ertions exceeding his strength. Yet he went forward, preaching twice or thrice a day, and once five times, often wishing to be with his divine Master in glory.

On his return to England, he went from Newcastle to Stockton, Osmotherly, York, and Leeds. He had a very refreshing season while assisting to administer the sacrament at Haworth, to a great number of communicants; and rode as far as Boston, Manchester, and Stockport. The eagerness of the people was wonderful: he preached in every town through which he passed, and came to London the latter end of September, having traveled about TWELVE HUNDRED miles, and preached ONE HUNDRED and EIGHTY times.

His stay in London was but short, for in the month of October he made a journey to Staffordshire. A scene of extensive usefulness seemed to open to him during his stay at Oulney; at which place, and many adjacent parts, he preached in one week. Also at Birmingham, and all around, the multitudes of hearers were very attentive. At a place not far from Dudley, called Guarnell, he was told of a whole company that were awakened by reading his sermons. He had the pleasure of meeting with others who had been awakened years ago; and heard of a notorious persecutor and drunkard, who had

gow, and preaching to an audience, near the play-house lately built, inflamed the mob so much against it, that they ran directly from before him, and pulled it down to ground. Several of the rioters have been since taken up and committed to gaol."

It would not have been worth while to transcribe this, were it not another specimen of the unaccountable liberties taken by some of the opposers of Whitefield, in telling their stories concerning him. The fact was this. Whitefield being informed that the players had lately come to Glasgow, and had met with some encouragement, took occasion in his sermon to preach against play-houses, and to represent their pernicious influence on religion and morality, especially in a populous, commercial city, and the seat of a university. But there was no riot. It was the proprietor of the play-house, at that time a slight temporary booth, supported by the old walls of the bishop's castle, who ordered his workmen to take it down.

Mr. Whitefield, in a letter to the Countess of Huntingdon, dated August 13, 1753, says, "At Glasgow, the man who owned the play-house was made so uneasy by the word preached, that he took down the roof himself. For this Satan owes me a grudge, and therefore it is put in the paper, that a mob was raised. But there was not the least appearance of any such thing. Our weapons are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of Satan's strong holds."

In another letter, dated August 23, 1753, to the right honorable Lady Frances Shirley, he says, "I have been of late, generally enabled to preach thrice a day, and in all appearance the word never was attended with more success. Satan rages and belies me, about the taking down the Glasgow play-houses; but I hope my letter, lately published in the Newcastle Journal, will set all things right. Thanks be to God, without the assistance of mobs and riots, which my soul abhors, the christian's weapons, through Divine assistance, are mighty to the pulling down of Satan's strong holds. Blessed be his holy name for any begun conquests there; surely his name is wonderful that hath done it."

been powerfully convinced. It was, as he expresses it, his delight to break up new ground; and he sometimes found, to his comfort, that his way was prepared by the divine blessing on his writings, particularly at Alpenham, in Cheshire, and at Liverpool; where a person who had received benefit by reading his sermons, met him at the landing, and took him to his house. Here all was quiet, as well as at Chester, where he preached four times, having several of the established clergy in his congregations. But at Wrexham and Nantwich, where a meeting house had lately been pulled down, he was assaulted by the mob, and compelled to remove with his congregation to a place a little out of town.

Thus he continued traveling about, now and then returning to spend a few days in London. November 16, he thus writes from Gloucester: "After Lord's-day, I am bound from Bristol and Plymouth, and hope to get into my winter quarters, some time before Christmas. Glad should I be to travel for Jesus all the year round; it is more to me than my necessary food."

On Sunday, November 25, he opened the new Tabernacle at Bristol, which he says, "was very large, but not half large enough; for if the place could contain them, nearly as many would attend as in London." He also preached twice in his brother's great house, to the people of quality.

Though it was now so late in the year, he went to Somersetshire, and preached several times, in the open air. In the evening, "my hands and body," says he, "were pierced with cold; but what are outward things, when the soul is warmed by the love of God! The stars shone exceeding bright; and, by an eye of faith, I saw Him who calleth them all by their names. My soul was filled with holy ambition, and I longed to be one of those, who shall shine as the stars for ever and ever."

John Wesley, yet his personal friend, had at this time, by his diligence and zeal, brought his life into great danger. Notwithstanding their theological differences, Whitefield still retained the warm personal affection for him, which is implied in the following extract from one of his letters. He thus writes: "Bristol, December 3, 1753. I am now hastening to London, to pay my last respects to my dying friend. The physician thinks his disease is galloping consumption. I pity the church -I pity myself-but not him. Poor Mr. Charles will now have double work: but we can do all things through Christ strengthening us." His letters to both the brothers on this occasion, are very affectionate and sympathizing. In his letter to Charles Wesley, December 3, 1753, he says, "I cannot help sending after you a few sympathizing lines. The

