like him without a sense of absurdity. 
 What it really signifies is, that he was released from 
 the routine of a circuit, and enabled to devote his 
 whole time to the wider work to which Providence had 
 given him so emphatic a call, and for which he was so 
 eminently fitted. The Methodist term for such retire- 
 ment is, " to sit down " an expressive phrase, but in 
 Mackenzie's case laughably inappropriate. Seldom if 
 ever has the Methodist ministry had in its ranks a 
 man of such herculean power and irrepressible energy. 
 For him to settle down into quietude and inaction 
 would have been as feasible as for Etna in the height 
 of an eruption to cease flinging out ashes and lava.
 
 A GRACEFUL GIFT 223 
 
 Liberating him from circuit trammels was simply 
 empowering him to go forth to the work he loved 
 with redoubled energy and with less harassment. 
 It meant for him no increase of rest, but greater 
 freedom of movement, and he often laughingly observed 
 that he had never been off his feet since he sat 
 down. 
 
 It is impossible to read the letters already given 
 without realising that circuit work was in his circum- 
 stances a wearing and almost intolerable strain, and 
 the true feeling in regard to his retirement is not 
 surprise that it should come when it did, but regret 
 that it did not come earlier. 
 
 When it was known that he intended to retire, the 
 Dewsbury friends were very anxious to mark their 
 appreciation of his character and of the service he had 
 rendered to the circuit during his three years' labours. 
 A meeting was called, and it was decided to furnish 
 his drawing-room for him. Of course in retiring a 
 Methodist minister relinquishes the house and furni- 
 ture which has formed part of his allowance, and has 
 to provide a residence for himself compelled to do 
 towards the end of life what most men do at the 
 beginning. In view of this the decision of the 
 friends was thoughtful and graceful. A few of 
 Mackenzie's friends at Batley Carr, Dewsbury, Savile 
 Town, Mirfield, and Earlsheaton took part, together 
 with one each from Moorlands and Ravensthorpe. 
 There was no canvassing, the subscriptions being given 
 quite spontaneously, and the presentation was made 
 to him at Batley Carr, on August 14, 1886, by the 
 superintendent of the circuit, the Rev. Charles 
 Burbridge. The cost of the furniture, which included
 
 224 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 carpet, hearthrug, tiled hearth, and other requisites, 
 was seventy-five pounds. 
 
 A glimpse of the grateful pride with which this gift 
 was regarded by Mackenzie, as well as of his own 
 obliging disposition, is given us by the Eev. John 
 Nayler. He says : 
 
 "At Bacup, in 1891, as one of Mr. Mackenzie's 
 visits drew near, we found to our dismay that an 
 important local event would clash with it. To get a 
 man of his close and constant engagements to change 
 seemed impossible, and some men so much in demand 
 might have resented the suggestion, but, encouraged by 
 our faith in his goodness, I arranged for an interview 
 with him at Dewsbury. His buoyant step and cheery 
 greeting as he entered the room were those of a man just 
 back from a holiday, rather than of one only home from 
 a week's hard toil and trouble. ' Come into the back 
 room,' he said, ' where there's a bit of a fire.' Seated 
 there, he at once generously placed himself at our 
 disposal, and, handing over his engagement- book to me, 
 exclaimed, ' There it is ! see where I am, and what 
 change we can make ! ' What a revelation that book 
 was of incessant toil and travel ! After some difficulty 
 we were able to negotiate a change, and then I rose 
 to leave. As we passed along the passage, he 
 invited me into the drawing-room a room so 
 tastefully and beautifully furnished that it was a 
 surprise to the visitor. ' What do you think of this ? ' 
 said he, looking round with evident delight. ' These 
 good Dewsbury folk gave me all these things when I 
 settled down here.' " 
 
 The following correspondence shows us clearly how 
 the hurry and rush of Mackenzie's life increased with
 
 HIS LETTERS 227 
 
 his retirement from circuit work. The fetters that 
 fell from him were succeeded instantly by others of 
 almost heavier metal. The struggle to retain even 
 the Friday, his one day of rest, comes out pathetically, 
 and the longing for quiet makes itself felt again and 
 again through the stir and restlessness. His letters 
 betray a curious lack of allusion to the great life of 
 the world around him. No man was more interested 
 in it, but the hurry crowded out the possibility of 
 reference to it in his writing. Nor was there space 
 in his experience for that kind of correspondence in 
 which as in a mirror we see reflected the inner life of 
 the writer. He lived necessarily so much in the glare 
 that the rare gleanings of the shade remained a secret 
 between himself and God, or found expression only 
 in the rich personal experience and life that he carried 
 with him into his public ministrations. There is 
 almost a childish delight in his letters over the bulki- 
 ness of the collections, but it is only just to remember 
 that one chief element in this was joy that the places, 
 especially the poorer causes he sought to help, were 
 being so largely benefited. 
 
 TO ISAAC GIBSON, ESQ. 
 
 DEWSBURY, October 22, 1886. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, I have just got in from Boston. 
 We had a good day, but my throat has been so bad for a week. 
 I travelled through the night last week, two nights after 
 lecturing, and was very hot and wet. They put me on three 
 times in Manchester last Sabbath, and the Monday was a large 
 gathering. They got about 100 57 on the Sunday and 
 about 50 more on the Monday. Then I had Stapleford and 
 Dalston and Boston. Boston got 36. They told me I was at 
 the top, congregations and money. I was thankful to get
 
 228 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 through. I go to the Isle of Man to-morrow morning. Do you 
 know, the brethren have cleared me out up to Conference, and 
 I am so far behind with old friends, that I am hard fast. I have 
 taken 84 public services since I was set at liberty, so I may say 
 I have been on my legs ever since I sat down. Much love to all 
 your dear ones. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 DEWSBURY, December 23, 1886. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. GIBSON, I have just got in from Torquay and 
 Plymouth and Cornwall. Thanks for your kind letter. I am 
 only sorry that the brethren have got all from me up to 
 Conference, and the Sundays up to 1888. I would enjoy a week- 
 end with you, but it cannot be next year. Much love to all 
 your dear ones, and wishing you a happy and prosperous new 
 year. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 DEWSBURY, September 9, 1887. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, D.V., I will leave Newcastle-on- 
 Tyne at 7.40 and arrive at Peterborough at 12.30 on Thursday, 
 September 15. I am looking for a good day. I have much 
 enjoyed this week. I was at Heaton Moor Sunday and Monday. 
 They got 47 for a sort of helper-up collection, without effort or 
 charge. They were much pleased with the financial results. I 
 go to Liverpool Sunday and Monday, S. S. sermons, Cranmer ; 
 North Skelton Tuesday, and Blyth Wednesday. Then I am 
 longing to see you all on Thursday. Much love. 
 
 TO MR. AND MRS. GIBSON. 
 
 LIVERPOOL, September 12, 1887. 
 
 DEAR MR. AND MRS. GIBSON, We had a grand time here 
 yesterday. They had not seen such a congregation for some 
 years, and we had good done. The collection, also, was more at 
 night than they got all day last year. I am at Kirkdale to-night 
 with our old friend " The Tongue," and " Solomon " to-morrow, 
 love.
 
 READING ALOUD 229 
 
 TO MRS. ANDREW. 
 
 DEWSBUBT, November 12, 1887. 
 
 DEAR MRS. ANDREW, Thanks so much for the beautiful card, 
 and the good kind wishes for another year. God indeed has been 
 good to me. I have been able to take 630 services right on, with 
 the Friday and Saturday sometimes at liberty. 
 
 to grace how great a debtor 
 Daily I'm constrained to be ! 
 
 Kindest regards and many thanks. 
 
 For the long period of twenty - five years, 
 Mackenzie's home at Neath (he called it home) was at 
 Southfield, the residence of Mrs. Andrew. Mr. John 
 E. Eichards describes how one evening, to a few choice 
 friends, Mr. Mackenzie read aloud there Burns' 
 famous " Tarn o' Shanter" with a force and expres- 
 siveness that were at times almost startling. 
 
 Mr. Richards also tells how Mr. Mackenzie, in 1886, 
 baptized his little son, who at the time was hovering 
 between life and death. Looking at the child as he 
 lay on a cushion almost bereft of vitality, Mr. 
 Mackenzie said, " Poor little chap, he may come 
 round. I am sorry I dropped a big drop of water 
 into his eye, but he merely closed the lid, as much as 
 to say, 'None of these things move me.'" 
 
 TO ISAAC GIBSON, ESQ. 
 
 BLACKBURN, February 6, 1888. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR MR. GIBSON, It was so kind of you to 
 think of me when visiting Horncastle. We had a good time, 
 thank God. Have you thought of the best Sunday and Monday 
 for 1889 ? You put March or April down. I will be booking 
 soon. The new book for 1889 has come to hand. Much love to 
 all your dear ones.
 
 zy> LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 TO THE KEY. E. A. JONES. 
 
 TYNEMOUTH, May 14, 1888. 
 
 REV. AND DEAR SIR, I am so sorry that I cannot get through 
 to Dewsbury so as to have the pleasure of going with you to 
 Wakefield. I will have to go via York and Normanton. I can 
 leave here by the 10.30 P.M., York 1.20 A.M., and go to bed till 
 six, and get to Wakefield a little after 8 A.M. I may say 
 without egotism that I will be one of the First Men at the 
 District Meeting. 
 
 It was bright and fine here yesterday. Thank God, it is a 
 great comfort to old people that have got through the winter. 
 Thirty years have wrought great changes in the place and the 
 people. It was a good time collection double, and to-night to 
 follow in the large hall in North Shields. Much love. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 DEWSBURY, December 29, 1888. 
 
 REV. AND DEAR SIR, All the Compliments of the Season to 
 you and the dear ones. I am sorry that I cannot find a day for 
 Dewsbury before June. I am at it every day, and ten of the 
 Fridays they have got from me up to the former part of April. 
 And I should not like to take a Friday about here. ... I will 
 not take Friday, the poverty of the land is made apparent, most 
 painfully so. Much love. 
 
 TO ISAAC GIBSON, ESQ. 
 
 WIQAN, April 11, 1889. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, I would have answered your 
 kind letter sooner, but have been out and overdone with work 
 twelve services last week and fourteen this. It is too much. It 
 does not leave me time to rest and attend to the letters, etc. I 
 can only give you two services on the Sabbath, and two on the 
 Monday, if it will help the tea-meeting. I generally take twice 
 on the Sunday and the lecture on the Monday night, but now 
 and again I take three on the Sunday and the Monday. But I 
 cannot stand three times on the Sunday. Will you have the 
 new lecture on " The Wisdom of Esop and Others ?" It goes very 
 well. Much love.
 
 REST NEEDED 231 
 
 TO MR. ROBERT STEVENS. 
 
 DEWSBURY, September 12, 1889. 
 
 DEAR MR. STEVENS, Thanks for your kind letter. The 
 good folk have got all from me into November 1891. With beat 
 wishes. 
 
 TO ISAAC GIBSON, ESQ. 
 
 DEWSBURY, June 30, 1890. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. GIBSON, The new lecture, they say, is the best 
 " The Proverbs of Solomon and Others." Will you have it ? ... 
 I will have to leave by the early train, so please don't invite 
 anyone to supper. I shall get knocked up with thirteen services 
 if I don't get a little rest. We had a good time here, Batley 
 Carr, yesterday. They got 57, that was 11 up on last year, 
 and 20 on the year before. I gave them three times, but it is 
 too much, and I must give it up. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 SEDBURG, August 27, 1890. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, I have booked June 29, 1891, for 
 you. The Lord be with us ! Good time at Cleethorpes Sunday 
 and Monday. They got about 58, and at Lancaster last night 
 we had His blessing. Much love. 
 
 TO MR. ROBERT STEVENS. 
 
 ROCHDALE, September 17, 1890. 
 
 MY NEVER-TO-BE-FORGOTTEN, Your old friend is so fearfully 
 put to it, you will take the will for the deed. 
 
 TO CAPTAIN PERFECT. 
 
 DEWSBURY, May 29, 1891. 
 
 DEAR CAPTAIN, We fully expect the pleasure of your com- 
 pany on Friday next, and have invited the ministers to meet 
 you to tea. May we have a good time ! If you get here between 
 four and five, you can rest and be happy. . . .
 
 232 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 On the occasion referred to in the above letter, 
 Captain Perfect says that he went to Batley Carr to 
 lecture on his seafaring life, at Mr. Mackenzie's 
 special request, and with the understanding that he 
 should take the chair. The ministers went to tea 
 and also to the lecture, and there was a lively time. 
 The captain learned afterwards that this was the only 
 occasion on which Mr. Mackenzie had taken the chair 
 at a lecture. The captain had years before taken the 
 chair for Mackenzie, and before going to the lecture 
 had been addressed as follows : 
 
 " I hear you are chairman to-night. You are a 
 sensible man, indeed Perfect. I cannot say that of all 
 my chairmen. It has happened sometimes, just some- 
 times, that the dear man has read up on the subject, 
 and of course had the first start, and when finished 
 left me only bare bones. To-night it is Esther, 
 lovely Esther, charming Esther. She has been a good 
 woman to me. I have already got a fortune by her, 
 and am expecting more. Don't you interfere with 
 her. Never interfere with another man's wife. You 
 are sure to get into trouble if you do." 
 
 That was Mackenzie's way of asking for a short 
 speech from his chairman, and Captain Perfect remarks 
 that of course when he reached the platform he was 
 very brief indeed. 
 
 TO MR. J. SHIRLEY. 
 
 DEWSBDBT, December 30, 1891. 
 
 DEAR MR. SHIRLEY, I am so sorry that we did not book the 
 day you named. I have again gone through the 1892 book, and 
 you are not in it. The book is full to overflowing, and I cannot 
 get them out. Much love and the season's greetings.
 
 A KINDL Y PRA YER 235 
 
 Mr. Shirley says that on one occasion, when stay- 
 ing at his house, Mackenzie in his prayer asked the 
 Lord that the children might be permitted to go to 
 Llandudno that summer, a favourite place of theirs. 
 Need it be added that ever afterwards he was re- 
 membered by them as the dear man who prayed that 
 the little ones might go to the seaside. 
 
 TO ISAAC GIBSON, ESQ. 
 
 LEYBOURNE, April 29, 1892. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, Your kind favour is to hand. I 
 much regret that I cannot give the afternoon. I have thirteen 
 services this week and thirteen next week, and the week before 
 coming to you twelve. I am doing far too much. I have had to 
 crawl about on two sticks. I don't like to give up, but I ought 
 to keep the week to twice on the Sundays and four week-days. 
 I have been as near done for as possible. I shall get home for 
 two hours to-morrow before going to Padiham, Lancashire, to 
 lecture, and will forward you the title of the lecture. Much love 
 and best wishes. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 HOLMFIRTH, May 3, 1892. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. GIBSON, I will come on from "Wisbech in time 
 for a little quiet dinner and rest. It will make thirty-eight 
 services without one day between. I hope it will not put your 
 family about. Don't bring anyone till Monday. Much love. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 KINO'S LYNN, May 12, 1892. 
 
 DEAR MR. GIBSON, I will leave Wiabech 10.34, arrive 
 Peterboro' 11.26, on Saturday. Please not to trouble meeting me. 
 I can take a cab. What a nice quiet day I shall have, D. V. \
 
 236 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 TO MKS. ANDREW. 
 
 DEWSBUBT, May 20, 1892. 
 
 DEAR MRS. ANDREW, How are you \ I hope quite well, and 
 trurit the spring and summer will be amongst the best that you 
 have had. So may it be, please God ! . . . I have been very 
 well, only a little troubled with sciatica ; but it has not stopped 
 me. I had twelve services last week and fourteen the week 
 before. That is not so bad for a supernumerary. . . . 
 
 TO MKS. ADCOCK. 
 
 DKWSBUET, July 29, 1892. 
 
 DEAR SISTER ADCOCK, The grapes are here all safe and sound, 
 and beauties they are. I think Father Adam could not have 
 got better in the garden of Eden. I do feel grateful to you for 
 all your great kindness. The Lord reward you with life and 
 health and peace in this world, and glory in the world to come. 
 April 11, 1893, is down all right, and may we have a good day 1 
 With many thanks. 
 
 Mrs. Adcock relates that during his visit, on April 
 llth, he asked for a glass of milk. On the maid 
 going to fetch it, he said, " The top will do as well as 
 the bottom, my dear." When she came with it, he 
 exclaimed mischievously, " Why, if you haven't brought 
 me the cream \ " 
 
 In 1894 Mrs. Adcock went to Castle Gresley to 
 meet him, and to arrange for his next visit to Mel- 
 bourne (Derbyshire). She was shown into the 
 room where he was seated with a number of other 
 visitors. When she had sat down, he turned to her 
 and said, " I've got my eye on you." She replied, 
 " Have you, sir ? " In a few moments he remarked 
 again, " I've got my eye on you." Somewhat be- 
 wildered, she inquired what was meant. Then he
 
 A WATCHFUL PARROT 237 
 
 explained that he had been to a fresh place, and was 
 put into a room, and left alone for quiet. He had 
 not been there long, when a voice said, " I've got my 
 eye on you." He looked around, but could see no one, 
 and was just settling comfortably down again when 
 the same voice exclaimed, " I've got my eye on you." 
 He looked about him once more, and discovered a 
 parrot in a cage, and knew at once where the sound 
 had come from. And when the story was finished, 
 Mrs. Adcock understood that what the strange remark 
 meant was that he had not forgotten her application, 
 but was looking out a day for his next visit. 
 
 TO MR W. STARFOKTH. 
 
 DEWSBURT, March 17, 1893. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, Thanks for your kind and press- 
 ing letter. I only regret my inability to give you a day, owing 
 to previous engagements. ... I have 600 sermons and lectures 
 booked. I would give you a day, if I had one, with great 
 pleasure. Kindest love and best wishes. 
 
 TO ISAAC GIBSON, ESQ. 
 
 FOREST GATE, E., November 15, 1893. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR MR. GIBSON, I thank you very much 
 for your kind wishes. I am thankful to say I keep very well. 
 Twelve services this week ; six in London, four in Tunbridge, 
 and two in Rochester. I have only had about eleven per week 
 this last five weeks. Much love and best wishes. 
 
 The following has reference to the death of Mr. 
 William Ritson of Woodley Field, Hexham, an old 
 friend of Mackenzie's, and a good friend to Methodism,
 
 238 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 TO MRS. ANDREW. 
 
 YORK, December 1, 1893. 
 
 DEAR MRS. ANDREW, You will be very sorry for the change 
 that has taken place at Woodley Field, Hexham. Hannah gone, 
 and Mrs. Eitson gone, and now the dear, kind, cheerful, liberal 
 old friend gone also. I am so sorry. . . . He was anxious that 
 I should give them a day. I sent a few lines, and the next 
 thing I heard was that he had gone home. Well, through the 
 mercy and merits of our Lord and Saviour, they have met to 
 part no more, we trust. . . . 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 LATCHFORD HOUSE, WARRINGTON, January 1, 1894. 
 
 DEAR MRS. ANDREW, Just a line to wish you a very happy 
 New Year in all respects. We have very fine weather here, and 
 great doings at the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal. 
 Remember me to Mr. Richards and the rest. 
 
 TO ISAAC GIBSON, ESQ. 
 
 DEWSBURY, April 21, 1894. 
 
 DEAR MR. GIBSON, The lecture on " The Nameless Prophet 
 of Judah and his Wonderful History " is going well, so that is 
 down for you on Monday, May 21. . . . 
 
 The next refers to Mackenzie's last visit to Peter- 
 borough. 
 
 TO MR. AND MRS. GIBSON. 
 
 CREWB, May 14, 1894. 
 
 DEAR MR. AND MRS. GIBSON, I am here for to-day, and to- 
 morrow, D. V., London ; Wednesday, Folkestone ; Thursday, 
 Ramsgate. As it will be a long run from Ramsgate to Dewsbury, 
 and back to Peterborough, I am thinking, if it be quite con- 
 venient to you, I will come on Friday evening and rest, and be 
 ready for the Sunday. If it is not convenient, just drop me a 
 line to Ramsgate, and I will stay there and come on Saturday. 
 Yours with all good wishes.
 
 LETTERS HOME 239 
 
 The following are specimens of the brief but 
 cheery missives with which, amid his many journeys 
 and long absences, he brightened the hearts of the 
 loved ones at home. 
 
 TO MRS. MACKENZIE. 
 
 RUNCORN, April 10, 1894. 
 
 DEAR MOTHER, Safe here. They got 64 at Burslem. Was 
 not that good, think you ? Letters here. Thanks, and many 
 of them. I go to Derby in the morning. Much love. 
 
 TO THE SAME. 
 
 WALL, CORNWALL, May1\, 1895. 
 
 DEAR MOTHER, Letters to hand. Grand time at St. Just's. 
 They got 100. They thought if they got 15 or 20 it would 
 be good, but they went far beyond. I have a long run up to 
 Exeter to-morrow. Much love.
 
 CHAPTEE XXIV 
 
 THE LAST DAYS 
 
 Failing Strength Unreasonable Pressure Apparent Forebod- 
 ings Letters to Mr. Shirley and Mrs. Adcock " No Rest 
 for Peter" A Quiet Day A Wave of Glory A Severe 
 Cold Visit to Worcester A Fatal Drive Feebleness at 
 Eeading Sunday and Monday at Danven Rev. E. 
 Moulton's Account Letter to Rev. Charles Mees. 
 
 TO the bulk of the Methodist people the news of 
 Mackenzie's illness and death came with a 
 shock of great surprise. He seemed so strong and 
 lively, that sickness and death never entered even as 
 a remote contingency into the popular conception of 
 him. Such promise of continuance was present in all 
 his speech and action, that circuits had not so much 
 as dreamed of asking what they would do when he 
 was gone. And yet to keen eyes the stalwart tree 
 had begun to bend, its branches yielded with less 
 elasticity to the wind, and its leaves, though still 
 green, lacked somewhat of the old freshness. Of 
 mental vigour there was not a trace of decay, but the 
 outer walls of the tabernacle gave signs here and 
 there of yielding to the strain. What a cruel strain 
 it was ! To what almost inhuman pressure were 
 mind and body exposed ! It cannot be defended. 
 
 240
 
 NO REST FOR PETER 241 
 
 Think of a man of nearly seventy years of age having 
 thirty-eight services, and services such as his, without 
 a break ! There must and ought to have been some 
 way of escape. 
 
 Forebodings of unfavourable possibilities seem to 
 peer out in the following letters : 
 
 TO MR. J. SHIRLEY. 
 
 BRISTOL, May 23, 1895. 
 
 DEAR MR. SHIRLEY, Thursday, September 10, 1896, is down 
 for you. May w live and have a good time. 
 
 TO MRS. ADCOCK. 
 
 MOBECAMBE, August 26, 1895. 
 
 DEAR MRS. ADCOCK, The grapes got to Dewsbury before 1 
 left on Saturday, and they were so sweet and good. Many 
 thanks to you for all your kindness. We had a great day here 
 on Sunday. Had to begin before the time, the place was so full. 
 They got over 30, and the lecture to follow this evening. I 
 wish you could get as much at Melbourne, on December 1 and 2. 
 I am looking forward with pleasure to the visit. Please God to 
 keep me alive. With many thanks. 
 
 Mrs. Caleb Foster of Bowdon informs me that she 
 saw Mr. Mackenzie at Eedcar railway station on his 
 way home from Skelton, and invited him to stay at 
 her house for a few days for the sake of rest. He 
 replied in his usual humorous way, " There will be no 
 rest for Peter Mackenzie till he is dressed in a 
 wooden suit and tucked in with a shovel" 
 
 To another friend who asked when he was going to 
 give up work, the answer was, " When I drop." 
 
 10
 
 242 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 How a day's rest was relished is shown in the 
 following : 
 
 TO MRS. ANDREW. 
 
 MARKET RASEN, July 15, 1895. 
 
 DEAR MRS. ANDREW, We had a good time here yesterday, 
 and I lecture and preach to-day. To-morrow, D.F"., I go on to 
 Nottingham for Tuesday. Wednesday Evesham. That day, 
 however, is changed, as they have some great do in the town. 
 So your old friend, if you please, will come quietly on for a cup 
 of tea on Wednesday, arriving at 4.54. A day's rest is a godsend 
 to me. I hope it will not put you about coming a day before 
 you expect me. I will be on the ground for Thursday, and 
 ought to give you a good sermon and lecture. With all good 
 wishes. 
 
 Of this quiet day Mr. John E. PJchards of ISTeath 
 says, that he read aloud to Mr. Mackenzie and Mrs. 
 Andrew in the evening extracts from Echoes from the 
 Welsh Hills, and that the time was one of great 
 mental and spiritual refreshment. 
 
 Mr. F. Strickland of Scawby, Lincolnshire, sends 
 an interesting account of Mackenzie's services at 
 Scumthorpe in the August previous to his last illness. 
 He was then apparently in good health and spirits. 
 In the afternoon he preached on the Prodigal Son, 
 and in the sermon, with his usual good nature, was 
 ready to excuse, as far as possible, the action of the 
 younger son in going off without, as he said, saying 
 good-bye. " Poor lad ! " he said ; " we must not be 
 too hard upon him. He had on a new suit, and felt 
 quite a dandy, and as rich as a millionaire." In the 
 lecture at night, at which Mr. Strickland presided, 
 Mackenzie was in good trim, and spoke with great 
 vigour. When he had finished, and the collection
 
 A WAVE OF GLORY 243 
 
 was made and the benediction pronounced, not one 
 person rose to go. " He said to me, ' Speak to them/ " 
 continues Mr. Strickland. " I answered, ' Who can 
 follow the King ? ' Turning to the choir, he said, 
 ' Give us the last two verses over again, please.' The 
 choir had got up an anthem to the hymn, ' Talk with 
 us, Lord,' etc. When we came to the last verse 
 
 Let this my every hour employ, 
 Till I Thy glory see, 
 
 it seemed as if a wave of glory passed over the plat- 
 form and filled the place. We all felt it, and the 
 lecturer said, ' Friends, I have come a long way, and 
 so have some of you, to be present, but it is worth it 
 all to hear that anthem.' 
 
 " If he had then any presentiment of his coming 
 end, he did not show it, save in the way in which 
 he seemed to feel the silent awe that for a few 
 moments rested on us all. This was one of his last 
 services." 
 
 It was while fulfilling an engagement at the village 
 of Sheepshed, on Tuesday, October 22, that Mackenzie 
 caught cold. Despite of this, he went to Bolton to 
 lecture on the Wednesday, and the Thursday found 
 him at Longton in Staffordshire. On returning home, 
 his family did their utmost to induce him to rest, but 
 he had many engagements. Besides, it had been a 
 lifelong habit for him to work off colds as the clouds 
 work off moisture by raining their treasures on others. 
 There comes a time, however, when the strongest 
 machinery yields to overstrain, and that hour had 
 arrived for Peter Mackenzie. He started for 
 Worcester on the 26th, where he had to preach on
 
 244 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 the following Sunday and lecture on the Monday. 
 Of this visit Mr. E. B. Storm furnishes an account. 
 
