Blair Collection > Rhys Lewis, minister of Bethel

•334 J^HYS LEWIS.
other. You might think from his speech that religion had died
out of the land, and that certain persons in the church, -vrhoni
he did not name, had been guilty of every form of wickedness
conceivable. Abel would thereupon get up and, with some
dozen soothing words, would clear the air and still the ferment.
He would then walk straight up to old Betty Kenrick or
Thomas Bartley to ask an experience ; and two minutes later
everybody had forgotten all about John Lloyd and his lecture.
Will Bryan detested John Lloyd, and nothing pleased him
better than to see Abel give his enemy a " sitting on," as he
used to call it. " Did ye spot how Abel put out Old Scraper's
bonfire by spitting on it ? " "Will would sometimes ask me in
Communion. " That was the smartest bit of work I've seen,
for I can't tell how long, I'll take my oath." Abel had an awl
of his own which never failed to flatten out a blustering, pre-
tentious wind-bag. He never spoke of it aftewards, but I often
thought that a feat of this kind afforded him a little secret
pleasure ; for, in his corner by the fire at home, a smile of
satisfaction would spread across his face, as if he were enjoying
a good thing all to himself. He was strict, as I have said. He
could not tolerate a harum-scarum religionist; but what-
ever a man's shortcomings and defects might be, he always
sympathised with him deeply. I have mentioned, in a previous
chapter, that I never saw his like at reading the human heart.
He had studied his own for an age, and I heard him say, several
times, it was the most deceitful of all things. He was able, on
that account, to understand and guide the young man fighting
against temptation and doubt. He could feel for the toiling and
the troubled, make allowance for the raw and inexperienced,
who had any good in them, and participate in the spiritual joy
and sorrow of the old and tried. But idleness, carelessness,
hypocrisy and cant he found unbearable, always. I had
bttter advantages than anyone else, almost, for knowing him
thoroughly. To me he never once appeared to pride himself
upon his own virtues ; but when he saw those virtues shine,
even in a less degree, in others, his face fairly beamed with
pleasure. He had set himself so high a standard of conduct
that his failings were kept continually in view; and he regarded
with envy some people who, to my mind, did not deserye oom^
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