I owe a great deal to three men in that Church. George Sinclair was the man that I heard preach the first evening that I went down. He and the Scotchman, Andrew Weild, were elders. William Brown was a deacon in the Church; he owned a dye-work in Whitehaven, and Geo. Sinclair and Andrew Weild were employed under him. Mr. Brown had spent a considerable sum of money in advertising the Church, and he was pleased that it had the effect of bringing us to it. They were three different types of men, but all strong in faith and piety. I could not say which of them played his part best, but they were all valuable helps to me, and they certainly managed together what none of them could have done singly. We generally took the baby with us on Sunday; I gave a hand in carrying her. My first attempts at that were clumsy enough. To begin with, the woman was certainly not the "weaker vessel." But I improved. I could, after a while, have carried her all the four miles as easily as I could have carried her four hundred yards at the first.

The elders encouraged young men in the forenoon meeting to rise and make a few remarks on a passage, without attempting anything like a regular address. I began before long to take advantage of this now and again, seldom speaking longer than five minutes at a time. This left me open to hints from the elders. You never missed the meaning of the Scotchman's hints; though fatherly, they were plainly given. Brother Sinclair would sometimes drop a hint so gently that you were on your way home before you began to see the force of it. Bro. Brown had a fair stock of books, we were there for dinner sometimes, and now and again he would suggest what I might read, and he always left his book-case open for me to take what I liked with me to read at home. I have said that Bro. Sinclair was, as a rule, gentle in his hints; on one point he was a bit persistent. I had helped myself a little in some ways, but I was absolutely ignorant of English grammar; I had given no attention to that. A matter of that kind could not escape Bro. Sinclair's observation, and he pressed me to buy an English grammar and begin the study of it. I was not inclined to listen to him. I said, "It is too late in the day for that, George, that is schoolboy's work and I am married." But he said, "No, no, if you should not get far, you must begin." I took his advice, and I have often thanked that quiet man for his persistent pleading on this point.

It was not long till there were a few other members in our neighbourhood. When there were six men of us we started a Bible Class; some of us were on night-shift one week, and day-shift the other, so we could only meet once in two weeks. That class was a real help to us. The other five men had all got a better education in their youth than I had got. That, perhaps, helped me to work harder to get alongside of the others. We took up the Gospel by Luke, but if anything which we considered important came in the way of any of us, we put aside the regular lesson and gave two weeks' attention to that particular subject. About that time I went to take charge of an engine and pumps at an iron-ore quarry. My duties and responsibilities there were light, giving me a good deal of time for self-improvement. I had a boiler to clean one Sunday, and went out early to have it over, so that I could get to the forenoon meeting. A Cumberland youth out for a walk heard me at work, and came and looked into the boiler and started to whistle. That grated upon my Scotch feelings; and I was about to reprove the lad, when the though came into my mind that I professed to be guided by the Bible, and what passage should I quote in reproving the youth? "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy." Yes, but that was the seventh day, and this was the first day of the week. True, "but the Sabbath was changed from the seventh day to the first." But it is the shorter Catechism which says that, and I do not remember a passage in the Bible which says so. I thus reasoned with myself till the youth had stopped whistling and was gone. At the next Bible Class I told the story of the lad and his whistling, and asked them to consider that subject for the next two weeks, and deal with it in the Bible Class. They were very reluctant to do it; they all felt sure that they could easily prove that the Sabbath was changed and it would be two weeks wasted. But as I had made some little attempt to find proof and had failed they consented to take it up. It was six disappointed men who met two weeks after that. We were all able to find that the religion of the Jews had been done away, and the religion of Christ and His Apostles had taken its place. We could not find that Christians were commanded to observe the seventh day; we could find that they met on the first day of the week. But that we were under all the laws of the Jewish Sabbath, only changed from the seventh day to the first, we could not find, and we were all disappointed that we could not. However, the finding of the Bible Class helped me when I met some of the Seventh Day people years afterwards.

This was one of the most profitable times in my life; I studied hard, and studied with method. Even my hours for sleep were reduced to the lowest that health could permit. Each night I drew my plan for next day, stating what time I would give to each subject, and I did my best during the day to carry out my plans.