These lively and energetic youths were soon seriously annoyed by unfriendly criticisms from the older and more unsympathetic members of the Wesleyan society with which they were connected, who set themselves up in a captious and cynical spirit as the advocates and maintainers of "order and decorum." The exercises of these youths no doubt would not bear severe criticism, either in substance or manner. There were, we can readily believe, certain extravagances which might have been pruned to advantage but account should have been taken of their youth and inexperience. There are too commonly persons in our churches who, in their unreason, expect young converts to be as fully developed and ripe in Christian life as themselves, and try them by a standard which is not fairly applicable. There is not sufficient tolerance shown to young people newly found in Christ. We say, if rectitude be preserved, let there be the utmost latitude and forbearance shown to young converts; let there be rejoicing that God has sent young blood into the Church, and let it swiftly and vigorously circulate; let morbid cravers for order stand aside; they will, as Sidney Smith said of his church, "die of dignity;" or as Ward Beecher quaintly but pungently puts it, they are "like flowers in a flower-pot; there they are in the flower-pots and cannot get out, and little sticks are put down beside them to keep them in a particular position, and every branch that attempts to go beyond a given point is instantly snipped off. These stiff and starched Christians are like geraniums trained for show, tied up and constrained in root and branch and stem. They are in their rows, and take whatever nourishment is dealt out to them, and do nothing to determine their own structure." Let order, in the proper, the natural sense, be strenuously maintained. But for order which is unnatural, the squaring of every one to our pattern, which is in reality disorder, let it be eschewed as an impertinence.
Something of this kind transpired in this village church. The fever of disputes got into the body of the society, and wasted it. Rancorous and divisive feelings were engendered, which galled and hurt the sensitive spirit of Joseph Spoor. Finding his new spiritual life
he withdrew from the society in which he had at first experienced many happy seasons, and to which he owed many obligations.
A few years previously, Mr. and Mrs. W. Suddards, and other Primitive Methodist preachers, had evangelised the villages and districts on the banks of the Tyne above Newcastle. The names of Mr. and Mrs. Suddards are still fragrant in that neighbourhood, and are remembered as earnest, intelligent, lively ministers of the Word of Life. Their spirited and unctuous singing had not a little to do with their success: the hymns now denominated "old" were then surrounded with all the freshness and charms of novelty. Most of the airs to which they were sung were popular and easy to catch, and were wondrous in their power to thrill the soul, and would move and melt it. This singing lured and captivated great numbers. The guilty dread of many has been roused under -
or
while the ardour of many has been called into action by such martial and fiery strains as -
or
The full and glorious invitation -
has been complied with by multitudes; and the blessed realisation of salvation in all its plenitude has constrained thousands of newly-converted men to sing -
Tested by the canons of poetic criticism, or by men hostile to simple heartfelt Christianity, these hymns would be adjudged "ridiculous rhymes," or "wretched doggerel," a plentiful stock of which expletives such critics always have at command ready for use. But there was a wondrous power, almost magical, in these grand old hymns, as sung by the early preachers, by which men were strangely moved and drawn to Christ. These were the hymns which captivated young Joseph Spoor. He sang them himself, and felt their life and power. Other things, however, attracted his young and ardent nature. Amongst which was the intense spirituality of the Primitive Methodists, both ministers and people. All their services were revivalistic. Everything seemed to be done with a view to realise the presence and power of the Holy Ghost, and to bring men to Christ. They ever lifted up the cross -
Christ's attributes and qualifications as a present Saviour were insisted upon with endless iteration; of the "Story of the Cross" they never wearied; it was a theme -
The simplicity of the preachers, the utter absence of priestly airs, but the presence of real saintliness in their appearance, struck him powerfully. Their intrepidity was another thing that impressed him. Danger, opposition, and even imprisonment were despised by them in the prosecution of their high and holy calling. Such self-denial, calmness, and patience under suffering and persecution, and such heroic courage in danger and opposition always command sympathy and admiration. Their success was also contagious, for "nothing succeeds like success." The swell of the flood-tide is auspicious; men are taken hold of by it, and borne onward upon its bosom. Then the novelty of women's preaching, so much resorted to in the days of which we write, had an extraordinary charm. All these attractions acted most potently upon the ardent and enthusiastic nature of Joseph Spoor, and decided him in becoming a Primitive Methodist. Was not this truly a providential step into which he was led by "the Divinity, that shapes our ends?" Among the people of his choice he found scope and verge for his restless activities, and ample exercise for his zealous, fiery spirit. So far from their checking him in outbursts of prayer or praise, he found himself in company with persons like-minded with himself. Among these people he was destined to become a prince of revivalist preachers, and for nearly forty years to labour as not many among his brethren could labour.