WHITEFIELD'S NEW MEASURES IN LONDON. 93

heart full of love towards God and man, blessed be God, I can
say I love my enemies." And being conscious of the advan-
tages "of expounding and praying extempore" he prayed God
to enable him to continue it. Besides tending the prayer
meetings and the love feasts, Mr. Whitefield also frequently
met with the Little Praying " Bands" of six or more Christians,
who met to compare and talk over their religious experiences.
Having thus kindled the fire in London, Mr. Whitefield
went to Oxford. After visiting his old friends, and after much
prayerful preparation, he was there ordained priest January 14,
1739, in Christ's church, by "his good friend, Bishop Benson,"
who had formerly ordained him deacon. The same day he
preached and administered the Sacrament in the Castle in the
morning, and preached again at St. Albans in the afternoon, to a
crowded house, surrounded by gownsmen of all degrees. And
rejoicing in the Lord, he exclaimed, "Blessed be God, this has
been a day of fat things." Taking an affectionate leave of
his dear Oxford friends, he now returned to London, and
was very kindly received by the Georgia Trustees, who,
without his request, "presented him the living at Savannah,"
and gave him 500 acres of land for his Orphan- House.
The London clergy now began to oppose, and shut their
churches against him.* The pulpit and press rung with
opposition. But Whitefield took it so patiently he even
"prayed by name" publicly for the minister who wrote
against him, and longed "to do him any good." "Blessed be

* The occasion of this opposition may be traced to two causes — doctrines and
measures. Besides the then common objection to the cardinal doctrines of Regen-
eration and Justification by Faith, Whitefield's and Wesley's prolonged midnight
prayer meetings, and their expounding and visiting from house to house, led many
of the clergy to deny them their pulpits. Private societies and extempore prayer
were much objected to.



94 LIFE OF WHITEFIELD.

God," he said, "the more I am opposed the more God enlight-
ens my understanding. The more man frowns, the more God
smiles."

Having on Christmas day prayed publicly for the first time
without a form, to-day (February 2d) he preached the first time
without notes. It was at a communion at Islington. They
said, " He preached with uncommon power." He says, " I find
I gain greater light and knowledge by preaching extempore, so
that I fear I should quench the Spirit, did I not go on to speak
as He gives me utterance." After "preaching extempore again
with great freedom," he felt so exceedingly happy, he says,
" God gives me a heaven upon earth, and makes my heart leap
for joy almost continually." Notwithstanding Mr. Whitefield's
superabundant labors and unspeakable joy, he says, " Some-
times my strength goes from me, and I find myself deserted for
a little while and much oppressed, especially before preaching,
but comfort soon after flows in." " / find action is the best
way to take all oppression off the spirits" " God will bless us
when doing His work!'

Thus he went on, preaching and expounding amidst in-
creasing opposition, until his burning unquenchable desire to
preach the gospel rose to such a height, that, like the flaming
Peter and John,' he exclaimed, "/ cannot but speak the things
that I have seen and felt in my own soul." And having
preached one day in a Hotel, in Basingstoke, he said, " I hope
I shall learn more and more every day, that no place is amiss
for preaching the gospel." " God forbid that the word of God
should be bound, because some, out of misguided zeal, deny
the use of their churches." " The more I am bid to hold my
peace, the more earnestly will I lift up my voice like a
trumpet." Yet with all his glorious attainments and precious
enjoyments, with his lofty views of holiness, zeal and self-denial.



WHITEFIELD'S NEW MEASURES IN LONDON. 95

he says, "We are just beginning to be Christians." "Lord,
melt down my frozen heart with a sense of Thy unmerited
love."

Blest with " many conversions " in London, Whitefield now
visited Windsor, Basingstoke, and Dummer. And glorying in
tribulation, he says, " I find opposition does me much good, for
it drives me nearer to my Lord and Master." At Basingstoke,
he spoke with such irresistible power that his opposers were
quite struck dumb, and so confounded, that they said, " We will
never oppose again." Here he was " filled with ineffable com-
fort and unspeakable joy."

Taking suddenly ill the next day, he says, " It would have
melted any one down to have seen my dear friends weeping and
praying around me." Struggling like one in the agonies of
death, like the heroic Paul, he exclaimed, " O how I longed to
be dissolved and be with Christ !" And rejoicing in his inex-
pressible comforts, he says, "Wherever I go God causeth me to
triumph and knits the hearts of His people most closely to me."

