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 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY.
 
 BY O C OOK TVR.OM A 'PHOTO GRAJP^H. BY R. H MACEY
 
 THOMAS COOK'S 
 
 t~ 
 
 EARLY MINISTRY: 
 
 INCIDENTS AND SUGGESTIONS 
 CONCERNING CHRISTIAN WORK. 
 
 BY HENRY T. SMART, 
 
 WESLEYAN MINISTER. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 CHARLES H. KELLY, 2, CASTLE STREET, CITY ROAD, E.G. ; 
 
 AND 66, PATERNOSTER Row, E.C. 
 
 1892.
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 T71EOM the commencement of Mr, Cook's ministry 
 as a Lay Evangelist, I have been familiar with 
 his work, and taken a deep interest in it. It has 
 been my lot to be associated with him in several 
 missions. I have also had the privilege of occasion- 
 ally receiving him into my house as a welcome guest. 
 
 The result has been, that a somewhat close inti- 
 macy has sprung up between Mr. Cook and myself ; 
 and during recent years we have been in the habit 
 of conversing together in private about the subjects 
 in which we are both profoundly interested, and which 
 are treated upon in the following pages. 
 
 The idea of my writing an account of Mr. Cook's 
 early ministry did not first occur to me ; but when 
 it was suggested, I was, for several reasons, not 
 unwilling to entertain it. I knew myself to be in 
 the fullest accord with the spirit, aims, and views of 
 the Evangelist. I had the deepest sense of the im-
 
 vi PREFACE. 
 
 portance of the blessed work which God has permitted 
 him to do during the last ten years. And I was 
 disposed to think that, if such a narrative were 
 written, it might, by the Divine blessing, encourage 
 God's people, and stimulate evangelists and lay 
 preachers, and perhaps even the rising ministry of 
 Methodism, if I may say all that is in my heart, 
 to emulate the Evangelist's singleness of purpose and 
 devotion to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that the 
 task is done, I can only hope that he who reads may 
 share the blessing which has come to him who writes, 
 as the result of this fellowship with Mr. Cook. 
 
 I wish to add, that in many instances I have given 
 the names of the authorities for the statements I have 
 made about the various missions. In other cases I 
 have obtained the information either from Mr. Cook, 
 or from his correspondence, or from friends who were 
 connected with the work they describe. I have some- 
 times been able to write of Mr. Cook's missions from 
 personal knowledge. 
 
 Care has been taken to insure perfect accuracy ; 
 and I venture to hope that it will be found by the 
 candid reader, that the use of inflated language has 
 been avoided ; and that, however imperfect the style 
 of the book may be when considered from the point 
 of view of the literary man, the language is not
 
 PREFACE. vii 
 
 unworthy of the writer's purpose, which is to narrate 
 a real work of God. 
 
 The opinions expressed in the book are my own. 
 They are the result of twenty-one years' experience 
 in the Wesleyan-Methodist ministry, and of much 
 meditation, not of yesterday. They are also fully 
 shared by Mr. Cook ; and therefore, whatever may be 
 their worth, they may be accepted as the deliberate 
 views of a Circuit minister and a Connexional Evan- 
 gelist. For all personal references to Mr. Cook, I am 
 alone responsible. It has been no part of my inten- 
 tion to increase his fame. I have simply wished to 
 make it appear that an Evangelist is amongst us 
 whose labours it has pleased God to bless in a 
 remarkable manner. 
 
 I may add that the work is innocent of all literary 
 pretence. It has been written during an active 
 ministry in a London Circuit, amid many distractions ; 
 and it must therefore be judged accordingly. 
 
 May the blessing of our gracious God rest upon 
 this imperfect attempt to describe, for His glory, the 
 special work which He has enabled His servant to do ! 
 
 HEXRY T. SMART. 
 TOTTENHAM, MIDDLESEX.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. INTRODUCTION ...... 1 
 
 II. EAHLY DAYS AND CONVERSION .... 7 
 
 III. PREPARATION FOR WORK .... 20 
 
 IV. A LAY EVANGELIST ..... 43 
 
 V. CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST .... 69 
 
 VI. PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF WORK . . . 106 
 
 VII. HOLINESS-MEETINGS ..... 132 
 
 VIII. MEN'S MEETINGS ...... 159 
 
 IX. SEALS OF APOSTLESHIP ...... 172 
 
 X. CORNISH REVIVALS ..... 194 
 
 XI. FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN .... 220 
 
 XII. RESULTS OF THE WORK . . 234
 
 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Lives of the Early Methodist Preachers have 
 -*- been widely read, and very useful in stimulating 
 the faith and zeal of successive generations. Those 
 biographies show how God raised up men from amongst 
 the multitude, and sent them to preach to the masses 
 of the people, and how He confirmed the Word by 
 signs and wonders. But Methodism cannot live upon 
 the achievements of the past, how great soever those 
 achievements may have been. God has buried all the 
 workmen who, thanks to the diligence of the late 
 Thomas Jackson, have been immortalised in those 
 volumes ; and buried their successors also. The great 
 Methodist evangelists of whom we heard in our youth 
 with amazement Stoner, Carvosso, Bramwell, Smith 
 are undoubtedly dead. So are the illustrious scythes- 
 men of a later generation. Eobert Young, Peter 
 M'Owen, Eattenbury, Vasey, Eomilly Hall, Nightin- 
 gale, and M'Aulay, whose bows, like the bow of 
 Jonathan, never returned empty, are all gone hence. 
 Is God carrying on His work ? 
 
 A
 
 2 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTRY. 
 
 The career of Thomas Cook is good proof that God 
 is carrying on His work, and for that reason it is 
 worthy of being published to the world. I do not 
 hesitate to say that if competent and candid persons 
 will examine the evidence which they will find herein, 
 they will be convinced that no Methodist preacher of 
 Mr. Wesley's time, or of any subsequent period, has 
 had a more remarkable course than Thomas Cook ; 
 indeed, it may be said without exaggeration, that when 
 all the circumstances of his ministry are considered, 
 his work has been unique even in the romantic history 
 of Methodism. So far as congregations are concerned, 
 it may be said with truth that few Methodist preachers 
 have attracted larger crowds. Within recent years 
 popular ministers have gathered immense audiences in 
 Methodist chapels ; but the appearances of these gifted 
 men have been rare, and the people have only had an 
 occasional opportunity of hearing them. But in the 
 case of Mr. Cook it has been otherwise. Night after 
 night during two, and sometimes nearly three weeks, 
 the largest chapels in the Connexion have proved too 
 small to accommodate the numbers of hearers who 
 have sought admission in order to hear Mr. Cook's 
 message. Occasionally he has been obliged to hold 
 two services in the same chapel on one evening, that 
 disappointed hearers might have the opportunity, after 
 waiting in the chapel-yard for more than an hour, 
 until the first service was closed, of listening to the 
 Word of Life. Whatever the multitudes went out 
 into the wilderness to see, and whatever they may 
 have seen, there can be no question that during the 
 last ten years the multitudes have gone out " to see " 
 Mr. Cook, and I am. of opinion that it may be instruct-
 
 INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 ive to know what it was that the multitudes saw and 
 heard. 
 
 If regard be had to the results of Mr. Cook's 
 ministry, I believe it will be seen that no ministry in 
 the history of Methodism has been more signally 
 blessed of God. Certainly few Methodist preachers 
 have been permitted to beget more souls in Christ 
 Jesus through the gospel in ten years than Thomas 
 Cook. 
 
 Possibly, however, this may be doubted by some 
 excellent people. When Mr. Wesley laid the founda- 
 tion-stone of City Eoad Chapel in 1777, he preached 
 a sermon from the text, " What hath God wrought ? " 
 In the second paragraph of that sermon Mr. Wesley 
 told his hearers that the then Bishop of London, in one 
 of his charges, had flatly denied that God had wrought 
 any special work in England during that century. 
 During fifty years Mr. Wesley and his fellow-labourers 
 had been going through the three kingdoms preaching 
 repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, with the result that many thousands had 
 been turned " to the wisdom of the just ; " yet it 
 seemed that the Bishop of London, who from the office 
 he held might have been supposed to be interested in 
 such a movement, had either not heard of what we 
 now call " the Evangelical Revival," or, if he had heard 
 of it, had refused to give credence to it. But the 
 tablet in Westminster Abbey, and especially the 
 Methodist Churches, with their twenty- five millions 
 of adherents, abundantly prove that as " God wrought 
 special miracles by the hands of Paul," so He wrought 
 a special work in the British Isles in the eighteenth 
 century by means of John Wesley.
 
 4 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 There is not the least intention of instituting a 
 comparison between the apostolic labours of Wesley 
 and the brief work of Thomas Cook ; all that is meant 
 is, that if good people aye, and even if ministers of 
 religion make light of the results of Mr. Cook's 
 evangelistic labours, it will still be true that it has 
 seemed good in the sight of God that he should be 
 largely used to promote the edification of the body of 
 Christ and the conversion of sinners. 
 
 The way in which Mr. Cook has been led, the work 
 he has already done, although he is only a little more 
 than thirty years of age, the extraordinary blessing 
 that has rested upon his ministry, all this, it should 
 seem, is worthy of patient and devout attention. 
 
 When Thomas Cook was thrust out by the Lord of 
 the harvest, " he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of 
 a fair countenance." He was of obscure parentage, 
 without friends, without influence, without learning, 
 endowed only with two talents, and as little likely to 
 do " exploits for God " as David was likely to slay 
 Goliath when he approached him with his sling and 
 stones. For a time the Wesleyan Methodist Con- 
 ference declined to accept him as a minister on trial, 
 and he was therefore obliged to begin his career in 
 the capacity of a lay evangelist, and without the status 
 of a minister. It should also be remembered that he 
 had not enjoyed the advantages of a collegiate course. 
 No university conferred upon him a degree ; no higher 
 court than a local preachers' meeting authorised him 
 to preach ; and yet, as soon as he began his work, 
 crowds flocked to hear him, and sinners were con- 
 verted under his ministry. 
 
 The writer himself was travelling in the Halifax
 
 INTRODUCTION. 5 
 
 and Bradford district when Mr. Cook accepted the 
 invitation of the Home Mission Sub-Committee of that 
 district to labour there as a lay evangelist, and he 
 remembers distinctly the great success which from the 
 first Mr. Cook enjoyed. It mattered nothing whether 
 he was sent to what was regarded as unfruitful ground, 
 like St. John's Chapel, Manningham, or to fruitful 
 ground, like the Halifax Circuit ; we only heard one 
 report, which was gloriously monotonous, and was to 
 the effect that God was causing His servant always to 
 triumph, and was making manifest by him the savour 
 of His knowledge in every place. The only explana- 
 tion that I can offer of this circumstance which 
 may be said to be unprecedented in the history of 
 Methodism, if regard is had to the preacher's extreme 
 youth and position is this : 
 
 " It pleased God, who separated " Thomas Cook 
 " from [his] mother's womb, and called [him] by His 
 grace, to reveal His Son in [him], that [he] might 
 preach Christ among the Gentiles." 
 
 That appears to be an adequate explanation of all 
 that Mr. Cook has done, and it seems to be the only 
 possible explanation that is adequate. " But unto 
 every one of us is given grace according to the measure 
 of the gift of Christ. Wherefore He saith, when He 
 ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and 
 gave gifts unto men. . . . And He gave some apostles, 
 and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some 
 pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, 
 for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the 
 Body of Christ." 
 
 Can our ascended Lord bestow upon men any gift 
 of greater value than that which He imparts when
 
 6 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 He gives them evangelists who, being filled with the 
 Holy Ghost and with faith, turn many people to the 
 Lord their God ? l And seeing that we are surrounded 
 by large numbers of people who are without God and 
 without hope in the world, and that we are convinced 
 that there is a dreadful future for those who have 
 been brought face to face with Christ in this world, 
 and have judged themselves unworthy of everlasting 
 life, ought we not to pray the Lord of the harvest to 
 send forth labourers to reap as well as to sow, that 
 both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice 
 together ? 
 
 In the earnest hope that the publication of this 
 book will prompt those who read it to offer such a 
 prayer, and also do something to secure an answer 
 to the petition, the writer sends it on its mission, 
 craving pardon for its defects, and a blessing for all 
 who shall make its acquaintance. 
 
 1 See a fine sermon in the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine for 
 December, by the Rev. G. G. Findlay, B.A. , on "The Measure of the 
 Gift of Christ." Mr. Findlay says, "In these gifts [of men like 
 Wesley], for which the Church must render continued thanks, the 
 riches of His bounty, the depth of His wisdom, and the completeness 
 of His sovereignty are displayed to all mankind and to the end of 
 time."
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 EARLY DAYS AND CONVERSION. 
 
 THOMAS COOK was bora in Middlesbrough, 
 Yorkshire, on the 20th of August 1859. His 
 mother was, at the time of his birth, a member of the 
 Wesleyan Methodist Society or Church, as we are 
 now permitted by the resolution of the Nottingham 
 Conference to say ; but, owing to the claims of a 
 family of little children, she was unable to attend 
 class. It is one of the disadvantages of our most ad- 
 mirable ecclesiastical system, that mothers of families 
 whose circumstances are straitened cannot possibly 
 qualify themselves for membership with us, because it 
 is not within their power to attend the weekly class- 
 meeting. The same may be said of some sections of 
 the industrial community. Omnibus and tram-car 
 men, for example, are unable, however willing they 
 may be, to conform to the regulations of our Church 
 in this respect; and therefore, unless some special 
 indulgence is shown them, they are excluded from the 
 Society, and that through no fault of their own. As 
 a matter of fact, a considerable number of labouring 
 men are unavoidably shut out of our classes ; and so 
 are many mothers, whose hearts are with us, but 
 whose maternal duties oblige them to stop at home.
 
 8 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 We do not propose any exceptional legislation to meet 
 the peculiar circumstances of these individuals, but we 
 desire to commend them to the special pastoral care 
 of the younger ministers and leaders who may not 
 have discovered the disabilities of those for whom we 
 plead. 
 
 When Thomas was ten years old, his parents re- 
 moved into the country ; and there being no Wesleyan 
 chapel in the locality, the family attended the services 
 of the Church of England, he and one of his brothers 
 joining the church choir. During this time it should 
 seem that no definite religious impressions were made 
 upon the mind of Thomas, who, like thousands more, 
 offered to God attendance upon religious services as 
 a commutation for religion itself. He was, however, 
 preserved during these and subsequent days from gross 
 sin, and was kept by the mercy of God not far from 
 His kingdom. It is a mistake to suppose that none 
 but " chief " sinners become eminently useful in the 
 Christian Church. John the Baptist, the Apostle 
 John, Timothy, Wesley, Adam Clarke, Samuel Coley, 
 and many other men of God, never were "chief" 
 sinners, except in their own estimation, and yet they 
 were " great in the sight of the Lord ; " and they 
 turned many to righteousness. We have all heard 
 sermons on the Prodigal Son and the Elder Brother, in 
 which the latter was condemned much more severely 
 than the former. It is the glory of the gospel, that 
 he who has " lien among the pots " may become " as 
 the wings of a dove covered with silver, and her 
 feathers with yellow gold." But it is utterly false to 
 say that hideous sin is essential to holiness, and that, 
 after salvation has been received, such sin is as if it
 
 EARLY DA YS AND CONVERSION. 9 
 
 had never been. A thoughtful writer has lately said : 
 " It is a great thing to have lived a pure youth, to 
 have yielded to no degrading vice ; to have no foul, 
 festering secret at the heart of life. It is a great 
 thing when we have not consciously stooped to evil, 
 when all men know the worst of us that is to be known, 
 when we can die and have every drawer rummaged, 
 and every letter read, and all the poor secrets of our 
 history exposed, and still remain to those who loved 
 us what we used to be. True, most true, these things 
 will not save us. But they will make all the way of 
 our redeemed years different. Let the young live so 
 that when men go back to their past, and piece the 
 divided life together, they will find all the record 
 clean. These words of an old minister might be a 
 talisman for the young in hours of passion and tempta- 
 tion : ' It is a great thing to be able to go out of this 
 world into the other, fearless of meeting any spirit 
 there. I can say that there is no spirit I should blush 
 to meet.' " 
 
 In these days, when to have been a drunkard or 
 gambler or prize-fighter is to possess a passport to the 
 confidence of some who have charge of mission-work, 
 it is well to remember that the Christian Church owes 
 more to those who entered the vineyard early in the day 
 than to those who entered later, and that some who 
 are " first " shall continue " first," and some who are 
 " last " shall remain " last." There is nothing contrary 
 to this in our Lord's words. 
 
 After three years' residence in the country, Thomas 
 Cook returned to the Middlesbrough Circuit, and 
 joined the congregation which worshipped in the South 
 Bank Wesleyan Chapel. Methodist preaching soon
 
 io THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 began to impress the youth, old impressions were 
 revived, the good Spirit worked graciously in his heart, 
 and he was led to turn wistful eyes towards the 
 " Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the 
 world." It may here be said, that when Thomas was 
 a child of seven years of age lie heard the late llev. 
 James Nance preach from the text, " And I heard the 
 voice of harpers harping with their harps," and received 
 impressions which he never lost, and which must be 
 included amongst the various causes which led to his 
 early and thorough conversion. From the day he 
 heard that sermon, eternal things were to him, to use 
 his own language, " tremendously real" Nor need we 
 be surprised at this. At five years of age Samuel 
 Coley enjoyed a distinct consciousness of God's favour, 
 and never did he lose the blessing. And yet most 
 of us are indisposed to believe in the conversion of 
 children, as though foolishness were so bound up in 
 the heart of a child that not even the grace of God 
 could eradicate it. 
 
 Perhaps it is owing to this unbelief that there is a ten- 
 dency just now to withdraw the scholars of our Sunday 
 schools from the services in the chapel, and to provide 
 for them short services in the school-room, which, it is 
 supposed, will be better adapted to their capacity. 
 We believe this to be a mistake, excepting in the case 
 of very young children ; and even concerning them we 
 have our doubts. Children should be trained in the 
 habit of attending the house of God. Suitable seats 
 not too high should be given them, and the ex- 
 pectation should be cherished that the services will 
 benefit them as much as other worshippers. Preachers 
 themselves will judge whether or not they should give
 
 EARL Y DA YS AND CONVERSION. \ i 
 
 a brief address to the children before commencing to 
 preach ; but if this is not done, care should be taken 
 to let a few crumbs fall from the pulpit for the 
 children at every service. The writer has seen this 
 done with great effect by Mr. Spurgeon and Dr. Parker, 
 to whom children often listen with almost as much 
 pleasure as do adults. 
 
 Thomas Cook joined the Sunday school about this 
 time, and was there brought under influences that 
 contributed largely to promote his conversion. His 
 Sunday-school teacher may be described as the Rev. 
 John M'Neill described himself in an appeal which he 
 circulated a while ago in the London workshops, namely, 
 as " a railway man." He was, as a matter of fact, a 
 porter at a railway station, with no better education than 
 men of his class usually have ; but he was a tender, 
 patient, loving, Christ-like man, and withal a man of 
 good sense, whose consistent and winsome life perhaps 
 did more to bring the future Evangelist to Christ than 
 all the sermons he heard in those days. Not that the 
 preaching of the Word of God is- to be disparaged. 
 We have already seen that a profound and permanent 
 impression was made upon the mind of Thomas Cook 
 when he was but a child by the preaching of the 
 Word, and we desire to magnify the preacher's office. 
 There is an absurd disposition manifested now-a-days, 
 and that sometimes in quarters from which better 
 things might be looked for, to speak lightly of 
 sermons, as though they were as much out of date as 
 spinning-wheels. When preachers raise or join in 
 this outcry against preaching, it may be supposed that 
 they are led to do so by reflecting upon the quality 
 and effects of their own sermons, and that they are
 
 12 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 measuring other ministers' corn with their own bushel. 
 Whether the preaching of the gospel be appreciated or 
 not, it is true to say that, until the sign of the Son of 
 man appears in heaven, it will please God " by the 
 foolishness of preaching " to save them that believe. 
 These words are a quotation from the New Testament ; 
 but when they are cited for the purpose of discrediting 
 God's appointed means for bringing men to a know- 
 ledge of the truth, they are misapplied. St. Paul 
 never intended to suggest that preaching is a foolish 
 employment; what he meant to say was, that the 
 subject - matter of evangelical preaching appears to 
 men to be foolishness. These observations seem 
 necessary, lest it should be supposed that we wish to 
 detract from the honour which belongs to the preached 
 Word when we affirm that the railway porter's beauti- 
 ful Christian life more deeply impressed Thomas Cook 
 than did the sermons which he heard. All honour 
 to this Sunday-school teacher, and to the order of 
 Christian workers which he represents. It is not 
 known that this labouring man was the means of the 
 conversion of any one beside Mr. Cook ; nor is it true 
 to say that he was the sole cause of his conversion, 
 since Thomas Cook was the child of many prayers. 
 But this railway porter had more to do with effecting 
 the immediate decision of the youth than any one else 
 excepting his praying mother. 
 
 " There was a little city, and few men within it ; 
 and there came a great king against it, and besieged 
 it, and built great bulwarks against it. Now there 
 was found in it a poor wise man, and he, by his 
 wisdom, delivered the city ; yet no man remembered 
 that same poor man." The Sunday-school teacher is
 
 EARLY DA YS AND CONVERSION. 13 
 
 " that same poor man ; " for, by his " wisdom," he has 
 delivered this kingdom from many evils. Not many 
 years ago there came to this country a distinguished 
 publicist to investigate the condition of the people, 
 and the way in which they are affected by our 
 laws, especially by our land laws. When he had 
 fulfilled his mission he put on record his impressions 
 of England. He expressed dissatisfaction with some 
 of our laws, and proceeded to ask how it was that, 
 notwithstanding what appeared to him to be oppress- 
 ive customs, the English people were law-abiding and 
 prosperous. He found the answer to his question in 
 the practical character of our religion, and especially 
 in the circumstance that that religion is inculcated in 
 the minds of some millions of young people every 
 Sunday by more than six hundred thousand Sunday- 
 school teachers. This witness is true. Yet who 
 remembers this " same poor man " ? Not the British 
 Government, which rewards with a coronet the success- 
 ful brewer, and ignores the services of all Sunday- 
 school teachers. Nor does the typical Mayor re- 
 member this " poor man ; " for while many Mayors are 
 willing to do honour to fillibusters whose proceedings 
 abroad have sullied the honour of the English nation, 
 few are ready publicly to recognise the disinterested 
 labours of Sunday-school teachers who are endeavour- 
 ing to train up the children that come streaming into 
 England, in the faith and fear of God, and to make 
 them Christian men and women. But it is written, 
 " And they that be teachers (margin) shall shine as 
 the brightness of the firmament ; and they that turn 
 many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever," 
 Dan. xii. 3.
 
 H THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 In 1875, Mr. Cook, being then sixteen years old, 
 was " powerfully " converted, as our American friends 
 term it. The circumstances were as follows. 
 
 The local preachers of the Middlesbrough Circuit 
 were holding a series of special services. Thomas 
 Cook had long been waiting for an opportunity pub- 
 licly to avow himself as a disciple of Christ, and he 
 resolved that he would embrace the opportunity which 
 this mission afforded for carrying out his purpose. 
 He had not that deep sense of personal sinfulness 
 which many penitents have, who cry to God out of 
 the depths to make the bones which He has broken to 
 rejoice. This, however, need excite no surprise, for 
 prevenient grace had kept him from presumptuous 
 sins, and he was innocent of the great transgression. 
 But he had a profound sense of the paramount claims 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the crisis through which 
 he passed took the form of a deliberate response to 
 those claims, as in the case of him who said, " Lord, 
 what wilt Thou have me to do ? " He was under the 
 influence of considerations, such as are advanced by 
 the Ilev. W. L. Watkinson in the first chapter of his 
 useful book, The Beginning of the Christian Life. 
 That chapter is entitled " Begin Early," and it is 
 devoted to a number of cogent reasons for commencing 
 the Christian life in the days of youth. Therein we 
 read : " The best that a man has is himself, and his 
 young undebauched life is himself at his best." God 
 be praised, that Thomas Cook's life never was 
 debauched, and that it was dedicated to God when it 
 was "no mean sacrifice." 
 
 During the mission of which we are writing, 
 Thomas Cook accepted the invitation that was given
 
 EARLY DA YS AND CONVERSION. 15 
 
 by the preacher to penitents, and went forward to the 
 communion rail, and with dry eyes solemnly espoused 
 himself to Christ. The consciousness of his acceptance 
 with God came to him gradually rather than suddenly, 
 which is an instructive circumstance for those who 
 have to do with new-born souls. 
 
 During that same year a young minister, who had 
 been used by God during his probation, and who since 
 then has been permitted to do much blessed work for 
 Christ, stood by the writer's side at the Sheffield 
 Conference, and gave, as is customary, a brief account 
 of his conversion and call to the ministry. He 
 remarked that he was not sure of the hour when his 
 chains fell off, and he added that he believed that 
 his chains wore, off; but of this one thing he was sure 
 they were off. The name of that young minister 
 was Edward Smith, and his experience may fittingly 
 be recorded here because it tallied exactly with that 
 of Mr. Cook. True, most true it is, that God does 
 not impart the forgiveness of sins to any in a piece- 
 meal fashion, remitting some sins to-day and others 
 to-morrow ; and equally true it is that He sometimes 
 overwhelms the penitent with an instant and unniis- 
 takeable assurance of His favour, which causes him 
 to exclaim, 
 
 " 'tis more than I can bear, 
 The sense of pardoning love." 
 
 But that gracious Spirit, who is as the wind which 
 bloweth as it listeth, is pleased gradually to convince 
 some persons of sin, and gradually to assure them that 
 they are accepted in the Beloved. This was Mr. 
 Cook's experience. Day by day the Lord Jesus
 
 16 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 Christ became more real to him, and day by day his 
 enthusiastic love for his Saviour increased. 
 
 There was no great rejoicing amongst the mission 
 workers at South Bank that night, for only one con- 
 version had taken place, and the solitary convert was 
 but a lad. But "things are not what they seem." 
 There was joy in the presence of the angels of God, 
 however, over the repentance of one sinner ; and there 
 was joy in a mother's heart because a son had been 
 brought to Christ, and especially because the son 
 was the one child of the family whose conversion 
 seemed to her most improbable. The parents of 
 Jabez called him by that name because it signified 
 " sorrow," and it was with special sorrow that his 
 mother bore him. Yet he became " more honourable 
 than his brethren," and his " ways " and his " doings " 
 were such, that when his parents saw them, the son 
 " comforted " his parents, as we read in the Book of 
 Ezekiel. So it was in the case of Thomas Cook, who, 
 like many other lads, has become a better man than 
 his mother ever dreamed he would become. 
 
 It is worthy of remark that neither the preacher of 
 that evening nor his sermon had anything to do with 
 Thomas Cook's conversion. Many influences con- 
 tributed to this result, particularly the efforts of the 
 Sunday-school teacher, but this mission service 
 became the occasion of his decision " for God to live 
 and die." How many persons are there in our con- 
 gregations in exactly the same condition as young 
 Cook was in when he attended this special service ! 
 He was "not far from the kingdom of God," and yet 
 he was not consciously and avowedly in it; and it 
 was possible that whilst he was " almost persuaded "
 
 EARL Y DA YS AND CONVERSION. 17 
 
 he might yet be lost. What he needed was, to be 
 brought to decision ; and this is what many now need, 
 especially many young people who have been brought 
 up in Christian homes. The Rev. Dr. Gregory has 
 justly said, in a sermon published by him in the 
 Wesley an Methodist Magazine for October 1870, that 
 " even children of devoted parents, though ' heaven ' 
 did lie ' about us in our infancy,' and though the 
 claims of the law and the love of God pressed like a 
 Presence on us day and night ; even we cannot evade 
 the command, ' Come out, and be separate, and I will 
 receive you ; and ye shall be MY sons and daughters, 
 saith the Lord Almighty.'. The decisive movement must 
 be made." The late Benjamin Alfred Gregory, whose 
 premature death, as we are apt to think it was, we 
 have not ceased to lament since we read the Memorials 
 of him which his accomplished father published a 
 few years ago, intimated to Dr. Gregory that these 
 sentences were descriptive of his own experience. 
 That gifted youth made " the decisive movement," 
 when, on the eve of the first Sunday in the year 1865, 
 he went to his father's study, and with strong emotion 
 asked leave to attend the Covenant service on the 
 following day. That step formed the crisis of his 
 life ; henceforth he was a Christian man. Hereafter, 
 we shall have occasion to refer to the late Rev. Dr 
 Punshon, and we may therefore be permitted to cite 
 his conversion, as another instance of what is meant. 
 Morley Punshon was walking on the dockside in 
 Hull on the 29th of November 1838, he being then 
 in his fifteenth year, when he was met by the late 
 Rev. S. Romilly Hall, who urged upon the youth the 
 necessity of immediate belief. " Then and there," 
 
 B
 
 i8 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 said the orator of modern Methodism, " I was enabled 
 to lay hold on my Saviour, and peace immediately 
 sprang up in my heart." We thus see that it is 
 necessary to aim at the immediate conversion of those 
 who, although they are not far from the kingdom of 
 God, lack " one thing." Mission services often effect 
 this, and hence their great value. But the same end 
 would more frequently be attained in the ordinary 
 services of the churches than it now is, if those who 
 conduct them were more peremptory in their appeals, 
 and set their hearts more earnestly on immediate 
 results. In all congregations, it may reasonably be 
 supposed, there are young people in whom " there is 
 some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel," but 
 who are not yet decided Christians. Yes, " the decis- 
 ive movement must be made," and Circuit ministers 
 may reap and receive " wages," and gather " fruit 
 unto eternal life," as well as Connexional evangelists, 
 if they will encourage their hearers, in season and out 
 of season, to make this " movement," and to leave all 
 and follow Christ. Who can fortell the consequences 
 of a single conversion ? When the boy Spurgeon, at 
 the bidding of the good Primitive Methodist local 
 preacher, looked to the Lamb of God and was saved, 
 no one dreamed of the exploits for God which he was 
 destined to achieve ; for, like St. Paul, he was " a 
 chosen vessel," as also was Thomas Cook. We must 
 learn to value the conversion of single souls. The 
 Methodist newspapers would lightly esteem a mission 
 service at which only one convert was made ; and the 
 story of such a service would excite but languid 
 interest if told in the Conference during the conver- 
 sation on the Work of God. And yet what immense
 
 EARL Y DA YS AND CONVERSION. 19 
 
 consequences have followed a solitary conversion ! 
 Some of the seed which is the Word of God brings 
 forth " an hundred fold " when sown on " good ground." 
 The devoted founder of the Joyful News Mission, who 
 is now bearing in his body the brand-marks of the 
 Lord Jesus, went on one occasion to a small village 
 to conduct a mission service, when he was labouring 
 in the Bolton district as a missionary. There were 
 only seven persons present at that service, and had 
 the preacher offered prayer, and then " dismissed the 
 assembly," as the town clerk of Ephesus did, who 
 would have blamed him ? Mr. Champness, however, 
 yielded to no such temptation, but threw himself 
 as heartily into the service as though seven thousand 
 had been present. The result was that he begot one 
 soul in Christ Jesus through the gospel on that 
 occasion, and the convert thus gained has become a 
 pillar of the little village church to which he was 
 " added," under circumstances that would have de- 
 pressed a less courageous man than our beloved 
 brother. " Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it 
 with thy might." 
 
 When Zilpah bore Jacob a son, Leah said, "A 
 troop [of children] cometh ; " and when " this man," 
 of whose work we write, was " born " of God " in 
 Zion," at that apparently unimportant service, a 
 similar exclamation might have been made by any 
 bystander who had skill enough to cast the horo- 
 scope, for Thomas Cook's conversion has led to the 
 conversion of troops of souls. 
 

 
 CHAP TEE III. 
 
 PREPARATION FOR WORK. 
 
 THE genuineness of Mr. Cook's conversion was 
 immediately proved by the zeal for the salvation 
 of others which at once took possession of him. If 
 any man has the Spirit of Christ, he is His, whether 
 his conversion was effected suddenly or gradually, and 
 accompanied by ecstatic joy or quiet peace. Thomas 
 Cook had the Spirit of Christ, and hence he at once 
 made earnest attempts to save others. He waited for 
 no authorisation, for no leader to set him to work, for 
 no new organisation to be set afoot ; he set himself to 
 work. He began his successful evangelistic labours 
 by quietly commending his Saviour to individuals. 
 
 He resolved that he would let no day pass without 
 speaking to at least one person about personal religion, 
 and to this resolution he owes his first two converts 
 and much of his later usefulness. 
 
 When crossing the road shortly after he had formed 
 this purpose, Mr. Cook chanced to see a man pushing 
 a hand-cart. Accosting him, the youth asked if he 
 loved the Saviour; and thereupon the man replied, 
 with water standing in his eyes, as Bunyan would 
 
 have said, that although he was not a Christian, he 
 
 20
 
 PREPARATION FOR WORK. 21 
 
 wished to be one, as also did his wife. Name and 
 address were obtained, an appointment for an inter- 
 view at the close of the day was made and kept, and 
 ere bedtime came the youth had led the man and his 
 wife to Christ, and found, as George Herbert teaches, 
 that 
 
 ' ' All earthly joys grow less 
 To the one joy of doing kindliness." 
 
 It was thus that this reaper gathered his first sheaves. 
 That night the future evangelist acquired a taste for 
 soul-saving which has grown into what Alleine calls 
 " an insatiable greed for souls." He soon began to 
 speak for his Master in the open air. God be praised, 
 the streets are always open to any earnest man who 
 longs to turn the hearts of " the disobedient unto the 
 wisdom of the just." It is sometimes said that many 
 Methodists are pining for Christian work, and that 
 unless these unemployed persons are organised and set 
 to do something, they will leave Methodism, and go 
 where they will be likely to find scope for their 
 energy and ability. 
 
 The successful pastor will always aim at making 
 his people a working church, and will be satisfied with 
 nothing less than driving every wheel in the machinery 
 to its utmost power. He will make it his duty to 
 prevent any member who joins his church from settling 
 down into a mere " passenger," and he will be anxious 
 to do as little himself as he can, in order that he may 
 spend his strength in arousing all the latent power of 
 his congregation. But if it is not the privilege of all 
 church members to be directed by pastors of this kind, 
 why should not those who are under less capable or
 
 22 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 less faithful direction imitate our evangelist, and set 
 themselves to work ? One of the greatest pulpit 
 geniuses of the day, Dr. Parker, told a number of 
 Wesleyan Methodist ministers who met him in con- 
 ference early in the year 1891, at Wesley's Chapel, 
 City Road, that it was in this way that he began his 
 splendid ministerial career. Dr. Parker was present 
 at an open-air service on one occasion, when, feeling 
 that he had a message for the people, he asked leave 
 of the preacher to address the crowd. Borrowing the 
 preacher's Bible, as well as his congregation, young 
 Parker faced the throng, and read in their hearing the 
 verse which with characteristic audacity he had chosen 
 as his text, and which reads thus : " If I whet my 
 glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judg- 
 ment ; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, I will 
 reward them that hate me." From that day Dr. 
 Parker has never lacked opportunities to preach that 
 gospel which during the last one-and-twenty years he 
 has so powerfully proclaimed from the pulpit of the 
 City Temple. Long may his light continue to shine ! 
 Let the young unemployed Christian, who aspires to 
 the ministry, win his spurs in the streets. Let him 
 do the duty that lies nearest to him, and then his 
 future duty will become clear. A newly-converted 
 engine-driver went to a brother minister of the writer's 
 and asked for " work." The minister inquired if the 
 engine-driver had a stoker with him on his engine. 
 When told that such was the case, he further asked 
 if the stoker was a converted man. The reply was 
 " No." " Then," said the minister, " go and seek to 
 save him" The advice was taken, and the happiest 
 results followed.
 
 PREPARATION FOR WORK. 23 
 
 ' I would not have the restless will 
 
 That hurries too and fro, 
 Seeking for some great thing to do, 
 
 Or secret thing to know : 
 
 I would be treated as a child, 
 
 And guided where I go." 
 
 Young unemployed Methodists who " want a field of 
 labour " may find it " anywhere," as Mr. Cook did. A 
 youth intimated to Thomas Cook that he was wishful 
 to join him in open-air work, and that he was prepar- 
 ing a small platform to serve as a street pulpit. The 
 overture was accepted, and the two boys, like St. Paul 
 and Philemon, became " partners." The platform 
 proved to be a sort of huge green box, having handles 
 at both ends, and the words, " Stand up for Jesus," in- 
 scribed on the front in brass letters. " This is our 
 pulpit," said the youth, who himself had made it, and 
 now proposed to use it. " Take hold of it ; we shall 
 soon get a congregation." Each boy seized a handle, 
 and soon they were in the street with their load. 
 Nor had they to wait long for hearers. The peculiar 
 box, and perhaps the youthful appearance of the 
 speakers, attracted a little crowd, and to them the boys 
 told what they knew of the love of God in Christ. 
 When Gideon Ouseley was contemplating beginning 
 his evangelistic course, he hesitated for a while to take 
 up the burden, on the ground that he was unprepared 
 for the duty. But he was prompted to obey the Lord's 
 call by what seemed to him an inward voice saying, 
 " Gideon, you know the disease ; do you not ? " 
 " Yes," was his reply ; " sin is the disease." " And 
 you know the remedy ? " " Yes, God be praised, it is 
 the gospel of Christ." " Then," said the voice, " go 
 and tell the people of the disease and the remedy ; all
 
 24 THOMAS COOK^S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 else is mere talk." When Thomas Cook first stood on 
 that box he only knew the disease and the remedy, 
 but he had such a practical knowledge of these that 
 he was able to speak to purpose. Precious memories 
 gathered around that green box, which Mr. Cook now 
 preserves amongst his treasures, as David preserved the 
 sword of Goliath, and for much the same reason. 
 
 When Thomas Cook, two years after his conversion, 
 left South Bank, and returned with his parents to 
 Middlesbrough, he joined the Society class of Mr. 
 George Lynas, to whom he has always considered him- 
 self much indebted for timely and valuable counsel and 
 help given to him at that critical period of his life. 
 His association with this godly friend contributed to 
 the formation of his character, and the class-leader 
 acted the part of an elder brother to the evangelist. 
 Mr. Lynas, being a well-read man, was able to guide 
 his young friend in his reading, and to help him in 
 dealing with such intellectual difficulties as he had to 
 face in common with other Christian young men. By 
 his leader's advice, Thomas Cook joined the local 
 Mission Band, which worked at a mission-room in the 
 town. Commissioner Kailton, of the Salvation Army, 
 was a member of this Mission Band, and a candidate 
 for the Wesleyan Methodist ministry ; biit his candi- 
 dature was not encouraged by the Circuit quarterly 
 meeting, and this was a great grief to the members of 
 the Band. Some of the truest and most spiritually- 
 minded men Mr. Cook has ever met were amongst the 
 members of that humble organisation ; and for his con- 
 nection with it the evangelist has ever been, and must 
 always continue to be, devoutly thankful. In that 
 mission -room, where during two years no Sunday ever
 
 PREPARATION FOR WORK. 25 
 
 passed without some souls being brought to God, and 
 by that Mission Band, Thomas Cook was trained for 
 the work of the Christian ministry. During two years 
 it was his custom to go nearly every Sunday morning 
 with a blind local preacher through the slums of the 
 town, exhorting the poor and vicious to forsake their 
 sins. He and his companion would stand together at 
 various street corners, and give brief addresses to the 
 bystanders, and thus hold perhaps half-a-dozen services 
 of a quarter of an hour's duration in as many different 
 streets week by week. " Thou hast testified of Me in 
 Jerusalem," said the Lord to His chosen vessel, St. Paul, 
 " so must thou bear witness also at Rome." Mr. Cook 
 has borne " witness " in many parts of the United 
 Kingdom during the last ten years, but he began by 
 testifying of Christ in his native town, and in the 
 slums and alleys of that town. Happily, from the 
 first he has had a deep conviction that a Christian is 
 like a live coal, which can only be kept alight by 
 setting other coals on fire, and thus has the gift of 
 God been kept alive in his own soul. 
 
 Nor was his influence at home unfelt. Such is the 
 frailty of even good men, that sometimes it is seen that 
 whilst they are not unwilling to travel long distances 
 to preach to strangers, or to submit to much incon- 
 venience for the sake of being Sunday-school teachers, 
 they cannot be induced to make the least effort to 
 promote the spiritual welfare of their own families. 
 Not so Thomas Cook. As we have seen, his mother 
 was an earnest Christian, and it was no fault of hers 
 that family prayer was neglected in her home. But 
 such was the case prior to the conversion of Thomas, 
 and one of the first things that he was able to do after
 
 26 THOMA S COOK 'S EARL Y MINIS TR Y. 
 
 that event was to establish a family altar in his home. 
 Boy though he was, he led the devotions of the family, 
 and he had the unspeakable happiness of knowing that 
 his faithfulness in this respect contributed to promote 
 the conversion of several of his brothers and sisters. 
 " He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful 
 also in much." 
 
 In the previous chapter we intimated that we should 
 have to refer to the late Dr. Punshon, and the time 
 has now come to do so. Shortly after Mr. Cook's 
 conversion, Dr. Punshon visited Middlesbrough for 
 the purpose of addressing a public meeting. During 
 the course of his speech the orator appealed to 
 the young men who were present to offer themselves 
 for the ministry. Thomas Cook's spirit was stirred 
 in him ; and although Dr. Punshon knew it not, the 
 youth lifted up his heart to God in prayer, as he sat 
 in the gallery of the Wesleyan Chapel, and said, " 
 God, if Thou canst make a minister of me, I offer 
 myself for the work." 
 
 Instantly he knew that his offer was accepted, and 
 he received the assurance that God would prepare 
 him in His own way for the service to which that 
 evening he was designated by Him who disposes of 
 the lot which is "cast into the lap." 
 
 His education was defective for the office to which 
 he aspired ; and it was an instance of the goodness of 
 God, who ordered his steps, that he was successful in 
 obtaining a situation about this time as a pupil- 
 teacher in a day-school. He was thus enabled to 
 acquire a good deal of useful knowledge, which has 
 since stood him in good stead. 
 
 He now became a local preacher. He took the
 
 PREPARATION FOR WORK. 27 
 
 somewhat unusual course of asking a friend to 
 mention his name at the local preachers' quarterly 
 meeting, and was very naturally told that it was not 
 customary for young men to take this honour unto 
 themselves. But Thomas Cook's eye was single. He 
 knew that he was called of God, " as was Aaron." 
 He was burning with zeal for souls ; the position of 
 a local preacher appeared to offer suitable oppor- 
 tunities for indulging this passion ; he was therefore 
 anxious to secure it, and careless about convention- 
 alities. When the eye is single, the whole body is 
 full of light. I do not know that it would be wise 
 to advise young men, as a general rule, to offer them- 
 selves for this work, as did Thomas Cook. Generally, 
 it is better that faithful service rendered in obscurer 
 paths should precede and awaken the call of the 
 Church to more prominent appointments. Neverthe- 
 less, if a young man feels as Mr. Cook felt, if the 
 Word of God is like fire in his bones, let him do 
 what it is in his heart to do ; he cannot do wrong. 
 
 The local preachers' meeting accepted Mr. Cook, 
 and, having been a street preacher for some time, he 
 now began to preach in the chapels. 
 
 His 'first service after coming on the plan was 
 a peculiar one. Five persons formed the congrega- 
 tion ; of these he took one with him ; the chapel 
 keeper and his wife were there as ex officio members ; 
 the remaining two were boys, who, unaware that they 
 were taking part in any service of a historic character, 
 retired before the young preacher had finished his 
 sermon, not being interested in the discourse. There 
 is a Methodist tradition to the effect that the late 
 Samuel Coley once compared his own powers as a
 
 28 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 preacher with those of Morley Punshon, and declared 
 that whilst Morley Punshon could excel him in 
 preaching to three thousand persons, he could excel 
 Morley Punshon in preaching to three individuals. 
 The judgment was just : Samuel Coley could preach 
 to three persons with infinite ease, and to their great 
 edification ; and we doubt not that Thomas Cook 
 was able to preach to three persons with more 
 freedom and reality than many preachers would have 
 been able to do, because he spoke to them in a 
 colloquial style out of the abundance of his heart. 
 At the Christmas quarterly meeting, 1878, he was 
 received as a fully accredited local preacher, after 
 being examined in theology in the usual manner. 
 During these days he was wise enough to buy 
 Wesley's Works, and also Henry's peerless Commentary, 
 of which Mr. Spurgeon says to students, " Buy it, 
 even if you have to sell your coat to raise the neces- 
 sary money." He likewise paid attention to another 
 book which has had a rather long day, and which it 
 is to be feared has marred as many preachers as it 
 has made. This was Field's Handbook of Theology, 
 which the writer once heard the late Dr. Osborn 
 advise students not to read, unless they were pre- 
 cluded from studying better books. When Dr. 
 Parker was preparing for the ministry, he studied 
 Watson's Institutes under the guidance of a Wesleyan 
 minister, to whose study he went daily at six o'clock 
 in the morning for that purpose ; and the writer has 
 heard Dr. Parker express his thankfulness for the 
 theological instruction he thus obtained. As it is 
 hoped that these pages will be read by aspirants to 
 the ministry, the writer ventures to commend the
 
 PREPARATION FOR WORK. 29 
 
 example of Dr. Parker to them, and to urge them not 
 to be content with any handbooks, but to go to those 
 well-heads from which the authors of handbooks 
 themselves draw their supplies. Let the young 
 student provide himself with Dr. Pope's Works, for 
 example, and let him master them, in which case 
 he will have reason to give thanks that there are 
 theological writers for men as well as for children. 
 Mr. Cook found much profit from reading Wesley's 
 Journals, Fletcher's Works, Hunt's Letters, Arthur's 
 Tongue of Fire, Methodist Biography, and some portions 
 of Watson's Institutes. He was earnestly seeking 
 entire sanctification, and this course of reading in- 
 creased his desire for the blessing, and encouraged 
 him to believe that his search would not be in 
 vain. 
 
 During these days he received a letter from the 
 Kev. J. H. Norton, which, as it is characteristic of 
 the writer, and as suitable for other young preachers 
 as it was for Mr. Cook, I will insert. Mr. Norton 
 writes : " If you take a text, let it be a plain one. 
 First, understand it yourself, then try to make those 
 whom you address understand it. Be short ; some 
 speakers go over the same ground two or three times. 
 Speak as a dying man to dying men. Let the people 
 see that you love their souls, and wish to do them 
 good. Pray much. Get what you have to say from 
 the Word of God. Let all you say be sustained by 
 ' Thus saith the Lord.' Do not fish for praise ; and 
 when persons give it, consider what their judgment 
 is worth. When people blame you, and say you are 
 wrong, ask them to set you right. There are some 
 things you never can learn without the aid of books.
 
