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A Testimony by Kit Calvert, as told by Pat Dean

(This testimony is based on the actual testimony narrated by the late Kit Calvert, OBE, a well known and well respected figure in Hawes in the Yorkshire Dales. The interview was recorded on tape and transcribed by Myra Moore, and retold here by Pat Dean who, for dramatic purposes, has recast the testimony in the form of a dialogue between Kit (Matt) Calvert and a young visitor to the Dales.)

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Faith to the open-hearted Matt Calvert and his friends was an intensely personal matter -- one which was approached in such a down to earth, matter of fact manner that it seemed custom-made for their way of life. Men who walk hand in hand with nature through the seasons can accept the mystery of the miracles, for they see them at every turn on their lives.

As we turned into the yard, the work dogs came darting across to see us. They were only just losing their wariness of me, for in their eyes I was of course a stranger. Matt, however, was clearly their mentor and I could imagine how in the first few months of their lives he would have talked to them, played with them, already having the trust of their mother, and begun in this way to train them for the work they must do. High on the moors on a Sunday morning, with the piping calls of moorland birds for company, the dogs had to react sharply to the calls of ‘Bye bye’ and ‘Way bye’ to bring the sheep round to the shepherd so that he may look them over and be sure the flock is well on its lofty summer pasture.

As the dogs threw themselves on the heather, smelling of peat and panting quickly from their exertions, Matt would look into their eyes and down into their very soul, telling them they had done well or were becoming lazy. Each seemed to know what was being said and moved their bodies in answer. Just like everything else on the farm, the dogs had to earn their keep, but with this Matt had more than a working relationship.

After master and animals had made their greeting, we turned towards the cottage, for Kate and left us a cold pie so that Matt and I could have a lazy supper. I knew too that Jack was going to be busy with his accounts and Kate wanted to catch up on some letter writing. Matt drew up his chair and I put the food on the table. Through the little side window I could see the darkening shadow of a wood on the valley side and the occasional flicker of car lights as a vehicle drove over the road that climbed steeply before falling equally sharply to the next dale. The meal finished, I replenished the teapot and we smiled contentedly at each other while Matt contemplated his Sunday attire, looking slightly less severe now that his waistcoat was unfastened.

‘I feel strange now if I don’t go to chapel or church on a Sunday,’ he began. ‘But it wasn’t always so.’

I smiled encouragingly. ‘How so?’

‘It’s something of an intimate tale and one very few people know about, but my spiritual life was awakened by a cow.’

‘A cow!’ I laughed.

Matt nodded, unperturbed. ‘When I was a teenager I was very fond of argument, and religion was always one of the best subjects. Once when there had been a revival meeting up at Gayle, quite a number of young folk were influenced by a couple of lady evangelists -- influenced to such an extent that their lives had definitely been molded by that three-week mission. But it didn’t make any impression on me at all. In fact, it went the other way! I well remember one night during this mission some of the lads who had been converted were resting in a hut from their work on the roads. It was a wild day so I went in to see them and they were reading the Bible and they started on me. I went in like a terrier and started to fire questions at them and give ’em a real good hammering in me own way! At the finish, one of ’em says, "We ought to have thee on our side!"

‘ "Aye, you should! But you’ve got something on to get me," I challenged.

‘They said they would try.

‘ "Well, you have the weapon in your hands," I went on. "You say prayers can move mountains. Never mind the mountains! Try and move me!"

‘They tried, but nothing came of it. Anyway, time passed and the mission finished and I bought a cow with a view to winning the Christmas prize show at the auction mart. Now you know what my wages were in those days. I hadn’t a lot of money; but I’d saved sufficient to buy this cow for £33 from a cattle dealer. £33 was a lot of money to men. It was a good cow, but it had one little fault. It had a little bit of a growth on a front knee and I knew very well it couldn’t win the Christmas prize show with this fault; so I asked the local cow doctor if he would take it off!

‘He looked at it and said he might, but it would be rather dangerous as it was on the end of a muscle. Any slip and she could be lamed.

‘I asked the vet and he looked at it and said he would rather not touch it. Anyway, I found another vet, a broken-down one, and asked him if he could take it off. "I’ll take its head off if thou wants it," he said. I said I didn’t want the head off, just the little bit of growth. So he decided he would do it.

‘So he came and then just as he was going to start, I thought about what those other two experts had told me. So I said to him: "You’ll be careful, now. They say if you slip at all you can let the leg down if you cut it."

‘He said, "Who says I’m going to cut it!" And he brought out this instrument which was a chain inside a bit of pipe, and he wrapped it round the lump. Then he just pulled and it shot off! He stitched it up, but the next morning I saw something had happened. The cow was bleeding profusely from this wound.

‘Anyway, I then got veterinary assistance to try and stop it -- and he stopped the wound. But septic set in and by Sunday the cow was in agony. The leg was nearly the thickness of the body! The cow was in terrible pain with blood poisoning, when an old man called round to see it. The man said, "That’ll cap [teach] thee! You young ’uns, you know more than old ’uns. You’ll learn your lesson in time." All my worldly goods were tied up in that cow and I was a bit disturbed. Anyway, he gave me a good thrashing talk for doing such tricks when I had been advised by reputed vets to leave it alone.

