Blair Collection > Rhys Lewis, minister of Bethel

1 66 RHYS LEWIS.
' ' I am glad to Lear it; it isn't everybody can say tliat mucli,"
Mr. Hughes observed, adding, " but we are all sinners, you
know, Tiiomas Bartley."
•* Yes, yes," said Thomas. " Bad is the best of us ; but I'm
thinkin' some are worse'n others."
" Can you read, Thomas Bartley ? " asked the minister.
" I've a gr.p of the letters, nothin' more ; but I'm awful fond
of hearin' others read," replied Thomas.
" It's a great loss not to be able to read ; and it has got
somewhat late in the day for you to think of learning," Mr.
Hughes observed.
" I know I'll never learn, 'cause there's nothing quick about
me, most the pity," said Thomas.
"Not having heard very much of the Gospel, Thomas
Bartley, and not being able to read, you should be doubly
diligent, in attendance on the means of grace from this time
out," said Mr. Hughes.
"If we live," returned Thomas, "Barbara and I have made up
our minds to come reg'lar to the means, 'cause the time passes
better by half here'n if we stayed mopin' at home. To tell you
the truth, Mr. Hughes, we find great pleasure in chapel, and
if we'd a-known it sooner, we'd have been here these years; but
no one ever asked us till Mary Lewis a'most forced us to come."
"What gives you such pleasure in chapel, Thomas Bartley ? "
asked the preacher.
"Indeed, I can't tell you guzzactly, but Barbara and I
feel much more what-d'you-call-it, since we've been comin'
to chapel."
"Yerygood," remarked the preacher. "But what do you
think of * the stronghold ' I tried to say something about this
morning ?"
"Well," replied Thomas, " I thought you spoke up nicely
about it, only I couldn't catch guzzactly all you said. But
Mary Lewis explained to us on the way home that Jesus Christ
dyin' for us was the stronghold, and that trustin' Him for
salvation was turnin' to the stronghold. I thought so too,
only I couldn't speak my mind."
"Whoever this Mary Lewis is," observed the preacher,
" she is pretty near the mark on that head."