 30 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 Paul was inspired, but he wanted ' the books and 
 the parchments.' Redeem your time. Eise early. 
 Do not attempt too much. Never be unem- 
 ployed, but guard against busy idleness. Never 
 forget that there is a time to be silent, as well as a 
 time to speak. Many talk the most who have least 
 to say. Connect all you do with God the Holy 
 Ghost. He will help your infirmities. He will 
 sanctify your nature, and comfort you under all 
 your trials." 
 
 From the first it has pleased God to use Mr. Cook 
 in the conversion of sinners. I wish to say, once for 
 all, that if in these pages any praise seems to be 
 accorded to Mr. Cook, it is not the writer's intention 
 to increase Mr. Cook's fame. 
 
 Critics whose foible is omniscence may detect 
 some sinister purpose in the book, and regard it as an 
 illustration of the advertising spirit of the age. 
 Candid readers, however, will accept the writer's 
 assurance that no page has been, or will be, written 
 to gratify " the last infirmity of noble minds." Who, 
 then, is Thomas Cook but a minister, by whom many 
 have believed, " even as the Lord gave to every 
 man " ? Our design is to show what the Lord has 
 given him, and permitted him to do, " that, according 
 as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the 
 Lord." During the two years that Mr. Cook was a 
 local preacher, notwithstanding his youthfulness and 
 inexperience, bis ministry was richly blessed of God. 
 His services were not confined to his own Church, 
 but were freely given to the Primitive Methodists, 
 the Salvation Army, and other denominations ; and it 
 rarely happened that even in those days he preached
 
 PREP A RA TION FOR WORK. 3 1 
 
 without having cause to rejoice over conversions, as 
 may be gathered from the statement that during this 
 period the names of three hundred persons were 
 taken, all of whom publicly evinced a desire to flee 
 from the wrath to come, at services that he conducted. 
 Surely this circumstance should be encouraging to 
 local preachers. At the Nottingham Conference 
 (1891), it was stated by a speaker that the interests 
 of the work of God called for the renewed consecra- 
 tion of the ministers to the Lord Jesus Christ above 
 everything else. It was also said by another speaker, 
 that the local preachers needed to be aroused in 
 order that rural England might be evangelised, and 
 Methodism revived and extended. Why should not 
 hundreds of local preachers be as successful in 
 winning souls as Thomas Cook was in the days of 
 which we now write ? In thousands of villages 
 the Sunday services are practically all conducted by 
 lay preachers, and, therefore, if conversions are to 
 take place in these rural chapels, if the peasants 
 are to be brought to God as well -as the artisans, 
 the local preachers must be the instrument in the 
 hands of God for achieving this purpose. In Wes- 
 leyan Methodism the local preachers are eight times 
 as numerous as the travelling preachers, whilst, if we 
 take the six branches of the Methodist Church, we 
 find that the proportion is ten local preachers to one 
 itinerant minister. Out of every seven Sunday 
 services held in British Methodism, five are taken by 
 local preachers, and 5500 of our Wesley an pulpits 
 are filled every Lord's day by these brethren. It 
 should seem, therefore, that it is of the utmost import- 
 ance that the local preachers, as well as the ministers,
 
 32 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY, 
 
 should renew their consecration, and should be full 
 of faith and of the Holy Ghost. Their labours are 
 often exhausting, their voluntary services are not 
 always appreciated, and their discouragements are 
 many. But when they taste the joy of saving souls 
 from death, as Mr. Cook did when he belonged to 
 their order, they are amply compensated for the hard- 
 ships they endure, and they find it worth while to live 
 " to administer bliss and salvation in Jesus' name." 
 If the local preachers would read such books as Mr. 
 Cook read when he was " on the plan," the Memoirs 
 of David Stoner, Treffry's Life of John Smith, the Life 
 of David Brainerd, Finney's AutobiograpJiy, and the 
 other works previously mentioned, they would catch 
 the flame of holy zeal, and become inspired with a 
 restless longing for the salvation of souls. 
 
 Mr. Cook preached nearly every Sunday during 
 those two years, sometimes in adjacent towns. He 
 spent a Sunday at Darlington with Mr. Joshua 
 Dawson, and conducted services for the Salvation 
 Army, the result being that he saw two hundred 
 believers seeking purity of heart, and fourteen 
 penitents seeking pardon. During his Christmas 
 holidays in 1879, he held his first mission at 
 Espland Hill, near Appleby. The Lord's presence 
 was powerfully felt, and conversions took place. 
 Amongst the converts of that mission were two old 
 men, one being over seventy-nine years of age and 
 the other over eighty. Five years afterward, Mr. 
 Cook found them walking in the fear of the Lord and 
 the comfort of the Holy Ghost. One of them has 
 since " died in faith ; " the other still walks with God 
 on earth. He also paid a visit to Newcastle-on-Tyne,
 
 PREPARATION FOR WORK. 33 
 
 where he held two or three most remarkable services. 
 He addressed as many as four thousand people on 
 that occasion, and witnessed such extraordinary mani- 
 festations of divine power that he was reminded of 
 the occurrences that took place at times under the 
 preaching of the Wesleys. The physical phenomena 
 of which we read in Wesley's Journals, and which 
 appear to some readers to be inexplicable, notwith- 
 standing the tendency of the times to encourage the 
 vagaries of the Psychical Research Society and the 
 occultness of Theosophists, were, if not repeated, at 
 least reproduced in some measure at these Newcastle 
 services, and thus the mind of the young Evangelist 
 was deeply impressed. About this time it pleased 
 God to give Mr. Cook a remarkable dream. He 
 dreamt that he was standing by a lake that was 
 crowded with fish, and that he was casting in the 
 nets, and enclosing a great multitude of fish, while a 
 voice said to him, " I will make you a fisher of men." 
 We who believe that Peter learnt, whilst he was " in 
 a trance," that God had chosen from among the 
 apostles " that the Gentiles by [his] mouth should hear 
 the word of the gospel, and believe," shall have no 
 difficulty in accepting the statement that, by this 
 dream, God intended to show His young servant 
 " things which must shortly come to pass." So 
 Thomas Cook understood it, and the event has proved 
 that his interpretation of the dream was correct. 
 We have seen that Mr. Cook was led early, in his 
 Christian life, to seek the blessing of entire sancti- 
 fi cation. Having noticed in his reading that all the 
 great evangelists of Methodism had enjoyed a Pente- 
 cost in their lives, and that the reception of this great 
 
 C
 
 34 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 blessing brought such increased power for service that 
 it inaugurated a new era in their religious life, Mr. 
 Cook was prompted to seek for himself this enduement 
 of power. In course of time he received the " second 
 blessing," as our fathers used to term it, which altered 
 his Christian life almost as much as the " first blessing " 
 altered his natural life ; and to this auspicious event 
 he attributes, more than to any other occurrence since 
 his conversion, the great usefulness of his ministry. 
 As he regards the finding of this inestimable blessing 
 as the main part of his preparation for the work 
 which lay before him, the reader will be glad to have 
 the opportunity of learning from Mr. Cook himself 
 what was the nature of the blessing which he then 
 received, and what was the effect which it produced 
 upon his life and ministry. I therefore subjoin the 
 following account which Mr. Cook has published in a 
 small tract, entitled, Thomas Cook's Experience : 
 
 " My conversation was so clear and satisfactory that 
 I could never doubt its reality. Need I say it was 
 'an eventful period in my history when I first realised 
 God's pardoning mercy, and received the assurance of 
 His favour ? The beginnings of this life of loyalty 
 and love I shall never forget. It seems but as yester- 
 day, though ten years have now passed since the love 
 of God was shed abroad in my heart, and I was 
 reconciled to God, who loved me, even me. It was 
 a change as from death unto life. A new fountain of 
 joys was at once opened in my heart, so exceedingly 
 precious and sweet as to utterly extinguish all desire 
 for that which I had called pleasure before. All my 
 fears of death, judgment, and hell were fully swept
 
 PREPARA TION FOR WORK. 35 
 
 away, and I could do nothing but praise God con- 
 tinually. My tastes, desires, and impulses were all 
 changed ; ' all things became new.' I was truly a 
 new creature, and seemed to be in a new world. 
 
 " With such experiences, is it any wonder I imagined 
 the work of moral renovation was perfected, that sin 
 was not only forgiven, but fully expelled from my 
 soul ? But soon I discovered my mistake. My 
 highly-wrought emotions subsided, and petty annoy- 
 ances of life chafed, the temptations of the devil 
 assailed ; and then I found out, as pride, envy, un- 
 belief, self-will, and other forms of heart-sin stirred 
 within me, that much needed to be done before I 
 could be ' meet for the inheritance of the saints in 
 light.' The ' old man ' was bound, but not cast out ; 
 the disease was modified, but not eradicated ; sin was 
 suspended, but not fully destroyed. True, sin was 
 stunned and deadened and held in check by grace ; 
 its power was broken, but its pollution continued. 
 It did not reign, but it existed, making its presence 
 felt in a constant ' bent to sinning,' and at times a 
 painful sense of duality contrasting most strikingly 
 with the sweet feeling of oneness with Christ I now 
 experience. There were foes within as well as with- 
 out ; some of the Canaanites remained, and were 
 thorns in my side and pricks in my eyes ; the flesh 
 and spirit were in a state of antagonism, which I saw 
 to be manifestly only a temporary position one or 
 the other must eventually conquer ; the light was 
 minglod with darkness, and love with its opposites. 
 
 "How many headaches and heartaches I had in 
 struggling with my bosom foes no language can 
 describe. All the time I was enjoying sweet fellow-
 
 36 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 ship with Christ, was blessedly conscious of acceptance 
 in Him, was an earnest worker in the Lord's vineyard, 
 and would rather have died then wilfully sinned 
 against Him. But though I never was a backslider 
 in the ordinary sense, my Christian life was unsatis- 
 factory, at least to myself. There was much of 
 vacillation about it, sinning and repenting, advancing 
 and retrograding, swinging like a pendulum between 
 God and the world. At times I was all earnestness, 
 zeal, and fervour ; then comparatively cold, careless, 
 and indifferent. My experience was full of fits and 
 starts, changeable and uneven. I was conscious also 
 of a mighty want ; there seemed a vacuum in my 
 nature which grace had not filled, a strange sense of 
 need, which I cannot describe, but which all who love 
 the Lord Jesus with less than perfect love will under- 
 stand. My efforts to save men were unabated, but no 
 adequate results followed. I fear now that to furnish 
 subject-food for self-worship was the great end in 
 much that I did, and not the glory of Jesus. 
 
 " For three years this half-and-half sort of life con- 
 tinued, when I was so dissatisfied that I felt, unless I 
 had something better, I could not go on any longer. 
 Heading Methodist biographies about this time stirred 
 my heart, and filled me with hope for better things. 
 I thought what God had done for others He could do 
 for me ; and an inexpressible longing possessed me to 
 enjoy the fulness of which they spoke. I began at 
 once to seek it, determined to give God no rest until I 
 was sanctified wholly. The more earnestly I sought, 
 the worse I seemed to become. What a view I had 
 of the sinfulness of my own heart ! I saw what a 
 charnel-house it was a depth of depravity there
 
 PREPARATION FOR WORK, 37 
 
 which would once have utterly paralysed my faith 
 and extinguished my hope. I then apprehended the 
 goodness of God in not revealing to me my need of 
 cleansing when I sought forgiveness. It was enough 
 that I should realise my guilt, and exposure to the 
 pangs of the second death, when I came to God at 
 first. Had I then seen my own heart sin as I saw it 
 afterwards, I believe I should have despaired in view 
 of the difficulties ; so God's revelation of my need was 
 tempered in mercy until I had strength enough to 
 receive- it. On the same principle, God did not lead 
 Israel from Egypt to Canaan by the shortest route, 
 but, lest they should faint in the presence of their 
 enemies, He led them by a way more roundabout. 
 It was in my case very similar to that of Professor 
 Upham, ' the remains of every form of internal opposi- 
 tion to God appeared to be centred in one point 
 selfishness.' I had once prayed to be saved from hell, 
 but prayer to be saved from mysclj 'now was immeasur- 
 ably more fervent. How I struggled and wrestled for 
 the victory I shall never be able to tell, but sin and 
 self die hard. 
 
 " From experiences I had read and listened to, I 
 imagined it would be all gladness entering into this 
 rest, but I found it a different process. The way was 
 through the Garden and by the Cross ; I had to learn 
 the hard lesson that every victory is gained by sur- 
 render, and that the place of life is the place of death. 
 Only from the ashes of a dead Jacob can the prevail- 
 ing Israel arise. I saw it all clearly enough : that 
 before there could be a full and glorious resurrection 
 to spiritual life and blessedness, there must first be a 
 complete death of self my hands must be empty if
 
 38 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 I would grasp a whole Christ. Again and again I 
 searched my heart and surrendered, praying all the 
 while that any idol might be uncovered of which I 
 was unconscious that the Holy Spirit would make 
 demand after demand, until self was exhausted. Per- 
 haps my reputation was the last thing laid on the 
 altar. How concerned I used to be for the good 
 opinion of my fellow-mortals, instead of seeking the 
 honour that comes from God only ! But I see now, 
 that I never had any reputation until I gave it to 
 God. Blessed paradox, ' He that loseth his life for 
 My sake shall save it ; ' and in all other matters this 
 is equally true. Acting upon the advice of one deeply 
 experienced in divine things, I wrote upon paper the 
 several items included, as well as the obligations 
 assumed, in the complete consecration of myself to 
 God. I did this to secure definiteness of surrender. 
 
 " At last I felt sure, so far as I knew it (and we are 
 not responsible for what we do not know), upon all I 
 had I could honestly inscribe ' sacred to Jesus.' The 
 language of my soul was, ' None of self, and all of 
 Thee.' But still the Lord tarried. Why did He not 
 come and fill His temple ? I saw afterwards it was 
 because I did not receive Him by simple faith. In 
 consecration we give all, by faith we take all ; and the 
 one is as essential as the other. I had received justi- 
 fication by faith, but was seeking sanctification by 
 works. What stragglings and wrestlings and tears I 
 might have been saved had I known the simple way 
 of faith then as I do now ! But I had no one to 
 help me. 
 
 " Some months passed, during which I was at times 
 almost in a state of despair ; but my extremity was
 
 PREPARATION FOR WORK. 39 
 
 God's opportunity. At this very juncture, when I felt 
 I must die unless I received the grace, Mr. Joshua 
 Dawson came to our town, and proclaimed ' full salva- 
 tion ' to be a present duty and privilege. There was 
 no disputing his teaching : if by faith, it must be a 
 present experience, Faith cannot be otherwise than 
 an instantaneous operation. It was like a revelation 
 from heaven to me ; and I rejoiced in hope, though 
 not in actual possession of the fulness during his visit. 
 Some friends entered into the rest before he left, but, 
 greatly to my disappointment, I did not. Instead of 
 receiving Christ as my Saviour to the uttermost in the 
 absence of all feeling, I waited for some wondrous 
 emotion, some great exaltation of soul. In fact, I 
 was seeking the experience of another friend, who had 
 been prostrated under the weight of glory which fell 
 upon him as he wrestled for the blessing. How many 
 seekers make this same mistake ! They forget that 
 in all God's works is beautiful variety ; and in the 
 spiritual world this is as true as in the natural world. 
 He scarcely ever deals with two persons alike. I had 
 set the Lord a plan to work by, and was disappointed. 
 Instead of in the mighty torrent, God spoke to me in 
 the ' still small voice.' I saw my blunder afterwards, 
 and was willing to be blessed in God's own way with 
 or without emotion. It was then oh, glory to His 
 name ! He spoke to me the second time, ' Be 
 clean.' 
 
 " The circumstances were as follows : A few friends 
 who had received ' full salvation' during Mr. Dawson's 
 visit decided to meet together week by week, to en- 
 courage each other in the way and assist those who 
 might be seeking the experience. It was at the first
 
 40 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 meeting where the Lord met me. After listening to 
 their experiences, I could bear no longer, but asked 
 them to begin at once to pray that I might enter in. 
 I fell upon my knees, with the determination not to 
 rise again until my request was granted. The passage, 
 ' If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we 
 have fellowship one with another ; and the blood of 
 Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin,' was 
 instantly applied to my heart, and with such power as 
 I had never felt before. What a fulness of meaning 
 I saw in the words ! Was I walking in the light ? 
 Truthfully I could answer, ' Yes, Lord ; so far as I 
 know Thy will I am doing it, and will do it, by Thy 
 grace helping me.' I then saw that the passage was 
 not so much a promise as a plain declaration. If I 
 walked in light, the full cleansing from sin was my 
 heritage ; and all I had to do was to immediately 
 claim it. Without a moment's hesitation I did so, and 
 cried out at the top of my voice, ' I claim the blessing 
 now.' My friends then began to sing, 
 
 " ' Tis done ! Thou dost this moment save, 
 
 With full salvation bless ; 
 Redemption through Thy blood I have, 
 And spotless love and peace.' 
 
 " While they sang, the refining fire came down and 
 went through my heart, searching, probing, melting, 
 burning, filling all its chambers with light, and hallow- 
 ing my whole heart to God. Oh the indescribable 
 sweetness of that moment ! All words fail to express 
 the blessedness of the spiritual manifestation of Jesus 
 as my Saviour from all sin. My heart warms as I 
 write at the remembrance of the event which tran-
 
 PREPARATION FOR WORK. 41 
 
 scends all others in my religious history. It was not 
 so much ecstatic emotion I experienced as an unspeak- 
 able peace ' God's love swallowed me up.' For a 
 few moments ' all its waves and billows rolled over 
 me.' So much afraid was I lest I should lose the 
 delightful sense of the Saviour's presence, that I wished 
 those with me not to speak or disturb me ; I wanted 
 to dwell in silence, as my heart was filled with love 
 and gratitude to God. 
 
 " I need not say the reception of this grace proved 
 an era in my religious life. Six beautiful years have 
 passed away since then. But no words can ever 
 express the complete satisfaction I have in Christ : 
 the sweet sense of rest in His hallowing presence from 
 all worry and care ; the ease and joy of His service 
 not ' I must ' now, but ' I may ; ' the delight I find 
 in prayer and praise ; the increased preciousness and 
 fulness of meaning I see in the Scriptures ; and the 
 clear and indubitable witness of cleansing through the 
 blood of Jesus. Spurgeon says there is a point in 
 grace as much above the ordinary Christian as the 
 ordinary Christian is above the worldling. Surely 
 this is it to live in the ' Heavenlies/ ' where dwells 
 the Lord our righteousness,' and keeps His own in 
 perfect peace and everlasting rest. At least the trans- 
 formation in my experience has been as great. How 
 I wish I could tell of the sweetness, and richness, and 
 indescribable blessedness of this life of perfect love ! 
 I cannot tell the story ; but I cannot let it alone. 
 Oh for a thousand tongues to proclaim Jesus to men, 
 the mighty Saviour who is able to save them to the 
 uttermost who come unto God by Him ! Reader, will 
 you join us and help to spread the sacred flame ?
 
 42 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 " 'Li blessing Thee with grateful songs 
 
 My happy life shall glide away : 
 
 The praise that to Thy name belongs 
 
 Hourly with lifted hands I'll pay. 
 
 Abundant sweetness, while I sing 
 
 Thy love, my ravish'd heart o'erflows ; 
 
 Secure in Thee, my God and King, 
 Of glory that no period knows.'"
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 A LAY EVANGELIST. 
 
 IT was deeply impressed upon Mr. Cook's mind that 
 he was called of God to the Christian ministry. 
 He was at that time, as we have seen, engaged as a 
 day-school teacher. He had the opportunity of enter- 
 ing Westminster Training College, and was disposed to 
 think that he could eventually succeed in that profes- 
 sion. He did not therefore look towards the Christian 
 ministry for the reason that induced a certain eminent 
 lawyer once to turn his eyes in that direction, of whom 
 his biographer naively says, that " his prospects were 
 at one time so gloomy that he had serious thoughts of 
 taking holy orders." Mr. Cook's prospects were not 
 " gloomy," but " necessity was laid upon " him ; yea, 
 he felt that " woe was unto him " if he preached not 
 the gospel ; and, therefore, as entering Westminster 
 Training College would have involved a pledge that he 
 would devote a number of years to the work of teach- 
 ing, he declined the proposal, and awaited the further 
 call of God, which he was convinced would soon come. 
 He examined his motives, and was convinced that 
 ambition had nothing to do with his decision. At the 
 same time, he was deterred from offering himself for 
 the ministry by a feeling of unfitness for the work. 
 
 43
 
 44 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 Overtures were made to him by the representatives of 
 other Churches, who desired him to enter their ranks, 
 but he dwelt among his own people, and he therefore 
 did not entertain any offer that came to him from out- 
 side of Wesleyan Methodism. In the year 1880 
 he was nominated as a candidate for the Wesleyari 
 ministry, in the quarterly meeting of the Middlesbrough 
 Circuit, by the Eev. Philip Fowler, and, somewhat to 
 his surprise, the nomination was unanimously approved. 
 His preaching had excited a little opposition. He 
 had aimed at the immediate salvation of his hearers, 
 and he had not scrupled to use means to further this 
 end which were not approved of all. Moreover, he had 
 taught the doctrine of entire sanctification, and urged 
 his hearers to seek the blessing ; and he had witnessed 
 to the enjoyment of it in his own experience. This 
 also caused some difference of opinion. From Wesley's 
 day to the times of the Southport Conventions, it has 
 been impossible to proclaim the full privileges of the 
 children of God without exciting opposition, and the 
 opposition usually comes from one's own household. 
 However, Thomas Cook was sent to the district meet- 
 ing, with the imprimatur of his own Circuit quarterly 
 meeting, as a candidate for the ministry. Having to 
 preach " a trial sermon," prior to the district meeting, 
 before three ministers, he took occasion to bear witness 
 to the truth of full salvation, and thereby caused a 
 little surprise, for he was but a boy. At the district 
 meeting he was examined in theology by the Ilev. 
 Edward Watson, and again he declared, in the presence 
 of the ministers, that the blood of Jesus Christ cleansed 
 him from all sin. All candidates for the Wesleyan 
 Methodist ministry are required to be seekers after
 
 A LAY EVANGELIST. 45 
 
 this great blessing, and are distinctly asked whether 
 such is the case ; and yet such is the frailty of 
 human nature if any candidate affirms that he has 
 found the " pearl which others spurn," his confession 
 creates surprise, and sometimes opposition. 1 Thus, at 
 the close of the Chairman's examination, a member of 
 the District Committee exercised his right to ask the 
 candidate a few questions on his own account. He 
 inquired if Mr. Cook still had reason to use the Lord's 
 Prayer, and was told in reply that the candidate con- 
 tinued to do so, chiefly because he had learnt to 
 distinguish between trespasses arid sins. I am not 
 sure that the young theologian was right in the dis- 
 tinction which he drew ; for although the version of the 
 Lord's Prayer which we use, and which we have learnt 
 from the Book of Common Prayer, gives the word 
 " trespasses," the Gospels give the words " debts " and 
 " sins." However, the District Committee was assured 
 when it heard that, for whatever reason, Mr. Cook had 
 not got beyond the Lord's Prayer. He was then asked 
 to explain the difference between sanctification and 
 regeneration, and did so to the satisfaction of the 
 meeting. Finally, he was asked to explain the differ- 
 ence between the love of God which is characteristic 
 of the regenerated man, and that which is characteristic 
 of the sanctified man. 
 
 The Chairman, however, interposed, remarking that 
 the candidate had not been a student of theology for 
 forty years, and should not be unduly pressed. 
 
 It should seem that the district meeting was satis- 
 
 1 See "Notices of my Life and Times," by the Rev. Dr. Gregory, 
 in the Wesleyan Methodist Magazine for November 1891, where the 
 Connexional Editor describes a somewhat similar experience.
 
 46 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 fied with the examination, for the marks given were 
 not amiss ; but the sermon he preached, and which 
 was reported upon in the usual way, was not deemed 
 satisfactory, and received low marks. 
 
 It will be remembered that the sermon bore witness 
 to the doctrine of entire sanctification ; and as the 
 preacher pressed the blessing upon his hearers, and at 
 the close of the service urged them to come forward 
 to the communion rail and seek it as a definite experi- 
 ence, some displeasure was excited. It was also said 
 that the sermon was "too colloquial;" and the soft 
 impeachment cannot be denied, for the youth was but 
 twenty years of age, and had only paid attention for 
 a short time to literature and composicion. 
 
 However, the District Committee recommended him 
 to the Conference, and thus discharged its duty. 
 
 Twice he had now passed the sieve ; but as candi- 
 dates for the Wesley an ministry are invariably riddled 
 over three times, he had another and more severe 
 ordeal to pass before he could be accepted by the Con- 
 ference. In July he had to appear before a committee 
 appointed by the Conference for the purpose, and to 
 satisfy the members of it that his preaching and know- 
 ledge of theology were sufficient to justify his accept- 
 ance. It is characteristic of Thomas Cook that when 
 he had appeared before the committee, and was wait- 
 ing in another room with his fellow - candidates to 
 know the result, he utilised the time by relating to the 
 young men his experience of full salvation. To the 
 credit of these young men it must be said, that 
 they did not resent this action on the part of one of 
 the youngest of their number, as David's brothers 
 resentedjhis appearance on the battle-field, when Eliab
 
 A LAY EVANGELIST. 47 
 
 said to him, " I know thy pride, and the naughtiness of 
 thine heart." On the contrary, they thanked him for 
 his testimony, and some promised that they never 
 would rest until they shared his glorious experience. 
 Subsequent events proved that at least one or two of 
 those young men were profoundly and permanently 
 impressed by that episode, which may perhaps be 
 regarded as an illustration of what St. Paul means 
 when he bids the preacher to be " instant " out of 
 season as well as in season. 
 
 It so happened that the number of candidates was 
 that year in excess of the demand, and for this reason 
 chiefly his offer was not accepted, and the July Com- 
 mittee did not recommend him to the Conference. 
 Others were, of course, declined as well, and some of 
 them were deeply distressed at their rejection. But 
 Thomas Cook was not distressed in the least, for he 
 knew that he was in his heavenly Father's hands, and 
 that all would be overruled for good. He was, how- 
 ever, grieved, because, as it seemed to him, some of the 
 candidates who apparently were most devoted to God 
 were declined ; and one of these, at all events, sorrowed 
 more for the rejection of Thomas Cook than for his 
 own. This young man, as was afterwards ascertained, 
 went down to breakfast in tears soon after his return 
 home, and when his mother gently chided him for 
 weeping over his failure, as she supposed, he told her 
 that he was not grieving on account of his own rejec- 
 tion, but on account of Thomas Cook ; " for," said he, 
 " what is to become of Methodism if candidates like 
 Thomas Cook are declined ? " 
 
 That the July Committee erred in judgment when 
 they declined Mr. Cook's offer, would now be admitted
 
 48 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 probably by every minister who sat upon it; and if they 
 went astray in one case, it is possible they did so in others. 
 But when this is stated, it is only said that " the best 
 of men are but men at the best," and that, although 
 actuated by the purest motives, they are liable to err. 
 
 Infallible critics will be ready to denounce the un- 
 wisdom of the committee, but we are content to point 
 the moral of the story. To admit unworthy or ineffi- 
 cient men into the ministry is to strike with paralysis 
 the Church of Christ ; while to exclude from the 
 ministry men whom God has called, is to inflict almost 
 as great an injury upon the Church. Those, therefore, 
 who are called upon to decide whether candidates shall 
 be accepted or declined, do well to address themselves to 
 their solemn duties after a period of fasting and prayer. 
 
 After his rejection, Mr. Cook continued to preach as 
 before, preaching always on the Lord's day, and some- 
 times on week evenings, and nearly always rejoicing 
 over visible fruit. In October 1880 he held a mission 
 at New Marske with Mr. Davidson, now the Rev. 
 Edward Davidson, one of Mr. Cook's colleagues, and a 
 Connexional evangelist. Mr. Cook and Mr. Davidson 
 were brought up as boys together, and hitherto they 
 have not been divided. They both belong by birth to 
 a preaching part of the Connexion, the district from 
 which they came having given Methodism many 
 preachers, and having sent eight men to the ministry 
 recently, who are all at the time of writing students in 
 the Wesleyan Theological Colleges. The mission at 
 New Marske was blessed ; the young Evangelists took 
 alternate services ; and about thirty or forty converts 
 were the visible results of the preachers' labours. 
 
 In November 1880, the Rev. Joseph Bush, then
 
 A LAY EVA NGELIS T. 49 
 
 the chairman of the Halifax and Bradford District, 
 having heard, through the late Rev. Alexander 
 Macaulay, of the success of Mr. Cook's local ministry, 
 wrote to Mr. Cook, and offered him the appointment 
 of lay evangelist to his district. Mr. Cook recognised 
 the hand of God in the offer, and accepted it at once, 
 and began work in that capacity in the Halifax 
 and Bradford District on the 21st of November 1880. 
 The present writer was travelling in one of the 
 Bradford Circuits at the time, and he has a distinct 
 recollection of the commencement of Mr. Cook's 
 district work. He remembers what was said in the 
 District meeting about Mr. Cook's age, and preaching, 
 and rejection by the July Committee, as well as what 
 was said about his devotion and the great success 
 which God was giving him in his own Circuit and 
 neighbourhood. It cannot be said that he entered on 
 his District work with great advantages. His youth 
 was a stumbling-block to some, and his failure at the 
 "July Committee" somewhat damaged him. How- 
 beit, " the Lord seeth not as man seeth," for no 
 sooner did this youth of a ruddy countenance begin 
 to preach than the Lord began to confirm the word, 
 and signs and wonders were wrought by the name of 
 His holy Child Jesus. He was sent, as the writer 
 well remembers, to some of the smallest and 
 apparently most unfruitful places in the District to 
 small struggling Circuits where revivals were unknown 
 excepting by tradition ; he was also sent to the 
 largest and most influential places. But it mattered 
 not where he went ; the same report reached us from 
 every Circuit which he visited, and it was to this effect, 
 that unusually large congregations had been gathered 
 
 D
 
 50 THOMAS COOK >S EARL Y MINISTR V. 
 
 together, sometimes crowded congregations, and that 
 great numbers of men and women had been converted 
 to God. 
 
 Mr. Cook began his work as a District lay 
 evangelist in the Bradford (Windhill) Circuit. His 
 methods were new ; others have now adopted them, 
 and we are familiar with them ; and, moreover, they 
 have been justified by success. God has let it 
 be known that Thomas Cook is His servant, and 
 that he has done all these things at His word, 
 and hence opposition has ceased. But when lie 
 first commenced, his plans met with some dis- 
 favour. As his aims and methods will be dealt 
 with in a subsequent chapter, it need only be said 
 here that, from the first, he has been accustomed to 
 invite any of his hearers who have been impressed by 
 the Word to rise in their places, that they might 
 have the benefit of the prayers of the congregation. 
 He then usually commends the persons who respond 
 to his invitation to God in prayer, after which he 
 directs them to repair to the inquiry-rooms, in order 
 that experienced Christians may do for them what 
 Aquila and Priscilla did for Apollos when he was an 
 inquirer, and they " expounded unto him the way of 
 God more perfectly." Generally, there is not much 
 opportunity in Mr. Cook's after-meetings for persons 
 to engage in public prayer, nor is there any going 
 about from pew to pew to speak to individuals. 
 Often all the burden of the public service rests 
 upont he evangelist, the whole of " the workers " 
 being directed to go to the inquiry-rooms, and the 
 penitents all being sent there, instead of being directed 
 to kneel at the communion rail, as was the custom
 
 A LAY E VANGELIST. 5 1 
 
 prior to the days of the Connexional evangelists. 
 It will thus be seen that Mr. Cook's methods were 
 contrary to the traditions of the elders ; and as he was 
 but one-and-twenty when he introduced them into 
 Methodism, it is not surprising that he had to 
 encounter some opposition. Had his methods failed, 
 they must have been abandoned ; but he had a firm 
 conviction that they were the best he could adopt, 
 and therefore he held fast to them, and God graciously 
 sanctioned them with an abundant blessing. Each 
 evening the congregation, at that first mission in 
 the Bradford District, increased, and increased spon- 
 taneously. That is to say, no special means were 
 used to attract congregations, but the news was blazed 
 abroad that sinners were being converted, and many 
 said in effect to the mission preacher : " We will go 
 with you, for we have heard that God is with you." 
 On the evening of the second Lord's day forty adults 
 entered the inquiry-rooms. 
 
 As a rule, Mr. Cook's services are marked by still- 
 ness and the absence of excitement; but exciting 
 incidents have always occurred in his missions, and 
 the element of romance has never been lacking. Thus, 
 at this first mission, a man walked quickly down 
 the aisle at one of the services and cried lustily to 
 God for mercy. When he reached the rail he fell 
 down on the floor, and in much distress audibly 
 exclaimed, " Lord, save me." One of the helpers 
 essayed to comfort him; but the penitent, supposing 
 that the helper intended to speak to him on some 
 other subject, said : " Get away, man, I have no time 
 to talk ; I want to be saved. My father is in heaven, 
 and I wish to go there too." He was the son of a
 
 52 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 godly class-leader who had died a few weeks before 
 the mission was held, and he did not cry out of the 
 depths in vain. He is now an earnest Christian, and 
 one of the best, as well as one of the first, fruits of 
 Mr. Cook's ministry. 
 
 Work of this kind has always been opposed and 
 disparaged. The ungodly sneer at it, and seek to 
 discredit the agents of it. The motives of Mr. 
 Moody were impugned when he was carrying on his 
 great work in these islands; and of General Booth it has 
 often been said, by those who love to make a lie, that 
 he and his family have made " a good thing " out of 
 the Salvation Army. These palpable calumnies are 
 easy to understand ; for " if they have called the 
 Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall 
 they call them of His household ? " It is not, how- 
 ever, easy to understand why Christian people, and 
 sometimes even ministers of religion, make light of 
 the results of evangelistic services, Let the following 
 weighty words of the Rev. W. Arthur be pondered by 
 all whom they concern : 
 
 " A more pitiable thing cannot be, than to see a 
 man who, himself destitute of ministerial power, not 
 only is unconscious how miserable a creature he is, 
 but is even ready to make light of the usefulness of 
 others ; and, in his ordinary conversation, to set down 
 those whom the Lord honours as the instruments of 
 converting sinners, below what he calls " intellectual " 
 men, . . . who deal out dainties from the pulpit, but 
 do no work that will live when they are dead. . . . 
 In the great day . . . how differently will the two 
 men appear the one whose humble labour has been 
 the means of converting servant-maids, and the one
 
 A LAY EVANGELIST. 53 
 
 whose envy and whose wit were vented in making 
 light of the work." 
 
 The first mission which Mr. Cook held as a lay 
 evangelist was discredited by unbelievers, as no doubt 
 his last mission was. Fifteen months after the close 
 of the Windhill Mission, a friend reported to Mr. 
 Cook that he had been told by an official that he did 
 not think that there were then three persons in the 
 Windhill Society who were brought to God at that 
 mission. Had this been so, the mission could not 
 justly have been pronounced a failure on this account, 
 for the fruits of a mission are never given wholly to 
 any one Society, nor to any one Circuit, nor indeed to 
 any one Church. As it was, however, the statement 
 was proved to be without foundation. One of the 
 leaders of the Society visited the Windhill classes with 
 a view to investigate the statement, and he was able to 
 report that sixty-four persons were actually meeting 
 in class at that time who were all the fruits of the 
 mission held eighteen months before. The names of 
 those persons and of their leaders are now before me, 
 in a document prepared by the leader who made the 
 inquiry, and which happens to have been preserved; and 
 had the scope of the inquiry been enlarged, and made to 
 embrace the other Societies in the Circuit and the 
 sister Churches in the town, there is reason to believe 
 that it would have been proved that the abiding fruit 
 of that mission was more considerable than the figures 
 just quoted indicate. 
 
 The evangelist's boyish appearance in those days 
 created no little surprise, " Bless the dear lad," 
 an old lady was heard to exclaim when he ascended 
 the pulpit steps during one of his early missions ; and
 
 54 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 similar exclamations were often made. Sometimes a 
 humorous incident would happen. Thus, when Mr. 
 Cook went to a Circuit in the Bradford District known 
 to the writer, to conduct a mission, he was met at 
 the railway station by a good man, who was so struck 
 by the evangelist's youthfulness that he involuntarily 
 made a hole in his manners. Eyeing the preacher 
 from head to foot, the honest Yorkshireman asked, 
 " Are you the man ? " With becoming meekness 
 Thomas Cook pleaded guilty, and thereupon the 
 disappointed representative of the Circuit said, " Come 
 on, I'm afraid we shall not have much done." During 
 this period Mr. Cook held a mission in the Manning- 
 ham Circuit, Bradford, which was, all things considered, 
 perhaps as remarkable for results as any mission he 
 has since conducted. Services were held in four of the 
 chapels in the Circuit, and altogether not less than 
 five hundred persons professed to find peace with God. 
 The work in St. John's Chapel in that Circuit was, 
 to many, a surprise, and it remains a pleasant and 
 an inspiring recollection. The reader must know that 
 St. John's Chapel, Manningham, is one of the hand- 
 somest structures in British Methodism, the premises 
 having cost about twenty thousand pounds. There is 
 a lurking suspicion in the minds of some excellent 
 people that costly and splendid chapels do not permit 
 of successful spiritual work being done within their 
 walls. If this suspicion is well grounded the Con- 
 nexion ought to know it, and to resolve to build no 
 more magnificent sanctuaries as long as the moon 
 endures. Some of the devout Bradford Methodists 
 really doubted whether it was within the range of 
 possibility for conversions to take place in this ornate
 
 A LAY EVANGELIST. 55 
 
 church, with its impressive liturgical service and its 
 male choir robed in black gowns. The writer has 
 heard it said by Bradford Methodists, who prefer 
 mission halls to Gothic chapels, that the twenty 
 thousand pounds which these premises cost were 
 lying idle, and would not yield any return to the 
 Circuit, which had raised that large sum and expended 
 it for the purpose of spreading the gospel. Neverthe- 
 less, as soon as Mr. Cook began his mission in St. 
 John's Chapel, the power of the Lord was displayed, 
 and neither Gothic architecture, nor the use of the 
 liturgy, nor the gowns of the choir, prevented the 
 Spirit of the Lord from working amongst the con- 
 gregation, and adding to the Society many " who were 
 being saved." At one of the after- meetings a Method- 
 ist, who belonged to an adjacent Circuit, engaged in 
 prayer, and deemed it right to intersperse his petitions 
 with these observations : " I said I would never come 
 into this place until I heard of souls being saved in 
 it ; and now, Lord, that a revival has begun, I have 
 come to pray Thee to carry it on." 
 
 Some three years after the close of this mission, 
 Mr. Cook was standing near the building, and wondering 
 how the converts of the mission were prospering, when 
 a lady accosted him, and told him that she was one 
 of the fruits of the mission, her brother was another, 
 and her two sisters and mother were also amongst 
 them. Thus five members of one family had been 
 brought to God during the mission, and they were 
 then holding fast what they had received. Another 
 of the converts of the same mission has been working 
 in the East End of London with the Rev. Peter 
 Thompson for some time.
 
 56 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 Surely there is no reasou, in the nature of the case, 
 why conversions should not occur as frequently in 
 spacious and elegant suburban chapels as in plain 
 structures and crowded mission halls. And yet it 
 cannot be denied that services in these superb build- 
 ings bear no such fruit. Does it not lie upon those 
 who conduct such services to explain this circum- 
 stance ? 
 
 The work of this period was extensive as well 
 as deep, as may be gathered from the fact that during 
 twenty weeks, two thousand adults entered the inquiry- 
 rooms in the various missions that Mr. Cook con- 
 ducted. Disappointment is often felt because the 
 net result of a mission to the particular Society under 
 whose auspices it is held is not so large as it was 
 expected to be. To some extent disappointment is 
 inevitable, for " the kingdom of heaven is like unto 
 a net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every 
 kind" But our disappointment would be less, if we 
 remembered that mission services always enrich many 
 Churches besides the one in connection with which 
 they are held. When our fathers asked themselves 
 what the design of God was in the rise of Methodism, 
 they answered, " To reform the nation, and especially 
 the Church, by spreading scriptural holiness over the 
 land." Since, therefore, our object is not to swell the 
 number of our adherents, and thus build up a huge 
 sect, we ought not to overlook the benefit that our 
 missions confer on sister Churches. I have before me 
 a statement in the handwriting of the Eev. Marshall 
 Hartley, dated May 10th, 1881, which gives what he 
 calls a " Summary of our Uesults," and as it refers to 
 a mission which Mr. Cook held during the period now
 
 A LAY EVANGELIST. 57 
 
 under review, and is typical of all his missions, I 
 will trouble the reader with the figures, merely 
 premising that they refer to a mission held in Rich- 
 mond Terrace Chapel, Bradford, of which Mr. Hartley 
 then had charge. Six hundred and eight converts are 
 accounted for in the following way : 
 
 Wesleyans, . . . . . 362 
 
 Church of England, .... 72 
 
 Independents, . . . . .54 
 
 Baptists, ...... 43 
 
 Primitives, ..... 28 
 
 Methodist Free Church, . . . .14 
 
 Reformers, . . . . .11 
 
 New Connexion, ..... 7 
 
 Presbyterians, Quakers, and Salvation Army, . 8 
 
 From other towns, .... 9 
 
 Total, . . 608 
 
 Mr. Hartley adds to his statement the words, " Glory 
 to God in the highest." 
 
 Mr. Moody gloried in the unsectarian character of 
 his work in this country, and persistently refused to 
 identify himself with any particular Church, because 
 he wished to " make disciples of all nations," and not 
 to make denominationalists of any nation. When 
 he was pressed to say of what persuasion he was, 
 he replied, " Of St. Paul's, who was persuaded 
 that He was able to keep that which he had com- 
 mitted to Him." Mr. Cook is identified with a 
 particular Church, and, like all Wesleyan ministers, 
 would fain increase the membership of his own 
 denomination. But it is no disparagement of his 
 work to say that from the very first it has greatly 
 enriched all the Churches.
 
 58 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 Mr. Cook's second year in the Halifax and Bradford 
 District was more remarkable than the first. He 
 visited more of the larger Circuits, and the work 
 assumed wider proportions. One of the first missions 
 of the second year was held in the Khodes Street 
 Chapel, Halifax. An abundant blessing rested upon 
 the services, some hundreds of persons professing con- 
 version as the result of them. Among the converts 
 was one whose story is full of interest and pathos. 
 He is a native of Halifax, an old Sunday - school 
 scholar, the son of irreligious persons, and he was at 
 the time of his conversion about twenty-three years 
 old. When he reached adolescence, like thousands of 
 others, he turned his back on the Sunday school and 
 the house of God, and became addicted to the vices 
 of gambling, clog dancing in public - houses, and 
 drunkenness. During the week preceding the Sun- 
 day on which he attended the mission, he drank 
 heavily, getting drunk, and sober and drunk again on 
 the same day more than once, so that when the 
 Lord's day came, he was worn out with his excesses. 
 The Wesleyan Chapel being too small for the Sunday 
 services, the Drill Hall was taken, and news of this 
 reaching the young fellow, he suggested to the girl 
 whom he was courting that they should go in the 
 evening to the service. A collection was to be made 
 for the Sunday school, and the young man gave the 
 girl sixpence wherewith to get two threepenny pieces, 
 that when that part of the ceremony was reached they 
 might both acquit themselves with propriety. 
 
 Accordingly, they went to the service, and although 
 it might have been supposed that he was soddened 
 with drink, he was deeply convicted of sin, and
 
 A LAY EVANGELIST. 59 
 
 remained to the after-meeting. When the evangelist 
 urged his hearers to immediate decision, this young 
 man trembled from head to foot, and, as he afterwards 
 expressed it, " hell seemed up in arms to prevent him 
 from going forward as a penitent." But when Mr. 
 Cook exhorted those who were convinced of sin to 
 honour God by coming out boldly, and said that if 
 they did so God would honour them, he jumped to 
 his feet and walked to the inquiry-room. There he 
 found peace with God. Being a lamplighter, he was 
 obliged to leave early to go on duty. When he 
 reached his lodgings he knelt down and said, " Lord, 
 Thou hast brought me out before all yon' people, now 
 make me real for Thee." The prayer was answered. 
 For twelve months afterwards he shared his room 
 with a man who denied the existence of God, and 
 who at times would stamp and rave and tell the 
 convert that his conversion was only a delusion. 
 But he would reply, " You and I used to swear, and 
 fight, and gamble, but you don't find me doing such 
 things now. I read my Bible, I pray, I go to chapel 
 and Sunday school instead of the public-house, and 
 these things are not delusions." 
 
 At the time of his conversion he was heavily in 
 debt, the clothes he wore not being paid for, 'and 
 many ale-shots standing against him in the public- 
 houses. But by the blessing of God upon his 
 industry, he succeeded in paying all his debts. The 
 young woman to whom he was engaged was converted 
 also, and, twelve months after the mission, Mr. Cook 
 had the pleasure of marrying them. Since then the 
 convert has done much useful work, and has himself 
 led not a few to Christ. Many who were brought to
 
 60 THOMA S CO OK'S EA RL Y MINIS TR V. 
 
 God at that mission " have fallen asleep." Amongst 
 this number was a young woman who died in 1882. 
 Her Christian life was short, but it matured quickly. 
 During her illness she was continually praising God 
 for the blessing received during the mission. A friend 
 brought her a photograph of Mr. Cook, which she 
 kissed and then handed to her mother, asking her 
 mother to keep it for her sake. She then immedi- 
 ately lost consciousness, and gradually sank until she 
 languished into life. She also will be amongst the 
 sheaves which the reaper will bring with him when he 
 comes again rejoicing. 
 
 Nothing is so interesting as mission work. People 
 who are fond of romance may have their taste fully 
 gratified if only they will throw themselves heartily 
 into God's service, and instead of being content to be 
 ankle-deep in it, will take " a header," and plunge into 
 it. The incident just narrated is a pathetic one, but 
 humorous stories occur as frequently in the experience 
 of an evangelist as pathetic incidents. 
 
 During Mr. Cook's visit to the Halifax Circuits in 
 those days, a number of young fellows, neither men 
 nor boys, joined themselves into a band with the 
 intention of making sport and mischief by opposing 
 the mission. As the mission band marched down the 
 street, this " skeleton band " would walk in the rear 
 of them, led by a man who imitated the Salvation 
 Army, and walked backwards. One evening the 
 Evangelist thought he would test their mettle, and 
 being in nothing terrified by his adversaries, he left 
 his own company and wended his steps towards the 
 enemy. When these valorous youths saw the young 
 preacher coming towards them, they halted suddenly,
 
 A LAY EVANGELIST. 61 
 
 and waited to see "whether he or they had most 
 courage. As soon as they discovered that he was 
 bent on getting to close quarters, every mother's son 
 took to his heels and fled. The skeleton band was 
 about thirty strong on that occasion, and to see all 
 these brave hobbledehoys fleeing when no man was 
 pursuing them was a pleasant sight to those who love 
 honest laughter as they love sunlight. 
 The reader has doubtless often sung, 
 
 " Many giants, great and tall, 
 Stalking through the land, 
 Headlong to the earth would fall 
 If met by Daniel's band." 
 