‘That was Sunday morning. In the afternoon I went down from home at Burtersett to see this cow that was in a barn at Hawes. I was going to try to feed her and I was very depressed because the old feller had told me she’d be dead in a few days. She’d slip her calf and the blood poisoning would set in right through her system, he’d said.

‘On the way across the fields, I saw a stamp on the flags and why I picked it up I don’t know; but when I look at it, it must have been given to some bairns at Sunday School and there was a little flower and text on it. It said, "Have faith in God."

‘I thought I might as well, for I didn’t have much faith in myself or my cow. I walked along to the barn and heard her moaning long before I got there. Every moan struck right through me, saying it was my fault. Before I knew where I was, I was in the hay mew praying! "Lord, do summat for cow! Either cure her or put her out of her misery; but for mercy’s sake, don’t let me hear this moaning any more!"

‘I kept talking like that to myself, or to God, I don’t know. "If you can cure her, Lord, she’ll not be used for my glory."

‘All at once it dawned on me. I thought to myself, "You always swore there was no God! What the deuce are you doing praying?" I wrestled with myself and the outcome was that I submitted that I must believe there was a God. I repeated my promise and strange to say I never heard that moaning anymore. Next day she seemed a bit better, and the next day she was a lot better. Sunday came round again and so did this old feller.

‘ "Well, this caps the devil!" he exclaimed. "She should have been under the sod pushing up daisies. Whatever’s happened?" I gave him a wry smile, like, but didn’t tell him.

‘Anyway, she carried on improving and I had to sell her at the Christmas show, for she was the only cow I had and I was paying for her keep. The day before she had to go, she was looking her best and I remembered my promise. "I promised God I would not use her for my own glory, and I won’t -- I won’t! He put her right!"

‘I was yard man at the mart at that time and when I had brought the cow up for sale, I got on with some jobs well away from the top ring where the selling was going to be. After a bit a friend came down with my cow and asked me where I’d been. I said I’d been working in another yard. "Why, thou nearly lost first prize!" he said.

‘ "I didn’t ask for first prize."

‘ "But you bought cow to win with!"

‘ "I did once, but I wasn’t bothering."

‘ "Thou wasn’t bothering! What was thou thinkin’ about! Anyway, never bother about that. I saw thou’d been left out so I took her up and she’s won first prize! She’s won the cup!"

‘ "Well, I never took her," I said, and then I was joined by the old man who’d prophesized my cow would be pushing up daisies. "I said she’d win, now we’re joining. How much to join?" he asked. You’ll know, lad, that that was the way of bidding up the price on an animal beyond what folks would pay normally. I said I wasn’t going to and of course he wanted to know what for.

‘ "For private reasons."

‘ "You promised me you would join when you bought her if she did well!"

‘ "I maybe promised that, but we’re not joining."

‘He persisted, then said: "I’ll tell thee summat then, if thou wants to know! I’ve been talking with the judge who gave it first prize and he wants her for Darlington show. He’ll give £70 for her! But he says she’ll not make about £50 or £55 unless somebody put’s her up."

‘He persisted and persisted and then said I’d always promised him something if she did well. "I did and I will," I said, and I went into my pocket and gave him £3 and told him to take it and let me alone and that it didn’t matter if she only made £30. So he did and as I went into the auction ring with the cow, I put my stick across and tapped him on the shoulder and said, "I’m watching thee. This cow is to be sold genuinely. If thou bids at that cow by a nod or a wink I’ll expose you to the whole crowd." He said: "Thou needn’t watch me. I’ll be out of the spot." -- and he went out.

‘The cow made £50. Joining would have got her to £70. She went to Northallerton and won there and then she went to Darlington and won second prize. But to me, I won my soul.’

Looking suddenly tired, but with his eyes shining, Matt tilted back his chair and smiled at me. My eyes were shining too, but with a touch of dampness, for this had been an open window right through to Matt’s heart and I guessed that very few people, probably even my father, had ever heard of how his faith had been founded; and founded well, for it was never found lacking and I knew it was as solid as bedrock. For a while there was a silence broken only by the ticking of the clock while I pondered on the tremendous feeling of steady certainty which must come from such a faith. No wonder such people inspired trust in animals and children, who also had the eyes to see and the ears to hear. They seemed to have a direct line to the sense most mortals lose before being aware of its presence but which is sometimes to be found among the elderly. Do we fight it down in middle life, or is it just overwhelmed in the rush to prove that activity is action? A few, no, an infinitely few people, retain the link all their lives. Was simplicity of outlook a cause or result?

The riddle was too hard for me just now.

Now published in

This work is in effect a sequel to Touched by God: Testimonies of Christian Power, which brought together seven inspirational stories of God’s supernatural intervention in the lives of Christian believers—testimonies that presented extra-biblical proof of God’s divine power and love in the lives of Christian believers.

Photograph by John Moore, originally from Hawes