





GEORGE WHITEFIELD: 



A BIOGRAPHY, 



WITH 



SPECIAL REFERENCE TO HIS LABORS 
IN AMERICA. 



COMPILED 

BY JOSEPH BELCHER, D. D., 

AUTHOR OF THE LIFE OF REV. DR. CAREY, MISSIONARY TO INDIA, 

ETC, ETC. 



PUBLISHED BY THE 
AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU-STREET, NEW YORK. 



m6Hm 2&««~ 

aOVO, UTAH 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

MORAL STATE OF GREAT BRITAIN IN THE EARLY 
PART OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY — WHITE- 
FIELD, FROM HIS BIRTH TO HIS FIRST SERMON. 

1714-1736. 

Low state of religion in Great Britain and its dependencies when 
Wbitefield appeared — His birth in Gloucester — Hooper — Raikes 
— WhitefiekTs early life — His entrance at the university of Ox- 
ford — Becomes connected with the Wesleys and other Method- 
ists — Illness and mental trials — Relief — Preparation for the min- 
istry — Return to Gloucester — Ordination—First sermon 13 

CHAPTER II. 

WHITEFIELD'S SUCCESS AS A PREACHER IN ENG- 
LAND—FIRST VISIT TO AMERICA. 

1736-1738 

Whitefteld's return to Oxford — Usefulness there — Visits London — 
Great popularity — Georgia — His anxiety as to duty — Invited to 
Georgia by the Wesleys — Preparation and departure — Preaching 
and excitement at Deal — Labors and success on board — Arrival 
and labors at Gibraltar — Interesting incidents on the voyage — 
Sickness and recovery — His reception at Savannah — Visit to an 
Indian king — Origin of the Orphan asylum — Visit to Frederica — 
Return to Savannah — Visit to Charleston — Treatment by Gar- 
den—Embarkation for Europe— Stormy voyage— Arrival in Lim- 
erick—Journey to London— Meeting with the trustees of Geor- 
gia—Ordination as priest— Return to London— First extempore 
prayer— First idea of open-air preaching 40 

CHAPTER III. 

OPEN-AIR PREACHING- IN ENGLAND AND WALES- 
ERECTION OF THE TABERNACLE IN LONDON. 

1738, 1739. 

Whitefield's visit to Bristol — New opposition — Interviews with the 
chancellor of the diocese — Preaching at Kingswood — Large con- 
gregations — Preaching at Bristol — Labors in Wales with Howel 
Harris — Gloucester- -Old Mr. Cole — Return to London — Conflict 



4 CONTENTS. 

with Bishop Warburton and others — Moorfields— Kennington 
Common — Blackheath — Anecdotes — Erection of the Tabernacle 
—New Tabernacle — Certificate — Visit to Norwich — Conversion 

of Robert Robinson — Preaching at the West End of London 

Liberality of Whitefield's congregations — Attendance of the no- 
bility on Whitefield's ministry — Architecture of Tabernacle and 
Tottenham Court road chapel - 71 

CHAPTER IV. 

WHITEFIELD'S SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 
1739, 1740. 

Joseph Periam's release by Whitefield from Bedlam Whitefield's 

arrival at Philadelphia — Preaches to vast crowds in the open 
air — Testimony of Dr. Franklin and others — Account of the Log 
College— William Tennent, Sen.— Whitefield's own account of 
his preaching at Philadelphia — Subsequent discovery of the con- 
version of Dr. Rodgers — Whitefield's first visit to New York 

Description of him by one of his hearers — Sermons in New Jer- 
sey—Old Tennent church— Places of preaching at New York 

Address to sailors — Letter to Pemberton — Interview with Gil- 
bert Tennent — Some of Whitefield's sermons printed — Departure 
from Philadelphia — Sermons on his journey to Savannah Arri- 
val and reception at Charleston — Departure for Savannah — Dan- 
gers of the way — State of things in Georgia — Whitefield revisits 
Charleston — Controversy with Commissary Garden — Lays the 
foundation-stone of the Orphan house — Sermon by Smith on the 
character of Whitefield 97 

CHAPTER Y. 

CONTINUATION OF HIS SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 

1740. 
Feebleness of Whitefield's health — Again visits Charleston, Phila- 
delphia, etc. — Extent of his former success — Extracts from Sew- 
ard's journal — Extracts from newspapers — Whitefield's letter to 
England — His correspondence on marriage — Birth and death of 
his son — His funeral sermon for his wife — Franklin and others 
on Whitefield's eloquence — Anecdote — Extract from the New 
England Weekly Journal — Return to Savannah — Manner of his 
reception — Activity at Savannah — Again visits Charleston — 
Cited into the Commissary's court — Various examinations — 
Whitefield's appeal to the Court of Chancery— Interview with 
the Commissary — Usefulness at Charleston — Sails for New Eng- 
land 129 



CONTENTS. 5 

CHAPTER VI. 

WHITEFIELD'S FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 
SEPTEMBER TO NOVEMBER, 1740. 

State of religion in New England — Testimony of Prince — Dr. I. 
Mather — Dr. Jonathan Edwards' success — Prevalence of prayer — 
Whitefield's arrival and labors at Newport — Interview with 
Clap — Honeyman — Letter from Barber — Journey to Boston — 
Interview with the Commissary and the clergy — Preaches at 
Brattle-street, Old South church, New North, Common, Pox- 
bury, Old North, Cambridge, First church — Interview with Gov- 
ernor Belcher — Roxbury — Hollis-street — Old South church — 
Brattle-street — Marblehead — Salem — Ipswich — Newbury — 
Hampton — Portsmouth — York — Return to Boston — Frequent 
preaching — Invitation to children — Interesting conversation with 
a child — Anecdote of juvenile usefulness — Remarks on an uncon- 
verted ministry — Whitefield's character of Boston — Preaches at 
Concord, Sudbury, Marlborough, Worcester, Leicester, Brook- 
field, Cold Spring, Hadley, Northampton — Revival there — White- 
field's opinion of Mr. Edwards and family — Important interview 
— Preaching at East Windsor, Westfield, Springfield, Suffield — 
Opinion of Mr. and Mrs. Edwards, Sen. — Relinquishment of 
appointments to preach — Visit to New Haven — Interview with 
Principal Clap — Departure from New England — Whitefield's 
character of it — Conversion of Mr. Emerson — Prince's account of 
Whitefield's visit — Dr. Baron Stow on its results — Anecdote, 148 

CHAPTER VII. 

LABORS IN NEW YORK AND THE MIDDLE AND SOUTH- 
ERN STATES. 

1740, 1741. 

Whitefield's arrival and labors at New York, Staten Island, and 
Newark — Mr. Burr — Meeting with Gilbert Tennent — Visit to 
Baskinridge — Tennent's preaching in Cross' barn — Whitefield 
preaches in the new house at Philadelphia — Franklin's advice to 
Gilbert Tennent — Remarkable instances of conversion — Success 
in Philadelphia — Apostrophe in a sermon — Visit to Gloucester, 
Greenwich, Cohansey, Salem, Newcastle, Fagg's Manor, Bohe- 
mia — Sails from Reedy island to Charleston — Arrival at Bethes- 
da — Remarkable escape from death — Prosecution at Charleston 
— Preaching — Letters from Boston— Departure for England — 
Separation from Messrs. Wesley — Difficulties in London — Tri- 
umph — Howel Harris 196 



6 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

FIRST AND SECOND VISITS TO SCOTLAND— LABORS 
IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 
1741-1744. 
Scheme of comprehension — Account of Rev. John Cennick — Voy- 
age to Scotland — Letter to Rodgers — Visit to Erskine — Preach- 
ing in Edinburgh — Labors at Glasgow — His sermons printed — 
Return to England— Letter from McCulloch — Renewed glance 
at Edinburgh — Public attention deeply riveted — Execution of 
a convict — Improvement of the event in a sermon — Conversion 
of a mimic — A drunken sergeant — Miss Hunter — Marquis of 
Lothian — Conduct of Rev. Mr. Ogilvie — Second visit to Scot- 
land — Cambuslang — Kilmarnock — Glance at subsequent visits — 
Orphan-house park, Edinburgh — Glasgow — Increasing reputa- 
tion — Extracts from letters — Anecdotes — Visit to Wales — Let- 
ters from America — Visit to Gloucester, Strand, Tewkesbury — 
Encouraging- news from America — Success in London — Awaken- 
ing at the Tabernacle — Visit to Gloucester and its neighborhood 
— South Wales — Return to London — Bristol — Exeter — Mr. 
Saunders — Conversion of Thomas Olivers — Birmingham — Kid- 
derminster — Health — Assizes at Gloucester — Plymouth — Deliv- 
erance from assassination — Conversion of Mr. Tanner — Visits to 
the poor — Anecdote — Embarkation for America 222 

CHAPTER IX. 

WHITEFIELD'S SECOND VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 

1744, 1745. 
Incidents of the voyage from England — Prayer heard — General 
alarm — Whitefield's illness — Arrival at York — Threatening 
sickness — Rev. Mr. Moody — Preaching at York and Portsmouth 
— Apparent danger of death — Departure for Boston — Constant 
preaching there — Chelsea — Maiden — Prince's account of his 
preaching and conduct — Objections made to his administration 
of the Lord's supper — Changes in New England — Opposition to 
Whitefield in Connecticut, New Haven, Massachusetts, Harvard 
College — Large meeting in his favor at Boston — Number of sig- 
natures to the testimony — Progress of revival — Proceedings of 
Harvard College — Whitefield's defence — Subsequent act of the 
College — Expositions at Boston, Ipswich, Portland, Exeter — Ex- 
pedition against Cape Breton — Sherburne's request — Sermon to 
the soldiers — Refusal of chaplaincy — Conversion of a colored 
trumpeter — Of a noted scoffer — Anecdote of Whitefield and Dr. 
Hopkins - 254 



CONTENTS. 7 

CHAPTER X. 

LABORS IN THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES — 

THE BERMUDAS. 

1745-1748. 

Whitefield's preaching in New York, New Jersey, Philadelphia — 
Liberal offer declined — Usefulness of his printed sermons in Vir- 
ginia — Preaches at Hanover — Isaac Oliver — Visit to Bethesda — 
His account of the Orphan-house — His character as given by the 
New York Post-boy — Public testimony as to Whitcfield's integ- 
rity — Preaching tour in Maryland — Visit to Charleston — Success 
of his preaching in Maryland — Visits New York, Newport, Ports- 
mouth, Boston — Return to Philadelphia — Bohemia — Journey to 
North Carolina — Embarkation for the Bermudas — His progress 
and labors — Honored by the governor and others — Usefulness 
among the negroes — Summary of his proceedings in the Bermu- 
das — Kindness of the people there — Voyage to England — His la- 
bors on the voyage — Arrival at Deal - 277 

CHAPTER XI. 

LABORS IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND- CHAPLAIN 

TO LADY HUNTINGDON. 

1748, 1749. 

Triumphs and trials in London — Becomes chaplain to the Countess 
of Huntingdon — Complimented by the great — Bolingbroke and 
Rev. Mr. Church — Rev. James Hervey — Honors conferred on 
Whitefield — Falsehoods of Horace Walpole — Charged with vul- 
garism — Defence — Third visit to Scotland — Return to London — 
Visit to the west of England — Conversions in Gloucestershire — 
Tour in Cornwall — Brilliant assemblies in London — Excursion to 
Exeter and Plymouth — Rev. Andrew Kinsman — Return to Lon- 
don — Decline of health and visit to Portsmouth and Wales — 
Arrival of Mrs. Whitefield from the Bermudas — Visit to the north 
of England — Popularity there — Intensely interesting services — 
Rev. W. Grimshawe — Solemn instances of mortality — Return to 
London for the winter — Usefulness 301 

CHAPTER XII. 

LABORS IN GREAT BRITAIN— FOURTH VISIT TO AMER- 
ICA—NEW TABERNACLE IN LONDON, AND TABER- 
NACLE AT BRISTOL. 

1750-1754. 

Efforts made by Whitefield for Bethesda — His ardent love for Amer- 
ica — Love to his mother — His mourning for sin— Dr. Doddridge 



8 CONTENTS. 

— London ministers — Interview with Doddridge and Hervey — 
Earthquake in London — Bishop Home's sermon — Universal con- 
sternation — Preaching of Whitefield at midnight in Hyde park — 
Whitefield and his friends at Court — Journey to Bristol — Taun- 
ton — Rev. R. Darracott — Preaching at Rotherham, Bolton, Ul- 
verston — Conversion of Mr. Thorpe — Edinburgh and other 
places in Scotland — Testimony of Hume — Second visit to Ire- 
land — Opposition on Oxmantown Green — Usefulness in Ireland 
— Rev. John Edwards — Fourth voyage to America — Interview 
with Lady Huntingdon — Moravians — Lady Huntingdon's testi- 
mony — Letter to Dr. Franklin — Itinerant labors — Revision of 
manuscripts — Erection of the new Tabernacle — Again itinerates 
— Dedication of the Tabernacle at Bristol — Somersetshire — Con- 
dolence on Mr. Wesley's sickness — Visit of Messrs. Davies and 
Tennent to England— Whitefield's fifth voyage to America- -323 



CHAPTER XIII. 

FIFTH VISIT TO AMERICA- RENEWED LABORS IN 
aREAT BRITAIN — TOTTENHAM COURT-ROAD CHAP- 
EL. 

1754-1763. 

Whitefield's arrival and proceedings in Lisbon — Lands at Beaufort, 
S. C. — Voyage to New York — New Jersey — Interview with Will- 
iam Tennent — Accompanies President Burr to New England — 
Popularity at Boston — Correspondence with Habersham — Ports- 
mouth — Rhode Island — Franklin's narrative of a drummer and 
Whitefield — Powerful address in Virginia — Pleasant interview 
at Charleston — Embarks for England — Arrival at New Haven — 
His feelings on arriving in England — Labors at the Tabernacle — 
Love for America — Journey to Bristol, Gloucestershire, Nor- 
wich — Returns to London — Reproof from Grimshawe — Serious 
illness — Earthquake at Lisbon — Tottenham Court-road Chapel — 
Conversion of Mr. Crane — Publication of "A short Address" — 
Personal character of Whitefield's preaching — His servant — Shu- 
ter — Violent persecution — Interference of government — Journey 
to Bristol — Lines on a chair — Journey to Kent, north of Eng- 
land, Scotland — Meeting at Leeds — Interview with the new gov- 
ernor of Georgia — Prosperity of Tottenham Court — Journey to 
Scotland — Ireland — Returns to London — 111 health — Anecdote — 
Another visit to Scotland — Death of friends— Debts of Bethesda 
paid — Renewed visit to Scotland — Visit to Brighton — Foote's 
mimicry — Activity — Sails on h"s sixth voyage to America- --350 



I 



CONTENTS. 
CHAPTER XIV 



SIXTH VISIT AND LABORS IN AMERICA— RENEWED 
LABORS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

1763-1767. 

Improvement of Whitefield ? s health — Friends in Virginia — Proceed- 
ings in Philadelphia — New Jersey — A collegiate hearer — New 
York — Letter from Boston Gazette — Opposition of Seabury — 
Arrival and preaching at Boston — Public thanks to him — Leaves 
Boston — New Haven — New York — New Jersey College — Phila- 
delphia—Virginia — South Carolina — Bethesda— Proceedings of 
the government — Prosperity of the Orphan-house — Thoughts of 
returning to England — Still detained in America — Sails for 
England — Arrival there — Dedicates a church at Bath — Returns 
to London — Sickness — Interest in American affairs — Rev. Sam- 
son Occum — Labors with Mr. Whitaker in England — Success — 
Whitefield ? s journey to Bristol — Success in London — Mr. Joss 
becomes his colleague — Rev. Rowland Hill — Whitefield again 
visits Bath and Bristol — Mr. Fletcher's sermons in London — Pref- 
ace to Bunyan's works — Whitefield in Whales and Gloucester- 
shire — North of England — Disappointed in obtaining a char- 
ter for Bethesda - - -375 

« 

CHAPTER XV. 

HIS LAST LABORS IN GREAT BRITAIN — COLLEGE 
AT TREVECCA— EARL OF BUCHAN— TUNBRIDGE 
WELLS. 

1767-1769. 

Letter to Keen — Whitefield preaches before the Book Society — 
Change in his style and manner of preaching — Expulsion of six 
students from Oxford— Whitefield's letter to the Vice-chancel- 
lor — Usefulness of the expelled young men — Letter to a gentle- 
man at Wisbeach— To Captain Scott— To Hon. and Rev. Walter 
Shirley — Death and funeral services of the Earl of Buchan — 
Whitefield's last visit to Edinburgh— Death of Mrs. Whitefield— 
White-field's own sickness — Dedication of the college at Trevec- 
ca — Improvement of his health — Letter to Mr. Shirley — Letter 
of Dr. Franklin to Whitefield— WhitefiehTs remarks on it— Ded- 
ication of church at Tunbridge Wells — Contemplated voyage to 
America — His last sermon — Account of Rev. George Burder — 
Messrs. Wilson— Embarkation of Whitefield— Detained in the 
Downs — Ordination and preaching at Deal — Anecdote of Dr. 

Gibbons— Clears the Channel— Arrival at Charleston 400 

1* 



10 CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

SEVENTH VISIT AND LAST LABORS IN AMERICA"^ 

DEATH. 

17C9, 1770. 

Arrival at Bethesda — Its prosperity — Honors paid him by the legis- 
lature — Letter at Charleston — Plan of the proposed college — 
Visits Philadelphia — Preaches at Burlington, New York, Albany 
— Attends an execution — Visit to Sharon — Conversion of Mr. 
Randall — Visit to Boston — Letters to Messrs. Wright and Keen 
— Letter in Pennsylvania Journal — Arrival at Exeter — Anec- 
dote — Vast congregation — Delivers his last sermon — Account of 
it — His solemnly interesting appearance — Rodgers' Journal — 
Journey of Whitefield to Newburyport — Alarming illness — 
Death — His remarks to Dr. Finley — Arrangements for the funer- 
al — Its solemn services — Cenotaph 423 

CHAPTER XVII. 

TESTIMONIES AND FACTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF WHITE- 
FIELD'S CHARACTER. 

Funeral sermon by Dr. Cooper — Respect shown to his memory in 
Georgia — Whitefield county — Sermon by Rev. Mr. Ellington — 
Arrival of the news in London — Sermon by Rev. J. Wesley — 
Rev. John Newton — Anecdote — Reply of Bacon the sculptor — 
Visits to his tomb — Old man in Ipswich — Whiteficld's indifference 
to his reputation and ease — Institution at Georgia — Laborious 
life — Extraordinary voice — Use of common facts — Anecdotes — 
His solemnity of manner — Testimony of an American preacher — 
Of Winter — Anecdotes — Sermons in storms — Appearance in the 
pulpit— Character of his printed sermons — His devotional spirit — 
Visiting the sick — Intercourse with society — Neatness -445 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

CHARACTER OF WHITEFIELD AS A PRE ACHER— CEN- 
TENNIAL COMMEMORATIONS. 

Prominence given by him to the truths of salvation — His ardent 
glow of feeling — His direct address — His habitual dependence on 
the Spirit of God — Dealt with men as immortal beings — Dr. 
Hamilton's estimate of Whitefield — Comparison of Whitefield and 
Wesley — Centennial commemorations — Hymns by Mr. Condcr — 
Usefulness — Bristol Tabernacle — Mr. James' sermon — Character 
of Whitefield's ministry, by Mr. Glanville - - -479 



PREFACE. 



The excellent Matthew Henry has very truly said, 
" There are remains of great and good men, which, 
like Elijah's mantle, ought to be gathered up ana pre- 
served by the survivors — their sayings, their writings, 
their examples ; that as their works follow them in 
the reward of them, they may stay behind in the ben- 
efit of them. 77 

Influenced by this and kindred sentiments, the 
compiler of this volume has devoted no small labor 
to gather from every source to which he could gain 
access, whatever appeared to him important to be 
known respecting the most distinguished uninspired 
preacher perhaps of any age or country. Whatever 
may be the faults of the work, to use the language of 
the Eev. Dr. Campbell, one of the present pastors of 
Whitefield's churches in London, in reference to a 
short sketch he had himself prepared of our great 
evangelist, " It will serve to bring him and his apos- 
tolic labors before the minds of vast multitudes of 
the rising generation, to whom both are all but un- 
known ; and this is far from unimportant. What- 
ever tends to fix the minds of men afresh upon the 
character of Whitefield is, and it always will be, 
something gained to the cause of true religion. The 
contemplation of that character is one of the most 
healthful exercises that can occupy a Christian heart, 



12 PREFACE. 

or a Christian understanding. It is an admirable 
theme for ministerial meditation. It tends equally to 
humble, to instruct , and to encourage ; to excite love 
to Christ, zeal for his glory, and compassion for the 
souls of men. What Alexander and Csesar, Charles 
XII. of Sweden and Napoleon the first, are to those 
of the sons of men who have not yet ceased to 'learn 
war/ that Whitefield and Wesley are to those who 
aspire to eminent usefulness as ministers and mission- 
aries of the cross. 77 

In the preparation of this memoir, the compiler 
has sought to collect together incidents which might 
interest and instruct, especially in connection with 
Whitefield's labors in America ; to present him as 
much as possible in his own dress ; and to use the 
facts of his life to excite and cherish his own spirit, 
so far as he had the spirit of Christ. Facts reflect- 
ing on the reputation and feelings of others have 
been used only as the interests of truth seemed to 
demand. 

It would have been easy to place on almost every 
page an array of authorities, and to give here a long 
list of friends to whom the writer has been indebted 
for aid ; but the sole object of the volume is the honor 
of Christ in the salvation of men, and that this may 
be accomplished, we pray that the blessing of Heaven 
may rest upon it. 

Philadelphia, 1857. 



GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 



CHAPTER I. 

MORAL, STATE OF GREAT BRITAIN IN THE EARLY 
PART OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY— WHITE- 
FIELD FROM HIS BIRTH TO HIS FIRST SERMON. 

That we may have a clear and comprehensive view 
of the labors and success of George Whitefield, it is 
important that we consider the moral condition of 
Great Britain and its dependencies when the Head of 
the church brought him on the field of action. The 
latter part of the seventeenth and the beginning of the 
eighteenth centuries presented in that country a scene 
of moral darkness, the more remarkable as it so soon 
succeeded the triumph of evangelical truth which dis- 
tinguished the seventeenth century, and which is per- 
petuated in a religious Jiteratur e that will bless the 
world. Causes had long been at work which pro- 
duced such insensibility and decline as to all that is 
good, and such a bold and open activity in evil, as it 
is hoped the vvm$ ftfi^^^ffifiy avert from his churches 
in all future time. The doctrine of the divine right 
of kings to implicit obedience on the part of their sub- 
jects ; the principle of piiffitly. s&™ tml of the minds of 
men in religious matters ; and clerical influence, sus- 



14 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

tained by kingly authority, in favor of sports on the 
Lord's day, together with the evil examples of men high 
in rank and power, had produced their natural results 
on the masses of the people, and make it painful, even 
at this distant period, to survey the scene. 

Nor were these all the evils of that day. The ex- 
pulsion from their pulpits, by the "Act of Uniformi- 
ty/ 7 of two thousand of the most able and useful of 
the clergy in England, had led to great ignorance 
and neglect of religion ; and though men like Leigh- 
ton and Owen, Flavel and Baxter, with Bunyan and 
a host of others, had continued, in spite of opposing 
laws, to preach when they were not shut up in prison, 
and to write their immortal practical works, by the 
time of which we are speaking they had been called 
to their eternal reward, leaving very few men of like 
spirit behind them. Thus infidelity, profligacy, and 
formalisjjul^ost nr>i'vp|;g^]1y prevailed. 

The low state of religion in the established church 
at that time may be learned from the Rev. Augustus 
M. Toplady, himself one of its ministers, who died in 
1778. In a sermon yet extant he says, "I believe no 
denomination of professing Christians, the church of 
Rome excepted, were so generally void of the light 
and life of godliness, so generally destitute of the doc- 
trine and of the ^fflfiPpftf-t 1 ^ gospel, as was the church 
of England, considered as a body, about fifty years 
ago. At that period a converted minister in the estab- 
lishment was as great a woMeras a comet ; but now, 
blessed be God, since that precious, that great apostle 
of the English empire, the late dear Mr. Whitefield, 
was raised up in the spirit and power of Elias, the 



MORAL STATE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 15 

word of God has run and been glorified ; many have 
believed and been added to the Lord all over the 
three kingdoms ; and blessed be his name, the great 
Shepherd and Bishop of Souls continues still to issue 
his word, and great is the company of preachers, 
greater and greater every year." 

If it be said that Toplady, as he belonged to a 
different school of theology from that which then gen- 
erally prevailed, could scarcely be expected to be 
impartial, we ask leave to transcribe a few lines from 
Bishop Butler, who within six months of Whitefield's 
ordination wrote thus : " It is come, I know not how, 
to be taken for granted by many persons, that Chris- 
tianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry ; but 
that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious. 
And accordingly they treat it as if in the present age 
this were an agreed point among all people of discern- 
ment ; and nothing remained but to set it up as a 
principal subject oj^mirth and ridicule, as it were by 
way of reprisals for its having sq lofl g interrupte d the 
pleasures of the world." Bishop Warburton, who 
commenced his ministry a tew years belore White- 
field, and who cannot be charged with enthusiasm, 
says, "I have lived to see that fatal crisis, when re- 
ligion hath lost its hold on the minds of the people/' 

Many other witnesses might be brought to testify 
that error and worldly mindedness had made mourn 
ful havoc among the clergy, and that spiritual relig- 
ion had been almost buried injbrms and ceremonies. 
A recent writer has well described the state of relig- 
ion in the established church at that time, as only to 
be compared to a frozen or Dai sied carcass . " There/' 



16 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

says this Episcopal clergyman, " were the time-honored 
formularies which the wisdom of the reformers had 
provided. There were the services and lessons from 
Scripture, just in the same order as we have them now. 
But as to preaching the gospel, in the established 
church there was almost none. The distinguishing 
doctrines of Christianity — the atonement, the work 
and office of Christ and the Spirit — were compara- 
tively lost sight of. The Vast majority of sermons 
; were miserable moral essays, utterly devoid of any 
i thing calculated to awaken, convert, save, or sanctify 
souls." Southey, a biographer of Wesley, who assur- 
edly will not be accused of too strong a tendency to 
evangelical truth, is compelled to say, " A laxity of 
opinions as well as morals obtained, and infidelity, a 
plague which had lately found its way into the country, 
was becoming so prevalent, that the vice-chancellor 
of the university at Oxford, in a programma, exhorted 
the tutors to discharge their duties by double dili- 
gence, and had forbidden the under-graduates to read 
such books as might tend to the weakening of their 
faith." 

There were undoubtedly some learned and con- 
scientious bishops at this era. Such men were Seeker 
and Gibson, Lowth and Home, Butler, and others. 
But even the best of them seem sadly to have misun- 
derstood the requirements of the day they lived in. 
They spent their strength in writing apologies Jor 
Christianity, and contending against infidels. They 
cculd not see that without the dirq^t .preaching of the 
essential doctrines of the gospel, their labors must be 
Badly defective. The man who dared to preach the 



MORAL STATE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 17 

doctrines of the Bible, and in harmony with the Arti- 
cles and Homilies of his church, was set down as an 
enthusiast or fanati c. 

Among those who had dissented from the estab- 
lished hierarchy, and who were untrammelled by the 
impositions of secular authority, the state of vital god- 
liness was also unhappily very low. The noble spirits 
of early non-conformity had passed from earth, or 
crossed the Atlantic to the frozen shores of New Eng- 
land, and a race of men had sprung up, some of whom 
retained the tenets of orthodoxy, but had lost its 
power ; while others reposed on comfortable endow- 
ments, and lulled themselves, or were drawn by favor- 
able breezes, into the cold elements of Arianism and 
Socinianism. As persons in the frozen regions are 
said to sleep longer and more soundly than others, so 
did they ; and a more terrific blast of the trumpet of 
the gospel was required to rouse and awake them 
from their spiritual slumbers. Happily indeed for the 
world, and for the church in it, there were some ex- 
ceptions. Watts and Guyse and Doddridge, and their 
pious associates in different parts of the land, were 
laborers together in " God's husbandry," and ceased 
not to cultivate it with affectionate faithfulness and 
care ; and wherever their labors extended, the plants 
of grace g rew and flourished. Darracott, " the star of 
the west," threw his mild rays over the vales of Som- 
erset ; and in the north also a few faithful men were 
found. 

Nor have we even now said all that should be 
written as to the character of those times. The high- 
est personages in the land then openly lived in ways 



18 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

contrary to the law of God, and no man rebuked 
them. Profligacy and irreligion were reputable and 
respectable. Judging from the description we have 
of men and manners in those days, a gentleman might 
have been defined as a creature who got drunk, gam- 
bled, swore, fought duels, and violated the seventh 
commandment, and for all this very few thought the 
worse of him. 

Those too were the days when the men whom even 
kings delighted to honor were such as Bolingbroke, 
Chesterfield, Walpole, and Newcastle. To be an in- 
fidel, to obtain power by intrigue, and to retain it by 
the grossest and most notorious bribery, were consid- 
ered no disqualifications even for the highest offices. 
Such men indeed were not only tolerated, but praised. 
In those days too, Hume, an avowed infidel, put forth 
his History, and obtained a pension. Sterne and 
Swift then wrote their talented, but obscene books ; 
both of them were clergymen, but the public sawlittle 
inconsistency in their conduct. Fielding uud Smol- 
lett were the popular authors, and the litcary taste 
of high and low was suited by Roderick Random. 
Peregrine Pickle, Joseph Andrews, and Turn Jones. 
These authors were ingenious heathen philosophers, 
assuming the name of Christians, and forcibl^jmgan- 
izing Christianity for the sake of pleasing the world. 

Turning to Scotland, we find that the bold proc- 
lamation of the discriminating truths of the gospel 
which characterize the preaching of Knox, Welsh, 
and others, was being rapidly laid aside, and cold 
formal addresses, verging towards a kind of Socinian- 
ism were becoming fashionable. Old Mr. Ht/tcMn- 



MORAL STATE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 19 

son, minister of Kilellan, in Renfrewshire, who saw 
but the beginning of this sacl change, used to say to 
Wodrow the historian, "When I compare the times 
before the restoration with those since the revolution, 
I must own that the young ministers preach accurate- 
ly, and methodically ; but there was far more of the 
power and efficacy of the Spirit and of the grace of 
God went along with sermons in those days than now. 
For my own part — all the glory be to God — I seldom 
set my foot in a pulpit in those days, but I had notice 
of the blessed effects of the word." It is true, that 
even then there were a few faithful witnesses for God 
in Scotland, such as the brothers Erskine, in the Se- 
cession church ; but for the most part, coldness, bar- 
renness, and death prevailed. The people knew not 
God, and were strangers to the lyjyjjjjijig influence 
and power of the gospel. • 

The Arianism of England had been carried to the 
north of Ireland, and finding a state of feeling suit- 
able to its reception, it took root and grew up, so 
as to characterize a distinct section of the Presby- 
terian church, then and still distinguished by the 
name of the Remonstrajjj; Synod. The south and 
west of Ireland were subjected to a blight not less 
withering, though of a different kind, and which con- 
tinued much longer — continued, to a great extent, 
throughout the whole of the last century. The clergy 
were usually sons of the gentry, and accustomed to 
their sporting, drinking, j&yL^tous habits. They 
had no preparation for ministerial duties but a col- 
lege degree ; and no education, either literary or 
moral, which had not been obtained among wild 



20 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

young men at the university. According to the in- 
terest which they happened to have, they passed at 
once from college to ministerial charges, and again 
mixed in all the dissipations of the districts where 
these lay. Ignorant of the truth, they and their con- 
gregations were satisfied with some short moral dis- 
course. Many of the people were almost as ignorant 
of the Scriptures and scripture truth as the inhabi- 
tants of Hindostan. The Catholic priests meanwhile 
were at work among the people, and they had many 
to help them. The sick and the dying were watched ; 
their fears were wrought upon ; they were told of 
the power which the priests had, of the influence pos- 
sessed by the Virgin, and much about the old church; 
and as soon as any seemed to give way, on whatever 
point, the priest was sent for, who plied them anew, 
and seldom failed in succeeding with the poor igno- 
rant people. They were now ready to receive ab- 
solution ; but he had farther conditions to propose. 
The whole family must submit to be rebaptized, or at 
least promise to attend mass — and this also was not 
unfrequently gained ; the Protestant clergyman being 
all the while at a distance, neither knowing nor much 
caring what was going on. In this way great num- 
bers of the lower and middle classes of the Protes- 
tants went over to the church of Rome. Throughout 
whole districts the Protestant churches were almost 
emptied, and many of those in rural districts were 
allowed to fall into ruins. 

• Of Wales it is not important at present to say 
much. From the middle ages downwards, great dark- 
ness and superstition had prevailed among its moun- 



MORAL STATE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 21 

tains. It is true that in the days of James I., a cler- 
gyman named Wroth, whose conversion to the truth 
had been remarkable, had labored with eminent zeal 
and success, but at the period of which we are now 
writing declension had succeeded. Within the estab- 
lishment all was cold and dead ; nearly every minister 
was ignorant of the Welsh language, a fact which 
also applied to several successive bishops, while the 
state of morals, among even the leaders of the hierar- 
chy, was truly deplorable. An old Methodist simply 
but truly described the country at this period, and of 
his correct narrative we will here give a free trans- 
lation. 

The land, he tells us, was dark indeed. Scarcely 

any of the lower ranks could read at all. The mor- 

J ■ ,,m 

als of the country were very corrupt; and in this 
respect there was no difference between high and low, 
layman and clergyman. Gluttony, drunkenness, and 

^licentiousness prevailed through the whole country. 

|Nor were the operations of the church at all adapted 

Mto repress these evils. From the pulpit the name of 
/ythe Redeemer was scarce ly heard ; nor was much men- 

I tion made of the natural sjnfulnffls of man, or of the 
influence of the Holy, Spirit. On Sunday mornings, 
the poor were more constant in their attendance at 
church than the gentry; but the Sunday evenings 
were spent by all in idle amusements. Every Sabbath 
there was practised a kind of sport, called in Welsh 
Achwaren-gamp, in which all the young men of the 
neighborhood had a trial of strength, and the people 
assembled from the surrounding country to witness 
their feats. On a Saturday night, particularly in the 



22 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

summer, the young men and women held what they 
called Nosweithian cann, or singing eves ; that is, they 
met together and amused themselves by singing in 
turns to the harp, till the dawn of the Sabbath. 
These things, with the performance of rustic dramas, 
would occupy sometimes the whole of the sacred day 
itself; while a set of vagabonds, called the Bobl 
gerdded, or walking people, used to traverse the vil- 
lages, begging with impunity, to the disgrace alike of 
the law and the country. With all this social spright- 
liness, the Welsh were then a superstitious, and even 
a gloomy people. They still retained many habits 
apparently derived from paganism, and not a few of 
the practices of popery. Their funerals, like those of 
the Irish, were scenes of riot and drunkenness, fol- 
lowed by prayers for the release of the deceased from 
the pains of purgatory. Such was the superstition of 
the people, that when Methodism was first introduced 
among them, many of the peasantry expressed their 
horror of the new opinions by the truly Popish ges- 
ture of crossing the forehead ; and when Wesley first 
visited them, he pronounced them " as little versed in 
the principles of Christianity as a Creek or Cherokee 
Indian." To this declaration he added the striking 
remark, that, " notwithstanding their superstition and 
ignorance, the people l were ripe for the gospel/ and 
most enthusiastically anxious to avail themselves of 
every opportunity of instruction." 

As an illustration of the truth of the remark we 
ha\e just introduced from the discerning Wesley, we 
may mention an incident which occurred in 1736. At 
this period dissent itself was reduced so low in the 



MORAL STATE OF GREAT BRITAIN. 23 

country, that there were only six dissenting houses of 
worship in all North Wales. One Sunday, Mr. Lewis 
Rees, a dissenting minister from South Wales, and the 
father of Dr. Rees, the author of the celebrated Cyclo- 
pedia which bears his name, visited Pwllheli, a town 
on the promontory of Sleyn, in Caernarvonshire, and 
one of the few places in which the Independents still 
had a chapel. After the service, the congregation, 
collecting around him, complained very sorely that 
their numbers were rapidly diminishing, that the few 
who yet remained were for the most part poor, and 
that every thing connected with their cause looked 
gloomy. To which the minister replied, " The dawn 
of religion is again breaking out in South Wales," 
referring them to the fact, that already a distin- 
guished man — Howel Harris; — had risen up, going 
about instructing the people in the truths of the 
gospel. Such was the character of the times when 
God was raising up agents to revive and extend his 
cause. We shall before long return to Wales with 
lively interest. 

" Such," says the eloquent Robert Hall, " was the 
situation of things when Whitefield and Wesley made 
their appearance, who, whatever failings the severest 
criticism can discover in their character, will be hailed 
by posterity as the second reformers of England. 
Nothing was farther from the views of these excellent 
men than to innovate on the established religion of 
their country ; their sole aim was to recall the people 
to the good old way, and to imprint the doctrines of 
the Articles and Homilies on the spirits of men. But 
this doctrine had been so lorn? a dead letter, and so 



24 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

completely obliterated from the mind by contrary 
instructions, that the attempt to revive it met with 
all the opposition that innovation is sure to encoun- 
ter, in addition to what naturally results from the 
nature of the doctrine itself, which has to contend 
with the whole force of human corruption. The re- 
vival of the old, appeared like the introduction of a 
new religion; and the hostility it excited was less 
sanguinary, but scarcely less virulent, than that which 
signalized the first publication of Christianity. The 
gospel of Christ, or that system of truth which was 
laid at the foundation of the Keformation, has since 
made rapid advances, and in every step of its progress 
has sustained the most furious assaults." 

It ought here to be stated, as illustrating the prov- 
idence of God in preparing the British empire for the 
reception of the gospel, that the revolution of 1688 
introduced the spirit of toleration, and in 1714, the 
very year of Whitefield's birth, Anne, the last English 
sovereign of a persecuting spirit, died, and the throne 
was assumed by George I., the first prince of the 
house of Hanover. The way of the Lord was thus 
prepared for bright illustrations of his mercy. 

Rising from the beautiful valley of the Severn, and 
on the borders of that noble stream, reposes in an- 
tique glory the affluent city of Gloucester, with its 
regular streets, and its majestic cathedral and other 
relics of bygone days. In that city the traveller 
may examine three spots which will long be interest- 
ing to the student of ecclesiastical curiosities. The 
first of these is the ancient church of Mary de Crypt, 



TO HIS FIRST SERMON. 25 

where reposes the dust of Robert Raikes, the founder 
of Sunday-schools ; the second, is the little stone 
which, in a pensive-looking inclosure, marks the site 
on which the truly noble-minded and Protestant Bishop 
Hooper was burnt, an early martyr of bloody Mary's 
reign. There wicked men stood around to light up 
die flames, and to mock his sorrows ; but as we stand 
and look, we exult in the subsequent triumphs of 
truth. 

The third spot, and the one to us at the present 
moment the most interesting, is the Bell inn or hotel, 
yet standing, though enlarged and beautified since 
the period of which we write. There Whitefield — 
the saint, the seraph, the " angel flying in the midst 
of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach to 
them that dwell on the earth 7? — first breathed the 
vital air. Venerable city, we will rejoice that though 
within thy walls one glorious luminary of salvation 
was extinguished, another "burning and shining light 77 
was raised up to diffuse joy and happiness over the 
two most influential quarters of the globe, and a third 
has since been given to suggest the simple plan by 
which millions of the young have already acquired 
the knowledge of salvation. 

George Whitefield, the sixth son of Thomas and 
Elizabeth Whitefield, was born December 16, 1714, old 
style. Concerning his father and mother he writes, 
" The former died when I was two years old ; the 
latter died in December, 1751, in the seventy -first 
year of her age, and has often told me how she en- 
dured fourteen weeks 7 ,, slowness after she brought me 
into the world ; but was used to say, even when I 

Whitpfiirid Q 



26 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

was an infant, that she expected more comfort from 
me than from any other of her children. This, with the 
circumstance of my being born in an inn, has often 
been of service to me, in exciting my endeavors to 
make good my mother's expectations, and so follow 
the example of my dear Saviour, who was laid in a 
manger belonging to an inn." 

In one of his journals, which he commenced at a 
very early part of his ministry, Whitefield details with 
great simplicity many incidents of his childhood and 
youth ; from which it appears, that though at times 
he had many serious thoughts and impressions, the 
general course of his life, till the age of sixteen, was 
irreligious. He tells us that in early youth he was 
" so brutish as to hate instruction, and used purposely 
to shun all opportunities of receixiag^jt, 77 and that 
he spent much money, improperly obtained from his 
mother, in cards, plays, and romances, " which," bays 
he, " were my heart's delight. Often have I joined 
with others in playing roguish tricks ; but was gener- 
ally, if not always, happily detected : for this I have 
often since, and do now bless and praise God. 77 His 
full confessions of this character are very affecting, 
and should be a caution to young persons to repel all 
such temptations. 

When George was about ten years of age, his 
mother married a second time, thus forming a connec- 
tion which led to much unhappiness. He was, how- 
ever, continued at school ; and when twelve years oh 1 
was transferred to the grammar-school of St. Mary i* 
Crypt, where he remained about three years. Having 
a graceful elocution and a good memory, he gained 



TO HIS FIRST SEEMON. 27 

much credit for delivering speeches before the city 
corporation at the annual visitation of the school, and 
received pecuniary rewards for his performances on 
those occasions. How deeply he afterwards deplored 
these celebrations, especially the performance of pla) e 
in connection with his school-fellows, may be learned 
from his own words : " I cannot but observe here, 
with much concern of mind, how this way of training 
up youth has a natural tendency to debauch the mind, 
to raise ill passions, and to stuff the memory with 
things as contrary to the gospel of Christ, as darkness 
to light, hell to heaven." This sad tendency was 
but too clearly evinced in the case of Whitefield him- 
self. " I got acquainted," he says, " with such a set 
of debauched, abandoned, atheistical youths, that if 
God, by his free, unmerited, and special grace, had 
not delivered me out of their hands, I should have sat- 
in the scorner's chair, and made a mock at sin. By 
keeping company with them, my thoughts of religion 
grew more and more like theirs. I went to public 
service only to make sport, and walk about. I took 
pleasure in their lewd conversation. I began to rea- 
son as they did, and to ask why God had given me 
passions, and not permitted me to gratify them. In 
short, I soon made great proficiency in the school of 
the devil. I affected to look rakish, and was in a 
fair way of being as infamous as the worst of them." 
These were the things, and not oratory, as has some- 
times been said, which Whitefield learned from plays 
and acting. 

In the midst of all this, his conscience often made 
liim unhappy; and he wished, if possible, to combine 



28 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

religion with his pleasures. He purchased and care- 
fully read " Ken's Manual for Winchester Scholars/' 
a book which commended itself as having comforted 
his mother in her afflictions, and which he afterwards 
considered to have been "of great benefit to his 
soul." 

At the age of fifteen, he thought he had acquired 
learning enough for any ordinary occupation in life, 
and as his mother's business was declining, he per- 
suaded her to allow him to leave school and assist in 
labor. " I began," says he, " to assist her occasionally 
in the public-house, till at length I put on my blue 
apron and my snuffers, washed mops, cleaned rooms, 
and in one word, became professed and common drawer 
for nearly a year and a half." In the midst of the 
activity called for in such a situation, it pleased God 
to renew his religious impressions, which induced him, 
at least at intervals, to attend with much earnestness 
to the concerns of his soul. 

From his childhood, Whitefield tells us, he "was 
always fond of being a clergyman, and used frequently 
to imitate the ministers' reading prayers." Nor did 
this tendency towards clerical engagements cease as 
he became older. "Notwithstanding," he says, "I 
was thus employed in a large inn, and had sometimes 
the care of the whole house upon my hands, yet I com- 
posed two or three sermons, and dedicated one of 
them to my elder brother. One day, I remember, I 
was very much pressed to self-examination, and found 
myself very unwilling to look into my heart. Fre- 
quently I read the Bible when sitting up at night. 
And a dear youth, now with God, would often entreat 



TO HIS FIRST SERMON. * 29 

me, when serving at the bar, to go to Oxford. My 
general answer was, i I wish I could. 7 ;; 

His mother's difficulties increasing, it became ne- 
cessary for her to leave the inn ; in which s'ie was suc- 
ceeded by one of her married sons, with whom George 
for some time remained to continue his assistance in 
the business. Some disagreement, however, arising 
between them, he after a time took his departure from 
the inn, and went to spend a month with his eldest 
brother at Bristol. Keturning from that city to Glou- 
cester, he resided for a short season with his mother. 
While thus living unemployed, without any definite 
object before him, and waiting the openings of provi- 
dence, his mother was visited by an Oxford student, 
a servitor of Pembroke college in that university. 
In the course of their conversation, he told her, that 
after all his expenses at college for the quarter 
were discharged, he had one penny remaining. She 
immediately exclaimed, " This will do for my son l v 
and turning to him, said, "Will you go to Oxford, 
George ? 77 He replied, " With all my heart. 77 Appli- 
cation was immediately made to several friends who 
had influence at the college, and they pledged them- 
selves to serve her. In this confidence, her favorite 
son returned to the grammar-school, where he not 
only resumed his studies with greater diligence, but 
endeavored, and not altogether in vain, to promote 
religion and virtue among his associates. 

Having fully secured his literary preparation for 
the university, Whitefield removed to Oxford in his 
eighteenth year, and was immediately admitted, as a 
servitor, into Pembroke college. He soon found that 



30 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

the seat of learning was also a scene of danger. From 
the period of 1662, when the two thousand Non-con- 
formists had been expelled from the church, the uni- 
versities had been sinking into a moral lethargy, pre- 
ferring uniformity to^vital religion. Our young ser- 
vitor was shocked with the impiety of the students in 
general, and dreading their influence on himself, he 
as much as possible abstained from their society, and 
shut himself up in his study. 

Before ho went to Oxford, Whitefield had heard 
of a class of young men in the university who " lived 
by rule and method," and were therefore called Meth- 
odists. They were much talked of, and generally 
despised. Of this party, John Wesley, a Fellow of 
Lincoln college, and already in holy orders, was the 
leader, his brother Charles being also as warmly at- 
tached to it. They avowed that the great object of 
their lives was to save their souls, and to live wholly 
to the glory of God ; and rarely have men subjected 
themselves to greater self-denials and austerities. 
Drawn towards them by kindred feelings, Whitefield 
strenuously defended them whenever he heard them 
reviled, and when he saw them going, through a crowd 
manifesting their ridicule, every Sunday to receive the 
sacrament at St. Mary's or Christ church, he was 
strongly inclined to follow their example. 

For more than a year he intensely desired to be 
acquainted with them, but a sense of his pecuniary 
inferiority to them prevented his advances. At length, 
learning that a pauper had attempted suicide, White- 
field sent a poor woman to inform Charles Wesley, 
that so he might visit her, and administer religious 



TO HIS FIRST SERMON. 31 

instruction. He charged the woman not to tell Mr. 
Wesley who sent her, but, contrary to this injunction, 
she told his name ; and Charles Wesley, who had fre- 
quently seen Whitefield walking by himself, on the 
next morning invited him to breakfast. An introduc- 
tion to the little brotherhood soon followed, and he 
also, like them, " began to live by rule, and pick up 
the very fragments of his time, that not a moment 
might be lost." 

It is painful to read Whitefield 7 s own account of the 
mortifications of body to which he now submitted; and 
we are not surprised that, as the result, his health 
was so reduced as to place even his life in danger. 
All this time he had no clear view of the way of sal- 
vation, and was " seeking to work out a righteousness 
of his own." In this state he lay on his bed, his 
tongue parched with fever, and the words of the dy- 
ing Saviour, " I thirst/ 7 were impressed on his mind. 
Remembering that this thirst occurred near the end 
of the Saviour's sufferings, the thought arose in his 
mind, " Why may it not be so with me ? Why may 
I not now receive deliverance and comfort? Why 
may I not now dare to trust and rejoice in the par- 
doning mercy of^ God ?" There was, as Tracy has 
said, no reason why he might not — why he ought not. 
He saw nothing to forbid him. He prayed in hope, 
borrowing language from the fact which suggested 
the train of thought — " I thirst, I thirst for faith in 
pardoning love. Lord, I believe ; help thou mine 
unbelief. 77 His prayer was heard. He dared to trust 
in the mercy of God, as revealed in the death of Jesus 
Christ for sinners. Conscience and his Bible bore 



32 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

witness that he did right. The load that had sc 
heavily oppressed him, the load of guilt and terror 
and anxiety, that weighed down his spirit while he 
sinfully and ungratefully hesitated to trust in divine 
mercy, was gone. He saw the trustworthiness of the 
mercy of God in Christ, and his heart rejoiced. 

" Though, 77 as Tracy has well said, " the English 
universities were established mainly for the purpose 
of educating men for the ministry, Whitefield was iiot 
likely to gain a good knowledge of theology there. 
He took another, and a characteristic course. Some 
time after his conversion, when he was at Gloucester, 
he says, ' I began to read the holy Scriptures upon my 
knees ; laying aside all other books, and praying over, 
if possible, every line and word. This proved meat 
indeed and drink indeed to my soul. I daily received 
fresh life, light, and power from above. I thus got 
more true knowledge in reading the book of God in 
one month, than I could ever have acquired from all 
the writings of men. 7 77 

Every hour of Whitefield 7 s time, especially after 
he had been " filled with peace and joy in believing, 77 
was sacredly devoted to preparation for the great 
work to which he had now solemnly devoted himself. 
He visited the prisoners in the jail, and the poor in 
their cottages, and gave as much time as he could to 
communion with God in his closet. His friends now 
earnestly importuned him to apply for ordination ; 
but from this his deep sense of unworthiness made 
him shrink. Besides, he intended to have a hundred 
and fifty sermons carefully written before he began 
to preach. He had as yet but one, and he lent that to 



TO HIS FIRST SERMON. 38 

a neighboring clergyman, to convince him that he was 
not yet fit to be ordained. The clergyman kept it 
for two weeks, divided it into two, preached it to his 
own people, and then returned it to Whitefield, with 
a guinea for the use of it. 

Still, however, the work of preparation for the 
ministry was rapidly going on. The state of his 
health compelled him to retire for a season from Ox- 
ford, and he returned home to increase the depth of 
his piety, and to be led, little ^ as he thought of it, at 
once to the pulpit. He writes, " what sweet com- 
munion had I daily vouchsafed with God in prayer, 
after my coming to Gloucester. How often have I 
been carried out beyond myself, when meditating in 
the fields. How assuredly I felt that Christ dwelt in 
me, and I in him ; and how daily did I walk in the 
comforts of the Holy Ghost, and was edified and re- 
freshed in the multitude of peace. I always observed 
that as my inward strength increased, so my outward 
sphere of action increased proportionably." 

Thus, happy in himself, and thankful to the gra- 
cious God who made him so, the affectionate soul of 
George Whitefield ardently desired that others might 
participate in his sacred joys. In order to advance 
this object, he mixed in the society of young people, 
and endeavored to awaken them to a just sense of the 
nature of true religion. Some were convinced of the 
truth, and united with him in religious exercises ; and 
these were some of the first-fruits of his pious labors. 
His discovery of the necessity of regeneration, like 
Melancthon's great discovery of the truth, led him to 

imagine that no one could resist the evidence which 

2* 



34 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

convinced his own mind. He writes, " Upon this, 
like the woman of Samaria, when Christ revealed 
himself to her at the well, I had no rest in my soul 
till I wrote letters to my relations, telling them 
there was such a thing as the mw birth. I imagined 
they would have gladly received it; but, alas, my 
words seemed to them as idle tales. They thought I 
was going beside myself." He visited the jail every 
day, and read and prayed with the prisoners; at- 
tended public worship very frequently, and read twice 
or three times a week to some poor people in the city. 
In addition to all this, he tells us, " During my stay 
here, God enabled me to give a public testimony of 
my repentance as to seeing and acting plays; for 
hearing the strollers had come to town, and knowing 
what an egregious offender I had been, I was stirred 
up to extract Mr. Law's excellent treatise, entitled, 
" The absolute Unlawfulness of the Stage Entertain- 
ment." The printer, at my request, put a little of it 
in the newspaper for six weeks successively ; and God 
was pleased to give it his blessing." 

In this manner Whitefield employed himself dur- 
ing nine months ; and one effect of so doing was, that 
the partition wall of bigotry was soon broken down 
in his heart. He says, " I loved all, of whatever de- 
nomination, who loved the Lord Jesus Christ in sin- 
cerity." This statement in his diary is connected 
with an account of the benefit he derived from study- 
ing the works of the Non-conformists. " Baxter's Call," 
and "Alleinc's Alarm," so accorded with his own 
ideas of fidelity and unction, that wherever he recog- 
nized their spirit he acknowledged " a brother beloved." 



TO HIS FIRST SERMON. 35 

On this portion of his history we dwell with unspeak- 
able delight ; the only drawback is an undue impor- 
tance he appears to have attached to dreams; and even 
those, considered as an index to his waking hours, are 
interesting, revealing as they do his deep solicitude 
on the behalf of souls. 

Here then, before he had completed his twenty- 
first year, we see Whitefield returned to Gloucester, 
and such was already the fame of his piety and talents, 
that Dr. Benson, the bishop of the diocese, offered to 
dispense, in his favor, with the rule which forbids the 
ordination of deacons at so unripe an age. Thus 
graphically did he afterwards describe his acceptance 
of this proposal. 

" I never prayed against any corruption I had in 
my life so much as I did against going into holy 
orders so soon as my friends were for having me go. 
Bishop Benson was pleased to honor me with peculiar 
friendship, so as to offer me preferment, or to do 
any thing for me. My friends wanted me to mount 
the church betimes. They wanted me to knock my 
head against the pulpit too young; but how some 
young men stand up here and there and preach, I do 
not know. However it be to them, God knows how 
deep a concern entering into the ministry and preach- 
ing was to me. I prayed a thousand times, till the 
sweat has dropped from my face like rain, that God 
of his infinite mercy would not let me enter the church j 
till he called me and thrust me forth in his work. I 
remember once in Gloucester — I know the room ; I 
look up to the window when I am there and walk 
along the street — I said, ' Lord, I cannot go ; I shall 



36 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

be puffed up with pride, and fall into the condemnation 
of the devil. Lord, do not let me go yet.' I pleaded 
to be at Oxford two or three years more. I intended 
to make one hundred and fifty sermons, and thought 
that I would set up with a good stock in trade. I 
remember praying, wrestling, and striving with God. 
I said, ' I am undone, I am unfit to preach in thy great 
name. Send me not. Lord, send me not yet.' I 
wrote to all my friends in town and country to pray 
against the bishop's solicitation; but they insisted I 
should go into orders before I was twenty- two. After 
all their solicitations these words came into my mind : 
1 Nothing shall pluck you out of my hands ;' they came 
warm to my heart. Then, and not till then, I said, 
' Lord, I will go; send me when thou wilt. 7 " 

Sunday, June 20, 1736, was the day appointed for 
his ordination in the cathedral at Gloucester. On 
the preceding evening he spent two hours in prayer 
for himself and the others who were to be set apart 
to the sacred office with him ; and on the day itself 
he rose early, and passed the morning in prayer and 
meditation on the qualifications and duties of the office 
he was about to undertake. On a review of the sol- 
emn services of the day, he says, " I trust I answered 
every question from the bottom of my heart, and heart- 
ily prayed that God might say, Amen. And when 
the bishop laid his hands upon my head, if my vile 
heart do not deceive me, I offered my whole spirit* 
soul, and body to the service of God's sanctuary. 
Let come what will, life or death, depth or height, 
I shall henceforward live like one who this day, in the 
presence of men and angels, took the holy sacrament, 



TO HIS FIRST SERMON. 31 

on the profession of being inwardly -moved by the 
Holy Ghost to take upon me that ministration in the 
church. I call heaven and earth to witness, that 
when the bishop laid his hands upon me, I gave my- 
self up to be a martyr for Him who hung upon the 
cross for me. Known unto him are all future events 
and contingencies; I have thrown myself blindfold, 
and I trust without reserve, into his almighty hands. 
When I went up to the altar, I could think of nothing 
but Samuel's standing before the Lord with a linen 
ephod." 

Having thus received ordination as a deacon of 
the church of England, he delayed not to enter upon 
the work to which he was appointed ; and according- 
ly, on the next Sabbath he preached his first sermon 
in his native city of Gloucester, selecting for his sub- 
ject, "The necessity and benefit of religious society." 
At the appointed time he ascended the pulpit, in the 
church of St. Mary de Crypt. We have his own 
record of the service : " Last Sunday, in the afternoon, 
I preached my first sermon in the church where I first 
received the Lord's supper. Curiosity drew a large 
congregation together. The sight, at first, a little 
awed me ; but I was comforted with a heartfelt sense 
of the divine presence, and soon found the advantage 
of having been accustomed to public speaking when 
a boy at school, and of exhorting and teaching the 
prisoners and the poor people at their private houses, 
while at the university. By these means I was kept 
from being daunted overmuch. As I proceeded, I 
perceived the fire kindled, till at last, though so young ; 
and amidst a crowd of those who knew me in my 



38 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

childish days, *I trust I was enabled to speak with 
some degree of gospel authority. Some few mocked, 
but most, for the present, seemed struck ; and I have 
since heard that a complaint was made to the bishop, 
that I drove fifteen people mad the first sermon. The 
worthy prelate, as I am informed, wished that the 
madness might not be forgotten before the next Sun- 
day. Before then, I hope that my sermon upon, ' He 
that is in Christ is a new creature/ will be completed. 
Blessed be God, I now find freedom in writing. Glo- 
rious Jesus, 

" 'Unloose my stammering tongue to tell 
Thy love immense, unsearchable. 7 " 

It is remarkable, under all the circumstances ol 
the case, that Bishop Benson, a man never distin- 
guished for his evangelical views, always showed his 
friendship for Whitefield. Not only did he offer him 
ordination when others might have refused, and defend 
him against the persecutions to which he was exposed, 
but he more than once gave him pecuniary help when 
it was much needed, though the young clergyman had 
never complained. 

Thus early apprized of the secret of his strength, 
his profound aspirations for the growth of Christian- 
ity, the delight of exercising his rare powers, and the 
popular admiration, operating with combined and 
ceaseless force upon a mind impatient of repose, urged 
him into exertions which, if not attested by irrefra- 
gable proofs, might appear incredible. It was the 
statement of one who knew him well, and who was 
incapable of wilful exaggeration, and it is confirmed 
by his letters, journals, and a " cloud of witnesses," 



TO HIS FIRST SERMON. 39 

that "in the compass of a single week, and that for 
years, he spoke in general forty hours, and in very 
many sixty, and that to thousands : and after his 
labors, instead of taking any rest, he was engaged in 
offering up prayers and intercessions, with hymns and 
spiritual songs, as his manner was, in every house to 
which he was invited/ 7 Never perhaps, since the 
apostolic age, has any man given himself so entirely 
to preaching the gospel of Christ for the salvation of 
souls, adopting as his motto the language of the apos- 
tle Paul, " This one thing I do" 



40 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 



CHAPTER II. 

WHITEFIELD'S SUCCESS AS A PREACHER IN EKG 

LAND — FIRST VISIT TO AMERICA. 

1736-1738. 

Whitefield, though thus prepared for action, was 
not impatient, but willing to wait till his duty was 
fully ascertained. On the Wednesday after his first 
sermon he went to Oxford, where, he says, "I was 
received with great joy by my religious friends. For 
about a week I continued in my servitor's habit, and 
then took my degree of Bachelor .Qfjy^s, after having 
been at the university three years and three quarters, 
and going on towards the twenty-second year of my 
age. My dear and honored friends, the Rev. Messrs. 
John and Charles Wesley, being now embarked for 
Georgia, and one or two others having taken orders, 
the interest of Methodism, as it was then and is now 
termed, had visibly declined, and very few of this 
reputedly mad way were left at the university. This 
somewhat discouraged me at times, but the Lord Jesus 
supported my soul, and made me easy by giving me a 
strong conviction that I was where he would have me 
to be. My degree, I soon found, was of service to 
me, as it gave me access to those I could not be 
seen with when in an inferior station ; and as oppor- 
tunity offered, I was enabled to converse with them 
about the things which belonged to the kingdom of 
God. The subscriptions for the poor prisoners, which 



SUCCESS AS A PREACHER. 41 

amounted to about forty pounds per annum, were soon 
put into my hands ; two or three charity schools, 
maintained by the Methodists, were under my more 
immediate inspection; which, with the time I spent in 
following my studies, private retirement, and religious 
converse, sweetly filled up the whole of my day, and 
kept me from that unaccountable but too common 
complaint of having any time hang upon my hands." 

The stay of Mr. Whitefield at Oxford, however, 
was very short. He says, " By a series of unforeseen, 
imexpected, and unsought-for providences, I was called 
in a short time from my beloved, retirement to take a 
journey to the metropolis of England. While I was 
an under-graduate, among the religious friends, I was 
very intimate with one Mr. B n, a professed Meth- 
odist, who had lately taken orders, and was curate at 
the Tower of London. With him, when absent, I 
frequently corresponded, and when present took sweet 
counsel, and walked to the house of God as friends. 
He mentioned me to that late good and great man, 
Sir John Phillips ; and being called down for a while 
into Hampshire, he wrote to me to~ be of good 
courage, and in the strength of God bade me hasten 
to town to officiate in his absence, and to be refreshed 
with the sight and conversation of many who loved 
me for Christ's sake, and had for a long time desired 
to see me." 

On his arrival in London, Whitefield delivered his 
first sermon there in Bishopsgate church, on the after- 
noon of Lord's day, August 8. On entering the pul- 
pit, his juvenile aspect excited a general feeling of his 
unfitness for the station, but he had not proceeded far 



49 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

in his sermon before it gave place to universal expres- 
sions of wonder and pleasure. If however he was thus 
exposed to the danger of vanity, as he says, " God sent 
me something to ballast it. For as I passed along 
the streets, many came out of their shops, admiring to 
see so young a person in a gown and Qagsoc^. One 
I remember in particular, cried out, l There 7 s a boy 
parson f which, as it served to mortify my pride, put 
me also upon turning that apostolical exhortation into 
prayer, * Let no man despise thy youth. 7 " From his 
first sermon to his departure, at the end of two months, 
his popularity in London continued to increase, and 
the crowds were so vast that it was necessary to place 
constables both inside and outside of the churches to 
preserve the peace. He tells us himself, " Here I con- 
tinued for the space of two months, reading prayers 
twice a week, catechizing and preaching once, visiting 
the soldiers in the infirmary and barracks daily. I also 
read prayers every evening at Wapping chapel, and 
preached at Ludgate prison every Tuesday. God 
was pleased to give me favor in the eyes of the inhab- 
itants of the Tower ; the chapel was crowded on 
Lord's days ; religious friends from divers parts of 
the town attended the word, and several young men 
came on Lord's-day morning, under serious impres- 
sions, to hear me discourse about the new birth, and 
the necessity of renouncing all in affection in order 
to follow Jesus Christ." 

The preaching of Mr. Whitefield now excited an 
unusual degree of attention among persons of all 
ranks. In many of the city churches he proclaimed 
the glad tidings of great joy to listening multitudes, 



SUCCESS AS A PREACHER. 43 

who were powerfully affected by the fire which was 
displayed in the animated addresses of this man of 
God. Lord and Lady Huntingdon constantly at- 
tended wherever he preached, and Lady Anne Frank- 
land became one of the first-fruits of his ministrv 
among the nobility of the metropolis. Her ladyship 
spent much of her time with Lady Huntingdon, from 
whose society and conversation she derived great 
comfort. She was a daughter of Richard, the first 
Earl of Scarborough ; was for many years lady of the 
bedchamber to the Princess Anne, and to the Prin- 
cesses Amelia and Caroline ; and finally became the 
second wife of Frederic Frankland, Esq., a member 
of Parliament, from whose cruelty she endured much. 

We have already said, that some time before this 
Messrs. John and Charles Wesley had embarked for 
Georgia, and to their names we might have added 
that of Mr. Ingham, also a member of the Methodist 
fraternity at Oxford. 

Georgia, which was explored by Sir Walter Ra- 
leigh in 1584, had been colonized by debtors from 
Europe, by multitudes who had fled from the grasp of 
persecution, and by others who were interested in 
constructing a barrier against Spanish aggression. 
It originally had trustees in England, concerned for 
its interests, including sons of the nobility. The chief 
agent in executing the benevolent designs in view 
was the truly excellent General Oglethorpe, who ad- 
mirably carried out the motto he gave to his com- 
panions in the work, " JSTon sibi sed aliis" — " Not for 
themselves, but for others." The children of poverty, 



44 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

taken from the overgrown agricultural population, 
already a tax upon parish bounty at home, were to 
be transferred in large numbers to the silk and indigo 
plantations which were established on the savannahs 
and bottoms south and west of the river, which thence 
derived its name from the peculiar conformation of the 
adjoining plains. Combined with these leading pur- 
poses, it was a cherished principle with the early 
patrons of this colony, that it should become the cen- 
tre for the diffusion of the gospel among the natives ; 
while charitable foundations were also laid for the 
secular and religious education of all who would take 
advantage of such provisions. The first Christians 
who left Europe to advance the spiritual interests of 
Georgia were Moravians, and the next were the Wes- 
leys and Ingham. The records of the colony, as 
quoted in White's Historical Collections of Georgia, 
show that, Sept. 14, 1735, Charles Wesley was ap- 
pointed " Secretary for the Indian affairs in Georgia," 
and that, Oct. 10, 1735, John Wesley was appointed 
" missionary at Savannah." 

Whitefield had left London, and was laboring 
among a poor and illiterate people in Hampshire, 
when his attention was directly drawn to Georgia. 
This was not, indeed, the first time his heart had been 
interested in the matter. He writes, " When I had 
been about a month in town, letters came from the 
Messrs. Wesley, and the Eev. Mr. Ingham their fel- 
low-laborer, an Israelite indeed, from Georgia. Their 
accounts fired my soul, and made me long to go abroad 
for God too. But having no outward call, and being 
as I then thought too weak in body ever to undertake 



SUCCESS AS A PREACHER. 45 

a voyage at sea, I endeavored to lay aside all thoughts 
of going abroad. But my endeavors were all in vain ; 
for I felt at times such a strong attraction in my soul 
towards Georgia, that I thought it almost irresistible. 
I strove against it with all my power, begged again 
and again, with many cries and tears, that the Lord 
would not suffer me to be deluded, and at length 
opened my mind to several dear friends. All agreed 
that laborers were wanted at home, that I had as yet 
no visible call abroad, and that it was my duty not 
to be rash, but wait and see what Providence might 
point out to me. To this I consented with my whole 
heart." 

The path of duty, however, soon opened before 
him. While fulfulling his duties at Dummer, in Hamp- 
shire, preaching for the Rev. Mr. Kinchin, who was 
now absent from home, to which labors we have al- 
ready referred, he received an invitation to a lucrative 
curacy in London ; but Georgia still rested like one 
of the prophetic "burdens" on his mind. At this 
juncture he received a letter from his clerical friend 
at the Tower, saying that Mr. Charles Wesley had 
arrived in London. Very soon Mr. Wesley him- 
self wrote to Whitefield, saying, that he was come 
over to procure laborers, " but," added he, " I dare 
not prevent God's nomination." " In a few days after 
this," writes Mr. Whitefield, " came another letter 
from Mr. John Wesley, wherein were these words: 
5 Only Mr. Delamotte is with me, till God shall stir 
up the hearts of some of his servants, who putting 
their lives in their hands, shall come over and help 
us, where the harvest is so great, and the laborers so 



46 GEORGE WH1TEFIELD. 

few. What If thou art the man, Mr. Whitefield?' 
In another letter were these words : ' Do you ask me 
what you shall have ? Food to eat and raiment to 
put on, a house to lay your head in — such as our Lord 
had not — and a crown of glory that fadeth not away/ 
Upon reading this my heart leaped within me, and as 
it were echoed to the call." 

After having consulted his bishop, Dr. Benson, as 
also the archbishop of Canterbury, and the trustees 
of Georgia including General James Oglethorpe who 
was then in London, he went to Bristol, Bath, and 
other places, to take leave of his personal friends. 
As he could not refrain from preaching, so every ser- 
mon increased his popularity. We give his account 
of his preaching at Bristol, as a specimen of the recep- 
tion he met with. 

" It was wonderful to see how the people hung 
upon the rails of the organ-loft, climbed upon the 
leads of the church, and made the church itself so hot 
with their breath, that the steam would fall from the 
pillars like drops of rain. Sometimes almost as many 
would go away for want of room as came in, and it 
was with great difficulty I got into the desk to read 
prayers or preach. Persons of all ranks not only 
publicly attended my ministry, but gave me private 
invitations to their houses. A private society or two 
were erected. I preached and collected for the poor 
prisoners in Newgate twice or thrice a week, and 
many made me large offers if I would not go abroad." 

Having mentioned General James Edward Ogle- 
thorpe, the first governor, and indeed the founder of 
the colony of Georgia, and to the end of Whitefield 's 



SUCCESS AS A PREACHER. 47 

life his cordial friend, a few additional facts concern- 
ing him may here be stated. He was the son of Sir 
Theophilus Oglethorpe, and was born in London, De- 
cember 21, 1688. At sixteen he was admitted a stu- 
dent at Oxford, but did not finish his studies, as the 
military profession had more charms for him than 
literary pursuits. He was first commissioned as an en- 
sign. After the death of Queen Anne, he entered into 
the service of Prince Eugene. When he attained the 
age of twenty-four years, he entered Parliament, for 
Haslemere, where he continued thirty-two years. In 
November, 1732, Oglethorpe, with one hundred and 
sixteen settlers, embarked for Georgia, and landed at 
Charleston, S. C, January 13, 1733. They shortly 
afterwards proceeded to Georgia, where Oglethorpe 
laid out a town, and called it Savannah. He very 
happily secured the good will of the Indians. In 
1743, he left Georgia for England, to answer charges 
brought against him by Lieutenant-colonel Cook. A 
court martial declared the charges groundless and 
malicious, and Cook was dismissed from the service. 
In 1744 he was appointed one of the field-officers 
under field-marshal the Earl of Stair, to oppose the 
expected invasion of France. He died in 1785. He 
was truly a noble man. 

As the period approached when Whitefield was to 
leave England, the people showed their esteem for 
him in almost every possible way. They followed 
him so closely, and in such numbers, for holy counsels, 
that he could scarcely command a moment for retire- 
ment. They begged to receive from him religious 
books, and to have their names written therein with 



48 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

his own hand, as memorials of him, and very many 
followed him from place to place till his final embar- 
kation. 

It was indeed a surprising fact, that a young man, 
scarcely more than twenty-two years of age, and pre- 
viously unknown to the world, should be able to col- 
lect such immense congregations, and rouse and com- 
mand their attention ; multitudes hanging upon and 
receiving instructions from his lips. But God had 
endowed him with a singular union of qualities, which 
most eminently fitted him for the work of an evange- 
list. He was faithful to his trust, and his divine Mas- 
ter abundantly blessed and honored him in the dis- 
charge of its momentous duties. 

We have now traced the amazing effects of White- 
field's ^r.^ sermons, and it may be interesting briefly 
to inquire into their general character, and to ascer- 
tain what truths thus aroused the public mind. Three 
of these sermons can, happily, be identified with these 
" times of refreshing f and they may be depended on, 
as specimens of both the letter and the spirit of his 
preaching, because they were printed from his own 
manuscripts : they are those on " Early Piety" " Re- 
generation " and "Intercession." Whoever will read 
the appeals in these sermons, realizing the circum- 
stances under which they were made, will scarcely 
wonder at the effect produced by them. The topics 
of the second and third, and the tone of all the three, 
are very different from the matter and manner of ser- 
monizing then Irr yjiYT^ to the masses of the people. 
They do not surprise us, because happily neither the 
topics nor the tone of them arc " strange things to our 



SUCCESS AS A PREACHER. 49 

ears." Both, however, were novelties in those days, 
even in London. When or where had an appeal been 
made like this ? 

" I beseech you, in love and compassi on, to come 
to Jesus. Indeed, all I say is in love to your souls. 
A nd if I could be but an instrument of bringing you 
to Jesus, I should not envy, but rejoice in your happi- 
ness, however much you were exalted. If I was to 
make up the last of the train of the companions of the 
blessed Jesus, it would rejoice me to see you above 
me in glory. I could willingly go to prison or to 
death for you, so I could but bring one soul from the 
devil's strong-holds, into the salvajjjyi which, is by 
Christ Jesus. Come then to Christ, every one that 
hears me this night. Come, come, my guilty breth- 
ren ; I beseech you, for your immortal souls' sake, for 
Christ's sake, come to Christ. Methinks I could 
speak till midnight unto you. Would you have me 
go and tell my Master that you will not come, and 
that I have spent my strength in vain ? I cannot bear 
to carry such a message to him. I would not, indeed, 
I would not be a swift witness against you at the 
great day of account ; but if you will refuse these 
gracious invitations, I must do it." 

In this spirit, not very prevalent even now, White-' 
field began his ministry. There is a fascination as 
well as fervor, or rather a fascination arising from 
fervor, in some of his earliest as well as his later dis- 
courses. How bold and beautiful is the peroration of 
that on " Intercession" Referring to the holy impa- 
tience of " the souls under the altar," for the coming 
of the kingdom of God, he exclaims, 

WhiteficM. 2 



50 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

"And shall not we who are on earth be often 
exercised in this divine employ with the glorious com- 
pany of the spirits of just men made perfect? Since 
our happiness is so much to consist in the communion 
of saints in the church triumphant above, shall we not 
frequently intercede for the church militant below, 
and earnestly beg that we may be all one ? To pro- 
voke you to this work and labor of love, remember, 
that it is the never-ceasing employment of the holy 
and highly exalted Jesus himself ; so that he who is 
constantly interceding for others, is doing that on 
earth which the eternal Son of God is always doing 
in heaven. Imagine, therefore, when you are lifting 
up holy hands for one another, that you see the heav- 
ens opened, and the Son of God in all his glory, as 
the great High-priest of your sa lvatio n, pleading for 
r ou the all-sufficient merit of his sacrifice before the 
;hrone. Join your intercession with his. The imagi- 
nation will strengthen your faith, and excite a holy 
earnestness in your prayers. 77 

The nearer the time approached for his leaving 
the country, the more affectionate the people grew 
towards him, and the more eagerly did they attend on 
his ministry. Many thousands ofagjlgnt petitions 
were presented to heaven on behalf of his person and 
bis ministry ; and multitudes would stop him in the 
aisles of the churches, or follow him with t h^ir tegyfii l 
looks. Most of all was it difficult for him to part 
from his friends at St. Dunstan's, where he adminis- 
tered the sacrament, after spending tha ^ i gjit befo re 
in prayer. 

The man who had produced these extraordinary 



SUCCESS AS A PREACHER ol 

effects, says Dr. Gillies, had many natural advantages. 
He was something above the middle stature, well pro- 
portioned, though at that time slender, and remark- 
able for native gracefulness of manner. His com- 
plexion was very fair, his features regular, his eyes 
small and lively, of a dark blue color : in recovering 
from the measles, he had contracted a squint with one 
of them ; but this peculiarity rather rendered the ex- 
pression of his countenance more rememberable, than 
in any degree lessened the effect of its uncommon 
sweetness. His^ voice excelled both in melody and 
compass, and its fine modulations were happily accom- 
panied by the grace of action which he possessed in 
an eminent degree, and which is said to be the chiei 
requisite of an orator. An ignorant man described 
his eloquence oddly, but strikingly, when he said that \ 
Mr. Whitefield preached like a lion. So strange a 
comparison conveyed no unapt idea of the force, and ' 
vehemence, and passion — of the authority which awed 
the hearers, and made them tremble like Felix before 
the apostle. Believing himself to be the messenger of 
God, commissioned to call sinners to repentance, he 
spoke as one conscious of his high credentials, with 
authority and power ; yet in all his discourses there 
was a fervor and melting charity, an earnestness of 
persuasion, an outpouring of redundant love, partak- 
ing of the virtue of the faith from which it flowed, 
insomuch that it seemed to enter the heart which it 
pierced, and to heal it as with a balm. 

At length, having preached in a considerable num- 
ber of the London churches, collected about a thou- 
sand pounds for the charity schools, and. obtained up- 



52 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

wards of three hundred pounds for the poor in Geor* 
gia, Whitefield left London, December 28, 1737, in the 
twenty- third year of his age, and went in the strength 
of God, as a poor pilgrim, on board the Whitaker. 

Scarcely had he entered on his voyage from Lon- 
don, when he discovered that but little comfort was 
to be expected in the ship on which he had embarked. 
There was no place for retirement, no disposition to 
receive him as an ambassador of Christ, and a decided 
dislike even to the forms of religion. They moved 
but slowly to the Downs, where they were detained 
for nearly a month, and where Whitefield went on 
shore to visit Deal, an ancient town, one of the Cinque- 
ports, so called, where "the common people/ 7 as in 
the case of his great Master, "heard him gladly." 
With him, through his whole ministry, it was of small 
importance whether he preached to the rich or the 
poor ; for he viewed the gospel as a message of mercy 
to sinners, and wherever men were found, he was will- 
ing to persuade them to be reconciled to God. 

The account given by Mr. Whitefield of his visit 
to Deal, and of the different treatment he received 
there from different persons, would be almost as cor- 
rect a description of his labors and reception in a 
hundred other places. He spent his first evening 
very comfortably in religious conversation and family 
prayer, at which a poor woman was much affected. 
" Who knows," he says, " what a fire this little spark 
uiaji^kiojdle?" Next evening, eight or nine poor peo- 
ple came to him at the report of this poor woman; 
and when, after three or four days, the ship in which 
he had embarked was driven back to Deal, many met 






VOYAGE TO GEORGIA. 53 

together to bewail their own sins and those of others. 
Soon the landlady who owned the house where he 
lodged, sent to her tenants, beseeching them not to 
let any more persons come in, for fear the floor should 
break under them; and they actually put a prop un- 
der it. 

The minister of Upper Deal, a mile or two from 
the town, now invited Whitefield to preach in the 
church ; it was much crowded, and many went away 
for want of room. Some stood on the leads of the 
building outside, and looked in at the top windows, 
and all around seemed eager to hear the word. "May 
the Lord," says the good man, " make them doers of it. 
In the evening I was obliged to divide my hearers 
into four companies, and was enabled to expound to 
them from six till ten. Lord, keep me from being 
weary of, or in well-doing." 

The excitement at Deal became very great, in con- 
sequence of the conviction of the people that their 
own minister, the Rev. Dr. Carter, did not preach the 
gospel. The good man, to disprove the charge, pub- 
lished a volume of his sermons, which, however ad- 
mired by gay formalists, furnished but too much evi- 
dence of the justice of the charge. 

Just as he had left the church at Upper Deal, 
where he had been preaching to a vast congregation, 
Mr. Whitefield, in consequence of a sudden change of 
the wind, was summoned on board, and the Whitaker 
sailed for Georgia. A very few hours afterwards, 
the vessel which brought back John Wesley from that 
colony anchored in the Downs, when he learned that 
the ships had passed each other, but neither of these 



54 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

remarkable men then knew how dear a friend was on 
board the other. When Wesley landed, he found it 
was still possible to communicate with his friend, and 
Whitefield was surprised to receive a letter from him, 
saying, " When I saw God by the wind which was 
carrying you out brought me in, I asked counsel of 
God. His answer you have enclosed." The enclo- 
sure was a slip of paper with the words, " Let him 
return t^Lflndpn," which Wesley had obtained by 
lot, to which he had had recourse. Whitefield prayed 
for direction, and went on his voyage. 

This first voyage of Whitefield to America was in- 
vested with scenes of far more than common interest. 
Perhaps, since the apostle Paul's memorable voyage 
to Rome, the ocean had never exhibited a more re- 
markable spectacle than that furnished by this ship. 
He was but a stripling in his twenty-third year, and 
a faint and hesitating homage once on a Sabbath-day, 
from a few of the less obdurate sinners among his 
hearers, would be all that such a clergyman could 
expect from an assemblage of gentlemen, of soldiers 
with their wives and families, and the ship's crew. 
Yet in the hands of this remarkable youth all be- 
came pliant as a willow. He converted the chief 
cabin into a cloiste r, the deck into a church, and the 
steerage into a school-room. He so bore down all 
opposition by love, reason, and Scripture, that we 
^oon see him, at the request of the captain and offi- 
cers, with the hearty concurrence of the gentlemen 
who were passengers, reading " full public, prayers " 
to them twice a day in the great cabin, and expound- 
ing every night after the evening prayers, besides daily 



VOYAGE TO GEORGIA. 55 

reading prayers, and preaching twice a day on deck 
to the soldiers and sailors, and increasing the services I 
on Sundays. In addition to all this, he daily cate- j 
chized a company of young soldiers, and engaged in the 
same exercise with the women apart by themselves. 

Nor did even all this suffice to expend his zeal, 
for he commenced a course of expositions on the creed 
and ten commandments ; and so convinced was he of 
the value of catechetical teaching, that on February 3d 
he writes, " I began to-night to turn the observations 
made on the lessons in the morning into catechetical 
questions, and was pleased to hear some of the soldiers 
make very apt answers." 

Nor were the children forgotten ; the Hon. Mr. 
Habersham, a personal friend who accompanied him, 
assumed their instruction as his department of holy 
labor. Mr. Whitefield wrote of him, that he was 
" pleased to see Mr. Habersham so active in teaching 
the children. He has now many scholars — may God 
bless him." 

Friendship for Whitefield had influenced Mr. Hab- 
ersham to accompany the young evangelist to Geor- 
gia. Mr. Habersham's friends, at Beverly, in York- 
shire, where he was born in 1712, were greatly op- 
posed to his plans, but surely the hand of God directed 
them. He presided over the Orphan-house till 1744, 
when he entered into a commercial partnership. He 
occupied several important stations, till he became 
president of the colony in 1769. The proceedings 
connected with the revolutionary war more than once 
placed him in great difficulties ; he did not live to see 
its happy results, for in 1775 the state of his health 



56 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

compelled him to visit the north, in hope of its reno- 
vation. The change, however, was of no benefit, and 
he died at New Brunswick, New Jersey, August 28, 
1775. The " Gazette " of the day said of him, " In the 
first stations of the province he conducted himself with 
ability, honor, and integrity, which gained him the love 
and esteem of his fellow-citizens ; nor was he less dis- 
tinguished in private life by a conscientious discharge 
of the social duties, as a tender and affectionate par- 
ent, a sincere and warm friend, and a kind and indul- 
gent master. Mr. Habersham was married by the 
Rev. Mr. Whitefield to Mary Bolton at Bethesda, on 
the 26th of December, 1740, by whom he had ten chil- 
dren, three of whom, sons, survived him, and were 
zealous in the cause of American liberty." 

In harmony with the solemn duties which Mr. 
Whitefield had assumed, he watched over the conduct 
of all around him. He tells us that the ship's cook 
was awfully addicted to drinking, and when reproved 
for this and other sins, he boasted that he would be 
wicked till within t\yo y^ars of his death, and would 
then reform. Alas, he died on the voyage, after an 
illness of six hours, brought on by drinking. 

One day on this voyage, finding on Captain Whit- 
ing's pillow " The Independent Whig," Whitefield ex- 
changed it for a book entitled " The Self-Deceiver." 
The next morning, the captain came smiling and in- 
quired who made the exchange. Mr. Whitefield con- 
fessed the fact, and begged his acceptance of the book, 
which he said he had read, and liked very well. From 
thenceforward a visible alteration took place in the 
conduct of the captain. 



VOYAGE TO GEORGIA. 57 

On their arrival at Gibraltar, where they had to 
continue some time, Mr. Whitefield found that Major 
Sinclair, without solicitation, had provided a lodging 
for him, and the governor and military invited him 
to their table. Being apprehensive that at a public 
military table he might be more than hospitably 
treated, to prevent any thing disagreeable, he remind- 
ed his excellency that, at the court of Ahasuerus, 
" none did compel." The governor took the hint, and 
pleasantly replied, " No compulsion of any kind shall 
be used at my table f and every thing was conducted 
with the greatest propriety. Here he often preached, 
and was heard by many, including all in high offices. 
Unusual indeed were the scenes, both with respect to 
the place and the people. The adjacent promonto- 
ries, and the vastness of the rock of Gibraltar, aided 
in the enlargement of the ideas of the preacher as 
to Him, who "in his strength setteth fast the moun- 
tains, and is girded about witljjjower." And the 
place being a sort of public rendezvous of all na- 
tions, he thought, he says, "he saw the world in 
epitome." 

The success of Whitefield's ministry at Gibraltar 
was truly remarkable. He quaintly says of it, " Sam- 
son's riddle was fulfilled there : ' out of the strong 
came forth sweetness. 7 Who more unlikely to be 
wrought upon than soldiers? And yet, among any 
set of people, I have not been where God has made 
his poj prj more known. Many that were quite blind ? 
have received their sight ; many that had fallen back, 
have repented and turned to the Lord again ; many 
that were ashamed to own Christ openly, have waxed 



58 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

bold; and many saints have had their hearts filled 
with joy unspeakable, and full of glory." 

Among other religious societies to which White- 
field was introduced at Gibraltar, he one day attended 
the Jewish synagogue, and was agreeably surprised 
when one of the rulers handed him into the chief seat. 
The rabbi had the day before heard him preach against 
profane swearing, and now thanked him for his ser- 
mon. He remained in the synagogue during the whole 
service, engaged, he says, " in secret prayer that the 
veil might be taken from the heart of the Jews, and 
they grafted again into their own olive-tree." 

Several facts occurred on the way to Savannah 
after their embarkation from Gibraltar, which are too 
interesting to pass without notice. On one occasion 
Captain Mackay, after Whitefield had preached against 
drunkenness, urged the men to attend to the things 
which had been spoken ; telling them that he was a 
notorious swearer until he did so ; and beseeching 
them for Christ's sake to give up their sins. On 
another occasion, while marrying a couple on deck, 
Whitefield suddenly shut the prayer-book in the midst 
of the ceremony, because the bridegroom had behaved 
with levity; and not until the laughter was turned 
into weeping, would he proceed. At the close of the 
service he gave the bride a Bible. When a shark 
was caught, with five. pilot-fish clinging to its fins, he 
said, " Go to the pilot-fish, thou that forsakest a friend 
in adversity ; consider his ways, and be abashed." 
When a dolphin was caught, the change of its hues 
from lovely to livid, reminded him to say, "Just so is 
man ; he flourishes for a little while, but when death 



IN GEORGIA. 59 

cometh, how quickly his beauty is gone! A Christian 
may learn instruction from every thing he meets with." 
While he was preaching on the death of Christ dark- 
ness came on, and he said, " It puts me in mind of that 
darkness which overwhelmed the world when the God 
of nature suffered. 77 

In the latter part of the voyage, fever laid pros- 
trate all in the ship except four persons, and at 
length it seized Whitefield, and confined him to his 
bed for a week. The attack, though short, must have 
been severe ; for besides other remedies, he was bled 
three times. During his illness, the captain gave up 
his own bed to him, and Mr. Habersham watched him 
day and night ; but that which gratified him most 
was, that the sick between decks, whom he had endan- 
gered his life to console, prayed for him with great 
fervor. He recovered, and repaid the kindness of all. 
At length, on May 5, they came in sight of Savannah 
river, and sent off for a pilot ; and such was the joy 
of all, when they came to anchor at Tybee island, that 
he could not help exclaiming, " How infinitely more 
joyful will the children of God be, when, having passed 
through the waves of this troublesome world, they 
arrive at the haven of everlasting rest! 77 Though 
still weak, he preached a farewell sermon to his " red- 
coated and blue-jacketed parishioners, 77 as he called 
his military and naval congregation. It was heard 
with floods of tears. 

Upon this voyage, says Dr. Gillies, he made these 
reflections many years after : " Even at this distance 
of time, the remembrance of the happy hours I enjoyed 
in religious exercises on deck, is refreshing to my 



60 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

soul ; and although nature sometimes relented at being 
taken from my friends, and I was little accustomed to 
the inconveniences of a sea-life, yet, a consciousness 
that I had the glory of God and tfrfcggod of souls in 
view, afforded me, from time to time, unspeakable 
satisfaction." 

Whitefield was cordially welcomed at Savannah 
by Delamotte and other friends of the Wesleys : the 
magistrates also offered to wait upon him to pay their 
respects ; but this he declined, and waited upon them. 
They agreed to build him a tabernacle and a house at 
Prederica, and to accept his services at Savannah as 
long as he pleased. He was soon, however, again 
laid aside by the return of his fever, now accompanied 
with ague. This attack in a few davs brought him 
so low, and made so great an alteration in his person, 
that he says, " Had my friends seen me at that hour, 
they might have learned not to have any man's person 
in admiration, and not to think more highly of me 
than they ought to think." 

The first thing which Whitefield did after his re- 
covery was to visit Tomo-Chici, the Indian king, then 
on his death-bed. This was the micoe, or king, whom 
Oglethorpe had taken to England, in 1734, and intro- 
duced to king George the Second. He was accom- 
panied by his wife and son, and seven other Indians 
of the Creek nation. His eloquent speech to the 
king and queen was so well received at court, that he 
was loaded with presents, and when he had again to 
embark, was sent in one of the royal carriages to 
Gravesend. " He now lay," says Whitefield, " on a 
blanket, thin and meagre ; little else but skin and 



IN GEORGIA. 61 

bones. Senanki, his wife, sat by, fanning him with 
Indian feathers. There was no one could talk Eng- 
lish, so I could only shake hands with him and leave 
him. A few days afterwards, Mr. Whitefield again 
went to visit Tomo-Chici, and found that his nephew, 
Tooanoowee, could speak English. Whitefield says, "I 
desired him to ask his uncle, whether he thought he 
should die; who answered, 'I cannot tell.' I then 
asked where he thought he should go after death. 
He replied, • To heaven. 7 But alas, how can a drunk- 
ard enter there ? I then exhorted Tooanoowee, who 
is a tall, proper youth, not to get drunk ; telling him 
that he understood English, and therefore would be 
punished the more if he did not live better. I then 
asked him whether he believed in a heaven. He said, 
' Yes. ? I then asked whether he believed in a hell, 
and described it by pointing to the fire. He replied, 
'No. ? From whence we may easily gather, how nat- 
ural it is to all mankind to believe there is a place of 
happiness, because they wish it to be so ; and on the 
contrary, how averse they are to believe in a place of 
torment, because they wish it may not be so. But 
God is just and true ; and as surely as the righteous 
shall go away into everlasting happiness, so the im- 
penitently wicked shall go into everlasting punish- 
ment." 

The records of Georgia say, under date of Decem- 
ber 21, 1737, " Ordered, that a license be made out 
for the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield to perform eccle- 
siastical offices in Georgia, as a deacon in the church 
of England." 

Before Whitefield had any thoughts of going 



C2 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

abroad, Charles Wesley talked to him of an orphan- 
house in Georgia, which he and General Oglethorpe 
had contemplated. "When he arrived in Savannah, 
and had sufficiently recovered from his illness to 
examine the state of the colony, the condition of the 
children deeply affected him ; and he set his heart on 
founding the projected institution as soon as he should 
be able to collect the needful funds. In the mean 
time he opened schools in the villages of Highgate 
and Hampstead, and one also, for girls, in Savannah. 
He afterwards visited the Saltzburgher's orphan- 
school at Ebenezer ; and if any thing had been want- 
ed to settle his own determination, or to inflame his 
zeal, he found it there. The Saltzburghers were ex- 
iles for conscience' sake, and were eminent for piety 
and industry. Their ministers, the Rev. Messrs. Gre- 
naw and Boltzius, were eminently evangelical, and 
their asylum, which they had been enabled to found 
by British benevolence, for widows and orphans, was 
flourishing. Whitefield was so delighted with the 
order and harmony of Ebenezer, that he gave a share 
of his own " poor's store " to Boltzius, for his orphans. 
Then came the scene which entirely completed his 
purpose : Boltzius " called all the children before him ; 
catechized and exhorted them to give God thanks for 
his good providence towards them ; then prayed with 
them, and made them pray after him ; then sung a 
psalm. Afterwards, the little lambs came and shook 
me by the hand, one by one, and so we parted. 7, 
Whitefield was now pledged to this cause for life. 