 " Arriving on Saturday evening at half - past six, 
 he looked tired and feeble, and said he had not 
 been well, and had eaten nothing for three days. 
 He had a little tea upon his arrival, and rested 
 until eight o'clock, when he retired to rest, 
 saying he wanted to be equal to his work on the 
 Sabbath. 
 
 " On Sunday he came down to breakfast refreshed, 
 at nine o'clock, saying he had had a splendid night's 
 rest, only waking at two o'clock, when he rose and 
 spent a short time in prayer, sleeping again until 
 half-past seven, when he got up. 
 
 " He conducted the service in the morning, and 
 preached in his usual style and with much earnestness 
 from Psalm cvii. 7. He rested during the afternoon, 
 and in the evening again conducted the service, preach- 
 ing an able and very instructive sermon on the 
 Prodigal Son, from Luke xv. 12, 13, to an overflowing 
 congregation, and at the close of the day he did not 
 feel the fatigue or exhaustion that might have been 
 anticipated. He, however, retired early to rest, and 
 had a good night's sleep. He was more himself, 
 in life and spirit, during the whole of Monday, and 
 also took a fair amount of nourishment. He lectured 
 in the evening on ' Absalom ' to a very large congrega- 
 tion in his usual style, and was never heard to greater 
 advantage and profit. 
 
 " His visit here was greatly enjoyed, and was a 
 great success, spiritually and financially. On Tuesday 
 morning he left us at eleven o'clock for Winchcombe, 
 looking much stronger, and quite free from pain,
 
 A FATAL DRIVE 245 
 
 saying how thankful he was to feel equal to his work 
 again." 
 
 It was on the way from Winchcombe to Cheltenham 
 on the Wednesday that death discovered the vulnerable 
 point in Mackenzie's armour, and drove his fatal shaft 
 pitilessly home. Unfortunately for himself, and for 
 the Church which could so ill dispense with him, he 
 was driven in an open carriage, along an exposed 
 road, through the piercing cold of a damp morning, 
 and from the effects of that drive, despite the vigorous 
 effort he made himself, seconded by the kindly atten- 
 tions of many friends, he never recovered. From 
 Cheltenham he travelled by rail to Reading, and Mr. 
 H. Moon of that town reports that on arriving there 
 it was evident that he was very ill, yet he would 
 proceed with his lecture. The friends did all they 
 could to dissuade him from going to Southampton the 
 next day, and his hostess, Mrs. Edward F. Collins, 
 spared nothing that could possibly benefit her guest. 
 Mr. Moon feels assured that had he remained at 
 Reading a few days under Mrs. Collins' kindly care, 
 his life might have been prolonged ; but he could 
 not be persuaded, for, as he put it, he would rather 
 die than disappoint the friends. From Southampton, 
 on Friday, November 1st, he journeyed to Banbury, 
 Oxfordshire, and left there for Darwen in Lancashire 
 on the Saturday. Of this visit to Darwen the Rev. 
 E. Moulton writes : 
 
 " Mr. Mackenzie reached Darwen from Banbury on 
 the Saturday afternoon. I was not able to see him 
 until after nine o'clock, and then for a few minutes 
 only, as he was just retiring for the night. He 
 looked worn and unwell. He said he had been on
 
 246 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 the point of writing me to say he could not keep 
 his engagements. He complained of a long ride in 
 an open conveyance over hills nine hundred feet high, 
 and remarked, ' It has killed me.' On the following 
 day, Sunday, November 3rd, he preached morning and 
 evening in Wesley Chapel, Darwen, and the friends 
 spoke in the highest terms of the blessed season they 
 had enjoyed. During the Monday he remained indoors, 
 writing letters, and reading and resting. In the 
 evening he lectured on ' Stirring Scenes in the Life of 
 the Apostle Peter.' It was an able deliverance. During 
 the lecture he leaned heavily on the book-rest of the 
 pulpit, and at the close appeared exhausted and glad 
 to sit down. But he was cheery and responsive as 
 usual. I rode with him to his home, his host, Mr. 
 W. Entwistle, J.P., of Eosehill, being confined to his 
 bed with illness. While in the carriage, he said he 
 felt used up, and again referred to how he had been 
 called upon to travel in an open conveyance the 
 previous week. He further said, ' You know I have 
 been an abstainer thirteen or fifteen years, and I 
 don't want to break my pledge, though urged to 
 resort to stimulants.' For several days he had hardly 
 touched any solid food, and was then having only 
 beef-tea and soda and milk. 
 
 " Still we had a quiet talk in his host's bedroom 
 until about ten o'clock, when I said good-bye, no more 
 to see my old friend in this world. The next morning, 
 about half-past seven, he left Darwen for Manchester. 
 Mrs. Entwistle has since told me how very feeble 
 he appeared on leaving, while he himself remarked 
 that he hardly knew how to walk across the room. 
 It was suggested that he should wait for a later train.
 
 FAINT AND WEARY 247 
 
 No, he would be all right when once in the train, and 
 would go direct home, and not to Newcastle-on-Tyne, 
 where he was expected that day. 
 
 " The decease of this brother beloved has been 
 especially admonitory to myself. We stood shoulder 
 to shoulder in the gallery of Talbot Lane Chapel, 
 Rotherham, at the Public Examination of Candidates 
 for Ordination, during the Sheffield Conference of 
 1863. On the following Thursday, August 5th, we 
 stood in the same relation in Brunswick Chapel, 
 Sheffield, and knelt side by side to be solemnly 
 ordained to the Christian ministry. Since those days 
 our paths have been much apart, but in most of my 
 circuits it has been my joy to welcome Mr. Mackenzie. 
 I mourn for him as a true friend and brother beloved." 
 
 Among the few letters written by the poor weary 
 preacher from Darwen on the Monday, was the 
 following : 
 
 TO THE REV. CHARLES MEES. 
 
 DABWKN, LANCASHIRE, November 4, 1895. 
 
 MY DEAR MR. MEES, Just a line to say I got to Banbury all 
 right, and had on the whole a good time. Here yesterday, a 
 grand gathering and a good time. I am a little better, but not 
 right, unless it be old age coming upon me. To that we nmst 
 bow. Yours affectionately, P. MACKENZIE.
 
 REST AT LAST 
 
 Overcome at Length A Waiting Congregation Doctors Sum- 
 moned " In the Dry Dock " Going in Haste What Might 
 Have Been A Brave Fight Longing to Preach Two 
 New Sermons The Benediction Sweet Sleep at Last 
 A Large Funeral Touching Tributes Rev. J. S. Banks' 
 Address Eeflections of a Working Man. 
 
 fTlHOUGH he had for days fought so bravely with 
 -L disease, Mackenzie realised, on leaving Darwen, 
 that it would be impossible longer to sustain the 
 struggle. The strong tide of his strength was 
 ebbing, never to flow again. A large congregation 
 had assembled to hear him in Clarence Street 
 Chapel, Newcastle-on-Tyne, but a telegram was read, 
 announcing that he was too ill to come. Among 
 the congregation, waiting to see the much-loved face 
 of her father, was his eldest daughter, Mrs. Snowball 
 of Gateshead, and wild were the steps and painful 
 the anticipations with which she rushed from the 
 building and hurried home when the sad announce- 
 ment was made. 
 
 Meanwhile the poor tired traveller, who had been 
 joined by his second daughter in Leeds, had made 
 his way home to Dewsbury, where everything that 
 
 248
 
 IN THE DRY DOCK 249 
 
 loving hearts could devise and loving hands could 
 accomplish was done for his welfare. Dr. Cameron 
 of Dewsbury was summoned, and for consultation, 
 when the case grew more serious, Dr. Barr of Leeds. 
 
 On the day of his arrival home, he penned the 
 following epistle, which proved to be his last : 
 
 TO MR. E. B. STORM. 
 
 DEWSBURY, November 5. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, I am in the dry dock. You sent 
 me off bright and happy Tuesday week, but that drive was too 
 much for me on the morning of Wednesday. It cut me up 
 fearfully. I got to Reading and Southampton and Banbury, and 
 Darwen on Sunday and Monday last, but it returned upon me 
 on my way to Newcastle, and I had to return here. 
 
 I have to give up Newcastle and Leeds and Huddersfield. I 
 am breathing better, and hope to have a good night. Much love. 
 From yours affectionately, P. MACKENZIE. 
 
 It was discovered that not only were his lungs 
 affected, but also his heart, and the end came with 
 a rapidity that was startling. And yet there was 
 mercy even in the swiftness of its approach. No 
 one could desire that a life of such fiery energy 
 should burn itself out in a long-drawn flicker of 
 weakness and suffering. Better, if he was to go, 
 that he should go in haste. The " dry dock," as he 
 quaintly phrases it in his last letter, was not the 
 place for a barque with such energy in its timbers to 
 linger in, and we may be glad through our sorrow 
 that it went forth into seas of light without undue 
 detention there. 
 
 One cannot but feel that had he rested earlier, he 
 might have lived longer. Would that he had never
 
 250 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 taken that fatal drive ! Would that he had been 
 more prudent, and battled with the enemy at an 
 earlier stage ! Would that he had taken a refreshing 
 holiday every year, and so hoarded a larger stoie of 
 recuperative energy with which to ward off disease ! 
 But our lamentations are vain. He was so con- 
 stituted that to work incessantly, and to push on as 
 long as his vitality would hold out, was natural and 
 almost inevitable. We regret the unwisdom ; but 
 we cannot help admiring the bravery of the fight, 
 the pluck with which he resisted the final onslaught, 
 confident almost that he could spike the guns of 
 death. And when the strong form bent and bowed 
 at last, and the quenchless spirit had to furl its 
 wings, how patiently, and with what godly cheer he 
 went through the few final days of weakness and 
 pain ! 
 
 On the Thursday week preceding his decease, he 
 bade his family farewell, exhorting them to meet him 
 on the other side. Twice he sat up in bed and 
 prayed in a loud voice for them, for the church, and 
 for his brethren in the ministry. To his eldest 
 daughter, sitting by his bed and stroking his hand, 
 he said, with a flash of the old humour, " Cheer up, 
 Janet ! I am better than two dead ones yet." 
 
 On Sunday, November 10th, he said, " I have had 
 a happy life, bless the Lord, and I have enjoyed 
 it. I do wish I could preach again. Oh, won't it 
 be grand when I can stand in the pulpit and preach 
 again. I shall enjoy it. I have made one new 
 sermon and nearly another on my sick-bed." He 
 also said, " I am firm on the Eock." 
 
 All through his illness the old spirit was strong
 
 TOUCHING TRIBUTES 251 
 
 within him, and he was constantly either praying or 
 preaching. It was pitiful to hear him ask the 
 doctor when he would be able to preach again. 
 Reminded that one of his grandsons in Gateshead 
 was now on the plan as a local preacher, he ex- 
 claimed, " Tell him to press on. It is a noble work." 
 He had begun a new sermon on the text, " Thine 
 eyes shall see the king in his beauty ; they shall 
 behold the land that is very far off." And all 
 through the night before he died, and during the 
 ensuing day, it was the subject of his thought and 
 talk. Just a few hours before he passed away, he 
 clasped his hands and pronounced the benediction : 
 " The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love 
 of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be 
 with you all." 
 
 Then quiet slumber came upon him, and thus, 
 with the fragrance of the apostolic blessing on his 
 lips, and with the benediction of his own good life 
 behind him, having served his generation by the will 
 of God, having blessed uncounted lives and won 
 uncounted hearts, he fell on sleep. He died on 
 Thursday the 21st of November 1895, having just 
 crossed the threshold of his seventy-second year. 
 
 On Monday afternoon, November 25th, amid a 
 vast crowd of mourners, and a sorrow that pervaded 
 the whole town, he was interred in the Dewsbury 
 cemetery. Among the many wreaths that made his 
 grave a heap of flowers, was one that bore this 
 significant inscription : " A mournful tribute to the 
 memory of our highly - esteemed friend, from the 
 Dewsbury cabmen." 
 
 A tribute of a similarly touching nature was paid
 
 252 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 by a poor man whom Mackenzie's eldest daughter, 
 on peering through the window in the early dawn, 
 the morning after the funeral, saw stop on his way 
 to work and look up at the house, and then, without 
 knowing that he was observed, brush away with his 
 sleeve the tears he could not drive back. 
 
 At the funeral service, held in the Centenary 
 Chapel, Dewsbury, the Eev. J. S. Banks, Chairman 
 of the Leeds district, delivered an appropriate address. 
 
 The name of Peter Mackenzie, said Mr. Banks, had 
 long been a familiar one with all branches of the 
 Methodist Church. He was a man by himself. He 
 belonged to no class, he followed no model, and he 
 could have no successor. He belonged to the ranks 
 of the exceptional men whom God raised up from 
 time to time in the history of His church for special 
 work. The church needed such men, just as it needed 
 ordinary men, and the church that was without them 
 was very poorly equipped for doing God's work. The 
 church that had them and did not know how to 
 use them was narrow and unwise. We were told 
 that in the Apostolic church Christ gave apostles, 
 prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Pastors 
 and teachers were the more numerous, essential, and 
 useful, and have formed the prominent order in the 
 life of the church, but the exceptional forms of 
 service were mentioned first. Methodists, in looking 
 back on the history of their church, were thankful 
 they had that feature in common with the New Testa- 
 ment churches, and while they had always possessed 
 pastors and teachers, they had also had men with special 
 gifts for special service. They had had their John 
 Nelsons, their David Stoners, their John Eattenburys,
 
 GENUINE POPULARITY 253 
 
 their Punshons, and their Peter Mackenzies. They had 
 also had their Adam Clarkes, Richard Watsons, Jabez 
 Buntings, and Dr. Popes, and, at the head of all, John 
 "Wesley. To these the inspired description applied, 
 " By the grace of God I am what I am." Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie could have used those words ; no one had a 
 better right than he. On the lips of the apostle they 
 meant that God chose him from the first for special 
 work. All the circumstances of his life worked 
 together to prepare him for it. But Paul was typical 
 of those servants of Christ who, not in great numbers, 
 were raised up to do special work. They thanked 
 God for men like Mr. Mackenzie for his popularity, 
 which was genuine, whatever anyone might say to the 
 contrary. It was won by honest means and used for 
 the most unselfish and generous ends. The power to 
 speak straight to the nation's heart was God's special 
 gift to His chosen servants. It was not difficult to 
 discover the sources of Mr. Mackenzie's great 
 popularity. There was his humanness. He never 
 merged the man in the minister. When speaking in 
 God's name, he was the opposite of formal, official, and 
 conventional. There was about him robust manliness, 
 but combined with it the most womanly and delicate 
 tenderness. They would never forget his racy mother- 
 wit. He saw at a glance what some only found out 
 by the slow process of analysis, and put it before 
 people in phrases and sentences that would not be 
 forgotten. He was a magnificent master of assemblies 
 in all things allied to human needs, smiles and tears, 
 joy and sorrow, and his power to touch the heart 
 proved him to belong to the class of exceptional men. 
 There was an indefinable attraction about his personality
 
 254 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 which could not be put into words, though everyone 
 could feel it. Mr. Mackenzie had it. In the early 
 years of his ministry he was a mighty evangelist, and, 
 had he continued in that line, might have been another 
 David Stoner or John Rattenbury, but in his later days 
 his steps were directed into another form of service. 
 He had specially ministered to the needs of weak and 
 struggling churches through the length and breadth 
 of the land. His labours were enormous. Only an 
 iron constitution could have enabled him to do the 
 work he did. No one knew the amount of unselfish 
 service rendered in this way. The Providence of God 
 had determined the time and manner of his end. It 
 was more merciful to him than a lingering period of 
 inactivity. His last words were the apostolic bene- 
 diction. There could be no doubt it was his. His 
 work was of an extraordinary character. But his 
 sorrowing friends and the sorrowing church could 
 say, " The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away, 
 blessed be the name of the Lord." 
 
 It may not be out of place to publish here a few 
 sentences from a rather remarkable letter of a work- 
 ing man, Mr. Henry Giles of Sowerby Bridge. He 
 indulges in some friendly strictures on that sentence 
 in Mr. Banks' address in which it is said that the 
 Providence of God had determined the time and 
 manner of Mackenzie's end. 
 
 " So far as the providence and will of God are con- 
 cerned," remarks Mr. Giles, " is it not our duty to live 
 as long as we can, especially when the expectancy of 
 multitudes has been raised by a list of engagements 
 that have been made for two or three years to come ?
 
 WHA T MIGHT HA VE BEEN 2 5 5 
 
 . . . When physically unfit for long journeys in 
 bad weather, with a huge mass of stentorian oratory 
 at the end of each, take counsel of thy wife and 
 family, and rest a while ! ... If, under the cir- 
 cumstances, the return from the Potteries had not 
 been so abruptly followed by a dash into the city of 
 porcelain, and the modern apostle had been content a 
 little longer with good Yorkshire relish, and had 
 pushed on that Worcester sauce in the direction of 
 Christmas, I see no reason why, with a little slacken- 
 ing of speed to the tune of common sense, the 
 twentieth century, instead of the nineteenth, might 
 not have been invited to the funeral. ... I ex- 
 press my regret that for want of caution and appre- 
 hension on the part of our late minister and friend, 
 about half a dozen Societies were benefited at the 
 expense of, it may be, as many hundreds, and until it 
 can be proved to me that those half-dozen last towns 
 were in such extreme need of Peter the Great as for 
 it to be worth his while to run such a risk at such a 
 time on their behalf, I shall try now and again to 
 imagine him still in existence, and saying, ' I assayed 
 to go by a zigzag route to Southampton and back, but 
 the Spirit suffered me not.' "
 
 CHAPTEE XXVI 
 
 THE MAN HIS COURTESY 
 
 Always a Gentleman The Graciousness of His Letters A 
 Coveted Fly An Ungracious Correspondent Difficult to 
 Scold Rev. H. Jackson's Incidents Gallantry to Ladies 
 Consideration to Servants " Short Measure, Short Meat " 
 Picking up the Doctor The Bible and Bradshaw " Nowt 
 to Do" His Use of a Carriage Consideration for an 
 Invalid Telling a Late Man the Text Lecture on 
 Ritualism Lord Bacon on Courtesy. 
 
 IN a conversation on Mackenzie, a few days after 
 his decease, Sir Henry Mitchell remarked to me, 
 " I always liked Peter. With all his brusqueness, he 
 had the heart and instincts of a gentleman." 
 
 Such was the verdict of all who knew him well. 
 His politeness was unfailing. It bubbled up in speech 
 and act like a perennial spring. His memory might 
 not be charged with rules of good behaviour, though 
 seldom did anyone notice a trip even in the smaller 
 points of etiquette, but there dwelt within him by 
 nature a well of courtesy that overflowed in streams 
 of gracious speech and bearing. Did we believe in 
 reincarnations, we might imagine that in his person 
 the soul of some Highland chieftain had found a 
 channel of expression for its chivalry. The heart of 
 politeness is a delicate consideration for the thoughts 
 
 256
 
 BEV. PETER MACKENZIE.
 
 EPISTOLAR Y CO URTES Y 259 
 
 and feelings of others, and in this Mackenzie never 
 failed. It breathes through all his correspondence. 
 How brief the hurry of his life constrained his letters 
 to be, and yet how courteous is their utterance ! His 
 pen seems to glide unconsciously into the shaping of 
 gracious, even courtly phrases, though without a trace 
 of the obsequious in its movement. However the 
 haste of the day may injure the behaviour of many, 
 clipping their speech into curtness and clothing their 
 manner with a telegraphic abruptness, it was never 
 allowed so to influence the bearing of this man, and 
 yet life drove him at a speed to which she subjects 
 only few. So rapidly did he rush along, and so beset 
 was he by clamorous crowds, that it would have been 
 easy and most excusable to drop the courtesies by 
 the way, and so he would have done had they been 
 merely tied on to him by the strings of a formal 
 politeness, but as they were parts of his real self, the 
 haste and friction only rubbed them into a kindlier 
 brightness. 
 
 It was undoubtedly this innate desire to please 
 that helped as much as anything to keep him inex- 
 tricably involved throughout his public life in such a 
 network of engagements. He was the coveted fly to 
 whom a thousand spiders, with the best of motives, 
 were ever saying, " Will you come into my parlour ? " 
 and his lips were too gentle to frame a refusal, so day 
 by day he was despoiled, but not devoured, and day 
 by day he went forth with a merry hum to gather 
 new wealth for the ravagers. The public which thus 
 ransacked his brain and heart was not always as 
 gracious in its bearing towards him. Mr. George 
 Parkinson of Sherburn furnishes us with a case in
 
 260 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 point. During one of his visits to Mr. Parkinson's 
 house, Mackenzie received a letter from a gentleman 
 by whom he was held in high esteem, and who had at 
 various times showed him much kindness. It was a 
 respectful request for his services at an early date. 
 Another letter by the same post was not quite so 
 agreeable. The writer reminded Mackenzie of the 
 time when he was not the Eeverend Peter, when he 
 was only a poor man, and how he could then come to 
 a small place, and went on ungraciously to insinuate 
 that now he was too exalted to remember old 
 acquaintances. To both these communications he 
 wrote a kindly reply, and, showing Mr. Parkinson 
 what he had written to the grumbler, he said, " Poor 
 fellow, he must have had the tic or the toothache, or 
 his liver must be out of order. Things are not 
 comfortable with him, or he would never have written 
 like that. No, I know him well ; he has a letter side, and 
 I have written to his good side, his better self, and he 
 will be sorry when he reads it, and our friendship 
 will not be broken. They shall have a turn at his 
 place as soon as I can." 
 
 This unfailing courtesy and good - nature on 
 Mackenzie's part made it exceedingly difficult to 
 pronounce even the gentlest stricture on what at 
 times did seem a too frequent absence from circuit 
 work, as well as a too lavish expenditure of his own 
 strength. I have an amusing remembrance of how 
 the Kev. Eobert Ha worth, in Gateshead, himself one 
 of the kindliest of men, would fortify his mind with 
 a charge of serious words to be given forth at the 
 preachers' meeting, and how invariably when Peter, 
 with glowing face and brimming soul, came within
 
 INHERENT GRA cio us NESS 261 
 
 range, the battery either hung fire, or was changed 
 into a cannonade of laughter and congratulations. To 
 scold such a man was as difficult as to scowl at a 
 cherub. 
 
 The Eev. H. Jackson kindly furnishes some 
 incidents illustrative of the inherent graciousness of 
 Mackenzie's nature. In the year 1888, he preached 
 and lectured at Warrington, his home being with the 
 late William Barlow, Esq., at the District Bank. 
 When he left the room after tea to prepare for 
 the lecture in the evening, the conversation turned 
 upon his idiosyncrasies, and special emphasis was 
 given to the fact that beneath much which startled, 
 perhaps even shocked fastidious people, there were 
 the characteristics of the true gentleman. In illus- 
 tration of this was noted an incident that Mackenzie 
 himself had just related at table. He told how, 
 during the severe drought of the summer, he had 
 travelled one day with a lady, a perfect stranger to 
 him, but whose conversation evidenced that she was a 
 person of superior education. In the course of their 
 talk, she made some allusion to the withered condition 
 of the crops. In accordance with his usual endeavour 
 to give the conversation a spiritual turn, he remarked 
 on how much more the crops must have suffered when 
 it did not rain for the space of three years and six 
 months. " Oh," said the lady, " when was that, and 
 where ? I never heard of that." " Now," commented 
 Mackenzie, in relating the incident, " what could I say 
 to the dear lady? I felt I could not pursue the 
 matter further without exposing to those in the 
 compartment her complete ignorance of a matter 
 known to every working man's child in the land, as
 
 262 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 well as her indifference to the best of books, so all I 
 could do was to make an observation on something 
 we were passing, and so shunt the conversation on to 
 quite another line." 
 
 " His words and manner," remarks Mr. Jackson, 
 " as he told the story, seemed to all of us the very 
 expression of that delicacy of sentiment which 
 ought always to characterise the Christian gentleman. 
 Truly grace had but refined a mind and heart that 
 must have been fine by nature. Such courtesy was 
 inborn, as if in the sometime collier there had cropped 
 up a strain of some chieftain ancestor." 
 
 Attention was called during the same conversation 
 to another illustration of his politeness that had 
 occurred that very afternoon. The superintendent of 
 the circuit and another gentleman had met Mackenzie 
 at the Central Railway Station. A cab was called, 
 and drew up at the steps, where the sidewalk is very 
 narrow. The two gentleman stood for a few moments 
 with the cab door opened across the curbstone, giving 
 directions to the driver. They quite blocked the 
 path, but before either of them was aware of the 
 obstruction they had caused, they saw Mackenzie, with 
 all the grace of a courtier, bowing, hat in hand, 
 almost to the ground, in a manner that evidently both 
 astonished and pleased a lady whose way had been 
 hindered, offering their united apologies, and be- 
 seeching her to forgive their unintentional rudeness. 
 All who saw and heard it said that the whole thing 
 was done in a princely fashion, his apology being pro- 
 foundly deferential, yet without a trace of effusiveness. 
 
 Quite in keeping with this innate delicacy was 
 that unvarying practice of his, never to sit down
 
 SHORT MEASURE SHORT ME A T 263 
 
 after acknowledging a vote of thanks at the close 
 of a lecture without proposing a similar vote to 
 someone else, and never to leave a house in which 
 he had been a guest for ever so short a season 
 without giving the servants some acknowledgment 
 in kindly words as well as in more substantial form. 
 
 A somewhat amusing instance of this consideration 
 for servants is given in a reminiscence furnished by 
 the Eev. John Nayler. He describes how, during 
 Mackenzie's residence in Leeds, the Headingley 
 students invited him to tea at the college, with the 
 understanding that he should give them an informal 
 address afterwards. One of the points of this 
 address was the importance of brevity in conducting 
 family devotions. A tutor at that time, very 
 popular and beloved, was apt, in the fulness of his 
 expositions, to become oblivious on such occasions to 
 the passage of time and the exigence of domestic 
 duties. Perhaps some thought of this was in 
 Mackenzie's mind when he urged the students " to 
 read short and to pray short." Once only, he ob- 
 served, with the twinkle of a humorous recollection, 
 had he felt justified in reading a long chapter at 
 morning prayer. On his first visit to a certain 
 house, where the family and the servant took their 
 meals in the same apartment, he was quick to 
 observe that the maid began her breakfast at a side 
 table as he began to read, and that as soon as reading 
 and prayer were over, the mistress said, " Now, 
 Mary, clear away ! " He saw at once that for the 
 poor girl " short measure meant short meat." 
 
