CHAPTER X.

FROM HIS LEAVING NEW ENGLAND TILL HIS ARRIVAL IN ENGLAND-LABORS IN THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN STATES-THE BERMUDAS.

1745-1748.

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 interpreter 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 Brainerd; no such work had been heard of since the days of the apostolic Eliot in New England.

Arriving in Philadelphia, Whitefield was rejoiced to find that his friend Gilbert Tennent was still blessed with success in his labors. Many, he says, were under "soul-sickness," and Tennent's health suffered much 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

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 critics 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 power of God, not a few became convinced of their lost condition as sinners, and anxiously inquired the way of salvation. The feelings of many were powerfully excited, and they could not forbear 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

thunder; and sinners, like that mountain itself, trembled. It was not long before Christians had the happiness 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 dwellingplace," said Mr. Morris, one of their number, "was at length too small to contain the people, whereupon 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 readinghouse, 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' 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 produced by the labors of the Rev. Messrs. Robinson, Tennent, Blair, and others. Of the visit of Whitefield 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

couragement, and engaging others to the Lord, especially among the church people, who received his doctrine more readily than they would from ministers of the Presbyterian denomination." We may add here, that in 1747 there were four houses of worship in and around Hanover, which had sprung from the "mustardseed" of the sermons taken in shorthand from Whitefield's lips at Glasgow.

Among the converts in the south who met Whitefield, 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 understood by every one; and among his own friends he could converse about the love of Christ in the language 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 college.

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," published in 1854:

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

66

‘Bethesda, in 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, who, with his excellency General Oglethorpe, had concerted 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 our poor countrymen, numbers of such adventurers must necessarily be taken off, by being exposed to the hardships 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