 An authentic story like this will enable the reader to 
 give credence to the poet's fancy ; for if thirty giants, 
 great and tall, fled when confronted by one who dared 
 to be a Daniel, it is conceivable that " Daniel's band " 
 might do great things. " Deal courageously, and the 
 Lord shall be with the good." 
 
 But the better part of the story is yet untold. That 
 evening the skeleton band came in a body to the 
 mission service, attracted perhaps by the preacher's 
 " pluck," for young fellows like these know a man 
 when they see one. The evangelist did what he 
 seldom does, and what should not be done excepting 
 under divine impulse he singled out the leader of the 
 band, and told him he would be largely responsible 
 for the fate of the others, and pleaded with him to 
 forsake his way. The word was not spoken in vain. 
 He and several of his companions sought salvation 
 that night, and by the time the mission was over 
 nearly all the members of that band were avowed
 
 62 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 Christians. Another interesting episode in this mission 
 was the conversion of a policeman. Some idea may 
 be gathered of the size of the congregations that came 
 to Mr. Cook's services in those days, from the fact that 
 it was necessary to have a policeman at the chapel 
 door to keep order. The writer himself has conducted 
 mission services in that county when no such pre- 
 caution was necessary, and possibly the reader may 
 know of missions which have been held at which the 
 mission preacher would have been glad to have made 
 the same arrangement, if only it had been called for 
 by the exigencies of the work. 
 
 Mr. Cook gave the constable half-a-crown for his 
 trouble, and instructed him to remain during the ser- 
 vice in the chapel-porch. Whilst standing in the 
 vestibule the officer heard enough of the Word of God 
 to convince him of sin, and when he was released from 
 " duty " he went home, doffed his uniform, and returned 
 to the after-meeting in time to seek and find that night 
 peace with God. Having thus unexpectedly found the 
 kingdom of heaven, which is like treasure hid in a 
 field, " for joy thereof " he returned the half-crown to 
 the preacher who had " sown unto [him] spiritual 
 things." Thus is God found of them that sought Him 
 not. 
 
 A successful mission followed at Linthwaite, near 
 Huddersfield, at the close of which the converts were 
 publicly recognised as members of the Wesleyan 
 Methodist Church. The Leaders' Meeting passed a 
 resolution in which they recorded their thankfulness 
 for the blessing vouchsafed to their Society. 
 
 The Low Moor Circuit, Bradford, was also the scene 
 of a wonderful visitation. As many as a hundred
 
 A LAY EVANGELIST. 63 
 
 persons entered the inquiry-rooms on the same evening 
 more than once during that mission. The singing- 
 band, which often is a sign of poverty, if not a flag of 
 distress, would often be five hundred strong, and its 
 " marches " were characterised by an enthusiasm and 
 a determination that presaged victory. So great were 
 the crowds that it was impossible to accommodate them 
 in the chapel, and overflow meetings were held, which 
 was a circumstance without precedent in the history 
 of local Methodism. Readers know how difficult it 
 usually is to get good congregations on week evenings 
 for evangelistic services, but at Low Moor on that 
 occasion the tables were turned, and the difficulty was 
 to accommodate the people who clamoured for admis- 
 sion, and who seemed disposed to mob the young 
 preacher in their eagerness to hear the Word of life 
 from his lips. And yet nothing could have been 
 simpler than Mr. Cook's preaching. Mr. Spurgeon has 
 somewhere said that he can preach nothing but the 
 gospel, because he knows nothing else ; and Mr. Cook 
 could have said the same with more truth when he was 
 at Low Moor. Nor were the services made attractive 
 by orchestral music or by the singing of solos. The 
 preacher did not attract in order to convert, but he 
 attracted by converting. His God-given converting 
 power was his sole attraction. How true are these sen- 
 tences from the Tongue of Fire : " The converting power 
 is also the Church's great attraction. It is true that 
 some would attract men by ceremonies, or talent, or 
 the charms of music or architecture attract them that 
 they may convert them ; whereas the true order is, 
 Convert, that you may attract. The one is the order 
 of the charlatan, who trusts to factitious allurements
 
 64 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 for attracting the public, in the hope that he may cure 
 some ; the other, the order of the true physician, who 
 trusts to the fact of his curing some as the means of 
 attracting others. . . . Wherever the Church is the 
 means of making one shopman turn from his sins, and 
 exhibit to his comrades a picture of holy living, in 
 all probability she will soon have others from that 
 shop at her altars. Whenever she brings one factory- 
 girl to sit, like Mary, at the feet of Jesus, very 
 probably other Marys will in a little while be with 
 her. In every situation new converts are the most 
 powerful attraction that ever acts on those who are 
 still in the world. There seems a peculiar spiritual 
 power connected with the first love, and an impressive- 
 ness in the words, of new converts, enforced by the 
 manifest change in them, which nothing else can exert. 
 That house of God which becomes noted in a neigh- 
 bourhood as a place in which many sinners have been 
 ' transformed by the renewing of their minds/ will, 
 by a certain instinct of our redeemed humanity, soon 
 become a centre of attraction, not only to those who, 
 with scarcely any light, are groping after the truth, 
 but even to many who are still hardily going on in sin. 
 The greatest fame of Christianity is the fame of the 
 cures she works, her greatest glory the glory of the 
 saints she trains, her own unshared renown the renown 
 of sinners renewed in the image of God ; and wherever 
 works of this kind are noised abroad in any com- 
 munity, there will the preacher not want hearers, there 
 will the sower not be without a field." 
 
 Thomas Cook's early course as a lay evangelist, and 
 indeed his whole career, is a striking illustration of the 
 truth of these strong words of Mr. Arthur, for insert-
 
 A LAY EVANGELIST. 65 
 
 ing which, notwithstanding that they have been before 
 the reading world for well-nigh forty years, the writer 
 offers no apology. He recently met a local preacher 
 of many years' connection with Wesleyan Methodism, 
 who, although a man who occasionally buys a book, and 
 often reads one, had not only never seen the Tongue of 
 Fire, but had not so much as heard that there was a 
 William Arthur in our ministry. To such Methodists 
 and there are more than one the above words will 
 be as fresh as the morning newspaper ; while others 
 who are familiar with them will be glad to see them 
 in this setting, and to find them amply vindicated in 
 the story which the writer is narrating. 
 
 During this Low Moor mission the singing-band 
 was made good use of. On one occasion, when the 
 band was holding a half-hour's service in the streets, 
 and many converts were testifying to the great change 
 which Christ had wrought in them, the Evangelist 
 pushed a man into the ring who was unknown to him, 
 and supposed by him to be saved. It soon transpired, 
 however, that Mr. Cook had mistaken his man ; for 
 when this poor fellow found himself in the middle of 
 the ring, with hundreds of eyes fixed on him, he 
 realised his position, and gave an unexpected turn to 
 the proceedings by saying, " Friends, I ain't saved, but 
 I mean to be to-night : God help me." The reader 
 will not be surprised to learn that he who was put 
 " into the pool " in this strange way was that night 
 " made whole " by the Son of God. 
 
 The late Eev. Josiah Pearson was travelling in 
 Bradford in the days of which this chapter treats, and 
 at the Conference of 1882 he referred, in the conver- 
 sation on the state of the Work of God, to some of the 
 
 E
 
 66 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 events chronicled herein. Mr. Pearson stated that in 
 his own Circuit (Manningham), and particularly in the 
 White Abbey Chapel, a glorious work had been seen 
 during the year. In one fortnight, he went on to say, 
 upwards of six hundred persons gave in their names 
 for the service of Christ, and the scenes he had wit- 
 nessed would never be forgotten by him. After a 
 hard day's work in the mills, the people went to chapel 
 by hundreds, eighteen hundred to two thousand being 
 present on the week-evening, and as many as a hundred 
 inquirers had been pleading for mercy on the same 
 night. The difficulty had been to get the services 
 closed ; many would fain have stayed all night to seek 
 the Lord. 
 
 After describing the work in the Sunday school, 
 where, Mr. Pearson characteristically said, " the educa- 
 tional processes had to be stopped," with the result 
 that an entire class of young men, which had been the 
 cause of much trouble, were converted, he proceeded 
 to say that the class-meetings had since been well 
 attended, the prayer-meetings were crowded, singing- 
 bands were working the streets, and the work which 
 the Salvation Army had set itself to do was being 
 done in Bradford by the Methodists. He concluded by 
 acknowledging the goodness of God in sending so rich 
 a blessing to his Circuit, and said he prayed that 
 similar visitations might be given to all parts of the 
 Connexion. 
 
 Mr. Pearson has now been " with Christ " for some 
 years. Whether or not he has finished some of those 
 sermons, portions of which he preached here, promis- 
 ing to complete them in heaven, the writer cannot 
 say. But there is much reason to believe that, how-
 
 A LAY EVANGELIST. 67 
 
 ever this may be, he has now met among the redeemed 
 some who will ever be reckoned as part of the fruits 
 of these mission services. 
 
 The Eev. Joseph Nettleton, who succeeded Mr. Pear- 
 son in the Manningham Circuit in 1885, writes: 
 
 " On my appointment to the Circuit, I was greatly 
 impressed with the abiding fruit of a mission that had 
 been held there by the Eev. Thomas Cook some years 
 before. I found whole classes of young people who 
 had been brought to Christ during that mission, and 
 who had been growing in grace from the time of their 
 conversion. They were earnest Christian workers, 
 and were ever ready to support me in all kinds of 
 aggressive evangelism, indoors or out of doors. They 
 gathered other young people into the church, and con- 
 ducted cottage services and open-air services. They 
 woke up some of the older members, who were half 
 asleep, and they kept them awake by getting them to 
 work with them. I found these young people a great 
 help to me in the Circuit, and several of them became 
 local preachers and evangelists." 
 
 From the District Home Mission Sub-Committee's 
 report, presented to the Halifax and Bradford District 
 Committee, we learn that " Mr. Cook's labours were 
 remarkably owned of God. The Churches were 
 quickened, believers were sanctified, and many sinners 
 were converted to God. During the first six months 
 it was found, on careful inquiry, that 2000 persons 
 above fifteen years of age, and a large number of 
 younger people, had been helped in the inquiry-rooms ; 
 and, taking the whole of the first year, it is quite 
 within the mark to say that 3000 persons professed 
 to find peace with God. Of these, over 1000 adults
 
 68 THOMAS COOK 'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 were reported by the superintendent ministers of their 
 respective Circuits as having begun to meet in class. 
 Three hundred joined junior Society classes, and large 
 numbers became connected with other Churches." 
 
 The report goes on to say, that in the second year 
 Mr. Edward Davidson was engaged as Mr. Cook's 
 colleague in the District work, and that then " a season 
 of almost uninterrupted prosperity occurred. Thirty- 
 one missions were held. Considerably more than 3000 
 inquirers were reported, in addition to a large number 
 of children. About 2000 began to meet in class, and 
 800 joined other Churches." The reports speak of 
 signal displays of saving and sanctifying power, the 
 entire consecration of believers being amongst the 
 most important results.
 
 CHAP TEE V. 
 
 CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST. 
 
 MR. COOK'S success as a lay evangelist attracted 
 much attention, as was natural, and tidings of 
 it reached the ears of the late Rev. Alexander Mac- 
 aulay, who was always on the alert for such news, and 
 who had something to do with shaping Mr. Cook's 
 course, as indeed he also had in introducing him to 
 the Halifax and Bradford District Home Mission Sub- 
 Committee. Mr. Cook became a candidate for the 
 Wesleyan Methodist ministry the second time in 1881 , 
 and was then accepted, his work as a lay evangelist 
 having proved that, whether he is entrusted with two 
 talents or with five, God has assuredly called him to 
 preach the gospel of His Son. 
 
 It is idle to blame " the July Committee " for de- 
 clining to recommend Thomas Cook when he first 
 offered for our ministry. Whatever they thought 
 " against " him, " God meant it unto good, to bring to 
 pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive." 
 Had he been accepted then, it is certain that he would 
 have been sent to the Theological Institution ; for he 
 was young, and he had not had the opportunity of 
 proving that he was one of those God-given evan- 
 gelists who are called to do special work, and who
 
 70 THOMA S CO OK 'S EA RL Y MINIS TR Y. 
 
 must not therefore be treated as others who are 
 intended to occupy ordinary positions. Mr. Cook's 
 own impression is, that " this thing was of God." Had 
 he gone to the Institution, the probability is that, con- 
 sidering his extreme youth, his ministry would have 
 assumed another form. Not that a college course is 
 to be lightly esteemed ; much less is it to be regarded 
 as likely to destroy that earnest evangelistic spirit 
 which our evangelist has so conspicuously displayed. 
 Were the writer to imply this, he would bring down 
 upon himself the ire of the more learned of his brethren, 
 and involve himself in much trouble. Happily for 
 himself, however, he is under no temptation to make 
 any such observation. He remembers with satisfac- 
 tion that some of the foremost evangelists of present- 
 day Methodism have had the advantage of a college 
 course, and have shown that their studies have made 
 them more " meet for the Master's use " than they 
 would otherwise have been. The Revs. J. H. Hopkins, 
 Edward Smith, S. F. Collier, S. Chadwick, Edward 
 Davidson, Thomas Waugh, Peter Thompson, and Hugh 
 Price Hughes are all " Institution " men, and they have 
 all well repaid Methodism for the expense and labour 
 bestowed on their ministerial training. 
 
 In former years an opinion prevailed that culture 
 and soul-saving fervour are incompatible, and it is 
 possible that a lurking suspicion to that effect still 
 lingers in the minds of some devout people ; although 
 it is surprising that, in a Connexion founded by a 
 Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, who was also one 
 of the most fervid of all evangelists, such a delusion 
 should ever have obtained credence. Too often evan- 
 gelistic work has been relegated to earnest but tin-
 
 CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST. 71 
 
 cultured men ; and sometimes it has been noticed, that 
 as men have increased in knowledge their passion 
 for souls has diminished. If any students who have 
 enjoyed exceptional educational advantages should do 
 the writer the honour to read these pages, he would 
 venture to plead with them to make it their ambition 
 to prove that it is possible to combine the highest 
 culture with the intensest evangelistic fervour, and 
 thus " unite the pair so long disjoined." 
 
 In the year 1882, Mr. Cook was received by the 
 Wesley an Methodist Conference as a minister on trial, 
 and he was immediately appointed to do the work he 
 loves so much, and to which God has so unmistakeably 
 called him. Some of his friends did not approve of 
 this arrangement, for they desired that he should be 
 sent to the Institution. Thus Mr. J. Thorpe Taylor, 
 of Holmfirth, who, perhaps, was as responsible as any 
 one else for Mr. Cook's introduction to the Halifax 
 and Bradford District, wrote, immediately after the 
 Conference, as follows : " I was rather disappointed 
 you were not to go to the Institution, as I believe you 
 would there have derived lasting benefit, and also have 
 influenced for good your fellow-students. But I am 
 told you may have the chance of going next year ; 
 and meanwhile I trust you will be as happy and as 
 useful in your new sphere of labour as you have been 
 in this District during the last two years. What a 
 wonderful work God has wrought by you, and those 
 associated with you, during that period ! Well may 
 our hearts be filled with gratitude and our lips with 
 praise ! " 
 
 It should be stated that prior to the Conference of 
 1882 the llev. Alexander Macaulay, then the General
 
 72 THOMA S COOK >S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 Secretary of the Home Mission Department, wrote as 
 follows to Mr. Cook : " I should like you to come 
 under my care during next year, and intend to ask 
 that this course may be taken in your appointment. 
 While you are favoured with evangelistic success, such 
 as you record, I think that you should continue to go 
 from place to place. The Lord has dealt tenderly 
 and bountifully with you, and as long as you keep 
 humble and prayerful, He will honour you." Accord- 
 ingly, in the Minutes of Conference for 1882, under 
 the head of " Home Missions," the following record 
 stands : " Thomas Cook, who shall act under the 
 direction of the Home Missionary Committee." In the 
 month of November 1882 the Eev. Dr. Bowden 
 wrote thus in the Methodist Recorder : 
 
 " ' Thomas Cook, who shall act under the direction 
 of the Home Missionary Committee,' such is the 
 quiet and modest record on the ' Minutes ' of a new 
 and important departure in Methodism, a departure 
 carefully considered and adopted by the Conference 
 of 1880, but delayed until the providence of God 
 gave the right man to do the work of a Connexional 
 Evangelist. Such a man has been given this year 
 in Thomas Cook, and an important movement of 
 aggressive work has been begun, which we hope will 
 greatly extend. A little while ago we were in serious 
 danger from tame, pretty preaching. Sermonettes 
 were laid upon the Bible by some men, and read with- 
 out apparent feeling, or any attempt at direct appeal. 
 If an earnest spirit of evangelism gets abroad, such 
 preaching will either be ' killed or cured.' This, in 
 itself, would be a Connexional blessing of no little 
 worth. It is bad enough to listen to a pretty little
 
 CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST. 73 
 
 essay, when the man has made it during the week, 
 and it is fitted in some sense to the people who hear 
 it ; but it is very much worse when the weak dis- 
 course was written ten years ago, and is far removed 
 from the sympathies of both the reader and the 
 hearer. ... If an aggressive spirit prevails, and 
 men preach the Word to save souls from death, there 
 will be no place found for the small, cold, travelling 
 essay, or for the man who carries it about with him. 
 District missionaries have been for some years at 
 work, and a missionary for the Connexion is the 
 healthy development of that kind of service. The 
 Methodist preachers were originally a band of evan- 
 gelists moving to and fro, and waking up the parishes 
 of the land. John Wesley gave them this rule, 
 ' You have nothing to do but to save souls.' He 
 intended them to be an auxiliary force to the parochial 
 clergy. . . . Districts, Circuits, and preachers can 
 become dormant and stagnant as surely as clergy and 
 parishes. . . . The preachers and class- leaders can 
 keep the round of their classes and pulpits with con- 
 scientious regularity, and yet be half - asleep. The 
 evangelist may be wanted to-day for the Circuit, as 
 surely as a hundred and twenty years ago the 
 Methodist preacher was needed for the parish. Both 
 Circuits and preachers will be healthier, brighter, and 
 more useful for a break in their routine, and for the 
 presence of the man who has ' nothing to do but to 
 save souls.' . . . The spirit of aggression on the 
 ungodliness and sin around us must be maintained in 
 its vigour, or very soon the Church will not be able 
 to hold its own. This Connexional evangelism is not 
 only the expression of an aggressive spirit, but it will
 
 74 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 awaken and foster that spirit, and will thus increase 
 not only the members in Society, but also the general 
 vigour and strength of the Society, and thus prevent 
 the ' scattering ' which is inevitable, unless we con- 
 tinue to ' gather.' Methodism has had a time of 
 chapel building and financial enterprise ; we want 
 now a time of chapel filling and good spiritual work, 
 a revival in every Society." 
 
 The appointment of Mr. Cook as Connexional 
 Evangelist was quickly followed by that of the Eev. 
 Thomas Waugh, whose labours have also been remark- 
 ably blessed ; and by that of the Eev. Edward 
 Davidson, to whom reference has already been made 
 in these pages more than once. The value of the 
 services of these beloved brethren may be in some 
 measure estimated by the large number of applica- 
 tions which are continually received for their help, 
 that number never having been larger than it was 
 this year. 
 
 To defend the appointment of Mr. Cook as our 
 first Connexional Evangelist would be to admit that 
 the arrangement has need of some defence, whereas 
 we contend that God Himself has so manifestly 
 sanctioned the appointment, that it requires no 
 justification from the writer, or from any one else. 
 
 But it may be useful to add a few lines with the 
 purpose of pointing out the relation that exists 
 between the travelling evangelist and the settled 
 pastor. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Rigg, in the charge which he delivered 
 to the newly-ordained ministers at the Birmingham 
 Conference hi the year 1879, observed, "In the 
 apostolic age the office of evangelist would appear to
 
 CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST. 75 
 
 have been one of wide scope, and allowing great 
 latitude and variety of employment in the work of 
 Christ. ... A great Church, like the united Church 
 of the apostolic age, could not be complete without 
 its corps of evangelists. . . . Evangelists are neces- 
 sary to complete our ministerial provision and equip- 
 ment, acting now as home missionary ministers and 
 district missionaries." Probably few of those who 
 have reflected upon the subject will be disposed to 
 differ from Dr. Rigg. 
 
 If all Circuit ministers had such success in the 
 conversion of men as Eobert Young, S. Eomilly Hall, 
 Thomas Vasey, and Thomas Nightingale, it might not 
 then be necessary to set apart evangelists for this 
 particular service. It has been truly said that if 
 St. Peter was the apostle of the circumcision, and St. 
 Paul of the uncircumcision, St. John was the apostle 
 of the Church. Well has St. John been called " the 
 divine," for his writings justify the pre-eminence 
 which the title gives him, and they are naturally 
 a favourite portion of Holy Scripture with all who 
 conduct conventions for deepening the spiritual life 
 of God's people. Possibly, however, St. John could 
 not have given the evangelistic addresses which St. 
 Peter and St. Paul gave, for it should seem that the 
 apostles did not all receive the same spiritual gifts. 
 A diversity of gifts characterises the ministry of the 
 modern Church, if we may be permitted to say so, 
 without it being supposed that we intend to encourage 
 young ministers to believe that they are not called 
 of God, " to open the eyes " of the unsaved, " and 
 to turn them from darkness to light, and from the 
 power of Satan unto God, that they may receive the
 
 76 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 forgiveness of sins." No Methodist preacher, at all 
 events, should allow himself to fall into this delusion. 
 At his ordination each Wesleyan minister receives a 
 document which contains Mr. Wesley's " Twelve Pailes 
 of a Helper." To those rules are added these weighty 
 words : " Observe : It is not your business to preach 
 so many times, and to take care merely of this or 
 that Society, but to save as many souls as you can ; 
 to bring as many sinners as you possibly can to 
 repentance, and with all your power to build them 
 up in that holiness without which they cannot see 
 the Lord." Wesleyan ministers are further reminded 
 year by year that "every Methodist preacher is to 
 consider himself as called to be in point of enterprise, 
 zeal, and diligence a home missionary, and to enlarge 
 as well as keep the Circuit to which he is appointed." 
 
 And, be it remembered, no Methodist preacher can 
 claim to be recognised by his brethren as a fellow- 
 labourer, if he does not continue to consent to these 
 injunctions, and prayerfully endeavour, as God may 
 help him, to fulfil them. 
 
 Nevertheless, it is to be feared that, notwithstand- 
 ing such solemn admonitions, some modern Wesleyan 
 ministers are in danger of neglecting the work of 
 soul-saving, and leaving it to mission preachers and 
 others. Possibly this circumstance may have given 
 rise to the phrase, " The Forward Movement," which 
 the writer himself never has adopted, and which he 
 does not value, because it suggests that the Wesleyan 
 ministry is divided. " The Forward Movement " can- 
 not, involve more than "The Twelve Rules of a 
 Helper," and " The Liverpool Minutes " involve, and 
 if any Wesleyan minister does not belong to a
 
 CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST. 77 
 
 movement which is only the embodiment of the 
 principles enjoined in those documents, he will do well 
 to reconsider to what his ordination vows have com- 
 mitted him. The Eev. Hugh Price Hughes, M.A., who 
 never carries the judgment of his brethren with him 
 more entirely than when he is dealing with the 
 subject of aggressive Christianity, and who is the 
 chief exponent of the views of " The Forward Move- 
 ment " party, if such party there be, published the 
 following stirring remarks immediately after the close 
 of the Nottingham Conference, in an article entitled, 
 " Are our Ministers Eeady ? " Mr. Hughes writes : 
 " A great and terrible delusion has taken possession 
 of some of our ministers. We have heard men of 
 high character and inflential positions say that they 
 'are called to edify the Church, and not to convert 
 sinners.' They seem to imagine that the direct 
 work of bringing sinners to Christ must be left to 
 such evangelists as Mr. Thomas Cook and the agents 
 of the great town missions. It is an indisputable fact 
 that some of our ministers no longer expect immediate 
 and visible results to their ministry. At one time 
 Methodist preachers looked for converts, not only at 
 the Sunday-evening service, but at the Sunday-morn- 
 ing service, at love-feasts and sacraments, and week- 
 day services, and class- meetings. They assumed that 
 the soul - converting power would accompany them 
 always and everywhere. Of course, they did not all 
 expect to be instrumental in the salvation of sinners 
 in the same way. Some were so greatly blessed of 
 God that sinners were converted under the Word, 
 while the scriptural way of salvation was being 
 expounded. Others reaped their harvest in pastoral
 
 78 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTRY. 
 
 visitation following up the impressions of the Lord's 
 day. But in one way or other every Methodist 
 preacher is expected to be a soul-winner. There are 
 many reasons why that old expectation of unmis- 
 takeable conversions has passed into the background. 
 What is needed above everything else is to revive it. 
 The majority of the people of England are still out- 
 side all the Churches. The unsaved mass of grown- 
 up men and women is immensely bigger to-day than 
 it was when John Wesley mounted his horse and 
 began his great evangel. Methodism cannot live 
 without revivals and conversions. Mere Biblical 
 expositions and pastoral education can never take 
 the place of conspicuous, dramatic, glorious, personal 
 conversions. By all means let everything else be 
 done, but the supreme necessity is the proclamation 
 of the gospel, with such faith and such fervour that 
 the power of God may come down on the men and 
 women who hear it, and deliver them from the slavery 
 of sin/' 
 
 If this is the policy of " The Forward Movement," 
 who dare oppose it ? But is not this the view which 
 we all take of the situation ? And yet, it must be 
 admitted, there is need for the warning and rebuke 
 and exhortation which Mr. Hughes' strong words con- 
 vey. Let us listen to the Eev. John M'Neill, who, in 
 a sermon, on " The angels hastened Lot," says : " Even 
 the warmest of us, are we as warm as we should be, as 
 warm as we might be ? Are we not a little afraid of 
 earnestness ? Hasn't it become a little unfashionable 
 to plead with people ? The angels were not ashamed 
 to be in earnest. Hear it, hear it, hear it, ye super- 
 fines ! The angels were not ashamed of being in dead
 
 CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST. 79 
 
 earnest. Hear it, divinity students, corning preachers, 
 the angels were not ashamed to be anxious and urgent, 
 and to lay hold of people with their hands. I am 
 afraid we, their successors, are losing ourselves. . . . 
 A large amount of present - day preaching . . . will 
 never serve the need. It is too dainty, it is too mighty 
 fine altogether. The devil can stand it beautifully. 
 He doesn't care how much of it goes on ; it hurries 
 up nobody." 
 
 God forbid that I should write one word that would 
 weaken the force of these rebukes, for I am persuaded 
 that if Methodism is " to reform the nation," and to 
 " spread scriptural holiness over the land," the 
 Methodist preachers, itinerant and lay, must as a body 
 be baptized with this evangelistic spirit, and must not 
 relegate to Connexional Evangelists or to the younger 
 ministers the work of saving souls. 
 
 Nevertheless, it cannot be denied that it pleases 
 God to confer on some ministers extraordinary evan- 
 gelistic power. Speaking in his Lectures on Preaching 
 of this gift, that great preacher, Dr. Dale, observes : 
 " In some cases this power seems to have come to a 
 man at the very beginning of his own religious life ; 
 in others, after many years of patient and earnest 
 Christian work, which had achieved no extraordinary 
 success ; in some cases it has rested upon a man for a 
 time and then been withdrawn." Dr. Dale adds a few 
 words which 1 will subjoin, because they justify the 
 appointment of Mr. Cook to the position of Connexional 
 Evangelist, which appointment was made a few years 
 after the publication of Dr. Dale's Lectures, " The 
 man on whom extraordinary evangelistic power is con- 
 ferred must, as a rule, separate himself from the
 
 So THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 ordinary duties of the pastorate. He is appointed to 
 other work, and must not decline it. His position is 
 one of exceptional honour, and also of exceptional 
 peril. He should be strengthened and sustained by 
 the constant intercessions of the Church." Animated 
 by such sentiments as these, the Wesleyan Conference 
 of 1882, as we have seen, set Mr. Cook apart for this 
 particular service, and during the years that have in- 
 tervened since then he has given himself wholly to the 
 work, with results that call for devout thanksgiving 
 from all who are interested in the evangelisation of 
 this country. 
 
 Some of our readers will remember that years ago 
 the Wesleyan Methodist Conference was embarrassed 
 by the labours of the Rev. James Caughey in British 
 Methodism. Mr. Caughey was undoubtedly a man of 
 God, and his ministry here was much blessed. But 
 he was not a member of the English Conference, nor 
 was he amenable to our ecclesiastical courts. It was 
 therefore not surprising that it was impossible for Mr, 
 Caughey to fill our pulpits without throwing out of 
 gear our ecclesiastical machinery sooner or later. 
 
 By appointing Mr, Cook to the office of Connexional 
 Evangelist, the Conference secured the advantage of 
 his God-given evangelistic power, and at the same time 
 secured itself against the occurrence of irregularities, 
 Mr, Cook being a member of its own body, and 
 responsible to his brethren for his teaching and 
 methods and conduct. 
 
 As a matter of fact, the arrangement has worked 
 perfectly. The Evangelist has been allowed the fullest 
 liberty. The largest chapels in the Connexion have 
 been placed at his disposal, and he has had all the
 
 CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST. 81 
 
 advantages of one of the most complete ecclesiastical 
 organisations in the world ; while, on the other hand, 
 Methodism has reaped a precious harvest from his 
 labours. 
 
 The influence of the appointment was felt in 
 America. The New York Christian Advocate directed 
 attention to it, and remarked that it was worthy of 
 the serious consideration of the Methodist Episcopal 
 Church. That journal pointed out that American 
 Methodism had suffered from the employment of 
 irregular and uncertain evangelists, and it declared 
 that if the Church which it represented were to follow 
 the example of the English Conference, and to appoint 
 not one, but two or three, of its own ministers to this 
 work, the results would in all probability be such as 
 none but God Himself could measure. 
 
 Mr. Cook's first mission as the Connexional Evan- 
 gelist was held, soon after the Conference of 1882, in 
 the city of Bristol. The mission lasted for three 
 weeks, during which time upwards of six hundred 
 adults entered the inquiry-rooms, Services were held 
 occasionally at one o'clock in the afternoon, and were, 
 according to the testimony of Dr. Bowden, who was 
 then stationed in Bristol, more largely attended than 
 the ordinary Sunday-evening services, whilst at the 
 services which were held later in the day all the seats 
 were occupied. It would, of course, be impossible to 
 follow Mr. Cook through every mission which he has 
 held during the last nine years, nor is it necessary to 
 attempt to do this. Some of his most successful 
 missions have been conducted at Walsall, Sheffield, 
 West Bromwich, Oldham, Pendletou, Leeds, Cardiff, 
 Portsmouth, Exeter, Dublin, and in various Circuits in 
 
 F
 
 82 THOMA S COOK >S EA RL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 Cornwall. During his first year of Connexional work 
 he saw a gracious revival in the Centenary Chapel, 
 Boston. Over five hundred persons sought salvation, 
 most of whom must have found what they sought, for 
 at a meeting held at the close of the mission to recog- 
 nise the converts, and welcome them into the Church, 
 three hundred of them were present and received from 
 their pastors " notes on trial." The effects of the 
 mission was seen three months later, when the stewards 
 reported to the Circuit Quarterly Meeting a good 
 increase of income, and the Superintendent reported 
 an increase on the quarter of two hundred and twenty- 
 two members, with one hundred and sixty-seven on 
 trial, and eighty-nine in junior classes. 
 
 In no part of the country is Methodism more influ- 
 ential or more prosperous than in Cardiff, where we 
 have the advantage of much splendid chapel property, 
 and the still greater advantage of the support of many 
 able and godly men who have understanding of the 
 times, and know what Israel ought to do. In 1883, 
 Mr. Cook held a mission in the fine Koath Eoad 
 Wesleyan Chapel. Mr. Lewis Williams, J.P., reports 
 that the first Lord's day of the mission was a memor- 
 able day in the history of the Sunday school. The 
 first to go into the inquiry-room that afternoon was 
 the ringleader of a troublesome class of boys whose 
 ages ranged from sixteen to twenty. Then many more 
 young people followed. At the first Sunday-evening 
 service twenty-five adults sought the Lord. On the 
 second Sunday afternoon a men's meeting was held, 
 attended by a thousand men, and that day there were 
 one hundred inquirers. Mr. Lewis Williams writes : 
 " During the singing of the first hymn a young man
 
 CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST. 83 
 
 literally rushed into the inquiry-room. At night two 
 stalwart men got up during the singing of the second 
 hymn, one of them groaning aloud, ' Lord, help ; Lord, 
 save me ! ' His distress was beyond description. 
 Nineteen times he had been imprisoned. The case 
 bears unmistakeable proof of genuineness. He is now 
 as red-hot in the Lord's service as he was formerly in 
 the devil's. One of the remarkable features of this 
 revival is, that whilst it reached the wealthy, it also 
 reached the veriest outcasts, one of whom said, ' Last 
 Sunday found me playing at pitch and toss.' Another 
 said, ' I was then yielding to swearing and dissipation 
 of the worst kind.' At the close of the mission Mr. 
 Cook held a meeting for the converts, five hundred of 
 them being present, and suitably addressed them. The 
 number of stalwart men amongst the converts, and of 
 persons of middle age, was very striking. Nearly all 
 the class of boys to which reference has been made 
 were among those who that evening professed to have 
 found peace with God, and many who at first ridiculed 
 the mission were in the happy throng. The number 
 of cases of parties who have made restitution to pre- 
 sent and former employers, indicates the depth of this 
 work of God. The Holiness - meetings were well 
 attended, and most edifying. Over five hundred adults 
 and one hundred and twenty children entered the 
 inquiry -rooms. Many of these will join other Churches, 
 but we have formed seven new classes, and our people 
 are busy gathering the fruit into our spiritual barns. 
 The mission has stirred the whole town, and is now 
 being followed up by missions in other parts of the 
 Circuit." 
 
 In no town have Mr. Cook's labours been more
 
 84 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 abundantly owned of God than in Sheffield. The 
 Eev. W. Middleton reports that the names of seven 
 hundred inquirers were taken during the first ten days ; 
 while before the mission closed in Carver Street Chapel 
 the names of nine hundred were taken in that place 
 alone, forty-five men coming out as penitents at the 
 men's service, and one hundred and forty-six adults 
 doing the same at the closing Sunday-evening service. 
 Mr. Middleton states that two hundred of the converts 
 promised to join the Carver Street Society, and fifty 
 the junior classes, while fifty belonged to other Method- 
 ist churches ; one hundred to various denominations, 
 and one hundred had not been settled. Six months 
 afterwards Mr. Middleton writes : " Our numbers and 
 the interest in the work of God are very well sustained 
 in this [Carver Street] Circuit. In June we reported 
 an increase of one hundred and twenty-eight, and we 
 have still three hundred and fifty-three members on 
 trial. We shall have another increase in September. 
 I do praise God that in these summer months we are 
 all alive. The last twice at Carver Street I have had 
 an open-air service, instead of the prayer-meeting in 
 the chapel, followed by a prayer-meeting in the young 
 men's room, and we have had penitents. I find 
 encouragement in this, that during the year I have 
 preached eleven times in Carver Street Chapel on 
 Sunday evenings, and at every service have had con- 
 versions, from one to fourteen," 
 
 The Rev. W. E. Codling reports, that amongst Mr. 
 Cook's converts at that mission was a man who wrung 
 his hands, saying, " If I had only been converted 
 twenty years ago, there are some in hell who would 
 not have gone there." Mr. Codling says an old man
 
 CONNEX1ONAL EVANGELIST. 85 
 
 sat weeping on a form in the inquiry-room, his face 
 showing that he was no stranger to pugilistic encoun- 
 ters. " My friend," said the minister to him, " I see 
 you know you are a sinner." " I am that," said the 
 old man ; " and a bigger sinner than anybody in this 
 place. Many a time on a Sunday morning I have 
 gone out to fight for money. And now, when I am 
 an old man, and suffering for my sins, here I run to 
 the Lord, like a big coward. But I'll fight for Jesus 
 now." A mother who, two years before, had been 
 bereaved of a child, and who had been seeking the 
 Saviour ever since, pointed upwards and said, " There 
 she is, and now I know I am going to her." As Mr. 
 Cook was walking to the chapel one evening, an aged 
 man, evidently full of gratitude, seized him by the 
 arm, saying, " Ay, mon, do you know, I've got saved at 
 Carver Street. I've served the devil seventy years 
 and three weeks." Mr. Codling adds, that one evening 
 a boy sent a request for prayer to be offered for 
 the conversion of his grandfather, grandmother, and 
 brother, all of whom were consciously saved before the 
 mission closed. 
 
 Such are a few of the many interesting and pathetic 
 incidents that occurred during this blessed mission in 
 Sheffield. It should be added, that simultaneous ser- 
 vices were conducted by other evangelists in several 
 Wesleyan chapels in Sheffield whilst the Carver Street 
 mission was going on, and that great good was accom- 
 plished by this united effort, which made a deep and 
 permanent impression upon the town. It was my 
 privilege to take a humble part in the closing services 
 of this united mission, and I can bear testimony to the 
 wide-spread interest which it evoked. The local press
 
 86 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 paid much attention to the mission, and inserted 
 " leaders " on the subject, and thus brought the move- 
 ment before the whole town. ' Something is gained 
 when the newspaper press is made an arm of the ser- 
 vice. When the mission preacher is a man of God, 
 the notice thus given him should not puff him up ; 
 while the mention of these things in the secular press 
 brings the question of personal salvation before many 
 who seldom or never attend the house of God. It is 
 not, perhaps, the least praise of Thomas Cook, that he 
 has compelled newspaper writers in many parts of the 
 country to report the doings of one whose only 
 " business here below " is " to cry, Behold, behold, the 
 Lamb ! " 
 
 On the day following the close of the united mission 
 in Sheffield, the local newspapers, which had, as we 
 have seen, paid much attention to the mission, in- 
 formed their readers that Mr. Samuel Osborn had, on 
 the previous evening, sent out cheques to the value of 
 23,000 to former creditors of his, with whom many 
 years before he had compounded, and whose moral, but 
 not legal, claims he had resolved to discharge, and had 
 accordingly fully met. It is not meant to imply that 
 this honourable conduct on the part of the late Samuel 
 Osborn who died in 1891, being at the time Mayor 
 of Sheffield was due in any measure to the events 
 now being reviewed, because, as a matter of fact, he 
 had cherished the purpose to do it for some years. It 
 will, however, be seen that this instance of fine com- 
 mercial integrity coming as it did in the wake of a 
 great evangelistic movement, which had arrested the 
 attention of the whole town must have deeply im- 
 pressed that great industrial community, and caused
 
 CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST. 87 
 
 Wesleyan-Methodism to have " favour with all the 
 people." 
 
 " Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt," said the prophet 
 to the widow ; and when debts are paid by business- 
 men for which they are not legally liable, more is done 
 to glorify God by " good works " than would be done 
 by the erection of a chapel or the building of an 
 orphanage with the money. Seeing that Christianity 
 has so often been discredited by conduct the reverse 
 of the late Mr. Osborn's, we are the more pleased to 
 notice his action in this matter, where " integrity and 
 uprightness " preserved him. 
 
 The Tiviot Dale Chapel, Stockport, is as noble a 
 structure as can be found in Methodism, and in 1884 
 it was the scene of a gracious visitation, of which the 
 Eev. J. D. Stevens writes : " Never since Tiviot Dale 
 Chapel was built have such scenes been witnessed in 
 ib as were seen during Mr. Cook's mission. The con- 
 gregations steadily increased as the mission proceeded. 
 During the first week the chapel, large as it is, was 
 for the most part well filled. But from the second 
 Sunday the place was all too small ; and from some of 
 the services hundreds had to go away, there being no 
 room for them. On the evening of the second Sunday 
 the Eev. J. Nattrass held an overflow service in the 
 school-room. At the close of the mission it was found 
 that the names of seven hundred and forty adults and 
 four hundred children had been taken in the inquiry- 
 rooms. About a third appear to belong to other 
 Churches. The special meetings for women, and for 
 children, and for the promotion of holiness, were 
 greatly blessed. But perhaps the most extraordinary 
 of all the meetings were those for men only, held in
 
 88 THOMAS COOK 'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 the afternoons of the second and third Sundays. To 
 see the large chapel filled in every part with men, and 
 especially to see the large number that went into the 
 inquiry-room, was a sight never to be forgotten. The 
 work in the inquiry-rooms was most interesting 
 almost every variety of case and character presented 
 itself there. Members of our classes, children of our 
 people, life-long hearers of the Word, and others who 
 had not heard the Word for years, knelt side by side. 
 Here was a little girl, who, having sought and found the 
 Saviour, came the next night to pray for her mother. 
 Here was a woman who had not said the Lord's 
 Prayer for six years because she would not forgive her 
 brother ; and not far off was the keeper of a notorious 
 house. In addition to all the rest, and as important 
 as all the rest, the mission has resulted in a quickened 
 Church. No collection was made ; but the free-will 
 offerings of the people, placed in boxes at the doors, 
 provided more than enough to cover the expenses." 
 
 From Stockport, Mr. Cook went to West Bromwich, 
 where he held a much-blessed mission in the spacious 
 Wesleyan Chapel. If any reader thinks it a light 
 matter to get this large chapel full on a week-evening 
 for an evangelistic service, let him apply for the use of 
 it for that purpose, and test his opinion in a practical 
 way. 
 
 The Rev. J. P. Keeley reported as follows : " The 
 noble and spacious edifice was filled to overflowing at 
 every evening service, and in the afternoons the con- 
 gregations were also very large. The addresses then 
 given on holiness were much appreciated. The men's 
 meeting was a sight never to be forgotten. Sixteen 
 hundred men were present, and many of the unsaved
 
 CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST. 89 
 
 yielded themselves to Christ. The young people of 
 the school and belonging to our families received much 
 attention from Mr. Cook, and many of them were 
 much blessed. All sorts and conditions of people 
 have attended the services, some coming from distant 
 places. The revival is spreading throughout the 
 Circuit ; and other Circuits and other Churches have 
 felt the good effects of the work, which is manifestly 
 of the Lord. We report with great joy, that one 
 thousand and forty-eight persons have professed to 
 find peace with God during the mission. Of this 
 number, five hundred and twenty-eight have signified 
 their intention to join our own Society. About three 
 hundred belong to other Churches, and their names 
 and addresses have been forwarded to their respective 
 pastors. To God be all the glory ! The expenses of 
 the mission were about 50, and were more than met 
 by the contributions, which were placed in boxes at 
 the doors, no collection being made in the chapel. 
 We sent 10 to the Home Mission Fund as a thank- 
 offering for Mr. Cook's services." 
 
 The only comments that our space will permit are 
 these : the student of the problem of evangelisation 
 will not fail to notice that a large proportion of the 
 converts of each mission are said to belong to other 
 Churches. This was so in West Bromwich, where, 
 when all the facts were known, it was found that one 
 in three of the converts were connected with some 
 other Church, and were not lawful prey for our class- 
 leaders, who are taught to hate sheep-stealing as much 
 as some others who suppose that to save souls from 
 " schism " is equal to saving them from sin are taught 
 to love that practice. It must also be borne in mind that
 
 90 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 it is not possible to trace every convert, how well 
 soever the pastor may know his flock. Some converts 
 arrive in safety " where all the ship's company meet " 
 before they have had time to identify themselves with 
 any particular Church ; and others, for various reasons, 
 live and die outside the visible fold of Christ, although, 
 according to the sound theological teaching of the 
 " bairn's hymn," because they loved the Lord, when 
 they died they went to heaven. The first time St. 
 Paul went to Italy he " found brethren " at Puteoli, 
 somewhat to his surprise, as we gather from the tenor 
 of the narrative, for, so far as is known, no formal 
 mission had been sent thither ; and whose converts 
 these " brethren " were, no man knows. President 
 Lincoln was some one's convert, but he held aloof from 
 church membership ; so was also Samuel Livesey, of 
 temperance fame, who did likewise. " The day will 
 declare " the number of those who, being " ordained to 
 eternal life, believed." " Other sheep I have which 
 are not of this flock," said our Lord. May He not 
 have sheep which are not of any flock of which we 
 have knowledge ? " Nevertheless the foundation of 
 God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth 
 them that are His." 
 
 Walsall is a neighbouring town to West Bromwich, 
 and here also Mr. Cook saw the arm of the Lord 
 revealed in a most extraordinary manner. The late 
 Rev. Dr. James writes : " About fifty persons found 
 peace with God on the first day, and this proved to 
 be the commencement of a work which in some of 
 its features I have never seen equalled. The con- 
 gregations rapidly increased, and great numbers were 
 converted at least four hundred during the first
 
 CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST. 91 
 
 week. On the second Sunday afternoon a service for 
 men only was held. It was a wonderful and almost 
 awful sight fifteen hundred men at least gathered 
 together to hear words whereby they might be saved, 
 and to wait for the kingdom of God. That day about 
 a hundred were added to the number of the saved, 
 and the next day, and the following, a hundred and 
 forty more. The climax of interest and triumph was, 
 however, reached on the succeeding day. In the 
 afternoon the chapel was filled with women. At 
 night an enormous congregation of nearly three 
 thousand persons was gathered together, and at the 
 close of the day it was found that nearly two hundred 
 and twenty persons had entered the inquiry-room, 
 nearly all of whom had professed to find peace with 
 God. On Thursday, the last day of the mission, a 
 hundred more were added to the number. The 
 attention of the town was arrested, and a manifest 
 feeling of awe and wonder prevailed. The local papers 
 published appreciative articles on the mission. On the 
 last evening, when no doubt the congregation numbered 
 nearly three thousand, hundreds were turned away for 
 want of room. The converts numbered nine hundred." 
 Dr. James then gives a statement which shows to 
 what Churches the converts had elected to go, and 
 concludes his report thus : " I can only adore the 
 mercy which permits an old campaigner, at the end 
 of nearly fifty years' service, to witness the greatest 
 spiritual triumph he has ever been privileged to see." 
 Two months later Dr. James wrote : " The converts 
 appear to hold on well. We had three hundred and 
 seventy-three members on trial in this Circuit alone 
 [at the quarterly meeting], and there are numbers
 
 92 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 in other Circuits and Churches in the neighbour- 
 hood." 
 