 On his next visit to the house, he resolved that 
 the maid should have ample time for a good meal ;
 
 264 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 so when she began her breakfast, he set to work 
 on the 119th Psalm, and read on and on until a 
 pause at the side table told him that Mary had eaten 
 as much as she required, and was quite ready to join 
 in the giving of thanks. 
 
 Dr. Sharpies of Farnley relates how, on one 
 occasion, having injured his foot, he was walking 
 with some difficulty to visit a patient. Mackenzie, 
 passing in a cab, knocked at the window, and beck- 
 oned the doctor to him. Finding that he was on 
 his way to Burmantofts, and what was the nature 
 of his errand, he bade the cabman drive thither, 
 offering a prayer for the patient meanwhile. On 
 their arrival, he put down the doctor, with a blessing 
 on him and his patient, stating that he was going to 
 a meeting at New Wortley, and would only be ten 
 minutes late. 
 
 The gratitude of the man for the humblest service 
 rendered him was very marked. I used with great 
 comfort for many years a handsome travelling rug 
 he insisted on pressing on me when we were together 
 in Sunderland, in return for having taken week-day 
 appointments to enable him to render service else- 
 where, and many others can bear similar testimony. 
 The Eev. H. Lefroy Yorke, M.A., remembers how, 
 when a student at Headingley, he once preached for 
 Mackenzie. Half a year afterwards, Mackenzie met 
 him, and, referring to the service he had rendered 
 him, said, "Here is a sovereign for you. It will 
 help you to get some new books, which are always 
 useful to students." 
 
 Mr. John Pearson of Halifax also sends an incident 
 illustrating the same characteristic. He heard Mac-
 
 BRADSHA W AND BIBLE 265 
 
 kenzie lecture in St. Andrew's Hall, Norwich, but 
 knew him only by sight, not having spoken with 
 him. On entering a train at Ely, next day, he found 
 Mackenzie in the compartment, puzzling over a 
 Bradshaw, having to change at March Junction, and 
 to make his way into Lincolnshire for a lecture that 
 evening. Very soon after leaving the station, the 
 traveller heaved a deep sigh, closed his railway guide 
 energetically, and said, " Thank God, the Bible is not 
 like Bradshaw ! The one I can understand, but the 
 other I cannot." Mr. Pearson immediately tendered 
 his aid, and, knowing the locality, was soon able to 
 give him the required information, when he said, 
 " Surely the Lord directed you into this carriage, and 
 if you will write down your address, I will send you 
 my portrait on my return home." The address was 
 written, and within five days the photograph arrived, 
 and is still greatly appreciated, though the incident 
 happened eighteen years ago. 
 
 " Only once," writes the Eev. J. V. B. Shrewsbury, 
 " have I seen our lamented friend's wonderful good- 
 nature ruffled. A somewhat exacting invalid, who 
 was receiving abundant attention from many friends, 
 sent an earnest request that he would visit her. A 
 cab was not to be had, and he had to walk nearly 
 three miles to the cottage and back to his home, a 
 hard task for failing locomotion. As he sat at the 
 bedside of the invalid, she exclaiined, ' Eh, I'm rare 
 an' glad to have someone come to see me who has 
 nowt to do.' When narrating the incident to me 
 afterwards, he exclaimed, with comic perturbation, 
 ' Nowt to do ? She should have seen the pile of 
 letters I left unanswered.' This reminds me that
 
 266 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 on another occasion, having to call upon him between 
 the afternoon service and the evening lecture, I was 
 shown into his bedroom, and found the floor strewn 
 with the debris of unanswered letters. 
 
 " In some of my circuits, his visit was an annual 
 institution, and was the event of the year. On newly 
 arriving in one circuit, I was unfortunately unaware 
 of his usual home. Thinking him worthy of the 
 best home to be obtained, I secured his location in 
 the midst of luxury, where a private carriage would 
 be at his service. The first use he made of the 
 carriage, in driving to his appointment, was to call 
 at his old and lowlier home, and give such an ex- 
 planation as shielded me from blame, with exquisite 
 tact, and as convinced his former host that he should 
 expect to return to him on future occasions." 
 
 One rainy night, Mackenzie and a colleague were 
 driving home in an open conveyance. On arriving 
 at the toll-bar, the gatekeeper said his wife was ill, 
 and would be very pleased if Mr. Mackenzie would 
 kindly go in and pray with her. Of course he 
 complied instantly. A few cheery words were 
 spoken, and then prayer was offered, in which, with 
 his wonderful consideration for others, he did not 
 forget to ask that the invalid might suffer no harm 
 from the damp clothes of her visitors. 
 
 Few things try a preacher's good-nature more than 
 to be disturbed in a service. I once heard a popular 
 minister, with a great reputation for saintliness, say 
 in the most snarling manner, when a child disturbed 
 him, " I wish some of you mothers had to preach, 
 and then you would know better than to bring 
 children to chapel." How different the flavour of the
 
 KINDL Y CONSIDER A TION 267 
 
 following incident ! Mr. R Sherwood of Selby first 
 heard Mackenzie about thirty-three years ago. It 
 was on the occasion of the opening of the village 
 chapel of Thorpe Willoughby. Mr. Sherwood had 
 been summoned to the dying bed of a member of his 
 class, and consequently was only able to squeeze his 
 way into the crowded chapel as the preacher was 
 beginning his sermon. As soon as he was seated, 
 Mackenzie called out, " My brother, the text is, 
 1 Enoch walked with God.' I'm glad to see you," 
 Mr. Sherwood adds, that on leaving the chapel, some- 
 one said to him, " So you and Peter are old friends ? " 
 " No," he replied ; " I never saw him before." One is 
 not surprised to learn that the memory of that 
 service has always been precious to him, and that 
 he never missed an opportunity afterwards of hearing 
 the preacher who treated him with such consideration. 
 
 The same considerateness comes out in another 
 form in the following. When at Wood Green, Mr. 
 J. W. Tabraham said to him, " I heard your lecture 
 on 'Kitualism/ Mr. Mackenzie." The lecturer not 
 replying, Mr. Tabraham said, " You recollect it, at 
 Spitalfields Old Chapel?" "Yes, I recollect," an- 
 swered Mackenzie, " but I never repeated it. I was 
 afraid it would hurt the feelings of some good 
 people." 
 
 In view of all that this chapter .has tried to set 
 forth, we may well close it by applying to Mackenzie 
 the words of Lord Bacon : " If a man be gracious 
 and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen 
 of the world, and that his heart is no island cut oft 
 from other lands, but a continent that joins to them ; 
 if he be compassionate towards the affliction of others,
 
 268 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 it shows that his heart is like the noble tree that is 
 wounded itself when it gives balm ; if he easily 
 pardons and remits offences, it shows that his mind 
 is planted above injuries, so that he cannot be shot ; 
 if he be thankful for small benefits, it shows that he 
 weighs men's minds, and not their trash ; but, above 
 all, if he have St. Paul's perfection, that he would 
 wish to be an anathema from Christ for the salvation 
 of his brethren, it shows much of a divine nature, 
 and a kind of conformity with Christ Himself."
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 THE MAN HIS JOYOUSNESS 
 
 A Book of Joy A Radiant Personality Love of Singing 
 "Child of a King" Watching the Baby Compelling the 
 Local to Lead Beating a Speech out of a Brother Looking 
 up Rinderpest Cases A Treat for the Cathedral " Repair- 
 ing Peter" " Something like Tea" Reminiscence of Rev. 
 T. Vasey A Drive across the Moors A Serviceable Devil 
 Lecture on Satan "Cool as a Cucumber" Spreading 
 not the Gospel. 
 
 THE life of Peter Mackenzie was a book of joy : 
 every page sparkled with gladness, every word 
 danced, not a moping sentence intruded from cover 
 to cover. What a happy eccentricity was his ! How 
 entirely free from the angularities that fret while they 
 surprise ! Genius has a reputation for making com- 
 panionship uncomfortable. The angles and abutments 
 that break it up into picturesqueness spoil it for sweet 
 human uses, and hence it frequently alienates as much 
 as it impresses. What saved the nature of Peter 
 Mackenzie from any such ungracious development 
 was its superabundant geniality. More sunshine 
 beamed out of him than radiates from three ordinary 
 men. You felt it diffuse through the room when he 
 entered, like daybreak dispelling the shadows. His 
 was not simply a buoyant, it was a radiant personality ; 
 
 MP
 
 270 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 a little unchastened in its emphasis, perhaps, but never 
 with the loudness of self-assertion. 
 
 Music, especially in the form of singing, always had 
 a great charm for him. He could strum a little on 
 the piano, and I remember well how, when we went 
 together to a missionary meeting, if the home was 
 one where he felt free to do so, he would invariably 
 seat himself for a few moments at the instrument 
 and rattle out some lively melody, accompanying it 
 with cheerful words. 
 
 The Eev. J. V. Shrewsbury says : " On one occasion, 
 after the night's lecture, when he was drenched with 
 perspiration, he went upstairs for a change of linen, 
 singing, as he mounted, a ditty beginning 
 
 I'm the child of a king." 
 
 This changing of linen was, as is well known, an 
 invariable practice. An hour's talk such as his would 
 leave him bathed in perspiration even to his outer 
 garments, and when in such a condition, he would 
 playfully remark, " You see, I am not a dry 
 preacher." 
 
 He broke into snatches of song as naturally as a 
 bird, and a glad shout or a burst of melody would 
 herald his approach to breakfast in the morning, 
 before his bright face and polite bow broke in upon 
 the waiting family. This strain of mirthfulness and 
 mischief was in him from earliest days, and happily 
 the black hand of a false - notioned piety was not 
 allowed to wipe it out. One of his earliest recollec- 
 tions was of watching the baby when a wee boy. On 
 the wall, above the cradle, hung an old-fashioned knife 
 and fork box. The young Peter was climbing up to
 
 HIS MIRTHFULNESS 271 
 
 this in some daring manner, when he dropped a spoon 
 upon the baby's face, and he used to relate with great 
 gusto how he ran, as if for life, with his father and a 
 promised thrashing at his heels. 
 
 Mr. J. M. Pallister of Harrogate, who knew 
 Mackenzie well as a fellow local preacher, communi- 
 cates two instances of this innocent mirthfulness. 
 
 A love-feast was to be held one Sunday afternoon 
 at Billy Eow, in the Bishop Auckland circuit, of 
 which Peter was to be the leader. As he did not 
 arrive in time, and the chapel was crowded, the local 
 preacher who had officiated in the morning was 
 requested to open the service. When Peter came, he 
 slipped quietly up into the pulpit and sat down 
 behind his substitute. The lattter wished to give 
 place, but Mackenzie insisted on his going on, and 
 when he attempted to turn round, he found himself 
 unable to move, and had to continue the service, for 
 the strong man behind had effectually pinioned him 
 by holding his hands on his knees and pressing his 
 thumbs tightly against his legs. Probably Mackenzie 
 had learned this trick of another, for it will be re- 
 membered how Mr. Thomas Elliott held him in 
 similar fashion during one of his earlier preaching 
 efforts at HaswelL 
 
 The other story related by Mr. Pallister tells how 
 Peter stayed one night at the house of a brother local, 
 and how they both had to occupy the same bed. 
 Mackenzie retired first, and had been in possession 
 some time, but was still awake, when the other, who 
 had been filling a distant appointment, entered the 
 bedroom. The conversation turned at once upon the 
 meeting of next day, at which both were advertised
 
 272 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 to speak. Mackenzie wished to know if the speech 
 was ready. His companion replied that he did not 
 intend to speak, his name having been published 
 without his consent. To this Mackenzie demurred, 
 and said there should be no bed for him till he 
 promised to make a speech. The good brother, 
 heeding not, continued to undress, and when ready, 
 was about to step into bed, but the one already there 
 objefted, and drove him away with the pillow. An 
 attempt to force an entrance at the foot was baffled 
 in similar fashion. Eventually a truce was established, 
 the rebel submitted, and the outline of a speech was 
 jotted down. As soon as this victory was achieved, 
 Mackenzie leaped out of bed, and both knelt in earnest 
 prayer for a blessing on the services of the coming 
 day. The reluctant speaker was well received at the 
 meeting ; and Mackenzie, whose turn came next, told 
 the audience that he had beaten the speech out of his 
 good brother with a pillow the night before, and 
 whenever they wanted one twice as long, he would 
 use the bolster. 
 
 Mr. Robert Alcock of Mansfield says : " Mr. Mac- 
 kenzie came to Mansfield for nearly thirty years, and 
 on nearly every occasion I was privileged to have him 
 as my guest. No visitor could be more welcome, none 
 shed a more radiant spirit in the home than he. His 
 influence there was of the very best, touching with its 
 own freshness and fervour all around. In the quiet 
 of the home he shone as brightly as in the pulpit or 
 on the platform. Those who knew him best loved 
 him most ; his memory to them will be most precious." 
 
 Mr. William Thompson of Newcastle - on - Tyne 
 recalls two bright little irruptions of Peter into his
 
 BRIEF AND BRIGHT 273 
 
 shop, when carrying on business as a butcher. It 
 was during the time of the cattle disease, and, entering 
 one day, with the Eev. John Fletcher, he called out, 
 " How are all here ? We are just looking up the 
 rinderpest cases. You have no foot-and-mouth cases 
 here, so we will get on and look up others. Praise 
 the Lord ! Good-bye ! " 
 
 Calling again one Saturday, he brought his stick 
 down on the floor with a thud and a shout of 
 " Hallelujah ! Peace be to this house and prosperity 
 to this shop ! " Then, looking towards the sitting- 
 room behind, he asked, " Is there anyone in ? " " No." 
 " Then let us go in and have prayer together. You 
 can keep one eye on the business." In about two 
 minutes, after a most comprehensive prayer, he went 
 on his way, leaving his blessing behind him. 
 
 Once, when at Ely, Mackenzie was guided to the 
 chapel by Mr. E. T. Atherton of Chatteris. On the 
 way they had to pass the cathedral, and as they 
 arrived at the front door, Peter called out, " Halt ! 
 stand at ease ! " Then, turning to his companion, he 
 said, " Atherton, I wish the bishop would allow me to 
 preach and lecture in that splendid edifice. We would 
 give the old place a treat ; we would fill it to the brim." 
 
 Arriving in Aberystwyth one evening very tired 
 and weary, and not in the best of health, he wished 
 to be allowed after having a glass of milk and 
 biscuits to go straight to bed, so that he might be 
 ready to preach in the morning. He evidently found 
 the rest and repose he sought, for on opening his 
 bedroom door next morning, he began to shout 
 " Hallelujah ! " with much warmth and vigour. On 
 being asked by his hostess if he felt refreshed after 
 
 18
 
 274 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 his slumbers, he said, " So much so, ma'am, that you 
 must send in your claim to the Wesleyan Conference 
 for repairing Peter." 
 
 " Ah," remarked Mackenzie, one day to his hostess 
 at the tea-table, " this is something like tea. I get 
 tea sometimes so weak it can scarcely waddle out of 
 the pot." 
 
 The constant joyousness of his nature made him 
 always ready to enter into the gladness of things 
 around, whether animate or inanimate. He could not 
 only weep with those that weep, but, what is often 
 harder, rejoice with those that do rejoice. Of the 
 Rev. Thomas Vasey, I wrote, twenty years ago : " His 
 gaiety was often like that of a happy child. I 
 remember accompanying him one day to a country 
 village, where he had to preach, and as we walked 
 through the fields, he took off his hat and startled 
 with it some horses that were idly grazing close at 
 hand, and then ran scampering after them, like a 
 schoolboy out for a holiday." That, in fuller measure, 
 was the spirit of Peter Mackenzie. He was brim- 
 ming over with life and gladness, and I can hear yet 
 the echoes of the hallelujahs that leaped like pistol- 
 shots from his lips as, behind a spirited horse, he 
 dashed along the road, a wonder to passers-by, who 
 stood to watch as long as he was in sight. 
 
 Mr. John S. Stephenson of Hexham describes the 
 vivid impression left upon his mind of the vivacity 
 and joyousness of the man as he drove him across the 
 moors from Blanchland in the Shotley Bridge circuit 
 to Stanhope in Weardale, nearly thirty years ago. 
 The air was bracing, the sky cloudless, and the com- 
 bined influence of ozone and sunshine seemed to
 
 LECTURE ON SATAN 275 
 
 completely intoxicate him. He shouted and sang or 
 broke forth into prayer in the exuberance of his joy. 
 The moorland sheep, the grouse seated stealthily 
 among the heather or rising on the wing, and darken- 
 ing against the distant hills, awoke in him by turns 
 the fervour of the poet and the enthusiasm of the 
 sportsman. The mare they were driving, Fanny by 
 name, was good in many respects, but required a 
 considerable amount of whip. Towards the end of 
 the journey, as they descended a steep hill into 
 Stanhope, Mackenzie addressed the animal by name, 
 expatiating on her many excellent qualities her 
 colour, her symmetry, her strength, her temper. 
 " But," said he, with comic seriousness, " Fanny has a 
 saving knowledge." 
 
 Mr. B. Halliday of Leeds once took Mackenzie 
 over a cloth mill Every department proved interest- 
 ing to him, but what impressed him most was the 
 machine in which old material was torn into shreds 
 preparatory to being mixed with new wool, and then 
 wrought up again into cloth. " That we call the 
 devil," he was told. "The devil?" he replied. 
 " Thank the Lord, there's one devil who does a bit of 
 good in the world." 
 
 His lecture on " Satan " was not infrequently con- 
 nected with some accident. Sometimes, when this 
 was to be his subject, his travelling-bag went astray, 
 or his comb snapped in twain, or his bottle of scent 
 was broken, or some other calamity befell him. He 
 said to his colleague one day, " I thought His 
 Majesty did not care to be shown up so plainly, and 
 therefore had a spite against me, so I gave up taking 
 him out."
 
 276 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 Mr. John Foster of Selby, who had made Mackenzie 
 a present of a light alpaca coat, met him afterwards 
 at a railway station. The grateful preacher danced 
 round him enthusiastically, and said, " Oh, you're the 
 kind friend that gave me this nice coat. I have just 
 come away from Conference, and whilst all the 
 preachers were sweltering away like tallow candles 
 lighted at both ends, I was as cool as a cucumber all 
 the time. Thank you ! thank you ! " 
 
 Mr. Wesley Bamford relates that on April 4, 1888, 
 Mr. Mackenzie preached and lectured at Wardle, 
 near Rochdale. On the following morning he was 
 being driven to Eochdale by his host, Mr. James 
 Stott, in a high two-wheeled trap. The horse was a 
 very swift and spirited animal, and on this morning 
 its pace was even more rapid than usual. Mackenzie, 
 putting his hand quietly on Mr. Stott's arm, said, 
 " A little slower, if you please, Mr. Stott. We don't 
 want the gospel spreading this morning." 
 
 Once when travelling North, he was accosted at the 
 railway station by a porter to whom he was well 
 known. 
 
 " I am surprised to see you travelling North again 
 so soon, Mr. Mackenzie." 
 
 " Ah yes, important business must be attended to. 
 I am going to throw water on a snowball." 
 
 This to the porter seemed absurd, for it was now 
 the month of June. 
 
 " I am going," said Peter, " to baptize a grandchild 
 of mine whose name is Snowball." At which the train 
 started, and Mackenzie sped on to Gateshead, where 
 his daughter, Mrs. Snowball, resides.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 THE MAN HIS GENEROSITY 
 
 Lives that Enrich Stintless Liberality Kev. John E. Winter's 
 Incident Peter and the Signalman Kindness to a Porter's 
 Widow Providing Tickets for his Lecture Generosity to 
 old Mates Keturning his Fees Giving away the Pie 
 Peter meeting Paul Helping a Mutual Improvement 
 Society The Tramp and the Umbrella " Be good, 
 Hinny " Improving the World. 
 
 INTO the great ocean of human sorrow and need 
 there are lives that pour a ceaseless flood of 
 comfort and reinvigoration, giving a sweetness and 
 sparkle to waters that would otherwise be intolerably 
 heavy and bitter. Often without consciousness of 
 their high ministry they bear a wealth of gladness 
 down from the everlasting hills, which not only 
 enriches the sea, but bids the lowlands sing as it 
 travels thitherward. To this class belongs the life of 
 Peter Mackenzie. One of the deepest indentations 
 made on the memory of those who knew and loved 
 the man is the impress of his generosity. He gave 
 with a spontaneity and profuseness as natural as that 
 with which the tide flings the blurt of its spray over 
 the rocks on which it breaks. Providence favoured 
 him for many years with a well -filled pocket, but 
 
 277
 
 278 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 forgot apparently to bestow with it an equally 
 common quality the power to button it tightly up. 
 If any fault is to be found with him on this score, it 
 must be attributed to the excess rather than the 
 scantiness of his liberality. He gave to all men 
 liberally and upbraided not, and pages might be 
 filled with the generous outgoings of his heart and 
 mind. 
 
 The Eev. John E. Winter says : 
 
 "On July 2nd, 1893, I was driving to my appoint- 
 ment at Green How Hill, in the Pateley Bridge 
 circuit. Overtaking a brother who was on foot, and 
 who had every appearance of being one of the noble 
 lay fraternity on his way to preach, I invited him to 
 ride with me. He proved to be a Primitive Methodist 
 local preacher, employed as a signalman on the rail- 
 way. Our conversation turned on various Methodist 
 notabilities. 
 
 " ' So you know Peter Mackenzie, do you ? ' I said, 
 in response to some remark. 
 
 " ' Yes,' he answered ; ' he is a very dear friend of 
 mine. He has spent many hours with me in the 
 signal-box.' 
 
 " ' That is very strange. Where were you then ? ' 
 
 " ' In Leeds. Mr. Mackenzie's house was not far 
 from the box, and every now and again, when he had 
 a half-hour to spare, he would come and have a 
 chat.' 
 
 "'You would find him something more than a 
 sociable man. I understand he was very generous, 
 especially to you railway men.' 
 
 ' ' Yes, and he was exceedingly kind to me. My 
 wife was delicate at the time, and Mr. Mackenzie,
 
 GENEROUS ACTIONS 279 
 
 whenever he came back from his lecturing tours, 
 would bring her a bottle of wine, or a fowl, or some 
 other delicacy. The last time he called at our house, 
 which was just before he left Leeds, he said, ' I quite 
 forgot to get a duck for Missus this time, but here is 
 something yellow instead.' So he put a half-sovereign 
 into my hand. In addition to this, he used to give 
 me many of his old ' togs ' when he had done with 
 them, and I have some of his old coats at home 
 now.' " 
 
 Mr. David Proudlove, foreman porter at Holbeck 
 railway station, says : 
 
 " I am writing you to show the generosity of that 
 noble-hearted, dearly beloved, sainted railway man's 
 friend, the Kev. Peter Mackenzie. Arriving here by 
 the ten o'clock train one night, he inquired very 
 kindly about the widow and children of the foreman 
 porter who was killed on duty here about three years 
 before, and, pulling out half a sovereign, he said, 
 1 Please give her this, but do not tell her where it 
 came from. Say The Lord sent it.' " 
 
 An incident impregnated with the same spirit, 
 though manifested in another form, is communicated 
 by the Eev. W. W. Walton : 
 
 " I was stationed in the Fawcett Street circuit, 
 Sunderland, from 1883 to 1886, and Mr. Mackenzie 
 came to preach and lecture in Fawcett Street Chapel, 
 I think in 1885. At that time we were suffering 
 very severely from depression in the shipping trade. 
 Many vessels were laid up, and thousands of men 
 were out of employment. There was a charge of 
 sixpence for admission to the lecture. After preach- 
 ing in the afternoon, Mr. Mackenzie announced the
 
 280 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 evening lecture. Several working men were in the 
 body of the chapel, and, looking at them from the 
 platform, he said, ' I see there is to be a small charge 
 for admission to the lecture. I am afraid many of 
 my old friends will not be able to come, as times 
 have been so dull; but I will leave forty tickets with 
 the chapel-keeper, and forty of you can apply for 
 them. I would like to see you at the lecture.' I 
 thought this very considerate and generous, and 
 evidence of his deep sympathy with his suffering 
 fellow-men. I have often thought of it, and if you 
 think it worth recording, you may depend on its 
 truthfulness, as I was at the service and heard it 
 myself. His lecture in the evening was on ' Elijah,' 
 and was the grandest I ever heard him give." 
 Mr. George Parkinson of Sherburn says : 
 " In visiting this locality, Mr. Mackenzie often met 
 with old mates and acquaintances of his earlier years. 
 With his kindly greeting he would join an inquiry 
 into their circumstances, and often follow it by a 
 generous outgoing from his pocket, managed so 
 delicately as not to hurt their feelings nor to afford 
 them opportunity to express their thanks. To some 
 poor old woman, unable to get to the service, he would 
 send half a pound of tea, and sometimes half a pound 
 of tobacco to the poor old fellow who, he remembered, 
 was fond of a smoke. 
 
 "Once, Mr. Alderman Stephenson of Newcastle had 
 to preside at a lecture which Mackenzie delivered at 
 Morpeth. The circuit had only one minister, and his 
 visits to the villages outside were so infrequent that 
 he could not afford to miss an appointment even for 
 Peter's coming. When Mr. Mackenzie entered the
 
 RETURNING FEES 281 
 
 vestry after the lecture, the steward put an envelope 
 into his hand, saying, ' I was requested to give you 
 that, sir.' On opening it, he found a five-pound note. 
 Knowing how poor the circuit was, and how small the 
 stipend of the minister, he turned to the steward and 
 said, ' It's a very nice note. Kindly give it, with 
 my best regards, to your good, hard-working superin- 
 tendent.' " 
 
 The Rev. John H. Norton relates a similar instance. 
 Mackenzie had been lecturing in a circuit in Norfolk. 
 Before leaving, they said to him, " How- much are we 
 in your debt, Mr. Mackenzie ? " He answered, " You 
 must give me three guineas." They did so, and, 
 putting his hand into his pocket, he took out two 
 more, and, handing the five to the minister, said, 
 " Here, brother, you need this more than I do." 
 
 Mr. Norton adds : " On several occasions, when I 
 have put into Mr. Mackenzie's hand a sum of money 
 such as I thought his valuable services fairly entitled 
 him to, he has returned a portion, and no persuasion 
 would induce him to receive it back." 
 
 The Rev. George Alley of Belfast, after describing 
 a visit of Mackenzie to that city to preach and 
 lecture, says : 
 
 " We had, of course, dealt generously with him for 
 his valued services, and when parting with him at the 
 railway station, he wanted to force a couple of the 
 sovereigns we had given him back into my hand for 
 the poor, and I had much difficulty in getting him to 
 keep what he had got not an extraordinary amount 
 by any means." 
 
 Mackenzie never quarrelled with stingy people, but 
 he never visited them twice. On one occasion, after
 
 282 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 a lecture, the trustees of the chapel paid him a miser- 
 ably inadequate fee, and then followed him to the 
 railway station, rejoicing in the success of their effort 
 for the funds. 
 