Most of our readers probably know that the con- 
ductors of " The Gentleman's Magazine," a work which 



IN GEORGIA. 63 

has now been regularly published in London for much 
more than a century, have never been favorable to 
evangelical truth, or its ministers ; it is therefore the 
more gratifying to copy from that work for Novem- 
ber, 1737, the following lines : it will be seen that 
they were published more than a month before Mr. 
Whitefield's departure to the American colonies. 

"TO THE REV. MR. WHITEFIELD, ON HIS DESIGN 
FOR GEORGIA. 

" How great, how just thy zeal, adventurous youth, 
To spread in heathen climes the light of truth ! 
Go, loved of heaven, with every grace refined, 
Inform, enrapture each dark Indian's mind; 
Grateful, as when to realms long hid from day, 
The cheerful dawn foreshows the solar ray. 
How great thy charity, whose large embrace 
Intends the eternal weal of all thy race ; 
Prompts thee the rage of waves and winds to scorn, 
To effect the work for which thy soul was born. 
What multitudes, whom Pagan dreams deceive, 
Shall, when they hear thy heavenly voice, believe! 
On Georgia's shore thy Wesley shall attend, 
To hail the wished arrival of his friend ; 
With joy the promised harvest he surveys, 
And to his Lord for faithful laborers prays ; 
Though crowded temples here would plead thy stay, 
Yet haste, blest prophet, on thy destined way. 
Be gentle, winds, and breathe an easy breeze, 
Be clear, ye skies, and smooth, ye flowing seas ! 
From heaven, ye guardian angels, swift descend, 
Delighted his blest mission to attend ; 
Which shall from Satan's power whole nations free. 
While half the world to Jesus bow the knee. 
Long as Savannah, peaceful stream, shall glide, 
Your worth renowned shall be extended wide j 



I 



G4 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

Children as yet unborn shall bless your lore, 
Who thus to save them left your native shore; 
The apostles thus, with ardent zeal inspired, 
To gain all nations for their Lord desired. 
They measured seas, a life laborious knew. 
And numerous converts to their Master drew ; 
Whose hallelujahs, on the ethereal plains, 
Rise scarce beneath the bright seraphic strains. 
'• Gloucester, Nov. 1, 1737." 

After spending a few weeks at Savannah, laboring 
as much as his health would permit, Whitefield went 
to Frederica, where he was gladly received ; the peo- 
ple " having had a famine of the word for a long sea- 
son." They had no sanctuary, and therefore he had 
to preach under a tree, or in Mr. Habersham's house. 
This visit, although short, endeared him to all the 
people ; and he had the satisfaction before he left, to 
see them " sawing timber for a commodious place of 
worship, until a church could be built." His return, 
however, to Savannah was hastened by a somewhat 
painful event. One of his friends was lost in the 
woods, and missing from Tuesday till Friday. The 
great guns had been fired to direct the wanderer, but 
in vain ; and some of the people had searched for him 
day and night, without success. This report was sent 
to Whitefield, and it hurried him away from Frederica. 
He had the pleasure, however, on his arrival at Savan- 
nah, to find his " lost sheep." 

During the stay of Whitefield in Georgia, the 
weather was intensely hot, sometimes almost burning 
his feet through his shoes. Seeing others do it, he 
determined to accustom himself to hardship by lying 
constantly on the floor ; which by use he found to be 



IN GEORGIA. G5 

so far from being uncomfortable, that afterwards it 
became so to lie on a bed. Nor was he more ready 
to deny himself than he was assiduous to do good ; 
preaching often, catechizing the young, visiting the 
sick ; and exhorting from house to house. Entirely 
independent and unrestrained, he knew no fear in the 
discharge of what he regarded as his duty. Knowing 
that some men of influence, to whom his voice could 
not be addressed frgn^tiae^iulpit, were living in open 
defiance of morality and shame, he went into the 
court and made an address to the grand jury, urging 
them to present all such offenders without partiality 
or fear, since the miserable state of the colony was 
doubtless owing to divine displeasure against their 
sins. 

Eeflection on the character, labors, and success of 
his predecessors, stimulated his zeal and encouraged 
his hope. It could not be denied that John Wesley 
had been misrepresented and unkindly treated, both 
in Savannah and Frederica, and Whitefield therefore 
rejoiced to bear honorable testimony of him and his 
colleagues. He says, " Surely I must labor most 
heartily, since I come after such worthy men. The 
good Mr. John Wesley has done in America is inex- 
pressible. His name is very precious among the peo- 
ple, and he has laid such a foundation, that I hope 
neither men nor devils will be able to shake it. 
that I may follow him as he has followed Christ. 77 

Mr. Whitefield having as yet only received dea- 
con 7 s orders, and wishing to be ordained priest, for 
the more complete performance of his duty as a min- 
ister of the church of England, it became necessary 



66 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

for him to return to Europe for that purpose ; and 
being also desirous of making collections for his Or- 
phan house, he left Mr. Habersham at Savannah, and 
went to Char^gsJjjj^SjjC.., on his way to England. 

At Charleston he became acquainted with the Rev. 
Alexander Garden, the ecclesiastical commissary of 
the Bishop of London, who with apparent cordiality 
twice invited him into his pulpit, and assured him 
that he would defend him with his life and property, 
should the same arbitrary proceedings ever be com- 
menced against him which Mr. Wesley had met with 
in Georgia. Dr. Deems, in his recently published 
volume, " The Annals of Southern Methodism," tells 
us, when speaking of his first sermon, " The people at 
first da&pjfififl his youth, but his engaging address soon 
gained their general esteem, and Mr. Garden thanked 
him most cordially." In an after-period, however, 
when Mr. Garden more fully understood the evan- 
gelical character of Mr. Whitefield's preaching, he 
frequently took occasion to point out what he called 
the pernicious tendency of his doctrines, and irregular 
| manner of life. He represented him as a religious 
quack, who had an excellent way of setting off and 
rendering palatable his poisonous tenets. On one 
occasion Garden, to keep his flock from going after 
this strange pastor, preached from the text, "These 
that have turned the wor ld^apsi de down are come 
hither also." Whitefield, however, was not to be 
silenced in this way, and returned the compliment by 
preaching from the words, "Alexander the copper- 
smith did me much evil; the Lord reward him ac- 
cording to his works." 



RETURN TO ENGLAND 67 

On September 6, 1738, Whitefield embarked for 
London. The voyage was perilous in the extreme. 
They were tossed about with bad weather, in a ship 
out of repair, and in sad want of provisions. "When 
they were over about one-third of the Atlantic, a ves 
sel from Jamaica would have gladly received him, 
but he chose to share the lot of his shipmates. They 
highly valued his services, and one of his fellow-pas- 
sengers, Captain Gladman, became, as the result of 
this voyage, a truly pious man. The captain, in a 
subsequent period, at his own earnest request, became 
the fellow-traveller of his teacher. 

After a passage of about nine weeks, they made 
the port of Limerick, in Ireland. " I wish," White- 
field says, "I could never forget what I felt when 
water and provisions were brought us from the shore. 
Mr. M'Mahon, a country gentleman, came from his 
seat at midnight on purpose to relieve us, and most 
kindly invited me, though unknown, to his house, to 
stay as long as I pleased." At Limerick he was cor- 
dially received by that worthy prelate, Bishop Birs- 
cough, who engaged him to preach at the cathedral. 
From thence he went to Dublin, where he preached, 
and was hospitably entertained by Archbishop Bolton, 
Bishop Rundel, and Dr. Delany. 

Remaining but a short time in Ireland, he pro- 
ceeded to London, where he arrived December 8. 
Here he had the pleasure of conversing with some of 
the Moravian brethren, whose faith and love refreshed 
his spirit, though he did not entirely approve some 
of their views. He soon discovered somewhat of a 
change of feeling towards him on the part of many of 



68 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

the London clergy. Within two days, he found five 
of the churches were closed against him. He called 
on the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of 
London, who received him with cold civility. The 
bishop asked him if his journals were not tinctured 
with enthusiasm ; and he replied, with his usual meek- 
ness and candor, that they were written only for his 
own use, and that of his private friends, and that they 
were published without his knowledge. So anxious 
was he to avoid giving offence, that he took the ear- 
liest opportunity to expunge from his journals what- 
ever he discovered to be erroneous, and whatever he 
had said without imperative necessity, or which was 
likely to injure the character and feelim^of any one. 

The trustees of Georgia, at a meeting in London, 
received Whitefield with great cordiality, and in com- 
pliance with the wishes of the colonists, they present- 
ed him with the living of Savannah, the salary of which 
he declined to receive ; but he thankfully accepted 
five hundred acres of land, on which he proposed to 
erect his orphan-house. 

On Sunday, January 14, 1739, being then in his 
twenty-fifth year, Whitefield was ordained priest at 
Oxford, by his worthy friend Bishop Benson. Hav- 
ing preached twice to very crowded congregations, 
and administered the Lord's supper at the castle, he 
returned to London the next day. As Dr. Benson 
once expressed regret -+^ Q * hfi had ordained Mr. 
Whitefield, it may be proper here to explain the cir- 
cumstances. Shortly after the late Countess of Hun- 
tingdon first became acquainted with the truth as it 
is in Jesus, Bishop Benson, who had been lord Hun- 



RETURN TO ENGLAND. 69 

tingdon's tutor, was sent for to remonstrate with her 
ladyship, and to induce her to relinquish what were 
then considered her erroneous views ; but she pressed 
him so hard with the Articles and Homilies of his own 
church, and so plainly and faithfully urged upon him 
the awful responsibility of his station, that for the 
moment his mind was hurt, and he rose up to depart, 
lamenting that he had ever laid his hands upon George 
Whitefield, to whom he imputed the change which had 
been wrought in her ladyship. " My lord," said she,U 
"mark my words; when you come upon your dying] 
bed, that will be one of the few ordinations you will/ 
-reflect upon with pleasure." It would seem that it 
was so ; for, on his death-bed, the Bishop sent ten 
guineas to Mr. Whitefield as a token of his favor and 
approbation, and begged to be remembered by him in 
his prayers. 

The interval between his taking priests' orders, 
and embarking a second time for Georgia, was em- 
ployed by Whitefield, with his usual energy and suc- 
cess, in preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, 
and in making collections for his Orphan-house. Hav- 
ing, before his visit to America, collected large sums 
for the charity sctiools in the metropolis, he naturally 
expected that the pulpits would not be denied him 
now, in which to plead the interests of his own poor. 
But he was scarcely yet aware that the tide of cleri- 
cal opinion had turned so extensively and strongly 
against him. The doctrines he had preached, and the 1 
manner in which he had preached them, had produced ] 
a sensation so strong, that he found himself excluded 
from most of the churches in Lon ^pn . A few, how- 



70 GEORGE WHITEFIELD 

ever, were yet open to him for his benevolent design. 
The Rev. Mr. Broughton conducted himself, among 
others, very nobly. Having been urged to refuse his 
pulpit, as some of his neighbors had done, he boldly 
replied, that "having obtained the lectureship of St. 
Helen's by Whitefield's influence, he should have the 
pulpit if he desired it." Mr. Whitefield preached, 
but Mr. Broughton thus losing the lectureship, White- 
field blamed himself for having done so. Whatever 
he might himself be willing to suffer, he was not will- 
ing to inflict inconvenience on others. 

Only a few days before his being ordained as 

(priest, Whitefield offered his first public externgore 
prayer, in a large meeting in Red Cross-street, Lon- 
don. He mentions this fact in a note of his diary as 
" the first time I ever prayed extempore before such 
a number." He did not even then suppose that his 
preaching, as well as his prayers in this manner, were 
to develop his mighty power. The crowding of the 
churches now suggested the idea of preaching in the 
open air. He says, " When I was informed that 
nearly a thousand people stood out in the church- 
yard, and that hundreds returned home, this put me 
first upon thinking of preaching without doors. I 
\ mentioned it to some friends, who looked upon it as a 
mad motion. However, wc kneeled down and prayed 
\ithat nothing might be done rashly. Hear and an- 
swer, Lord, for thy name's sake." 

We shall soon see how his extempore expositions 
and prayers were fitting him for this new enterprise. 
He would have commenced in London now, but he 
lacked a fair opportunity. 



FIRST OPEN-AIR PREACHING. 71 



CHAPTER III. 

OPEN-AIR PREACHING IN ENGLAND AND WALES- 
ERECTION OF THE TABERNACLE IN LONDON. 

1738-1739. 

Under the circumstances we have related in our 
last chapter, Whitefield paid another visit to Bristol, 
and soon found that he had to meet with new and 
very unexpected opposition. When he arrived in the 
city, the chancellor of the diocese, while he did not 
approve of what he considered his irregular conduct, 
told him that he would not prohibit any clergyman 
from lending him his church ; but in a few days after- 
wards he sent for the evangelist, and announced 
his entire opposition to his movements. Strangely 
enough, he now asked Whitefield by what authority 
he preached in the diocese of Bristol without a license. 
The reply of the intrepid minister was, that he sup- 
posed such a custom had become obsolete, and asked 
the chancellor in his turn, " And pray, sir, why did 
you not ask the clergyman who preached for you last 
Thursday this question ?" The chancellor then read 
to him the canons which forbid any clergyman from 
preaching in a private house; to which Whitefield 
replied, that he did not suppose these canons referred 
to professed ministers of the church of England ; and 
when the chancellor told him he was mistaken, he, I 
reminded his superior, "There is also a canon, sir, J 
forbidding all clergymen to frequent taverns and play 
at cards ; why is not that put in execution ?" Andf 



72 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

lie then added, that notwithstanding any canons to 
the contrary, he could not but speak the things which 
he knew, and that he was resolved to proceed as usual. 
His answer was written down, and the chancellor 
closed the interview with the words, " I am resolved, 
[sir, if you preach or expound anywhere in this dio- 
cese till you have a license, I will first suspend, and 
then excommunicate you." The crisis was now come ; 
the Rubicon had been passed, and the inquiry might 
well be made, " What will Whitefield now do ?" 

Already have we seen that he had earnestly de- 
sired, in London, to preach in the open air, for want 
)f room in the churches, and indeed also from the 
opposition of the clergy, which had begun so strongly 
to manifest itself ; and during this journey to Bristol, 
he found it necessary to preach in the open air or not 
at all. As this event was of vast importance in its 
results, both in his own history and that of Mr. Wes- 
ley, who also began to preach on the same spot within 
two months after Whitefield had opened the way, we 
must stay a while to narrate the facts. 

At that time, the colliers of Kingswood, near the 
city of Bristol, were a most depraved and reckless 
class of men. Inconceivably barbarous and ignorant, 
they trampled on all laws, human and divine, and 
hesitated not to set the magistrates at defiance. It 
was dangerous to pass near the scene of their labors, 
even in open day, for robberies and murders were of 
frequent occurrence ; in a word, it was truly " a seat 
of Satan." When Whitefield was at Bristol, making 
collections for his projected orphan institution in 
Georgia, not a few persons had said to him, " Why 




^-•H W^KYVsVtf: 



TABERNACLE, p.89. 



F^^^f^^*- 




HAN HAM MOUNT 



FIRST OPEN-AIR PREACHING. 13 

go abroad ; have we not Indians enough at home ? 
If you have a mind to convert Indians, there are col- 
liers enough in Kingswood." " I thought/ 7 says he, 
u it might be doing the service of my Creator, who 
had a mountain for his pulpit, and the heavens for his 
sounding-board, and who, when his gospel was refused 
by the Jews, sent his servants into the highways and 
hedges/ 7 After much prayer and many inward strug- 
gles, he went one day to a gentle elevation on the 
south side of Kingswood, called Hanham Mount, and 
there, under an old sycamore-tree, he preached his 
first sermon in the open air to about a hundred cq l- 
liers. The scene must have been very impressive. 
Before him stretched the rich and beautiful valley of 
the Avon, through which the river was gently wind- 
ing, bordered in the distance by the undulating hills ; 
while on his right and left the cities of Bath and 
Bristol were within sight. 

The fact of his preaching here soon and extensively! 
spread, and at meeting after meeting his audience in-] 
creased, till he found himself addressing nearly twenty 
thousand persons. His own account of the effects pro- 
duced is very striking. He says, " The first discovery 
of their being affected, was in the white gut t e r s made 
by their tears, which plentifully fell down their black 
cheeks, as they came out of their coal pits. Hundreds 
and hundreds of them were soon brought under deep 
convictions, which happily ended in sound and thor- 
ough conversion. As the scene was quite new, and 
I had just begun to be an extempore preacher, I had 
often many inward conflicts. Sometimes, when twenty 
thousand people were before me, I had not, as I 

Whitefald 4 



m 



4 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 



thought, a word to say ; but I was never deserted ; 
and I was often so assisted as to understand what 
that meaneth, ' Out of his belly shall flow rivers of 
living water/ The open firmament above ; the pros- 
pect of the adjacent fields ; with the sight of thousands 
and thousands, some in coaches, some on horseback, 
and some in the trees, and all so affected as to be 
drenched i n tears together, to which sometimes was 
added the solemnity of the approaching night, were 
almost too much for me ; I was occasionally all but 
overcome." Writing to Mr. Wesley a few weeks 
afterwards, he says, "Yesterday I began to play the 
madman in Gloucestershire, by preaching on a table 
in Thornbury-street. To-day I have exhorted twice, 
and by and by I shall begin a third time; nothing 
like doing good by the way. I suppose you have 
heard of my proceedings in Kingswood." 

We scarcely need to remark here, that Kingswood 
has ever since been regarded as a sacred spot in ec- 
clesiastical history. Here houses for Wesleyan Meth- 
odists and Independents were soon erected, and in 
them thousands have been converted to God. Here 
was placed the first school for the sons of Methodist 
preachers, and on Hanham Mount, besides the voice of 
Whitefield, those of the Wesleys, Coke and Mather, 
Pawson and Benson, and Bradburn, accomplished some 
of the mightiest effects which attended their powerful 
preaching. There are yet some living in the neigh- 
borhood who were awakened under their ministry, and 
whose eyes glisten as they tell of the blessed days that 
are past. 

Besides the colliers, and thousands from the nei^li- 



PREACHING IN WALES. 75 

boring villages, persons of all ranks daily flocked out 
of Bristol. And lie was soon invited by many of the, 
most respectable people to preach on a large bowling- 
green in the city itself. Many of the people indeed 
sneered to see a stripling with a gown mount a table 
on unconsecrated ground ; this even excited once or 
twice the laugh of some of the higher ranks, who had 
admired him in the churches. But he was unmoved, 
and his preaching was so blessed, that many were 
awakened. Sometimes he was employed almost from 
morning till night answering those who, in distress of 
soul, cried out, " What shall I do to be saved ?" Ho 
now sought the help of Mr. John Wesley, who, after 
much reasoning with himself on the subject, complied 
with the invitation, and followed Whitefield's exam- 
ple, who immediately committed the work to him. 
Before leaving the neighborhood, however, White- 
field had the satisfaction of laying the foundation of 
a school for Kingswood ; for the support of which the 
colliers liberally and cheerfully subscribed. 

Taking an affectionate leave of his Bristol friends, 
Whitefield made an excursion into Wales, where a 
revival of religion had commenced several years be- 
fore, under the ministry of the Eev. Griffith Jones, 
and was now carried on by the ministry of Mr. Howel 
Harris, a man of strong mental powers, great Christian 
zeal, and considerable learning. They met at Cardiff. 
Whitefield's heart was then glowing with the fire he 
had himself kindled at Bristol and Kingswood. On 
his way from Bristol to Cardiff, he was delayed at the 
New Passage by contrary winds. He says, "At the 
inn there was an unhappy clergyman who would not 



TO GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

go over in the passage-boat, because I was in it. Alas, 
thought I, this very temper would make heaven itself 
unpleasant to that man, if he saw me there. I was 
told that he charged me with b ein^a dis senter. I 
saw him, soon after, shaking his elbows over a gaming- 
table. I heartily wish those who charge me cause- 
lessly with schism and being righteous overmuch, 
would consider that the canons of our church forbid 
the clergy to frequent taverns, or to play at cards or 
dice, or any other unlawful games. Their indulging 
themselves in these things is a stumbling-block to 
thousands." 

We have said that Whitefield first met Howel 
Harris at Cardiff. After preaching in the town-hall, 
from the judges 7 seat, he says, " I was much refreshed 
with the sight of Mr. Howel Harris ; whom, though 
I knew not in person, I have long loved, and have 
often felt my soul drawn out in prayer in his behalf. . . 
When I first saw him, my heart was knit closely to 
him. I wanted to catch some of his fire, and gave 
him the right hand of fellowship with my whole heart. 
After I had saluted him, and given an exhortation to 
a great number of people, who followed me to the inn, 
we spent the remainder of the evening in taking sweet 
counsel together, and telling one another what God 
had done for our souls. A divine and strong sympa- 
thy seemed to be between us, and I was resolved to 
promote his interest with all my might. Accordingly 
we took an account of the several societies, and agreed 
on such measures as seemed most conducive to pro- 
mote the common interest of our Lord. Blessed be 
God, there seems a noble spirit gone out into Wales; 



PREACHING IN WALES. 71 

and I believe that, ere long, there will be more visible 
fruits of it. What inclines me strongly to think so 
is, that the partition wall of bigotry and party spirit 
is broken down, and ministers and teachers of differ- 
ent communions join, with one heart and one mind, to 
carry on the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The Lord 
make all the Christian world thus minded ; for, until 
this is done, we must, I fear, despair of any great 
reformation in the church of God. 77 

Before leaving Cardiff, Whitefield preached again 
in the town-hall, to a large assembly. He says, " My 
dear brother Harris sat close by me. I did not ob- 
serve any- scoffers within; but without, some were 
pleased to honor me so far as to trail a dead fox, and 
hunt it about the hall. But, blessed be God, my voice 
prevailed. This being done, I went, with many of my 
hearers, among whom were two worthy dissenting 
ministers, to public worship ; and in the second les- 
son were these remarkable words : ' The high-priests, 
and the scribes, and the chief of the people sought tov 
destroy him ; but they could not find what they might \ 
do to him ; for all the people were very attentive to . 
hear him. 7 

" In the afternoon I preached again, without any 
disturbance or scoffing. In the evening, I talked for 
above an hour and a half with the religious society, 
and never did I see a congregation more melted] 
down. The love of Jesus touched them to the quick.* 
Most of them were dissolved in tears. They came to 
me after, weeping, bidding me farewell, and wishing 1 
could continue with them longer. Thanks be to God, 
for such an entrance into Wales. I wrestled with God 



78 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

for them in prayer, and blessed be His holy name for 
sending me into Wales. I hope these are the first- 
fruits of a greater harvest, if ever it should please 
God to bring me back from Georgia. ' Father, thy 
will be done.' 7; 

Whitefield returned from this short excursion, to 
Bristol, baptized with Welsh fire, and renewed his 
labors among the Kingswood colliers with more than 
his usual power and success. He could not, however, 
forget the tears which had entreated him to stay lon- 
ger in Wales, and in three or four weeks he visited 
Usk and Pontypool, where he was again met by Howel 
Harris. At Usk, " the p ulpit b eing denied, I preached 
upon a table, under \ large tree, to some hundreds, 
and God was with us of a truth. On my way to Pon- 
typool, I was informed by a man who heard it, that 

Counsellor H did me the honor to make a public 

motion to Judge Pr to stop me and brother Howel 

Harris from going about teaching the people. Poor 
man, he put me in mind of Tertullus, in the Acts ; but 
my hour is not yet come. I have scarcely begun my 
testimony. For my finishing it, my enemies n.ust 
have power over me from above. Lord, prepare me 
for that hour." 

The report to which we have just referred did not 
prevent the curate of Pontypool from cordially invit- 
ing Whitefield into his pulpit. He also read prayers 
for him. After the sermon, it was found that so many 
had come to hear who could not find room in the 
church, that another sermon was loudly called for. 
He says, ; ' I went and preached to all the people in 
the field. I always find I have most power when I 



PREACHING IN GLOUCESTER. 79 

preach in the open air ; a proof to me that God is 
pleased with this way of preaching. I betook myself 
to rest, full of such unutterable peace as no one can 
conceive of but those who feg ]L it ." 

In several other places did our evangelist, during 
this excursion, unfurl the banner of the cross ; and at 
its close he writes, " Oh how swiftly this week has 
glided away. To me it has been but as one day. 
How do I pity those who complain that time hangs 
on their hands ! Let them but love Christ, and 
spend their whole time in his service, and they will 
find but few melancholy hours. 77 Nor will any won- 
der that he should thus speak, who consider the spirit 
which animated his soul. What he some time after- 
wards wrote to Howel Harris, from Philadelphia, in- 
dicated the spirit he himself cherished: "Intersperse 
prayers with your exhortations, and thereby call down 
fire from heaven, even the fire of the Holy Ghost, 

" i To soften, sweeten, and refine, 
And melt them into love.' 

Speak every time, my dear brother, as if it were your 
last ; weep out, if possible, every argument, and compel 
them to cry, ' Behold how he loveth us. 7 77 

From Wales, Whitefield went to visit his native 
city, Gloucester; and after one or two sermons, he 
found himself here also excluded from the parochial 
pulpits. But notwithstanding his persecutions, and 
the infirm state of his health at that time, his labors 
in Gloucester and its vicinity were constant and emi- 
nently successful. Bowling-greens, market-crosses, 
highways, and other such places, bore witness to his 
faithful and tearful labors. 



80 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

At Gloucester lived at that time the Rev. Mr. 
Cole, an old dissenting minister, who often heard 
Whitefield preach, and used to say, " These are the 
days of t he Son of m an indeed !" Whitefield, when a 
boy, had been taught to ridicule this Mr. Cole ; and 
when he was once asked what profession he would 
engage in, replied, " I will be a minister, but I will 
take care never to tell stories in the pulpit like old 
Cole." Twelve years afterwards, the old minister 
heard the young one preach, and tell some story to 
illustrate his subject, when the venerable servant of 
Christ remarked, " I find young Whitefield can tell 
stories now as well as old Cole." The good man 
was much affected with the preaching of his young 
friend, and was so humble, that he used to subscribe 
himself his curate, and went about in the country preach- 
ing after him. One evening, while preaching, he was 
struck with death, and asked for a chair to lean on 
till he had finished his sermon. Having done this, he 
was carried up stairs and died. When the fact was 
told to Whitefield, he said, " blessed God, if it be 
thy holy will, may my exit be like his !" How striking 
is this fact when looked at in connection with the cir- 
cumstances of his own removal from earth. 

Intent on the advancement of his orphan-house in 
Georgia, Whitefield soon went to London, passing on 
his way through Oxford. At both places he found 
opposition, and in London was shut out of the churches. 
He preached to thousands in Islington churchyard, 
and now resolved to give himself to the work in the 
open air. 

From the conflict with the enemies who a few 



PREACHING IN LONDON. 81 

years before had threatened her existence, the po- 
lemics of the church of England now turned to resist 
the unwelcome ally who menaced her repose. Bishop 
Warburton led the van, and behind him many a mitred 
front scowled on the audacious innovator. Divested 
of the logomachies which chiefly engaged the attention 
of the disputants, the controversyJ^etween Whitefield 
and the bishops lay in a narrow compass. It being 
mutually conceded that the virtues of the Christian 
life can result only from certain divine impulses, and 
that to lay a claim to this holy inspiration when its 
legitimate fruits are wanting, is a fatal delusion, he 
maintained, and they denied, that the person who is 
the subject of this sacred influence has within his own 
bosom an independent attestation of its reality. So 
abstruse a debate required the zest of "some more pun- 
gent ingredients, and the polemics with whom White- 
field had to do were not such sciolists in their calling 
as to be ignorant of the necessity of riveting upon 
him some epithet at once opprobrious and vague. 
While therefore milder spirits arraigned him as an 
enthusiast, Warburton, with constitutional energy of 
invective, denounced him as a fanatic. In vain White- 
field demanded a definition of these reproachful terms. 
To have fixed their meaning would have been to blunt 
their edge. They afforded a solution, at once com- 
pendious, obscure, and repulsive, of whatever was re- 
markable in his character, and have been associated 
with his name from that time to the present. 

• The spots on which Whitefield now began, in his 
own language, " to take the field," and publicly to 

erect the standard of the Kedeemer's cross, are well 

4* 



82 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

known. Moorfields, then a place of general rendezvous 
and recreation from the crowded city, Kennington 
Common then about two, and Blackheath about five 
miles from London, were the favorite sites to. which 
he loved to resort, and "open his mouth boldly 77 to 
listening thousands, in honor of his crucified and 
glorified Lord. Recording his first engagement of 
this kind in his diary of Sabbath evening, April 29, 
1739, he writes, " Begun to be yet more vile this day, 
for I preached at Moorfields to an exceeding great 
multitude ; and at five in the evening went and preach- 
ed at Kennington Common, where upwards of twenty 
thousand were supposed to be present. The wind 
being for me, it carried my voice to the extreme part 
of my audience. All stood attentive, and joined in 
the psalm and the Lord 7 s prayer so regularly, that I 
scarce ever preached with more quietness in a church. 
Many were much affected. 

" * For this let men revile my name, 
I '11 shun no cross, I '11 fear no shame ; 
All hail, reproach, and welcome pain, 
Only thy terrors, Lord, restrain/ " 

For several successive months, the places we have 
named were his chief scenes of action. At a moder- 
ate computation, the audience frequently consisted of 
twenty thousand. It is said that the singing could 
be heard two miles, and the voice of the preacher 
nearly one. Sometimes there were upwards of a hun- 
dred coaches, besides wagons, scaffolds, and other 
contrivances by which a sight of him could be ob- 
tained, The rising ground on Blackheath, from which 
Whitefield preached, is still known as " Whitefield's 



PREACHING IN LONDON. 83 

mount," and after his death, Lord Dartmouth planted 
it with fir-trees. It will ever be a grateful recollec- 
tion to the author of this volume, that during the 
summer of 1839 he prevailed on some of the most em- 
inent ministers of England to preach on every succes- 
sive Monday evening on this hallowed spot ; and that 
here many thousands then heard the way of salvatio n, 
and not a few were brought to the cross of Christ. 
In that immediate neighborhood too, now densely 
populated, he organized, and for some years preached 
to a Christian church. Memorable times ! Many 
were the manifestations of the Redeemer's favor. 

An anecdote which we heard many years ago from 
one of Whitefield's Blackheath hearers, may here be 
related. While one day preaching on " the heath," 
there passed along the road at some distance, an old 
man and " Mary " his wife, with their ass and his 
loaded panniers, returning from London to their home 
in Kent. Attracted alike by the crowd and the 
preacher's voice, the old man and his wife turned a 
little out of their way to hear " what the man was 
talking about." Whitefield spoke of somewhat which 
occurred eighteen hundred years ago, and the old 
man said, " Mary, come along, it is only something 
which happened a long while ago ;" but Mary's atten- 
tion had been arrested, and she wished to stay a min- 
ute or two longer. They were both soon in tears, 
and the inquiry was excited in their hearts, " What 
shall we do to be saved ?" On their way home, while 
" talking of all these things," the old man recollected 
his neglected Bible, and asked, "Why, Mary, does 
not our old book at home say somewhat about these 



84 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

things?" They went home, and examined the old book 
with new light. " Why, Mary," asked the old man, 
" is this indeed our old book ? why, every thing in it 
seems quite new." So true is it, that the teaching of 
the Spirit gives new discernment as to the truths of 
livine revelation. 

A fact strikingly illustrating the children's love 
to our evangelist may be here mentioned. In his 
open-air preachings, especially in and about London, 
he was usually attended by many of them, who sat 
round him, in and about the pulpit, and handed to 
him the notes of those who desired his counsels and 
prayers. These children were exposed to the missiles 
with which he was often assailed, but however terri- 
fied they might be, or even hurt, they seldom shrunk; 
" but," says he, " on the contrary, every time I was 
struck, they turned up their little w eeping ey es, and 
seemed to wish they could receive the blows for me." 

Speaking of his open-air labors, the devoted preach- 
er says, "Words cannot express the displays of divine 
grace which we saw, and heard of, and felt. Lord, not 
unto me, but unto thy name be all the glory." On a sub- 
sequent occasion he writes, " We have had a glorious 
season, a true Easter. Jesus Christ is risen indeed. 
I have been preaching in Moorfields, and our Saviour 
carries all before us. Nothing can resist his conquer- 
ing blood. It would have delighted you to see poor 
sinners flock from the booths to see Jesus lifted up on 
the pole of the gospel." The climax of his success 
there, is one of the most remarkable letters that ever 
came from a mortal's pen. He records at its close, 
a We then retired to the Tabernacle, with my pockets 



TABERNACLE IN LONDON. 85 

full of notes from persons brought under concern, and 
read tlieni amidst the praises and spiritual acclama- 
tions of thousands, who joined with the holy angels in 
rejoicing that so many sinners were snatched, in such 
an unexpected, unlikely place and manner, out of the 
very jaws of the devil. This was the beginning of 
the Tabernacle society. Three hundred and fifty 
awakened souls were received in one day ; and I be- 
lieve the number of notes exceeded a thousand. But 
I must have done, believing you want to retire, to join 
in mutual praise with me in thanksgiving to God and 
the Lamb." 

Having thus introduced the name of the Taberna- 
cle, it is important that the reader should be acquaint- 
ed with the origin of the buildings which have borne 
that name. From the very first of what may be called 
his irregular labors, Whitefield always declared that 
he " would never be the founder of a sect." He kept 
his word ; yet two London churches remain as his 
memorial — the Tabernacle, and Tottenham Court-road 
chapel, the one in the north, and the other in the wes- 
tern part of the metropolis. The Tabernacle, which 
was first erected, was his more especial and favorite 
field of labor, and he dwelt in the house adjoining it, 
which is still the pastoral residence. 

Moorfields, just without the limits of the old north 
city wall of London, was, a few years before White- 
field first knew it, a marsh, and during the greater 
part of the year, was absolutely impassable. Having 
been partially drained, a brick kiln was erected, and 
the first bricks used in London are said to have been 
manufactured there. Afterwards it was a field for 



86 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

the practice of archery, when it was laid out in walks, 
and called the City Mall. Though improved in name 
and appearance, it became the rallying ground for the 
rabble of London ; wrestlers, boxers, and mounte- 
banks, the idle, the dissolute, and the profane, held 
here their daily and nightly revels. It appeared, in 
fact, to be one of the strong-holds of Satan, and there- 
fore became a most tempting and important point of 
attack for the daring eloquence of Whitefield. All 
London rang one day with the announcement that 
Whitefield would preach the day following at Moor- 
fields. 

This was in January, 1739. Gillies says, "The 
thing being strange and new, he found, on coming out 
of the coach, an incredible number of people assem- 
bled. Many told him that he would never come out 
of that place alive. He went in, however, between 
two friends, who by the pressure of the crowd were 
soon parted from him entirely, and obliged to leave 
him to the mercy of the rabble. But these, instead of 
hurting him, formed a lane for him, and carried him 
along to the middle of the fields, where a table had 
been placed. This, however, having been broken by 
the crowd, he mounted a wall, and preached to an 
exceeding great multitude in tones so melting, that 
his words drew tears and groans from the most aban- 
doned of his hearers. Moorfields became henceforth 
one of the principal scenes of his triumphs. Thirty 
thousand people sometimes gathered together to hear 
him, and generous contributions here poured in for 
his orphan-house at Bethesda. On one occasion 
twenty pounds — about one hundred dollars — were re- 



TABERNACLE IN LONDON. 81 

ceived in half-pennies, more than one person was able 
to carry away, and enough to put one out of conceit 
with a specie currency." 

It was not till his fifth visit to London, in March, 
1741, that Whitefield ventured to preach in Moor- 
fields on a week-day ; the day selected for this bold 
action being Good-Friday. His chief, if not his only 
friends on this occasion, he tells us, were a few 
" orthodox dissenters. 77 These people perceiving the 
inconvenience to which he was subjected by the 
weather, during the morning and evening services in 
Moorfields, procured the loan of a piece of ground, 
and employed a carpenter to build a large temporary 
shed, to screen the auditory from the cold and rain. 
This building Whitefield called a " tabernacle, 77 as it 
was only intended to be used a few months during his 
stay in his native country, previous to his return to 
America. Providence, however, had otherwise deter- 
mined, and this proved the commencement of a per- 
manent establishment of the means of grace. A great 
spiritual awakening took place ; congregations be- 
came very large, acquiring at the same time consider- 
able cohesion, and assuming a stationary character. 
This original fabric of wood was a place of large 
dimensions ; and notwithstanding its rude aspect and 
temporary design, it sufficed for the accommodation of 
Whitefield and his flock, during the twelve succeeding 
years — a period the most brilliant and useful of his 
extraordinary career. 

Some of Whitefield 7 s friends, however, did not 
approve of the original wooden structure ; and an- 
ticipating or desiring the formation of a Christian 



88 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

church, they called for the immediate erection of a 
substantial brick building, a point which was debated 
with a warmth approaching to violence, of which 
Whitefield makes pathetic mention seven years after- 
wards. Here then several important facts are estab- 
lished : that the original tabernacle sprang not from 
Whitefield, but from a voluntary movement among his 
adherents, composed chiefly, if not wholly, of Protes- 
tant dissenters ; that the expense was borne not by 
him, but by them ; that much debate and dissension 
attended the measure, proving the thoroughly free 
and popular character of the original movement ; and 
that, as the edifice originated with the people alone, 
so did the institution of regular worship. It is cer- 
tain that fears existed in the mind of Whitefield as to 
the success of such an organization ; but the results 
most happily disappointed his expectations. 

The subject of the erection of a more spacious 
edifice in the place of the tabernacle of wood, was 
first discussed at the mansion of Lady Huntingdon, in 
Leicestershire, when Drs. Doddridge and Stonehouse, 
and the Rev. Messrs. Hervey and Whitefield happen- 
ed to meet together, in the summer of 1751. During 
the following winter, Whitefield began to make col- 
lections for the object, and on almost its first presenta- 
tion in London, nine hundred pounds, or four thou- 
sand five hundred dollars, were subscribed. "But," 
he says, " on the principle that burned children dread 
the fire, I do not mean to begin until I get one thou- 
sand in hand, and then to contract at a certain sum 
for the whole." The fact was, that Whitefield had 
often been in great straits for the support of his or- 



TABERNACLE IN LONDON. 8S 

phan-house in Georgia, " for I forgot/ 7 he says, " that 
Professor Francke built in Glaucha, in a populous 
country, and that I was building at the very tail of 
the world." In March, 1753, he wrote to Mr. Charles 
Wesley, " On Tuesday morning the first brick of our 
new Tabernacle was laid with awful ^ solemnity. I 
preached from Exodus 20 : 24, ' In all places where I 
record my name, I will come unto thee, and I will 
bless thee,' The wall is now about a yard high. The 
building is to be eighty feet square. It is on the old 
spot. We have bought the house, and if we finish 
what we have begun, shall be rent free for forty-six 
years." In June the dedicatory services took place, 
when the Tabernacle, though capable, with its capa- 
cious galleries, of holding four thousand people, was 
crowded almost to suffocation. Often have we seen 
this vast building crowded with worshippers, with 
delight have we occupied its pulpit, and with devout 
gratitude do we record, that never for a moment has 
the frown of heaven rested upon it. Thousands will 
ever bless God for its erection. 

Not unfrequently has the question been discussed, 
to what denomination of Christians does the Taberna- 
cle really belong ? In answer to this question, we give 
a legal document which may also show what is done 
in reference to houses of worship in England, under 
the laws for the maintenance of religious toleration. 

" These are to certifie whom it may Concern, that 
a Certificate bearing date the Eighteenth Day of June, 
in the year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hun- 
dred and Sixty-four, under the Hands of Starkey 
Myddleton Minister, Robert Keen, Thomas Cox, 



90 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

Samuel Grace, Robert Hodgson, James Smith, Thomas 
Robinson, Benjamin Coles, Thomas Brooks, and Samuel 
Lockhart, for appropriating and setting apart a Cer- 
tain Building for that purpose erected, situate near 
the Barking Dogs in the Parish of Saint Luke in the 
County of Middlesex, and intended for the meeting 
place of a certain Congregation of Protestant Dis- 
senters from the Church of England, calling them- 
selves Independents , was Registered in the Registry 
rf the Dean and Chapter of the Cathedral Church of 
Saint Paul, London, This Twenty-first Day of June in 
the year of Our Lord One Thousand Seven Hundred 
and Sixty-four. 

"THOMAS COLLINS, Deputy Registrar." 

While the new Tabernacle was in the course of 
erection, Whitefield visited Norwich, where his minis- 
try was largely attended, and notwithstanding much 
opposition, was followed with considerable success. 
Writing to his friend Keen, he says, " How does God 
delight to exceed even the hopes, and to disappoint the 
fears of his weak, though honest-hearted people. In 
spite of all opposition, he hath caused us to triumph 
even in Norwich. Thousands attend twice every day, 
and hear with the greatest eagerness. I hope it will 
appear yet more and more that God hath much peo- 
ple here." Compelled by alarming illness, the result 
of his too much preaching, he suddenly returned to 
London, from whence he thus wrote to one of the con- 
verts at Norwich: " I shall little regard the weakness 
and indisposition of my body, if I can but have the 
pleasure of hearing, if not before, yet at the great 
day, that good was done to one precious soul at Nor- 



TABERNACLE IN LONDON. 91 

wich. Blessed be God for the seed sown there. I 
doubt not but it will be watered with the dew of his 
heavenly blessing, and bring forth a divine increase." 

Truly the gospel did triumph, not only in the erec- 
tion of the Tabernacle in that city, but in preparing 
sinners to be pillars in the temple of God, and to win 
others to his service. 

Among other converts won at Norwich, was the 
afterwards popular and useful minister of Christ, the 
Rev. Robert Robinson, of Cambridge, England. When 
a young man, about eighteen, he resided in that city, 
and was engaged in the business of a barber. When 
he was walking one morning with several companions 
who had agreed that day to take their pleasure, the 
first object which attracted their attention was an old 
woman who pretended to tell fortunes. They imme- 
diately employed her to tell theirs, and that they 
might qualify her for the undertaking, first made her 
thoroughly intoxicated. Robinson was informed, 
among other things, that he would live to a very old 
age, and see his children, grandchildren, and great- 
grandchildren growing up around him. Though he 
had assisted in intoxicating the old woman, he had 
credulity enough to be struck with those parts of the 
prediction which related to himself. " And so/ 7 said 
he when alone, " I am to see children, grandchildren, 
and great-grandchildren. At that age I must be a 
burden to the young people. What shall I do ? There 
is no way for an old man to render himself more 
agreeable to youth, than by sitting and telling them 
pleasant and profitable stories. I will then," thought 
he, " during my youth, endeavor to store my mind 



92 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

with all kinds of knowledge. I will see and hear, 
and note down every thing that is rare and wonder- 
ful, that I may sit, when incapable of other employ- 
ments, and entertain my descendants. Thus shall my 
company be rendered pleasant, and I shall be respect* 
ed, rather than neglected, in old age. Let me see, 
what can I acquire first? Oh, here is the famous 
Methodist preacher, Whitefield ; he is to preach here, 
they say, to-night ; I will go and hear him." 

From these strange motives, as he told the cele- 
brated Rev. Andrew Fuller, he went to hear White- 
field preach. That evening his text was, " But when 
he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to 
his baptism, he said unto them, generation of vipers, 
who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come ?" 
Matt. 3 : 7. " Mr. Whitefield," said Robinson, " de- 
scribed the Sadducees' character ; this did not touch 
me ; I thought myself as good a Christian as any man 
in England. From this he went to that of the Phari- 
sees. He described their exterior decency, but ob- 
served, that the poison of the viper rankled in their 
hearts. This rather shook me. At length, in the 
course of his sermon, he abruptly broke off; paused 
for a few moments ; then burst into a flood of tears, 
lifted up his hands and eyes, and exclaimed, • Oh, my 
hearers, the wrath 1 s to come! the wrath 1 s to come! 1 
These words sunk into my heart like lead in the 
water ; I wept, and when the sermon was ended re- 
tired alone. For days and weeks I could think of 
little else. Those awful words would follow me wher- 
ever I went : ' The wrath ? s to come ! The wrath 7 s to 
come f " 



TOTTENHAM COURT-ROAD CHAPEL. 93 

Scarcely had Whitefield completed the Tabernacle 
in London, before he was earnestly solicited to hold 
public services at the west end of the city, and Long- 
Acre chapel, then under the charge of a dissenter, was 
offered for his use. An unruly rabble endeavored to 
drive the preacher from his post ; but a running fire 
of brickbats, broken glass, bells, drums, and clappers, 
neither annoyed nor frightened the intrepid evange- 
list ; nor did an interference on the part of the hierar- 
chy, which followed soon after, prohibiting his preach- 
ing in an incorporated chapel. " I hope you will not 
look on it as contumacy/ 7 said Whitefield to the bish- 
op, " if I persist in prosecuting my design until I am 
more particularly apprized wherein I have erred. I 
trust the irregularity I am charged with will appear 
justifiable to every lover of English liberty, and what 
is all to me, be approved at the awful and impartial 
tribunal of the great Bishop and Shepherd of souls." 
Writing to Lady Huntingdon, he says, " My greatest 
distress is so to act as to avoid rashness on the one 
hand and timidity on the other ;" and this shows, what 
indeed was proved in his whole life, an entire absence 
of that malignant element of fanaticism which courts 
opposition and revels in it. 

" Determined," as Mrs. Knight says, in her beauti- 
ful volume, "Lady Huntingdon and her Friends" "not 
to be beaten from his ground, yet hoping to escape 
some of its annoyances, Whitefield resolved to build 
a chapel of his own. Hence arose Tottenham Court- 
road chapel, which went by the name of l Whitefield's 
soul-trap. 7 " Admirably does he say, "I pray the 
Friend of sinners to make it a soul-trap indeed to 



94 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

many wandering creatures. My constant work is 
preaching fifteen times a week. Conviction and con- 
version go on here, for God hath met us in our new 
building." It was completed and dedicated in No- 
vember, 1756. Though not equal in its triumphs io 
the Tabernacle, the congregation has always been 
large, and its preachers — always the same as those 
at the Tabernacle — have not labored in vain. In 
1829, '30, improvements were made in the building, 
which still, however, contains Whitefield's pulpit. A 
vast area in the centre was originally filled with plain 
seats, where the masses of the people were accommo- 
dated free of all pew rent. 

Let not infidels tell us, that the religion of these 
men and of those times was mere enthusiasm, and that 
the temporal interests of men were neglected in pro- 
fessions of high regard for those of a spiritual charac- 
ter. Let such men know that within two years of the 
opening of Tottenham Court-road chapel, not only 
did the congregation build a parsonage-house for their 
minister, but twelve almshouses for as many poor wid- 
ows. The Tabernacle has always acted with equal 
generosity. In proportion to their means, few con- 
gregations in the world have exceeded these two in 
works of benevolence. 

Assuredly what has sometimes been charged on 
evangelical ministers — that they attend to the spirit- 
ual interests of mankind, but neglect their temporal 
sufferings — would never apply to Mr. Whitefield. No 
sooner had he completed these large edifices, where 
vast congregations assembled, than he was heard fre- 
quently to plead for those laboring under oppression 



ARCHITECTURE OF THE BUILDINGS. 95 

or distress in foreign lands. He preached in both 
these houses in behalf of the poor French Protestants 
in Prussia, who had suffered much from the cruelty 
of the Russians, when great numbers of the nobility, 
and some of the highest officers of the crown went to 
hear him. The collections for this object amounted 
to upwards of fifteen hundred pounds, or seven thou- 
sand five hundred dollars; and for this disinterested 
act of benevolence Whitefield received the thanks of 
his Prussian Majesty. 

Again, on the day recommended by the govern- 
ment for a general fast, Mr. Whitefield preached both 
at the Tabernacle and at Tottenham Court-road chap- 
el, after which he collected five hundred and sixty 
pounds for the relief of the German Protestants, and 
the sufferers by fire at Boston, for which he received 
the unanimous thanks of the inhabitants of that town. 
Lady Huntingdon wrote to one of her friends, "It 
would delight you to have seen what crowds of the 
mighty and noble flocked to hear him. The collection 
was for the relief of the poor German Protestants. I 
invited several to come who probably would not at- 
tend his ministry on other occasions." Few places at 
that time could boast of such a constellation of trans- 
cendent genius and senatorial talent, such a brilliant 
assemblage of wisdom, magnanimity, and oratorical 
powers, as were then found within these houses of the 
living God. 

One word may be allowed here on the plain archi- 
tecture of these buildings. " We are/ 7 says the excel- 
lent Mr. James, "in many things improved, and I 
rejoice in the improvement ; but the occasion of my 



96 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

joy is at the same time the occasion of my fear and 
my jealousy also. Our ecclesiastical architecture is 
just now a special object of our attention. White- 
field, it may be confessed, paid too little attention to 
this ; we, perhaps, are paying too much. His only 
solicitude was to save souls, careless altogether of the 
tastefulness of the building within which that work, 
which has no relation to styles of architecture, was 
carried on. His only calculation in the construction 
of a building was, how many immortal souls could be 
crowded within four square walls, and under a roof, 
to hear ' the joyful sound. 7 Hence the somewhat un- 
couth buildings which he erected. Ah, but when I 
consider that every stone in those unsightly walls has 
echoed to the sound of salvation and the hymns of 
redeemed spirits, and that almost every spot on the 
floor has been moistened by the tears of penitence, 
then, in a feeling of sanctity I seem to lose the sense 
of deformity, and there comes over me an awe and 
solemnity which no modern gothic structure with its 
lofty arches and painted windows can inspire. But 
still, as religion is not only the most holy, but the 
most beautiful thing in God's universe, there is no 
reason why taste and devotion should not be united. 
It is the ministry of the word, however, upon which 
the church must be chiefly intent." 



SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 97 



CHAPTER IV. 

WHITEFIELD'S SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 
1739, 1740. 

As in the preceding chapter, for the sake of con- 
necting the history of Whitefield's church edifices in 
London, we have anticipated the order of events, we 
go back to the period shortly before his second voyage 
to America. 

About the time of which we are now writing, a 
circumstance occurred of deep interest, which White- 
field relates at considerable length. Joseph Periam, 
a young man in London, who had read his sermon on 
" regeneration," became deeply impressed by it ; he 
sold all that he possessed, and prayed so loud and 
fasted so long, that his family supposed him deranged, 
and sent him to the Bedlam madhouse, where he was 
treated as " methodistically mad/ 7 and as " one of 
Whitefield's gang." The keepers threw him down, 
and forced a key into his mouth, while they drenched 
him with medicine. He was then placed in a cold 
room without windows, and with a damp cellar under 
it. Periam, however, found some means of conveying 
a letter to Whitefield, requesting both advice and a 
visit. These were promptly given. The preacher 
soon discovered that Periam was not mad ; and tak- 
ing a Mr. Seward and some other friends with him, 
he went before the committee of the hospital to ex- 
plain the case. It must have been somewhat of a 

Whitefield. ft 



98 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

ludicrous scene. Seward so astounded the committee 
by quoting Scripture, that they pronounced him to be 
as mad as Periam. The doctors frankly told the dep- 
utation, that in their opinion, Whitefield and his fol- 
lowers were " really beside themselves." It was how- 
ever agreed, that if Whitefield would take Periam out 
to Georgia, his release would be granted. Thus the 
conference ended, and the young man went out as a 
schoolmaster at the Orphan-house. There he was ex- 
emplary and useful, and when he died two of his sons 
were received into the institution. 

Mr. Whitefield so successfully pleaded the cause 
of his American orphans, that during his journeys of 
twelve months he collected upwards of one thousand 
pounds towards the erection of his intended house for 
their accommodation. With this sum in his posses- 
sion, he set sail for America the second time, August 
14, 1739, accompanied by his friend Mr. Seward, eight 
men, one boy, and two children. 

While all this was going on, the inhabitants of 
Georgia were making every possible preparation for 
his reception. The records of the trustees say, May 
16, 1739, "Read a commission to the Rev. George 
Whitefield to perform all religious and ecclesiastical 
offices at Savannah, in Georgia." Again: "June 2, 
1739. Sealed a grant of five hundred acres of land 
to the Rev. George Whitefield, in trust for the use of 
the house to be erected and maintained for the receiv- 
ing such children as now are, and shall hereafter be 
left orphans in the colony of Georgia, in pursuance of 
the direction of the Common Council held the 30th of 
last month." 






IN PHILADELPHIA. 99 

Not only was Whitefield anxious to establish the 
orphan-house for the benefit of the whole colony of 
Georgia, but having been ordained priest, for the pur- 
pose of instructing the inhabitants of the town of Sa- 
vannah, he was desirous of making full proof of his 
ministry among them. After a passage of nine weeks 
he landed at Philadelphia, and was immediately in- 
vited to preach in the churches ; to which people of 
all denominations thronged as in England. He was 
especially pleased to find that they preferred sermons 
when " not delivered within the church walls." And 
it was well they did, for his fame had arrived in the 
city before him, and crowds were collected to hear 
him which no church could contain. 

A letter written on this voyage to America has 
recently come to light, which beautifully illustrates 
the spirit by which Whitefield was now animated. It 
was addressed to the Rev. John Cumming of Andover, 
Hampshire, England. 

M Wrote at Sea, dated at Philadelphia, Nov. 9, 1739. 
" Reverend and dear Sir — You see by my writing 
this how willing I am to cultivate a correspondence 
with you. I wish Christians in general, and ministers 
of Christ in particular, were better acquainted. The 
cause of Christ thereby must be necessarily promoted. 
But bigotry and sectarian zeal have been the bane of 
our holy religion. Though we have one Lord, one 
faith, and one baptism, yet if we do not all worship 
God in one particular way, we behave to each other 
like Jews and Samaritans. Dear sir, I hope that nei- 
ther of us have so learned Christ. Blessed be God 



103 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

for his free grace in Christ. The partition wall has for 
some time been broken down out of my heart, and I 
can truly say, whosoever loves the Lord Jesus, ' the 
same is my brother, and sister, and mother.' For this 
reason, dear sir, I love you. For this reason, though 
I decrease, yet I heartily wish you may increase, even 
with all the increase of God. I am persuaded you 
are like-minded. I believe my friends have prayed 
for me. The Lord hath dealt most lovingly with me 
his servant. He has chastened and corrected, but hath 
not given me over into the hands of the enemy. A 
future journal will acquaint you with particulars. 
What I have sent over to be published will afford you 
abundant matter for thanksgiving in behalf of, 
" Dear sir, your affectionate friend, 

" Brother, and servant, 

" G. WHITEFIELD." 

The old court-house of Philadelphia, then stand- 
ing on Second and Market streets, had a balcony, 
which several years before the visit of Whitefield had 
been often used instead of a pulpit. In 1736, we find 
that Mr. Abel Noble had preached " from the court- 
house steps," on a Monday, to a large congregation 
standing in Market-street, on the subject of keeping 
the Sabbath. In the same year, Michael Welfare ap- 
peared there to give his " warning voice," and now, in 
1739, it became one of the favorite preaching stands 
of the great evangelist. Here he stood, surrounded 
by many thousands, even down to the side of the Del- 
aware river, not a few bathed in tears, and inquiring 
after the way of salvation. 



IN PHILADELPHIA. 101 

Dr. Franklin says, " The multitudes of all sects 
and denominations that attended his sermons were 
enormous ; and it was a matter of speculation with 
me to observe the influence of his oratory on his hear- 
ers, and how much they admired and respected him, 
notwithstanding his common abuse of them, by assur- 
ing them that they were, naturally, half beasts and 
half devils. It was wonderful to see the change soon 
made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being 
thoughtless and indifferent about religion, it seemed 
as if all the world was growing religious ; so that one 
could not walk through the towif in~ah evening with- 
out hearing psalms sung in different families in every 
street." 

A constant attendant on his ministry at this time 
says, " His hearers were never weary ; every eye was 
fixed on his expressive countenance ; every ear was 
charmed with his melodious voice ; every heart cap- 
tivated with the beauty and propriety of his address. 
He was no contracted bigot ; all denominations par- 
took of his religious charity. Anxious in America 
for our civil privileges, he was alike solicitous for the 
spiritual and temporal happiness of mankind. No 
man since the apostolic age preached oftener or with 
better success. He was, moreover, a polite gentle- 
man, a faithful friend, an engaging companion, and a 
sincere Christian. His sermons in the open air lasted 
about one and a half hours. 77 

Watson, in his "Annals of Philadelphia, 77 speaking 
of Whitefield 7 s first visit to that city, tells us that he 
preached to a crowd of fifteen tffousand persons on 
Society hill, and adds, " About the same time he so 



L02 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

far succeeded to repress the usual public amusements, 
that the dancing-school was discontinued, and the 
ball and concert rooms were shut up, as inconsistent 
with the requisitions of the gospel. No less than 
fourteen sermons were preached on Society hill in the 
open air in one week, during the session of the Pres- 
byterian church ; and the gazette of the day, in no- 
ticing the fact, says, ' The change to religion here is 
altogether surprising, through the influence of White- 
field ; no books sell but religious, and such is the 
general conversation/ " 

It is said, that though some gentlemen broke open 
the assembly-rooms, no company could be induced to 
visit them. Such was the popularity of Whitefield, 
that when he left the city, about one hundred and 
fifty gentlemen accompanied him as far as Chester, 
fifteen miles from Philadelphia, where he preached to 
about seven thousand people. At White Clay creek, 
he preached to eight thousand people, three thousand 
of whom, it is said, were on horseback. Many com- 
plimentary effusions to him appeared in the newspa- 
pers, and James Pemberton, a very distinguibhed 
Friend, said of him, " In his conversation he is very 
agreeable, and has not much of the priest ; he frequents 
no set company.' 7 

An old gentleman assured Watson, the annalist, 
that on one occasion the words, "And he taught them, 
saying," as pronounced by Whitefield on Society hill, 
were heard at Gloucester point, a distance by water 
of two miles. 

Abundant reasctos might be assigned for our in- 
troducing in this place an account of the institution 



THE LOG COLLEGE. 10S 

called " the Log college." It has proved the parent 
of every collegiate and theological institution con- 
nected with the large and wealthy body of Presbyte- 
rians in this country ; it was originated by a family 
which became especially endeared to Mr. Whitefield ; 
and from his journal, recording his visit to it, we 
have, in some respects at least, the clearest state- 
ment of facts concerning it which history has pre- 
served. 

As we have already shown, about one hundred and 
forty years ago, the state of religion, both in Europe 
and America, was very low. Nor was the condition of 
the Presbyterian body an exception. As the late Dr. 
Alexander, in his interesting volume, called " The Log 
College," says, " The ministers composing the Pres- 
byterian church in this country were sound in the 
faith, and strongly attached to the Westminster con- 
fession of faith and. catechisms, as were also their peo- 
ple ; and there were no diversities or contentions 
among them respecting the doctrines of the gospel ; 
but as to the vital power of godliness, there is reason 
to believe that it was little known or spoken of. 
Revivals of religion were nowhere heard of, and an 
orthodox creed, and a decent external conduct were 
the only points on which inquiry was made, when per- 
sons were admitted to the communion of the church. 
Indeed, it was very much a matter of course, for all 
who had been baptized in infancy, to be received into 
communion at the proper age, without exhibiting or 
possessing any satisfactory evidence of a change of 
heart by the supernatural operations of the Holy 
Spirit. And the habit of their preachers was to ad- 



104 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

dress their people as though they were all pious, and 
only needed instruction and confirmation." 

Such was the lamentable state of things when the 
Rev. William Tennent, sen., an Irish clergyman past 
the middle stage of life arrived in this country, about 
the year 1716. After laboring for a season in the 
state of New York, till about 1721, he received an 
invitation to settle at Bensalem, where he ministered 
to the small Presbyterian congregation till 1726, when 
he was called to Neshaminy, in the same county, where 
he labored for the rest of his life, living till 1746, 
when he died, aged seventy-three. In Neshaminy the 
good man felt that he was called not only to discharge 
the duties of a preacher and pastor, but to look over 
the whole country, and to devise means for the exten- 
sion of the cause of Christ. He had himself four 
sons, the subjects of divine grace, and blessed with 
talents for usefulness in the kingdom of the Redeemer, 
and he felt that when other young men rose up in the 
church, favored with ministerial talents, they also 
would need mental cultivation. Hence his determi- 
nation to erect the humble building of which we now 
write, which was the first Presbyterian literary and 
theological institution in this country, the immediate 
parent of the college at Princeton, and from which, 
indeed, all similar institutions emanated. 

The site of the Log college is about a mile from 
Neshaminy creek, where the Presbyterian church has 
long stood. The ground near and around it lies hand- 
somely to the eye, and the more distant prospect is 
very beautiful ; for while there is a considerable ex- 
tent of fertile, well-cultivated land, nearly level, the 



THE LOG COLLEGE. 105 

view is bounded to the north and west by a range of 
hills, which have a very pleasing appearance. Mr. 
Whitefield has left in his " Journal," the only descrip- 
tion we have of the building. " The place," says he, 
" wherein the young men study now, is in contempt 
called l the college. 7 It is a log-house about twenty 
feet long, and nearly as many broad ; and to me it 
seemed to resemble the school of the old prophets, 
for their habitations were mean. That they sought 
not great things for themselves is plain from these 
passages of Scripture, wherein we are told that each 
of them took a beam to build them a house ; and 
that at the feast of the sons of the prophets, one of 
them put on the pot, while the others went to fetch 
some herbs out of the field. All that we can say of 
most of our universities is, they are glorious without. 
From this despised place, seven or eight worthy minis- 
ters of Jesus have lately been sent forth ; more are 
almost ready to be sent, and the foundation is now 
laying for the instruction of many others." 

Of the senior Tennent, the founder of the Log col- 
lege, little more is known than what we have already 
given. He was a member of the synod of Philadel- 
phia, who were satisfied with his reasons for leaving 
the Established church of Ireland, and for several 
years this body cordially cooperated with him in his 
zealous labors. Their unity of feeling, however, seems 
to have declined. This we learn from a passage in 
Whitefield's " Journal," which also gives us a beauti- 
ful view of the good old man. " At my return home, 
was much comforted by the coming of one Mr. Ten- 
nent, an old gray-headed disciple and soldier of Jesus 

5* 



106 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

Christ. He keeps an academy about twenty miles 
from Philadelphia, and has been blest with four gra- 
cious sons, three of which have been, and still con- 
tinue to be eminently useful in the church of Christ. 
He brought three pious souls along with him, and 
rejoiced me by letting me know how they had been 
evil spoken of for their Master's sake. He is a great 
friend of Mr. Erskine, of Scotland ; and as far as I 
can learn, both he and his sons are secretly despised 
by the generality of the synod, as Mr. Erskine and 
Ais friends are hated by the judicatories of Edinburgh, 
and as the Methodist preachers, as they are called, 
are by their brethren in England." 

Not long after this, the Log college was visited by 
Whitefield, who wrote the account we have already 
given. He also says, under the date of Nov. 29, 1739, 
" Set out for Neshaminy, twenty miles distant from 
Trent Town, where, old Mr. Tennent lives, and keeps 
an academy, and where I was to preach to-day, accord- 
ing to appointment. About twelve o'clock, we came 
thither, and found about three thousand people gath- 
ered together in the meeting-house yard. Mr. Will- 
iam Tennent, junior, an eminent servant of Jesus 
Christ, because we stayed beyond the time appointed, 
was preaching to them. When I came up, he soon 
stopped ; sung a psalm, and then I began to speak as the 
Lord gave me utterance. At first, the people seemed 
unaffected, but in the midst of my discourse, the power 
of the Lord Jesus came upon me, and I felt such a 
struggling within myself for the people as I scarce 
ever felt before. The hearers began to be melted 
down immediately, and to cry much ; and we had 



IN PHILADELPHIA. 10? 

good reason to hope the Lord intended good for many. 
After I had finished, Mr. Gilbert Tennent gave a word 
sf exhortation, to confirm what had been delivered. 
At the end of his discourse, we sung a psalm, and dis- 
missed the people with a blessing ; that the people 
may say Amen to it. After our exercises were over, 
we went to old Mr. Tennent's, who entertained us 
like one of the ancient patriarchs. His wife, to me 
seemed like Elizabeth, and he like Zachary ; both, as 
far as I can learn, walk in the commandments and 
ordinances of the Lord blameless. Though God was 
pleased to humble my soul, so that I was obliged 
to retire for a while, yet we had sweet communion 
with each other, and spent the evening in concerting 
what measures had best be taken for promoting 
our dear Lord's kingdom. It happened very provi- 
dentially that Mr. Tennent and his brethren are ap- 
pointed to be a presbytery by the synod, so that 
they intend bringing up gracious youths, and send- 
ing them out from time to time into the Lord's vine- 
yard. 77 

We may be permitted to add here, that among the 
ministers sent out by Mr. Tennent, from the Log col- 
lege, to preach the gospel, were his four sons, Gilbert, 
William, John, and Charles, the Rev. Messrs. Samuel 
Blair, John Blair, Charles Beatty, and Eev. Dr. Samuel 
J. Finley, President of Princeton College ; of some of 
these excellent men the reader will hear again in the 
course of this volume. 

In reference to his first visit to Philadelphia, 
Whitefield thus writes : "I have scarcely preached 
among them, but I have seen a stirring among the 



108 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

dry bones. Go where I will, I find people with great 
gladness receive me into their houses. Sometimes I 
think I am speaking to stocks and stones ; but before 
I have done, the power of the Lord comes over them, 
and I find I have been ploughing up some fallow 
ground, in a place where there has been a great fam- 
ine of the word of God. But as God's word increases, 
so will the rage and opposition of the devil. Scoffers 
seem to be at a stand what to say. They mutter in 
coffee-houses, give a curse, drink a barrel of punch, 
and then cry out against me for not preaching more 
morality. Poor men, if God judges them, as he cer- 
tainly will do, by their morality, out of their own 
mouths will he condemn them. Their morality, falsely 
so called, will prove their damnation. God has en- 
larged my heart to pray. Tears trickle down my 
face, and I am in great agony ; but the Lord is pleased 
to set his seal to what he enables me to deliver. 
Amid cries and groans in the congregation, God gives 
me much freedom of speech. Many people and many 
ministers weep. My own soul is much carried out. 
I preached to a vast assembly of sinners ; nearly 
twelve thousand were collected ; and I had not spoken 
long, before I perceived numbers melting ; as I pro- 
ceeded, the power increased, and thousands cried out ; 
never before did I see so glorious a sight. Oh, what 
strong crying and tears were poured forth after the 
dear Lord Jesus! Some fainted; and when they had 
gotten a little strength, they would hear and faint 
again. Never was my soul filled with greater power. 
Oh, what thoug hts and words did God put into my 
heart. As great, if not greater commotion was in 



IN PHILADELPHIA. 109 

the hearts of the people. Look where I would, most 
were drowned in tears.' 7 

An aged man who was living in 1806, and who 
well remembered the scenes he witnessed, bore. testi- 
mony that after this visit of the great evangelist, pub- 
lic worship was regularly celebrated in Philadelphia 
twice a day for a whole year ; and that on the Lord's 
day it was celebrated three, and frequently four times 
in each church. He said there were not less than 
twenty-six societies regularly held for prayer and 
Christian conference. 

Such was the influence of Whitefield, not only in 
Philadelphia, but throughout the colony of Pennsyl- 
vania, that in the city attention to commerce was 
suspended, and in the country the cultivation of the 
land for the time being was abandoned, that people 
might hear him proclaim the gospel of the Lord 
Jesus. 

Among other very striking conversions in Phila- 
delphia at this period, was that of a young lady, Avho 
had for several years made a public profession of 
Christianity, but who now became fully convinced 
that " she was totally unacquainted with vital piety. 77 
When Mr. Whitefield began his labors in that city, 
she was greatly affected by his preaching, on which 
she constantly attended, and often afterwards told 
her friends, that after the first sermon she heard 
him preach, she was ready to say with the woman of 
Samaria, " Come see a man who told me all things 
that ever I did. 77 The preacher, she said, so exactly 
described all the secret workings of her heart, her 
wishes, and her actions, that she really believed he 



110 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

was either more than human, or else that he was su- 
pernaturally assisted to know her heart. She was 
not then aware that all. depraved hearts are much 
alike, and that he who in lively colors can paint one, 
gives a description which will be recognized by many 
as their own. This young lady once walked twenty 
miles to hear a sermon from "Whitefield ; she became 
a most eminent Christian, and was one of the constit- 
uent members of the church organized by Mr. Ten- 
nent. She married Mr. Hugh Hodge, who was also 
one of the seals of Mr. Whitefield's ministry, and a 
deacon of the church, and for more than sixty years 
she eminently " adorned the gospel of God in all 
things." 

During this first visit of Mr. Whitefield to Phila- 
delphia, another interesting circumstance occurred. 
Whitefield preached one evening standing on the 
steps of the court-house, in Market-street, which be- 
came, as we have said, his favorite spot during that 
and subsequent visits. A youth some thirteen years 
of age stood near him, and held a lantern for his ac- 
commodation ; but becoming deeply absorbed in the 
sermon, and strongly agitated, the lantern fell from 
his hands, and was dashed in pieces. Those near the 
boy, observing the cause of the accident, felt specially 
interested, and for a few moments the meeting was 
discomposed by the occurrence. Some fourteen years 
afterwards ; Mr. Whitefield, on his fifth visit to tl is 
country, was visiting St. George's, in Delaware. He 
was one day riding out with the Rev. Dr. John Rodg- 
ers, then settled as the minister at St. George's, in 
the closed carriage in which Whitefield generally 



IN NEW YORK. Ill 

rode. Mr. Rodgers asked him whether he recollected 
the occurrence of the little boy who was so affected 
with his preaching as to let his lantern fall. Mr. 
Whitefield replied, " yes, I remember it well ; and 
have often thought I would give almost any thing in 
my power, to know who that little boy was, and what 
had become of him." Mr. Rodgers replied with a 
smile, " I am that little boy." Mr. Whitefield, with 
tears of joy, starte'd from his seat, took him in his 
arms, and with strong emotion remarked, that he was 
the fourteenth person then in the ministry whom he 
had discovered in the course of that visit to America, 
in whose conversion he had, under God, been instru- 
mental. 

From Philadelphia, Whitefield was invited by Mr. 
Noble to New York ; this gentleman being the only 
person with whom he then had an acquaintance in 
that city. Upon his arrival, he waited with his 
friend on the commissary, but he refused to White- 
field the use. of the church. This commissary of the 
bishop, he says, " was full of anger and resentment, 
and denied me the use of his pulpit before I asked for 
it. I He said they did not want my assistance. I re- 
plied, that if they preached the gospel, I wished them 
good luck : I will preach in the fields ; for all places 
are alike to me." The undaunted evangelist there- 
fore preached in the fields ; and on the evening of the 
same day, to a very thronged and attentive audience, 
in the Rev. Mr. Pemberton's meeting-house, in Wall- 
street ; and continued to do so twice or three times 
a day, with apparent success. 

Of this visit to New York, and of Whitefield's 



112 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

labors there, we have a graphic account, furnished by 
one of his hearers, for " Prince's Christian History." 
Of the first sermon in the fields, the writer says, " I 
fear curiosity was the motive that led me and many 
others into that assembly. I had read two or three 
of Mr. Whitefield's sermons and part of his Journal, 
and from them had obtained a settled opinion, that he 
was a good man. Thus far was I prejudiced in his 
favor. But then having heard of so much opposition, 
and many clamors against him, I thought it possible 
he might have carried matters too far ; that some en- 
thusiasm might have mixed itself with his piety, and 
that his zeal might have exceeded his knowledge. 
With these prepossessions I went into the fields. 
When I came there, I saw a great number of people, 
consisting of Christians of all denominations, some 
Jews, and a few, I believe, of no religion at all. 
When Mr. Whitefield came to the place designated, 
which was a little eminence on the side of a hill, he 
stood still and beckoned with his hand, and disposed 
the multitude upon the descent, before, and on each 
side of him. He then prayed most excellently, in the 
same manner, I suppose, that the first ministers of the 
Christian church prayed. The assembly soon appear- 
ed to be divided into two companies, the one of which 
I considered as God's church, and the other the devil's 
chapel. The first were collected round the minister, 
and were very serious and attentive ; the last had 
placed themselves in the skirts of the assembly, and 
spent most of their time in giggling, scoffing, talking, 
and laughing. I believe the minister saw them, for 
in his sermon, remarking on the cowardice and shame- 



IN NEW YORK. 113 

facedness in Christ's cause, he pointed towards this 
assembly, and reproached the former, those who 
seemed to be Christians, with the boldness and zeal 
with which the devil's vassals serve him. Towards 
the last prayer the whole assembly appeared more 
united, and all became hushed and still ; a solemn 
awe and reverence appeared in the faces of most, a 
mighty energy attending the word. I heard and felt 
something astonishing and surprising, but I confess I 
was not at that time fully rid of my scruples. But as 
I thought I saw a visible presence of God with Mr. 
Whitefield, I kept my doubts to myself. 

" Under this frame of mind, I went to hear him in 
the evening at the Presbyterian church, where he ex- 
pounded to above two thousand people within and 
without doors. I never in my life saw so attentive 
an audience. All he said was demonstration, life, and 
power. The people's eyes and ears hung on his lips. 
They greedily devoured every word. I came home 
astonished. Every scruple vanished ; I never saw 
nor heard the like ; and I said within myself, l Surely 
God is with this man, of a truth.' He preached and 
expounded in this manner twice every day for four 
days, and his evening assemblies were continually 
increasing. 

" On Sunday morning at eight o'clock, his congre- 
gation consisted of about fifteen hundred people ; but 
at night several thousands came together to hear him ; 
and the place being too strait for them, many were 
forced to go away, and some, it is said, with tears 
lamented their disappointment. After sermon he left 
New York at ten at night, to fulfil a promise that he 



114 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

had made to preach at Elizabethtown, at eleven a. m. 
the next day." 

We give a few paragraphs from the same vigorous 
pen, relating to the personal manners and the doc- 
trines of our evangelist. " He is a man of a middle 
stature, of a slender body, of a fair complexion, and 
of a comely appearance. He is of a sprightly, cheer- 
ful temper, and acts and moves with great agility and 
life. The endowments of his mind are very uncom- 
mon ; his wit is quick and piercing ; his imagination 
lively and florid ; and as far as I can discern, both 
are under the direction of an exact and solid judg- 
ment. He has a most ready memory, and I think 
speaks entirely without notes. He has a clear and 
musical voice, and a wonderful command of it. He 
uses much gesture, but with great propriety. Every 
accent of his voice, every motion of his body speaks, 
and both are natural and unaffected. If his delivery 
is the product of art, it is certainly the perfection of 
it, for it is entirely concealed. He has a great mas- 
tery of words, but studies much plainness of speech. 

" His doctrine is right sterling. I mean, perfectly 
agreeable to the Articles of the church of England, to 
which he frequently appeals for the truth of it. He 
loudly proclaims all men by nature to be under sin, and 
obnoxious to the wrath and curse of God. He maintains 
the absolute necessity of supernatural grace to bring 
men out of this state. He asserts the righteousness 
of Christ to be the only cause of the justification of 
the sinner ; that this is received by faith ; that this 
faith is the gift of God ; that where faith is wrought, 
it brings the sinner under the deepest sense of his 



IN NEW YORK. 115 

guilt and unworthiness to the footstool of sovereign 
grace, to accept of mercy as the free gift of God, only 
for Christ's sake. He denies that good works have 
any share in our justification: that indeed they do 
justify our faith, and necessarily flow from it, as 
streams from the fountain ; but Christ's external 
righteousness imputed to us, and his inherent right- 
eousness wrought in us, is the only cause of man's sal- 
vation. He asserts the absolute necessity of the new 
birth, where a principle of new life is ingenerated in 
the heart of man, and an entire change is produced in 
the temper and disposition of the soul ; and that this 
new production is the work only of God's blessed 
Spirit. That wherever this change is wrought, it is 
permanent and abiding, and that the gates of hell 
shall never prevail against it. He asserts that the 
special influence and indwelling of the Spirit, was not 
peculiar to the first Christians, but that it is the com- 
mon privilege of believers in all ages of the church ; 
that the Holy Spirit is the author of the sanctification 
and comfort of all God's people ; and that, even in 
these days, if any man have not the spirit of Christ, 
he is none of his. He said, that to many of his hear- 
ers, he feared he spoke in an unknown tongue ; that 
he preached great mysteries ; that true Christians 
knew what he meant, and that all his hearers, if they 
are saved, must be brought to understand them. These 
are some of the doctrines which have been attended 
with such mighty power in this city. This is the doc- 
trine of the martyrs. This they sealed with their 
blood ; notwithstanding that so many in our days 
have departed from it. 



116 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

" Mr. Whitefield speaks much of the language of 
the New Testament ; and has an admirable faculty in 
explaining the Scriptures. He strikes out of them 
such lights, and unveils those excellencies which sur- 
prise his hearers, when he expounds them. He ex- 
Dresses the highest love and concern for the souls of 
men ; and speaks of Christ with the most affectionate 
appropriation — ' My Master ! My Lord P He is no 
enemy to the innocent freedoms and liberties of the 
gospel ; nor does he affect singularity in indifferent 
things. He spends not his zeal in trifles, but says, 
' The kingdom of God consists not in meats and 
drinks ; but in righteousness, and peace, and joy in the 
Holy Ghost.' He breathes a most catholic spirit, and 
prays most earnestly that God would destroy all that 
bigotry and party zeal which has divided Christians. 
He supposes some of Christ's flock are to be found 
under every denomination, and upbraids the uncharit- 
ableness of those who confine the church to their own 
communion. He professes a most sincere love to all 
those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, 
and declares that he has no design to make a party 
in religion. He professes that his whole design in 
preaching the gospel is to bring men to Christ, to 
deliver them from their false confidences, to raise 
them from their dead formalities, and to revive prim- 
itive Christianity among them ; and if he can obtain 
this end, he will leave them to their liberty, and they 
may go to what church, and worship God in what 
form they like best. 77 

While going from Philadelphia to New York, or 
on his return, Whitefield appears to have preached at 



IN NEW YORK. Ill 

Maidenhead, Abington, Neshaminy, Freehold, Bur- 
lington, Elizabethtown, and New Brunswick, to many 
thousands, gathered from various parts, among whom 
there had been a considerable awakening under the 
ministry of Mr. Frelinghuysen, a Reformed Dutch 
minister, and the Rev. Messrs. Tennent, Blair, and 
Rowland. It was no less pleasing to him than 
strange to see such congregations in a foreign land ; 
ministers and people shedding tears, sinners struck 
with awe, and religious persons who had been much 
persecuted, filled with joy. The old Tennent church 
at Freehold, where preached Whitefield, Brainerd, 
Davies, and other "famous men" of that day, still 
echoes with the same gospel. In size the building is 
forty feet by sixty, with three entrances on the larger 
side. The pulpit is on the north side of the house, 
immediately opposite the central door, so that the 
minister faces the width of the church instead of its 
length. The pulpit is very narrow, and is surmounted 
with a sounding-board, according to the custom of our 
fathers. In the middle aisle lie buried the remains of 
the sainted William Tennent, whose death took place 
about seven years after that of Whitefield, at the age 
of seventy-two years. A handsome monumental tablet 
records the leading dates of his pilgrimage. 

Some of our readers may inquire as to the local- 
ities honored by Whitefield's preaching in and about 
the city of New York. We find many records of his 
discoursing in the open fields of the surrounding coun- 
try ; the old City Exchange, which stood at the foot of 
Broad-street, near Water-street, and which was built 
on large arches, was a favorite spot for itinerant 



118 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

preachers, and for Whitefield among the rest. Dur- 
ing his various visits to New York, from 1745 to 
1760, he generally preached in the Presbyterian church 
in Wall-street, which was then the only church of that 
denomination in the city, and of which the Rev. Dr. 
Peinberton, from Boston, was the minister. After- 
wards, a few years before his death, he was accus- 
tomed to preach in the Brick church in Beekman- 
street; which was then familiarly called the u Brick 
meeting," and in common parlance, said to be "in the 
fields f so little was the city extended at that period. 
So prosperous was his ministry in New York, that it 
was found necessary immediately to enlarge the Pres- 
byterian church in Wall-street, by the erection of 
galleries ; and a year or two afterwards it was again 
enlarged about one-third, in order to accommodate 
the stated worshippers. 

When Whitefield was preaching before a very 
large number of the seamen of New York, he intro- 
duced the following bold apostrophe into his sermon : 
" Well, my boys, we have a cloudless sky, and are 
making fine headway over a smooth sea, before a light 
breeze, and we shall soon lose sight of land. But 
what means this sudden lowering of the heavens, and 
that dark cloud arising from beneath the western 
horizon? Hark! don't you hear the distant thunder ? 
Don't you see those flashes of lightning ? There is a 
storm gathering. Every man to his duty. How the 
waves rush and dash against the ship! The air is 
dark. The tempest rages. Our masts are gone ! 
What next? 77 The unsuspecting tars, reminded of 
former perils on the deep, as if struck by the power 



IN NEW YORK. 11& 

of magic, arose, and with united voices exclaimed, 
"Take to the longboat, sir!" The reader may well 
imagine how this very natural answer would be used 
by the preacher. 

While at New York, Whitefield wrote, " God will 
ing, in about seven months I hope to see New Eng- 
land on my return to Europe. An effectual door is 
there opened, and no wonder there are many adver- 
saries. Shortly I expect to suffer for my dear Mas- 
ter.' 7 And after his return to Philadelphia, he showed 
his piety and meekness by writing to the Eev. Dr. 
Pemberton, of New York, "I have been much con- 
cerned since I saw you, lest I behaved not with that 
humility towards you which is due from a babe to a 
father in Christ ; but you know, reverend sir, how 
difficult it is to meet with success, and not be puffed 
up with it ; and therefore, if any such thing was dis- 
cernible in my conduct, pity me, and pray to the 
Lord to heal my pride. All I can say is, that I desire 
to learn of Jesus Christ to be meek and lowly in 
heart : but my corruptions are so strong, and my em- 
ploy so dangerous, that I am sometimes afraid." 

One of the most important incidents of this journey 
to New York, was the meeting of Whitefield with Gil- 
bert Tennent. Two powerful preachers could hardly 
resemble each other less ; and the great strength of 
each lay in characteristics in which the other was de- 
ficient. In one point, especially, Whitefield felt and 
recorded his new friend's superiority. He heard Ten- 
nent preach. " Never before heard I such a searching 
sermon. He went to the bottom indeed, and did not 
* daub with untempered mortar. 7 He convinced me, 



120 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

more and more, that we can preach the gospel of 
Christ no farther than we have experienced the power 
of it injour hearts. I found what a babe and novice 
I was in the things of God." These men, as Tracy 
says, having once met, could not but be friends and 
allies for life ; and the effects of their alliance could 
not fail to be felt by thousands. 

Both at Philadelphia and New York, printers ap- 
plied to Whitefield for copies of his sermons for pub- 
lication, and two were so issued, in the influence of 
which their author had cause to rejoice. In an after- 
period, the celebrated Benjamin Franklin printed 
Whitefield's " Journal in New England," still extant ; 
a copy of which was sold at auction in Philadelphia 
in 1855, for about thirty times its original price. His 
journals, indeed, and his sermons became considerable 
articles in commerce, and did not a little, amid the 
comparatively sparse population of the country, to 
extend both his fame and his usefulness. 

But the time was now come when it became im- 
portant that Whitefield should pursue his course tow- 
ards Savannah. He could not, however, regret his 
stay so long on the road. " It is unknown," he says, 
" what deep impressions have been made on the hearts 
of hundreds. Many poor sinners have, I trust, been 
called home, and great numbers are under strong con- 
victions. An opposer told me I had unhinged many 
good sort of people. I believe it." 

Nor was this the only good he had done. No 
small sympathy had been excited among Christian 
people in favor of his orphan family, and a spirit of 
liberality and of prayer was extensively cherished. 



NEW YORK TO GEORGIA. 121 

" They sent me/ 7 says the grateful evangelist, " butter, 
sugar, chocolate, pickles, cheese, and flour, for my or- 
phans; and indeed, I could almost say, they would 
pluck out their own eyes and give me. that what 
God says of the church of Philadelphia may now be 
fulfilled in the city called after her name — * I know 
thy works.' " 

The ready liberality which everywhere met White- 
field, determined him to pursue his journey by land. 
He therefore procured a vessel, in which he sent on 
his family and their supplies to Savannah. Of this 
sloop, Captain Gladman was master ; and a young man 
who had recently been converted by the preaching of 
the great evangelist, willingly offered himself as mate. 
We have already seen that he was accompanied south- 
ward as far as Chester by a very large company of 
gentlemen of Philadelphia ; and on his arrival at that 
place, a court was about to open, but the judges sent 
him word that they would not commence their busi- 
ness until the sermon, which they expected from him, 
was over. Nearly a thousand people had travelled 
from Philadelphia to hear it, and it was thought that 
those collected from places many miles around, com- 
posed an assembly of not less than seven thousand 
persons. A platform was erected, and it was believed 
that many of his hearers obtained something infinitely 
better than the mere gratification of their curiosity. 

Among other places at which he preached on this 
journey, was White Clay creek, endeared to him not 
only as the place where he first met with his beloved 
friend William Tennent, but as the residence of a 
Welsh family who had heard him preach at Cardiff 

Whitefield P> 



122 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

and Kingswood before they emigrated, and who bore, 
what was to him a fact of endearing interest, the 
name of Howell. But during this tour Whitefield had 
to endure considerable privations and peril in riding 
through the woods. On one occasion, he heard the 
wolves " howling like a kennel of hounds " near to the 
road ; on another, he had a narrow escape in trying 
to cross the Potomac in a storm. Here also he had 
once to swim his horse, owing to the floods ; for it 
was now the depth of winter. One night, Seward 
and he lost their way in the woods of South Carolina, 
and were much alarmed at seeing groups of negroes 
dancing around large fires. Notwithstanding all the 
hardships, however, of the journey, no real injury was 
sustained from it. 

Our evangelist at length arrived at Charleston in 
good health and spirits. But he could not obtain 
admittance to St. Philip's church ; Garden, the com- 
missary, who had once promised to " defend him with 
life and fortune/ 7 was absent, and the curate would 
not open the doors without his leave. The people, 
however, had not forgotten him, and the Rev. Josiah 
Smith, the congregational minister, and the pastor of 
the French church, at once threw open their houses 
and pulpits, and rich indeed were the blessings they 
enjoyed. 

The congregations during his present visit to 
Charleston were large and polite; but he says they 
presented " an affected finery and gayety of dress and 
deportment, which I question if the court-end of Lon- 
don could exceed. 77 Before he left, however, there 
was what he called " a glorious alteration in the audi- 



IN GEORGIA. 123 

ence." Many of them wept ; and the hitherto light 
and airy had visibly strong feelings, as shown in their 
countenances. Such was their extreme anxiety to hear 
more from him, that after he had gone to the shore to 
sail for Georgia, they prevailed on him to preach 
again. 

On the next morning, Whitefield and his compan- 
ions left Charleston in a canoe for Savannah ; and on 
their way lay on the ground in the woods, surrounded 
by large fires to keep off the wild beasts. On this fact 
he makes the reflection, " An emblem, I thought, of the 
divine love and presence keeping off evils and corrup- 
tions from the soul." On his arrival at Savannah, Jan- 
uary 11, 1740, he was very happy to meet his family, 
who had arrived there three weeks before him ; and 
to find, by letters from England, New York, etc., that 
the work of the Lord prospered. One thing, however, 
greatly distressed him. The colony of Georgia was 
reduced even to a much lower state than when he left 
it, and was deserted by nearly all who could get away. 
He thought that to employ those who were left, would 
render them an important service, and that the money 
thus expended might be the means of keeping them in 
the colony. 

During the absence of Mr. Whitefield from Geor- 
gia, Mr. Habersham had fixed on a plot of ground of 
five hundred acres, about ten miles from Savannah, on 
which the orphan-house should stand, and had already 
commenced to clear and stock it. The orphans, in 
the mean time, were accommodated in a hired house. 
Whitefield afterwards regretted the course pursued. 
EJe found the condition of the orphans so pitiable, and 



124 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

the inhabitants so poor, that he immediately opened 
an infirmary, hired a large house at a great rent, and 
took in, at different times, twenty-four orphans. 

In the March following, Whitefield was again at 
Charleston, where he went to meet his brother, the 
captain of a ship, from England. Here he was re- 
quested by many of the inhabitants to give some 
account of his poor orphans, which he did in the house 
of worship occupied by his friend the Rev. Josiah 
Smith, the first native of South Carolina who received 
a literary degree. Such was the spirit excited, that 
the collection amounted to seventy pounds sterling. 
This was no small encouragement, especially as he 
/iad reason to believe that most of it came from those 
who had received spiritual benefit from his ministry. 

But if Whitefield now had his joys in Charles- 
ton, so he had also his sorrows. We have seen that 
in a previous visit to this city, he had considered 
himself " set for the defence of the gospel." He had 
remarked, in reference to the twelfth article of the 
church of England, " Observe, my dear brethren, the 
words of the article, ' Good works are the fruit of 
faith, and follow after justification. 7 How can they 
then precede, or be in any way the cause of it ? No, 
our persons must be justified, before our performances 
can be accepted." Commissary Garden, of whom we 
have already spoken, now seized the opportunity of 
Whitefield's visit to Charleston, to write him a letter, 
dated March 17, attacking his doctrine of justifica- 
tion, and challenging him to defend what he had said 
concerning the bishop of London and his clergy. In 
this letter, he urged in reply to what the evangelist 



IN CHARLESTON. 125 

had said, u If good works do necessarily spring out of 
a true and lively faith, and a true and lively faith, 
necessarily precedes justification, the consequence is 
plain, that good works must not only follow after, but 
precede justification also. 77 Whitefield replied the 
next day, " I perceive that you are angry overmuch. 
Was I never so much inclined to dispute, I would 
stay till the cool of tlie day. Your letter more and 
more confirms me, that my charge against the clergy 
is just and reasonable. It would be endless to enter 
into such a private debate as you, reverend sir, seem 
desirous of. You have read my sermon : be pleased 
to read it again ; and if there be any thing contrary 
to sound doctrine, or the Articles of the church of 
England, be pleased to let the public know it from 
the press ; and then let the world judge whether you 
or my brethren the clergy have been rashly slandered. 77 
This was but the commencement of a controversy, in 
which were concerned Garden of Charleston, and the 
Rev. Messrs. Croswell and Gee of Boston, portions of 
which are preserved in the Old South church library, 
in the latter city ; and which was afterwards resumed 
between Garden and Smith, of Charleston, in the 
"South Carolina Gazette, 77 as may be seen in the 
library of the American Antiquarian Society at Wor- 
cester, Massachusetts. 

In the mean time, Whitefield had returned to Sa- 
vannah, and on March 25, he laid the first brick of 
the main building of the orphan-house, which he called 
Bethesda, that is, a house of mercy. It was built of 
wood, and measured seventy feet by forty. By this 
time nearly forty children had been received, to be 



126 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

provided for with food and raiment ; and counting 
the workmen with these, he had nearly one hundred 
persons to feed day by day. To do all this he had 
very little money in the bank ; still he was not dis- 
couraged, being persuaded that his present duty was 
to advance the interests of the colony by carrying on 
his work. " As yet/ 7 says he, " I am kept from the 
least doubting. The more my family increases, the 
more enlargement and comfort I feel. Set thy al- 
mighty fiat to it, gracious Father, and for thine 
own name's sake convince us more and more, that thou 
wilt never forsake those who put their trust in thee." 
On reviewing this passage fifteen years afterwards, 
he wrote, " Hitherto, blessed be God, I have not been 
disappointed of my hope." 

We close our present chapter with a very short 
visit to Charleston. In this city Whitefield had as- 
suredly produced a very extraordinary excitement, 
and very opposite opinions were entertained in refer- 
ence to his character and doctrines. On the day 
after he had laid the first stone of Bethesda, Mr. Smith 
undertook at Charleston to defend the conduct and 
character of his beloved friend, in a sermon from Job 
32 :17: "I said, I will answer also my part; I also 
will show mine opinion." As this discourse was pub- 
lished during the following June, with a commenda- 
tory preface by the Rev. Drs. Colman and Cooper 
of Boston, and is still highly valued as a piece of con- 
temporary history, we give an extract, particularly as 
to the manner of the preaching of the great evangelist. 

