hapel; of the gathering of the Seekers at Preston Patrick; and of yet
another open-air meeting, when hundreds of people assembled one
memorable First Day near his own hillside farm at Cammsgill.

Then it would be the younger man's turn to tell his tale.

'He was born in the barony of Kendal ... of parents who for their
honest and virtuous life were in good repute; he was well educated,
and trained up in such learning as that country did afford.... By his
parents he was trained up in the episcopal worship,'[24] but for a
long time, he says that the only religion that he practised was 'going
to church one day in seven to hear a man preach, to read, and sing,
and rabble over a prayer.' (It is easy to smile at the old-fashioned
word; but let us try to remember it when we ourselves are tempted to
get up too late in the morning and 'rabble over' our own prayers.)

Gradually the unseen world grew more real. A beautiful and comforting
message was given to him in his heart, 'Whom God once loves, he loves
for ever.' Now he grew weary of hearing any of the priests, for he saw
they did not possess what they spoke of to others, and sometimes he
began to question his own experiences.

Nevertheless he felt it a grievous trial to give up all his prospects
of earthly advancement and become a Quaker. Yet from the day he
listened to George Fox preaching at Underbarrow there was no other
course open to him; though his own parents were much incensed with him
for daring to join this despised people. They even refused to
acknowledge him any longer as a member of their family. Being rejected
as a son, therefore, he begged to be allowed to stay on in his home
and work as a servant, but this, too, was refused. Thus being, as he
says, 'separated from all the glory of the world, and from all his
acquaintance and kindred,' he betook himself to the company of 'a
poor, despised people called Quakers.'

It must have been a comfort to him, after being cast off by his own
family, to find himself adopted by a still larger family of friends,
and to become one of the 'Valiant Sixty' entrusted with the great
adventure of Publishing Truth.

Riding along with good John Camm, with talk to beguile the way, was
pleasant travelling; but this happy companionship was not to last very
long. For as they journeyed and came near the 'Middle Kingdom,' or
Midlands, they fell in with another of 'Truth's Publishers.'

This was none other than their Westmorland neigh