Having " set the town on fire, he now went to kindle a
flame in the country." And prayed, " Oh, that such a fire may
not only be kindled, but blow up into a flame all England, and
all the world over."

Shortly after Whitefield came to Bristol, the Chancellor
of Bristol charged him with preaching false doctrine and
threatened to suspend and excommunicate him. But awed by
no threats, Whitefield replied, " I cannot but speak the things
that I know," and resolved to proceed as usual. After praying
for the tyrannical Chancellor, he went on and preached with
unusual power and unspeakable joy.

FIELD PREACHING.

And just here let us pause a moment and see how, step by
step, the bold evangelist overstepped the rules of the Estab-



96 LIFE OF WH1TEFIELD.

lished Church and rose to his present lofty position of influence,
power and success.

Having preached one day at Bermondsey ! church, with
great liberty to a crowded congregation, with near 1,000
people standing outside, he says, " I had a strong inclination to
go out and preach to them from one of the tomb-stones. This
first put me upon thinking of preaching out-doors. I men-
tioned it to some friends, who looked upon it as 'a mad notion!
However, we knelt down and prayed that nothing might be
done rashly." Having already learned to pray without a form,
and to preach without notes, he now ventured another step,
and preached without a dhurch.

Denied a church to preach in at Bath, he soon went to
Bristol. And finding all the Bristol churches shut against him,
moved with a bleeding compassion for the poor, neglected col-
liers of Kingswood, a large mining district hard by, he went
out to see them. Though poor and uncultivated, they received
him very kindly. Earnestly longing for their salvation, and
urged by the great emergency of the case, on February \J,
1739, he went out without any previous notice, to a "mount,"
called "Rose Gree?i," and preached to upwards of two hundred
of them, on Regeneration, from John iii. 3. This was White-
field's first field sermon. He says, "We returned full of joy, and
I believe I never was more acceptable to my Master than when
I was preaching to those hearers in the open fields." Filled
with joy and gratitude to God for thus having broken '"the
iron decorum of the church," he exclaimed, " Blessed be God
that I have now broken the ice and taken the field." He said, " I
thought it might be doing the service of my Creator, who had a
mountain for a pulpit, and the heavens for a sounding board ;
and who, when His gospel was refused by the Jews, sent His
servants into the highways and hedges." Strengthened by this



nB











WHITEFIELD'S NEW MEASURES IN LONDON. 97

noble act, he preached the next day at St. Mary's to such a
congregation as he never saw, with great liberty and demon-
stration of the Spirit. " Some may censure me. But is there
not a cause ? Pulpits are denied and the poor colliers ready to
perish for the lack of knowledge." His first field congregation
numbered over 200, the second nearly 2,000, the third 5,000
and it soon reached from 10,000 to 20,000. The Rubicon is
passed. The crisis is met — a glorious victory is achieved, and
field-preaching, " the morning star of England's second refor-
mation," is made a complete success. With it, a new era
dawned upon the church, and "the poor have the gospel
preached to them;" and the poor colliers heard it for the first
time with surprise and joy. Although driven out of the
churches, Whitefield, by the magic power of his eloquence,
evidently took possession of the people. The clergy frowned,
but God smiled upon the effort, and to muzzle the bold evan-
gelist was impossible. Gagged in the city he fled to the
country. **

All ablaze with zeal to save souls and to preach the gospel
to the poor, for him to be kept silent was more intolerable than
death itself. He could not endure it. Dead to self, and con-
secrated to God, rising above the fear of man, the threat of
excommunication, and the iron bondage of church forms and
customs, he went forth and preached to acres of perishing
colliers in the open air, disregarding what the world might say
or the church might think or do; while John Wesley, with
less courage and more tenacity for church order and pro-
fessional etiquette, hesitated and said, " I should have thought
the saving of souls almost a sin, if it had not been done in a
church."

Having been forbidden by the Bishop of Bristol to* preach
in his diocese, upon the threat of excommunication, we re-
7



98 LIFE OF WHITEFIELD.

gard Whitefield's " taking the field," though counted " a mad
notion" at first, the boldest and one of the most important
acts of his life.

Rejoicing in the work he says, " Blessed be God, the
fire is kindled in the country ; and I know all the devils in
hell shall not be able to put it out." It opened a wide door for
preaching the gospel to the poor. The stroke that " broke the
ice," did much to break down Satan's kingdom, and to save the
churches of Europe and America.

