Lydia Maria Child, Isaac T. Hopper: a true life

[38] among Friends, and much admired by others.— His sermons were usually short, and very impressive. A cotemporary thus describes the effect of his preaching: ‘The whole assembly seemed to be baptized together, and so covered with solemnity, that when the meeting broke up, no one wished to enter into conversation with another.’ He was particularly zealous against a paid ministry, and not unfrequently quoted the text, ‘Put me in the priest's office, I pray thee, that I may eat a piece of bread.’ One of his most memorable discourses began with these words: ‘The lawyers, the priests, and the doctors, these are the deceivers of men.’ He was so highly esteemed, that when he entered the court-house, as he occasionally did, to aid the poor or the oppressed in some way, it was not uncommon for judges and lawyers to rise spontaneously in token of respect.— Isaac had great veneration for his character, and was much edified by his ministry.

Mary Ridgeway, a small, plain, uneducated woman, was likewise remarkably persuasive and penetrating in her style of preaching, which appeared to Isaac like pure inspiration. Her exhortations took deep hold of his youthful feelings, and strongly influenced him to a religious life.

But more powerful than all other agencies was the preaching of William Savery. He was a tanner by trade; remarked by all who knew him as a man who