Lord help and support you! May a double spirit of the ascending Elijah, descend and rest on the surviving Elisha! Now is the time to prove the strength of Jesus yours. A wife, a friend, and brother ill together. Well! this is our comfort, all things shall work together for good to those that love God. Glad should I be to reach heaven first: but faith and patience hold out a little longer. Yet a little while, and we shall be all together with our common Lord. I commend you to his everlasting love, and am, my dear friend, with much sympathy, yours, &c." To John Wesley he writes thus:-"If seeing you so weak when leaving London, distressed me, the news and prospect of your approaching dissolution hath 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 them, even you, reverend and very dear sir, shall not leave us yet: but if the decree is gone forth, that you must now fall asleep 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 last respects to you next week. If not, reverend and dear sir, farewell. My heart is too big, tears trickle down too fast, and I fear you are to weak for me to enlarge. May underneath you be Christ's everlasting arms! I commend you to his never failing mercy, and am, very dear sir, your most affectionate, sympathizing, and afflicted younger brother in the gospel of our common Lord." Shortly after this he went to London, and soon had the pleasure of seeing Wesley

recover.

December 26, he received a visit from Messrs. Tennent and Davies, from America, who came to England to raise contributions for the college of New Jersey. And being commissioned to apply for a general collection in Scotland, Whitefield gave them recommendatory letters, and heartily endeavored to further their design. He spent the winter of 1753 in London, longing for a spring campaign, as he expressed it, that he might begin to do something for his divine Master.

March 7, 1754, having got about twenty poor children under his care, he embarked for America, but put in at Lisbon, where he stayed from the 20th of March, to the 13th of April.

From Lisbon he writes:-"This leaves me an old 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. O my dear friend, bless the Lord of all lords for causing your lot to be cast into 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. O for simplicity of manners, and a correspondent behavior! The air agrees with my poor constitution extremely well. Through divine assistance, I hope what I see will also much improve my better part, and help to qualify me better for preaching the everlasting gospel." Again. "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 have been 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 Methodists, 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 too, and dying in the blessed Jesus." Again. "This leaves me pretty well satisfied, not to say surfeited, with the ecclesiastical curiosities of Lisbon. This day fortnight we arrived; and the country being in want of rain, and it being Lent season, we have been favored with frequent processions, and several extraordinary pieces of scenery. Alas! to what lengths will superstition run! And how expensive is the pageantry of a false religion! What engaged my attention most, was the number of crucifixes, and little images of the virgin Mary, and of other real or reputed saints, which were placed almost in every street, or fixed against the walls of the houses, almost at every turning, with lamps hanging before them. To these, I observed the people bow as they passed along; and near some of them stood several little companies, singing with great earnestness. This seemed to me very odd, and gave me an idea of what further ecclesiastical curiosities would probably fall in my way, if I should be detained here any time. These expectations were quickly raised; for, not long after my arrival at my lodgings, where I was received and entertained with great gentility, hospitality, and friendliness, upon looking out of the window, I saw a company of priests and friars bearing lighted wax tapers, and attended by various sorts of people, some of whom had bags and baskets of victuals in their hands, and others carried provisions upon their shoulders on sticks between two. After these, followed a mixed multitude, singing with a very audible voice, and addressing the virgin Mary in

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their usual strain, Ora pro nobis.' In this manner they proceeded to the prison, where all was deposited for the use of the poor persons confined therein. But a far more pompous procession of the like nature, as a by-stander informed me, passed by a few days before. In this there were nearly three hundred Franciscan friars, many of whom, besides porters hired for the purpose, were loaded with a variety of food; and those who bore no burdens, carried either ladles or spoons in their hands. Sights of this nature being quite a novelty to me, I was fond of attending as many of them as I could. Two things concurred to make them more frequent at this juncture-the season of Lent, and excessive drought, which threatened the total destruction of the fruits of the earth. For the averting so great a judgment, and for the imploring the much longed for blessing of rain, daily processions had been made from one convent or another, for a considerable time. One of these I saw it was looked upon as a pretty grand one, being made up of the Carmelite friars, the parish priests, and a great number of what they call the brothers of the order, who walked two by two in divers habits, holding a long and very large lighted wax taper in their hands. Amidst these was carried, upon eight or ten men's shoulders, a tall image of the virgin Mary, in a kind of man's attire; for I think she had a very fine white wig on her head, a dress she often appears in, and was much adorned with jewels and glittering stones. At some distance from the lady, under a large canopy of state, and supported likewise by six or eight persons, came a priest, holding in his hand some noted relic. After him, followed several thousands of people joining with the friars in singing, 'Eanden cantilenan, Ora pro nobis,' all the way. Still rain was denied, and still processions were continued. At length the clouds began to gather, and the mercury in the barometer fell very much. There was brought out a wooden image, which they say never failed. It was the figure of our blessed Lord, clothed with purple robes, and crowned with thorns. I think they called him the LORD OF THE PASSION. Upon his shoulders he bore a large cross, under the weight of which he was represented as stooping, till his body bent almost double. He was brought from Le Grass Convent in very great pomp, and placed in a large cathedral church. Being on board at that time, I lost this sight; but the subsequent evening I beheld the SEIGNEUR fixed on an eminence in a large cathedral church, near the altar, surrounded with wax tapers of a prodigious size. He was attended by many noblemen, and thousands of spectators of all ranks and stations, who crowded from every quarter, and in their turns, were admitted by the guards to come within the rails, and per