The moral condition of these colliers was but little above
heathenism, and "when provoked they were a terror to the
city of Bristol." It was considered dangerous to go among
them. They were very much neglected. "And," says Black-
wood's Magazine, " they were proverbial for their savage char-
acter and brutality. They had no place of worship near them,
and nobody so much as dreamt of inquiring whether by
chance they too might have souls to be saved." They lived
altogether at " Hannam Mount," three miles from Bristol.
Here Whitefield often preached to them with great power.
"And O, with what gladness and eagerness many of them re-
ceived the Word, is beyond description." The first discovery
of their being affected was to see "the white gutters" made by
their tears, which plentifully fell down their black cheeks, as
they came out of their coal pits. "As the scene was-quite new,
and as I had just begun to be an extempore preacher, it often
occasioned many inward conflicts. Sometimes, when twenty
thousand people were before me, I had not, in my own appre-
hension, a word to say, either to God or them. But I was never
totally deserted, and frequently (for to deny it would be lying
against God) so assisted, that I knew, by happy experience, what
our Lord meant by saying, ' out of his belly shall flow rivers of
living water.' The open firmament above me, the prospect of



WHITEFIELD'S NEW MEASURES IN LONDON. 99

the adjacent fields, with the sight of thousands and thousands,
some in coaches, some on horse-back, and some in the trees,
and at times all affected and drenched in tears together, to
which sometimes was added the solemnity of the approaching
evening, was almost too much for, and quite overcame me."
Wrought up to a white-heat zeal, Whitefield never preached
with greater power than now. "He was carried out beyond
himself." And having thus opened such a wide, effectual door
for preaching the gospel to the poor, he now sent for John
Wesley, to come down and help him. He came the last of
March. Upon seeing Whitefield's grand success, he longed to
" take the field " and help him. But, bound by " the iron
decorum of the church," " at this grand crisis, the most impor-
tant in his life," he was afraid and hesitated. But after a hard
struggle, and seeing the dauntless Whitefield preach with such
wonderful' power to vast acres of gaping colliers at " Boling
Green," " Hannam Mount," and " Rose Green," his prejudices
gave way, and he went, " took the field," and preached with
great power. To this important event, Wesley owed much of
his future success. And in it we see to some extent how much
he was indebted to Whitefield for it. Whitefield broke the
way, and Wesley followed him.

" Standing still as death, sometimes with over 20,000 collected
around the little hill, a thrill of emotion ran through the vast
crowd. They wept aloud together over their sins, and sang
together with that wonderful voice of a multitude which has
something in it more impressive than any music." This was
the first outburst of the new light upon the outer world.
Hitherto it had been limited, shining, as it were, under ground
in obscure corners where a pulpit could be found. In this
grand movement, Whitefield acted as Wesley's pioneer, and
" began with a kind of splendid inadvertence, his greatest efforts.



100 LIFE OF WHITEFIELD.

Whitefield went forth in quaint evangelical simplicity, and
did what his hand found to do, caring no more for his char-
acter or standing than had he possessed neither." (Bl-ackwood?)
Resulting in the conversion of thousands, this out-door effort
was, doubtless, the greatest gospel victory since the Day of
Pentecost.

GETTING STRENGTH IN THE PRAYER-MEETING.

Whitefield was pre-eminently a man of prayer. He loved
the prayer-meeting. It was his' heart's delight. He often
spent whole nights in prayer. And although his success was
owing greatly to his great powers of eloquence, yet it was
owing more, perhaps, to his prayers, and his attending prayer-
meetings. Where was he when his heart became so full that
he had to break over and lay aside the Prayer Book, and rush
to the throne of grace and pray as " the Spirit gave him
utterance?" He was in the prayer-meeting, where he had
been praying all night, in Red Cross street, London. Where
was he, the Wesleys and others, " when the power of God came
so mightily upon them that many fell to the ground and cried
out for exceeding joy?" They were at a prayer-meeting and
love-feast at Fetter Lane, London, " where they had spent the
whole of New Year's eve in close prayer, praise and thanksgiv-
ing." Whitefield said this " was the happiest New Year's Day
he ever saw." Praying and preaching he thus went on " from
strength to strength," until he made the bold strike at Kings-
wood, and achieved the glorious victory of field-preaching at
"Rose Green."