"He is certainly a finished preacher. A noble 
negligence ran through his style. The passion and 



IN GEORGIA. 127 

flame of his expressions will, I trust, be long felt by 
many. My pen cannot describe his action and ges- 
tures, in all their strength and decencies. He appear- 
ed to me, in all his discourses, to be very deeply affect- 
ed and impressed in his own heart. How did that 
burn and boil within him, when he spake of the things 
which he had ' made touching the King. 7 How was 
his tongue like the pen of a ready writer, touched as 
with a coal from the altar. With what a flow of 
words, what a ready profusion of language, did he 
speak to us upon the great concerns of our souls. In 
what a flaming light did he set our eternity before us. 
How earnestly he pressed Christ upon us. How did 
he move our passions with the constraining love of 
such a Redeemer. The awe, the silence, the attention 
which sat upon the face of the great audience, was an 
argument how he could reign over all their powers. 
Many thought he spake as never man spake before 
him. So charmed were the people with his manner 
of address, that they shut up their shops, forgot their « 
secular business, and laid aside their schemes for the 
world ; and the oftener he preached, the keener edge 
he seemed to put upon their desires to hear him again. 
" How awfully, with what thunder and sound, did 
he discharge the artillery of heaven upon us. And 
yet, how could he soften and melt even a soldier of 
Ulysses with the mercy of God. How close, strong, 
and pungent were his applications to the conscience ; 
mingling light and heat ; pointing the arrows of the 
Almighty at the hearts of sinners, while he poured in 
the balm upon the wounds of the contrite, and made 
broken bones rejoice. Eternal themes, the tremendous 



128 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

solemnities of our religion, were all alive upon his 
tongue. So, methinks — if you will forgive the figure — 
St. Paul would look and speak in a pulpit. In some 
such manner, I am tempted to conceive of a seraph, 
were he sent down to preach among us, and to tell us 
what things he had seen and heard above. 

How bold and courageous did he look. He was 
uo flatterer ; he would not suffer men to settle on their 
lees ; and did not prophesy smooth things, nor sew 
pillows under their arms. He taught the way of God 
in truth, and regarded not the persons of men. He 
struck at the politest and most modish of our vices, 
and at the most fashionable entertainments, regardless 
of every one's presence, but His in whose name he 
spoke with this authority. And I dare warrant, if 
none should go to these diversions until they have 
answered the solemn questions he put to their con- 
sciences, our theatre would soon sink and perish. T 
freely own he has taken my heart." 



SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 129 



CHAPTER V. 

CONTINUATION OF WHITEFIELD'S SECOND VISIT TO 

AMERICA. 
1740. 

At the period when Whitefield laid the corner- 
stone of his Bethesda, his health was much impair- 
ed, and his spirits depressed. But it was necessary 
that funds should be obtained, to meet the claims now 
daily made upon him. He had received handsome 
donations from Charleston, New York, and Phila- 
delphia, yet the urgent demand was for more. He 
therefore embarked from Charleston for Newcastle, 
Delaware, in a sloop, and arrived there in about ten 
days. Passing on from thence to Philadelphia, he 
found the churches closed against him. The commis- 
sary told him that he would lend the church to him 
no more. The laconic answer of Whitefield was, 
" The fields are open ;" and eight thousand people 
assembled to hear him the same evening, and ten thou- 
sand on the following day. On the following Lord's 
day morning, he collected one hundred and ten pounds 
sterling for his " poor orphans," and then went to the 
Episcopal church, where the commissary preached a 
sermtfn on justification by works. As Whitefield was 
recognized at church, it was naturally expected that 
in the evening he would answer the sermon ; nor was 
the public expectation disappointed. After his ser 
mon, he collected eighty pounds more for Bethesda. 

6* 



130 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

But far higher success than this attended his labors. 
Societies for worship were commenced in different 
parts of the town ; not a few began seriously to in- 
quire after the way of salvation ; many negroes came 
to the evangelist with the inquiry, " Have I a soul?" 
and a church was formed, of which the distinguished 
Gilbert Tennent was the eminently useful pastor. No 
less than one hundred and forty, who had undergone 
a previous strict examination as to their personal 
piety, were received, as constituent members of the 
church, and large additions were from time to time 
made to their number. 

Several events of special interest occurred during 
this visit to Philadelphia. Tennent had to tell a series 
of delightful facts as to the usefulness of Whitefield 7 *? 
former labors. He began to deliberate on a plan for 
a negro school in Pennsylvania, as he did afterwards 
also in Virginia, but unexpected difficulties intervened, 
and both in the end were abandoned. Mr. Jones, the 
Baptist minister of the city, told Whitefield of the 
change produced by his former preaching on the minds 
of two ministers ; one of whom stated to his congre- 
gation that he had hitherto been deceiving both him- 
self and them, and added, that he could not preach to 
them at present, but requested them to unite in prayer 
with him ; and the other resigned his charge, to itin- 
erate among the unenlightened villages of New Jersey 
and elsewhere. Another fact was, that an Indian 
trader became so impressed with the preaching of 
Whitefield, that he had given up his business, and 
was gone to teach the Indians with whom he used to 
trade. Nor had his usefulness stopped here : he heard 



SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 131 

of a drinking club, which had attached to it a negro 
boy remarkable for his powers of mimicry. This boy 
was directed by the gentlemen who composed the 
club to exercise his powers on Mr. Whitefield : he did 
so, but very reluctantly ; at length he stood up and 
said, " I speak the truth in Christ, I lie not ; unless 
you repent, you will all be damned." This unexpected 
speech had such an effect as to break up the club, 
which met no more. 

We add a few paragraphs from Seward's journal, 
who soon after sailed for England to promote the 
interests of Georgia, and who died in the parent coun- 
try. They date from the 24th to the 26th of April. 
" Came to Christopher Wigner's plantation in Skip- 
pack, where many Dutch people are settled, and 
where the famous Mr. Spalemburg lately resided. It 
was surprising to see such a multitude of people gath- 
ered together in such a wilderness country, thirty 
miles distant from Philadelphia. Mr. Whitefield was 
exceedingly carried out, in his sermon, to press poor 
sinners to come to Christ by faith, and claim all their 
privileges ; namely, not only righteousness and peace, 
but joy in the Holy Ghost ; and after he had done, 
our dear friend Peter Bolder preached in Dutch, to 
those who could not understand Mr. Whitefield in 
English." 

" Before Mr. Whitefield left Philadelphia, he was 
desired to visit one who was under a deep sense of sin, 
from hearing him preach. In praying with this perron, 
he was so carried beyond himself, that the whole 
company, about twenty, seemed to be filled with the 
Holy Ghost, and magnified the God of heaven." 



132 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

" Arose at three o'clock, and though Mr. White- 
field was very weak in body, yet the Lord enabled 
him to ride nearly fifty miles, and to preach to about 
five thousand people at Amwell, with the same power 
as usual. Mr. Gilbert Tennent, Mr. Rowland, Mr. 
Wales, and Mr. Campbell, four godly ministers, met 
us here." 

" Came to New Brunswick. Met Mr. Noble from 
New York, a zealous promoter of our Lord's king- 
dom. He said their society at New York was en- 
larged from seventy to one hundred and seventy, and 
was daily increasing ; and that Messrs. Gilbert and 
William Tennent. Mr. Rowland, and several others, 
were hard laborers in our Lord's vineyard." 

It will be readily supposed that by this time 
Whitefield and his movements had become so much a 
matter of interest as to be frequently discussed in the 
newspapers of the day. 

The " New England Weekly Journal" of April 29, 
1740, copies from a Philadelphia paper of April 17 : 
" The middle of last month the Rev. Mr. Whitefield 
was at Charleston, and preached five times, and col- 
lected at one time upwards of £70 sterling for the 
benefit of the orphan-house in Georgia ; and on Sun- 
day last, after ten days' passage from Georgia, he 
landed at Newcastle, where he preached morning and 
evening. On Monday morning he preached to about 
three thousand at Wilmington, and in the evening 
arrived in this city. On Tuesday evening he preached 
to about eight thousand on Society hill, and preached 
at the same place yesterday morning and evening." 
Then follows a list of his appointments daily to April 



SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 133 

29, during which time he was to preach at White- 
marsh, Germantown, Philadelphia, Salem, N. J., Ne- 
shaminy, Skippack, Frederick township, Amwell, New 
Brunswick, Elizabethtown, and New York. On May 
6th, the Journal copied a Philadelphia notice of April 
24th, that he had preached on the previous Sabbath to 
fifteen thousand hearers, and on Monday at Green- 
wich and Gloucester, and that he would return to 
Georgia before visiting New England. 

The Journal of May 20th, contains a letter from 
Whitefield to a friend in England, dated New Bruns- 
wick, N. J., April 27. Of his visit to Charleston 
he says, " A glorious work was begun in the hearts of 
the inhabitants, and many were brought to cry out, 
' What shall we do to be saved V . A fortnight ago, 
after a short passage of ten days, I landed in Penn- 
sylvania, and have had the pleasure of seeing and 
hearing that my poor endeavors for promoting Christ's 
kingdom, when here last, were not altogether in vain 
in the Lord. I cannot tell you how many have come 
to me laboring under the deepest convictions, and 
seemingly truly desirous of finding rest in Jesus Christ. 
Several have actually received him into their hearts 
by faith, and have not only righteousness and peace, 
but joy in the Holy Ghost. In short, the word has 
run and been much glorified, and many negroes also 
are in a fair way of being brought home to God. 
Young ones I intend to buy, and do not despair of 
seeing a room full of that despised generation, in a 
Bhorfc time, singing and making melody with grace in 
their hearts to the Lord. 

"An effectual door is opened for preaching the 



134 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

everlasting gospel, and I daily receive fresh and most 
importunate invitations to preach in all the counties 
round about. God is pleased to give a great blessing 
to my printed sermons. They are in the hands of 
thousands in these parts, and are a means of enlight- 
ening and building up many in their most holy faith. 
The clergy, I find, are most offended at me. The 
commissary of Philadelphia, having gotten a little 
stronger than when I was here last, has thrown off 
the mask, denied me the pulpit, and last Sunday 
preached up an historical faith, and justification by 
works. But the people only flock the more. The 
power of God is more visible than ever in our assem- 
blies, and more and more are convinced that I preach 
the doctrine of Jesus Christ. Some of the bigoted, 
self-righteous Quakers now also begin to spit out a 
little of the venom of the serpent. They cannot bear 
the doctrine of original sin, and of an imputed right- 
eousness as the cause of our acceptance with God. 
I have not yet met with much opposition from the 
dissenters ; but when I come to tell many of them, 
ministers as well as people, that they hold the truth 
in unrighteousness, that they talk and preach of justi- 
fying faith, but never felt it in their hearts, as I am 
persuaded numbers of them have not, then they no 
doubt will shoot out their arrows, even bitter words." 
While on his voyage from Charleston to Newcas- 
tle, Whitefield seems to have devoted the 4th of April, 
1740, to correspondence on the subject of marriage. 
" I find," said he, " by experience, that a mistress is 
absolutely necessary for the due management of my 
increasing family, and to take off some of that care 



SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 135 

• 

which at present lies upon me." His letters were ad- 
dressed to a young lady and her parents, connected 
with a family much devoted to piety. Here, as every- 
where else, his heart is transparent. He says to the 

parents of Miss E , " I write only because I believe 

it is the will of God that I should alter my state ; but 
your denial will fully convince me that your daughter 
is not the person appointed for me. He knows iry 
heart ; I would not marry but for him, and in him, for 
ten thousand worlds." 

The next year, having returned to England, White- 
field, like his eminent friend John "Wesley, was mar- 
ried, and like him also, was unhappy in his domestic 
relation. In each case, the husband exacted a previ- 
ous pledge that the wife should never prevent the 
delivery of a single sermon ; and this was followed 
by separation from the wife for weeks, months, or 
e^en years, in the prosecution of their arduous labors. 
In the case of Whitefield, his marriage in Wales, with 
a widow lady, in 1741, was followed by the birth of 
a son ; previous to which event he had said, in the 
joy of his heart, that his name should be John, and 
that he should be a preacher of the everlasting gos- 
pel. The first prediction was realized, and when his 
child was a week old, the good man told his people in 
the Tabernacle, London, that he would live to preach, 
and " be great in the sight of the Lord." But alas, 
at the end of four months John died, and his father 
very wisely wrote in his journal: "I hope what hap- 
pened before his birth, and since at his death, has 
taught me such lessons as, if duly improved, may ren- 
der his mistaken parent more sober-minded, more ex- 



1 ; S6 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

perienced in Satan's devices, and consequently more 
useful in his future labors in the church of God." 

On the death of his wife somewhat suddenly, Au- 
gust 9, 1768, Mr. Whitefield himself preached her 
funeral sermon, from Romans 8:28: " And we know 
that all things work together for good to them that 
love God, to them that are the called according to his 
purpose." In describing her character, he particular- 
ly mentioned her fortitude and courage, and suddenly 
exclaimed, " Do you remember my preaching in those 
fields by the stump of the old tree ? The multitude 
was great, and many were disposed to be riotous. At 
first I addressed them with firmness ; but when a gang 
of desperate banditti drew near, with the most fero- 
cious looks, and horrid imprecations and menaces, 
my courage began to fail. My wife was then stand- 
ing behind me, as I stood on the table. I think I 
hear her now. She pulled my gown" — himself suiting 
the action to the word, by placing his hand behind 
him and touching his robe — "and looking up, said, 
i George, play the man for your God/ My confidence 
returned. I again spoke to the multitude with bold- 
ness and affection ; they became still ; and many were 
deeply affected." 

Before we leave Philadelphia, we may relate an 
instance or two as to the power of his eloquence. Dr. 
Franklin says, " He. had a loud and clear voice, and 
articulated his words so perfectly that he might be 
heard and understood to a great distance ; especially 
as his auditors observed the most profound silence. 
He preached one evening from the top of the court- 
house steps, which are in the middle of Market-street, 



SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 137 

and on the west side of Second-street, which crosses 
it at right angles. Both streets were filled with his 
hearers to a considerable distance. Being among the 
hindmost in Market-street, I had the curiosity to learn 
how far he might be heard by setting backwards down 
the street towards the river ; and I found his voice 
distinct till I came near Front-street, where some 
noise in that street obstructed it. Imagine, then, a 
semicircle of which my distance should be a radius, 
and that it was filled with auditors, to each of whom 
I allowed two square feet, I computed that he might 
well be heard by more than thirty thousand people." 
But not only does Franklin bear witness of White- 
field's eloquence as to his voice, but still more strong- 
ly as to its persuasiveness, of which, it seems, he was 
himself a striking illustration. He says, "I refused 
to contribute to his orphan-house in Georgia, think- 
ing it injudiciously located. Soon after, I happened 
to attend one of his sermons, in the course of which 
I perceived he intended to finish with a collection, 
and I silently resolved he should get nothing from 
me. I had in my pocket a handful of copper mon- 
ey, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in 
gold. As he proceeded, I began to soften, and de- 
termined to give the copper. Another stroke of his 
oratory made me ashamed of that, and determined me 
to give the silver ; and he finished so admirably, that 
I emptied my pocket wholly into the collector's dish, 
gold and all. At this sermon there was also one of 
our club ; who being of my sentiments respecting the 
building at Georgia, and suspecting a collection might 
be intended, had, by precaution, emptied his pockets 



138 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

before he came from home. Towards the conclusion 
of the discourse, however, he felt a strong inclination 
to give, and applied to a neighbor, who stood near 
him, to lend him some money for the purpose. The 
request was made to, perhaps, the only man in the 
company who had the firmness not to be affected by 
the preacher. His answer was, ' At any other time, 
friend Hodgkinson, I would lend to thee freely ; but 
not now, for thee seems to be out of thy right 
senses. 7 " 

Whitefield, much as he loved Philadelphia, had 
now again to leave it. Thus writes the correspond- 
ent of the " New England Weekly Journal, 77 at New- 
castle, May 15 : " This evening Mr. Whitefield went 
on board his sloop here, to sail for Georgia. On Sun- 
day he preached twice in Philadelphia, and in the 
evening, when he preached his farewell sermon, it is 
supposed he had twenty thousand hearers. On Mon- 
day he preached at Darby and Chester ; on Tuesday, 
at Wilmington and White Clay creek ; on Wednes- 
day, twice at Nottingham ; on Thursday, at Fog 7 s 
Manor and Newcastle. The congregations were much 
increased since his being here last. The presence of 
God was much seen in the assemblies, especially at 
Nottingham and Fog 7 s Manor, where the people were 
under such deep soul distress, that their cries almost 
drowned his voice. He has collected in this and the 
neighboring provinces, about £450 sterling for his 
orphans in Georgia. 77 

He arrived at Savannah June 5, and most inter- 
esting was the manner of his reception. He says, " 
what a sweet meeting I had with my dear friends I 



SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 139 

What God has prepared for me, I know not; but 
surely I cannot well expect a greater happiness, till 
I embrace the saints in glory. When I parted, my 
heart was ready to break with sorrow ; but now it 
almost bursts with joy. how did each in turn 
hang upon my neck, kiss, and weep over me with 
tears of joy ! And my own soul was so full of a sense 
of God's love when I embraced one friend in particu- 
lar, that I thought I should have expired in the place. 
I felt my soul so full of a sense of the divine goodness, 
that I wanted words to express myself. Why me, 
Lord ; why me ? When we came to public worship, 
young and old were all dissolved in tears. After 
service, several of my parishioners, all my family, and 
the little children, returned home, crying along the 
streets, and some could not avoid praying very loud. 

" Being very weak in body, I laid myself upon a 
bed ; but finding so many weeping, I rose and betook 
myself to prayer again. But had I not lifted up my 
voice very high, the groans and cries of the children 
would have prevented my being heard. This con- 
tinued for near an hour ; till at last, finding their 
concern rather increase than abate, I desired all to re- 
tire. Then some or other might be heard praying ear- 
nestly, in every corner of the house. It happened at 
this time to thunder and lighten, which added very 
much to the solemnity of the night. Next day the 
concern still continued, especially among the girls. I 
mention the orphans in particular, that their bene- 
factors may rejoice in what God is doing for their 
souls." 

On the 7th of June, he wrote, " I have brought 



140 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

with me a Latin master, and on Monday laid the 
foundation, in the name of the Lord Jesus, for a uni- 
versity in Georgia." On the 28th of the same month. 

he wrote to a Mr. W. D , in a style admirably 

corresponding with the meek spirit we have already 
seen in his letter to the Eev. Dr. Pemberton, of New 
York. " I thank you for your kind letters and friend- 
ly cautions ; and I trust I shall always reckon those 
my choicest friends, who, in simplicity and meekness, 
tell me the corruptions of my heart. It is that faith- 
fulness which has endeared J. S to me. I think 

I never was obliged to any one so much before. 
my dear brother, still continue faithful to my soul ; 
do not hate me in your heart ; in any wise reprove 
me. Exhort all my brethren to forgive my past, I 
fear, too imperious carriage ; and let them pray" that 
I may know myself to be, what I really am, less than 
the least of them all." 

Whitefield's family at Bethesda had now increased 
to not less than one hundred and fifty persons, and to 
advance their interests, it was needful that he should 
again visit Charleston, where he arrived on the third 
of July, and immediately commenced preaching, as on 
former visits. On the following Sabbath, three days 
after his arrival, he attended the Episcopal church, 
where, he says, " I heard the commissary preach as 
virulent and unorthodox, inconsistent a discourse, as 
ever I heard in my life. His heart seemed full of 
choler and resentment. Out of the abundance thereof, 
he poured forth so many bitter words against the 
Methodists, as he called them, in general, and me in 
particular, that several who intended to receive the 



SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 141 

sacrament at his hands, withdrew. Never, I believe, 
was such a preparation sermon preached before. Af- 
ter sermon, he sent his clerk to desire me not to come 
to the sacrament till he had spoken with me. I im- 
mediately retired to my lodgings, rejoicing that I was 
accounted worthy to suffer this further degree of con- 
tempt for my dear Lord's sake." 

The next day, the commissary of the bishop of 
London issued against Whitefield the following eccle- 
siastical writ : 

" Alexander Garden, lawfully constituted Commis- 
sary of the Right Reverend Father in Christ, Ed- 
mund, by divine permission Lord Bishop of London, 
supported by the royal authority underwritten : 

" Alexander Garden, To all and singular clerks, 
and literate persons whomsoever, in and throughout 
the whole province of South Carolina, wheresoever 
appointed, Greeting: 

" To you, conjunctly and severally, we commit, and 
strictly enjoining, command, that you do cite, or cause 
to be cited, peremptorily, George Whitefield, clerk, 
and presbyter of the Church of England, that he law- 
fully appear before us, in the parish church of St. 
Philip, Charleston, and in the judicial place of the 
same, on Tuesday, the fifteenth day of this instant 
July, 'twixt the hours of nine and ten in the forenoon, 
then and there injustice to answer to certain articles, 
heads, or interrogatories, which will be objected and 
ministered unto him concerning the mere health of 
his soul, and the reformation and correction of his 
manners and excesses, and chiefly for omitting to use 
the form of prayers prescribed in the Communion- 



142 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

Book ; and further to do and receive what shall be 
just in that behalf, on pain of law and contempt. And 
what you shall do in the premises, you shall duly cer- 
tify us, together with these presents. 

" Given under our hands and seals of our office, at 
Charleston, this seventh day of July, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand seven hundred and forty." 

Justice to all parties requires it should be said, 
that the phrase as to the health of Whitefield's soul 
was used by Garden not of choice, but in conformity 
with the forms of English ecclesiastical law ; the 
theory of which is, that ecclesiastical courts are only 
held to promote the spiritual health or welfare of 
those who are cited into them. The principal sin of 
Whitefield was " omitting to use the form of prayer 
prescribed in the Common Prayer Book." The un- 
disputed matter of fact, as Tracy says, was, that he 
always used that form when he could obtain an Epis- 
copal church to preach in ; but when he was shut out 
of such pulpits, and was preaching to Baptists, Pres- 
byterians, and Congregationalists, in their own houses 
of worship, where none of the congregations had 
prayer books, or knew how to use them, and where 
the introduction of unaccustomed forms would not 
have promoted the devotion of the worshippers, he 
prayed extempore. 

On the day this writ was issued, "Whitefield preach- 
ed for Mr. Chanler, " a gracious Baptist minister, 
about fourteen miles from Charleston ;" and twice on 
the next day " to a large audience in Mr. Osgood's 
meeting-house, a young Independent minister/ 7 at Dor- 
chester ; the next day at Dorchester again, and at 



SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 143 

Charleston in the evening ; the next day preached and 
read prayers in Christ's church, and twice at Charles- 
ton the next day, with great success. And now, on 
July 11th, a citation was served upon him to appear 
on the fifteenth, as required in the writ. 

On the 12th, he preached and read prayers twice 
on John's island ; and on the 13th, which was the 
Sabbath, he again listened to a sermon from the com- 
missary. Of this sermon Whitefield says, " Had some 
infernal spirit been sent to draw my picture, I think 
it scarcely possible that he could paint me in more 
horrid colors. I think, if ever, then was the time that 
all manner of evil was spoken against me falsely for 
Christ's sake. The commissary seemed to ransack 
church history for instances of enthusiasm and abused 
grace. He drew a parallel between me and all the 
Oliverians, Ranters, Quakers, French prophets, till he 
came down to a family of Dutartes, who lived not 
many years ago in South Carolina, and were guilty 
of the most notorious incests and murders." 

The next day Whitefield again preached twice ; 
and on Tuesday appeared before the commissary, ac- 
cording to his citation. This is said to have been 
the first court of the kind ever attempted to be held 
in any of the colonies. It consisted of the reverend 
commissary A. Garden, and the Rev. Messrs. Guy, 
Mellichamp, Roe, and Orr, who, as well as Whitefield 
himself, and his able advocate, Mr. Andrew Rutledge, 
respectively showed their want of familiarity with 
such business, and, after a series of blunders on both 
sides, the court adjourned to nine o'clock the next 
morning, to afford Whitefield time to ascertain the 



144 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

extent of the jurisdiction of the bishop and his com 
missary. How little, however, he studied the subject 
may be inferred from the fact, that he preached twice 
during the remainder of the day. The next day, a 
Mr. Graham appeared as a prosecuting attorney, and 
Mr. Rutledge as counsel for the respondent. White- 
field made some mistakes, but hints from his quick- 
sighted advocate and his own adroitness saved him 
from their consequences ; though he contrived to give 
the court a lecture on the meanness of catching at a 
word as soon as it was out of his lips, without allow- 
ing him time to correct it. He now filed his objec- 
tion against being judged by the commissary, who, he 
alleged, was prejudiced against him. This gave rise 
to new questions : the court adjourned ; and the 
evangelist went to James' island, read prayers, and 
preached. The next day he again appeared in court, 
and found 'that his exceptions were repelled, and that 
the arbitrators he had asked for would not be ap- 
pointed. He now appealed to the high Court of 
Chancery in London, declaring all further proceed- 
ings in this court to be null and void. He then re- 
tired and read letters which refreshed his spirit, by 
informing him how " mightily grew the word of God 
and prevailed " at Philadelphia ; and that Mr. Bol- 
ton, in Georgia, had nearly fifty negroes learning to 
read. On the 18th he preached twice, and on the 
19th again appeared before the commissary, and 
bound himself, in a penalty of ten pounds, to prosecute 
his appeal in London within twelve months. The 
appeal was never tried, as the ecclesiastical author- 
ities allowed it to die of neglect. 



SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 145 

" The court being ended," says Whitefield, in his 
journal, " the commissary desired to speak with me. 
I asked him to my lodgings. He chose to walk on a 
green near the church. His spirit was somewhat- 
calmer than usual ; but after an hour's conversation, 
we were as far from agreeing as before. 77 " All his 
discourse was so inconsistent and contrary to the gos- 
pel of our Lord, that I was obliged to tell him that I 
believed him to be an unconverted man, an enemy to 
God, and of a like spirit with the persecutor Saul. 
At this he smiled ; and, after we had talked a long 
while, we parted, and God gave me great satisfaction 
that I had delivered my soul in my private conversa- 
tion with the commissary. 77 

The next day, July 20, was the Sabbath. The 
commissary preached in his usual style, and White- 
field preached his farewell sermon to the people of 
Charleston. By his recommendation two or three of 
the dissenting ministers had instituted a weekly lec- 
ture; and the evangelist "advised the people, as the 
gospel was not preached in church, to go and hear it 
in the meeting-house. 77 On leaving the city, he sum- 
med up, in his journal, the results of his labors in this 
manner : 

" What makes the change more remarkable in the 
Charleston people is, that they seemed to me, at my 
first coming, to be a people wholly devoted to pleas- 
ure. One well acquainted with their manners and 
circumstances, told me more had been spent on polite 
entertainments, than the poor s-rate came to ; but now 
the jewellers and dancing-masters begin to cry out 
that their craft is in danger. A vast alteration is dis- 

Whitefield. 7 



140 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

cernible in the ladies' dresses. And some, while I 
have been speaking, have been so convinced of the sin 
of wearing jewels, that I have seen them with blushes 
put their hands to their ears, and cover them with 
their fans. But I hope the reformation has gone far- 
ther than externals. Many moral, good sort of men, 
who before were settled on their lees, have been glo- 
riously awakened to seek after Jesus Christ; and 
many a Lydia's heart hath been opened to receive the 
things that were spoken. Indeed, the word came like 
a hammer and a fire. And a door, I believe, will be 
opened for teaching the poor negroes. Several of 
them have done their usual work in less time, that 
they might come to hear me. Many of their owners, 
who have been awakened, resolved to teach them 
Christianity. Had I time, and proper schoolmasters, 
I might immediately erect a negro school in Sc-uth 
Carolina, as well as in Pennsylvania. Many would 
willingly contribute both money and land." 

The Baptist church in Charleston at this time was 
nearly extinct, being reduced to five or six communi- 
cants, but Whitefield's success greatly increased their 
number, and it thus gained strength which it has never 
lost. It is also gratefully mentioned even now by the 
church of that denomination at Eutaw, that Whitefield 
during this visit to South Carolina preached the dedi- 
cation-sermon of their house of worship. 

Whitefield left Charleston on July 21, visiting and 
preaching on his way homeward, which he reached 
towards the close of the same week. He preached on 
the Sabbath in extreme weakness of body, but " with 
the Holy Ghost from above/ 7 and several were hope- 



SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. 147 

fully converted to God. On the 18th of August, he 
again left Savannah for Charleston, where he was 
able, for want of bodily strength, to preach but once 
a day, but he thought that his sermons were attended 
with more power and success than ever before. In a 
few days after, having preached a farewell sermon to 
four thousand hearers, he sailed for New England, 
where he had been very cordially invited by leading 
ministers and others in Boston and many other places. 



118 GEORGE WHITEFIELD, 



CHAPTER VI. 

WHITEFIELD'S FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENOLAND. 
SEPTEMBER TO NOVEMBER, 1740. 

The religious state of New England in the early 
pa J t of the eighteenth century, was little better than 
the description we have already given of the state 
of Great Britain and its other dependencies at that 
period. Dr. Prince tells us, that the first age of 
New England was one of an almost continual revival. 
Preaching was attended with so much power in some 
places, " that it was a common inquiry, by such mem- 
bers of a family as were detained at home on a Sab- 
bath, whether any had been visibly awakened in the 
house of God that day." And he adds, "Few Sab- 
baths did pass without some being evidently convert- 
ed, and some convincing proof of the power of God 
accompanying his word." 

Dr. Increase Mather, writing towards the close of 
the seventeenth century, while he confirms the state- 
ments we have already given, bears farther testimony 
which is of a very painful character. He says, " Pray- 
er is necessary on this account, that conversions have 
become rare in this age of the world. They that have 
their thoughts exercised in discerning things of this 
nature, have sad apprehensions that the work of con- 
version has come to a stand. During the last age 
scarcely a sermon was preached without some being 
apparently converted, and sometimes hundreds were 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 149 

converted by one sermon. Who of us now can say 
that we have seen any thing such as this? Clear, 
sound conversions are not frequent in our congrega- 
tions ; the great bulk of the present generation are 
apparently poor, perishing, and if the Lord prevent 
not, undone ; many are profane, drunkards, lascivious, 
scoffers at the power of godliness, and disobedient ; 
others are civil and outwardly conformed to good or- 
der, because so educated, but without knowing aught 
of a real change of heart." The same estimable writer 
says, in 1721, " I am now in my eighty-third year, and 
having had an opportunity of conversing with the first 
planters of this country, and having been for sixty-five 
years a preacher of the gospel, I feel as did the ancient 
men who had seen the former temple, and who wept 
aloud as they saw the latter. The children of New 
England are, or once were, for the most part, the chil- 
dren of godly parents. What did our fathers come 
into this wilderness for ? Not to gain estates as men 
do now, but for religion, and that they might have 
their children in a hopeful way of being truly relig- 
ious. There was a famous man who preached before 
one of the greatest assemblies that ever was address- 
ed ; it was about seventy years ago ; and he said to 
them, i I lived in a country seven years, and all that 
time I never heard a profane oath, or saw a man 
drunk.' And where was that country ? It was New 
England. Ah, degenerate New England ! What art 
thou come to at this day ? How are those sins become 
common that were once not even heard of I" 

Passing over, for the present, indications of a re- 
vival of religion, which had appeared in other parts 



150 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

of the country, we speak now only of New England. 
In 1734, a very extraordinary work of grace appeared 
at Northampton, Massachusetts, under the ministry of 
the distinguished Jonathan Edwards, the elder, the 
history of which is given in his admirable " Narrative 
of the surprising Work of God" at that period, in 
Northampton and the vicinity. 

It is important to remark here, that the preaching 
which led to such delightful results was of the most 
faithful and pungent character. We will give one in- 
stance, as illustrative of many, as will be distinctly seen 
by those who have read Edwards' sermon, " Sinners in 
tlie hands of an angry God" or his " Justice of God in the 
damnation of Sinners" Perhaps, however, no sermon 
in New England has ever acquired greater celebrity, 
or accomplished more good, than the one preached 
by President Edwards at Enfield, July 8, 1741, from 
the words, " Their feet shall slide in due time." Deut. 
32 : 35. " When they went into the meeting-house, 
the appearance of the assembly was thoughtless and 
vain ; the people scarcely conducted themselves with 
common decency." But as the sermon proceeded, the 
audience became so overwhelmed with distress and 
weeping, that the preacher was " obliged to speak to 
the people and desire silence, that he might be heard." 
The excitement soon became intense ; and it is said 
that a minister who sat in the pulpit with Mr. Ed- 
wards, in the agitation of his feelings, caught the 
preacher by the skirt of his dress, and said, "Mr. 
Edwards, Mr. Edwards, is not God a God of mercy?" 
Many of the hearers were seen unconsciously holding 
themselves up against the pillars, and the sides of the 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 151 

pews, as though they already felt themselves sliding 
into the pit. This fact has often been mentioned as 
a proof of the strong and scriptural character of Presi- 
dent Edwards' peculiar eloquence — the eloquence of 
truth as attended by influence from heaven; for his 
sermons were read, without gestures. 

But there was another element which must be 
taken into account when we look at the result of this 
sermon, as well as others delivered in like circum- 
stances, and one which we fear has been often over- 
looked. " While the people of the neighboring towns 
were in great distress about their souls, the inhabitants 
of Enfield were very secure, loose, and vain. A lec- 
ture had been appointed there, and the neighboring 
people were so affected at the thoughtlessness of the 
inhabitants, and had so much fear that God would, in 
his righteous judgment, pass them by, that many of 
them were prostrate before him a considerable part 
of the previous evening, supplicating the mercy of 
heaven in their behalf. And when the time appointed 
for the lecture came, a number of the surrounding 
ministers were present, as well as some from a dis- 
tance r> — a proof of the prayerful interest felt on be- 
half of the town. In all this we see much of the 
secret of the powerful impression produced by that 
sermon, and are taught that in seasons when God 
seems about to pour out his Spirit on a community, 
Christians should be found "continuing instant in 
prayer." 

In this more hopeful state of things than had long 
before existed in New England, Whitefield, who was 
now the second time in America, was most urgently 



152 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

entreated to visit the descendants of the Pilgrim fa- 
thers. He complied with the request, and arrived at 
Newport on the evening of the Sabbath, September 
14, 1740. We furnish an account, written chiefly by 
himself, in his journal, published in London, 1741, a 
copy of which may be found in the library of Harvard 
University, to which we have had a kind access, and 
which is rich in what we may term Whitefieldian lore. 
He writes, 

" Was sick part of the passage, but found after- 
wards the sea-air, under God, much improved my 
health. Arrived at Newport, in Rhode Island, just 
after the beginning of evening service. We came 
purposely thither first with our sloop. I think it the 
mpst pleasant entrance I ever yet saw. Almost all 
the morning the wind was contrary ; but I found a 
very strong inclination to pray that we might arrive 
time enough to be present at public worship. Once I 
called the people ; but something prevented their com- 
ing. At last, finding my impression increase upon me, 
I desired their attendance immediately. They came. 
With a strong assurance that we should be heard, we 
prayed that the Lord would turn the wind, that we 
might give him thanks in the great congregation ; 
and also that he would send such to us as he would 
have us to converse with, and who might show us a 
lodging. Though the wind was ahead when we be- 
gan, when we had done praying, and came up out of 
the cabin, it was quite fair. 

"With a gentle gale we sailed most pleasantly 
into the harbor ; got into public worship before they 
had finished the psalms ; and sat, as I thought, undis- 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 153 

covered. After service was over, a gentleman a^ked 
me whether my name was not Whitefield. I told 
him ' yes f he then desired me to go to his house, and 
he would take care to provide lodgings and necessa- 
ries for me and my friends. I went, silently admir- 
ing God's goodness in answering my prayer so mi- 
nutely. Several gentlemen of the town soon came to 
pay their respects to me, among whom was one Mr. 
Clap, an aged dissenting minister, but the most vener- 
able man I ever saw. He looked like a good old 
Puritan, and gave me an idea of what stamp those men 
were who first settled New England. His counte- 
nance was very heavenly ; he rejoiced much in spirit 
at the sight of me, and prayed most affectionately for 
a blessing on my coming to Rhode Island." 

In the evening, in company with Mr. Clap and 
other friends, Whitefield visited Mr. Honeyman, the 
minister of the church of England, and requested the 
use of his pulpit. " At first he seemed a little unwill- 
ing, being desirous to know ' what extraordinary call 
I had to preach on week-days/ which he said was 
disorderly. I answered, ' St. Paul exhorted Timothy 
to ' be instant in season and out of season ;' that if the 
orders of the church were rightly complied with, our 
ministers should read public prayers twice every day, 
and then it would not be disorderly at such times to 
give them a sermon. As to an extraordinary call, I 
claimed none otherwise than upon the apostle's injunc- 
tion, * As we have opportunity, let us do good unto all 
men.' He still held out, and did not give any positive 
answer ; but at last, after he had withdrawn and con- 
sulted with the gentlemen, he said, ' If my preaching 



154 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

would promote the glory of God, and the good of 
souls, I was welcome to his church as often as I 
would, during my stay in town. 7 We then agreed to 
make use of it at ten in the morning, and three in the 
afternoon. After this, I went to wait on the governor, 
who seemed to be a very plain man, and had a very 
plain house, which much pleased me. By profession, 
I think he is a Seventh-day Baptist ; he is a man of 
good report as to his conduct and dealing with the 
world." As might have been expected, the evening 
was spent in exposition and prayer, with a crowded 
company, in the house of his friend Bowers, the gen- 
tleman who first addressed him when coming out of 
church. 

On Monday morning, he breakfasted with " old 
Mr. Clap, and was much edified by his conversation." 
Of this venerable servant of Christ he says, " I could 
not but think, while at his table, that I was sitting 
with one of the patriarchs. He is full of days, a 
bachelor, and has been minister of a congregation in 
Rhode Island upwards of forty years. People of all 
denominations, I find, respect him. He abounds in 
good works, gives all away, and is wonderfully tender 
of little children ; many of different persuasions come 
to be instructed by him. Whenever he dies, I am 
persuaded, with good old Simeon, he will be enabled 
to say, ' Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in 
peace.' v Whitefield preached, according to appoint- 
ment, morning and afternoon, " in the church. It is 
very commodious, and I believe will contain three 
thousand people. It was more than filled in the after- 
noon. Persons of all denominations attended. God 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 155 

assisted me much. I observed numbers affected, and 
had great reason to believe the word of the Lord had 
been l sharper than a twoedged sword/ in some of the 
hearers* souls. 77 

On the evening of the same day he received the 
following note : 

Reverend Sir and beloved Brother — Although 
mine eyes never saw your face before this day, yet my 
heart and soul have been united to you in love, by 
the bond of the Spirit. I have longed and expected 
to see you for many months past. Blessed be God, 
mine eyes have seen the joyful day. I trust, through 
grace, I have some things to communicate to you that 
will make your heart glad. I shall omit writing any 
thing, and only hereby present my hearty love, and 
let you know that I am waiting now at the post of 
your door for admission. Though I am unworthy, 
my Lord is worthy, in whose name, I trust, I come. I 
am your unworthy brother, 

"JONATHAN BARBER." 

" On reading it, 77 says Whitefield, " I could not but 
think this was one of those young ministers whom 
God had lately made use of in such a remarkable 
manner, at the east end of Long Island. I sent for 
him, and found he was the man. My heart rejoiced. 
We walked out, and took sweet counsel together ; and 
among other things, he told me that he came to 
Rhode Island under a full conviction that he should 
see me there, and had been waiting for me about a 
week. . . . What rendered this more remarkable was, 
I had no intention of sailing to Rhode Island till 



156 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

about three days before I left Carolina ; and I had a 
great desire to put in, if I could, at the east end of 
Long Island, to see this very person, whom the great 
God now brought unto me. Lord, accept our thanks, 
sanctify our meeting, and teach us both what we shall 
do for thine own name's sake. In the evening I went 
to the venerable Mr. Clap's, and exhorted and prayed 
with a great multitude, who not only crowded into the 
house, but thronged every way about it. The dear 
old man rejoiced to see the things which he saw ; and 
after my exhortation was over, dismissed me with his 
blessing." 

Tuesday, we scarcely need remark, was spent by 
Whitefield in the work of his great Master. He 
preached to a vast congregation, including the mem- 
bers of the House of Assembly, who adjourned to 
attend the service; and he had very delightful evi- 
dence that his labors had already been useful. On 
Wednesday he left Newport, and about noon preached 
at Bristol, at the request of the court, which was then 
in session, and slept that night at a hotel on the road 
to Boston. On Thursday morning he set out early, 
and as he passed on with his friends, he says, " Found 
that the people were apprized of my coming, and were 
solicitous for my preaching ; but being resolved under 
God, if possible, to reach Boston, we travelled on for 
near fifty miles, and came to Boston about eight in the 
evening. When we were within four miles of the 
city, the governor's son, several other gentlemen, and 
one or two ministers, waited at a gentleman's house 
to give me the meeting. They received me with great 
gladness, and told me many more would have come, 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 157 

had not a large funeral been in the town, or if there 
had been more certain notice of my arriving. This 
rejoiced me ; for I think I can stand any thing better 
than this. It savors too much of human grandeur. 
But I must be tried every way; the Lord be my 
helper. After stopping a while, we went together to 
Boston, to the house of one Mr. Sandiford, brother-in- 
law to the Rev. Dr. Colman, who long since had 
SQnt me an invitation. . . . My heart was but low, and 
my body weak ; but, at the request of one of the min- 
isters, I gave thanks to our gracious God for bringing 
me in safety, and prayed that my coming might be in 
the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of peace." 

He slept well that night, and the next morning, he 
says, "I perceived fresh emanations of divine light 
break in upon and refresh my soul." He was visited 
by several gentlemen, including Josiah Willard, Esq., 
the secretary of the province, a man who feared God, 
and with whom Whitefield had for some time been in 
correspondence. The governor, Belcher, received him 
with the utmost respect, and requested frequent visits. 
He attended public worship at the church of England, 
and waited on the commissary home, who received 
him very courteously. As it was a day on which the 
clergy of that body had a meeting, he came into the 
company of five of them assembled together. They 
soon attacked him "for calling that Tennent and his 
brethren faithful ministers of Christ." He answered, 
that he believed they were so. They questioned the va- 
lidity of Presbyterian ordination, and quoted from his 
journal his own words against him. He replied, that 
perhaps his sentiments were altered. They then went 



158 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

into a doctrinal discussion, which continued till White- 
field, finding how inconsistent they were, took his 
leave, resolving that they should not have the oppor- 
tunity of denying him their pulpits. However, they 
treated him, on the whole, with more courtesy than 
he had lately been accustomed to receive from the 
ministers of his own church. 

In the afternoon of the same day, he preached to 
a vast congregation in the Rev. Dr. Column's meeting- 
house, in Brattle-street, and in the evening exhorted 
and prayed with such as came to his lodgings. On 
Saturday, in the forenoon, he discoursed to a crowded 
audience at the Old South church, where Dr. Sewall 
was pastor, the only church edifice in Boston with 
which Whitefield was connected which is still stand- 
ing as it then was. In the afternoon he preached on 
the Common to about eight thousand persons, and at 
night to a thronged company at his own lodgings. 

On the morning of the next day, which was the 
Sabbath, he heard Dr. Colman preach ; in the after- 
noon, he preached at Mr. Foxcroft's meeting-house to 
a vast auditory. This gentleman was the senior pas- 
tor of the First church, meeting in Chauncy-place, and 
the Rev. Charles Chauncy was his colleague. The 
church edifice was in Cornhill-square, not far from 
the old state-house, and was usually called the " Old 
Brick meeting." As this house was by far too small 
to contain his auditory, he almost immediately after- 
wards preached on the Common, to about fifteen thou- 
sand hearers ; and again at night at his lodgings. 
He says, " Some afterwards came into my room. I 
felt much of the divine presence in my own soul, and 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 159 

though hoarse was enabled to speak with much power, 
and could have spoke, I believe, till midnight." 

On Monday morning, Whitefield preached at Mr. 
Webb's meeting-house, the " New North," on the cor- 
ner of Clark and Hanover streets. " The presence of 
the Lord," he says, " was among us. Look where I 
would around me, visible impressions were made upon 
the auditory. Most wept for a considerable time." 
In the afternoon he meant to have preached at Mr. 
Checkley's, in Summer-street, but was prevented by 
an accident. Just before the time for the commence- 
ment of the service, a person broke a board in one of 
the galleries, of which to make a seat ; the noise 
alarmed some who heard it, and they imprudently 
cried out that the galleries were giving way. The 
house being much crowded, the whole congregation 
were thrown into the utmost alarm and disorder ; 
some jumped from the gallery into the seats below, 
others fell from the windows, and those below press- 
ing to get out of the porch, were many of them thrown 
over each other and trodden upon. Many, as might 
be expected, were seriously bruised ; others had bones 
broken; and within two days five persons died from 
the injuries they had received. Mr. Whitefield's pres- 
ence of mind did not fail him; he immediately led 
the anxious throng to the Common, and preached to 
them from the text, " Go ye out into the highways 
and hedges, and compel them to come in." He says, 
" The weather was wet, but above eight thousand fol- 
lowed into the fields." 

On Tuesday morning, Whitefield visited Mr. Wal- 
ter, at Roxbury. This gentleman had been the col- 



160 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

league, and was now the successor of John Eliot, 
" the apostle of the Indians." These two men had 
been pastors of that church one hundred and six years. 
Whitefield was much pleased with Walter, who, in 
return, was glad to hear that he, like old Bishop Bev- 
eridge, called man " half a devil and half a beast. 77 
He preached that forenoon at Mr. Gee's meeting- 
house, the " Old North/ 7 of which church the celebrat- 
ed Dr. Cotton Mather had formerly been pastor. The 
house stood in the North square, and was taken down 
by the British army and burned for fuel at the siege 
of Boston, in 1776. The auditory Whitefield preach- 
ed to that morning was not very crowded, as the peo- 
ple were in doubt where he would preach. After 
dining with the secretary of the province, he says, " I 
preached in the afternoon at Dr. SewalPs to a thronged 
congregation, and exhorted and prayed as usual at 
my own lodgings ; at neither place without some man- 
ifestations of a divine power accompanying the word. 77 
Wednesday was not lost. Whitefield himself shall 
describe its proceedings. "Went this morning to see 
and preach at Cambridge, the chief college for train- 
ing up the sons of the prophets in all New England. 
It has one president, I think four tutors, and about a 
hundred students. It is scarce as big as one of our 
least colleges in Oxford, and as far as I could gather 
from some who well knew the state of it, not far su- 
perior to our universities in piety and true godliness. 
Tutors neglect to pray with, and examine the hearts 
of their pupils. Discipline is at too low an ebb. Bad 
books are become fashionable. Tillotson and Clarke 
are read instead of Sheppard, Stoddard, and such like 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 161 

evangelical writers ; and therefore I chose to preach 
on these words : ' We are not as many, who corrupt the 
word of God ; 7 and in the conclusion of my sermon I 
made a close application to tutors and students. A 
great number of neighboring ministers attended, as 
indeed they do at all other times, and God gave me 
great boldness and freedom of speech. The president 
of the college and minister of the parish treated me 
very civilly. In the afternoon I preached again in 
the court, without any particular application to the 
students. I believe there were about seven thousand 
hearers. The Holy Spirit melted many hearts. The 
word was attended with a manifest power; and a 
minister soon after wrote me word, that ' he believed 
one of his daughters was savingly wrought upon at that 
time. 7 Paid my respects to the lieutenant-governor, who 
lives at Cambridge, and returned in the evening to Bos- 
ton, and prayed with and exhorted many people who 
were waiting round the door for a spiritual morsel. 
I believe our Lord did not send them empty away. 77 

An elm under which Whitefield preached in Cam- 
bridge became distinguished ; it being under its shade 
that Washington, thirty-one years after, first drew his 
sword in the cause of the Revolution, on taking the 
command of the American army. Prom this circum- 
stance, it has been called the " Washington elm. 77 The 
last time the late distinguished Dr. Holyok§, of Salem, 
Mass., was in Cambridge, then nearly a hundred years 
old, while passing this tree with a friend, he said that 
he heard Whitefield 7 s sermon, being at the time a stu- 
dent in college. 

On Thursday he preached the weekly lecture at 



162 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

Mr. Foxcroft's, the First church. But he says, "1 
was so oppressed with a sense of my base ingratitude 
to my dearest Saviour, that Satan would fain have 
tempted me to hold my tongue, and not invite poor 
sinners to Jesus Christ, because I was so great a sin- 
ner myself. But God enabled me to withstand the 
temptation, and since Jesus Christ had shown such 
mercy to, and had not withdrawn his Holy Spirit from 
me, the chief of sinners, I was enabled more feelingly 
to talk of his love; and afterwards found that one 
stranger, in particular, was in all probability effectu- 
ally convinced by that morning's sermon. After pub- 
lic worship, I went, at his excellency's invitation, and 
dined with the governor. Most of the ministers of 
the town were invited with me. Before dinner, the 
governor sent for me up into his chamber. He wept, 
wished me l good luck in the name of the Lord/ and 
recommended himself, ministers, and people to my 
prayers. Immediately after dinner, I prayed explic- 
itly for them all, and went in his coach to the end of 
the town ; but had such a sense of my vileness upon 
my soul, that I wondered people did not stone me. 
Crossed a ferry, and preached at Charlestown, a town 
lying on the north side of Boston. The meeting-house 
was very capacious, and quite filled. A gracious melt- 
ing was discernible through the whole congregation, 
and I perceived much freedom and sweetness in my 
own soul, though the damp I felt in the morning was 
not quite gone off. In the evening I exhorted and 
prayed as usual at my lodgings ; and blessed be God, 
I found a great alteration in my hearers. They now 
began to melt and weep under the word." 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 163 

On Friday, the following day, he preached in the 
morning at Eoxbury, from a little ascent, to many 
thousands of people, with much of the divine presence. 
Several came to him afterwards, telling him how they 
were struck with the word. Having dined with Judge 
Dudley, he preached to a still larger congregation 
from a scaffold erected outside Mr. Byles' meeting- 
house in Hollis-street. Wrote to several friends in. 
England ; gave a short exhortation to a large crowd 
of hearers ; and then spent the evening with several 
ministers in edifying conversation, singing, and prayer. 

Saturday, he preached in the morning at Mr. Wei- 
steed's meeting-house, and in the afternoon to about 
fifteen thousand people on the Common. "But Oh, 
how did the word run! It rejoiced me to see such 
numbers greatly affected, so that some, I believe, could 
scarcely abstain from crying out. That place was no 
other than a Bethel, and a gate of heaven." After 
he had gone home to his lodgings he says, " The power 
and presence of the Lord accompanied and followed 
me. Many now wept bitterly, and cried out under 
the word like persons that were really hungering and 
thirsting after righteousness; and after I left them, 
God gave me to wrestle with him in my chamber, in 
behalf of some dear friends then present, and others 
that were absent from us. The Spirit of the Lord 
was upon them all. It made intercession with groan- 
ings that cannot be uttered." 

On the day following, being the Sabbath, in the 
morning he preached at the Old South church, Dr. 
Sewall's, to a very crowded auditory, " with almost as 
much power and visible appearance of God as yester- 



164 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

day. Collected £555 currency for my little lambs ; 
was taken very ill after dinner ; vomited violently, 
but was enabled to preach at Dr. Colman's in tlie 
afternoon to as great, if not a greater congregaticn 
than in the morning. Here also £470 were collected 
for the orphan-house in Georgia. In both places all 
things were carried on with decency and order. Peo- 
ple went slowly out, as though they had not a mind 
to escape giving ; and Dr. Colman said ' it was the 
most pleasant time he ever enjoyed in that meeting- 
house through the whole course of his life. 7 Blessed 
be God, after sermon I perceived myself somewhat 
refreshed. Supped very early. Had the honor of a 
private visit from the gsSSXSSSP, who came full of affec- 
tion to take his leave of me for the present. Went, 
at their request, and preached to a great company of 
negroes, on the conversion of the Ethiopian, Acts the 
eighth ; at which the poor creatures, as well as many 
white people, were much affected ; and at my return, 
gave an exhortation to a crowd of people who were 
waiting at my lodgings. My animal spirits were 
almost exhausted, and my legs, through expense of 
sweating and vomiting, almost ready to sink under 
me ; but the Lord visited my soul, and I went to bed 
greatly refreshed with divine consolations." Even at 
this early period such sufferings of his bodily system 
frequently followed his herculean labors. 

Early on Monday morning, Sept. 29, Whitefield 
left Boston on an excursion to the eastward. At 
Marblehead, he "preached to some thousands in a 
broad place in the middle of the town, but not with 
much apparent effect." At Salem, he "preached to 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 165 

about seven thousand people. Here the Lord mani- 
fested forth his glory. One man was, I believe, struck 
down by the power of the word. In every part of the 
congregation, persons might be seen under great con- 
cern." He went on to Ipswich, where he was kindly 
" entertained at the house of Mr. Rogers, one of the 
ministers of the place. 77 Of this family our evangelist 
was soon to know more than he had hitherto done. 
At about this period, John Rogers, aged 77, and 
Nathanael Rogers, were joint pastors of the First 
church at Ipswich ; both of them were ardent pro- 
moters of the revival, as was also Daniel Rogers, of 
the same family. Whitefield learned with deep inter- 
est that his host was a descendant of the celebrated 
martyr, John Rogers. The next day he preached 
there to some thousands. " The Lord, 77 says he, "gave 
me freedom, and there was a great melting in the con- 
gregation. 77 At Newbury, in the afternoon, the Lord 
accompanied the word with power. The meeting- 
house was very large, many ministers were present, 
and the people were greatly affected. Blessed be 
God, his divine power attends us more and more. 77 
Wednesday, he preached at Hampton, in the open air, 
to some thousands. He was here very highly grati- 
fied with the conversation of Mr. Colton, the minister, 
and with the Christian simplicity of his excellent 
wife. The high wind prevented his being heard so 
well as he usually was, and he did not enjoy his accus- 
tomed freedom ; still, " some, though not many, were 
affected. 77 At Portsmouth, he " preached to a polite 
auditory, but so very unconcerned, that I began to 
question whether I had been speaking to rational or 



166 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

brute creatures. Seeing no immediate effects of the 
word preached, I was a little dejected ; but God, to 
comfort my heart, sent one young man, crying out in 
great anguish of spirit, ' What shall I do to be saved V " 

From Portsmouth, our evangelist proceeded to 
York, in Maine, " to see one Mr. Moody, a worthy, 
plain, and powerful minister of Jesus Christ, though 
now much impaired by old age. He has lived by 
faith for many years, would have no settled salary, 
and has been much despised by bad men, and as much 
respected by the true lovers of the blessed Jesus." 
The next morning he was much comforted to hear, 
from Mr. Moody, that he would preach that morning 
to a hundred new creatures ; " and indeed," says he, 
" I believe I did ; for when I came to preach, I could 
speak little or no terror, but most consolation." He 
preached morning and evening. " The hearers looked 
plain and simple, and the tears trickled apace down 
most of their cheeks." He returned to Portsmouth 
that night, and the next morning preached to a far 
greater congregation, and with much better effect than 
before. " Instead of preaching to dead stocks, I now 
had reason to believe I was preaching to living men. 
People began to mel t i ,goon after I began to pray ; 
and the power increased more and more during the 
whole sermon." This was still more clearly evinced 
after Mr. Whitefield's departure from the town. 

Returning to Boston, through Salem, Marblehead, 
and Maiden, in each of which places he preached, and 
being now in improved health, he preached, October 7, 
both morning and evening, "with much power," at 
Brattle-street. There had been for several days a 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 167 

report in circulation, that he had died suddenly, or 
was poisoned, and the people greatly rejoiced again 
to see him alive. At Mr. Webb's, the New North 
church, on the following Wednesday, he thought there 
was more of the presence of God through the whole 
ministration, than he had before known at one time 
in the course of his life. He went there with the 
governor, in his coach, and preached morning and 
evening. " Jesus Christ manifested forth his glory ; 
many hearts melted within them ; and I think I was 
never drawn out to pray for and invite little children 
to Jesus Christ, as I was this morning. A little be- 
fore, I had heard of a child who was taken sick just 
after it had heard me preach, and said he would go 
to Mr. Whitefield's God, and died in a short time. 
This encouraged me to speak to the little ones. But 
0, how were the old people affected when I said, 'Lit- 
tle children, if your parents will not come to Christ, 
do you come, and go to heaven without them/ There 
seemed to be but few dry eyes, look where I would. 
I have not seen a greater commotion since my preach- 
ing at Boston. Glory be to God, who has not for- 
gotten to be gracious. 77 He collected, after this ser- 
mon, <£440 for his orphan-house, which was riow more 
generally supported than ever before. 

The interesting fact we have just related of the 
impression produced on the mind of a little child by 
the preaching of Mr. Whitefield, may afford the oppor- 
tunity to introduce one or two other facts bearing on 
the same general topic, and suggesting some practical 
lessons. 

Whitefield could indeed descend to talk with chih 



168 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

dren. Here is a specimen which at once impresses us 
with a lively idea of his spirit, and of the adaptation 
of the religion of Jesus to the young as well as the 
old. A little girl seven years of age, when on her 
death-bed, desired an interview with him ; he came, and 
thus they conversed : 

Whitefield. For what purpose, my dear child, 
have you sent for me ? 

Girl. I think I am dying, and I wished very 
much to see you. 

Whitefield. What can I do for you ? 

Girl. You can tell me about Christ, and pray 
for me. 

Whitefield. My dear girl, what do you know 
about Christ? 

Girl. I know he is the Saviour of the world. 

Whitefield. My dear child, he is so. 

Girl. I hope he will be my Saviour also. 

Whitefield. I hope, my dear, that this is the 
language of faith out of the mouth of a babe ; but tell 
me what ground you have for saying this ? 

Girl. Oh, sir, he bids little children, such as I, 
to come unto him, and says, " Of such is the kingdom 
of heaven f and besides, I love Christ, and am always 
glad when I think of him. 

Whitefield. My dear child, you make my very 
heart to rejoice ; but are you not a sinner ? 

Girl. Yes, I am a sinner, but my blessed Re- 
deemer takes away sin, and I long to be with him. 

Whitefield. My dear girl, I trust that the desire 
of your heart will be .granted ; but where do you 
think you will find your Redeemer? 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 169 

Girl. 0, sir, I think I shall find him in heaven. 

Whitefield. Do you think you will get to heaven ? 

Girl. Yes, I do. 

Whitefield. But what if you do not find Christ 
there? 

Girl. If I do not find Christ there, I am sure it is 
not heaven ; for where he dwells must be heaven, for 
there also dwells God, and holy angels, and all that 
Christ saves. 

Who can tell the results of a single sermon, or 
trace the consequences of one conversion? When 
Mr. Whitefield was preaching in New England, a 
lady became the subject of divine grace, and her spirit 
was peculiarly drawn out in prayer for others. But 
in her Christian exercises she was alone : she could 
persuade no one to pray with her but her little daugh- 
ter, about ten years of age. She took this dear child 
into her closet from day to day, as a witness of her 
cries and tears. After a time, it pleased God to 
touch the heart of the child, and to give her the hope 
of salvation by the remission of sin. In a transport 
of holy joy she then exclaimed, " 0, mother, if all the 
world knew this! I wish I could tell every body. Pray, 
mother, let me run to some of the neighbors and tell 
them, that they may be happy and love my Saviour 
too." "Ah, my dear child," said the mother, "that 
would be useless, for I suppose that were you to tell 
your experience, there is not one within many miles 
ffho would not laugh at you, and say it was all delu- 
sion." " Oh, mother," replied the dear girl, " I think 
they would believe me. I must go over to the shoe- 
maker and tell him , he will believe me." She ran 

Whitelieli. 8 



HO GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

over, and found him at work in his shop. She began 
by telling him that he must die, and that he was a 
sinner, and that she was a sinner, but that her blessed 
Saviour had heard her mother's prayers, and had for- 
given all her sins ; and that now she was so happy 
that she did not know how to tell it. The shoemaker 
was struck with surprise, his tears flowed down like 
rain ; he threw aside his work, and by prayer and sup- 
plication sought for mercy. The neighborhood were 
awakened, and within a few months more than fifty 
persons were brought to the knowledge of Jesus, and 
rejoiced in his power and grace. 

But to return to our narrative of Whitefield's la- 
bors in Boston. On Thursday, October 9, he preached 
the public lecture at the Old South church. He had 
selected another text, but it was much impressed on 
his heart that he should preach from our Lord's con- 
ference with NiqoflqTfliis. A large number of minis* 
ters were present, and when he came to the words, 
" Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these 
things?" he says, " The Lord enabled me to open my 
mouth boldly against unconverted ministers, to caution 
tutors to take care of their pupils, and also to advise 
ministers particularly to examine into the experiences 
of candidates for ordination. For I am verily per- 
suaded the generality of preachers talk of an unknown 
and unfold Christ ; and the reason why congregations 
have been so dead is, because they have had dead men 
preaching to them. that the Lord may quicken 
and revive them , for his own name's sake. For how 
can dead men beget living children ? It is true, indeed, 
God may convert men by the devil, if he pleases, and 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 171 

so he may by unconverted ministers ; but I believe 
lie seldom makes use of either of them for this pur- 
pose. No ; the Lord will choose vessels made meet 
by the operations of the blessed Spirit for his sacred 
use : and as for my own part, I would not lay hands 
on an unconverted man for ten thousand worlds. Un- 
speakable freedom God gave me while treating on 
this head. After sermon, I dined with the governor, 
who seemed more kindly affected than ever, and par- 
ticularly told me, of the minister who has lately begun 
to preach extempore, that ' he was glad he had found 
out a way to save his eyes/ In the afternoon I preach- 
ed on the Common to about fifteen thousand people, 
and collected upwards of two hundred pounds for the 
orphan-house. Just as I had finished my sermon, a 
ticket was put up to me, wherein I was desired to 
pray for a person just entered upon the ministry, but 
under apprehension that he was not converted. God 
enabled me to pray for him with my whole heart ; and 
I hope that ticket may teach many others not to run 
before they can give an account of their conversion. 
If they do, they offer to God strange fire." The same 
day and evening, Whitefield attended the funeral of 
one of the provincial council, preached at the alms- 
house, exhorted a great number of persons at the 
workhouse, who followed him there, and conversed 
with many who waited at his lodgings for spiritual 
advice. From the time of his return from the east, 
he had been thronged, morning and evening, with 
anxious inquirers. His friends cried, "Spare thyself; 7 ' 
but he says, " I went and ate bread very comfortably 
at a friend's house, where I was invited, and soon 



112 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

after retired to my rest. Oh, how comfortable is 
sleep after working for Jesus." 

On Friday he preached at Charlestown and at 
Reading to many thousands, and on Saturday from 
the meeting-house door at Cambridge, on Noah as a 
preacher of righteousness ; a great number of persons 
were present, who stood very attentively during a 
shower of rain, and were at the latter part of the 
sermon much affected. On the same afternoon he 
returned to Boston, and again preached, and was en- 
gaged till midnight, chiefly in conversation and prayer 
with persons anxious for their salvation. 

Sunday, October 12, he rose with body and soul 
greatly refreshed, and spent its early hours in con- 
versing with those who came for spiritual counsel. 
He then " preached with great power and affection ?; 
at the Old South church, which was so exceedingly 
thronged, that he was obliged to get in at one of the 
windows. He dined with the governor, who came to 
him after dinner weeping, and desired his prayers. 
He heard Dr. Sewall in the afternoon. Both during 
the exercises and after them he was sick, but went 
with the governor in his coach, and preached his fare- 
well sermon on the Common, Gillies says, to twenty 
thousand, and Tracy to nearly thirty thousand people, 
though the whole population of Boston did not at that 
time exceed twenty thousand. Great multitudes were 
melted into tears when he spoke of leaving them. 
The governor then went with him to his lodgings. 
He stood in the passage and spoke to a great com- 
pany, both within and without the doors ; but they 
were so deeply affected, and cried out so loud, that 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 113 

he was compelled to leave off praying. The remain- 
ing part of the evening was chiefly spent in conversa- 
tion with inquirers. 

In closing his account of this day's work, he ex- 
claims, "Blessed be God for what things he has done 
in Boston! I hope a glorious work is now begun, 
and that the Lord will stir up some faithful laborers 
to carry it on. Boston is a large, populous place, 
very wealthy. Has the form kept up, but has lost 
much of the pgweyof religion. I have not heard of 
any remarkable stir for these many years. Ministers 
and people are obliged to confess, that the love of many 
is waxed cold. Both, for the generality, seem to be 
too much conformed to the world. There is much of 
the pride of life to be seen in their assemblies. Jewels, 
patches, and gay apparel are commonly worn by the 
female sex ; and even the common people, I observed 
dressed up in the pride of life. There are nine meet- 
ing-houses of the Congregational persuasion, one Bap- 
tist, one French, and one belonging to the Scotch-Irish. 
One thing Boston is very remarkable for — the exter- 
nal observance of the Sabbath. Men in civil offices 
have a regard for religion. The governor encourages 
them, and the ministers and magistrates are more 
united than in any other place where I have been. 
Both were exceedingly civil to me during my stay. I 
never saw so little scoffing, never had so little oppo- 
sition. But one might easily see much would here- 
after arise, when I came to be more particular in my 
application to particular persons ; for I fear many 
rest in a head-knowledge, are close pharisees, and 
have only a name to live. It must needs be so when 



174 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

the power of godliness is dwindled away, and where 
the form only of religion is become fashionable among 
people. Boston people are dear to my soul. They 
were greatly affected by the word, followed me night 
and day, and were very liberal to my dear orphans. 
I promised, God willing, to visit them again, and in- 
tend to fulfil my promise w^hen it shall please God to 
bring me again from my native country. In the mean- 
while, dear Boston, adieu. The Lord be with thy 
ministers and people, and grant that the remnant 
which is still left according to the election of grace, 
may take root downwards, and bear fruit upwards, 
and fill the land." 

On the morning following these solemn services, 
Whitefield left Boston on his way to Northampton. 
To detail his four days' progress, would be almost to 
repeat what we have already written. At Concord, 
where he arrived on Monday about noon, he preached 
twice to some thousands in the open air, " and a com- 
fortable preaching it was. The hearers were sweetly 
melted down." Mr. Bliss, the minister of the town, 
of whose subsequent labors it has been well said, more 
perfect accounts ought to have been preserved, wept 
abundantly. On Tuesday he "preached at Sudbury 
to some thousands with power, and observed a consid- 
erable commotion in the assembly ;" as was also the 
case the same afternoon at Marlborough. At the lat- 
ter place he was met by Governor Belcher, who went 
with him through the rain that night to Worcester. 
Here, on Wednesday, he " preached in the open air to 
some thousands. The word fell with weight indeed. 
It carried all before it. After sermon, the governor 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 175 

said to me, ' I pray God I may apply what has been 
said to my own heart. Pray, Mr. Whitefield, that I 
may hunger and thirst^gfter righteousness.' " Pass- 
ing on, he preached at Leicester, Brookfield, and Cold- 
Spring, on his way to Hadley, where he arrived on 
Friday, and preached about noon. In this place he 
says, " A great work was begun, and carried on some 
years ago ; but lately the people of God have complain- 
ed of deadness and losing their first love. However, 
as soon as I mentioned what God had done for their 
souls formerly, it was like putting fire to timber. The 
remembrance of it quickened them, and caused many 
to weep sorely." On the same afternoon he crossed 
the ferry to Northampton. 

Of the great revival of religion in New England, 
which commenced at Northampton about 1734, and is 
the subject of President Edwards' " Narrative," we 
have already briefly spoken ; its importance will justify 
a more extended notice. It began without any extra- 
ordinary circumstances to awaken the attention of the 
people, or any uncommon arrangements or efforts by 
the minister. The young people of the place had for 
two or three years shown an increased measure of 
thoughtfulness, and a growing disposition to receive 
religious instruction. There had been, from time to 
time, instances of strong religious impression and of 
hopeful conversion. But in the latter end of Decem- 
ber, 1734, five or six persons, one after another, be- 
came very suddenly the subjects of the grace of God 
which newly creates the soul. Among these was a 
young woman distinguished for her gayety in youthful 
society, " one of the greatest company-keepers in the 



176 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

whole town," who came to the pastor with a broken 
heart and a c^jitciLe spirit, and with faith and hope in 
the Saviour of sinners, before any one had heard of 
her being at all impressed with serious things. The 
sudden, though, as time proved, the real conversion of 
this young woman, was the power of God striking the 
electric chain of religious sympathies which had im- 
perceptibly, but effectually encircled all the families 
of Northampton. Mr. Edwards' " Narrative " says, 
" The news of it seemed to be almost like a flash of 
lightning upon the hearts of young people all over the 
town, and upon many others. . . . Presently a great 
and earnest concern about the great things of religion 
and the eternal world became universal in all parts 
of the town, and among persons of all degrees and all 
ages. All talk but about spiritual and eternal things 
was soon thrown by ; all the conversation in all com- 
panies was upon these things only, except so much as 
was necessary for people carrying on their ordinary 
secular business. The minds of people were wonder- 
fully taken off from the world ; it was treated among 
us as a thing of very little consequence. All would 
eagerly lay hold of opportunities for their souls, and 
were wont very often to meet together in private 
houses for religious purposes. And such meetings, 
when appointed, were generally thronged. Those 
who were wont to be the vainest and loosest, and 
those who had been most disposed to think and speak 
lightly of vital and experimental religion, were now 
generally subject to great awakening. And the work 
of conversion was carried on in a most astonishing 
manner, and increased more and more. From day to 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 177 

day, for many months together, might be seen evident 
instances of sinners brought out of darkness into mar- 
vellous light. In the spring and summer following, 
the town seemed to be full of the presence of God ; it 
was never so full of love, and yet so full of distress, 
a3 :t was then. It was a time of joy in families, on 
account of salvation being brought to them ; parents 
rejoicing over their children as new-born, and hus- 
bands over their wives, and wives over their hus- 
bands. The goings of God were then seen in his 
sanctuary, God's day was a delight, and his taberna- 
cles were amiable. Our public assemblies were then 
beautiful ; the congregation was alive in God's ser- 
vice, every one eagerly intent on the public worship, 
every hearer eager to drink in the words of the min- 
ister as they came from his mouth. The assembly 
were, from time to time, in tears, while the word was 
preached; some weeping with sorrow and distress, 
others with joy and love, others with pity and con- 
cern for their neighbors." 

In December, 1743, nine years after this blessed 
work had begun, Edwards writes, "Ever since the 
great work of God that was wrought here about nine 
years ago, there has been a great, abiding alteration 
in this town, in many respects. There has been vastly 
more religion kept up in the town, among all sorts of 
persons, in religious exercises, and in common conver- 
sation, than used to be before. There has remained 
a more general seriousness and decency in attending 
the public worship. I suppose the town has been in 
no measure so free from vice, for any long time to- 
gether, for these sixty years, as it has these nine years 

8* 



118 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

past. There has also been an evident alteration with 
respect to a charitable spirit to the poor. And though, 
after that great work of nine years ago, there has 
been a very lamentable decay of religious affections, 
and the engagedness of people's spirits in religion, 
yet many societies for prayer and social religion were 
all along kept up, and there were some few instances 
of awakening and deep concern about the things of 
another world, even in the most dead time. In the 
year 1740, in the spring, before Mr. Whitefield came 
to this town, there was a visible alteration. There 
was more seriousness and religious conversation, espe- 
cially among young people. Those things that were 
of ill tendency among them were more forborne ; and 
it was a more frequent thing for persons to visit their 
ministers upon soul accounts. In some particular per- 
sons, there appeared a great alteration about that 
time. And thus it continued till Mr. Whitefield came 
to town, which was about the middle of October 
following." 

And what thought Whitefield himself on his arri- 
val at Northampton ? Let us hear him. " Their pas- 
tor's name is Edwards, successor and grandson to the 
great Stoddard, whose memory will be always pre- 
cious to my soul, and whose books, entitled, "A Guide 
to Christ" and " Safety of apy e arinw in Christ 7 s right- 
eousness" I would recommend to all. Mr. Edwards 
is a solid, excellent Christian, but at present weak in 
body. I think I may say I have not seen his fellow 
in all New England. When I came into his pulpit, I 
found my heart drawn out to talk of scarce any thing 
besides the consolations and privileges of saints, and 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND 179 

the plentiful effusion of the Spirit upon the hearts of 
believers. And when I came to remind them of their 
former experiences, and how zealous and lively they 
were at that time, both minister and people wept 
rruch ; and the Holy Ghost enabled me to speak with 
a great dna Tjif power . In the evening, I gave a word 
of exhortation to several who came to Mr. Edwards 7 
house." 

On the following morning, " At Mr. Edwards' re- 
quest, I spoke to his little children, who were much 
affected. Preached at Hatfield, five miles from North- 
ampton, but found myself not much strengthened. 
Conversed profitably on the way about the things of 
God with dear Mr. Edwards, and preached about four 
in the afternoon to his congregation. I began with 
fear and trembling, feeling but little power in the 
morning, but God assisted me. Few dry eyes seemed 
to be in the assembly for a considerable time. I had 
an affecting prospect in my own heart of the glories 
of the upper world, and was enabled to speak of them 
feelingly to others. I believe many were filled, as it 
were, with ^fiy^giflS ; and it seemed as if a time of 
refreshing was come from the presence of the Lord." 

The day following this was the Sabbath. White- 
field tells us in his journal, that he " felt wonderful 
satisfaction in being at the house of Mr. Edwards. 
He is a son himself, and hath also a daughter of Abra- 
ham for his wife. A sweeter couple I have not yet 
seen. Their children were dressed, not in silks and 
satins, but plain, as becomes the children of those who 
in all things ought to be examples of Christian sim- 
plicity. She is a woman adorned with a meek and 



180 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

quiet spirit, talked feelingly and solidly of the things 
of God, and seemed to be such a help-mate for her 
husband, that she caused me to renew those prayers, 
which, for some months, I have put up to God, that 
he would be pleased to send me a daughter of Abra- 
ham to be my wife. I find, upon many accounts, it is 
my duty to marry. Lord, I desire to have no choice 
of my own. Thou knowest my circumstances ; thou 
knowest I only desire to marry in and for thee." 

Whitefield " preached this morning, and perceived 
the melting begin sooner and rise higher than before. 
Dear Mr. Edwards wept during the whole time of 
exercise. The people were equally, if not more af- 
fected ; and my own soul was much lifted up towards 
God. In the afternoon the power increased yet more 
and more. Our Lord seemed to keep the good wine 
till the last. I have not seen four such gracious meet- 
ings together since my arrival. My soul was much 
knit, to thes e dear people of God ; and though I had 
not time to converse with them about their expe- 
riences, yet one might see they were for the most 
part, a gracious, tender people ; and though theii 
former fire might be greatly abated, yet it immedi 
ately appeared when stirred up." 

Edwards had looked forward to Whiteneld ? s visit 
to Northampton with interest, for he felt greatly con- 
cerned for his success. He wrote a week before his 
arrival to his friend Dr. Wheelock, then a young min- 
ister of twenty-nine, " I think that those that make 
mention of the Lord, should now be awakened and 
encouraged to call upon God, and not keep silence, 
nor give him any rest, till he establish and till he 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 181 

make Jerusalem a praise in the earth ; and particu 
larly should be earnest with God, that he would still 
uphold and succeed the Rev. Mr. Whitefield, the in 
strument that it has pleased him to improve to do 
such great things for the honor of his name, and at 
all times so to guide and direct him under his extra- 
ordinary circumstances, that Satan may not get any 
advantage of him." 

After his visit, Edwards writes, " Mr. Whitefield's 
sermons were suitable to the circumstances of the 
town ; containing just reproofs of our backslidings, 
and in a most moving and affecting manner, making 
use of our great profession and our great mercies as 
arguments with us to return to God, from whom we 
had departed. Immediately after this, the minds of 
the people in general appeared more engaged in relig- 
ion, showing a greater forwardness to make it the 
subject of their conversation, and to meet frequently 
for religious purposes, and to embrace all opportuni- 
ties to hear the word preached. The revival at first 
appeared chiefly among professors, and those who had 
entertained the hope that they were in a state of grace, 
to whom Mr. Whitefield chiefly addressed himself; 
but in a very short time, there appeared an awakening 
and deep concern among some young persons that 
looked upon themselves in a Christless state ; and 
there were some hopeful appearances of conversion ; 
and some professors were greatly revived. In about 
a month or six weeks, there was a great alteration in 
the town, both as to the revivals of professors, and 
awakenings of others." 

During this visit of Whitefield to Edwards, some 



182 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

conversation was held between them, of which, several 
years afterwards, as it appears to us, far too much 
was said. Edwards took an opportunity, privately, 
to converse with his friend about impulses, and furnish- 
ed him with some reasons for thinking that he gave 
too much attention to such things. Whitefield did 
not appear offended, neither did he seem inclined to 
converse much on the subject, or to yield to the rea- 
sonings of his friend Edwards. The latter says, " It 
is true, that I thought Mr. Whitefield liked me not so 
well for my opposing these things ; and though he 
treated me with great kindness, yet he never made so 
much of an intimate of me, as of some others." It 
seems also, that they conversed on the strong lan- 
guage which the great evangelist was accustomed to 
employ as to those whom he considered to be uncon- 
verted, and the duty of the people to forsake the 
preaching of ministers whom he did not consider to 
be renewed in the spirit of their minds. Whitefield 
told Edwards also, of the design he had cherished oi 
bringing over a number of young men from England, 
to be ordained by the Tennents, in New Jersey ; an 
object, however, which he never accomplished. 

It appears that after preaching at Northampton 
twice on the Sabbath, Whitefield, accompanied by his 
friend Edwards, rode to the house of the father of the 
last-named gentleman, the Eev. Timothy Edwards, in 
East Windsor, Connecticut. At this place, as also at 
Westfield, Springfield, Suffield, Hartford, Wethers- 
field, Middletown, and Wailingford, he preached to 
large assemblies, generally with his accustomed ani- 
mation and power, and with the happy proofs of sue 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 183 

cess which he so frequently witnessed. During this 
week also, he experienced a remarkable deliverance 
from great danger. He says, "A little after I left 
Springfield, mjjygsg^coming over a broken bridge, 
threw me over his head, directly upon my nose. The 
fall stunned me for a while. My mouth was full of 
dust, I bled a little, but falling upon soft sand, got not 
much damage. After I had recovered myself, and 
mounted my horse, God so filled me with a sense of 
his sovereign, distinguishing love, and my own un- 
worthiness, that my eyes gushed out with tears ; but 
they were all tears of love. Oh, how did I want to 
sink before the high and lofty One who inhabiteth 
eternity !" 

During this week also, on his way to Suffield, he 
met with a minister who said, " It was not absolutely 
necessary for a gospel minister, that he should be con- 
verted f meaning, no doubt, that though conversion 
was necessary to his salvation, it was not indispensa- 
ble to his ministerial character and usefulness. This 
gave Whitefield a subject. " I insisted much in my 
discourse upon the doctrine of the new birth, and also 
the necessity of a minister's being converted, before 
he could preach Christ aright. The word came with 
great power, and a great impression was made upon 
the people in all parts of the assembly. Many minis- 
ters were present. I did not spare them. Most of 
them thanked me for my plain dealing ; but one was 
offended ; and so would more of his stamp be, if I 
were to continue longer in New England. For un- 
converted ministers are the bane of the Christian 
church ; and though I honor the memory of that great 



184 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

and good man Mr. Stoddard, yet I think he is much 
to be blamed for endeavoring to prove that uncon- 
verted men might be admitted into the ministry. How 
he has handled the controversy, I know not. I think 
no solid arguments can be brought to defend such a 
cause. A sermon lately published by Mr. Gilbert 
Tennent, entitled, ' The Banger of an Unconverted Minis- 
try? I think unanswerable. Tracy truly says, that 
Stoddard, in his ' Appeal to the Learned? assumes that 
an unconverted minister is bound to continue in the 
performance of ministerial duties, and infers that uncon- 
verted men may therefore be admitted to the church. 
This opinion at one period extensively prevailed, 
though all held it desirable that a minister should be 
a converted man. By his attacks on this opinion, and 
especially by thus endorsing Tennent 7 s Nottingham 
sermon, Whitefield gave great offence." 

On Wednesday afternoon, he preached at East 
Windsor, and spent the night with Mr. Edwards, sen 
ior, " I believe/ 7 he says, " a true disciple and minis- 
ter of the Lord Jesus Christ. After exercise, we sup- 
ped at the house of old Mr. Edwards. His wife was 
as aged, I believe, as himself, and I fancied that I was 
sitting in the house of a Zacharias and Elisabeth. 77 On 
the following day, he "preached to many thousands, 
and with much freedom and power, 77 at Hartford in 
the morning, and at Wethersfield in the afternoon. 
Here he met Messrs. Wheelock and Pomeroy, " two 
young, faithful, and zealous ministers of Jesus Christ. 77 
From this place he had intended to go eastward as 
far as Plymouth, and return by another route to Prov- 
idence, and notice had been given in the newspapers 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 185 

of about twenty sermons which he proposed to preach 
at the times and places specified. He was afterwards 
blamed for making these appointments without first 
consulting the pastors of the several churches ; thus 
giving countenance, it was said, to the practice of itin 
or ants intruding into other men's parishes without 
their consent. The proceeding was certainly some- 
what irregular, but Whitefield was not much to be 
blamed for it. The details were settled, and the pub- 
lication made by men in whose judgment and know- 
ledge of the customs of the country he had a right to 
confide ; and the appointments were believed, in all 
cases, and doubtless known in some, to be agreeable 
to the parties concerned. At Wethersfield, however, 
the evangelist ascertained the necessity of his hasten- 
ing on to New York, and immediately, therefore, pub- 
lished a note recalling these appointments. 

On Friday, October 24, Whitefield arrived at New 
Haven, and was entertained at the house of Mr. James 
Pierpont, the brother-in-law of Mr. Edwards, and of 
Mr. Noyes, the minister of the First Congregational 
church. The Legislature of the colony being in ses- 
sion, he remained till after the Lord's day ; and "had 
the pleasure of seeing numbers daily impressed," un- 
der his ministrations in the old polygonal meeting- 
house. Several ministers of the vicinity visited him, 
" with whose pious conversation he was much refresh- 
ed." Good old Governor Tallcott, on whom with 
due politeness he waited to pay his respects, said to 
him, " Thanks be to God for such refreshings in our 
way to heaven." Among others who heard his glow- 
ing appeals to the congregations that listened to 



186 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

him during this visit, was young Samuel Hopkins, 
still well known as an eminent divine. Hopkins was 
now nineteen, and was a student at college ; his biog- 
rapher tells us, that " he was much interested in the 
man, and much impressed by his solemn warnings." 

The testimony of Hopkins himself may here be 
introduced. He says, speaking of Whitefield, "The 
attention of the people in general was greatly awak- 
ened upon hearing the fame of him, that there was a 
remarkable preacher from England travelling through 
the- country. The people flocked to hear him when 
he came to New Haven. Some travelled twenty miles 
out of the country to hear him. The assemblies were 
crowded, and remarkably attentive ; people appeared 
generally to approve, and their conversation turned 
chiefly upon him and his preaching. Some disap- 
proved of several things, which occasioned consid- 
erable disputes. I heard him when he preached in 
public, and when he expounded in private in the 
evening, and highly approved of him, and was im- 
pressed by what he said in public and in private. He 
preached against ^ijg^j^flcing and the frolicking 
of males and females together, which practice was 
then very common in New England. This offended 
some, especially young people. But I remember I 
justified him in this in my own mind, and in conver- 
sation with those who were disposed to condemn him. 
This was in October, 1740, when I had entered on 
my last year in college." 

On this visit, Whitefield dined with the Rev. Mr. 
Clap, the rector of the college. Of the college he 
says, "It is about one-third part as big as Cam- 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 181 

bridge. It has one rector, three tutors, and about a 
hundred students. But I hear of no remarkable con- 
cern among them concerning religion." Mr. Clap, it 
is well known, afterwards became the public opponent 
of Whitefield ; and it would seem that his dislike to 
him commenced with this first interview ; for he 
" spoke very closely to the students, and showed the 
dreadful consequences of an unconverted ministry." 
In his journal of the day he says, " that God may 
quicken ministers ! that the Lord may make them a 
flaming lire !" On the two days following, he preached 
at Milford, Stratford, and Fairfield, on his way to New 
York. On Wednesday, when at Stamford, he thus 
speaks of New England and his labors in it : 

" I give God thanks for sending me to New Eng- 
land. I have now had an opportunity of seeing the 
greatest and most populous parts of it ; and take it 
all together, it certainly on many accounts exceeds 
all other provinces of America, and for the establish- 
ment of religion, perhaps all other parts of the world. 
Never, surely, was so large a spot of ground settled 
in such a manner, in so short a space of one hundred 
years. The towns all through Connecticut and east- 
wards towards York in the province of Massachusetts, 
[Maine,] near the river-side, are large, well peopled, 
and exceedingly pleasant to travel through. Every 
five miles, or perhaps less, you have a meeting-house, 
and I believe there is no such a thing as a pluralist, 
or non-resident minister in both provinces. Many, 
nay, most that preach, I fear do not experimentally 
know Christ ; yet I cannot see much worldly advan- 
tage to tempt them to take upon them the sacred 



188 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

function. Few country ministers, as I have been in- 
formed, have sufficient allowed them in money to 
maintain a family. God has remarkably, in sundry 
times and in divers manners, poured out his Spirit in 
several parts of both provinces ; and it often refreshes 
my soul to hear of the faith of the good forefathers 
who first settled in these parts. Not vithstanding 
they had their foibles, surely they were a set of right- 
eous men. They certainly followed our Lord's rule, 
sought first the kingdom of God and his righteous- 
ness; and behold, all other things God added unto 
them. Their seed are now blessed, in temporal things 
especially, and notwithstanding the rising generation 
seem to be settled on their lees, yet I believe the Lord 
hath more than seven thousand who have not bowed 
the knee to Baal. The ministers and people of Con- 
necticut seem to be more simple than those that live 
near Boston, especially in those parts where I went. 
But I think the ministers' preaching almost universally 
by notes, is a certain mark they have in a great meas- 
ure lost the old spirit of preaching. For though all 
are not to be condemned that use notes, yet it is a sad 
symptom of the decay of vital religion when reading 
sermons becomes fashionabl e, where extempore preach- 
ing did once almost universally prevail. As for the 
universities, I believe it may be said, their light is 
become darkness, darkness that may be felt, and is 
complained of by the most godly ministers. I pray 
God these fountains may be purified, and send forth 
pure streams to water the cities of our God. ... As for 
the civil government of New England, it seems to be 
well regulated, and I think, at opening all their courts, 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 189 

either the judge or a minister begins with a prayer. 
Family ^ftfi^jp - I believe, is generally kept up. The 
negroes I think better used, both in soul and body, 
than in any other province I have yet seen. In short, 
T like New England exceedingly well ; and when a 
spirit of reformation revives, it certainly will prevail 
here more than in other places, because they are sim- 
ple in their worship, less corrupt in their principles, 
and consequently easier to be brought over to the 
form of sound words, into which so many of their 
pious ancestors were delivered. Send forth, Lord, 
thy light and thy truth, and for thine infinite mercy ? s 
sake, show thou hast a peculiar delight in these hab- 
itable parts of the earth. Amen, Lord Jesus, amen, 
and amen." 

Among many who became the subjects of divine 
grace during this visit of Whitefield to New England, 
was Daniel Emerson, who was educated at Harvard 
college, where he received his first degree in 1739, 
and where he continued to reside for some time as a 
graduate. While at college, he is said to have been 
very fond of the gay Measures of this life, until his 
attention was effectually called to religion by the 
preaching of Whitefield, whom he followed from place 
to place for several days. He was ordained at Hollis, 
New Hampshire, in 1743, where, in a ministry of fifty 
years, he was a worthy follower of his spiritual father. 
The chief excellences of his preaching were sound doc- 
trine, deep feeling, and zeal at times almost over- 
whelming. He was truly a son of thunder, and a 
flaming light. He was almost incessantly engaged in 
labors, preaching, attending funerals, etc., far and 



190 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

near. His efforts were greatly blessed, especially 
among his own people, who under his ministry en- 
joyed extensive revivals of religion, and where also a 
large number of ministers have been called to their 
work. He died in 1801, aged eighty-five. 

It may be appropriate to introduce here a sketch 
of Whitefield's doctrines and labors at this time, as 
given us by the eminent Dr. Thomas Prince, in his 
" C h r\ s t,i n,p Jf jafcory " under date of January 26, 1744-5, 
but having reference to Whitefield's first visit to New 
England, which we have just described : 

" He spoke with a mighty sense of God, eternity, 
the immortality and preci&u£&£gs of the souls of his 
hearers, of their original corruption, and of the ex- 
treme danger the unregenerate are in ; with the nature 
and absolute necessity of raa-m^rg.tirm by the Holy 
Ghost ; and of believing in Christ, in order to our 
pardon, justification, yielding an acceptable obedience, 
and obtaining salvation from hell and an entrance 
into heaven. His doctrine was plainly that of the 
reformers ; declaring against our putting our good 
works or morality in the room of Christ's righteous- 
ness, or their having any hand in our justification, or 
being indeed pleasing to God while we are totally 
unsanctified, acting upon corrupt principles, and un- 
reconciled enemies to him ; which occasioned some to 
mistake him, as if he opposed morality. But he in- 
sisted on it, that the tree of the heart is by original 
sin exceedingly corrupted, and mu ^ fc g mad e good by 
regeneration, that so the fruits proceeding from it may 
be good likewise ; that where the heart is renewed, it 
ought and will be careful to majflta,i n good works , 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 192 

that if any be not habitually so careful who think 
themselves renewed, they deceive their own souls ; 
and even the most improved in holiness, as well as 
others, must entirely depend on the righteousness of 
Christ for the acceptance of their persons and services. 
And though now and then he dropped some expres- 
sions that were not so accurate and guarded as we 
should expect from aged and long-studied ministers, 
yet I had the satisfaction to observe his readiness with 
great modesty and thankfulness to receive correction 
as soon as offered. 

" In short, he was a most importunate wooer of 
souls to come t o Christ for the enjoyment of him, and 
all his benefits. He distinctly applied his exhorta- 
tions to the elderly people, the middle-aged, the young, 
the Indians, and negroes, and had a most winning 
way of addressing them. He affectionately prayed 
for our magistrates, ministers, colleges, candidates for 
the ministry, and churches, as well as people in gen- 
eral ; and before he left us, in a public and moving 
manner, he observed to the people how sorry he was 
to hear that the religious assemblies, especially on 
lectures, had been so thin, exhorted them earnestly to 
a more general attendance on our public ministra- 
tions for the time to come, and told them how glad he 
should be to hear of the same. 

"Multitudes were greatly affected, and many awak- 
ened with his lively ministry. Though he preached 
every day, the houses were crowded ; but when he 
preached on the Common, a vaster number attended ; 
and almost every evening the house where he lodged 
was thronged to hear his prayers and counsels, 



192 GEORGE WHITEF1ELD. 

" On Mr. Whitefield's leaving us, great numbers in 
this town [Boston] were so happily concerned about 
their souls, as we had never seen any thing like it be- 
fore, except at the time of the general earthquake ;* 
and their desires excited to hear their ministers more 
than ever. So that our assemblies, both on lectures 
and Sabbaths, were surprisingly increased, and now 
the people wanted t6 hear us oftener. In conse- 
quence of which a public lecture was proposed to be 
set up at Dr. Column's church, near the midst of the 
town, on every Tuesday evening." 

In reference to the work ofj^race which was con 
nected with Whitefield's preaching in New England, 
the Rev. Dr. Baron Stow, in his " Centennial Dis- 
course/ 7 says, " The result, by the blessing of God, was 
a powerful revival, such as New England had never 
witnessed. The work was opposed with great vehe- 
mence ; and no impartial reader of the history of those 
extraordinary scenes can question that much of the 
hostility was provoked by improprieties of both speech 
and action, that would at any time be offensive to 
those who love good order and Christian decorum. 
But after making liberal allowance for all that was 
truly exceptionable, it is cheerfully admitted by the 

* Dr. Prince, in a note, here says, " Though people were then," 
in the time of the earthquake, " generally frightened, and many 
awakened to such a sense of their duty as to offer themselves to our 
communion, yet very few came to me then under deep convictions 
of their unconverted and lost condition, in comparison of what 
came now. Nor did those who came to me then, come so much 
with the inquiry, ' What shall we do to be saved ?' as to signify 
they had such a sense of their duty to come to the Lord's table 
that they dare not stay away any longer." 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 193 

candid Christian, that the excitement was, in the 
main, the product of the Holy Spirit, and that its 
fruits were eminently favorable to the advancement 
of true religion. A torpid community was aroused, 
a:- by the tn j jj gj^of G od, from its long and heavy slum- 
ber ; ministers and people were converted ; the style 
of preaching, and the tone of individual piety were 
improved ; a cold, cadaverous formalism gave place 
to the living energy of experimental godliness ; the 
doctrines of the gospel were brought out from their 
concealment, and made to reassert their claims to a 
cordial, practical credence, and all the interests of 
truth and holiness received new homage from regen- 
erated thousands. 77 

One or two other facts connected with Whitefield 7 s 
usefulness in New England are too important to be 
omitted. During this visit he was much gratified by 
an interview with a colored man, who had been his 
chaise-driver when he first visited Cambridge. The 
negro had heard him preach in the college a sermon 
especially addressed "to those who labor and are 
heavy-laden. 77 It took such a hold on the poor man, 
that he repeated it in the kitchen when he reached 
home. Mr. Cooper of Boston was so well satisfied, 
as was Whitefield also, with his account of his con- 
version, that he was admitted to the Lord 7 s table. 

