p. 24 | Not an Enthusiast

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 8, 1859

Not an Enthusiast.

The energy of the manner of the late Rowland Hill, and the power of his voice, are said to have been at times overwhelming. While once preaching at Wotton under Edge, his country residence, he was carried away by the impetuous rush of his feelings, and raising himself to his full hight, exclaimed, "Beware, I am in earnest; men call me an enthusiast, but I am not; mine are words of truth and soberness. When I first came into this part of the country, I was walking on yonder hill; I saw a gravel pit fall in and bury three human beings alive. I lifted up my voice for help so loud, that I was heard to the town below a distance of a mile. Help came and rescued two of the poor sufferers. No one called me an enthusiast then—and when I see eternal destruction ready to fall upon poor sinners, and about to entomb them irrecoverably, and call on them to escape by repenting and fleeing to Christ, shall I be called an enthusiast? No, sinner, I am no enthusiast in so doing."