" These prayer-meetings," says Dr. Philip, " were to White-
field what the ' third heavens ' were to Paul ; the finishing
school of his ministerial education — the school of his Spirit
He was as much indebted to them for his unction and enter-



WHITEFIELDS NEW MEASURES IN LONDON. 10 1

prise, as to Pembroke College for his learning." Here he says
" I found supernatural strength and expounded with extraordi-
nary power." " Here he caught the holy and heroic impulse
which prepared him to challenge the Scribes and Pharisees any-
where, 'and to warn them and sinners everywhere, to flee from
the wrath to come.' " Here, we believe, he caught the holy
fire and received that mighty heroic impulse which made him
so mighty through God, in pulling down Satan's strongholds.
Here he says, " God gives me heaven upon earth, and makes
my heart leap for joy almost continually. Here have I often
seen them overwhelmed with the divine presence ; and crying
out, "Will God indeed dwell with men upon the earth? How
dreadful is this place ! This is no other than the house of God
and the gate of heaven." It was not till after Wesley ex-
pounded in one of these meeting, that he overcame his scruples
and ventured to preach in " the field." " God often hangs the
greatest weights on the smallest wires." And says Dr. Philip,
" Social prayer-meetings are the strongest wires in all the
machinery of the moral universe. 'God hung upon them all
the weighty gifts and all the weightier grace and glory of Pen-
tecost' "

Where, we ask, was John Livingstone just before he
preached that memorable sermon at the Shotts, in Scotland,
which resulted in the conversion of five hundred souls ? He
had spent the whole of the previous night in a prayer-meeting ;
and where, too, was the Apostle Peter, before he preached that
most powerful sermon on the Day of Pentecost, which made
the very murderers of Jesus cry for mercy, and which resulted
in the conversion of Three Thousand souls in a day. He had
just come out of a ten days' prayer-meeting. Reader, if you
want to get power to win souls, pray much and linger long in
the prayer-meeting.



102 LIFE OF WHITEFIELD.

Besides Whitefield's new measures, extempore prayer,
preaching without notes, and preaching in the fields, he also
preached new doctrines ; or rather revived the two old doc-
trines of Regeneration and Justification by Faith. Preaching
these, he met with much strong, fierce opposition. Yet with
his great heart throbbing for souls and fired with these stirring
old doctrines, he went forth, " alarmed all London," shook the
devil's throne, and revived the slumbering churches of two con-
tinents.




CHAPTER XI.




FURTHER LABORS IN ENGLAND-
VICTORIES.



-GREAT FIELD



'LUSHED with victory, and established in his
New Measures and New Doctrines, Whitefield
now went forth conquering and to conquer.
His success among the colliers was wonderful.
Every effort was crowned with victory. On
March 4, 1739, he preached at Hannam Mount,
to about 4000 in the morning, and to over 14,000
at Rose Green in the afternoon. With his soul
expanding, he spoke with great power, "so that all could hear."
The sight was so grand, he said, " it was worth coming many
miles to see it." After) expounding to the Baldwin Street
Society, he returned home " full of joy, longing to depart and
be with Christ." After preaching from a wall at the
Fishponds, he says, "I never spoke with greater power. My
preaching in the fields may displease some timorous, bigoted
men, but I am thoroughly persuaded it pleases God; and why
should I fear anything else." Deeply impressed, many came
to him, inquiring about the new birth.

Having canvassed Kingswood, he ran over to Wales, and
preached in the Town Hall of Cardiff Here some "scoffers
honored him so far as to trail and hunt a dead fox about the
hall" while he was preaching. But God gave him strength to
triumph over them, and when he preached again in the after-
noon they kept silent.

( io 3)



104 LIFE 0F WH1TEFIELU.

At Cardiff Whitefield was much refreshed with the sight of
his dear friend, Howel Harris, whom he had long since loved
as a dear brother. " When I first saw him," says Whitefield,
"my heart was knit closely to him. I wanted to catch some
of his fire, and I gave him the right hand of fellowship, with
all my heart." Being so very happy together, " I doubt not
but Satan envied our happiness. But I hope, by the help
of God, we shall make his kingdom shake."