 Another large mission was held about this time at 
 Pendleton, in the Irwell Street Circuit, Manchester. 
 The writer himself was present at one of the services 
 of this mission, and could therefore report his own 
 impressions. But let the late Rev. George Walker, 
 being dead, yet speak of what he saw at that time. 
 Mr. Walker was then the Superintendent of the 
 Circuit, and his report was as follows : " During the 
 first week the congregations increased each evening, 
 and four "hundred persons above fourteen years of 
 age professed decision. The second Sunday com- 
 menced with a remarkable service at seven A.M. 
 About six hundred were present, including nearly all 
 who had found Christ during the previous week, and 
 others who had received answers to prayer in the 
 salvation of friends. After offering praise to God, 
 the congregation went out and formed a ring in front 
 of the chapel, where several hymns were sung. They 
 then formed a procession, in which educated young 
 ladies and sober men of business, to their own aston- 
 ishment, felt constrained to walk, and went singing 
 through the back streets. The service for men only, 
 in the afternoon, was most impressive. About fifteen 
 hundred men were present, nearly fifty of whom 
 decided for Christ, some of the cases of conversion 
 being remarkable. In the evening the chapel was 
 crowded, and one hundred and twenty-six entered the 
 inquiry-rooms. Wednesday was a day never to be 
 forgotten. At three P.M. the chapel was filled with 
 women, and about a hundred yielded to Christ. In 
 the evening the crowd was almost awful ; the interior
 
 CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST. 93 
 
 of the spacious building presented the sight of one 
 mass of living beings all bowed down under the 
 presence of God, Three hundred persons professed to 
 find peace with God. On the last day of the mission 
 about seven hundred of the converts occupied the 
 body of the chapel, while the galleries were crowded 
 with others, and hundreds were unable to obtain 
 admission. Mr. Cook gave an impressive address to 
 the newly converted, and then made a final appeal 
 to the unsaved, and one hundred and thirty responded, 
 and entered the inquiry-rooms. The meetings for the 
 promotion of holiness were seasons of grace and 
 sweet delight. The total number of converts exceeded 
 eleven hundred, of whom more than half belonged to 
 other places of worship. Probably a hundred were 
 already attending class. At the communion service 
 about one half of the five hundred communicants stood 
 up to confess that it was their first communion. The 
 people are crowding the classes ; numbers who did 
 not go into the inquiry-rooms are joining the Church. 
 The band-meetings and prayer-meetings are attended 
 by hundreds." 
 
 The mission which Mr. Cook held during this 
 period at Oldham was as extraordinary for results as 
 any of the missions here described. The writer was 
 then stationed in Manchester, and had himself oppor- 
 tunities for forming a judgment upon the work. But 
 let the Piev. William Potts, who was on the ground, 
 give evidence. After describing the first week, Mr, 
 Potts writes : " The second Sunday was a day never 
 to be forgotten. In the afternoon the chapel was 
 crowded with men, fifteen hundred being present, 
 and a good number yielded to the powerful appeals of
 
 94 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 the Mission preacher. At the evening service 
 hundreds were unable to get into the chapel. The 
 names of about seven hundred and fifty inquirers were 
 taken, of whom one hundred and thirty belong to 
 other Churches. The sons and daughters of some of 
 our best families, long prayed for, have been brought 
 to God. The power of God was overwhelming in the 
 meetings for the promotion of holiness. The expenses 
 were large, but were more than met by free-will 
 offerings. A balance of 20 left over will be sent to 
 the Home Mission Fund as a thankoffering." 
 
 Mr. Potts' reference to " the sons and daughters of 
 our best families " suggests an observation with which 
 the patient reader must be troubled. We have already 
 seen, and we shall yet see in a much larger measure, 
 that it has been the great joy of Mr. Cook to lead 
 many young people to Christ. Mr. Cook is still a 
 young evangelist, and " to be young is very heaven," 
 and his youth may have attracted the young to 
 him. But what minister is there who does not 
 earnestly covet the power to influence for good the 
 children of the members of his flock ? I do not see 
 what reason we have to expect that we shall succeed 
 in keeping to Methodism the sons and daughters of 
 our more prosperous people unless we succeed in 
 bringing them to Christ. If Methodist preaching is 
 what it ought to be, it will repel from Methodism 
 these young people unless it leads them to Christ. 
 Such preaching is too searching to be endured pass- 
 ively ; and hence it is not surprising that many 
 educated young men and young women, who have not 
 yielded to Christ, have left the Church of their fathers, 
 and, under the pretence of seeking something more
 
 CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST. 95 
 
 cultured, either in preaching or in ritual, have betaken 
 themselves to " quiet resting-places." Nor can we 
 hope to grapple these young people to Methodism 
 with literary societies and choral societies, however 
 innocent or even useful such organisations may be. 
 " The sovereign'st thing on earth " for this ailment, 
 i.e. discontentedness with the Church of one's fathers, 
 is sound conversion to God, followed by a deep and 
 an intelligent interest in the work of God, There 
 are God be praised some of the children of our 
 best families, old Leysians and others, so engrossed in 
 Methodist work, and so happy in it, that they are 
 insensible to the charms of high-class music and a 
 gorgeous ritual ; neither do they wish to forsake their 
 own people and their fathers' people for the sake of 
 what is politely called " society." They are as con- 
 tented as was the Shunammite, who cared not to be 
 spoken for even to the king; but their contentment is 
 due to this, they have found that kingdom which is 
 like treasure hid in a field. Let us seek first for the 
 children of Methodism and especially for our own 
 children " the kingdom of God and His righteous- 
 ness," for if they obtain this, there is much reason to 
 believe that amongst the " all things " that will be 
 added to them, will be a firm and an intelligent 
 attachment to the Church to which they belong by 
 birth. 
 
 Leaving the great industrial centres of the North, 
 we may follow the course of our Evangelist to Ports- 
 mouth, in which large town he held a mission during 
 the earlier part of this period. Portsmouth being a 
 great military and naval centre, it is not surprising, 
 although it is humiliating and painful, to hear that it
 
 96 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 is also the centre of much iniquity, the truth being 
 that the forces of good and of evil are actively at 
 work amongst that large population. Some of the 
 most devoted Wesleyan - Methodists the writer has 
 known during the last one-and-twenty years have 
 been found in the Portsmouth Societies, and amongst 
 those Societies there are now to be found some of 
 the most precious fruits of Mr. Cook's ministry. As 
 an instance of the power of prayer, it may be here 
 stated that some time before Mr. Cook visited Ports- 
 mouth, and indeed before his existence was known to 
 the authorities of the Circuits in the town, three or 
 four praying men met together in an informal way 
 to plead with God for the outpouring of His Spirit 
 upon the congregations. It so happened that at that 
 time peculiar difficulties had arisen in the Circuit to 
 which they belonged, difficulties which no human skill 
 seemed able to surmount, and which greatly impeded 
 the progress of the work of God. A few earnest 
 men, who were and still are deeply interested in the 
 Circuit, made prayer without ceasing unto God for the 
 removal of these obstacles. An assurance was given 
 them that God would take the matter into His own 
 hands ; and, as the writer was told only a few days 
 before these pages were written, by one of these 
 brethren who took the most active part in the pro- 
 ceedings, when as yet they did not know that there 
 was such a man living as Thomas Cook, they were 
 assured by God that ere long hundreds would be 
 converted in their Circuit, and that all the hindrances 
 to the prosperity of the work would be swept away 
 by a mighty outpouring of the Spirit of God. It 
 was done unto them according to their faith. The
 
 CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST. 97 
 
 Eev. Eichard Hardy writes : " The evening services 
 were crowded. Pentecostal blessings resulted. Those 
 who never entered God's house, as well as the unsaved 
 who frequented it, were awakened and converted. 
 Drunkards, wrestling with their foe as in a death 
 struggle, gave up the drink, and on their knees sought 
 the Saviour. The child of eight and the old man of 
 seventy-seven were kneeling at the Cross near each 
 other. To use the expression of a sailor of the Eoyal 
 Navy, 'Hundreds wept their way to Calvary.' At 
 the close of the mission the Wesleyan ministers of 
 the town, with the members of the Circuit quarterly 
 meeting and their wives, met to consider how the 
 revival could be perpetuated and extended ; and this 
 gathering of about one hundred officials passed a 
 resolution expressive of their devout gratitude to God 
 for the conversions that had occurred, and for the 
 deepening of the spiritual life of the Societies, and 
 their earnest hope that the mission would prove to 
 be the beginning of a continuous and extended 
 revival of the work of God in the Circuits of the 
 town. Amongst the converts was the keeper of a 
 public-house, who, as soon as he was converted, pro- 
 ceeded to cut off his right hand by informing the 
 owner of the tied house that he must be instantly 
 released from his occupation, as his conscience would 
 not now permit him to follow that trade. The 
 owner demurred ; but the convert was firm, and said 
 that unless another man was put into the house 
 forthwith, he should close the doors, as he could not 
 carry on the business any longer. Within a week he 
 and his wife were out of the pernicious trade, and 
 were in the class-meeting, happy in the love of God, 
 
 a
 
 98 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 because, like Levi, who, when sitting at the receipt of 
 custom, was called to follow Christ, left all, rose up, 
 and followed Him, they had left all to be the disciples 
 of the Lord Jesus Christ. Another convert was a man 
 who had been much addicted to intemperance, and 
 who was not rescued without much earnest and 
 prayerful effort. After his conversion it transpired 
 that he was in debt to the amount of eight pounds to 
 a local publican, and thereupon one of the workers in 
 the mission, who was not by any means known as a 
 well-to-do man, discharged the whole liability, that the 
 convert might not be exposed to the temptation which 
 would arise if he visited the public-house merely for 
 the sake of paying by instalments the debt he owed. 
 " With such sacrifices God is well pleased." 
 
 These converts still retain the blessing they then 
 found, and the reader will admit that revivals that 
 bear such fruit as this are a continuation of the work 
 that was done in Ephesus, when " many of them also 
 which used curious arts brought their books together, 
 and burned them before all men ; and they counted the 
 price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. 
 So mightily grew the Word of God, and prevailed." 
 
 Nor were the instances just cited exceptional occur- 
 rences. Many more might be given of a like kind. 
 Were space less valuable, much might be said of 
 restitution made by converts for wrong done to 
 others years ago, and also of young ladies who laid 
 aside the sin that did so easily beset them, and never 
 wore new ball dresses which they had purchased 
 before their conversion, in order that they might 
 "run with patience the race set before" them. But 
 we must stay our hand.
 
 CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST. 99 
 
 In February 1888, Mr. Cook visited Exeter, and 
 here also he was permitted to gather "fruit unto 
 life eternal." At the seven o'clock Sunday morning 
 prayer-meeting four hundred were present, and three 
 persons sought the Lord at that early hour. The 
 Kev. W. Spilsbury took charge of the inquirers, and 
 Mr. Cook led the congregation outside for the purpose 
 of awakening the attention of the neighbourhood. 
 The snow was lying on the ground, but the hearts of 
 the people were warm, and mission hymns were sung, 
 much to the surprise of the late risers, who could 
 not understand the meaning of this unusual and, as 
 many would doubtless think, unseasonable disturbance. 
 During this mission at Exeter four hundred and 
 forty-one adults professed to seek peace with God, as 
 did also one hundred and thirty-two children. It was 
 stated in the local newspaper that " the oldest wor- 
 shipper in the chapel did not remember such a series of 
 enthusiastic and God-blest services as were held during 
 the fortnight." At the close of the mission the Eev. 
 W. Spilsbury presented Mr. Cook with a handsome copy 
 of the Analytical Concordance, and about twenty other 
 books, on behalf of the united Societies of the town. 
 
 This was an unusual circumstance, for Mr. Cook 
 wisely discourages such manifestations of goodwill, 
 because he wishes to " walk in wisdom toward them 
 that are without." Like St. Paul, he does not " desire 
 a gift." Nevertheless, like the same apostle, he has 
 once and again been constrained to accept one, not 
 being always able to check the generosity of converts 
 who are eager to give their fathers in Christ, not only 
 " Concordances," but to " pluck out [their] own eyes " 
 and give them also, if that were " possible."
 
 ioo THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 Mr. Cook's ministry has not been confined to Great 
 Britain ; in Ireland also he has gathered many 
 sheaves. He held a mission in Dublin which was 
 described in the press at the time by an independent 
 witness as " more than a Methodist mission, inasmuch 
 as it reached all classes and creeds, and awakened an 
 interest (if nothing more) in spiritual matters amongst 
 thousands who previously were quite careless." The 
 services were crowded, many Roman Catholics being 
 amongst the hearers ; and the names of seven 
 hundred inquirers were taken, all the Protestant 
 Churches and the Eoman Catholic Church being 
 represented on the lists. 
 
 A writer, unknown to myself, in a report of the 
 Dublin mission makes the following just observa- 
 tions : 
 
 " Mr. Cook is one of the best evangelists of this 
 generation. His sermons are not remarkable for 
 eloquence, originality, or thoughtfulness. They are 
 remarkable for plain, pointed, earnest appeals. The 
 interest never flags, the great question of present 
 decision for God is never lost sight of, and all through 
 there is an unction from the Holy One. His manage- 
 ment of a meeting is beyond praise. His ready 
 tact, his power of command, his tender sympathy, 
 give constant opportunities for wonder and" delight. 
 The principal cause of success is found in the after- 
 noon meetings for holiness. Here Air. Cook is seen 
 at his best. His clear views, his telling illustrations, 
 his powerful appeals at these meetings, can never be 
 forgotten. A new life seems to be before Methodism 
 in Dublin." 
 
 We shall have occasion in a subsequent chapter
 
 CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST. 101 
 
 to refer again to this Dublin mission, and will there- 
 fore proceed to notice one or two missions held 
 elsewhere, before the space left at our disposal for 
 this chapter is exhausted. 
 
 In March 1889, Mr. Cook visited Leeds, and held 
 a mission in the historic Brunswick Chapel. During 
 the course of the mission five hundred adults publicly 
 sought salvation, and the people of God themselves 
 were richly blessed at the holiness meetings and other 
 services. The men's meeting was attended by nineteen 
 hundred men, and was most impressive ; while the 
 women's meeting, held on a week-day afternoon, was 
 attended by twelve hundred. The converts belonged 
 to all classes, and included persons of refinement as 
 well as aged people. Many young people were also 
 included in the list of the saved. The widow of a 
 local preacher sent a request for prayer for the con- 
 version of her only son, a young man of five-and- 
 twenty. Prayer was offered, and the same night he 
 was in the inquiry-room. An elderly man, for whom 
 several people had prayed for fifteen years, was brought 
 to God. " Praise God," said one of the workers, " my 
 mother, for whom I have prayed these seventeen years, 
 has just gone into the inquiry-room." A youth, who 
 had come out of gaol in the morning, came to the 
 service in the evening. He had been well trained, 
 but had gone astray. In the cell he had obtained 
 God's forgiveness, and he went forward to tell of His 
 goodness and mercy. In one of the services, five 
 young ladies, all from the same place of business, 
 N were brought to decision. 
 
 A ministerial correspondent writes of this Bruns- 
 wick Chapel mission : " One thing is clear : the old-
 
 102 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 fashioned truth, simply and earnestly preached in the 
 old-fashioned Methodist way, has still a charm for the 
 people, and is still blessed of God to the salvation of 
 souls. We had eighteen services in ten days. Would 
 eighteen lectures or concerts or entertainments in ten 
 days have drawn such crowds and commanded such 
 deep attention ? In Mr. Cook's sermons there is no 
 mere intellectual effect, no modern thought, but, 
 instead, there is deep and earnest warning, close 
 and powerful wrestling with the conscience and with 
 the will, and solemn appeal. Some of his sermons 
 were to me like an echo of those which I used to 
 hear in my boyhood, and which have been, alas ! too 
 scarce in modern years. But it is under these sermons 
 occasionally almost terrible in their solemnity 
 that men and women are awakened, and led to deci- 
 sion for God. Oh, for more of such preaching, and for 
 more of the divine power to accompany the Word ! " 
 
 It has been the joy of Mr. Cook to lead many 
 sinners to Christ in London also. Much might be 
 written of successful missions held in Southwark, 
 Willesden, and other parts of the metropolitan district, 
 but we will omit further reference to these missions, 
 and devote a few lines to the mission which Mr. Cook 
 held in Hampstead in 1890. It might have been 
 supposed that at Hampstead, if anywhere in the world, 
 a mission would have been, if not barren, certainly 
 not very fruitful. Methodism has not flourished at 
 Hampstead, although it has not been without vigorous 
 supporters in that charming suburb. It should seem 
 that the soil is not congenial for the growth of Method- 
 ism, and we should be disposed to believe that this 
 is so, and that this explains our want of success there,
 
 CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST. 103 
 
 if it were not for two circumstances : one of these is 
 the great success of the Eev. K. F. Horton, M.A., 
 at Hampstead. Before Mr. Horton's advent it was 
 thought that Congregationalism would never succeed 
 in Hampstead, where the population is largely made 
 up of artists and other professional men, and where 
 the rents of the houses are exceedingly high. Yet no 
 sooner was it noised abroad that there was a man 
 in the pulpit of the Congregational Church at Hamp- 
 stead, than the people crowded to hear his message. 
 
 The other circumstance is the mission which Mr. 
 Cook held at Hampstead. Of this mission the Rev. 
 T. E. Westerdale sent a report to the Methodist 
 Recorder, which, though printed in small type, occupied 
 a column and a half, and which, if it were reprinted 
 here, would make all my writing appear tameness itself. 
 I must be content to say that Mr. Westerdale 
 declares that he shall never forget as long as he lives 
 the scenes which he witnessed during that revival, 
 where a hundred and seventy-eight souls were con- 
 verted to God. 
 
 From the report of Mr. Cook's labours during 
 his first year as Connexional Evangelist, we gather 
 that in that period he saw three thousand seven 
 hundred adults and nearly two thousand children 
 seeking salvation in his services. The report for the 
 second year gives us larger numbers still, for during 
 the second year some of these large missions were 
 held of which this chapter treats. The report for 
 1886-87 also lies before us, and shows that the 
 work of that year was even more prosperous than 
 ever, that it was, in truth, unprecedented in Mr. 
 Cook's experience. In this year (1886-87) he visited
 
 104 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 places of which no mention has been made Skipton, 
 Birmingham, Bradford, Leek, Gainsborough, Leicester, 
 Launceston, and Zetland being among the number. 
 
 The work has shown no abatement of fruit-bearing 
 power since then. In a private letter which Mr. Cook 
 addressed to me at the close of the winter season of 
 1891, he stated that "the missions of the year 
 189091 had been amongst the most successful that 
 he has ever held." The places visited that year were 
 not of such Connexional importance as some of those 
 to which reference is here made, and perhaps the 
 numerical results were not always as large, but the 
 work of the year, as a whole, w^as equally successful, 
 and calls for devout thanksgiving from all who wish 
 to see the gospel spread throughout these islands. 
 
 Mr. Cook entered upon this work with some fear 
 and trembling ; for he was young, inexperienced, with- 
 out much resource, and the position was one of much 
 prominence, bringing him before the whole Connexion, 
 and especially before the ministers with whom he had 
 to work, and many of whom are always in his services. 
 Never could he have faced these responsibilities had 
 he not been assured that although, like the prophet 
 Jeremiah, he was but " a child," his " sufficiency was 
 of God." Mr. Cook has publicly said in the writer's 
 hearing that when he first began his work, he had, as 
 it were, but five loaves and two small fishes. This 
 slender provision, however, he took to his Master, 
 who blessed it, and made it go so far that he himself 
 has been greatly astonished. In this respect his 
 experience is like Bunyan's. During his prison days 
 Bunyan was once expected to preach to his fellow- 
 prisoners ; but Bunyan felt himself empty, spiritless,
 
 CONNEXIONAL EVANGELIST. 105 
 
 and barren, and unable to speak five words of truth 
 with life and evidence. Then there came a break in 
 the clouds, and Bunyan saw something in the chapter 
 of the Word of God which was before him. Bunyan 
 carried his " meditations to the Lord Jesus for a bless- 
 ing, which He did forthwith grant according to His 
 grace ; and helping me to set before my brethren, we 
 did all eat and were well refreshed ; and behold, also, 
 that while I was in the distributing of it, it so 
 increased in my hand, that of the fragments that we 
 left, after we had well dined, I gathered up this 
 basketful." "The basketful" left sufficed to make 
 one of his prison books, his Holy City, published in 
 1665, and it still remains fresh and useful. 
 
 I have desired in this chapter to avoid the use of 
 all sensational and extravagant terms, and have for 
 the greater part given the testimonies of eye-witnesses 
 of the scenes here described, chiefly, if not entirely, 
 of brother ministers. If, however, the reader has 
 detected any tendency on my part to magnify the 
 work which Thomas Cook has been enabled to do, 
 he must accept my assurance that the one wish of 
 the Evangelist and of the writer is that the reader 
 should be compelled to exclaim : " This is the Lord's 
 doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes."
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 PEINCIPLES AND METHODS OF WORK. 
 
 late Field-Marshal Count von Moltke, who in 
 1870-71 conducted a successful war on behalf 
 of his country with France, states, in the account of 
 the war which has recently been published, that 
 "everything in military history is judged by its 
 results." 
 
 Mr. Cook has conducted a holy war in this country 
 during the last ten years, and, judged by its results, 
 we must admit that during this ten years' war the 
 Evangelist has been as victorious in his " line of 
 things " as the German Field-Marshal was in his par- 
 ticular sphere. This imperfect account of the evan- 
 gelistic war is written, that it may do for the student 
 of Christianity what the Field-Marshal's description of 
 the Franco-German war is intended to do for the 
 student of military science. 
 
 For, whatever may be thought of Mr. Cook's 
 preaching, principles, and methods, no candid person 
 who is familiar with the facts can for one moment 
 deny that, "judged by its results," his ministry has 
 been phenomenally successful. Vinet reminds us that 
 " preaching is an action." If a sermon is not intended 
 
 to do something, why should it be preached ? If the 
 
 100
 
 PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF WORK. 107 
 
 sermon is merely listened to, however learned, eloquent, 
 and beautiful it may be, it must be regarded as a 
 failure. The most learned preacher living preaches to 
 no purpose unless he has a purpose in preaching. 
 
 Mr. Cook has a purpose, and only one : it is to save 
 himself and them that hear him. And because he has 
 effected his purpose, and saved his hearers and himself 
 hitherto, it may be worth while to study his principles 
 and methods. A junior minister went to hear Mr. 
 Cook preach on one occasion, and afterwards reported 
 to a senior minister that there was not a great deal in 
 the sermon he heard, for it was full of " Come, come, 
 come." " But," said the elder to the younger, " did 
 they come ? " " They did," was the reply ; " they 
 streamed down the aisles, greatly to my surprise." 
 " Then," said the senior man, " you ought to go again, 
 and to keep on going, till you have learned to say 
 ' Come ' with like results." We have all heard 
 sermons in our time some of us, alas ! have preached 
 such sermons that have been " full of Come, come, 
 come," and yet those whom we have thus importuned 
 have not come. If to tell men that they ought to 
 repent and believe the gospel, and to entreat them 
 with vehemence to come to Christ, were all that is 
 necessary to produce results, who of us would be 
 unsuccessful ? If any man should think it sufficient 
 to say, " We adjure you by Jesus whom Thomas Cook 
 preacheth," he must not be surprised to hear the old 
 answer, " Jesus I know, and Thomas Cook I know ; 
 but who are ye ? " 
 
 No preacher will succeed by merely saying "Come ; " 
 and he who thinks that herein is the secret of Mr. 
 Cook's success is greatly mistaken. Mr. Cook is in
 
 io8 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 the habit of saying, that for an evangelist to succeed 
 three things are required : Faith in God, faith in him- 
 self, and faith in his mission. 
 
 Even in the world much is accomplished by men 
 who believe in themselves, and hence it is commonly 
 said, " They can, who believe they can." A man 
 knows, for example, whether or not he can drive 
 four-in-hand, whether or not he can scale a high 
 building, whether or not he can jump with safety off 
 a running tram-car ; and, as a rule, if he believes he 
 can do these things, he is able to do them. 
 
 "Our doubts are traitors, 
 And make us lose the good we oft might win 
 By fearing to attempt." 
 
 In the Christian Church the same remarks hold 
 good. Given a man who firmly believes that for this 
 purpose God has raised him up, that he may call 
 sinners to repentance, and his ministry will be irresist- 
 ible. Mr. Cook is as truly convinced that God has 
 raised him up, and sent him to " do the work of an 
 evangelist," as he is convinced that God raised up Moses 
 and sent him to deliver the children of Israel from the 
 hand of Pharaoh. And herein lies his great strength. 
 Mr. Cook, accordingly, never preaches without expect- 
 ing that God will work with him, and that signs will 
 follow ; and, as a matter of fact, it is so ; and hence, 
 whilst during the last ten years he has held, on an 
 average, three hundred evangelistic services a year, he 
 has not held more than a dozen out of the three 
 thousand which have not borne visible fruit. The one 
 idea of his life is to save men. He has no reputation 
 to nurse, and, being a servant of Christ, he does not
 
 PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF WORK. 109 
 
 " please men." He has no pulpit dignity to maintain, 
 but makes everything bend to the one purpose of 
 leading sinners to Christ. A few years ago he was 
 invited, during the sessions of the Irish Conference, to 
 preach on the Sunday evening in the Conference 
 chapel. The occasion was not wanting in importance, 
 but the Evangelist selected one of his earliest sermons 
 for the service, of which he afterwards told me he was 
 ashamed, choosing it simply because it was one which 
 God had much used for the conversion of sinners. 
 The sermon did nothing to enhance his reputation, but 
 it was the means of bringing fifty persons to decision, 
 and thus it caused the " raptured songs above " to 
 swell with increased joy over the new triumphs which 
 the Saviour's Name wrought. Great sermons, it is to 
 be. feared, are often great sins ; and if preachers would 
 ask themselves before preaching them their reason for 
 selecting them, such sermons would often be rejected 
 instead of chosen. 
 
 Happily, Mr. Cook has no " great sermons." He 
 has, however, some which have been owned of God 
 more than others ; and these he loves to preach, not 
 because they increase his reputation every time they 
 are repeated, for this they do not do, but because 
 they are the means of " turning many to righteousness." 
 
 When Mr. Cook was a candidate for the ministry, 
 his preaching was objected to on the ground that it 
 was " too colloquial." But he has continued to adopt 
 a colloquial style, and it should seem that the event 
 has justified his decision. No doubt God can do as 
 well without a slip-shod and slovenly style as He can 
 do without the style of " Blair's Ehetoric." The evan- 
 gelist should not offer to God that which costs him
 
 1 10 THOMAS COOK 'S EARL Y MINIS TR Y. 
 
 nothing. If a young mission- worker, with his eye on 
 the ministry as his ultimate destination, thinks that 
 because God cares nothing for human eloquence, he 
 may justifiably be careless of his grammar and com- 
 position, and may so preach as to set all the School 
 Board children in his congregation in a titter, he is 
 seriously mistaken. The prophet Malachi says, " If 
 ye offer the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil ? And 
 if ye offer the lame and the sick, is it not evil ? 
 Offer it now unto thy Governor ; will He be pleased 
 with thee, or accept thy person ? saith the Lord of 
 Hosts." 
 
 The editors of magazines and of newspapers would 
 not be " pleased " with us if we were to offer them 
 some of the compositions which we offer to God. 
 " Scamped " work ill becomes the pulpit. John Bright 
 was not born a ready-made orator, but took infinite 
 pains to acquire his matchless style, which enabled 
 him to be understood by the Birmingham artisans, 
 and at the same time charmed the ear of the fastidi- 
 ous. Would to God that more preachers had a style 
 calculated to compel the indolent to listen, and to 
 prevent the critic from scoffing ! Gold and frank- 
 incense and myrrh are fitting gifts for the Son of God. 
 
 All this it seemed necessary to say lest we should 
 encourage mental indolence ; and, having found courage 
 to write it, we may now add without fear of being 
 misunderstood, that Thomas Cook has always endea- 
 voured to use great plainness of speech, and to avoid 
 what the Spectator has called " pulpit English." At 
 the same time, like " such an one as Paul," he has 
 never been guilty of buffoonery and vulgarity, but has 
 spoken the mystery of Christ as he ought to speak it,
 
 PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF WORK, in 
 
 and, consequently, with much acceptance to many of 
 the most intelligent congregations in Methodism. 
 
 An evangelist can be plain without being coarse, 
 simple without being foolish. 
 
 Mr. Cook endeavours to be as personal in his 
 preaching as it is possible for him to be, seeing that 
 usually he preaches to strangers with whose sins and 
 habits he has no special acquaintance. To what pur- 
 pose is it that we " smite the Agnostics hip and thigh, 
 and pour lava upon the Mormons who are thousands 
 of miles away," and have nothing to say to the man 
 in the nearest pew ? Preaching to absentees will be 
 bootless. " Thou art the man " is the style of the 
 successful preacher, who causes his hearer to be, not 
 pleased with the preacher, but displeased with himself. 
 On one occasion when our Evangelist was preaching at 
 Croydon, a seat-holder abruptly left during the service, 
 remarking at the door to some onlooker, " That man 
 ought to be imprisoned for preaching like that." But, 
 as Mr. Moody was wont to say when in this country, 
 there is hope of a man who is made angry by the 
 Word. 
 
 Like Finney, Mr. Cook believes in repeating his 
 main points until he has got them imbedded in the 
 minds of his hearers. It may be remembered that 
 Finney quotes a judge, who remarked to him that 
 preachers make a mistake in not doing as advocates 
 do, whose habit it is to repeat over their main posi- 
 tions about as many times as there are men in the 
 jury-box. Lawyers would ruin their cause if they 
 were afraid of repetition ; Thomas Cook gains his 
 cause by not being afraid of the same thing. " One 
 tenpenny nail," says Mr. Spurgeon, " driven home, and
 
 1 1 2 THOMA S COOK'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 clinched, will be more useful than a score of tin-tacks 
 loosely fixed, to be pulled up again in an hour." 
 
 He also seeks to persuade men, and " beseeches " 
 them to be reconciled to God. Dr. Dale has truly 
 said, that " to leave the truth to do its own work, and 
 to trust to the hearts and consciences of our hearers 
 to apply it, is a great and fatal mistake." That mis- 
 take our Evangelist strenuously avoids. Nor is his 
 ministry without the element of fear. The temper of 
 the times is opposed to the sterner aspects of the 
 gospel, and people generally are intolerant of all 
 teaching that insists upon the future punishment of 
 sin. Present - day preachers, especially Methodist 
 preachers, may well ask themselves whether or not 
 they are as much in earnest in warning sinners to 
 flee from the wrath to come, as were their fathers, 
 particularly the early Methodist preachers. 
 
 Dr. Dale, who, it has been well said, is the preacher's 
 preacher, as Shelley was the poet's poet, in his Old 
 Evangelicalism and New, asks this pertinent question : 
 " Are we as anxious, ministers and people, about men 
 as our fathers were ? On any theory of eschatology 
 there is a dark and menacing future for those who 
 have been brought face to face with Christ in this life, 
 and have refused to receive His salvation, and to sub- 
 mit to His authority. I do not ask whether the 
 element of fear has a great place in our preaching, but 
 whether it has a great place in our hearts whether 
 we ourselves are afraid whether the Christian people 
 who have been trained by us are afraid of what will 
 come to men who do not believe in Christ ; whether 
 we, whether our people, are filled with an agonising 
 earnestness for their salvation." To use the language
 
 PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF WORK. 113 
 
 of a deeply-thoughtful Christian writer, " The thin and 
 washy versions of Christianity current in our day " 
 have no room for the element of fear, arid have no 
 severe condemnation for the sins of poor men. And 
 yet it is written, " The Lord Jesus shall be revealed 
 from heaven with His mighty angels, in naming fire 
 taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that 
 obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ ; who 
 shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the 
 presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power." 
 Men will not, in numberless cases, go to Christ, " our 
 Deliverer from the wrath to come," unless they realise 
 that out of Christ the wrath of God abideth on them ; 
 and therefore, while it is perfectly true, as Mr. Moody 
 once said, that " a preacher ought to have a very tender 
 heart to speak with good effect about the condition of 
 the lost," it is equally true that every preacher should 
 " put on a heart of compassion " (R.V.) ; and the love 
 of Christ should constrain him, 
 
 " With cries, entreaties, tears, to save, 
 To snatch them from the gaping grave." 
 
 Some of Mr. Cook's success is due to this element 
 having a considerable place in his ministry. 
 
 The expectation of immediate results is another 
 principle of Mr. Cook's ministry. Some preachers fail 
 to secure their object because they do not expect to 
 succeed, and would really be as much astonished if 
 they did, as Peter was astonished when his " nets 
 enclosed a great multitude of fishes." 
 
 Mr. Cook fully expects that the Divine blessing will 
 accompany the Word ; but his faith is not always 
 shared by his fellow-labourers, and therefore it often 
 
 H
 
 1 14 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 happens that one of his first duties in beginning a 
 mission is to awaken faith in God's people. On one 
 occasion, when the Evangelist met the workers on the 
 Saturday evening previous to the first Sunday, he gave 
 thanks, as he often does, for the victories about to be 
 achieved. At the close of the service an unbelieving 
 brother remarked, " But how will it be, Mr. Cook, if 
 no good is done ? " "I am not going to suppose any 
 such thing," was the Evangelist's reply ; " good is sure 
 to be done." 
 
 Often when he has gone to a church for a single 
 Sunday, he has found the people quite destitute of all 
 expectation of visible fruit, especially if the occasion 
 has been a Sunday-school anniversary. In such cases 
 he will excite a spirit of hopefulness by asking the 
 stewards to prepare sheets of paper on which the 
 names of the inquirers may be written, and to prepare 
 vestries for their accommodation in the after-meeting. 
 Then he will boldly make the collection before the 
 sermon, in order that nothing may frustrate his pur- 
 pose at the close of the service ; and never does he 
 leave the chapel without drawing the net to the shore. 
 Sometimes he has had to contend with organists and 
 choirs who have been bent on musical performances, 
 and whose sympathy with his object has been but 
 slight. A while ago, for instance, he went to a water- 
 ing-place to preach on the Sunday, and found on arriv- 
 ing at the chapel that a distinguished musician was 
 expecting to give an organ recital at the close of the 
 evening service. Such an arrangement would have been 
 fatal to the Evangelist's one great design, and he felt 
 bound to forbid it being carried out. The stewards 
 pleaded for the programme to be followed, but the Evan-
 
 PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF WORK. 115 
 
 gelist was inexorable, and the result was that while the 
 eminent player was displeased, " the Lord added to the 
 Church " that evening twenty souls who were " being 
 saved." Mr. Cook has often found that some of the 
 best converts of a mission have been the hardest to 
 win, and it is therefore a principle with him not to 
 lose heart, but by the use of all means to seek to save 
 some, as was the custom of that great soul- winner St. 
 Paul. Not seldom our Evangelist's faith has been 
 sorely tried. Upon one occasion he told the congre- 
 gation before the sermon was finished that God had 
 given him the assurance that souls would be saved at 
 that service, and he was therefore confident of victory. 
 When he had concluded his sermon, he appealed to his 
 hearers to come out and avow themselves on the Lord's 
 side. But there was no response. He renewed his 
 appeal, being persuaded that God would not fail him. 
 Five, ten, twenty minutes passed, and still there was 
 no answer made to his entreaty ; and it was suggested 
 to the Evangelist that God was going to fail him, and 
 put him to shame before the congregation. For a 
 moment the perspiration stood on his brow, but faith 
 soon conquered, and he was convinced that heaven and 
 earth might pass away, but God's word must be ful- 
 filled. He therefore said to the people, " If you do 
 not come, God has not sent me ; but if God has sent 
 me, come you will." He then waited to see what God 
 would do. For some moments perfect stillness pre- 
 vailed, and a sacred awe seemed to rest upon the 
 congregation. Then the power of God was felt. 
 Many bowed their heads and wept, while numbers of 
 persons rose in all parts of the chapel and wended 
 their way to the inquiry-rooms, and all present said,
 
 1 1 6 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 " We have seen strange things to-day." It need 
 scarcely be said that no prudent man of God will 
 adopt such a course as this except under special cir- 
 cumstances, No such man will resolve beforehand to 
 proceed in this way, nor will any wise evangelist ever 
 dare to imitate this procedure, unless he also, like Mr. 
 Cook, is convinced that he is being led by the Spirit 
 of God. "And the Lord said, Shall I hide from 
 Abraham that thing which I do ? " " The secret of 
 the Lord is with them that fear Him." " If thine eye 
 be single, thy whole body shall be full of light." 
 
 In almost every mission there are hearers present 
 who apparently will never be won by public preaching, 
 but who will yield to personal entreaty. On the other 
 hand, there are others who would resent any personal 
 attempt that was made to bring them to decision, and 
 who, therefore, must be approached only from the 
 pulpit. He that winneth souls is wise enough to 
 discriminate between these classes, and to vary his 
 methods according to the peculiarities of his hearers, 
 and not commit himself to any stereotyped form of 
 procedure. Every evangelist should combine the 
 fullest common sense with the deepest fervour. He 
 who was ready to " die at Jerusalem for the name 
 of the Lord Jesus," was content to become " all things 
 to all men." 
 
 After pleading for an hour one evening with a 
 young fellow who seemed utterly indifferent, the 
 Evangelist, as he was leaving him, asked God to enable 
 him to speak one final word that might bring the man 
 to decision. Then turning to him Mr. Cook said, " Do 
 not think you will be doing God a favour by yielding 
 to His offers ; He can do very well without you." The
 
 PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF WORK. 117 
 
 rebuke was effectual. The next night that young 
 man was a humble penitent. 
 
 " Words which Thou Thyself shalt give me, 
 Must prevail." 
 
 On another occasion, a gentleman of much refine- 
 ment attended every service during a mission, but 
 would not surrender to God. The last evening came, 
 and still he held out. Some of the workers would 
 fain have spoken to him in his pew, but the Evangelist 
 prohibited them from doing so, having a premonition 
 that for them to do so would be for them to defeat 
 their purpose. But as the final service was just 
 about to be closed, Mr. Cook walked down the aisle to 
 the gentleman in question, and, asking God to give him 
 the right word, touched him on the shoulder and 
 quietly said, " If you are not in the kingdom, but 
 desire to be, follow me," and then walked away. The 
 gentleman instantly rose and followed the Evangelist 
 to the inquiry - room, and that night he began a 
 new life. 
 
 Tactics such as these must be used by evangelists 
 who would succeed, but they cannot be learned as 
 military science may be. The art of winning souls is 
 acquired on the knees. He who would do much for 
 God must needs be much with God. 
 
 In some places it is found that singing-bands are 
 useful in arresting public attention and increasing 
 the congregations ; in other places they are a waste 
 of time and strength. The great point which the 
 evangelist has to consider is, how he can best adapt 
 his methods to the particular church which he is 
 endeavouring to revive and increase. Mr. Cook has
 
 1 1 8 THOMAS COOK'S EA RL Y MINIS TR Y, 
 
 published some " Hints on Preparation " which he 
 usually sends in advance to the places he is about to 
 visit, and which prove very serviceable. A large 
 choir always proves a source of great attraction. At 
 some of Mr. Cook's missions the choir has been two 
 hundred and fifty strong, and then it has rendered 
 most efficient service. It is also found highly advan- 
 tageous to precede the mission by a week of prayer. 
 Indirectly this does immense good. It excites ex- 
 pectation ; it tends to fasten attention upon indi- 
 viduals ; and it quickens effort, for most people feel, 
 when they have prayed, that it behoves them to second 
 their prayers with their endeavours. The direct con- 
 sequences of a week of prayer are incalculable. Mr. 
 Cook encourages the Lord's people to make out a 
 prayer-list, on which they write the names of a dozen 
 persons in whose conversion they are particularly 
 interested, and for whom they pledge themselves to 
 pray. Thus they concentrate thought and prayer 
 upon individuals, instead of merely taking a sort of 
 general interest in the work. This tends to secure 
 definiteness in prayer. Instead of only praying in 
 private for the conversion of sinners in general, the 
 workers who comply with this rule intercede for 
 particular persons, and then seek to promote their 
 object by inviting the persons to the mission and 
 speaking directly to them when a suitable opportunity 
 occurs. There must be much latent praying power 
 in the Churches, and this the successful evangelist 
 will always endeavour to develope. We solicit sub- 
 scriptions on behalf of others ; we ask for self- 
 sacrificing efforts on behalf of others ; why not ask 
 for prayers for others ? It will often be seen that
 
 PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF WORK. 119 
 
 some who, on account of age, or sickness, or extreme 
 poverty, can do nothing else for a mission, can render 
 the best possible help by pleading alone with God for 
 its success. " The poor of this world " can indeed 
 render invaluable service when they are "rich in 
 faith." 
 
 One of the less important means which, if judiciously 
 used, contributes a good deal to promote the success 
 of a mission, is the local newspaper press. Hand- 
 bills may or may not be read, but everybody reads 
 the newspaper, and hence a paragraph inserted in the 
 local paper is of great service. Sometimes, if the 
 representatives of the press are courteously approached, 
 they will write " leaders " on the mission, or cause 
 them to be written, or if written by one of the friends 
 of the mission they will insert them, and thereby 
 greatly help to make the mission known, and to bring 
 it into favour. 
 
 The wisdom of the serpent is as necessary as the 
 harmlessness of the dove. The evangelist must 
 always remember Wesley's words,, and have all his 
 wits about him. 
 
 The holiness meetings, held in the afternoons, are 
 always of great value in furthering the success of the 
 mission. This will appear later on, and need not now 
 be referred to at length. 
 
 At the evening services " repentance toward God " 
 is insisted upon, and hearers are urged to leave their 
 sins as well as their pews in order that they may 
 find God. The Evangelist discourages the workers 
 from speaking to people in their pews, and relies on 
 the penitents coming out voluntarily as inquirers. 
 Indeed, nothing in Mr. Cook's missions is so remarkable
 
 120 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 as the spontaneous way in which the converts, as a 
 rule, stand up to be prayed for by the preacher, and 
 then come out of their pews and enter the rooms 
 prepared for their reception. It is no uncommon 
 thing for all the workers to be directed by the 
 Evangelist to proceed to the inquiry-rooms, and to do 
 this before any converts have discovered their inten- 
 tion to do the same. But in these instances the 
 workers have been quickly followed by the penitents, 
 and the circumstance is only stated here in order 
 to show that it is not a principle with him to put 
 undue pressure upon his hearers, and to force them 
 into the inquiry-rooms nolens volens. 
 
 It is generally known that' Mr. Cook conducts his 
 after-meetings in a manner quite contrary to the 
 traditions of the elders, sometimes taking all the 
 burden upon himself, and perhaps even closing a 
 service without prayer having been publicly offered 
 excepting by himself. He believes, however, that by 
 arranging continually during the services for silent 
 prayer to be offered, as a matter of fact more prayer 
 ascends to heaven during his missions than there would 
 if lie followed the ordinary method ; and as he usually 
 does not know many of the men who might be likely 
 to lead the prayers of the congregations if the meetings 
 were thrown open, he is of opinion that his plan 
 safeguards his services from the interposition of un- 
 suitable persons, and is the best possible method for 
 him, whether or not it may be so for others. 
 
 It must not be supposed, however, that our Evan- 
 gelist undervalues the prayers of God's people. On 
 the contrary, he esteems them very highly, and encour- 
 ages the praying people to " continue steadfastly in
 
 PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF WORK. 121 
 
 prayer " at all times, and especially during the mission. 
 The congregations are invited to send requests for 
 prayer, and these are read by the Evangelist and 
 remembered by him publicly and audibly when he 
 leads the devotions of the people, and by the con- 
 gregation during the intervals allowed for private 
 prayer. 
 
 As we have seen, workers are directed to draw up 
 lists of names of persons for whom they promise to offer 
 special private prayer ; and it is no uncommon thing for 
 friends to send requests for praise to be offered before 
 the mission closes, because all the persons whose 
 names were on their lists have been brought to God. 
 
 Whilst holding a mission in South Wales, Mr. 
 Cook was asked to plead with God especially for a 
 young fellow who had been trained in a godly home, 
 but had become utterly careless and prayerless. This 
 young man treated the mission as a huge joke, and 
 defied his friends to influence him by their prayers. 
 The Evangelist and his co-workers prayed that the 
 man might be led to come to the men's meetings, 
 He positively refused to come, and made up his mind 
 to have a quiet Sunday afternoon at home with his 
 books and his pipe. As he lived near the chapel he 
 was able to watch the men go in, and as the time 
 for beginning the service drew near, it struck him that 
 he would go to his window and see who was going. 
 This he did, and he was surprised to observe many 
 unlikely men entering the chapel prominent trades- 
 men, professional men, and others. His curiosity was 
 excited. " I wonder what sort of a meeting it will be ! 
 I've a good mind to creep in at the back and see." 
 So he said to himself, and he acted accordingly. When
 
 1 22 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 he entered the chapel he found the back seats occupied, 
 and he was obliged to walk higher up than he 
 intended to do. As he bowed his head for private 
 prayer, a strange feeling came over him ; and when he 
 raised his head, instead of rising on his feet and 
 joining in singing, he made his way direct to the 
 inquiry-room, crying for mercy. Before the Evan- 
 gelist began his address that afternoon the young man 
 was rejoicing in God's forgiving love. 
 
 Let the reader add to this incident from Wales 
 another from Lincolnshire. A lady came to the Evangel- 
 ist at the seven o'clock Sunday morning prayer-meeting, 
 and said, " Oh, Mr. Cook, I have had a great disappoint- 
 ment. I have been praying for years for the con- 
 version of my husband ; especially have I done this 
 of late since I heard you were coming here to hold a 
 mission. I thought it very likely that during these 
 services he would be saved ; and now, two days ago, he 
 was called away to Cambridge, where he will remain 
 all the time you are here." 
 
 " But," said the Evangelist, " God can reach him at 
 Cambridge. Let us ask Him to do so." Thereupon a 
 few persons joined in prayer for the husband. That 
 very day, as it afterwards transpired, the prayer was 
 answered. The man being away from home felt 
 lonely that Sunday, and did not know what to do 
 with himself. In the morning he turned in at the 
 Wesleyan Chapel, but he was not as much helped by 
 the service as he expected. In the evening, as he 
 chanced to pass the Baptist Chapel, something said to 
 him, " Go in there," and accordingly in he went. It 
 proved to be an evangelistic service ; the preacher had 
 just the message for him, and there and then the man
 
 PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF WORK. 123 
 
 believed and was saved. Another case may be men- 
 tioned of a like kind. This happened in our greatest 
 seat of learning, Oxford, and it was on this wise. An 
 elderly widow woman sought and found the Lord at 
 the mission, and then, as was most natural, she in- 
 stantly became concerned for her son, who was a 
 soldier, and who, having been ordered abroad, was to 
 sail the following week. " If only he was saved," said 
 the good mother, " I should be willing to let him go. 
 Do pray for him." The request was, of course, granted, 
 and the answer came in the following way. Greatly to 
 the mother's surprise, the son, who was the servant of 
 an officer, came home on the following Saturday, leave 
 having been given him to spend a few days with his 
 mother before he went abroad. The mother brought 
 her lad with her to the service on the Sunday evening, 
 and amongst the first to respond to the preacher's 
 appeal was the soldier boy, who came forward and 
 soon found the blessing which he sought. " He can 
 go abroad now," said the widowed mother; "if we 
 don't meet again on earth, we shall meet in heaven." 
 