Another " brand plucked from the burning 77 was a 
son of Mackintosh, an English rebel, who had been 
condemned to perpetual imprisonment, and had been 
allowed by George the First to settle in New Eng- 
land. One of his daughters, a lady of fortune, had 
heard Whitefield preach in Dr. Prince 7 s church at 

Whitefield. 9 



194 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

Boston, and had been won by the word to Christ. 
She was soon after smitten by sickness, and ripened 
rapidly for heaven. On her death-bed she cried out 
for her "soul friend 77 Mr. Whitefield; but checking 
1 er own impatience, she asked, " Why should I do so? 
lie is gone about his Master's work, and in a little 
time we shall meet to part no more. 77 The distin- 
guished evangelist had a very high opinion of her 
piety, and his interest in her was increased by the 
fact that she had a very remarkable escape from some 
ruffians who had been bribed to convey her and her 
sister to Scotland, that their uncle might seize on an 
estate worth a thousand pounds a year. 

There were at this time not less than twenty min- 
isters in the neighborhood of Boston who unhesitat- 
ingly spoke of Whitefield as their ^yjyitaal father, 
directly tracing their conversion to his ministry. Of 
one of these we have an account by Collins, the jour- 
nalist of South Reading. Speaking of 1741, he says, 
" Mr. Whitefield preached upon our Common in the 
open air. Mr. Hobby the minister went with the mul- 
titude to hear him. It is said that Mr. Hobby after- 
wards remarked, he came to pick a hole in Mr. White- 
field's coat, but that Whitefield pick^^^bole in his 
heart. Mr. Hobby afterwards wrote and published 
a defence of Mr. Whitefield in a letter to Mr. Hench- 
man, the minister of Lynn, who had written against 
him. 77 

The letters of Whitefield, during his journeys of 
eleven hundred miles in New England, were few and 
brief; but they clearly indicated that at this time he 
was inclined " to return no more to his native coun 



FIRST VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 195 

try." New England, notwithstanding his trials there, 
had evidently won his heart, and for a time almost 
weaned him from Great Britain. When he left it, as 
he was now about to do, for the south, he wrote, 
" God only knows what a cross it was to me to lea^v e 
dear New England so soon. I hope death will not 
be so bitter to me as was parting with my mends. 
Glad shall I be to be prayed thither again before I see 
my native land. I would just be where He would | 
have me, although in the uttermosj^§x|g of the earth. 
I am now hunting for poor lost sinners in these ungos- 
pelized wilds." 

Is there not an awfully retributive providence con- 
nected with the rejection of the gospel and its minis- 
ters? Do we not see this principle at work in the 
history and present state of the Jews ; and has it not 
often appeared also in the history of Christianity? 
There was a beautiful village, now a city, in Massa- 
chusetts, from which Whitefield was driven with such 
rancorous abuse, that he shook off the dust of his feet, 
and proclaimed that the Spirit of God would not 
visit that spot till the last of those persecutors was 
dead. The good man's language had a fearful truth 
in it, though he was not divinely gifted with the 
prophet's inspiration. A consciousness of desertion 
paralyzed the energies of the church ; for nearly a 
century it was nurtured on the unwholesome food of 
unscriptural doctrine. In the very garden of natural 
loveliness, it sat like a heath in the desert, upon 
which there could be no rain ; and not till that whole 
generation had passed from the earth, did Zion appear 
there in he]* beauty and strength. 



196 GEORGE WHITEFIELD, 



CHAPTER VII. 

LABORS IN NEW YORK AND THE MIDDLE AND 
SOUTHERN STATES. 

1740, 1741. 

W-hitefield was now again on his way to New 
York, preaching at Rye and King's Bridge on the 
road. At the latter place he was met by several 
friends from the city, with whom he pleasantly talked, 
"and found," he says, "an inexpressible satisfaction in 
my soul when I arrived at the house of my very dear 
friend Mr. Noble. After supper the Lord filled my 
heart, and gave me to wrestle with him for New York 
inhabitants and my own dear friends." He was also 
cheered by meeting Mr. Davenport from Long Island, 
whose labors as an evangelist were then exciting much 
interest. Here too he met with a violent pamphlet 
published against him. " Met also with two volumes 
I of sermons published in London as delivered by me, 
* though I never preached on most of jJ^Jt^iS*- But 
Satan must try all ways to bring the work of God 
into content." 

On the morning after his arrival, Whitefield 
preached in Mr. Pemberton's meeting-house, and says 
concerning the service, " Never saw the word of God 
fall with such weight in New York before. Two or 
three cried out. Mr. Noble could scarce refrain him- 
self. And look where I would, many seemed deeply 
wounded. At night the word was attended with 
great power. One cried out ; and the Lord enabled 



MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES. 197 

me at the latter end of my sermon to speak with 
authority. Alas, how vain are the thoughts of men ! 
As I came along yesterday, I found my heart some- 
what dejected, and told Mr. Noble I expected but 
little moving in New York; but he bid me 'expect 
great things from God/ and likewise told me cf sev- 
eral who were, as he hoped, savingly wrought upon 
by my ministry when I was there last. 77 

On the following day he finished his answer to 
the pam ph let already referred to, and says, " God 
enabled me to write it in the spirit of meekness. 77 
He adds, "Preached twice as yesterday to very crowd- 
ed auditories, and neither time without power. In 
the evening exercise some fainted, and the Lord 
seemed to show us more and more that a time for 
favoring New York was near at hand. Oh, where- 
fore did I doubt? Lord, incre ase my fft jth- 77 

The following day, November 2, was the Sabbath. 
"Preached this morning with freedom and some 
power, but was much dejected before the evening ser- 
mon. For near half an hour before I left Mr. Noble's 
house, I could only lie before the Lord, and say I was 
a poor sinner, and wonder that Christ would be gra- 
cious to such a wretch. As I went to meeting I grew 
weaker and weaker, and when I came into the pulpit 
I could have chosen to be silent rather than speak. 
But after I had begun, the Spirit of the Lord gave me 
freedom, till at length it came down like a mighty 
rushing wind, and carried all before it. Immediately 
the whole congregation was alarmed. Shrieking, 
crying, weeping, and wailing were to be heard in 
every corner ; men 7 s hearts failing them for fear, and 



198 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

many falling into the arms of their friends. My soul 
was carried out till I could scarcely speak any more. 
A sense of God's goodness overwhelmed me." 

After narrating two or three pleasing incidents as 
to the effect of his preaching even on the minds of 
children, and describing his feelings on his return 
home, he gives an account of the wedding of two 
young persons who were going as his assistants to 
Georgia. " Never," he says, " did I see a more solemn 
wedding. Jesus Christ was called, and he was pres- 
ent in a remarkable manner. After Mr. Pemberton 
had married them, I prayed. But my soul, how was 
it enabled to wrestle with and lay hold on God! I 
was in a very great agony, and the Holy Ghost was 
so remarkably present, that most, I believe, could say, 
1 Surely God is in this place. 7 After this, divine man- 
ifestations flowed in so fast, that my frail tabernacle 
was scarce able to sustain them. My dear friends sat 
round me on the bedsides. I prayed for each of them 
[alternately with strong cries, and pierced by the eye 

>f faith pv fi n ^li f ftoJte vpi1 ' I continued in this con- 
ation for about half an hour, astonished at my own 
ileness and the excellency of Christ, then rose full of 
peace and love and joy." 

On Monday, the 3d, he preached both morning 
and afternoon to increasing congregations, and says, 
" There was a great and gracious melting both times, 
but no crying out. Nearly £110 currency were col- 
lected for the orphans ; and in the evening many came 
and took an affectionate leave. About seven we took 
boat; reached Staten Island about ten, greatly re- 
freshed in my inner man. A dear Christian friend 



MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES. 199 

received us gladly, and we solaced ourselves by sing- 
ing and praying. About midnight retired to sleep, 
still longing for that time when I shall sleep no 
more." 

On Tuesday he preached on Staten Island from a 
wagon, to three or four hundred people. " The Lord 
came among them," and several inquired after the 
way of salvation. Here he met Gilbert Tennent and 
Mr. Cross. The former of these excellent ministers 
had recently lost his wife, and though he was ardently 
attached to her, he calmly preached her funeral ser- 
mon with the corpse lying before him. Tennent had 
lately been preaching in New Jersey and Maryland, 
and had a delightful account to give his friend of the 
progress of the good work. Nor was the account 
given by Mr. Cross of less interest. After sermon he 
rode to Newark, where he preached till dark, as he 
thought with but little good effect. "However, at 
night the Lord manifested forth his glory ; for, com- 
ing down to family prayer where I lodged, and per- 
ceiving many young men around me, my soul was, as 
it were, melted down with concern for them. After 
singing, I gave a word of exhortation; with what 
power none can fully express but those that saw it. 
Oh, how did the word fall like a hammer and like a 
fire. What a weeping was there!" 

We must stay a moment to give a fact or two 
in reference to the Rev. Aaron Burr, then quite a 
young man, who two or three years before had been 
ordained at Newark, and whose ministry had been 
attended with a delightful revival the year preced 
ing Whitefield's visit. During the period of this re- 



200 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

vival, the neighboring village of Elizabethtown had 
been remarkable for its insensibility ; even Whitefield 
had preached there, " and not a single known conver- 
sion," says Dr. Stearns, " followed his ministrations. 77 
Afterwards the pastor, the well-known Jonathan Dick- 
inson, saw happy results from very plain preaching. 
Newark caught a new flame from its neighboring altar, 
and Mr. Burr, who had lately been to New England 
in quest of health, had heard the devoted evangelist 
again and again, and invited him to visit his flock, 
which he did about a month afterwards with happy 
results. The account given by Mr. Burr of White- 
field^ preaching in New England was precisely what 
we should expect from the man who was afterwards 
the first president of Princeton college, and who, four- 
teen years after this, accompanied his eloquent friend 
to New England, "and saw at Boston, morning after 
morning, three or four thousand people hanging in 
breathlega^iSftgfe, on the lips of the preacher, and 
weeping silent tears. 77 

The Eev. Stephen Dodd of East Haven, Conn., 
relates that an old lady told him that when Mr. 
Whitefield came to preach in the old meeting-house at 
Newark, she was twelve years old, and as he entered 
the pulpit she looked at him with distrust, but before 
he got through his prayers herself and all the congre- 
gation were melted down, and the sermon filled the 
house with groans and tears. The next time he came, 
the congregation was so large that the pulpit window 
was taken out, and he preached through the opening 
to the people in the burying-ground. 

On Wednesday, the 5th, he went to Baskinridge, 



MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES. 201 

Mr. Cross' parish, where he found Mr. Davenport, 
who, according to appointment, had been preaching to 
about three thousand people. He writes, " As I went 
along, I told a friend my soul wept for them, and I 
was persuaded within myself that the Lord would 
that day make his power to be known among them. 
In prayer, I perceived my soul drawn out, and a 
stirring of affections among the people. I had not 
discoursed long before the Holy Ghost displayed his 
power. In every part of the congregation somebody 
or other began to cry out, and almost all melted into 
tears. This abated for a few moments, till a little 
boy about seven or eight years of age cried out ex- 
ceeding piteously indeed, and wept as though his little 
heart would break. Mr. Cross having compassion on 
him, took him up into the wagon, which so affected 
me, that I broke from my discourse, and told the peo- 
ple the little boy should preach to them, and that God, 
since old professors would not cry after Christ, had 
displayed his sovereignty, and out of an infant's mouth 
was perfecting praise. God so blessed this, that a 
universal concern fell on the congregation again. 
Fresh persons dropped down here and there, and the 
cry increased more and more." 

In the evening, Gilbert Tennent preached excel- 
lently in Mr. Cross' barn, two miles off. His subject 
was the necessity and benefit of spiritual desertions, a 
remarkable subject, as has been said, at such a time, 
in a barn, and at night. " A great commotion," says 
Whitefield, " was soon observed among the hearers. 
I then gave a word of exhortation. The Lord's pres- 
ence attended it in a surprising manner. One, in 

9* 



202 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

about six minutes, cried out, 'He is come, He is come!' 
and could scarcely sustain the discovery that Jesus 
Christ made of himself to his soul. Others were so 
earnest for a discovery of the Lord to their souls, that 
their eager crying obliged me to stop, and I prayed 
over them as I saw their agonies and distress increase. 
At length my own soul was so full that I retired, and 
was in a strong agony for some time, and wept before 
the Lord under a deep sense of my own vileness, and 
the sovereignty and greatness of God's everlasting 
love. Most of the people spent the remainder of the 
night in prayer and praise. Two or three young min- 
isters spoke alternately, and others prayed as the Lord 
gave them utterance." 

The next morning Whitefield exhorted, sung, and 
prayed with the people in the barn, and had some de- 
lightful conversation with a lad of thirteen, a poor 
negro woman, and several others. In company with 
several Christian friends, he then rode to the house of 
Gilbert Tennent in New Brunswick. Here he found 
letters from Savannah saying that great mortality ex- 
isted in the neighborhood, but that the family at the 
orphan-house continued in health, and that a minister 
was about coming from England to take his church at 
Savannah. " This last," says he, " much rejoiced me, 
being resolved to give up the Savannah living as soon 
as I arrived in Georgia. A parish and the orphan- 
house together are too much for me ; besides, God seems 
to show me it is my duty to evangelize, and not to fix 
in any particular place." Here he was met by William 
Tennent also, and after much conversation and prayer, 
it was settled that Gilbert Tennent should go to Bos- 



MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES. 203 

ton to carry on the work so happily begun there. 
After preaching, exhortation, and prayer, Whitefield 
went with Davenport to Trenton, and so on to Phila- 
delphia. On their way, they were twice remarkably 
preserved from drowning in creeks much swollen by 
the rains ; and late on a very dark Saturday night 
arrived in the city, which had been already honored 
by his usefulness. 

On the following day, he twice preached in the 
house which his friends were now building for him, 
and in which Gilbert Tennent labored for many years 
with great success. He says, " It is one hundred feet 
long and seventy feet broad. A large gallery is to 
be erected all around in it. Many footsteps of Provi- 
dence have been visible in beginning and carrying it on. 
J3oth in the morning and evening God 7 s glory filled 
the house, for there was great power in the congrega- 
tion. The roof is not yet up, but the people raised a 
convenient pulpit and boarded the bottom. The joy 
of most of the hearers when they saw me was inex- 
pressible. Between services, I received a packet of 
letters from England, dated in March last. May the 
Lord heal, and bring good out of the divisions which 
at present seem to be among the brethren there. God 
giving me freedom, and many friends being in the 
room, I kneeled down and prayed with and exhorted 
them all. But Oh, how did they melt under both ; my 
soul was much rejoiced to look round on them. 77 

A fact in connection with the building of this 
church edifice illustrates the practical philosophy of 
Dr. Franklin. Tennent waited on him for aid in tho 
erection of the house, which was cheerfully afforded ; 



204 GEORGE WH3TEFIELD. 

the philosopher was asked by Teiment as to the best 
method of raising the necessary funds, who instantly 
recommended him to call at every house in the town 
to solicit help. He argued thus : " Many are really 
desirous to give, and will be glad to see you ; others 
arc inclined to be friendly, and will give if they arc 
urged; a third will be sure, if they are omitted, to 
say they would have given had they been asked ; 
and a fourth class will give you, rather than have 
it said they refused." Tennent acted on the doc- 
tor's counsel, and the funds were raised without diffi 
culty. 

Two instances of the happy influence of the truth 
in the conversion of sinners, in connection with this 
visit, must be given from Whitefield's own pen. The 
first related to a Mr. Brockden, a lawyer eminent in 
his profession, and the recorder of deeds for the city. 
For many years this gentleman had been distinguished 
for Deism. Whitefield writes, "In his younger days 
he had some religious impressions, but going into 
business, the cares of the world so choked the good 
seed, that he not only forgot his God in some degree, 
but at length began to doubt of and to dispute his 
very being. In this state he continued many years, 
and has been very zealous to propagate his deistical, 
I could almost say atheistical principles among moral 
men ; but he told me he never endeavored to make 
proselytes of vicious^ debauched people. When I 
came to Philadelphia, this time twelvemonth, he told 
me he had not so much as a curiosity to hear me. 
But a brother Deist, his choicest friend, pressed him 
to come and hear me. To satisfy his curiosity, he at 



MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES. 205 

length complied with the request. I preached at the 
court-house stairs, upon the conference which the Lord 
had with Nicodemus. I had not spoken much before 
the Lord struck his heart. ' For/ said he, * I saw your 
doctrine tended to make people good .' His family 
knew not that he had been to hear me. After he 
came home, his wife, who had been at sermon, came 
in also, and wished heartily that he had heard mo. 
He said nothing. After this, another of his family 
came in, repeating the same wish; and, if I mistake 
not, after that another ; till at last, being unable to 
refrain any longer, with tears in his eyes, he said, 
' Why, I have been hearing him ; ? and then expressed 
his approbation. Ever since he has followed on to 
know the Lord; and I verily believe Jesus Christ 
has made himself manifest to his soul. Though up- 
wards of threescore years old, he is now, I believe, 
born again of God. He is as a little child, and often, 
as he told me, receives such 'communications from 
God, when he retires into the woods, that he thinks 
he could die a martyr for the truth." 

The other instance was that of the captain of a 
ship, " as great a reprobate," says Whitefield, " as 
ever I heard of." This man used to go on board the 
transport ships, and offer a guinea for a new oath, 
that he might have the honor of making it. " To the 
honor of God's grace," says our evangelist, " let it be 
said, he is now, I believe, a Christian ; not only re- 
formed, but renewed. The effectual stroke, he told 
me, was given when I preached last spring at Penne- 
pack. Ever since he has been zealous for the truth ; 
stood like a lamb when he was beaten, and in danger 



206 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

of being murdered by some of my opposers, and, in 
short, shows his faith by his works." 

The stay of Mr. Whitefield in Philadelphia at this 
^) time was about a week, during which he preached in 
the new house twice every day to large and deeply 
interested congregations. He says, "It would be 
almost endless to recount all the particular instances 
of God's grace which I have seen this week past. 
Many that before were only convicted, now plainly 
proved that they were converted, and had a clear evi- 
dence of it within themselves. My chief business was 
now to build up and to exhort them to continue in the 
grace of God. Notwithstanding, many were convicted 
almost every day, and came to me under the greatest 
distress and anguish of soul. Several societies are 
now in the town, not only of men and women, but of 
little boys and little girls. Being so engaged, I could 
not visit them as I would, but I hope the Lord will 
raise up some fellow-laborers, and that elders will be 
ordained in every place." 

Perhaps no man was ever more free from secta- 
rianism than George Whitefield. It is true, that he 
was ordained a clergyman of the church of England, 
and never manifested any degree of reluctance to 
officiate within its walls ; but it is equally true, that 
the vast majority of his sermons were delivered in 
connection with other bodies of Christians. When 
he was once preaching from the balcony of the court- 
house, Market-street, Philadelphia, he delivered an 
impressive apostrophe : " Father Abraham, who have 
you in heaven? any Episcopalians?" "No." "Any 
Presbyterians ?" u No." " Any Baptists ?" " No." 



MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES 201 

" Have you any Methodists, Seceders, or Independents 
there ? 77 " No, no ! 77 " Why, who have you there ?" 
"We don't know those names here. All who are 
here are Christians, believers in Christ — men who 
have overcome by the bloodof the Lamb, and the 
word of h is t estimony . 77 " Oh, is that the case ? then 
God help me, God help us all, to forget party names, 
and to become Christians, in deed and in truth. 77 It 
might be well for the different bodies of Christians 
to think of the propriety of following this example of 
the holy man. The peculiarities of each Christian 
denomination may have their importance, but they 
ought not to keep good men in a state of separation, 
much less of alienation from each other. 

On Monday, November 17, Whitefield left Phila- 
delphia. He says, " Was much melted at parting from 
my dear friends. Had it much impressed upon my 
mind, that I should go to England, and undergo trials 
for the truth 7 s sake. These words, ' The Jews sought 
to stone thee, and goest thou thither again ? 7 with our 
Lord 7 s answer, have been for some time lying upon 
me ; and while my friends were weeping round me, 
St. Paul 7 s words darted into my soul, 'What mean 
you to weep and break my heart ? I am willing not 
only to be bound, but to die for the Lord Jesus. 7 
After fervent prayer, I took my leave of some, but 
being to preach at Gloucester in the West Jerseys, 
others accompanied me in boats over the river. We 
sung as we sailed, but my heart was low. I preached 
at Gloucester, but found myself weighed down, and 
was not able to deliver my sermon with my usual 
vigor. However, there was an affecting melting, and 



208 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

several, as I heard afterwards, who had been in bond* 
age before, at that time received joy in the Holy 
Ghost. I rode on in company with several to Green- 
wich, and preached to a few, with scarce any power. 
In the evening we travelled on a few miles, but my 
body was more and more out of order, and I thought 
God was preparing me for future blessings. It is 
good to be humbled. I am never better than when 
, I am brought to lie at the foot of the cross. It is a 
l| certain sign God intends that soul a greater crown. 
jILord, let me always feel myself a pflpr $jjii\er." On 
I ITuesday he preached at Pilesgrove to about two thou- 
sand people, but saw only a few affected. " At night," 
he says, " God was pleased so abundantly to refresh 
my soul as to make me forget the weakness of my 
body ; I prayed and exhorted with great power in the 
family where I lodged." On Wednesday, at Cohan- 
sey, where Gilbert Tennent had prepared the way 
for him, he says, " Preached to some thousands both 
morning and afternoon. The word gradually struck 
the hearers, till the whole congregation was greatly 
moved, and. two cried out in the bitterness of their 
souls after a crucified Saviour, and were scarcely 
able to stand. My soul was replenished as with new 
wine, and life and power flew all around me." At 
Salem, on the 20th, he preached in the morning at the 
court-house, and in the afternoon in the open air be- 
fore the prison, to about two thousand persons. " Both 
times God was with us." On Friday, November 21, 
he got with some difficulty to Newcastle, where he 
preached in the court-house, and " observed some few 
affected, and some few scoffing." Here he was joined 



MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES. 208 

by Mr. Charles Tennent, who had lately married a 

young lady awakened under Whitefield's ministry. 

They went on to White Clay creek, " and God," says 

he, " was pleased to appear for me in an extraordinary 

manner. There were many thousands waiting to heai 

the word. I have not seen a more lovely sight. 1 

sang the twenty-third psalm, and these words gave my 

soul unspeakable comfort : 

" ' In presence of my spiteful foes, 
He does my table spread.' 

" The Lord Jesus assisted me in preaching. The 
melting soon began, and the power increased more 
and more, till the greatest part of the congregation 
was exceedingly moved. Several cried out in differ- 
ent parts > and others were to be seen wringing their 
hands and weeping bitterly. The stir was ten times 
greater than when I was here last.' 7 At Fagg's Manor, 
on Saturday afternoon, he preached " to many thou- 
sands, and God was pleased mightily to own his word. 
There was a wondrous powerful moving, but it did 
not rise to such a degree as when I preached here 
last spring. I was taken ill after preaching." After 
still farther labors, he retired to rest, and he says, 
" The Lord gave me sweet sleep, and in the morning I 
arose with my natural strength much renewed." This 
was the Sabbath, and he preached at Nottingham " to 
a large congregation, who seemed in no wise to re« 
gard the rain, so they might be watered with the dew 
of God's blessing. 77 

On the following afternoon, at Bohemia, in Mary- 
land, he says, " Preached to about two thousand, and 
have not seen a more solid melting, I think, since my 



210 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

arrival. Some scoffers stood on the outside, but the 
Holy Spirit enabled me to lay the terrors of the Lord 
before them, and they grew more serious. My soul 
much rejoiced in the Lord to see salvation brought to 
Maryland." On Tuesday, November 25, " came to 
Reedy Island, and had the wonderful presence of God 
in the assembly in the afternoon. Several of my dear 
Philadelphia friends came to take their last farewell. 77 
On Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday, he preached 
again. " The Lord was with us every time. I was 
greatly delighted to see the captains of the ships, and 
their respective crews, come constantly to hear the 
word of God on shore, and join with us in religious 
exercises on board. 77 

On December 1, when they sailed from Reedy 
Island to Charleston, he wrote in his journal, "But 
before I go on, stop, my soul, and look back a little 
on the great things the Lord hath done for thee dur- 
ing this excursion. I think it is now the seventy- 
lifth day since I arrived at Rhode Island. My body 
was then weak, but the Lord has much renewed its 
strength. I have been enabled to preach, I think, one 
hundred and seventy-five times in public, besides ex- 
horting very frequently in private. I have travelled 
upwards of eight hundred miles, and gotten upwards 
of £700 sterling in goods, provisions, and money for 
my poor orphans. Never did God vouchsafe me such 
great assistances. Never did I perform my journeys 
with so little fatigue, or see such a continuance of the 
divine presence in the congregations to whom I have 
preached. All things concur to convince me that 
America is to be my chief scene for action. 77 



MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES. 211 

In about eight days, he arrived at Charleston, 
where he found there had recently been a large fire, 
and to improve the sad event he preached a sermon, 
and passed on to his own home, where he found all 
well, and where he made arrangements for his voyage 
to England, leaving on the 29 th of December. On 
that day he narrowly escaped death. A laborer was 
walking behind him with a gun under his arm, which 
went off unawares ; happily its muzzle was towards 
the ground, " otherwise," says Whitefield, " I and one 
of my friends, in all probability, should have been 
killed ; for Ave were directly before, and not above a 
yard or two distant from it. How ought we to live 
in such a statea&jye would not fear to die in ; for in 
the midst oflne we are in death !" In the evening he 
preached his farewell sermon as pastor of Savannah. 

On Mr. Whitefield's arrival at Charleston, in com- 
pany with two gentlemen named Bryan, who had been 
called to suffer persecution for Christ's sake, he had 
the happiness of meeting his brother, the captain of a 
vessel from England, who gave him much interesting 
intelligence of the Christians in that country. Com- 
mencing with the Sabbath, he preached twice every 
day, in addition to expounding the Scriptures almost 
every evening, and expresses his gratitude for divine 
assistance. But though he had much to rejoice in, he 
had also more than one source of sorrow. Some pro- 
fessors of religion, of whom he had hoped well, had 
fallen away, and not a few of his enemies were even 
more enraged than formerly. Hugh Bryan had writ- 
ten a letter, in which, among other matters, " it was 
hinted that the clerev break their canons." At the 



2L2 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

request of Jonathan Bryan, Whitefield had corrected 
it for the press, and it was published while he was 
now in the city. Hugh Bryan was apprehended, and 
on his examination, being asked, frankly confessed 
that "Whitefield had corrected and made some altera* 
tions in it. Writing on January 10, he says, "This 
evening a constable came to me with the following 
warrant : 

" ' South Carolina SS. By B W , etc. 

Whereas I have received information upon oath that 
George Whitefield, Clerk, hath made and composed a 
false, malicious, scandalous, and infamous Libel against 
the Clergy of this Province, in contempt of His Majesty 
and His Laws, and against the King's Peace : These 
are therefore, in His Majesty's Name, to charge and 
command you and each of you forthwith to apprehend 
the said George Whitefield, and to bring him before 
Me to answer the premises. Hereof fail not, at your 
peril. And for your so doing this shall be your and 
each of your sufficient Warrant. Given under my 
hand and seal this tenth day of January, in the four- 
teenth year of His Majesty's Reign, Anno Domini one 
thousand seven hundred and forty [one.] 

" < B W .' '- 

Whitefield gave security to appear by his attorney 
at the next quarter sessions, under penalty of one hun- 
dred pounds proclamation money. " Blessed be God/ 3 
he says in his journal, " for this further honor. My 
soul rejoices in it. I think this may be called perse- 
cution. I think it is for righteousness' sake." The 
next morning he preached on Herod sending the wise 
men to find out Christ, professing a desire to worship 



MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES. 213 

him, but intending to kill him ; persecution under pre- 
tence of religion, being his theme. The afternoon ser- 
mon was on the murder of Naboth, from which he dis- 
coursed on the abuse of power by men in authority. He 
says, " My hearers, as well as myself, made the appli- 
cation. It was pretty close." No doubt it was. In 
the evening he expounded the narrative of Orpah and 
Ruth, and exhorted his hearers to follow the Lord 
Jesus Christ, though his cause be never so much per 
secuted and spoken against. 

On the following Thursday, he received several 
highly gratifying letters from his friends at Boston. 
Mr. Secretary Willard said to him, " Divers young 
men in this town, who are candidates for the ministry, 
have been brought under deep convictions by your 
preaching, and are carried off from the foundation of 
their false hopes to rest only upon Christ for salva- 
tion." 

The Rev. Mr. Cooper wrote, "I can inform you 
that there are many abiding proofs that you did not 
run in vain, and labor in vain among us in this place. 
I can only say now in general, some have been awak- 
ened who were before quite secure, and I hope a good 
work begun in them. Others, who had been under 
religious impressions, are now more earnestly pressing 
into the kingdom of heaven, and many of the children 
of God are stirred up to give diligence for the full 
assurance of faith. There is a greater flocking to all 
the lectures in the town, and the people show such a 
disposition to the new Tuesday evening lecture, that 
our large capacious house cannot receive all that 
come. I am sure your visit to us has made a large 



214 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

addition to the prayers that are going up for you in 
one place and another, and I hope also unto the jew- 
els that are to make up your crown in the day of the 
Lord." 

In addition to these statements, Mr. "Welch, a pious 
merchant, wrote, " I fear I am tedious, but I cannot 
break off till I just mention, to the glory of the grace 
of God, and for your comfort and encouragement, the 
success your ministry of late has had among us. Im- 
pressions made seem to be abiding on the minds of 
many. The doctrines of grace seem to be more the 
topic of conversation than ever I knew them. Nay, 
religious conversation seems to be almost fashionable, 
and almost every one seems disposed to hear or speak 
of the things of God. Multitudes flock to the evening 
lecture, though it has sometimes been the worst of 
weather. Ministers seem to preach with more life, 
and the great auditories seem to hear with solemn 
attention, and I hope our Lord Jesus is getting to 
himself the victory over the hearts of many sinners." 

These, and other letters of a similar character, 
filled the heart of Whitefield with grateful pleasure ; 
and he went on preaching and enjoying the society of 
his friends till Friday, January 16. He says, " I never 
received such generous tokens of love, I think, from 
any people before, as from some in Charleston. They 
so loaded me with sea-stores, that I sent many of them 
to Savannah." He now went on board, and was fully 
engaged in preparations for the voyage, which how- 
ever was not entered on till the 24th. On that day 
the Minerva sailed over Charleston bar, and after a 
generally pleasant voyage, they landed at Falmouth, 



MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES. 216 

March 11. " This/ 7 says he, " was a profitable voyage 
to my soul, because of my having had many sweet op- 
portunities for reading, meditation, and prayer." 

The impartiality of history requires us, however 
reluctantly, here to notice the separation which to 
some extent now took place between Whitefield, and 
his old friends Messrs. John and Charles Wesley. 
Their mutual attachment in early life we have already 
seen, as also Whitefield's anxiety in Georgia to defend 
Mr. John Wesley's conduct against those who opposed 
him. Impartial observers, however, after a while be- 
gan to remark, that on some doctrinal points, espec- 
ially on that of predestination, a difference was spring- 
ing up. On his passage to England, February 1, 1741, 
Whitefield thus wrote to Mr. Charles Wesley : " My 
dear, dear brethren, why did you throw out the bone 
of contention? Why did you print that sermon 
against predestination ? Why did you in particular, 
my dear brother Charles, affix your hymn, and join in 
putting out your late hymn-book ? How can you say 
you will not dispute with me about election, and yet 
print such hymns? and your brother sent his sermon 
against election, to Mr. Garden and others in Amer- 
ica. Do not you think, my dear brethren, I must be 
as much concerned for truth, or what I think truth, 
as you ? God is my judge, I always was, and hope I 
always shall be desirous that you may be preferred 
before me. But I must preach the gospel of Christ, 
and that I cannot now do, without speaking of elec- 
tion." He then tells Mr. Charles Wesley, that in 
Christmas-week he had written an answer to his 
brother's sermon, "which/ 7 says he, "is now printing 



216 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

at Charleston ; another copy I have sent to Boston, 
and another I now bring with me, to print in London. 
If it occasion a strangeness between us, it shall not be 
my fault. There is nothing in my answer exciting to 
it, that- I know of. 0, my dear brethren, my heart 
almost bleeds within me. Methinks I could be will- 
ing to tarry here on the waters for ever, rather than 
come to England to oppose you." 

Dr. Whitehead, in his " Life of John Wesley," has 
very wisely said, " Controversy almost always injures 
the Christian temper, much more than it promotes the 
interests of speculative truth. On this question a 
separation took place between Mr. Wesley and Mr. 
Whitefield, so far as to have different places of wor- 
ship ; and some warm and tart expressions dropped 
from each. But their good opinion of each other's 
integrity and usefulness, founded on long and intimate 
acquaintance, could not be injured by such a difference 
of sentiment ; and their mutual affection was only ob- 
scured by a cloud for a season." 

The friendship between Mr. Whitefield and the 
Messrs. Wesley was very much increased and perpet- 
uated by the wife of Mr. Charles Wesley. This very 
extraordinary lady, whose original name was Gwinne, 
was equally distinguished for her beauty, talents, and 
piety. She had a very cordial regard for Mr. White- 
field, who as cordially reciprocated it. She was mar- 
ried when the controversy among these eminent men 
was at its height, and stipulated that she should 
always be allowed to hear the preaching of Whitefield 
and his friends. In her latter years especially, and 
she lived till ninety-six, she expressed her pleasure in 



IN ENGLAND. 217 

the belief that she promoted the continuance of that 
endearing intercourse which subsisted between White- 
field and her husband. She softened all parties, and 
was on all occasions a blessed peacemaker. 

One fact relating to this eminently excellent 
woman may be mentioned. She was nearly twenty 
years younger than her husband, and four years after 
her marriage, and at the age of twenty-six, she was 
seized with small-pox, of which at that time her eldest 
child died. She lay twenty-two days in imminent 
danger of death, and when she recovered she was so 
much altered in features that no one could recognize 
her ; but never did woman before lose her beauty 
with so little regret. She used sportively to say, that 
the change in her appearance " afforded great satis- 
faction to her dear husband, who was glad to see her 
look so much older, and better suited to be his com- 
panion." 

On Whitefield's arrival at Falmouth, he immedi- 
ately set off in a post-chaise to London, in order to 
preach on the following Sabbath. But he now found 
occasion for all the patience he had acquired. He 
had, he says, "written two well-meant, though ill- 
judged letters against England's two great favorites, 
* The Whole Duty of Man? and Archbishop Tillotson, 
who, I said, knew no more about religion than Moham- 
med. The Moravians had made inroads on our socie- 
ties f besides which, the controversy with the Messrs. 
Wesley injured him. His congregations on the Sab- 
bath were still large, but on week-days he had not 
more than two or three hundred hearers. He says, 
" Instead of having thousands to attend me, scarcely 

WhitefieM. 10 



218 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

one of my spiritual children come to see me from 
morning to night. Once, on Kennington Common, I 
had not above a hundred to hear me." 

Even this was not all. He says, " One that got 
some hundreds of pounds by my sermons, refused to 
print for me any more. And others wrote to me, that 
God would destroy me in a fortnight, and that my fall 
was as great as Peter's." Still other sorrows attended 
him. He writes, " I was much embarrassed in my out- 
ward circumstances. A thousand pounds I owed for 
the orphan-house. Two hundred and fifty pounds 
drawn on Mr. Seward, [who was now dead,] were re- 
turned upon me. I was also threatened to be arrested 
for two hundred pounds more." Besides all this, he 
had " a family of one hundred persons to be maintain- 
ed, four thousand miles off, in the dearest part of his 
majesty's dominions." He now began to preach in 
Moorfields on week-days, under one of the trees ; 
where he saw numbers of his spiritual children run- 
ning by him without looking at him, and some of them 
putting their fingers in their ears, that they might not 
hear one word he said. "A like scene," he says, 
" opened at Bristol, where I was denied preaching in 
the house I had founded." It was the Kingswood 
school-house, built for the children of the colliers. 

But Whitefield could not long be kept down. His 
friends built a new house and opened a new school at 
Kingswood. Some " free-grace dissenters," as Gillies 
calls them, procured the loan of a building lot in Lon- 
don, on which, as we have already seen, they built the 
Tabernacle. Here his congregations immediately in- 
creased, and he addressed them with his usual power 



IN ENGLAND. 219 

and success. Invitations soon poured in from the 
country, and even from places where he had never 
been. At a common near Braintree, in Essex, he had 
more than ten thousand hearers, and at many other 
places congregations were large and much affected. 
11 Sweet," says he, " was the conversation which I had 
with several ministers of Christ." Soon again did he 
triumph, even in England. 

Among the men who were now invited to aid, and 
who rendered important assistance to Whitefield in 
his houses of worship in London and Bristol, as well 
as in his itinerant labors, was Howel Harris, a native 
of Wales, a gentleman, and a magistrate, to whom we 
have already referred. His name in "Wales is yet "a 
household word, 77 and his labors form a part of the 
history of Welsh Calvinistic Methodism. As soon as 
he had embraced the gospel for himself, he became 
intensely solicitous respecting the condition of his 
neighbors. The scenes of profligacy and vice which 
everywhere presented themselves burdened his heart, 
and he became anxious to be actively employed in 
removing evil and doing good. He determined on 
taking orders in the church of England, and accord- 
ingly entered St. Mary 7 s Hall, in Oxford university ; 
but shocked at the dissolute habits of the collegians, 
and finding what were called his methodistical views 
were in the way of his ordination, he returned to 
Wales, and began to evangelize its towns and villages, 
Wherever there was an opening, there he went, and 
preached Christ to the people ; and although defam 
ed and persecuted, he manfully prosecuted his work 
and thousands were by his agency brought to repent 



220 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

ance. He and Mr. Whitefield were kindred spirits, 
moved by the same impulses, and pursuing the same 
course. Mr. Whitefield spoke of him as " ' a burning 
and shining light/ a barrier against profaneness and 
immorality, and an indefatigable promoter of the true 
gospel of Jesus Christ. For these years he has preach- 
ed almost twice a day, for three or four hours together. 
He has been in seven counties, and has made it his 
business to go to wakes and fairs to turn people from 
their lying vanities. He has been made the subject 
of numbers of sermons, has been threatened with pub- 
lic prosecutions, and had constables sent to apprehend 
him. But God has blessed him with inflexible cour- 
age ; strength has been communicated to him from 
above, and he still goes on from conquering to con- 
quer. God has greatly blessed his pious endeavors ; 
many call, and own him as their spiritual father, and 
would, I believe, lay down their lives for his sake.". 

In the year 1759, when England was threatened 
with a French invasion, Mr. Harris became a captain 
in the Brecknockshire militia, and into whatever place 
in England the regiment was ordered, he uniformly 
began to preaSh, and was the means of introducing 
the gospel into many ignorant and depraved districts. 
Thus an unusual act and an undesirable office were 
overruled to doing much good. When the regiment 
was disbanded, he again regularly entered on his min- 
isterial duties with all his former zeal and activity. 
In a word, he may justly be regarded the evangelist 
of Wales. 

As an illustration of the spirit of the energetic 
ministers of Christ in those days, we quote a fact or 



IN ENGLAND. 22l 

two from the life of Rowland Hill ; the more readily 
as Howel Harris is the principal subject. In 1774, 
four years after the death of Whitefield, Mr. Hill 
travelled through Wales, preaching three or four 
times every day ; many conversions took place, which 
greatly sustained him under an attack of illness ; and 
led to the remark in his " Journal/' " My body quite 
weak, but my soul was refreshed." "A like exam- 
ple," says Sidney, one of the biographers of Hill, "had 
been previously before his eyes in the case of Howel 
Harris, one of Mr. Whitefield's energetic followers, 
who was a man of extraordinary powers of body and 
mind. Harris used to relate of himself, that being 
once on a journey through Wales, he was subjected to 
great temptation to desert his Master's cause, when 
he said, ' Satan, I'll match thee for this ;' and * so I 
did/ he used to add ; 'for I had not ridden many miles 
before I came to a revel, where there was a show of 
mountebanks, which I entered, and just as they were 
commencing, I jumped into the midst of them and 
cried out, ' Let us pray/ which so thunderstruck them 
that they listened to me quietly, while I preached to 
them a most tremendous sermon, that frightened many 
of them home.' Mr. Hill greatly delighted in this 
anecdote, and often said that amidst somewhat similar 
scenes, he had been enabled successfully to attack the 
kingdom of Satan." 



222 GEORGE WHITEFIELD, 



CHAPTER VIII. 

FIRST AND SECOND VISITS TO SCOTLAND — LABORS 

IN ENGLAND AND WALES. 

1740-1744. 

We have seen the spirit in which Mr. Whitefiell 
returned to London, and the cool manner in which he 
was too generally received. It is painful to say that 
this coldness was not confined to enemies of the 
truth ; it appeared in some degree in eminent dissent- 
ing ministers, as Watts and Bradbury, Barker, and 
even, to some extent, Doddridge. A plan had a few 
years before been agitated to restore the dissenters 
to the church, usually called the Comprehension scheme, 
and assuredly, under the circumstances, friendship 
with Whitefield was by no means favorable to such a 
plan being accomplished, though it was at this period 
greatly desired by many of both parties. Still, how- 
ever, good was done ; Whitefield preached, and God 
was glorified. More union between Christians in ad- 
vancing the cause of Christ would have been exceed- 
ingly desirable, but even the want of this was not 
permitted to stay the progress of this man of God. 

One of the most popular and useful ministers em- 
ployed by Whitefield and his friends at this time wag 
John Cennick, the author of two well-known hymns, 
beginning, 

"Jesus, thy blood and righteousness;" 
"Jesus, my all, to heaven is gone." 



IN ENGLAND. 223 

He was the preacher who, in Ireland, discoursed from 
the text, " Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swad- 
dling clothes," which gave occasion for the Method- 
ists in that country to be called " Swaddlers" The 
parents of this excellent man were Quakers, who had 
been imprisoned in Reading jail for the maintenance 
of their religious principles. This persecution re- 
duced them from respectability to want, so that, like 
John Bunyan, they were forced to make shoe-laces in 
prison for their support. 

The conversion of the son was very remarkable. 
His first deep and lasting religious convictions flashed 
upon his mind like lightning from heaven, while walk- 
ing in the crowds of Cheapside, in London. The 
effects were soon manifested; he became a new man, 
pursuing a new course, and entering on a new work. 
His ministry was very efficient, his views of truth 
were evangelical, his public speaking popular, his zeal 
so great as sometimes to lead him to preach six times 
in one day — all which labors were followed with abun- 
dant success. 

Mr. Cennick was rather below the middle stature, 
of a fair countenance, and though by no means robust 
in health, he knew little of timidity. The spirit in 
which he discharged his ministry may be seen in a 
letter he wrote to a friend : "We sang a hymn, and 
then the devil led on his servants; they began beat- 
ing a drum, and then made fires of gunpowder : at 
first the poor flock was startled ; but while God gave 
me power to speak encouragingly to them, they waxed 
bolder, and very few moved. The mob then fired 
guns over the people's heads, and began to play a 



224 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

water engine upon brother Harris and myself, till we 
were wet through. They also played an engine upon 
us with hog's-wash and grounds of beer-barrels, and 
covered us with muddy water from a ditch;" they 
pelted us with eggs and stones, threw baskets of dust 
over us, and fired their guns so close to us that our 
faces were black with the powder; but, in nothing 
terrified, we remained praying. I think I never saw 
or felt so great a power of God as was there. In the 
midst of the confused multitude, I saw a man laboring 
above measure, earnest to fill the buckets with water 
to throw upon us. I asked him, 'What harm do we 
do ? Why are you so furious against us ? We only 
come to tell you that Christ loved you, and died for 
you.' He stepped back a little for room, and threw a 
bucket of water in my face. When I had recovered 
myself, I said, ' My dear man, if God should so pour 
his wrath upon you, what would become of you ? Yet 
I tell you that Christ loves you. ? He threw away 
the bucket, let fall his trembling hands, and looked 
as pale as death ; he then shook hands with me, and 
parted from me, I believe under strong convictions." 

Mr. Cennick had heretofore labored with White- 
field and Wesley, but now adhered to the former, and 
labored very successfully in the Tabernacle. After 
some years he united with the Moravian brethren, 
and died in triumph at thirty-five. 

In the summer of 1741, some three or four months 
after his arrival from America, Whitefield paid his 
first visit to Scotland. The state of religion in that 
country at the commencement of the ministry of this 
distinguished evangelist, has been already glanced at. 



FIRST VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 225 

It is here important to remark, that in 1740 an indi- 
cation of better things began to appear in several 
places, especially in Cambuslang, under the ministry 
of the Rev. Mr. M'Culloeh. This excellent man, for 
nearly a % year before the revival began, had been 
preaching to his people on those subjects which tend 
most directly to explain the nature and prove the 
necessity of regeneration, according to the different 
aspects in which it is represented in the holy Scrip- 
tures. The church edifice had become too small 
for the congregation, and the minister, in favorable 
weather, frequently conducted the public worship on 
a green brae on the east side of a deep ravine near the 
church, scooped out in the form of an amphitheatre. 
In this retired and romantic spot, the worthy pastor 
preached in the most impressive manner to the listen- 
ing multitudes, and not unfrequently, after his ser- 
mons, detailed to them the astonishing effects of 
Whitefield's preaching in America, which did not a 
little to increase the interest of the people, as well 
as lead them to wish to see such an extraordinary 
preacher. 

While on his voyage to Scotland, Whitefield gave 
evidence that he had not forgotten America. In his 
second visit to America, he had become intimately 
acquainted with the Rev. Daniel Rodgers of Exeter, 
New Hampshire, a direct descendant of the seventh 
generation of John Rogers, who was burnt at the 
stake for the testimony of Christ in the days of the 
bloody Mary. It is not surprising that Whitefield's 
original letter to him, now in the possession of the 
family of the grandson of Daniel Rodgers, is highly 

10* 



226 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

valued. It is dated on board the Mary and Ann, 
bound from London to Scotland, July 25, 1741. 

" My dear Brother Rodgers — How glad was I to 
receive a letter from your hands, having heard noth- 
ing from you or of you particularly since we parted. 
Oh, what great things has the Lord shown us since 
that time ! methinks I hear you say ; and yet I can tell 
of greater things. And I believe we shall see far 
greater yet before we die. The work is beginning 
afresh here. I sometimes think brother Gilbert [Ten- 
nent] must take a voyage to old England. Most of 
our London ministers too much shun the cross, and do 
! not appear bol^jgjj^gd. Now the Lord has work- 
ed so powerfully in your college, I have less to object 
against your joining Mr. Web. I am glad to hear that 
you speak plain and close. What comfort will this 
afford you in a dying hour. Go on, my dear brother, 
go on; venture daily upon Christ. Go out in his 
strength, and he will enable us to do wonders. He is 
with me more and more. I have sweetly been carried 
through the heat and burning of every day's labor. 
Jesus bears all my b^ui^^ Jesus enables me to cast 
all my care upon him. Oh then, let us magnify his 
name together. I am now going to Scotland, know- 
ing not -what will befall me. What God does ; you 
may expect to hear of shortly. In the meanwhile, let 
us pray for and write to each other. As iron sharp- 
ened iron, so do the letters of a man his friend. Your 
last I have printed. God's glory called me to it. 

" My dear brother, adieu. Dear brother Sims sits 
by and salutes you. My kind love awaits Mr. Web, 



FIRST VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 227 

and all who love the Lord in sincerity. In hopes 01 

receiving another letter from you shortly, I subscribe 

myself, dear Mr. Eodgers, your most affectionate, 

though very unworthy brother and servant in the 

Bweetest Jesus, 

"G. W." 

Among those who were most anxious that Mr. 
Whiteneld should visit Scotland, were the Rev. 
Messrs. Ebenezer and Ralph Erskine. These two 
excellent brothers had separated themselves from the 
established church, chiefly on the ground of its cold 
formalism, and with some other zealous ministers had 
formed what has since been known as the Associate 
Presbytery. Their wish was, that in coming to Scot- 
land, Whiteneld should preach only in connection with 
their body, and so help forward the work in which 
they were engaged. To this he objected, regarding 
himself as an evangelist at large. As he proceeded, 
they rather opposed him, as not sufficiently particular 
and discriminative in his zeal. They wished him not 
to labor in the church from which they had seceded, 
saying, " God had left it." " Then," said he, " it is the 
more necessary for me to preach in it, to endeavor to 
bring him back. I ? 11 pre ach Christ wherever they J ll 
let me." On the 30th of Jiflyhe arrived in Edinburgh, 
Iwhere he was urged to preach, but declined till he 
had seen the Messrs. Erskine ; and accordingly pro- 
ceeded to Dunfermline. Writing on the 1st of Au- 
gust, he says, "I went yesterday to Dunfermline, 
where dear Mr. Ralph Erskine hath got a large and 
separate, or as it is commonly termed, seceding meet- 
ing-house. He received me very lovingly. I preached 



228 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

to his and the town's people — a very thronged assem- 
bly. After I had done prayers and named my text, 
the rustling made by opening the Bibles all at once 
quite surprised me — a scene I never was witness to 
before." 

On the day following, Whitefield returned to 
Edinburgh, accompanied by Mr. Ralph Erskine, and 
preached in the Orphan-house park to a large and 
attentive audience. His text was, " The kingdom of 
God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and 
peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost." Rom. 14 : 17. 
After the sermon, a large company, including some of 
the nobility, came to bid him God-speed ; and among 
others a portly Quaker, a nephew of the Messrs. Er- 
skine, who, taking him by the hand, said, "Friend 
George, I am as thou art ; I am for bringing all to 
the life and power of the ever-living God ; and there- 
fore, if thou wilt not quarrel with -me about my hat, I 
will not quarrel with thee about tl^^goj^." On 
Sabbath evening, he preached in the same place, to 
upwards of fifteen thousand persons ; and on the even- 
ings of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to nearly as 
many; on Tuesday in the Canongate church; on 
Wednesday and Thursday at Dunfermline ; and on 
Friday morning at Queensferry. " Everywhere," says 
he, "the auditories were large and very attentive. 
Great power accompanied the word. Many have 
been brought under convictions, and I have already 
received invitations to different places, which, God 
willing, I intend to comply with." Writing a week 
later, he says, " It would make your heart leap for joy 
to be now in Edinburgh. I question if there be not 



FIRST VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 229 

upwards of three hundred in this city seeking after 
Jesus. Every morning I have a constant levee of 
wounded souls, many of whom are quite slain by the 
law. God's power attends the word continually, just 
as when I left London. At seven in the morning we 
have a lecture in the fields, attended not only by the 
common people, but also by persons of rank. I have 
reason to think that several of the latter sort are 
coming to Jesus. Little children also are much 
wrought upon. God much blesses my letters from 
the little orphans, [girls in the hospital.] He loves 
to work by contemptible means. Oh, my dear broth- 
er, I am quite amazed when I think what God has 
done here in a fortnight. My printed sermons and 
journals have been blessed in an uncommon manner. 
I am only afraid lest people should idolize the instru- 
ment, and not look enough to the glorious Jesus, in 
whom alone I desire to glory. Congregations consist 
of many thousands. Never did I see so many Bibles, 
nor people looking into them, while I am expounding, 
with so much attention. Plenty of tears flow from the 
hearers' eyes. Their emotions appear in various ways. 
I preach twice daily, and expound at private houses 
at night, and am employed in speaking to souls under 
distress great part of the day. I have just snatched a 
few moments to write to my dear brother. Oh, that 
God may enlarge your heart to pray for me. This 
afternoon I preach out of town, and also to-morrow. 
Next post, God willing, you shall have another letter. 
I walk continually in the comforts of the Holy Ghost. 
The love of Christ quite strikes me dumb. grace, 
grace! let that be my song. Adieu." 



230 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

In this manner Whitefield continued to preach 
very extensively over Scotland ; and early in Septem- 
ber he arrived at Glasgow. On the eleventh of that 
month he began his labors in the High Church-yard, 
and for five days in succession preached there twice a 
day — at an early hour in the morning, and again in 
the evening. The expectations of the people were 
high, not only in Glasgow, but all around, and crowds 
flocked to hear him preach. Morning after morning, 
and evening after evening, that vast church-yard, 
almost paved as it is with tombstones, was crowded 
with living worshippers, trembling under the word. 
But not satisfied with hearing, the pen of the ready 
writer was from day to day at work, and each sermon 
was printed by itself, and put immediately into circu- 
lation. His sermons were characterized by great 
simplicity, as if the language of the preacher merely 
expressed what he felt, and yet there was so much 
earnestness, and so much closeness of application, as 
to account for the effects they produced. He was in 
the pulpit very much what Baxter was in the press. 
He spoke as a man realizing all that he said, and lay- 
ing open the feelings of his own heart in addressing 
the hearts of others. 

Very few men better knew the human heart than 
Whitefield. He seemed to know all the thoughts and 
feelings of his hearers, and the best way in which to 
meet them. He once preached in Scotland from the 
text, " The door was shut." Matt. 25 : 10. A respect- 
able lady who heard him sat near the door, a consid- 
erable distance from the pulpit, and observed two 
showy and trifling young men who appeared to turn 



FIRST VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 231 

the solemn appeals of the preacher into ridicule ; she 
heard one of them say in a low tone to the other, 
" Well, what if the door be shut? another will open.' 7 
In a very few minutes, to the great surprise of the 
lady, Mr. Whitefield said, "It is possible there may/ 
be some careless, trifling person here to-day, who may | 
ward off the force of this impressive subject by lightly I 
thinking, ' What matter if the door be shut ? another 
will open.' " The two young men looked at each 
other as though they werj3 paralyzed, as the preacher 
proceeded : " Yes, another door will open ; and I will 
tell you what door it will be : it will be the door of 
the bottomless pit, the door of hell ! — the door which 
conceals from the eyes of angels the horrors of dam- 
nation." 

After Mr. Whitefield's return to England, at the 
close of October, among many letters which followed 
him, detailing the results of his labors, was one from 
Mr. M'Culloch, the excellent minister already re- 
ferred to : 

" As it is matter of joy and thankfulness to God, 
who sent you hither, and gave you so much counte- 
nance, and so remarkably crowned your labors with 
success here at Glasgow, so I doubt not but the fol- 
lowing account of the many seals to your ministry in 
and about that city, will be very rejoicing to your 
heart, especially as the kingdom of our glorious Re- 
deemer is so much advanced thereby, and as the ever- 
lasting happiness of souls is promoted. I am well 
informed by some ministers, and other judicious and 
experienced Christians, that there are to the amount 
of fifty persons already known, in and about Glasgow. 



232 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

who appear to be savingly converted, through the 
blessing and power of God on your ten sermons. 
And there are, besides these, several others appar- 
ently under conviction, but not reckoned, as being 
still doubtful. Several Christians also, of considera- 
ble standing, were much strengthened, revived, and 
comforted by what they heard. They were made to 
rejoice in hope of the glory of God, having attained 
to the full assurance of faith. Among those lately 
converted, there are several young people who were 
before openly wicked and flagitious, or at best but 
very negligent as to spiritual things ; and yet they 
are now in the way of salvation. Some young con- 
verts are yet under doubts and fears, but a considera- 
ble number of them have attained to peace and joy in 
believing. Several of those who were lately wrought 
on in a gracious way, seem to outstrip Christians of 
considerable standing, in spiritual-mindedness, and in 
many other good qualifications ; particularly in their 
zeal for the conversion of others, in their love to ordi- 
nances, and in their freedom from bigotry and party 
zeal. Those converted by your ministry have not 
been discovered at once, but only from time to time. 
A good many of them have been discovered only of 
late. Their convictions were at first less pungent, 
and through the discouragements they met with in the 
families where they resided, as well as from their own 
feelings, they endeavored for a time to conceal their 
state. These circumstances afford ground for hoping, 
that there are yet others who may afterwards become 
known. Besides such as have been awakened through 
the power of God accompanying your sermons, there 



FIRST VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 238 

have been others who have been since awakened, and 
who have been discovered in consequence of the change 
observable in their conduct. These, dear brother, are 
a few hints concerning some of the most remarkable 
tilings, as to the blessing which accompanied your 
labors at Glasgow." 

At Edinburgh, when first visited by Whitefield, 
many persons of the highest rank constantly attended 
his ministry. Among them were the Marquis of Lo- 
thian, the Earl of Leven, Lord Ray, Lady Mary Ham- 
ilton, Lady Frances Gardiner, Lady Jane Nimms, and 
Lady Dirleton ; and at some one of their houses he 
expounded almost every evening. Numbers of min- 
isters and students crowded to hear him ; and aged 
Christians told him they could set their seal to what 
he preached. 

In connection with this first visit to Edinburgh, 
several incidents have been related which show the 
power that accompanied his preaching, and the skill 
with which he could seize upon passing circumstan- 
ces, and apply them to the great purpose which he 
always had in view. A gentleman, on returning from 
one of his sermons, was met on his way home by 
an eminent minister whom he usually heard, and who 
expressed great surprise that he should go to hear 
such a man. The gentlemjyyo^j^fl, " Sir, when 1/ 
hear you, I am planting trees all the time; but dur- 
ing the whole of Mr. Whitefield's sermon, I could not I 
find time toDlant ojie." A similar instance is related^ 
of a ship-builder, who usually could " build a ship from- 
stem to stern during the sermon ; but under Mr. White- 
field, could not lay a single plank." 



234 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

Another narrative has been thus given. An un- 
happy man who had forfeited his life to the offended 
laws of his country, was executed in that neighbor- 
hood. Mr. Whitefield mingled with the crowd col- 
lected on the occasion, and was much impressed with 
the decorum and solemnity which were observable in 
the awful scene. His appearance, however, drew the 
eyes of all upon him, and produced a variety of opin- 
ions as to the motives which led him to join the mul- 
titude. 

The next day, being Sunday, he preached to a very 
large congregation in a field near the city ; and in the 
course of his sermon, he adverted to the scenes of the 
preceding day. "I know," said he, "that many of 
you may find it difficult to reconcile my appearance 
yesterday with my clerical character. Many of you, 
I know, will say that my moments would have been 
better employed in praying for the unhappy man, than 
in attending him to the fatal tree ; and that perhaps 
curiosity was the only cause that converted me into a 
spectator on that occasion ; but those who ascribe 
that uncharitable motive to me, are under a mistake. 
I went as an observer of human nature, and to see the 
effect that such an occurrence would have on those 
who witnessed it. I watched the conduct of those 
who were present on that awful occasion, and I was 
highly pleased with their demeanor, which has given 
me a very favorable opinion of the Scottish nation. 
Y^jy^snjyjathy was visible on your countenances •, 
particularly when the moment arrived that your un- 
happj fellow-creature was to close his eyes on this 
world for ever. Then you all, as if moved by one 



FIRST YISIT TO SCOTLAND. 235 

impulse, turned your heads aside, and wept. Those 
tears were precious, and will be held in remembrance. 
How different it was when the Saviour of mankind 
was extended on the cross ! The Jews, instead of sym- 
pathizing in his sorrows, triumphed in them. They 
reviled him with bitter expressions, with words even 
more bitter than the gall and vinegar which they 
handed him to drink. Not one of all who witnessed 
his pains, turned his head aside, even in the last pang. 
Yes, my friends, there was one — that glorious lumi- 
nary," pointing to the sun, " veiled his brightness, and 
travelled on his course in tenfold night." 

On another occasion, near the same city, and prob- 
ably in the field to which we have already referred, 
under the shade of a venerable tree, in a lovely mead- 
ow, a poor unhappy man, thinking to turn him into 
ridicule, placed himself on one of the overhanging 
boughs, immediately above the preacher's head, and 
with monkey-like dexterity mimicking his gestures, 
endeavored to raise a laugh in the audience. Guided 
by the looks of some of his hearers, Whitefield caught 
a glance of him, but without seeming to have noticed > 
him, continued his discourse. With the skill of a wise j 
orator, he reserved the incident for the proper place 
and time. While forcibly speaking on the power and! 
sovereignty of divine grace, with increasing earnest- \ 
ness he spoke of the unlikely objects it had often 
chosen, and the unlooked for triumphs it had achieved. 
As he rose to the climax of his inspiring theme, and 
when in the full sweep of his eloquence, he suddenly 
paused, and turning round, and pointing slowly to the 
poor creature above him, he exclaimed, in a tone of 



236 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

deep and thrilling pathos, " Even he may yet be the 
subject of that free and resistless grace." It was a 
shaft from the Almighty. Winged by the divine 
Spirit, it struck the scoffer to the heart, and realized 
iu his conversion the glorious truth it contained. 

Yet another fact may be told connected with 
Whitefield and Edinburgh. When he was once there, 
a regiment of soldiers were stationed in the city, in 
which was a sergeant whose name was Forbes, a very 
abandoned man, who, everywhere he could do so, run 
in debt for liquor, with which he was almost at all 
times drunk. His wife washed for the regiment, and 
thus obtained a little money. She was a pious woman, 
but all her attempts to reclaim her husband were un- 
successful. During one of Mr. Whitefield's visits to 
the city, she offered her husband a sum of money, it 
he would for once go and hear the eloquent preacher. 
This was a strong inducement, and he engaged to go. 
The sermon was in a field, as no building could have 
contained the audience. The sergeant was rather 
early, and placed himself in the middle of the field, 
that he might file off when Mr. Whitefield ascended 
the pulpit ; as he only wished to be able to say that 
he had seen him. The crowd, however, increased ; 
and when the preacher appeared, they pressed for- 
ward, and the sergeant found it impossible to get 
away. The prayer produced some impression on his 
mind, but the sermon convinced him of his sinfulness 
and danger. He became a changed man, and showed 
the reality of his conversion by living for many years 
in a very penurious manner, till he had satisfied the 
claims of every one of his creditors. 



FIRST VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 237 

One fact more should be stated in connection with 
this visit. Mr. James Ogilvie was one of the minis- 
ters of Aberdeen. This city was not in that day, nor 
indeed in any part of the eighteenth century, warmly 
attached to a fully-exhibited gospel. At this time, 
however, both Mr. Ogilvie and his colleague, Mr. Bis- 
set, who, as Sir Henry Moncrieff says, was the highest 
of the High church, were evangelical, though other- 
wise very opposite men. " Though colleagues of the 
same congregation/ 7 says Whitefield, " they are very 
different in their natural temper. The one is, what 
they call in Scotland, a sweet-blooded man, the other 
of a choleric disposition. Mr. Bisset is neither a seced- 
er nor quite a true kirkman, having great fault to 
find with both. Soon after my arrival, dear Mr. 
Ogilvie took me to pay my respects to him. He was 
prepared for it, and pulled out a paper containing a 
great number of insignificant queries, which I had 
neither time nor inclination to answer." For several 
years Mr. Ogilvie had been corresponding with Mr. 
Whitefield to induce him to visit Aberdeen, hoping 
that some good might be done ; and as he was himself 
to preach on Sabbath forenoon in presence of the 
magistrates, he gave Mr. Whitefield his place. The 
congregation was large, and apparently much inter- 
ested. Mr. Bisset, in the afternoon, preached against 
Mr. Whitefield by name. Mr. Ogilvie, without either 
consulting his friend, or noticing the conduct of his 
colleague, stood up, after the sermon, and intimated to 
the congregation that Mr. Whitefield would again 
preach in about half an hour. The magistrates re- 
mained in the session-house, and the people hastened 



238 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

back, expecting to hear a reply. Mr. Whitefield, 
waiving as much as possible all controversial matter, 
preached Christ. The audience was silent, solemn, 
and deeply impressed. Next day, the magistrates 
apologized for their minister ; and as a mark of their 
own respect, presented to Mr. Whitefield the freedom 
of their city. The effect of this visit to Aberdeen 
was great and beneficial. 

In 1742, Mr. Whitefield again visited Scotland. 
In the mean time he had heard that his dear friends 
the Erskines had become greatly offended, on account 
of what they considered his lax views of church gov 
ernment. But notwithstanding this difference with 
the seceders, he was received by great numbers, among 
whom were some persons of distinction, with cordi 
ality and joy, and had the satisfaction of hearing 
more and more of the happy fruits of his ministry. 
At Edinburgh he again preached twice a day, as 
before, in the Hospital-park, where a number of seats 
and shades, in the form of an amphitheatre, were 
erected for the accommodation of his hearers. On 
the day of his arrival at Cambuslang, he. preached 
three times to an immense body of people, although 
he had preached that same morning at Glasgow. 
The last service continued till eleven o'clock ; and so 
much were the people interested, that Mr. M'Culloch, 
after preaching till past one in the morning, could 
scarcely persuade them to depart. Mr. Whitefield 
himself thus describes the scene : " Persons from all 
parts flocked to see, and many, from many parts, went 
home convinced and converted to God. A brae, or 
hill, near the manse at Cambuslang, seemed to be 



SECOND VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 239 

formed by Providence for containing a large congre- 
gation. People sat unwearied till two in the morn- 
ing, to hear sermons, disregarding the weather. You 
couT3 J scarcel^walk a yard, but you must tread upon 
some either rejoicing in God for mercies received, or 
crying out for more. Thousands and thousands have 
I seen, before it was possible to catch it by sympathy, 
melted down under the word and power of God. At 
the celebration of the holy communion, their joy was 
so great, that, at the desire of many, both ministers 
and people, in imitation of Hezekiah's passover, they 
had, a month or two afterwards, a second, which was 
a general rendezvous of the people of God. The com- 
munion was in the field ; three tents, at proper dis- 
tances, all surrounded with a multitude of hearers ; 
above twenty ministers, among whom was good old 
Mr. Bonner, attending to preach and assist, all enli- 
vening and enlivened by one another." 

In addition to his labors at Glasgow and Cambus- 
lang, it is surprising to observe the number of places 
in the west of Scotland which Whitefield visited in 
the course of a few weeks ; preaching wherever he 
went, with his usual frequency, energy, and success. 
A gentleman of piety and intelligence thus refers to 
one of them several years afterwards : " When Mr. 
Whitefield was preaching at Kilmarnock, on the 
twenty-third of August, from the words, ' And of his 
fulness have all we received, and gracg^or grac e/ I 
thought I never heard su ch a se rmo n : and from the 
era above mentioned, I have always looked upon him 
as my spiritual father, and frequently heard him after- 
wards in Edinburgh and Glasgow with much satisfac- 



240 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

tion. When Cape Breton was taken, I happened to 
be at Edinburgh, and being invited to breakfast with 
Mr. Whitefield, I never, in all my life, enjoyed such 
another breakfast. He gave the company a fine and 
lively descant upon that part of the world, made us all 
join in a hymn of praise and thanksgiving, and con- 
cluded with a most devout and fervent prayer." About 
the end of October, Whitefield returned to London. 

Probably few are aware that Mr. Whitefield visit- 
ed Scotland no less thsrn fourteen times. These visits 
extended over a period of twenty-seven years, begin- 
ning in 1741, and ending in 1768. In none of his 
visits after 1742 were there the same extensive awak- 
enings as in his first two visits, yet his coming was 
always refreshing to serious persons, infusing new 
life, and increasing their numbers. Young people, 
too, were much benefited by his ministry, and espec- 
ially young students, who afterwards became zealous 
and evangelical preachers. His morning discourses, 
which were generally intended for sincere but discon- 
solate souls, were peculiarly fitted to direct and en- 
courage such in the Christian life ; and his addresses 
in the evening to the promiscuous multitudes who then 
attended him, were powerful and alarming. There 
was great solemnity in his evening congregations in 
the Orphan-house park at Edinburgh and the High 
Church-yard at Glasgow, especially towards the con- 
clusion of his sermons — which were usually long, 
though they seemed short to his hearers — when the 
whole multitude stood fixed, and like one man, hung 
upon his lips with silent attention, and many were 
under deep religious impressions. 



SECOND VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 241 

His conversation was no less useful and delightful 
than his sermons. Many in Glasgow, Edinburgh, and 
other parts of the land, bore witness of this fact. In 
Glasgow especially, when in company with his excel- \ 
lent friends M'Laurin, Scott, and others, one might; 
challenge the professed sons of pleasure, with all their 
wit, humor, and gayety, to furnish entertainments so 
gratifying ; nor was any part of it more agreeable 
than it was useful and edifying. 

Mr. Whitefield's friends in Scotland, among whom 
were many of all ranks, from the highest to the low- 
est, weie constant and steady in their great regard 
for him, and his opposers from year to year became 
less violent. Indeed, his whole behavior was so trans- 
parent to the eyes of the world, and his character, 
after it had stood many attacks from all quarters, 
became so thoroughly established, that some of his 
opposers in Scotland seemed to acquire esteem for 
him ; at least, they ceased to speak evil of him. 

In closing our sketch of Whitefield in Scotland, 
we select a few paragraphs from his letters, which are 
the more interesting as being among the very last 
words he wrote in that country. June 15, 1768, he 
says, "You would be delighted to see our Orphan- 
house park assemblies, as large, attentive, and affec- 
tionate as ever. Twenty-seven-year-old friends and 
spiritual children remember the days of old ; they 
are seeking after their first love, and there seems to 
be a stirring among the dry bones. " Writing on the 
second of July, he says, " Could I preach ten times a 
day, thousands and thousands would attend. I have 
been confined for a few days ; but on Monday or 

tvhitefidd. 11 



242 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

Tuesday next, hope to mount my throne again. 0, 
to die there ! too great, too great an honor to be ex- 
pected. 77 Again, on the ninth of July, " Every thing 
goes on better and better here ; but I air ^ g ^ j^ p 
down by preaching abroad and talking at home almost 
all the day long, that I have determined, God willing, 
to set off for London next Tuesday. 77 

The respect with which Whitefield was treated in 
Scotland, not only by professing Christians, but in 
general society, was shown by the fact that he was 
presented with the freedom of some of the principal 
cities and towns which he visited. This privilege 
was given him in Stirling, Glasgow, Paisley, and Ab- 
erdeen, in 1741, and at Irvine and Edinburgh some 
years afterwards. 

It is difficult, in such a world as this, so to live as 
that "our good 77 shall not "be evil spoken of. 77 Mr. 
Whitefield has sometimes been charged with motives 
of a mercenary character, but his whole life showed 
the fallacy of such a charge. Dr. Gillies, his original 
biographer, received from unquestionable testimony 
the knowledge of a fact which ought not to be forgot- 
ten. During his stay in Scotland, in the year 1759, 
a young lady, Miss Hunter, who possessed a consider- 
able fortune, made a full offer to him of her estate in 
money and lands, worth several thousand pounds. 
He promptly refused the offer ; and upon his declin- 
ing it for himself, she offered it to him for the benefit 
of his orphan-house. This also he absolutely refused. 

Never could Whitefield be accused of moral cow- 
ardice. When the old Scotch Marquis of Lothian 
professed that his heart was impressed with the im 



SECOND VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 243 

portance of religion, but wished to be a Christian in 
the dark, Whitefield said to him, "As for praying in 
your family, I entreat you not to neglect it ; you aro 
bound to do it. Apply to Christ to overcome your 
present fears ; they are the effects of pride or infidel- 
ity, or both." 

On his return from Scotland to London in 1741, 
Whitefield passed through Wales, where at Aberga- 
venny he was married to a Mrs. James, a widow, 
some ten years older than himself. Of this marriage, 
as also of the death of his only child, we have already 
spoken. After preaching at Bristol twice a day for 
several days in succession, he returned to London in 
the beginning of December, where he found letters 
from Georgia, which, on account of the temporal cir- 
cumstances of his orphan family, somewhat discour- 
aged him. But to trace his progress, and to report 
all his labors, would be to extend our volume beyond 
its due limits. 

He was soon again in the west of England, and 
writing from Gloucester, his native place, December 
23, 1741, he says, " Last Thursday evening the Lord 
brought me hither. I preached immediately to our 
friends in a large barn, and had my Master's presence. 
Both the power and the congregation increased. On 
Sunday, Providence opened a door for my preaching 
in St. John's, one of the parish churches. Great num- 
bers came. On Sunday afternoon, after I had preach- 
ed twice at Gloucester, I preached at the hill, six 
miles off, and again at night at Stroud. The people 
seemed to be more hungry than ever, and*the Lord to 



244 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

be more among them. Yesterday morning I preached 
at Painswick, in the parish church, here in the after- 
noon, and again at night in the barn. God gives me 
unspeakable comfort and uninterrupted joy. Here 
seems to be a new awakening, and a revival of the 
work of God. I find several country people were 
awakened when I preached at Tewkesbury, and have 
heard of three or four that have died in the Lord. 
We shall never know what good field-preaching has 
done till we come to judgment. Many who were 
prejudiced against me begin to be of another mind ; 
and God shows me more and more that ' when a man's 
ways please the Lord, he will make even his enemies 
to be at peace with him. 7 " 

In the following February he was still further 
encouraged by receiving letters from America, inform- 
ing him of the remarkable success of the gospel there, 
and that God had stirred up some wealthy friends to 
assist his orphans in their extremity. He writes, 
" The everlasting God reward all their benefactors. 
I find there has been a fresh awakening among them. 
I am informed that twelve negroes belonging to a 
planter lately converted at the orphan-house, are sav- 
ingly brought home to Jesus Christ." Nor were these 
things all which afforded him joy. Writing to a 
friend, April 6, he says, " Our Saviour is doing great 
things in London daily. I rejoice to hear that you 
are helped in your work. Let this encourage you ; 
go on, go on ; the more we do, the more we may do 
for Jesus. I sleep and eat but little, and am con- 
stantly employed from morning till midnight, and yet 
my strength is daily renewed. Oh, free grace! it 



SECOND VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 245 

fires my soul, and makes me long to do something for 
Jesus. It is true, indeed, I want to go home; but 
here are so many souls ready to perish for lack of 
knowledge, that I am willing to tarry below as long 
as my Master has work for me." It was at this pe- 
riod that he first ventured to preach in the fair in 
Moorfields, to which we have already referred. In 
this year he made also his second journey to Scotland, 
the particulars of which have been already given. 

On his arrival from Scotland in London, October, 
1742, Whitefield found a new awakening at the Tab- 
ernacle, which in the mean time had been enlarged. 
He says, " I am employed, and, glory to rich grace, I 
am carried through the duties of each day with cheer- 
fulness and almost uninterrupted tranquillity. Our 
society is large, but in good order. My Master gives 
us much of his gracious presence, both in our public 
and private ministrations." 

In March, 1743, he went again into Gloucestershire, 
where the people appeared to be more eager to attend 
on his ministry than ever before. " Preaching," says 
he, " in Gloucestershire, is now like preaching at the 
Tabernacle in London." And in a letter, April 7, he 
says, " I preached, and took leave of the Gloucester 
people with mutual and great concern, on Sunday 
evening last. It was past one in the morning before 
I could lay my weary body down. At five I rose 
again, sick for want of rest ; but I was enabled to 

get on horseback and ride to Mr. T ? s, where 1 

preached to a large congregation, who came there at 
seven in the morning. At ten, I read prayers and 
preached, and afterwards administered the sacrament 



246 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

in Stonehouse church. Then I rode to Stroud, and 

preached to about twelve thousand in Mr. G ? s 

field ; and about six in the evening, to a like number 
on Hampton common." Next morning he preached 
near Durslev to some thousands ; at about seven 
o'clock he reached Bristol, and preached to a full 
congregation at Smith's hall; and on the following 
morning, after preaching, set out for Waterford, in 
South Wales, where he opened the association which 
he and his brethren had agreed upon, and was several 
days with them, settling the affairs of the societies. 
The work in Wales, during his absence, had very 
greatly extended itself, not a few of the clergy hav- 
ing become converted, as well as their people. He 
tells us, "The power of God at the sacrament, under 
the ministry of Mr. Rowland, was enough to make a 
person's heart burn within him. At seven in the morn- 
ing have I seen perhaps ten thousand from different 
parts, in the midst of a sermon, crying, Gugunniaut — 
bendyth — [glory — blessed] — ready to leap for joy." 
He continued in Wales some weeks, preaching with 
great apparent success, and in the latter part of April 
returned to Gloucester, after having, in about three 
weeks, travelled about four hundred miles, spent three 
days in attending associations, and preached about 
forty times. Among the interesting events of this 
journey may be reckoned the fact, that when he was 
at Caermarthen the quarterly sessions were held. 
When he was about to preach, the magistrates sent 
him word, that if he would stay till the court rose, 
they would attend on the service. He acceded to 
their proposal, and they were present, with many 



SECOND VISIT TO SCOTLAND. • 241 

thousands more, including several persons of high 
rank. 

After a few weeks spent in London, preaching to 
vast congregations in Moorfields, and exulting in his 
accustomed success, collecting too for his beloved or- 
phans, so as to be able to pay all his debts, and to make 
a remittance to Georgia, we again find him at Bris- 
tol, and in a few days afterwards at Exeter. Among 
the clergymen who met him there was Mr. Cennick. 
As this gentleman was preaching during this visit in 
the High-street of the city, he was eloquently dis- 
coursing on the doctrine of the atonement by the 
blood of Christ, when a profane butcher in the crowd 
exclaimed, "If you love blood, you shall presently 
have enough of it," and ran to obtain some to throw U 
on Em, A Mr. Saunders, who was employed in con- 
VByiag persons from one place to another, though an 
entire stranger to religion, from a sense of justice, 
determined to defend the preacher; and when the 
butcher came with a pail nearly filled with blood, he 
quietly took it from him, and poured it over the 
man's own head. This Mr. Saunders afterwards be- 
came an eminent Christian. He was, till extreme old 
age, the body-coachman of George III., with whom he 
frequently held Christian conversation, and died hap- 
pily in 1799, at the age of eighty-nine. 

During this visit to Bristol, Whitefield's ministry 
was owned of God in the conversion of Thomas Oli- 
vers, a young profligate Welshman. It is said, he 
had so studied profanity and cursing, that he would 
exemplify the richness of the Welsh language by com- 
pounding twenty or thirty words into one long and 






248 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

horrid blasphemy. He had often sang profane songs 
about Whitefield, and was now induced by curiosity 
to go to hear him. Being too late on the first occa- 
sion, he went on the following evening nearly three 
hours before the time. The text was, " Is not this a 
brand plucked out of the fire? 77 Zech. 3:2. His 
heart became broken with a sense of his sins, and he 
was soon enabled to trust in the mercy of Christ. He 
became a zealous and successful minister of Christ 
among the followers of Mr. Wesley, and was the author 
of the well-known hymn, 

" The God of Abram praise," etc. 

In August, Whitefield returned to London, but not 
to make a long stay there. " I thank you/ 7 he writes 
to a correspondent, " for your kind caution to spare 
myself ; but evangelizing is certainly my province. 
Everywhere effectual doors are opened. So far from 
thinking of settling in London, I am more and more 
convinced that I should go from place to place. Ac- 
cordingly, during the three last months of 1743, we 
find him in a large number of places in the central 
and western parts of England. At Birmingham, he 
writes, "I have jgreaghed five times this day, and weak 
as I am, through Christ strengthening me, I could 
preach five times more. 7 ' At Kidderminster he met 
with a distinguished Christian merchant, a Mr. Will- 
iams, whose published " Memoirs 77 have been eminently 
useful. Whitefield writes, " I was kindly received by 
Mr. Williams. Many friends were at his house. I 
was greatly refreshed to find what a sweet savor of 
good Baxter 7 s doctrine, works, and discipline remains 



SECOND VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 249 

to this day." Nor did he, amidst all his labors, feel 
his health much impaired. He observes, indeed, that 
he had taken a cold, but adds, " The Lord warms my 
heart." 

In the beginning of March, 1744, he was compelled 
to attend the assizes at Gloucester. During the pre- 
ceding summer, the enemies of the Methodists had 
been very violent, especially at Hampton, in that 
county. Forbearance in the case had ceased to be a 
virtue, and Mr. Whitefield was strongly urged to ap- 
peal to law, which in England in such cases is severe. 
At the preceding sessions the rioters had been con 
victed, but appealed to the assizes, a higher court. 
After a full hearing, a verdict was given in favor of 
Whitefield and his friends, and all the prisoners were 
found guilty. This exposed each to a fine of forty 
pounds, or six months 7 imprisonment ; the rioters were 
greatly alarmed, public feeling on the subject was 
corrected, and the Methodists readily extended for- 
giveness to the unhappy offenders. 

Whitefield was now invited by Mr. Smith, an 
American merchant then in England, in the name of 
thousands, to revisit this country, and took passage 
with that gentleman in a vessel sailing from Portsmouth. 
But the captain refused to take him, " for fear," as he 
said, " he would spoil the sailors." On this account 
Mr. Whitefield was compelled to go to Plymouth, an- 
other seaport, to accomplish his purpose. On his way, 
he preached at Exeter and other places, with delight- 
ful results. " But," he says, " the chief scene was at 
Plymouth and the Dock, [now called Devonport,] 
where I expected least success." 

11* 



250 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

While he was at Plymouth, four well-dressed men 
came to the house of one of his particular friends, in 
a kind manner inquiring after him, and desiring to 
know where he lodged. Soon after, Mr. Whitefield 
received a letter informing him that the writer was a 

nephew of Mr. S , an attorney in New York; 

that he had the pleasure of supping with Mr. White- 
field at his uncle's house, and requested his company 
to sup with him and a few friends at a tavern. Mr. 
Whitefield replied to him that he was not accustomed 
to sup abroad at such houses, but he should be glad 
of the gentleman's company to eat a morsel with him 
at his own lodging. The gentleman accordingly came 
and supped, but was observed frequently to look 
around him, and to be very absent. At length he took 
his leave, and returned to his companions in the tavern, 
and on being asked by them what he had done, he an- 
swered, that he had been treated with so much civility 
and kindness that he had not the heart to touch him. 
One of the company, a lieutenant of a man-of-war, laid 
a wager of ten guineas that he would do his business 
for him. His companions, however, had the precau- 
tion to take away his sword. 

It was now about midnight, and Mr. Whitefield 
having that day preached to a large congregation, 
and visited the French prisoners, had retired to rest, 
when he was awoke and told that a well-dressed gen- 
tleman earnestly wished to speak with him. Suppos- 
ing that it was some person under conviction of sin, 
many such having previously called upon him, he de- 
sired him to be brought to his room. The gentleman 
came, sat down by his bedside, congratulated him 



SECOND VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 251 

apon the success of his ministry, and expressed con- 
siderable regret that he had been prevented from 
hearing him. Soon after, however, he began to utter 
the most abusive language, and in a cruel and cow- 
ardly manner beat him in his bed. The landlady 
and her daughter, hearing the noise, rushed into the 
room and laid hold of the assailant ; but disengaging 
himself from them, he renewed his attack on the un- 
offending preacher, who, supposing that he was about 
to be shot or stabbed, underwent all the feelings of a 
sudden and violent death. Soon after, a second per- 
son came into the house, and called from the bottom 
of the stairs, " Take courage, I am ready to help you." 
But by the repeated cries of murder the neighborhood 
had become so alarmed, that the villains were glad 
to make their escape. " The next morning," says Mr. 
Whitefield, "I was to expound at a private house, 
and then to set out for Bideford. Some urged me to 
stay and prosecute, but being better employed, I went 
on my intended journey, was greatly blessed in preach- 
ing the everlasting gospel ; and, upon my return, was 
well paid for what I had suffered, curiosity having 
led perhaps two thousand more than ordinary to see 
and hear a man that had like to have been murdered 
in his bed. And I trust, in the five weeks that I waited 
for the convoy, hundreds were awakened and turned 
unto the Lord." 

As Whitefield was one day preaching in Plymouth, 
a Mr. Henry Tanner, who was at work as a ship- 
builder at a distance, heard his voice, and resolved, 
with five or six of his companions, to go and drive 
him from the place where he stood ; and for this pur- 



252 GEORGE WHITEF1ELD. 

pose they filled their pockets with stones. When, 
however, Mr. Tanner drew near, and heard Mr. 
Whitefield earnestly inviting sinners to Christ, he 
was filled with astonishment, his resolution failed 
him, and he went home with his mind deeply im- 
pressed. On the following evening, he again attend- 
ed, and heard Mr. Whitefield on the sin of those who 
crucified the Redeemer. After he had forcibly illus- 
trated their guilt, he appeared to look intently on Mr. 
Tanner, as he exclaimed, with great energy, " Thou 
art the man!" These words powerfully impressed 
Mr. Tanner ; he felt his transgressions of the divine 
law to be awfully great, and in the agony of his soul 
he cried, " God be merciful to me a sinner I" The 
preacher then proceeded to proclaim the free and 
abundant grace of the Lord Jesus, which he com- 
manded to be preached among the very people who 
had murdered him ; a gleam of hope entered the heart 
of the penitent, and he surrendered himself to Christ. 
Mr. Tanner afterwards entered the ministry, and la- 
bored with great success, for many years, at Exeter. 

We are not quite certain whether it was on this 
or a subsequent visit to Plymouth, that Whitefield 
had preached on the Sabbath for the Rev. Mr. Kins- 
man, and after breakfast on Monday morning, said to 
him, " Come, let us visit some of your poor people. 
It is not enough that we labor in the pulpit ; we must 
endeavor to be useful out of it.' 7 On entering the 
dwellings of the afflicted poor, he administered to 
their temporal as well as their spiritual wants. Mr. 
Kinsman, knowing the low state of his finances, was 
surprised at his liberality, and suggested that he 



SECOND VISIT TO SCOTLAND. 253 

thought he had been too bountiful. Mr. Whitefield, 
with some degree of smartness, replied, "It is not 
enough, young man, to pray, and put on a serious 
face ; true religion, and undefiled, is this, to visit the 
widow and the fatherless in their affliction, and to 
supply their wants. My stock, it is true, is nearly 
exhausted ; but God, whom I serve, and whose saints 
we have assisted, will, I doubt not, soon give me a 
supply." His expectation was not disappointed. A 
stranger called on him the same evening, who said, 
" With great pleasure I have heard you preach ; you 
are on a journey, as well as myself, and travelling is 
expensive. Do me the honor to accept of this ;" 
handing him five guineas, or twenty-five dollars. Re- 
turning to the family, Mr. Whitefield, very pleasantly 
smiling, showed them the money, saying, "There, 
young man, God has very speedily repaid what I lent 
him this morning. Let this in future teach you not to 
withhold what it is in the power of your hand to give. 
The gentleman to whom I was called is a perfect stran- 
ger to me ; his only business was to give me the sum 
you see." It was a singular fact, that this gentleman, 
though rich, was notorious for a penurious disposition. 
During his stay in Plymouth, Whitefield's useful- 
ness daily increased. The ferry-men, who obtained 
their living by carrying persons between Plymouth 
and Dock, refused to take money from his hearers, 
saying, " God forbid that we should sell his word !" 
The evangelist exclaimed, " Oh, the thousands that 
ilock to the preaching of Christ's gospel!" In the 
midst of these scenes, the convoy arrived, and in deli- 
cate health he embarked for America. 



254 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 



CHAPTER IX. 

WHITEFIELD'S SECOND VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 

1744, 1745. 

Mr. Whitefield commenced his third voyage to 
America in August, 1744. His health while crossing 
the Atlantic became worse, rather than better, the 
voyage lasting eleven weeks. He had set out in 
company with about one hundred and fifty ships, 
attended by several men-of-war as convoys, which, 
however, they lost by storms separating them on the 
way. It was more than six weeks, owing generally 
to want of wind, before they reached any of the west- 
ern islands. When the wind again sprung up, one of 
the vessels, which missed stays, drove upon the ship 
in which "Whitefield was, striking her mainsail into 
the bowsprit. The alarm was very great, but no 
lives were lost. He had been singing a hymn on 
deck when the concussion took place ; this fact, to- 
gether with that of the concussion itself, was commu- 
nicated to the convoy, and led to the use of much vio- 
lent and wicked language. But the good man was not 
intimidated. He says, " I called my friends together, 
and broke out into these words in prayer : ' God of 
the sea, and God of the dry land, this is a night of 
rebuke and blasphemy. Show thyself, God, and 
take us under thine own immediate protection. Be 
thou our convoy, and make a difference between those 
who fear thee, and those that fear thee not. ? " A dif- 
ference was soon made. Next day a heavy storm 



SECOND VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 255 

arose, which " battered and sent away our convoy, so 
that we saw him no more all the voyage." White- 
field at first did not at all regret the loss, but when 
two strange sail appeared in the distance, and prepara- 
tion was made for action by mounting guns, slinging 
hammocks on the sides of the ships, and encircling the 
masts with chains, he being, as he says, " naturally a 
coward," found it formidable to have no convoy. The 
vessels, however, proved to be only a part of their 
own fleet. This was a pleasant discovery to them, 
especially to Whitefield. " The captain, on clearing 
the cabin, said, ' After all, this is the best fighting.' 
You may be sure I concurred, praying that all our 
conflicts with spiritual enemies might at last termi- 
nate in a thorough cleansing and an eternal purifica- 
tion of the defiled cabin of our hearts." 

The tediousness of this voyage, in the feeble state 
of his health, seems to have tried Whitefield's pa- 
tience ; so that when he arrived in sight of the port 
of York, in the then territory of Maine, in order to 
land a few hours sooner he went on board a fishing 
smack then in the bay ; but darkness coming on, she 
missed her course, and was tossed about all night. 
Unfortunately, too, she had no provisions, and he was 
so hungry that he says he " could have gnawed the 
very boards." Besides he was suffering from " ner- 
vous colic." He was greatly discouraged, until a 
man who was lying at his elbow in the cabin began 
to talk of " one Mr. Whitefield, for whose arrival the 
'New Lights 7 in New England" were watching and 
praying. " This," he says, " made me take courage. 
I continued undiscovered ; and in a few hours, in an- 



256 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

swer, I trust, to new-light prayers, we arrived safe." 
This was on October 19, 1744. He was quite ill 
when he landed ; but was received by Dr. Sherburne, 
an eminent physician at York, who was once a Deist, 
but had been converted under Whitefield's ministry. 
This gentleman took him to his own house, and after 
a few days he began to recover. 

The Rev. Mr. Moody, of York, the aged and excel- 
lent, but eccentric minister of whom we have already 
spoken, took the earliest suitable opportunity of call- 
ing on the great evangelist, and said very character- 
istically, "Sir,- you are, first, welcome to America; 
secondly, to New England ; thirdly, to all faithful 
ministers in New England ; fourthly, to all the good 
people of New England ; fifthly, to all the good peo 
pie of York ; and sixthly and lastly, to me, dear sir, 
less than the lfffl§fc,,pf_aJl-" Prince's " Christian His- 
tory " had announced his arrival, and that his inten- 
tion was " to pass on to Georgia ; and as he goes on, 
to meddle with no controversies, but only to preach 
up the parts of vital piety and the pure truths of the 
gospel, to all who are willing to hear them." 

After giving Whitefield this hearty welcome, 
Moody urged him for a sermon. The preacher hesi- 
tated, on account of his illness, but "good old Mr. 
Moody " did not give him the benefit of his own favor- 
ite maxim, " When you know not what to do, you 
must not do you know not what." Whitefield preach- 
ed, and immediately went to Portsmouth, where he 
preached the same evening, November 6, for Mr. 
Fitch, and was to have preached again the next morn- 
ing, but was too ill, and deferred it till the afternoon. 