"Baptized with Welsh fire," he now returned to England,
and resumed preaching to the poor colliers of Kingswood with
increased interest and enlarged congregations. " Being forbid
to preach in the prison, because he urged the necessity of
Regeneration, he went and preached to a large congregation at
Baptist Mills, and exclaimed, "Blessed be God, all things
happen for the furtherance of the gospel. I now preach to ten
times more people than I should, if I had been confined to
the churches. Surely the devil is blind and so are his
emissaries, or otherwise they would not thus confound them-
selves." Although he was now encompassed with opposition,
yet, with a deep sense of God's presence, he said, "I fear
neither men nor devils. I am never so much assisted as when
persons endeavor to blacken me ; and I find the number
of my hearers so increase by opposition, as well as my own
inward peace, love and joy, that I only fear a calm."

And, gathering up his strength, he went (March 18) and
preached for an hour and a half to a congregation of 20,000
colliers at Rose Green. "To see," he says, "such vast crowds
standing about us in such an awful silence, and to hear the
echo of their singing run from one end of them to the other,
was very solemn and surprising." The day's collection for the
Orphan House was over fourteen pounds sterling. They gave
with great cheerfulness.



FURTHER LABORS IN ENGLAND. IO5

SCOFFERS PRAYED TO SILENCE.

Whitefield now made a short visit to Bath. As he went
out to preach there, a number of scoffers laughed him to scorn.
But his opening prayer was so touching and powerful that
before he closed "all was hushed and silent;" and before he
closed his sermon all were deeply impressed, and some went
home begging for mercy. Of his last congregation he says,
"God only can tell how their hearts were melted down. Oh!
how did the poor souls weep over me! I might have said with
St. Paul, on another occasion, 'What mean you to weep and to
break my heart?"' How powerful is God's word! "It is like
fire and a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces." It was
so of old. The Jews mocked at the crucifixion of Christ, but
under the preaching of Peter, on the day of Pentecost, they
vehemently cried what to do to be saved. A man once went
to church with a stone in his pocket, to break John Wesley's
head, but his sermon broke the man's heart.

After a weeping farewell at Bath, he was agreeably surprised
to see so many horsemen come out so far to welcome him
back to Bristol. Here he found the societies so thronged that
"he was obliged to go up by a ladder and go in at a window
to get to them." Here, too, he preached at the poor house,
and says, "The poor people so loaded my hat with their mites
that I needed some one to hold up my hands." "They gave
with inexpressible cheerfulness." Being denied the prison, he
preached the following Sabbath morning at a large Boling-
green in the city, and again before dinner at Hannam Mount
to many more, and again in the afternoon to a congregation of
about 23,000. All could hear, and his prayer was, "Oh, may
God speak to them by His Spirit."

He preached at Boling Green again, the next day, to some



106 LIFE OF WHITEFIELD.

7,000, with a wonderful effect. Standing at the gate he took
up another collection for the Orphan House, and it took him
near an hour and a half "to get through." The throng was
so great, they trod one upon one another.

In summing up the fruits of his labors at Kingswood and
Bristol, he says, " Many sinners, I believe, have been effectually
converted. Two hundred pounds have been collected for the
Orphan House. Thousands of little books have been distri-
buted; and, besides hosts of little tokens of love received from
my friends, many poor families have been relieved by my
friend, Mr. Seward."

Mr. John Wesley, having come and "taken the field," Mr.
Whitefield, after taking a very affectionate leave of his Bristol
friends, now made another short excursion into Wales. As he
left the city, " the people lavishly poured out their blessings
upon him," and " he prayed for them with strong crying and
tears." Ashe went through Kingswood, the kind colliers gave
him a great dinner, and at their request "he laid the first stone of
their School House, knelt down on it, and prayed that the
gates of hell might not prevail against it." The colliers "said
a hearty amen." At Husk he met Howel Harris, who accom-
panied him in his tour. They preached out doors at Ponty-
pool, Abergaveny, Comiboy, Carlion, Trelix, and Newport, to
very large congregations. Whitefield spoke first in English,
and Harris followed in Welsh. The impression was fine.
Whitefield loved field-preaching and said, " I always find I have
most power when I speak in the open air." Accompanied
with scores of friends on horseback, he went about from place
to place, preaching on "the steps," "on the table," from "the
cross," and from "the horse-block," and sometimes " God gave
him such extraordinary assistance, he was carried ou.t beyond
himself, and filled with unutterable love." At Carbeon, where



FURTHER LABORS IN ENGLAND. IOy

they greatly disturbed Howel Harris, Whitefield "preached to
many thousands " with such great power, that " they moved
not a tongue."