The Man with the Book; or, The Bible Among the People.Weylland, John Matthias
History
The Man with the Book; or, The Bible Among the People.
Weylland, John Matthias
City missions; London City Mission
While visiting this family the following circumstances occurred, which
gave the Missionary influence with several licensed victuallers and
their customers.
The potman at a very low public-house just by was taken seriously ill,
and the landlord, upon hearing that a Christian man had visited another
house, sent to inquire for him, and then wrote a note, asking him to
call and see his man. The visit was paid, and was succeeded by others,
until the young man recovered. The landlord and his wife were thankful
for the attention paid, and upon each call asked him into their private
room. This led to an intimacy so close that he was consulted both as to
their religious and business difficulties: these can be best explained
in their own words, as the visitor was seated with them one afternoon.
"You see, sir," said the landlord, "that I can tell you anything, as you
are not like the religious and teetotal sort of people who talk and
write against us, but never call upon us, that they may understand our
position. Now I don't want, and thousands in the trade don't want, to
make or to serve drunkards. In our last house we lost nearly all the
money my wife and I saved in a long service; but if I had pandered to
vice, we might have been there now. While trying to make the house
respectable, we lost 'takings' from the depraved and drunken, and, as
the result, were not able to meet demands, and were obliged to leave and
take this still lower class of business. The truth is, that publicans,
as a respectable body of tradesmen, need sympathy and Christian
influence, instead of abuse, which only worries and makes us, in
self-defence, resist rather than assist in the necessary reforms; and
then, as our trade is a temptation, we need religious influences in our
families: but no clergyman has ever entered my house. I have gone
wrongly, as I have taken to 'sipping,' but it's hard to bear up against
the trials I have had to pass through." "When we married," added the
wife, "we had L200, and felt that we should do well in this business;
the Sunday trade has however made me wretched. During the fourteen years
I was lady's maid I went to Church twice every Sunday; and from that
happy life to serving behind a bar is a dreadful change. This is not
needful except for two hours at meals, when the necessary article of
consumption could be supplied; and then the rows in the tap are a
constant misery to me, and I wish we were out of the business
altogether."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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