I was admitted into Cliff College, Derbyshire, completing my
training in London.

* * * * *

Though for six years I had nearly become a Baptist, that is, a
Congregationalist, I now stepped over the line, having studied the
New Testament with an unbiassed mind, to get at the real truth of
Scriptural baptism. Being convinced that immersion was the Scriptural
mode, I forthwith became baptised in Bow Street Baptist Church,
London.

Shortly afterwards, I was invited to the pastorate of a Baptist
Church in New Whittington, Derbyshire, where I laboured for a brief
period, and at which place I first met the young lady who is now my
wife. In the autumn of 1899 I accepted the call to my present
pastorate, that of the Ashwater district of Baptist Churches.
Understanding that under the new regulations existing which precludes
Cliff College students from being recognised as fully accredited
ministers, I set to work to overcome the difficulty by passing the
two Baptist Union examinations.

Such, then, in brief are a few outstanding incidents of my life, and
such is the road I have travelled to enter the ministry--a hard road
and painful, bedewed with tears, and strewed with withered leaves of
disappointment and weary watchings, but I am bound to confess that it
was the path marked out for me. No better training was ever afforded
any minister, and to-day I can thank God for it all. What is the
great truth which my career teaches me? This: that "God is in the
heart of things, and all is well." That He is in every human life,
directing, controlling, and superintending it. That nothing happens
by chance, and that it is He alone who can transform the wilderness
of blighted hope into a paradise of joy; can convert the vale of
tears into the sunny path that leads upward to His throne--He alone
who can chase away the darkness of night and bring in the sunshine of
morning. Unto His name be all the glory!

I cannot but hope that should any darkened life read this little
sketch, that such an one may be inspired and comforted by so doing,
believing that He who gently cleared my way, granting me the
fulfilment of my heart's desire, will in like manner repeat His
loving-kindness in that one's life.

"Lead, kindly light, . . . .

. . . . .

Keep thou my feet; I do not ask to see
The distant scene; one step enough for me."

PRINTED BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH.

***END OF THE PROJ