Little Abe

Little Abe, by F. Jewell

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Title: Little Abe Or, The Bishop of Berry Brow
Author: F. Jewell
Release Date: December 2, 2006 [EBook #19990]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: Abraham Lockwood.]

LITTLE ABE;
OR,
THE BISHOP OF BERRY BROW.

BEING THE LIFE OF
ABRAHAM LOCKWOOD,
A Quaint and Popular Yorkshire Local Preacher in the Methodist New Connexion.

BY
F. JEWELL.

TWENTY-SECOND THOUSAND.

London:
PUBLISHED FOR THE PROPRIETOR,
ROBERT CULLEY,
25-35 CITY ROAD, AND 26 PATERNOSTER ROW, E.C.

Abraham Pilling, Esq.,
ASTLEY BRIDGE,
BOLTON,
I DEDICATE TO YOU THIS RECORD OF THE
LIFE AND LABOURS OF ONE WHOSE WORTH YOU KNEW
AND APPRECIATED, AS A
MARK OF ESTEEM FOR YOUR ZEALOUS EXERTIONS
TO
ADVANCE THE KINGDOM OF CHRIST.

PREFACE.
I desire to express my thanks to all those friends who have kindly assisted me in collecting materials for these pages; and I am especially indebted to my friends the Rev. T. D. Crothers and the Rev. W. J. Townsend for the cheerful services they have rendered me in preparing the little work for printing.
Whilst trying to give a faithful account of the life and character of Abraham Lockwood, I have done my best to make the narrative both readable and profitable; but I am sensible that there are many faults in the volume. Such as it is, however, I humbly offer it to the public, with the earnest prayer that it may prove a blessing to many.
F. JEWELL.
BETHEL VILLA,
HULL, 1880.

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
BIRTH AND PARENTAGE
CHAPTER II.
EARLY INCIDENTS
CHAPTER III.
HIS CONVERSION
CHAPTER IV.
ABE A NEW CHARACTER IN THE VILLAGE
CHAPTER V.
IN MEMBERSHIP WITH THE CHURCH
CHAPTER VI.
"FOR BETTER, FOR WORSE"
CHAPTER VII.
WIND AND TIDE AGAINST
CHAPTER VIII.
THE CLOUDS BEGIN TO BREAK
CHAPTER IX.
SALEM CHAPEL
CHAPTER X.
ABE BECOMES A LOCAL PREACHER
CHAPTER XI.
IN PRACTICE
CHAPTER XII.
"BUTTERFLY PREACHERS"
CHAPTER XIII.
VARIOUS WAYS OUT OF DIFFICULTIES
CHAPTER XIV.
ABE'S TITLES AND TROUBLES
CHAPTER XV.
A BASKET OF FRAGMENTS
CHAPTER XVI.
"I AM A WONDER UNTO MANY"
CHAPTER XVII.
ABE AS A CLASS LEADER
CHAPTER XVIII.
"WORKING OVERTIME"
CHAPTER XIX
METHODIST LOVEFEAST
CHAPTER XX.
PATIENT IN TRIBULATION
CHAPTER XXI.
"THE LIBERAL DEVISETH LIBERAL THINGS"
CHAPTER XXII.
USED UP
CHAPTER XXIII.
"BETTER IS THE END OF A THING THAN THE BEGINNING"
CHAPTER I.
Birth and Parentage.
Abraham Lockwood was born on the 3rd November, 1792. His birthplace, also called Lockwood, is situated about a mile and half out of Huddersfield.
It makes no pretensions to importance in any way. The only public building which it boasts, is the Mechanics' Institute, a structure of moderate size, yet substantially built. Its one main street is lined with some very excellent shops, some of whose owners, report says, have made a nice little competency there. It still boasts a toll-bar of its own, which is guarded on either side by two white wooden posts, that take the liberty of preventing all cattle, horses, and asses from evading the gate, and of unceremoniously squeezing into the narrowest limits every person who prefers pavement to the highroad. Lockwood is also important enough to receive the attention of two or three 'buses which ply to and fro between there and Huddersfield, as well as to have the honour of a railway station on the L. and Y. line. Of course years ago, when Abraham Lockwood was brought into the world, this locality was not so attractive as it now is; only a few cottages straggled along the level or up the hill towards Berry Brow, mostly inhabited by weavers and others employed in the cloth manufacture of the neighbourhood. Among these humble cottages there stood, on what is known as the Scarr, one even more unpretentious than the rest: it boasted only one story and two or three rooms in all; it was what Abe used to call a "one-decker."
In this little hut dwelt the parents of Abe Lockwood; the fact of their residing in such a humble home, shows sufficiently that they were poor, perhaps poorer than their neighbours. However, in that same single-storied cot in Lockwood, Abe Lockwood was born, a Lockwoodite by double right, and though age has seriously told upon its appearance, it stands to this day. We sometimes see little old men living on, and year by year growing less and less, until we begin to speculate about the probable time it will require at their rate of diminution for nothing to remain of them; and the same may be said of the little old house in which Abe Lockwood was born; it was always little, but as years have slowly added to its age, it has gradually begun to look less, and now, as other houses of larger size and more improved style have sprung up all around the neighbourhood, it has shrunk into the most diminutive little hut that can well be imagined as a dwelling house,