 " Of course, you will promise to come again, Mr. 
 Mackenzie. Do let us fix a date now, if you please." 
 
 Peter tried to evade the point, but as they still 
 persisted, he said, from the carriage window 
 
 " Well, now, Judgment Day is coming, but I reckon 
 we shall all be very busy just then. Suppose we fix 
 ike, day after. Good-bye." 
 
 The story is well known, and quite true, of how, 
 when a poor starving woman came to the door, when 
 he happened to be in the house alone, he took 
 the pie that was cooking for the dinner of himself 
 and family out of the oven, and gave it to the needy 
 one. 
 
 He was coming down the street in Batley Carr one 
 morning, and saw a little fellow who was poorly clad, 
 and who looked hungry. " Hallo, my little man," he 
 cried, " what do they call you ? " The boy, quite 
 staggered, looked up at the gentleman, and replied, 
 " Paul, sir." Mackenzie laughed, and then rejoined, 
 " Take this sixpence, for Peter and Paul have met 
 this morning." 
 
 When in the Leeds Wesley circuit, he was called 
 upon to preside at the committee meeting of the 
 Mutual Improvement Society. 
 
 " What is the business ? " asked Mackenzie. 
 
 "We are in trouble, sir," replied the secretary. 
 " We cannot pay our way." 
 
 " What do your debts amount to ? " asked the 
 chairman.
 
 A FORTUNATE TRAMP 283 
 
 " Quite a sovereign," said the down-hearted young 
 man. 
 
 " Well, cheer up, I'll give a pound towards that" 
 said Peter, and the cloud vanished. 
 
 One day he was being driven from Leeds to Ilkley 
 by Mr. W. Johnson of Headingley, in an open car- 
 riage. On the way he dropped his umbrella, and the 
 carriage had proceeded some little distance before the 
 loss was discovered. The horses' heads were turned, 
 and on driving back, a tramp was overtaken, who was 
 hurrying off with the missing umbrella. 
 
 " Can you lend me half a sovereign ? " asked 
 Mackenzie of his friend. 
 
 " What for ? " 
 
 " Oh, just to give the poor fellow." 
 
 "A shilling is quite enough," remonstrated Mr. 
 Johnson. " He seems to have been in no hurry to 
 find the owner." 
 
 Mackenzie took the proffered shilling, added to it 
 all the silver he had in his pocket, which happened to 
 be half a crown, bestowed it on the tramp with a 
 kindly word, and resumed his drive as much satis- 
 faction on his face as there was surprise on that of the 
 recipient of his bounty. 
 
 The feeling that lay at the back of such apparently 
 wasted kindness was a strong faith in the redeeming 
 power of human pity, and is beautifully exemplified in 
 another incident. On one of his many visits to 
 Hexham, where he was usually the guest of the late 
 Mr. William Kitson of Woodley Field, as he and his 
 host were driving through the entrance gate, they 
 were accosted by a poor woman, who solicited charity. 
 Mackenzie anticipated the invariable generosity of his
 
 284 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 host by quickly handing the suppliant half a crown, 
 and on observing the look of surprise and incredulous 
 gratitude in her face at the sight of the coin, he said, 
 " It's all right, hinny, le good ! " 
 
 Be good ! Yes, perhaps Mackenzie was right after 
 all, and 
 
 Men might be better if we better deemed 
 
 Of them. The worst way to improve the world 
 
 Is to condemn it.
 
 . CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 THE MAN DIVERS TRAITS AND INCIDENTS 
 
 Geniality in Social Life Testimony of his Hosts Remarkable 
 Memory " Good Night, Washington " Grapes for the 
 President Quickness of Repartee " A little Grouse " and 
 "Consumed on the Premises" "That Clock Goes- tick" 
 Compliment to a Chairman " You do look bonnie " Peter 
 reading Prayers. 
 
 IN the endeavour to picture Mackenzie as he was, 
 we have set forth in clear light his courtesy, his 
 joyousness, his generosity, and doubtless other features 
 of his character have disclosed themselves more or 
 less distinctly as our narrative has proceeded. To 
 make the portrayal complete, however, it seems 
 desirable to gather up into a final sheaf of general 
 characterisation certain traits of mind and disposition 
 that range themselves under no definite head, but 
 which must be included in our estimate of the man. 
 
 In the social circle he was the embodiment of 
 geniality ; never obtrusive in conversation, but always 
 ready to crown the remarks of others with some 
 sparkling addition or comment. One of his hosts 
 remarks : 
 
 " We always found him a cheerful guest, and in his 
 conversation he never reflected on the character and 
 
 286
 
 286 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 doings of other ministers or officials. Anything like 
 tittle - tattle or scandal he had an abhorrence of. 
 Coming home from an exhausting service, he would 
 change and have a rub down, and then come out of 
 his room to join us, as fresh and chatty as though he 
 had done nothing at all." 
 
 Another says : 
 
 " He was simple in his habits, not caring for 
 luxuries, but enjoying homely fare, bread and milk 
 being often all he would take for supper. Towards 
 other guests who might be in the house at the time 
 he was always very cordial ; and what struck me as 
 remarkable in connection with these, was his extra- 
 ordinary memory for faces and for incidents connected 
 with previous visits. One guest, that he had met 
 seven years before, he recognised at once, and put 
 him thoroughly at his ease by mentioning a drive 
 they had taken together, and some other matters 
 associated with their former acquaintance." 
 
 Illustrative of this surprising power of memory, 
 the Eev. John E. Winter relates the following : 
 
 " Some time during 1892 or the following year, 
 Mr. Mackenzie preached and lectured in the Town 
 Hall, Pateley Bridge, in aid of the Mechanics' 
 Institute. At the close of the afternoon service, I 
 was standing in the vestibule, in company with Mr. 
 Foster, a gentleman of Middlesmoor, and one of the 
 leading Methodists there. We were watching Mr. 
 Mackenzie as he came down the hall, shaking hands 
 with dozens of people who crowded round him, and 
 every now and then recognising a friend. Mr. Foster 
 said to one or two of us, 'I wonder if Peter will 
 know me. About nineteen or twenty years ago, he
 
 WONDERFUL MEMORY 287 
 
 came to lecture for us, and I met him at the station 
 and drove him to Middlesmoor, and I don't think he 
 has seen me since. I'll try him.' 
 
 " On came Peter, still shaking hands. At last he 
 caught sight of our friend. After a good look, he 
 said 
 
 " ' I ought to know you.' Then, lifting his hand, 
 'Now, don't tell me. Wait a minute. You live up 
 the dale ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes.' 
 
 " ' Do they call it Middlesmoor ? ' 
 
 "'Yes.' 
 
 " ' You came to meet me when I was going there 
 to preach ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes.' 
 
 " ' You drove an old white mare ? ' 
 
 " ' Yea' 
 
 " ' You live on the top of the hill ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes. 1 
 
 " ' Let me see your name is Foster ? ' 
 
 "'Yes.' 
 
 " ' How long is that ago ? ' 
 
 " ' About twenty years.' 
 
 " ' And I have not met you since ? ' 
 
 "'No.' 
 
 " Considering the numbers of people Mr. Mackenzie 
 had seen," continues Mr. Winter, "and the many 
 journeys he had taken in all kinds of conveyances, I 
 thought this recognition of a gentleman after so long 
 a period, especially as so many details were remem- 
 bered, to be marvellous." 
 
 A well-known Methodist at Washington, in the 
 Gateshead circuit, when Mackenzie travelled there,
 
 288 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 was a Mr. Dobson. He went many years afterwards 
 to hear his former minister in Sunderland. From the 
 platform Mackenzie raised his hand to salute him, 
 but Mr. Dobson felt uncertain whether he was really 
 recognised. He stood with the crowd outside, how- 
 ever, and Mackenzie, as he passed him, raised his hat, 
 and called out, " Good - night, Washington." The 
 name of the man had escaped him for a moment, but 
 the name of the place remained and was made to 
 stand as substitute. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Harse of Newport, Monmouth, describes 
 how, on one of Mackenzie's visits to that town, he 
 gave him a fine bunch of grapes. He left Newport 
 for Conference, arriving in time for the opening. 
 The President that year was the Eev. Charles Garrett, 
 and at the first convenient opportunity after he had 
 taken the chair, Mackenzie made his way to the 
 platform, and presented him with the grapes which, 
 in the kindness of his heart, he had carried all the 
 way from Newport to Leeds for that purpose. 
 
 One night he had arranged to start for Aberdeen 
 from Shipley by the late mail. It was the missionary 
 meeting night, and after the meeting he went out to 
 supper. Asked at table what he would take, he 
 answered, " Just a little of the grouse, if you please, 
 to take back again to bonnie Scotland." 
 
 A similar instance of quickness of repartee occurred 
 when he was in the Gateshead circuit. Out one 
 evening for a social hour, it happened that the host 
 in a merry mood kissed his wife, the hostess, before 
 the company. Turning to Mr. Mackenzie, he said, 
 " Do you do anything in that line ? " " They are 
 all consumed on the premises, sir," was his ready reply.
 
 COMPLIMENTING A CHAIRMAN 289 
 
 The Eev. Fred Bell tells how, at a country mis- 
 sionary meeting, in the Shipley circuit, the clock 
 stopped, and as a consequence Mackenzie's time was 
 considerably entrenched upon by the previous speaker. 
 The Shipley meeting was held the next night, and 
 the Eev. J. C. W. Gostick was the invited stranger. 
 The same minister who had been misled by the clock 
 the night before was speaking, and, suddenly pulling 
 himself up, he said, " I must hasten on, for last night 
 the clock stopped, but that clock goes on." 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie called out at once 
 
 " That clock Goes-tick Gos-tick" 
 
 The congregation caught the joke, and roars of 
 laughter and cheers greeted the sally. Needless to 
 say, the hint was taken, and the clock that called for 
 Gos-tick, did not call in vain. 
 
 Mr. Bell also tells of a visit Mackenzie paid to 
 Newtown, Montgomery. He says : 
 
 " We had invited a county magnate to preside, a 
 gentleman well known and highly respected, and who 
 is at present a member of Parliament. He arrived 
 at the house of Mr. Mackenzie's host after tea, while 
 Peter was preparing for the lecture in his own room. 
 Presently the happy voice was heard humming a tune, 
 and, all radiant, he entered the room where the 
 chairman was partaking of a cup of tea. Of course 
 he had to be introduced, and the host performed his 
 part with all graciousness. The chairman, who was 
 in evening dress, rose and bowed with a pleasant 
 smile, while Mr. Mackenzie, looking at him from head 
 to foot, exclaimed, ' Praise the Lord ! You do look 
 bonnie ! We shall have a good time.' Consternation 
 at first took possession of us all, for we hardly knew 
 
 19
 
 290 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 how the stranger would take the remark ; but he 
 understood the position, and heartily enjoyed the 
 pleasant reference to his appearance, and before the 
 evening was over, he and Mr. Mackenzie were fast 
 friends." 
 
 Mackenzie's readiness to adapt himself to circum- 
 stances is well illustrated by the following from Mr. 
 Samson Turner of Whitstable : 
 
 " I was a resident in the Hoxton circuit from 1861 
 to 1887. During that period it was our joy as a 
 family to entertain Mr. Mackenzie on several 
 occasions. They were seasons never to be forgotten. 
 Our children would clap their hands in a frenzy 
 of delight when they heard that ' dear Peter ' was 
 coming. He had a very happy way of winning the 
 love and enthusiasm of the young people. They 
 were instinctively drawn to him by the charm of his 
 individuality and the generosity of his nature. 
 
 " He was with us on the Saturday evening after 
 the death of the Princess Alice, and had to preach the 
 following day, morning and evening. One of the 
 chapel stewards informed him that the liturgy was 
 used, and asked if he would like someone to read the 
 prayers for him. I shall never forget the knowing 
 look and the wonderful spread of the hands with 
 which he answered, ' Thank you, good brother. I 
 may be able to get through them, by God's help.' 
 And so he did. It was a marvellous service. The 
 power and pathos breathed into the old prayers will 
 never be forgotten by those who heard them from 
 the lips of Mr. Mackenzie that Sunday morning. 
 When he came to the prayers for the Queen and the 
 Royal Family, he broke out into extemporaneous
 
 READING PRA YERS 291 
 
 supplication for Her Gracious Majesty, full of tender- 
 ness and sympathy, that her heart might be comforted 
 under her great breavement. The congregation was 
 melted to tears, and, I venture to believe, has never 
 forgotten the morning when Mr. Mackenzie read the 
 prayers at Hackney Road ChapeL"
 
 CHAPTEE XXX 
 
 THE PEEACHEE HIS MENTAL AND SPIEITUAL QUALITY 
 
 Methodism Rich in Preachers Their Great Variety Peter of 
 no Class Evangelical Character of His Preaching The 
 Mellowing of Time God's Love the Groundwork Not a 
 Logician Poetic and Practical Choice of Subjects Three 
 Sermons : The Hebrew Children, Penitent Thief, Canaanitish 
 Woman Great Spiritual Power : Rev. Foster Crozier's 
 Recollections Diminishing Power of Emotion. 
 
 SINCE the days when Wesley and Whitefield 
 attracted immense crowds by the charm of their 
 fresh, energetic utterances, the Methodist Church has 
 never lacked a succession of powerful preachers. 
 Other churches may have surpassed her in the 
 elaborateness of their ritual and the accuracy and 
 profundity of their scholarship ; but she has yielded 
 to none in the production of men able to impress the 
 popular mind and to win the popular heart. Such 
 men have not been all of one type. Indeed, if there 
 is one thing more than another in which the preachers 
 of Methodism may claim to be differentiated from 
 those of other churches, it is in their abounding 
 variety. Whether it arises from the room afforded 
 for the manifestation of individuality before entering 
 on the ministerial life, or from the brevity of the 
 
 292
 
 TREND OF HIS PREACHING 293 
 
 preliminary training, or from the itinerating nature 
 of the work, or from all combined, with the addition 
 of causes difficult to enumerate, it is certain that 
 there is about the Methodist ministry less trace 
 of ecclesiastical set or class than is to be found else- 
 where. Even within the compass of a moderately 
 sized circuit there are generally to be found the most 
 diversified specimens of character and method. But 
 even had these classes existed, Peter Mackenzie could 
 not have been made to fit into any one of them. He 
 belonged to all, and yet to none. 
 
 His preaching, in its general trend, was of the 
 evangelical order. It presented in popular form, and 
 with fiery earnestness, the cardinal doctrines of sin, 
 atonement, reconciliation, with all their collateral 
 issues and practical applications to everyday life. 
 This was its character most intensely at the be- 
 ginning, nor did it ever greatly deviate from it. 
 There was doubtless a toning down of phraseology in 
 regard to what are called the last things final 
 judgment and future retribution. It is not meant 
 that his views on these momentous subjects changed 
 at their root, but that, as with most men, his 
 expression of them gathered reserve and inwardness, 
 evincing more of the spirit and less of the letter. It 
 lay not in the tendency of his mind to philosophise 
 on such matters, but the gracious invasion of humanism 
 which has more or less affected all life and thought 
 in recent days, could not but influence him, making 
 it inevitable that the crude, the lurid, the physically 
 terrible of his earlier efforts should be mellowed into 
 quieter colour and less glaring outline. 
 
 From the first he had a profound conviction and
 
 294 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 experience of the Divine Love as manifested in Jesus 
 Christ the Son of God, and this may be said to have 
 formed the groundwork of all his teaching. Whatever 
 shifting lights and shadows may have played upon 
 the landscape of his preaching, this bed-rock of faith 
 in the largeness of the divine heart and the world- 
 wide efficacy of the divine grace remained unchanged. 
 His mind was not of the logical order. It was not 
 his to climb with eager foot the ascending slopes of 
 an argument, tracking and smiting fallacies by the 
 way, heeding no siren call of sophistry, and resting 
 not until he waved his flag from the summit of a 
 triumphant demonstration. Reason he did, but his 
 attack was the light musketry fire of the line, aided 
 by the squibs and rockets of a humorous sarcasm, 
 rather than the ponderous broadside of heavily massed 
 artillery. He was not analytical. To hound a truth 
 into a corner and dissect it piecemeal, had he been 
 capable of the task, would have yielded him small 
 delight ; and yet he would often pierce to the centre 
 of a subject quicker than those who cut their way 
 thither with the aid of microscope and scalpel. His 
 mind was of the poetic order, with a copious dash of 
 the practical. He loved the concrete the form, the 
 colour, the voice of things ; and possessed, in large 
 measure, that intuitive insight which, when it takes a 
 practical shape, is known as shrewdness. He was 
 sometimes conceived of as simple, innocent, easily to 
 be imposed upon ; yet there were few better judges of 
 character. If at times he helped the unworthy, it 
 was not because he was blind to their faults, but 
 because his boundless charity constrained him to 
 hope for better things.
 
 SPIRITUAL POWER 295 
 
 This knowledge of and sympathy with human 
 nature doubtless influenced his choice of subjects as 
 a preacher. It gave him a leaning towards the 
 delineation of biblical characters. His first sermon 
 was on blind Bartimseus, and some of his happiest 
 efforts were in depicting scenes and incidents in the 
 lives of patriarch, or prophet, or apostle. Who that 
 heard it could ever forget the thrilling power of his 
 sermon on the three Hebrew children, where, speaking 
 of Nebuchadnezzar's command to them to come forth 
 from the fiery furnace, he asked, with dry humour, 
 " What would he have looked like if they had said 
 with Paul, ' Come and fetch us ! '" or that on the 
 penitent thief, or that on the Canaanitish woman, 
 in which, among a multitude of other good things, 
 he said, " She begged for a crumb, and Christ 
 handed her the whole loaf and bade her cut for 
 herself." 
 
 Of the spiritual and emotional power manifested in 
 his earlier ministry, the Rev. F. Crozier furnishes a 
 striking account : 
 
 "During my first year at college, Peter came to 
 see me at Didsbury, and at night he preached at 
 Great Ancoats, Manchester, and of course I accom- 
 panied him. That service was one of the greatest 
 triumphs I ever witnessed in my life, from any man, 
 or ever expect to witness. I had previously heard the 
 late lamented Dr. Punshon lecture on Wilberforce in 
 the Free Trade Hall, when it was packed, and the 
 vast audience, thrilled with his unsurpassed eloquence, 
 rose en masse, and gave him round after round of 
 deafening cheers ; but Peter (of course the two men 
 are not to be compared) surpassed him in producing
 
 296 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 an overwhelming effect upon a great company of 
 people. His text was ' It became Him, for whom 
 are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing 
 many sons unto glory,' etc. The chapel, you are 
 aware, has a double gallery, and was crowded. When 
 the word 'glory' was reached, the preacher dwelt 
 upon it in his own characteristic style, with question 
 and answer. He instanced a penitent seeking the 
 Lord and finding Him. 
 
 " ' Have you found Him, brother ? ' he queried. 
 
 " ' Glory ! ' was the reply. 
 
 " ' Is he precious ? ' 
 
 " { Glory ! ' 
 
 " In the meantime there were low suppressed 
 murmurs of ' Glory ! ' throughout the chapel, but 
 Peter went on interrogating, and answering ' Glory ! ' 
 the feeling all the while rising, and when at length he 
 reached his climax, there was a burst of ' Glory ! ' with 
 Peter's voice uppermost, which sounded as if it would 
 rend the building. 
 
 " The prayer-meeting then commenced, and, as was 
 his wont, Peter occupied the lower pulpit, held in an 
 agony of prayer, his face quivering with agitation, 
 without a dry thread upon him. The chapel, still 
 packed with people, was veritably a Bochim : groans, 
 tears, sighs, and loud cryings upon God were seen and 
 heard on every side. Troops made their way to the 
 Communion, which, though large, was again and again 
 crowded, so that more than one hundred persons 
 that night penitently sought the Lord. It was a 
 never-to-be-forgotten display of spiritual power, and 
 one feels glad to have lived and witnessed it. I can 
 recall similar scenes in the villages of Durham, but
 
 EMOTION IN RELIGION 297 
 
 none on such a grand scale as that at Great Ancoats, 
 Manchester." 
 
 Regret is sometimes expressed that such scenes did 
 not continue to mark Mackenzie's ministry to the end ; 
 but this betrays an incomplete consideration of the 
 elements in the case. Two inevitable changes are 
 lost sight of the change in the preacher, and the 
 change in the congregation. Speaking generally, 
 every man, with the advance of years, grows less 
 emotional in himself and less capable of producing 
 emotion in others. Then there cannot be the least 
 doubt that the dissemination of intellectual culture 
 diminishes the potency of emotionalism in religion as 
 in other things. The more men are dominated by 
 reason, the less liable are they to sudden and sweeping 
 irruptions of feeling. It is also probable that the 
 multiplication of channels through which emotion can 
 express itself in literature, in art, in politics, in recrea- 
 tion, and in the wider swing of all social movement 
 has had something to do with lessening its outflow in 
 more spiritual forms. Eeligion was the one main 
 avenue in the past for the outgoing of feelings which 
 to-day have no difficulty in finding a thousand outlets. 
 When these and other things are borne in mind, it 
 will be seen that to expect Mackenzie's preaching to 
 produce the same results in 1896 as it did in 1852, 
 is to expect what is unreasonable, if not impossible.
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 THE PREACHER ILLUSTRATION, HUMOUR, DELIVERY 
 
 Felicity of Illustration Sources : Scripture and Life " It's only 
 a Tunnel "The Old Goes, the Better Comes" The Pope's 
 Bulls " Kev. James Todd's Recollections Passing Through 
 the Waters "A Plant of Renown" The Five Fingers 
 Illustration Perpetuity of the Lord's Prayer The Planet 
 a Hearse Illustrations from Nature Sunset and Night 
 The Serviceableness of Humour From Smiles to Tears 
 His Sermons well Structured Affluence of Words Defects 
 of Diction General Excellence. 
 
 T71ELICITY of illustration was undoubtedly one 
 J- of the most attractive features in Peter 
 Mackenzie's ministry. It lighted up his preaching, 
 filled it with windows, through which illumination 
 stole into the densest minds, and lent to it a picturesque 
 quality that made it easy to remember. The two 
 main sources of his illustration were Script are and 
 everyday life. The glamorous region of classical 
 mythology or the provinces of science and literature 
 and art he less frequently intruded upon. In these 
 he was less sure of his tread ; but across the picturesque 
 landscapes of Bible story he could wander like one 
 who knew his way, and along the high-road, and even 
 into the bypaths of Christian experience, he could 
 not only venture with confidence himself, but lead the 
 
 298
 
 ONLY A TUNNEL 299 
 
 blind by ways they had not known. The daily life of 
 his hearers was an immense wallet into which he 
 dipped a hand at every service, drawing forth trea- 
 sures which all could recognise, for all had seen them 
 before, though without discerning their spiritual 
 significance. Especially was he at home in illustrating 
 the bright and consoling aspects of divine truth. In 
 depicting these, the intense sympathy and kindliness of 
 his nature gave him vantage, and he was notably 
 happy in showing the goodly provision that religion 
 makes of cheer in the present and felicity in the 
 future. 
 
 In the September preceding his death, he preached 
 at Whitby from " And he led them out by the right 
 way, that he might bring them into a city of habita- 
 tion," and a lady who was present says : 
 
 " One sentence in that sermon I will remember as 
 long as I live, and glad I am that the last words I 
 remember from Peter on earth were of such precious 
 import. He was speaking tenderly and rapidly of 
 those who thought the ' way ' dark, rough, thorny ; 
 dark with sickness, trouble, bereavement, and loss. 
 ' Chee ee ee r up ! ' shouted Peter. ' It's only a 
 tunnel ye're in ! There's a hole out at the other 
 end!' 
 
 " Often have these words returned with comfort and 
 hope to my heart ; and even now, when the darkening 
 shadows close in, I seem to hear Peter's voice ringing 
 from across the Jordan ' Cheer up ! It's only a 
 tunnel ye're in ! There's a hole out at the other 
 end!'" 
 
 To illustrate how in the mysterious working of 
 Divine Providence the sudden removal of the old
 
 300 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 often introduces the new and the better into our lives, 
 he told once, how, on visiting an old friend, a corn 
 miller, he was amazed to find that the old mill had 
 been destroyed by fire, and a handsome building had 
 risen phoenix-like out of its ashes. On expressing 
 sympathy with him in his misfortune, the miller 
 answered, " There is no need for regret. The new 
 mill has brought new machinery, and we are prosper- 
 ing better than ever." " Yes," cried Peter, in relating 
 the story ; " he could well afford to part with the old 
 cranky, miserable machinery ; he wanted to hear no 
 more of its wretched noise, with its rang shang 
 rang shang rang." 
 
 Preaching during the time of the cattle plague, 
 when the Pope had just issued a message on the 
 subject, his text being " The word is nigh thee," etc., 
 he said, " Eat the word and digest it, and you will be 
 fat and live when all the Pope's bulls have died of the 
 rinderpest." 
 
 The following interesting account of Mackenzie's 
 preaching, which furnishes further evidence of its 
 illustrative quality, has been kindly supplied by the 
 Eev. James Todd : 
 
 " Mr. Mackenzie's death brings vividly before me 
 the first and last times I heard him preach. A space 
 of nearly twenty years separates the two. The first 
 occasion was an anniversary service in a charming 
 little town in Leicestershire. The chapel was full of 
 country people, who evidently were at home with the 
 preacher. But I was a stranger fresh from the 
 serious, still atmosphere of Scottish churches, and so 
 the tittering of the audience during Mr. Mackenzie's 
 first prayer greatly shocked me. I could not endure
 
 THE FATHER'S CARE 301 
 
 it, and came out of the chapel at once. A gentleman 
 followed me to inquire if I was ill. 
 
 " ' Yes,' I replied, ' very, to see such conduct in a 
 place of worship.' 
 
 " ' Oh,' he said, ' it is not so bad as all that. Mr. 
 Mackenzie is a good man. You will soon understand 
 him. Come back with me now.' 
 
