Page:Memoirs of a Huguenot Family.djvu/176

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170
MEMOIRS OF A HUGUENOT FAMILY.

Refugees with employment, by which they earned enough to maintain their families respectably. The Church increased daily; Refugees came from various parts to settle in Cork when they heard that a French Church was established there. After a while those members of the congregation who were in easy circumstances became ashamed of allowing me to preach without compensation, and they proposed to raise something by voluntary contribution, if it were only to show that they were grateful for my services. When it came to my knowledge, I thanked them much for their kind intentions; but I told them that as they could not possibly raise enough to support my family without exertion on my part, I would greatly prefer that whatever sum they were able to collect should be appropriated to the relief of the poor, of whom there were many in the congregation. I said that it was a very great pleasure to me to imitate St. Paul, preaching the Gospel and at the same time earning my living by the labor of my hands. They were well satisfied with the view I took, for they could not raise more than £10, or at the very utmost £15, which would have been a mere trifle towards the support of my large family.

On the 16th September, 1697, my wife gave birth to another boy, whom we presented to the Holy Sacrament of Baptism, and I baptized him myself, after our service was over, on the 19th of the same month. We gave him the name of Francis. I was the godfather, for I had a great dislike to make people solemnly promise that which they had no intention of performing. On the day of his baptism I made a great supper, as though I intended to feast the wealthiest of the French Refugees in Cork, but instead of that I invited about a dozen of the poor of my flock, and after they had