SECOND VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 251 

In the mean time, as he wrote, " My pains returned ; 
but what gave me most concern was, that notice had 
been given of my being engaged to preach. I felt a 
divine life, distinct from my animal life, which made 
me, as it were, laugh at my pains, though every one 
thought I was taken w^ith death. My dear York 
physician was then about to administer a medicine. 
I on a sudden cried out, l Doctor, my pains are sus 
pended ; by the help of God, I will go and preach, 
and then come home and die. 7 With some difficulty 
I reached the pulpit. All looked quite surprised, as 
though they saw one risen from the dead. I indeed 
was as pale as death, and told them they must look 
upon me as a dying man, come to bear niy dying testi- 
mony to the truths I had formerly preached to them. 
All seemed melted, and were drowned in tears. The 
cry after me, when I left the pulpit, was like the cry 
of sincere mourners when attending the funeral of a 
dear departed friend. Upon my coming home, I was 
laid upon a bed on the ground, near the fire, and I 
heard them say, ' HeisgQne.' But God was pleased 
to order it otherwise. I gradually recovered." 

In another account he himself says, " In my own 
apprehension, and in all appearance to others, I was 
a dying man. I preached — the people heard me — as 
such. The invisible realities of another world lay 
open to my view. Expecting to launch into eternity, 
and to be with my Master before the morning, I spoke 
with peculiar energy. Such effects followed the word, 
I thought it was worth dying for a thousand times. 
Though wonderfully comforted within at my return 
home, I thought I was dying indeed Soon after, 



258 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

a poor negro woman would see me. She came, sat 
down upon the ground, and looked earnestly in my 
face, and then said, ' Massa, you just go to heaven's 
gate, but Jesus Christ said, Get you down, get you 
down ; you must not come here yet ; but go first, and 
call some lUQffijjftgjjiegroes. 7 I prayed to the Lord, 
that if I was to live, this might be the event." 

It was nearly three weeks before he was sufficiently 
recovered to proceed to Boston. The day before he 
left Portsmouth Mr. Shurtleff wrote, " The prejudices 
of most that set themselves against him before his 
coming, seem to be in a great measure abated, and in 
some, to be wholly removed ; and there is no open 
opposition made to him. I have frequent opportuni- 
ties of being with him, and there always appears in 
him such a concern for the advancement of the Re- 
deemer's kingdom and the good of souls, such a care 
to employ his whole time to these purposes, such 
sweetness of disposition, and so much of the temper 
of his great Lord and Master, that every time I see 
him, I find my heart further drawn out towards him." 

" Prince's Christian History/ 7 of December 15, says, 
'The Rev. Mr. Whitefield was so far revived as to be 
able to take coach with his consort, and set out from 
Portsmouth to Boston, Nov. 24 ; whither he came in 
a very feeble state, the Monday evening after ; since 
which he has been able to preach in several of our 
largest houses of public worship, particularly the Rev. 
Dr. Colnian's, Dr. Sewall's, Mr. Webb's, and Mr. 
Gee's, to crowded assemblies of people, and to great 
and growing acceptance. At Dr. Colman's desire, 
and with the consent of the church, on the Lord's day 



SECOND VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 259 

after his arrival, he administered to them the holy 
communion. And last Lord's day he preached for the 
venerable Mr. Cheever, of Chelsea, and administered 
the holy supper there. The next day he preached for 
the Rev. Mr. Emerson, of Maiden. Yesterday he set 
out to preach for some towns to the northward ; pro- 
poses to return hither the next Wednesday evening, 
and after a few days to comply with the earnest 
invitations of several ministers to go and preach to 
their congregations, in the southern parts of the prov- 
ince. 

" He comes with the same extraordinary spirit of 
meekness, sweetness, and universal benevolence as 
before. In opposition to the spirit of separation and 
bigotry, he is still for holding communion with all 
Protestant churches. In opposition to enthusiasm, 
he preaches a close adherence to the Scriptures, the 
necessity of trying all impressions by them, and of 
rejecting whatever is not agreeable to them, as delu- 
sions. In opposition to Antinomianism, he preaches 
up all kinds of relative and religious duties, though 
to be performed in the strength of Christ ; and, in 
short, the doctrines of the church of England, and the 
first fathers of this country. As before, he first 
applies himself to the understandings of his hearers, 
and then to the affections ; and the more he preaches, 
the more he convinces people of their mistakes about 
him, and increases their satisfaction." 

The administration of the Lord's supper by a priest 
of the church of England in the Congregational church 
in Brattle-street, Boston, gave great offence. Some 
said, the consent of the church was neither given nor 



260 GEORGE WHITEFIELD 

asked, and Dr. Colman was blamed for introducing 
Whitefield by his own authority ; to which Dr. Col- 
man replied, that, as it was customary for pastors to 
invite the assistance of other ministers on such occa- 
sions, he thought it unnecessary to call for a vote of 
the church ; that he plainly intimated his intention in 
his prayer after sermon, and then, on coming to the 
table, said, " The Rev. Mr. Whitefield being provi- 
dentially with us, I have asked him to administer the 
ordinance ;" and that by the countenances of the peo- 
ple it seemed to be universally agreeable to them, 
which he supposed to be all the consent which the 
case required. 

Since Mr. Whitefield's former visit to New Eng- 
land, a considerable change had taken place in not a 
few of the ministers and churches. In 1740, he had 
inveighed strongly against many of the ministers, some 
of them even by name, as, in his opinion, unconverted ; 
and after his departure, some preachers, who profess- 
ed themselves to be his followers, had created great 
confusion by carrying these charges much farther than 
he would have approved. His second visit was there- 
fore anticipated by many with anxiety, lest it might 
cause a new outbreak of enthusiasm and disorder. 
The General Association of Connecticut, in June, 
1745, advised that he be not invited to preach in any 
of the churches. When he visited New Haven, he 
found himself shut out of the pulpit of the First church 
by its minister Mr. Noyes. A great crowd, however, 
assembled to hear him, from the neighboring towns, 
as well as from New Haven, and he preached from a 
platform erected in the street, before Mr. Pierpont's 



SECOND VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 261 

house on the Green, to a congregation which neither 
of the meeting-houses could have contained. 

From Professor Kingsley's " Sketch of the History 
of Yale College/ 7 we learn that " President Clap 
issued a declaration, signed by himself and three 
tutors, that is, Samuel Whittlesey, afterwards minis- 
ter of the First church in New Haven, Thomas Dar- 
ling, for many years chief justice of the Court of Com- 
mon Pleas for the county of New Haven, and John 
Whiting, in which some of the proceedings of Mr. 
Whitefield were condemned. In consequence of the 
religious fervor which had been excited, a much greater 
diversity of theological opinions prevailed in Con- 
necticut than at any previous period. Violent con- 
troversies arose, churches were divided, and the gov- 
ernment, by interfering to prevent these evils, increased 
rather than checked them. The college became an 
object of jealousy ; and the declaration of the rector 
and tutors, respecting the preaching of Whitefield, 
offended some, without effectually conciliating others. 7 ' 

The opposition to Mr. Whitefield of which we 
have spoken, was by no means all that he met with. 
Even before the Association in Connecticut had taker- 
action, several similar bodies in Massachusetts had 
acted in a similar manner. The corporation of Har- 
vard college published a testimony against him, while 
that of Yale represented that he intended to root out 
all the standing ministers in our land, and to intro- 
duce foreigners in their stead. The good man, not- 
withstanding all this opposition, and much more, went 
on laboring for the salvation of souls, and God still 
honored him with success. 



262 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

While the impartiality to which we hold ourselves 
bound demanded the statement just made, and while 
we are compelled to admit the existence of evils 
attendant on these revivals, we also record some of 
the facts connected with a convention of ministers, 
who assembled in Boston in pursuance of a previous 
notice in the Boston Gazette of May 30, 1743. We 
copy the original invitation. 

" It is desired and proposed by a number of minis- 
ters, both in town and country, that such of their 
brethren as are persuaded that there has been of late 
a happy revival of religion through an extraordinary 
divine influence, in many parts of this land, and are 
concerned for the honor and progress of this remark- 
able work of God, may have an interview at Boston, 
the day after the approaching commencement, to con- 
sider whether they are not called to give an open, 
conjunct testimony to an event so surprising and gra- 
cious ; as well as against those errors in doctrine, and 
disorders in practice, which through the permitted 
agency of Satan have attended it, and in any meas- 
ur^M|mi|Jjg^ its glory and hindered its advancement ; 
and also to consult as to the most likely method to be 
taken to guard people against such delusions and mis- 
takes as in such a season they are in danger of falling 
into, and that this blessed work may continue and 
flourish among us." Those who could not be present 
were invited to send written attestations. 

In accordance with this proposal, the convention 
met in Boston on Thursday, July 7. The Rev. Dr. 
Sewall of Boston officiated as Moderator, and the Rev. 
Messrs. Prince of Boston, and Hobby of Reading, as 



SECOND VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 263 

Scribes. Ninety persons thus assembled, and letters 
were read from twenty-eight who were absent. A 
committee was appointed, consisting of the Rev. Dr. 
Sewall, the Rev. Messrs. Wigglesworth, Prince, Ad- 
ams, Cooper, Nathanael Rogers, Leonard, and Hobby, 
to prepare a report. On the next morning this com- 
mittee presented a document, which, after full discus- 
sion, was signed by all present ; and the meeting was 
dissolved. 

Our limits will not allow us to give the whole of 
the report to which we have referred, but a few sen- 
tences will show its general character : 

" We, whose names are undersigned, think it our 
indispensable duty — without judging or censuring such 
of our brethren as cannot at present see things in the 
same light with us — in this open and conjunct manner 
to declare, to the glory of sove reign g race, our full 
persuasion, either from what we have seen ourselves, 
or received upon credible testimony, that there has 
been a happy and remarkable revival of religion in 
many parts of this land, through an uncommon divine 
influence, after a long tig^ofdecay and deadness, and a 
sensible and very awful withdrawal of the Holy Spirit 
from his sanctuary among us. . . . The present work! 
seems to be remarkable and extraordinary, on account 
of the numbers wrought upon. We never before saw 
so many brought under soul concern , and with great 
distress making the inquiry, 'What must we do to 
be saved V And these persons were of all ages and 
character. With regard to the suddenness and quick 
progress of it, many persons and places were surprised 
with the gracious visit together, or near about the 



264 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

same time, and the heavenly influence diffused itself 
far and wide, like the light of the morning. Also 
[the work seems to be remarkable] in respect to the 
degree of operations, both in a way of terror, and in 
a way of consolation, attended in many with unusual 
bodily effects. Not that all who are accounted the 
subjects of the present work have had these extraor- 
dinary degrees of previous distress and subsequent joy. 
But many, and we suppose the greater number, have 
been wrought on in a more gentle and silent way, 
and without any other appearances than are common 
and usual at other times, when persons have been 
awakened to a solemn concern about salvation, and 
have been thought to have passed out of a state of 
nature into a state of grace. As to those whose in- 
ward concern has occasioned extraordinary outward 
distresses, the most of them, when we came to con- 
verse with them, were able to give what appeared to 
us a rational account of what so affected their 
minds. . . . The instances were very few in which 
we had reason to think these affections were produced 
by visionary or sensible representations, or by any 
other images than such as the Scripture itself presents 
to us. Of those who were judged hopefully convert- 
ed, and made a public profession of religion, there 
have been fewer instances of scandal and apostasy 
than might be expected. . . . There appears to be 
more experimental godliness and lively Christianity 
than most of us can remember we have ever seen be- 
fore. . . . And now we desire to bow the knee in 
thanksgiving to the God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, that our eyes have seen and our ears 



SECOND \iSIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 265 

heard such things. And while these are our senti- 
ments, we must necessarily be grieved at any accounts 
sent abroad representing this work as all enthusiasm, 
delusion, and disorder. Indeed, it is not to be denied, 
that in some places many irregularities and extrava- 
gances have been permitted to accompany it, which 
we would deeply bewail and lament before God, and 
Look upon ourselves obliged, for the honor of the 
Holy Spirit, and of his operations on the souls of 
men, to bear a public and faithful testimony against ; 
though at the same time it is to be acknowledged, 
with much thankfulness, that in other places where 
the work has greatly flourished, there have been few 
if any of those disorders and excesses. But who can 
wonder if, at such a time as this, Satan should inter- 
mingle himself to hinder and blemish a work so 
directly contrary to the interests of his own king- 
dom? . . . Finally, we exhort the children of God to 
continue instant in prayer, that He, with whom is the 
residue of the Spirit, would grant us fresh, more plen- 
tiful, and extensive effusions, that so this wilderness, 
in all the parts of it, may become a fruitful field; 
that the present appearances may be an earnest of the 
glorious things promised in the latter days, when she 
shall shine with the glory of the Lord arisen upon 
her, so as to dazzle the eyes of beholders, confound 
and put to shame all her enemies, rejoice the hearts of 
her solicitous and now saddened friends, and have 
a strong influence and resplendency throughout the 
earth. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus ; come 
quickly." 

This paper was signed by e i^htee n,,ministers in the 

White field. 12 



266 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

county of Suffolk, among whom were Colman, Sewall, 
Prince, Webb, Cooper, Foxcroft, Checkly, Gee, Eliot, 
and Moorhead of Boston ; twelve in the county of 
Essex, nine in Middlesex, six in Worcester, ten in 
Plymouth, one in Barnstable, three in Bristol, three 
in York, five in New Hampshire, and one in Rhode 
Island. There were one hundred and fourteen in all 
who gave attestations, either by signing their names 
I to the above document, or by sending written attesta- 
tions. Ninety-six of the one hundred and fourteen 
took their first degree of Bachelor of Arts more than 
ten years previously ; consequently before the revival 
commenced. Twenty-six took their first degrees 
above thirty years before. Attestations were received 
but from twelve ministers in Connecticut, as the pro- 
posal did not reach them in time. 

We may add to this statement, as showing in some 
degree the extent of this revival, that while in 1729 
the number of members in the Congregational and 
Presbyterian churches of this country may be esti- 
mated at thirty-three thousand, the number of com- 
municants in 1745 could not be less than seventy-five 
thousand. " The special revivals of religion," says an 
able writer in the "American Quarterly Register," 
vol. 4, 1832, "were probably the means of adding 
from twenty thousand to thirty thousand members to 
the churches." The same writer adds, " The gen- 
uine fruits of holiness appeared, according to the ac- 
knowledgment of all parties, in multitudes of those 
who professed religion. They were Christians, who 
endured unto the end. This is the unanimous testi- 
mony of those men who were the best able to judge. 



SECOND VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 261 

Great numbers who were convinced of sin by Mr. 
Whitefield's preaching, gave ample evidence, living 
and dying, of sincere and fervent love to the com- 
mands of God. There is reason to believe that a 
preparation had been made for the descent of the Holy 
Spirit, many years before the revival commenced. The 
fasts and public reformations, the prayers and tears of 
good men, from 1700 to 1730, were not in vain." 

One fact connected with the testimony against 
Whitefield, published by the faculty of Harvard col- 
lege, we quote, as showing that then, as well as now. 
a difference of opinion existed as to written and ex- 
tempore sermons. They thought his extempore man- 
ner of preaching " by no means proper/' because ex- 
tempore preachers are of necessity less instructive^ 
the greater part of the sermon being commonly " the; 
same kind of harangue which they have often used 
before, so that this is a most lazy manner " of preach- 
ing ; and because it exposes the preacher to utter rash 
expressions, and even dangerous errors, as Whitefield 
they thought, had done in several instances, probably 
from that cause. Assuredly he preferred extempore 
preaching to any other ; yet he never pretended to 
preach without previous study. His sermons usually 
cost him as much previous labor as if they had been 
written ; so that, in his case at least, it was not " a 
la3&*ra^ " °f P reac hing. The errors which they said 
he had uttered, were a few hasty expressions, which 
he had retracted as soon as he had been reminded c\ 
them. 

Itinerancy, which had also been objected against 
Whitefield as one of his crimes, he strenuouslv de- 



268 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

fended as scriptural and right ; understanding an 
evangelist to be, what they said an itinerant was, 
" One that hath no particular charge of his own, but 
goes about from country to country, or from town to 
town in any country, and stands ready to preach to 
any congregation that shall call him to it." For the 
divine command, " Go ye into all the world, and 
preach the gospel to every creature," he argued, " au- 
thorizes the ministers of Christ, even to the end of 
the world, to preach the gospel in every town and 
country, though not ' of their own head/ yet whenever 
and wherever Providence should open a door, even 
though it should be in a place ' where officers are 
already settled, and the gospel is fully and faithfully 
preached.' This, I humbly apprehend, is every gospel 
minister's indisputable privilege." He further asked, 
" Was not the Reformation begun and carried on by 
iti nerant p reaching?" He then quoted from "Bax- 
ter's Reformed Pastor," a plan which had been adopt- 
ed in some parts of England, for circular lectures by 
settled ministers selected for the purpose, and with 
the consent of the pastors. 

In reference to Harvard college, Whitefield lived 
long enough to take a Christian's revenge. In 1764, 
he solicited from his friends donations of books for 
their library, which had recently been destroyed by 
fire, and four years afterwards, while his old oppo- 
nent President Holyoke was yet in office, the fol- 
lowing minute was entered on their records : " At a 
meeting of the President and Fellows of Harvard col- 
lege, August 22, 1768, the Rev. G. Whitefield having, 
iu addition to his former kindness to Harvard college, 



SECOND VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 269 

lately presented to the library a new edition of his 
Journals, and having procured large benefactions from 
several benevolent and respectable gentlemen; voted, 
that the thanks of the corporation be given to the 
Rev. Mr. Whitefield, for these instances of candor 
and generosity/ 7 

It will be readily supposed, that notwithstanding 
all the opposition which Whitefield met, there were 
yet many thousands always ready to attend on his 
ministry. It was now the close of 1744, but the cold 
of winter did not prevent vast crowds assembling at 
early services long before daylight. Speaking of the 
opposition he met, "so that," says he, "for a while 
my situation was rendered uncomfortable/ 7 he adds, 
" But amidst all this smoke a blessed fire broke out. 
The awakened souls were as eager as ever to hear 
the word. Having heard that I expounded early in 
Scotland, they begged that I would do the same in 
Boston. I complied, and opened a lecture at six in 
the morning. I seldom preached to less than two 
thousand. It was delightful to see so many of both 
sexes neatly dressed flocking to hear the word, and 
returning home to family prayer and breakfast before 
the opposers were out of their beds. 77 

The late Rev. Dr. Archibald Alexander tells us, 
that when he was at Boston, in 1800, he found in the 
Old South church a lingering relic of Whitefield 7 s 
times, in a convert of his day, a lady between eighty 
and ninety years of age, who belonged to a prayer- 
meeting founded then, which had been kept up weekly 
until within a few years. Of this, she was the only 
surviving member. 



270 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

The "Evening Post/ 7 which seems to have been 
on the side of those who opposed Whitefield, in its 
issue of March 11, 1745, says, "Prince, Webb, Fox- 
croft, and Gee, are the directors of Mr. Whitefield s 
public conduct, as he himself has lately declared at 
Newbury." He had other powerful friends among 
the clergy, and still more among the laity, who invited 
him by vote into some pulpits where the pastors were 
"shy 77 of him. 

On the 7th of February, we find him at Ipswich, 
where he spent several days. Mr. Pickering, of the 
Second church, declined admitting him into his pulpit, 
and assigned his reasons in a letter, which was pub- 
lished. It contains the usual objections set forth in 
the various " testimonies, 77 and is remarkable only for 
one convenient niafcapkor. The Bishop of London had 
>ublished on "Lukewarnmess and Enthusiasm. 77 White- 
leld had said in reply, "All ought to be thankful to 
that pilot who will teach them to steer a safe and 
middle course ; 77 and Pickering wittily asks, " But 
what if the pilot should take the vane for the com- 
pass ? 7? 

Early in March we find him making an exculsion 
into the east, as we hear of him both at Berwick and 
Portland, in the then territory of Maine. In the lat- 
ter place, he not only made a powerful impression on 
the people, but on their minister. In the outset a 
strong feeling existed against his preaching in the 
pulpit of the First church. Mr. Smith, the pastor, 
says in his " Journal, 77 " The parish are like to be in a 
flame on account of Mr. Whitefield 7 s comin g ; the lead - 
ing men viole ntly oppo sing. 77 Under the date of May 






SECOND VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 211 

19, after Whitefield's departure, we find in the " Jour- 
nal " a remarkable passage : " For several Sabbaths, 
and the lecture, I have been all in a blaze ; never in 
such a flame, and what I would attend to is, that it 
was not only involuntary, but actually determined 
against. I went to meeting resolving to^J^^lm^aiid 
moderate, lest people should think it was wildness 
a^ affectation to ape Mr. Whitefield ; but God, I 
see, makes use of me as he pleases, and I am only a 
machine in his hand. 77 

About the middle of March, we find our evangelist 
at Exeter, where he afterwards preached his last ser- 
mon. Here some of the more zealous members of the 
church had withdrawn, and formed a new church. 
Their conduct had been sanctioned by one council, 
and censured by another, two years before this time. 
Whitefield preached to them twice, though Mr. Odlin, 
the pastor of the church from which they had with- 
drawn, "solemnly warned and charged him against 
preaching in his parish. 77 So says the " Evening Post, 77 
of March 25, which further calls the people to whom 
he preached, " Separatists. 77 

In this spring of 1745, the first expedition for the 
capture from the French of the island of Cape Breton, 
near Nova Scotia, was set on foot. Colonel Pepperell, 
a warm personal friend of Whitefield, and the only 
native of New England who was created a Baronet of 
Great Britain, was then at Boston, constantly attend- 
ing Whitefield 7 s lectures. On the day before he ac- 
cepted a commission to be general in that expedition, 
he asked his opinion of the matter, and was told, with 
the preacher 7 s usual frankness, that he did not indeed 



272 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

think that the scheme proposed for taking Louisburgh 
would be very promising ; and that the eyes of all 
would be upon him. If he did not succeed, the wid- 
ows and orphans of the slain soldiers would be like 
lions robbed of their whelps ; but if it pleased God to 
give him success, envy would endeavor to eclipse his 
glory : he had need, therefore, if he went, to go with 
a single eye ; and then there was no doubt, if Provi- 
dence really called him, he would find his strength 
equal to the difficulties with which he would have to 
contend. 

About the same time, Mr. Sherburne, another of 
Whitefield's friends, being appointed one of the com- 
missioners, told him he must favor the expedition, 
otherwise the pious people would be discouraged from 
enlisting ; not only did he say this, but he insisted 
that the evangelist should give him a motto for his 
flag, for the encouragement of his soldiers. White- 
field refused to do this, as it would not be consistent 
with his character as a minister of the gospel of peace. 
But as Sherburne would take no denial, he gave him, 
Nil desperandum, Christo Duce — [Nothing to be de- 
spaired of, Christ being leader.! In these circum- 
stances a large number of men enlisted. 

The soldiers and their officers now went farther, 
and before their embarkation requested him to give 
them a sermon. He preached to them from the text, 
" And every one that was in distress, and every one 
that was in debt, and every one that was discontent- 
ed, gathered themselves unto him ; and he became 
a captain over them. 77 1 Samuel 22 : 2. From this 
somewhat singular text, he discoursed on the manner 



SECOND VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 273 

in which distressed sinners came to Jesus Christ, the 
Son of David ; and in his application, exhorted the 
soldiers to behave like the soldiers of David, and the 
officers to act like David's worthies ; saying, that if 
they did so, there would be good news from Cape 
Breton. After this he preached to the general him- 
self, who invited him to become one of his chaplains. 
Whitefield declined this, saying, that though he should 
esteem this an honor, yet, as he generally preached 
three times a day, to large congregations, he could 
do more service by stirring up the people to pray, 
thus strengthening the hearts and hands of the army. 
In this practice he persevered during the whole siege 
of Louisburgh. " I believe/ 7 said he, " if ever people 
went with a disinterested view, the New Englanders 
did then. Though many of them were raw and un- 
disciplined, yet numbers were substantial persons, who 
left their farms and willingly ventured all for their 
country's good. An amazing series of providences 
appeared, and though some discouraging accounts 
were sent during the latter end of the siege, yet in 
about six weeks news came of the surrender of Louis- 
burgh. Numbers flocked from all quarters to hear a 
thanksgiving sermon upon the occasion. And I trust 
the blessing bestowed upon the country through the 
thanksgivings of many, redounded to the glory of 
God.' 7 

Some time before this, the people of Boston had 
proposed to build for Whitefield " the largest place 
of worship ever seen in America, 77 in which he should 
regularly preach ; but, as usual, he feared this plan 
would abridge his liberty of itinerating : he thanked 

12* 



274 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

them for their offer, but decidedly declined to accept 
it. As his bodily strength increased, he began to 
move southward, and went through Ehode Island and 
Connecticut, preaching to thousands generally twice 
a day. He says, " Though there was much smoke, yet 
every day I had more and more convincing proof that 
a blessed gospel fire had been kindled in the hearts 
both of ministers and people. 77 

About this time occurred a fact which delightfully 
shows how the enemies of this admirable man were 
often converted into friends. A colored trumpeter 
belonging to the English army resolved to inter- 
rupt him while delivering a sermon in the open air. 
For this purpose he went to the field, carrying his 
trumpet with him, intending to blow it with all his 
might about the middle of the sermon. He took his 
station in front of the minister, and at no great dis- 
tance from him. The crowd became very great, and 
those who were towards the extremity pressed for- 
ward, that they might hear more distinctly, and caused 
such a pressure where the poor trumpeter stood, that 
he found it impossible at the time when he intended 
to blow his trumpet, to raise the arm which held it, 
by which means he was kept within the sound of the 
gospel as effectually as if he had been chained to the 
spot. In a short time his attention was powerfully 
arrested, and he became so deeply affected by the 
statements of the preacher, that he was seized with 
all the agonies of despair, and was carried to a 
house in the neighborhood. After the service, he 
was visited by Mr. Whitefield, who gave him suitable 
counsels, and from that time the trumpeter became a 



SECOND VISIT TO NEW ENGLAND. 275 

greatly altered man. So true is it in reference to the 
omnipotent and gracious Being, 

" Hearts base as hell he can control, 
And spread new powers throughout the whole." 

While preaching at Boston, he was delighted to 
observe that the sheriff, who had heretofore been the 
leader of the persecution against him, now began to 
hear him preach ; and his pleasure was vastly in- 
creased, when he saw the crowds come around him 
to inquire as to their highest interests. 

Among these crowds was a somewhat remarkable 
gentleman of that city. He was a man of ready wit 
and racy humor, who delighted in preaching over a 
bottle to his ungodly companions. He went to hear 
Whitefield, that he might be furnished with matter for 
a " tavern harangue." When he had heard enough of 
the sermon for his purpose, he endeavored to quit the 
church for the inn, but " found his endeavors to get 
out fruitless, he was so pent up." While thus fixed, 
and waiting for "fresh matter of ridicule," the truth 
took possession of his heart. That night he went to 
Mr. Prince full of terror, and sought an introduction 
to ask pardon of the preacher. Whitefield says of 
him, " By the paleness, pensiveness, and horror of his 
countenance, I guessed he was the man of whom I had 
been apprized. ' Sir, can you forgive me V he cried 
in a low, but plaintive voice. I smiled, and said, ' Yes, 
sir, very readily.' ' Indeed/ he said, l you cannot when 
I tell you all." I then asked him to sit down ; and 
judging that he had sufficiently felt the lash of the 
law, I preached the gospel to him." This, with other 
remarkable conversions, gave increasing energy and 



276 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

influence to his preaching in Boston. "My bodily 
strength/ 7 he says, " is recovered, and my soul more 
than ever in love with a crucified Jesus." 

Another illustration may also be here given of the 
meekness and gentleness which usually characterized 
our evangelist in his intercourse with his brethren. 
In his later visits to New England, it was Whitefield 7 ? 
usual practice to spend a few days with Dr. Hopkins. 
On one of these occasions, after preaching for the doc- 
tor on the Sabbath, the next day he proposed a ride 
into the country for exercise. During the ride, White- 
field spoke with regret of the views of their " good 
I brother Edwards on the subject of the witness of the 
Holy Spirit. 77 "Ah," asked Dr. Hopkins, "and what 
is the error?' 7 Here Whitefield made a long pause ; 
and Hopkins continued the conversation : " Do you 
believe, Mr. Whitefield, that the witness of the Spirit 
is a direct communicatkffl. froifl, ijrftd ? 77 " I cannot say 
that I do, 77 was the reply. " Well, do you believe 
that Christians have any other witness of the Spirit 
than that afforded by the testimony of t heir oj^ n hftlv 
affections? 77 "I cannot say that I do, 77 Mr. White- 
field again replied. "Do you believe it to be any 
thing more or less, 77 continued Hopkins, "than the 
Spirit producing in the heart the gracious exercises 
lentance, faith, etc. ? 77 " No, that is precisely my 
view of it, 77 said Whitefield. " And that is precisely 
the view of good father Edwards, 77 pleasantly return- 
ed Dr. Hopkins. Whitefield frankly acknowledged 
his error, and rejoiced that there was no disagreement 
on the subject. 



IN PHILADELPHIA. 217 



CHAPTER X. 

FROM HIS LEAVING NEW ENGLAND TILL HIS ARRL 
VAL IN ENGLAND— LABORS IN THE MIDDLE AND 
SOUTHERN STATES— THE BERMUDAS. 

1745-1743. 

Leaving New England, Whitefield proceeded first 
to New York, where he preached as he had formerly 
done, and found that the seed sown in past days had 
produced much fruit. Proceeding still southward, on 
his way towards Philadelphia, arriving in New Jersey, 
he says, " I had the pleasure of preaching by an inter- 
preter to some converted Indians, and of seeing nearly 
fifty young ones in one school, near Freehold, learning 
the Assembly's Catechism." A blessed awakening 
had before this time been begun and carried on among 
the Delaware Indians, by the ministry of David Brain- 
erd ; no such work had been heard of since the days 
of the apostolic Eliot in New England. 

Arriving in Philadelphia, Whitefield was rejoiced 
;o find that his friend Gilbert Tennent was still blessed 
ith success in his labors. Many, he says, were un- 
[er " soul-gickness/ 7 and Tennent's health suffered 
luch with walking from place to place to see them. 
The gentlemen connected with the new house in which 
Tennent preached, were, as well as Tennent himself* 
desirous of securing at least a portion of Whitefield's 
labors, and offered him eight hundred pounds a year, 
if he would become their pastor, and labor with them 



218 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

six months in the year, travelling the other six months 
wherever he thought proper. He thanked them, but 
declined. 

Not unfrequently have we been told by frigid crit- 
ics of the inferior character of Whitefield's printed 
sermons. But have they not looked too much for the 
beauties of style, and overlooked the simple energy of 
their scriptural truths ? Even these printed sermons 
have, under God, accomplished wonders. In the year 
1743, a young gentleman from Scotland, then residing 
at Hanover, in Virginia, had obtained a volume of 
Whitefield's sermons preached in Glasgow, and taken 
in shorthand, which, after a gentleman of Hanover, 
named Hunt, the father of a distinguished Presbyte- 
rian minister of that name, had studied with great 
personal benefit, he invited his neighbors to visit his 
house to hear read. By their plainness and fervor, 
attended with the rio wer (v fi^od. not a few became 
convinced of their lost condition as sinners, and anx- 
iously inquired the way of salvation. The feelings of 
many were powerfully excited, and they could not for- 
bear bitter and violent weeping. The intelligence 
spread, curiosity prompted the desire of many others 
to attend such remarkable services; and one and 
another begged for admission, till the houses were 
crowded. Numbers were pricked to the heart; the 
word of God became quick and powerful ; and, " What 
shall we do?" was the general cry. What to do or 
say the principal leaders knew not. They themselves 
had been led by a still small voice, they hardly knew 
how, to an acquaintance with the truth ; but now the 
Lord was speaking as on mount Sinai, with a voice of 



HIS PRINTED SERMONS. 2*79 

thunder ; and sinners, like that mountain itself, trem- 
bled. It was not long before Christians had the hap- 
piness to see a goodly number healed by the same 
word that had wounded them, and brought to rejoice 
in Christ, and his great salvation. " My dwelling- 
place," said Mr. Morris, one of their number, "was 
at length too small to contain the people, where- 
upon we determined to build a meeting-house merely 
for reading. And having never been used to social 
prayer, none of us durst attempt it." This reading- 
house, as it was called, was followed by others of 
like character, and the number of attendants and the 
power of divine influence were much increased. Mr. 
Morris, as the report spread, was invited to several 
places at a distance to read these sermons. The 
phrase, "Morris 7 reading-house," has come down by 
tradition to the present age, as well as important 
details of the opposition of the magistracy and other 
classes, who sought, but in vain, to stop the progress 
of the work. 

Such was the origin of the Presbyterian church at 
Hanover, where, in after-days, William Robinson and 
President Davies accomplished such mighty triumphs, 
and where the sacred cause still flourishes. 

Whitefield does not seem to have been made 
acquainted with these facts till he now arrived in the 
colony, and saw the happy effects which had been pro- 
duced by the labors of the Rev. Messrs. Robinson, 
Tennent, Blair, and others. Of the visit of White- 
field among them, one of them writes, " Mr. Whitefield 
came and preached four or five days in these parts, 
which was the happy means of giving us further en- 



280 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

couragement, and engaging others to the Lord, espec 
Tally among the church people, who received his doc- 
trine more readily than they would from ministers of 
the Presbyterian denomination. 77 We may add here, 
that in 1747 there were four houses of worship in and 
around Hanover, which had sprung from the " mustard- 
seed 77 of the sermons taken in shorthand from White- 
field's lips at Glasgow. 

Among the converts in the south who met White- 
field, was Isaac Oliver, who was both deaf and dumb, 
and had been so from his birth. Notwithstanding 
these great disadvantages, he could both feel and 
evince his strong feelings by the most significant and 
expressive signs. He could, for instance, so represent 
the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ, as to be un- 
derstood by every one ; and among his own friends he 
could converse about the love of Christ in the lan- 
guage of signs, till he was transported in rapture and 
dissolved in tears. He was much beloved for his 
eminent piety. 

Whitefield had not, during any portion of this 
time, forgotten Bethesda. The public had warmly 
sustained it, and he now went forward to see to its 
affairs, and to add to the orphan-house a Latin school, 
intending, indeed, before a long time to found a col- 
lege. 

The following account of the orphan-house in 
1746, was written by Mr. Whitefield in the form of a 
letter to a friend, and published as a small pamphlet. 
We transcribe it from " White's Historical Collections 
of Georgia, 77 published in 1854: 



ORPHAN-HOUSE, GEORGIA. 281 

u Provide things honest in the sight of all men." — Rom. 12 : 17. 

"Bethesda, id Georgia, March 21, 1745-6. 
"Some have thought that the erecting such a 
building was only the produce of my own brain ; but 
they are much mistaken ; for it was first proposed to 
me by my dear friend the Rev. Mr. Charles Wesley v 
who, with his excellency General Oglethorpe, had con- 
certed a scheme for carrying on such a design before 
I had any thoughts of going abroad myself. It was 
natural to think that, as the government intended this 
province for the refuge and support of many of oar 
poor countrymen, numbers of such adventurers must 
necessarily be taken off, by being exposed to the hard- 
ships which unavoidably attend a new settlement. I 
thought it, therefore, a noble design in the general to 
erect a house for fatherless children ; and believing 
that such a provision for orphans would be some 
inducement with many to come over, I fell in with the 
design, when mentioned to me by my friend, and was 
resolved, in the strength of God, to prosecute it with 
all my might. This was mentioned to the honorable 
the trustees. They took it kindly at my hands, and 
wrote to the bishop of Bath and Wells for leave for 
me to preach a charity sermon on this occasion in the 
Abbey church. This was granted, and I accordingly 
began immediately to compose a suitable discourse. 
But knowing that my first stay in Georgia would 
necessarily be short, on account of my returning again 
to take priest's orders, I thought it most prudent first 
to go and see for myself, and defer prosecuting the 
scheme till I came home. . . . When I came to Geor- 
gia, I found many poor orphans, who, though taken 



282 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

notice of by the honorable trustees, yet, through the 
neglect of persons under them, were in miserable cir- 
cumstances. For want of a house to bring them up 
in, the poor little ones were tabled out here and there ; 
others were at hard services, and likely to have no 
education at all. 

" Upon seeing this, and finding that his Majesty 
and Parliament had the interest of the colony much at 
heart, I thought I could not better show my regard to 
God and my country than by getting a house and land 
for these children, where they might learn to labor, 
read, and write, and at the same time be brought up 
in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Accord- 
ingly, at my return to England, in the year 1738, to 
take priest's orders, I applied to the honorable society 
for a grant of five hundred acres of land, and laid 
myself under an obligation to build a house upon it, 
and to receive from time to time as many orphans as 
the land and stock would maintain. As I had always 
acted like a clergyman of the church of England, hav- 
ing preached in a good part of the London churches, 
and but a few months before collected near a thousand 
pounds sterling for the children belonging to the 
charity schools in London and Westminster, it was 
natural to think that I might now have the use at 
least of some of these churches to preach in for the 
orphans hereafter more immediately to be committed 
to my care. But by the time I had taken priest's 
orders, the spirit of the clergy began to be much ini- 
bittered. Churches were gradually denied me, and I 
must let this good design drop, and thousands, and I 
might add ten thousands, go without hearing the word 



ORPHAN-HOUSE, GEORGIA. 283 

of God, or preach in the fields. Indeed, two churches, 
one in London, namely, Spitalfields, and one in Bris- 
tol, namely, St. Philip's and Jacob, were lent me on 
this occasion, but those were all. I collected for the 
orphan-house in Moorfields two hundred and fifty 
pounds one Sabbath-day morning, twenty-two pounds 
of which were in copper. In the afternoon I collect- 
ed again at Kenning ton Common, and continued to do 
so at most of the places where I preached. Besides 
this, two or three of the bishops, and several persons 
of distinction contributed, until at length, having got- 
ten about a thousand and ten pounds, I gave over 
collecting, and went with what I had to Georgia. At 
that time multitudes offered to accompany me ; but I 
chose to take over only a surgeon and a few more of 
both sexes, that I thought would be useful in carrying 
on my design. My dear fellow-traveller William 
Seward, Esq., also joined with them. Our first voy- 
age was to Philadelphia, where I was willing to go 
for the sake of laying in provision. I laid out in 
London a good part of the thousand pounds for goods, 
and got as much by them in Philadelphia as nearly 
defrayed the families' expenses of coming over. Here 
God blessed my ministry daily. . . . 

" January following, 1739, I met my family at 
Georgia, and being unwilling to lose any time, I hired 
a large house, and took in all the orphans I could find 
in the colony. A great many also of the town's chil- 
dren came to school gratis, and many poor people 
that could not maintain their children, upon applica- 
tion, had leave given them to send their little ones 
for a month or two, or more as they could spare them, 



284 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

till at length my family consisted of between sixty 
and seventy. Most of the orphans were in poor case, 
and three or four almost eaten up with lice. I like 
wise erected an infirmary, in which many sick people 
were cured and taken care of gratis. I have now >y 
me a list of upwards of a hundred and thirty pa- 
tients, which were under the surgeon's hands, exclu 
sive of my own private family. About March I began 
the great house, having only about one hundred and 
fifty pounds in cash. I called it Bethesda, because I 
hoped it would be a house of mercy to many souls. 
Many boys have been put out to trades, and many 
girls put out to service. I had the pleasure, the other 
day, to see three boys work at the house in which 
they were bred, one of them out of his time, a journey- 
man, and the others serving under their masters. 
One that I brought from New England is hand- 
somely settled in Carolina ; and another from Phila- 
delphia is married, and lives very comfortably in 
Savannah. We have lately begun to use the plough, 
and next year I hope to have many acres of good 
oats and barley. We have nearly twenty sheep and 
lambs, fifty head of cattle, and seven horses. We 
hope to kill a thousand weight of pork this season. 
Our garden is very beautiful, furnishes us with all 
sorts of greens, etc., etc. We have plenty of milk, 
eggs, poultry, and make a good deal of butter weekly. 
A good quantity of wool and cotton have been given 
me, and we hope to have sufficient spun and wove for 
the next winter's clothing. The family now consists 
of twenty-six persons. Two of the orphan boys are 
blind, one is little better than an idiot. I have two 



IN GEORGIA. 285 

woiren to take care of the household work, and two 
men and three boys employed about the plantation 
and cattle. A set of Dutch servants has been 
lately sent over. The magistrates were pleased to 
give me two ; and I took in a poor widow, aged near 
seventy, whom nobody else cared to have. A valu- 
able young man from New England is my school- 
master, and in my absence performs duty in the family. 
On Sabbaths, the grown people attend on public wor- 
ship at Savannah, or at White Bluff, a village near 
Bethesda, where a Dutch minister officiates. The 
house is a noble, commodious building, and every 
thing sweetly adapted for bringing up youth. Geor- 
gia is very healthy ; not above one, and that a little 
child, has died out of our family since it removed to 
Bethesda. 77 

A tabular statement follows this account, giving 
full particulars of the eighty-six children who to that 
period had been admitted into the establishment. 

Old newspapers, as daguerreotyping the facts, and 
even the feelings of any particular period, are some- 
times invaluable. In New York, as everywhere 
else, Whitefield had his enemies, and many charges 
were brought against him. But that there were those 
who took a strongly favorable view of his character 
and conduct, is very clear from an extract we give 
from "The New York Post-Boy, 77 of April, 1746: 
" Mr. Whitefield 7 s excellent parts, fine elocution, and 
masterly address ; his admirable talent of opening the 
Scriptures, and enforcing the most weighty subjects 
upon the conscience ; his polite and serious behavior T 
his unaffected and superior piety, his prudence, humil- 



286 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

ity, and catholic spirit, are things which must silence 
and disarm prejudice itself. By these qualifications 
of the orator, the divine, and the Christian, he has 
not only fixed himself deeper in the affections of his 
former friends, but greatly increased the number 
wherever he has preached ; and made his way into 
the hearts of several who, till this visit, had said all 
the severe things against him that enmity itself seemed 
capable of." 

From this period, this paper especially noticed 
the various movements of this arjostolic man ; his ar- 
rivals in the city, his engagements in it, his depart- 
ures from it, and the places of his destination, were 
ail given with the minutias with which even the move- 
ments of monarchs are recorded. 

It was not without its use that the organs of the 
public thus expressed their high sense of his charac- 
ter. In 1745, suspicions were whispered abroad as 
to the entire integrity of this excellent man in the 
appropriation of the funds collected for Bethesda. 
But happily for all parties, the magistrates of Savan- 
nah published in the Philadelphia Gazette an affidavit, 
that they had carefully examined Mr. Whitefield's 
receipts and disbursements, and found that what he 
had collected in behalf of the orphans, had been hon- 
estly applied, and that besides, he had given consid- 
erably to them of his own property. 

Having done what he could at Bethesda, feeling 
his health failing him, needing resources for his or- 
phans, and urged on by his love of preaching, White- 
field was soon again in the field, far away from his 
home. In the autumn of 1746, we find many passages 



IN MARYLAND. 28? 

in his journals and letters like these, while in Mary- 
land : "I trust the time for favoring this and the neigh- 
boring southern provinces is come. Everywhere, 
almost, the door is opened for preaching, great num- 
bers flock to hear, and the power of an ascended 
Saviour attends the word. For it is surprising how 
the Lord causes prejudices to subside, and makes my 
former most bitter enemies to be at peace with me. . . . 
Lately I have been in seven counties in Maryland, 
and preached with abundant success." At Charles- 
ton, South Carolina, he writes, January 1747, " The 
Lord Jesus is pleased to give me great access to mul- 
titudes of souls. 77 A few weeks later, he writes from 
the same place, that Bethesda was never in a better 
condition; that he had opened a Latin school there 
during the winter, and that he hoped yet to see minis- 
ters furnished from Georgia. 

In April, we again find him in Maryland, as he 
writes on the twenty-fifth of that month from Bohemia, 
in that province, and speaks of the success of Mr. Sam- 
uel, afterwards President Davies, in Virginia, but 
adds that a proclamation had been issued in that state 
against itinerants, so that he himself was shut out of 
it. In the middle of May he exults, " Maryland is 
yielding converts to the blessed Jesus. The gospel 
seems to be moving southward. The harvest is prom- 
ising. The time of the singing birds is come : 77 and 
five days afterwards he says, " I have been now a three 
hundred miles 7 circuit in Maryland, and through one 
or two counties in Pennsylvania. Everywhere the 
people have a hearing ear, and I trust some have an 
obedient heart." 



288 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

On the first of June we find him in Philadelphia, 
from whence he writes, " At present I have full work 
here. The congregations yesterday were large, and 
for this month past I have been preaching to thousands 
in different places." During the whole of this month 
his health was in a very critical state. Here we have 
a few sentences from his pen, as given on different 
days : "lam sick and well, as I used to be in Eng- 
land; but the Redeemer .fills me with comfort. I am 

determined, in his strength, to die fighting I 

have almost a continual burning fever. With great 
regret I have omitted preaching one night to oblige 
my friends, and purpose to do so once more, that they 
may not charge me with murdering myself. But I 
hope yet to die in the pulpit, or soon after I come out 

of it Since my last, I have been several times 

on the verge of eternity. At present I am so weak 
that I cannot preach. It is hard work to be silent, 
but I must be tried every way." 

Sickness did not interrupt Whitefield's labors, if 
he could move or preach at all. " I am determined," 
he says to Gilbert Tennent, " to die fighting, though 
it be on my stumps" . He was soon after at New York, 
Newport, Portsmouth, and Boston. At New York 
he writes, " I am as willing to hunt for souls as ever. 
I am not weary of my work." On the next day he 
writes, "I have preached to a very large auditory, 
and do not find myself much worse for it." He did 
so again with success. He then says, " I shall go to 
Boston like an arrow out of a bow, if Jesus strength- 
en me. I am resolved to preach and work for Him 
until I can preach and work no more. I have been 



IN NORTH CAROLINA. 289 

upon the water three or four days, and now eat like 
a sailor." He went on to Boston, where he heard of 
the sudden but joyful death of his venerable and ex- 
cellent friend Dr. Colman. He adds, " My reception 
at Boston and elsewhere was like unto the first. Ar- 
rows of conviction fled and stuck fast. Congrega- 
tions were larger than ever, and opposers' mouths 
were stopped." 

After again making short visits to Philadelphia 
and Bohemia, Whitefield, according to previous ar- 
rangements, went to spend the winter in North Caro- 
lina. Before he left Bohemia, however, he wrote to 
his friends at New York, who were intensely anxious 
about his health, but he could only say it was yet 
fluctuating. Even so was it when he arrived in North 
Carolina, yet he writes, " I am here, hunting in the 
woods, these ungospelized wilds, for sinners. It is 
pleasant work, though my body is weak and crazy. 
But after a short fermentation in the grave, it will be 
fashioned like unto Christ's glorious body. The 
thought of this rejoices my soul, and makes me long 
to leap my seventy years. I sometimes think all will 
go to heaven before me. Pray for me as a .. d jing; 
man ; but Oh, pray that I may not go off as a snuff. 
I would fain di e bl azing — not with human glory, but 
with the love of Jesus? 7 

Such was his weakness, that his journey to Bath- 
town, in North Carolina, was long and slow. Even 
a short ride was fatiguing and painful. Still, he preach- 
ed with considerable power ; cheered on from stage 
to stage by the hope that the conversion of " North 
Carolina sinners would be glad news in heaven." His 

Whitefield. 13 



290 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

letters indicated lively hopes of an extensive revival, 
but his expectations were not fully realized. His 
health was still exceedingly feeble, and his physicians 
ordered him to try a change of climate. He accord- 
ingly embarked for the Bermudas, where he landed, 
March 15, 1748. 

The Bermudas are a group of four small islands 
lying about nine hundred miles east of Georgia. The 
largest of the islands is called St. George's, with a 
capital of the same name ; the climate is remarkably 
fine, and well adapted for the temporary residence 
and recovery of invalids. Here Whitefield met with 
an exceedingly kind reception, and remained on the 
island with great benefit to his health, more than a 
month. We scarcely need to say that he was not idle 
during his residence here, but traversed the island 
from one end to the other, generally preaching twice 
a day. A few passages from his journal will best 
show the facts. 

"The simplicity and plainness of the people, togeth- 
er with the pleasant situation of the island, much de- 
lighted me. The Eev. Mr. Holiday, minister of Span- 
ish Point, received me in a most affectionate, Chris- 
tian manner ; and begged I would make his house my 
home. In the evening, I ejqafljgjad£d at the house of 
Mr. Savage, at Port Royal, which was very commo- 
dious ; and which also he would have me. make my 
home. I went with Mr. Savage in a boat to the town 
of St. George, in order to pay our respects to the 
governor. All along we had a most pleasant prospect 
of the other part of the island ; a more pleasant one I 
never saw. Mrs. Smith, of St. George, for whom I 



AT THE BERMUDAS. 291 

had a letter of recommendation from my dear old 
friend Mr. Smith, of Charlestown, received me into 
her house. About noon, with one of the council and 
Mr. Savage, I waited upon the governor. He received 
us courteously, and invited us to dine with him and 
the council. We accepted the invitation, and all be- 
haved with great civility and respect. After the gov- 
ernor rose from the table, he desired, if I stayed ir 
town on the Sunday, that I would dine with him at 
his own house. 

" Sunday, March 20. Readj^ayers and preached 
twice this day, to what were esteemed here large 
auditories — in the morning at Spanish Point church, 
and in the evening at Brackish Pond church, about 
two miles distant from each other. In the afternoon 
I spoke with greater freedom than in the morning, 
and I trust not altogether in vain. All were atten- 
tive, some wept. I dined with Colonel Butterfield, 
one of the council ; and received several invitations 
to other gentlemen's houses. May God bless and 
reward them, and incline them to open their hearts to 
receive the Lord Jesus. 

"Wednesday, March 23. Dined with Captain 
Gibbs, and went from thence and expounded at the 

house of Captain F le, at Hunbay, about two miles 

distant. The company here also was large, attentive, 
and affected. Our Lord gave me utterance. I ex- 
pounded the first part of the eighth chapter of Jeremiah. 
After lecture, Mr. Riddle, a counsellor, invited me to 
his house ; as did Mr. Paul, an aged Presbyterian min- 
ister, to his pulpit ; which I complied with upon con- 
dition that the rumor was true, that the governor had 



292 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

served the ministers with an injunction that I should 
not preach in the churches. 

" Sunday, March 27. Glory be to God ! I hope 
this has been a profitable Sabbath to many souls ; it 
lias been a pleasant one to mine. Both morning and 
afternoon I preached to a large auditory, for the Ber- 
mudas, in Mr. Paul's meeting-house, which I suppose 
contains about four hundred. Abundance of negroes, 
and many others, were in the porch, and about the 
house. The word seemed to be clothed with a con- 
vincing power, and to make its way into the hearts 
of the hearers. Between sermons, I was entertained 
very civilly in a neighboring house. Judge Bascom, 
and three more of the council, came thither, and each 
gave me an invitation to his house. How does the 
Lord make way for a poor stranger in a strange land. 
After the second sermon I dined with Mr. Paul ; and 
in the evening expounded to a very large company at 
Councillor Riddle's. My body was somewhat weak ; 
but the Lord carried me through, and caused me to go 
to rest rejoicing. May I thus go to m^grave, when 
my ceaseless and uninterrupted rest shall begin. 

" Thursday, March 31. Dined on Tuesday at Colo- 
nel Corbusier's, and on Wednesday at Colonel Gil- 
bert's, both of the council ; and found, by what I 
could hear, that some good had been done, and many 
prejudices removed. Who shall hinder, if God will 
work? Went to an island this afternoon called 
Ireland, upon which live a few families ; and to my 
surprise, found a great many gentlemen, and other 
people, with my friend Mr. Holiday, who came from 
different quarters to hear me. Before I began preach- 



AT THE BERMUDAS. 293 

ing, I went round to see a most remarkable cave, which 
very much displayed the exquisite workmanship of 
Him, who in l his strength setteth fast the mountains, 
and is girded about with power.' While I was in the 
cave, quite unexpectedly I turned and saw Councillor 
Eiddle, who, with his son, came to hear me ; and 
while we were in the boat, told me that he had been 
with the governor, who declared he had no personal 
prejudice against me, and wondered I did not come to 
town and preach there, for it was the desire of the 
people ; and that any house in the town, the court- 
house not excepted, should be at my service. Thanks 
be to God for so much favor. If his cause requires 
it, I shall have more. He knows my heart ; I value 
the favor of man no farther than as it makes room for 
the gospel, and gives me a larger scope to promote 
the glory of God. There being no capacious house 
upon the island, I preached for the first time here in 
the open air All heard very attentively ; and it was 
very pleasant, after sermon, to see so many boats full 
of people returning from the worship of God. I talked 
seriously to some in our own boat, and sung a psalm, 
in which they readily joined. 

"Sunday, April 3. Preached twice this day at 
Mr. Paul's meeting-house, as on the last Sabbath, but 
with greater freedom and power, especially in the 
morning ; and I think to as great, if not greater audi- 
tories. Dined with Colonel Harvy, another of the 
council ; visited a sick woman, where many came to 
hear ; and expounded afterwards to a great company, 
at Captain John Dorrel's, Mrs. Dorrel's son, who with 
his wife courteously entertained me, and desired me 



294 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

to make his house my home. So true is that promise 
of our Lord, that ' whosoever leaves father or mother, 
houses or lands, shall have in this life a hundred-fold 
with persecution, and in the world to come, life ever- 
lasting.' Lord, I have experienced the one ; in thy 
good time grant that I may experience the other also. 
" Wednesday, April 6. Preached yesterday at the 
house of Mr. Anthony Smith, of Baylis Bay, with a 
considerable degree of warmth ; and rode afterwards 
to St. George, the only town on the island. The 
gentlemen of the town had sent me an invitation by 
Judge Bascom ; and he, with several others, came to 
visit me at my lodgings ; and informed me that the 
governor desired to see me. About ten I waited upon 
his excellency, who received me with great civility, 
and told me he had no objection against my person or 
my principles, having never yet heard me ; and he 
knew nothing with respect to my conduct in moral 
life, that might prejudice him against me ; but his 
intentions were to let none preach in the island, un- 
less he had a written license to preach somewhere in 
America, or the West Indies ; at the same time he 
acknowledged that it was but a matter of mere form. 
I informed his excellency that I had been regularly 
inducted into the parish of Savannah ; that I was or- 
dained priest by letters dismissory from my lord of 
London, and was under no church censure from his 
lordship ; and would always read the church prayers, 
if the clergy would give me the use of their churches. 
I added farther, that a minister's pulpit was always 
looked upon as his freehold ; and that I knew one 
clergyman who had denied his own diocesan the use 



AT THE BERMUDAS. 295 

of his pulpit. But I told his excellency I was satis- 
fied with the liberty he allowed me, and would not 
act contrary to his injunction. I then begged leave 
to be dismissed, as I was obliged to preach at eleven 
o'clock. His excellency said he intended to do him- 
self the pleasure to hear me. At eleven, the church bell 
rung. The church Bible, prayer-book, and cushion, 
were sent to the town-house. The governor, several 
of the council, the minister of the parish, and assem- 
bly-men, with a great number of the town's people, 
assembled in great order. I was very sick, through 
a cold I caught last night ; but read the church pray- 
ers. The first lesson was the fifteenth chapter of the 
first book of Samuel. I preached on those words, 
1 Righteousness exalteth a nation. 7 Being weak and 
faint, and afflicted much with the headache, I did not 
do that justice to my subject which I sometimes am 
enabled to do ; but the Lord so helped me that, as I 
found afterwards, the governor and the other gentle- 
men expressed their approbation, and acknowledged 
they did not expect to be so well entertained. Not 
unto me, Lord, not unto me, but to thy free grace 
be all the glory ! 

" After sermon, Dr. F bs, and Mr. P 1, the 

collector, came to me, and desired me to favor them 
and the gentlemen of the town with my company at 
dinner. I accepted the invitation. The governor, 
and the president, and Judge Bascom were there. 
All wondered at my speaking so freely and fluently 
without notes. The governor asked whether I used 
minutes. I answered, ' No.' He said it was a great 
gift. At table, his excellency introduced something 



296 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

of religion by asking me the meaning of the word 
Hades. Several other things were started about free- 
will, Adam's fall, predestination, etc., to all which God 
enabled me to answer so pertinently, and taught me 
to mix the utile and dulce [useful and pleasant] so to- 
gether, that all at table seemed highly pleased, shook 
me by the hand, and invited me to their respective 
houses. The governor, in particular, asked me to 

dine with him on the morrow ; and Dr. F , one 

of his particular intimates, invited me to drink tea in 
the afternoon. I thanked all, returned proper re- 
spects, and went to my lodgings with some degree of 
thankfulness for the assistance vouchsafed me, and 
abased before God at the consideration of my un- 
speakable unworthiness. In the afternoon, about five 
o'clock, I expounded the parable of the prodigal son 
to many people at a private house ; and in the even- 
ing had liberty to speak freely and closely to those 
who supped with me. that this may be the begin- 
ning of good gospel times to the inhabitants of this 
town." 

We might fill other pages from Whitefield's jour- 
nal, but will only give two more passages. The first 
will show him in connection with the African race, in 
whose highest welfare he always took a special 
interest. 

" Saturday, May 7. In my conversation these two 
days with some of my friends, I was diverted much 
in hearing several things that passed among the poor 
negroes, since I preached to them last Sunday. One 
of the women, it seems, said that 'if the book I preach- 
ed out of was the best book that was ever bought at 



AT THE BERMUDAS. 29T 

London, she was sure it had never all that in it which 
I spoke to the negroes/ The old man who spoke out 
loud last Sunday, and said ' yes ? when I asked them 
whether all the negroes would not go to heaven, being 
questioned by somebody why he spoke out so, answer- 
ed, that 'the gentleman put the question once or twice 
to them, and the other fools had not the manners to 
make any answer; till at last I seemed to point at 
him, and he was ashamed that nobody should answer 
me, and therefore he did.' Another, wondering why 
I said negroes had black hearts, was answered by his 
black brother, 'Ah, thou fool, dost not thou under- 
stand it? He means black with sin.' Two girls 
were overheard by their mistress talking about relig- 
ion, and they said ' they knew, if they did not repent, 
they must be damned.' From all which I infer that 
these negroes on the Bermudas are more awake than 
I supposed; that their consciences are awake, and 
consequently prepared in a good measure for hearing 
the gospel preached to them." 

Whitefield sums up the events which had occurred 
in connection with himself on the Bermudas, the 
praise of which islands has also been celebrated by 
the distinguished Bishop Berkeley, who resided there 
for some time, and by Waller the poet. 

"Sunday, May 22. Blessed be God, the little 
leaven thrown into the three measures of meal begins 
to ferment and work almost every day for the week 
past. I have conversed with souls loaded with a 
sense of their sins, and as far as I can judge, really 
pricked to the heart. I preached only three times, 
but to almost three times larger auditories than usual. 

13* 



298 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

Indeed, the fields are white, ready to harvest. God 
has been pleased to bless private visits. Go where 1 
will, upon the least notice, houses are crowded, and 
the poor souls that follow are soon drenched in tears. 
This day I took, as it were, another farewell. As the 
ship did not sail, I preached at Somerset in the morn- 
ing to a large congregation in the fields ; and expound- 
ed in the evening at Mr. Harvy's house, around 
which stood many hundreds of people. But in the 
morning and evening how did the poor souls weep. 
Abundance of prayers and blessings were put up for 
my safe passage to England, and speedy return to the 
Bermudas again. May they enter into the ears of the 
Lord of sabaoth. With all humility and thankful- 
ness of heart will I here, Lord, set up my Ebe?iezer, 
for hitherto surely hast thou helped me. Thanks be 
to the Lord for sending me hither. I have been re- 
ceived in a manner I dared not to expect, and have 
met with little, very little opposition indeed. The 
inhabitants seem to be plain and open-hearted. They 
have loaded me with provisions for my sea-store ; and 
in the several parishes, by a private voluntary contri- 
bution, have raised me upwards of one hundred pounds 
sterling. This will pay a little of Bethesda's debt, 
and enable me to make such a remittance to my dear 
yoke-fellow, as may keep her from being embarrassed, 
or too much beholden in my absence. Blessed be 
God for bringing me out of my embarrassments by 
degrees. May the Lord reward all my benefactors a 
thousand-fold. I hear that what was given, was giv- 
en heartily, and people only lamented that they could 
do no more." 



AT THE BERMUDAS. 299 

Whitefield now transmitted to Georgia what had 
been collected for the orphan-house ; but fearing a 
relapse, if he returned to the south during the hot 
season, which was near commencing, and pressed also 
again to visit England, he took his passage in a brig, 
and in twenty-eight days arrived at Deal. 

On his voyage, he completed an abridgment, 
which he had previously begun, of "Law's serious Call 
to a devoid and holy Life, 77 which he endeavored to 
make more useful by excluding whatever is not truly 
evangelical, and illustrating the subject more fully, 
especially from the holy Scriptures. He also wrote 
letters to his friends, one of which strikingly illus- 
trates his Christian humility. It bears date June 24, 
1748. " Yesterday I made an end of re vis i ng a ll my 
journals. Alas, alas, in how many things I have 
judged and acted wrong. I have been too rash and 
hasty in giving characters both of places and persons. 
Being fond of Scripture language, I have used a style 
too apostolical, and at the same time I have been too 
bitter in my zeal. Wildfire has been mixed with it, 
and I find that I frequently wrote and spoke in my 
own spirit, when I thought I was writing and speak- 
ing by the assistance of the Spirit of God. I have, 
likewise, too much made inward impressions my rule 
of acting, and too soon and too explicitly published 
what had been better kept in longer, or told after my 
death. By these things I have hurt the blessed cause 
I would defend, and also stirred up a needless oppo- 
sition. This has humbled me much, and made me 
think of a saying of Mr. Henry, 'Joseph had more 
honesty than he had policy, or he never would have 



300 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

told his dreams/ At the same time, I cannot but 
praise God, who fills me with so much of his holy fire, 
and carried me, a poor weak youth, through such a 
torrent, both of popularity and contempt, and set so 
many seals to my unworthy ministrations. I bless 
him for ripening my judgment a little more, for giving 
me to see and confess, and I hope in some degree to 
correct and amend some of my former mistakes. 7 ' 

In the early part of this year, 1748, the " Gentle- 
man's Magazine" had announced Whitefield's death 
as having taken place in America. One of his first 
letters on his arrival at Deal in that year, says, 
" Words cannot express how joyful my friends were 
to see me once more in the land of the living, for I 
find the newspapers had buried me ever since April 
last. But it seems I am not to die, but live. that 
it may be to declare the works of the Lord." 



IN ENGLAND. 301 



CHAPTER XI. 

LABORS IN ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND— CHAPLAIN 

TO LADY HUNTINGDON. 

1748, 1749. 

On the evening of July 6, 1748, Whitefield again 
found himself in London, after an absence of nearly 
four years. Here he was welcomed with joy by many 
thousands. The large church of St. Bartholomew was 
at once thrown open to him, where multitudes flocked 
to hear, and where on the first Sabbath he had a 
thousand communicants. But in his own more imme- 
diate circle many things were in an unhappy condi- 
tion. His congregation at the Tabernacle had been 
much scattered during his absence ; Antinomianism 
had made sad havoc among the people ; and one of 
this party threatened to rival him in Moorfields. 
Whitefield sent him word, " The fields are no doubt 
as free to you as to another. God send you a clear 
head and a clean heart. I intend preaching there on 
Sunday evening. 77 He did so ; and found " Moor- 
fields as white to harvest as ever. 77 Our evangelist 
was again called to mourn the evils of pov erty. He 
found himself compelled to sell his household furni- 
ture, to pay, in part, the debts of his orphan-house, 
which were yet far from being cancelled ; his aged 
mother, for whom he always retained the highest 
regard, also needed his aid. These and other trials 
pressed him sorely ; but on the other hand, he felt 
happy in his work, and his congregation were soon 
reunited, and happy in his labors. 



302 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

We have seen that as early as 1738, Lady Hunt- 
ingdon, with his lordship her husband, as frequently 
as they could, heard Whitefield preach ; since that 
period his lordship had died, leaving her ladyship a 
widow, in the thirty-ninth year of her age. At what 
period she became more openly and intimately White- 
field's friend does not appear ; but when he landed at 
Deal from his third visit to America, she sent Howel 
Harris to bring him to her house at Chelsea, where 
he preached to large circles of the gay world, who 
thronged this then fashionable watering-place. For 
the benefit of this class of hearers, she soon after 
removed to London, at that time some three miles 
distant from Chelsea, appointed Whitefield her chap- 
lain, and during the winter of 1748 and ? 49, opened 
her splendid mansion in Park-street for the preaching 
of the gospel. " Good Lady Huntingdon," he writes, 
" has come to town, and I am to preach twice a week 
at her house to the great and noble. that some of 
them might be effectually called to taste the riches of 
redeeming love. 77 On the first day appointed, Ches- 
terfield and Bolingbroke, both of them well-known 
for their gayety and infidelity, and a circle of the 
nobility, attended ; and having heard him once, they 
desired to come again. "Lord Chesterfield thanked 
me," he says. " Lord Bolin^fcn^e was moved, and 
asked me to come and see him the next morning. My 
hands have been full of work, and I have been among 
great company. All accepted my sermons. Thus the 
world turns round. ' In all time of my wealth, good 
Lord, deliver me. 1 " 

The death-bed of Lord St. John Bolingbroke, 



IN ENGLAND. 303 

whom we have already mentioned as one of his parlor- 
hearers, exhibited scenes unusual in the circle where 
he moved. The Bible was read to him, and his cry 
was, " God be merciful to me a sinner." " My Lord 
Bolingbroke, 77 wrote Lady Huntingdon to Whitefield, 
" was much struck with his brother's language in his 
last moments. that his eyes might be opened by 
the illuminating influence of divine truth. He is a 
singularly awful character ; and I am fearfully alarm- 
ed, lest the gospel which he so heartily despises, yet 
affects to reverence, should prove the savor of death 
unto death to him. Some, I trust, are savingly awak- 
ened, while many are inquiring ; thus the great Lord 
of the harvest hath put honor on your ministry, and 
hath given my heart an encouraging token of the util- 
ity of our feeble efforts. 77 

It is related that the Eev. Mr. Church, a clergy- 
man who died curate of Battersea, near London, one 
day called on Bolingbroke, who said to him, " You 
have caught me reading John Calvin ; he was indeed 
a man of great parts, profound sense, and vast learn- 
ing ; he handles the doctrines of g race in a very mas- 
terly manner. 77 " Doctrines of grace, 77 replied the ! 
clergyman ; " the doctrines of grace have set all man- 
kind by the ears. 77 " I am surprised to hear you say 
so, 77 answered Lord Bolingbroke, " you who profess to 
believe and to preach Christianity. Those doctrines 
are certainly the doctrines of the Bible, and if I be- 
lieve the Bible I must believe them. And let me seri- 
ously tell you, that the greatest miracle in the world 
is the subsistence of Christianity, and its continued 
preservation, as a religion, when the preaching of it 



304 GEOKGE WHITEFIELD. 

is committed to the care of such unchristian men as 
you." 

At this period Whitefield renewed his acquaint- 
ance with the Rev. James Hervey, who has not im- 
properly been called the Melancthon of the second 
reformation in England. Among all the converts of 
our evangelist, no one was more distinguished for piety, 
or for his fascination as a writer, than this admirable 
clergyman. His writings, though too flowery in their 
style, were eminently suitable, as Whitefield himself 
says, "for the taste of the polite world." Hervey 
wrote to Whitefield, " Your journals and sermons, and 
especially that sweet sermon on l What think ye of 
Christ V were a means of bringing me to the know- 
ledge of the truth." Whitefield felt the warmest 
attachment to Hervey in return, and when he intro- 
duced some of his works into America, wrote, " The 
author is my old friend ; a most heavenly-minded 
creature ; one of the first Methodists, who is contented 
with a small cure, and gives all he has to the poor. 
We correspond with, though we cannot see each 
other." Whitefield intimated in one of his journals 
his intention of sketching Hervey's character, but this 
was one of the many intended things which were 
never accomplished. Dr. Doddridge wrote a preface 
to one of his works, which Warburton, as might be 
expected, called " a weak rhapsody." 

Under the auspices of Lady Huntingdon, a prayer- 
meeting was established for the women who, from the 
circles of rank and fashion, became the followers of 
the Lord. Among these were Lady Prances Gardiner, 
Lady Mary Hamilton, daughter of the Marquis of 



IN ENGLAND. 305 

Lothian, who had attended the ministry of Whitefield 
in Scotland, Lady Gertrude Hotham and Countess 
Delitz, sisters of Lady Chesterfield, Lady Chesterfield 
herself, and Lady Fanny Shirley. "Religion/ 7 says 
Lady Huntingdon, when writing to Doddridge, " wag 
never so much the subject of conversation as now. 
Some of the great ones hear with me the gospel pa- 
tiently, and thus much seed is sown by Mr. White- 
field's preaching. that it may fall on good ground, 
and bring forth abundantly." 

Some one, we believe a bishop, complained to 
George II. of the popularity and success of White- 
field, and entreated his majesty in some way or other 
to silejgy^iipa. The monarch, thinking, no doubt, of 
the class described by the martyr Latimer, as "un- 
preaching prelates/ 7 replied with jocose severity, " I 
believe the best way will be to make a bishop of 
him." 

But if Whitefield was honored by some of the 
great, he received from others unmingled hostility. 
Horace Walpole, the gay man, and the corrupt cour- 
tier, thought it worth while to introduce the Methodist 
preacher into his "Private Correspondence. 77 The 
statement he makes of professed facts is altogether 
incredible, but shows unmistakably the spirit of the 
writer. "The apostle Whitefield is come to some 
shame. He went to Lady Huntingdon lately, and 
asked for forty pounds for some distressed saint or 
other. She said she had not so much money in the 
house, but would give it him the first time she had. 
He was very pressing, but in vain. At last he said, 
* There 7 s your watch and trinkets, you don 7 t want 



/ 



30$ GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

such vanities ; I will have that.' She would have put 
him off ; but he persisting, she said, ' Well, if you must 
have it, you must.' About a fortnight afterwards, 
going to his house, and being carried into his wife's 
chamber, among the paraphernalia of the latter the 
countess found her own offering. This has made a 
terrible schism ; she tells the story herself. I had 
not it from Saint Frances, [Lady Fanny Shirley,] but 
I hope it is true." Every thing goes to prove the 
sincerity of his hope, though founded on falsehood. 

It has generally happened that the most effective 
public^gal^s, whether secular or sacred, have been 
U accused by a fastidious class with vulgqri^g. So with 
\ Cicero, Burke, and Chatham ; so with Patrick Henry 
J and Daniel Webster ; and to turn to eminent preach- 
ers, so with Luther, Latimer, and Whitefield. The 
reason was, that intent on the greatest good to the 
greatest number, they used what Dr. Johnson, after 
Daniel Burgess, called "market language." Dr. Will- 
iam Bates, an accomplished and courtly non-conform- 
ist minister, in the seventeenth century, once com- 
plained in the presence of his faithful but unpolished 
friend Daniel Burgess, that he found very little suc- 
. cess in his work as a minister ; when his aged brother 
smartly replied, " Thank youjyjg^t mouth for that — 
too fine to speak market language." Whitefield, very 
happily for thousands, had no squeamishness of this 
sort. 

Some ladies called one Saturday morning to pay a 
visit to Lady Huntingdon, and during the interview, 
her ladyship inquired of them if they had ever heard 
Mr. Whitefield preach. On being answered in the 



IN ENGLAND. 307 

negative, she said, " I wish you would hear him ; he 
is to preach to-morrow evening. 77 They promised her 
ladyship they would certainly attend. They fulfilled 
their promise ; and when they called on her ladyship 
the next Monday morning, she anxiously inquired if 
they had heard Mr. Whitefield on the previous even- 
ing, and how they liked him. The reply was, " Oh, 
my lady, of all the preachers we ever heard, he is the 
most strange and unacQQjyuakMai Among other pre- 
posterous things, would your ladyship believe it, he 
declared that Jesus Christ was so willing to receive 
sinners, that he did not object to receive even the 
devil 7 s castaways ! Now, my lady, did you ever hear 
of such a thing since you were born ? 77 Her ladyship, 
in reply, said, " There is something, I acknowledge, a 
little singular in the invitation, and I do not recollect 
to have met with it before ; but as Mr. Whitefield is 
below in the parlor, we will have him up, and let him 
answer for himself. 77 

On Mr. Whitefield 7 s entering the drawing-room, 
Lady Huntingdon said, " Sir, these ladies have been 
preferring a very heavy charge against you, and I 
thought it best that you should come up and defend 
yourself. They say, that in your sermon last evening, 
in speaking of the willingness of Jesus Christ to re- 
ceive sinners, you said, that ' so ready was Christ to 
receive sinners who came to him, that he was willing 
to receive even the devil's castaways. 7 77 Mr. White- 
field immediately replied, " I certainly, my lady, must 
plead guilty to the charge ; whether I did what was 
right, or otherwise, your ladyship shall judge when 
you have heard a fact. Did your ladyship notice, 



308 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

about half an hour ago, a very modest single rap at 
the door ? It was given by a poor, miserable looking 
aged female, who requested to speak with me. 1 de- 
sired that she might be shown into the parlor, when 
she thus addressed me : ' I believe, sir, you preached 
last evening at such a chapel. 7 ' Yes, I did. 7 ' Ah, 
sir, I was accidentally passing the door of that chapel, 
and hearing the voice of some one preaching, I did 
what I have never been in the habit of doing — I went 
in ; and one of the first things I heard you say, was, 
that Jesus Christ was so willing to receive sinners, 
that he did not object to receive the devil 7 s castaways. 
Do you think, sir, that Jesus Christ would receive me? 7 
I answered her that there was not a doubt of it, if she 
was but willing to go to him. 77 

It is pleasant to add, that the impression conveyed 
in the singular language of Mr. Whitefield ended in 
the conversion of the poor woman to God. She gave 
satisfactory evidence that her great and numerous sins 
had been forgiven through the atonement of the Lord 
Jesus Christ. Was Mr. Whitefield to be censured for 
the use of this language ? 

In September, 1748, Mr. Whitefield made his third 
visit to Scotland, where he met with a cordial wel- 
come, and where his labors became increasingly val- 
ued. Some of the clergy at Glasgow, Perth, and 
Edinburgh used their influence to exclude him from 
the pulpits, but the majority voted in his favor ; and 
a full examination vindicated his character, and made 
his excellences more generally known. All the min- 
isters who were disposed to invite him to preach, were 
at liberty to do so, except in the presbytery of Edin- 



IN ENGLAND. 309 

burgh ; here, however, he was accommodated by the 
magistrates with a church to preach in whenever he 
visited the city. In Scotland he now warmly advo- 
cated the cause of the college in New Jersey : of the 
results of his labors we shall hear more hereafter. 

On his return to London, Whitefield resumed his 
preaching at Lady Huntingdon's to " the great ones/ 7 
as he calls them. Thirty, and sometimes even sixty 
persons of rank attended, although the newgpjtjoers 
gave false and degrading accounts of the reception he 
met with in Scotland. He now availed himself of the 
influence he possessed, to forward his intended college, 
in addition to his orphan-house, for which his plea 
was, " If some such thing be not done, I cannot see 
how the southern parts will be provided with minis- 
ters ; for all are afraid to go over." On this ground 
he appealed to the trustees of Georgia ; reminding 
them that he had expended five thousand pounds upon 
the orphan-house ; begging them to relieve it, as a 
charitable institution, from all quit-rent and taxes; 
and especially to allow him the labor of blacks in cul- 
tivating the farm. " White hands," he said, " had left 
his tract of land uncultivated." 

It will not be expected that Whitefield could stay 
long, even in the courtly circles of London, where he 
met with so much acceptance. We very soon find him 
among his old friends at Gloucester and Bristol. The 
bishop of the latter see, he says, behaved very respect- 
fully to him ; he visited also his old tutor, now be- 
come one of the prebendaries, and met with the old 
kindness received at Oxford. " I told him, that my 
judgment, as I trust, was a little more ripened than it 



310 GEORGE WHITEFIELT). 

was some years ago ; and that as fast as I found out 
my faults, I should be glad to acknowledge them. 
He said the offence of the governors of the church 
would wear off as I grew moderate" The evangelist 

o o 

did not tell the doctor how little he cared for such 
moderation as the governors of the church in that day 
required ; but he wrote to Lady Huntingdon, on the 

| subject of their favor, " I am pretty easy about that. 
If I can but act an honest part, and be kept from 
trimming, I leave all consequences to Him who orders 

Rail things well. 77 During this journey, many new con- 
verts were won. One of these was a counsellor, who 
was so much affected, that his zeal in inviting others 
to hear Whitefield led his wife to suspect him of 
madness. 

An interesting fact connected with Gloucester- 
shire, his native county, may be introduced in this 
place, though we are not sure that it occurred during 
this journey. John Skinner of Houndscroft was a 
strolling fiddler, going from fair to fair, supplying 
music to any party that would hire him. Having 
determined to interrupt Mr. Whitefield while preach- 
ing, he obtained a standing on a ladder raised to a 
window near the pulpit. Here he remained a quiet, 
if not an attentive hearer, till the text was read, when 
he intended to begin his annoying exercise on the vio- 
lin. It pleased God, however, while he was putting 
his instrument in tune, to convey the word preached 
with irresistible power to his soul ; his attention was 
diverted from his original purpose, he heard the whole 
sermon, and became a new man. 

Happily Whitefield was blessed in bringing to 



IN ENGLAND. 311 

Christ many who were made eminently useful. Among 
others we might mention the late Rev. Cornelius 
Winter, an eminent minister, who afterwards accom- 
panied our evangelist in his last voyage to America, 
and who after his death conveyed his will to Eng- 
land, and sought ordination to return and labor in 
Georgia. Disappointed in this, he became an able 
and successful minister in England ; and also trained 
several young men for the Christian ministry, in- 
cluding the late celebrated "William Jay of Bath. 
Whitefield had often been heard by Winter with 
great pleasure, for he admired his eloquence ; but for 
some time no good effects were apparent. One night, 
while playing at cards, an amusement in which he 
much delighted, and though surrounded by a number 
of gay companions, the thought presented itself to 
Winter's mind that he might that evening hear his 
favorite preacher. He broke off from play in the 
midst of the game, which made his companions very 
angry, as they suspected where he was going. He 
tells us that it was a night much to be remembered. 
He had reason to hope the scales of ignorance were 
then removed from his eyes, he had a sense of his 
misery as a sinner, and was led to earnest inquiry 
after the way of salvation. It is scarcely necessary 
to say, that he never again played at cards. 

From the exhilarating scenes of Gloucestershire 
and Bristol, we must accompany Whitefield into Corn- 
wall, among the glens and dales of which, or on 
the seaside to a somewhat similar population and 
with almost equal success, he spoke " all the words of 
this life." The robust and determined miners of the 



312 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

west of England, whose very employment gives hardi- 
hood alike to their character and frame, at first re- 
ceived him in somewhat rough and unpolished style, 
but were soon after melted and transformed by the 
grace which had displayed its triumphs among their 
brethren at Kingswood. "I am just returned," he 
writes on one occasion, " from near the Land's End, 
where thousands and thousands heard the gospel glad- 
ly. Everywhere the word of God has run and been 
glorified. Every day I have been travelling and 
preaching ; and could I Stay a month, it might be 
spent to great advantage. At a place called Port 
Isaac, the Redeemer's stately steps were indeed seen. 
At Camelford I preached with great quietness in the 
streets. At St. Ann's we had a very powerful season ; 
and yesterday at Redruth several thousands attended, 
and the word was quick and powerful." Again he 
writes, " Immediately after writing my last, I preach- 
ed to many thousands at a place called Gwennap. 
The rain descended, but the grace of God seemed to 
fall like a gentle dew, sprinkling rain upon our souls. 
It was indeed a fine spring shower. In the evening 
I rode to St. Ives, and preached to many who gladly 
attended to hear the word ; a great power seemed to 
accompany it. On the Lord's day I preached twice 
to great auditories. On Monday I preached again at 
Redruth, at ten in the morning, to nearly, as they 
were computed, ten thousand souls. Arrows of con- 
viction seemed to fly fast." Again, in a communica- 
tion to the Countess of Huntingdon, he says, " I have 
been very near the Land's End, and everywhere souls 
have fled to hear the word preached, 'like doves to 



IN ENGLAND. 313 

their windows. 7 The harvest is great, yea, very great, 
but laborers are few. that the Lord of the harvest 
would thrust out more laborers." And yet again he 
says, " Invitations are sent to me from Falmouth and 
several other places, but I cannot attend to them all 
at present. I want more tongues, more bodies, more 
souls, for the Lord Jesus. Had I ten thousand, he 
should have them all." Such was the noble spirit he 
displayed, and such were the manner and fruits of his 
" entering in among" the, at that time, benighted chil- 
dren of Cornwall. A great light shone upon them. 
They came from the caverns of the earth to welcome 
its rising, and to look Upon its brightness. Thousands 
of them were indeed " brought out of darkness into 
marvellous light," and turned by it from sin to holi- 
ness, and from Satan to God ; and thousands are still 
rejoicing in its beams. 

On his return to London, Whitefield found his 
assemblies at the countess's " brilliant indeed," and 
Lord Bolingbroke still one among them. Of this tal- 
ented nobleman our evangelist at this time indulged 
a happy hope, which, alas, seems never to have been 
realized. 

In February, 1749, Whitefield made an excursion 
to Exeter and Plymouth, where he was agreeably sur- 
prised to find a great alteration had taken place since 
his preceding visit, five years before. He loved to 
" range," as he called it, " after precious souls," and 
happily for him and for others he found them. Dur- 
ing this and subsequent visits to Plymouth, he resided 
with the Rev. Andrew Kinsman, an excellent Congre- 
gational minister, of whom we have already spoken. 

Whit 14 



314 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

He was born in Devonshire in 1724, and was there- 
fore ten years younger than Whitefield. While pecul- 
iarly amiable in his manners, and remarkable for his 
regard to his parents, he was unacquainted with the 
religion of the heart till his seventeenth year, when he 
Imet with a volume of Mr. Whitefield's sermons, and 
one of those on the naw^Wrtti alarmed him. His 
pious friends were few, but his religious feelings were 
deeply moved, and God at length gave him " the oil 
of joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the 
spirit of heaviness." Concerned for the highest inter- 
ests of his relatives, he one night, as the family were 
retiring to rest, broke out, with intense emotion, " What, 
shall we go to bed without prayer ? How do we know 
but some of us may awake in hell before morning?" 
This unexpected address struck the family with solemn 
awe ; and while they looked at each other with con- 
scious shame, for the neglect of so clear a duty, he 
fell upon his knees and prayed with so much readi- 
ness and fervor that it excited their astonishment. 

As might be expected, his concern for others did 
not stop here ; he was anxious that his neighbors 
might also find " the unsearchable riches of Christ." 
He began, therefore, to read Whitefield's sermons to 
as many as would attend, supposing, with Melancthon, 
that what had proved so great a blessing to himself, 
would not fail of similar effects on others, as soon as 
they were heard. After a short time, he began him- 
self to expound and preach, and was encouraged by 
many conversions under his ministry, including those 
of his father, mother, and three sisters. Not long 
after these events, Whitefield, in entering on one of 



IN ENGLAND 315 

his voyages to America, had been compelled to stay 
at Plymouth, where Kinsman first saw and heard him. 
By a series of remarkable events, Mr. Kinsman was 
brought to settle as a minister at Plymouth, where 
the "Tabernacle" was erected on ground given by 
himself, and the congregation were served by him and 
other ministers with abundant success. In the whole 
neighborhood an extraordinary blessing attended his 
labors, and his usefulness and deliverances from dan- 
ger were only second to those of Whitefield himself. 
Nor was he less respected, nor his ministry attended 
with less success, at Bristol and London — cities to 
which he was invited by Whitefield; who used to 
call Bristol " Kinsman's Jlmerica" alluding to his own 
reception and success in the western world. 

On one occasion, when Whitefield was about to 
sail for America, he sent for Kinsman to London, and 
on his arrival dined with his distinguished friend at 
the Tabernacle house. After dinner there was a vio- 
lent storm of thunder and lightning. As they stood at 
the window looking out on the raging elements, Mr. 
Kinsman, supposing a young clergyman who had dined 
with them, and who now stood by his side, to be a 
pious man, familiarly put his hand on his shoulder, 
and with great cheerfulness and energy repeated the 
lines of Dr. Watts : 

" The God who rules on high, 
And thunders when he please ; 
Who rides upon the stormy sky, 
And manages the seas — 
This awful God is ours, 
Our Father, and our love !" 



316 GEORGE WHITEFIELD 

The words so appropriately introduced, and so 
emphatically spoken, made a deep impression on the 
mind of the young clergyman, and gave rise to a con- 
versation which, by the blessing of God, led to his 
conversion. 

At the Tabernacle in London, the ministry of Mr. 
Kinsman was greatly distinguished for its excellence 
and success, and he thought himself highly honored in 
preaching the first sermon delivered from the pulpit 
of the present Tabernacle. His musical voice, his 
lively and pathetic address, and the richness of the 
evangelical truths he proclaimed, brought numbers ol 
all classes of society to hear him. Among them was 
Shuter, the comedian, to whom we shall again refer 
as a hearer of Whitefield, and who years afterwards, 
in an interview with Kinsman, drew a striking con- 
trast between their professions, and bitterly lamented 
that he had not cordially embraced religion, when his 
conscience was impressed under the preaching of the 
great evangelist. 

But we must not stay longer to speak of Kinsman ; 
suffice it to say that he founded, in addition to Plym- 
outh, a new church three miles from thence, at a place 
now called Devonport, and labored with energy and 
holy success till the sixty-ninth year of his age, when he 
died in triumph, February 28, 1793. Of such a man 
it was truly said, that for Whitefield " he retained the 
most filial affection to his dying day ; and frequently 
travelled with, and consulted him as a father upon all 
his religious concerns." 

In March Whitefield returned to London, where 
the feeble state of his health made him feel weary 



IN ENGLAND. 317 

even in his success. He says, " I have seen enough of 
popularity to be sick of it, and did not the interest of 
my blessed Master require my appearing in public, 
the world should hear but little of me henceforward. 77 
Yet his zeal abated not. " I dread the thoughts of 
flagging in the latter stages of my road, 77 is an expres- 
sion often used in his letters to his friends. He 
thought that preaching and travelling contributed to 
his health. In a letter to Hervey, he says, "Fear not 
your weak body, we are immortal till our work is 
done. Christ 7 s laborers must live by miracle ; if not, 
I must not live at all, for God only knows what I 
daily endure. My continual vomitings almost kill 
me, and yet the pulpit is my cure ; so that my friends 
begin to pity me less, and to leave off that ungrateful 
caution, i Spare thyself. 7 I speak this to encourage 

you." 

All this Whitefield meant. Hence in May we find 
him preaching at Portsmouth daily, for more than a 
week, to very large and attentive auditories ; where 
was shown another remarkable instance of the power 
which attended his preaching, for many who a few 
days before were speaking all manner of evil against 
him, were very desirous of his longer stay to preach 
the gospel among them. From Bristol, June 24, he 
writes, " Yesterday God brought me here, after a cir- 
cuit of about eight hundred miles, and enabled me to 
preach to, I suppose, upwards of a hundred thousand 
souls. I have been in eight Welsh counties, and I 
think we have not had one dry meeting. The work 
in Wales is much upon the advance, and likely to 
increase daily. 77 



318 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

Whitefield returned to London to welcome his 
wife home from the Bermuda Islands. From her he 
learned that there his character had been aspersed by 
one of the clergy ; but while he grieved over the fact, 
he said, " I am content to wait till the day of judgment 
for the clearing up of my character ; and after I am 
lead, I desire no other epitaph than this, ' Here lies 
George Whitefield. What sort of a man he was, the 
great day wiiUig£8££X. ? " 

In the midst of his sorrows, Whitefield was com- 
forted by a visit from two German ministers, who had 
been laboring among the Jews with apparently happy 
results. He found also several of the peeresses, and 
others of "the great," cordially disposed to receive 
him ; and shortly afterwards was visited by Mr. Grim- 
shaw, a clergyman from Yorkshire, for whom in Sep- 
tember he went to preach. Thousands in the village of 
Haworth attended his preaching, even ten thousand at 
a time, and a thousand communicants approached the 
table of the Lord. At Leeds also he preached, at the 
invitation of Mr. Wesley's people, to ten thousand 
persons, and Mr. Charles Wesley himself introduced 
him to the pulpit at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 

In the north of England the visits of Mr. White- 
field were always looked for with intense interest. In 
one of his letters, he thus describes the state of things 
there in August, 1756 : " It is now a fortnight since I 
came to Leeds, in and about which I preached eight 
days successively, three times almost every day, to 
thronged and affected auditories. On Sunday last at 
Bradford, in the morning, the audience consisted of 
above ten thousand ; at noon, and in the evening, at 



IN ENGLAND. 819 

Birstal, of nearly double that number. Though hoarse, 
I was able to speak so that they all heard." These 
hallowed services were often spoken of by the late 
Rev. Dr. John Fawcett, for more than half a century 
an eminent Baptist minister of that neighborhood, to 
whose soul they proved a rich blessing. After hav- 
ing heard Whitefield at Bradford in the morning, he 
followed him to Birstal, where a platform was erected 
at the foot of a hill adjoining the town, whence Mr. 
Whitefield addressed an immense concourse of people, 
not fewer, it was believed, than twenty thousand, who 
were ranged before him on the declivity in the form 
of an amphitheatre. " I lay/ 7 says Fawcett, " under 
the scaffold, and it appeared as if all his words were 
addressed to me, and as if he had known my most 
secret thoughts from ten years of age. As long as 
life remains, I shall remember both the text and the 
sermon." Accustomed as he was to preach to large 
and promiscuous multitudes, when he looked on this 
vast assemblage, and was about to mount the tempo- 
rary stage, he expressed to his surrounding friends a 
considerable feeling of timidity ; but when he began 
to speak, an unusual solemnity pervaded the assembly, 
and thousands, in the course of the sermon, as was 
often the fact, gave vent to their emotions by tears 
and groans. Fools who came to mock, began to pray, 
and to cry out, "What must we do to be saved?" 

Mr. Shirley, in giving an account of this same ser- 
vicer tells us that " not only the field, but the wood- 
lands about it, were covered with crowds collected 
from different parts. An unusual solemnity pervaded 
this vast multitude, and at the close of the service the 



.')20 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

one hundredth psalm was sung, and concluded with 
Mr. Grimshaw's favorite doxology, 

"'Praise God, from whom all blessings flow.' 

The volume of sound produced by the united voices 
of thousands; while it reechoed through the vale be- 
low, had such an effect as no language can describe. 7 ' 

Mr. Grimshaw was a very remarkable clergyman 
connected with the church of England, though found 
fault with on account of his irregularity. He studied 
at Cambridge for the ministry before he was acquaint- 
ed with the reality of true religion. His conversion 
was very striking ; after which he became a remarka- 
bly faithful and pungent preacher. He settled at 
Haworth, in Yorkshire, where Mr. Whitefield visited 
him. 

In one of the services held by Mr. Whitefield in 
Yorkshire, a deep solemnity was created by providen- 
tial circumstances. He had mounted the temporary 
scaffold to address the thousands before him. Cast- 
ing a look over the multitude, he elevated his hands, 
and in an energetic manner implored the divine pres- 
ence and blessing. With a sgbiflnjfy peculiarly his 
own, he then announced his text, "It is appointed 
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.' 7 
Heb. 11 : 27. After a short pause, as he was about 
to proceed, a wild, terrifying shriek issued from the 
centre of the congregation. A momentary alarm and 
confusion ensued. Mr. Whitefield waited to ascertain 
the cause, and requested the people to remain stilt. 
Mr. Grimshaw hurried to the spot, and in a few min- 
utes was seen pressing towards the place where Mr. 



IN ENGLAND. 321 

Whitefield stood. "Brother Whitefield," said he, 
manifesting in the strongest manner the intensity of 
his feelings, and the ardor of his concern for the sal- 
vation of sinners, "you stand among the dead and the 
dying. An immortal soul has been called into eter- 
nity ; the destroying angel is passing over the con- 
gregation; cry aloud, and spare not." The awful 
occurrence was speedily announced to the congrega- 
tion. After the lapse of a few moments, Mr. White- 
field again announced his text. Again a loud and 
piercing shriek proceeded from the spot near where 
Lady Huntingdon and Lady Margaret Ingham were 
standing. A thrill of horror seemed to escape from 
the multitude when it was understood that a second 
person had fallen a victim to the king of terrors. 
When the consternation had somewhat subsided, Mr. 
Whitefield gave indications of proceeding with the 
service. The excited feelings of many were wound up 
to their highest point. All was hushed ; not a sound 
was to be heard ; and a stillness like the awful silence 
of death spread over the assembly, as he proceeded in 
melting strains to warn the careless, Christless sinner 
to " flee from the wrath to come." 

