ollowing his release from the Jewish Collegiate School, Morgan spent two years preaching with the mission at Hull, a Yorkshire seaport, in Wilberforce Hall (1886). He preached two or three services a Sunday addressing crowds of about two thousand. Morgan had begun the work at Hull at the invitation of the Salvation Army who had requested him to hold a two week follow up mission to that of the famous evangelist Gypsy Smith. This led to a determination to enter the Salvation Army (in August of 1886). He later changed his mind, however, when both Smith and Catherine Booth advised him that he could do his best work alone. Nevertheless, his link with the Salvation Army was strong and lifelong. Morgan ended the work at Hull in 1888 and became a Wesleyan lay preacher for the Macclesfield, Cheshire District (Webber, p. 683).
n 1887 Morgan decided to offer himself to the Wesleyan Methodist Church for ordination to the ministry. There were two major requirements for ordination to the Wesleyan Methodist ministry: a written examination to qualify as a lay evangelist and a trial sermon for eligibility for ministry. Morgan passed his "local preacher's exam" on December 12, 1887. His trial sermon was set for May 2, 1888 at the Litchfield Road Church of Birmingham. On this particular occasion Morgan, who had been accustomed to addressing crowds numbering in the thousands faced an auditorium which would hold 1000 but contained only the seventy five examiners. The result was a severe loss of confidence and poor preaching. He was one of one hundred and five candidates rejected that day, but this was part of a maturing process for Morgan. Wagner makes an accurate observation:
cceptance by the Methodists would have resulted in a formal theological training. Such a turn of events could conceivably have altered the development of the special technique that characterizes the "Morgan method" (p. 21).
ollowing his release from the Jewish Collegiate School, Morgan spent two years preaching with the mission at Hull, a Yorkshire seaport, in Wilberforce Hall (1886). He preached two or three services a Sunday addressing crowds of about two thousand. Morgan had begun the work at Hull at the invitation of the Salvation Army who had requested him to hold a two week follow up mission to that of the famous evangelist Gypsy Smith. This led to a determination to enter the Salvation Army (in August of 1886). He later changed his mind, however, when both Smith and Catherine Booth advised him that he could do his best work alone. Nevertheless, his link with the Salvation Army was strong and lifelong. Morgan ended the work at Hull in 1888 and became a Wesleyan lay preacher for the Macclesfield, Cheshire District (Webber, p. 683).
n 1887 Morgan decided to offer himself to the Wesleyan Methodist Church for ordination to the ministry. There were two major requirements for ordination to the Wesleyan Methodist ministry: a written examination to qualify as a lay evangelist and a trial sermon for eligibility for ministry. Morgan passed his "local preacher's exam" on December 12, 1887. His trial sermon was set for May 2, 1888 at the Litchfield Road Church of Birmingham. On this particular occasion Morgan, who had been accustomed to addressing crowds numbering in the thousands faced an auditorium which would hold 1000 but contained only the seventy five examiners. The result was a severe loss of confidence and poor preaching. He was one of one hundred and five candidates rejected that day, but this was part of a maturing process for Morgan. Wagner makes an accurate observation:
cceptance by the Methodists would have resulted in a formal theological training. Such a turn of events could conceivably have altered the development of the special technique that characterizes the "Morgan method" (p. 21).