Little Abe, or, the Bishop of Berry Brow: Being the Life of Abraham LockwoodJewell, F.
Religion
Little Abe, or, the Bishop of Berry Brow: Being the Life of Abraham Lockwood
Jewell, F.
Lockwood, Abraham, 1792-1871; Methodist Church -- Bishops -- England -- Biography
Close to the entrance of the village, at the top of the main street,
and within five minutes' walk of the railway station, stands the
Methodist New Connexion Chapel of Berry Brow. It is situated on the
right-hand side of the street coming from Huddersfield; being on lower
ground than the road, it has from this point a stunted appearance.
Pursuing the decline and curve of the street a little further brings
you to the vertex of a triangle of level ground, on the base of which
the chapel stands. It is fronted by a graveyard, whose two sides
gradually converge towards a little iron gateway at the entrance.
Seen from here the chapel presents a more pleasing appearance, though
even now an observer could not fail to be struck with the dwarfish look
of the building; there is a want of height to give it proper
proportion. It shows a plain stone front, which suggests that the good
people who built it had no money to spend in costly ornamentation.
SALEM, the honoured name of the chapel, is inscribed on the front. The
Sunday-school, which is of more recent date, stands adjoining it on the
left; the foreground treasures up the dust of many pious pilgrims who,
in the days gone by, came to this house of peace. The chapel has two
doors in the front; inside, the appearance is exceedingly plain; the
pulpit is stationed with its back against the front wall, and is
enclosed by a pew that was formerly occupied by the choir, but now
mostly by the speakers at the public meetings, for, being somewhat
elevated, it serves as a permanent platform. The plan of the sittings
is a simple rising gallery, springing from the floor half-way to the
ceiling, and traversed by two aisles leading direct from either
doorway; in a recess abutting through the right-hand wall, the organ is
fixed. The chapel is capable of accommodating about three hundred
persons, though there have been times when, somewhere or other, it has
afforded room to much larger numbers of people that have crushed within
its limited space. Altogether, it is a plain, unpretentious structure,
by no means equal to the growing requirements of the prosperous Church
that worships there in these days.
Salem Chapel, like many other places of worship, has its story, full of
sacred incident and interest. It has been the religious birthplace of
hundreds of precious souls, many of whom are now in glory, while others
are journeying thitherward. Many of the ablest ministers the Methodist
New Connexion has ever had, have counted it a joy to preach in that old
sanctuary.
Several revivals of the work of God have broken out within those walls,
and spread with such rapidity and power through the neighbourhood, that
Satan's strongholds have trembled before them; and in the great day of
the Lord it will be said of Salem, "This and that man were born there."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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