As winter was now approaching, Whitefield felt it 
important to return to the metropolis. During the 
tour he had made, he won to Christ not a few of those 
who afterwards laid the foundations of churches now 
flourishing in the counties of Lancaster, York, and 
Northumberland. He met, however, with so much 
"rude treatment here and there, as sent him home 
praying, 'Lord, give me a pilgrim heart for my pil- 
grim life.' " He was now in " winter quarters," but 

14* 



322 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

was neither idle nor useless. To use his own words, 
" The glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, and the 
shout of a king was in the camp," and that from week 
to week. " Thousands, thousands crowded to hear. 77 
Every day also he heard of instances of conversion. 
One of these pleased him greatly. It was that of a 
boatswain, who, before hearing him, knew no more 
about divine truth "than the whistle he blew on 
board./ 7 He mentions also a boy eleven years of age, 
a woman of eighty, and a baker, who had been " a 
Jerusalem sinner, 77 all of whom bowed before the 
cross, and placed their hopes of salvation on Him 
who died thereon. 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 323 



CHAPTER XII. 

LABORS IN GREAT BRITAIN-FOURTH VISIT TO 
AMERICA— NEW TABERNACLE IN LONDON, AND 
TABERNACLE AT BRISTOL. 
1750-1754. 

At the beginning of the year 1750, Whitefield was 
still in London. At this time his intended college at 
Bethesda occupied much of his attention. He wrote 
to his friends in every quarter for help. His usual 
appeal was, "We propose having an academy or col- 
lege at the orphan-house. The house is large, and 
will hold a hundred. My heart, I trust, is larger, and 
will hold ten thousand." Though in London, his 
heart was in America. He says, " Ranging seems my 
province ; and methinks I hear a voice behind me say- 
ing, l This is the way, walk in it.' My heart echoes 
back, 'Lord, let thy presence go with me, and then 
send me where thou pleasest.' In the midst of all, 
America, dear America, is not forgotten. I begin to 
count the days, and to say to the months, ' Fly fast 
away, that I may spread the gospel-net once more in 
dear America/ " 

Be it here mentioned, that amid the busy scenes 
of his life, and while surrounded with the flatteries of 
the great and noble, Whitefield did not forget the 
duties he owed to his mother. A person whom he had 
employed to obtain some comforts for her, had neg- 
lected the duty, so that the now aged matron might 



324 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

have felt a week's anxiety. He wrote to her, "I 
should never forgive myself, was I, by negligence or 
any wrong conduct, to give you a moment's needless 
pain. Alas, how little have I done for you. Christ's 
care for his mother excites me to wish I could do any 
thing for you. If you would have any thing more 
brought, pray write, honored mother. * * * To- 
morrow it will be thirty-Jive years since you brought 
unworthy me into the world. that my head were 
waters, and mine eyes fomr^y^gf tears, thatl^jmrght 
bewail my barrenness and unfruitfulness in the church 
of God." 

While he was now fully engaged in preaching, and 
was surrounded with flatteries, he did not forget his 
duty to conflict with sin. He writes, "I find a love 
of power sometimes intoxicates even God's dear chil- 
dren. It is much easier for me to obey than govern. 
This makes me fly from that which, at our first setting 
out, we are apt to court. I cannot well buy humility 
at too dqaxji^rj^g.'' 

Dr. Philip Doddridge, as every reader knows, was 
one of the most pious and accomplished preachers and 
writers of the Non-conformists of England in his day. 
Nor was his missionary zeal small in its degree. 
Though he died as early as 1751, he had said, "I am 
now intent on having something done among the dis- 
senters, in a more public manner, for propagating the 
gospel abroad, which lies near my heart. I wish to 
live to see this design brought into execution, at least 
into some forwardness, and then I should die the more 
cheerfully." It was indeed the passion of his life to 
promote the interests of evangelical truth, and save 



DR. DODDRIDGE. 325 

the souls of men. And though, as his recent eulogist, 
the Rev. John Stoughton, has said, condemned by 
some, and suspected by others for so doing, he took a 
deep and sympathetic interest in the evangelical la- 
bors of Whitefield. It seems 4 strange in our day to 
think of Whitefield being regarded as an enthusiast 
by orthodox dissenters. Yet there were those who 
did thus regard him. Bradbury poured on him streams 
of wit ; Barker regarded his sermons as low and 
coarse ; and another in writing calls him " honest, 
crazy, confident Mr. Whitefield. 77 But Doddridge 
regarded him as far otherwise, and spoke of him as 
"a flaming servant of Christ. 77 He prayed on one 
occasion at the Tabernacle, but Dr. Watts was much 
grieved by it ; and when, on Whitefield 7 s visiting 
Northampton, Doddridge gave him the use of his 
pulpit, the managers of the college of which he was 
president remonstrated with him for so doing. 

The visit of Whitefield to Doddridge was in Feb- 
ruary, 1750, where he met with the Rev. Dr. Sir James 
Stonehouse, and the Rev. Messrs. Hartley and Hervey. 
The latter eminent clergyman thus writes : " I have 
lately seen that most excellent minister of the ever- 
blessed Jesus, Mr. Whitefield. I dined, supped, and 
spent the evening with him at Northampton, in com- 
pany with Dr. Doddridge, and two pious, ingenious 
clergyman of the church of England, both of them 
known to the learned world by their valuable writ- 
ings. And surely I never spent a more delightful 
evening, or saw one that seemed to make nearer 
approaches to the felicity of heaven. A gentleman of 
great worth and rank in the town invited us to his 



326 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

house, and gave us an elegant treat ; but how mean 
was his provision, how coarse his delicacies, compared 
with the fruit of my friend's lips : they dropped as 
honey from the honey-comb, and were a. well of life. 
Surely people do not know that amiable and exem- 
plary man, or else, I cannot but think, instead of 
depreciating, they would applaud and love him. For 
my part, I never beheld so fair a copy of our Lord, 
such a living image of the Saviour, such exalted de- 
light in God, such enlarged benevolence to man, such 
a steady faith in the divine promises, and such a fer- 
vent zeal for the divine glory ; and all this without 
the least moroseness of humor, or extravagance of 
behavior, sweetened with the most engaging cheerful- 
ness of temper, and regulated by all the sobriety of 
reason and wisdom of Scripture ; insomuch that I 
cannot forbear applying the wise man's encomium of 
an illustrious woman to this eminent minister of the 
everlasting gospel : ' Many sons have done virtuously, 
but thou excellest them all.' " 

In the month of March, 1750, a general alarm had 
been awakened by earthquakes in London, and fears 
were excited by pretended prophecies of still greater 
devastation. These signal judgments of Jehovah 
were preceded by great profligacy of manners, and its 
fruitful parent, licentiousness of principle. Dr. Home, 
afterwards dean of Canterbury and bishop of Bristol, 
in a sermon preached at the time, says, " As to faith, 
is not the doctrine of the Trinity, and that of the divin- 
ity of our Lord and Saviour — without which our re- 
demption is absoluteh^yoid, and we are yet in our 
sins, lying under the intolerable burden of the wrath 



EARTHQUAKE IN LONDON. 32? 

of God — blasphemed and ridiculed openly in conver- 
sation and in print ? And as to righteousness of life, 
are not the people of this land dead in trespasses and 
sins? Idleness, drunkenness, luxury, extravagance, 
and debauchery ; for these things cometh the wrath 
of God, and disordered nature proclaims the impend- 
ing distress and perplexity of nations. And Oh, may 
we of this nation never read a handwriting upon the 
wall of heaven, in illuminated capitals of the Almigh- 
ty, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin — God hath num- 
bered the kingdom, and finished it. Thou art weigh- 
ed in the balances of heaven, and found wanting the 
merits of a rejected Redeemer, and therefore the king- 
dom is divided and given away." 

The shocks felt in London in February and March 
of this year, were far more violent than any remem- 
bered for a long series of years. The earth moved 
throughout the whole cities of London and West- 
minster. It was a strong and jarring motion, attend- 
ed with a rumbling noise like that of thunder. Multi- 
tudes of persons of every class fled from these cities 
with the utmost haste, and others repaired to the 
fields and open places in the neighborhood. Tower- 
hill, Moorfields, and Hyde Park were crowded with 
men, women, and children, who remained a whole 
night under the most fearful apprehensions. Places 
of worship were filled with persons in the utmost 
state of alarm. Especially was this the case with 
those attached to Methodist congregations, where 
multitudes came all night, knocking at the doors, and 
for God's sake begging admittance. As convulsions 
of nature are usually regarded by enthusiasts and 



328 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

fanatics as the sure harbinger of its dissolution, a 
soldier " had a revelation/ 7 that a great part of Lon- 
don and Westminster would be destroyed by an earth- 
quake on a certain night, between the hours of twelve 
and one o'clock. Believing his assertion, thousands 
fled from the city for fear of being suddenly over- 
whelmed, and repaired to the fields, where they con- 
tinued all night, in momentary expectation of seeing 
the prophecy fulfilled ; while thousands of others ran 
about the streets in the most wild and frantic state 
of consternation, apparently quite certain that the 
day of judgment was about to commence. The whole 
scene was truly awful. 

Under these circumstances, the ministers of Christ 
preached almost incessantly, and many were awakened 
to a sense of their awful condition before God, and to 
rest their hopes of eternal salvation on the Rock of 
ages. Mr. Whitefield, animated with that burning 
charity which shone so conspicuously in him, ventured 
out at midnight to Hyde Park, where he proclaimed 
to the affrighted and astonished multitudes that there 
is a Saviour, Christ the Lord. The darkness of the 
night, and the awful apprehensions of an approaching 
earthquake, added much to the solemnity of the scene. 
The sermon was truly sublime, and to the ungodly 
sinner, the self-righteous pharisee, and the artful hyp- 
ocrite, strikingly terrific. With a pathos which show- 
ed the fervor of his soul, and with a grand majestic 
voice that commanded attention, he took occasion from 
the circumstances of the assembly, to call their atten- 
tion to that most important event in which every one 
will be interested, the final consummation of all things, 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 329 

the universal wreck of nature, the dissolution of earth, 
and the eternal sentence of every son and daughter of 
Adam. The whole scene was one of a most memora- 
ble character. Mr. Charles Wesley, Mr. Romaine, 
and others preached in a similar manner, and witl 
like happy results. 

At this period, Whitefield and his female friends 
especially, were the subjects of royal attention at the 
court of George the Second. It is said that on one 
occasion Lady Chesterfield appeared in a dress "with 
a brown ground and silver flowers," of foreign manu- 
facture. The king, smiling significantly, said to her 
aloud, " I know who chose that gown for you — Mr. | 
Whitefield ; I hear you have ^ttfindgd on him for a | 
year and a half." Her ladyship acknowledged she | 
had done so, and professed her approbation of his ' 
character and ministry ; and afterwards deeply re- 
gretted that she had not said more when she had so 
good an opportunity. Whitefield had occasion to 
wait on the secretary of state, in company with Dr. 
Gifford, a Baptist pastor in London, to ask relief for 
some persecuted Christians in Ireland, and was assured 
that "no hurt was designed by the state to the Meth- 
odists." He also renewed his friendship with the 
Messrs. Wesley, and several times exchanged pulpits 
with them. He writes, " I have now preached thrice 
in Mr. Wes ley's chape l, and God was with us of a 
truth." 

Again was our evangelist tired of London, and 
again had he grown sick for want of field-preaching. 
Accordingly he set out for Bristol tnd other parts of 
the west of England ; and although rain and hail pelt- 



330 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

ed hini in his field-pulpits, he preached " about twenty 
times in eight or nine days. 77 As soon as he found 
himself in his own element, he saw every thing in his 
old lights. He says, " Every thing I meet with seems 
to carry this voice with it : 'Go thou and preach the 
gospel ; be a pilgrim on earth ; have no party, or 
certain dwelling-place. 7 My heart echoes back, ' Lord 
Jesus, help me to do or suffer thy will. When thou 
seest me in danger of nestling, in pity, in tender pity 
put a thorn in my nest, to prevent me from it. 77 

From Bristol, Whitefield went to Taunton, where 
he met with the Rev. Richard Pearsall, an eminent 
and excellent Presbyterian minister, of whom he 
speaks very highly ; and from thence, on his way to 
Plymouth, he stayed at Wellington, to preach for the 
Rev. Risdon Darracott, who has ever since been distin- 
guished as " the star in the west. 77 Mr. Darracott was 
the son of a dissenting minister in Dorsetshire, where 
he was born in 1717, when Whitefield was three years 
old. He studied for the ministry under the Rev. Dr. 
Doddridge, at Northampton, and entered on his min- 
isterial course in Cornwall in 1738, which situation 
he was most reluctantly compelled to leave two years 
afterwards from violent hemorrhage of the lungs. 
Under this alarming visitation he spent about six 
months with his friends in Devonshire, where his fer- 
vent-minded father had preached till his death at the 
age of forty. While here, he had a call to succeed a 
venerable minister at Wellington, who had recently 
deceased. He found the congregation small, and the 
number of communicants but twenty-eight. His min- 
istry soon drew a large congregation, many of whom 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 331 

had never before made a profession of religion, and 
were first attracted into the town from the neighbor- 
ing villages out of mere curiosity to hear him. The 
house of worship was soon insufficient to contain his 
hearers ; and even when it was enlarged, many were 
frequently compelled to stand out of doors, unable to 
obtain an entrance. The Kev. Benjamin Fawcett, who 
preached his funeral sermon, said, " I never knew any 
congregation which appeared to have so many in- 
stances of abiding religious impressions f and added, 
" I have good reason to believe that his ministry was 
owned to the effectual conversion of many hundreds 
of souls." 

The night before the death of this excellent man, 
which took place in his forty-second year, he exclaim- 
ed, " Oh, what a good God have I, in and through 
Jesus Christ. I would praise him, but my lips can- 
not. Eternity will be too short to speak his praises." 
The physician coming in, he said to him, " Oh, what a 
mercy is it to be interested in the atoning blood of I 
Jesus. I come to the Lord as a vile sinner, trusH 
ing in the merits and precious blood of my dear Re-J 
deemer. grace, grace, free grace I" His last words ; 
were, " I am going from weeping friends to congratu- 
lating angels, and rejoicing saints in glory. He is 
coming. Oh, speed thy chariot wheels ; why are they 
so long in coming ? I long to be gone !" He left in 
his church more than two hundred communicants. 

Whitefield and Darracott were congenial spirits, 
and Darracott, like his friend, had suffered much re- 
proach in the cause of his Master ; he was what 
Whitefield called him, "a flaming and successful 



332 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

preacher of the gospel/ 7 He had just afc this time- 
lost three lovely children. "Two of them," says 
Whitefield, " had died on the Saturday evening be- 
fore the sacrament ; but weeping did not prevent 
sowing. He preached the next day, and administered 
as usual. Our Lord strengthened him ; and for his 
three natural, gave him above thirty spiritual chil- 
dren ; and he is likely to have many more. He has 
ventured his little all for Christ ; and last week a 
saint died who left him and his heirs two hundred 
pounds in land. Did ever any one trust in God, and 
was forsaken?" This interview with Darracott, and 
with good old Mr. Pearsall, who had been a preacher 
of righteousness before Whitefield was born, had an 
inspiring influence upon him. He says, " I began to 
take the field again at his dwelling for the spring ! 
I begin to begin to spend and be spent for Him who 
shed his own dear heart's blood for me. He makes 
ranging exceedingly pleasant. 77 

Soon after this, Whitefield went again into York- 
shire. At Rotherham he says, " Satan rallied his 
force-s. The crier was employed to give notice of a 
bear-baiting. You may guess who was the bear! 
However, I preached twice. The drum was heard, 
and several watermen attended with great staves. 
The constable was struck, and two of the mobbers 
apprehended, but rescued afterwards. 77 Sheffield and 
Leeds he found to be a new and warmer climate. 
Lancashire, however, was still but cold to him. All 
was quiet at Manchester, and he " humbly hoped some 
had enlisted, 77 but no great impression was then made. 
At Bolton, a drunkard stood up behind him to preach ; 



1JS GEEAT BRITAIN. 333 

and the wife of the man who lent him the field, twice 
attempted to stab the workman who put up the stand 
for him. This roused him, and he bore down all op- 
position by a torrent of eloquence, which quite ex 
hausted him. In the night, however, some rude fel- 
lows got into the barn and stables where his chaise 
and horses had been put, and cut them very shame- 
fully. This conduct he called, " Satan showing his 
teeth." 

To narrate the particulars of this journey would 
be little more than a repetition of scenes of insult and 
of success with which the reader has already become 
familiar. At Ulverston he says, " Satan made some 
small resistance. A clergyman, who looked more like 
a butcher than a minister, came with two others, and 
charged a constable with me ; but I never saw a poor 
creature sent off with such disgrace." 

One of the most remarkable conversions recorded 
in the history of the church occurred during this jour- 
ney by the ministry of Mr. Whitefield. The full par- 
ticulars are recorded in the Life of the Countess of 
Huntingdon, and can only be briefly mentioned here. 

In the early period of Whitefield's ministry, many 
of the taverns became places where his doctrines and 
zeal were talked of and ridiculed. A Mr. Thorpe, 
and several other young men in Yorkshire, undertook 
at one of these parties to mimic the preaching of Mr. 
Whitefield. The proposition met with applause; one 
after another stood on a table to perform his part, 
and it devolved on Mr. Thorpe to close this irrever- 
ent scene. Much elated, and confident of success, he 
exclaimed, as he ascended the table, " I shall beat you 



334 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

all." Who would have supposed that the mercy of 
God was now about to be extended to this transgres- 
sor of his law ? The Bible was handed to him ; and 
by the guidance of unerring Providence, it opened at 
Luke 13:3: " Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise 
perish." The moment he read the text his mind was 
impressed in a most extraordinary manner; he saw 
clearly the nature and importance of the subject ; and 
as he afterwards said, if he ever preached with the 
assistance of the Holy Spirit, it was at that time. His 
address produced a feeling of depression in his audi' 
tors ; and when he had finished, he instantly retired 
to weep over his sins. He soon after became asso- 
ciated with the people of God, and died a successful 
minister of Christ, at Masborough, in Yorkshire, in 
1776, about six years after the death of Mr. White- 
field. He was the father of the distinguished Rev. 
William Thorpe, of Bristol. 

Passing on to Edinburgh, Whitefield was, as usual, 
received with the most unfeigned tenderness and joy, 
preaching to great multitudes of attentive and serious 
people, whose earnest desire to hear him made him 
exert himself beyond his strength. He says, "By 
preaching always twice, once thrice, and once four 
times in a day, I am quite weakened ; but I hope to 
recruit again. Christ's presence makes me smile at 
pain." He returned to London, having preached 
about one hundred times, it was believed to not less 
than one hundred thousand people. 

Among the occasional hearers of Whitefield when 
in Scotland, was the celebrated infidel historian, Da- 
vid Hume. An intimate friend having asked him 



IN IRELAND. 335 

wnat he thought of Mr. Whitefield 7 s preaching, he 
replied, "He is, sir, the most ingenious, preacher I 
ever heard ; it is worth while to go twenty miles to 
hear him. 77 He then repeated the following passage, 
which occurred towards the close of the discourse he 
had been hearing. "After a solemn pause, Mr. White- 
field thus addressed his numerous audience : ' The at- 
tendant angel is just about to leave the threshold, and 
ascend to heaven. And shall he ascend, and not bear 
with him the news of one sinner, among all this mul- 
titude, reclaimed from the error of his ways? 7 To 
give the greater effect to this exclamation, he stamped 
with his foot, lifted up his eyes and hands to heaven, 
and with gushing tears cried aloud, l Stop, Gabriel ! 
stop, Gabriel! stop, ere you enter the sacred portals, 
and yet carry with you the news of one sinner con- 
verted to God. 7 He then, in the most simple but en- 
ergetic language, described what he called a Saviour 7 s 
dying love to sinful man, so that almost the whole as- 
sembly melted into tears. This address was accom- 
panied with such animated, yet natural action, that it 
surpassed any thing I ever saw or heard in any other 
preacher. 77 

In the summer of 1751, Whitefield paid a second 
visit to Ireland, and was most hospitably received in 
Dublin by a respectable and opulent gentleman named 
Lunell, who had been brought to Christ by the first 
Methodist itinerant preacher in that city. During 
this excursion, Whitefield preached about eighty ser- 
mons, fourteen of them in Dublin, and seven in Limer- 
ick. His hearers in Dublin organized themselves into 
a public society, which does not seem to have met his 



336 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

approbation. He says, "This morning I have been 
talking with dear Mr. Adams, and can not help think- 
ing that you have run before the Lord, in forming 
yourselves into a public society as you have done. I 
am sincere when I profess that I do not choose to set 
myself at the head of any party. When I came to Ire- 
land, my intention was to preach the gospel to all ; 
and if it should ever please the Lord of all lords to 
send me thither again, I purpose to pursue the same 
plan. For I am a debtor to all of every denomination, 
and have no design, if I know any thing of this despe- 
rately wicked and deceitful heart, but to promote the 
common salvation of mankind. The love of Christ 
constrains me to this." 

During this visit, Whitefield a few times ventured 
out of the city to Oxmantown-green, then a large open 
place, situated near the royal barracks, where the Or- 
mond and Liberty boys, two factions among the low- 
est class of the people, generally assembled on the 
Sabbath to fight with each other. The congregations 
at first were very numerous, and deeply affected, nor 
did any disturbance occur. Thus encouraged, the 
preacher ventured again, and gave notice of his inten- 
tion to resume his labors. He went through the bar- 
racks, the door of which opened into the green, and 
pitched his tent near the barrack walls, not doubting 
of the protection, or at least of the interposition of 
the officers and soldiers, if there should be occasion 
for it. The multitude in attendance was indeed vast. 
After singing and prayer, Whitefield preached without 
molestation, except that now and then a few stones 
and clods of dirt were thrown at him. It being war- 



IN IRELAND. 337 

time, he took occasion to exhort his hearers, as was 
his usual practice, not only to fear God, but to honor 
the king ; and prayed for the success of the king of 
Prussia. When the service was over, he thought to 
return home by the way he came, but, to his great sur- 
prise, a passage through the barracks was denied-; 
and he was compelled to pass from one end of the 
green to the other, through thousands of Roman-cath- 
olics. He was unattended ; for a soldier and four 
preachers who came with him had fled from the scene 
of danger, and he was seriously attacked by the mob. 
They threw vollies of stones upon him from all quar- 
ters, and he reeled backwards and forwards till he 
was almost breathless and covered with blood. At 
length, with great difficulty he staggered to the door 
of a minister's house near the green, w r hich was kind- 
ly opened to him. For a while he continued speech- 
less, and panting for breath ; but his weeping friends 
having given him a cordial, and washed his wounds, 
a coach was procured, in which, amidst the oaths, im- 
precations, and threatenings of the rabble, he got safe 
home, and united in a hymn of thanksgiving with his 
friends. In a letter written to a friend soon after this 
event, he says, " I received many blows and wounds ; 
one was particularly large, and near my temple: I 
thought of Stephen, and was in hopes, like him, to go 
off in this bloody triumph to the immediate presence 
of my Master." 

Unpromising, however, as things were in Ireland, 
the labors of Whitefield, followed as they were by 
those of the Wesleys, became the foundation of a num- 
ber of Christian societies that proved vast blessings 

Whlfefield 15 



338 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

to Ireland ; and some of them grew into large church- 
es, which continue to flourish till this day. 

The society to which reference has been made, 
which assembled in Skinner's alley, secured ministerial 
aid from the late Rev. John Edwards, who was one of 
Whitefield's converts, and among the earliest preachers 
at the Tabernacle in London ; and who also itinerated 
over nearly the whole of England, Scotland, and Ire- 
land. The period was one of great persecution, and 
this good man had several remarkable preservations 
from death. At one time, while he resided in Dublin, 
he was returning from preaching at a village, when he 
was seized by a party of rude fellows, who declared 
they would throw him over the bridge into the Liffey. 
This was observed by an opposite political party, resid- 
ing on the other side of the river, who encountered his 
assailants, and rescued him out of their hands, saying 
he lived on their side the river, and none should hurt 
him. At another time, having preached out of doors, 
a furious mob of the White-boys, a political party so 
called, beset the house in which he was, and threat- 
ened to burn it to the ground, unless he was driven 
out of it. His anxious friends could see but one way 
for his escape, which was through a window that open- 
ed into a garden belonging to a justice of the peace, 
who was himself a violent persecutor of the Method* 
ists. Through this window Mr. Edwards was, like 
the apostle Paul, let down in a basket. Here he stood 
jome time in great consternation, fearing the family 
might observe him, and charge him with breaking into 
the garden for improper purposes, and so both religion 
and himself would be injured. At length he ventured 



IN IRELAND. 339 

to knock at the door, and asked for the magistrate, to 
•whom he ingenuously stated the facts, and who most 
generously protected and extended to him the hospi- 
talities of his house for two days. 

One fact more must be told of this excellent man. 
He resolved to visit a town to which had removed a 
number of soldiers who had received benefit from his 
ministry. He was met, however, by some of these 
pious men, who told him that the inhabitants were 
determined to take his life. Edwards was not to be 
dissuaded from his purpose ; and on his arrival he 
immediately preached in the street, and several dis- 
tinguished persons, including the mayor of the town, 
came to hear him, and by their influence prevented dis- 
turbance. After the service, the mayor invited him 
to breakfast with several of the principal inhabitants, 
and told him they were very glad he was come — that 
the people were extremely dissolute in their manners, 
and the clergy, both Protestants and Catholics, ex- 
ceedingly remiss in their duty, and they hoped the 
Methodists would succeed in reforming the town. 
These gentlemen subscribed to the support of stated 
preaching, and extensive and lasting good was done. 

Amid Whitefield's innumerable engagements and 
declining health, Bethesda and his beloved America 
could not be forgotten. While he was at Glasgow 
during this summer of 1751, he was greatly delighted 
to hear that Mr. Dinwiddie, brother-in-law to the Rev. 
Mr. M'Culloch, of Cambuslang, was appointed gover- 
nor of Virginia. The gospel had been much opposed 
there, and he thought the appointment now made 
would greatly tend to check persecution. 



340 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

Whitefield, as it appears to us, now very suddenly 
determined on another voyage to America. He ar- 
rived in London from Edinburgh in the early part of 
August, with improved health, the country air having 
healed his hemorrhage. He took a hasty leave of his 
friends, and set sail for Georgia, in the Antelope, 
Captain M'Lellan, taking several orphans with him. 
He arrived at Savannah Oct. 27, and had the happi- 
ness of finding the orphan-house in a prosperous con- 
dition. Here, however, he did not stay long ; as in 
November we hear of him in his usual labors, and 
with his usual ardor engaged in his constant work of 
preaching. Having formerly suffered much from the 
climate of America in the summer, he determined 
again to embark for London, which he did in April. 
We can scarcely trace his object in this journey to 
and from America, except in some designs of the gov- 
ernment to place Georgia on a new footing. 

In June, 1752, Mr. "Whitefield was found in the 
society of the Countess of Huntingdon at Bath, where 
he continued about three weeks, preaching every even- 
ing to great numbers of the nobility. Here he became 
acquainted with Mrs. Grinfield, a lady who attended 
on the person of Queen Caroline. " One of Cassar's 
household," he writes, "hath been lately awakened, 
through her ladyship's instrumentality, and I hope 
others will meet with the like blessing." He after- 
wards visited her at the palace of St. James, and says, 
l ' The court, I believe, rings of her, and if she stands, 
1 trust she will make a glorious martyr for her bless- 
ed Lord." 

The Moravians, or United Brethren, were at one 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 341 

period on terms of very cordial friendship with the 
Messrs. Wesley and Whitefield. At the time of which 
we are writing, a series of strange absurdities, resem- 
bling the adoration of saints and other superstitions 
of popery, developed themselves among members of 
that body, at ' the head of which then stood Count 
Zinzendorf, to whom Whitefield wrote an urgent 
remonstrance on the subject. An open separation 
took place, and Mrs. Grinfield, the Rev. John Cen- 
nick, and some others, adhered to the count, while 
Whitefield and Lady Huntingdon endeavored to bring 
him back to what they believed the simplicity of the 
gospel. Lady Huntingdon, speaking of her final 
interview with him, says, " Our conference was long, 
and as the count honored me with his company for a 
few days, was resumed at intervals, always closing 
with a solemn scriptural prayer to our great and glo- 
rious Head, for the illuminating influences of his Spirit 
to guide us into all truth. We parted with the utmost 
cordiality." 

"Dear Mr. WhitefieLTs letter/ 7 says Lady Hun- 
tingdon, " has much grieved the count. But his re- 
monstrance is faithful, and the awful exposures he has 
reluctantly been forced to make, may be productive of 
the highest good in opening the eyes of many to the 
miserable delusions under which they lie." 

A correspondence, indeed we may say friendship, 
had for years existed between Whitefield and the 
eminent philosopher Dr. Benjamin Franklin. The 
following, from a letter of Whitefield, August 17, 
1752, shows his fidelity to the eminent citizen and 
statesman : " I find you grow more and more famous 



U2 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

iii the learned world. As you have made a pretty 
considerable progress in the mysteries of electricity 
I would now humbly recommend to your diligent, 
unprejudiced pursuit and study, the mystery of the 
new birth. It is a most important, interesting study, 
and when mastered, will richly answer and repay you 
for all your pains. One, at whose bar we are shortly 
to appear, hath solemnly declared that, without it, we 
cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven. You will 
excuse this freedom. I must have aliquid Christi — 
something of Christ, in all my letters. 77 This honest 
letter ought to have delighted the philosopher in his 
closet, even more than the eulogium he heard while 
standing behind the bar of the House of Lords, when 
Earl Chatham said of him, " Franklin is one whom 
Europe holds in high estimation for his knowledge 
and wisdom ; one who is an honor, not to the English 
nation only, but to human nature. 77 

In the course of the summer of 1752, and the fol- 
lowing one, Whitefieid visited Scotland twice, and 
preached much also throughout England and Wales. 
As usual, he greatly rejoiced in the presence and ser- 
vice of God, and never appears to have been more 
happy than in this period of his life. " Since I left 
Newcastle, 77 he writes, "I have scarcely known some- 
times whether I have been in heaven or on earth. 
Thousands and thousands flock twice or thrice a day 
to hear the word of life. God favors us with weather, 
and I would fain make hay while the sun shines. Oh 
that I had as many tongues as there are hairs in my 
head. The ever-loving, ever-lovely Jesus should have 
them all. Fain would I die preaching. 77 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 343 

About this period also, Mr. Hervey and lie were 
employed in revising each other's manuscripts ; the 
former was then preparing his " Theron and Aspasio/' 
a work which, though florid in its style, has been 
eminently useful in conducting many of its readers to 
a saving knowledge of the doctrines of the gospel. 
Of his friend's writings Mr. Whitefield says, " For me 
to play the critic on them, would be like holding up 
a candle to the sun. However, I will just mark a few 
places, as you desire. I foretell their fate; nothing 
but your scenery can screen you. Self will never bear 
to die, though slain in so genteel a manner, without 
showing some resentment against its artful murder- 
er. .. . I thank you a thousand times for' the trouble 
you have been at in revising my poor compositions, 
which I am afraid you have not treated with a becom- 
ing severity. How many pardons shall I ask for 
mangling, and, I fear, murdering your 'Theron and 
Aspasio V If you think my two sermons will do for 
the public, pray return them immediately. I have 
nothing to comfort me but this, that the Lord chooses 
the weak things of this world to confound the strong, 
and things that are not, to bring to naught things that 
are. I write for the poor; you for the polite and 
noble. God will assuredly own and bless what you 
write." 

Whitefield was now also very busy in erecting his 
second London Tabernacle, which he dedicated, June 
10, 1753. We have, for the sake of completing the 
narrative of its first building, already given in our 
third chapter a statement of the second tabernacle, to 
which the reader is referred. 



344 GEORGE WH1TEFIELD. 

Both the judgment and inclination of Mr. White- 
field concurred to induce him to persevere in his itin- 
erant course, correctly judging that in this way he best 
employed his peculiar talents. After preaching, there- 
fore, with his usual fervor and success for a short time 
in his newly erected Tabernacle, he again set out tow- 
ards Scotland, where he spent some days at Edin- 
burgh and Glasgow, and preached generally twice, 
sometimes three times a day, and once five times. He 
says, "Attention sat upon all faces, and friends came 
round like bees, importuning me to stay another week." 
This he found too much for his strength, but still went 
forward, often expressing his desire to serve his divine 
Master to the utmost limit of his power, and his hopes 
to be with him soon in heaven. During this journey, 
including his return to London, where he arrived the 
latter end of September, he travelled about twelve 
hundred miles, and preached one hundred and eighty 
times, to many thousands of hearers. 

As converts increased in Bristol and its neighbor- 
hood, Mr. Whitefield felt compelled to erect there 
also a " tabernacle." Lady Huntingdon was one of 
the earliest contributors to this important object, and 
through her influence Lord Chesterfield gave twenty 
pounds to it. He had no taste for religion, but he 
well understood oratory, and in his letter to Lady 
Huntingdon covering his remittance, he said, " Mr. 
Whitefield's eloquence is unrivalled, his zeal inex- 
haustible." The Earl of Bath sent fifty pounds, say- 
ing, " Mocked and reviled as Mr. Whitefield is by all 
ranks of society, still, I contend that the day will 
come when England will be just, and own his great- 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 345 

ness as a reformer, and his goodness as a minister of 
the most high God." 

The Tabernacle at Bristol was dedicated Novem- 
ber 25, 1753, with a sermon from Whitefield. Its 
history is one of deep interest. Its early ministers 
were worthy of any age, but remarkably fitted for that 
in which their lot was cast ; men of pith and power, 
undismayed at dangers, braving all kinds of difficulty 
and toil, and prepared equally for labor and suffer- 
ings in the cause of their great Master. Nor have 
later ministers dishonored their predecessors ; the 
cause still flourishes, and the hallowed house has been 
the birthplace of many eminent Christians. What 
"Whitefield then said of this house might often be said 
of it now : " It is large, but not half large enough ; for 
if the place could contain them, nearly as many would 
attend as in London." He always delighted in his 
visits to this place, and laid here a foundation for vast 
benefits, even to the present day. On one of his vis- 
its to preach here, he began a series of sermons on the 
evening before the commencement of the fair. His 
text was, " Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to 
the waters ; and he that hath no money, come ye, 
buy and eat ; yea, come buy wine and milk without 
money, and without price." Isa. 55 : 1. The congre- 
gation was large, and thus he began : " My dear hear- 
ers, I fear that many of you are come to attend Bris- 
tol fair. So am I. You do not mean to show your 
goods until to-morrow ; but I shall exhibit mine to- 
night. You are afraid purchasers will not come up 
to your price ; but I am afraid my buyers will not 
come down to mine ; for mine," striking his hand 

15* 



346 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

on the Bible, "are ' without money, and without 
price.' " 

After the dedication of this Bristol Tabernacle, 
Whitefield preached in the open air in various parts 
of Somersetshire, at seven o'clock at night. "My 
hands and body," says he, "were pierced with cold; 
but what are outward things, when the soul is warmed 
with the love of God ? The stars shone with exceed- 
ing brightness ; by an eye of faith I saw Him who 
calleth them all by their names.' My soul was filled 
with a holy ambition, and I longed to be one of those 
who ' shall shine as the stars for ever and ever.' " 

At this time he had a fine opportunity to show his 
Christian attachment to his old friends. Mr. John 
Wesley had, by a series of extraordinary labors, 
brought his life into great danger, and Whitefield, 
hearing of this while at Bristol, wrote a sympathizing 
letter to his brother Charles, in which he prays for 
the descending garment of Elijah to rest on the sur- 
viving Elisha, and encloses an ardent and solemn 
farewell to the invalid, who was supposed to be dying. 
He says, " The news and prospect of your approach- 
ing dissolution have quite weighed me down. I pity 
myself and the church, but not you. A radiant throne 
awaits you, and ere long you will enter into your 
Master's joy. Yonder he stands with a massy crown, 
ready to put it on your head, amidst an admiring 
throng of saints and angels. But I, poor I, that have 
been waiting for my dissolution these nineteen years, 
must be left behind to grovel here below. Well, this 
is my comfort, it cannot be long ere the chariots will 
be sent even for worthless me. If prayers can detain 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 341 

you, even you, reverend and very dear sir, shall not 
leave us yet. But if the decree is gone forth that you 
must now sleep in Jesus, may he kiss your soul away, 
and give you to die in the embraces of triumphant love. 
If in the land of the living, I hope to pay my best 
respects to you next week. If not, reverend and dear 
sir, farewell.' 7 He had soon the satisfaction of wit- 
nessing the recovery of his friend, who was to survive 
him more than twenty years. 

We have already intimated that Whitefield used 
his influence in Scotland in favor of the New Jersey 
college, located at Princeton. In accordance with 
his advice, the friends of the college in this country 
sent over the Rev. Samuel Davies, afterwards presi- 
dent of the college, and the Rev. Gilbert Tennent, to 
promote its interests in the British islands. A few 
extracts from the manuscript diary of Davies, with 
the use of which we have been favored for this volume, 
will show the readiness of Whitefield to labor, or to 
" be nothing," so that the cause of Christ might be 
advanced. The deputation arrived in England in the 
closing month of 1753, and thus writes Davies : 

" Wednesday, December 26. Mr. Whitefield hav- 
ing sent us an invitation last night to make his house 
our home during our stay here, we were perplexed 
what to do, lest we should blast the success of our 
mission among the dissenters, who are generally dis- 
affected to him. We at length concluded, with the 
advice of our friends and his, that a public intercourse 
with him would be imprudent, in our present situation, 
and visited him privately this evening ; and the kind 
reception he gave us revived dear Mr. Tennent. He 



348 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

spoke in the most encouraging manner as to the suo 
cess of our mission. And in all his conversation dis- 
covered so much zeal and candor, that I could not but 
admire the man as the wonder of the age. When we 
returned, Mr. Tennent's heart was all on fire, and 
after we had gone to bed, he suggested that we should 
watch and pray ; and we rose and prayed together 
till about three o'clock in the morning. 

" Jan. 1. Went in the evening to hear Mr. White- 
field in the Tabernacle, a large, spacious building. 
The assembly was very numerous, though not equal to 
what is common. He preached on the parable of the 
barren fig-tree ; and though the discourse was inco- 
herent, yet it seemed to me better calculated to do 
good to mankind than all the accurate, languid dis- 
courses I ever heard. After sermon I enjoyed his 
pleasing conversation at his house." 

It would seem that Messrs. Davies and Tennent had 
their trials, as well as their encouragements. Writ- 
ing Jan. 14, Mr. Davies says, "Spent an hour with 
Mr. Whitefield. He thinks we have not taken the 
best method in endeavoring to keep in with all par 
ties, but should ' come out boldly/ as he expressed it, 
which would secure the affections of the pious people, 
from whom we might expect the most generous con- 
tributions." On the evening after this, they dined 
with Whitefield at the house of a common friend, and 
he rejoiced in the abundant success they afterwards 
met with from nearly all parties. 

"Jan. 25. Dined with Mr. Bradbury, who has 
been in the ministry about fifty-seven years. He read 
us some letters which passed between Mr. Whitefield 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 24?i 

and him, anno 1741; occasioned by Mr. Whitefield's 
reproving him in a letter for singing a song in a tav- 
ern, in a large company, in praise of old English beef. 
The old gentleman sung it to us, and we found it was 
partly composed by himself, in the high-flying days of 
Queen Anne. He is a man of a singular turn, which 
would be offensive to the greatest number of serious 
people ; but for my part I could say, 

" - 1 knew 't was his peculiar whim, 
Nor took it ill, as 't came from him.' " 

In March, 1754, Whitefield, in company with twen- 
ty-two poor destitute children, sailed the fifth time for 
America. 



350 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

FIFTH VISIT TO AMERICA— RENEWED LABORS IN 
G-REAT BRITAIN— TOTTENHAM-COURT-ROAD CHAP- 

EL. 

1754-1763. 

On this voyage to America, Whitefield sailed for 
South Carolina by way of Lisbon. His health de- 
manded repose ; he thought that seeing Popery as it is 
when unrestrained by public opinion, might be of use 
to him in his future labors ; and moreover, he had with 
him a number of orphans whom he wished comfortably 
to settle at Bethesda before he visited the northern 
provinces. It would be pleasant, if our limits would 
allow it, to furnish the letters he wrote from Lisbon 
during nearly four weeks, but a few sentences must suf- 
fice : " This leaves me an inhabitant of Lisbon. "We 
have now been here almost a week, and I suppose shall 
stay a fortnight longer. A reputable merchant has 
received me into his house, and every day shows me the 
ecclesiastical curiosities of the country. 0, my dear 
friend, bless the Lord of all lords, for causing your 
lot to be cast in such a fair ground as England, and 
giving you such a goodly heritage. It is impossible to 
be sufficiently thankful for civil and religious liberty, 
for simplicity of worship, and powerful preaching of 
the word of God. for simplicity of manners, and a 
correspondent behavior. The air agrees with my 
poor constitution extremely well. Through divine 



FIFTH VISIT TO AMERICxl. 351 

assistance, I hope what I see will also improve my 
better part, and help to qualify me better for preach- 
ing the everlasting gospel." 

In another letter he writes, " Never did civil and 
religious liberty appear to me in so amiable a light 
as now. What a spirit must Martin Luther and the 
first reformers be endued with, that dared to appear 
as they did for God. Lord, hasten that blessed time 
when others, excited by the same spirit, shall perform 
like wonders. Oh, happy England ! Oh, happy Meth- 
odists, who are Methodists indeed ! And all I account 
such, who, being dead to sects and parties, aim at 
nothing else but as holy a method of living to, and 
dying in the blessed Jesus. 77 

He was heartily glad to get away from Popish 
processions and superstitious rites, and again to visit 
his " dear America. 77 

Our evangelist arrived with his orphans at Beau- 
fort, in South Carolina, May 27, 1754, greatly im- 
proved in health, with a heart burning with love and 
zeal for his Lord and Master. He says, with his 
usual energy, " Oh that I may at length learn to begin 
to live. I am ashamed of my sloth and lukewarmness, 
and long to be on the stretch for God. 77 His family 
now consisted, " black and white, 77 of one hundred and 
six members, all dependent on his personal efforts 
and influence. He regarded his charge as a steward- 
ship for God, and collected accordingly, nothing doubt- 
ing. It was now summer, and besides the oppressive 
heat, " great thunders, violent lightnings, and heavy 
rains 77 frequently beat upon him as he journeyed from 
place to place. His health improved, and his spirits 



352 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

rose as he advanced on his journey. At Charleston, 
and elsewhere, his labors were received with the same 
degree of acceptance as formerly, and he was much 
encouraged by the conversion of a clergyman, a faith- 
ful successor to Mr. Smith of the city just named, and 
the first student sent forth from Bethesda. 

He arrived at New York, by water, July 27, and 
divided his labors between that city and Philadelphia 
almost entirely for nearly two months. In the latter 
city, he tells us, he was seized with violent cholera 
morbus, and brought to the gates of death. To use 
his own words, he " had all his cables out, ready to 
cast anchor within the port of eternity ;" but he was 
soon " at sea again," although only able to preach 
once a day for some time. " Everywhere," he says, 
" a divine power accompanied the word, prejudices 
were removed, and a more effectual door opened than 
ever for preaching the gospel." When he looked at 
"the glorious range for hunting in the American 
woods," he was at a loss on which hand to turn. . . . 
" Affection, intense affection cries aloud, Away to New 
England, dear New England, immediately. Provi- 
dence, and the circumstances of the southern provin- 
ces, point directly to Virginia." 

While thus undecided, he visited his old friend 
Governor Belcher, then governor of New Jersey, and 
residing at Elizabethtown. He found the good old 
man ripening for heaven, willing to depart and to be 
with Christ. At this time the commencement of New 
Jersey college was held, and as a mark of their re- 
spect, the president and trustees conferred on him the 
honorary degree of master of arts. The meeting of 



FIFTH VISIT TO AMERICA. 353 

the synod immediately followed, respecting which body 
he says, " I was much refreshed with the company of 
the whole synod ; such a number of simple-hearted, 
united ministers I never saw before. I preached to 
them several times, and the great Master of assemblies 
was in the midst' of us.' 7 

Influenced by what he saw and heard in New Jer- 
sey, Whitefield determined to go to. New England, 
and to return from thence by Virginia to Georgia, 
and made his arrangements accordingly ; it would 
comprise a circuit of more than two thousand miles, 
but he said, " The Redeemer's strength will be more 
than sufficient." 

It has been thought that it was during this visit of 
Whitefield to New Jersey, and probably at the table 
of Governor Belcher, that he dined in company with 
a number of ministers, and held the often-reported 
conversation with " Father Tennent." After dinner 
Mr. Whitefield adverted to the difficulties attending 
the Christian ministry ; lamented that all their zeal 
availed but little ; said that he was weary with the 
burden of the day ; and declared his great comfort in 
the thought, that in a short time his work would be 
done, when he should depart and be with Christ. He 
then appealed to the ministers, if it was not their 
great comfort that they should soon go to rest. They 
generally assented, except Mr. Tennent, who sat next 
to Mr. Whitefield in silence, and by his countenance 
indicated but little pleasure in the conversation. 

Seeing this, Mr. Whitefield, gently tapping him on 
the knee, said, " Well, brother Tennent, you are the 
oldest man among us ; do you not rejoice to think that 



354 GEOKGE WHITEFIELD. 

your time is so near at hand, when you will be called 
home ?" Mr. Tennent bluntly answered, " I have no 
wish about it." Mr. Whitefield pressed him again. 
Mr. Tennent again answered, " No, sir, it is no pleas- 
ure to me at all ; and if you knew your duty, it would 
be none to you. I have nothing to do with death ; 
my business is to live as long as I can, as well as I 
can, until He shall think proper to call me home." 
Mr. "Whitefield still urged for an explicit answer to 
his question, in case the time of death were left to his 
own choice. Mr. Tennent replied, " I have no choice 
about it ; I am God's servant, and have engaged to do 
his business as long as he pleases to continue me there- 
in. But now, brother, let me ask you a question. 
What do you think I should say, if I was to send my 
servant into the field to plough ; and if at noon ] 
should go to the field, and find him lounging under a 
tree, and complaining, ' Master, the sun is very hot, 
and the ploughing hard ; I am weary of the work you 
have appointed me, and am overdone with the heat 
and burden of the day. Do, master, let me return 
home, and be discharged from this hard service? 7 
What should I say ? Why, that he was a lazy fellow, 
and that it was his business to do the work that I had 
appointed him, until I should think fit to call him 
home." 

Accompanied by President Burr, Whitefield set 
out, O.ctober 1, for Boston, and arrived there on the 
9 th. Here he stayed a week, and saw there, morning 
after morning, three or four thousand people hanging 
in breathless silence on his lips, and weeping silent 
tears. Whitefield himself calls it "a lovely scene," 



KIFTH VISIT TO AMERICA. 355 

and says he " never saw a more effectual door opened 
for the gospel. Sinners have been awakened, saints 
quickened, and enemies made at peace with me. 
Grace, grace ! Surely my coming here was of God. 
Convictions do fasten, and many souls are comforted." 
Such were the crowds at the early sermons, that in 
order to reach the pulpit, he had to get in at the win- 
dows of the churches. In a letter to the Countess of 
Huntingdon, he wrote, " In Boston, the tide ran full 
as high as ever your ladyship knew it at Edinburgh, 
or in any part of Scotland." 

While at Boston, Whitefield heard with much 
pleasure of the appointment of his friend Habersham 
as secretary to the new governor of Georgia, and 
wrote to him, "I wish you joy of your new honor. 
May the King of kings enable you to discharge your 
trust as becomes a good patriot, subject, and Chris- 
tian. You have now a call, I think, to retire from 
business, and to give up your time to the public." 
Our evangelist travelled north as far as Portsmouth, 
in New Hampshire, generally preaching two or three 
times a day, till November 7, when he took his fare- 
well at Boston, at four o'clock in the morning. Speak- 
ing of this journey, he says, " What have I seen ? 
Dagon falling everywhere before the ark ; enemies 
silenced, or made to own the finger of God ; and the 
friends of Jesus triumphing in his glorious conquests. 
A hundredth part cannot be told. We had scarcely 
one dry meeting." When he arrived in the neighbor- 
hood of Portsmouth, the northern boundary of his 
journey, he was overwhelmed with humility as well as 
joy, by the large cavalcade which came out to meet 



356 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

and welcome him. He says of thera, " They were too 
many;" and of this northern journey, "It seems tome 
the most important one I was ever engaged in.' 7 

Of no portion of Whitefield 7 s life are Ave so igno- 
rant as of the journey he now made from New Eng- 
land to the South. Journal, letters, historians, and 
newspapers alike fail us. Gillies tells us only that 
from Boston he "proceeded to Rhode Island, and 
went onward through Maryland and Virginia, with a 
prospect so pleasing, that he lamented he had not 
come sooner. The whole country seemed eager to 
hear the gospel, many coming forty or fifty miles, and 
a spirit of conviction and consolation appeared in 
every congregation. Prejudices seemed to have fled ; 
churches were opened to him ; high and low, rich and 
poor, now seemed to think favorably of his ministra- 
tions; and many acknowledged what God had done 
for their souls through his preaching, when he was 
there before. 77 It scarcely appears probable that he 
went from Rhode Island to Maryland by water ; but 
if he did not, he must have passed through New York, 
New Jersey, and Philadelphia, and we feel somewhat 
of surprise that no records of the journey appear to 
have been preserved. 

Dr. Franklin relates a very characteristic anec- 
dote of Mr. Whitefield, which probably occurred in 
Philadelphia or its neighborhood at a period not later 
than this. "The eloquent orator 77 was preaching in 
an open field, when a drummer was present, who was 
determined to interrupt the preacher, and rudely beat 
his drum in a violent manner, in order to drown his 
voice. Whitefield spoke very loud, but could not 



FIFTH VISIT TO AMERICA. 351 

make so much noise as the instrument. He therefore 
called out to the drummer, " Friend, you and I serve 
the two greatest masters existing, but in different 
callings. You beat up for volunteers for King George, 
I for the Lord Jesus : in God's name, then, let us not 
interrupt each other ; the world is wide enough for 
both, and we may get recruits in abundance." This 
speech had such an effect on the drummer, that he 
went away in great good-humor, and left the preacher 
in full possession of the field. 

Virginia, alike from the success of his former labors 
there, and from the general characteristics of the peo- 
ple, must have presented a scene of intense interest to 
Whitefield at this time. Everywhere great prepara- 
tions were made for his coming, and large congrega- 
tions assembled to hear him. It is said, that on one 
occasion, as he was speaking on the banks of one of 
the rivers of this noble province, and spoke of the 
strength of human depravity, and the insufficiency of 
the means of grace to convert the sinner without the 
influence of the Holy Spirit : "Sinners," said he, "think 
not that I expect to convert a single soul of you by 
any thing that I can say, without the assistance of 
Him who is ' mighty to save/ Go and stand by that 
river, as it moves on its strong and deep current to 
the ocean, and bid it stop, and see if it will obey you. 
Just as soon should I expect to stop that river by a 
word, as by my preaching to stop that current of sin 
which is carrying you to perdition. Father in heav- 
en, see ! they are hurried on towards hell ; save them, 
or they perish !" The impression which this address 
produced on his hearers was so strong, that they were 



358 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

ready to respond with, trembling, ''Save, Lord; we 
perish I" 

Whitefield must have been highly gratified on 
reaching Charleston, in attending the ordination of 
the young minister there, his first student from Be- 
thesda, of whom we have already spoken as succeed- 
ing Mr. Smith; and not less would he rejoice that 
one of the actors at the Charleston theatre had been 
" snatched as a brand from the burning." 

Though we have not the exact date of his arrival 
at Savannah, we know that he remained there but a 
very short time. His health again declined, his for- 
mer vomitings returned with violence, and his animal 
spirits failed with his strength. In February, 1755, 
we again find him at Charleston ; and in the latter end 
of March, he embarked for England, arriving, after a 
comparatively short voyage, at Newhaven, in Sussex, 
May the eighth. 

Two strong impressions were made on the mind 
of Whitefield as he now looked on his native land. 
The first was that of grief on account of its condition. 
Nothing less than war with France was daily expect- 
ed, for the French threatened to invade Britain, and 
were constantly making encroachments on her Amer- 
ican colonies. " At this time/ 7 he says, " next to Jesus 
Christ, my king and my country were upon my heart. 
I hope I shall always think it my duty, next to invit- 
ing sinners to the blessed Jesus, to exhort my hearers 
to resist the first approaches of popish tyranny and 
arbitrary power. that we may be enabled to watch 
and pray against all the opposition of antichrist in 
our own hearts ; for, after all, there lies the most dan- 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 359 

gerous man of sin." His second feeling was one of 
holy joy ; for during his absence the preaching of the 
gospel had been abundantly successful. He writes, 
" Glory be to the great Head of the church! The 
poor despised Methodists are as lively as ever ; and 
in several churches the gospel is now preached with 
power. Many in Oxford are awakened to the know 
ledge of the truth ; and I have heard almost every 
week of some fresh minister or another, who seems 
1 determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ, and 
him crucified. 7 " 

At the Tabernacle in London, as might be ex- 
pected, Whitefield enjoyed what he terms "golden 
seasons f but by this time not a few of the London 
clergy had begun to preach Christ with holy fidelity ; 
and as this was the principal thing he desired, he says 
his " call to go abroad was still more clear." Indeed, 
so little did he now esteem London as a sphere of la- 
bor, and so much did he regard places by the amount 
of their destitution, that he wished at once to return 
to America, without ranging through England or 
Scotland. Hence he says, " Methinks I could set out 
for America to-morrow, though I have not yet entered 
upon my country range." 

But if he loved America most, England loved her- 
self more, and he was drawn again into Gloucester- 
shire and Bristol. He went also, at the request oi 
Lady Huntingdon, to dedicate the new Tabernacle at 
Norwich, to which we have already referred. At this 
last place, he says, August 30, 1755, "Notwithstanding 
offences have come, there has been a glorious work 
begun, and is now carrying on. The polite and great 



.360 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

seem to hear with much attention ; and I scarcely 
ever preached a week together with greater freedom/ 
For a long period the work of God abundantly pros- 
pered in connection with this "Tabernacle." Two 
years after its dedication, the Hon. and Rev. Walter 
Shirley preached some time in it, and had eight hun- 
dred communicants in fellowship, and he said of them, 
"Their experience, lives, and conversation are so 
excellent, that there is nothing like it in the whole 
kingdom." 

On WhitefielcVs return to London, there were 
those who urgently entreated him to engage in a new 
controversy with the Messrs. Wesley, some of whose 
followers had been jealous of his success at Norwich. 
He declined, with his common remark, "I have no 
time for controversy," and reserved what he had to 
say till he could see them "face to face," simply writ- 
ing to assure them that he had no party designs on 
foot. 

Very soon after this, he set out for his northern 
circuit; and wonderfully indeed did the Lord grant 
him success. One thing, however, on this journey 
grieved him. His friends at Leeds, without his know- 
ledge, had built a large church edifice. He saw at 
once, that this circumstance would create an "awful 
separation among the societies" formed by the Messrs. 
Wesley and his own friends ; and lost no time in writ- 
ing to those ministers, that they might endeavor to 
prevent a breach. Both the plan and the spirit of 
this undertaking so grieved him, that he exclaimed, 
" Oh this self-love, this self-will, is the devil of devils" 
This he wrote to Lady Huntingdon, a proof that party 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 361 

was not their object ; and it is pleasant to add, that 
Whitefield's fears were groundless. Leeds, even then, 
contained population sufficient to fill both houses, and 
the whole movement "fell out rather to the further- 
ance of the gospel." During two months he preached 
twice, and some days three times, to greater numbers 
than ever before, inviting them to Christ, and "ex- 
horting them to pray for King George, and the dear 
friends in America." He heard at this time, that the 
American ladies were making the soldiers 7 coats ; and 
he immediately wrote to urge his own female friends 
in the new world to be " some of the most active in 
this labor of love." 

Though Mr. Whitefield stood very high in the 
esteem of that class of ministers who embraced his 
views of evangelical truth, and who approved the 
plans he pursued for the evangelization of the world, 
they never considered him perfect, nor were some of 
them backward, when they deemed it needful, to re- 
prove him. In a sermon he once preached in Haw- 
orth church, Yorkshire, of which his friend Grim- 
shaw was the minister, having spoken severely of those 
professors of the gospel who, by their loose and evil 
conduct, caused the ways of truth to be evil spoken 
of, he intimated his hope, that it was not necessary 
to enlarge much on that topic to the congregation 
before him, who had so long enjoyed the labors of 
an able and faithful preacher ; and he was willing 
to believe that their profiting appeared to all men. 
This latter expression roused Mr. Grimshaw's spirit, 
and notwithstanding his great regard for the preach- 
er, he stood up and interrupted him, saying, with a 

Whitefield. 16 



362 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

loud voice, " sir, for God's sake, do not speak so ; 
I pray you, do not flatter. I fear the greater part of 
them are going to hell with their eyes open. 77 

Notwithstanding the astonishing labors of White- 
field on this tour, he returned to London apparently 
in full flesh, and was congratulated by his friends 
on his improved appearance. Alas, all this, as he 
well knew, was disease, which indeed very soon be- 
came apparent. He was seized with inflammatory 
sore throat, that was followed by quinsy, assuming an 
almost fatal aspect. One physician prescribed silence 
and warmth, and the preacher "premised to be very 
obedient " but a few days afterwards, another recom- 
mended a perpetual blister : this proposal roused him, 
and he determined to try his own remedy — perpetual 
preaching. The remedy itself was painful, but he 
said, " When this grand catholicon fails, it is all over 
with me. 77 At this time the sad news of the earth- 
quake at Lisbon arrived in London ; he was unable 
to preach on the subject, but when told of it he said 
" Blessed be God, I am ready ; I know that my Re- 
deemer liveth. Oh that all in Portugal had known 
this ! Then an earthquake would only be a rumbling 
chariot to carry the soul to God. Poor Lisbon, how 
soon are thy riches and superstitious pageantry swal- 
lowed up ! 77 

In the winter of 1755-6, he was applied to to preach 
in the vicinity of the two great theatres, which he 
began to do in Long Acre chapel. Disturbances took 
place, and the Bishop of London interposed to stop 
him. In the end he erected Tottenham Court-road 
chapel, as already detailed in our third chapter. 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 3G3 

Mr. Whitefield's ministry in London at this time 
was still successful. Thousands hung on his lips with 
delight, not a few of whom were won to the service 
of Christ. He tells us, among many similar facts, of 
the conversion of a Mr. Crane, who was afterwards 
appointed steward of the orphan-house in Georgia. 
This gentleman had one evening determined to visit 
the theatre, and set out for Drury-lane ; that house 
being crowded, he resolved to go to Covent-garden ; 
that also being so full that he could not obtain admit- 
tance, he changed his plan, and resolved on being en- 
tertained with one of Whitefield's sermons, and hast- 
ened to Tottenham Court-road chapel. It pleased 
God to impress the word on his heart, and he became 
an eminent Christian. So truly is the prediction ver- 
ified, " I am found of them who sought me not." 

During this year he published " A Short Address 
to Persons of all Denominations, occasioned by an 
Alarm of an intended Invasion." We have examined 
it, and not without pleasure. It is a faithful exposure 
of Popery and its bitter fruits. 

It is a charge often preferred against the faithful 
ministers of Christ, by those whose consciences testify 
to their own guilt, that they are personal in their re- 
marks, and mean to censure particular individuals. 
It is certain that this was often done by Mr White- 
field, and sometimes with very happy effect. He once 
drew, from the conduct of his female servant, the pic- 
ture of a Christian failing in his duty, which painfully 
distressed her, till he gave her an assurance of his 
entire forgiveness. 

Nor was this the only time when his hearers were 



364 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

compelled to feel, "he means me" The celebrated 
comedian, Shuter, had a great personal regard for Mr. 
Whitefield, and not unfrequently attended his minis- 
try. At one period of his popularity he was acting 
in a drama under the character of Ramble. During 
the run of the performance, he attended service at 
Tottenham Court chapel, and was seated in a pew 
exactly opposite the pulpit. Mr. Whitefield on that 
occasion gave full vent to his feelings, and in his own 
energetic manner invited sinners to the Saviour. 
While doing this, fixing his eye full on Shuter, he 
added, " And thou, poor Ramble, who hast long ram- 
oled from him, come also. Oh, end your rambling by 
coming to Jesus." Shuter was exceedingly struck, 
and going afterwards to Whitefield, he said, " I thought 
I should have fainted ; how could you serve me so ? 77 
In the early part of 1756, Whitefield was engaged 
in London, preaching and collecting for the poor not 
only at Bethesda, but also for the French Protestants. 
At the Tabernacle, a man came up to him in the pulpit, 
threatening his life, and handing him three anonymous 
letters denouncing sudden and certain death, unless 
he ceased to preach and to pursue the offenders by 
law. One of these letters Whitefield sent to the gov- 
ernment, who at once offered a reward, and his maj- 
esty's pardon, to any one who would discover the 
writer. While this fact gratified, it also embarrassed 
him. He wrote to Lady Huntingdon, " My greatest 
distress is to act so as to avoid rashness on the one 
hand, and timidity on the other. 77 For his own sake, 
he would not have cared about the matter; but look- 
ing at it as connected with the cause of civil and 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 3C5 

religious freedom, he wisely allowed the law to take 
its course at the hazard of his own life by assassina- 
tion. Agreeably with the advice of the government, 
he carried the whole affair into the court of the King's 
Bench ; this alarmed the offenders, and the annoyance 
ceased. 

We next find him at Bristol, but not to rest, though 
the labors and anxieties of the winter and spring had 
nearly worn out his strength and spirits. Here he 
preached as usual, and then returned to London. 
During this journey he preached in several places in 
Gloucestershire, his native county, and in Bradford, 
Frome, Warminster, and Portsmouth, spending about 
three months in the tour. 

In the county which gave Whitefield birth, is still 

to be seen a chair on which he often sat, and on which 

may be yet read the following lines : 

" If love of souls should e'er be wanting here, 
Remember me, for I am Whitefield's chair ; 
I bore his weight, was witness to his fears, 
His earnest prayers, his interesting tears. 
His holy soul was fired with love divine : 
If thine be such, sit down and call me thine." 

A very few weeks passed, and we find him in 
Kent. In a letter written July 27, after his visit to 
that county, he says, " The gospel flourishes in Lon- 
don. I am just returned from preaching at Sheerness, 
Chatham, and in the camp." On the next day he set 
off towards Scotland. On August 14, he writes from 
Sunderland, " How swiftly doth my precious time pass 
away! It is now a fortnight since I came to Leeds, 
in and about which I preached eight days, thrice 
almost every day, to thronged and affected auditories. 



366 GEORGE WIIITEFIELD. 

On Sunday last at Bradford, in the morning, the audi- 
tory consisted of about ten thousand ; at noon and in 
the evening, at Birstal, to nearly double the number. 
Though hoarse, I was helped to speak so that all 
heard. Next morning I took a sorrowful leave of 
Leeds, preached at Doncaster at noon, and at York 
the same night. On Wednesday, at Warstall, about 
fifty miles off ; on Thursday, twice at Yarm ; and last 
night and this morning, here." Wherever he labored, 
he heard of the good effects of his preaching in those 
places last year, and was constantly finding "many 
trophies of redeeming love." Such was the effect of 
the two sermons he preached at Birstal, that " several 
hundreds rode eight miles with him in the evening, 
singing and praising God." 

In a day or two after this, we find him at Edin- 
burgh and Glasgow, preaching, as usual, to vast 
crowds, and with his accustomed success. At the 
former places especially, even politicians gave him a 
cordial welcome, and thronged to hear him, while the 
newspapers applauded him for his spirit-stirring ex- 
posures of "Popish tyranny and arbitrary poAver." 
He preached twice every day in the Orphan-hospital 
park, and blended with almost every sermon rousing 
appeals to the Protestantism, courage, and loyalty of 
the Scotch. At the close of one of his sermons he 
pleaded the cause of the poor Highlanders, and col- 
lected at its close about three hundred dollars. 

On his way back to London, Whitefield held a 
peculiarly solemn and refreshing meeting with his 
friends at Leeds ; and after it, he braced his nerves 
by a tour of mountain preaching in company with his 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 361 

friend Grimshaw. But it was now late in October, 
and as he found " these cold countries bringing on his 
last year's disorder/ 7 and having, as he significantly 
says, " grown very prudent/ 7 he returned to London, 
and dedicated Tottenham Court-road church edifice. 
Another errand also had taken him to that city. The 
new governor of Georgia had sent for him, to con- 
sult with him before sailing to that colony. White- 
field met him, and was so much delighted with him, 
that he wrote off to Bethesda to prepare them for a 
state visit. He says, "Waited upon his excellency, 
and gave him, and all whom he pleases to bring, an 

invitation to Bethesda. Dear Mrs. C will make 

proper provision. 77 He went even farther, and pro- 
posed that the governor, if possible, should be received 
at Bethesda with military honors. 

The success of his new house of worship in Tot- 
tenham Court-road showed the necessity and pro- 
priety of its erection on that spot. Several persons 
of distinction came, and engaged permanent seats ; 
and the place was often so crowded, that hundreds 
were unable to obtain admission. It was now usual 
with him to preach about fifteen times every week, 
which, with a weak appetite, want of rest, and much 
care upon his mind, greatly enfeebled him. He writes, 
w But the joy of the Lord is my strength ; and my 
greatest grief is, that I can do no more for Him who 
hath done and suffered so much for me. 77 

In the following year, 1757, Whitefield planned 
another journey to Scotland, at the time the general 
assembly of the church was held. Before leaving 
London, he had placed the affairs of his projected col- 



368 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

lege in the hands of Lord Halifax, and he now seems 
to have hoped that this journey to Scotland would 
have promoted that object, as well as others. It is 
said, that about a hundred ministers at a time attended 
his sermons, thirty of whom invited him to a public 
entertainment. Lord Cathcart, his majesty's commis- 
sioner to the assembly, also invited him to his own 
table. Whitefield says that he preached "just fifty 
times w on this visit, which extended to about a month. 

From Scotland he went, in June, as we have seen, 
to Ireland, and enjoyed, in the midst of no small per- 
secution, much preaching, and much success. On his 
return to London, he found that the governor of Geor- 
gia had visited Bethesda, and promised to communi- 
cate his sentiments to Lord Halifax, " concerning its 
being enlarged into a college -" but the pressure of 
public affairs hindered his application to the govern- 
ment. Bad news arrived from America, "about the 
fleet," and therefore Whitefield kept a fast-day at his 
houses of worship. 

The health of our evangelist now sadly failed. He 
was brought to live on the " short allowance of preach- 
ing but once a day, and thrice on the Sunday f a very 
" short allowance " for him. Once, however, he broke 
through the restraint, and preached three times on 
the success of the king of Prussia ; which, he says, 
" somewhat recovered v him, after he had been for a 
week at the gates of the grave. He was not able thie 
winter to attempt what he considered great things ; 
but Tottenham Court was his Bethel, as he called it. 
This house was then surrounded by a beautiful piece 
of ground, and he formed the plan of building on it 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 869 

an almshouse for " twelve godly widows," as a " stand- 
ing monument that the Methodists were not against 
good works." This charity he soon carried into 
effect. His thoughts, however, were not confined to 
home. Although broken down in health and spirits, 
by weakness and want of rest, he watched the affairs 
of Prussia with intense interest, and assured the Ger- 
man Protestants, through Professor Francke, that "we 
looked on their distresses as our own." 

In the spring of 1758, he laid the foundation-stone 
of his almshouse, and in June of the same year began 
to select its inmates. Pointing to these houses, some 
years afterwards, he said to a gentleman who was 
visiting him, " Those are my redoubts. The prayers 
of the poor women who reside in them, protect me in 
my house." Having arranged for the supply of his 
London pulpits, Whitefield went into the west of Eng- 
land, and proceeded from thence into Wales. But 
his health was so feeble, that he could not bear to 
drive, nor even ride in a one-horse chaise. The roads 
were rough, and riding shook him nearly to pieces. 
" Every thing," he says, " wearies this shattered bark 
now." A friend purchased for him a close chaise, 
advancing the money until he could conveniently 
repay it He deeply felt this kindness, because by no 
other means could he have itinerated. " I would not," 
he says, " lay out a single farthing but for my blessed 
Master ; but it is inconceivable what I have under- 
gone these three weeks. I never was so before. for 
a hearse to carry my weary carcass to the wished for 
grave." During all this tour he was unable to sit up 
in company even once ; yet he often preached to ten 

1G* 



3?0 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

or fifteen thousand people, and made their " tears flow 
like water from the rock." His views of himself at 
this time were more than usually humble. He said 
to Lady Huntingdon, " Oh, I am sick — sick in body, 
but infinitely more so in mind, to see so much dross 
in my soul. Blessed be God, there is One who will 
sit as a refiner's fire, to purify the sons of Levi. I 
write out of the burning bush. Christ is there ; Christ 
is there!" 

Among the many illustrations of Scripture which 
Whitefield often introduced into his sermons, one is 
truly worthy of record. Preaching from the words, 
" Wherefore, glorify ye the Lord in the fires," Isa. 
24 : 15, he says, " When I was, some years ago, at 
Shields, I went into a glass-house, and standing very 
attentively, I saw several masses of burning glass of 
various forms. The workman took one piece of glass, 
and put it into one furnace, then he put it into a 
second, and then into a third. I asked him, ' Why do 
you put that into so many fires ? 7 He answered me, 
( Oh, sir, the first was not hot enough, nor the second, 
and therefore we put it into the third, and that will 
make it transparent. 7 ' Oh/ thought I, ' does this man 
put this glass into one furnace after another, that it 
may be rendered perfect? Oh, my God, put me into 
one furnace after another, that my soul may be trans- 
parent, that I may see God as he is. 7 77 

In the month of July, Whitefield again set out for 
Scotland, preaching on his way in many pulpits, in- 
cluding " Bishop Bunyan 7 s, 77 as he used to call him, at 
Bedford, Berridge 7 s at Everton, and Doddridge 7 s at 
Northampton. Fonr Episcopal clergymen lent him 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 3?1 

their pulpits. His health received, for some time, 
little benefit, so that he sometimes feared he must 
return. But he adds, "Through divine strength, I 
hope to go forward ; and shall strive, as much as in 
me lies, to die in this glorious work." He preached 
and collected in Scotland with his accustomed energy 
and success, and returned to London with his health 
somewhat renovated. This year he lost by death 
some of his earliest and warmest friends, including 
Hervey in England, and Presidents Burr and Ed- 
wards, and Governor Belcher, in America. Such 
removals gave him also " a desire to depart," but his 
work on earth was not yet done. 

Three principal facts connected with our evange- 
list may be said to mark the year 1759. One was, 
that he had the satisfaction to clear off all his debts 
Tor the orphan-house. "Bethesda's God," he writes, 
u lives for ever, and is faithful and all-sufficient." He 
longed again to visit America, but several difficulties 
intervened for the present. 

A second event which marked the year, was 
another journey to Scotland. He complains in his 
letters, that though his congregations at Edinburgh 
and Glasgow were never more numerous and atten- 
tive, yet, with respect to the power of religion, it was 
a dead time in Scotland, in comparison with London 
and several other parts of England. His presence in 
Scotland, however, at this time was very important, 
especially in collecting for his orphan-house and the 
Highland Society for the support of children. Many 
Scottish soldiers were now in America, which greatly 
increased the interest felt in every thing relating to it. 



372 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

In this year, 1759, Mr. Whitefield also for the first 
time visited Brighthelmstone, now called Brighton, a 
very fashionable watering-place, where George IV. 
afterwards, while regent, built a tawdry tasteless 
palace. The preacher's first sermon was delivered 
under a tree in a field behind the White Lion inn. 
Among his congregation on that day was a young 
man named Tuppen, about eighteen years of age. He 
had been educated by a pious mother in the strict 
observance of the external parts of religion, but was 
entirely destitute of its power. He attended not so 
much from curiosity, as from the intention to insult 
and interrupt the preacher. He tells us, " I had there- 
fore provided myself with stones in my pocket, if op- 
portunity offered, to pelt the preacher ; but I had not 
heard long, before the stone was taken out of my heart 
of flesh ; and then the other stones, with shame and 
weeping, were dropped one by one out upon the 
ground. 77 The words, " Turn ye, turn ye, ;? became the 
means of turning him from sin to God. Mr. Tuppen 
became an excellent Christian minister, and labored 
as a pastor for some years in Portsmouth. He then 
removed to the city of Bath, where he originated a 
congregation, and built a house for public worship. 
He was succeeded in this important sphere by the late 
distinguished William Jay, who labored there for 
about sixty-four years. 

Such was the prosperity attendant on the efforts 
of Messrs. Whitefield, Madan, Eomaine, Berridge, 
Venn, and Fletcher, at Brighton, that Lady Hunt- 
ingdon felt it her duty to erect a church edifice there, 
and being unable to do it in any other way, sold her 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 373 

jewels to the amount of nearly three thousand five 
hundred dollars. The cause still flourishes there, and 
very many have been turned to righteousness. 

While WhitefielcVs ministry at the Tabernacle was 
at its height of popularity, Foote, a comedian of emi- 
nent talent for mimicry, who was frequently in diffi- 
culties on account of his love of ridicule, by which 
indeed his life was shortened, employed his wit to 
bring the distinguished preacher into contempt. One 
of his biographers says, that " very pressing embarrass- 
ments in his affairs compelled him to bring out his 
comedy of ' The Minor? in 1760, to ridicule Method- 
ism, which, though successful, gave great offence, and 
was at last suppressed. 77 Of this miserable piece of 
buffoonery, it may be enough to say, that Foote, and 
the agents employed at the Tabernacle and Totten- 
ham Court-road chapel to collect materials from 
Whitefield for the accomplishment of their object, 
were so disgracefully ignorant of the inspired writ- 
ings, as not to know that what they took for Mr. 
Whitefield's peculiar language was that of the word 
of God. 

Lady Huntingdon interposed in the matter, first 
with the Lord Chamberlain, by whose license alone 
any play could then be performed in London, and then 
with Mr. Garrick, the latter of whom assured her that 
he would use his influence to exclude it, and added, 
that had he been aware of the offence it was adapted 
to give, it should never have appeared with his con- 
currence. The representation of this piece of mum- 
mery, as might have been expected, considerably in- 
creased Whitefield's popularity, and brought thou- 



3?4 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

sands of new persons to hear the gospel : thus Provi- 
dence gave him the victory over his opposers. 

To report the sicknesses, the labors, and the suc- 
cesses of Whitefield from this time to that of his sixth 
embarkation for America, would be little more than 
a repetition of the past. Suffice it to say, that in Eng- 
land, and in Scotland, he labored amid much ill-health 
and surrounded with many dangers ; but at length, 
having found an Episcopal clergyman, the Rev. John 
Berridge, a man of somewhat eccentric manners, but 
of great learning, of eminent piety, and of burning 
zeal, who was willing to labor for a time in London, 
Whitefield set sail in the ship Fanny, Captain Archi- 
bald Galbraith, bound from Greenock to Virginia, 
June 1, 1763, and arrived at Rappahannock, after a 
tedious, but otherwise pleasant voyage of about twelve 
weeks, in the last week of August. 



SIXTH VISIT TO AMERICA. 315 



CHAPTER XIV. 

SIXTH VISIT AND LABORS IN AMERICA— RENEWED 
LABORS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 

1763-1767. 

Whitefield was now for the sixth time in Ameri- 
ca. He was twelve weeks on the voyage ; but though 
tedious, it had done him good. " I enjoyed," he says, 
" that quietness which I have in vain sought after for 
some years on shore." Owing to the violence of his 
asthma, he had set sail " with but little hopes of far- 
ther public usefulness ;" but after being six weeks at 
sea, he wrote to a friend, " Who knows but our latter 
end may yet increase? If not in public usefulness, 
Lord Jesus, let it be in heart-holiness. I know who 
says Amen. I add, Amen and amen." 

On his arrival in Virginia, Whitefield was sur- 
rounded by many Christian friends, the fruits of his 
former labors in that colony, but whom he had not 
hitherto known. It was with great difficulty, how- 
ever, that he preached to them ; for though his gen- 
eral health was better, his breathing was very bad. 
The months of September, October, and November, 
he spent in Philadelphia. He says, " Here are some 
young bright witnesses rising up in the church. Per- 
haps I have already conversed with forty new creature 
ministers of various denominations. Sixteen popular 
students, I am credibly informed, were converted in 
New Jersey college last year. What an open door if 
I had strength ! Last Tuesday we had a remarkable 



376 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

season among the Lutherans ; children and grown peo- 
ple were much impressed." Ill as he was, he preached 
twice a week, and with his usual success. 

He intensely desired at this time to visit Georgia, 
but was absolutely prohibited by his physicians, till 
he had recovered his strength. In the end of Novem- 
ber, therefore, he passed over into New Jersey, visit- 
ing the college, and Elizabethtown. He tells us that 
at the college he had " four sweet seasons." His spir- 
its rose at the sight of the young soldiers who were 
to fight when he had fallen. It was now winter, and 
" cold weather and a warm heart " put him in good 
spirits, so that he was able to preach three times a 
week. 

A young man, a member of the college, hearing 
that Whitefield was to preach in the neighborhood, 
and being more than a little anxious to ascertain 
whether he really deserved all the celebrity he en- 
joyed, went to hear him. The day was very rainy, 
and the audience was small ; the preacher, accustomed 
to address thousands, did not feel his powers called 
forth as at other times. After having heard about 
one-third part of the sermon, the young man said to 
himself, " The man is not so great a wonder after all — 
quite commonplace and superficial — nothing but show, 
and not a great deal of that f and looking round upon 
the audience, he saw that they appeared about as un- 
interested as usual, and that old father , who sat 

directly in front of the pulpit, and who always went 
to sleep after hearing the text and plan of the sermon, 
was enjoying his accustomed nap. About this time, 
Whitefield stopped. His face went rapidly through 



SIXTH VISIT TO AMERICA. 377 

many changes, till it looked more like a rising thun- 
der-cloud than any thing else; and beginning very 
deliberately, he said, " If I had come to speak to you 
in my own name, you might rest your elbows upon 
your knees, and your heads upon your hands, and 
sleep ; and once in a while look up and say, ' What 
does the babbler talk of V But I have not come to 
you in my own name. No ; I have come to you in 
the name of the Lord God of hosts, and" — here he 
brought down his hand and foot at once, so as to 
make the whole house ring — " and I must, and will be 
heard." Every one in the house started, and old 

father among the rest. " Aye, aye," continued 

the preacher, looking at him, " I have waked you up, 
have I ? I meant to do it. I am not come here to 
preach to stocks and stones; I have come to you in 
the name of the Lord God of hosts, and I must, and I 
will have an audience." The congregation was fully 
aroused, and the remaining part of the sermon pro- 
duced a considerable effect. 

From New Jersey, Whitefield passed on to New 
York, where he says, " Such a flocking of all ranks I 
never saw before at New York. . . . Prejudices have 
most strangely subsided. The better sort flock as 
eagerly as the common people, and are fond of coming 
for private gospel conversation. Congregations con- 
tinue very large, and I trust saving impressions are 
made upon many." Such also was his influence as 
a philanthropist, that though prejudices ran high 
against the Indians, on account of a threatened in- 
surrection in the south, he collected about six hun- 
dred dollars for Dr. Wheelock's Indian school at 



378 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

Lebanon, Conn., which he soon after visited with 
much pleasure. 

An extract of a letter from New York, dated Jan. 
23, 1754, which appeared in the Boston Gazette, may 
show the esteem in which he was held : "The Rev. 
George "Whitefield has spent seven weeks with us, 
preaching twice a week, with more general approba- 
tion than ever; and has been treated with great 
respect by many of the gentlemen and merchants of 
this place. During his stay he preached two charity 
sermons, the one on the occasion of the annual collec- 
tion for the poor, in which double the sum was col- 
lected that ever was upon the like occasion ; the 
other was for the benefit of Mr. Wheelock's Indian 
school at Lebanon, for which he collected, notwith- 
standing the present prejudices of many people against 
the Indians, the sum of one hundred and twenty pounds. 
In his last sermon, he took a very affectionate leave of 
the people of this city, who expressed great concern 
at his departure. May God restore this great and 
good man, in whom the gentleman, the Christian, and 
accomplished orator shine forth with such peculiar 
lustre, to a perfect state of health, and continue him 
long a blessing to the world and the church of Christ." 

Leaving New York, he visited and preached, as 
far as his strength would allow, at Easthampton 
Bridge, Hampton, and Southhold, on Long Island ; at 
Shelter Island, and at New London, Norwich, and 
Providence. 

Whitefield arrived at Boston in the end of Feb- 
ruary, 1764, and was welcomed by multitudes with 
cordial affection ; and again he saw " the Redeemer's 



SIXTH VISIT TO AMERICA. 319 

stately steps in the great congregation. 77 Boston at 
that time was visited with small-pox, and Whitefield 
therefore devoted much of his labor to the adjacent 
towns. Writing from Concord, he says, " How would 
you have been delighted to have seen Mr. Wheelock 7 s 
Indians. Such a promising nursery of future mission- 
aries, I believe, was never seen in New England be- 
fore. Pray encourage it with all your might. 77 About 
two months after his arrival in Boston, his illness 
returned, but did not long prevent him from preach- 
ing, and the people still flocked in crowds to hear 
him. He left Boston for the south; but messengers 
were sent to entreat his return, and especially urged 
him to renew his six o 7 clock morning lecture. He 
did return, but was now unable to preach at the early 
hour they desired ; he appeared, however, in the pul- 
pit for some time on three occasions in the week, and 
such was the number of converts discovered, that after 
he had left it was proposed to send him a book filled 
with their names, as desiring his return. 

We ought to have said, that according to the 
Boston Gazette, about the time of the arrival of 
Whitefield, "at a meeting of the freeholders and other 
inhabitants of the town of Boston, it was unanimously 
voted that the thanks of the town be given to the Bev. 
George Whitefield, for his charitable care and pains 
in collecting a considerable sum of money in Great 
Britain for the distressed sufferers by the great fire in 
Boston, 1760. A respectable committee was appointed 
to wait on Mr. Whitefield, to inform him of the vote, 
and present him with a copy thereof." 

Notwithstanding the earnest entreaties of his 



380 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

friends, he left Boston in the early part of June. On 
the first of that month he wrote, " Friends have even 
constrained me to stay here, for fear of running into 
the summer's heat. Hitherto I find the benefit of it. 
Whatever it is owing to, through mercy, I am much 
better in health than I was this time twelve months, 
and can preach thrice a week to very large auditories 
without hurt ; and every day I hear of some brought 
under concern. This is all of grace." 

Sorrowfully parting from his friends at Boston, 
Whitefield left them for New York by way of New 
Haven. Here he preached to the students, and had 
taken his leave of them ; but such was the impression 
he had made on their minds, that they requested the 
president to go after him, to entreat for another " quar- 
ter of an hour's exhortation." He complied with the 
request, and the effect was what he called " the crown 
of the expedition." He continued at New York till 
the end of August. While there he writes, " At pres- 
ent my health is better than usual, and as yet I have 
felt no inconvenience from the summer's heat. I have 
preached twice lately in the fields, and we sat under 
the blessed Redeemer's shadow with great delight. 
My late excursions upon Long Island, I trust, have 
been blessed. It would surprise you to see above one 
hundred carriages at every sermon in the new world." 

On his way to Philadelphia, in September, White- 
field preached at the New Jersey college commence- 
ment ; for which, and for the influence he had exerted 
in favor of the institution, the trustees sent him a vote 
of thanks. His reception at the college was all he 
could desire. The governor and the ex-governor of 



SIXTH VISIT TO AMERICA. 381 

the state, with many other gentlemen, attended, and 
every other mark of respect was shown him. At 
Philadelphia, he describes the effect of his labors as 
"great indeed/ 7 and as usual, he was compelled to 
exclaim, " Grace, grace !" 

Leaving Pennsylvania, he went on through Vir- 
ginia ; here he tells us, in places as " unlikely as Rome 
itself," he found societies of Christians, formed and 
led on by a wealthy planter of that colony ; they met 
him in a body, wishing publicly to identify themselves 
with him. "Surely the Londoners" he writes, "who 
are fed to the full, will not envy the poor souls in 
these parts. I almost determine to. come back in the 
spring " from Georgia to them. 

On one occasion, while he was preaching in this 
colony, a Mr. Allen, afterwards a member of the em- 
inent Mr. Davies 7 church at Hanover, and who, with 
his family, " addicted himself to the ministry of the 
saints/ 7 fell on the ground at full length, suddenly, as 
if shot through the heart, and lay for the remainder of 
the evening as one who was dead. His descendants 
are now very numerous, and many of them are among 
the most zealous Christians in that state. 

From Virginia, Whitefield proceeded to South 
Carolina, and, Nov. 22, wrote, "At Newbern, last Sun- 
day, good impressions were made. I have met with 
what they call 'New Lights' in almost every place, 
and have the names of several of their preachers." 
Having preached at Charleston, he passed on to Be- 
thesda, and had the happiness to find the whole col- 
ony iii a prosperous condition. Here he spent the 
winter, and writes, " Peace and plenty reign at Be- 



382 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

thcsda. All things go on successfully. God hath 
given rne great favor in the sight of the governor, 
council, and assembly. A memorial was presented for 
an additional grant of lands, consisting of two thou- 
sand acres. It was immediately complied with. Both 
] louses addressed the governor on behalf of the intend- 
ed college. A warm answer was given; and I am 
now putting every thing in repair, and getting every 
thing ready for that purpose. Every heart seems to 
leap for joy at the prospect of its future usefulness to 
this and the neighboring colonies. He who holdeth 
the stars in his right hand will direct, in due time, 
whether I shall directly embark for England, or take 
one tour more to the northward. I am in delightful 
winter quarters for once. His excellency dined with 
me yesterday, and expressed his satisfaction in the 
warmest terms. Who knows how many youths may 
be trained up for the service of the ever-loving and 
altogether lovely Jesus. Thus far, however, we may 
set up our Ebenezer. Hitherto the bush hath been 
burning, but is not consumed." To this statement he 
adds, " Mr. Wright hath done much in a little time ; 
but he hath worked night and day, and not stirred a 
mile for many weeks. Thanks be to God, all outward 
things are settled on this side the water. The audit- 
ing the accounts, and laying the foundation for a col- 
lege, hath silenced enemies and comforted friends. 
The finishing of this affair confirms my call to Eng- 
land at this time." 

But the intense anxiety of multitudes to hear his 
preaching, prevented Whitefield from leaving Amer- 
ica for several months longer. He had, indeed, as 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 383 

early as the middle of February, determined not to 
visit New England till his return from Europe ; but 
arriving at Charleston, he was compelled to devote 
to labors there the whole month of March, and then 
set out for Philadelphia, preaching at many places on 
his way. He says, " All the way from Charleston to 
this place the cry is, 'For Christ's sake, stay and 
preach to us.' Oh for a thousand lives to spend for 
Jesus." 

The heat of the weather made it indispensable for 
his health that he should go to sea, and July 5th he 
once more arrived in England, on his last return voy- 
age from America. He says, "We have had but a 
twenty-eight days 7 passage. The transition has been 
so sudden, that I can scarcely believe that I am in 
England. I hope, ere long, to have a more sudden 
transition into a better country." When he arrived 
in his native land, he was ill of a nervous fever, 
which left him extremely weak in body, and unable to 
exert himself as formerly. Yet, still intent on his 
work, he did what he could, in expectation of soon 
entering into his eternal rest. " Oh, to end life well !" 
he writes ; " methinks I have now but one river to 
pass over. And we know of One who can carry us 
over without being ankle deep." 

On Whitefield's arrival in England, he found that 
his excellent friend the Countess of Huntingdon was 
erecting a large and beautiful church edifice in the 
fashionable city of Bath, and to that place he at once 
repaired. There he found several of his clerical 
brethren preaching in the private chapel at Bretby 
Hall, belonging to the Earl of Chesterfield, who had 



384 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

placed it for the time being at the disposal of Lady 
Huntingdon. On Whitefield's arrival, this place was 
of necessity exchanged for the Park, where the con- 
course of people was as vast as ever. 

October 6, he preached the dedicatory sermon 
of Lady Huntingdon's church at Bath, to an immense 
crowd. To his friend Robert Keen, Esq., one of the 
managers of his London houses, he wrote, " Could you 
have come, and have been present at the opening of 
the chapel, you would have been much pleased. The 
building is extremely plain, and yet equally grand. 
A most beautiful original ! All was conducted with 
great solemnity. Though a wet day, the place was 
very full, and assuredly the great Shepherd and Bish- 
op of souls consecrated and made it holy ground by 
his presence." 

He made but a short stay at Bath, and returned 
to London, still feeble and tottering, but still com- 
pelled to labor. He had an interview with his old 
friend John Wesley, who says of him, " He seemed to 
be an old man, being fairly worn out in his Master's 
service, though he has hardly seen fifty years ; and yet 
it pleases God that I, who am now in my sixty-third 
year, find no disorder, no weakness, no decay, no dif- 
ference from what I was at five and twenty, only that 
I have fewer teeth, and more gray hairs." Writing 
to a friend at Sheerness, in Kent, Jan. 18, 1766, White- 
field says, " I am sorry to acquaint you that it is not 
in my power to comply with your- request, for want of 
more assistance. I am confined in town with the care 
of two important posts, when I am only fit to be put 
into some garrison among invalids." By some means, 



REV. SAMSON OCCUM. 385 

however, he obtained a release, for in March we find 
him at Bath and Bristol. Writing, March 17, he says, 
"The uncertainty of my motions has made me slow in 
writing ; and a desire to be a while free from London 
cares, has made me indifferent about frequent hearing 
from thence. Last Friday evening, and twice yester- 
day, I preached at Bath, to very thronged and brilliant 
auditories. 77 

Whitefield 7 s interest in America was not lessened 
by his absence from it. He ardently loved it, and 
wished for the return of its peace and prosperity. He 
hoped, with many others, that the repeal of the Stamp 
Act would lead to this result; hence, we find in his 
Letter-book this entry: "March 16, 1766, Stamp Act 
repealed. Gloria Deo. 77 

Among the remarkable men of his day was Sam- 
son Occum. He was descended, on his mother's side, 
from Uncas, chief of the Mohegans. He was born in 
1723, of parents who led a wandering life, depending 
on hunting and fishing for subsistence. None culti- 
vated their lands, all dwelt in wigwams, and Samson 
was one of the very first of the tribe who learned to 
read. About the year 1740, at the age of seventeen, he 
was converted by the labors of Whitefield, Gilbert Ten- 
nent, and their companions. In a year or two he had 
learned to read his Bible with ease, and to his great 
advantage. He was a pupil at the school originally 
founded by Dr. Wheelock, at Lebanon, Conn., for the 
benefit exclusively of Indians, four years, and was 
then a teacher for eleven years. In 1759, he was or- 
dained by the Suffolk Presbytery, and became an emi- 
nently zealous preacher to the scattered Mohegans. 

Whitefield. 1 ^ 



386 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

In 1766, in company with the Kev. Mr. Whitaker of 
Norwich, he went to England to advocate the cause 
of Dr. Wheelock's Indian school, which school was 
afterwards merged in Dartmouth college, of which 
Mr. Wheelock was also founder and first president. 
Occum preached in the churches of Whitefield and 
Lady Huntingdon, as well as in some others of differ- 
ent denominations. We remember half a century ago 
hearing an old lady at Kidderminster, the town of 
Richard Baxter, describe a scene which occurred in 
Fawcett's church in that town. Occum had preached, 
and a handsome collection had been taken for his 
object ; with tears of gratitude and joy the good man 
thanked them, and in tones which neither the weeping 
nor the mimetic talent of the old lady would allow 
her fully to imitate, assured them that the blessing of 
many ready to perish would come upon them. The 
place was a Bochim, and nothing could prevent the 
people from having the plates again carried round, 
that they might add to the liberal contributions they 
had already made. 

Occum preached in Great Britain from three to 
four hundred sermons ; and as no North American 
Indian had ever preached in England before, public 
curiosity was great, and his pecuniary success consid- 
erable. He brought to this country, with his compan- 
ion, as the produce of their labors, more than forty- 
five thousand dollars. In 1772 he published an inter- 
esting sermon which he preached to an Indian at his 
execution. An excellent portrait of him was publish- 
ed in England. 

