A Cornish Miner.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVIII, Issue 42, 20 February 1897, Page 4 (Supplement)

A Cornish Miner.

The uses which oven pasb crimes may fulfil in God's world are shown in an anecdote told of the work of John Wesley among the Cornish miners. One of his converts, an old man whose life had been excoptionally base and vicious, after a yean of sober, honefjb effort, came to Wealsy, and eaid in the broad dialect of bho coast: ' I'd like to help my neighbours as I've been helped ; bub I can'b do it.' ' Why nob?' ♦ I cna't/ road or wrifce. ♦ You know the efcory of Christ; you can teli ib to them. 1 ' I dozi'b speak English, only Coraiah.1 •80 do they.' Tha miner hesitated, then took & step nearer. ♦ Sir, I've been a drunkard and a thief in my time. 1 Wealoy was silent, S"he old man's Voice failed for a aaomenc. Then ha said hoarsely, 'There's blood cv SBV hands. I killed a man once.' i "• Why, you are just the man 1 want V j exclaimed the preacher, ' you know better than any of us how great ia God's forboarsnco aad mercy. You have been deeper in the pife than your comrades, and you can show bbsm how to escape from it. Go and do ifc.1 The miner worked humbly and faithfully among hi 3 fellows, and became an earnest Lelper of the Methodist gospellers on the coaeb. ; Among the heathen superstitions which yes linger in Cornwall is the belief tb.ab it a man once perjures himself, God/i svtn refuses ever to shino upon him again. The summer day may be warm and bright, bub he does übD ace the Hghb nor feel 'the heat. He walks in the cold and twilight) for the rest of his life. BubtheChtisbianfaith teache3 usbhateven the man who has blackened hia soul in gross sin may, by repentance and an upright life, find hope in G-od's love and; mercy,