The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1881-06-28 00:00:00

JOSEPH AND HIS BRETHREN IN THE PIT.

riot to mislead our readers, we hasten to explsiu
by the Joseph in question is not meant the favourite
eon of the pitriarch, but the ex-candidate for Parlia-
inentary ki,nonne at Wilton, and his brethren or
osedlutors--8. Pike, B. Wedmore, and others—in the
chalk pit at the entrance to Sterols or, distant about
two miles from Slamfiord. Here on :iunday last the
announcement that Joseph Arch was to pr.-n:11 had
together • crowd estimated earl tvly at
rort"dsoo to 1,000 person.; and an the noted agitator
limy be In the character somewhat new to our readers,
we propose giving a short unisiseed account of the
nue, his speech, and the circumstance attendant, and
this without any deice to cast ridicule on the pro-
ceedings, which were orderly enough throughout the
service. Thd place is a gravelly chalk pit, from
which many thousand loads have been carted,
suffiniently large to hold easily 10.000 persons, sad
yet compact enough in Its f rmation for • HoinAn
amphitheatre. Close by it Ls the huge newly-built
vardonage, somewhat dominating the small village of
heogiviao• ; and In the near distance the ancient
decampmeet of Hod looktog down on the
mese like • very hill of Basilan. In front of the
ems% and ler below. me milers the quiet Stour, and just
beyond it may be peen the seat of the only Liberal
member for Dorset, situated in the paslih whereS.G.O.
lately lived, and whence be in I ited many of those stirring
Lytton to the luta, on the toWcs of those daya As we
T**roseted the place we could hear little but such
• pieties, as during prayer are usually with the
riltitives, there being loud "Amens " in response to
the petitioes "Lord bless the Government." "Hold
the Fort " wee pr-t7l generally joined In by those
standing near the we on which bold theeveakers, one
tel wham, In asnous.nd( the programme of the pro
-
teenage, stated their °bleat to be • pure one, and.
Able* neje diesgreod Wilk their meedag together,

most of those present did approve of it, and as for
those who did not, theY were scarcely acting up to
their principles in coming here—a clincher, which
would be hard to refute. dome might think that their
purporting to make • collection was open to suspicion,
but he (Mr. Pike) assured them every penny would
go to the relief of the poor agricultural labourer. Mr.
Arch then mounted the waggon. He wore glasses,
and was roughly and plainly-dressed ; but we believe
It is a practice wiih many Methodist locals to leave
their Sunday best at home when attending camp nate..
logs. On the ridge above end behind him and all
around his congregation stood, sat, or disported them-
selves on the green award—some of them attentive
enough, as the earnestness of the speaker impressed
those within hearing, although many me*, boys, and
girls (tattered and i Bed after their manner, notwith.
standing the warning they bad received in Mr. S.
Pike's Introductory address against any who came to
disturb the meeting —that "-he knew all their little
gasses; that he had his eye upon them, and hoped they
would behave accordingly," The text given out
was "They made light of it," and the discourse was, if
we may so judge, of average ability, both for matter
and manner. All through it reference was continually
made to the agitation in which Mr. Arch's life has of
late years been passed, to the tyrants and the slaves of
the earth. The down-trodden and the oppressor came
alternately under the lash or the commiseration of the
speaker, and the comparisons drawn between Pharoah
oppressing the lerselities and those who opposed the
agricultural movement and oppressed the labourer
were frequent and scathing—" They made light of it."
How many a mother wept and eorrowed when her son
made light of her commands. How they made light
of the preaching of Noah while building the ark, yet
the flood came, for men could not treat the minutest
affairs of life without disaster. So they would in tke
light of their proceedings that day, but It was at their
peril they did so. Pharoah was warned of the coming
plagues, but the lirselities were, so to speak, making
the wealth of his kingdom. But the time came, and
would always come. It came to the Southern States
of America. It would come to the whole African
Continent, and it would come, too, when in this
rand old England we should have no slaves at all.
Pharoah's end came as many another tyrant's end
had home; and were they to pity them? He had
no pity for tyrants whorls hands were fed with
blood when their lives came to • midden end.
Did Moses_pity Pharoah ? What was his pity? "Sing
ye to the Lord, for He bath triumphed gloriously.
The horse and his rider bath He hada into the sea."
To come nearer home, in 1878 the lust of wiz- bat
seised on our Government, and what was the result?
The people made light of it, but the massacres of
Isaiadrila and Cavagnari and Majubabill all showed
that God would not be trifled with. And the pray-
ing host of God had prayed and wept that the curse
might be turned tram our land, and all God's ministers
had Joined in the prayer, except those who were
sped.l4 appointed and paid to exercise priests iliac.
tpflil in the Established Church. And now God had
blesaed their fields and gardens with a promise of •
harvest and fruitful season. When he was • boy they
could not meet as they met that day. Wall did he
remember his mother's grief when some of the leading
spirits of their society were dragged away before the
magistrates by the village constables, and the expres-
sion of her firm belief that the time would come when
such injustice would be no longer tolerated by the
community, and her words had come true. And at
that very time many a rich man, who had in that and
other ways oppressed his Christian slaves, was in that
place where Dives, lifting up his eyes in torment,
begged in vain for • drop of water to cool his parched
tongue. Turning to the young men around, Mr.
Arch concluded by exhorting them to be men, to study
history, to read the history of their country, and of
their times, and of their Bible, and not to make light
of the offer of Salvation, which they that day came to
make.. If "the proclamation of some Bible truth and
It. application to some particular congregation" be
the true definition of a sermon, certainly that of which
the shove is an outline corresponded with
We saw that those who sold refreshments in that
chalk pit were doing a merry trade all through the
service. We were inforored, too, that all the beer in
Stourpaine was drank, which malt shock Mr. Arch's
teetotal principles, although it was not to be wondered
at, for the day WIII4 fine and warm, and many of those
present had come from Blandford and even more
distant places. As we returned home, too, bands of
lads and youths spoiled the quiet of that Sabbath
afternoon by their shouts and romping* with some of
the opposite sex, whose shrieks added anything but
melody to th• scene, and greatly scandalised some of
the Blandford citizens, wh i were taking their walks
abroad. In the evening we believe other services were
hold.