Blair Collection > Rhys Lewis, minister of Bethel

J^BYS LEWIS. 251
Go out into tlie high-ways and fields of the Gospel. Muster
your friends for a climb to the top of that hill on which the
gentle Lamb suffered under nails of steel, and you shall find
yourself healthier, purer and lighter spirited. Do you know
what ? There is a world of meaning in those words of old Dr.
Johnson : ' Gentlemen, let's take a walk down Fleet Street.'
Johnson hud many memories full of a revivifying charm con-
nected with Fleet Street ; so, when wearied of himself or the
company, he would get up and say, ' Gentlemen, let's take a
walk down Fleet Street.' The old Doctor's words have been as
good as a verse for me, hundreds of times. The Gospel has its
Fleet Street for the believer, fascinating and full of bitter-
sweet recollections. Scores of times, when tired of the shop,
cloyed with grey calico a groat a yard, brown holland at ten-
pence, and trifles like that, have I left everything and taken,
with your mother or someone else, ' a walk down Fleet
Street.' In going to chapel old Johnson's saying was as often
as any in my mind, ' Gentlemen, let's take a walk down Fleet
Street.' "
I endeavoured to act upon my master's advice, and succeeded
to such a degree that I soon got to look something better than
a roosting hen, with head under wing. I set to work to forget
myself, to think more of Christ and his words, and to look at
the bright side of the Gospel. I wondered I had not found out,
before Abel told me, that herein lay the secret of my mother's
happiness.
" Think of your mother," he said. " Do you know of any-
one who met with so much trouble ? And, for all that, did you
ever see anyone enjoying so much real happiness ? Where did
her happiness come from ? Was it from looking within ? I
don't believe it a bit. She had learned to look at One worth
the looking on. It always struck me that tho greater her
trouble the greater her happiness. Her poverty only made her
think of the riches that are in Christ, while the ill-treatment
she received at the hands of your inhuman father but made her
revel in the Saviour's gentleness and love. Don't be angry
with me, but the truth is, when I used to hear that your
mother was in trouble, I wo-.ild laugh and say, ' Well, that's
another feast for Mary Lewis.' Do you know what ? ■ You