THE KING’S BUSINESS
390
heaven in a ‘flame of fire.’ Every week the congregation increased: and on Ascension Day, when I left, many cried out, ‘Whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I . will lodge.’ ” At Bristol, Bath, Gloucester and London, and, indeed, wherever White- field went to preach, he was attended by throngs of people. An orphanage had been opened near Savannah, Georgia, and this made a strong ap peal to his sympathetic heart, even though he had never seen it nor was he, at this time, in any way responsi ble for it. He began presenting its needs to his audiences and receiving offerings for it. Later on he practi cally assumed the care of this or phanage, and it became, often, a tre mendous burden to carry. Again and again he refers to the difficulties connected with its management and its finances. WHAT HE PREACHED. The matter of Whitefield’s preach ing at this time is manifest from the following entry in his diary regarding a sermon that he then published, en titled, “On the Nature and Necessity of Our Regeneration or New Birth in Jesus Christ” : “This sermon, under God, began the' awakening at Gloucester, Bristol and London.” Of his stay in London he writes: “Sweet was my retirement here, and I now followed out my usual practice of reading and praying over the Word of God upon my knees; but my re tirement was not of long duration, for invitations came in from the stew ards and members of religious socie ties to preach on their behalf.” Until he embarked for Georgia he was kept busy. He preached four or five times each Sunday, often read prayers in the churches two or three times, and often walked ten or twelve miles to keep his various appoint
ments, and he preached somewhere nearly every week-day at least once, and - sometimes, oftener. When friends remonstrated with him he would say: “I had rather wear out than rust out. No nestling, no nestling on this side eternity.” His contemporary, John Gillies, says: “He often administered the sacrament early on the Lord’s Day morning, when you might see the streets filled with people going to church with lanthorns in their hands, and hear them con versing about the things of God.” ■ IN DISREPUTE. Three things served' to bring White- field into disrepute with the clergy at this period: First. His sermon on Regeneration, already mentioned. This raised a bitter storm of denunciation, partly because in the preface to it he had said that he wished “that his breth ren would entertain their auditories oftener with discourses upon the new birth.” Second. His freely mingling with “Dissenters” (that is, those who were members of other Protestant churches than the Established Church of Eng land). When we remember that this brought him in contact with such “Dissenters” as Philip Doddridge and Isaac Watts we can condone his of fense and smile at his accusers. Some of these “Dissenters” told him that “if the doctrines of the new birth, and justification by faith, were preached powerfully in the churches,. there would be few Dissenters in England.” Third. His popularity. Church going people were absenting them selves from their accustomed places of worship to hear Whitefield, and the non-churchgoing people were attend ing him in crowds. This was a bitter morsel for the easy-going, pleasure- loving clergy of the day.
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