 " I took his advice, and have felt indebted to him 
 ever since. The preacher gave one illustration of the 
 Father's care that remains with me to this day. At 
 that time there had taken place a swimming fete on 
 the Thames. The daughter of some professor of 
 swimming had given an exhibition of the art. So 
 Mr. Mackenzie, who had seen it, treated us to a vivid 
 description of the river banks black with onlookers, 
 the young lady cleaving her way through the water 
 hand over hand, the little boat following her, oared 
 gently by her brother, and her father standing at the 
 prow, anxiously watching lest any small craft throng- 
 ing the river or any chance oar or paddle-box should 
 strike his daughter. The instant any mishap occurred, 
 or any weariness betrayed itself in his child, over he 
 would leap to her assistance. ' Oh, the comfort,' 
 cried the preacher, ' which the believer may have ! For 
 hark to what his heavenly Father says " When thou 
 passest through the waters, I will be with thee ; and 
 through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee" ' 
 
 " On the last occasion, Mr. Mackenzie took for his 
 text ' A plant of renown,' and he applied it at once 
 to Jesus. He said : 
 
 " 'We value a plant for its rarity. But none so rare 
 as Jesus. The world has many poets, many preachers, 
 but only one Jesus. Again we value a plant for its
 
 302 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 beauty. But none so fair as Jesus. He is the Lily 
 of the Valley, the Eose of Sharon, the fairest among 
 ten thousand and the altogether lovely. We value a 
 plant also for its perfume. God has scattered sweet 
 scents all over the earth. The smell of a beanfield 
 in flower is better than all your lavender or Eau de 
 Cologne. But what delights are comparable to the 
 joys of His presence ? The joys that are at liis right 
 hand are pleasures for evermore. Still further, we 
 value a plant for its healing properties. But can any 
 heal as Jesus can ? There are rubs and bruises and 
 wounds and rents and knocks and troubles in this 
 world, but Jesus is a balm for every pain. He makes 
 the wounded spirit whole. We also value a plant for 
 its shade and shelter. What poor shelter the world 
 gives ! A horse cowering beside a bare pole in an 
 open field on a cold wintry day is a true picture of it. 
 But the shelter of Jesus is manifold and sufficient 
 succour in temptation, sympathy in trial, and abun- 
 dant consolation in sorrow. Lastly, we value a plant 
 for its fruit. How many fruits has Jesus to give 
 pardon and peace and joy and love and power and 
 purity ! taste and see that the Lord is good.' 
 
 " Such are a few notes of a sermon enjoyed by a 
 large congregation, on a week - day afternoon, in 
 October 1895. I have not found it difficult to forget 
 the grotesque descriptions and extremely funny stories 
 with which Mr. Mackenzie so plentifully sprinkled 
 his sermons; and I have ever found ample material 
 wherewith to nourish faith and hope and love in 
 human hearts. Many times, in visiting the sick or 
 infirm after one of his services, I have seen faces 
 brighten and care flee away at the recital of the good
 
 THE FIVE FINGERS 303 
 
 things in his discourse. On one occasion a kitchen 
 full of working folk sat delightedly to listen to a 
 rehearsal of his sayings. I am sure that many 
 pilgrims through life will say of him, ' Mr. Mackenzie 
 was eminent among the men who have been a comfort 
 to me.' " 
 
 The Rev. W. Kendrew says : 
 
 " I remember once hearing Mr. Mackenzie preach 
 from Acts iv. 13. In the introduction he moved 
 his audience, which was a large one, and composed 
 of all classes of people, as I have seldom seen one 
 moved. To illustrate the context, he held out his 
 hand with the fingers spread abroad. ' There are five 
 of them/ said he, ' priests, Sadducees, scribes, rulers, 
 and elders. A committee thumb, chairman of com- 
 mittee. They all point in different directions, but 
 when they mean mischief they come together to put 
 down the new religion.' And the way in which his 
 strong fingers closed in, and the fist fell on the book, 
 was so graphic, that it can never be forgotten." 
 
 He once remarked that the Lord's Prayer was not 
 like a Bradshaw's Guide, done in a month, or a 
 lucifer match which loses its head in the striking and 
 becomes useless. It would serve through all time, 
 the future as well as the past. 
 
 What an almost lurid grandeur there is in that 
 sentence of his, when, in speaking of the death of our 
 Lord, with its accompanying darkness and earthquake, 
 he said, " And when He died, the planet dragged on 
 its heavy course like a great hearse carrying a dead 
 God." 
 
 While the world of everyday life was most familiar 
 to him the world of nature was not by any means
 
 304 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 an unknown territory. " His glowing and vivid 
 description of the sea and its ever-changing moods," 
 remarks one, " will not be easily forgotten by many 
 besides the writer." 
 
 Once, when describing with lofty eloquence a 
 sunset, he wound up with ".It was just as if old Sol 
 had forgotten to shut the door after him, and a flood 
 of glory burst in." 
 
 This again shows his sympathy with nature : 
 
 " When we have had a very hot day, the grass is 
 almost withered, the flowers droop, and everything 
 seems to get scorched up. But the sun goes down, 
 and the stars come out; the moon drives in the 
 heavens, and it is very still and very calm. What 
 a transformation during the night! When I went 
 out one morning after a very hot day, my friend, Mr. 
 Lees, near Birmingham, called me, saying, ' Come here, 
 Mr. Mackenzie, and see what it is like.' Instead of 
 everything being dried up, there was the cabbage 
 with the leaves covered with moisture ; the water 
 filled my hand, and the leaves fairly crackled again. 
 And so were the flowers, pretty and beautiful, covered 
 with dew. When the darkness is cast around you, 
 you see the stars. When the sun goes down, you 
 learn lessons quite clearly that you can never learn 
 in the days of prosperity." 
 
 Few men probably have used so freely as Mackenzie 
 did the gift of humour in the pulpit. His sermons 
 sparkled with witticisms as the heavens do with stars. 
 Humour was to him as the letting out of water 
 quick to flow, hard to restrain ; not that he was 
 anxious to evoke merriment, but that the ludicrous 
 side of things caught him so vividly that he must
 
 USES OF HUMOUR 305 
 
 give it expression. To some natures any evidence of 
 humour in the pulpit is objectionable. Such a view 
 is contracted. Humour is as true and serviceable a 
 human quality as pathos ; and to evoke a smile, 
 either in church or elsewhere, is quite as virtuous as 
 to educe a tear. Perhaps the burden of this unintel- 
 ligible world would grow more comprehensible if we 
 made allowance for such a quality in the Divine 
 Being. Our persistently serious view of the opera- 
 tions of Providence has not unlikely darkened out for 
 us certain lines that would impart relief and meaning 
 to the picture. 
 
 It is hardly to be denied that at times Mackenzie's 
 humour was somewhat extravagant, and its points 
 not always happily placed. Occasionally the laughter 
 was a little coarse, and the fun bordered on the 
 grotesque. One could not but be sorry, sometimes, 
 to see the flimsy skirts of a jest flapping incontinently 
 against the kingly form of a more than usually royal 
 passage. All must have marvelled, however, at the 
 swiftness with which smiles were melted into tears. 
 His sermons resembled greatly one of those days in 
 April when the sky is alive with sportive clouds, and 
 the shadows seem to rejoice in chasing the shine 
 across the grass. 
 
 These sermons were not the chance creations of 
 the moment. They cost him days and weeks of 
 thought on the rail and in the study, and were 
 enriched with the gleanings of wide reading and 
 constant observation. Nor were they flimsy and 
 disjointed in construction. He was possessed of a 
 methodical mind, and however much his humour and 
 fancy might seem at times to bear him abroad, the 
 
 20
 
 306 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 careful listener would discern that he never failed to 
 return to his main theme. 
 
 His spirituality, his sympathy, his pathos, his 
 humour, his simplicity, his aptitude of illustration, 
 and whatever other quality characterised his preaching, 
 were all augmented and emphasised by his delivery. 
 Great qualities are sometimes doomed to silence, or 
 achieve only a maimed expression. Mackenzie 
 suffered not in this respect. Voice, gesture, facial 
 movement, all lent themselves powerfully to the 
 forthputting of what was within. His fund of words 
 being as ample as his supply of ideas, he was never 
 threatened with bankruptcy in speech. On the 
 contrary, his thoughts rushed forth with the vehe- 
 mence of a mountain torrent ; so rapidly, indeed, that 
 the panting mind had to take refuge in a gasp of 
 " Hallelujah ! " or " Glory ! " to gain breath for another 
 effort. From an artistic standpoint this rapidity 
 occasionally marred the perfection of the diction. 
 The speed at which his speech travelled was too 
 great to be sustained, and thus passages of eloquence 
 which would have been overpowering if carried 
 forward to a gradually accelerated climax, were often 
 robbed of their potency by dropping into common- 
 place, or dribbling into a tag of undignified rhyme. 
 
 But he had neither studied for himself nor been 
 trained by others in the art of oratory. What he 
 said was natural, straight out of the heart, and the 
 wonder is, not that he should miss some of the graces 
 and effects of style, but that he should have attained 
 to such a high degree of excellency and power,
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 THE PREACHER HIS PRAYERS 
 
 Unique in Prayer His Devotion Natural Variety and Com- 
 prehensiveness Even the Humour not Discordant Prayer 
 at the Seaside A Unique Thanksgiving "Make them 
 Eloquent" A Cheap Smash Prayer in a Strike Pity 
 for the Poor "He means my Grandmother" Prayer for 
 the Prince of Wales The Cow turned Minister Pathetic 
 Prayer at Conference Time. 
 
 "VTO characterisation of Mackenzie as a preacher 
 U* would be complete that did not include a 
 reference to his altogether uncommon gift of prayer. 
 He prayed as the bee hums, as the light shines, as 
 the stream flows, naturally and without effort. Devo- 
 tion was to him what its feathers are to the bird 
 worn always, carried everywhere. Probably his 
 prayers were frequent because they were so natural, 
 and natural because they were so frequent: use 
 became second nature, and nature fostered use. 
 
 I remember being greatly impressed with this 
 when I first became his colleague in the Gateshead 
 circuit, and when he took me round and introduced 
 me to the friends. Hardly had we entered a house 
 and exchanged a few words of friendly greeting before 
 we found ourselves on our knees, and in a few 
 
 807
 
 308 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 moments ready to depart. And yet it was not a 
 scamper that fretted one with its hurry. One felt it 
 to be in order; for what in another would have 
 seemed abrupt, was in him what the mind appeared 
 to expect. He was instant in prayer, and in every- 
 thing gave thanks. Prayer was a sort of divine 
 perfume which sprinkled with its fragrance all that 
 made up the days of his life. 
 
 What wonderful freshness and variety and compre- 
 hensiveness marked his petitions in the pulpit ! How 
 he crowded them with life and common things ! 
 Nothing was too insignificant to be included, and 
 what in a less transparent and simple nature would 
 have jarred upon us as ii reverence, in him seemed but 
 the familiar speech of a child with a trusted father. 
 Even the humour that would not allow itself to be 
 shut out of his supplications struck not so discordant 
 a note in those who knew the devoutness of his spirit. 
 Laughing words fell from him with a more hallowed 
 accent than solemn utterances from less sincere lips. 
 
 One who heard him while on a brief visit to a 
 seaside watering-place thus speaks of it: "As Peter 
 prayed, instantly we and our needs were gathered up 
 and presented to the Almighty Father : ' Lord, bless 
 the dear people who have come for the rest and the 
 sea breezes. Eefresh them, give them a good time, 
 and when they go home to-morrow, let them find all 
 just as nice and straight as if they had been there 
 themselves. Lord bless them ! ' Not a soul in the 
 building, besides the multitudes out of it, whose needs 
 were not gathered up and expressed in like fashion." 
 
 At a harvest thanksgiving he poured out the 
 fulness of his gratitude in this fashion : " The hills
 
 DIVERS PETITIONS 309 
 
 are tipped with purple, and the valleys are smiling 
 with the golden corn nodding to the breeze, and the 
 boughs are gracefully swinging, freighted with the 
 precious fruits of the earth. Yes, Lord, the time was 
 when the farmer's lad would ask for bread, and a thin 
 miserable shive would be offered him, but, praised be 
 Thy name, it is not so now, for when little Jonathan 
 asks for bread, his father slashes off a big shive, and 
 says, ' Here, Jonathan, there's more for the asking 
 for/" 
 
 At Duns table he was once entertained by a 
 gentleman in whose establishment there were several 
 assistants, and amongst them two or three just begin- 
 ning to preach. At family devotions these young 
 men were supplicated for as follows : " Lord, make 
 them eloquent! Give them an eloquence that shall 
 flow smoothly as a river of oil, and be terrible as 
 Niagara, an eloquence that shall blister the consciences 
 of men and drive them to the atonement for healing ! " 
 
 Preaching in a Yorkshire town on a dark, miserable 
 winter afternoon, he cried out in his closing prayer : 
 " God, take care of the poor old men and women 
 who have come to hear Thy word proclaimed on such 
 a day as this. Take care of them as they go home 
 this nasty, dark, murky afternoon. Preserve them 
 from falling and breaking their legs in the slush and 
 snow ; though if they should happen to break their 
 legs, and this causes them to give their hearts to 
 Thee, it will be the cheapest smash they ever had in 
 all their lives." 
 
 Once, when a strike was in progress, he prayed that 
 it might be brought to an end, observing that when 
 the little mouse in the pantry turned away from the
 
 3io LIFE Of PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 meal-bag with a tear in its eye, it was time to settle 
 the strike. 
 
 In the same spirit of pity for the poor which 
 pervaded all his supplications, he once prayed for 
 those " with little in them, and little on them." On 
 another occasion he asked for a blessing on those who 
 had to brew the same tea three tunes over. 
 
 Mr. Samuel Hartley of Halifax relates an incident 
 which shows how the characteristic manner in which 
 Mackenzie was wont to express himself in prayer 
 arrested the attention and impressed the minds of 
 little children as well as of older people. He was 
 preaching in the old South Parade Chapel, in connec- 
 tion with the opening of a new chapel in the circuit, 
 and in the opening prayer he prayed for the new 
 place and the friends connected with it, that they 
 might have much spiritual success, and much of the 
 presence and blessing of God in all their work and 
 worship. Then he prayed for the givers, and 
 especially for those who had been making sacrifices 
 and foregoing little luxuries in order that they might 
 have something to give towards paying for the new 
 chapel. " Bless the old women and widows," he said, 
 " who have been going without sugar in their tea, so 
 that they might be able to have a brick or a stone 
 in the building." Mr. Hartley's little boy, now a 
 missionary in Ceylon, then about four and a half years 
 old, who was with his mother in the pew, looked up 
 into her face while the prayer was going on, and said 
 to her, " Mother, he means my grandmother." It so 
 happened that his grandmother had gone without 
 sugar in her tea, and he knew it, although he did not 
 know for what reason, and so, childlike, he came to
 
 PA THETIC SUPPLICA TION 311 
 
 the conclusion that it must be her for whom the 
 prayer was being offered to God. 
 
 Mackenzie preached in Wesley Chapel, Lincoln, 
 during the serious illness of His Eoyal Highness the 
 Prince of Wales. In the morning service he prayed 
 for the Prince, and among other petitions, asked that 
 the Lord would convert his soul, " as it would do him 
 more good than bagging a thousand grouse." 
 
 Mr. E. N. Dickens, who communicates the foregoing, 
 says that in the evening Mackenzie related the follow- 
 ing anecdote: A man was feeding a cow when the 
 cow rubbed its head against him, as if to thank him 
 for his kindness. The thought occurred to the man 
 This cow thanks me for feeding her. God has fed me 
 all my life, and I have never thanked Him for it. The 
 thought led to the man's conversion, and, remarked 
 Mr. Mackenzie, " The cow had that soul for her hire, 
 and that seal to her ministry." 
 
 The Rev. E. H. Mole relates how he heard Mac- 
 kenzie, two years ago, at Colwyn Bay. It was 
 Conference time, and in his prayer the preacher 
 referred, with great tenderness and pathos, to the 
 sorrows of those who were leaving old friends, and 
 entering on new scenes and labours. He spoke of 
 the silent ones in the graveyard, left behind by the 
 dear widows, who had gone with them through many 
 changing scenes, and now the last change had come, 
 and there would be the packing without the help of 
 those who had been ready to tighten the cord and 
 nail the boxes. " Bless the dear sisters, widowed and 
 wearied. Let them have mercy by the way, let not 
 one box be lost. The Lord be with them ! "
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 THE LECTURER TOIL AND TRAVEL 
 
 The Platform to Mackenzie List of Lectures Money Raised 
 and Miles Travelled Wear and Tear In His Stocking 
 Feet Letter to Mr. S. Wright Visit to Farndale Helper 
 of Small Places. 
 
 TO Peter Mackenzie the platform was simply a 
 wider pulpit, the lecture an amplified sermon, 
 so that much of what has been said concerning him 
 as a preacher in previous chapters will apply with 
 equal force to his qualities and work as a lecturer. 
 The subjects of his lectures were nearly all biblical, 
 as will be seen from the following list, which is not 
 chronologically arranged, nor are the full titles in all 
 cases given : 
 
 1. The Bible. 
 
 2. Providence. 
 
 3. The Tongue, Its Use and Abuse. 
 
 4. John Bunyan, the Hero of Elstow. 
 
 5. Elijah the Tishbite. 
 
 6. The Proverbs of Solomon and Others. 
 
 7. The Sabbath. 
 
 8. Samuel. 
 
 9. Jonah, the Runaway Prophet. 
 
 10. Gideon, the Mighty Man of Valour. 
 
 11. The Good Samaritan. 
 
 312
 
 AN AMPLE REPERTORY 313 
 
 12. Joshua. 
 
 13. Satan. 
 
 14. Ritualism. 
 
 15. Nehemiah, the Cupbearer. 
 
 16. Samson, and his Feats among the Philistines. 
 
 17. Elisha. 
 
 18. Solomon. 
 
 19. David, the Sweet Singer of Israel. 
 
 20. Job. 
 
 21. Ruth and Naomi. 
 
 22. Jonathan, a Type of True Friendship. 
 
 23. Simon, the Galilean Fisherman. 
 
 24. Joseph and his Brethren. 
 
 25. Saul, the Man who Missed his Mark. 
 
 26. Abraham. 
 
 27. Jacob and Esau. 
 
 28. Balaam. 
 
 29. Moses, the Lawgiver. 
 
 30. John Nelson. 
 
 31. Noah. 
 
 32. Daniel. 
 
 33. Queen Esther. 
 
 34. John the Baptist. 
 
 35. jEsop's Fables. 
 
 36. Absalom. 
 
 37. The Gospel and its Rivals. 
 
 38. The Nameless Prophet of Judah. 
 
 39. Naaman : Or the Advantages of Disadvantage. 
 
 This is certainly an ample repertory, yet he could 
 hardly have managed with less; for his popularity 
 was such that his services were in demand at the 
 same place year after year, and thus fresh subjects 
 were constantly required. 
 
 What amount of money was raised for religious 
 purposes through the labours of the lecturer it is 
 difficult to estimate ; for though he kept a journal of 
 his engagements, the entries it contains are not
 
 314 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 sufficiently regular and full to enable the calculation 
 to be made with accuracy and completeness. 
 
 It is interesting to find, however, that a calculation 
 made in his own handwriting of the amount raised 
 and the miles travelled between June 5th and 
 November 4th, 1882, a period of five months, yields 
 the following result: 2367; miles, 7360. This 
 gives us an average of 473 a month, or 5676 a year. 
 
 Even if we take an average of only 4000 a year, 
 which would not be too high a figure, we reach the 
 magnificent total of 120,000 raised by this one 
 man's efforts during a period of thirty years. If, in 
 like manner, we reduce the mileage from 1472 to 
 1000 miles a month, it gives us 12,000 a year, or in 
 thirty years the enormous distance of 360,000 miles, 
 that is, nearly fifteen times round the world. Had 
 this wandering prophet travelled in a straight line, he 
 might have paid his respects to the Man in the Moon, 
 and then, turning round, covered half the distance 
 back again. 
 
 What a tremendous amount of physical wear and 
 tear is represented herein ! The long hours in rail- 
 way trains, the waiting at draughty stations, the 
 drives in open conveyances across wild country, on 
 rough roads, the early mornings, the late nights, the 
 constant change of food and beds, the nervous strain 
 of standing every day before immense crowds and 
 living in a whirl of excitement ; all this, and much 
 else, only a man of iron constitution could have en- 
 dured for so long a period. 
 
 With what pluck and pertinacity he went about 
 his work is well illustrated by an incident of which 
 the Eev. J. Tessyrnan furnishes the particulars.
 
 A SLIPPERY WALK 315 
 
 "The February of 1886 was very stormy. Mr. 
 Mackenzie came on the 10th of that month to fulfil 
 an engagement at Dunstable. I will venture to say 
 he never more nearly escaped having to break an 
 engagement. In order to reach us in time for dinner, 
 he had to leave Dewsbury by an early train. It was 
 dark, the frost very keen, and the streets so sheeted 
 with ice that it was almost impossible to walk. 
 However, Peter Mackenzie was not the man to be 
 daunted even by formidable difficulties. He pushed 
 on with vigour, as he always did, but only to find 
 that it was a case of ' the more haste the less speed.' 
 He stumbled, and slipped, and slipped again, and it 
 was only with the greatest difficulty he could keep his 
 feet at all. At the close of the lecture that night, he 
 gave an account of the journey, and as nearly as I 
 can remember his words, said : ' I stumbled on as 
 best I could, sometimes holding on to a wall, and 
 sometimes grasping a lamp-post to steady myself. I 
 found, however, I was making little progress, and I 
 was afraid of losing my train, so I took off my shoes 
 and walked in my stocking feet. But this, instead of 
 helping, hindered me, and I was worse off than ever, 
 and already I thought I heard the whistle of the 
 engine. But I was determined to get to Dunstable, 
 so I pushed on with speed ; but oh, would you believe 
 it ? I came to a full stop ! I lost my feet, and down 
 I went, right in the middle of the road ! My boots 
 flew to one side of the street and my bag to the other, 
 and my umbrella went right on towards the railway 
 station, and there was I the Methodist preacher 
 laid flat on my back, looking up at the stars.' 
 
 " Mr. Mackenzie made considerable capital out of
 
 3i 6 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 this eventful journey, and often related it at the close 
 of his lectures. He got to Dunstable, of course, and 
 had a good time." 
 
 Similarly hard experiences through the course of 
 nearly forty winters must have been fairly frequent, 
 though not always of a nature to lend themselves to 
 so graphic a description. 
 
 Samuel Wright, Esq., of York, supplies an account 
 of a journey with Mackenzie which is doubtless 
 typical of hundreds more. Mr. Wright was chair- 
 man for him for many years, and the friendly relation 
 between them may be gathered from the following 
 letter : 
 
 DEWSBUEY, April 21, 1894. 
 
 HONOURED AND DEAR SIR, I am so sorry that I cannot go to 
 Bedale on May 17, as we had arranged. The District Meeting 
 coming a week sooner has upset me. If you could kindly 
 arrange, I have offered them Friday, June 15, 1894 ; but cannot 
 go without your own dear self. I would be like a rod without 
 a line, like a fisherman without his net, like a reaper without 
 his sickle, like a writer without his pen. I will do my best for 
 them for your sake. Much love and all good wishes from, 
 Yours affectionately, P. MACKENZIE. 
 
 Mackenzie as lecturer, and Mr. Wright as chairman, 
 had been a standing arrangement at Helmsley for 
 many years. On one of these occasions a deputation 
 from the Kirby Moorside circuit came, beseeching 
 Peter to visit a remote chapel situated in the romantic 
 district of High Farndale, twelve miles from the 
 circuit town. He agreed to go if his chairman would 
 accompany him, and in due course the time for the 
 promised visit arrived. Travelling from Helmsley, 
 where he had lectured on the previous evening, to
 
 A WINDY DRIVE 317 
 
 Kirby Moorside, they were received by the station- 
 master, a good Methodist, who quietly informed them 
 that on so windy a day, and with such a drive as lay 
 before them, they would never be ablo to keep their 
 " top-hats " in contact with their heads. In reply to 
 the statement that they possessed no other, he 
 offered to lend them soft caps, which were gladly 
 accepted. A man with a waggonette and a pair of 
 horses waited to drive them to their destination, the 
 road to which lay principally up the Farndale valley 
 and across the moor, and glad they were that 
 Providence had placed a man at the station capable 
 of giving such good advice, when, as they drove across 
 the open moorland, they saw the hat of a young 
 farmer on horseback blown off, and carried far into 
 the valley below. After a jolting drive of two hours 
 in a wind which would hardly allow them to keep 
 their seats, they arrived safely at the house of Mr. 
 Frank, a well-to-do farmer, where they were hospit- 
 ably entertained in thorough Farndale fashion. 
 Mackenzie preached in the afternoon, and lectured in 
 the evening, the people trooping in from far to listen 
 to one of whom they had heard much, but whom in 
 that outlying district they were not often privileged 
 to see. 
 
 It was to such places, where his services were 
 generally a financial windfall, as well as a spiritual 
 inspiration, that he delighted to go, putting heart and 
 hope into many a drooping cause. " It was his 
 invariable custom," says an old colleague, " to give a 
 small and weak place the benefit when a strong and 
 feeble cause were in competition for his help. If 
 Sheffield and Manchester were pitted against Kirby
 
 318 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 Moorside and Stow-on-the-Wold, it was the smaller 
 places that won the day. ' Give them the day, bless 
 them the other folk can afford to wait,' and so the 
 larger centre was ' put off' a while, reminded that ' to 
 patient faith the prize is sure.'"
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 THE LECTURER DRAMATIC REALISATION 
 
 Two Methods of Delineation How Mackenzie did with hu 
 Characters Not Two Selves Swinging the Fiddle How 
 the Lion Roared Some Extravagances of Manner Dramatic 
 Incidents The Two Buckets Shooting the Sun Simplicity 
 and Humility. 
 
 WHAT were the qualities that lent to Mackenzie 
 such a charm as a lecturer ? Foremost among 
 them, undoubtedly, stood his remarkable power of 
 dramatic realisation. He saw what he had to say, 
 and never failed to make others see it. He lived 
 with the characters he described, made a home for 
 them in his heart, knew them so thoroughly that he 
 could paint minutely every garment they wore, every 
 word they uttered, every feeling they indulged. 
 Some speakers stand outside their subject. They 
 analyse it, take it to pieces, show their hearers every 
 particle of its structure, every line in its conformation, 
 so that when the delineation is ended, not the thinnest 
 film of mystery remains. That is one method, and 
 for certain types of mind and certain aims of exposi- 
 tion it has great advantages. Exhaustive analysis is 
 to the man of science invaluable. But for the de- 
 lineation of character, especially character pertaining 
 
 319
 
 320 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 to a far-off age and country, another method is pre- 
 ferable, and this Mackenzie adopted. He did with 
 his characters what the prophet did with the widow's 
 child ; stretched himself upon them, breathed into 
 them the quickening of his own vitality, and thus was 
 enabled to delight his audiences, not with wooden 
 figures, but with living men and women, aglow with 
 all the passion and feeling that make human nature 
 of every sort and at all tunes an enthralling study. 
 
 This surrender of himself to his subject character- 
 ised his delivery down to the smallest detail of word 
 a-nd action. There were not two selves on the 
 platform : one creative, personating Job or Moses or 
 David; the other critical, watching to see that the 
 personation was well done. On the contrary, the 
 two were blended into one, and that one infused itself 
 into every movement and gesture and utterance. 
 The personality of the man, ocean-like in its breadth 
 and vigour, flooded with a great tide of vitality all he 
 said and did. 
 
