On or about 1839, a new colliery was started at Kelloe, and a society existed there almost from the commencement of the village. In three years the population grew to 1,500. The society had sustained a godly character, and a flourishing Sunday School, with Thomas W. Elliot as superintendent, was doing well in the religious training of the young. But sinners were not getting converted at the public services, and the members got troubled about the matter. Increased private prayer was agreed upon, and the time-honoured method of singing, praying, and exhorting in the streets was employed. The people were aroused, and conversions followed. Every family in Kelloe was visited and prayed with. The arm of the Lord was made bare in a remarkable manner. Night after night, the cries of stricken souls were heard by a merciful God, and songs of deliverance followed. As many as twenty-three souls professed conversion in a single night, and from December 8th, 1842, to January 23rd, 1843, 216 persons, some of whom had been notoriously wicked hitherto, had publicly declared that they would live a new life. About sixty boys and girls were included in the total, and most of them belonged to the Sunday School. The change produced in the village was astonishing.
‘Northern Primitive Methodism’ by W M Patterson, published 1909, page 285.
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