d through the whole country. The result
was, I received invitations to preach and lecture from almost every town
of importance throughout the kingdom, and from many places that were not
of so much importance; and many of those invitations I was induced to
accept. I visited Bristol, and had a welcome there as gratifying and
almost as flattering as my London one. I was introduced to all the
leading Unitarians there, and had a grand reception, and a course of
lectures in the largest and most splendid hall in the city. And the
place was crowded. I visited Bridgewater, Plymouth, Exeter, and
Tavistock, with like results. And then I had calls to Yarmouth, Lynn,
Bridport, Northampton, Taunton, Birmingham, Sheffield, Hull, Manchester,
Liverpool, Bolton, Stockton, and other places without number. And
everywhere I found myself in very agreeable society, and in every place
I met with real, hearty, and generous friends. It is true I met with
some who had little of religion but the name; but I met with others, and
that in considerable numbers, who really feared and loved God, and who
were heartily desirous to promote a living practical Christianity among
their neighbors. These were delighted to see and hear a man who, while
he held to a great extent their own religious views, was full of
Methodistical zeal and energy, and who had power to attract, and
interest, and move the masses of the people. They regarded me as an
Apostle of their faith. They believed the millennium of enlightened and
liberal Christianity was at hand. They hearkened to my counsels, and set
to work to distribute tracts, to improve their schools, to establish new
ones, to organize city missions, to employ local preachers, and to
circulate books of a popular and rousing character. And both they and I
believed that a great and lasting revival of pure unadulterated religion
was at hand. And it took some time to dissipate these pleasant hopes,
and throw the well disposed and more pious part of the Unitarians down
into the depths of despondency again. But the melancholy period arrived
at length.

You cannot kindle a fire and keep it burning in the depths of the sea.
And it is as hard to revive a dead or dying church, especially when its
ministers and schools are supported by old endowments, and when many of
its most influential members have caught the infection of infidelity,
and become mere selfish, flesh-pleasing worldlings.

And this was the case with Unitarians. Ma