change. We knew that before he was rather inclined to persecute
the faith he now seemed to wish to propagate. At first, perhaps, his
zeal exceeded the bounds of prudence; but he felt the importance of
things we were strangers to, and his natural disposition was to pursue
earnestly what he undertook, so that it was not to be wondered at,
though we wondered at the change. He stood alone in his father's house
for some years. After a time he asked permission to have family prayer
when he came home to see us, a favour which he very readily had
granted. Often have I felt my pride rise while he was engaged in
prayer, at the mention of those words in Isaiah, 'that all our
righteousness was like filthy rags.' I did not think he thought his so,
but looked on me and the family as filthy, not himself and his party.
Oh, what pride is in the human heart! Nothing but my love to my
brother would have kept me from showing my resentment."

"A few of the friends of religion wished our brother to exercise his
gifts by speaking to a few friends in a house licensed at Pury; which
he did with great acceptance. The next morning a neighbour of ours, a
very pious woman, came in to congratulate my mother on the occasion,
and to speak of the Lord's goodness in calling her son, and my brother,
two such near neighbours, to the same noble calling. My mother replied,
'What, do you think he will be a preacher?' 'Yes,' she replied, 'and a
great one, I think, if spared.' From that time till he was settled at
Moulton he regularly preached once a month at Pury with much
acceptance. He was at that time in his twentieth year, and married.
Our parents were always friendly to religion; yet, on some accounts, we
should rather have wished him to go from home than come home to preach.
I do not think I ever heard him, though my younger brother and my
sister, I think, generally did. Our father much wished to hear his
son, if he could do it unseen by him or any one. It was not long
before an opportunity offered, and he embraced it. Though he was a man
that never discovered any partiality for the abilities of his children,
but rather sometimes went too far on the other hand, that often tended
a little to discourage them, yet we were convinced that he approved of
what he heard, and was highly gratified by it."

In Hackleton itself his expositions of Scripture were so valued that
the people, he writes, "being ignorant, sometimes applauded to my great
injur