 " Coincidences " these circumstances will be called 
 by persons who know nothing of the possibilities of 
 prayer ; " direct answers to prayer " they will be 
 called by those who know " the secret of the Lord." 
 
 Much has already been said about the inquiry- 
 room, and as the use of the inquiry-room forms one 
 of Mr. Cook's chief methods, some remarks thereon 
 may be useful. 
 
 In early Methodism the Sunday evening prayer- 
 meeting was unknown. Probably John Smith, whom 
 I once heard Dr. Osborn describe as the most suc- 
 cessful of all Methodist evangelists, and John Batten-
 
 124 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 bury, must be held responsible for the introduction 
 of this comparatively modern arrangement ; certainly 
 before their day it was unknown. Thus, by way of 
 example, it may be said that when Dr. Bunting 
 travelled in the Grosvenor Street Circuit, Manchester, 
 he had the great happiness to see the membership of 
 the Circuit doubled in three years. And yet he never 
 held a Sunday night prayer-meeting, nor did he ever 
 have "a mission." The result was effected in this 
 way. The Word of God was powerfully preached, 
 and the Holy Ghost bore testimony to the Word of 
 His grace. Large sacramental services and Society 
 meetings were held. The week-evening services were 
 well attended. And the Lord's people were always 
 on the alert for hearers convinced of sin, whom they 
 took by the hand and led to the class-meeting, the 
 leader taking care that such persons should not 
 remain in bondage, but should be helped to obtain 
 the blessing of justification. The class-meetings were 
 therefore originally used very largely for distinctively 
 evangelistic purposes, and this explains why it is that 
 in the " Directions " addressed to leaders and printed 
 in the class-books, and shall we say ? read by 
 every class-leader, care is taken to instruct the leader 
 to mark every name on his book in the proper 
 column, so as to indicate to the pastor when he 
 examines the class-book the spiritual state of the 
 members. If the member is living in the enjoyment 
 of justification, his name should be marked thus, " o." 
 If he is a penitent who is seeking for salvation, but 
 does not enjoy living faith in Christ, his name should 
 be marked thus, " a." 
 
 A revival of this custom has long seemed to us to
 
 PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF WORK. 125 
 
 be desirable, and it is recommended in the prize essay 
 on the class -meeting by the Eev. Simpson Johnson, 
 in a suggestive paragraph, marked " Make the class- 
 meeting an aggressive agency." In modern Methodism 
 the custom is to invite persons convinced of sin to 
 stand up publicly, or to go forward to the penitent 
 form, or to retire to the inquiry-room. Much may be 
 said for and against these methods ; but from the day of 
 Pentecost to the present day evangelists have deemed 
 it necessary to insist upon some test whereby persons 
 who are convinced of sin may prove to themselves 
 and to others that such is the case. In the days of 
 the apostles baptism served this purpose. " They that 
 gladly received [Peter's] word were baptized," and 
 they that were not baptized did not receive his word. 
 Thus the distinction was broad and clear, and the 
 converts avowed their " new creation " in the most 
 marked manner. Seeing, however, that evangelists 
 now usually preach to baptized persons, it is not open 
 to them to use that method, and they are obliged to 
 have recourse to another. 
 
 As a matter of fact our hearers are " being saved " 
 (Acts ii. 47, RV.) or they "are perishing" (2 Cor. 
 iv. 3, RV.), and what is wanted is to ascertain their 
 exact condition. Furthermore, it is not possible to 
 pray definitely for anxious souls, and to give them 
 suitable counsel, unless they disclose their anxiety in 
 some way, and give the workers the means of advising 
 them. The inquiry-room method promotes these ends, 
 and it also enables the penitent to cross the rubicon, 
 and to put his hand deliberately to the plough. It is 
 a public intimation to his friends, and often to boon 
 companions, who must needs be shaken off, that the
 
 126 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 penitent has " cast off the works of darkness and 
 put on the armour of light." And this method brings 
 the inquirer and the well-instructed and sympathetic 
 Christian worker face to face, and thus facilitates the 
 actual conversion of many whose knowledge of " the 
 way of God " is most imperfect. 
 
 Whatever the reader may think of this method of 
 evangelism, it will remain true that God has sanctioned 
 it most markedly by His blessing, and that it has 
 promoted the conversion of thousands of persons who 
 had remained in their pews for years without experi- 
 encing any saving change of heart. 
 
 The inquiry -room has some advantages over the 
 penitent form, and, indeed, in large crowded missions 
 the latter is an impossible method. Needful quiet is 
 obtained in the inquiry-room ; intelligent instruction 
 can then be given to individuals, who may answer as 
 well as ask questions; and suitable workers can be 
 selected for particular persons. As a rule, the two 
 sexes are directed to go to separate rooms, and 
 Christian men are sent to the men's room and 
 Christian women to the other room. Mr. Cook's plan 
 is to invite workers and penitents to come out 
 together, and by so doing the cross is made a little 
 lighter for the more timid ones. And while he 
 earnestly bids his unsaved hearers to adopt this 
 course, he is careful to make it appear that a refusal 
 to do so is not tantamount to the rejection of Christ. 
 
 When the converts have entered the inquiry- room, 
 they all kneel down, and the workers also, for prayer. 
 The room is usually in charge of a minister, and he 
 will generally offer a short prayer, and then give out 
 a verse for all to sing. The converts are requested to
 
 PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF WORK. 127 
 
 kneel and the workers to stand, and then the minister, 
 who is supposed to know every one, and, as the 
 pastor, is most competent for the office, assigns to 
 each penitent a suitable " worker." If there are more 
 " workers " than are needed, the unemployed ones 
 either return to the chapel or quietly wait to sec if 
 more penitents will come, spending the time in private 
 prayer. The " workers " are instructed pretty much 
 to the following effect : Find out where the inquirer 
 is. Diagnose the case. Do not pry into details, but 
 ascertain the present condition of the person com- 
 mitted to your charge. Get the convert to talk to 
 you before you speak much to him. Do not assume 
 that every " inquirer " is an awakened sinner. Do 
 not attach too much importance to weeping. Some 
 weep the most whose convictions are the weakest, 
 and some do not weep at all, who nevertheless have 
 set their face like a flint against sin. Willingness to 
 forsake sin and to accept the will of God is the 
 proper test of repentance. Do not speak of faith 
 until you have good reason to believe that the 
 inquirer has repented of his sins. Use the Word of 
 God. Direct the inquirers to the finished work of 
 Christ. Do not say, " Only believe ! " but tell them 
 clearly what to believe. Do not occupy their atten- 
 tion with the thought of believing. It is not faith, but 
 Christ that saves. Give them to see their personal 
 interest in the atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Take them where St. Paul was when he said, " The 
 Son of God loved me, and gave Himself for me." In 
 this way you will find some commit themselves to 
 faith not knowing that they are doing so, and they 
 will be astonished to find that they are saved, because
 
 1 2 8 7 HO MA S CO OK 'S EA RL Y MINIS TR Y. 
 
 they have accepted the work of Christ, and God has 
 accepted them for Christ's sake. Never ask inquirers 
 how they fed. To do that is to direct attention 
 within, whereas they must look without if they are to 
 obtain comfort and salvation. In using your own 
 experience, be careful to avoid laying it down as 
 a rule which must be followed in other cases. Give 
 the Spirit of God play for variety. Never pronounce 
 judgment upon an individual. Leave the Holy Spirit 
 to assure of pardon as He has convinced of sin. Do 
 not talk too much. Fussy " workers " weaken good 
 impressions. Do not move about from one inquirer 
 to another, but remain with the one first committed 
 to you. For several persons to speak to one inquirer, 
 and especially for more than one to speak at the 
 same time, is most confusing. After you have made 
 the way of salvation as plain as you can, leave the 
 penitent to transact his own business with God, 
 kneeling quietly by his side, and warding away other 
 workers who may be disposed to speak to him, but 
 whose words at the present moment would darken 
 counsel. Do not talk loudly so as to disturb others, 
 and do not pray audibly nor sing. When singing is 
 desirable, or audible prayer, the minister in charge 
 will give directions to that effect, and, as much 
 depends upon order and quiet, his wishes must be 
 carried out. Persevere with your case, and do not 
 heal the wound slightly. Far better it will be to 
 let the penitent go away uncomforted than to send 
 him away resting on a false foundation. Some of the 
 most difficult cases will prove to be the best. Do not 
 merely tell your inquirers of the comforts of religion, 
 but prepare them for its trials, that they may have
 
 PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF WORK. 129 
 
 " root in themselves," to use our Lord's fine figure, 
 and not fall away when persecution or affliction arises 
 because of the Word. 
 
 After the workers have done their part in the 
 inquiry-room, the Evangelist usually sums up, taking 
 typical cases and dealing with them, answering objec- 
 tions, correcting errors, and leading the inquirers as 
 a body into the way of peace. No work is more 
 important than that of instructing inquirers, and 
 " workers " should prepare themselves for this solemn 
 duty by studying the Word of God, and especially 
 those parts which refer to this subject, and also by 
 reading such booklets as the Eev. J. G. Stuart's 
 Dealing with Anxious Persons, and Mr. Aitken's 
 Difficulties with the Soul. 
 
 Members of County Councils and of School Boards 
 read much literature in order to qualify themselves 
 for the duties of their offices. Members of Christian 
 Churches should also take pains to qualify themselves 
 for the discharge of their more important duties, that 
 " the King should have no damage." 
 
 The reader may be interested in a letter addressed 
 to the present writer by the Eev. W. Allen (C.), who 
 writes thus : " I took Mr. Cook on the Saturday even- 
 ing to see the chapel in which he was to hold the 
 mission. He asked at once, ' Where is the inquiry- 
 room ? ' adding, ' when I ask the anxious ones to- 
 morrow night to stand up, I must know where to 
 direct them to go.' ' Oh,' I said, ' but you will not 
 ask any one to stand up until the after-meeting, shall 
 you ? ' ' Yes,' was his reply ; ' I hope to see several 
 persons rise in different parts of the chapel at the 
 close of my sermon.' This appeared to me so unusual 
 
 I
 
 1 30 THOMAS COOK'S EA RL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 for Yarmouth, that a hundred fears rushed into my 
 mind at once ; for I thought it would prejudice the 
 mission, especially in the minds of members of other 
 Churches. I moved my hand towards his arm, in- 
 tending to expostulate with him, when it was suggested 
 to me that I ought not to interfere with one who was 
 being led by the Spirit of God. 
 
 " How thankful I felt on the following evening that 
 I did not interfere ! When the chapel was crowded, 
 he proceeded to ' draw in the net ; ' and about forty 
 persons rose in proof that they had decided to serve 
 God, and these, with others, afterwards entered the 
 inquiry-rooms. The total number of inquirers at 
 Yarmouth in that mission was three hundred and 
 sixty, a very large proportion of which number belonged 
 to other Churches. 
 
 " Mr. Cook was then nine years younger than he is 
 now, and very youthful in appearance. I had prepared 
 the people in some measure for a young mission 
 preacher ; but when some of them saw the Evangelist 
 for the first time, they were not a little surprised. 
 He was not, however, immature, not devoid of power, 
 but a master of assemblies. I never witnessed greater 
 control exercised over meetings, or a wiser manage- 
 ment of crowded congregations, than during that 
 mission." 
 
 The late Rev. Alexander M'Aulay writes, under date 
 February 17th, 1885 : " Your account of the Walsall 
 mission exalts one's hope of more abundant manifesta- 
 tions of the Holy Spirit everywhere. It confirms my 
 strongly-expressed conviction that Methodism is para- 
 lysed by substituting many means and agencies for 
 simple faith in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the
 
 PRINCIPLES AND METHODS OF WORK. 131 
 
 foolishness of preaching. God will work only in His 
 own way, and slay with His own weapons. The 
 heavenly power that saves a collier in the Black 
 Country will save a student in Oxford. May this 
 saving power not be hindered by unbelief! Self and 
 sect are twin nurses of unbelief." 
 
 Methods are, however, of secondary importance. 
 The great matter is to obtain that enduement of power 
 without which evangelists and " workers " are crimin- 
 ally weak. The reconversion of the Church must 
 precede the conversion of the masses of the people ; 
 and perhaps it would be well for the Church to cease 
 to make weak efforts to reach " them that are with- 
 out " until the Church has received that blessing to 
 which our Lord referred when He said, " Ye shall 
 receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon 
 you ; and ye shall be witnesses unto Me both 'in Jeru- 
 salem, and in Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the 
 uttermost part of the earth." l 
 
 1 Whilst these pages are passing through the press, the Methodist 
 Churches throughout the world are giving themselves to prayer in a 
 remarkable manner, and there are indications of a coming revival. 
 May God rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains may 
 flow down at His presence !
 
 CHAPTEK VII. 
 
 HOLiNESS-MEPrriNGS. 
 
 FEOM the first, Mr. Cook has been led to give great 
 prominence to the doctrine of scriptural holiness. 
 Always have holiness - meetings been a prominent 
 feature of his missions, and very richly have these 
 services been blessed to the people of God. Hence 
 this aspect of his early ministry deserves close attention. 
 
 As we have seen, Mr. Cook became impressed with 
 the importance of this great truth shortly after his 
 conversion, and he was soon made a conscious partaker 
 of " the fulness of God." His own experience has 
 confirmed the theory which he adopted in the 
 beginning of his Christian career, which was to the 
 effect that, to be specially useful in the work of God, 
 it is needful to be fully cleansed from " sin's offensive 
 stain," and to be endued with power from on high. 
 
 There is reason to believe that the Methodist doc- 
 trine of entire sanctification is not well understood by 
 the members of other Churches, many of whom are 
 like a working-man to whom I once gave a Society- 
 class ticket, and who said, in his own vernacular, that 
 he heard his mates talk about the second blessing 
 he didn't understand it, but if it "licked the first, it 
 would be a grand 'un." 
 
 182
 
 HOLINESS-MEETINGS. 133 
 
 Dr. Dale understands the doctrine, and consequently 
 accepts it ; and sees in it the possibility of an ethical 
 reformation of greater importance than the doctrinal 
 reformation of the sixteenth century. Mr. Spurgeon 
 does not fully understand it, and hence sometimes 
 feels it right to dispute about it, as, for example, he 
 once did in my hearing, when he remarked that " some 
 people say that in them sin is dead ; but if that be 
 so, I am sure that sin is not buried in them ; and," 
 he added, with characteristic delight over a smart say- 
 ing, " I warrant that, if you were to live with these 
 people, you would find that it has a remarkable smell 
 in many of these individuals." We cherish no feeling 
 of resentment towards Mr. Spurgeon for this somewhat 
 vulgar observation ; for we are sure that when he 
 made it, although he possibly was enjoying the bless- 
 ing, he certainly did not understand it. The Rev. Dr. 
 Mackennal, however, appears to comprehend it ; for 
 in addressing the Wesleyan-Methodist Conference in 
 Manchester in the year 1887, he declared that for 
 nothing would the Churches of this country thank the 
 Wesleyan - Methodist Church more than for bearing 
 constant testimony to this truth, that holiness is 
 imparted to the soul of the believer by the direct gift 
 of God. 
 
 To this momentous doctrine Mr. Cook has continued 
 to bear faithful witness from the first ; and the result 
 is, that thousands of believers have been raised up 
 who witness that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, 
 cleanses them from all sin. 
 
 To object to Mr. Cook's holiness-meetings on the 
 ground that all our services are intended to spread 
 holiness, is a mere quibble. The class-meeting was
 
 1 34 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 always intended to be a fellowship-meeting ; and yet 
 the early Methodists deemed it proper to have their 
 band-meetings in addition, a custom which was so 
 good, that we much regret the discontinuance of it. 
 
 As the subject is of the greatest interest, I will 
 subjoin an address which I heard Mr. Cook deliver not 
 many months ago, and which he has since published 
 in a small booklet, entitled Entire Cleansing, only 
 adding, that it may be accepted as an embodiment of 
 the Evangelist's views, and of the teaching which he 
 has given during the last ten years in all parts of the 
 country : 
 
 " The Uood of Jesus Christ, His Son, deanseth its 
 from all sin." 1 John i. 7. 
 
 " The reason why many do not apprehend the true 
 nature of the salvation of Jesus Christ, is because 
 they do not understand the true nature of sin. Defect- 
 ive views of sin lead to incorrect views of privilege. 
 Only when our views are cleared as to sin do we rise 
 to a full appreciation of the salvation Christ has pur- 
 chased for us. 
 
 " There are two primary aspects under which it 
 may be viewed. Sin is wrong-doing ; but a state of 
 sinfulness existed before we began to do. Wrong- 
 doing involves guilt, and needs forgiveness ; but 
 a state of sinfulness cannot be forgiven ; this is 
 removed by cleansing. 
 
 " We shall not understand this subject unless we 
 keep in mind this twofold character of sin. We 
 must discriminate between guilt and depravity. De- 
 pravity is not actual sin ; it is the inward fountain 
 from which actual sins originate. Sin committed is
 
 HOLINESS-MEETINGS. 135 
 
 the transgression of the law, but depravity is in-born, 
 inherited. It lies deeper down and farther back than 
 wrong-doing. It is sin in embryo that state of the 
 heart out of which acts of sin are born. It manifests 
 itself in a bias towards evil, ' a bent to sinning ' in a 
 proneness to depart from God. Forgiveness refers to 
 actions, but depravity is not action : it is a state. 
 God's plan is to cleanse it away. 
 
 " Let me illustrate what I mean : A mother puts 
 upon her child a clean pinafore, and says, 'Now this 
 is not to be soiled.' But the child disobeys. She 
 may forgive the child for her disobedience, but she 
 cannot forgive the pinafore clean ; she must wash 
 it. So God may forgive the wrong that we do, but 
 He cannot forgive a depraved heart. Heart-sin must 
 be cleansed away, and it is to this cleansing the text 
 refers ' The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth 
 us from all sin.' 
 
 " There are many scriptures which teach this two- 
 fold aspect of salvation. Zechariah represents the 
 fountain of atonement as furnishing pardon for sin 
 (guilt), and purity for uncleanness (depravity). St. 
 John's teaching is just the same : ' God is faithful and 
 just to forgive us our sins (guilt), and to cleanse us 
 from all unrighteousness ' (depravity). And with this 
 view our hymn is in perfect accord : ' the water and 
 the blood ' symbolise this ' double cure,' ' save from 
 wrath, and make me pure.' 
 
 " The whole tenor of Scripture teaches that the 
 purpose of the death of Christ was not to save us 
 from the consequences of sin merely, but to save us 
 from sin itself the sin which causes the sins. It 
 is this being, or ' body of sin,' as St. Paul terms it,
 
 136 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 that is to be ' crucified ' and ' destroyed,' in order that 
 ' henceforth we may not serve sin ' (Eom. vi. 6). 
 
 " The divine method is not to lop off a branch here 
 and cut away an excrescence there, but to strike at 
 the root. 
 
 " We read recently of a man who said he had 
 cured his boy of pilfering, and on being asked how 
 he had done it, he said he had tied his hands behind 
 his back ! It need scarcely be said that this is not 
 the way in which God works. He does more than 
 make men moral. Morality is doing right in spite of 
 strong inclinations towards wrong, but holiness takes 
 away every ' want to ' that inclines towards the 
 wrong, and turns all our desires towards that which 
 is good. Hands do not steal ; there is something 
 behind the hands. Some will say there is the will ; 
 but our nature is behind our will, and it is there 
 where God would put us right. Better than his creed 
 he may be, but no man is better than his heart. If sin 
 be in us in some form or another, it will come out. It 
 is only by removing the cause that the effect will cease. 
 
 " Does not the high import of the Sermon on the 
 Mount consist in the fact, that a moral condition is 
 demanded antecedent to the act ? Not only is the 
 external observance of the ten commandments re- 
 quired, but the secret desires of the heart must also 
 be pure. Most persons are dead to the sin of murder 
 as an act, i.e. they have never lifted their hand to 
 strike the fatal blow ; but St. John teaches : ' He that 
 hateth his brother is a murderer,' that those who 
 cherish feelings of malice or desires for revenge are 
 as certainly guilty as those who have committed the 
 deed. The law is as surely broken by the man who
 
 HOLINESS-MEETINGS. 137 
 
 would sin if he dared, as in the case of him whose 
 state of heart finds expression in outward acts. The 
 c want to ' sin is sin. There is a point between the 
 earth and the moon where the direction of the action 
 of gravitation changes. If we could hurl a missile 
 with sufficient force that it would reach that point, 
 instead of coming back to earth, in the superior 
 attraction of the moon, it would rush with increasing 
 velocity to meet it. This illustrates human experi- 
 ence when the law of the ' spirit of life in Christ 
 Jesus ' makes us free from the ' law of sin and death/ 
 The natural tendency in us towards sin (the law of 
 sin and death) is not only neutralised and counteracted 
 when the Holy Spirit comes to the heart in sanctify- 
 ing power (the law of the spirit of life), but under the 
 more powerful operation of this latter law the soul 
 now gravitates upwards. Every aspiration is now 
 Godward, and His service a luxury and a delight. 
 The ' want to ' that inclined us towards evil is now 
 taken away, and every desire is towards that which is 
 good. That this is not the experience of all Christians 
 I need hardly say. Conversion and full cleansing of 
 the heart from sin scarcely ever take place at the 
 same time. It is by no means uncommon for persons 
 to imagine at the time of forgiveness that sin is not 
 only pardoned but destroyed. The change is so great, 
 even as 'from death unto life,' that the work of moral 
 renovation seems perfect. But soon high- wrought 
 emotions subside ; the petty annoyances of life begin 
 to chafe ; temptations from the devil assail ; and then 
 their mistake is discovered. They find that the old 
 man is bound only, not cast out. They have dominion 
 over sin, but they are not dead to it. It is suspended,
 
 138 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 held hi check, repressed, but it is not fully cleansed 
 from the soul. It does not reign, but it exists. It 
 was this consciousness of the presence of sin in his 
 heart that led the Indian to say to the missionary a 
 short time after his conversion ' I feel as if there 
 were two Indians in me, a good Indian and a bad 
 Indian.' We would not for a moment minify the 
 great work of conversion ; but all experience testifies 
 that an ' infection of nature ' does remain warring 
 against the spirit, even in those who are regenerate. 
 It is a state of mixedness : a sort of duality exists 
 within, in which the flesh and the spirit antagonise 
 each other ; and this is manifestly only a temporary 
 condition ; because sooner or later one or the other 
 of these opposing principles must be expelled. In 
 cleansing the heart from all sin, God eliminates from 
 the mixture all the elements which antagonise the 
 elements of holiness planted in regeneration. He 
 casts out all the buyers and sellers from the temple. 
 He excludes all the Canaanites from the land. He de- 
 livers us ' from all our enemies, that we may serve Him 
 without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him 
 all the days of our life.' When this is done the conflict 
 within ceases. The soul enters upon the Sabbath rest 
 of the love of God, and is filled with ' perfect peace.' 
 
 " The difference between conversion and purity of 
 heart has been well illustrated as follows : In the coal 
 regions of Wyoming Valley, in America, there are 
 two principal seams of coal, which lie one above 
 the other. In the first and upper seam, while 
 there is a great preponderance of coal, there are 
 little seams of slate running all through the coal. 
 The lower seam, however, is much thicker, and is all
 
 HOLINESS-MEE TINGS. \ 39 
 
 pure solid coal, without a single seam of slate. The 
 upper seam resembles the regenerate heart, in which 
 there is a preponderance of grace ; but the rudiments 
 of sin, antagonising grace, are also there. The lower 
 seam resembles Christian experience under the cleans- 
 ing power of the blood of Christ, when the pure love 
 of God fills the heart, excluding all its opposites. 
 Then the graces of the Spirit exist in the soul with- 
 out alloy, without mixture, in simplicity. 
 
 " This entire cleansing of the soul from sin may 
 also be described as purity of heart. There are 
 various degrees of impurity, but, strictly speaking, there 
 are no degrees of purity. According to Webster, the 
 word ' pure ' means ' entire separation from all hetero- 
 geneous and extraneous matter, clear, free from 
 mixture, as pure water, pure air, pure silver, or gold.' 
 The word translated ' pure ' occurs about seventy 
 times in the New Testament in some of its forms. 
 We may get at the idea the word was meant to con- 
 vey by noting how the original word has been used. 
 It is used of a body not smeared with paint or oint- 
 ment, of vines without excrescences, of wheat when 
 all the chaff has been winnowed away, of gold in 
 which there is no alloy. The idea is, that that which 
 is pure consists of one thing : it is without mixture 
 or adulteration. Where there is mixture there cannot 
 be purity. A pure heart contains nothing adverse to 
 God. The Psalmist prayed : ' Wash me, and I shall 
 be whiter than snow.' This is no highly - wrought 
 figure of speech. Scientific research has shown that 
 snow is not absolutely pure. But when the blood of 
 Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin, our souls shall be 
 ' whiter than snow.' Miss Havergal might well ask,
 
 HO THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 ' If all does not mean all, pray what does it mean ? ' 
 The expression ' all sin ' covers the whole ground, 
 embracing the aggregate of the evil propensities, dis- 
 positions, and tendencies of the carnal nature ; the 
 whole of sin in man. Had the word ' all ' been 
 omitted, we should have been puzzled to know from 
 how much sin we could be saved, and from how much 
 we could not. But this word settles the question, 
 and leaves no doubt as to our privilege. ' The blood 
 of Jesus cleanseth.' Alas, how many Christians limit 
 the Holy One of Israel ! Not a few have discrowned 
 Christ as the Saviour, and are waiting for death to 
 do what He cannot do. Our Bibles teach us of the 
 time, the means, and the agent of sanctification ; but 
 nowhere is it taught that death is any of these. We 
 do read that ' the last enemy to be destroyed is 
 death ; ' but if death brings the destruction of sin, 
 he can hardly be described as an ' enemy.' If this 
 were true, instead of being the ' last enemy ' he would 
 be the last friend, and the best friend too. What is 
 death ? It is the separation of the soul from the 
 body. But the mere separation of the soul from the 
 body will not destroy sin in the soul ; and only the 
 soul can be the seat of sin. 
 
 " It is to be feared that those who have no expecta- 
 tion of full deliverance from sin until death comes to 
 the help of Jesus, have got hold of a relic of Gnosti- 
 cism, a heresy which was early introduced into 
 Christianity as a corrupting element. The Gnostics 
 taught that in all matter was evil, ineradicable evil. 
 Because our bodies are material matter, they believed 
 there was therefore evil in our bodies ; and because 
 the spirit dwells in such a body, it is tainted, and
 
 HOLINESS-MEETINGS. 141 
 
 must be, till this ' mortal puts on immortality.' But 
 the idea of sin in the body is totally unscriptural, as 
 it is palpably absurd. No body, or matter of any kind, 
 can be sinful ; spirits alone are capable of sin. To 
 teach that our spirits will be cleansed from sin after 
 death would involve the Papal error of purgatory. 
 
 " The heart must be purified, therefore, in the 
 moment of death, or before ; and we have already 
 shown the mere separation of the soul from the body 
 will not effect this change. When, then, will this 
 cleansing take place ? Before death necessarily. And 
 if it is the blood of Christ that cleanses from sin, why 
 not now ? God is as able and as willing to save from 
 all sin now as He will be a moment before death. All 
 Christians believe that the command, ' Thou shalt love 
 the Lord thy God with all thy heart,' refers to the 
 present. But how can we comply with this require- 
 ment so long as sin is in our heart ? Our love is 
 defective just in proportion as sin remains in us. All 
 God's commands imply the promise of ability to obey. 
 This command, therefore, must mean that God purposes 
 to cleanse our hearts from all sin now, or He would 
 require an impossibility a charge which few would 
 dare to make. This conclusion is inevitable. ' The 
 blood of Jesus cleanseth.' How we glory in proclaim- 
 ing this present tense of grace ! 
 
 " But some cannot understand how this cleansing 
 is through the blood of Jesus. We need to explain, 
 perhaps, that we are obliged in this, as in other cases, 
 to use figurative language. We sing of the ' fountain 
 filled with blood ; ' but we all know there is no such 
 fountain. When we speak of the blood of Jesus 
 cleansing from sin, we do not mean that the blood of
 
 142 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 Christ is literally applied to the heart. What is meant 
 is, that through His great atoning work Christ has pro- 
 cured, or purchased, complete deliverance from sin for 
 us, exactly as He has made forgiveness possible to us. 
 
 " But whilst Christ is thus through His death what 
 may be termed the procuring cause of sanctification, the 
 work itself is wrought in us through the agency of the 
 Holy Spirit. All inward renewal is the result of His 
 operation ; He is the administrator of the covenant of 
 grace, the ' executive of the Godhead.' He comes to 
 the heart in sanctifying power, excluding the evil and 
 filling it with love (when we believe the blood cleanseth 
 us from all sin), just as He comes in regenerating power 
 when we believe for forgiveness and are adopted into 
 the family of God. 
 
 " The blood is the price of redemption. Through it 
 Christ procures for us the gift of the Holy Ghost, and 
 when He fills the heart, His presence excludes all sin 
 as light excludes darkness. But for the shedding of 
 the blood of Christ the Holy Ghost would never have 
 been given. So it is the Cross at the beginning, and 
 the Cross all the way through. 
 
 " This is the teaching of the writer of the Epistle 
 to the Hebrews : ' By the which will, we are sanctified 
 through the offering of the body of Jesus (Christ) once 
 for all.' Some believe we are justified by faith, and 
 sanctified by works. This passage teaches that it is God's 
 will that we should be sanctified exactly as we are 
 justified, ' through the offering of the body of Jesus 
 Christ,' or through the shedding of the blood of Christ, 
 ' once for all.' Provision for our sanctification has 
 been made as fully as for our justification, and faith 
 must receive it. Suppose I went to some jeweller's
 
 HOLINESS-MEETINGS. 143 
 
 shop, and purchased a beautiful timepiece for a friend, 
 I leave my card with the jeweller, saying, ' I have 
 bought this for a friend ; when he presents a card like 
 this, please let him have it.' I go to my friend and 
 tell him what I have done, and give him a card similar 
 to the one I have left with the jeweller. Now, to 
 whom does that timepiece belong ? Not to the 
 jeweller, I have paid him for it ; not to myself, I have 
 bought it for my friend. It belongs to him. But he 
 will never have it unless he presents the card I gave 
 him and claims it. In like manner full salvation has 
 been purchased for us ; but many Christians do not 
 realise it. Why ? Because they have not claimed 
 their heritage. Jesus Christ is to no man practically 
 any more than what He is to that man's faith. In 
 other words, He is our Saviour just so far as we trust 
 Him to save us. If we are not saved from all sin the 
 fault is our own. A perfect Saviour and a perfect 
 salvation must always go together. Would that to 
 every believer's apprehension Christ was ' Almighty to 
 save ' here and now ! 
 
 " We might argue that full salvation is immediately 
 attainable, because all the commands and promises 
 imply present blessing ; or because it is received by 
 faith, and faith cannot be otherwise than an instant- 
 aneous operation ; or because universal testimony 
 harmonises with this view. We might also mention 
 scores of scriptures sustaining this teaching. But 
 what more is needed than the passage we are consider- 
 ing ? ' The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth 
 us from all sin.' In the case of a direct utterance 
 like this one single inspired declaration is competent 
 to establish any truth. ' Kepeated and varied state-
 
 144 THOMAS COOK 'S EARL Y M1NISTR Y. 
 
 ments,' it has been well said, ' may heighten the 
 certainty that the exact idea has been apprehended, 
 but one, " Thus saith the Lord," is sufficient to settle 
 the most difficult proposition.' If there were no other 
 scripture to be found which teaches the present possi- 
 bility of deliverance from all sin, this is enough. 
 
 It was under the Holy Spirit's illumination of this 
 very verse that the writer for the first time saw, and 
 was enabled to claim, his privilege in this matter. His 
 heart thrills now at the remembrance of that day when 
 he joyously exclaimed, ' I see it all ; the blessing is 
 mine, " the blood cleanseth ; " ' and there and then the 
 work was done. 
 
 " Blessed word, ' cleanseth ' ! What a door of hope 
 and joy this word has opened to many ! Does it not 
 teach, as some writer puts it, ' a continual present, 
 always a present tense, not a present which the next 
 moment becomes a past ; it goes on cleansing ; not a 
 coming to be cleansed in the fountain only, but a 
 remaining in the fountain.' What better interpreta- 
 tion will it bear than that, as life is made up of one 
 continual now, ' Jesus saves all the time ' by saving 
 every now ? It is ever - present provision for ever- 
 present need, Christ always a present Saviour. To 
 contend, as some do, that after full salvation is once 
 received, the blood of Jesus Christ is no longer 
 continuously needed, is as absurd as to maintain that 
 because it is noonday the sun is not needed. As we 
 have already stated, the heart is only cleansed by the 
 Holy Spirit taking full possession, and it is only kept 
 clean by His remaining. He is retained by the same 
 continuous acting of faith by which we first received 
 Him. We preach, therefore, a moment by moment
 
 HOLINESS-MEETINGS. 145 
 
 salvation, maintained by a perpetual faith in the 
 cleansing blood. 
 
 " What difficulties would be removed if it were 
 everywhere emphasised that by full salvation is meant, 
 not some immutable state which is attained after a 
 desperate venture of faith once for all, but rather a 
 maintained condition, which is ours so long as we live 
 up to present light, and continue to trust the blood to 
 cleanse us from all present defilement. Understanding 
 this, should communion with God ever be broken, as 
 it will be if there is even a momentary hesitation 
 about yielding, obeying, or trusting ? This need not 
 continue three minutes ; faith instantly plunges into 
 the ' fountain open for sin and uncleanness,' and 
 realises again its power to cleanse and restore. 
 
 " Faith in the spiritual world has been compared to 
 breathing in the physical. We breathe this moment 
 and receive the oxygen into our lungs ; it purifies the 
 blood which goes coursing through the system, carry- 
 ing life and nutriment to all the tissues ; but when 
 another moment comes, we must breathe again ; another 
 moment again, and so on. Life is madeup of success- 
 ive acts of breathing. We breathe moment by moment, 
 and live moment by moment. If we cease to breathe, 
 we cease to live. In like manner we trust the blood 
 of Jesus for cleansing this moment, and it cleanseth 
 from all sin ; another moment comes, and we trust 
 again, and another moment again, and so on. We are 
 thus kept clean exactly as we are made clean, through 
 a constant succession of acts of faith in the cleansing 
 blood. Blessed are those who have learned this secret. 
 Present tense Christians all say that no words can 
 describe the freedom and victory of such a life. 
 
 K
 
 1 46 THOMA S COOK 'S EA RL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 "But the question is often asked, 'Is it possible 
 for a believer to pass instantly from childhood to 
 manhood in Christian experience ? Can we become 
 full-grown in a day ? ' There can be but one answer 
 to these inquiries, and that a negative one. The 
 advocates of instantaneous and entire cleansing are 
 careful to discriminate between purity of heart and 
 maturity of Christian character. The entire cleansing- 
 received by faith is perfect health of soul, but it is 
 not perfect development. It may not be generally 
 known that the word ' health ' and the word ' holy ' 
 come from the same root. Perfect health is the 
 entire absence of disease ; perfect holiness is the 
 entire absence of sin. Christian purity brings finality 
 to nothing but inbred sin. It is the field cleared of 
 the noxious weeds, not the ripe, waving harvest. It 
 is the best preparation for growth, not the consumma- 
 tion of growth. ' The heart may be cleansed from 
 all sin,' says Bishop Hamline, ' while our graces are 
 immature ; and entire cleansing is the best prepara- 
 tion for their unembarrassed and rapid growth.' We 
 must seek a clean heart first, and look for maturity 
 in the order of Divine appointment. Purity is not 
 the goal, but rather a new starting-point. In con- 
 version all the graces of the Spirit are implanted in 
 the soul : they are there in germ, but, of course, not 
 developed. But so long as there are remains of the 
 carnal mind within, not only are the graces of the 
 Spirit there, but their opposites are there also, which 
 are like weeds about the root of a plant impeding its 
 growth. No grace of the Spirit can be helped in its 
 development by the presence of its opposite. A little 
 unbelief will be of no help to our faith ; nor a little 
 pride to our humility. Proclivities towards sin never
 
 HOLINESS-MEETINGS. 14? 
 
 yet helped a man into conformity to God. Sin in the 
 heart makes us like a child that is sickly, or a tree 
 with a worm at the root. Some hope by cultivating 
 the graces of the Spirit to grow into purity, which is 
 like a man cultivating the vegetables in his garden to 
 grow the weeds out from about the roots of the plants. 
 Common sense says, ' Pluck up the weeds, and give 
 the plant a fair chance for growth and development.' 
 This is the Divine method. God cleanses the heart 
 from inbred sin, after which growth is always more 
 rapid and symmetrical ; advancement in knowledge 
 and love of God and all spiritual excellence become 
 possible then as they never were before. Maturity is 
 the result of experience, trial, conflict, and requires 
 time ; but in purity we grasp by faith the sin-con- 
 suming power that sweeps the heart clean at a stroke. 
 There may be preparations for it and approaches to 
 it, but there is a moment when it is done. Believing 
 now, we are pardoned now; believing now, we are 
 cleansed from all sin now. 
 
 " But some cannot understand how it is possible to 
 continue believing every moment in this way. Will 
 not business and other matters take the attention 
 away ? We are not always thinking about breathing, 
 and yet we always are breathing. ' But,' they say, 
 ' it is natural for me to breathe.' It may become 
 such a habit of soul to believe that we shall do it 
 just as we breathe without thinking about it. The 
 difficulty is all at first. It requires, then, the effort 
 of the will, but by and by, through the constant 
 repetition of the act it becomes almost as natural to 
 believe as to breathe. Believing becomes so thoroughly 
 the attitude of the soul that the mind is like the 
 pointer of a compass. You may take it and bring
 
 148 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 it from the north to the south, east, or west, and as 
 long as your finger is upon it, it will remain there ; 
 but remove the finger, and it will soon fly back again 
 to the north. So it is with those who have cultivated 
 this habit of faith. The mind returns again to this 
 point, thought reverts to it naturally : it is the 
 returning point of the soul 'The blood cleanseth 
 from all sin.' 
 
 " But we must do something more than theorise 
 on this subject. God wants witnesses. We might 
 advertise a remedy for cancer, but who would believe 
 in it, unless we could point to some we had cured ? 
 The testimony of the cleansed leper will do more to 
 recommend the physician than the most persuasive 
 and cogent arguments. Three times St. Paul had his 
 commission renewed, which was not so much to 
 preach as to testify. St. John recognises testimony 
 as one of the chief elements of evangelical power ; 
 hence the frequent occurrence of the words ' We 
 know/ so characteristic of his Epistles. He believed 
 men might be saved from all sin, and know it, so as 
 to be able to testify as he did, ' The blood of Jesus 
 cleanseth us from all sin.' If all our pulpits were 
 converted from the advocate's stand to a witness-box, 
 what a stir it would make next Sunday. The great 
 want of the times is a witnessing Church and ministry. 
 ' Ye are my witnesses/ saith the Lord. Not that we 
 would recommend loud professions as to attainments. 
 Instead of professing anything, let us confess Christ 
 as a Saviour from all sin, if we have proved Him to 
 be such. This will make Him, and what He is to us, 
 prominent, as contrasted with some attainment which 
 might call attention to ourselves. Thousands of those 
 who now clearly enjoy the experience of full salva-
 
 HOLINESS-MEETINGS. 149 
 
 tion, acknowledge that it was through listening to the 
 testimonies of credible witnesses to the power of 
 Christ to save to the uttermost that they were first 
 encouraged to believe in the possibility of such an 
 experience, and stimulated to seek it. There is no 
 more hopeful indication of the times than the fact 
 that in all the Churches witnesses are being multiplied, 
 who testify constantly, ' The blood of Jesus cleanseth 
 me, from all sin.' The Eev. John Fletcher once said 
 to Mrs. Hester Ann Eogers ' Come, my sister, we 
 will covenant together to spread the sacred flame, and 
 testify before men and angels, " The blood of Jesus 
 Christ cleanseth us from all sin.'" With flowing 
 tears Mrs. Eogers replied ' In the strength of Jesus 
 I will ! ' and she did, until she went ' sweeping 
 through the gates, washed in the blood of the Lamb.' 
 If all our people would join us in a similar covenant, 
 what an impression it would make upon the unbeliev- 
 ing world ! 
 
 " When Bengel, the great scholar and commentator, 
 was upon his death -bed, he requested one of his 
 attendants to read out of the Scriptures. He read 
 until he came to the passage ' The blood of Jesus 
 Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin.' ' Stop,' 
 said the dying man, ' add no more, it is enough. 
 Let me die on these words.' 
 
 " But if it be well to die on these words, it must 
 surely be well to live on them. Some of us are doing 
 it, and all our utterances fail to express the precious 
 daily manifestations of Christ we have, as we realise 
 Him to be a perfect Saviour. Space would fail to 
 tell of all the blessedness and power this experience 
 has brought. Let it suffice to say it marks always a 
 crisis in the religious life of those who receive it.
 
 i5o THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 It is an experience as much above the ordinary 
 Christian experience as the ordinary Christian experi- 
 ence is above that of the worldling. Payson thus 
 describes what it brought to him : ' The Sun of 
 Righteousness gradually approached, appearing larger 
 and brighter as He approached, until His brightness 
 filled the whole hemisphere, pouring forth a flood of 
 light and glory, in which I seemed to float like an 
 insect in the beams of the sun, exulting yet almost 
 trembling, and wondering with unutterable wonder 
 why God should deign thus to shine upon such a 
 sinful worm.' 
 
 " Some say they are hungering and thirsting for 
 this experience, but they cannot believe. Such need 
 to be reminded that God's commands are ' enablings.' 
 There is always a moral cause of unbelief, ' If we walk 
 in the light, the blood cleanseth' but only those who 
 live up to present light can believe the promise. 
 This is the reason why many fail. 
 
 " A lady once came to the writer and said, ' I do 
 so want to be cleansed, but I cannot believe the blood 
 cleanseth me from all sin.' ' Are you walking in the 
 light ? ' So far as I know the will of God,' she 
 replied, ' I am doing it, and I have made up my mind 
 to do it whatever it costs.' ' This is walking in the 
 light. We are only responsible for what we know, 
 and if you are doing the will of God as far as you 
 know it, and are determined to do it as far as it is 
 revealed to you, you fulfil the condition. Now believe 
 the promise, " The blood of Jesus cleanseth you from 
 all sin." ' ' Oh,' she said, ' I cannot do that.' So we 
 put the truth before her as follows : ' You remember 
 that nobleman who came to Jesus on behalf of his 
 son ? ' ' Yes.' ' What did Jesus say ? " Go thy way,
 
 HOLINESS-MEETINGS. 151 
 
 thy son liveth ! " 'Yes.' 'And what did he do? 
 He went his way, believing the word that Jesus had 
 spoken ! ' ' Yes.' ' Now, suppose that nobleman had 
 met a friend a few minutes afterwards, and had told 
 him his son was better, would he have done right or 
 wrong ? Mark ; the servants had not yet met him, 
 nor had he been home to see, and yet he says, " My 
 son is better." ' ' He would have done right,' she said, 
 ' because he had the word of Jesus for it, and was not 
 that enough ? ' ' Exactly,' the writer replied. ' And 
 have not you the word of Jesus that the blood 
 cleanseth from all sin ? ' She saw it, and hesitated 
 but a moment. ' If that nobleman could believe the 
 word of God, I can ; I will believe the blood cleanseth 
 me from all sin.' She went home believing. Two or 
 three days afterwards the writer met her again. She 
 came to him with a beaming face, and, extending her 
 hand, said, ' Oh, do help me to praise God ! I had 
 hardly left you the other day before the servants met 
 me, and said, " It is all right ; " and I have had the 
 blessed assurance ever since.' 
 
 " If all our readers would cast themselves upon 
 God's immutable promise in like manner, they too 
 would receive the witness of cleansing, and help to 
 augment the number of the joyful multitude who 
 have covenanted everywhere to testify, as opportunity 
 serves, ' The blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth 
 its from all sin.' 
 
 " 'Saviour, to Thee my soul looks up, 
 
 My present Saviour Thou ; 
 In all the confidence of hope 
 I claim the blessing now. ' " 
 
 After he has explained this doctrine, it has been 
 usual with Mr. Cook to invite Christians to come for-
 
 1 5 2 THOMA S COOK'S EARLY MINIS TR Y. 
 
 ward and seek it, much in the same way as penitents 
 are directed to seek justification. How many Chris- 
 tians have entered into " the Sabbath of God's love " 
 during these mission services it would be impossible 
 to say, but many letters are before me, written by 
 ministers and people, by men and women, by old and 
 by young, bearing testimony to the precious blessings 
 which the writers have received on these occasions, 
 and describing the results that have followed in their 
 experience and in their work for Christ. 
 
 A Lancashire class-leader writes, under date April 
 2nd, 1888 : "I must for ever thank you for enabling 
 me to believe for full salvation. It makes me feel 
 ashamed of myself, that for more than thirty years I 
 have been professing to love God, and yet did not 
 dare to trust His Word. Now, thank God,. I know 
 something of the perfect love which casts out fear. 
 At first the brightness of my life was, I thought, too 
 good to last, and I often wondered how it would be 
 when a big trouble came. Well, I cannot express to 
 you how wonderfully the precious promises have been 
 fulfilled in me. Well might the apostle say, ' Above 
 all we can ask or think.' I am constantly urging the 
 importance of full salvation on my members, and, I 
 hope, with good results." Among many Wesley an 
 ministers who have written to acknowledge the blessing 
 they have received at the holiness-meetings conducted 
 by our Evangelist, is one who has himself been much 
 blessed in leading others into the Canaan of perfect 
 love, and who expresses much gratitude to God, as 
 well as many thanks to His servant, for help thus 
 given. Several clergymen have also acknowledged 
 that this Methodist preacher has been used by God 
 to teach them what they did not know of the privi-
 
 HOLINESS-MEE TINGS. \ 5 3 
 
 leges of believers. One of these has taken a prominent 
 part in evangelistic work, and has used the light he 
 received through the teaching of Mr. Cook to great 
 advantage. 
 
