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
Abe was in the latter part of his life particularly neat in his attire,
wearing an orthodox suit of black cloth, and cut in the Methodist
preacher style. He wasn't at all sparing in white neckcloth, for he
wore one that travelled around and around his neck in such profusion,
that it might have been intended as an extra security against the loss
of his head. Altogether he was quite the type of an old-fashioned
Methodist preacher. In the pulpit his appearance was exceedingly
prepossessing; he always had a smile on his face while talking, as if
he thoroughly enjoyed the good news he was telling to others. In
beginning to speak, or when about to say something which he thought
particularly good, he had a way of holding his head a little over on
one side, and clapping his hands together. These movements,
accompanied with an occasional shrug of his shoulders, were among the
general signs that the "Little Bishop" was having a good time, and when
Abe was happy in his work, everyone that heard him had a liberal share
of enjoyment and profit as well. But of course, like other men, he
sometimes felt the misery of preaching in what he quaintly and
appropriately called
"THE TIGHT JACKET."
Taking into account the want of education from which he suffered, the
disadvantages he was at in preparing for his public duties, as well as
other occasional depressing circumstances, we cannot wonder that he
should sometimes have been the subject of the most painful restraints,
likened by him to a "tight jacket." There was a wonderful difference
in his preaching when he had one of these "hard times," and when he
enjoyed liberty. If in the latter mood, as was generally the case, his
tongue was like the pen of a ready writer, and streams of beautiful
truth, sparkling with pious humour and accompanied with striking
original illustrations, would pour from his lips; but if he had the
"tight jacket" on, he could scarcely say anything, and it was a pain to
listen to him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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