Dr. Timothy D wight writes, "I heard Mr. Occura 



IN ENGLAND. 38T 

twice. His discourses, though not proofs of superior 
talents, were decent ; and his utterance in some degree 
eloquent. His character at one time labored under 
some imputations ; yet there is good reason to believe 
that most, if not all of them were unfounded ; and 
there is satisfactory evidence that he was a man of 
piety." An account of the Montauk Indians, written 
by Occum, is preserved in the "Historical Collec- 
tions." He died at New Stockbridge, N. Y., July, 
1792. It has been said that the first Sunday-school 
in these United States was founded in the house of 
his sister, a few months after his death. 

Occum was somewhat of a wit, and could well 
apply his talent in his conflict with the enemies of di* 
vine truth. He once ended a long controversial con- 
versation with a Universalist, by saying, " Well, well, 
remember, if you are correct, I am safe ; if you are not 
correct, I am safe. I have two strings to my bow ; 
you have but one." 

In June, 1766, we again find Whitefield in the 
neighborhood of Bristol, whence he writes, " As my 
feverish heat continues, and the weather is too wet to 
travel, I have complied with the advice of friends, 
and have commenced a Hot- wells water drinker twice 
a day. However, twice this week, at six o'clock in 
the morning, I have been enabled to call thirsty souls 
to come and ' drink of the water of life freely/ To 
morrow evening, God willing, the call is to be repeat 
ed, and again on Sunday." On his return to London 
he writes, under date of September 25, "Many in thij 
metropolis seem to be on the wing for God ; the shoul 
of a king is yet heard in the Methodist camp. Had 



385 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

I wings, I would gladly fly from pole to pole ; but 
they are clipped by thirty years' feeble labors. Twice 
or thrice a week I am permitted to ascend my gospel 
throne. The love of Christ, I am persuaded, will 
constrain you to pray that the last glimmering of an 
expiring taper may be blessed to the guiding of many 
wandering souls to the Lamb of God." 

The good providence of God now gave Whitefield 
a colleague in the ministry at the Tabernacle and 
Tottenham Court-road chapel, the Eev. Torial Joss. 
This gentleman had spent many years as captain at 
sea ; converted by divine grace, and filled with holy 
zeal, he devoted his popular talents to the welfare of 
his fellow-men, preaching both on sea and land. In a 
remarkable manner, Mr. Whitefield became acquaint- 
ed with him, and, without his knowledge, published 
that he would preach in his houses of worship, which, 
though with extreme reluctance, Joss did. These 
services were often renewed, and Whitefield gave him 
no rest till he abandoned the sea, and devoted himself 
to the ministry. Everywhere he was popular, and 
everywhere useful. He continued minister of the two 
places in London — spending four or five months in 
each year travelling and preaching — for twenty-seven 
years after the death of his friend, and then departed 
from earth, in 1797, in holy triumph, in the 66th year 
of his age. 

One of the most extraordinary men in modern 
times was the late Rev. Rowland Hill, who erected 
Surrey chapel, London, and continued to preach in it 
till his death, in his eighty-ninth year, in 1833. He 
was eminently dignified in person, possessed extraor- 



REV. ROWLAND HILL. 389 

dinary zeal, and was honored by his great Master 
with probably more success in the direct work of sav- 
ing souls than any other minister of his day. He 
was a man of considerable rank, his father being a 
gentleman of title, one of his brothers a member of 
Parliament for many years, representing his native 
county, and the late eminent statesman and soldier 
Lord Hill was his nephew. Mr. Hill himself in early 
life became a Christian, and was educated for the 
ministry in the established church, but violated its 
rules, and preached wherever he could ; for many 
years he was greatly persecuted by his own family, 
some of whom, however, in the end sustained the yoke 
of Christ. When Rowland began his somewhat er- 
ratic career, the opposition from his father was so 
great, that he was reduced sometimes to extreme pov- 
erty; and he was exactly the man to be encouraged 
by such men as Whitefield and Berridge. We give a 
few extracts from letters addressed to him by White- 
field, which certainly show no small degree of ardor, 
though we cannot see in them what Hill's clerical 
biographer, Mr. Sidney, professed to find, " an aspi- 
ration after the honors, when he had no prospect of 
the sufferings of martyrdom. 77 The fact was, that 
Mr. Sidney was offended with Whitefield, as he was 
with his venerable uncle, Mr. Hill, for having deviated 
from the rigid laws of the establishment. It is only 
needful to introduce the first letter by saying that it 
was dated, London, December 27, 1766, and was sent 
in answer to one in which Mr. Hill had asked his 
counsel. 

" About thirty-four years ago, the master of Pern* 



390 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

broke college, where I was educated, took. me to task 
for visiting the sick and going to the prisons. In my 
haste I said, ' Sir, if it displeaseth you I will go no 
more.' My heart smote me immediately ; I repented, 
and went again ; he heard of it — threatened — but for 
fear he should be looked on as a persecutor, let me 
alone. The hearts of all are in the Redeemer's hands. 
I would not have you give way; no, not for a mo- 
ment. The storm is too great to hold long. Visiting 
the sick and imprisoned, and instructing the ignorant, 
are the very vitals of true and undefined religion. If 
threatened, denied degree, or expelled for this, it will 
be the best degree you can take — a glorious prepara- 
tive for, and a blessed presage of future usefulness. 
I have seen the dreadful consequences of giving way 
and looking back. How many by this wretched cow- 
ardice, and fear of the cross, have been turned into 
pillars, not of useful, but of useless salt. Now is your 
time to prove the strength of Jesus yours. If opposi- 
tion did not so much abound, your consolations would 
not so abound. Blind as he is, Satan sees some groat 
good coming on. We never prospered so much at 
Oxford as when we were hissed at and reproached as 
we walked along the streets, as being counted the 
dung and offscouring of all things. That is a poor 
building which a little stinking breath of Satan's vas- 
sals can throw down. Your house, I trust, is better 
founded. Is it not built upon a rock ? Is not that 
rock the blessed Jesus ? The gates of hell, therefore, 
shall not be able to prevail against it. Go on, there- 
fore, my dear man, go on. Old Berridge, I believe, 
would give you the same advice ; you are honored in 



REV. ROWLAND HILL. 391 

sharing his reproach and name. God be praised that 
you are enabled to bless when others blaspheme. God 
bless and direct and support you. He will, he will. 
Good Lady Huntingdon is in town ; she will rejoice to 
hear that you are under the cross. You will not want 
her prayers, or the poor prayers of, my dear honest 
young friend, yours, in an all-conquering Jesus." 

The opposition Mr. Hill met with from his par- 
ents increased, and the threat of his degree being 
withheld, was, on the part of the university author- 
ities, more determined ; still, however, he persevered 
in his preaching and his visits, in violation of the laws 
of discipline. In June, 1767, Mr. Whitefield wrote 
him : " I wish you joy of the late high dignity con- 
ferred upon you — higher than if you were made the 
greatest professor in the university of Cambridge. 
The honorable degrees you intend giving to your 
promising candidates, [allowing some of his fellow- 
students to preach in the various places which he had 
visited,] I trust will excite a holy ambition, and a 
holy emulation; let me know who is first honored. 
As I have been admitted to the degree of doctor for 
near these thirty years, I assure you I like my field 
preferment, my airy pluralities, exceedingly well. 
For these three weeks last past I have been beating up 
for fresh recruits in Gloucestershire and South Wales. 
Thousands and thousands attended, and good Lady 
Huntingdon was present at one of our reviews. Her 
ladyship's aid-de-camp preached in Brecknock-street, 
and Captain Scott, that glorious field-officer, lately 
fixed up his standard upon dear Mr. Fletcher's horse- 
block at Madeley. Being invited thither, I have a great 



392 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

inclination to lift up the Redeemer's ensign next week 
in the same place ; with what success, you and your 
dearly beloved candidates for good old methodistical 
contempt shall know hereafter. God willing, I intend 
lighting my way up to town. Soon after my arrival 
there, I hope thousands and thousands of volleys of 
prayers, energetic, effectual, fervent, heaven-besieging, 
heaven-opening, heaven-taking prayers, shall be poured 
forth for you all. Oh, my dearly beloved and longed- 
for in the Lord, my bowels yearn towards you. Fear 
not to go without the camp ; keep open the correspon- 
dence between the two universities. Eemember the 
praying legions — they were never known to yield. 
God bless those that are gone to their respective 
cures — I say not livings, a term of too modern date. 
Christ is our life ; Christ is the Levite's inheritance, 
and Christ will be the true disinterested Levite's lot 
and portion and all. Greet your dear young com- 
panions whom I saw ; they are welcome to write 
when they please. God be your physician under your 
bodily malady. A thorn, a thorn ! but Christ's grace 
will be sufficient for you. To his tender, never-failing 
mercy I commit you." 

A few weeks after this, Mr. Hill was much de- 
pressed in spirits, partly from bodily illness, partly 
because he was about to leave Cambridge and its sur- 
rounding villages, where he had latterly so frequently 
preached, but chiefly from the fact that he was going 
home, where he would again meet the frowns of his 
honored parents, for what they deemed his overright- 
eousness. In the midst of all this, however, he knew 
that he would meet at Hawketone, his father's resi- 



REV. ROWLAND HILL. 393 

dence, the cordial welcome of his sister and elder 
brother, Richard Hill, afterwards a baronet. This 
gentleman had lately become a village preacher and a 
visitor of prisons, like his brother. Under these cir- 
cumstances he was addressed by Whitefield, in his 
own peculiar and energetic style: "What said our 
Lord to Martha ? ' Did I not say unto thee, If thou 
wouldest believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God V 
Blessed, for ever blessed be the God and Father of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, for what he hath done for your 
dear brother. A preaching, prison-preaching, field- 
preaching esquire, strikes more than all the black 
gowns and lawn sleeves in the world. And if I am 
not mistaken, the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls 
will let the world, and his own children too, know 
that he will not be prescribed to in respect to men, 
or garbs, or places ; much less will he be confined to 
any order or set of men under heaven. I wish you 
both much, very much prosperity. You will have it — 
you will have it. This is the way, walk ye in it. Both 
Tabernacle and [Tottenham Court-road] chapel pul- 
pits shall be open to a captain or an esquire sent of 
God. The good news from Oxford is encouraging. 
Say what they will, preaching should be one part of 
the education of a student in divinity. I pray for 
you night and day." 

On the arrival of Mr. Hill at his father's beautiful 
seat, it was his happiness to find that his brother 
Brian, afterwards useful as a clergyman, was added 
to the number of believers in Christ ; he learned also, 
that one of his college friends had been threatened to 
have an exhibition, or yearly gift towards his univer- 

11* 



394 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

sity expenses, withdrawn, unless he renounced his evan- 
gelical doctrines and practices. The reader will now 
understand Mr. Whitefield's letter : " I have been 
sadly hindered from answering your last letter, deliv- 
ered to me by your brother. I gave it him to read, 
and we had, I trust, a profitable conference. God be 
praised if another of your brothers is gained. What 
grace is this ! Four or five out of one family — it is 
scarcely to be paralleled. Who knows but the root, 
as well as the branches, may be taken by and by? 
Abba, Father, all things are possible with thee I 
Steadiness and perseverance in the children will be 
one of the best means, under God, of convincing the 
parents. This present opposition I think cannot last 
very long ; if it does, to obey God rather than man, 
when forbidden to do what is undoubted duty, is the 
invariable rule. Our dear Penty [afterwards the 
Rev. Thomas Pentycross] is under the cross at Cam- 
bridge. But 

" ' Satan thwarts, and men object, 
Yet the thing they thwart effect.' 

I should be glad if any one's exhibition was taken 
from him for visiting the sick, etc. It would vastly 
tend to the furtherance of the gospel ; but Satan sees 
too far, I imagine, to play such a game now. Let 
him do his work ; he is only a mastiff chained. Con- 
tinue to inform me how he barks, and how far he is 
permitted to go in your parts ; and God's people 
shall be more stirred up to pray for you all." 

The close of Mr. Hill's life was truly interesting 
and instructive. As has been intimated, he preached 
with scarcely diminished power until within a few 



REV. ROWLAND HILL. 395 

weeks of his death. During the last two or three 
years of his life he very frequently repeated the fol 
lowing lines of an old poet : 

" And when I 'hi to die, 

Receive me, I '11 cry, 
For Jesus has loved me, I cannot tell why ; 

But this I can find, 

"We two are so joined, 
That he '11 not be in glory, and leave me behind." 

" The last time he occupied my pulpit," writes his 
neighbor, the Rev. George Clayton, " when he preach- 
ed excellently for an hour, in behalf of a charitable 
institution, he retired to the vestry after service under 
feelings of great and manifest exhaustion. Here he 
remained until every individual except the pew-open- 
ers, his servant, and myself had left the place. At 
length he seemed with some reluctance to summon 
energy enough to take his departure, intimating that 
it was in all probability the last time he should preach 
in Walworth. His servant went before to open the 
carriage-door, the pew-openers remaining in the ves- 
try. I offered my arm, which he declined, and then 
followed him as he passed down the aisle of the 
chapel. The lights were nearly extinguished, the 
silence was profound, nothing indeed was heard but 
the slow majestic tread of his own footsteps, when, in 
an undertone, he thus soliloquized: 

" ' And when I 'm to die,' etc. 

To my heart this was a scene of unequalled solemnity, 
nor can I ever recur to it without a revival of that 
hallowed, sacred, shuddering sympathy which it orig- 
inally awakened." 



396 GEORGE WHITEFIELD, 

When the good old saint lay literally dying, and 
when apparently unconscious, a friend put his mouth 
close to his ear, and repeated slowly his favorite lines • 

" And when I 'm to die," etc. 

The light came back to his fast-fading eye, a smile 
overspread his face, and his lips moved in the ineffec 
tual attempt to articulate the words. This was the 
*ast sign of consciousness which he gave. 

We could almost wish that every disciple of Christ 
would commit these lines, quaint as they are, to mem 
ory, and weave them into the web of his Christian 
experience. Confidence in Christ, and undeviating 
adherence to him, can alone enable us to triumph in 
life and death. 

In November, 1766, Whitefield again visited Bath 
and Bristol, and then passed on to Gloucestershire 
and Oxford. Never did so many of the nobility attend 
his ministry as he now saw at Bath, and the results of 
his whole journey were such as to fill him with the 
most devout gratitude. He saw too the number of 
his clerical friends largely increasing, and especially 
rejoiced in the fact that the excellent Fletcher, of 
Madeley, preached in his pulpits in London. He writes 
of this event, " Dear Mr. Fletcher has become a scan- 
dalous Tottenham Court preacher. . . . Were we 

more scandalous, more good would be done 

Still, 'the shout of a king is yet heard 7 in the Meth- 
odist camp.' 7 

In January, 1767, Whitefield wrote a recommend- 
atory preface to the works of John Bunyan, whom he 
pleasantly designated, "Bishop Bunyan; 77 and as soon 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 397 

as the weather would permit, we find him at Norwich, 
and then at Rodborough, Woodstock, Gloucester, 
and Haverfordwest, from which last place he wrote, 
" Thousands and thousands attend by eight in the 
morning. Life and light seem to fly all around." On 
a second visit to Gloucester on this tour, he wrote, 
"Blessed be God, I have got on this side the Welsh 
mountains. Blessed be God, I have been on the other 
side. What a scene last Sunday! What a cry for 
more of the bread of life! But I was quite worn 
down." 

In September following, he again visited the north 
of England, writing from day to day in high spirits. 
September 28, he says, "My body feels much fatigued 
in travelling ; comforts in the soul overbalance f and 
from Leeds, October 3, he writes, "Field and street 
preaching have rather bettered than hurt my bodily 
health." 

Whitefield now returned to London, to sustain a 
heavy disappointment. The negotiations relative to 
the college at Bethesda were this winter brought to an 
issue. A memorial addressed to his Majesty was put 
into the hands of the clerk of the Privy Council, set- 
ting forth the great utility of a college in that place 
to the southern provinces ; and praying that a charter 
might be granted upon the plan of the college in New 
Jersey. This memorial was transmitted by the clerk 
of the Privy Council to the lord president, and by his 
lordship referred to the Archbishop of Canterbury 
to whom also a draft of an intended charter was pre- 
sented by the Earl of Dartmouth. A correspondence 
followed all this between the archbishop and White- 



398 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

field; the consequence of which was, that his grace 
gave the draft of the college to the lord president, 
who promised he would consider of it ; and gave it as 
his opinion that " the head of the college ought to be 
a member of the church of England ; that this was a 
qualification not to be dispensed with ; and also, that 
the public prayers should not be extempore ones, but 
the liturgy of the church, or some other settled and 
established form." Whitefield replied that these re- 
strictions he could by no means agree to, because the 
greatest part of the contributions for the orphan-house 
came from Protestant dissenters ; and because he had 
constantly declared that the intended college should 
be founded upon a broad foundation, and no other. 

"This," said he, "I judged I was sufficiently war- 
ranted to do, from the known, long-established, mild, 
and uncoercive genius of the British government ; also 
from your grace's moderation towards Protestant dis- 
senters; from the unconquerable attachment of the 
Americans to toleration principles, as well as from 
the avowed habitual feelings of my own heart. This 
being the case, and as your grace, by your silence, 
seems to be like-minded with the lord president ; and 
as your grace's and his lordship's influence will un- 
doubtedly extend itself to others, I would beg leave, 
after returning all due acknowledgments, to inform 
your grace that I intend troubling your grace and his 
lordship no more about this so long depending con- 
cern. As it hath pleased the great Head of the 
church in some degree to renew my bodily strength, 
I propose now to renew my feeble efforts, and to turn 
the charity into a more generous, and consequently 



IN GREAT BRITAIN. 399 

into a more useful channel. I have no ambition to 
be looked upon as the founder of a college; but I 
would fain act the part of an honest man, a disinter- 
ested minister of Jesus Christ, and a true, catholic, 
moderate presbyter of the church of England." 

Thus ended Whitefield's labors to establish a col- 
lege at Bethesda. Berridge, and not a few others of 
his friends rather rejoiced in his disappointment, as 
they thought there was some fear, uncontrolled as the 
institution might hereafter be by men of established 
principles of piety, that an unconverted ministry might 
be increased by its means. 



400 GEORGE WHITEFIELD, 



CHAPTER XV. 

I1IS LAST LABORS IN GREAT BRITAIN— COLLEGE 

AT TREYECCA— EARL OF BUCHAN — TUNBRIDG-E 

WELLS. 

1767-1769. 

Whitefield had abandoned the idea of a charter 
tor a college at present, but he was yet ardently desir- 
ous of a public academy being added to his orphan- 
house, similar to what existed at Philadelphia before 
a college charter was granted. He thought that it 
this could be done, a better day might arrive, when a 
charter on broad principles might be obtained. He 
developed his whole plan in a letter to Governor 
Wright. Feeling too the uncertainty of life, he wrote 
to his friend Mr. Keen, " None but God knows what a 
concern is upon me now, in respect of Bethesda. As 
another voyage, perhaps, may be the issue and the 
result of all at last, I would beg you and my dear 

Mr. H to let me have all my papers and letters, 

that I may revise and dispose of them in a proper 
manner. This can do no hurt, come life or come 
death." 

October 28th, 1767, Whitefield preached at the Lon- 
don Tabernacle before the society for promoting re- 
ligious knowledge among the poor, usually called, The 
Book Society. This society had been organized seven- 
teen years before this period, and included in it such 
men as Watts, Doddridge, and Gifford. He gave 



LAST LABORS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 401 

way to all the zeal of his heart while he discussed the 
petition, "Thy kingdom come." Luke 11:2. The 
congregation was immense, many had to go away 
unable to obtain admittance. It was believed that a 
larger number of dissenting ministers were present 
than ever before heard a sermon from an Episcopal 
minister, and the collection reached more than five 
hundred dollars, or above four times the usual amount, 
besides eighty new annual subscribers. After the 
service, he dined with a very large party, including the 
ministers, where harmony reigned, and much respect 
was shown him. 

It may be readily supposed, that with advancing 
years and increasing experience, some changes might 
have taken place both in the style and manner of 
Whitefield's preaching. The Rev. Cornelius Winter, 
who had become somewhat closely associated with him, 
says, " He dealt more in the explanatory and doctrinal 
mode on the Sabbath morning than at any other time, 
and sometimes made a little, but by no means an im- 
proper show of learning. His afternoon sermon was 
more general and exhortatory. In the evening, he 
drew his bow at a venture ; vindicated the doctrines 
of grace, fenced them with articles and homilies, refer- 
red to the martyr's seal, and exemplified the power of 
divine grace by quotations from the venerable Foxe. 
Sinners were then closely plied, numbers of whom, 
from curiosity, coming to hear for a minute or two, 
were often compelled to hear the whole sermon. How 
many in the judgment-day will rise to prove that they 
heard to the salvation of the soul. Upon the mem- 
bers of society, the practice of Christianity was iken 



402 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

usually inculcated, not without some pertinent anec- 
dote of a character worthy to be held up for an exam- 
ple, and in whose conduct the hints recommended 
were exemplified. On Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednes- 
days, and Thursdays, he preached at six in the morn- 
ing ; and never, perhaps, did he preach greater ser- 
mons than at this hour. 77 This, with the frequent 
administration of the Lord 7 s supper to hundreds of 
communicants, was his usual plan for several years ; 
but now he became more colloquial in his style, with 
but little action ; he gave pertinent expositions of the 
Scriptures, with striking remarks, all comprehended 
within an hour. Winter adds, " The peculiar talents 
he possessed, subservient to great usefulness, can be 
but faintly conceived from his sermons in print; 
though, as formerly, God has made the reading of 
them useful, and I have no doubt that in future they 
will have their use. 77 

But even yet our evangelist had to engage in war. 
The opposition of the universities in Oxford and Cam- 
bridge to the principles and practices introduced by 
Whitefield, Wesley, and their companions, grew and 
strengthened, till an event occurred at Oxford singu- 
larly remarkable in its history for opposition to evan- 
gelical religion, which for many years continued to 
excite very extraordinary interest. The London "St. 
James 7 Chronicle, 77 of Thursday, March 17, 1763, con- 
tained the following "extract of a letter from Oxford: 77 
" On Friday last, six students, belonging to Edmund 
Hall, were expelled the university, after a hearing of 
several hours before Mr. Vice- Chancellor and some 
of the heads of houses, for holding methodistical 



LAST LABORS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 403 

tenets, and taking upon them to pray, read, and ex- 
pound the Scriptures, and singing hymns in a private 

house. The of the [The Principal of the 

Edmund Hall, Rev. Dr. Dixon] defended their doc- 
trines from the Thirty-nine Articles of the established 
church, and spoke in the highest terms of the piety 
and exemplariness of their lives ; but his motion was 
overruled, and sentence pronounced against them. 

Dr. , [Dixon,] one of the heads of houses present, 

observed, that as these six gentlemen were expelled for 
having too much religion, it would be very proper to 
inquire into the conduct of some who had too little ; 

and Mr. [Dr. Nowell] was heard to tell their 

chief accuser, that the university was much obliged to 
him for his good work." 

To detail the events which followed this extraor- 
dinary act, and to describe the excitement thus cre- 
ated, form no part of the design of our volume. 
We have referred to the fact because Mr. Whitefield 
and his friend Sir Richard Hill took part in the con- 
troversy. Referring to Dr. Nowell's assertion to 
Mr. Higson, their " chief accuser," and who was also 
their tutor, that the university was obliged to him, 
Whitefield says to the Vice- Chancellor, " What thanks, 
reverend sir, he may meet with from the whole uni- 
versity I know not; but one thing I know, namely, 
that he will receive no thanks for that day's work 
from the innumerable company of angels, the general 
assembly of the first-born which are written in heav- 
en, or from God the Judge of all, in that day when 
Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant shall come in 
his own glory, in the glory of the Father and his holy 



404 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

angels, and gather his elect from all the four corners 
of the world. 

"It is true, indeed, one article of impeachment 
was, that ' some of them were of trades before they 
entered into the university. 7 But what evil or crime 
worthy of expulsion can there be in that? To be 
called from any, though the meanest mechanical em- 
ployment, to the study of the liberal arts, where a 
natural genius hath been given, was never yet looked 
upon as a reproach to, or diminution of any great and 
public character whatsoever. Profane history affords 
us a variety of examples of the greatest heroes, who 
have been fetched even from the plough to command 
armies, and who performed the greatest exploits for 
their country's good. And if we examine sacred his- 
tory, we shall find that even David, after he was 
anointed king, looked back with sweet complacency 
to the rock from whence he was hewn, and is not 
ashamed to leave it upon record, that God took him 
away from the sheepfolds, as he was following the 
ewes great with young ; and, as though he loved to 
repeat it, he took him, he says, ' that he might feed 
Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance. 7 

"But why speak I of David, when Jesus of Naza- 
reth, David's Lord and David's King, had for his 
reputed father a carpenter? and in all probability, 
as it was a common proverb among the Jews, that ' he 
who did not teach his son a trade, taught him to be a 
thief/ he worked at the trade of a carpenter himself. 
For this, indeed, he was reproached and maligned: 
i Is not this,' said they, ' the carpenter's son ?' Nay, 
' Is not this the carpenter?' But who were these ma 



LAST LABORS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 405 

ligners ? The greatest enemies to the power of god- 
liness which the world ever saw, the scribes and Phar- 
isees, that ' generation of vipers/ as John the Baptist 
calls them, who, upon every occasion, were spitting 
out their venom, and shooting their arrows, even bit- 
ter words, against that Son of man, even that Son 01 
God who, to display his sovereignty, and confound 
the wisdom of the worldly wise, chose poor fishermen 
to be his apostles ; and whose chief of the apostles, 
though brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, both be- 
fore and after his call to the apostleship, labored with 
his own hands, and worked at the trade of a tent- 
maker." 

It is pleasant to know that the young men thus 
expelled became useful in the church of Christ. One 
of them, indeed, Erasmus Middleton, who had been 
sustained at Oxford by Mr. Fuller, a dissenter and 
banker in London, was ordained in Ireland by the 
bishop of Down, and having married a lady of the 
ducal family of Gordon, in Scotland, was curate suc- 
cessively to the Rev. Messrs. Romaine and Cadogan 
in London, and finally rector of Turvey, in Bedford- 
shire, where he was the immediate predecessor of the 
sainted Legh Richmond. 

Many delightful evidences yet exist that as White- 
field drew nearer the end of his career on earth, his 
holy zeal increased, rather than lessened. We have 
lying before us three of his letters, not included either 
in the collection of his printed correspondence, or in 
the lives which have been published. The first was 
addressed to a gentleman at Wisbeach, and appears 
to have been written from London. It is dated Sept. 
25, 1766. 



£06 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

" Dear Sir — -As your letter breathes the spirit of 
a sincere follower of the Lamb of God, I am sorry 
that it hath lain by so long unanswered ; but bodily 
weakness, and a multiplicity of correspondents, both 
from abroad and at home, must be pleaded as excuses. 
i Blessed be God, our salvation is nearer than when 
we believed. 7 It should seem that you have now 
served three apprenticeships in Christ's school, and 
yet I suppose the language of your heart is, 'I love 
my Master, and will not go from him ; 7 and Oh, what 
a mercy, that whom Jesus loves, he loves to the end ! 
Do you not begin to long to see him more than ever? 
Do you not groan in this tabernacle, being burdened? 
Courage, courage ; he that cometh will come, and will 
not tarry. Oh that patience may have its perfect 
work! Many in this metropolis seem to be on the 
wing for God ; the shout of a king is yet heard in 
the Methodist camp. Had I wings, I would gladly 
fly from pole to pole ; but they are clipped by thirty 
years 7 feeble labors. Twice or thrice a week I am 
permitted to ascend my gospel throne. The love of 
Christ, I am persuaded, will constrain you to pray 
that the last glimmering of an expiring taper may 
be blessed to the guiding of many wandering souls to 
the Lamb of God. 77 

The second letter was written from the same city, 
February 12, in the following year, and was addressed 
to Captain Scott, a military officer then "quartered 
at Leicester. 77 This gentleman, in early life, had been 
much devoted to the gayeties of fashionable society ; 
long after he had entered the army, he was converted 
to God, under the ministry of the Rev. W. Romaine ; 



LAST LABORS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 407 

and a few weeks before Mr. Whitefield addressed to 
him this letter, he had begun to preach the grand mes- 
sage of reconciliation. He afterwards left the army 4 
was ordained as a Congregational minister, and la- 
bored for many years in almost innumerable places 
in city and country, with abundant success. 

"What, not answer so modest a request, namely, 
to snatch a few moments to send dear Captain Scott 
a few lines? God forbid. I must again welcome him 
into the field of battle. I must again entreat him to 
keep his rank as captain, and not suffer any persua- 
sions to influence him to descend to the low degree of 
a common soldier. If God will choose a red-coat 
preacher, who shall say unto him, * What doest thou V 

" Prevent thy foes, nor wait their charge ; 
But call the lingering battle on ; 
But strongly grasp thy seven-fold targe, 
And bear the world and Satan down. 

"Strong in the Lord's almighty power, 
And armed in panoply divine, 
Firm mayest thou stand in danger's hour, 
And prove the strength of Jesus thine. 

" The helmet of salvation take, 
The Lord the Spirit's conquering sword ; 
Speak from the word, in lightning speak ; 
Cry out, and thunder from the Lord. 

"Through friends and foes pursue thy way, 
Be mindful of a dying God ; 
Finish thy course, and win the day, 
Though called to seal the truth with blood. 

"Gladly would I come, and in my poor way en 
deavor to strengthen your hands ; but alas, I am fit 
for nothing, but, as an invalid, to be put into some 



408 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

garrison, and now and then put my hand to some old 
gun. Blessed be the Captain of our salvation for 
drafting out some young champions to reconnoitre 
and attack the enemy. You will beat the march in 
every letter, and bid the common soldiers not halt, 
but go forwards. Good. Lady Huntingdon wishes you 
much prosperity. Pray write to her at Brighthelm- 
^tone, [now Brighton,] Sussex. She will most gladly 
answer you ; and I assure you, her Ladyship's letters 
are always weighty. Hoping one day or another to 
see your face in the flesh, and more than hoping to 
see you crowned with glory in the kingdom of heaven, 
I must hasten to subscribe myself, my dear captain, 
yours in our all-glorious Captain-general, 

" G. WHITEFIELD." 

The last letter we shall introduce in this connec- 
tion was addressed by Whitefield to the Honorable and 
Rev. Walter Shirley, of Ireland, a near relative of the 
Countess of Huntingdon, who breathed, as a minister 
of Christ, much of the spirit of his great Master. It 
was dated, Bath, Dec. 8, 1767 : 

"Rev. and very dear Sir — How glad was I to 
hear by the London Shunamite, [Mrs. Herritage,] that 
you and your lady were well ; that God had given 
you a son ; that you reflected on your preaching at 
Tottenham Court chapel with pleasure ; that you had 
gotten a curate ; and, to complete all, that you intend- 
ed to visit England next spring. This news rejoiced 
me before I left town, and was most grateful to our 
good Lady Huntingdon, whom I have the honor of 
waiting upon at this time in Bath. She hath been 
sick, nigh unto death, but through mercy is now some- 



LAST LABORS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 409 

what recovered, though as yet unable to write much. 
This her ladyship much regrets on your account ; and 
therefore enjoins me to inform you, that your letter 
did not reach her hands till many weeks after the 
proper time ; that ever since she has been visited with 
lingering sickness, but begs you will not linger in 
coming over to our Macedonia to help us. The 
thought of it seems to refresh her heaven-born soul. 
Blessed be God, her ladyship still takes the lead. 

"She is now doing honor to the remains of the 
Earl of Buchan, who sweetly slept in Jesus last week. 
All hath been awful, and more than awful. On Sat- 
urday evening, before the corpse was taken from Bu- 
chan house, a word of exhortation was given, and a 
hymn sung in the room where the corpse lay. The 
young Earl stood with his hands on the head of the 
coffin, the Countess Dowager of Buchan on his right 
hand, Lady Ann Agnes, and Lady Isabella Erskine on 
his left, and their brother the Hon. Thomas Erskine 

next to their mother, with Miss , Miss W , 

Miss G ; on one side all the domestics, with a few 

friends on the other. The word of exhortation was 
received with great solemnity, and most wept under 
the parting prayer. At ten, the corpse was removed 
to good Lady Huntingdon's chapel, where it was de- 
posited within a place railed in for that purpose, cov- 
ered with black baize, and the usual funeral concomi- 
tants, except escutcheons. 

" On Sunday morning, all attended in mourning at 
early sacrament. They were seated by themselves, 
at the feet of the corpse, and with their head servants, 
received first, and a particular address was made to 

Whitefleld. 13 



410 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

them. Immediately after receiving, these verses were 

sung for them : 

" ' Our lives, our blood, we here present, 
If for thy truth they may be spent : 
Fulfil thy glorious counsel, Lord ; 
Thy will be done, thy name adored. 

"'Give them thy strength, God of power, 
Then let men rave or devils roar, 
Thy faithful witnesses they '11 be ; 
'Tis fixed, they can do all through thee!' 

" Then they received this blessing : ' The Lord bless 
you, and keep you ; the Lord lift up the light of his 
countenance upon you; the Lord cause his face to 
shine upon you, and give you peace f and so returned 
to their places. 

"Sacrament ended, and a blessed sacrament it was, 
the noble mourners returned to the good Countess of 
Huntingdon's house, which was lent them for the day. 
At eleven, public worship began. The bereaved rela- 
tives sat in order within, and the domestics round the 
outside of the rail. The chapel was more than crowd- 
ed. Near three hundred tickets; signed by the pres- 
ent earl, were given out to the nobility and gentry, 
to be admitted. All was hushed and solemn. Prop- 
er hymns were sung, and I preached on the words, 
'Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord.' Atten- 
tion sat on every countenance, and deep and almost 
universal impressions were made. The like scene, 
and if possible more solemn, was exhibited in the 
evening, and I was enabled to preach a second time, 
and a like power attended the word as in the morn- 
ing. Ever since, there hath been public service and 
preaching twice a day. This is to be continued tili 



LAST LABORS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 411 

Friday morning, then all is to be removed to Bristol, 
in order to be shipped off to Scotland. The inscrip- 
tion on the coffin runs thus : ' His life was honorable — 
his death blessed — he sought earnestly peace with 
God — he found it, with unspeakable joy, alone in the 
merits of Jesus Christ, witnessed by the Holy Spirit 
to his soul — he yet speaketh. Go and do likewise. 7 

"I have often wished for you here. Congrega- 
tions are very large, attentive, and deeply impressed. 
Great numbers of all ranks crowd to see and hear ; 
and I trust many will also feel. Surely the death of 
this noble earl, thus improved, will prove the life of 
many. He behaved like the patriarch Jacob, when 
by faith, leaning upon his staff, he blessed his chil- 
dren. The earl added, 'Yea, and they shall be bless- 
ed. 7 He laid his hands on, and blessed his children, 
assuring them of his personal interest in Jesus. He 
had great foretastes of heaven. 'Had I strength of 
body, 7 cried he, ' I would not be ashamed, before men 
and angels, to tell what the Lord Jesus hath done for 
my soul. Come, Holy Ghost — come, Holy Ghost ; 
happy, happy, happy! 7 and then sweetly slept in Jesus. 
All surviving relatives still feel the influence. They 
sit round the corpse, attended by their domestics and 

supporters, twice a day. Good Lady S gets 

fresh spirits. The present noble earl, I believe, hath 
got the blessing indeed, and seems, upon the best evi- 
dence, to determine to know nothing but Jesus Christ, 
and him crucified. He hath behaved in the most del- 
icate manner to the Countess, and other noble survi- 
vors. 77 * * 

The summer of 1768 brought to Whitefield a se- 



412 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

ries of changes. For the last time he now visited 
Edinburgh, where he found his congregations as large, 
and his Christian friends as affectionate as ever. Soon 
after his return to London, Mrs. Whitefield was seized 
with inflammatory fever, and died, as we have already 
seen, on the 9th of August. His own health too was 
more than declining. He writes, "I have been in 
hopes of my own departure. Through hard writing, 
and frequent preaching, I have burst a vein. The 
flux is in a great measure stopped ; but rest and quiet- 
ness are strictly enjoined." 

"Rest and quietness!" With Whitefield such 
things were impossible as long as he could move or 
speak. His fire must burn till its whole material was 
expended; his heart overflowed, and he must labor 
till his body sank under exhaustion. No persecution 
could appall him, no sickness could long keep him 
from his beloved engagements. He would preach till 
he died, being fully assured that his " labor was not in 
vain in the Lord." 

Neither Whitefield nor any of his friends could 
ever be the advocates of an unlearned ministry. Many 
of the men engaged under his direction, and preach- 
ing in what was already called u Lady Huntingdon's 
connection," needed, as they well knew, a better edu- 
cation than they possessed. Hence her ladyship ob- 
tained a lease of an old structure, supposed to have 
been part of an ancient castle erected in the reign of 
Henry the Second. The date over the entrance, now 
almost effaced, is 1176. It was called Trevecca 
House, was situated in the parish* of Talgarth, in 
South Wales, and was for some time the residence of 



LAST LABORS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 413 

Ho wel Harris. This building was opened as a college 
for religious and literary instruction, and the chapel 
dedicated to the preaching of the everlasting gospel, 
Aug. 24, 1768, the anniversary of the Bartholomew 
act, and of the birth of her ladyship. Mr. Whitefield 
preached from Exod. 24 : 24 : " In all places where I 
record my name, I will come unto thee and bless 
thee f and on the following Sabbath he addressed a 
congregation of some thousands, who assembled in the 
court before the college. His text on that occasion 
was, "Other foundation can no man lay than that is 
laid, which is Jesus Christ. 77 When speaking of the 
dedication of the college, Mr. Whitefield says, " What 
we have seen and felt at the college is unspeakable. 77 

After her ladyship 7 s death the institution was re- 
moved to Cheshunt, about thirteen miles north of Lon- 
don, where it still flourishes under the presidency of 
the Rev. Dr. W. H. Stowell. 

In the early part of 1769, Mr. Whitefield was for 
some weeks seriously ill, but towards the close of 
March, he was able to write, " Through infinite mercy 
I have been able to preach four days successively. 7/ 
During his illness he received many offers of assist- 
ance from his brethren in the ministry, but from none 
more cordially than from the Honorable and Rev. 
Mr. Shirley. Writing to him, April 1, Whitefield 
says: 

" How much am I obliged to you for your two kind 
letters, and more especially for the repeated offers of 
your ministerial assistance. They will be most grate- 
fully accepted, and, I humbly hope, be remarkably suc- 
ceeded by Him who hath promised to be with us al- 



414 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

ways, even unto the end of the world. Blessed be 
His name, we have been favored with most delightful 
passover feasts. The shout of the King of kings is 
still heard in the midst of our Methodist camps ; and 
the shout of, Grace, grace! resounds from many quar- 
ters. Our almighty Jesus knows how to build his 
temple in troublous times. His work prospers in the 
hands of the elect countess, who is gone to Bath, much 
recovered from her late indisposition. Worthy Lady 
Fanny Shirley proposes soon to follow, in order to 
reside there. Some more coronets, I hear, are likely 
to be laid at the Redeemer's feet. They glitter glo- 
riously when set in and surrounded by a crown of 

thorns. 

" ' Subjects of the Lord, be bold ; 
Jesus will his kingdom hold ; 
Wheels encircling wheels must run, 
Each in course to bring it on.' " i 

That the friendship of Dr. Franklin towards Mr. 
Whitefield was sincere, cannot be doubted ; there is, 
however, somewhat painful in the thought, that even 
in this connection Franklin could not conceal his 
scepticism. In 1769 both these eminent men were in 
London, and every one knows that the state of our 
country was very trying. Franklin thus wrote to 
Whitefield : "I am under continued apprehensions that 
we may have bad news from America. The sending 
soldiers to Boston always appeared to me a dangerous 
step ; they could do no good, they might occasion mis- 
chief. When I consider the warm resentment of a 
people who think themselves injured and oppressed, 
and the common insolence of the soldiery, who are 
taught to consider that people as in rebellion, I can- 



LAST LABORS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 415 

not but fear the consequences of bringing them to- 
gether. It seems like setting up a smith's forge in a 
magazine of gunpowder. I see with you that our af- 
fairs are not well managed by our rulers here below ; 
I wish I could believe with you, that they are well 
attended to by those above : I rather suspect, from 
certain circumstances, that though the general gov- 
ernment of the universe is well administered, our 
particular little affairs are perhaps below notice, 
and left to take the chance of human prudence or 
imprudence, as either may happen to be uppermost. 
It is, however, an uncomfortable thought, and I leave 
it." 

It would have been strange indeed if Whitefield 
had allowed a letter closing in this manner to pass 
without a remark ; hence we are prepared to find that, 
in his own handwriting, at the foot of the autograph 
letter, he wrote, " Uncomfortable indeed ! and, blessed 
be God, unscriptural ; for we are fully assured that 'the 
Lord reigneth/ and are directed to cast all our own 
care on him, because he careth for us." Could Dr. 
Franklin have seen the splendid results of that man- 
agement which he thought indicated the absence of a 
particular providence — could he have beheld the vast 
Republic, the abode of liberty, commerce, literature, 
and religion, which in less than a century has grown 
out of the insurgent colonies — he would surely have 
exclaimed, in the language of the prophet, "Verily 
there is a God in the earth !" 

In July, Whitefield was called by Lady Hunting- 
don to visit Tunbridge Wells, a popular watering 
place in Kent, some twenty or thirty miles from Lon- 



416 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

don, to dedicate a new and beautiful house to the 
service of God. The congregation was far too large 
to be accommodated within the walls; he therefore 
preached out of doors from a mount in the court be- 
fore the house. His text was, " This is none other 
but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven." 
Gen. 28 : 17. This sermon is said to have been one 
of his most eloquent and thrilling efforts ; the lofty 
energy of his tones, the utter forgetfulness of himself 
in the all-absorbing interest of his subject, the very 
impersonation of the truths which he uttered as he 
stretched forth his hand, " Look yonder ; what is 
that I see ? It is my agonizing Lord ! Hark, hark ! 
do you not hear? earth, earth, earth, hear the 
word of the Lord!" thrilled the vast congregation, 
riveting the eye, piercing the conscience, and holding 
strong men breathless before the resistless might of 
his inspired eloquence. After the service he delivered 
an exhortation, and on the next day again preached 
and administered the Lord's supper. 

He now began to prepare for his seventh, and as it 
proved, his last voyage to America, especially to visit 
his beloved orphans and friends in Georgia. The 
only thing which seems to have grieved him, was the 
pain of parting for a time from his London friends. 
This was nothing new, but his feelings were even less 
reconciled to the event than formerly. " Oh," he 
says, " these partings ! without a divine support they 
would be intolerable. Talk not of taking personal 
leave ; you know my make. Paul could stand a whip- 
ping, but not a weeping farewell." 

The text of his last sermon was John 10 : 27, 28 : 



LAST LABORS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 411 

" My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they 
follow me : and I give unto them eternal life ; and 
they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck 
them out of my hand." The sermon was printed, and 
that very incorrectly ; but a few sentences will show 
that it was strikingly characteristic : " These words, 
it will be recollected, were uttered by Christ at the 
feast of dedication. This festival was of bare human 
invention, and yet I do not find that our Lord preached 
against it. And I believe that when we see things as 
we ought, we shall not entertain our auditories about 
rites and ceremonies, but about the grand thing. It 
is the glory of Methodists, that while they have been 
preaching forty years, there has not been, that I know 
of, one single pamphlet published by them about the 
non-essentials of religion. . . . The Lord divides the 
world into sheep and goats. sinners, you are come 
to hear a poor creature take his last farewell ; but I 
want you to forget the creature and his preaching. I 
want to lead you further than the Tabernacle — even 
to mount Calvary, to see with what expense of blood 
Jesus Christ purchased ' his own.' Now, before I go 
any further, will you be so good, before the world 
gets into your hearts, to inquire whether you belong 
to Christ or not. Surely the world did not get into 
your hearts before you rose from your beds. Many 
of you were up sooner than usual. [The sermon was 
preached at seven o'clock in the morning.] I hope 
the world does not get into your hearts before nine. 
Man, woman, sinner, put thy hand upon thy heart, 
and say, Didst thou ever hear Christ's voice so as to 
follow him? ... I once heard Dr. Marryatt, who was 

18* 



418 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

not ashamed of l market language/ say at Pinner's 
Hall, ' God has a great dog to fetch his sheep back 
when they wander. 7 He sends the devil after them, 
to bark at them ; but instead of barking them further 
off, he barks them back to the fold. ... ' None shall 
pluck them out of my hand. 7 This implies that there 
is always somebody plucking at Christ's sheep. The 
lust of the flesh is plucking ; the pride of life is pluck- 
ing ; and the devil is continually plucking at them ; 
1 but nothing shall pluck them out of my hand ; 7 I 
have bought them, and am gone to heaven to ' prepare 
a place for them. 7 77 

Of this sermon, as taken in shorthand and printed, 
Whitefield received, a copy while at Deal, and was 
much dissatisfied with it. He says, " This morning I 
received a surreptitious copy of my Tabernacle fare- 
well sermon, taken, as the shorthand writer professes, 
verbatim as I spoke it. But surely he is mistaken. 
The whole is so injudiciously paragraphed, and so 
wretchedly unconnected, that I owe no thanks to the 
misguided, though it may be well-meant zeal of the 
writer and publisher, be they who they will. 77 Had 
Whitefield known that the lad of seventeen who had 
thus taken down his sermon, would hereafter become 
a devoted and useful minister of Christ, the secretary 
of the London Missionary Society, the originator of the 
London Religious Tract Society, and for many years 
the editor of the London Evangelical Magazine, and the 
author of " Village Sermons, 77 which have circulated 
by hundreds of thousands of volumes in both hemi- 
spheres, how would his heart have warmed towards 
him. Let us copy from the journal of George Burder, 



LAST LABORS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 419 

as given in his life by his son, the Rev. Dr. H. F. 
Burder, a short passage : 

"August, 1769. About this time I heard Mr. 
Whitefield preach several sermons, particularly his 
two last in London ; that at Tottenham Court chapel 
on Sabbath morning, and that at the Tabernacle on 
Wednesday morning at seven o'clock. I remember a 
thought which passed my mind, I think, as I was going 
to hear his last sermon — l Which would I rather be, 
Garrick or Whitefield? 7 I thought each, in point of 
oratory, admirable in his way. I doubt not con- 
science told me which was best. I wrote Mr. White- 
field's sermons in shorthand, though standing in a 
crowd. The latter I copied out, and by the request 
of a friend it was printed in about a week. I remem- 
ber sitting up part of a night to write it out, and at 
the same time I observed the comet which then ap- 
peared. The sermon was very incorrect, and Mr. 
Whitefield being detained at Deal before he left Eng- 
land, saw it, and complained of it." 

Before we entirely separate from the Tabernacle, 
we wish to record some other interesting facts asso- 
ciated with it, especially relating to Thomas Wilson, 
Esq., for many years the treasurer of Hoxton, after- 
wards Highbury, college, who gave the ground on 
which the latter building stands, devoted his fortune 
to the extension of the cause of Christ, and in addi- 
tion to many other noble acts, erected five large 
houses of worship in the British metropolis, capable 
of seating eight thousand persons. The father of 
this gentleman was for many years a devoted deacon 
of a Congregational church, but entered into full 



420 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

sympathy with the labors of Whitefield, attending 
the Tabernacle on Lord's-day evenings. "To this 
circumstance, perhaps, may be traced much of his own 
zeal for the glory of God, and no inconsiderable por- 
tion of that public spirit which afterwards distin- 
guished his son Thomas, who well remembered being 
carried in his nurse's arms, in company with his par- 
ents, to the scene of Whitefield's ministry, and lis- 
tening with such interest as one so young was likely 
to feel, to a preacher of surpassing eloquence and 
power." The Rev. Dr. Morison, one of his biogra- 
phers, adds: "Thus did he imbibe in early life a 
strong prepossession for animated public address, 
which he never lost in after-years, and which he never 
foiled to urge upon all youthful candidates for the 
sacred office. As might have been expected, the Tab- 
ernacle became his Sabbath home, where he was wont 
to listen to men of fervent eloquence, and of purely 
evangelical sentiment. He entered, while very young, 
into communion with the church in that place, and 
afforded a pleading example of early and consistent 
dedication to the cervice of Christ." 

Having finished xhe service of the Tabernacle 
which we just now described, Whitefield went imme 
diately to Gravesend, twerty miles from London, to 
set sail, embarking in the Friendship, Captain Ball, 
for Charleston. His companions on the voyage were 
Messrs. Winter and Smith, both of them young minis 
ters of lively zeal ; and the former especially, wa& 
distinguished in after-life by great success in his labors 
for Christ and his church. Whitefield wrote, ' I an 
comfortable on every side — a civil captain and pas- 



LAST LABORS IN GREAT BRITAIN. 421 

sengers ; all willing to attend on divine worship, and 
to hear of religious things." 

But delay was the lot of our evangelist and his 
friends. They arrived in the Downs, and had to stay 
there about a month waiting for a fair wind. While 
here, he was delighted with a most unexpected visit 
from Dr. Gibbons of London, and the Rev. Mr. Brad- 
bury of Ramsgate, who had met at Deal to ordain a 
young minister. He says, " Wednesday, Sept. 13, I 
went on shore, and attended <an ordination solemnity 
at the dissenting meeting. Several ministers offici- 
ated. Several important questions were asked and 
answered before, and a solemn charge given after 
imposition of hands. But the prayer put up in the 
very act of laying on of hands, by Dr. Gibbons, was 
so affecting, and the looks and behavior of those that 
joined so serious and solemn, that I hardly know when 
I was more struck under any one's ministration. The 
ordination being over, at the desire of the ministers 
and other gentlemen, I went and dined with them : 
our conversation was edifying ; and being informed 
that many were desirous to hear me preach, I will- 
ingly complied ; and I trust some seed was sown 
the same evening at Deal, which, by God's heavenly 
blessing, will spring up to life eternal. The people of 
Deal seemed very civil, and some came to me who 
had not forgotten my preaching to them, and their 
deceased friends and parents, thirty-two years ago." 

Whitefield tells a somewhat amusing anecdote of 
Dr. Gibbons, on one of his visits on board. The wor- 
thy doctor was unused to the sea, and became sea-sick, 
so that he was obliged to lie down for some time in 



422 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

the state-cabin. " There/ 7 says our evangelist, " he 
learned more experimentally to pray for those who 
do business in the great waters." While yet in the 
Downs, Whitefield preached not only on board, but at 
Ramsgate and elsewhere. On September 25, in com- 
pany with many other ships, they sailed, but soon 
were again compelled to cast anchor over against 
New Romney and Dungenness. At length, however, 
they cleared the channel, and after a long and dan- 
gerous voyage arrived safe at Charleston, S. 0. Hap- 
pily, Whitefield's health had become greatly reno- 
vated, so that he felt better than after any voyage he 
had made for many years. In his memorandum he 
wrote : 

"November, 1769. For the last week we were 
beating about our port, within sight of it, and con- 
tinued for two days in Five-fathom hole, just over the 
bar. A dangerous situation, as the wind blew hard, 
and our ship, like a young Christian, for want of 
more ballast, would not obey the helm. But through 
infinite mercy, on November 30, a pilot-boat came and 
took us safe ashore to Charleston, having been on 
board almost thirteen weeks. Friends received me 
most cordially. Praise the Lord, my soul, and for- 
get not all his mercies. Oh, to begin to be a Chris- 
tian and minister of Jesus !" On the very day of his 
landing, Whitefield preached at Charleston, and learn- 
ed from his friend Mr. Wright that all was well at 
Bethesda. 



LAST LABORS IN AMERICA. 423 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SEVENTH VISIT AND LABORS IN AMERICA— DEATH. 

1769, 1770. 

Whitefield now lost no time in proceeding to his 
beloved Bethesda, which at present wore a very invit- 
ing aspect. Writing, January 11, 1770, he says, "Ev- 
ery thing exceeds my most sanguine expectations. I 
am almost tempted to say, 'It is good for me to be 
here ; ? but all must give way to gospel ranging — di- 
rine employ! 

" ' For this, let men revile my name, 
1 11 shun no cross, I '11 fear no shame ; 
All hail, reproach!' " 

In another letter he says, " The increase of this colony 
is almost incredible. Two wings are added to the 
orphan-house, for the accommodation of students ; of 
which Governor Wright laid the foundation, March 
25, 1769." 

An official paper of the Georgia legislature will 
show the esteem in which Whitefield was held by that 
body. 

" Commons House of Assembly, Monday, Jan. 29, 
1770. Mr. Speaker reported, that he, with the house, 
having waited on the Kev. Mr. Whitefield, in conse- 
quence of his invitation, at the orphan-house academy, 
heard him preach a very suitable and pious sermon on 
the occasion; and with great pleasure observed the 
promising aDpearance of improvement towards the 



424 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

good purposes intended, and the decency and propri- 
ety of behavior of the several residents there ; and 
were sensibly affected, when they saw the happy suc- 
cess which has attended Whitefield's indefatigable 
zeal for promoting the welfare of the province in 
general, and the orphan-house in particular. Ordered, 
that this report be printed in the Gazette. 

"JOHN SIMPSON, Clerk." 

In pursuance of this vote, we find in the Georgia 
Gazette as follows: "Savannah, January 31, 1770. 
Last Sunday, his Excellency the Governor, Council, 
and Assembly, having been invited by the Rev. Mr. 
Whitefield, attended divine service in the chapel of 
the orphan-house academy, where prayers were read 
by the Rev. Mr. Ellington, and a very suitable sermon 
was preached by the Rev. Mr. Whitefield, from Zecha- 
riah 4: 10, 'For who hath despised the day of small 
things V to the great satisfaction of the auditory ; in 
which he took occasion to mention the many discour- 
agements he met with, well known to many there, in 
carrying on the institution for upwards of thirty years 
past, and the present promising prospect of its future 
and more extensive usefulness. After divine service, 
the company were very politely entertained with a 
handsome and plentiful dinner; and were greatly 
pleased to see the useful improvements made in the 
house, the two additional wings of apartments for 
students, one hundred and fifty feet each in length, 
and other lesser buildings, in so much forwardness; 
and the whole executed with taste, and in so masterly 
a manner ; and being sensible of the truly generous 
and disinterested benefactions derived to the province 



LAST LABORS IN AMERICA. 425 

through his means, they expressed their gratitude in 
the most respectful terms." 

On February 10, we find a letter written at Charles- 
ton by Whitefield to his friend Mr. Robert Keen of 
London : 

"Through infinite mercy, this leaves me enjoying 
a greater share of bodily health than I have known 
for many years. I am now enabled to preach al- 
most every day, and my poor feeble labors seem not 
to be in vain in the Lord. Blessed be God, all things 
are in great forwardness at Bethesda. I have con- 
versed with the governor in the most explicit manner, 
more than once, concerning an act of Assembly for 
the establishment of the intended orphan-house col- 
lege. He most readily consents. I have shown him 
a draft, which he much approves of, and all will be 
finished at my return from the northward ; in the 
meanwhile the building will be carried on. As two 
ministers from New Jersey and Rhode Island have 
been soliciting benefactions for their respective col- 
leges, no application of that nature can be made here ; 

but the Lord will provide Since my being in 

Charleston, I have shown the draft to some persons of 
great eminence and influence. They highly approve 
of it, and willingly consent to be some of the wardens. 
Nearly twenty are to be of Georgia, and about six of 
this place ; one of Philadelphia, one of New York, 
one of Boston, three of Edinburgh, two of Glasgow, 
and six of London. Those of Georgia and South 
Carolina are to be qualified ; the others to be only 
honorary corresponding wardens. 7 ' 

Two days afterwards he again writes to the same 



426 GEORGE WHITfiFIELD. 

friend, " In a few months, I hope all will be complet- 
ed. But what may these few months produce ? Lord 
Jesus, prepare us for whatsoever thou hast prepared 
for us, and give peace in our time, for thine infinite 
mercy's sake. You must expect another draft soon. 
God be praised for that saying, 'It is more blessed to 
give than to receive. 7 You would be pleased to see 
with what attention the people hear the word preach- 
ed. I have been in Charleston near a fortnight — am 
to preach at a neighboring country parish church 
next Sunday, and hope to see Georgia the week fol- 
lowing. Perhaps I may sail from thence to the north- 
ward, and perhaps embark from thence. Lord Jesus, 
direct my goings in thy way. I am blessed with 
bodily health, and am enabled to go on my way rejoic- 
ing. Grace, grace !" 

On returning to Bethesda, his heart seems to have 
oeen full of the orphan-house and the college. For the 
direction of the latter, he prepared a series of rules, 
and especially provided for the reading of the old 
Puritan and Non-conformist writers of the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries. Every letter he wrote con- 
tained references to the improved state of his health, 
and the increased number of preaching engagements 
which he was now able to fulfil. His spirits seem to 
have been better, and his exultations in the divine 
kindness more ardent than ever, while his correspond- 
ence indicates much heavenly-mindedness, and lively 
desires for the highest happiness of his friends. 

As Whitefield had now been in the south more 
than five months, we are not surprised to find that 
applications poured in from every part of the north, 



LAST LABORS IN AMERICA. 427 

entreating him to revisit the scenes of other years. 
He left Bethesda and its affairs in the hands of per- 
sons worthy of his confidence, of whom he said, ' Such 
a set of helpers I never met with." 

After some hesitation as to where he should first 
go, he set out for Philadelphia, where he arrived on 
the 6th of May. Writing three days afterwards, he 
says, " The evening following, I was enabled to preach 
to a large auditory, and have to repeat the delightful 
task this evening. Pulpits, hearts, and affections, seem 
to be as open and enlarged to me as ever." On the 
24th he again wrote, " A wide and effectual door, I 
trust, has been opened in this city. People of all 
ranks flock as much as ever. Impressions are made 
on many, and I trust they will abide. To all the 
Episcopal churches, as well as most of the other places 
of worship, I have free access. Notwithstanding I 
preach twice on the Lord's day, and three or four 
times a week besides, yet I am rather better than I 
have been for many years. This is the Lord's doing." 
On June 14, he says, "This leaves me just returned 
from a one hundred and fifty miles' circuit, in which, 
blessed be God, I have been enabled to preach every 
day. So many new as well as old doors are open, 
and so many invitations sent from various quarters, 
that I know not which way to turn myself." 

Of his last visit to New Jersey, Bishof White of 
Philadelphia, then a young man of twenty-three, says, 
" When he was on his way from Philadelphia to Bos- 
ton, late in the summer, he had been prevailed on to 
promise to cross from Bristol to Burlington, and to 
preach there. I happened to be in the latter place, 



428 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

and staying in the house of a relative, when it was 
announced that Mr. Whitefield was at a tavern on 
the other side of the river. He was expected to be 
escorted by my relative. I went with him ; and we 
returned in a boat with Mr. Whitefield and his com- 
pany. He preached to the assembled citizens in front 
of the court-house, and afterwards dined at the house 
of my relative. During dinner, he was almost the 
only speaker, as was said to be common; all present 
being disposed to listen." 

A few days after this visit, we find him at New 
York, writing, June 30, "I have been here just a 
week. Have been enabled to preach four times ; and 
am to repeat the delightful task this evening. Con- 
gregations are larger than ever. Blessed be God, I 
have been strengthened to itinerate and preach daily 
for some time. Next week I purpose to go to Albany; 
from thence, perhaps to the Oneida Indians. There 
is to be a very large Indian congress ; Mr. Kirkland 
accompanies me. He is a truly Christian minister 
and missionary. Every thing possible should be done 
to strengthen his hands and his heart. Perhaps I may 
not see Georgia till Christmas. As yet, I keep to my 
intended plan, in respect to my returning. Lord 
Jesus, direct my goings in thy way. The heat begins 
now to be a little intense ; but through mercy I am 
enabled to bear up bravely. What a God do we 
serve I" 

On the twenty -ninth of July, he again writes from 
the same city, and it is the last entry in his memoran- 
dum: "Since my last, and during this month, I have 
been above a five hundred miles' circuit; and liavo 



LAST LABORS IN AMERICA. 429 

been enabled to preacli and travel through the heat 
every day. The congregations have been very large, 
attentive, and affected ; particularly at Albany, Sche- 
nectady, Great Barrington, Norfolk, Salisbury, Sha- 
ron, Smithfield, Poughkeepsie, Fishkill, New Rumbart, 
New Windsor, and Peck's Hill. Last night I return- 
ed hither, and hope to set out for Boston in two or 
three days. what a new scene of usefulness is open- 
ing in various parts of this world ! All fresh work 
where I have been. The divine influence has been as 
at first. Invitations crowd upon me both from min- 
isters and people, from many, many quarters. A very 
peculiar providence led me very lately to a place 
where a horse-stealer was executed. Thousands at- 
tended. The poor criminal had sent me several let- 
ters, hearing I was in the country. The sheriff allow- 
ed him to come and hear a sermon under an adjacent 
tree. Solemn, solemn! After being by himself about 
an hour, T walked half a mile with him to the gal- 
lows. His heart had been softened before my first 
visit. He seemed full of solid, divine consolation. 
An instructive walk! I went up with him into the 
cart. He gave a short exhortation. I then stood 
upon the coffin — added, I trust, a word in season — 
prayed — gave the blessing, and took my leave. Effec- 
tual good, I hope, was done to the hearers and spec- 
tators. Grace, grace !" 

Our local histories seem to delight to honor White- 
field by the introduction of his name whenever they 
have an opportunity. In a notice of Sharon, in "Bar- 
ber's Historical Collections of Connecticut/ 7 the writer 
says, " In the latter part of July, 1770. the Rev. 



430 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

George Whitefield passed through this town on a 
preaching tour. There was considerable opposition 
to his being admitted into the meeting-house, and 
arrangements had been made to hold the service in 
an orchard still standing near the meeting-house, in 
case he should be refused. Mr. Smith, [the Rev. Cot- 
ton Mather Smith, a descendant of Cotton Mather,] 
invited him into the pulpit, though strongly opposed 
by a considerable number of influential men. An im- 
mense congregation from this and the neighboring 
towns filled the meeting-house to overflowing. His 
text was, ■ Marvel not that I said unto you, Ye must 
be born again.' He proceeded to discourse on the 
doctrine of the new birth with astonishing power and 
eloquence, and the congregation were much moved 
by the power of the truth and Spirit of God. The 
concluding words of his discourse were a quotation, 
with a little variation, from the close of the fourth 
chapter of Solomon's Song. ' Awake, north wind, 
and come, thou south; blow upon this garden, that 
the spices thereof may flow out. Let my Beloved 
come into this garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.* 
Many of the inhabitants of Sharon followed him for 
several successive days, to hear the word of life from 
this devoted minister of the cross." 

We think it must have been in this journey that 
Whitefield's ministry was blessed to the conversion 
of a young man who has left his mark on the age. 
Benjamin Eandall was born in New Castle, New 
Hampshire, in 1749. In his twenty-second year he 
was brought under the ministry of Whitefield, by 
which means he became deeply convinced of sin, and 



LAST LABORS IN AMERICA. 43] 

was soon after converted to God. In 1776, he united 
with a Calvinistic Baptist church; but before long 
began to preach what he accounted more correct doc- 
trines in his native town, and was honored of God to 
effect a very powerful and extensive revival. He is 
considered the founder of the denomination of Free- 
will Baptists, which now comprises from eleven to 
twelve hundred churches, more than a thousand pas- 
tors and licentiates, and upwards of fifty thousand 
communicants. Mr. Randall was a man of strong 
mental powers, and though he had not a classical edu- 
cation, he was a good English scholar, aspired after 
general and religious knowledge, had fine discrimi- 
nating talent, and was remarkable for the persever- 
ance with which he pursued whatever he undertook. 
Above all, like his spiritual father, he possessed what 
a living preacher has well called, " a passion for 
souls." 

From New York Whitefield proceeded to Boston, 
and short extracts from two of his letters, and those 
the last he wrote, will show his position and his feel- 
ings : 

September 17, he says to Mr. Wright, at Bethesda, 
" Fain would I come by Captain Souder, from Phila- 
delphia ; but people are so importunate for my stay 
in these parts, that I fear it will be impracticable. 
4 My God will supply all my need according to the 
riches of his grace in Christ Jesus. 7 Two or three 
evenings ago, I was taken in the night with a violent 
flux, attended with retching and shivering, so that I 
was obliged to return from Newbury ; but through 
infinite mercy I am restored, and to-morrow morning 



432 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

hope to begin again. Never was the word received 
with greater eagerness than now. All opposition 
seems, as it were, for a while to cease. I find God's 
time is the best. The season is critical as to outward 
circumstances ; but when forts are given up, the Lord 
Jesus can appoint salvation for walls and for bul- 
warks ; he has promised to be a wall of fire round 
about his people. This comforts me concerning Be- 
thesda, though we should have a Spanish war. You 
will be pleased to hear, I never was carried through 
the summer's heat so well." 

And finally, to his dear friend Mr. Keen of Lon- 
don, he wrote from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, 
September 23, just one week before his death, "By 
this time I thought . to be moving southward. But 
never was greater importunity used to detain me 
longer in these northern parts. Poor New England 
is much to be pitied ; Boston people most of all. How 
grossly misrepresented ! What a mercy that our 
Christian charter cannot be dissolved! Blessed be 
God for an unchangeable Jesus ! You will see, by 
the many invitations, what a door is opened for 
preaching the everlasting gospel. I was so ill on 
Friday that I could not preach, though thousands 
were waiting to hear. Well, the day of release will 
shortly come, but it does not seem yet ; for by riding 
sixty miles I am better, and hope to preach here to- 
morrow. I trust my blessed Master will accept these 
poor efforts to serve him. for a warm heart ! 
to stand fast in the faith, to acquit ourselves like 
men, and be strong ! May this be the happy experi- 
ence of you and yours. I suppose your letters are 



LAST LABORS IN AMERICA. 433 

gone for me in the Anderson to Georgia. If spared 
so long, I expect to see them about Christmas. Still 
pray and praise. I am so poorly, and so engaged 
when able to preach, that this must apologize for not 
writing to more friends : it is quite impracticable." 

Whitefield's hope to "preach here to-morrow" was 
fully realized. In the "Pennsylvania Journal and 
Weekly Advertiser," we find a letter from Ports- 
mouth, dated Sept. 28, 1770, which says, " Last Sun- 
day morning came to town from Boston, the Rev. 
George Whitefield, and in the afternoon he preached 
at the Rev. Dr. Haven's meeting-house ; Monday 
morning he preached again at the same place, to a 
very large and crowded audience. Tuesday morning 
a most numerous assembly met at the Rev. Dr. Lang- 
don's meeting-house, which it is said will hold nearly 
six thousand people, and was well filled, even the 
aisles. Evening he preached at the Rev. Mr. John 
Rodgers' meeting-house in Kittery, and yesterday at 
the Rev. Mr. Lyman's in York, to which place a 
number of ladies and gentlemen from town accom- 
panied him. This morning [Friday] he will preach 
at the Rev. Dr. Langdon's meeting-house in this 
town." 

We are now approaching the closing scene, and 
are invited to hear Whitefield's last sermon. On his 
way to Newburyport, where he had engaged to preach 
on Sunday morning, September 30, he was entreated 
to preach at Exeter. This had been the scene of 
some of his former triumphs. He was once preaching 
here, when a man was present who had loaded his 
pocket with stones to throw at the preacher. He 

Whitefield. 19 



434 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

heard his prayer with patience, but as soon as he had 
read his text, the man took a stone out of his pocket 
and held it in his hand, waiting for an opportunity to 
throw it. But God sent a word to his heart, and the 
stone dropped from his hand. After the sermon, the 
poor fellow went to Mr. Whitefield, and said, "Sir, 
I came here to-day with the intention of breaking 
your head, but God has given me a broken heart.'* 7 
This man was converted to God, and lived an orna- 
ment to the gospel. 

As though it had been felt by the public that this 
might be our preacher's last sermon, inconvenient as 
Saturday noon must be for the assembling of a con- 
gregation for worship, such a multitude was collected 
that no house could contain them, and Whitefield, for 
nearly two hours, discoursed to an attentive crowd in 
the open air. Of this last sermon at Exeter, a gen- 
tleman who was present has given a deeply interest- 
ing and affecting account. The relator was then in 
his eighty-sixth year, but he retained a strong remem- 
brance of the most trivial incidents connected with 
that extraordinary man. He says : 

" It was usual for Mr. Whitefield to be attended 
by Mr. Smith, who preached when he was unable on 
account of sudden attacks of asthma. At the time 
referred to, after Mr. Smith had delivered a short 
discourse, Mr. Whitefield seemed desirous of speak- 
i ng ; but from the weak state in which he then was, 
it was thought almost impossible. He rose from the 
seat in the pulpit, and stood erect, and his appearance 
alone was a powerful sermon. The thinness of his 
visage, the paleness of his countenance, the evident 



LAST LABORS IN AMERICA. 435 

struggling of the heavenly spark in a decayed body 
for utterance, were all deeply interesting ; the spirit 
was willing, but the flesh was dying. In this situation 
he remained several minutes, unable to speak ; he then 
said, ' I will wait for the gracious assistance of God, 
for he will, I am certain, assist me once more to speak 
in his name.' He then delivered perhaps one of his 
best sermons, for the light generally burns most splen- 
didly when about to expire. The subject was a con- 
trast of the present with the future ; a part of this 
sermon I read to a popular and learned clergyman in 
New York, who could not refrain from weeping when 
I repeated the following : ' I go, I go to rest prepar- 
ed ; my sun has arisen, and by aid from heaven, given 
light to many ; ? t is now about to set for — no, it can- 
not be ! J t is to rise to the zenith of immortal glory ; I 
have outlived many on earth, but they cannot outlive 
me in heaven. Many shall live when this body is no 
more, but then — Oh, thought divine ! — I shall be in a 
world where time, age, pain, and sorrow are un- 
known. My body fails, my spirit expands ; how will- 
ingly would I live for ever to preach Christ! but I 
die to be with him. How brief, comparatively brief, 
has been my life, compared with the vast labors I see 
before me yet to be accomplished ; but if I leave now, 
while so few care about heavenly things, the God of 
peace will surely visit you. 7 These, and many other 
things he said, which, though simple, were rendered 
important by circumstances ; for death had let fly his 
arrow, and the shaft was deeply enfixed when utter- 
ance was given to them : his countenance, his tremu- 
lous voice, his debilitated frame, all gave convincing 



436 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

evidence that the eye which saw him should shortly 
see him no more for ever. When I visited the place 
where he is entombed, Newburyport, I could not help 
saying, • The memory of the just is blessed. 7 Few are 
there like George Whitefield ; however zealous, they 
do not possess the masterly power, and those who do, 
too often turn it to a purpose that does not glorify 
God." 

We have already spoken of the Rev. Daniel Rodg- 
ers, a descendant of the martyr of that name, and 
pastor of the second congregational church at Exeter. 
It was this old friend of Whitefield who had impor- 
tuned him to preach at Exeter. The " Almanack 
Journal w of this excellent man contains the following 
items of the activity of our "eloquent orator" in his 
closing days : " September 10, 1770, dear Mr. White- 
field preached here, a. m., ten o'clock. 11th, Mr, 
Whitefield preached again in Mr. Parsons 7 meeting- 
house. 12th, I rode over to Rowley, Mr. Whitefield 
preached there. 14th, a storm of rain. 15th, the 
rain continues. Mr. Whitefield went to Boston, not 
well. 25th, I heard dear Mr. Whitefield preach. 
26th, he went to Kittery, and preached for brother 
John ; p. m. I rode ,to York. 27th, Mr. Whitefield 
preached at York ; p. m. we returned to Portsmouth. 
28th, Mr. Whitefield preached his farewell sermon ; 
I returned home. 29th, dear Mr. Whitefield preached 
for me the last sermon he ever preached. 77 

Mr. Smith 7 s account of the closing scene will not 
be considered too minute in its details. " Before he 
commenced his journey of fifteen miles from Ports- 
mouth to Exeter, Mr. Clarkson, senior, observing him 



DEATH AND FUNERAL. 431 

more uneasy than usual, said to him, ' Sir, you are 
more fit to go to bed than to preach.' Whitefield's 
reply was, ' True, sir ;' but turning aside, he clasped 
his hands together, and looking up, said, ' Lord Jesus, 

1 am weary in thy work, but not of thy work. If I 
have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak 
for thee once more in the fields, seal thy truth, and 
come home and die.' His last sermon was from 

2 Cor. 13 :5, ' Examine yourselves, whether ye be in 
the faith. Know ye not your own selves, how that 
Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates V He 
dined at Captain Gillman's. After dinner, Mr. White- 
field and Mr. Parsons rode to Newbury. I did not 
get there till two hours after them. I found them at 
supper. I asked Mr. Whitefield how he felt after his 
journey. He said he was tired, therefore he supped 
early, and went to bed. He ate a very little supper, 
talked but little, asked Mr. Parsons to discharge the 
table, and perform family duty, and then retired up 
stairs." 

The Rev. Dr. Hallock tells us, that, in 1822, he 
visited Newburyport and the tomb of "Whitefield. He 
was then told by persons whom he considered reliable, 
that when Whitefield was retiring to his chamber on 
this last evening of his life, many were so desirous to 
see and hear him, that he stood on the stairs with a 
lamp in his hand, and there gave them a tender spir- 
itual address. 

We resume Mr. Smith's account: "He said he 
would sit and read till I came to him, which I did as 
soon as possible ; and found him reading the Bible, 
with Dr. Watts 7 Psalms lying open before him. He 



438 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

asked me for some water-gruel, and took about half 
his usual quantity ; and kneeling down by his bedside, 
closed the evening with prayer. After a little con- 
versation, he went to rest, and slept till two in the 
morning, when he awoke, and asked for a little cider ; 
he drank about a wine-glass full. I asked him how 
he felt, for he seemed to pant for breath. He said to 
me, l My asthma is coming on again ; I must have two 
or three days 7 rest. Two or three days 7 riding, with- 
out preaching, would set me up again. 7 Soon after- 
wards, he asked me to put the window up a little 
higher, though it was half up all night. ' For, 7 said 
he, ' I cannot breathe ; but I hope I shall be better by 
and by : a good pulpit sweat to-day may give me re- 
lief ; I shall be better after preaching. 7 I said to him, 
i I wish you would not preach so often. 7 He replied, 
' I had rather wear out than rust out. 7 I then told 
him, I was afraid he took cold in preaching yesterday. 
He said he believed he had ; and then sat up in bed, 
and prayed that God would be pleased to bless his 
preaching where he had been, and also bless his 
preaching that day, that more souls might be brought 
to Christ. He prayed for direction whether he should 
winter in Boston, or hasten to the southward ; and he 
prayed for a blessing on his Bethesda college, and his 
dear family there, for the Tabernacle and Chapel con- 
gregations, and all connections on the other side of 
the water ; and then he laid himself down to sleep 
again. 

" This was near three o 7 clock. At a quarter past 
four he awoke, and said, ' My asthma, my asthma is 
coming on ; I wish I had not given out word to 



DEATH AND FUNERAL. 439 

preach at Haverhill on Monday ; I don't think I 
shall be able ; but I shall see what to-day will bring 
forth. If I am no better to-morrow, I will take two 
or three days' ride!' He then desired me to warm 
him a little gruel ; and in breaking the fire-wood, I 
waked Mr. Parsons, who thinking I knocked for him, 
rose and came in. He went to Mr. Whitefield's bed- 
side, and asked him how he felt. He answered, l I 
am almost suffocated. I can scarcely breathe, my 
asthma quite chokes me.' I was then not a little sur- 
prised to hear how quickly, and with what difficulty 
he drew his breath. He got out of bed, and went to 
the open window for air. This was exactly at five 
o'clock. I went to him, and for about the space of 
five minutes saw no danger, only that he had a great 
difficulty in breathing, as I had often seen before. 
Soon afterwards, he turned himself to me, and said, 
' I am dying. 1 I said, * I hope not, sir.' He ran to 
the other window, panting for breath, but could get 
no relief. It was agreed that I should go for Dr. 
Sawyer ; and on my coming back, I saw death on his 
face ; and he again said, l I am dying J His eyes were 
fixed, his underlip drawing inward every time he 
drew breath. I persuaded him to sit down in the 
chair, and have his cloak on ; he consented by a sign, 
but could not speak. I then offered him a glass of 
warm wine ; he took half of it, but it seemed as if it 
would have stopped his breath entirely. He went 
towards the window, and we offered him some warm 
wine, with lavender drops, which he refused. 

"In a little time he brought up a considerable 
quantity of phlegm. I then began to have some small 



440 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

hopes. Mr. Parsons said he thought Mr. Whitefield 
breathed more freely than he did, and would recover. 
I said, c No, sir, he is certainly dying. 7 I was contin- 
ually employed in taking the phlegm out of his mouth 
with a handkerchief, and bathing his temples with 
drops, rubbing his wrists, etc., to give him relief, ii 
possible, but all in vain ; his hands and feet were as 
cold as clay. When the doctor came in, and saw him 
in the chair leaning upon my breast, he felt his pulse, 
and said, ' He is a dead man. 7 Mr. Parsons said, ' I 
do not believe it ; you must do something, doctor. 7 
He said, ' I cannot ; he is now near his last breath. 7 
And so indeed it was ; for he fetched but one gasp, 
and stretched out his feet, and breathed no more. 
This was exactly at six o'clock. We continued rub- 
bing his legs, hands, and feet, with warm cloths, and 
bathed him with spirits for some time, but all in vain. 
I then put him into a warm bed, the doctor standing 
by, and often raised him upright, continued rubbing 
him and putting spirits to his nose for an hour, till 
all hopes were gone. The people came in crowds to 
see him. 77 

Whitefield seems to have had somewhat of a pre- 
sentiment that his death would be unattended with 
any remarkable expression of spiritual enjoyment. 
In his last preceding visit to this country, he had 
spent a day or two under the roof of the Rev. Dr. 
Finley, then president of the college at Princeton, 
New Jersey. One day Dr. Finley said at the dinner- 
table, " Mr. Whitefield, I hope it will be very long 
before you will be called home ; but when that event 
shall arrive, I shall be glad to hear the noble testimony 



DEATH AND FUNERAL. 441 

you will bear for God." Whitefield replied, " You 
would be disappointed, doctor ; I shall die silent. It 
has pleased God to enable me to bear so many testi- 
monies for him during my life, that he will require 
none from me when I die. No, no. It is your dumb 
Christians, who have walked in fear and darkness, 
and thereby been unable to bear a testimony for God 
during their lives, that he compels to speak out for 
him on their death-beds." 

We resume Mr. Smith's narrative : " The Rev. Mr. 
Parsons, at whose house my dear master died, sent for 
Captain Fetcomb, and Mr. Boadman, and others of 
his elders and deacons, and they took the whole of 
the burial upon themselves, prepared the vault, and 
sent and invited the bearers. Many ministers of all 
persuasions came to the house of the Rev. Mr. Par- 
sons, where several of them gave a very particular 
account of their first awakenings under his ministry 
several years ago, and also of many in their congrega- 
tions that, to their knowledge, under God, owed their 
conversion to his coming among them, often referring 
to the blessed seasons they had enjoyed under his 
preaching ; and all said, that this last visit was attend- 
ed with more power than any other, and that all oppo- 
sition fell before him. Then one and another would 
pity and pray for his dear Tabernacle and Chapel 
congregations, and it was truly affecting to hear them 
bemoan America and England's loss. Thus they 
continued for two hours, conversing about his great 
usefulness, and praying that God would scatter his 
gifts, and drop his mantle among them." 

Dr. Gillies says, " Early next morning, Mr. Sher- 

19* 



442 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

burn of Portsmouth sent Mr. Clarkson and Dr. 
Haven with a message to Mr. Parsons, desiring that 
Mr. Whitefield's remains might be buried in his own 
new tomb, at his own expense ; and in the evening 
several gentlemen from Boston came to Mr. Parsons, 
desiring the body might be carried there. But as 
Mr. Whitefield had repeatedly desired to be buried 
before Mr. Parsons' pulpit, if he died at Newburyport, 
Mr. Parsons thought himself obliged to deny both 
these requests." 

Mr. Parsons, in a note to his funeral sermon, says, 
" At one o'clock all the bells in the town were tolled 
for half an hour, and all the vessels in the harbor 
gave their proper signals of mourning. At two o'clock 
the bells tolled a second time. At three the bells 
called to attend the funeral. The Rev. Dr. Haven 
of Portsmouth, and the Rev. Messrs. Rodgers of Ex- 
eter, Jewet and Chandler of Rowley, Moses Par- 
sons of Newbury, and Bass of Newburyport, were 
pall-bearers. Mr. Parsons and his family, with many 
other respectable persons, followed the corpse in 
mourning." 

"The precession/ 7 says Mr. Smith, "was only one 
mile, and then the corpse was carried into the Pres- 
byterian church, and placed at the foot of the pulpit, 
close to the vault ; the Rev. Daniel Rodgers made a 
very affecting prayer, and openly declared, that, un- 
der God, he owed his conversion to that dear man 
of God whose precious remains now lay before them. 
Then he cried out, -' my father, my father!' then 
stopped and wept as though his heart would break : 
the people weeping all through the place. Then he 



DEATH AND FUNERAL. 443 

recovered, and finished his prayer, and sat down and 
wept. Then one of the deacons gave out the hymn, 
m Why do we mourn departing friends?' 

some of the people weeping, some singing, and so on 
alternately. The Rev. Mr. Jewet preached a funeral 
discourse ; and made an affectionate address to his 
brethren, to lay to heart the death of that useful man 
of God, begging that he and they might be upon their 
watclitower, and endeavor to follow his blessed exam- 
ple. The corpse was then put into the vault, and all 
concluded with a short prayer, and dismission of the 
people, who went weeping through the streets to their 
respective places of abode." 

The Rev. Mr. Rodgers, from whose "Almanack 
Journal " we have quoted, records that the vast assem- 
bly at the funeral consisted of " four, since thought 
five thousand people," and adds, Oct. 7, " I preached 
from those words in the first Philippians, i Having a 
desire to depart and be with Christ/ etc. I spoke 
extempore, somewhat largely, of dear Mr. Whitefield's 
character." 

The late venerable Mr. Bartlet of Newburyport, 
some years ago, erected a monument to the memory 
of Whitefield in the church beneath which his remains 
are interred. The cenotaph was executed by Mr. 
Struthers of Philadelphia, after a design of Strick- 
land, and the inscription which follows was written 
by the late Rev. Dr. Ebenezer Porter, of the Theo- 
logical seminary at Andover. 



444 GEORGE WHITEFiELD 

THIS CENOTAPH 

IS ERECTED, WITH AFFECTIONATE VENERATION, 

®o tlje HUmorg 

OF 

THE KEY. GEORGE WHITEFIELD, 

BORN AT GLOUCESTER, ENGLAND, DECEMBER 16, 1714; 

EDUCATED AT OXFORD UNIVERSITY; ORDAINED 1736. 

IN A MINISTRY OF THIRTY-FOUR YEARS, 

HE CROSSED THE ATLANTIC THIRTEEN TIMES, 

AND PREACHED MORE THAN EIGHTEEN THOUSAND SERMONS. 

AS A SOLDIER OF THE CROSS, HUMBLE, DEVOUT, ARDENT, 

HE TUT ON THE WHOLE ARMOR OF GOD : 

PREFERRING THE HONOR OF CHRIST TO HIS OWN INTEREST, REPOSE, 

REPUTATION, AND LIFE. 

AS A CHRISTIAN ORATOR, HIS DEEP PIETY, DISINTERESTED ZEAL, 

AND VIVID IMAGINATION, 

GAVE UNEXAMPLED ENERGY TO HIS LOOK, UTTERANCE, AND ACTION. 

BOLD, FERVENT, PUNGENT, AND POPULAR IN HIS ELOQUENCE, 



pi 



;0 OTHER UNINSPIRED MAN EVER PREACHED TO SO LARGE ASSEMBLLES, 
OR ENFORCED THE SIMPLE TRUTHS OF THE GOSPEL BY MOTIVES 
PERSUASIVE AND AWFUL, AND WITH AN INFLUENCE SO POWER' 
FUL, ON THE HEARTS OF HIS HEARERS. 

HE DIED OF ASTHMA, SEPTEMBER 30, 1770. 

SUDDENLY EXCHANGING HIS LIFE OF UNPARALLELED LABORS 

FOR HIS ETERNAL REST. 



TESTIMONIES TO HIS MEMORY. 445 



CHAPTER XVII. 

TESTIMONIES AND F'ACTS ILLUSTRATIVE OF WHITE- 
FIELD'S CHARACTER. 

" Last evening," says a letter from Boston, Octo- 
ber 1. 1770, to the "Pennsylvania Journal/ 7 "we were 
informed by a melancholy messenger from Newbury- 
port, that yesterday morning about six o'clock, at that 
place, the renowned and Rev. George Whitefield, 
chaplain to the Right Hon. the Countess of Hunting- 
don, etc., was, by a sudden mandate, summoned to the 
bosom of his Saviour. He had been preaching in 
divers parts of this province since his arrival from 
the southward, with his usual diligence and energy ; 
was now from a tour to the province of New Hamp- 
shire on his return to this town, but being seized with 
a violent fit of the asthma, was in a short space trans- 
lated from the labors of this life to the enjoyment of 
a better. 

" Of this truly pious and very extraordinary per- 
sonage, little can be said but what every friend to 
vital Christianity who has sat under his ministry will 
readily attest. In his public performances through- 
out Europe and British America, he has, for a long 
course of years, astonished the world as a prodigy of 
eloquence and devotion. With what frequency and 
cheerfulness did he ascend the desk, the language of 
his actions being ever, ' Wist ye not that I must be 
about my Master's business V With what divine pa- 
thos did he plead with, and persuade by the most engag- 



446 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

ing incitements, the impenitent sinner to the practice 
of piety and virtue. Filled with the spirit of grace, 
he spoke from the heart ; and with a fervency of zeal 
perhaps unequalled since the apostles, ornamented 
the celestial annunciations of the preacher with the 
graceful and most enticing charms of rhetoric and 
oratory. From the pulpit he was unrivalled in the 
command of an ever-crowded and admiring auditory ; 
nor was he less entertaining and instructive in his 
private conversation and deportment. Happy in a 
remarkable ease of address, willing to communicate, 
studious to edify, and formed to_„amuse — such, in 
more retired life, was he whom we lament. And while 
a peculiar pleasantry enlivened and rendered his com- 
pany agreeable, his conversation was ever marked 
with the greatest objects of his pursuit — virtue and 
religion. It were to be wished that the good impres- 
sions of his ministry may be long retained ; and that 
the rising generation, like their pious ancestors, may 
catch a spark of that ethereal flame which burnt with 
such lustre in the sentiments and practice of this 
faithful servant of the most high God." 

Another contemporaneous article says, " Dr. Coop- 
er of Brattle-street, called an enthusiast by none, won 
early to serious religion by his [Whitefield's] instru- 
mentality, delivered a sermon upon his death, in which 
he pronounced a strong eulogy in favor of his holy 
and successful activity in the cause of vital and prac- 
tical religion through the English dominions. Pews, 
aisles, and seats were so crowded, and heads and 
shoulders were in such close phalanx, that it looked 
as though a man might walk everywhere upon the up- 



TESTIMONIES TO HIS MEMORY. 447 

per surface of the assembly, without finding an open- 
ing for descending to the floor." 

When the news of Mr. Whitefield's death reached 
Georgia, its inhabitants vied with each other in show- 
ing him the highest respect. All the black cloth in 
the stores was bought up ; the pulpit and desk of the 
church, the branches, the organ-loft, and the pews of 
the governor and council were covered with black. 
The governor and council in deep mourning convened 
at the state-house, and went in procession to church, 
where they were received by the organ playing a fu- 
neral dirge. Two funeral sermons were there listened 
to by the authorities. In the Legislature high eulo- 
giums were pronounced on the admirable preacher, 
and a sum of money was unanimously appropriated 
for removing his remains to Georgia, to be interred 
at his orphan-house ; but the inhabitants of Newbury- 
port strongly objected, and the design was relinquish- 
ed. Forty-five years later when a new county was 
formed in Georgia, it received the name of White- 
field in commemoration of his worth and useful ser- 
vices. 

In a letter from Dr. Franklin to a gentleman in 
Georgia, he says, "I cannot forbear expressing the 
pleasure it gives me to see an account of the respect 
paid to his memory by your assembly. I knew him 
intimately upwards of thirty years ; his integrity, dis- 
interestedness, and indefatigable zeal in prosecuting 
every good work, I have never seen equalled, I shall 
never see excelled." 

Of course it would be expected that the sermons 
at Savannah would be of great interest. Such a dis- 



448 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

course was delivered by the Rev. Mr. Ellington, who 
very truly said, " Whitefield's longing desires for the 
salvation of immortal souls would not admit of his 
being confined within the limits of any walls. How 
he has preached, with showers of stones, and many 
other instruments of malice and revenge about his 
ears, many of his surviving friends can witness. But 
having the salvation of sinners at heart, and a great 
desire to rescue them from the power of an eternal 
death, he resolved to spend and be spent for the ser- 
vice of precious and immortal souls ; and spared no 
pains and refused no labor, so that he might adminis- 
ter to their real and eternal good. He died like a 
hero on the field of battle. Thousands in England, 
Scotland, and America have great reason to bless 
God for his ministrations." 

Who shall attempt to describe the feelings of the 
congregations at the Tabernacle and Tottenham Court 
chapels, when the news of their pastor's death first 
reached them? All were indeed clothed in mourn- 
ing. By Whitefield's own previous appointment, the 
Rev. John Wesley preached the funeral sermon at 
Tottenham Court-road chapel. The preacher bore 
this testimony : " In his public labors he has for many 
years astonished the world with his eloquence and 
devotion. With what divine pathos did he persuade 
the impenitent sinner to embrace the practice of early 
piety and virtue. Tilled with the spirit of grace, he 
spoke from the heart with a fervency of zeal perhaps 
unequalled since the days of the apostles ; and adorn- 
ed the truths he delivered with the most graceful 
charms of rhetoric and oratory. From the pulpit he 



TESTIMONIES TO HIS MEMORY 449 

was unrivalled in the command of an ever-crowded 
auditory. It was the love of God shed abroad in his 
heart by the Holy Ghost which filled his soul with 
tender, disinterested love to every child of man. . . . 
Mention has been already made of his unparalleled 
zeal, his indefatigable activity, his tender-heartedness 
to the afflicted, and charitableness towards the poor. 
But should we not likewise mention his deep grati- 
tude to all whom God had used as instruments of 
good to him ? of whom he did not cease to speak in 
the most respectful manner, even to his dying day. 
Should we not mention that he had a heart suscepti- 
ble of the most generous and the most tender friend- 
ship ? I have frequently thought that this, of all oth- 
ers, was the distinguishing part of his character. How 
few have we known of so kind a temper, of such large 
and flowing affections ! "Was it not principally by 
this that the hearts of others were so strongly drawn 
and knit to him? Can any thing but love beget love? 
This shone in his very countenance, and continually 
breathed in all his words, whether in public or pri- 
vate. Was it not this which, quick and penetrating 
as lightning, flew from heart to heart; which gave 
that life to his sermons, his conversation, his letters ? 
Ye are witnesses." 

The Eev. John Newton preached a funeral sermon 
at Olney, where he was then settled, from the highly 
appropriate text, "He was a burning and a shining 
light," John 5 : 35, in which he thus speaks of White- 
field: " Some ministers are burning and shining lights 
in a peculiar and eminent degree. Such a one, I doubt 
not, was the servant of God whose death we now la- 



450 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

ment. I have had some opportunities of looking over 
the history of the church in past ages ; I am not back- 
ward to say. that I have not read or heard of any 
person, since the apostles' days, of whom it may be 
more emphatically said/ He was a burning and a shin- 
ing light/ than the late Mr. Whitefield ; whether we 
consider the warmth of his zeal, the greatness of his 
ministerial talents, or the extensive usefulness with 
which the Lord honored him. I do not mean to praise 
the man, but the Lord who furnished him, and made 
him what he was. He was raised up to shine in a 
dark place. The state of religion when he first ap- 
peared in public, was very low in our established 
church. I speak the truth, though to some it may be 
an offensive truth. The doctrines of grace were sel- 
dom heard from the pulpit, and the life and power of 
godliness were little known. Many of the most spir- 
itual among the dissenters, were mourning under a 
sense of a great spreading declension on their side. 
What a change has taken place throughout the land 
within a little more than thirty years ; that is, since 
the time when the first set of despised ministers came 
to Oxford ! And how much of this change has been 
owing to God's blessing on Mr. Whitefield's labors, 
is well known to many who have lived through this 
period, and can hardly be denied by those who are 

least willing to allow it His zeal was not like 

wildfire, but directed by sound principles, and a sound 

judgment The Lord gave him a manner of 

preaching which was peculiarly his own; He copied 
from none, and I never met with any one who could 
imitate him with success." 