 Many testimonies have been published in the Kings 
 Highway by persons who have felt it their duty to 
 witness to full salvation, and who were led into the 
 deeper things of God by Mr. Cook. But of these we 
 cannot speak particularly. 
 
 The late Eev. Herbert Hoare is now with God ; let 
 him, though dead, bear his testimony to the effect 
 produced upon the Church by the teaching of this 
 blessed truth. He wrote, under date February 14th, 
 1884, and his letter refers to the great Sheffield 
 mission. These are his words : " One of the most 
 welcome results of the mission is the quickening of 
 the spiritual life of our people. It is delightful to 
 listen to their experience. It is so different now, and 
 so superior. The two services for the promotion of 
 holiness you held, on the Wednesday and Thursday 
 afternoons, have already brought forth much fruit, so 
 many in the families of our people having had their 
 Christian life enlarged and strengthened. Never, I 
 think, has a blessing been vouchsafed on so large a 
 scale to our Sheffield Methodism as during our never- 
 to-be-forgotten mission." 
 
 When Mr. Cook was preaching in Cambridge, he 
 was asked by a number of undergraduates to meet 
 them privately for conversation and prayer on the 
 subject of entire sanctification. He accordingly did 
 so, and a most impressive service was held. The 
 presence of God was so powerfully felt, that preacher 
 and hearers all young men alike were not conscious 
 of anything else. On that memorable occasion God
 
 154 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 took possession of the hearts of some of those scholars, 
 who from that day began to live a brighter and more 
 useful Christian life. Who can tell what the indirect 
 result of such a meeting of educated young men may 
 be ! Some who were then present are now filling 
 important positions in the Church of England and in 
 other Churches, and it may be, they will continue to 
 spread the truth they then embraced to the end of 
 life. At the seat of the sister University, Mr. Cook 
 held a similar meeting. In the Oxford Wesleyan 
 Chapel he had the joy to see a dozen University men 
 kneeling at the communion rail and seeking purity of 
 heart. The result was, that the news of this teaching 
 and movement spread amongst the undergraduates, 
 and a desire was expressed by some who scrupled to 
 enter the Wesleyan Chapel, to know more of what 
 appeared to them to be a new doctrine. The Mayor 
 of Oxford courteously placed the Council Chamber at 
 the Evangelist's disposal, and in that municipal build- 
 ing he met a number of Oxford students and told 
 them all that was in his heart. By arrangement 
 with some friendly students, Mr. Cook met a number 
 of Oxford men in the very room in which it is 
 supposed that the " Holy Club " used to meet ; and 
 he instructed them from the Holy Scriptures in the 
 nature of this priceless blessing. It is impossible not 
 to think of Mr, Wesley in this connection. If he 
 could have foreseen, in his early days at Oxford, that 
 a century after his decease one of his preachers would 
 be closeted with a number of students attached to the 
 University which he loved so much, and would be 
 leading them into the possession of full salvation, he 
 would have rejoiced in spirit. Only a few months 
 before his death Mr. Wesley wrote : " This doctrine
 
 HOLINESS-MEE TINGS. 1 5 5 
 
 [of full sanctification] is the grand depositum which 
 God has lodged with the people called Methodists ; 
 and, for the sake of propagating this chiefly, He 
 appears to have raised them up." It would there- 
 fore have been pleasing to Wesley had he known that, 
 through the instrumentality of one of his preachers, 
 God would, towards the end of the nineteenth century, 
 raise up in Cambridge and Oxford Universities wit- 
 nesses of this glorious truth. The two classes of 
 our population most alienated from the Christian 
 Church to-day are the scholars and the artisans. In 
 a subsequent chapter it will appear that God has 
 graciously used Mr. Cook to win to Christ multitudes 
 of the latter class, and this chapter is intended in part 
 to show that even among the former class his labours 
 have not been without fruit. A number of under- 
 graduates cross - examined Mr. Cook on one of the 
 occasions just referred to, concerning his own experience. 
 They asked him many questions, not in a captious, but 
 in a truth-seeking spirit, as to the way in which God 
 had led him, and the power God had given him over sin. 
 He answered their inquiries with perfect frankness, for 
 
 "What we have felt and seen, 
 With confidence we tell," 
 
 both to scholars and to artisans. As the result of 
 this interview, the young men confessed to Mr. Cook, 
 that although his teaching was to them strange and 
 beyond their experience, they believed that it was in 
 accord with his own experience. 
 
 A minister writes : " I desire with others to testify 
 of the grace of God. During the mission services I 
 have afresh consecrated myself to God, and richly 
 experienced Christ in me, the hope of glory. What a 
 wonderful sense of light and love fills our hearts when
 
 156 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 we give up trying to believe, and simply trust and obey. 
 Although I have known much of God's sanctifying 
 grace, yet I shall always thank God for the clearer light 
 and greater blessing I havereceived during yourmission." 
 
 An active Christian worker, known to the writer, 
 sends the news of much blessing received by him at one 
 of the holiness-meetings which Mr. Cock addressed. 
 He testifies that during the delivery of the address he 
 was enabled to claim the fulfilment of the text, " The 
 blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all 
 sin ; " and he adds that he did not stand up, or go 
 forward as a seeker after holiness, when others did, 
 because, having found the blessing in his pew, it seemed 
 to him that to do so would be to cast doubt upon the 
 work which God had wrought within his soul. 
 
 During the last seven years a convention has been 
 held annually in Southport for the purpose of spreading 
 this blessing. The Rev. W. H. Tindall was the prime 
 mover in this new advance, and it has been Mr. 
 Cook's privilege to be associated with Mr. Tindall in 
 the conduct of this movement from the first. In 
 some respects these Southport conventions have been 
 similar to the well-known Keswick conventions. The 
 services have extended over the week, and have been 
 largely attended by persons belonging to different 
 Churches, who have come from many parts of the 
 United Kingdom, and even from abroad. Many 
 ministers have taken part in the conventions ; the 
 teaching has been scriptural, and therefore in accord 
 with the standard works of Methodism ; and the 
 blessing of God has rested upon the services every 
 year in a marked manner. The addresses given on 
 these occasions have also been" reported in several 
 organs of the press, and thus the great subject has
 
 HOLINESS-MEE TINGS. 1 57 
 
 been brought before the Connexion, with what results 
 the day will declare. 
 
 For any Methodist to make light of this doctrine is 
 for such an one to prove himself unworthy of that 
 " glorious ancestry " on which all Methodists are wont 
 to " enlarge," and by enlarging upon which they 
 
 "Produce their debt instead of their discharge." 
 
 For any Methodist preacher to do this, is for him to 
 prove that, whatever his graces and gifts may be, his 
 place is not in the Wesley an-Methodist ministry. At 
 least, so John Wesley thought within three or four 
 months of his decease. Writing to Adam Clarke in 
 November 1*790, Mr. Wesley says: "If we can prove 
 that any of our local preachers or leaders, either 
 directly or indirectly, speak against (perfect love), let 
 him be a local preacher or leader no longer. I doubt 
 whether he should continue in Society. Because he 
 that could speak thus in our congregations cannot be 
 an honest man." 
 
 We are not concerned to defend all the expressions 
 that are used by various speakers to set forth this 
 indescribable blessing, but when certain words are 
 quoted from the Rev. Dr. Pope's Compendium of 
 Theology, we feel it incumbent upon us to make a 
 rejoinder. 
 
 In that great work Dr. Pope has said : " Never do 
 we read of a Higher Life that is other than the 
 intensification of the lower; never of a Second Bless- 
 ing that is more than the unrestrained outpouring of 
 the same Spirit who gave the first" (vol. iii. p. 44). 
 But in my own hearing, at a holiness convention held 
 in Bradford shortly before Mr. Cook entered upon his 
 work in that district, Dr. Pope recanted these words,
 
 158 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 and declared that he stood as " a penitent " for having 
 written them. On another occasion, when he was 
 addressing a large number of his brethren, Dr. Pope 
 said : " I have sometimes delicately scrupled at this, 
 that, and the other expression, and I have wondered 
 whether it is right to speak of a ' second blessing.' 
 But I have read the text in which our Saviour takes 
 a blind man and partially restores his sight, and then, 
 holding the man up before us for a little while that 
 we may study his state, which is a great advance upon 
 what it was, He lets us watch the struggle. He touched 
 him again, and he saw every man clearly. In the face 
 of that narrative, and in the face of the experience of 
 multitudes of our fathers, and of the testimonies of 
 multitudes now living, and in the face of the deep 
 instinct of my own unworthy heart, I will never again 
 write against the phraseology to which I have referred." 
 
 Thomas Cook would wish to say with Thomas 
 Collins : " Among the brotherhood I am but a child ; 
 yet it seems to me I could whisper in the ears of 
 greater men a more excellent way. Wesley tells it, 
 the Bible tells it. Let every Methodist preacher get, 
 keep, and preach full salvation, and God will then put 
 His own seal upon His sanctifying Word." 
 
 " Give me," said Wesley, " one hundred preachers 
 who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God, 
 and I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or 
 laymen ; such alone will shake the gates of hell, and 
 set up the kingdom of heaven upon earth." 
 
 May God ever give such preachers to Methodism, 
 and then, as sure as night follows day, the design of 
 God in raising up Methodism will be answered, and 
 the nation will be reformed, and scriptural holiness 
 will be spread over the land.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 MEN'S MEETINGS. 
 
 THERE have been few periods in the history of 
 our country when there has been more occasion 
 for anxiety about the future of England than there is 
 at the present time. For weal or for woe the 
 destinies of the British Empire are now entrusted to 
 the masses of the people. We have " shot Niagara," 
 and Carlyle's question, " What after ? " may well ring 
 in the ears of thoughtful patriots. How will the 
 industrial classes meet their great responsibilities ? 
 Will they only pay regard to what they consider to 
 be their own interests, and vote solidly for class 
 legislation ? The newspapers are full of what they 
 call " The Labour Movement," and whereunto this 
 movement will grow no man knows. Only recently 
 a Labour Congress has been held in Brussels, to which 
 as many as sixty newspaper reporters were sent, and 
 the proceedings of which were recorded in all the 
 principal papers of Europe and the United States of 
 America. What are " our masters " bent upon doing ? 
 When labour is united in one solid phalanx, as it bids 
 fair to be before the world is much older, what will 
 be the effect of this " new unionism " ? The present 
 writer, at all events, has no fear of a sober and 
 
 159
 
 160 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 Christian democracy, but he has grave fears for any 
 country which is governed by an atheistic or immoral 
 democracy. 
 
 It is impossible not to feel much sympathy with 
 the aspirations of the artisan class. So far are we 
 from sharing the feelings of those comfortable classes 
 who would fain quench these aspirations, and who lift 
 up their hands in horror when they hear them ex- 
 pounded by Labour representatives, and exclaim : 
 " Good heavens, what will become of us if all these 
 claims are conceded?" so far are we from sharing such 
 sentiments, that we are distinctly in accord with the 
 Eev. J. M. Wilson, M.A., late of Clifton College, who 
 has said that if all the members of the Christian 
 Churches were to be filled with the Spirit of Christ, 
 they would instantly bend their energies to the task 
 of promoting the social and moral improvement of the 
 working classes. 
 
 Out of every ten inhabitants of the British Isles 
 only three live in comfort, the other seven are scarcely 
 above the line of poverty. In London alone there is 
 much reason to believe that one in every four adults 
 dies dependent on public charity. That estimate does 
 not include those in receipt of out-door relief. It is 
 an estimate which includes all classes. The propor- 
 tion amongst the working classes alone must be higher. 
 An official return, made in 1889, gives over 51,000 
 children in the elementary day schools in London who 
 habitually attend in want of food. Speaking of these 
 semi-starved children, Mr. Charles Booth says, in his 
 great work on Life and Labour in London : " Puny, 
 pale-faced, scantily clad, and badly shod, these small 
 and feeble folk may be found sitting limp and chill
 
 MEN'S MEETINGS. 161 
 
 on the school benches in all the poorer parts of 
 London." 
 
 It is unworthy of any man to say that the poverty of 
 the very poor is self-inflicted, and that therefore it does 
 not concern him. That much of the destitution which 
 appals us is self-inflicted, is no doubt true, but that does 
 not lessen the difficulty of the problem which now 
 confronts us. It must also be remembered that the 
 struggle for existence is keener than it ever was. 
 Men over forty years of age find it difficult to get 
 employment if once they are out of work, and many 
 thousands who have worked hard and not been un- 
 thrifty in their habits, but who have been burdened 
 with large families, are utterly unable to provide for 
 old age, and have no prospect before them but that 
 of the workhouse. More than half our paupers are 
 over sixty-five years of age. One person in every 
 three of all classes attaining to old age in this country 
 is dependent for subsistence on parish relief, given 
 either within or without the walls of the workhouse. 
 
 Nor is it correct to say that the purchasing power 
 of money is greater than it was formerly. In the 
 case of rich men this is so. It is not so in the case 
 of others. Bread is happily much cheaper, and so are 
 clothes, but rent has increased during the last fifty 
 years a hundred and fifty per cent. The writer 
 recently met a godly Methodist labourer in London, 
 who, when he works a full week, and is not hindered 
 an hour by the rain, earns twenty-four shillings and six- 
 pence in six days, out of which he pays as much as eight 
 shillings and sixpence a week for rent. Vegetables, 
 milk, eggs, butter, cheese, coals, and meat are all 
 dearer than they used to be, and consequently the 
 
 L
 
 1 62 THOMAS COOK 'S EARL Y MINISTR V. 
 
 difficulty of bringing up a large family on a small and 
 precarious income is greater than it was in " the good 
 old times." All over England are families living in 
 single rooms, so that it is impossible for the sexes to 
 be brought up separately ; and what the effect of 
 bringing them up together must be, especially when, 
 as too often happens, the parents themselves are not 
 of pure habits, the reader may imagine. Capital and 
 labour are constantly warring against each other, and 
 social peace appears to be a remote prospect. 
 
 It does not become any one of us, therefore, to be " at 
 ease in Zion," but all of us should seek to improve the 
 condition of the people, and to effect a material as well 
 as moral reformation in this well-favoured country. 
 
 I have felt it right to make these statements in 
 order that they may balance what is about to follow. 
 
 Mr. Cook has not played the role of social reformer 
 or Christian socialist, whatever that phrase may mean. 
 With a singleness of purpose which must satisfy 
 Mr. Spurgeon himself, he has prosecuted his one work, 
 and continued to be a man of one idea. He has 
 fought neither with great nor small, save only with 
 human sin ; and although the writer has not followed 
 his example, and restricted his efforts to the promotion 
 of the spiritual interests of the people, he fully believes 
 that Mr. Cook has been well advised in the course he 
 has taken. God has given our Evangelist a special 
 work to do, and he has neither time nor strength 
 to undertake additional tasks. As he has " oppor- 
 tunity " he does " good unto all men," but he has not 
 the " opportunity " which some others have of doing 
 various kinds of good. It is of the utmost importance 
 that Christian men should not be inactive in pro-
 
 MEN'S MEETINGS. 163 
 
 moting social reform, as they are sometimes charged, 
 by socialists, with being. It is also most desirable 
 that such movements as those which are designed to 
 promote the wholesome housing of the poor, to destroy 
 the evils of the sweating system, to reduce to reason- 
 able limits the working hours of the sons of toil, to 
 reconcile capital and labour, to further industrial co- 
 operation, to reform the drinking habits of the masses 
 of the people, to inculcate habits of thrift, and to pre- 
 pare the way for a system of national insurance which 
 shall secure to industrious men and women an honest 
 and independent subsistence in old age, when they 
 are no longer able to earn their bread by the sweat 
 of their brow, I say, it is most desirable that none of 
 these ameliorative measures should be left to the advo- 
 cacy of extreme outsiders, but should all be espoused 
 and guided by the wisest and most high-minded 
 Christian men and women whom the Churches possess. 
 If the olive tree will leave its fatness and consent to 
 reign over the trees, the services of the bramble 
 may be dispensed with ; but if the olive tree declines 
 this responsibility, the bramble may be forced upon 
 the trees by the necessity which all feel to have some 
 king to reign over them. Nothing, therefore, that 
 this chapter contains is intended to discourage either 
 Christian ministers or laymen from taking their full 
 share in every movement for the practical amelioration 
 of the condition of our fellow-countrymen. 
 
 Mr. Cook has set his brethren an excellent example, 
 inasmuch as during the last ten years he has attracted 
 to the house of God many thousands of working men, 
 and has preached the gospel to them, and, by the 
 blessing of God, has secured the adhesion of large
 
 1 64 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 numbers of them to the cause of Christ. Probably it 
 is pretty well known that neither the holiness-meet- 
 ings, nor the young people's services, nor the inquiry- 
 rooms, are a more regular feature of Mr. Cook's 
 missions than are the men's meetings ; but the 
 precise object of these meetings, and the way in 
 which they are conducted, may not be so widely 
 known. It is only four or five years ago since we 
 heard the late Rev. Dr. Osborn ask in Conference 
 what the design was of these men's meetings. That 
 venerable minister, always on the alert to discover 
 any new advance in Methodism, and ever ready to be 
 a discerner of spirits, expressed a slight fear lest these 
 meetings should be so managed as to result in injury 
 to the work of God. At the same time, he admitted 
 that, under wise management, the men's meetings 
 might further the gospel very largely. He therefore 
 asked for information. As some who read these pages 
 may even now be where that distinguished minister 
 then was, this chapter may serve a useful purpose. 
 
 Usually on the second Sunday afternoon of the 
 mission, and, when the mission extends over three 
 Sundays, on the afternoon of the third Sunday also, 
 it is Mr. Cook's custom to hold a service for men only. 
 
 During the previous week tickets advertising the 
 service are freely distributed by the mission workers 
 in the workshops and houses of the neighbourhood, 
 the object of the ticket being, not to exclude any 
 persons from the chapel who may apply for admission 
 without a ticket, but to make the meeting known, and 
 to invest it with additional interest. All fish are not 
 caught in the same way. Trout, it is said, are caught by 
 tickling. Certainly some men are caught by innocent
 
 MEN'S MEETINGS. 165 
 
 guile and Christian courtesy, who would otherwise 
 elude the preacher's vigilance. Ask a man to attend 
 a service, and the probability is he will suppose you 
 want him to do you a favour. Give him a ticket 
 admitting him to the service, and it is just as likely 
 he will think you are doing him a kindness. 
 
 As a rule the chapel is well filled at the men's 
 meeting, sometimes crowded ; and always is it seen 
 that, if the meeting can be repeated on the third Sun- 
 day, the attendance is larger than on the first occasion. 
 As we have already seen, some of the largest chapels 
 in the Connexion have been crowded to the doors year 
 after year, during the last ten years, on these impress- 
 ive occasions. There is little reason for the exclusion 
 of women and children except this : their exclusion 
 makes the service a novelty, and thus excites curiosity. 
 It also makes the men less shy of coming ; and gives 
 the Evangelist freedom to speak, if he is so led, a little 
 more plainly about particular sins. 
 
 But, generally speaking, the address given does not 
 refer to " questions of the day," but to questions of 
 eternity ; and little, if anything, is said which all the 
 world might not hear, and be the better for hearing. 
 Again, I must guard myself against being supposed to 
 wish to disparage the endeavours which some of my 
 brethren make to apply Christianity to the problems 
 of the day. Having myself attempted to do this with 
 my one talent. I am not disposed to censure myself 
 for so doing ; nor am I willing even to seem to censure 
 my friend Mr. Hughes, who has used his five talents 
 in St. James' Hall on Sunday afternoons in this par- 
 ticular way. Let the reader ponder these weighty 
 words which Dr. Dale uttered in his own pulpit in the
 
 166 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 presence of many Wesleyan ministers, on the occasion 
 of the last Birmingham Conference, held in the year 
 1879 : "As yet, however, the Evangelical Revival has 
 done very little to give us a nobler and more Christian 
 ideal of practical life. It has been very timid. It 
 has shrunk from politics. It has regarded literature 
 and art with a certain measure of distrust. In business, 
 it has been content with attaching Divine sanctions to 
 recognised virtues. We are living in a new world, 
 and Evangelicals do not seem to have discovered it. 
 The immense development of the manufacturing in- 
 dustries, the wider separation of classes in great towns 
 (a separation produced by the increase of commercial 
 wealth), the new relations which have grown up be- 
 tween the employers and the employed, the spread of 
 popular education, the growth of a vast popular litera- 
 ture, the increased political power of the masses of the 
 people, the gradual decay of the old aristocratic organ- 
 ization of society, and the advance, in many forms, of 
 the spirit of democracy, have urgently demanded 
 fresh applications of the eternal ideas of the Christian 
 faith to conduct. But Evangelical Christians have 
 hardly touched the new ethical problems which have 
 come with the new time." 
 
 But every man in his own order. To each man the 
 Master gives his work, i.e. his own work, for the 
 doing of which he and no one else is held responsible. 
 To Thomas Cook has been given a work than which 
 there is none nobler, the work of a Prime Minister 
 is not so important. He has been sent to open the 
 eyes of sinners, and to turn them from the power of 
 Satan unto God ; and he has sedulously avoided the 
 snare into which that man of old fell who was too
 
 MEN'S MEETINGS. 167 
 
 busy to do his duty, and who said, " While thy servant 
 was busy here and there, he was gone." 
 
 Give to every workman in England a comfortable 
 dwelling-house, with a plot of garden ground attached 
 to it ; make all the streets wide, arid have them well 
 lit ; let there be public halls, free libraries, baths, 
 w r ash-houses, gymnasia and recreation grounds within 
 easy reach of our dense populations ; supply every 
 town with beautiful parks, in which fountains should 
 play all the year round, and bands of music delight 
 the ear of the crowd on summer evenings ; multiply 
 your free schools, in which the children of the poorest 
 may have the opportunity of securing an education 
 which may fittingly lead to a University course ; run 
 workmen's trains from pleasant suburbs to industrial 
 centres, and give each man a season-ticket to carry 
 him to and from his daily task, and all this would 
 be as nothing compared with what you have done for 
 men, in bringing them to God, in securing for them 
 the forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them 
 that are sanctified by faith in Christ. 
 
 And this service God has graciously enabled Mr. 
 Cook to render, by means of these meetings, to large 
 numbers of men, belonging to all classes and of all ages. 
 
 At the close of the address, which, in truth, is 
 always a sermon, the Evangelist follows the same 
 course as at the evening services. The men are 
 invited to stand up, in proof that they are penitent, 
 and that they desire the prayers of the congregation. 
 They are then directed to the inquiry-room, where 
 experienced Christian men meet them, and help them 
 as best they are able. Their names and addresses are 
 carefully taken, and arrangements are at once made for
 
 1 68 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISJR V. 
 
 visiting them in their homes, with a view to induce 
 them to join some Christian Church. 
 
 The effect of the men's meeting upon the subsequent 
 services of the mission is seen in the greater number 
 of bare heads that may be counted on every occasion. 
 
 At some of the men's meetings very many conver- 
 sions have taken place, as, for example, at Sheffield, 
 where a hundred men came out as inquirers at 
 two such services. The converts thus made are 
 naturally eager to attend the remaining services, and 
 they swell the congregations. In the enthusiasm of 
 their first love, they are sure to bring some of their 
 " mates " with them, and thereby the interest and 
 usefulness of the mission are extended. 
 
 If the reader will pardon the Hibernianism of a 
 paragraph appearing in this chapter concerning the 
 other sex, it will be a convenience to be permitted to 
 say here, that Mr. Cook has not neglected " the reli- 
 gious sex." Women's meetings have been regularly 
 held on week-day afternoons, to which mothers have 
 been encouraged to bring their little ones, seeing that 
 in many cases they could not come without them. 
 Sometimes an adjoining room has been turned into a 
 nursery ; and thither the babies have been sent, to be 
 taken care of by young ladies out of the congrega- 
 tion, who have thus for once consented to become 
 " nursing mothers " for the Church, and thereby to 
 liberate the poor mothers to attend to their souls' 
 salvation. 
 
 Something is gained by these efforts to reach the 
 sexes separately, and to reach the young people apart. 
 We cannot divide our congregations into " standards," 
 as the day-school teacher divides his scholars ; but we
 
 MEN'S MEETINGS. 169 
 
 may improvise services for men, and for women, and 
 for children, and for Christians (as in the holiness- 
 meetings), and for the unsaved (as in the evening 
 evangelistic services), and thus go on reforming the 
 nation and spreading scriptural holiness over the land. 
 
 It is much to be wished that the ablest ministers in 
 the Churches would address themselves to the task of 
 evangelising the working men of England. The Rev. 
 J. M. Wilson, M.A., justly observes, that " many good 
 people think that all that is necessary " (to secure this 
 object) "is to send ill-instructed curates and Scripture- 
 readers and Bible-women among the artisans : you 
 might as well send squibs to put out a conflagration." 
 
 Statesmen of the first rank Cabinet Ministers and 
 even Prime Ministers deem it worth their while " to 
 stump the country," because they wish to influence 
 " our masters " in exercising the franchise with which 
 the nation has entrusted them. Why should not 
 ministers of religion of the first rank be as wise in 
 their generation as are the children of this world in 
 theirs ? Working men have souls as well as votes ; and 
 overseers of souls are bound to be at least as earnest in 
 seeking to catch souls as politicians are to catch votes. 
 Principal Fairbairn set an example worthy of imitation 
 when, a few years ago, he left more congenial fields of 
 labour, and spent six successive Sunday evenings in 
 lecturing to the working men of Bradford on " Religion 
 and History." 
 
 Dr. Parker made a laudable effort in the same 
 direction, when, more recently, he held a series of con- 
 ferences with working men in London. Dr. Parker 
 is impulsive, and not without the defects of his 
 qualities. He abandoned his conferences before they
 
 i?o THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 had really done much, or perhaps any, good. But 
 if, instead of arguing with working men, which, in 
 truth, is not the best service that can be done them, 
 Dr. Parker would give himself occasionally to the work 
 of meeting the objections of working men to religion, 
 by instructing them in the nature of religion, it' 
 he would abandon apology and reasoned defences of 
 Christianity, and just exhibit to congregations of work- 
 ing men the religion of our Lord Jesus Christ in its 
 truth and in its power, there is no man living better 
 qualified than he to secure our sons of industry for 
 that Church which was founded by One who laboured 
 with His hands as a carpenter, and whom the common 
 people gladly heard. 
 
 The working men's meeting, which has now become 
 a regular Conference service, is a step in the right 
 direction, as also is the similar gathering held 
 annually in connection with the Church Congress, 
 and which is usually addressed by the finest speakers 
 belonging to the Established Church. 
 
 During ten years Mr. Cook has been putting forth 
 strenuous efforts to save the working men of England, 
 and the following incident among many will serve 
 to show that he has received wages and gathered fruit 
 unto life eternal in this field also. 
 
 At the close of the Pendleton mission a service 
 was held for the converts, seven hundred of whom 
 were present. Moving about amongst them, Mr. 
 Cook's attention was attracted by a woman who 
 appeared to him to have seen a good deal of trouble. 
 Her face, however, was lit up with a light as from 
 heaven, and thus the Evangelist was led to ask if 
 she had been blessed in the mission. Thereupon she
 
 MEN'S MEETINGS. 171 
 
 told the Evangelist the following story, which will 
 remind the Methodist reader of '' Torn O'Jack's Lad," 
 and of what he suffered in drowning a favourite dog 
 which had been a snare and a besetment to him. 
 The good woman said : " Aye, Mr. Cook, this has 
 been a strange week in our house. My old man 
 came to the men's meeting on Sunday afternoon. I 
 don't know that he had been to a place of worship 
 since we were married. When the service was over, 
 he came home, and for a while was very quiet. Then 
 he went into the yard and stayed there so long, that 
 I was frightened, and I went to see what he was 
 doing. I saw a strange sight. He had taken all 
 the pigeons out of the cote and bad wrung their necks, 
 and there they were, lying in a row, fifteen of them, 
 all dead, and he was crying over them. I said, 
 ' Whatever are you doing, man ? ' He didn't answer 
 me, but by and by he said, ' Get . ready, lass, and go 
 with me to chapel to-night.' I couldn't say anything, 
 for I felt like crying mysen'. He had never asked 
 me to go to chapel with him before, and yet both of 
 us had had a good bringing up. We were very quiet 
 that day at tea ; neither of us ate much ; and we 
 were at chapel in good time. When you had finished 
 your sermon, and you asked those who wished to 
 be saved to stand up, my husband was one of the 
 first to rise, and I stood up too. Then we went into 
 the inquiry-room, where we found peace with God." 
 Pointing to a younger woman who sat next to her, 
 the speaker added, " This is my daughter. She's 
 been saved too, and her husband ; and now we are all 
 on the way to heaven, and we do thank God for this 
 mission ; the change in our home is wonderful."
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SEALS OF APOSTLESHIP. 
 
 IT has pleased God to give Mr. Cook hundreds of 
 converts to whom he can say, " Though ye have 
 ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet have ye but one 
 father; for in Jesus Christ have I begotten you through 
 the gospel." The preceding chapters afford evidence 
 that " the signs of an apostle " have been " wrought 
 among" us "in all patience, in signs, and wonders, 
 and mighty deeds." If Mr. Cook " be not an apostle 
 unto others, yet doubtless " he is to those of whom 
 this chapter treats, " for the seal of his apostleship " 
 are they " in the Lord." 
 
 I wish to avoid giving undue publicity to circum- 
 stances of a sacred and confidential kind, which the 
 persons chiefly concerned would prefer not to have 
 published on the house-top. But as conversions are 
 always interesting, and as they are the best credentials 
 of the gospel ; and as the record of them puts to 
 silence the ignorance of foolish men, and at the same 
 time encourages the Lord's children to expect con- 
 tinual displays of saving power, it is hoped that 
 something may be written about those who will be 
 the crown of the Evangelist's rejoicing in the clay of
 
 SEALS OF APOSTLESHIP. 173 
 
 the Lord Jesus, without any offence being given or 
 any harm being done. 
 
 A railway man, who reminds us of Mr. Cook's 
 devoted Sunday-school teacher, writes to say that for 
 twenty-five years he had never bowed his knees in 
 prayer ; but having been " brought to the Lord " at 
 one of the mission services, he begs for prayer on 
 behalf of his wife, who for ten years had been patient 
 with a drunken, cruel husband, and who then needed 
 to be saved, as he by God's mercy had been. 
 
 At one of the missions a lady attended who was in 
 much mental trouble. Some of her ancestors had 
 been of vicious habits ; and although she had not 
 contracted the same habits herself, she was much dis- 
 tressed by a theory which she had adopted, to the 
 effect that vice is hereditary, and that the power of 
 inherited vicious tendencies is so strong as in many 
 cases to present an insuperable barrier to Divine 
 grace. Writing, as I am, shortly after the close of 
 the meetings of the British Association, held in Cardiff 
 in August 1891, I am reminded of an address given 
 on that occasion on " Instinctive Criminality," the 
 gist of which is found in the following passage which 
 I cull from the report in the Times newspaper : " In- 
 stinctive criminality follows the same lines as regards 
 mode of transmission as do most other diseased con- 
 ditions. . . . The instinctive criminal is on all-fours 
 with the idiot, the epileptic, the suicide, and the 
 insane, and is equally to be pitied and humanely 
 treated. He is, in fact, as much sinned against as 
 sinning." So this lady thought. She also found a 
 great stumbling-block to faith in God in the passage 
 found in 1 Kings xxii. 2023, as, indeed, have others
 
 1 74 THOMA S CO OK'S EA RL Y MINIS TR Y. 
 
 who have not fully learnt how to read the Old 
 Testament. But after a long struggle she writes : 
 " I have fought hard, and have found that Jesus is 
 mighty to save. All doubts are gone, and I can say 
 with my whole heart that I believe that Jesus died 
 for me, and has redeemed me with His precious blood. 
 Since I have trusted I have been so happy, and I 
 would not part with the evidence my Saviour has 
 given me for all the world's wealth. Will you believe 
 that the miserable, doubting creature you saw at 
 
 is now going to testify to all of the saving power 
 
 of Jesus ? " 
 
 The difficulty of this inquirer concerning heredity 
 is no small one, and it is one which raises a question 
 that must receive greater attention in the future than 
 it has done in the past. A sober-minded and most de- 
 vout Christian writer has said that it is possible that he 
 himself finds it harder to-day to live a pure and good 
 life than he otherwise would do, because some ancestor 
 of his in the days of King John lived an impure and 
 vicious life. Apart from all rhetorical exaggeration, 
 there is much truth in the remark, and it seems neces- 
 sary that the attention, not only of parents, but of 
 potential parents, should be directed to this question. 
 Young people should be cautioned by proper persons 
 and who so proper as their own fathers and mothers? 
 to remember this consideration in offering and accepting 
 love, lest their posterity should have the sins of their 
 fathers visited upon them in one of the direst of all 
 ways. Arid men and women should be entreated to live 
 purely and soberly, in order that they may not transmit 
 to their children vicious tendencies from which the 
 grace of God may scarcely be able to extricate them.
 
 SEALS OF APOSTLESHIP. 175 
 
 God be praised, however, that " instinctive " vice 
 may be subdued, for " with God all things are 
 possible." The writer himself has met with a beauti- 
 ful Christian, now with God, whose father, according 
 to the evidence of his own wife, was never known to 
 go to bed sober for fourteen years. But such conver- 
 sions are as rare as that of the penitent thief, which, as 
 the old divines used to say with perfect truth, is given 
 as a solitary instance, that while none may despair of 
 the grace of God, none may presume to postpone 
 repentance until the eleventh hour. 
 
 Another friend writes : " How many hearts are full 
 of gratitude to you for leading them to Jesus, but 
 none is so full as mine. Your sermon on Sunday 
 night did not impress me much, but afterwards when 
 you were praying I felt a great pain come into my 
 heart all at once, and it got worse and worse until I 
 could bear it no longer. Then when you came and 
 talked to me, it grew less and less. When I get to 
 heaven, my chief delight and joy, next to seeing Jesus, 
 will be to see you." 
 
 A husband and a wife write from the beautiful 
 Channel Islands to tell of their newly-found peace, 
 and they report the conversion of a friend also, the 
 results of the same mission. A father sends a 
 sovereign from Sheffield as a thank-offering for the 
 conversion of a son who had become a source of 
 anxiety, but had been blessed through Mr. Cook's 
 ministry. A Dublin correspondent writes to say 
 that he was a Roman Catholic, but through curiosity 
 he went to Mr. Cook's Dublin mission, and was con- 
 verted. His relatives have " turned completely against 
 him," and he begs for tbe prayers of the Evangelist.
 
 176 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 Sometimes when we think that the Lord came to send 
 peace on earth, we find that He came to bring a sword, 
 and that a man's enemies are they of his own house- 
 hold. Among many ministers who write to this 
 young Evangelist to acknowledge the blessing God has 
 given them by his instrumentality, is one who says : 
 " Although I had known much of God's sanctifying 
 grace, I shall always thank God for the clearer light 
 and greater blessing that I received during your 
 services." A Plymouth correspondent sends word that 
 his wife had received a great blessing at Mr. Cook's 
 mission, and had confessed it before him and the 
 maid-servant, with the result that the maid was 
 earnestly seeking a like blessing. He writes on a 
 Sunday, and adds : " No hot dinner to-day, Halle- 
 lujah ! " And he subjoins a postscript : " In haste to 
 the open-air service." 
 
 A poor steward, or, to use plainer language, a church 
 officer, whose duty it is to relieve the poor out of 
 funds provided for that purpose, writes : " I am thank- 
 ful to say that after leaving you yesterday I v/as able 
 to fully surrender myself to Christ." All stewards are 
 supposed to be Christian men. They are entrusted 
 with sacred functions, for they are members of the 
 leaders' meeting, which is composed in the main of 
 sub-pastors of the Church, and has charge of the souls 
 of the members of the Church. But, alas ! the supposi- 
 tion is not always well founded, and stewards are some- 
 times met with who do not enjoy a personal, conscious, 
 happy salvation, as every Methodist ought to do. 
 
 This sincere steward said to Mr. Cook in an after- 
 meeting : " If I were to become a Christian in the 
 sense in which you use the word, it would involve a
 
 SEALS OF APOSTLESHIP. 177 
 
 revolution in my business." He afterwards explained 
 that he was a builder, and he described some of the 
 tricks, i.e. sins, of that particular trade. The Evan- 
 gelist told him that it was not necessary for him to 
 live, but it was necessary to save his soul, which he 
 could not do if he continued to defraud his neighbour. 
 He exhorted him to consider the matter well before he 
 decided to reject Christ for the sake of pelf. The 
 penitent man promised to do so, and went his way. 
 The result is told in the words already cited. He is 
 now a consistent and useful officer of the church, and, 
 moreover, a class-leader. The superintendent minister 
 of one of our largest Circuits, in which Mr. Cook held 
 a mission, writes to tell of a Roman Catholic woman 
 who was saved at one of the mission services, and who 
 took a ticket for the men's meeting for her husband. 
 The husband had taken an oath twenty-three years 
 before that he would never enter a Protestant place of 
 worship ; but when his wife brought him this ticket he 
 considered he was liberated from his promise, and he 
 went, and found salvation. The priest called to see 
 his stray sheep, but the woman bade him come no 
 more ; for, said she, with charming simplicity, " When 
 I came to confess to you, I didn't know the Lord 
 would hear me." How many thousands of Koman 
 Catholics are there especially on the Continent who 
 do not know that the Lord will hear them, and who 
 ignorantly worship God through the mediation of their 
 priests ! The minister adds : " God bless you, dear 
 fellow, you have helped me very much. My work 
 here has been harder than anything I have ever known. 
 But we shall triumph." 
 
 It has been the joy of Mr. Cook to lead to Christ all 
 M
 
 i;8 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 sorts of people. Many boys and girls, as we shall 
 soon see, are among his most precious converts. Aged 
 people, young men and young women, poor abandoned 
 characters, respectable seat-holders, and persons of 
 culture have received the word of truth from his lips, 
 and been made partakers of a common salvation. The 
 late Mr. J. Beauchamp writes, under date March the 
 18th, 1889, a touching letter, all the more pathetic 
 now, because he has joined the lamented son of whom 
 he speaks. He says : " You may perhaps have noticed 
 in the Recorder an account of our son Godfrey, who 
 died, after a very few days' illness, in his rooms in St, 
 John's College, Cambridge, and who was a young man 
 of very great promise. It will gratify you to know 
 that when you conducted services in Cambridge he 
 was led by your addresses to give his heart to God. 
 He became a member of Society, and lived a very pure 
 and beautiful life. High hopes were entertained of his 
 success in the University by Dr. Moulton and his 
 friends at the Leys School ; but, taking cold, he was 
 cut off before his twentieth year. On the first Sunday 
 of the year he united in the Covenant service with his 
 mother and myself. We cannot be too thankful to 
 you for the blessed influence which, under God, you 
 were enabled to exercise over his short but not useless 
 life." The Rev. Dr. Moulton interred this young con- 
 vert, and on the Sunday following the interment Arch- 
 deacon Farrar referred to his death in the University 
 Church in affecting terms. Blessed be God for so 
 many sheaves as are safely gathered in God's garner ! 
 
 An Oldham convert writes to express thankfulness, 
 and adds, " I shudder to think what I might have been, 
 if it had not been for your mission."
 
 SEALS OF APOSTLESHIP. 179 
 
 It has pleased God to make Mr. Cook very useful 
 to large numbers of ministers' children. The wife of 
 a Wesleyan superintendent, herself the daughter of a 
 distinguished ex-president, told the writer a short time 
 since, with much feeling, that Mr. Cook had been very 
 much blessed to her children, and many other ministers' 
 wives may say the same. Here is a touching record 
 likely to make the water stand in the eyes of any 
 preacher who has sons of his own. It was written 
 by the son of a minister who was elected for the first 
 time at the Nottingham Conference as Chairman 
 of a District, on the fly-leaf of the youth's Bible : 
 " I gave my heart to God this day, January 1 7th, 
 1886." 
 
 Three workmen send a joint-letter from one of Her 
 Majesty's dockyards, to inform the Evangelist of the 
 good which one of their fellow-workmen had received 
 at a men's meeting held during a mission. A young 
 man writes to say that when he attended one of Mr. 
 Cook's services at Tredegar, and saw Mr. Cook enter 
 the pulpit, he said to himself : " If ever I get con- 
 verted, it will not be under that man ! " But he broke 
 down at the .close of the service, entered the inquiry- 
 room, found peace with God, and, having laboured 
 successfully as a lay evangelist, entered the ministry. 
 
 Upon one occasion Mr. Cook went to conduct a 
 mission in a remote part of the Connexion. He was, 
 as sometimes happens, received as a guest by a gentle- 
 man whose wife deemed it wise, as a precautionary 
 measure, to tell the Evangelist before he began his first 
 service, that he (her husband) was not in sympathy 
 with missions ; neither was the daughter, who, having 
 just returned from a Continental boarding-school, was
 
 1 80 THOMAS COOK 'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 not likely to look with favour upon movements of this 
 kind. The Evangelist thereupon decided to take the 
 matter to God in prayer, and to seek for Divine 
 interposition. In the afternoon of the first Sunday, 
 Mr. Cook, as his custom is, held a young people's ser- 
 vice, and when he had concluded a brief address, he 
 appealed for some volunteer who would come out and 
 confess a determination to be the Lord's. Hardly had 
 he made the appeal before he heard a movement behind 
 him, and ere he had time to look round to see what 
 was the cause of it, the daughter of his host stood 
 by his side, in front of the congregation, and, with 
 tears in her eyes, asked what she must do to be saved. 
 She was directed to the inquiry-room, where she was 
 soon made happy in the love of God. 
 
 In the evening of the same day, amongst the first 
 to rise in answer to Mr. Cook's appeal was the gentle- 
 man himself, the Evangelist's host, who, soon after 
 rising, walked down the aisle, in the presence of many 
 of his workpeople, and avowed himself on the Lord's 
 side hereafter. What the effect of these beautiful 
 public conversions was may easily be imagined, as also 
 may the useful service which this kind-hearted gentle- 
 man and educated young lady have since been enabled 
 to render to Methodism in their own town. 
 
 Mr. Jabez Woolley has been the means of doing 
 much good as an evangelist, in company with his 
 friend Mr. Joshua Dawson ; and it is pleasing to know 
 that Mr. Cook has been used in effecting the conver- 
 sion of a son of Mr. Woolley. That son is now a 
 Methodist minister in Canada, from which country he 
 sends Mr. Cook the cheering tidings. A Hull firm 
 write to say that they are large employers of labour,
 
 SEALS OF APOSTLESHIP. 181 
 
 and that some years previously a young man left their 
 service in the ordinary way, and they heard and 
 thought nothing of him afterwards. But the writers 
 said that he had just waited upon them with ten 
 shillings, which he stated was the value of some things 
 of theirs which he purloined from them when in their 
 service ; and he alleged that he did this because he 
 had been converted at Mr. Cook's mission in that town. 
 The ten shillings were enclosed as a gift from the firm 
 to the fund which maintains the Evangelist. 
 
 Here is good news from Barrow-in-Furness. The 
 Rev. W. May writes : " The good work is still 
 going on. You will remember that several railway 
 men got converted during the mission, and they are 
 giving evidence of the genuineness of their conversion. 
 Through their influence a revival has commenced 
 among the men employed on the line between here and 
 Whitehaven, and eighteen have decided for Christ." 
 This shows how the good work extends, and how one 
 conversion, like a wave of the sea, begets another. 
 Three months later, additional evidence of this 
 arrives. A minister writes : " You will remember 
 
 Captain , who was converted at your men's 
 
 meeting. He has just returned from a dangerous 
 voyage. When his ship was in imminent peril, but 
 whilst the storm was raging, he astonished the crew by 
 declaring that if death came to him it was all right, 
 as he had faith in God. Twenty-two of the crew were 
 converted to God during the voyage." And here is 
 still more good news from the sea, which will be as 
 invigorating to the soul as a good sea-breeze is to the 
 body. The same correspondent says : " We con- 
 tinue to receive cheering news of The Captain's
 
 182 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 success as a preacher of the gospel amongst the sailors. 
 A few weeks since we heard that at Port Said he had 
 led thirty of the sailors to Christ." 
 
 A young Cornishman writes from a large city 
 house in London to say that four years ago he 
 was brought to God during the mission services Mr. 
 Cook held in Truro. It was the turning-point in his 
 life, and he expresses the greatest thankfulness that 
 he was made a partaker of that grace which alone 
 " can foil the tempter's power," before he migrated 
 from a quiet Cornish town to the metropolis. A sister 
 writes from Birmingham to say that her brother has 
 recently died in the faith, and that his conversion was 
 due to the mission Mr. Cook held in that town. 
 Thus was another sheaf gathered in. A gentleman 
 writes from the west of England to express his in- 
 debtedness to Mr. Cook, and he encloses five pounds 
 as a present, begging the Evangelist to accept it. 
 This, however, Mr. Cook was unable to do, as it 
 would have violated one of his rules, which is to 
 receive no gifts of money lest the ministry be blamed. 
 A Cambridge man informs the Evangelist that for 
 months past he had been praying for purifying grace, 
 and by accident was led to enter Hobson Street 
 Chapel, Cambridge, on a Sunday afternoon when Mr. 
 Cook was holding a men's service. He states that 
 he felt the power of the Holy Spirit so much in the 
 service that he shook from head to foot, every nerve 
 was at work, and he was obliged to yield to the 
 influence of the gracious Spirit. The Kev. 11. Craw- 
 ford Johnson writes from ])ublin to say that a 
 member of the choir, who was saved at the Dublin 
 mission, had recently died, and died a triumphant
 
 SEALS OF APOSTLESHIP. 183 
 
 death. His last regret was that he had not won 
 a single soul for Christ, and he besought his wife 
 with his dying breath to give him the joy of winning 
 her, and thus he passed away beyond the reach of 
 temptation. A gentleman writes from the same city, 
 and says that a friend of his, a member of the Irish 
 Church, dined with him at his house on Sunday, and 
 told him that he and one of his " chums " had been 
 saved at this Dublin mission. The possibility of a 
 conscious salvation was to this good man something 
 incredible, and now that he had obtained it the 
 strangeness of his new experience made his conversa- 
 tion most interesting. 
 
