“We continued in fasting and prayer till three o’clock, and then parted, with a full conviction that God was about to do great things among us. O that we may be any way instrumental to His glory! O that He would make us vessels pure and holy, meet for such a dear Master’s use!”[78]
The men evidently were willing to be used in any way which Providence might appoint; and their conviction of the coming of great events was not falsified.
On Ingham’s return to Osset, his native place, he renewed his labours, and preached in most of the churches and chapels about Wakefield, Leeds, and Halifax. Private religious meetings also were greatly multiplied. Large numbers of persons were convinced of sin, and were converted. It was pre-eminently a day of divine visitation. The clergy, however, instead of rejoicing at an enlargement of the work of God, were envious and malignant; and, at a Church congress, held at Wakefield, June 6, 1739, Ingham was prohibited from preaching in any of the churches in the diocese of York; and was thus placed in the same position as Wesley had been compelled to occupy in London. Both were ordained clergymen, and both longed to preach the gospel of God their Saviour; but both were without a church of their own, and both were now uniformly shut out of the churches of others. What Wesley began to do at Bristol, Kingswood, and elsewhere, Ingham began to do in Yorkshire. Village greens, the public streets, fields, barns, cottages, and houses of all descriptions became his preaching places; and, such was the divine power which attended his ministry, that not fewer than forty religious societies were formed.
Ingham was reviled, but he reviled not again. The following letter illustrates his fine Christian spirit, at the period of which we are now writing. It probably was addressed to Wesley. At all events, Wesley published it in the first volume of his Arminian Magazine (p. 181).
“Osset, Sept. 14, 1739.
“My dear Brother,—Wait the Lord’s leisure, and be still. His time is the best time. ‘Be strong, and He shall comfort thine heart; and put thou thy trust in the Lord.’
“I shall be very glad to see you, when the Lord pleases that we shall meet together. O that we may do and suffer His will in all things! It is following our own wills that creates us trouble and confusion.
“All your opposition will work together for good. The more the clergy oppose the truth, the more it will prevail. Their preaching against us and our doctrines excites a curiosity in the people to hear us, and to see if these things be true, whereby many have their eyes opened. If this work is of God, it cannot be overthrown: if it be of men, I wish it may speedily. We have nothing to do but to follow our Leader. O that He may direct all our ways aright!
“I say very little about the clergy in public. I preach the truth of the gospel, according to the light the Lord has given me into it, and leave it to the Lord to bless it as He pleases. I take no notice of lies and calumnies, unless I am asked whether or no they are true. It is endless to answer all that is said. Our Saviour says, ‘Let them alone.’ He is concerned for the welfare of His Church; let us, therefore, depend upon Him, and let us mind what He says to us in His holy word. Let us love our enemies, and pray for them; and let us love one another; and thereby shall all men know that we are His true disciples. We must be hated in this world; let us, therefore, take great care to secure ourselves an inheritance in the next.
“Benjamin Ingham.”