TESTIMONIES TO HIS MEMORY. 451 

With regret we tear ourselves away from Romaine 
and Toplady, from Pemberton and Parsons, and from 
a multitude of others who bore testimonies like those 
we have given, but which would exceed the limits of 
our narrative. 

Mr. Newton, after his removal to London, once 
breakfasting with a company of noblemen and gentle- 
men, was asked if he knew Mr. Whitefield. He 
answered in the affirmative, and remarked, that as a 
preacher Mr. Whitefield far exceeded every other 
man of his time. Mr. Newton added, " I bless God 
that I lived in his time : many were the winter morn- 
ings I rose at four o'clock to attend his Tabernacle 
discourses at five ; and I have seen Moorfields as full 
of lanterns at these times, as I suppose the Haymarket 
is full of flambeaux on an opera night. 77 As a proof 
of the power of Mr. Whitefield's preaching, Mr. New- 
ton said, that a military officer at Glasgow, who had 
heard him preach, laid a wager with another, that at 
a certain charity sermon, though he went with preju- 
dice, he would be compelled to give something. The 
other, to make sure that he would not, laid aside all 
the money out of his pockets ; but before he left the 
church, he was glad to borrow some, and lose his bet. 
Mr. Newton mentioned as another striking illustration 
of Mr. Whitefield's persuasive oratory, his collecting 
after one sermon £600, or about $3,000, for the inhab- 
itants of an obscure village in Germany, that had been 
burned down. After this sermon, Whitefield said, 
" We shall sing a hymn, during which those who do 
not choose to give their mite on this awful occasion, 
may sneak off." Not one moved ; he came down 



452 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

from the pulpit, ordered all the doors to be shut but 
one, at which he held the plate himself, and collected 
the large sum we have named. Mr. Newton farther 
stated what he knew to be a fact, that at the time 
of Whitefield's greatest persecution, when obliged 
to speak in the streets, in one week he received 
not fewer than a thousand letters from persons dis- 
tressed in their consciences by the energy of his 
preaching. 

A gentleman of title in England was one day ex- 
amining some works of the distinguished sculptor, 
John Bacon. Among them he observed a bust of Mr. 
Whitefield, which led him to remark, " After all that 
has been said, this was truly a great man ; he was 
the founder of a new religion." Mr. Bacon replied, 
"A new religion, sir?" "Yes," said the baronet; 
"what do you call it?" "Nothing," was the re- 
ply, " but the old religion revived with new energy, 
and treated as though the preacher meant what he 
said." 

Several interesting narratives have been given of 
visits to the tomb of Whitefield, which show the pre- 
ciousness of his memory. 

In 1834, the Rev. Andrew Reed, D. D., of Lon- 
don, and the late Rev. James Matheson, D. D., of 
Durham, visited this country as a deputation to its 
churches from the Congregational Union of England 
and Wales. In describing their visit to Newbury- 
port, Dr. Reed, says, " We had a conference with the 
pastors here, and afterwards went to the church 
which is enriched with the remains of Whitefield. 
The elders of the church were present in the porch 



TESTIMONIES TO HIS MEMORY. 453 

to receive us. We descended to the vault. There 
were three coffins before ns. Two pastors of the 
church lay on either side, and the remains of White- 
field in the centre. The cover was slipt aside, and 
they lay beneath my eye. I had before stood in his 
pulpits ; seen his books, his rings, and chairs ; but 
never before had I looked on part of his very self. 
The skull, which is perfect, clean, and fair, I received, 
as is the custom, into my hand. I could say nothing ; 
but thought and feeling were busy. On returning to 
the church, I proposed an exercise of worship. We 
collected over the grave of the eloquent, the devoted, 
and seraphic man, and gave expression to the senti- 
ments that possessed us, by solemn psalmody and fer- 
vent prayer. It was not an ordinary service to any 
of us." 

In the year 1835, a similar deputation visited this 
country from the Baptist Union of Great Britain and 
Ireland. It consisted of the late Kev. F. A. Cox, 
D. D., of London, and the Rev. James Hoby, D. D., 
then of Birmingham. They also visited the tomb of 
our never-to-be-forgotten evangelist. We give a few 
sentences from their report : " We made an excursion 
to Newburyport, thirty-nine miles from Boston, to see 
the tomb of Whitefield. On our arrival, we hastened 
to the depository of the precious remains of that emi- 
nent servant of God. . . We descended with some 
lifficulty into the subterraneous vault, which is imme- 
diately behind the pulpit, in a small chamber like a 
vestry, external to the body of the church. Deep ex- 
pectant emotions thrilled through our bosoms, while 
a kind of trap-door was opened, and we descended 



454 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

beneath the floor to another door, which stood per- 
pendicularly, by which we entered, or rather crept, 
into the awful and silent sepulchre. There were three 
coffins placed in parallel lines ; two of them contain- 
ing the mortal part of Mr. Parsons and Mr. Prince, 
pastors of the church. We instinctively took our 
seats, the one on the one coffin, the other on the other, 
with, the coffin of Whitefield between, over which, 
when the upper part of the lid was removed, to reveal 
the skeleton secrets of the narrow prison-house, we 
bent in solemn stillness and awe. We gazed on 
the fragments — we contemplated and handled the 
skull of that great preacher of righteousness — we 
thought of his devoted life, his blessed death, his high 
and happy destiny ; and whispered our adorations 
of the grace that formed him both for earth and 
heaven. 77 

The following lines were written by the departed 
and amiable William B. Tappan, on visiting this spot 
in September, 1837. 

" And this was Whitefield ! — this, the dust now blending 
With kindred dust, that wrapt hj $ sou j, 0/ fir e. — 
Which, from the mantle freed, is still ascending 
Through regions of far glory, holier, higher. 

Oh, as 1 gaZe" here"with a solemifjoy - 

And awful reverence, in which shares Decay, 
Who, this fair frame reluctant to destroy, 
Yields it not yet to doom which all obey — 
How follows thought his flight, at Love's command, 
From hemisphere in sin, to hemisphere, 
Warning uncounted multitude s, with tears — 
-Egfta chin<r t.l^ risen Christ on sea and land — 



And now those angel joulmeyingrTS^oveT" 

Souls, his companions, saved by such unwearied love!" 



TESTIMONIES TO HIS MEMORY. 455 

In December, 1845, one of the London daily papers, 
" The Sun," contained a somewhat extended account 
of Whitefield in New England, and especially his 
death, funeral, and tomb, from which we borrow me- 
mentos that in both hemispheres may be interesting 
" for generations to come." 

" I was spending Sunday at Old Ipswich, in the 
latter part of last September, when by accident I fell 
in with an old inhabitant of the town who had heard 
Whitefield preach there. He was a sort of patriarch 
of the place, and as he sat on one of the stones which 
surrounded the ancient orthodox meeting-house, his 
grey locks streaming from beneath his queerly shaped 
hat, and attired in his primly cut old-fashioned coat, 
he appeared no bad representative of the departed 
Puritans who, in former days, had soberly and decently 
obeyed the call of the Sabbath bell, and worshipped in 
the same temple whose steeple now casts its shadow 
athwart the green sward beneath. . . As the bell of 
Old Ipswich church swung out that bright Sabbath 
morning, it was a pretty sight to see the village peo- 
ple coming from different points to the decaying old 
church, which was situated, as most country churches 
in New England are, on a hill-top. "While I was en- 
joying the scene, the old man to whom I have alluded, 
and who was sitting on a stone, accosted me, and 
asked me if I was not a stranger ' in these parts.' On 
my informing him that I was, he pointed out to me the 
* lions ' of the neighborhood, and wound up by asking, 
' 1 suppose, sir, you Ve heard of Whitefield?' 

" ' Of Whitefield ? to be sure I have.' 

" ' Well, I Ve seen Whitefield. George White- 



456 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

field stood on this very stone/ (dropping his stick 
feebly from his shaking hands,) ' and I heard him 
preach here. 7 

" ' And do you remember any thing about him? 7 I 
asked. 

" ' Well, I guess I do. I was but a bit of a boy 
then ; but here he stood on this stone, looking like a 
flying angel, and we call this Whitefield's pulpit to 
this day. . . There was folks here from all parts 
to hear him ; so he was obliged to preach outside, for 
the church was n't half big enough for J em, and no 
two ways about it. I've heard many parsons sin' 
that time, but none on 'em could come nigh him, any 
how they could fix it.' 

" ' Do you remember any thing of his sermons ?' 
I inquired. 

" ' Oh, I was too young to notice aught, sir, but the 
preacher hisself and the crowds of people, but I know 
he had a very sweet voice ; and as I said, when he 
spread his arms out, with a little Bible in his hand, 
he looked like a fl ying ang el. There never were so 
many people, afore nor since, in Old Ipswich. I sup- 
pose, sir, you '11 be going to see his bones ? He was 
buried at Newburyport, and you can see 'em if you 
like.' 

"I made up my mind that I would see them, if 
possible. On the following day, I went over to New- 
buryport by railroad, and proceeded first to the house 
in which Whitefield died. It was at the time the 
residence of the Rev. Jonathan Parsons, the first reg- 
ular pastor of the Presbyterian Society in the town. 
It is a plain unpretending structure, possessing no 



TESTIMONIES TO HIS MEMORY. 457 

other claims to attention than its being the spot where 
the last scene of Whitefield's career was enacted. I 
knocked, and asked of a lady who answered my sum- 
mons, if I might be allowed to see the room in which 
Mr. Whitefield died. She very courteously showed 
me up a flight of stairs into a chamber, which, she 
said, Mr. Whitefield used to sleep in. ' Here is the 
place he died in,' said the lady, as she showed me a 
little entry just outside the door of the chamber, di- 
rectly over the entrance to the house. 'He lay the 
night before he died/ said the lady, ' in that bed-cham- 
ber ; and when he was struck with death, he ran out 
to this entry window for breath, and died while sitting 
in a chair opposite to it. 7 

" The Federal-street church, where Whitefield was 
buried, was but a short distance from the house in 
which he died, and on my way to it I called on the 
sexton. . . He preceded me through the aisle of the 
church, and opening a little nail-ow door by the side 
of the pulpit, we passed into a dim gloomy room 
behind it, and from thence descending four or five 
steps, found ourselves in a brick vault which lay di- 
rectly under the pulpit. It was two or three minutes 
before my eyes got accustomed to the gloom; but 
soon objects became discernible, and I saw three old 
coffins, two of them serving as supporters to the third, 
which lay across them. . . . The sexton trimmed his 
lamp, then lifted the lid of an old coffin, and holding 
the flame close to it, said, ' Here, look in, . . . that 's 

THE MAN.' 

"Yes, there lay the man, or at least, all that re- 
mains of the once mighty preacher. A strange awe 

WHitefi«W 20 



458 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

came over me at his words, ' That J s the man. 1 1 took 
the skull in my hands, and examined it carefully. The 
forehead was rather narrow than broad, and by no 
means high. I soon put it back again to the coffin. w 

Among the more prominent traits in the character 
of Whitefield, we may designate his indifference to his 
own honor and ease, of which his narrative contains 
almost innumerable illustrations. In the preparation 
of the deed of trust for his intended college, he en- 
tirely omitted his own name, that the proposed trus- 
tees might accept the office without suffering contempt 
for being connected with him. It was not pretence 
which led him often to say, " Let the name of George 
Whitefield perish, if God be glorified . " On the same 
principle of almost self-annihilation he acted in refer- 
ence to the accumulation of money. He secured noth- 
ing for himself. It does not seem that what he left 
to his friends by his will was or could be paid ; what 
had been left him as legacies had been nearly all 
expended, and would have been entirely, had he lived 
to return to his beloved Bethesda. By his will he 
placed the institution in the hands of Lady Hunting- 
don, who sent out ministers and other persons to con- 
duct it. But soon after this, the buildings were burnt 
down. After the fire, came the Revolutionary war, 
which tended to unsettle the tenure of property, and 
at the time of its close, the whole plans, alike of the 
orphan-house and the college, were nearly unknown. 
The authorities of Savannah, in accordance with the 
high regard which they still entertained for White- 
field's memory, secured whatever they could of the 



TESTIMONIES TO HIS MEMORY. 459 

wreck, the proceeds of which they invested in a school 
for the young, which yet flourishes. 

Perhaps no man was ever more thoroughly fond of 
labor. Prom a memorandum in which Mr. Whitefield 
recorded the times and places of his ministerial labors, 
it appears that from the period of his ordination to 
that of his death, which was thirty-four years, he 
preached upwards of eighteen thousand sermons. It 
would be difficult to imagine how many thousand 
miles he travelled. When he ascertained that his 
physical powers began to fail, putting himself on what 
he called " short allowance, 7 ' he preached only once on 
every week-day, and three times on the Sabbath. In view 
of his various journeyings in the slow and inconven- 
ient modes of travelling then in use, his thirteen voy- 
ages across the Atlantic, and all that he accomplished, 
it appears that few men ever performed so much labor 
within the same period. 

Nearly every one who has attempted a description 
of Whitefield has said much of his extra ordin ar y voice . 
It is known that Garrick was heard to say that he 
would give a hundred guineas if he could say " Oh 1" 
as Whi tefield ^d . The late Rev. Dr. Haweis, speak- 
ing of his " wonderful voice," and of its sweetness and 
variety of tone, said he believed on a serene evening 
it might be distinctly heard fy j nea rly a mile. Others 
have given similar evidence. 

The late Sir George Beaumont, no mean authority 
on such a subject, thus familiarly speaks : " Oh yes ; I 
heard that young gentleman this morning allude to 
' roaring Whitefield/ and was amused at his mistake. 
It is a common one. Whitefield did not roar. I 



460 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

have been his auditor more than once, and was de- 
lighted with him. Whitefield's voice could be heard 
at an immense distance; but that was owing to its 
fulness, roundness, and clearness. It was a perfectly 
sound voice. It is an odd description, but I can hit 
upon no better; there was neither crack nor flaw. 
To describe him as a bellowing, roaring field preach- 
er, is to describe a mounMranfc n ot Whitefield. He 
had powers of pathos of the highest order. The ten- 
der, soft, persuasive tones of his voice were melodious 
in the extreme. And when he desired to win, or per- 
suade, or plead, or soothe, the gush of feeling which 
his voice conveyed at once surprised and overpowered 
you." 

Speaking on the authority of his tutor, the Rev. 
Cornelius Winter, the late excellent Mr. Jay says that 
Whitefield's voice was incomparable : not only distinct 
and loud, but abounding with every kind of inflection, 
and perfectly under his power ; so that he could render 
every thing he expressed, however common or insig- 
nificant in itself, striking and affecting. 

This distinguished man had a peculiar talent for 
making the narration of facts tell in the pulpit. Nothing 
occurred among even his own family connections, but 
he would make it contribute to the edification of his 
auditors. One Lord's day morning, with his usual 
fervor he exhorted his hearers to give up the use of 
means for the spiritual good of their relatives and 
friends only with their lives. He told them he had a 
brother, for whose spiritual welfare he had very long 
used every possible means. He had warned him, and 
prayed for him, but all apparently to no purpose, till 



TESTIMONIES TO HIS MEMORY. 461 

a few weeks previous ; when that brother, to his as- 
tonishment and joy, came to his house, and with many 
tears declared that he had come up from the country 
to testify to him the great change which divine grace 
had wrought in his heart, and to acknowledge with 
gratitude his obligation to the man by whom God had 
wrought. Mr. Whitefield added, that he had that 
morning received information, that on his brother's 
return to Gloucestershire, where he resided, he drop- 
ped down dead as he was getting out of a stage- 
coach. "Let us pray always," said he, "for our- 
selves, and for those who are dear to us, and never 
faint." 

This habit of making every occurrence bear on his 
ministry, Mr. Winter, who knew him more intimately, 
and has told us more of his private life and conduct 
than any other man, tells us was "perfectly in charac- 
ter with Mr. Whitefield. He turned every thing into 
gold; he improved every thing for good. Passing 
occurrences determined the matter of his sermons, 
and, in some degree, the manner of his address. Thus, 
if he had read on astronomy in the course of the week, 
you would be sure to discover it. He knew how to 
convert the centripetal motion of the planets to the 
disposition of the Christian towards Christ ; and the 
fatal attraction of the world was very properly repre- 
sented by a reference to the centrifugal. If he attend- 
ed any extraordinary trial, he would avail himself of 
the formality of the judge in pronouncing sentence. 
It would only be by hearing him, and by beholding 
his attitude and tears, that a person could well con- 
ceive the effect ; for it was impossible but that solem- 



162 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

nity must surround him who, under God, became the 
means of making all solemn." 

He sometimes made use of an incident of history 
in the reign of Henry VIII. The apprentices of Lon- 
don appeared before that monarch, pleading his par- 
don for their insurrections, manifesting intense feeling 
on the matter, and praying for " mercy, mercy." "Take 
them away, take them away/ 7 was the monarch's re- 
quest, moved by the sight and the cries of these youths, 
"I cannot bear it." The application, as will be read- 
ily supposed, was, that if an earthly monarch of Hen- 
ry's character could be so moved, how prevalent must 
be the plea of the sinner in the ears of infinite Love. 

The case of two Scotchmen in the convulsion of the 
state at the time of Charles II. served him on more 
than one occasion. These men, having to pass some 
of the troops, were thinking of their danger, and med- 
itating the best way of escape, when one of them pro- 
posed wearing a skullcap; but the other, thinking 
that would imply distrust of the providence of God, 
determined to proceed bareheaded. The last was 
the first laid hold of, and being asked, " Are you for 
the covenant?" replied, "Yes;" and being further 

asked, " What covenant ?" answered, " The covenant 

■ i — 

of grace ;" by which reply, eluding farther inquiry, he 
was allowed to pass; but the other, not answering 
satisfactorily, received a blow from the sabre, which 
penetrating through the cap, struck him dead. In the 
application, Mr. Whitefield, warning against vain 
confidence, exclaimed, " Beware of your skullcaps." 

An American clergyman has told us that he once 
related to Whitefield an affecting occurrence, but did 



TESTIMONIES TO HIS MEMORY. 463 

it with the ordinary brevity and feeling of common 
conversation. Afterwards he heard Mr. Whitefield 
preach, and tell this same story with such nature, 
pathos, and power, that the clergyman found himself 
weeping l ike a chil d. It has been well said, that he 
spoke with the tones of the soul ; and that his gestures 
were impelled by the same spontaneous magical influ- 
ence which made them, as well as "his words, seem part 
of his soul. Indeed, he threw his soul into every 
thing he did and said. 

It is said that Whitefield would sometimes rise in 
the sacred desk, and for a minute or two looking in 
silence around his vast audience, as if salvation or 
perdition teemed in every cast of his eye, would burst 
into tears, while the swift contagion, before he uttered 
a word, had reached every heart that could feel, and 
dimmed every eye that could weep .* 

While his path to the sinner's heart was thus met 
with tears, he was never without strength or aim. 
He struck everywhere. He swung his glittering 
weapon, "the sword of the Spirit," in every direction, 
the same whether he preached in the cushioned and 
carpeted pulpit to lords, ladies, and gentlemen, or en- 
countered a mob of stage-players and merry-andrews 
in the open field. He insisted on instant, visible, 
decisive action in his hearers. All was commotion 
where he moved. The very earth would seem to be 
shaken with the thunder of his eloquence ; the heav- 

* The New York Evangelist, in 1830, made the remark, that 
" Whitefield would have lost much of his oratorical influence on his 
hearers, had his speaking eyes been covered with a pair of modern 
spectacles. " 



464 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

ens seemed, in the bold metaphor of Isaiah, to " drop 
down from above, and the skies to pour down right- 
eousness," when he set the trumpet of the gospel to 
his lips, and made the notes of salvation or perdition 
ring in the ears of dying men. Such unwonted sounds 
startled the multitude into life, rousing energies that 
were forthwith enlisted either for or against the 
mighty cause which he advocated, with the boldness 
and fervor of one who had received immediate com- 
mission from heaven. His sacred ambition was con- 
tent with nothing short of the conquest of thousands. 

It has been well said by a living American writer, 
that " Whitefield was, in sacred eloquence, what Han- 
del was in sacggjjjjy^c. There was an air, a soul, 
and a movement in his oratory, which created inde- 
scribable emotion in his vast assemblies, and if Han- 
del, with a thousand auxiliary voices and instruments, 
astonished the multitude in Westminster Abbey, even 
to raising them on their feet, by the performance of 
his Messiah, Whitefield did greater wonders in his 
single person by preaching the Messiah to the immense 
crowds in Tottenham Court-road and Moorfields." 

The same writer has said elsewhere, "The influ- 
ence of Whitefield and Edwards on theology and pul- 
pit eloquence were immense. There was in those 
two men indeed 'a diversity of gifts, but the same 
spirit.' The intellect prevailed in Edwards, the im- 
passioned in Whitefield. Pure truth came forth from 
the mind of the one as nakedly demonstrated as it 
ever was on the pages of Newton and Locke ; for Ed- 
wards, when but a child, read Locke with enthusiasm. 
From the soul of Whitefield it came forth arrayed in 



TESTIMONIES TO HIS MEMORY. 465 

the gorgeous robes of his own many-colored imagina- 
tion, baptized in the tenderness of his own sympa- 
thetic spirit. At times, indeed, the thunders of Sinai 
seemed to shake the sacred desk, but the softer music 
of the harp of Zion was more congenial with his com- 
passionate spirit, though he was always bold for God, 
and braved danger in every form for the salvation of 
sinners. It is not strange that American preachers 
venerate, even to enthusiasm, the memory of such a 
man, and visit his dust, enshrined as it is in the bosom 
of New England, with feelings of indescribable inter- 
est. His labors were for us ; his rest is with us ; his 
example is before us. The first were indefatigable ; 
the second is peaceful ; the last is glorious." 

The Rev. Mr. Winter says, " I hardly ever knew 
him to go through a sermon without weeping more or 
less j" and again, " It was only by beholding his atti- 
tude and tears, that one could well conceive of the 
effect." No doubt there was a connection between 
the tears of Whitefield and his piety ; but it must not 
be supposed that he was always "the weeping proph- 
et;" he could smile as well as weep. A venerable 
lady in New York, known to some yet living, speak- 
ing of the influence which first won her heart to God, 
said that "Mr. Whitefield was so cheerful that it 
tempted her to be a Christian." 

Every thing about this distinguished man excited 
attention. His voice, accompanied by his look from 
crossed eyes, and proceeding from a man of his robust 
frame, produced wonderful effects. It is said that 
when once preaching in a graveyard, two young men 
conducted themselves improperly, when he fixed his 

20* 



465 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

eyes upon them, and with a voice resembling thunder, 
said, " Come down, ye rebels." They instantly fell, 
neither of them being inclined again to come into 
contact with such a look, or to hear sucha voice . 

He was once preaching to a vast crowd of people 
in southern Pennsylvania, which was at that time 
ignorant and uncivilized. He was incessantly dis- 
turbed by their noise, and twice reproved them with 
great severity. At length he was so overcome by 
their noisy and irreverent conduct, that he stopped 
short, dropped his head into his hands, burst into a 
flood of tears, and exclaimed, " Oh, Lord God, I am 
ashamed that these people are provoking thy wrath, 
and I dare not reprove them a third time. 77 Such was 
the effect of his conduct and feeling, that his audience 
became perfectly quiet, and remained so till the end 
of his discourse. 

We have before us two narratives of his preaching 
during very heavy storms. Dr. Campbell, a successor 
of Whitefield in the Tabernacle in London, and whose 
ministry has been marked by much of the power and 
success of his great predecessor, has given to the first 
of these narratives the title of "Thunder and Elo- 
quence." Before he commenced his sermon on this oc- 
casion, long darkening columns crowded the bright 
sunny sky of the morning, and swept their dull shad- 
ows over the building, in fearful augury of the storm. 

His text was, " Strive to enter in at the strait 
gate; for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter 
in, and shall not be able. 77 " See, 77 said he, pointing 
to a shadow that was flitting ag ypss t ( hf> floor — " see 
that emblem of human life. It passed for a moment 



TESTIMONIES TO HIS MEMORY. 467 

and concealed the brightness of heaven from our view ; 
but it is gone. And where will ye be, my hearers, 
when your lives have passed away like that dark 
cloud ? Oh, my dear friends, I see thousands sitting 
attentively, with their eyes fixed on the poor unwor- 
thy preacher. In a few days, we shall all meet at 
the judgment-seat of Christ. We shall form a part 
of that vast assembly that will gather before the 
throne ; and every eye will behold the Judge. With 
a voice whose call you must abide and answer, he 
will inquire whether on earth you strove to enter in 
at the strait gate ; whether you were supremely de- 
voted to God ; whether your hearts were absorbed in 
him. My blood runs cold when I think how many of 
you will then seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 
Oh, what plea can you make before the Judge of the 
whole earth? Can you say it has been your whole 
endeavor to mortify the flesh, with its affections and 
lusts — that your life has been one long effort to do 
the will of God ? No ; you must answer, ( I made 
myself easy in the world by flattering myself that 
all would end well ; but I have deceived my own 
soul, and am lost.' 

11 You, false and hollow Christian, of what avail 
will it be that you have done many things — that you 
have read much in the sacred word — that you have 
made long prayers — that you have attended religious 
duties, and that you have appeared holy in the eyes 
of men ? What will all this be, if, instead of loving 
Him supremely, you have been supposing you should 
exalt yourself in heaven by acts really polluted and 
unholy ? 



468 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

" And you, rich men, wherefore do you hoard your 
silver ? Wherefore count the price you have received 
for Him whom you every day crucify in your love of 
gain ? "Why — that when you are too poor to buy a 
drop of cold water, your beloved son may be rolled 
to hell in his chariot, pillowed and cushioned around 
him." 

The eye of the preacher gradually lighted up as 
he proceeded, till towards the close it seemed to spar- 
kle with celestial fire. With his whole energy he 
exclaimed, " sinners, by all your hopes of happiness, 
I beseech you to repent. Let not the wrath of God 
be awakened. Let not the fires of eternity be kindled 
against you. See there !" pointing to the lightning, 
which played on the corner of the pulpit, " it is a 
glance from the angry eye of Jehovah I" Raising his 
finger in a listening attitude, as the distant thunder 
grew louder and louder, and broke in one tremendous 
crash over the building, he continued, " Hark ! It was 
the voice of the Almighty as he passed by in his an- 
ger !" As the sound died away, he covered his face 
with his hands, and knelt beside his pulpit, apparently 
lost in inward and intense prayer. The storm passed 
rapidly away, and the sun, beaming forth in his might, 
threw across the heavens a magnificent arch of peace. 
Rising, and pointing to the beautiful object, he ex- 
claimed, " Look upon the rainbow, and praise Him 
who made it. Very beautiful it is in the brightness 
thereof. It compasseth the heavens about with glory ; 
and the hands of the Most High have bended it !" 

On another occasion, as Mr. Whitefield was 
preaching in Boston, on the wonders of creation, 



TESTIMONIES TO HIS MEMORY. 469 

providence, and redemption, a violent storm of thun- 
der and lightning came on. In the midst of the ser- 
mon it attained to so alarming a height that the con- 
gregation sat in almost breathless awe. The preacher 
closed his note-book, and stepping into one of the 
wings of the desk, fell on his knees, and with much 
feeling and fine taste repeated : 

" Hark, the Eternal rends the sky ! 
A mighty voice before him goes — 
A voice of music to his friends, 
But threatening thunder to his foes : 
'Come, children, to your Father's arms; 
Hide in the chambers of my grace, 
Till the fierce storm be overblown, 
And my revenging fury cease — ' 

" Let us devoutly sing to the praise and glory of God 
this hymn, Old Hundred." 

The whole congregation instantly rose, and poured 
forth the sacred song, in which they were accompa- 
nied by the organ, in a style of simple grandeur and 
heartfelt devotion that was probably never surpassed. 
By the time the hymn was finished the storm was 
hushed. The remainder of the services were well 
adapted to sustain the elevated feeling which had 
been produced ; and the benediction with which the 
good man dismissed the flock was universally received 
with streaming eyes, and hearts overflowing with ten- 
derness and gratitude. 

Another writer has thus described his appearance 
in the pulpit. There was nothing in the appearance 
of this extraordinary man which would lead you to 
suppose that a Felix would tremble before him. He 
was something above the middle stature, well propor- 



470 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

tioned, and remarkable for a native gracefulness of 
manner. His complexion was very fair, his features 
regular, and his dark blue eyes small and lively. In 
recovering from the measles he had contracted a 
squint with one of them ; but this peculiarity rather 
rendered the expression of his countenance more re- 
markable, than in any degree lessened the effect of its 
uncommon sweetness. His voice excelled both in 
melody and compass ; and its fine modulations were 
happily accompanied by that grace of action which 
he possessed in an eminent degree, and which has 
been said to be the chief requisite in an orator. To 
see him when he first commenced, one would have 
thought him any thing but enthusiastic and glowing ; 
but as he proceeded, his heart warmed with his sub- 
ject, and his manner became impetuous and animated ; 
till, forgetful of every thing around him, he seemed to 
kneel at the throne of Jehovah, and to beseech in 
agony for his fellow-beings. 

After he had finished his prayer, he knelt for a 
long time in profound silence, and so powerful was 
the effect on the most heartless of his audience, that a 
stillness like that of the tomb pervaded the whole 
house. 

Mr. Tracy, in his narrative of " the Great Awak- 
ening" about 1740, has admirably remarked, "It is 
often said that Whitefield cannot have been a very 
great man, because his printed sermons contain only 
plain, common thoughts, such as men of ordinary 
minds habitually use. But what made those thoughts 
so common ? They were not common when he began 
to utter them. In England especially, and to a con- 



TESTIMONIES TO HIS MEMORY. 471 

siderable extent here also, they astonished his hearers 
by their strangeness. What is more common than a 
voyage across the Atlantic? But was Columbus, 
therefore, only an ordinary man? The case of Co- 
pernicus is more nearly parallel. He reasserted a 
truth which had been uttered, repudiated, and for- 
gotten. That truth is now common, even among 
school-boys. But was he, therefore, only a child in 
intellect?" 

There are yet extant about eighty of the sermons 
by which Whitefield agitated nations, and the more 
remote influence of which is still distinctly to be 
traced, in the popular divinity and national character 
of Great Britain and of the United States. Of these 
compositions, Sir James Stephen, an evangelical Epis- 
copalian of London, wrote at some length in the 
" Edinburgh Review/ 7 1838, and we shall make no 
apology for borrowing a portion of his remarks, com- 
bining them with some of our own. 

It is true, that these sermons have fallen into very 
general neglect; for to win permanent acceptance 
for a book, into which the principles of life were not 
infused by its author, is a miracle which not even the 
zeal of religious proselytes can accomplish. Yet, in- 
ferior as were his inventive to his mimetic powers, 
Whitefield is entitled, among theological writers, to 
a place which, if it cannot challenge admiration, may 
at least excite and reward curiosity. Many, and those 
by far the worst of his discourses, bear the marks of 
careful preparation. Take at hazard a sermon of one 
of the preachers usually distinguished as evangelical, 
add a little to its length, and subtract a s;reat deal 



472 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

from its point and polish, and you have one of his 
more elaborate common topics discussed in a common- 
place way ; a respectable mediocrity of thought and 
style ; endless variations on one or two . cardinal 
truths — in short, the task of a clerical Saturday even- 
ing, executed with piety, good sense, and exceeding 
sedateness. But open one of that series of White- 
field's sermons which bears the stamp of having been 
conceived and uttered at the same moment, and imag- 
ine it recited to myriads of eager listeners with every 
charm of voice and gesture, and the secret of his 
unrivalled fascination is at least partially disclosed. 
He places himself on terms of intimacy and unre- 
served confidence with you, and makes it almost as 
difficult to decline the invitation to his familiar talk 
as if Montaigne himself had issued it. The egotism 
is amusing, affectionate, and warm-hearted, with just 
that slight infusion of self-importance without which 
it would pass for affectation. In his art of rhetoric, 
pe ynification holds the first place ; and the pxasopQi 
pf^uTTsso 'luan^^d as to quicken abstractions into 
life, and to .give the i^individuaj^^anddistinctness 
w ithout the exhibiti on of any of those sp asmodic and 
d istorted images which obey the ii ujaniatjons of vul- 
gar_exorcists. Every trace of study and contrivance 
is obliterated by the hearty earnestness which per- 
vades each successive period, and by the vernacular 
and homely idioms in which his meaning is conveyed. 
It is in the grandeur and singleness of purpose 
that the charm of Whitefield's preaching seems to 
have consisted. You feel that you have to do with 
a man who lived and spoke, and who would gladly 



TESTIMONIES TO HIS MEMORY. 473 

have died, to deter his hearers from the path of destruc- 
tion, and to guide them to holiness and peace. His 
gossipping stories, and dramatic forms of speech, are 
never employed to hide the awful realities on which 
he is intent. Conscience is not permitted to find an 
intoxicating draught in even spiritual excitement, or 
aji anodyne in glowing imagery. Guilt and its pun- 
ishment^ pafdorTand spotless purity, death and an 
eternal existence, stand out in bold relief on every 
page. From these the eye of the teacher is never 
withdrawn, and to these the attention of the hearer is 
riveted. All that is poetic, grotesque, or rapturous 
is employed to deepen these impressions, and is dis- 
missed as soon as that purpose is answered. Deficient 
in learning, meagre in thought, and redundant in lan- 
guage as are these discourses, they yet fulfil the one 
great condition of genuine eloquence. They propa- 
gate their own kindly w^armth, and leave their stings 
behind them. 

The enumeration of the sources of Whitefield's pow- 
er is still essentially defective. Neither energy, nor 
eloquence, nor histrionic talents, nor any artifices of 
style nor the most genuine sincerity and self-devoted- 
ness, nor all these united, would have enabled him to 
mould the religious character of millions in his own 
and future generations. The secret lies deeper. It 
consisted in the theology he "taught — in its perfect 
simplicity and universal application. " Would minis- 
ters," says he, " preach for eternity, they would then 
act the part of true Christian orators ; and not only 
calmly and coolly inform the understanding, but by 
pathetic and persuasive address, endeavor to move 



474 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

the affections and to warm the heart. To act other- 
wise, betrays a sad ignorance of human nature, and 
such an inexcusable ignorance and indifference in a 
preacher, as must constrain the hearers to suspect, 
whether they will or not, that the preacher, let him 
be whom he will, only deals in the false commerce of 
unfelt .jtruth." His eighteen thousand sermons were 
but so many variations on two key-notes: man is 
guilty, but may obtain forgiveness; he is immortal, 
and must ripen here for endless weal or woe hereafter. 
Expanded into innumerable forms, and diversified by 
infinite varieties of illustration, these two cardinal 
principles were ever in his heart and on his tongue. 
Let who would invoke poetry to embellish the Chris- 
tian system, or philosophy to explore its esoteric 
depths, from his lips it was delivered as an awful and 
urgent summons to repent, to believe, and to obey. 
To set to music the orders issued to seamen in a 
storm, or to address them in the language of Aris- 
totle or Descartes, would have seemed to him not a 
whit more preposterous than to divert his hearers 
from their danger and their refuge, their duties and 
their hopes, to any topics more trivial or more ab- 
struse. In fine, he was thoroughly and continually 
in earnest, and therefore possessed that tension of 
the soul which admitted neither of lassitude nor re- 
laxation, few and familiar as were the topics to which 
he was confined. His was, therefore, precisely that 
state of mind in which alone eloquence, properly so 
called, can be engendered, and a moral and intellec- 
tual sovereignty won. 

Nor less important is it to remark, though we 



TESTIMONIES TO HIS MEMORY. 415 

need not illustrate it at length, that much was effect- 
ed by every one seeing that he always forgot himself 
in his subject, and rested only on heaven for success. 
He felt himself called to serve Christ, and gave him- 
self to his task, to save sinners, and he cared foi 
nothing else. No one ever doubted his sincerity 
when he prayed, " Help me, Friend of sinners, to be 
nothing, to say nothing, that thou mayest say and do 
every thing, and be my all in all." If the same feel- 
ings were fully shown by the ministry at present, 
our messages would tell more on the hearts of our 
hearers. 

We need hardly remind the reader that White- 
field was remarkable for a devotional spirit. Probably 
no man ever lived nearer to God. Had he been less 
prayerful, he would have been less powerful. It has 
been said that during a few of the last years of his 
life he read the voluminous exposition of Matthew 
Henry, comprising six quarto volumes, in a kneeling 
posture, pausing and praying that God would engraft 
upon his mind the instructions of that extraordinary 
man. When he came before his auditors, he looked 
like one who had be en with God. This it was which 
won for him the title of seraphic — he was a human 
seraph, and burnt out in the blaze of his own fire. 
Usually for an hour or two before he went into the 
pulpit, he claimed retirement. In this claim he was 
imperative, and would not be interrupted in his sea- 
sons of hallowed intercourse with God. 

Engaged almost incessantly in preaching, or in 
preparation for it, it was impossible, however much 
he desired it, to pay many private visits of a relig- 



476 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

ious nature. We are told, however, that on one occa 
sion, when a young minister, afterwards exceedingly 
popular and useful, was once visiting him, he wa& 
sent for to visit a poor woman who had been so 
dreadfully burnt that she could not survive many 
hours. He went immediately, and prayed with her 
He had no sooner returned, than she called out, " Oh, 
where is Mr. Whitefield ?" Urged by her entreaty, 
her friends requested him to visit her a second time. 
He complied, and again prayed with her. The pooi 
afflicted woman continued still to desire his presence. 
When her friends came for him a third time, " I begged 
of him," said the young clergyman, " not to go ; for 
he could scarcely expect to do any good. ' Your 
nerves are too weak, your feelings are too acute to 
endure such scenes/ I shall never forget his mild 
reproof: ' Leave me ; my Master can save to the utter- 
most, to the very uttermost.' 1 ;; 

In conversation with his friends, Whitefield was 
as far removed as possible from duplicity and mere 
compliment. He invited from his friends whatever of 
instruction and of reproof they considered him to 
need. And while he was always ready to receive re- 
proof, he was, when called to the duty, ready to give 
it, and often in a way which his friends did not expect. 
A censorious professor of religion, knowing the doc- 
trinal differences between the two men, asked White- 
field if he thought they would see Mr. John Wesley 
in heaven. His answer was truly admirable : " No, 
sir, I fear not ; for he will be so near the throne, and 
we shall be at such a distance, we shall hardly get 
sight of him." 



TESTIMONIES TO HIS MEMORY. 477 

It is said, that when he was once travelling in 
company with a Christian man, they had occasion to 
stay for a night at a road-side tavern. After they 
had retired, they were greatly annoyed by a company 
of gamblers, who were in an adjoining room. White- 
field could not rest, and told his friend that he would 
go into the room and reprove them for their conduct. 
The other remonstrated against his doing so, but in 
vain. He went ; and unhappily, his words fell appar- 
ently powerless upon them. Returning, he laid down 
to sleep. " What," asked his companion, " did you 
gain by your trouble ?" Whitefield characteristically 
answered, "A soft pillow." 

In his intercourse with general society, Mr. White- 
field never forgot his dignity as a servant of Jesus 
Christ. When he was in the zenith of his popularity, 
Lord Clare, who knew that his influence was consid- 
erable, applied to him by letter, requesting his influ- 
ence at Bristol at the ensuing general election. To 
this request Mr. Whitefield replied, that in general 
elections he never interfered ; but he would earnestly 
exhort his lordship to use great diligence to make his 
own particular " calling and election sure." 

Mr. Whitefield was greatly distinguished, even 
from early life, for neatness in his person, order in 
his apartments, and regular method in the manage- 
ment of all his affairs. He was accustomed to say 
that a minister should be " without a spot ;" and on 
one occasion remarked, that he could not feel comfort- 
able if he knew that his gloves were out of their proper 
place. The advantages of such habits are numerous. 
They save time, give a degree of comfort which can 



478 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

only be known by experience, and add not a little to 
the dignity of the Christian minister. 

The device upon Whitefield's seal, of which prob- 
ably few impressions are now to be found, was truly 
characteristic. It was a winged heart soaring above 
the globe, and its motto was, " Astra petamus" — Let 
us seek heaven. 



CHARACTER AS A PREACHER. 479 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

CHARACTER OF WHITEFIELD AS A PREACHER- 
CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATIONS. 

In suggesting a few of the characteristics of 
Whitefield's preaching, we are very greatly in- 
debted to an excellent anonymous writer in the Lon- 
don Evangelical Magazine for 1853. We consider as 
among the reasons of his success, and as worthy of 
our imitation, 

First, the prominence given to the leading truths of 
salvation, and the constant e jfctpjlg&io n of Christ in them. 
There needs -no minute inquiry, or great analytical 
care, to ascertain what was the pervading theme of 
this popular minister : it was " Christ, and him jjjuci- 
fied/ ; and the glorioijgjmj^s that hover around the 
cross, and derive from it their being and lustre. 
There was no other subject, in Whitefield's estimation, 
that was worthy of preeminence, and to unfold, eluci- 
date, and apply it, was the great design of his labors. 
He saw in it such a wonderful adaptation to the 
necessities and condition of fallen humanity, that he 
stood in the midst of its wants and woes with all the 
confidence of a good physician who had a sovereign 
and sufficient remgdy to propose. He knew that 
there was no case which it could not meet, no moral 
disease from which it would not recover, no spiritual 
need which it would not supply ; and therefore, how- 
ever far gone men might be from original righteous- 
ness, however hardened in sin, sunk in iniquity, or 



480 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

however elevated by the delusions of a false morality 
and fancied self-righteousness, he propounded this as 
the only and all-sufficient antidote, at once to destroy 
and heal, to kill and to make alive. As to the spuri- 
ous production of a rationalistic theory on the one 
hand, or the prescriptions of ceremonial virtue and 
sacramental grace on the other, he knew them not. 
He saw at once their hollowness and insufficiency, 
and would not mock the necessities of our fallen na- 
ture, or aggravate the wounds which sin had made by 
a proposal of them. His acquaintance with the hu- 
man heart was deep, and his knowledge of the differ- 
ent modifications of the original disease was so great, 
that he despaired of relief from any expedients save 
that which infinite Wisdom had devised, and which 
" the gospel of the grace of God " revealed. Philoso- 
phy with all its discoveries, and reason with all its 
powers, the law with all its authority, and virtue 
with all its rewards, he knew could only, like the 
priests and the Levites, have passed the patient by, 
and left him to despair, till a greater than they should 
arrive, and say, " I will come and heal you." On that 
adorable Personage, therefore, and the wonders of his 
skill and love, he delighted to dwell. Every sermon 
was full of Christ; eve ry discourse was odorous o f 
him. From whatever part of revealed truth he de- 
rived his text, and with whatever peculiar develop- 
ment of man's moral physiology he had to do, there 
was something to suggest, to demonstrate the need, 
or the suitableness, or the all-sufficiency of the Saviour 
of the world. To set him forth, in the glories of his 
wonderful person, the variety of his offices, the perfec- 



CHARACTER AS A PREACHER. 481 

tion of his righteousness, the completeness of his 
atonement, and the plenitude of his grace, was his 
perpeJuaJLiiin. To these he gave continual promi- 
nence, at all times, and .in every place. There was 
no reserve, no equivocation, no partial statement on 
such themes. It was a full, clear, consistent gospel. 
From his lips the gospel gave no " uncertain sound. 77 
This made him a welcome messenger of glad tidings 
to all. This gave him a key to the hearts of many, 
who, as they stood around him, and wondered at him, 
like those five thousand whom the Redeemer fed with 
"five loaves and two small fishes, 77 found all their 
appetites suited, and all -their necessities supplied. 
It was the magic power which arrested them ; the 
centre of gravitation which attracted them ; the bread 
of life which. fed them. " As Moses lifted up the ser- 
pent in the wilderness, 77 so now was the Son of man 
lifted up by the ministry of this his devoted herald ; 
and far as the camp extended, and wide as the circum- 
ference of poison and death was spread, the wounded 
looked thereon and lived. A restorative virtue issued 
from it. The hardest heart wa^softened. -The most 
obstinate in rebellion was overcome. The blindest 
saw. The moral lepers were cleansed. The broken 
in heart were made whole, and the spiritually dead 
were raised to life. " This was the Lord 7 s doing, and 
it was marvellous in their eyes. 77 They beheld the 
man. They heard him preach. They felt the power. 
1 1 was because He was exalted among them who had 
said, " I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw 
all men unto me. 77 

Secondly, the glow of feeling, the melting compos* 

Whitefield 21 



482 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

sion, which pervaded his own soul. Oh, it is supremely 
delightful and deeply affecting to observe the tender 
affection and melting pathos with which Whitefield 
propounded and proclaimed the precious truths and 
everlasting verities of the gospel to his fellow-men. 
He stood among them as one of their race, one of their 
number, conscious of the common misery into which 
all had fallen, and weeping over the miseries and ruin 
in which by nature they were alike involved. As he 
opened up the treasures of infinite mercy, and the 
riches of redeeming love to their view, he wept to 
think how long they had been unknown or despised 
by many, and with what base ingratitude thousands 
would probably still turn away from them. As one 
who saw their immortal being in jeopardy, and their 
souls standing on the verge of irretrievable ruin, he 
hastened, with joy in his countenance and tenderness 
in his heart, to tell them of One who was " mighty to 
save/ 7 and that " now was the accepted time, and now 
the day of salvation." Not as one who had a cold 
lecture o n ^ thic ^ j^^i^jv^r, or a dissertation on phi- 
losophy to expound, or a problem in mathematics to 
solve, did he proceed to such a work ; but as one who 
felt the weight of his great commission, and knew the 
worth of never-d ying souls. The evil of sin, the dan- 
ger of impenitence, the powers of the world to come, 
the glories of heaven, and the unutterable miseries of 
the regions of woe, were visibly present to his own 
mind ; and of these, " out of the abundance of his 
heart," he spoke to others. He could not be calm, 
he could not be apathetic on such themes as these. 
" Passion was reason, transport temper, here." 



CHARACTER AS A PREACHER. 483 

And with much of the melting tenderness of Him 
who wept over Jerusalem, he spoke of these things 
to all that resorted to him. What moving words did 
he utter on Blackheath hill, in the Tabernacle pulpit, 
and on Kingswood mount! His vivid eye beamed 
with the glow of tenderness, and his tears, as he 
spoke, oft-times moistened his little Bible or bedewed 
the ground. In his printed sermons, which doubtless 
are but feeble specimens of his free and fervent man- 
ner, there are strains of tender pathos and impas- 
sioned oratory, which it is almost impossible tp read 
even now without being moved to share in his feel- 
ings and in the emotions which they must have en- 
kindled around ; and in the perusal of which we 
wonder not that, in all the circumstances, the place 
in which he stood was a Bochim — a place of weeping. 
Oh, the melting power, the exquisite pathos, the ten- 
der expostulation of this preeminent man, and unri- 
valled preacher of the gospel of our salvation ! We 
wish we could catch them now — that all preachers 
possessed them ; that the rising ministry especially 
would emulate him in these things. Whitefield show- 
ed his intense feeling, not from the mere power of 
ratiocination, or from the poetic memento, or for the 
sake of producing effect by the tears that were unfelt, 
or which only flowed from the surface ; but from the 
meltings of a tender heart, influenced by a Saviour's 
love, and overflowing with the commiseration of a 
benign compassion for dying multitudes around. Dod- 
dridge's beautiful hymn, 

" Arise, my tenderest thoughts, arise?' ' 

one might almost think was written at Whitefield's 



484 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

side. The tenderness of John, and the " weeping " of 
Paul, were blended in him with the boldness of Peter. 
The love that agonized in the garden of Gethsemane, 
and bled on the cross of Calvary, was largely diffused 
through all his powers. 

Thirdly, the direct address of his ministry. The 
characteristic mode of his preaching, and the style of 
his public ministrations, was, to direct his appeal to 
the hearts and consciences of his hearers, and to 
" preach to the people all the words of this life. 77 It 
was not an harangue before them. It was not an 
oration beautifully prepared, read, or delivered in 
their hearing, and presented simply for their accept- 
ance and admiration ; but a direct address, an affec- 
tionate appeal, a solemn and earnest communication 
of the message he had received from God to them. 
Oh, we have sometimes thought, what a marked dif- 
ference there ought to be between the ministrations of 
a servant of Christ to his fellow-immortals, on things 
of eternal importance in which they are personally 
and deeply concerned, and the delivery of a lecture 
from the philosopher^ desk, or even of a dissertation 
on theology from the professorial chair. So thought 
the apostles. So thought the prophets and public 
teachers of sacred mysteries of old. They had the 
" burden of the Lord 77 to deliver, and it was unto the 
people. They had an embassy to execute, and it was 
by negotiating directly with, and in the consciences 
of their hearers. Whitefield caught their spirit, pro- 
ceeded in their way, and did such mighty execution, 
not by the mere symmetrical illustration of divine 
truth, but by the direct presentation of it to their 



CHARACTER AS A PREACHER. 48i> 

minds. They had not to ask, " For whom is all this 
intended ?" and, " Is it designed for jis ?" They felt 
that it was. It came home to their consciences, and 
to their very hearts. They could not transfer it to 
others, nor avoid the application of it to themselves. 
Had the preacher called them by name, which in his 
skilful delineation of character, he sometimes virtually 
did, they could not have been more certain that he 
intended it for them, and that it was at their peril to 
neglect or pass it by. " I have a message from God 
unto thee," he substantially said in every discourse he 
uttered, and the people were compelled to believe it. 
" Go, and tell this people/ 7 said the divine voice to 
Isaiah, " Ye hear indeed, but do not understand ; ye 
see indeed, but do not perceive." " Therefore," said 
Peter, " let all the house of Israel know assuredly that 
God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have cruci- 
fied, both Lord and Christ." " Now then," said Paul, 
" we are ambassadors for Christ ; as though God did 
beseech you by us, we pray you, in Christ's stead, be 
ye reconciled to God." Such was the tenor of the 
apostolic ministry. Such the secret of its mighty 
power and success. And such also was the charac- 
teristic of the faithful and seraphic "Whitefield, by 
which he knocked at the door of many hearts, and 
those hearts were opened to him, to his message, and 
to his Lord. His plan was that of heavenly wisdom ; 
his appeal was the same. " Unto you, men, I call, 
and my voice is to the sons of men." In him were 
verified the poet's graphic lines : 

" There stands the messenger of truth ; there stands 
The legate of the skies : his theme divine, 



486 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

His office sacred, his credentials clear. 

By him the violated law speaks out 

Its thunders ; and by him, in strains as sweet 

As angels use, the gospel whispers peace. 

He stablishes the strong, restores the weak, 

Reclaims the wanderer, binds the broken heart, 

And sues the sinner to return j^p f G od." 

Fourthly, his habitual de^^g^ce on the Spirit of 
God, and his earnest aspirations for the manifestation of 
his power. That he was conscious of his own superior 
talents as an orator, and knew how to employ them on 
sacred themes ; that he skilfully wielded all the weap- 
ons of a well-studied eloquence to gain access to the 
human mind, and knew both how to alarm and how to 
persuade, and could attempt both with as much success 
probably as any speaker, either of ancient or modern 
times ; that he had a large and minute acquaintance 
with the powers and passions of the human soul, and 
knew well when and how to touch the hidden springs 
of its energies and actions ; that he had a good amount 
of common and sacred learning at his command, and 
like that Apollos whom among the early teacher? of 
Christianity he most resembled, was "mighty in the 
Scriptures f and that he delighted to expatiate on 
the wonders and glories of redemption as a restorative 
scheme preeminently adapted to interest and attract, 
to impress and rule our common nature — are facts 
open to all who inspect his writings and accompany 
him in his labors, and will be denied by none. But 
with all these, and amid all, in every sermon he com- 
posed and delivered, and in his most impassioned 
addresses to his hearers, there is manifested an under- 
lying and all-pervading dependence on the power and 



CHARACTER AS A PREACHER. 481 

grace of the Spirit of God, which was in character, if 
not in degree, meek, humble, genuine, entire, like that 
of the most eminent apostle or adoring saint at the 
foot of the divine throne. With him it was not 
merely a sentiment, but a feeling ; and that feeling 
constant and habitual, as it was in him who in the 
review of his labors said, "I have planted, Apollos 
watered, but God gave the increase." He knew that 
none but the almighty Spirit could gain effectual 
access to the spirit of man ; and that not even a Me- 
lancthon, a Luther, or a Whitefield, could make old 
Adam yield, unless constrained by a superior power. 
He seemed to stand in the valley of vision among the 
dry bones, as the prophet did, and while he addressed 
them with something like a prophet's power, he had 
no expectation or hope of success until the wind of 
heaven came down and blew upon them. Therefore 
he prophesied to it as well as to them. " Come from 
the four winds, breath, and breathe upon the slain, 
that they may live/ 7 was often the mighty cry of his 
soul, before preaching, while preaching, and after 
preaching. It seemed to be his joy, his only, his all- 
sustaining* confidence, that he lived under " the dis- 
pensation of the Spirit," and wrought in a day, and 
preached upon a theme, in connection with which " the 
ministration of the Spirit" was to be "glorious," by 
his wonderful works of conviction, conversion, and 
sanctification, among the children of men. To that 
Spirit, as the glorifier of Christ, he often devoutly 
and earnestly appealed. Sometimes, in the midst of 
an unusual flow of tender and eloquent address to his 
hearers on his favorite theme of the glories and grace 



488 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

of his divine Master, he would pause in solemn silence } 
and lifting up his hands and his voice to heaven, and 
carrying the hearts of his audience with him, invoke 
aloud the descending and all-consuming fire. The 
present God was acknowledged and felt. The word 
came " in demonstration of the Spirit and of power." 
And while the habitual aim of his preaching was to 
exalt " Christ Jesus the Lord/ 7 and while he reasoned, 
and opened the Scriptures, and taught and alarmed 
or invited his hearers, in the most touching strains of 
urgent remonstrance and tender entreaty, to accept 
now " the great salvation," the inward state of his soul 
was that of entire reliance on the presence and co- 
operation of the Holy Spirit of God. To him were 
sent up his most intense aspirations. In all the rec- 
ords of his success, to that Spirit the honor is always 
ascribed. " Not I, but the grace of God which was 
with me," is the grateful acknowledgment he makes in 
the review of every field occupied and every triumph 
won. And thus it was that the fabric of his ministry, 
and of all his ministrations, in the multitudinous la- 
bors which he directed against the kingdom of dark- 
ness and of Satan in his day, was like the mystic 
vision which Ezekiel saw, instinct with life. The spirit 
of the living creatures was in the wheels. " When 
this went, those went ; when this stood, those stood ; 
when this was lifted up from the earth, those were 
lifted up." It was all life. A living preacher ; a liv- 
ing theme ; a living power, giving life, and spreading 
it all around. Therefore it was that life followed in 
the region of death, and at his coming the desert re- 
joiced, and the wilderness blossomed as the rose. 



CHARACTER AS A PREACHER. 489 

" Dry bones were raised, and clothed afresh, 
And hearts of stone were turned to flesh." 

By preaching such as we have now attempted to 
describe, thousands and tens of thousands were gath- 
ered to Christ. " An exceeding great army " stood up. 
Slumbering churches were awakened, religion was 
revived, and "righteousness and praise" were caused 
to " spring forth before all the nations." And as this 
apostolic man surveyed the amazing scene, and glanced 
at the wide circumference of his labors, in the British 
Isles and in the New World, he might have exclaimed, 
as one before him had done, " Now thanks be unto 
God, who always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and 
maketh manifest the savor of his name by us in every 
place." " Through mighty signs and wonders, by the 
power of the Spirit of God, from Jerusalem round 
about to Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel 
of Christ." " For I am not ashamed of the gospel of 
Christ : for it is the power of God to salvation ; to the 
Jew first, and also to the Greek." Who, in the remem- 
brance of Whitefield and his times, will not long for 
their return, and exclaim, " Awake, awake ; put on 
strength, arm of the Lord ; awake, as in the ancient 
days." " that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that 
thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might 
flow down at thy presence, as when the melting fire 
burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make 
thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations 
may tremble at thy presence!" Spirit of the living 
God, descend and replenish with thy power all our 
souls, our ministry, our temples, our land. 



21* 



490 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

In estimating the character of Whitefield, it should 
be observed that he dealt with his hearers, individually 
and collectively, as immortal beings. To use the lan- 
guage of Isaac Taylor, " he held man as if in the ab- 
stract, or as if whatever is not common to all men 
were forgotten. The most extreme diversities, intel- 
lectual and moral, differences of rank, culture, nation- 
al modes of thought, all gave way and ceased to be 
thought of ; distinctions were swept from the ground 
where he took his position. At the first opening of 
his lips, and as the rich harmony of his voice spread 
its undulations over the expanse of human faces, and 
at the instant when the sparkle of his bright eye 
caught every other eye, human nature, in a manner, 
dropped its individuality, and presented itself in its 
very elements to be moulded anew. Whitefield, 
although singularly gifted with a perception of the 
varieties of character, yet spoke as if he could know 
nothing of the thousands before him but their immor- 
tality and their misery; and so it was that these 
thousands listened to him. 

" No preacher whose history is on record, has trod 
so wide a field as did Whitefield, or has retrod it so 
often, or has repeated himself so much, or has carried 
so far the experiment of exhausting himself, and of 
spending his popularity, if it could have been spent, 
but it never was spent. Within the compass of a few 
weeks he might have been heard addressing the ne- 
groes of the Bermuda islands, adapting himself to 
their infantile understandings, and to their debauched 
hearts ; and then at Chelsea, with the aristocracy of 
rank and wit before him, approving himself to listen- 



CHARACTER AS A PREACHER. 491 

ers such as the lords Bolingbroke and Chesterfield. 
Whitefield might as easily have produced a Hamlet 
or a Paradise Lost, as have excogitated a sermon 
which, as a composition, a product of thought, would 
have tempted men like these to hear him a second 
time ; and as to his faculty and graces as a speaker, 
his elocution and action , a second performance would 
have contented them. But in fact Bolingbroke, and 
many of his class, thought not the hour long, time 
after time, while, with much sameness of material and 
of language, he spoke of eternit^^d of salvation in 
Christ. . . . Floods of tears moistened cheeks rough 
and smooth ; and sighs, suppressed or loudly uttered, 
gave evidence that human nature is one and the same 
when it comes in presence of truths which bear upon 
the guilty and the immortal without distinction." 

The Rev. Dr. James Hamilton of London has ad- 
mirably delineated Whitefield, in a passage which must 
be admired by all who read it: "Whitefield was the 
prince of English preachers. Many have surpassed 
jjhim as sermon-makers, but none have approached him 
| as a pulpit orator. Many have outshone him in the 
i clearness of their logic, the grandeur of their concep- 
tions, and the sparkling beauty of single sentences; 
but in the power of darting the gospel direct into the 
conscience, he eclipsed them all. With a full and 
beaming countenance, and the frank and easy port 
which the English people love — for it is the symbol 
of honest purpose and friendly assurance — he com- 
bined a voice of rich compass, which could easily thrill 
over Moorfields in musical thunder, or whisper its ter- 



492 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

rible secret in every private ear ; and to this gainly 
aspect and tuneful voice he added a most expressive 
and eloquent action. Improved by conscientious prac- 
tice, and instinct with his earnest nature, this elocu- 
tion was the acted sermon, and by its pantomimic 
portrait enabled the eye to anticipate each rapid 
utterance, and helped the memory to treasure up the 
palatable ideas. None ever used so boldly, nor with 
more success, the highest styles of impersonation : as 
when he described to his sailor-auditors a storm at 
sea, and compelled them to shout, l Take to the long- 
boat, sir!' His 'hark, hark!' could conjure up Geth- 
semane with its faltering moon, and awake again the 
cry of horror-stricken innocence ; and an apostrophe 
to Peter on the holy mount would light up another 
Tabor, and drown it in glory from the opening heav- 
en. His thoughts were possessions, and his feelings 
were transformations ; and he spoke because, he felt, 
his hearers understood because they saw. They were 
not only enthusiastic amateurs, like Garrick, who ran 
to weep and tremble at his bursts of passion, but even 
the colder critics of the Walpole school were surpris- 
ed into momentary sympathy and reluctant wonder. 
Lord Chesterfield was listening in Lady Huntingdon^ 
pew when Whitefield was comparing the benighted 
sinner to a blind beggar on a dangerous road. His 
little dog gets away from him when skirting the edge 
of a precipice, and he is left to explore the path with 
his iron-shod staff. On the very verge of the cliff this 
blind guide slips through his fingers and skims away 
down the abyss. All unconscious, the owner stoops 
down to regain it, and stumbling forward — ' Good 



CHARACTER AS A PREACHER. 493 

God, he is gone! 7 shouted Chesterfield, who had been 
watching with breathless alarm the blind man's move- 
ments, and who jumped from his feet to save the catas- 
trophe. 

" But the glory of Whitefield's preaching was his 
heart-kindled and heart-melting gospel. But for 
this, all his bold strokes and brilliant surprises might 
have been no better than the rhetorical triumphs of 
Kirwan and other pulpit dramatists. He was an ora- 
tor, but he only sought to be an evangelist. Like a 
volcano where gold and gems may be darted forth as 
well as common things, but where gold and molten 
granite flow all alike in fiery fusion, bright thoughts 
and splendid images might be projected from his pul- 
pit, but all were merged in the stream which bore 
along the gospel and himself in blended fervor. In- 
deed, so simple was his nature, that glory to God and 
good will to man had filled it ; there was room for lit- 
tle more. Having no church to found, no family to 
enrich, and no memory to immortalize, he was simply 
the ambassador of God ; and inspired with its genial 
piteous spirit — so full of heaven reconciled and hu- 
manity restored — he soon himself became a living 
gospel. Radiant with its benignity, and trembling 
with its tenderness, by a sort of spiritual induction a 
vast audience would speedily be brought into a frame 
of mind — the transfusing of his own ; and the white 
furrows on their sooty faces told that Kingswood col* 
liers were weeping, or the quivering of an ostrich 
plume bespoke its elegant wearer's deep emotion. 
And coming to his pulpit direct from communion with 
his Master, and in the strength of accepted prayer, 



494 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

there was an elevation in his mien which often para- 
lyzed hostility, and a self-possession which made him 
amid uproar and confusion the more sublime. With 
an electric bolt he would bring the jester in his fool's 
cap from his perch on the tree, or galvanize the brick- 
bat from the skulking miscreant's grasp, or sweep 
down in crouching submission and shamefaced silence 
the whole of Bartholomew fair; while a revealing 
flash of sententious doctrine, of vivified Scripture, 
would disclose to awe-struck hundreds the forgotten 
verities of another world, or the unsuspected arcana 
of their inner man. ' I came to break your head, but, 
through you, God has broken my heart/ was a sort 
of confession with which he was familiar ; and to see 
the deaf old gentlewoman who used to mutter impre- 
cations at him as he passed along the streets, clam- 
bering up the pulpit stairs to catch his angelic words, 
was a sort of spectacle which the triumphant gospel 
often witnessed in his day. And when it is known 
that his voice could be heard by twenty thousand, and 
that ranging all the empire, as well as America, he 
would often preach thrice on a working-day, and that 
he has received in one week as many as a thousand 
letters from persons awakened by his sermons, if no 
estimate can be formed of the results of his ministry, 
some idea may be suggested of its vast extent and 
singular effectiveness." 

Very admirably has a writer in the North British 
Review compared and contrasted Whitefield and Wes- 
ley. He says, "Few characters could be more com- 
pletely the converse, and in the church's exigencies, 



CHARACTER AS A PREACHER. 495 

more happily the supplement of one another, than 
were those of George Whitefield and John Wesley ; 
and had their views been identical, and their labors 
all along coincident, their large services to the gospel 
might have repeated Paul and Barnabas. Whitefield 
was soul, and Wesley was system. Whitefield was a 
summer cloud which burst at morning or noon a fra- 
grant exhalation over an ample track, and took the 
rest of the day to gather again ; Wesley was the pol- 
ished conduit in the midst of the garden, through 
which the living water glided in pearly brightness 
and perennial music, the same vivid stream from day 
to day. After a preaching paroxysm, Whitefield lay 
panting on his couch, spent, breathless, and deathlike ; 
after his morning sermon in the foundry, Wesley 
would mount his pony, and trot and chat, and gather 
simples, till he reached some country hamlet, where 
he would bait his charger, and talk through a little 
sermon with the villagers, and remount his pony and 
trot away again. In his aerial poise, Whitefield's 
eagle eye drank lustre from the source of light, and 
loved to look down on men in assembled myriads; 
Wesley's falcon glance did not sweep so far, but it 
searched more keenly and marked more minutely 
where it pierced. A master of assemblies, Whitefield 
was no match for the isolated man. Seldom coping 
with the multitude, but strong in astute sagacity and 
personal ascendency, Wesley could conquer any num- 
ber one by one. All force and impetus, Whitefield 
was the powder-blast in the quarry, and by one explo- 
sive sermon would shake a district, and detach mate- 
rials for other men's long work — deft, neat, and pains- 



496 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

taking, Wesley loved to split and trim each fragment 
into uniform plinths and polished stones. Or, taken 
otherwise, Whitefield was the bargeman or the wag- 
oner who brought the timber of the house, and Wesley- 
was the architect who set it up. Whitefield had no 
patience for ecclesiastical polity, no aptitude for pas- 
toral details — with a beaver-like propensity for build- 
ing, Wesley w x as always constructing societies, and 
with a king-like craft of ruling, was most at home 
when presiding over a class or a conference. It was 
their infelicity that they did not always work togeth- 
er — it was the happiness of the age, and the further- 
ance of the gospel, that they lived alongside of one 
another." 



CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATIONS. 

When a century had elapsed from the commence- 
ment of Whitefield's public labors, it was deemed de- 
sirable by many in England to hold public services 
of a devotional and practical character, in celebration 
of the event. Especially was it designed that such 
celebrations should have a reference, as far as possible, 
to advance open-air preaching. The first services of 
this character were very properly held in the Taber- 
nacle, London, on May 21, 1839, and well do we 
remember with what intense interest, in common with 
thousands, we attended them. Ministers and laymen 
of at least four religious denominations assisted in 
them, and eloquently discoursed on subjects illustrat- 
ing the grace of God in connection with Whitefield, 
but still more intent were they on benefiting the pres- 



CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATIONS. 491 

ent and future generations of men. Dr. Campbell 
delivered a sermon on the character and labors of 
Apollos, illustrated by those of Whitefield ; the late 
Dr. Cox discoursed on the genius and labors of White- 
field ; the late Rev. John Blackburn described the pasi 
and present state of religion in England ; and the Re\ . 
John Young, LL. D., urged the propriety, duty, and 
necessity of open-air preaching. In addition to these 
sermons, several admirable speeches were made, and 
every thing was marked by a spirit of earnest devo- 
tion. A small volume, containing the sermons and 
speeches, was printed, and put into extensive circula- 
tion. 

About the same time, a number of ministers of the 
Congregational order met in a central town of Glou- 
cestershire, when one of them suggested, that "as the 
present year was the centenary of the Rev. George 
Whitefield's labors in reviving the apostolic practice 
of open-air preaching, it might be desirable to com- 
memorate them by a special religious open-air celebra- 
tion. It was further remarked, that Whitefield was 
a native of Gloucester ; that as many ministers pres- 
ent presided over churches instituted by his ministry ; 
that as Stinchcombe hill, in the very centre of the 
county, presented a most beautiful and eligible spot 
for a public meeting ; and as upon its summit, a cen- 
tury ago, Whitefield himself had preached and showed 
the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, it seemed a 
duty to improve the opportunity it offered of address- 
ing, on the gracious persuasives of the cross, a large 
concourse of persons, many of whom might never hear 
the gospel, and of promoting in the county the reviva 1 



498 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

of evangelical religion, which God so highly honored 
his devoted servant in commencing in our land." 

The suggestion was most cordially received, ar- 
rangements were made, and, July 30, 1839, though the 
weather was unfavorable, the meeting was attended 
by at least seven thousand persons. A large preach- 
ing stand was erected for the ministers, nearly one 
hundred of whom were present. Sermons were 
preached by the Eev. Drs. Matheson and Eoss, and by 
the Eev. Messrs. T. East, J. H. Hinton, and J. Sibree ; 
and addresses were given, and the devotional exercises 
led by many others. The services were solemnly im- 
pressive. The late Josiah Conder, Esq., wrote two 
hymns especially for the occasion, which are well 
worthy of preservation ; we therefore transfer them 

to our pages. 

I. 

How sweet from crowded throngs, 

Zion, ascend thy songs, 
With choral swells through echoing aisles ! 

Where brethren, brethren meet, 

These songs rise doubly sweet, 
From humbler rooms or loftier piles. 

But here, not made with hands, 

A nobler temple stands ; 
Here, 'mid thy works, God, we bow, 

Where all around, above, 

Proclaims thy power and love ; 
Oh, tune our hearts to praise thee now. 

We bless thy gracious care, 

For many a house of prayer, 
Where saints may meet with conscience free, 

To keep thy simple rites, 

In which thy church delights, 
And unforbidden, wait on thee. 



CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATIONS. 499 

Bat now, beneath the sky, 

We raise our songs on high, 
To Him who gave all nature birth ; 

While the free air wafts round 

To distant vales the sound — 
Praise to the Lord of heaven and earth. 

So to the mountain air 

The Saviour breathed his prayer ; 
So 'mid green hills or deserts rude, 

The poor he meekly taught, 

And gracious wonders wrought, 
Or fed the famished multitude. 

So did apostles teach ; 

So did our Whitefield preach ; 
These hills have heard his fervent prayers 

Oh, let the saving word 

Throughout our land be heard, 
Free as the light, and open as the air. 



II. 

Where is the voice of Whitefield now ? 

Where does his mantle rest ? 
Oh, for Elisha's from the plough, 

With kindred zeal possessed ! 
Apostles of heroic mould, 

With love seraphic fired, 
Divinely called, like those of old 

At Pentecost inspired ! 

Oh Thou, our Head, enthroned on high, 

By whom thy members live, 
Wilt thou not hear our fervent cry, 

The holy unction give ? 
In all the plenitude of grace 

Thy gifts of might bestow ; 
And by us, Lord, in every place, 

Thy saving virtue show. 



50C GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

This Christian land with error teems, 

The blind by blinder led ; 
The sophist weaves his Atheist schemes ; 

Wide has the poison spread. 
Arise, Lord, send forth thy word ; 

Thy faithful heralds call ; 
And while the gospel trump is heard, 

Let Satan's bulwarks fall. 

Free, pure, and vital as the light, 

God's message to our race ; 
Like genial gales the Spirit's might, 

Sovereign, mysterious grace. 
Breathe forth, wind, and to new birth 

Quicken the bones of death ; 
Regenerate this withered earth ; 

Give to the dying breath. 

It is pleasant to add to this account, that satisfac- 
tory evidences were given that some, during these ser- 
vices, were brought to the saving knowledge of "the 
truth as in Jesus." And it may be mentioned as a 
singular circumstance, that an old man one hundred 
and three years of age attended on this occasion, 
who had been carried in his mother's arms to this 
same spot to hear Whitefield preach just a century 
before. 

The last centenary service to which we shall make 
reference, is the one held at the Bristol Tabernacle, 
November 25, 1853. The sermon on The Character 
of Whitefield, by the Kev. John Angell James, was 
from the text, "This one thing I do." Phil. 3 : 13. 
In it he said : 

" We hear much in our days about the adaptation 
of the gospel to the age. There is no word I more 
hate or love, dread or desire, according to the sense 



CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATIONS. 501 

in, or the purpose for which it is used, than this word 
adaptation as applied to preaching. Now, if by adap- 
tation be meant, more philosophy, and less Christian- 
ity ; more of cold abstract intellectualism, and less of 
popalar, simple, earnest statement of gospel truth; 
more profound discussion and artificial elaboration 
addressed to the learned few, and less of warm- 
hearted appeal to the multitude, may God preserve 
us from such adaptation, for it is high-treason 
against truth and the salvation of souls. But if by 
this be meant a stronger intelligence, a chaster com- 
position, a sterner logic, a more powerful rhetoric, a 
more correct criticism, and a more varied illustra- 
tion, but all employed to set forth the gospel as com- 
prehending those two great words, redemption and 
regeneration, let us have it ; we need it ; and come in 
ever such abundance, it will be a blessing. 

" Adaptation ! the gospel is adaptation, from be- 
ginning to end, to every age of time, and to all con- 
ditions of humanity. It is God's own adaptation. It 
is he who knows every ward of the lock of man's 
nature, who has constructed this admirable key ; and 
all the miserable tinkering of a vain and deceitful 
philosophy can make no better key, nor can all the 
attempts of a philosophizing theology make this key 
better fit the wards of the lock. 

" Adaptation ! was not the gospel in all its purity 
and simplicity adapted to human nature as it existed 
in commercial, scholastic, philosophical Corinth ? 
And did not Paul think so when he determined to 
know nothing there, but ' Christ, and him cruci- 
fied V Was it not by this very gospel, which many 



502 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

are beginning to imagine is not suited to an intellect 
ual and philosophical age, that Christianity fought its 
first battles, and achieved its victories over the hosts 
of darkness? Against the axe, the stake, the sword 
of the gladiator, and the lions of the amphitheatre; 
against the ridicule of wits, the reasoning of sages, 
the interests, influence, and craft of the priesthood ; 
against the prowess of armies, and the brute passions 
of the mob, Christianity, strong in its weakness, sub- 
lime in its simplicity, potent in its isolation, asking 
and receiving no protection from the sceptre of the 
monarch or the sword of the warrior, went forth to do 
battle with the wisdom of Greece and the mythology 
of Eome. Everywhere it prevailed, and gathered its 
laurels from the snows of Scythia, the sands of Africa, 
the plains of India, and the green fields of Europe. 
With the gospel alone she overturned the altars of 
impiety in her march. Power felt his arm wither at 
her glance. She silenced the lying oracles by the 
majesty of her voice, and extinguished the deceptive 
light of philosophy in the schools, till at length she 
who went forth forlorn and weeping from Calvary 
to the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea, ascended, upon 
the ruins of the temples, the idols, and the altars she 
had demolished, to the throne of the Caesars, and with 
the diadem on her brow, and the purple on her shoul- 
ders, gave laws to the world from that very tribunal 
where she had been dragged as a criminal and con- 
demned as a malefactor.* 

" Adaptation ! is not justification by faith the 
very substance of the gospel, and was it not by this 

* See Dr. John M. Mason's Funeral Sermon for Mrs Graham. 



CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATIONS. 50? 

doctrine that Luther effected the enfranchisement of 
the human intellect, from the chains of slavery which 
had been forged in the Vatican ; achieved the liber- 
ation of half Europe from the yoke of Rome, and gave 
an impulse to human thought and vital Christianity 
which has not yet spent itself, and never will, till it 
issues in the jubilee of the nations and the glories of 
the millennium ? 

" Adaptation ! did not Whitefield move this king- 
dom almost to its centre, and equally so our then 
great transatlantic colony to its extremities, fasci- 
nating alike the colliers of Kingswood and the citi- 
zens of the metropolis ; and by this mighty theme 
enable myriads to burst the chains of sin and Satan, 
and to walk abroad disenthralled by the mighty 
power of redeeming grace ? 

" Adaptation ! is not this gospel now proving its 
power in heathen countries to raise the savage into 
civilized man, the civilized man into the saint, and in 
this ascending scale of progression, the saint into the 
seraph ? 

" And yet, with these proofs of the power of the 
gospel to adapt itself to every age of the world, and 
to every condition of humanity, there are those who 
want something else to effect the regeneration of 
mankind. 'And I, if I be lifted up, will draw all 
men unto me.' So said the Saviour of men. The 
cross is the great moral magnet for all ages and all 
countries, to draw men from barbarism to civiliza- 
tion, from sin to holiness, from misery to happiness, 
and from earth to heaven ; and it were as rational to 
say the loadstone had lost its original power of polar 



504 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

attraction, and the mariner's compass is an old, stale 
invention, and must now be replaced with some new 
device, better adapted to the modern light of science, 
as to suppose that the doctrine of the cross had be- 
come effete, and must give way to some new phase of 
theological truth. 

" I now consider the manner in which Whitefield 
carried out his own purpose into action. ' One thing 
I do : J and how did he accomplish it ? 

" Never was the joyful sound sent over the world 
by a more magnificent voice. All his biographers 
labor, as do the historians of Greece in describing the 
power of Demosthenes, to make us understand his 
wondrous oratory. Perhaps, after all, that which 
gives us the most vivid idea of it is, not the crowds 
it attracted, moved, and melted, but that it warmed 
the cold and calculating Franklin, and fascinated the 
philosophical and sceptical Hume. Heaven rarely 
ever gave, or gives to man the faculty of speech in 
such perfection. But what is particularly worthy of 
notice is, that he trusted not to its native power, but 
increased that power by assiduous cultivation. His 
matchless elocution was not only an endowment, but 
an acquirement. If he preached a sermon twenty 
times, he went on to the last improving his method of 
delivering it, both as to tones and action ; not for 
theatrical display — no man was ever more free from 
this — but to carry out his 'one thing 7 — the salvation 
of souls. He knew, and deeply and philosophically 
entered into the meaning of that text, ' Faith cometh 
by hearing ;' and he also knew that attentive hearing 
comes by the power of speaking. With such a theme 



CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATIONS. 505 

a3 the gospel, with such an object as salvation, with 
such an aim as eternity, and such a Master to serve 
as Christ, he would not give utterance to such sub- 
jects, and for such purposes, in careless and slovenly 
speech. He studied to be the orator, that he might 
thus pluck souls as brands from the burning. In this 
let us imitate him. Of all our faculties, that of speech 
is perhaps least cultivated, yet is most susceptible of 
cultivation, and pays best for the pains bestowed upen 
it. My brethren, speech is the great instrument of 
our ministerial labor. Our assault upon the rebel 
town of Mansoul is to be carried on, and our entrance 
to be effected, to use the language of Bunyan, at ear- 
gate. The tongue, rather than the pen, is the weapon 
of most of us. For the love of souls, let us endeavor 
to be good speakers. With the loftiest themes in the 
universe for our subjects, do, do let us endeavor to 
speak of them in some measure worthily. It is an 
instructive and astounding, and to us humiliating and 
disgraceful fact, that the stage-player, whether in 
comedy or in tragedy, takes ten times more pains to 
give effective utterance to his follies, vices, and pas- 
sions, for the amusement of his audience, than we do 
to eternal and momentous truths for the salvation of 
ours. The stage seems the only arena where the 
power of oratory is much studied. Should this be ? 
"A few characteristics of Whitefield's manner de 
serve emphatic mention and particular attention, as 
connected with the execution of his one great purpose. 
The first I notice is solemnity. He never, as did some 
of his followers, degraded the pulpit by making it the 
arena of low humor and wit ; abounding in anecdote, 

Whitefield 22 



506 GEORGE WHITEF1ELD. 

and even in action, he was uniformly solemn. His 
deep devotional spirit contributed largely to this, for 
his piety was the inward fire which supplied the ardor 
of his manner. He was eminently a man of prayer ; 
and had he been less prayerful, he would also have 
been less powerful. He came into the pulpit from the 
closet, where he had been communing with God, and 
could no more trifle with merry humor at such a time 
than could Moses when he came down from the mount 
to the people ; or than the high-priest when he came 
out from the blazing symbols of the divine presence 
between the cherubim in the holy of holies ; or Isaiah 
when he saw the Lord of hosts, high and lifted up, 
with his train filling the temple. Happily the age 
and taste for pulpit buffoonery is gone, I hope never 
to return. 



i ' 



T is pitiful to court a grin when you should woo a soul.' 

It was the stamp and impress of eternity upon his 
preaching, that gave Whitefield such power. He spoke 
like a man that stood upon the borders of the unseen 
world, alternately rapt in ecstasy as he gazed upon 
the felicities of heaven, and convulsed with terror as 
he seemed to hear the howlings of the damned, and 
saw the smoke of their torment ascending from the 
pit for ever and ever. His maxim was to preach, as 
Apelles painted, for eternity, and he said, if ministers 
preached for eternity, they would then act the part of 
true Christian orators. And tell me, my brethren, 
what are all the prettinesses, the beauties, or even 
sublimities of human eloquence — what the similes, 
metaphors, and- other garniture of rhetoric — what the 



CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATIONS. 507 

philosophy and intellectualities which many in this 
day are aiming at, to move and bow and conquer 
the human soul, compared with ' the powers of the 
world to come? 7 

" But there was another characteristic of White- 
field's manner, and that was its tenderness. Our Lord, 
as to his humanity, was a man of sorrows, and there- 
fore of tears ; so was Paul, so was Whitefield. Per- 
haps the latter somewhat too much so, at any rate far 
too much so for any preacher but himself, and with 
him the fountain of his tears was somew T hat too full 
and flowing. But Oh, what an apology for this, and 
what a stroke of pathetic eloquence was that appeal 
when on one occasion he said, 'You blame me fo* 
weeping, but how can I help it, when you will not 
weep for yourselves, although your immortal souls 
are on the verge of destruction, and for aught I know 
you are hearing your last sermon, and may never more 
have an opportunity to have Christ offered to you.' 
Man is an emotional as well as an intellectual crea- 
ture, an,d sympathy is one of the powers of our physi- 
cal and mental economy. The passions are of an 
infectious nature, and men feel more in a crowd than 
in solitude. The adage of the ancient elocutionist is 
still true, ' If you wish me to weep, weep yourself/ 
Whitefield's tears drew forth those of his audience, 
and his pathos softened their hearts for the impres- 
sions of the truth. It is forgotten by many preachers 
that they may do much by the heart, as well as by the 
head. We are not the teachers of logic, mathematics, 
metaphysics, or natural philosophy, which have noth- 
ing to do with the heart, but of religion, the very seat 



508 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

of which is there ; and we address ourselves not only 
to the logical, but to the aesthetical part of man's 
complex nature. By argument, I know we must con- 
vince, but we must not stop in the judgment, but go 
on to reach the heart, and we ourselves must feel as 
well as reason. Clear, but cold, is too descriptive ol 
much modern preaching. It is the frosty moonlight 
of a winter's night, not the warm sunshine of a sum- 
mer's day. A cold preacher is likely to have cold 
hearers. Cold ! What, when the love of God, the 
death of Christ, the salvation of souls, the felicities 
of heaven, and the torments of hell are the theme ? 
Enthusiasm here is venial, compared with lukewarm- 
ness. 

" Need I say that earnestness was characteristic of 
Whitefield's preaching ? Yes, that one word, perhaps, 
more than any other in our language, is its epitome. 
An intense earnestness marked its whole career, and 
was carried to such a pitch as to subject him, as did 
that of Paul, to the imputation of madness. The sal- 
vation of souls was so entirely the one thing that 
engrossed his soul, his time, his labors, that not a step 
deviated from it. Every moment, every day, was an 
approximation to it. His devotions, his recreations, 
if any such he had, his journeys, his voyages, his ser- 
mons, his correspondence, were all referred to this 
one end. His exertions never relaxed for a moment, 
and he, with his great compeer Wesley, made the 
trial so seldom made, what is the utmost effect which, 
in the way of saving souls, may be granted to any one 
preacher of the gospel in any age or country. 

" What may not be done, and is not done by ear- 



CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATIONS. 509 

nestness? It gives some success to any error, how- 
ever absurd or enormous, and to any scheme of wick- 
edness, however flagrant and atrocious. What is it 
that has given such success to popery, to infidelity, to 
Mormonism? Earnestness. And shall the apostles 
and advocates of error be more in earnest than the 
friends of truth ? Whitefield often quoted Betterton 
the player, who affirmed that the stage would soon be 
deserted if the actors spoke like the preachers. And 
what would empty the play-house, that is, dulness and 
coldness, does often empty the meeting-house. 'Mr. 
Betterton's answer to a worthy prelate, 7 says White- 
field, ' is worthy of lasting regard. When asked how 
it is that the clergy, who speak of things real, affected 
the people so little, and the players, who speak only 
of things imaginary, affected them so much, replied 
1 My lord, I can assign but one reason — we player.- 
speak of things imaginary as though they were real, 
and too many of the clergy speak of things real as 
though they were imaginary. 7 It is not always so. 
Many a preacher, even in our own day, by the unaf- 
fected earnestness of his manner, carries away his 
audience upon the tide of his own feeling. They hear 
what he says, they see what he feels, his eye helps his 
tongue, the workings of his countenance disclose the 
feelings of his heart ; his manner is a lucid comment 
upon his matter, breaks down the limits which words 
impose upon the communication of ideas, and gives 
them not only an apprehension of the meaning, but a 
sense of the importance of his subject, which unimpas- 
sioned language and manner could not have done. 

"I name but one thing more as characteristic of 

22* 



510 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

this great man, and which it would be well for us to 
imitate, and that is, his dauntless courage. See him not 
only facing mobs, defying threats, and even lifting up 
his pulpit amid the wild uproar of a London fair, the 
boldest achievement that a speaker ever accomplished, 
but holding on his noble career unterrified, and work- 
ing amid the storm of obloquy that came upon him 
from so many quarters. Who that has ever read, can 
ever forget Cowper's exquisite description of him ? 

" ' Leuconomus — beneath well-sounding Greek 
I show a name a poet must not speak — 
Stood pilloried on infamy's high stage, 
And bore the pelting storm of half an age, 
The very butt of slander, and the blot 
For every dart that malice ever shot. 
The man that mentioned him at once dismissed 
All mercy from his lips, and sneered and hissed. 
His crimes were such as Sodom never knew, 
And perjury stood up to swear all true ; 
His aim was mischief, and his zeal pretence, 
His speech rebellion against common-sense : 
A knave when tried on honesty's plain rule, 
And when by that of reason, a mere fool. 
The world's best comfort was, his doom was passed, 
Die when he might, he must be damned at last. 
Now truth, perform thine office, waft aside 
The curtain drawn by prejudice and pride, 
Reveal — the man is dead — to wondering eyes, 
This more than monster, in his proper guise. 
He loved the world that hated him ; the tear 
That dropped upon his Bible was sincere : 
Assailed by scandal and the tongue of strife, 
His only answer was — a blameless life ; 
And he that forged, and he that threw the dart, 
Had each a brother's interest in his heart. 
Paul's love of Christ, and steadiness unbribed, 
Were copied close in him, and well transcribed. 



CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATIONS. 511 

He followed Paul — his zeal a kindred flame, 

His apostolic charity the same. 

Like him, crossed cheerfully tempestuous seas, 

Forsaking country, kindred, friends, and ease. 

Like him he labored, and like him, content 

To bear it, suffered shame where'er he went. 

Blush, calumny ! and write upon his tomb, 

If honest eulogy can spare the room. 

Thy deep repentance of thy thousand lies, 

Which, aimed at him, have pierced the offended skies ; 

And say, Blot out my sin, confessed, deplored, 

Against thine image, in thy saint, Lord.' 

" What but a guilty cowardice is it, a false and 
pusillanimous shame, that keeps us in these days from 
some novel and bolder method of aggression upon the 
domain of darkness? Are we not wanting here in 
that moral courage which would make us, when con- 
scious of doing right, indifferent to the stare of the 
ignorant, and the wonder of the timid ; to the shaft 
of ridicule, and the malignant censure of the cynic ? 
How enslaved are we by the fetters of custom, or re- 
strained by the trammels of conventiality ! How lit- 
tle are we disposed to go out of the usual track, even 
in saving souls! Very few are disposed to imitate 
the boldness, ingenuity, and novelty of that noble- 
hearted brother * who hired a disengaged theatre in 
the city where he dwelt, and for four months preached 
there to listening and well-behaved crowds, the gospel 
of salvation ; and for his reward had very many given 
to him, who are his joy now, and will be his crown of 
rejoicing in the presence of Christ at his coming. 
Who can see Paul on Mars-Hill, addressing himself 

* The Rev. Richard Knill of Chester, formerly a missionary in 
India, and afterwards in Russia, since deceased. — B. 



512 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

to the sages and their followers of all sects, and 
preaching to them a doctrine so repugnant to the 
mythology of the temple and the philosophy of the 
schools, as Christ, the last judgment, and the resur- 
rection of the body, without being impressed with the 
moral courage of such an act? It is this spiritual 
heroism that is wanted in our modern preaching, and 
indeed, which was no less needful when the Method- 
istic company commenced their preaching. 

" Nor is it only in this unwillingness to go off from 
our own ground for saving souls that our guilty cow- 
ardice is seen, but in the disposition to shirk the more 
solemn and searching truths of revelation. Are we 
not giving way too much to the fastidiousness of 
modern taste and refinement, which is craving after 
smooth things ; which desires the sentimental, the 
picturesque, the imaginative, but turns with disgust 
from the solemn, the alarming, the awakening ? Are 
we not too gentle and courteous to mention such a 
word as ' hell ? to modern ears polite ? Are we not 
too fearful to break in with the thunders of a violated 
law upon those who are at ease in Zion ? I do not 
ask for a gross, revolting method of describing the 
punishment of the wicked, as if the preacher delighted 
in harrowing up the feelings of his audience. This is 
as disgusting as if, in order to keep men from crime, 
our judges and magistrates were ever and anon giving 
a minute detail of the process of an execution, and the 
convulsive pangs of an expiring wretch suspended to 
the beam of the gibbet. We ask not for a harsh, 
scolding, and denunciating style of preaching ; but 
we do want more of the unflinching boldness, and the 



CENTENNIAL COMMEMORATIONS. 513 

dauntless courage, which are necessary to fidelity, 
and absolutely essential to him who would win souls 
to Christ. It is too generally forgotten, that our 
Lord Jesus, who was incarnate love, was the most 
solemn and awful of all preachers. He whose gentle 
spirit so often breathed out itself in invitation, and 
whose compassion melted into tears, at other times 
robed himself in terror, and uttered the most alarm- 
ing peals of divine indignation. What we need for 
our ministry is this mixture of tenderness and solem- 
nity, which entered so deeply into the ministry of 
Christ, and was so characteristic of his servant, whose 
labors we this day commemorate and commend." 

Hear also the Rev. John Glanville, the present 
successor of Whitefield in the Tabernacle at Bristol : 
" And such preaching must continue, if the world is to 
be saved. Nothing but this is suited to man's neces- 
sities; nothing else can meet man's miseries. The 
battle must be fought with the old, well-tried, but not 
worn-out weapons. God has provided them, and we 
must use them. We require nothing else ; the world 
has not outgrown the old gospel, so as to need some- 
thing new to soothe its sorrows and satisfy its wants. 

"Not that ministers can now produce the effect 
Whitefield did. He was a man standing alone. The 
charm and power of his preaching have never been 
explained. It was all fire and flame, shooting out 
red-hot thunderbolts against the citadels of sin. It 
was an undivided soul, solemnly consecrated to one 
object — an entire life, zealously employed in one thing. 
As he preached, every feature spoke, the whole man 



514 GEORGE WHITEFIELD. 

became vocal, and the truth of God stood out in its full 
proportions and beauty, in the bright and broad day- 
light of heaven. So unreserved was his self-consecra 
tion, that every thing was deemed impertinent which 
obtruded upon, or interfered with the one great end 
of his existence. He lived in communion with God — ■ 
more in heaven than on earth. He was much at vae 
foot of the throne, and got his strength there; he 
prevailed with men, because he had prevailed with 
God. His whole soul was filled with life, and fired 
with love, from being in habitual contact with the 
cross. 

" And we must pursue the same course, and try to 
do the same thing. We have the power, and we must 
bring it forth and use it. God has given the machin- 
ery, and it is for us to set it in motion. The world 
is perishing, and we must save it ; it is dying, and we 
must give it life. God from his eternal throne calls 
us — Christ from his bleeding cross speaks to us — 
voices from the abodes of sin, and the regions of de- 
spair, sound in our ears. And we all, as ministers 
and as members, must rise up in the vigor of piety 
and the fervor of prayer. We must rise up from the 
slumbers of selfishness, and tear off the fetters of the 
world, and act as those who believe in the existence 
of an eternal heaven and an eternal hell, and that all 
souls will be found in the one or in the other — as 
those who have a great work to do, and but a short 
and uncertain time to do it in. Awake, awake, put 
on strength, arm of the Lord ; awake, as in the 
ancient days, in the generations of old." 



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