any an innocent man
tremble. There he had to be examined as to his acquaintance with and
belief in the Methodist doctrines, rules, etc. What may have been the
merits of this examination we are unable to state; probably there was a
good deal of leniency shown by the meeting towards Abe. If he was
deficient on some points, he compensated in others; if he could not
define and defend all the articles of our faith, he could believe them
as fully as any one else; be that as it may, there was no serious
objection taken to him on the ground of his examination, but the affair
of the trial sermon was not so soon got over, and a good deal of
special pleading had to be done for him by his friends, which is no
unusual thing when the merits of a candidate are under discussion.
That "swapping of texts" no less than three times was a very
extraordinary feature in the case, and called forth some severe
censures. A man that did so could not be fit to come on the Circuit
plan as an accredited local preacher, so some in the meeting felt and
said; but others thought differently; they could not but admit that
under the circumstances he had done a good thing even in changing texts
the third time, and why impeach the man for doing a good thing? The
man who changes horses in crossing a stream may incur great risks; but
if the horse he is riding be sinking under him, he must change seats or
sink too, and this is just what Abe did, and the outcome showed that he
did the best thing, for the third horse carried him over. He at least
possessed an amount of perseverance which few men in similar
circumstances would have exhibited; then he must not be estimated
solely by what he was when under trial in High Street chapel. How had
he done in other places? Here the tide began to tell in his favour, as
first one and then another spoke in commendation of his labour in other
places, and at length Brother Haigh rose and said, "Abe Lockwood was
with me on Sunday night at Mills Bridge; I heard him preach, and he did
my soul good. After the sermon an old man seventy years of age came
out, sought the Lord, and found Him; that old man was impressed under
Abe's sermon, which shows that God can do with his preaching. What
matter if he does sometimes break down in his sermons? he knows how to
break sinners down too, and after all, that is the best sort of
preaching." He was at once cordially received into the ranks of the
local preachers, and appeared as s