THE KING’S BUSINESS
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not thy peace,’ came with great power to my soul. Immediately my heart was enlarged. God spake to me by His Spirit, and I was no longer dumb. I finished a sermon I had in hand, and began another with as much free dom as though I had been used to it for some years.” He forwarded his first written ser mon to a neighboring clergyman to look over, who kept it for a week and then returned it with a guinea,
“Glory! glory! glory! be ascribed to an almighty triune God. Last Sunday, in the afternoon, I preached my first sermon in the church of St. Mary de Crypt, where I was baptized and also first received the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. Curiosity drew a large congregation; the sight at first a little awed me; but I was comforted' with a heartfelt sense of the Divine presence, and soon found the unspeakable advantage of having
WHITEFIELD’S CHURCH
and said he had divided it into two and preached the first part on Sunday morning and the last part on Sunday evening. Preaches His First Sermon The Sunday following his ordina tion, Whitefield preached his first ser mon. His subject was,-“On the Ne cessity and Benefit of Religious So ciety.” He thus describes it in a letter to his friend James Hervey, then at Oxford:
been accustomed to public speaking when a boy at school, and of exhort ing and teaching the prisoners and poor people at their private houses, whilst at the university: by these means I was kept from being daunted over much. As I proceeded I per ceived the fire kindled, till at last, though so young, and amidst a crowd of those who knew me in my infant childish days, I trust I was enabled to speak with some degree of Gospel authority: some few mocked; but most of those present seemed struck.”
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