Page:A semi-centenary discourse.djvu/35

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.

[ 29 ]

more of his fiddle than of his God, and perhaps loved it more. Things went on this way until Mr. Gloucester proposed to Sister Craig that they should hold a series of prayer meetings at her house. It was accepted, and Mr. Jacob Craig was duly informed. At first he objected, but his wife, true as steel to her purpose and faithful to her God, pressed her cause so earnestly to her husband that he consented, determined, however, to hire a room adjoining the prayer meeting, and so annoy them by continuing to play his fiddle. This he put into practice, so that whilst there was praying in one apartment, there was Mr. Craig fiddling in the other. Here there was a difficulty as to who should yield in this. Mr. Gloucester's advice was sought. He replied, that for his part he was contented to remain where he was; it was an open field and a fair fight, and that was all he asked. From that decision there was no appeal—God approved it. In a few nights after, there was no sound of a fiddle heard. A few evenings after, Mr. Jacob Craig came home and attended, for the first time, the prayer meeting; he had given up the room and stopped playing; a very little while after he was seen to weep, then heard to exclaim: "God have mercy on me, a poor miserable man." The battle was fought—the prize was won; the Lord had mercy on the man—he was converted, and afterwards set apart as an elder in Seventh Street Church, under Mr. Gloucester, through whose instrumentality he was brought into the fold of Christ, and into the marvellous light and liberty of His children, and continued in the Church a pious, devoted, and faithful Christian until the day of his death, and we hope has entered into that rest that remains for the people of God.

Of Mr. Gloucester's early history very little is known; this is not surprising, considering the peculiarity of his