"Experiences of a Backwoods Preacher"
Rev. Joseph H. Hilts
God chose to visit Thornbury, but when He did He didn’t send a famous evangelist or a wise prophet to “wake up” the people in the area.

Instead He chose some kids that were in a berry field picking berries to start something amazing. One day, some little girls, ranging from eight to twelve years of age, went out to pick berries. While they were picking, one of them spoke of a sermon she had heard on the previous Sunday, in which something was said about children coming to know Jesus as savior. They talked on for a while, and then they decided to hold a prayer-meeting RIGHT THERE and ask the Lord to convert them. They gathered into a thicket of berry bushes, and started to sing and pray. Before long God heard and answered their prayer to be saved, and all of them were filled and were made as happy as they could be.
Some men who were passing by on the road heard the noise and went to see what the children were doing. They found them in a "perfect ecstasy of joy" and quietly left them without disturbing them. But the story of the children's prayer-meeting soon spread through the village. Some laughed but others were seriously impressed by it.
I had only been there a short time and was a stranger to most of the people, but after a business meeting at the church I made arrangements for an all-day meeting, to be held in a nice field not far from our church. A large crowd showed up and at the service, one woman was converted, and many of the old professors, both from town and country, were “abundantly blessed”. We started a series of revival meetings in the church at once. The people came out in crowds, and many people gave their hearts to the Lord. The kids that had met Jesus in the berry –field was a great help to me. Everybody wondered at the purity of their testimony, and the fervor and earnestness of their prayers. For a few days these little ones did a good share of praying for penitents at the altar.
During the first week we recorded twelve conversions, and a number more were earnestly seeking the forgiveness of sin. The work went on with increased power from day to day, so that at the end of the fourth week some sixty said they had been converted, and the community was impacted for miles around.
At the end of the third week of our meetings, the altar was somewhat crowded, and we were trying to find a way to make more room. Some of the leading workers said to me:
"
We shall have to put these children in a corner by themselves, so as to make more room for grown-up people."
I told them that I was afraid to interfere with the Lord's way of doing His work. But they seemed to insist on it, and I let them have their way. The children were put in a corner by themselves, and the altar left for older people.
For two nights this arrangement was kept. The meetings were cold, and dull, and dry, and lifeless. Next night I called the little workers back to the altar and all went well again."
Let the children come to Me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
(Luke 18:16)
Thornbury is in Ontario Canada
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Adapted from "Experiences of a Backwoods Preacher", written by Rev. Joseph H. Hilts
First published in 1887 by William Briggs of Toronto. It was republished by The Bruce County Historical Society in 1986 - reprinted by Echo Graphics & Printing of Wiarton, Ontario. The Bruce County Historical Society had the assistance of the Ministry of Citizenship and Culture - Minister Lily Munroe. The story came about shortly after Rev. Hilts was assigned to Thornbury. page 139.