Sir,- Being a reader of your most valuable paper. I thought it would be interesting to your readers to know that there have been seven striking instances of young persons that have come and confessed Christ. He being precious to their souls, and they have prayed mightily for the conversion of their parents. I have this morning been fetched from my work to pray for a poor woman who had had very little sleep all last night and was in great distress of mind on account of her great burthen of guilt. I went into the adjoining house to where she lived, and she came in, her eyes flowing with tears; we kneeled down, and I began to pray. Her husband was in bed in his house, as he had been at work all the night previous. He heard us praying and could not rest. He got up, dressed, and came to us with tears flowing down his pale cheeks; he went on his knees and joined in prayer asking God to have mercy on him, and I have reason to believe that they have both of them got that peace that the world cannot give, and no man taketh it away.
There are numbers of anxious inquirers to know if Richard Weaver could not be prevailed upon to come here. There are some that would go to either Manchester or Liverpool to hear him, a distance of seventy and a hundred miles if they only knew they would not be disappointed. In this village I am happy to inform you that the Spirit of our blessed Lord still continues to be at work upon the hearts of the people. There is a band of us out scouring the village four and five nights a week, and scarce a night comes without a cry in the camp of some poor sinner for our blessed Lord to have mercy upon them. I can assure you, sir, that our little band has become so large that we have in several instances had to divide ourselves into two companies, and one lot be at one end of the village and the others at the other end, for one ordinary house would not hold us, and many blessings we receive from our heavenly Master.
Some of the worst characters are being brought in. I myself, twelve months ago, was (and it is well known) one of the very best agents the devil had in this place. I was the ringleader of many into all kinds of sin and vice. But, thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ, He has arrested me, and stopped me in my mad career. I am now enlisted under his banner. May the Lord enable me to be a useful soldier and fight manfully the good fight of faith, and by the Holy Spirit's influence be the means of winning many souls to Christ. There used to be a sign-board over my door to draw and entice poor souls to partake of the drinks that drag many of them down to hell. I have seen my house on a blessed Lord's day jammed full of poachers, dog-fighters, race-runners, fighting men and all the worst characters that could be met with; but blessed be God, the sign is down, and the house wears quite a new aspect-it has become a house of prayer instead of a den of thieves.
"The Revival," February 19th, 1863.