 How he did thus yield body and soul to his subject 
 is strikingly exemplified in an occurrence communi- 
 cated by Mr. W. Parker of Felling, in the Gateshead 
 circuit, at which place Mackenzie delivered his lecture 
 on " Samson." Around him on the platform sat the 
 singers with their instruments, and when he came to 
 describe the havoc made among the Philistines by the 
 Hebrew Hercules, he seized by the neck a large 
 " bass-fiddle," and swung it round his head, as if it 
 had been no heavier than a walking-stick, crying, " He 
 slew them hip and thigh with the jawbone of an ass." 
 
 The Eev. John E. Winter tells of another lively 
 experience during the delivery of the same lecture on
 
 A ROARING LION 321 
 
 a different occasion. It was at Spitalfields, London, 
 in the year 1868. The chapel was crowded, and 
 many gentlemen sat on the platform. Speaking of 
 Samson's introduction to the lion in the vineyard of 
 Timnath, he said, " Did you ever hear a lion roar, my 
 friends ? " Then he began with a low growl, rolled 
 his eyes and tossed his head, his hair being worn a 
 little longer than in recent years. Growing more 
 excited, he swung his arms, and by some means drew 
 one arm out of his coat sleeve. Then he pushed 
 aside the table, and began prancing round in a circle 
 on the platform. Speedily his hands came perilously 
 near the faces of the gentlemen who sat around, and 
 who wisely gave him a wider berth. On he went, 
 treading on the chairman's toes, tapping slightly on 
 the ear of another, and stepping on the feet of a third. 
 Every moment the circle grew wider, chairs and their 
 occupants became all alive, and the audience, entering 
 into the humour of it, cheered vociferously. At length 
 one brother climbed over the rail on to the floor, and 
 another one down by the steps. This created roara 
 of laughter, and Peter, taking in the situation, enlarged 
 his revolutions until, amid the enthusiasm of the 
 audience, the platform was cleared, and the roar- 
 ing lion left, like Selkirk on his island, monarch of all 
 he surveyed. 
 
 This abandon, the losing of himself in his subject, 
 was not only the secret of much of his power, but 
 serves also to explain those vergings on the indecorous, 
 almost the vulgar, to which at times he was perilously 
 liable. Intoxicated with the enthusiasm of his im- 
 personation, he occasionally allowed himself to be 
 carried into an extravagance of utterance and gesture, 
 
 21
 
 522 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 that detracted from the grace and dignity of his per- 
 formances. Such lapses were regrettable ; but where 
 in art or nature do we find the perfect, and what a 
 limitation of vision is ours when we see only the 
 fungi on the bark, and lose sight of the spreading 
 boughs and noble leafage that make the glory of the 
 tree. There were people who went to hear him once, 
 and because of these minor delinquencies would never 
 listen to him again. They were prejudiced hence- 
 forth ; but to those who knew the true worth and 
 power of the man, these shortcomings were insigni- 
 ficant, no more than to the lover of the ocean is the 
 floating weed hardly visible in the magic movement 
 of the mighty waters. 
 
 There are many stories in circulation illustrative 
 of the dramatic nature of his delivery, and doubtless 
 the incidents on which they are based have occurred 
 on several occasions, and at many different places. 
 Lecturing at Reeth, for instance, on " Queen Esther," 
 and speaking of someone wishing to see the king, he 
 exclaimed suddenly, " Just see who that is at the 
 door ! " and two of the officials, one in each aisle, rose 
 and went to see who was waiting in the lobby. 
 
 In his lecture on " Simon Peter," he stopped abruptly, 
 and said, " Kindly excuse me, Mr. Chairman, for five 
 minutes. I want to go down the street to see a poor 
 woman who is sick of a fever." Then he moved 
 towards the exit from the platform, and the chairman 
 took up a hymn-book to announce a verse to be sung 
 in the meanwhile, and hardly felt complimented when 
 the lecturer turned round, and woke a thunder of 
 laughter and applause by remarking quietly, " It is 
 only Peter's wife's mother."
 
 A POWERFUL LECTURE 323 
 
 The Eev. John Nayler recalls hearing him on the 
 platform of Oxford Place Chapel, on the occasion of 
 the Wednesday morning meeting of the Leeds Mis- 
 sionary anniversary in 1875. 
 
 " What the point to be illustrated was, I do not 
 now recall. Possibly it may have been the desira- 
 bility of carrying on both home and foreign missionary 
 operations, but what Peter did was to show how much 
 better a man can carry two buckets of water than 
 one. In the attempt to carry one the speaker 
 staggered and wobbled about, and almost went over 
 altogether. But when he got the two buckets, one 
 on each side, to make his balance true, he tripped 
 briskly and gracefully across the platform, the cheers 
 of the audience attesting that the speaker's point was 
 proved to a demonstration." 
 
 In describing a lecture which he heard afterwards 
 at Bacup, Mr. Nayler says : 
 
 " In the evening the Co-operative Hall was crowded 
 by an audience representing the various churches 
 of the town, and the proceedings were enthusiastic 
 throughout. The Eev. Mr. Elsom, United Methodist 
 Free Church minister, prayed at the opening, and 
 Peter, as his custom was, responded audibly. When 
 Mr. Elsom referred to the lecturer, and gave thanks 
 for his rare gifts and devoted labours, and prayed that 
 God would continue to bless him, the humble subject 
 of these petitions was heard responding in pathetic 
 tones, ' Ay ! poor thing ! Bless him ! Amen ! Do, 
 Lord ! Bless him ! Poor thing ! poor thing ! ' 
 
 " The lecture was ' The Gospel and its Eivals,' and 
 in dealing with Agnostics and Positivists Peter's keen 
 eye and ready wit went straight to the weak places
 
 324 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 in these anti-christian systems, and the lecture was a 
 fine vindication of the 'glorious gospel/ and of the 
 lecturer's own glowing faith in its ultimate success 
 and victory. Perhaps the most effective and dramatic 
 passage was that in which the brief triumphing of 
 the enemies of Christianity was compared to the glee 
 of a half-witted Scotchman, who, having conceived a 
 dislike to the sun, shot at it with an old blunderbuss, 
 and having raised a great smoke, rejoiced that he had 
 got rid of his enemy. Peter's unrivalled powers of 
 mimicry appeared at their best in this scene. Poor 
 ' daft Jamie's ' glee over his weapon, his chuckle as he 
 heavily charged it, the flash and roar of the discharge, 
 and the clouds of smoke, amid which Jamie danced 
 and shouted, ' I've done for him ! He's gone ! He's 
 gone!' were as real as if we saw and heard them. 
 And when the noise and smoke had subsided, and the 
 sun was seen shining in undimmed brightness, no word 
 was needed to enforce the lesson. The way in which 
 Mr. Mackenzie threw himself into that scene, and 
 leaped and capered and shouted, would have taxed 
 the powers of a young athlete, and was simply 
 marvellous in a heavy man, sixty-seven years of age, 
 whose limbs, when not spurred by his indomitable spirit, 
 already showed painful signs of stiffness and overwork. 
 The price the lecturer himself had to pay for these 
 great efforts was known to few, if any, although his 
 hosts, who saw how exhausted and bathed in perspira- 
 tion he was afterwards, had some inkling of the truth. 
 The closing scene in the hall that night, as Mr. Edward 
 Hoyle, J.P., his host and chairman, tendered the 
 enthusiastic thanks of the meeting, with his own 
 warm eulogy of his friend, and the good man himself,
 
 CHILDLIKE HUMILITY 325 
 
 whom all were cheering, sat there with beautiful 
 humility, and yet simple, childlike pleasure, murmuring, 
 ' Thank you, Mr. Hoyle, thank you ! It is very kind 
 of you ! ' was characteristic of the man and his whole 
 career. He lived his life and did his work amid an 
 atmosphere of admiration and applause. Night by 
 night crowded audiences delighted to do him honour. 
 And yet he remained unspoiled by popularity and 
 uncorrupted by opportunities of personal enrichment, 
 and to the last he received a kindness with as much 
 gratitude, and a vote of thanks with as much pleasure, 
 as if such favours were quite fresh to him, and alto- 
 gether beyond his deserts."
 
 CHAPTEE XXXV 
 
 THE LECTUKEK HIS HUMOUR 
 
 Definition of the Humorous Out of Time and Place Mackenzie 
 and Bible Characters Gideon's Beginning " Aaron off the 
 Plan" Noah's Gimlets Boaz, Goliath, Gideon Terseness 
 Dean Hole's Story Terse, Witty Sayings Mackenzie a 
 Collector Smart Hens His Humour Consecrated Emer- 
 son on the Orator How much he is Missed. 
 
 T)ETEK MACKENZIE was certainly not a classical 
 J- scholar, and yet much of the humour that made his 
 lectures so entertaining was in harmony with the clas- 
 sical conception of what constitutes the comic. Not that 
 he had studied and mastered any canons on the subject, 
 and sought to conform his speech and action thereto. 
 It might have been an advantage to him if he had. 
 To have known philosophically wherein the essence of 
 the comic lies, what are its capabilities and what its 
 limitations, might have saved him occasionally, as it 
 would save others, from trying to coax a bright spark 
 out of a dull ember, or from imagining that the blunt 
 prod of buffoonery is as penetrating as the stiletto- 
 thrust of wit. It is not meant by this for a moment 
 that Mackenzie was simply a religious mountebank. 
 He was sometimes so described, but only by men who 
 had caught no more than the superficialities of his
 
 ARISTOTLE ON HUMOUR 327 
 
 nature or the oddities of his manner, and who lacked 
 either the patience or the capability to weigh the 
 whole man. 
 
 What is it that begets in us the sense of the 
 ridiculous, that loosens within us the springs of 
 laughter ? Aristotle defines it as that which is out 
 of time and out of place, without having in it the 
 element of danger. When danger or pain intrudes, 
 the comic darkens at once into the tragic. When 
 words or acts occur in a way that we should never 
 anticipate, as when a man holds up his walking-stick 
 to keep off the rain, or puts his watch into the pan 
 and looks at the egg to see how long it shall boil, the 
 sense of the ludicrous begins to tickle us. We are 
 conscious that such occurrences are out of harmony 
 with the usual order of things, but they are out of 
 harmony in a pleasant sort of way, and so we smile 
 or laugh. 
 
 Much of Mackenzie's humour came within this 
 definition. It excited our risibility by putting things 
 out of their normal relations to each other and to the 
 world around them. This was especially marked in 
 his treatment of Bible characters. How continually 
 and with what comic effect does he put them out of 
 time and place in his lectures ! Probably they were 
 never so dislocated either before or since. He flings 
 them at one throw from Palestine to England, from 
 the centuries before Christ to the days that are passing 
 now. Confine them to their own age and their own 
 clime, and they are grave and reverend personages, 
 but clothe them in nineteenth century garb and 
 gift them with nineteenth century speech and ideas, 
 and they at once assume a different aspect ; their
 
 328 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 stately gravity disappears, and we discern in their 
 faces unexpected gleams of merriment and good-nature. 
 Who can restrain a smile when he is told that Gideon 
 began his work by sharpening his hatchet and then 
 holding a band-meeting with ten fine young fellows 
 who had never kissed the calf or offered sacrifice to 
 Baal ; or that on a dusty morning Gideon's fleece was 
 so wet that a whole bowlful of water was wrung out 
 of it, and that any farmer in Lincolnshire would be 
 glad to lift one so heavy ? One may be sober by 
 nature, but it is difficult to sustain a reputation for 
 gravity when informed that Aaron was knocked off 
 the plan for a quarter for conspiring against Moses ; 
 or when assured that it was a good thing that Jacob 
 was not in charge of a refreshment-room, as he 
 charged so much for his porridge ; or that a penny a 
 week and a shilling a quarter would hardly have 
 bought grease for Noah's gimlets. 
 
 In such examples we have men and things put out 
 of their proper order in time and place ; but without 
 the introduction of danger to themselves or others, 
 and so we are amused. It is quite refreshing to 
 walk with Mackenzie into an Old Testament harvest- 
 field, and to be told that good old Boaz, when he 
 went amongst the reapers, said, " The Lord be with 
 you ! " and they straightened their backs, and looked 
 into his honest face, and answered, " The Lord bless 
 thee ! " and to be reminded that if we had a little 
 more of that at the present time, we should have a 
 better understanding between masters and men, and 
 fewer strikes. Who can help laughing when told 
 that Goliath mistook David at first, and thought he 
 was a little boy gathering mushrooms or that
 
 TERSENESS IN HUMOUR 329 
 
 Gideon in his unbelief prayed, " Lord, wool is a 
 tremendous thing for attracting wet, but if Thou wilt 
 make everything else damp, and keep the fleece dry, 
 that will be a real miracle, and we will not ask any 
 more ! " and that when they came to look next 
 morning, they were wet up to their knees, and there 
 was no brilliance of dewdrops on the fleece, and when 
 Gideon squeezed it, poor man, it was as dry as the 
 driest sermon that was ever heard. 
 
 One essential requisite in all humour is that it 
 shall be terse. When the fun is long-drawn out, its 
 fragrance evaporates before our nostrils have inhaled 
 it. A story told by Dean Hole, and quoted in the 
 number of the Spectator current as I write, will serve 
 to illustrate this. It concerns an epitaph upon a 
 tomb in Virginia. "A famous author residing in 
 that State was bereaved of his wife, and inscribed 
 upon her gravestone, ' The light is gone from my life.' 
 Time not only modified his distress, but kindly and 
 wisely suggested a renewal of conjugal bliss. An 
 acrimonious neighbour had the bad taste to banter 
 him on his engagement, and to express a surprise 
 that he had so soon forgotten his words of lamenta- 
 tion. ' So far from forgetting them/ he replied, ' I 
 remember and repeat them now, as originating and 
 confirming the intention that you are pleased to 
 criticise. I declared that the light was gone from 
 my life, and it is for this reason that I propose to 
 strike another match.' " This is offered by the Dean 
 as an example of brilliant repartee, but it is hard to 
 read it without feeling that the cumbrous preamble 
 of the bereaved husband blunts somewhat the point of 
 his reply. He is too slow in getting his match out
 
 330 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 of the box, and when struck, it does not make a very 
 brilliant flash. 
 
 Many of Mackenzie's best things owed their sparkle 
 to their brevity, as when the whale is made to say to 
 the prophet, " Come in, Jonah, out of the wet ! " or 
 when a lecture on " The Tongue " is begun by drily 
 observing that " the subject is in everybody's mouth, 
 more's the pity if it isn't " ; or when of the pebble 
 that slew Goliath it is said that " such a thing never 
 entered his head before." Brevity and unexpected- 
 ness combine in such sayings, as also in that remark 
 concerning Jonah, that, when swallowed by the whale, 
 he was in the body in more senses than one. That, 
 too, was a smart rejoinder, when, in reply to someone 
 who was describing a person with a very big mouth, 
 he said, " I should think such a man could sing a 
 duet all by himself." 
 
 All the wit that sparkled in Mackenzie's lectures 
 was not brewed on the premises. He was a collector 
 as well as an originator. He had an eye for the 
 comic in newspapers and periodicals, and his retentive 
 memory enabled him to retain and adapt whatever 
 in this way came under his observation and was 
 likely to be serviceable. Perhaps there is a trace of 
 such adaptation, a reminiscence of some Yankee yarn, 
 in the following. Speaking of a Methodist preacher 
 who changed his circuit every year, he said the whole 
 establishment of the man had grown so accustomed to 
 these annual pilgrimages, that, as soon as ever the 
 Stationing Committee assembled, the hens came into 
 the kitchen and laid themselves on their backs ready 
 to have their feet tied for the removal. 
 
 The bitter and the cynical never entered into
 
 THE DEPARTED ORATOR 331 
 
 Mackenzie's humour. It wore a broad, kindly smile, 
 and the laughter it evoked never inflicted pain. 
 Often indeed, his mirth had a semi-devout flavour, as 
 when in one lecture he said : " I had some new 
 potatoes for my dinner to-day for the first time this 
 season, and how nice they tasted ! Thank God that 
 all the potatoes were not made in the days of Adam ! 
 If they had, we should have been eating old potatoes 
 all our lives did you ever think of that before ? " 
 
 Whatever the form it assumed, and the elements of 
 which it was composed, the humour of Mackenzie had 
 upon it the touch of a higher consecration. It was 
 the servant of God as well as the entertainer of men. 
 Whether he made men laugh or weep, he did it in 
 loyalty to a Master to whom he had dedicated all his 
 powers, and in whose employ he delighted to expend 
 whatever would gladden and elevate the souls of 
 those around. 
 
 As we survey the man, setting in array before us 
 his varied gifts and the force with which he exercised 
 them, we cannot but feel that Emerson might have 
 had such an one in his mind when, describing the 
 orator, he says : " Or you may find him in some lowly 
 Bethel, by the seaside, where a hard-featured, scarred, 
 and wrinkled Methodist becomes the poet of the 
 sailor and the fisherman, whilst he pours out the 
 abundant streams of his thought through a language 
 all glittering and fiery with imagination, a man 
 who never knew the looking-glass or the critic, a 
 man whom college-drill or patronage never made, and 
 whom praise cannot spoil, a man who conquers his 
 audience by infusing his soul into them, and speaks
 
 332 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 by the right of being the person in the assembly who 
 has the most to say, and so makes all other speakers 
 appear little and cowardly before him. For the 
 time, his exceeding life throws all other gifts into the 
 shade, philosophy speculating on its own breath, 
 taste, learning, and all, and yet how every listener 
 gladly consents to be nothing in his presence, and to 
 share this surprising emanation, and be steeped and 
 ennobled in the new wine of his eloquence." 
 
 All this was Peter Mackenzie to the thousands who 
 came from near and far to hang upon his lips, and of 
 himself can never be written what he said in one of 
 his latest utterances: "Do you want to know how 
 much you will be missed after you depart this life ? 
 Fill a bucket with water, then put your hand in it, 
 and push your arm right down until it is buried to 
 the elbow, then draw it out and see what a big hole 
 there will be left in the water." 
 
 As we gaze across the broad lake of life, now that 
 this man has been taken, no staring gulf is seen in 
 the midst, yet creatures of the brink must stoop lower 
 for a draught, and many a laden boat labours more 
 painfully to land because of the shrunken tide beneath 
 its keeL
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 THE MAN AND HIS WORK 
 
 The Memorial Sermon preached in the Wesleyan Chapel, Batley 
 Carr, Dewsbury, by the Rev. Joseph Dawson, on Sunday 
 evening, December 15, 1895. 
 
 " The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him : the fir 
 trees were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not 
 like his branches ; nor any tree in the garden of God was like 
 unto him in his beauty." EZEK. xxxi. 8. 
 
 [Part of this sermon has been incorporated in 
 Chapter xxv.] 
 
 words are part of a poetical description of 
 JL the king of Assyria in his pride and glory ; but 
 we are guilty of no violent perversion of their meaning 
 when we apply them to him whose name and work we 
 are met this evening to commemorate. He was indeed 
 a cedar whose stature his fellow cedars could not hide, 
 to whose boughs and branches were given a character 
 that marked them off from all the other trees in the 
 garden of God. He came to us, lived among us, and 
 went from us as none had done before. Uncommon- 
 ness, that is the note that strikes all that write or 
 speak about him. He was the peak among the moun- 
 tain-tops that had a shape and aspect entirely different 
 from the heights around ; the forest tree whose trunk 
 and foliage found no fellow in all the woods. This all 
 men could see, even if their glance rested on him but 
 for a moment. 
 
 Methodism has never fallen behind other churches
 
 334 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 in the manufacture of originals. Its annals are 
 rendered picturesque by the advent and passage of 
 many eccentric characters. In that respect this man 
 is no wholly novel product, and yet he is singular, nay, 
 more than singular solitary. Others crowd him 
 around, but his stature does not dwindle in the press ; 
 he towers higher and bulks larger than the rest. This 
 arises from the fact that he was so full - statured a 
 personality, and that the unique obtained in him so 
 all-round a development. Not in solitary details or 
 at scattered points, but up and down the column from 
 pedestal to capital, there was the utterance of the 
 unusual, the striking. 
 
 In churches generally, especially under the clasp of 
 present-day organisation, there is a strong tendency to 
 uniformity, to the production of men and women 
 moulded according to one set pattern. We are more 
 prolific of types than of individuals, and it is much 
 easier to be one of a class than one who stands alone. 
 What we have to thank God for in the case of Peter 
 Mackenzie is a rich and powerful nature persisting, in 
 spite of all the pressure of the external, in its own 
 shape and swing. It is from this standpoint I am 
 anxious to view him this evening. I would set him 
 before you as one of the most unfettered and varied 
 developments of Christian character and activity that 
 this generation has been permitted to witness ; as one 
 who, while yielding gracious homage to the laws around, 
 was yet a law unto himself ; whose life, without any 
 conceited affectation of singularity in its tone, produced 
 a melody altogether distinct and unconformable. This 
 will be the underlying tone colouring all I shall have 
 to put before you of the man and of his work. 
 
 THE MAN. 
 
 Think of the broad, strong lines of his physical 
 structure. What a powerful physique ! What ampli-
 
 APPENDIX 335 
 
 tude of chest and shoulder, what a keen eye, what 
 strength and suppleness of limb ! Vigorous from birth, 
 even the hard labour of the mine served only to 
 augment his strength. So powerful was he in bone 
 and muscle, that I have known him split the panel of 
 a door with a blow of his fist, and one hardly envies 
 the would-be garrotters who one night assailed him in 
 a lonely lane. Almost unbroken health was his portion, 
 and muscular Christianity had never occasion to be 
 ashamed of him. It was no doubt owing largely to the 
 endurance and flexibility of his steel-like constitution 
 that he was enabled for so many years to cut his way 
 through such a forest of engagements. 
 
 Physical vigour is not everything in a preacher. It 
 may be linked with mental feebleness or spiritual in- 
 efficiency ; the epistle may be buried in the bulkiness 
 of the envelope. Where it is not so, where physical 
 power carries with it, as it did in this case, strength of 
 mind and fervency of spirit, it becomes a most effective 
 endowment. 
 
 This robustness and energy of physical nature was 
 one of the main secrets of Mr. Mackenzie's overflowing 
 cheerfulness and vivacity. It gave elasticity to his 
 being, so that in all his contact with men and things 
 there was a sort of joyous rebound. Many people are 
 simply receptive to their surroundings ; chilled or 
 warmed by the things they touch. This man not only 
 received, but gave. His touch was that of sunlight, 
 sending a quiver of brightness and heat through all 
 on which it fell. His life, after entering the ministry, 
 was practically divided into three sections that spent 
 in the sanctuary, that spent in the home, and that 
 spent on road or rail ; and wherever you encountered 
 him, whether his face beamed upon you from the 
 pulpit, or whether you shared with him the pleasures 
 of social fellowship, or whether he startled you with a 
 happy greeting from the window of a railway carriage, 
 there was always the same radiant personality, as if he
 
 33 6 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 had gathered up into himself all the summer and song 
 of existence, and left the chill and the croak to less 
 fortunate individuals. I remember well how his vitality 
 and cheer, the spring and shine of his bearing in the 
 Gateshead circuit, as we went in and out together for 
 two years, conveyed to me the sense of a perpetual 
 holiday. No need of the mountains or the sea ; he was 
 as the breath of both in himself. Low spirits and dis- 
 content, to weep here, or grumble there, or whine 
 yonder never entered into the programme of his life. 
 Sunniness and buoyancy were his perpetual attributes, 
 the habitation and pose of his spirit. 
 
 And yet this cheerfulness was far from being the 
 mere surface glamour of a superficial nature. He was 
 not radiant because he was shallow, like a brook that 
 glints perpetually because it is riot deep enough to 
 gloom. There were deeps in him where cloud-filled 
 hollows or caverns of shadow could, if need arose, have 
 claimed a space. But his natural bias, like that of the 
 plant world, was towards the light. Instinctively as 
 the trees, his soul turned sunward. He never saw the 
 dark in men and things, or if he did, he never gave it 
 accentuation. His glance might touch, but never 
 stayed upon the gloom. Hopefulness and charity were 
 as wells within him. Travelling so widely as he did, 
 few men had such ample facilities for discovering and 
 discussing the foibles of others ; but it was never his 
 to wound a reputation by a secret stab, or a sly innuendo, 
 or a compliment that concealed a blow. 
 
 What a testimony to the inherent kindliness of his 
 nature is that which his eldest daughter gives, when, in 
 a letter to me the other day, she writes: "What I 
 shall do without him I do not know, for he was always 
 so kind. I never remember him saying an unkind 
 word." That sounds a very simple statement, but 
 what a meaning it encloses. We all know how kind 
 and sympathetic Peter Mackenzie was in his public 
 life ; how his generosity flowed like a river, in channels
 
 APPENDIX 337 
 
 where that of others never made a track. We know 
 how he literally rained kind words and sunny looks 
 and generous gifts around him wherever he went in 
 his public ministrations ; but the simple words I have 
 quoted show us that this radiancy and warmth were 
 not laid aside, as they often are, on crossing the 
 threshold of his own house, that in the home he was as 
 bright and kind as out of doors. To have words of oil 
 and looks of sunshine for use abroad, and vinegar and 
 thunderclouds for consumption at home, is not an 
 unknown combination ; hence it gladdens us to be 
 assured, though few would have thought it otherwise, 
 that in the case of our friend, the sunlight of the hidden 
 corners was bright and genial as that of the open fields. 
 " He was so patient," continues his daughter, speaking 
 of his last illness. " If it was only a drink of water, he 
 would say, ' Thank you, darling ! What a comfort you 
 are!" 
 
 And with this never -failing geniality, what a true 
 humility was blended. The pronoun " I " would never 
 have earned a livelihood if its employment had de- 
 pended on the use he made of it. How seldom it 
 invaded his speech, and never with that blatant 
 assertiveness that so often characterises the man who 
 stands, or thinks he stands, above his fellows. What 
 impressed all who knew him, and none more than those 
 who knew him best, was an entire absence of self- 
 assertion. Indeed, his fault, if it was a fault, lay at 
 the other extreme an undue self-depreciation. What 
 particularly and frequently impressed me was his un- 
 affected spirit of inquiry. He was always athirst for 
 information, and of the youngest would ask questions 
 with an almost childlike reverence. Of any ignorance 
 that life had not offered him opportunity to vanquish 
 he was never ashamed, and was always eager to replace 
 the ignorance with knowledge, even if it meant learning 
 from men and women greatly his inferiors in other 
 respects. This, my friends, was the man whose loss we 
 
 22
 
 338 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 bemoan strong, sunny, gentle, sympathetic, generous, 
 brave, true, humble. A man whose manner a few 
 criticised, but whose character all admired. A man 
 whose presence was a benediction, and whom not to 
 have known was to have missed one of the gladnesses 
 of life. 
 
 What I have endeavoured to set before you so far 
 were his natural qualities, the simple make-up of his 
 nature as a human being ; and now the question arises 
 how far these natural qualities were influenced and 
 modified by religion. 
 
