Temperance > Autobiography and personal recollections of John B. Gough

RETURN HOME.
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thirty years,—on my knees; and then she said: “Oil, God,
help him;” and I said “Amen;” and she said: “Oh! God,
help my poor Ned, and strengthen him to keep his pledge;”
and I hollered “Amen!” just as loud as I could holler;
and she kept praying, and I kept hollering—you never
heard a Methodist, in the biggest revival you ever saw,
holler as loud as I did;—I had like to split my throat, I
hollered “Amen ” so loud. That was the first time we
ever knelt together;—but it was not the last.”
CHAPTER XXIY.
RETURN HOME, AND SECOND TRIP TO ENGLAND.
I have more than once spoken to an audience of what
are termed “outcasts;” and a pitiful sight it is. On one
occasion I addressed eight hundred, and on another—in
Glasgow—over three thousand. The city missionaries
had, by their influence, induced the poor creatures to
come. There were rags, and filth, and degradation beyond
description. It seemed as if the last lingering trace of
human beauty had been dashed out by the hoof of de¬
bauchery, and the die of devil stamped on the defaced
image of God; and all of them human beings, with hearts,
and souls, with a love for the pure and beautiful,—men
and women,—yes, and children,—with such human his¬
tories of want and suffering, privation and misery, as
might well be traced in tears and written in blood.
On one occasion, as I entered the audience room, where
some hundreds of this class had assembled, with the pro¬
vost of the borough and a minister of the town, who accom¬
panied me, the former said, as we came in: “Mr. Gough,
you have ‘Eire’ in the house to-night.”