Elder Wm. Horsley's successful preaching in the Congregational Church
Published October 6, 2026 at 2:42 AM
Contributed by
Millennial Star Research
Elder Wm. Horsley, feeling nervous about his first experience preaching from a pulpit, offered a silent prayer for divine help before his sermon at the Congregational Church in Haydonwick. He records that from the moment of his prayer, his fear was removed, he felt composed, and he was able to deliver a seventy-minute discourse on the Gospel as taught by Jesus Christ and the apostles. The congregation paid great attention and extended a cordial invitation for him to return.
In Their Own Words
“I must say after giving out the first hymn, while they were singing, I felt rather strange, this being my first entrance into the pulpit in my life; but I offered a silent prayer to God, asking Him to take away the fear of man and give me words to say to the people; and I can truly say from that moment I felt quite different. After offering prayer and during the singing of the second hymn I felt quite composed. I now read them the 24th chapter of Matthew for the lesson, and the choir sang a very nice hymn. I now took my text from the 1st chap. of Galatians, the 8th to the 12th verses. Then for seventy minutes I gave them the good old Gospel as taught by our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and by Him handed down to his apostles, with power to teach it and administer in its ordinances, and also the same as taught by Paul. They all paid great attention, and at the close of the services when I came out of the vestry many waited and shook hands with me, and the committee as well as many of the people gave me a cordial invitation to come again.”
— Wm. Horsley, The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, Vol. 48, No. 4
Sources & References
The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star (Manchester, later Liverpool, England, May 1840–1970), 25 January 1886 (Vol. 48, No. 4). https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_the-latter-day-saints-millennial-star_1886-01-25_48_4 (account extracted verbatim from the issue's Internet Archive OCR text; research confidence: high) Full first-person account: The Latter-day Saints' Millennial Star, 25 January 1886 (Vol. 48, No. 4), p. 61 https://archive.org/details/per_utah-and-the-mormons_the-latter-day-saints-millennial-star_1886-01-25_48_4
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