 We shall have to speak of the labours of our 
 Evangelist amongst the young immediately, but we 
 may add here that the proprietress of a ladies' school 
 in Ireland sends word of a great " tide of blessing " 
 which had swept over her establishment as the result 
 of one of Mr. Cook's missions. Eight members of 
 her household, who were trusting Christ before, had 
 received a fuller baptism of the Holy Spirit; two 
 backsliders had been recovered ; two servants were 
 saved ; two others were seeking salvation, and the 
 lady's own soul had been filled with God. She adds : 
 " The home is to-day a heaven upon earth. A nephew 
 has also come to Jesus, and three other friends have 
 received an increase of blessing. To God be all the 
 glory." An Exeter correspondent sends intelligence of 
 the death of one of the converts of the Exeter mission 
 who " sweetly fell asleep in Jesus," and whose conver- 
 sion was followed by the conversion of her husband 
 on the second Sunday after the close of the mission, 
 which event led to the conversion of a daughter; and
 
 1 84 THOMAS COOA"S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 thus wife, husband, and child were " bound together 
 in the bundle of life." Tidings come from Exmouth 
 to the effect that a young lady went into Exeter at 
 the invitation of a lady to attend Mr. Cook's mission, 
 and was brought to God. She in her turn prayed for 
 the conversion of two friends, one of whom found 
 salvation at a subsequent service, while the other 
 obtained the blessing in her own room. Thus does 
 " Jesus ride on," and in this way will He continue to 
 " ride on " till " all are subdued." 
 
 References have been made to the Dublin mission, 
 and now it should be stated that God graciously 
 owned Mr. Cook's work among the pupils of Wesley 
 College in that city. Here are a dozen letters from 
 boys who, at the time of writing, were resident pupils 
 of the College, and who all testify to the saving power 
 of Christ which they experienced at the mission. 
 Thomas Cook himself was, as we have seen, con- 
 verted to God when a boy, and this circumstance has 
 encouraged him to look for like instances of saving 
 grace among his youthful hearers. Nor has he looked 
 in vain. 
 
 Is there a spot in the world from which tidings 
 of this kind would be more welcome to ministerial 
 readers than from Kingswood School, Bath, where the 
 sons of Wesleyan ministers are educated. The writer 
 had a brief experience of Woodhouse Grove School, 
 and is well aware of the temptations to which such 
 life exposes boys when they are at an impressionable 
 age, and when they are more afraid of being thought 
 good, and of professing to be good, than of anything 
 else that could possibly happen to them. There is 
 reason to believe that jrirls have to endure the same
 
 SEALS OF APOSTLESHIP. 185 
 
 temptations in their schools, however well conducted 
 the schools may be ; and hence it is impossible for 
 praying parents, who send their children from home 
 to be educated, not to have some misgiving about 
 the wisdom of that particular course. The late Mrs. 
 Booth strongly deprecated the boarding-school system, 
 as all readers of her books must know, and certainly 
 the results of her own conduct in training her chil- 
 dren herself have justified much of what she wrote. 
 
 The sons of Methodist preachers are not without 
 their advantages, neither are they without their dis- 
 advantages. Their fathers are usually out when the 
 sons' school hours are over, their homes are constantly 
 broken up, and it is often necessary for them to be 
 left behind when their parents are compelled to 
 change their Circuits. There is a popular impression 
 that the sons of ministers " fall " more frequently 
 than the sons of others. This is a delusion, partly 
 accounted for by the fact that every such " fall " 
 naturally excites attention, like a falling star, while 
 the cases of those who stand give rise to no comment. 
 The writer not long since took part in a Home 
 Missionary meeting in South Wales, when three of 
 the chief speakers happened to be Wesleyan ministers' 
 sons and Woodhouse Grove boys. Yet the circum- 
 stance was only regarded as natural and unimportant. 
 But if three sons of ministers had appeared together 
 on the stage of the theatre in that town, all the world 
 would have heard of it ! Grace, however, is not 
 hereditary, and hence preachers do well to be solicitous 
 lest their ministry should be discredited by their own 
 children. Those who were present at a recent Con- 
 ference, when our beloved brother Champness prayed
 
 1 86 THOMAS COOK 'S EARL Y MINIS TR Y. 
 
 for "our own children," will not have forgotten the 
 intense fervour and many tears with which the brethren 
 responded when he said, " They are not all good, Lord, 
 but they are ours ; save them, we beseech Thee ! " 
 These observations will prepare the way for the ex- 
 tracts we now give from two letters written by the 
 Eev. Dr. Bowden, governor of Kingswood School, 
 referring to the results of visits paid by our Evangelist 
 to the school. In May 1887, Dr. Bowden writes: 
 " On Tuesday evening I had the library full, and took 
 down fifty-five names of those who did not previously 
 meet in class. Mr. Richards -held a meeting for junior 
 inquirers on Wednesday, and I had a meeting for 
 seniors on Thursday. The library was crowded. I am 
 encouraging them to help each other. The demand 
 by separate groups for places for prayer almost passes 
 our accommodation. C^roups of boys from twelve to 
 fourteen, and seniors with juniors gathered round 
 them, meet for prayer. On Friday two boys in the 
 middle of the school came and acknowledged mis- 
 conduct, and made restitution. That was a blessed 
 feast of repentance. Many thanks for your blessed 
 visit. The whole tone of our life is raised. It was 
 good, but is now much better." In September 1890, 
 Dr. Bowden writes : " The library quite full with my 
 class, and the new candidates for membership. I took 
 down twenty-eight new names for Mr. Richard's class 
 and my own. The old members are quickened, and 
 the boys whose names I took are among some whose 
 only hope is converting grace." 
 
 At Trinity Hall Mr. Cook has been permitted to 
 reap sheaves also. Many of the girls in that establish- 
 ment were savingly converted on the occasion of a
 
 SEALS OF A POS TLESHIP. 1 87 
 
 visit he paid them some few years ago, and the tradi- 
 tion still lingers in the school of the wonderful gale 
 of grace that swept over the pupils at that time. 
 These circumstances will cause the hearts of all 
 Methodist preachers to turn towards the Evangelist 
 with peculiar tenderness and affection, for it often 
 happens that ministers' children receive less attention 
 than the children of others, because it is supposed 
 that they need less ; whereas they require, if not more, 
 certainly quite as much. " That our sons may be as 
 plants grown up in their youth ; that our daughters 
 may be as corner-stones, polished after the similitude 
 of a palace." 
 
 Amongst pupils in private schools also God has 
 given Mr. Cook many souls for his hire. The pro- 
 prietors of such schools have often a groundless fear 
 of the parents of their pupils being offended if efforts 
 are made by evangelists to secure the conversion of 
 the pupils ; and, no doubt, some discretion is needed 
 in work of this kind. No more shall be said here, 
 therefore, except that there lie before the writer three 
 beautiful letters written by girls in the same private 
 school, all telling of conversion, and of the conversions 
 of sisters and school -fellows, the results of one of 
 Mr. Cook's missions. 
 
 The daughter of one of our ablest deceased ministers 
 sends encouraging news of the perseverance in the 
 Christian life of a number of girls who were brought 
 to God at a mission which Mr. Cook held twelve 
 months before the letter was written. The anniversary 
 of their conversion was observed in the Society-class, 
 and the lady leader assures the Evangelist that they 
 are standing fast in the Lord. This batch of young
 
 1 88 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MIN1STR Y. 
 
 converts was divided into two Society-classes, and the 
 lady who writes was made leader of both, and thus 
 the girls had the great advantage of intelligent and 
 loving instruction given week by week in the deeper 
 things of God. 
 
 Something has been said (in the chapter on holiness- 
 meetings) of the prominence which Mr. Cook every- 
 where gives to holiness, and much might be written 
 concerning the great blessing which numbers of Chris- 
 tian people have found through the teaching given by 
 our Evangelist on these occasions. Many Christians 
 are full of thankfulness because they have been led by 
 Mr. Cook into that rest " where pure enjoyment reigns," 
 and " God is loved alone." Their testimonies, are of 
 great value. Mr. Wesley attached much importance 
 to such experiences, and published as many of them 
 as he could in his immortal Journals; and the writer 
 believes that if full particulars were given of the way 
 in which some modern Methodists and others have 
 been made witnesses of God's power to save unto the 
 uttermost, good would be done. Correspondents speak 
 of a lean Christian experience possessed before they 
 obtained the fuller life of entire sanctification. They 
 confess the weary struggles, the disappointments, the 
 failures of their previous Christian life, and they praise 
 God for lifting them into a higher and clearer atmo- 
 sphere, where " His commandments " are not felt to be 
 " grievous." 
 
 Professor Drummond has said nothing wiser than 
 this : " The difficulties of the Christian life arise from 
 this we attempt to half-live it." When that life 
 is wholly lived, it is easy, delightful, and grateful, as 
 much of the correspondence shows which has grown
 
 SEALS OF APOSTLESHIP. 189 
 
 out of the series of holiness-meetings which Mr. Cook 
 has held in many parts of the United Kingdom during 
 the last ten years. 
 
 All Mr. Cook's " seals of apostleship " are not 
 in the British Isles, nor are all the subjects of 
 Her Majesty. He has some converts in Norway, 
 in which country, in company with Dr. Wood, 
 he held a mission in the year 1886. During the 
 Cardiff mission, Mr. Cook met with a Norwegian 
 minister belonging to the Methodist Episcopal Church 
 of America, who besought him to go to Norway and 
 preach the gospel to his countrymen. The introduc- 
 tion of Methodism into Norway is an interesting story, 
 having the ring of Wesley's Journals about it. Briefly, 
 it is this. A Norwegian sailor named Petersen settled 
 in America, and was converted through attending a 
 Methodist class-meeting, as I have known Norwegians, 
 and Danes, and Germans, and Dutchmen to be con- 
 verted in Hull through attending Methodist services. 
 Petersen's conversion was a thorough one, and when, 
 therefore, soon afterwards, he paid a visit to his native 
 land, he did precisely what a hundred years previously 
 John Nelson did at Birstall, and with like results. 
 His testimony produced a deep impression, many of 
 his neighbours sought salvation, and the neighbour- 
 hood became aroused. Then Petersen was obliged to 
 return to America, but the fire he had kindled did not 
 go out. On the contrary, it spread, and that with 
 such rapidity that the services of a minister for the 
 little flock became a necessity, and urgent requests 
 were sent to the American Conference for one to be 
 appointed. Eventually Petersen himself was ordained, 
 and sent as the first minister of the Church which he
 
 igo THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 had founded. That was in the year 1850, since 
 which time the mission has made such progress that 
 now it reports three thousand five hundred members, 
 over three thousand Sunday - school scholars, and 
 thirty-three ministers. 
 
 Mr. Cook and Dr. Wood went to Tonsberg, which 
 is one of the oldest towns in Norway, and where there 
 is a Methodist chapel, which will hold, perhaps, two 
 hundred and fifty people. They entered upon their 
 work with fear and trembling, being quite ignorant 
 of the language. Dr. Wood, having spoken in Paris 
 through an interpreter, was the first speaker at this 
 Norwegian service, the native minister acting as inter- 
 preter. Dr. Wood had not spoken long before it was 
 made evident that a great blessing was coming. The 
 interpreter, Pastor Jorgensen, was in full sympathy 
 with the evangelists, and hence gave the spirit of 
 their addresses as well as the letter. 
 
 At first the good Norwegians did not understand 
 what Mr. Cook wished them to do when he invited 
 them to come to the communion rail to seek salvation. 
 But in course of time they caught his idea, and then 
 fell in with it as readily as do English people. The 
 power of God rested upon the congregation, and ignor- 
 ance of the language did not prevent the evangelists 
 from doing much good work for God. One afternoon, 
 when those who were seeking Christ were asked to 
 stand up, nearly half the congregation responded, and 
 in the evening of the same day twenty-five persons 
 knelt at the rail seeking pardon in old-fashioned 
 Methodist style. The interpreter knelt between the 
 Evangelist and the penitents, and by his mouth the 
 Evangelist dealt with them and led them to Christ.
 
 SEALS OF APOSTLESHIP. 191 
 
 Very touching it was to see the people praying with 
 tearful faces and in a language unknown to the 
 evangelists, and then to watch the change that trans- 
 figured them when they realised the forgiving love of 
 God. In many ways the simple-minded Norwegians 
 tried to express their gratitude to the evangelists. 
 They would point upwards and then point to them- 
 selves, in order to intimate that they had been brought 
 into communion with heaven. One woman, who knew 
 a little broken English, said, " You make my heart 
 weary ; He, (pointing to the sky) make my heart 
 peace." After a few days the evangelists were 
 obliged to tear themselves away from these loving 
 people. They left at five o'clock A.M., but though 
 the hour was so early, about twenty of the natives 
 were present to say good - bye, and to urge' the 
 evangelists to come again, which they promised to 
 do, in case the cloud should lead that way. 
 
 This mission in Norway was held more than five years 
 ago, but during this year a Bradford Methodist, well 
 known to the writer, travelling in Norway, met the 
 native minister in his own land who interpreted for 
 Mr. Cook and Dr. Wood, and heard from his lips of 
 the good work that has been done, and is still being 
 done, in that favourite land of tourists, by " the people 
 called Methodists." Mr. Cook thinks that the fields 
 are white unto the harvest in Norway, and that what 
 is needed is, that reapers should go thither, and put in 
 the sickle, where good " wages " may be obtained, and 
 much " fruit unto eternal life " may be gathered. And 
 it is perhaps worth while to note that Mr. Cook's 
 experience in Norway has confirmed a theory which he 
 has long held, that it is possible to preach the gospel
 
 1 92 THOMAS COOK 'S EARL Y MINIS TR Y. 
 
 with saving power through an interpreter. If life be 
 spared, Mr. Cook will test this theory again in other 
 parts of the world, if the Lord will. 
 
 What " popular " minister is there who would not 
 willingly throw the most splendid popularity to the 
 winds, if in exchange for it he could taste the joy of 
 leading sinners to Christ ? Purses of gold, illuminated 
 addresses, silver tea-services, timepieces, and gold 
 watches are not to be despised when they are presented 
 to pastors by kind and grateful friends when the 
 pastoral tie is about to be broken. But who of us is 
 there, no matter how heavily laden he may be with 
 such testimonials, who would not sacrifice all he has 
 received for " letters of commendation " such as St. 
 Paul wrote about, and such as this chapter deals with ? 
 If our ministry is barren, what can compensate us for 
 our service ? Not money ; for other callings are far 
 more lucrative. Not applause ; for what will it profit 
 us, though our praises are sounded in the newspapers 
 every week, and our services are greatly in request ? 
 When the ear is filled with dust, as soon it must 
 be, of what avail will it be that many admiring 
 people chaffer about our eloquence, and learning, and 
 oratorical gifts ? But it is written : " They that be 
 wise shall shine las the brightness of the firmament ; 
 and they that turn many to righteousness, as the stars 
 for ever and ever." 
 
 The reader will not complain if I close this chapter 
 with another quotation from Dr. Dale. He is address- 
 ing preachers, and his theme is " Evangelistic Power." 
 
 " Those of us who have reason to believe that God 
 has called us to walk in obscurer paths (than those in 
 which eminent evangelists walk), and to render Him a
 
 SEALS OF APOSTLESHIP. 193 
 
 less brilliant service, may with reverence and humility 
 ask for a larger measure of this special form of grace 
 than most of us have received. God will not rebuke 
 us for presumption, if, in the presence of vast masses 
 of human ignorance and misery, and vice and irreligion, 
 on which we are able to make hardly any impression, 
 we entreat Him to grant us some of the force which 
 He has granted in such a wonderful measure to illus- 
 trious evangelists. Or if for any reason this cannot be, 
 we may still implore Him to bestow it on some of our 
 brethren. Whether the work is done by ourselves or 
 by others, it matters not ; but we ought to pray inces- 
 santly that the work may be done."
 
 CHAPTEB X. 
 
 CORNISH REVIVALS. 
 
 /"10KNWALL is, as all the world knows, the 
 Vx Methodist county. As one of the most dis- 
 tinguished and best informed of Cornish Methodists 
 said to the writer when driving to a Home Missionary 
 meeting in the Porthleven Circuit, " Methodism has 
 done everything for Cornwall." 
 
 If there is one spot in God's universe on which, 
 more than on any other, it might be written with pro- 
 priety, " Methodism her mark," that spot is Cornwall. 
 Notwithstanding all the efforts that have been 
 made by the creation of the See of Truro to convert 
 our people from " schism," there are still upwards of 
 twenty thousand members (including probationers) of 
 Society in that county, besides an innumerable number 
 of adherents ; and this despite the unprecedented 
 'migrations of recent years. There is reason to believe 
 that not for many years perhaps never, all things 
 considered has Methodism been in a healthier and 
 more prosperous condition in Cornwall than it is at 
 the present time. The prospect, therefore, of the 
 extinction of Methodism in that western county is 
 as remote as it was prior to the erection of Truro 
 Cathedral. 
 
 194
 
 CORNISH REVIVALS. 195 
 
 It is well known that Cornwall is remarkable for 
 its extraordinary revivals, which revivals take place 
 not only in Methodist chapels, but in churches, where 
 " parsons," as well as others, get converted, and are 
 carried on the shoulders of rejoicing " workers," fittingly 
 so called. No doubt some of the stories that are in 
 circulation about Cornish revivals would be nailed to 
 the counter if strict justice were meted out, and the 
 writer would indeed blush for shame if he were to 
 add to the number of such tales. He will, however, 
 endeavour to keep his pen well in hand, and to write 
 " as the oracles of God, that God in all things may be 
 glorified through Jesus Christ." 
 
 Ordinarily the Methodist services in Cornwall are 
 as decorous and quiet as they are in London, but 
 occasionally the most wonderful things occur in that 
 county, when, as the phrase is, " a revival breaks out." 
 It is still no uncommon thing for . a large chapel in 
 Cornwall to be kept open every night for a month, 
 or even six weeks, and to be crowded with worshippers, 
 without the attraction of any strange preacher, and 
 notwithstanding the paucity of the population, when 
 the Spirit of God is poured out and sinners are being 
 converted. For example, Mr. Cook held a mission 
 in St. Austell last year, and the Superintendent of 
 the Circuit, writing a few months afterwards, says : 
 " Not less than a thousand persons amongst the various 
 sections of Methodism have been converted since the 
 mission dosed, and the work still goes on." When it 
 is remembered that the entire population of St. 
 Austell and the adjacent villages is a mere drop in 
 a bucket in comparison, say, with the population of 
 Hackney, or Islington, or Bethnal Green, it will be
 
 196 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 seen that this is an instance of a sweeping revival. 
 Were a revival to " break out " in London that should 
 affect a similar proportion of our five millions of people, 
 the record of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles 
 would be completely broken, and new light would be 
 thrown on that expression which speaks of " a nation " 
 being " born in a day." Oh, that the things which 
 God has done in Cornwall may be done in our own 
 city ! Then would the ears of the Lord's enemies tingle, 
 while His own people would be like them that dream. 
 Then would our mouth be " filled with laughter, and our 
 tongue with singing ; " then would they say " among 
 the heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them." 
 
 The thoughtful reader will do well to be on his 
 guard lest incredulous friends persuade him to believe 
 that these Cornish revivals are evanescent in their 
 effects. Some of them are as ephemeral as the 
 revival of Pentecost, and as the Evangelical Eevival 
 of the eighteenth century. 
 
 Alarmists tell us that the English coal-fields arc 
 being gradually exhausted, which is likely enough, 
 seeing that the great Atlantic liners force nearly three 
 hundred tons of coal through their boiler-fires every 
 day. What is worse, they tell us that the sun himself 
 is being gradually cooled, and that the time will 
 come when the sun will be as cold as ice. I was 
 naturally uneasy lest this catastrophe should happen 
 in my time, until I chanced to read that it was 
 calculated that the sun's heat would last about eighteen 
 million more years, and then I took heart of grace, 
 thinking that the danger was not urgent. 
 
 " God's in His heaven, 
 All's right with the world."
 
 CORNISH RE VIVALS. 1 97 
 
 There need be no hesitation in saying that when 
 the coal-fields are used up, and the sun has ceased to 
 shine, the effects of some of these extraordinary 
 revivals in Cornwall will be as fresh as the dew of 
 the morning. 
 
 It was the privilege of the writer, some years ago, 
 to be the guest of Mr. W. Bickford-Smith, M.P., at 
 Trevarno. Seated with him in his library, the con- 
 versation turned on the subject of Cornish revivals 
 and their accompanying phenomena, and I ventured 
 to ask Mr, Bickford-Smith how far these extraordinary 
 movements had, in his opinion, promoted the per- 
 manent extension of the work of God in Cornwall. 
 He told me that in his judgment their effect upon 
 the work of God had been far-reaching and lasting, 
 and in proof of this statement he added thatfhis father, 
 the late Dr. Smith, the Methodist historian, was 
 himself converted during a revival in the Wesleyan 
 Chapel at Camborne, on which occasion the place was 
 kept open every night for six successive weeks. 
 
 Writing in 1767, Mr. Wesley says in the preface 
 to the third volume of his Journals : " I am sensible 
 there are many particulars in the ensuing Journal 
 which some serious persons will not believe, and 
 which others will turn to ridicule. But this I cannot 
 help, unless by concealing those things which I 
 believe it my bounden duty to declare. I cannot do 
 otherwise while I am persuaded that this was a real 
 work of God, and that He hath so wrought this and 
 all His marvellous works that they ought to be had 
 in remembrance." 
 
 The circumstances related in the following pages 
 are, no doubt, strange, but they describe " a real work
 
 198 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 of God," and they are published for the same reasons 
 as were Wesley's Journals. 
 
 Mr. Cook had his first experience of the Cornish 
 character before he became a Connexional Evangelist, 
 when he was holding a mission with the Kev. E. 
 Davidson at New Marske. During the course of that 
 mission a man came out to seek salvation, which he 
 did with intense earnestness. He literally " howled " 
 for mercy, if the use of that word may be forgiven, 
 which perhaps it may, seeing that it is found in the 
 Authorised Version, and continued to do so for the 
 space of half-an-hour. He then rolled over on his 
 back, and kicked as well as shouted, until at length 
 he was quite exhausted. After a while he raised 
 himself gradually, meantime exclaiming, in a mournful 
 tone, " It's coming, it's coming," and attempting, as it 
 were, to grasp with both hands something which none 
 but himself saw. Presently he appeared to secure 
 what he was seeking, and, jumping to his feet, he 
 began to praise God with a loud voice and to dance 
 for joy. He then rushed down the aisle, and, by 
 clearing several pews, reached his wife, whom he 
 affectionately embraced in the presence of the con- 
 gregation, and said, " Praise the Lord, I am saved." 
 He then turned his attention to Mr. Cook, and 
 appeared to be about to treat him in the same 
 manner, but by a strategic movement the Evangelist 
 eluded his embrace, and then bided his time till he 
 could congratulate the convert with safety on his 
 remarkable conversion, which must have been on a 
 par with those " powerful " conversions of which our 
 fellow-Methodists in the United States speak. This 
 and other episodes with which Mr. Cook met during
 
 CORNISH REVIVALS. 199 
 
 his early days, led him to expect that when he visited 
 Cornwall he should see strange things. His first 
 mission in Cornwall was a disappointment to him, 
 and presumably to the people also, and the writer 
 heard it stated at the time that " Thomas Cook could 
 do nothing in Cornwall." This first mission was held 
 in the spacious chapel at Penzance, and it may as 
 well be plainly said, that the good people of Penzance 
 were not prepared for so young a preacher, they 
 desired an ex-President, and did not approve of his 
 innovations. The writer has been privileged to address 
 Methodist congregations from Peterhead to Penzance, 
 and he may perhaps be permitted to say, without 
 being charged with any impropriety, that nowhere -has 
 he found a congregation which has impressed him 
 more with its intelligence and piety and numbers, 
 than has the magnificent congregation which worships 
 in the Penzance Wesleyan Chapel. It is not surpris- 
 ing that these excellent people did not easily recover 
 from the shock they received when first they saw the 
 youthful mission preacher, and that they complained 
 that ' : the Conference had sent them a lad." The 
 singing -band, and especially the lantern which Mr. 
 Cook used in the streets, were a rock of offence, and 
 the comment made by the good Cornish folk was, 
 " We don't belong to do that way here." The roughs, 
 emulating the " wild beasts " of Ephesus and of East- 
 bourne, but coming far short of the latter in their 
 violence, threw stones at the lantern, and for a while 
 the Evangelist and his methods were unpopular, not 
 only outside the chapel, but inside also. The " workers " 
 almost struck, they certainly ceased to work ; and when 
 the Evangelist urged them to get him a larger con-
 
 200 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 gregation, they said in reply, " Get some folks saved, 
 and then others will come of their own accord," which, 
 as it happens to be a doctrine of our own, we will not 
 contradict. God, however, was with " the lad," and, 
 despite the aloofness of the people, at least a hundred 
 inquirers' names were taken. Had the church worked 
 cordially with " the lad," the one hundred converts 
 might have been a thousand ! This they would not do, 
 and the result was that, although the mission cannot be 
 called a failure, it was one of the most disappointing 
 missions Mr. Cook has ever conducted, especially if 
 regard be had to the high expectations he had cherished 
 concerning the possibilities of work in Cornwall. 
 
 We intimated in an earlier chapter that it was 
 owing to their want of the attribute of omniscience 
 that the " July Committee " declined to recommend 
 Mr. Cook when he first offered himself to the Wesleyan 
 Conference as a candidate for the ministry. Doubtless 
 it was owing to a similar defect that the good people 
 of Penzance held aloof from " the lad " when he first 
 went to reap in Cornwall. Critics who can see the end 
 from the beginning will, of course, blame the unwisdom 
 both of the Committee and of the Cornish congregation. 
 
 After an interval of two years, Mr. Cook paid a 
 second visit to Cornwall, the seat of war this time 
 being Truro. Church influence was at that time 
 powerful in Truro, as well it might be, considering 
 that among a small population of, perhaps, fourteen 
 thousand souls, the Church of England had twenty 
 " priests " at work. The Cathedral was also in course 
 of erection, and as the material building threatened 
 to overshadow St. Mary's Chapel, which is hard by, 
 go timid hearts feared lest Church of Englandism
 
 CORNISH REVIVALS. 201 
 
 proper should absorb Church of Englandism felt, as 
 Methodism has not unfittingly been called. 
 
 The situation was made the more grave, by the fact 
 that Methodism in Truro had suffered some years' 
 leanness, and that two or three Methodist families 
 had, for reasons best known to themselves, forsaken 
 the Church of their fathers. 
 
 Dr. Wood, of Southport, accompanied Mr. Cook, and 
 acted as his fellow -labourer throughout the mission, 
 especially helping in the inquiry-room. 
 
 The first Sunday -morning service was a time of 
 great blessing. The Evangelist's theme was entire 
 sanctification, and the congregation were visibly and 
 deeply affected by the Word. Hardly had the preacher 
 finished his sermon when a well-known local preacher 
 rose and asked leave to say a few words. Permission 
 being given, he said in substance as follows : " I stand 
 up before the congregation to testify that while you 
 have been preaching, sir, I have been enabled to say, 
 ' I claim the blessing now,' with the result that ' the 
 blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth me from all 
 sin.' " The effect of this most unusual occurrence on 
 a Cornish congregation may be imagined. A glorious 
 work instantly began. The interest spread until the 
 spacious edifice was crowded night after night. The 
 Parliamentary election was proceeding at the time, 
 and it may be stated as a proof of the hold which 
 the mission took of the people, that on the evening 
 when the poll was declared, the candidate being Mr. 
 W. Bickford-Smith, a distinguished member of their 
 own clan, the chapel was crowded, and remained 
 crowded, the people truly enough supposing that 
 religion is of more importance than politics.
 
 202 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 Some wonderful scenes were witnessed at this Truro 
 mission. Conviction of sin was made a reality, and 
 the conversions appeared to be thorough. However 
 strange it may seem to cold-blooded persons who have 
 never shed a tear over their sins, it is true to say that 
 many of the converts when seeking forgiveness from 
 God writhed and struggled as in great bodily distress, 
 and became so exhausted that they had to be supported 
 on their way home. In addition to the usual meetings 
 for men and women and young people, a special service 
 was held on each market-day for the country people. 
 On the second market-day of the mission five hundred 
 persons were present in the afternoon at a busy hour, 
 and the power of God was present to heal. The Rev. 
 R Allen writes : " On the last night of the mission 
 the new converts were invited to tea, and arrange- 
 ments were made for placing them in Society-classes. 
 The meeting was held in the chapel, the converts 
 occupying the centre. Seldom has a grander sight 
 been witnessed than was seen when the converts rose 
 together to confess their faith in Christ. More than 
 three hundred and fifty persons above fourteen years 
 of age were enrolled as inquirers, and seventy- five 
 under that age. Amongst the converts there are 
 persons from all the Churches in the city, and many 
 from the adjacent district. Such a work of God has 
 not been seen in this city for many years." 
 
 The reader will be interested to know that a stained- 
 glass window was placed in the Truro Wesleyan Chapel 
 by the converts to commemorate the great blessing 
 received by them during the mission, and there it 
 remains to this day as a memorial unto the Lord. 
 
 Mr. Cook next visited Camborne, and here also the
 
 CORNISH RE VI VA LS. 203 
 
 arm of the Lord was revealed. On the Saturday 
 previous to the mission he met " the workers," four 
 hundred being present, and gave them definite in- 
 structions about the conduct of the campaign. 
 
 Warned by his experience two years earlier at 
 Penzance, the Evangelist was careful to insist upon 
 implicit obedience to his directions, promising the 
 people that if they would obey his orders he would 
 take the responsibility of the mission. Happily there 
 was a leader of men present, ready to show the rest 
 how to follow. This was Captain Josiah Thomas, 
 whose praise is in all the Cornish Churches. He un- 
 hesitatingly declared that he would do as he was told, 
 and, as men are gregarious in their habits, the other 
 " workers " intimated their readiness to follow his 
 example, and thus there was a prospect that the 
 mission would get under weigh with a favourable 
 breeze. " Is he one of we ? " asked the good Cam- 
 borne people about their mission preacher, for it is 
 well known that of all her Majesty's subjects the 
 Cornish folks love themselves the best, Thomas Cook 
 was not " one of we ; " but tidings had reached Cam- 
 borne of the success that God had graciously vouch- 
 safed to His servant at Truro, and the Camborne 
 friends were not unwilling to believe that what the 
 Evangelist had been enabled to do in their cathedral 
 city he would be permitted to do also in their own 
 town. 
 
 At the close of the first Sunday - evening service, 
 Mr. Cook asked the leaders and local preachers and 
 other workers to retire to the inquiry-rooms, whither 
 he would direct the penitents to follow them. This, 
 however, was a great trial to their faith. They were
 
 204 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTRY. 
 
 looking for an old-fashioned Methodist prayer-meeting, 
 and when they were directed to leave the chapel in 
 quietness, and that before a single person had intimated 
 his intention of coming out as a penitent, it seemed 
 to them they were being asked to step upon nothing, 
 and in astonishment they asked, " What is he going 
 to do ? How will he manage the prayer - meeting 
 without us ? " Captain Josiah Thomas, however, led 
 the way and the others followed, murmuring to them- 
 selves as they went in their own dialect, " We don't 
 belong to do this way here." 
 
 " Forward, the Light Brigade ! 
 Was there a man dismayed ? 
 Not tho' the soldier knew 
 
 Some one had blundered. 
 Theirs not to make reply, 
 Theirs not to reason why, 
 Theirs but to do and die." 
 
 Into the inquiry -room walked the one hundred. 
 When they found themselves in the inquiry-room, 
 and not a single convert with them, and knew that 
 the service was proceeding quietly in the chapel, they 
 smiled at the folly of the young preacher, who had 
 dared to introduce such innovations into a place 
 where revival services were as well understood as 
 the multiplication table. But God did not fail His 
 servant. About half-a-dozen persons found peace 
 with God that night, and the success of the mission 
 was insured. The next evening the number of con- 
 verts was larger ; the following evening it was larger 
 still, and so the work continued to spread, and the 
 workers became reconciled to new methods, and said, 
 " God is with the preacher ; we will work with him."
 
 CORNISH REVIVALS. 205 
 
 They kept their word. Never has the Evangelist 
 laboured with a more loyal and devoted people. Soon 
 the spacious chapel became too small for the con- 
 gregation even on the week-evenings. Often was it 
 crowded an hour before the time when the service 
 was announced to begin, and a messenger was sent 
 to the preacher's home asking him to go at once and 
 begin the service, as it was useless to keep the crowd 
 waiting in the chapel. The Eev. W. Haslam truly 
 says : " Cornish revivals are things by themselves." 
 Mr. Cook's experience confirms this statement. It is 
 impossible adequately to describe what took place in 
 this wonderful Camborne mission. If an attempt 
 were made to do this, and if it were only partially 
 successful, probably few readers would give full 
 credence to the account ; and therefore I will stay my 
 hand, and be content to indicate merely one or two 
 features of the work. In the midst of the sermon 
 a shriek would suddenly be heard, and when the 
 innocent preacher asked what it meant, the person 
 who had made it would answer, " My Tom has been 
 tak'n down," or " My Jim," as the case might be. 
 The voice would often be that of .a mother or wife, 
 and the explanation of it was that the son or husband 
 had been convinced of sin, and had given some out- 
 ward sign of his distress. Mr. Cook would then 
 direct the stricken one to be led to the inquiry-room, 
 which would be no sooner done than another would 
 be seized in the same way, and another shriek would 
 rend the heavens, and then another, and another, 
 until it became impossible to proceed with the sermon. 
 Sometimes a person would cry out audibly, " Lord, 
 save me." One evening a man made a thrill run
 
 206 THOMAS COOK 'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 through the chapel as he uttered this exclamation, 
 meantime running down the aisle as though he were 
 actually escaping for his life. He was followed by a 
 second, and then by a third, and so on till perhaps 
 fifty persons ran the gauntlet of the crowded con- 
 gregation, and found refuge in the inquiry-rooms. 
 There the scenes were simply awful in their im- 
 pressiveness, although occasionally the element of 
 ludicrousness was not absent. 
 
 Xot to cry was impossible, so acute was the dis- 
 tress of the penitents. It was equally impossible 
 not to laugh at times, so ludicrous did the situation 
 appear. Strong men wept and perspired, as well they 
 might do, seeing that they threw their bodies into 
 all kinds of contortions, and literally rolled on the 
 floor, and, in no metaphorical sense, writhed in pain. 
 In the women's room it was much the same. The 
 cries of the women were so piercing that few can 
 imagine what they were like who have not been 
 accustomed to such vehement demonstrations. Then, 
 when they had found salvation, the women would 
 praise God as loudly as they could, and dance round 
 the room, hugging their sisters, and calling upon them 
 for help to praise God for His mercy. Never before 
 did the Evangelist understand the force of the personal 
 pronoun when applied to this solemn matter. " / am 
 His," one would say ; " Jesus died for me" another 
 would exclaim ; and thus new light was cast upon 
 many of the verses in our incomparable hymn-book. 
 It is worthy of remark that Cornish penitents will 
 not be satisfied with any human assurance of pardon ; 
 nothing comforts them but the witness of God's 
 Holy Spirit. " When I am saved, I shall know it,"
 
 CORNISH REVIVALS. 207 
 
 was almost the invariable cry of the penitent ; nor 
 was it possible to show that this was an unscriptural 
 requirement. 
 
 Some would wrestle for hours for this assurance ; 
 and if they did not get it, they would leave the chapel 
 and come again the following evening and " renew the 
 glorious strife." Not seldom the service would last 
 from six o'clock to eleven o'clock, although, as most 
 people know, Mr. Cook's services are usually much 
 briefer than such services commonly are. Even at 
 eleven o'clock it was difficult to induce the people to 
 leave the sacred place. " We want to be saved," 
 they would say, when directed to leave, owing to the 
 lateness of the hour, and it was only by turning off 
 the gas that it was possible to dismiss the remnant. 
 At one of the services Mr. Cook selected as his text 
 the words, " And whosoever will, let him take the 
 water of life freely." When he asked, " Who will 
 take the water of life to-night ? " a voice answered, 
 " I will," and soon scores of voices were heard all 
 over the chapel saying, " I will, I will." Blessed be 
 God for such instances of holy enthusiasm ! Our 
 places of worship often seem to be ice-houses. If we 
 want fire, we must go to the Exchange or to the 
 political meeting. But when the Spirit of the Lord 
 is copiously poured out, coldness and conventionalities 
 are destroyed, and the sacred fire begins to burn. 
 The Spirit of judgment is also the Spirit of burning ; 
 and when He is allowed free scope, He will kindle 
 enthusiasm. Professor Huxley may sneer at what 
 he learnedly calls " corybantic religion," but his sneers 
 will not affect us. May God in His mercy save the 
 Churches from a religion that would be according to
 
 208 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 the mind of Professor Huxley ! Fire, is what the 
 Churches need. May God baptize us all with it, and 
 then we shall burn our way into the- hearts of 
 sinners ! 
 
 At one of the evening services of this Camborne 
 mission the sermon was not needed, so deep was the 
 earnestness of the people, and the names of fifty 
 inquirers were taken without any discourse being de- 
 livered. Often would a son or daughter find the 
 treasure in the inquiry-room, and then return to the 
 chapel for father or mother and lead the loved one to 
 the newly-found Saviour. A deep impression was 
 made one evening by a young man who returned to 
 the chapel from the inquiry-room, and, with uplifted 
 hands, said in a loud whisper, " He is mine, He is 
 mine," repeating the words many times as though in 
 a rapture of joy. In cold type the incident may 
 seem unimpressive, but if the reader remembers that 
 it took place in the midst of a congregation of fifteen 
 hundred Cornish people, all of whom were in a state 
 of holy religious excitement, he will understand how 
 it is that the spectators think that they never shall 
 forget the scene and. the impression it made upon 
 them at the time. Many people came to the Cam- 
 borne Chapel during that mission who had walked 
 some miles in order to be present, and who came with 
 the one object of seeking salvation. " Put us into a 
 front pew," they would say to the pew-opener, for 
 they desired to make their passage to the inquiry- 
 room as easy as might be. 
 
 The afternoon meetings were seasons of great 
 blessing. Occasionally there would be heard what 
 the initiated call " the holy laugh," and this at first
 
 CORNISH REVIVALS. 209 
 
 somewhat shocked the Evangelist. We have all 
 read in our Bibles of the mouths of God's people 
 being " filled with laughter," but we have such a 
 horror of " corybantic religion " that we are scandal- 
 ised at any extraordinary outbursts of religious joy. 
 However, Captain Josiah Thomas, who had done 
 something at first to reconcile the people to the 
 Evangelist's methods, now reconciled the Evangelist 
 to the people's peculiarities. He assured Mr. Cook 
 that however loud and sudden the laugh might be, 
 it was not irreverent, but was simply the expression 
 of overwhelming joy in the Holy Ghost. God gave 
 His servant great power over the people. The quiet 
 way in which he spoke, and the effects that followed, 
 filled the people with awe, and compelled them to 
 exclaim, " We never saw it on this fashion." 
 
 At the quarterly meeting held soon after the close 
 of the mission, the superintendent minister reported 
 that during the few preceding weeks, over one thousand 
 persons had publicly decided for Christ in Camborne. 
 As we have seen, many of the converts came from the 
 vicinity ; nevertheless it must be admitted that 'for a 
 thousand conversions to take place in three or four 
 weeks in a town where the entire population would not 
 probably exceed eight or ten thousand souls, was an 
 extraordinary occurrence, and one likely to make that 
 period henceforth a month to be " much observed unto 
 the Lord." 
 
 Here is a strange incident. Twenty -eight years 
 before the Camborne mission, a little girl lost half a 
 sovereign, and was convinced that a certain man who 
 was in her company at the time had picked it up. 
 When, however, the man was taxed with the theft, he 
 
 o
 
 2 1 o THOMA S COOK'S EARLY MINIS TR Y. 
 
 denied it, and, as it could not be proved against him, 
 the matter dropped. The little girl became the wife 
 of a Cornish tradesman, and the suspected man con- 
 tinued to live. When the mission was held the man 
 attended and was converted, and it was the pleasure 
 of the Bev. E. 0. Coleman to receive the confession of 
 this changed man, and to take the half-sovereign to 
 the lady in his name ; thus restitution was made. A 
 circumstance like this shows that time does not affect 
 sin when once it is committed. What matters it 
 whether the sin was committed yesterday or eight- 
 and-twenty years ago ? Let the reader observe how 
 this occurrence confirms the teaching of the late 
 Bishop Magee in his valuable treatise on " The Atone- 
 ment." That learned prelate writes : " The remarkable 
 fact connected with the punishment inflicted by the 
 conscience is, that it seems to have in it nothing of 
 the nature of expiation or satisfaction. No amount 
 of pain of this kind that we suffer seems to satisfy it. 
 It inflicts and re-inflicts, and inflicts again, the same 
 torment every time the cruel memory drags us within 
 its range. . . . The man who has sinned against himself, 
 against the inner law of his truer and better nature, 
 cannot feel that in all the agonies of his self-reproach 
 there is any expiation. . . . This prison of an offended 
 conscience is one out of which there is no escape, 
 because no one farthing of the debt of remorse can 
 ever be fully paid." 
 
 In our libraries we read ; in the inquiry-room we 
 test and confirm what we read ; as the medical student 
 proves his theories by " walking the hospitals." 
 
 In Helston, also, Mr. Cook held a mission which 
 God abundantly blessed. The fine new chapel was
 
 CORNISH RE VIVALS. 2 1 1 
 
 opened a short time before the mission began, not 
 without some misgivings on the part of good friends, 
 who feared that the dimensions of the structure were 
 larger than the needs of the town demanded. But 
 the " house - warming " which took place when the 
 mission was held in the chapel gave the new building 
 a capital start. Many of the Camborne scenes were 
 repeated, and numbers of interesting conversions 
 occurred. Amongst the converts was a man who, 
 when he entered the inquiry-room, cast himself down 
 upon the floor, and cried mightily to God for pardon, 
 moving on his knees up and down the room while so 
 doing. For three hours he continued to do this, and 
 then he retired, not having obtained the blessing. 
 The following evening he came again, and, taking off 
 his coat, he placed it on the floor and used it as a 
 mat, having on the previous evening hurt his knees 
 by his exertions. But the coat was soon left in the 
 rear, as the poor fellow in his excitement moved about 
 from one part of the room to another, seeking rest 
 and finding none. He asked for a glass of water, 
 which was given him, to quench his thirst ; then he 
 asked for another, and drank it in an instant. So 
 protracted did the struggle become, and so exhausting, 
 that the Circuit minister kindly brought the penitent 
 man a cup of cocoa, and this also he quickly swallowed. 
 At length deliverance came, and the people of God 
 joined the convert in praising the Lord who had made 
 the bones which He had broken to rejoice. We have 
 read in our New Testaments of one who " laboured 
 fervently in prayer." Here is an illustration of the 
 apostle's meaning. At Liskeard, also, God gave Mr. 
 Cook some sheaves. The work here was not so
 
 212 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 demonstrative as at Camborne, but it appeared to be 
 deep and thorough. On the evening of the last night 
 of the Liskeard mission, the Evangelist waited long 
 for four elderly men to surrender themselves to God, 
 but they hesitated to do so. For their sakes he pro- 
 tracted the service till a late hour, for it seemed to 
 him that if they hardened their hearts that night, 
 they might never enter into God's rest. The objects 
 of his solicitude would neither leave the chapel nor 
 leave their pews, and so prayer was offered for their 
 salvation. Eventually one of the number took the 
 decisive step, then another followed suit, the remain- 
 ing two maintaining an attitude of resistance. But 
 the service did not close until all four had given proof 
 of their determination to serve the Lord. " And of 
 some have compassion, making a difference ; and 
 others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire." 
 
 St. Austell was also visited by Mr. Cook, the time 
 being spent there chiefly in seeking to effect the 
 reconversion of the Church. The meetings for Chris- 
 tians were much blessed, and did much to prepare the 
 way for the work that followed the mission. Not 
 more than eighty persons publicly avowed themselves 
 as new disciples of the Lord Jesus, but a fire was 
 kindled which set, not only the town, but the Circuit 
 also in a blaze. Several times whilst the Evangelist 
 was preaching the Word at St. Austell, persons called 
 out audibly for mercy ; and although this may seem a 
 small thing, it is conceivable that if such things 
 occurred in certain places of worship, known to the 
 reader as well as to the writer, the congregations 
 would be almost as much astonished as they would if 
 the stones were to cry out. At one of the services an
 
 CORNISH RE VIVALS. 2 1 3 
 
 inquirer went into the vestry to seek salvation, and 
 returned to the chapel rejoicing in God before the 
 service was over. He proceeded audibly to praise 
 God for His saving grace, and then exhorted the 
 unconverted to do as he had done, calling upon some 
 by name, and giving point to his entreaties by bewail- 
 ing his folly in wasting forty years in the service of 
 Satan. It will readily be believed that incidents like 
 these prevented the services from being dull, and 
 helped to keep the congregations wide-awake. 
 
 The following extracts from letters written by the 
 superintendent minister, the Eev. T. D. Anderson, B.A., 
 will serve to show how the flame spread after Mr. 
 Cook had left St. Austell. Mr. Anderson writes : 
 " We had one hundred and twenty converts in our 
 villages last week. The Bible Christians had fifty. 
 The Primitive Methodists sixteen. The United 
 Methodist Free Church fifteen." The following week 
 he writes : " Last week we had ninety conversions ; 
 the Bible Christians over a hundred ; the Primitives 
 sixteen." In a subsequent letter he states, as we 
 have remarked before, that " not less than a thousand 
 persons amongst the various sections of Methodism 
 have been converted since your mission here ; and the 
 work still goes on." 
 
 At St. Ives the way of the Lord had been well 
 prepared, and the work of reaping began as soon as 
 the mission commenced. When the Evangelist went 
 to the seat of war to reconnoitre, he found that the 
 vestries which had been set apart as inquiry-rooms 
 were unsuitable, and he asked the Eev. J. E. Har- 
 greaves if he could not provide better accommodation. 
 Mr. Hargreaves is well known to be a man of resource,
 
 214 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 and he suggested that the difficulty might be sur- 
 mounted by knocking a hole through the wall at the 
 right hand side of the pulpit, and thus making a way 
 into convenient rooms not otherwise accessible. With 
 characteristic boldness he arranged to have the altera- 
 tion made forthwith, and the result was that next 
 morning the trustees found that their property had 
 been altered, not only without the consent of the 
 Connexional Chapel Committee, but also without their 
 own consent. But as the offence which David com- 
 mitted when he ate the shewbread, " which was not 
 lawful for him to eat," was condoned because God 
 desires " mercy and not sacrifice," so the offence of the 
 superintendent minister, who was aided and , abetted 
 by the Evangelist, was likewise condoned for pretty 
 much the same reason. 
 
 This action, in extemporising a doorway for the 
 converts before the mission began, was not unlike the 
 action of the priests when they placed their feet in 
 the waters of Jordan ; and as the faith of the priests 
 was justified by the receding of the river, so the 
 faith of the superintendent and the Evangelist was 
 justified by the use which the converts made of the 
 aperture created for their convenience. " Make this 
 valley full of ditches " was the Lord's command in a 
 time of great drought ; for before the water was sent, 
 channels were to be prepared for its reception. A 
 great revival would surprise some of us, and there- 
 fore it does not come ; whereas, if we made ready for 
 an outpouring of the Spirit of God, we should not be 
 put to shame. 
 