 That Peter Mackenzie was an earnest Christian goes 
 without saying, and that his Christianity permeated 
 his whole nature, all he was and all he did, as 
 thoroughly as moisture permeates a cloud, was patent 
 to all who knew him. His conversion, when a miner 
 at Haswell Colliery in the county of Durham, was a 
 very decided one. It changed the whole current of his 
 being and doing, and the fire kindled in him then only 
 burned with purer, stronger flame as life went on. 
 
 But his religion, deep and pervasive as it was 
 throughout, was yet of no conventional type. It had 
 an accent and bearing of its own. No one ever 
 dreamed of questioning his piety. It breathed from 
 him at all points and at all times, imparting a sacred- 
 ness even to the play of his humour, and a sort of holy 
 grace to all the angles of his singularity. It was 
 common for a congregation to smile as he entered the 
 pulpit, but it was common also for them to feel a thrill 
 of unaccustomed devotion as the fervency of his spirit 
 laid rousing touch upon their souls. The impression 
 made upon them was that there stood before them a 
 man who, however unusual his manner and strange 
 his speech, had touched the Divine, and himself grown 
 holy through the contact. 
 
 Here was a saintliness not to be denied, and yet a 
 saintliness of an altogether uncommon order. Not a 
 trace of the ascetic, or the monastic, or the sancti-
 
 APPENDIX 339 
 
 monious, or the fanatical, or the " unco guid " about it. 
 All as natural and as real as the laugh of a child, or 
 the song of a lark, or the dance of the daffodils. The 
 natural parts with its grace when it takes upon it the 
 manner of the artificial, and so does holiness when, 
 striving to grow divine, it ceases to be human. The 
 charm of this man's piety was its whole-hearted human- 
 ness, the warm, friendly embrace, wholly devoid of 
 Pharisaical stiffness, with which it enfolded one. There 
 was nothing of cloud, or class, or cloister, or drawing- 
 room, or holiness as a special cult about it. It was an 
 everyday, fireside, mother-tongue sort of sanctity, the 
 religion that a little child would fall in love with, and 
 that a bad man would envy and long to possess. The 
 spiritual in our dear friend never extinguished nor 
 even stunted the natural. All that was characteristic 
 and wholesome in him before his conversion the mirth, 
 the wit, the humour, the heartiness, the generosity, the 
 energy remained, clad only with a richer grace and 
 .devoted to a higher end. 
 
 So common is it for what is called holiness to separate 
 men from their fellows in thought and sympathy, and 
 sometimes even in speech and attire ; so common is it 
 for it to drive them into narrow, exclusive paths in 
 which they walk with unattractive bearing ; so common 
 is it for it to ban and quench a large share of the joys 
 and graces and humanities of existence ; so common is 
 it for it to regard the world as the devil's hunting- 
 ground rather than as one of the many mansions of the 
 Father's house ; so common is it for it to come as John 
 the Baptist, clad in camel's hair, girdled with leather, 
 and feeding on locusts and wild honey, rather than as 
 Jesus Christ, eating and drinking, and mingling with 
 publicans and sinners, that it may be regarded as one 
 of the distinct achievements of Peter Mackenzie's life 
 to have set before us a type of saintliness high enough 
 to evoke the reverence, and yet human enough to win 
 the affection, of all on whom its influence fell. In this
 
 340 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 regard we may truly say that " the fir trees were not 
 like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were not like 
 his branches, nor any tree in the garden of God was 
 like unto him in his beauty." 
 
 He stood for us as none has stood before: 
 Unique in spirit and in outward bearing, 
 The best of other spirits amply sharing, 
 
 Yet hewn distinct as cliff on ocean shore. 
 
 As cliff? nay, goodly land, where evermore 
 
 The winds blew fresh, the clouds with happy daring 
 Wove hues and fantasies beyond comparing, 
 
 And earth and wave a matchless glamour wore. 
 
 The land is with us still, but dulled and faded, 
 We see it through the mist of memory now, 
 
 Its glow is gone, its sun by gloom enshaded. 
 stalwart friend of God and man ! know'st thou 
 
 That griefs uncounted have our hearts invaded ? 
 The birds sing not; for night is on thy brow. 
 
 HIS WORK. 
 
 So much for the man, let me now speak to you of 
 his work. That work divides itself naturally into two 
 parts : the specially evangelistic effort with which it 
 began, and the more general service into which in a few 
 years it enlarged. It was not long after his conversion 
 that Mr. Mackenzie began work as a local preacher, and 
 a demand for his services soon set in, for which the 
 supply was all too limited. In the villages, through- 
 out an ever-widening area, he was eagerly sought after 
 to conduct special services, and was sometimes absent 
 from home for six weeks at a stretch. I remember 
 well the first time I heard him in my own native 
 village in that same Durham circuit. I sat as a youth 
 of about sixteen in the chapel, and have never forgotten 
 how the flash of his piercing eye impressed me as he 
 discoursed in a powerfully dramatic manner on, " Lo, 
 He cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see Him, 
 and they also which pierced Him, and all kindreds of 
 the earth shall mourn because of Him."
 
 APPENDIX 341 
 
 During the first few years of his ministerial life, his 
 work was mainly of this evangelistic character, and was 
 very successful. Those who began the Christian life 
 as the result of his earnest and graphic appeals were 
 many, and are to be found still in large numbers 
 scattered throughout the land. 
 
 Then, as his popularity extended, and the demand 
 for his services increased, as his own powers developed 
 and his view of the situation enlarged, his work assumed 
 a wider and more varied character, and the practice of 
 preaching on week-day afternoons and lecturing in 
 the evening was begun a form of labour in which he 
 has toiled with greater assiduity and success than any 
 other public speaker for over thirty years. 
 
 This departure of Mr. Mackenzie from the specially 
 evangelistic work with which his preaching life began, 
 is often spoken of with regret, and apologies of various 
 sorts are made for it by his friends. I think, if you 
 will give it fair and ample consideration, you will find 
 it to have been an entirely natural development. 
 
 Mr. Mackenzie was a circuit minister when the 
 practice was begun. Now, a circuit minister, however 
 so disposed, cannot devote the whole of his time and 
 energy to the holding of what are called special 
 services. Such services would cease to be special if 
 he did so, and whatever gain might accrue from their 
 irregular character would terminate. It is true that 
 Mr. Mackenzie might have been employed in this 
 manner beyond the boundaries of his own circuit, as 
 certain special men are employed to-day; but that 
 arrangement does not seem to have been suggested, for 
 the time of District and Connexional evangelists was 
 not yet. In a circuit, moreover, there is always need 
 of money for the prosecution of various kinds of 
 Christian work, and the man whom Providence has 
 gifted with the talent for raising it cannot be allowed 
 to remain unexploited. People would ae soon dream of 
 leaving a diamond field or a gold mine unworked as of
 
 342 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 leaving such a man unused. How natural, then, in 
 view of all these considerations, for our friend's talents 
 as a lecturer to be discovered and cultivated, and for 
 the demand for his services to go on increasing until he 
 came to be one of the most eagerly sought and widely 
 known platform orators of the day. 
 
 I fail to see why any regret should be felt or apology 
 needed for this development. Peter Mackenzie was so 
 many-sided, large-natured, liberally-gifted a man, that 
 it required both platform and pulpit to afford him full 
 expression. Evangelistic preaching at its best offers a 
 somewhat restricted field for the exercise of intellectual 
 and other gifts. It necessarily means ringing the 
 changes on a certain number of truths, or on certain 
 limited aspects of the truth. In such work Peter 
 Mackenzie was, and would doubtless have continued to 
 be, for many years eminently successful, but that alone 
 would never have moulded him into the man whose 
 loss we bemoan to-day. Our friend was not simply 
 gifted with special talent, he was a genius, with all the 
 fulness of endowment enfolded in that much-debated 
 word ; and the hall-mark of genius is the power and 
 inspiration it possesses to cut its own way through the 
 world, unhampered by usage and opinion. It has 
 always been the custom for staid, slow-going onlookers 
 to criticise the track in which genius treads ; but it has 
 also been the custom for these same onlookers to walk 
 in the said path themselves, or to sing praises to it a 
 generation later. 
 
 Be it also borne in mind, in considering this matter, 
 that Peter Mackenzie never gave up preaching the 
 gospel He did that almost every day of his life, and 
 with unabated earnestness. There would doubtless 
 come changes in his mode of presenting the truth, as 
 there come to all men as their minds grow and their 
 outlook widens. Even those who deplore a change in 
 our friend have probably, in proportion to their size, 
 changed quite as much as he did. I have no doubt
 
 APPENDIX 343 
 
 that, like most of us, he grew less crude and contracted 
 and dogmatic as the years went on ; but having heard 
 him before he entered the ministry, and many times 
 since, to within a year or two of his death, I am free to 
 testify that there was the same fervour, the same 
 simple-heartedness, the same desire to bring spiritual 
 blessing to his hearers as marked his earlier days. 
 
 Then think further of the benefit this larger work of 
 his brought to the Methodist Connexion, and through 
 the Connexion to the community at large. What 
 struggling churches it succoured and strengthened, 
 delivering them from financial pressure, and so freeing 
 their energies for spiritual service. Add to that the 
 cheer, the stimulus, the influx of hope and courage 
 which every visit of his brought with it, and you will 
 be slow to believe that, in pursuing the course he did, 
 he was not divinely guided. 
 
 The intellectual qualities that Mr. Mackenzie brought 
 to the accomplishment of this work were of a very 
 exceptional and diversified kind, and of much higher 
 quality than is commonly supposed. 
 
 In the forefront is to be placed the wonderful 
 magnetism, the electric quality of his nature, that lent 
 a thrill to every movement of his body, and a distinction 
 to the simplest utterance of his lips. His burly form 
 was charged with soul down to the finger-tips. Word 
 and gesture flashed with it as a diamond scintillates 
 with light. The vitality and regnancy of spirit that 
 grasps men, that bears them down like a wave, was his 
 in no small degree. You could not be in his presence 
 for five minutes, could not see him move or hear him 
 speak without being arrested, surprised, or startled, or 
 attracted, or in some way compelled to yield attention. 
 In the pulpit and on the platform this magnetic force 
 had free play, and, combined with a fulness of sympathy 
 and power of dramatic rendering, imparted a vividness 
 and reality to the portrayal of character and incident 
 that was ofttimes very amazing.
 
 344 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 And what shall be said of the humour and pathos 
 that in his sermons and lectures were so marvellously 
 interblended ? How wonderful the rapid alternation 
 of sunlight and shadow in his speech ! Few men have 
 lived nearer the fountain of laughter and tears. The 
 quaintness of his prayers would often wake a smile, to 
 be followed instantly by a tug at the heart and a gulp 
 in the throat. Nor, to those who knew and understood 
 the man, was there any suspicion of irreverence ; for 
 the rush of earnest feeling made it evident that here 
 was one who, though he might speak in strange phrase, 
 spoke straight from the heart. Prayer is one of the 
 outgoings of our religious life that is in constant 
 danger of crystallising into set forms, and Mr. Mackenzie 
 did well in showing, though unconscious that he was 
 giving the lesson, how possible it is to approach our 
 Father in heaven in a perfectly natural manner, and 
 with perennial freshness of utterance and almost 
 extreme comprehensiveness of detail, and yet with 
 absolute reverence of spirit. 
 
 The frequency, too, of this man's prayers, the almost 
 torrent-like irruption with which they broke into his 
 life, deserve a passing note, though time will not allow 
 of enlargement. The annals of Methodism may be 
 able to furnish us with illustrations of men who have 
 spent longer periods at once upon their knees ; but not 
 with one who surpassed this man in the frequency and 
 fervour of his supplications. Prayer was indeed his 
 vital breath, and it is no enlargement of the fact to 
 say that he mingled devotion with all the activities of 
 his life as naturally and thoroughly as in a landscape 
 the shine is blended with the shade. 
 
 His magnetic charm and humour and pathos have 
 already been adverted to, bat these were not by any 
 means the sum of Mr. Mackenzie's endowments. 
 There was, in addition, liveliness of imagination, shrewd- 
 ness and sanity of judgment, considerable insight into 
 character, and a happy knack of delineating it in
 
 APPENDIX 345 
 
 forcible phrase. The realistic manner in which he was 
 able to clothe the East in the garments of the West, 
 and to make the men and women of olden time live 
 and talk like the men and women of modern days, was 
 something never to be forgotten by those who saw and 
 heard it. 
 
 To claim for him academic culture, or theological 
 precision, or philosophical breadth, or perfection of 
 style, or the finer arts of oratory, would be unwise. 
 It would be vain to expect such things of a man who 
 came straight from the mine into the ministry, and 
 that not until after he was thirty years of age, and 
 married. It would be a great mistake, however, to 
 imagine, as many seem disposed to do, that he was 
 entirely unlettered, and depended for his effects on 
 little else than oddity and humour. He was from the 
 beginning to the close of his ministry an earnest 
 student, and probably read twice or three times the 
 number of books on any given subject, as many of 
 those who credited him with a comprehensive ignorance. 
 I remember distinctly procuring for him, at his request, 
 when we were together in the Sunderland, Sans Street, 
 circuit, the best and latest works on Old Testament 
 history and character, to aid him in the preparation 
 of his lectures, and that was a practice he kept up to 
 the end. His own thought was continually enriched 
 with the best in the thought of others, though no 
 commodity imported from abroad was allowed to pass 
 forth again until it had received the imprint of his 
 genius. 
 
 And now, without dwelling further on our friend's 
 qualifications, I want you to note how in work, even 
 as in character, he stands apart, with a niche and a 
 chiselling altogether his own. The charm of his speech, 
 and the hold it took upon the masses, did not consist 
 in its stately or florid rhetoric, nor in its ordered and 
 argumentative arrangement. As a speaker he cannot 
 be classed with any other either general or Methodist
 
 346 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 orator. Something he had in common with them all, 
 and yet something that differentiated him from them 
 all. What probably marked him off, and made him 
 unique as a public speaker, was his wealth of humour, 
 his energy of utterance, his oddity of gesture, and, 
 above all, the width and intensity of his sympathy. 
 As the true artist in fiction communes with the crea- 
 tions of his fancy until they become to him living 
 beings, so did he with the men and women whom he 
 set himself to understand and portray. 
 
 But the great distinction of his work, as of his 
 nature, was the deep and broad humanity that per- 
 vaded it. In his treatment of biblical characters in 
 sermons and lectures, there was a reversal of the 
 ordinary method. The usual mode is to study these 
 men and women through a veil of Oriental associations. 
 Mr. Mackenzie tore away this veil, and set them before 
 his audience in British, nineteenth-century, and often 
 in Methodist habiliments. Samuel, Saul, Jonah were 
 made to figure as itinerant preachers, Esther as a 
 modern housewife, and Paul perhaps as President of 
 the Conference. Historical consistency was violated, 
 archaeological accuracy defied, theological preposses- 
 sions and traditions disregarded. Why ? Not because 
 the lecturer was an iconoclast, delighting to shatter the 
 images of the past, and to demolish the carven niches 
 in which a reverent regard had placed them. Not at 
 all. Our friend was no wanton image-breaker. He 
 brought the dim, dusky East into the hard, bare light 
 of the West, not to strip away its charm and glory, 
 but to make it brim and throb with the life of the 
 present. Some of the mystic glamour might depart in 
 the process, but that did not enter into the intention 
 of the speaker. When he made those old-time heroes 
 sit with us at the same table, share with us the same 
 toil, talk with us in the same speech, it was not to 
 rob them in any degree of their rightful dignity, but 
 to make us realise more intensely that we are of one
 
 APPENDIX 347 
 
 common kith and kin. When the Apostle James 
 adduces Elijah as an illustration of prevalence in 
 prayer, he reminds his readers that the prophet was a 
 man of like passions with themselves ; and to bring 
 home to his hearers the community of soul between 
 themselves and those who lived in the far past, was one 
 of Mr. Mackenzie's main objects, and one in which he 
 strikingly succeeded. 
 
 That he should violate certain canons of exposition 
 in achieving success is a comparatively small matter, 
 if he succeeded in driving home the main truth. There 
 are quite enough teachers who go to the opposite 
 extreme, who speak of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as if 
 they were men of an entirely different mould, and 
 dwelt in an entirely different world. In the vividness 
 of his portraiture, in the clearness and enthusiasm with 
 which he painted their life down to the minutest detail, 
 and found parallels for all they thought and did in 
 what we are thinking and doing now, our friend did 
 sometimes skirt the bounds of probability, and perhaps 
 occasionally exceed the limits of propriety ; but when 
 all that is admitted, it still remains that we owe him a 
 generous tribute of thanks and appreciation for the 
 manner in which he made the common mind apprehend 
 the fact, that the men of the past were made of the 
 same stuff as the men of the present, that they trudged 
 along the same great road of life, and had hearts filled 
 with the same hopes and fears as ourselves. In short, 
 he made us realise the strength and wholeness of their 
 humanity ; and the ocean of human feeling that flooded 
 every creek and cranny of his own nature, gave the 
 task in his hands an ease and a success to which it 
 seldom attains in that of others. 
 
 Such was the man, and such his work. 
 
 God made him as the ample mountains make 
 The torrent strong enough to dig its own 
 Brave way o'er shelving rocks, thro' gullies lone, 
 
 Till hushed to slumber in some lowland lake :
 
 348 LIFE OF PETER MACKENZIE 
 
 What force 'twill win, what tuneful echoes wake, 
 What impress give to bordering soil and stone, 
 To heart of prophecy is all unknown ; 
 
 Unled it shall its way through boulders break. 
 So, fresh and full, he came from God's own hand, 
 
 And down life's mountain carved his proper track, 
 Sped glad and tireless through the waiting land, 
 
 To carry fulness where they suffered lack. 
 Nor have we one in his blank space to stand, 
 And call as he our elder Kinsmen back. 
 
 The lessons of this man's life are many, but at this 
 moment, we sum them up in one. Let each of us be 
 as true to Jesus Christ, and as true to his own self, as 
 Peter Mackenzie was to himself and his God, and the 
 world will be cleaner and stronger for our presence. 
 We want no one to imitate the manner of the valued 
 worker whom we mourn, but we want all to catch his 
 brave, unselfish spirit. Who will be baptized for the 
 dead ? Who will take up the banner that has fallen 
 from his grasp, and wield the sword with which he 
 fought so valiantly for the King? Who among you 
 young men will do as he did give yourselves first to 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, and then to the service of 
 humanity, living your own life, cultivating your own 
 bit of ground for God and man, creating for yourselves 
 every day a larger soul, a wider circle of influence, an 
 ampler sphere of labour, until it comes to be said of 
 you at the last, as we now say of him " The cedars in 
 the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees 
 were not like his boughs, and the chestnut trees were 
 not like his branches ; nor any tree in the garden of 
 God was like unto him in his beauty." 
 
 PRINTED BY MORRISON AND GIBB LIMITED, EDINBURGH
 
 CHARLES H. KELLY'S New and Recent Books. 
 
 CLOG SHOP CHRONICLES. By JOHN ACKWORTH. Sixth Thousand. 
 
 Crown 8vo, art linen, gilt top, 35. 6d. 
 
 " For genuine portraitures of honest Lancashire folks of humbler sort, and for ex- 
 quisite dramas of humble life, in which humour and pathos and scores of charming 
 touches of nature are to be met with, the book is worthy of the highest praise." 
 Scotsman. 
 
 DAYS OF GOD'S RIGHT HAND: Our Mission Tour in Australasia and 
 Ceylon. By THOMAS COOK. Fourth Thousand. Crown 8vo. Illustrated, 
 as. 6d. 
 " No one can read such a splendid record as this in a right spirit without deriving 
 
 spiritual profit from it." The Christian Advocate. 
 
 LIFE OF HENRY BOWERS HARRISON. By his Daughter. Crown 
 
 8vo. With Portrait. 3$. 6d. 
 
 ACROSS SIBERIA ON THE GREAT POST ROAD. By CHARLES 
 
 WENYON, M.D. With Portrait, Map, and Twenty-seven Illustrations. Third 
 
 Thousand. Imperial i6mo, 35. 6d. 
 
 " Dr. Wenyon has succeeded in producing a book so exceptionally interesting that 
 the reader is never tempted to skip a single page of it from beginning to end." 
 Glasgow Herald. 
 
 DIGGING DITCHES, AND OTHER SERMONS TO BOYS AND GIRLS. 
 
 By Rev. FREDERIC B. COWL. Small crown 8vo, is. 6d. 
 
 BRYAN ROE: A Soldier of the Cross. Sketches of Missionary Life 
 and Adventure in West Central Africa. By Rev. C. R. JOHNSON. Second 
 Thousand. Crown 8vo, numerous Illustrations. 25. 6d. 
 " His life was full of stimulus to others ; and the little book which tells the story 
 
 breathes the same excellent spirit. It should be put into the hands of all friends of 
 
 missions, young and old." The Christian. 
 
 THE INTERMEDIATE STATE; or, The Condition of Human Souls 
 between the Hour of Death and the Day of Judgment. By Rev. JOSEPH BUSH. 
 Fifth Revised Edition. Crown 8vo, is. 
 
 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL Being an Analysis and Exposition of 
 the Devotional Portion of the Apostle's Writings. By Rev. W. BURT POPE, 
 D. D. Second Edition. Demy 8vo, y>. 6d. 
 
 THE DIVINE PARABLE OF HISTORY. A Concise Exposition of the 
 
 Revelation of St. John the Divine. By H. ARTHUR SMITH, M.A. Small 
 
 crown 8vo, as. 6d. 
 
 " The work is well done, with clearness, resource, and common sense. Without 
 any doubt Mr. Smith deserves a patient hearing ; he will repay an attentive study." 
 Expository Times. 
 
 A HARMONY OF THE FpUR GOSPELS IN THE REVISED VERSION. 
 
 Chronologically arranged in parallel columns. With Maps, Notes, and Indices. 
 
 By S. D. WADDY, Q.C. Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Demy 
 
 8vo, 55. 
 
 " This perfection of Mr. Waddy's book must have involved enormous labour and 
 research, and the work has been thoroughly well done. A valuable contribution to 
 theological literature." The Methodist Times. 
 
 LONDON: CHARLES H. KELLY, 2, CASTLE ST., CITY ROAD, E.C.; 
 AND 66, PATERNOSTER ROW, B.C.
 
 CHARLES H. KELLY'S New and Recent Books. 
 
 SEVENTH EDITION. THIRTY-FIFTH THOUSAND. 
 PETER MACKENZIE: His Life and Labours. By the Rev. JOSEPH 
 
 DAWSON. Crown 8vo. With Three Portraits and Eighteen other Illustrations. 
 
 3 s. 6d. 
 
 "Mr. Dawson has collected his materials with praiseworthy industry, and he has 
 woven them together in a skilful and artistic manner. . . . Those who wish to know 
 something more of the extraordinary nature of Peter Mackenzie's life and work, we 
 can only advise to obtain Mr. Dawson's admirable memoir, and to read the remark- 
 able record for themselves." Leeds Mercury. 
 
 A STRING OF CHINESE PEACH STONES. Being a Collection of 
 
 the Tales and Folk-Lore of the Hankow District, which eventually becomes a. 
 
 story of the Taiping Rebellion in Central China. By W. ARTHUR CORNABV. 
 
 Demy 8vo, 496 pp. With more than a hundred Original Illustrations. Cloth 
 
 extra, gilt top, IDS. 6d. 
 
 " This book might be best characterised by a string of epithets charming, in- 
 structive, enthralling, romantic, picturesque, tragic, kaleidoscopic in its shifting 
 scenes and adventures. . . . There may be little in a name, but there is no doubt 
 that the charm is in the book. " The Scottish Geographical Magazine. 
 
 OXFORD HIGH ANGLICANISM AND ITS CHIEF LEADERS. By 
 
 JAMES H. RIGG, D.D. Demy 8vo, 75. 6d. 
 
 " On the whole it is an admirable piece of work, and can be cordially recommended 
 to all who wish to have a readable and adequate account of Oxford High Anglicanism 
 and its chief leaders." The Glasgow Herald. 
 
 " Of the literary and historical value of Dr. Rigg's book we cannot well ?peak too 
 highly." The Independent and Nonconformist. 
 
 A PIONEER OF SOCIAL CHRISTIANITY: COUNT ZINZENDORF. By 
 
 FELIX BOVET. Translated, abridged, and adapted by Rev. T. A. SEED. 
 Crown 8vo. With Portrait and several rare and curious Illustrations. 2*. 
 
 ftew Iflolume of " JBoofes for JBible Stuoents." 
 
 SCRIPTURE AND ITS WITNESSES. A Manual of Christian Evidence. 
 
 By Professor J. S. BANKS, Author of "A Manual of Christian Doctrine." 
 Small crown 8vo, as. 6d. 
 
 flew JSoofc b Mark UE ipearse. 
 
 IN THE BANQUETING HOUSE. A Series of Meditations on the 
 Lord's Supper. By MARK Guv PEARSE. Crown 8vo. Printed in Two Colours. 
 Bound in art linen, gilt tops. 35. 6d. 
 
 ILecture of 1896. 
 
 THE THEOLOGY OF MODERN FICTION. By Rev. T. G. SELHV, Author 
 
 of "The Imperfect Angel," "The Ministry of the Lord Jesus,"_ t etc. Third 
 Thousand. Demy 8vo, paper cover, 25. ; cloth, 3?. 
 
 "An excellent, useful, and highly creditable piece of work which should be read 
 by all religious teachers." The British Weekly. 
 
 LONDON: CHARLES H. KELLY, 2, CASTLE ST., CITY ROAIJ, E.C.; 
 AND 66, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
 
 THE "LIFE INDEED' SERIES. 
 
 Crown 8uo, price 3s. 6d. each Volume. 
 LIFE AND CHRIST. By Rev. EBENEZER E. JENKINS, LL.D. 
 
 [AVw Volume. 
 
 LAWS AND LANDMARKS OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. By Rev. 
 W. A. GRAY. 
 
 " A volume of very marked merit. No better book of sermons has been published 
 for long, and it is a book which will bear frequent reading." The British Weekly. 
 
 "The richness of thought, combined with the simplicity and clearness of its style, 
 should make the volume a favourite with religious people." The Leeds Mercury. 
 
 THE HOLY SPIRIT AND CHRISTIAN PRIVILEGE. By Rev. T. G. 
 
 SELBV. Third Thousand. Author of " The Imperfect Angel" and "The 
 Lesson of a Dilemma." 
 
 " For force with reverence, for expository genius with illustrative aptitude, it is 
 hard to name, among modern preachers, a rival to Mr. Selby." The Christian 
 World. 
 
