A BOY REVIVALIST.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 255, 4 November 1878, Page 5

A BOY REVIVALIST.

Thomaß Harrison, a boy exhorter, is roaducting a remarkable revival ia the Foundry Methodist Church, Washington. He is eighte9u years old. His entrance to a meeting is thus described: " Crack ! soap ! crack ! sound upon the waiting nir with the thrilling sound of piatol shots in rapid sncoessioo. The explanation uppears as tha Evangelist comes in slapping his whita hands from excess of nervousness. Ha ia dressed in a tight-fhiiug black coat, wncse ekirie are so long as to giVB it the air of a priestly robe. A whita tie shows above the doge-buttoned coat. A ehtioed ti^er h not more restless. He ia never sti 1. His feverish unrest infects hi 3 audience. The never failing wonder of what he will do next, and tha failure to oorrestly anticipate, keeps up an unfligging interest." He uses simple) language and expresses his ideas clearly, but has none of the Btyle of a trained speaker. But his energy is tremonioua and his power over his audience wonderful. Hia descriptions of n sulphurous hell for sinners are le-rifying to most of his hearers, and the ex '.iteraeni is always greit by the time hia serniou ends with an appeal to sinners to go forward for prayers. Oae. reporter gives the following account : " He ran down from the platform and etoo 1 on tho front seat. He was pale wi<b excitement. £Io outstretched hia bunds downward, aud the hetds went down in front of him as if impelled by a weight. Then h« said in a low voice: ' The spirit of God is present with more remnrktble power than I have ever felt in all my experience.' Fervid exhortation followed. Persons began to quit their seats and rush forward. In a tuinuta the front seats were full. Old and youni struggled with each other to hi (iraf. The leaJers met each new coner with a han l-shake and a shout. Oue fashioDabiy-'Utired young woman fainted, but a trieud near her caught her, and she fell prostrate over the chancel rails." Harrison is from Boston. He has been remakably successful in iuci ing religious fervor wherever he has workeJ, and is in great request by Methodist churches. He is aaid to ba so engrossed with his mission (hat he oftor breaks iuto exhortation at hotel tables, in sue;t cars, and anywhere elae that the impulse seises him.

We extract the following items from the Syduey Morning Herald:— London, October 21st. The report in reference to the Bank gives an estimated loss of £6,191,000, including the capital reserve fund. The examiners show that the accounts hare been ifalsified, securities entered at fictitious values; bad debts treated as good assets; gold, covering excessive note issues, squandered, and the Government deceived by false returns, and the shareholders by cooked balance-sheets. Among the colonial securities pledged are land at Poverty Bay (New Zealand), New South Wales, and Queensland. — A serious panic exists in the building societies of Manchester, Crowds are besieging the various offices. ■The Wanganui Chronicle says :— " Such men as Mr Kolleston, Mr Walter Johnston, Mr Stevens, Mr Wakefield, Mr Montgomery, Mr Seymour, Mr Curtis, Mr Thomson, and a dozen others we could name, would probably talk less about building up a great nation, and about the interests of the countless millions of the future; but they would attend to the business of their departments instead of stumping the country and setting class against class- and they could meet the Parliament next year with a rational financial policy, with a fair electoral law, and with such a scheme for the adjustment of the representation as would make the Parliament a true reflex of the popular will. We are not in the secrets of the new party, and give the rumor for what it is worth.One thing only seems to be agreed upon generally, viz , that Sir George Grey's Government is now holding office on sufferance and that.its ' friends ' are a woeful minority." An American journalist writing of Wellington's capabilities for " blowing," says :— " Wellington, New Zealand, is one of the windiest places in the southern hemisphere. During a gale lasting two days recently, kerosene tins, pieces of corrugated iron, brickbats, and other miscellaneous projectiles darkened the air, while one piece of tin, weighing several pounds, dauced through the town at the rate of 80 miles an hoar. Plate glass windows were blown in, several houses were blown down, and the boats and shipping in the harbor were sadly damaged." On September 1, the Queen received the gratifying intelligence of the birth of her twenty-sixth grandchild, her Imperial and Royal Highness the Duchess of Edinburgh having given birth at Coburn to a daughter. Both the Duchess and her infant are doing well. The Government have placed £20(10 on the Supplementary Estimates for the Volunteer Rifle Association, thus showing their practical sympathy with the movement. The Nihilists in Russia show their contempt for religion by smoking cigarettes in cathedrals and churches. The Corporation offices at Wanganni have become so infested with rats and vermin as to be almost uninhabitable. The Herald is much exercised in mind about this. Ifc seeais that the rats, having finished all the candles and soap to be found in the building, are now commencing to devour the borough records. The Paris correspondent of a contemporary gossips as follows :~-A governess, but not in want, so much as tired of life, called at the morgue, and left a letter with the superintendent : then she went to Notre Dame, but unable to throw herself off the towers, owing to the crowd of visitors, she entered the belfry, and lodged two balls, from a revolver, in her heart; conveyed to the morgue, she had the air of being in the most tranquil sleep. The letter was a polite request to the superintendent to send a stretcher to bring her remains; she also had written a note warning uo person to touch the revolver as it was charged, and another inviting her mother to her wake that evening at eight o'clock precisely. Near Royaus, a bridal party was upset, and in falling over the precipice, the bride was impaled in some stumps of trees, one of which had transpierced the body and passed out on the side; it had to be sawn to extricate tbe corpse. At Lavergne an infint was seated beside her grandmother near a threshing machine; she touched a beam to see if it was hot, was caught up, and her foot cut off. So sudden was the whole affair, that the child had time to ask that " her foot be given to her." Her leg has been amputated, and the little martyr is going on well. A southern telegram reports the following accideut :— -A Mrs Grigan broke her leg yesterday, in a very simple manner. Running after her fowls, she stepped on a garden hoe, aud twisted her leg, breaking it close to the ankle. The last advices from the West Wanganui coal mine (say 3 the I'ost) state that sufficient coal has been brought to the surface to load up two or three vessels. One from Wangauui for a cargo is hourly espected. Captain Moore writes to say that the new pumps are working well and that one of the large barges for shipping the coal is nearly finished. He estimates that about 100 tons a week can be got from the present prospecting shaft and shipped at a cost of 10s to 12s per ton. Speaking of the prospects of the company he says there are " millious of tons of coal" easily accessible. The recently appointed mine manager, Mr Middleton, has taken charge, aud on the arrival of a set of boring rods, will put down a bore near the Maori Pa. Should a good seam be struck it is probable that the compauy's main shaft will be sunk there, .and the construction of the tramway will thereby be rendered unnecessary. The water in the prospecting shaf c is light. Some specimens of wheat have been handed us by W. H. Poster, of Brookline Mass., and they are of unusually fine growth. Mr Foster planted the seed singly onejoot apart each u>ai/, aud when the plants matured as many as forty-eight well headed stalks live feet eight indies in height were fouud growing from a single seed. Mr Poster estimates that if he had seeded an acre he would have required but 3£ pound of seed, while if the wheat had been broadcast 120 pounds would have been needed. He used common manure, and the variety of seed was the common western wheat. This interesting experiment demonstrates, iv the opinion of Mr Foster, that thin seeding of wheat is much preferable to the ordinary broadcast sowing,— Mass, though* man.