 At the first Sunday-night service at St. Ives a man 
 called out audibly for mercy, and thus began a real
 
 CORNISH RE VIVALS. 215 
 
 work of grace. On the same day a gentleman who 
 attended the mission took strong objection to Mr. 
 Cook's teaching about the final penalties of sin. He 
 was a man of intelligence, and, like many others, he 
 had become fascinated with the doctrine of the 
 " Larger Hope," and led to cherish expectations about 
 the ultimate condition of those who persist in sin for 
 which the Bible gives no ground. " Mr. Cook's God is 
 not mine, nor is his doctrine mine," said the objector. 
 Mr. Cook replied, "God will vindicate the truth." 
 This God did in a most remarkable manner. Three 
 or four days after, Mr. Cook received a message from 
 the wife of the gentleman, to the effect that her 
 husband was ill, and desired the favour of a visit from 
 the Evangelist. Of course Mr. Cook went to see him. 
 He found him very ill, suffering from pneumonia, and, 
 as often happens with those who fear the Lord and 
 know His secrets, Mr. Cook was convinced that the 
 sickness was unto death. The dying man asked Mr. 
 Cook to pray with him, but Mr. Cook suggested that 
 this was useless, unless he was willing to " forsake his 
 way." " Will you serve God for the rest of your life," 
 said the Evangelist, " in case you are spared ? " " Oh, 
 yes," he replied, " my mind is fully made up ; but call 
 the family into the room, and I will commit myself to 
 a new life in their presence." 
 
 This was done, and the penitent man repeated to 
 his loved ones what he had said to the Evangelist. 
 The family then retired, and the Evangelist betook 
 himself to prayer, with the result that, before the 
 interview ended, the sick man was enabled to say, " It 
 is all right, Mr. Cook ; God has been merciful to me." 
 He then fell back exhausted, and soon afterwards
 
 2 1 6 THOMA S COOK'S EA RL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 expired ; but he left behind him a clear testimony 
 that the Lord Jesus had received his " soul at 
 last." 
 
 It is not intended to censure this convert when it 
 is said that thus God vindicated His Word, as though 
 there were some connection between his former opinions 
 and his death. All that is meant is, that God gave 
 him to see that " Mr. Cook's God " is " merciful and 
 gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and 
 truth ; keeping mercy for thousands ; forgiving iniquity, 
 transgression, and sin ; and that will by no means dear 
 the guilty" This sheaf also will the Evangelist bring 
 with him when he comes again rejoicing. 
 
 Night after night the work went on. Strong men 
 bowed before the Lord ; and some prominent towns- 
 people were amongst the saved. On the second Sun- 
 day evening of the mission, a man left the service 
 before it was closed, and arrived home much earlier 
 than his praying wife expected him. She did not 
 conceal her disappointment as she said, " I am sorry 
 you are come home ; I hoped you would be converted 
 to-night." " I have come home to be converted," said 
 the husband ; " and I want you to pray with me." 
 She did so, and the man was saved in his own house. 
 He then hastened to the chapel to report what God 
 had done for his soul. He afterwards told the Evan- 
 gelist that it was not a sermon that brought him to 
 decision, but reflection upon a remark made by his 
 child two years before. The boy said to his mother, 
 " When I am a man, I shan't say my prayers ; father 
 doesn't pray, and I shan't." 
 
 The mayor of the town, himself a member of the 
 New Connexion body, bore testimony to the fact that
 
 CORNISH RE VIVALS. 2 1 7 
 
 a large number of intelligent men and women were 
 brought to God by this mission ; and musical readers 
 will like to know that the organist and nearly every 
 member of the choir, not excepting the organ-blower, 
 who must, at least by courtesy, be considered as 
 belonging to the number,- were amongst the fruits of 
 this mission. Several fishermen were also brought to 
 God. One of these manifested his joy in a manner 
 peculiar to himself. When he found salvation, he 
 exclaimed, times without number, " Oh, beautiful 
 Jesus ! Oh, wonderful Jesus ! " finishing up by call- 
 ing out, " Three cheers for Jesus ! " To some who do 
 not know the human heart, this may seem irreverent. 
 But others will not judge it to be so. Let every man 
 declare in his own tongue the wonderful works of God ! 
 The Rev. Dr. Moulton visited St. Ives some little time 
 after the mission, and during his year of office as 
 President of the Conference. He saw some of the 
 effects of the gracious work of which we have written, 
 and in the Nottingham Conference he bore generous 
 testimony to what he had witnessed. 
 
 From the fact that, fifteen months after the Cam- 
 borne mission, seven hundred of the converts of that 
 mission were meeting in the Society-classes, it will be 
 seen by the candid reader that, although some of the 
 phenomena connected with Cornish revivals are suffi- 
 ciently perplexing, the results are, as Mr. W. Bickford- 
 Smith affirmed, seen in the permanent extension of 
 the work of God. " Should it be according to thy 
 mind ? " we might ask some persons with reason, who, 
 like Naaman, have their preconceived notions of the 
 precise way in which the Spirit of God should work. 
 " What was I, that I could withstand God ? " asked
 
 218 THOMAS COOK'S EARL V MINISTR Y. 
 
 Peter, when lie was put on his defence for a daring 
 ecclesiastical innovation which he had introduced, and 
 which he had been led to adopt by special intimation 
 from heaven. "For it is written, I will destroy the 
 wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the 
 understanding of the prudent." " Because the foolish- 
 ness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of 
 God is stronger than men." 
 
 We have much reason to be proud of Cornish 
 Methodism. The larger towns in Cornwall Eedruth, 
 Falmouth, Truro, Penzance, and Camborne all have 
 noble chapels that may well excite the envy of other 
 parts of the Connexion ; while the county is dotted 
 over with smaller Wesleyan chapels, which serve as 
 the religious homes of the plain people who live in the 
 more rural parts of that delightful tract of country. 
 What is more : these Wesleyan-Methodist chapels are 
 tilled with devout, loyal, earnest Methodists, who are 
 the strength of the land, and an honour to the Church 
 of Christ. 
 
 Cornwall has enriched our ministry again and again 
 with noble men, who have served Methodism loyally 
 and to great advantage, men who have been amongst 
 our very best preachers. If, therefore, there is any 
 part of England where we ought to retain our hold, 
 if there is any one county amongst all the English 
 counties which may be said to be peculiarly ours, 
 because we have won it by dint of hard evangelistic 
 labour, abundantly blessed by God, surely that county 
 is Cornwall; and, consequently, if any Church- be 
 that Church what it may seeks to paralyse Methodism 
 in Cornwall, not only will " forty thousand " Cornish 
 Methodists "know the reason why," but the whole
 
 CORNISH REVIVALS. 219 
 
 Connexion will rally round this beloved plot, and 
 protect it from the ecclesiastical invader. 
 
 The Cornish Circuits were perhaps never better 
 manned as a whole than they are at the present time, 
 and to this circumstance must be attributed much of 
 the present prosperity of Methodism in that district. 
 Far be it from the present writer to insinuate that 
 there are any weak brethren in the Wesleyan ministry. 
 No doubt " he that is feeble " is fully persuaded in his 
 own mind that he is quite competent to discharge the 
 duties of the Bishop of Truro, and it would be im- 
 pertinent if the writer were to dissent from that view. 
 But the writer trusts he will give no offence when 
 he ventures to say, that although the whole of the 
 Wesleyan ministry may be strong and well equipped, 
 still, since there are some members of that body who 
 are considered by their brethren to be more vigorous 
 and better furnished than others, they are the men 
 whom the past services and the present needs of 
 Cornish Methodism demand should be sent to fill the 
 pulpits of Cornwall.
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN. 
 
 IT is not intended to give anything like an exhaustive 
 account in this small book of the whole of Mr. 
 Cook's early ministry ; but merely to sketch as much 
 of that ministry as may be necessary in order to show 
 that the Lord our God Himself has raised up unto 
 us an Evangelist like unto the evangelists of early 
 Methodism, and that God has in these modern days 
 crowned the preaching of His Word with a blessing 
 like that with which He crowned the preaching of our 
 fathers. 
 
 We cannot live upon the past. The gracious services 
 of the Centenary of Wesley's death were followed by 
 the (Ecumenical Conference in Washington ; and these 
 proceedings in England and the United States have 
 filled us almost to satiety with admiration of the men 
 who have made Methodism what it is. But this 
 enlarging upon our noble ancestry has made us pro- 
 duce, not our discharge, but our debt ; and we are 
 bound to remember that we are debtors both to the 
 men of the closing years of the nineteenth century 
 and to those of the twentieth century. We know 
 what the Methodism of the past was : what will the
 
 FRA GMENTS THA T REMAIN. 22 1 
 
 Methodism of the future be ? In the hope that this 
 book may, by the Divine blessing, do something to 
 make the Methodism of the future not unworthy of 
 the Methodism of the past, it is, not without some 
 misgiving, sent into the world. 
 
 The writer has not been able to use much more 
 than half of the material that has been ready to his 
 hand, partly on account of the exigencies of space, and 
 partly on account of the delicate nature of some of 
 that material. Few ties are more sacred than that 
 which binds the convert to the evangelist who, in 
 Christ Jesus, has begotten him through the gospel. 
 The tie of parent and child, and of husband and wife, 
 is in some respects not more sacred. The writer has 
 endeavoured to exercise his discretion most carefully, 
 in order that he may not be the means of publishing 
 on the housetop that which was done or told in secret. 
 How far he has succeeded in exercising proper dis- 
 cretion those chiefly concerned will have to determine. 
 If they should think that he has been indiscreet, he 
 begs them to exonerate Mr. Cook, who has placed his 
 correspondence in his friend's hands, and relied on his 
 judgment entirely as to the use that should be made 
 of it. Mr. Cook must therefore be acquitted of all 
 blame, and any censure that should be deserved must 
 be visited upon the writer, and not upon the Evan- 
 gelist. And, lest the writer should be too severely 
 condemned by any sensitive reader, he craves leave to 
 say, that what he has written he has written after due 
 consideration, and with only one desire, namely, to 
 increase the usefulness of the book, and thus to pro- 
 mote the glory of Him whose we are, and whom reader 
 and writer alike serve.
 
 222 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTRY. 
 
 " that I might now decrease ! 
 that all I am might cease ! 
 Let me into nothing fall, 
 Let my Lord be all in all ! " 
 
 What minister is there who would not count it a 
 great honour if it were to please God to use him as the 
 instrument in His hands for quickening the ministers 
 of the Churches ? Higher honour than this, perhaps, 
 no man can have, and this great privilege it has 
 pleased God to confer on Mr. Cook, notwithstanding 
 his youth and disadvantages. Letters might be printed 
 from well-known ministers who have laboured with 
 Mr. Cook in the gospel, and who write to express 
 their gratitude, not only to the Giver of all good, but 
 to His servant also by whose ministry God has 
 called them nearer to Himself, and made them more 
 " meet for the Master's use," and better " prepared 
 unto every good work." 
 
 It is sometimes said that ministers are severe 
 critics of their own order ; and the writer himself being 
 of that order, as well as the son of a minister, is not 
 prepared to say that the statement is wholly without 
 foundation. He has heard ministers criticise each 
 other ; he himself has had the temerity to undertake 
 this function, although having no more authority to 
 do it than any of his brethren. Nevertheless, he is 
 prepared to affirm that, on the whole, Methodist 
 preachers treat each other with a generousness that 
 leaves nothing to be desired, and that often fills some 
 of them with a deep sense of personal unworthiness. 
 The warmest words of encouragement that the writer 
 has ever had addressed to him, the words that have 
 helped him most to combat constitutional timidity,
 
 FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN. 223 
 
 and not to bury in the earth through fear his one 
 talent, but to trade with it as much as may be, these 
 words have been spoken to him by his own brethren 
 at whose feet he would gladly have sat had Providence 
 permitted him to do so. 
 
 It is not, therefore, surprising that amongst those 
 who have taken the pains to express their indebted- 
 ness to Mr. Cook, are many ministers who have been 
 led by him to see more fully what is the hope of 
 their own calling in Christ Jesus. These letters shall 
 not be published ; the names of the writers shall not 
 be disclosed ; but the hope may be expressed that the 
 blessings which they have received, and to which their 
 letters bear testimony, may continue with them to the 
 end of life, and make them, like Joseph, fruitful boughs, 
 whose branches shall run over the wall ! May their bow 
 abide in strength, and the arms of their hands be made 
 strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob ! 
 
 A revived ministry will be followed by a revived 
 Church ; and a revived Church will be followed by a 
 converted world. No harm will be done by publish- 
 ing the following letter, written in a beautiful though 
 trembling hand by one who was at the time of writing 
 on the borderland : " An aged Friend who has 
 greatly enjoyed a few of thy meetings, being drawn 
 into sympathy with thee, and prayer for rich blessing 
 upon thyself and thy work, gives thee a copy of the 
 late Rowland Hill's beautifully condensed invitation to 
 sinners. She heard his earnest pleadings, and rejoices 
 now to hear the same passing through the lips of a 
 young David, anointed by the Divine Master to 
 contend with the Goliath of evil ! May His richest 
 blessings rest upon thee ! "
 
 224 THOMAS COOK'S EARL Y MINISTR Y. 
 
 There is but one religion. The religion of the 
 Friend and of the Methodist are the same, so far as it 
 is religion at all. 
 
 " Love, like death, hath all destroyed; 
 Rendered all distinctions void : 
 Names, and sects, and parties fall ; 
 Thou, Christ, art all in all." 
 
 A lady, the mistress of a girls' school, writes to say 
 that in her establishment many have been saved. 
 She says : " There are twenty who profess to love 
 the Saviour ; in many, if not in all, there is a marked 
 change. Your counsel has been a great blessing to 
 my own heart. I do feel I can surrender all to God. 
 There are still ten unsaved in my home ; will you 
 pray for them ? " 
 
 Of Maidstone, as of many other places to which 
 God has sent His servant, nothing has yet been written. 
 A few words must suffice. A correspondent writes : 
 " The memory of your visit to Maidstone will be very 
 precious for many years to come. At Union Street alone 
 we have gathered into the Society-classes more than 
 seventy fresh adult members, and at Tonbridge Road 
 more than fifty, whilst most of the country places 
 have been strengthened. One place has received ten 
 converts, another six, and so on. It is quite within 
 the mark to say that there are at least one hundred 
 and fifty new members on trial, as the direct result of 
 the mission. Most of the Church people have, as we 
 anticipated, returned to their own places of worship, 
 although there are a few exceptions, where they have 
 thrown in their lot with us." 
 
 The llev. W. J. Cooke writes more than one glow-
 
 FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN. 225 
 
 ing account of work in Leek, where some hundreds of 
 converts were gathered in. Some months after the 
 mission he reports two hundred and ninety-five 
 members on trial in his Circuit, with thirty-two more 
 who are reckoned as new members, and he adds that 
 but few had been lost during the quarter. A Circuit 
 minister writes of his Circuit, which had perhaps 
 better not be named : " You have no idea how much 
 heart this mission has put in me. I was on the edge 
 of despair concerning the work here, but now I see 
 signs of great things in both town and country. 
 There will much good arise from this mission yet. 
 We are having conversions in several of the villages, 
 and I believe now that the Circuit will go up," Another 
 correspondent, whose identity it will perhaps be wise 
 to conceal, after giving a glowing description of the 
 results of a mission which Mr. Cook held in his Circuit, 
 and sending an analysis of the . converts, showing 
 to how many various Churches they belonged, and 
 telling of large prayer-meetings and many conversions 
 attending the ordinary services, remarks : " We need 
 your prayers continually. In some quarters there is 
 still a tendency to discount the work of the mission, 
 and after such glorious results this underrating of 
 God's work is to me most depressing and discouraging. 
 I don't talk about this, except to my wife, but I find 
 that others are feeling as I do. However, in God is 
 my trust. He will help us." The reader will supply 
 his own comment. Let not any one suppose that 
 the inquirers are all easily saved. We have already 
 seen that such is not the case, and that the violent 
 take the kingdom of heaven by force. Here is another 
 proof of this. A correspondent writes to express 
 
 p
 
 226 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 thanks to God, and to the Evangelist, for blessing 
 received during a mission, and he states that the first 
 sermon she heard Mr. Cook preach made her unhappy, 
 the next convinced her of sin, and on the morning of 
 the third day of the mission she found peace with 
 God at home, after having spent nearly all the night 
 in private prayer. 
 
 Here are six young women in Bradford, " all inti- 
 mate friends," who send a sort of round - robin in 
 which they confess the blessing they have received 
 during a mission held by the Evangelist in their 
 town. From Holmfirth come tidings both pleasing 
 and sad. A girl who was converted at one of Mr. 
 Cook's services in that town, was caught in the shaft 
 of the mill by her hair, and drawn up and instantly 
 killed. Thus was another brand which had been 
 plucked out of the burning preserved for ever from 
 falling again into the burning. 
 
 A young lady writes from London to say that the 
 mission she attended had stimulated her to begin to 
 work for Christ. This she had done, and now she 
 writes with overflowing joy of her first success. A 
 man invited by her to chapel had accepted the in- 
 vitation, and found salvation ; and in the love-feast 
 he had testified to the fact, and acknowledged her 
 instrumentality. She is filled with thankfulness at the 
 knowledge that her crown will not be without a star. 
 
 A minister sends word of a genuine conversion, 
 proved by this circumstance, that the young lady in 
 question had at the time of the mission engaged to go 
 to two balls, one being the Licensed Victuallers', and 
 the other the Jewish ball, and had prepared dresses 
 for the occasion. But as soon as she was saved, " the
 
 FRAGAfENTS THAT REMAIN. 227 
 
 expulsive power of a new affection " cast out that love 
 of the world which is incompatible with the love of 
 God, and balls and ball-dresses were put away for 
 better delights. 
 
 By this means, no doubt, will worldly amusements 
 be cast out of the Church. Mere denunciation will not 
 prevent our unconverted young people from indulging 
 in them, but a sound conversion to God will do this. 
 
 A member of Society writes to describe the great 
 blessing which he has received at a holiness-meeting, 
 and makes the strange admission that although he has 
 been a member of the Methodist Society for eight 
 years he had never heard of the doctrine until Mr. 
 Cook instructed him in it. 
 
 The lamented Eev. Ishmael Jones, himself a bright 
 example of the truth of perfect love, once told the 
 writer that he attended a holiness convention on one 
 occasion, when a speaker expatiated on the land of 
 Canaan as a type, not of heaven, but of that rest of 
 faith and love which remains here for the people of 
 God, and into which they that believe have now 
 entered. A clergyman of the Church of England was 
 present at that service, and at the close of it he 
 expressed to Mr. Jones how much he had been im- 
 pressed with the teaching just described, which, indeed, 
 he said had come to him with all the force of a 
 revelation, he never having heard that view enunciated 
 before. The Wesleyan minister then told him that 
 the teaching to which he had that day listened with 
 so much surprise and delight was no new truth to 
 Methodists, since it had been embodied in Methodist 
 hymnology for well-nigh a hundred and fifty years. 
 In proof of this statement, Mr. Jones then quoted to
 
 228 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 the clergyman our hymns commencing, " glorious 
 hope of perfect love," and " Lord, I believe a rest 
 remains." When the quotations were finished, the 
 clergyman responded, " How beautiful ! And do all 
 your ministers and people enjoy this blessing ? " 
 
 The answer of the Wesleyan minister, who is now 
 with God, need not be given ; but all will know what 
 he fain would have said in reply to that natural, but 
 to us humbling, question. 
 
 Must the great and glorious truth of perfect love 
 be left by the Methodists to be taught by the Salva- 
 tion Army, who, of course, received it from us ? God 
 forbid we should leave it to them ! This is the more 
 to be deprecated, because there is some reason to fear 
 that the leaders of that movement are now giving less 
 attention to the great deposition committed by God to 
 our care, than they did in the earlier years of the 
 history of their wonderful organisation. Whether it 
 is that they are otherwise engaged, or whether some 
 other explanation must be given, the fact remains that, 
 like the denomination which is their prototype, the 
 Salvation Army have gradually given less and less 
 attention, so far as an outsider can judge, to this 
 momentous -truth. What are we doing, that we allow 
 persons to remain for years within our communion 
 without pressing upon them the absolute duty of 
 claiming from God, by simple faith in Christ Jesus, 
 the instantaneous blessing of perfect love ? Entire 
 sanctification is not believed by us to be an optional 
 blessing. We have learned, if only from the sixth 
 chapter of the Epistle to the Romans, that it was in- 
 conceivable to the apostles that any one who was in 
 Christ, and who consequently was " dead to sin," should
 
 FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN. 229 
 
 " live any longer therein ; " and what we have learned 
 we are bound to teach, and to keep " back nothing that 
 [will be] profitable " unto " the flock over the which 
 the Holy Ghost hath made [us] overseers, to feed the 
 Church of God, which He hath purchased with His 
 own blood." Had the experience of this member of 
 eight years' standing been a solitary experience, not so 
 much need have been said about it ; but as it is to be 
 feared that he represents many others, it has seemed 
 right to the author to make some considerable use of 
 his declaration. 
 
 Scholars will be interested in a letter written from 
 St. John's College, Cambridge, of which, as it bears on 
 the subject just referred to, an extract shall be given. 
 The writer says : " Your visit has done us all good, 
 especially the undergraduates, a good many of whom 
 are earnestly seeking the blessing of the ' Higher Life.' 
 I am going to have some of them in my rooms next 
 week, that we may have a talk and a small prayer- 
 meeting about it. May I ask your prayers for us ? 
 Will you kindly tell me the name of the American 
 publishers of that book, Dr. Steele's Milestone Papers ? 
 A Cambridge bookseller is going to send over to the 
 States for a copy of it, and wants the publisher's 
 address. If you will send it, you will make half-a- 
 dozen of us feel indebted to you." 
 
 Here the reader sees half-a-dozen Cambridge men 
 earnestly seeking the blessing of entire sanctification, 
 for which God be praised ; and he also sees them 
 laboriously endeavouring to get from America a book 
 which their religious teacher had recommended to them. 
 Mr. Cook often recommends other books on this subject, 
 such as Hunt's Letters, Fletcher's Last Check, Wood's
 
 230 THOMAS CO OK 'S EA RL Y MINIS TR Y. 
 
 Perfect Love, and Steele's Love Enthroned (all of which 
 may be obtained from the Wesleyan Book Eoom) ; but 
 we wish to embrace this opportunity of saying that 
 there is great room, in this country for a really able, 
 scholarlike, scriptural, and popular work on holiness 
 as it was understood and taught by the founders of 
 Methodism. The sections in Dr. Pope's great compen- 
 dium on theology that refer to this theme are, of course, 
 invaluable, as is also his Prayers of St. Paul, which the 
 late B. A. Gregory found more serviceable to him than 
 any other book that deals with the doctrine. But Dr. 
 Pope's works are written for students, properly so 
 called, and his teaching, like the courage and skill of 
 Mr. Valiant-for-Truth, is for " him that can get it." 
 
 The Kev. Dr. Beet's treatise on Holiness is useful, 
 and meets a real want, as is proved by the fact that 
 there is a constant demand for it year by year. But 
 that publication also is adapted chiefly to readers of 
 studious habits, who are accustomed to rather close 
 thinking. Moreover, Dr. Beet does not dwell suffi- 
 ciently on the Methodist aspect of the doctrine, and his 
 pamphlet leaves much to be desired, when it is wanted, 
 for such readers as attend holiness - meetings, not 
 excepting these Cambridge scholars. There are, of 
 course, many good devotional books which deal more 
 or less thoroughly with the doctrine, but there is not 
 in circulation precisely the kind of book which is 
 needed, and which, if once it was written by a com- 
 petent hand, who must be a ripe scholar as well as a 
 profound theologian, and fully in sympathy with the 
 Wesleyan Hymn-book presentation of the truth, would 
 sell by the thousand. The Book Committee would 
 render the Connexion a service if they could induce
 
 FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN. 231 
 
 such a writer to take this work in hand; and were 
 they to look in the neighbourhood of Handsworth, it 
 is certain they would find the desiderated writer. 
 
 Mr. Cook has been able to reach large numbers of 
 people by his pen as well as his voice. He has not 
 yet published anything of much size, but his penny 
 booklets have had an immense sale. A hundred 
 thousand copies of his First Steps in the Way of Life 
 have been sold, and the demand still continues. Forty 
 thousand copies of his first publication on Scriptural 
 Perfection have been circulated, and ten thousand copies 
 of his Entire Cleansing were sold within a short time 
 of its being issued from the press, and another edition 
 has been printed. Other booklets have also been 
 published by him, and have met with a warm reception. 
 
 The value of this means of imparting instruction is 
 very great. There is no doubt a charm about the 
 voice which is lacking in what appears in cold type ; 
 but against this drawback must be set off the advant- 
 age which printed matter has over oral, in that it 
 may be read and re-read in the quiet of one's own 
 room when one is fully awake, and not distracted by 
 other allurements. It should also be said that Mr. 
 Cook has assisted in establishing an organisation which 
 is known as the " Out-and-Out Band," and which, 
 under the joint control of the Revs. P. Thompson, 
 J. G. Mantle, and himself, is conducted with a view to 
 deepen the spiritual life of the members, and to secure 
 their influence for the furtherance of the gospel. The 
 band now numbers fourteen thousand members, of 
 whom a large proportion are the fruits of Mr. Cook's 
 ministry. The association is kept together by a 
 monthly publication, thirty -five thousand copies of
 
 232 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 which were printed for the November issue, 1891, 
 that number being specially adapted for the week of 
 prayer, which was observed by the Connexion during 
 that month. No controversial matter is ever intro- 
 duced into that serial, the object of which is purely 
 devotional, and therefore the larger the circulation 
 it enjoys, the more reason we all shall have to rejoice. 
 The members of the Out-and-Out Band are en- 
 couraged to take an interest in aggressive work, as 
 well as to engage in such service themselves. An 
 Out-and-Out Band Gospel Mission Car Association 
 has been formed, the object of which is to build and 
 place on the road gospel cars, each of which costs 
 150, and is under the care of two earnest Christian 
 men, who act as colporteurs and evangelists, visiting 
 chiefly small towns and villages. Each car is stocked 
 with religious literature, and the agents in charge sell 
 the books from house to house during the day-time, 
 and hold services in the chapels in the evening. Three 
 cars are now employed under the direction of the 
 Home Mission Sub -Committees of the Newcastle, 
 Leeds, and Lincoln districts ; and it is expected that a 
 fourth car will soon be sent to Ireland, and that ere 
 long ten or twelve cars may be at work in various 
 parts of the Connexion. The initial cost is the only 
 expense incurred, for once a car is opened and placed 
 in good hands, it becomes self-supporting. It will 
 thus be seen that these gospel cars are likely to 
 become a valuable arm of the service. By circulating 
 wholesome literature much good will be done. The 
 colporteurs in charge of one of the cars lately sold 
 twenty pounds' worth of books in a single week in a 
 country town, and the sales are constantly increasing.
 
 FRAGMENTS THAT REMAIN. 233 
 
 The services which the colporteurs hold in the village 
 chapels and on the village greens will also do much 
 to promote the evangelisation of rural England. 
 
 The work of the Out- and- Out Band is twice blessed. 
 It blesses those to whom the agents are sent, and it 
 blesses the members of the band who send them, and 
 who are thus led to look beyond their own Circuits, 
 and to take an intelligent and practical interest in 
 the conversion of their fellow-creatures. Moreover, 
 the organisation does a great deal to help the new 
 converts to retain their steadfastness. In many ways 
 it enables the Evangelist to keep in touch with his 
 children, and to let them understand that now he lives, 
 if they stand fast in the Lord. It should be added 
 that it is the duty of the local secretaries of the Out- 
 and-Out Band to watch over all the members of the 
 organisation living in their district, and to report to 
 the general secretaries any cases of defection of which 
 they may become cognisant. Although, as we have 
 seen, the Out-and-Out Band now numbers fourteen 
 thousand members, the general secretaries have heard 
 of scarcely more than fifty members who have fallen 
 away. The conditions of membership are : A striving 
 after personal experience of scriptural holiness ; an 
 earnest effort to bless some soul every day ; committing 
 to memory the motto words chosen, and the reading of 
 the selected portions of Scripture ; and daily prayer 
 for all the members of the band, that they may be 
 filled with the Holy Ghost. It is cause for thankful- 
 ness that so many thousands have bound themselves by 
 these rules, and if the Lord our God should " add unto 
 the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold," 
 it would be a signal blessing to our beloved Church.
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 EESULTS OF THE WORK. 
 
 DURING the course of an edifying conversation 
 which took place in the First London District 
 Committee at their September meeting in 1891, the 
 Ptev. Dr. Jenkins cautioned his brethren against 
 undervaluing everything of the nature of success 
 which cannot be represented as the net result of 
 ministerial labour in the columns of a schedule. He 
 declared that God knew nothing of such net results, 
 and he pointed out to an audience in full sympathy 
 with him, that a minister was not to measure the 
 amount of his success simply by the number of 
 penitents whom he persuaded to enter the inquiry- 
 room. The present writer was in agreement with 
 Dr. Jenkins on that occasion, only he takes leave 
 to think that the danger against which Dr. Jenkins 
 warned his brethren is not the danger to which they 
 are most exposed. We are rather liable to suppose 
 that we are successful, even though we persuade none 
 of our hearers to " enter the inquiry-room." 
 
 The work of the evangelist, like that of the Circuit 
 minister, cannot all be tabulated. Not that we wish 
 to disparage statistics. Some member of the apostolic 
 Church deemed it proper to count the number of con- 
 
 234
 
 RESULTS OF THE WORK. 235 
 
 verts on the day of Pentecost, and although the in- 
 spired historian does not vouch for strict accuracy, he 
 does undertake to fix approximately the number of 
 those who that day judged themselves worthy of 
 everlasting life. 
 
 The account of that first revival in the history of 
 Christianity is rendered all the more vivid and inspir- 
 ing, by the exact information that is given when we 
 are told, "and the same day there were added unto 
 them about three thousand souls." Nor is this the 
 only instance in which the New Testament sets us 
 the example of counting the converts. In a later 
 chapter we are told of " five thousand " who believed, 
 and were added to the Church. When, therefore, we 
 are reminded in this connection of the numbering of 
 the people by David, we retort that the cases are not 
 similar, and that it is a distinct advantage to know 
 what numerical increase the Church of Christ is able 
 to report. The world is to be converted to Jesus 
 Christ, and therefore it is important that we should 
 ascertain by the aid of figures how far aggressive work 
 is prospering. It is not a matter of indifference to 
 us whether there are ten converts at a given mission 
 or ten hundred ; and when the latter is the correct 
 number, it is well to let all the world know. At the 
 time of writing Mr. Cook has just held a mission in a 
 Circuit chapel, where he was told that for seven years 
 no conversion had been known to take place. The 
 sterility of that Church has been notorious, and now 
 that God has given it a season of comparative plenty, 
 why should not that be known as widely as the 
 seven years of leanness ? 
 
 Nevertheless it is important to remember that only
 
 236 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 " the day will declare " all the good that any servant 
 of Christ has done. "Every man shall receive his 
 own reward according to his own labour." 
 
 All evangelists have been told that their work was 
 ephemeral. John Wesley was told this, and yet a 
 hundred years after his death there are five-and- 
 twenty millions of Methodists in the world, and the 
 probability is that Methodism will continue until the 
 sign of the Son of man appears in heaven. The same 
 objection was raised against the work of Dr. and Mrs. 
 Palmer and of Mr. Moody, and, of course, it has been 
 raised against the work of Mr. Cook. 
 
 Some years ago, the Eev. Joseph Cook, of Boston, 
 addressing an audience of three thousand people, 
 asked those who were converted to stand up. Two 
 thousand five hundred did so. He then asked those 
 who had been brought to God in revival services to 
 remain standing and the others to resume their seats. 
 Those who continued to stand were counted, and the 
 number was found to be " about " fifteen hundred. 
 The writer himself once made a similar experiment 
 at a service in Manchester, and the result was such 
 as makes the above story quite credible to him. 
 Somewhere about the year 1850 a series of special 
 services was held in a small village of four hundred 
 inhabitants. At one of the services six penitents 
 " came out," and forty years afterwards five of the 
 six were walking in the fear of the Lord and in the 
 comfort of the Holy Ghost. The Rev. Featherstone 
 Kellett was one, the Eev. T. Nattrass, now with God, 
 was another, Mr. Joshua Dawson and his wife were 
 two more, and the steward of a Circuit in the north 
 of England was the fifth.
 
 RESULTS OF THE WORK. 237 
 
 Mr. E. B. Dingley, of Sherborne, took the trouble 
 to keep a register of the persons added to the Sher- 
 borne Society for about thirty years, with the circum- 
 stances and date of their conversion. It was found 
 on examination that " about " for I wish to imitate 
 St. Luke's caution eighty per cent, o'f all the addi- 
 tions to that Society during that period were the fruit 
 of mission services. 
 
 At the same time, it must be frankly admitted that 
 mission services have their disappointments. A short 
 time before his death, Dr. Osborn, in a private con- 
 versation with the writer, took occasion to descant on 
 the number of backsliders over whom Methodism has 
 to mourn, and he advised the writer to ascertain from 
 the Minutes of Conference the number of members 
 whom Methodism has lost during the twenty-one 
 years of the writer's ministry. 
 
 The probability is that if such a calculation were 
 made with anything approaching to accuracy, it would 
 be found that the number of members who have 
 " ceased to meet " during that period would be equal 
 to the entire membership of the Connexion at the 
 present time. 
 
 If such returns had been made in the lifetime of 
 Dr. Osborn, and the writer's computation had been 
 correct, no one would have been less surprised than 
 that astute minister, seeing that it was a conviction 
 of his that Methodism is like a great draw-net, which 
 gathers fish " of every kind," as, indeed, the writer has 
 heard him say. Cornish readers especially will appre- 
 ciate this reference to the parable of the draw-net. 
 
 On the coast of Cornwall, as we ourselves have 
 found, the " sean " or " draw-net " is a familiar sight
 
 238 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 " Sometimes the ' sean ' will be half a mile long. 
 Leaded below, that it may sweep the bottom of the 
 sea, and supported with corks above, it is carried out 
 so as to enclose a large space of sea; the ends are 
 then brought together, and the "sean," with all its 
 contents, is drawn up upon the shore." 
 
 So is the kingdom of heaven, according to the 
 teaching of its Divine Founder. So it is always, but 
 especially when it is set forth in mission services. 
 
 Many who profess conversion on such occasions 
 doubtless have not experienced any real change of 
 heart. The parable of the Sower is a sort of history 
 of the preached Word. Some converts are like the 
 rocky ground, others are like the thorny .ground ; 
 and hence " fruit unto perfection " is more rare than 
 some enthusiastic mission preachers are willing to 
 believe. Nevertheless, some " fruit unto life eternal " 
 is gathered by the God-sent reaper. 
 
 One explanation of the comparative smallness of 
 the numerical increase which mission services some- 
 times produce, is found in the incredulity of leaders 
 who have no confidence in the stability of converts, 
 and from the first act on the assumption that they 
 will not stand. Some of Mr. Cook's converts' names 
 have been placed by leaders on loose sheets of paper, 
 and never inscribed in the class-books, because the 
 leaders, strange to say, had foreknowledge of their 
 defection, and wished to prepare for what they 
 regarded as inevitable. If new-born children were 
 treated as new-born souls are sometimes treated, the 
 rate of infant mortality, now appallingly high, would 
 be perceptibly increased. When the late Rev. W. 0. 
 Simpson was an infant he was puny and unpromising,
 
 RESULTS OF THE WORK. 239 
 
 and his parents, afraid that they would not be able 
 to rear him, called in "the Eev. E. Treffry, and asked 
 him to baptize the child in private. But William 
 0. Simpson lived for fifty years. He would not 
 have done so, however, if his mother had exposed 
 him and nourished him ill. Good nursing and good 
 nourishment have prolonged the lives of many feeble 
 infants. 
 
 And good Christian nursing and good Christian 
 teaching will, by the Divine blessing, succeed in pro- 
 longing the lives of many new-born souls. St. Paul 
 was gentle among his converts, " even as a nurse 
 cherisheth her children : " he " exhorted, and com- 
 forted, and charged every one of them, as a father doth 
 his children ; " for were they not his " glory " and his 
 "joy" ? If pastors and sub-pastors, as our class-leaders 
 have been justly called, had a greater measure of this 
 Pauline spirit, would not more of our converts stand ? 
 "Of them which Thou hast given Me, I have lost 
 none, but the son of perdition, that the scripture might 
 be fulfilled." So said our Lord Jesus, that Great 
 Shepherd of the sheep. Converts are not " given " 
 to under -shepherds in the same sense as souls are 
 " given " to Christ. But they are committed to the 
 care of under -shepherds, and the more care we take 
 of them the more likely are we to " receive a crown 
 of life " when " the Chief Shepherd shall appear." 
 
 The kind of enlargement that our leaders' meetings 
 most need is the enlargement of their spiritual functions. 
 The leaders as sub-pastors are called to watch over the 
 souls of the members of Society, that, with the pastors, 
 they may " present every man perfect in Christ 
 Jesus." Would it not be well to hold leaders' meet-
 
 240 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 ings for distinctively spiritual purposes more fre- 
 quently ? If leaders would attend the leaders' meet- 
 ing, if they would bring their class-books with them, 
 if they would be careful to mark their class-books as 
 they are directed to do in the instructions furnished 
 to them within the covers of those books, and if more 
 time at the leaders' meeting was devoted to taking 
 the oversight of the flock, and labouring fervently in 
 prayer for the Church, as Epaphras did for the Church 
 of Colosse, that the members might stand perfect and 
 complete in all the will of God, if these things were 
 better done, should we not have less cause for mourn- 
 ing over the unfaithfulness of our converts ? 
 
 Another explanation of the smallness of. the net 
 result of mission services is found in this circumstance, 
 the names of many old members are dropped by their 
 leaders as soon as the leaders obtain new ones to take 
 their places. Leaders and pastors have a natural dread 
 of decreases ; and therefore dead branches are not 
 always lopped off as soon as they die, but are often per- 
 mitted to hang on the tree for a time, until they can be 
 severed from the tree without attracting much notice. 
 As soon as a fruitful season comes, this opportunity 
 arrives, and then the pruning-knife is used vigorously. 
 The result is, that although the Society is thus 
 made more sound and healthy, the membership shows 
 little or no increase, and the uninitiated ask with 
 amazement, " What has become of the converts ? " 
 In some Circuits the converts are kept " on trial " for 
 an unconscionable time, and are used as the reserves 
 are used in the military world. That is, they are 
 called upon to supply vacancies, and used skilfully, in 
 order that the Circuits in question should not be
 
 RESULTS OF THE WORK. 241 
 
 reduced to the necessity of reporting decreases. In 
 one case the Evangelist happened to know that a 
 certain Circuit in which he had held a mission had 
 received an accession of two hundred members, and 
 yet he noticed that the Circuit did not report any 
 increase at the March quarterly meeting. Thereupon 
 he wrote and made inquiries, and he was told in reply 
 that he might be quite comfortable about the fruits 
 of the mission ; he was to do himself iro harm, they 
 were all there ; but they had not been reported 
 " because the Circuit could not undertake any addi- 
 tional financial responsibility." 
 
 If the appeal is unto figures, unto figures we must 
 go, but the whole case must be disclosed, and not 
 merely a part of it. ' When the work of God is dis- 
 credited owing to our peculiarities in the method of 
 returning members, it is time that the truth should 
 be told at all costs. 
 
 It must also never be forgotten that the fruits" of 
 our missions are distributed amongst all the Churches. 
 This has been seen again and again in our review of 
 Mr. Cook's work, but it needs to be often re-stated, 
 that we may be preserved from discouragement. The 
 late James Chalmers was wont to say that one of 
 the brightest crowns of Methodism was that which 
 she wears as the result of the service she has 
 rendered to other Churches. A striking proof of this 
 was seen on one occasion in the house of the late 
 Rev. Dr. Jobson. That deceased minister once enter- 
 tained at dinner a number of the most prominent 
 Nonconformist ministers in London, and, after the 
 meal was over, he characteristically suggested that 
 a love-feast should be held, and proceeded at once to 
 
 Q
 
 242 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 ask his reverend guests what were the means by 
 which they were brought to God. The Eev. Dr. 
 Allon, the venerable minister of Union Chapel, Isling- 
 ton, said that he was convinced of sin whilst he 
 was a member of the Wesleyan congregation in 
 Beverley, where he was brought to decision, and 
 became a Sunday - school teacher and member of 
 Society. The late Dr. Raleigh declared that he learnt 
 the way of faith in the Brunswick Wesleyan Chapel, 
 Liverpool. The Eev. Dr. Stoughton testified that he 
 found comfort and help in St. Peter's Wesleyan 
 Chapel, Norwich, where he was for a while a member 
 of Society, meeting in class with the grandfather of 
 the Rev. F. L. Wiseman, B.A., of the Birmingham 
 mission. Dr. Binney and Dr. Eraser both expressed 
 their great indebtedness to Methodism the former 
 to a Methodist workman, and the latter to a Methodist 
 lady. It thus unexpectedly transpired that all the 
 five Nonconformist ministers present were the direct 
 or indirect fruit of Methodist preaching and Methodist 
 influence. 
 
 When the question is asked, " Where are the con- 
 verts ? " it will often be correct to say, " Many of 
 them are in the various Churches that lie outside 
 our own communion, where they are serving under 
 the ' One Shepherd,' who some day will have but 
 'onefold.'" 
 
 The following facts illustrative of the permanent 
 results that attend the ministry of our Evangelist, 
 will be welcomed by the sympathetic reader. A few- 
 years ago, Mr. Cook selected half-a-dozen places in 
 which he had held missions, and took pains to ascer- 
 tain what proportion of fruit the Wesleyan-Methodist
 
 RESULTS OF THE WORK, 243 
 
 Church had permanently retained. He wrote to the 
 ministers of the respective Circuits, than whom no 
 better witnesses could be found, and asked them to 
 make careful and exact records of the persons then 
 meeting in the Society-classes who had been converted 
 at the various missions. In the case of each Circuit 
 more than a year had elapsed since the mission was 
 held, and in the six Circuits the ministers reported 
 that there were one thousand members attending the 
 class - meetings, and giving their pastors continued 
 cause for thankfulness and hope. In another Circuit, 
 where the superintendent minister was dubious about 
 the results of one of Mr. Cook's missions, a class- 
 leader resolved to keep a correct list of the additions 
 made to the Society at the time of the mission, and 
 to watch their history for twelve months, and then 
 report to the leaders' meeting. Tin's was done, the 
 result being that out of one hundred and fifty persons 
 who joined Society at the close of the mission, one 
 hundred and twenty-three were meeting in class 
 after the interval of a year, which must certainly be 
 considered as a not unsatisfactory result. 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Bowden confirms the testimony to 
 which these statements point. He says : " In the 
 Bristol district I was careful to notice the history of 
 the Circuits, and I found that some Circuits often 
 had mission services, and others seldom or never had 
 them. The result was that the former Circuits pros- 
 pered, while the others either remained stationary or 
 decreased in members." 
 
 But enough has been written to convince all who 
 are willing to be convinced, that whilst for the per- 
 manent extension of the work of God and the
 
 244 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 conversion of the world to the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 we must mainly rely on the ordinary services of the 
 Church, conducted by the ordained pastors of the 
 Churches, assisted, of course, by voluntary and paid 
 lay workers -; the help of evangelists like Mr. Cook 
 must be accepted gratefully, and cordially appreciated, 
 and special missions must be organised more or less 
 frequently in order that inroads upon the vice and irre- 
 ligion of the country may be made to purpose, and the 
 Church may be prevented from settling on its lees. 
 
 The writer has now finished his task. He has 
 presented such a sketch of the early ministry of Mr. 
 Cook as he has been able to do, and has made those 
 observations which in his judgment the narrative is 
 calculated to suggest to all Christians, and especially 
 to members of his own Church. But before he lays 
 down his pen and bids the reader a respectful adieu, he 
 would fain add a few more sentences, in the hope that 
 it may please God to use them to advance the cause 
 which both evangelist and reader and writer have at 
 heart. 
 
 However optimistic we may be, it is impossible to 
 be entirely satisfied with the progress Methodism has 
 made during recent years. When we consider our 
 increased facilities for carrying on evangelistic work, 
 the press, the railway, the ability of the people to 
 read, the open streets in which we may always secure 
 a congregation, the number of our chapels, the wealth 
 of our people, the learning of our ministers, the 
 devotion of many of our people, we are bound to 
 admit that our chapels ought to be crowded, as well 
 as our mission halls, and that our membership should 
 go up by leaps and bounds.
 
 RESULTS OF THE WORK. 245 
 
 It is well known that the Times has always been 
 lacking in sympathy with the Salvation Army, and 
 has not seldom written of General Booth and his 
 work in an unfriendly, not to say positively antagon- 
 istic spirit. But some half-dozen years ago there 
 appeared in the leading journal an article on the 
 Salvation Army which seemed to me to be wise and 
 instructive in a singular degree. The writer said : 
 " Undoubtedly the Salvation Army has something in 
 its spirit which other religious bodies need not disdain 
 to copy. . . . All old-established societies tend after 
 a while to close their doors, and to turn their camps 
 into citadels. The strength of the Salvation Army is 
 that it is constantly in light marching order. . . . 
 Its life is a life of forage and invasions. With all 
 its defects, it will not have been without use, if, 
 before the movement declines and dies out, it has 
 reminded orderly communities of a distant past in 
 which, at the opening of their career, they con- 
 ducted themselves with the same vivacity." Our 
 own " orderly community " did, indeed, " at the 
 opening of its career" conduct itself with great 
 vivacity, and what is sorely needed is that we should 
 return in spirit and aim to the Methodism of our 
 fathers. The times demand a great outburst of 
 enthusiasm in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 Many of us have made a gain of godliness. It has 
 brought us comfort, social status, health, and in 
 many instances affluence, and troops of friends. The 
 time has come for us to make some extrordinary 
 sacrifice for religion, and to do something which will 
 tend to compensate the Saviour for His " dying 
 love," if we may borrow the idea from one of our
 
 246 THOMAS COOK'S EARLY MINISTRY. 
 
 own poets. ".It is not the smallness of the work one 
 can do for Christ that astonishes me," says a thought- 
 ful writer, " it is the greatness of the work that one 
 can do that fills me with amazement." The reader 
 will judge how far this narrative confirms that obser- 
 vation, and the writer will only add that whatever 
 success Thomas Cook has had in his early ministry, it 
 must all be attributed to his absolute devotion to 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, whose he is, and whom he 
 serves. 
 
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