 " Rarely have we met with sermons of such high and sustained excellence. Mr. 
 Selby shows a depth of spiritual insight, a wide philosophic grasp, and a large 
 experience of the varied exigencies of human life not often to be found in the 
 homilies of the day. . . . Whether from a theological or literary standpoint, these 
 sermons will take the highest place among the best published sermons of the day." 
 Birmingham Daily Gazette. 
 
 THE INSPIRATIONS OF THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. By Rev. T. F. 
 
 LOCKYER, B.A. Second Thousand. Author of " The Gospel of St. John : An 
 Exposition." 
 
 " Fresh and stimulating in a high degree." The Christian Leader. 
 " Here is a book worth writing and worth reading. . . . The treatment is Biblical, 
 the spirit devout, and the whole well calculated to evoke and confirm faith." Sword 
 and Trowel. 
 
 THE DISCIPLINE OF THE SOUL: Its Aims and Methods. By 
 
 Professor R. WADDY Moss. 
 
 " He is no ordinary preacher, but a Biblical student in the truest sense of the 
 term. . . . We can commend the volume as graceful in style, scholarly in treatment, 
 and spiritual in tone." Dundee Courier. 
 
 "These are sermons of a high order of thinking. Mr. Moss, with keen spiritual 
 insight, sees the essentials of the Christian faith, and presents them with perspicuous 
 forceful words." The Christian Age. 
 
 PURE PLEASURES. By Rev. R. P. DOWNES, LL.D. Fourth 
 
 Thousand. Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt tops, 2s. 6d. 
 
 CONTENTS: The Pursuit of Pleasure Home Reading Nature Art Friend- 
 ship Love Congenial Occupation Holidays Duty Service Religion. 
 
 " A truly admirable deliverance on a subject of universal interest. Dr. Downes 
 recognises the true place of pleasure in the philosophy of life, and discourses most 
 wisely and happily upon it." The Christian. 
 
 A Charming Gift-Book for Young People. 
 
 PARENTS AND TEACHERS SHOULD READ 
 SCRIPTURE TRUTHS MADE SIMPLE. By Rev. J. ROBINSON 
 
 GREGORY. Forty-six Illustrations. Small crown 8vo, zs. 6d. ; gilt edges, 35. 
 " An admirable little book of sermonettes for children. What is chiefly remark- 
 able about them is their variety and aptness of illustration. The language, too, is 
 excellently suited to a childish audience, clear, nervous, and simple. Teachers of 
 junior classes in Sunday Schools would do well to note it." The Hew Age. 
 
 LONDON : CHARLES H. KELLY, 2, CASTLE ST., CITY ROAD, E.C. ; 
 AND 66, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
 
 " The Editor of this aeries of Handbooks is to be heartily congratulated. He 
 has chosen his subjects well, and he has chosen the right men for them." 
 THE EXPOSITORY TIMES. 
 
 BOOKS FOR BIBLE STUDENTS. 
 
 Editor Rev. ARTHUR E. GREGORY. 
 
 Introductions to JBoohs of tbe JBible. 
 
 THE PRAISES OF ISRAEL: An Introduction to the Study of the 
 
 Psalms. By W. T. DAVISON-, D.D. 2S. 6d. Third Thousand. 
 "As nearly perfect as a manual can be." DR. MARCUS DODS. 
 
 THE WISDOM LITERATURE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. (Tob, 
 
 Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs.) By W. T. DAVISON, M.A., D.D. 
 2s. 6d. Second Thousand. 
 
 " Dr. Davison has followed up his attractive volume on ' The Praises of Israel ' by 
 another, equally attractive, on 'The Wisdom Literature.'" Critical Review. 
 
 THE BOOKSOFTHE PROPHETS, IN THEIR HISTORICAL SUCCESSION. 
 
 Vol. I. To the Fall of Samaria. BY Professor G. G. FINDLAY, B.A. Small 
 
 crown 8vo, 25. 6d. 
 
 " I have not for many a day fallen upon anything more fresh and stimulating for 
 the ordinary student, more suggestive, fair, and adequate for the expert, than this 
 volume." Professor JAMES ROBERTSON, of Glasgow. 
 
 THE EPISTLES OF PAUL THE APOSTLE: A Sketch of their Origin 
 
 and Contents. By GEORGE G. FINDLAY, B.A. 2S. 6d. Fifth Thousand. 
 " The reader will find here compressed into a small space what he must otherwise 
 seek through many volumes." Scotsman. 
 
 Cburcb Ibtetorg. 
 
 FROM MALACHI TO MATTHEW. Outlines of the History of Judea 
 
 from 440 to 4 B.C. By Professor R. WADDY Moss. 25. 6d. Second Thousand. 
 " Mr. Moss' book is worthy of the series. . . . His style is straightforward and 
 graphic. He can tell a story rapidly and forcibly. There is vigour and there is 
 vitality throughout." The British Weekly. 
 
 IN THE APOSTOLIC AGE: The Churches and the Doctrine. By 
 
 Rev. ROBERT A. WATSON, D.D. Small crown 8vo, 25. 6d. 
 
 "Well fitted to be used as a text-book. Dr. Watson writes with marked independ- 
 ence although with ample knowledge." Expositor. 
 
 A MANUAL OF MODERN CHURCH HISTORY. By Professor W. F. 
 
 SLATER, M.A. Small crown 8vo, 2S. 6d. 
 
 "Professor Slater writes so tersely and with so skilled a regard for historical per- 
 spective that he has made the volume more instructive than many more pretentious 
 treatises are." Scotsman. 
 
 LONDON: CHARLES H. KELLY, 2, CASTLE ST., CITY ROAD, E.C. ; 
 AND 66, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
 
 BOOKS FOR BIBLE STUDENTS-co/?t//7i/eaf. 
 
 Cbc Sacrcfr Hmuiuaties. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF NEW TESTAMENT GREEK. 
 
 By JAMES HOPE MOULTON, M.A. 3*. 
 
 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF HEBREW. By J. T. L. 
 MAGGS, B.A., B.D. 5*. 
 
 " I do not know any book within the same compass which approaches this in use- 
 fulness for the beginner. . . . Many students who are not beginners may find much 
 to reward them in the perusal of Mr. Maggs' book." Dr. MOULTON. 
 
 exposition. 
 
 THE MINISTRY OF THE LORD JESUS. By Rev. T. G. SELBY. 
 
 as. 6d. Third Thousand. 
 
 "A book that is worth reading and re-reading. Full of true and pregnant and 
 deep things, and towers grandly above much that seeks to pass as a reflection of the 
 teaching of Jesus." British Weekly. 
 
 THE SWEET SINGER OF ISRAEL. Selected Psalms Illustrative of 
 
 David's Character and History, with Metrical Paraphrases. By BENJAMIN 
 GREGORY, D.D. 25. 6d. 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN : An Exposition, with Short Notes. By 
 THOS. F. LOCKYER, B.A. 25. 6d. Second Thousand. 
 
 THE DIVINE PARABLE OF HISTORY. An Exposition of the Revela- 
 tion of St. John. By HENRY ARTHUR SMITH, M.A. 25. 6d. 
 
 Systematic Cbeologg. 
 
 THE THEpLOGICAL STUDENT: A Handbook of Elementary Theology. 
 With List of Questions for Self-Examination and Explanatory Index of Theo- 
 logical Terms. By J. ROBINSON GREGORY. 2s. 6d. Sixth Thousand. 
 
 Christian 
 
 SCRIPTURE AND ITS WITNESSES. A Manual of Christian Evidence. 
 
 By Professor J. S. BANKS. 2s. 6d. 
 
 JBiblicat Criticism. 
 
 THE AGE AND AUTHORSHIP OF THE PENTATEUCH. By Rev. 
 
 WM. SPIERS, M.A. Small crown 8vo, 35. 6d. 
 
 " At once popular in style and scholarly in substance. Of all the ' Books for Bible 
 Students' yet edited by Mr. Gregory, none is more needed or should be more wel- 
 comed than this." Sword and Trowel. 
 
 LONDON : CHARLES H. KELLY, 2, CASTLE ST., CITY ROAD, E.C. ; 
 AND 66, PATERNOSTER ROW. E.C.
 
 POPULAR RELIGIOUS BIOGRAPHIES. 
 
 Crown 8vo, cloth, gilt lettered, is. 6d. each. 
 
 JOHN WESLEY: His Life and His Work. By Rev. 
 MATTHEW LELIEVRE. 
 
 WHAT HE DID FOR CONVICTS AND CANNIBALS. Some 
 
 Account of the Life and Work of the Rev. Samuel Leigh, the First 
 Wesleyan Missionary to New South Wales and New Zealand. By 
 ANNE E. KEELING. Crown 8vo. Illustrated. 
 
 THE LIFE OF THOMAS COLLINS. By Rev. S, COLEY. 
 
 Abridged by Rev. SIMPSON JOHNSON. 
 
 WILLIAM DAWSON, the Yorkshire Farmer and Eloquent 
 Preacher. By ANNE E. KEELING. Illustrated. 
 
 JOHN NELSON, Mason and Missionary in the Heathen Eng- 
 land of the Eighteenth Century. By ANNE E. KEELING. 
 Illustrated. 
 
 LITTLE ABE; or, The Bishop of Berry-Brow. Being the 
 Life of ABRAHAM LOCKWOOD, a quaint and popular Yorkshire 
 Local Preacher. By F. JEWELL. Eighteenth Thousand. 
 
 " Mr. Jewell is in his book what he is at the fireside chatty and sensible, grave 
 and joyous." Methodist Free Churches Magazine. 
 
 THE BACKWOODS PREACHER. Being the Autobiography 
 of PETER CARTWRIGHT, an American Methodist Travelling 
 Preacher. Twenty-third Thousand. 
 
 THE VILLAGE BLACKSMITH; or, The Life of Samuel 
 
 Hick. By JAMES EVERETT. Forty-ninth Thousand. 
 
 REMINISCENCES OF ISAAC MARSDEN, OF DONCASTER. 
 
 By JOHN TAYLOR. Ninth Thousand. 
 
 THE APOSTLES OF FYLDE METHODISM. By JOHN 
 
 TAYLOR. With Three Portraits and Map. 
 
 "It consists of a series of brief but well-written biographies of men and women 
 well known to Methodism, such as W. Bramwell, W. Threlfall, Mrs. Hincksman, 
 and others." Methodist Recorder. 
 
 CHRISTIANITY IN EARNEST, Exemplified in the Life and 
 
 Labours of Hodgson Casson. By A. STEELE. New Edition, 
 with Portrait. Tenth Thousand. Small crown 8vo. 
 
 LONDON: CHARLES H. KELLY, 2, CASTLE ST., CITY ROAD, E.C.; 
 AND 66, PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.
 
 ILLUSTRATED BOOKS. 
 
 Three Shillings and Sixpence Each, 
 
 THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD. Lessons from the Life of our Lord for 
 Children. By the Rev. RICHARD NEWTON, D.D. Foolscap 410. Numerous 
 Illustrations. (May also be had with gilt edges, price 45. 6d.) 
 
 BY CANOE AND DOG TRAIN AMONG THE CREE AND SALTEAUX 
 INDIANS. By EGERTON R. YOUNG. Eighteenth Thousand. With por- 
 traits of the Rev. E. R. and Mrs. Young, Map, and Thirty-two Illustrations. 
 
 STORIES FROM INDIAN WIGWAMS AND NORTHERN CAMP FIRES. 
 By E. R. YOUNG. Eighth Thousand. Forty-three Illustrations. 
 
 FOUR YEARS IN UPPER BURMA. By W. R. WINSTON. Imperial 
 i6mo. Numerous Illustrations. 
 
 OUR SEA-GIRT ISLE. English Scenes and Scenery Delineated. By Rev. 
 IABEZ MARRAT. Second Edition, Enlarged. 217 Illustrations and Map. 
 Imperial i6mo. 
 
 THE INDIANS OF CANADA: THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS. By 
 DR. J. MCLEAN. Imperial i6mo. Twenty-three Illustrations. 
 
 NORTHERN LIGHTS. Pen and Pencil Sketches of Twenty-two Modern 
 Scottish Worthies. By J. MARRAT. Third Edition. Enlarged. Imperial 
 i6mo. Seventeen Portraits, and Twenty-three other Illustrations. 
 
 OUR INDIAN EMPIRE: ITS RISE AND GROWTH. By T. S. BANKS. 
 Imperial i6mo. Thirty-five Illustrations and a Map. 
 
 RAMBLES IN BIBLE LANDS. By DR. R. NEWTON. Imperial i6mo. 
 Seventy Illustrations. 
 
 JOHN LYON ; or, From the Depths. By RUTH ELLIOTT. Crown 8vo. 
 Illustrated. 
 
 MARION WEST. By M. E. SHEPHERD. Crown 8vo. Five Illustrations. 
 Gilt edges. 
 
 UNCLE JONATHAN'S WALKS IN AND AROUND LONDON. New and 
 Enlarged Edition. Foolscap 410. Over One Hundred Illustrations. 
 Cloth, gilt lettered. Gilt edges. 
 
 HANDSOME PRESENTATION VOLUMES. 
 
 WESLEY AND HIS SUCCESSORS. Memorials of the 
 Wesley Family and of the Presidents of the Conference from the death of 
 Wesley to 1896, containing one hundred and thirteen portraits and other 
 illustrations, chiefly engraved on steel. Cloth, gilt edges, i 55. ; hal 
 Morocco, gilt edges, i ios. ; Palestine Levant, gilt edges, i 155. ; crushed 
 Morocco, solid gilt edges, ? ios. 
 
 WESLEY HIS OWN BIOGRAPHER. Being selections from 
 the Journals of the Rev. JOHN WESLEY, A. M. With three hundred and 
 fifty-six illustrations. Crown 410, 648 pp. Cloth, plain edges, 75. 6d. ; cloth, 
 gilt edges, 8s. dd. ; half Morocco, gilt edges, 155. ; Palestine Levant, gilt 
 edges, 173. dd. ; crushed Morocco, solid gilt edges, i 153. 
 
 " It contains 356 Illustrations, which form a kind of Methodist National 
 Gallery. Dr. Gregory has done his work well, and we hope his book will 
 soon have a place in every Methodist home."AJethcdtsl Rtcorder. 
 
 CHARLES H. KELLY, 2, CASTLE STREET, CITY ROAD, E.G.; 
 AND 66, PATERNOSTER Row, E.C.
 
 IRew anfc IReceut Boofes (continued). 
 
 PARENTS AND TEACHERS SHOULD READ 
 
 SCRIPTURE TRUTHS MADE SIMPLE. By Rev. J. 
 
 ROBINSON GREGORY. Forty-Six Illustrations. Small crown 8vo. 25. 6d. ; 
 
 gilt edges, 35. 
 
 "An admirable little book of sermonettes for children. What is chiefly 
 remarkable about them is their variety and aptness of illustration. The 
 language, too, is excellently suited to a childish audience, clear, nervous, and 
 simple. Teachers of junior classes in Sunday Schools would do well to note 
 it." The New Age. 
 
 QATES OF IMAGERY: Illustrations of Scripture Truth. By 
 
 Rev. J. MARRAT. Post 8vo. zs 6d. 
 
 "All who are called upon to address the public will acknowledge this to be 
 a treasury, and the general reader will find in it endless entertainment. It is 
 the best book of its class that we know." Wesleyan Methodist Magazine. 
 
 THE LIFE OF THOMAS COLLINS. By Rev. S. COLEY. 
 Abridged by REV. SIMPSON JOHNSON. Crown 8vo. is. 6d. The full 
 edition is still on sale. Crown Svo, 35. 6d. 
 
 THE HERO OF RUFFORD. A True Tale. By REV. JAMES A. 
 
 MACDONALD. Crown Svo Ten full-page Illustrations. 23. 6d. 
 " It will do anyone good to read this book. Its literary merit is exceptionally 
 high." The Christian Million. 
 
 HER "WELCOME HOME. By SARSON C. J. TNGHAM. Author 
 of " The White Cross and Dove Pearls," etc., etc. Illustrated. Crown 
 Svo. 2s. 6d. 
 
 " A fine story, true to life, and charmingly interesting from start to finish." 
 Lincolnshire free Press. 
 
 AT AUNT VERBENA'S. By MARGARET HAYCRAFT. Crown 
 Svo. Illustrated, is. 6d. 
 
 JOHN ROWAN'S TRUST. By EDITH M. EDWARDS. Crown 
 
 8vo. Twenty-eight Illustrations, is. 6d. 
 
 LION, THE MASTIFF : The Story of his Life as told by himself. 
 
 By A. G. SAVIGNY. Illustrated. Crown Svo. is. 6d. 
 
 "A charming story of dog life. Few will get to the end of the book with 
 perfectly dry eyes, and all will be sorry that it is so short." Sword and 
 Trowel. 
 
 ETCHINGS FROM A PARSONAGE VERANDAH. By 
 
 Mrs. JEFFERS GRAHAM. Twenty-three Illustrations. Crown Svo. is. 6d. 
 
 THE CIRCUIT RIDER. A Story of the Heroic Age of American 
 Methodism. By Rev. J. EGGLESTON. Crown Svo. Illustrated, is. 6d. 
 
 FROM COBBLER'S BENCH TO PRESIDENT'S CHAIR. 
 
 The Story of Samuel Bradburn. By Rev. BENJAMIN GREGORY, D.D. 
 Crown Svo. Portrait and six whole-page Illustrations, is. 
 
 THE POACHER TURNED PREACHER. The Story of 
 John Preston of Yeadon, a Famous Yorkshire Local Preacher. By Rev. 
 BENJAMIN GREGORY, D.D. Crown Svo. Seven Illustrations, is. 
 
 ROBERT FORWARD ; or, A Life's Regret. Describing the Evils 
 of Juvenile Gambling. By HARRY LINDSAY. Author of " Rhoda Roberts," 
 " Tested by Fire," etc. Crown Svo. Twelve Illustrations, is. 
 
 CHARLES H. KELLY, 2, CASTLE STREET, CITY ROAD, E.G.; 
 AND 66, PATERNOSTER Row, E.C.
 
 IRew anfc TRecent Boofes (continued). 
 
 PARENTS AND TEACHERS SHOULD READ 
 
 SCRIPTURE TRUTHS MADE SIMPLE. By Rev. J. 
 
 ROBINSON GREGORY. Forty-Six Illustrations. Small crown 8vo. 25. da. ; 
 
 gilt edges, 35. 
 
 " An admirable little book of sermonettes for children. What is chiefly 
 remarkable about them is their variety and aptness of illustration. The 
 language, too, is excellently suited to a childish audience, clear, nervous, and 
 simple. Teachers of junior classes in Sundav Schools would do well to note 
 it." The New Age. 
 
 GATES OF IMAGERY: Illustrations of Scripture Truth. By 
 
 Rev. J. MARRAT. Post 8vo. 25 6d. 
 
 "All who are called upon to address the public will acknowledge this to be 
 a treasury, and the general reader will find in it endless entertainment. It is 
 the best book of its class that we know." Wesleyan Methodist Magazine. 
 
 THE LIFE OF THOMAS COLLINS. By Rev. S. COLEY. 
 Abridged by REV. SIMPSON JOHNSON. Crown 8vo. is. 6d. The full 
 edition is still on sale. Crown 8vo, 35. 6d. 
 
 THE HERO OF RUFFORD. A True Tale. By REV. JAMES A. 
 
 MACDONALD. Crown 8vo Ten full-page Illustrations. 25. 6d. 
 " It will do anyone good to read this book. Its literary merit is exceptionally 
 high." The Christian Million. 
 
 HER WELCOME HOME. By SARSON C. J. INGHAM. Author 
 of " The White Cross and Dove Pearls," etc., etc. Illustrated. Crown 
 8vo. 2S. 6d. 
 
 " A fine story, true to life, and charmingly interesting from start to finish." 
 Lincolnshire Free Press. 
 
 AT AUNT VERBENA'S. By MARGARET HAYCRAFT. Crown 
 8vo. Illustrated, is. 6rf. 
 
 JOHN ROWAN'S TRUST. By EDITH M. EDWARDS. Crown 
 8vo. Twenty-eight Illustrations, is. 6d. 
 
 LION, THE MASTIFF : The Story of his Life as told by himself. 
 
 By A. G. SAVIGNY. Illustrated. Crown 8vo. is. 6d. 
 
 "A charming story of dog life. Few will get to the end of the book with 
 perfectly dry eyes, and all will be sorry that it is so short." Sword and 
 Trowel. 
 
 ETCHINGS FROM A PARSONAGE VERANDAH. By 
 
 Mrs. JEFFERS GRAHAM. Twenty-three Illustrations. Crown 8vo. is. 6d. 
 
 THE CIRCUIT RIDER. A Story of the Heroic Age of American 
 Methodism. By Rev. J. EGGLESTON. Crown 8vo. Illustrated, is. 6d. 
 
 FROM COBBLER'S BENCH TO PRESIDENT'S CHAIR. 
 
 The Story of Samuel Bradburn. By Rev. BENJAMIN GREGORY, D.D. 
 Crown 8vo. Portrait and six whole-page Illustrations, is. 
 
 THE POACHER TURNED PREACHER. The Story of 
 John Preston of Yeadon, a Famous Yorkshire Local Preacher. By Rev. 
 BENJAMIN GREGORY, D.D. Crown 8vo. Seven Illustrations, is. 
 
 ROBERT FORWARD ; or, A Life's Regret. Describing the Evils 
 of Juvenile Gambling. By HARRY LINDSAY. Author of " Rhoda Roberts," 
 "Tested by Fire," etc. Crown 8vo. Twelve Illustrations, is. 
 
 CHARLES H. KELLY, 2, CASTLE STREET, CITY ROAD, E.G.; 
 AND 66, PATERNOSTER Row, E.C.
 
 OUR SUNDAY SCHOOLS. 
 
 NKED FOR GREATER ENTHUSIASM. 
 Speeches on the importance and value of Sunday 
 school work were delivered by Sir William Stephens, 
 Mr. John S. Higham, M.P., and the Rev. Alfred Stock 
 at the annual meeting, held at Dolton on Saturday, 
 of the Lancashire Association of Sunday School 
 Unions. Sir William Stephens, who was elected 
 president of the Association, expressed the opinion 
 that Sunday school work was the most useful and 
 the most satisfactory of all the Christian agencies. 
 This was more the day of Sunday schools than ever, 
 and this would become increasingly evident every 
 time the education question was dealt with in the 
 House of Commons. Whether they liked it or not, all re- 
 ligious teaching would be banished from the day school 
 curriculum, The Sunday schools would be needed 
 more than ever, but they must be kept abreast of the 
 age ; their teachers, their methods, and their machinery 
 would require looking to. The Sunday school teacher 
 of to-day needed a far different educational equipment 
 than was required in their grandfathers' times. 
 Hitherto Sunday schools had been worked almost 
 exclusively on the voluntary principle, but he was 
 not sure if they could successfully continue on abso- 
 lutely voluntary lines. They would have to consider 
 the question whether it would not be better that they 
 should get, if possible, some well-equipped man to 
 jive the whole of his time to the furtherance of 
 ;he cause and the creating of enthusiasm for it. 
 If they looked into their hearts they would find that 
 apathy was troubling them ; what they needed was 
 more real conviction that the work they were doing 
 was of value. Of all work it was the one that would 
 save and elevate the people. If they could get that 
 fact right into the mind of every Sunday school 
 teacher and every member of every church in Lanca- 
 shire there would be a transformation very quickly. 
 
 Mr. J. S. Higham, M.P., who for 25 years had 
 had a class of young men. said the responsibility 
 for their not making greater progress rested on tho 
 managers of the schools and not upon the children. 
 He advocated small groups of scholars upon whom 
 the teacher could bring personal magnetism to bear 
 and he was also a strong believer in system and 
 organisation. If pro*0rly used Sunday schools would 
 be the greatest power in the land. He referred to 
 what Parliament had done for children, and he recom- 
 mended the men and women connected with the 
 churches and Sunday schools to share in the work 
 going on in Parliament. He asked teachers to remem- 
 ber that they had a great influence, and they must 
 use that influence lor the best that was in them. 
 There was no need for pessimism, but there was need 
 for more enthusiasm. 
 
 The Rev. Alfred Stock urged the importance of 
 teachers being better trained and the absolute neces- 
 sity of their cultivating a knowledge of child nature. 
 
 MR. EDWYN HOLT. 
 
 Addressing the quarterly meeting and con- 
 ference of the Bacup and District Sunday School 
 Union in the Ebenezer Baptist School, Bacup, 
 on Saturday evening, Mr. Exlwyn Holt, of Man- 
 '. Chester, said that the four great needs of the 
 modern Sunday school teacher were a vision of 
 God that should make him eager to guide others 
 to the place of vision; a vision of ! 
 should give him charity fur the weakness 
 others; a vision of others that should reveal 
 their virtues more than their faults; a vision 
 of life that should make him eager to work, 
 willing to endure, patient in waiting, a maste 
 of self, and a servant of God.
 
 A GREAT FIRE. 
 
 A MANCHESTEE WAREHOUSE! 
 DESTROYED- 
 
 REMARKABLE SPECTACLE. 
 
 One of the largest of the shippers' wareJ 
 houses in Manchester, that of Messrs. Robert! 
 Harbour and Brother, in Aytoun-street, Pic* 
 cadilly, was totally destroyed by fire last] 
 evening. Notwithstanding all the efforts qfl 
 the Brigade, the fire was so sudden and in 
 tense that virtually nothing of the inside all 
 the huge place was saved. The surroundinM 
 buildings were kept from catching, and th 
 seemed as much as the firemen could dm 
 The contents of tlie warehouse itself 
 furiously until the fire virtually wore it 
 out by the consumption of everything tlitfj 
 would burn.
 
 uaSeq no 
 
 xiopuoq; 
 uaaq paq 
 
 jo ss* T eq- 
 somng ^ u a t lX 
 u B a eag jo eu n ptA Tl 
 q 8u W bu SBAV 
 
 T ^oqs 
 
 01^ 3n OI n 
 
 oq^ I P UB 
 ^uaiuour euo 
 
 u^ 
 moaj 
 
 JO 
 
 dn ^uas 
 
 p uopucxi aaAO spivop ui 
 u^ Suisu aaa* W jo sppj ^OBN P* 
 sod Ai^a ^ Suipimq 8q^ jo quo 
 
 ' U9as eq o:> SBM 
 
 wq 
 
 esnoqow^ Si inoqjB a - 
 
 s o; a W 8 SBAI JOTJOO eq^ tuoaj pun 
 
 O OAIJ 
 
 nnu^ B uo 
 
 om.8mpu H imip 
 
 l^loBid eqi jo pooqi'noqqawu eq* rawj 8mstr 
 
 10UIOS aoj v&rp *\ ABl l ^ snra 
 
 jo s^u^uoo eq^ )q^ -;napiA si 
 
 'p&ure^iaosB eq q.ou ppoo 
 8~Tp""s8M *i 'a-iojeq Suipiinq em ut