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IV.

By a strange coincidence, at the moment John Wesley arrived at Deal, the craft which was bearing Whitefield to Georgia was sheltering in the Downs. When Wesley was aware of this fact, he had recourse to sortilege,- a practice for which he had a great predilection; and Whitefield was astonished by a boat's coming on board with a letter, which ran as follows: "When I saw God by the wind which was carrying you out brought me in, I asked counsel of God. His answer you have enclosed." Whitefield examined the slip of paper conveyed to him in this peremptory and business-like fashion, and read this sentence: "Let him return to London." But, having considered the matter, he determined to proceed to Georgia. He remained there, however, only three months, and during that time got on so well with the colonists

that they regretted the shortness of his stay with them. This is one proof, if there were no other, that Whitefield naturally was a man of much greater personal fascination and general amiability than Wesley. It is well also to bear in mind that in this important year, 1738, which saw Wesley's return from Georgia and Whitefield's going out to and coming back from the same colony, the former was only thirty-five years old and the latter twenty-four. Yet Whitefield had already made a great reputation as a preacher. He had not been idle during Wesley's absence in America.

Whitefield had been profoundly impressed by reading a book entitled The Life of God in the Soul of Man. When, he says, he found it asserted there that true religion is a union of the soul with God or Christ formed within us, "a ray of divine light darted in upon him, and from that moment he knew he must

be a new creature." Previously he had passed through a period of much spiritual trial. He describes his suffering during this period as follows:

When I knelt down, I felt great pressures both on soul and body, and have often prayed under the weight of them till the sweat came through me. God only knows how many nights I have lain upon my bed groaning under what I felt. Whole days and weeks have I spent in lying prostrate on the ground in silent or vocal prayer.

The effect of the change which occurred in him he thus describes :

But, oh, with what joy-joy unspeakable, even joy that was full of and big with glorywas my soul filled when the weight of sin went off and an abiding sense of the pardoning love of God and a full assurance of faith broke in upon my disconsolate soul! Surely, it was the day of my espousals,- a day to be had in everlasting remembrance. At first my joys were like a spring tide, and, as it were, overflowed the banks. Go where I would, I could not avoid singing of psalms almost aloud. Afterwards they became more settled, and, blessed be God, saving a few casual intervals, have abode and increased in my soul ever since.

This occurred while the Wesleys were undergoing their Georgia troubles.

Dr. Benson, Bishop of Gloucester, was impressed so favourably by what he saw of Whitefield that he sent for him, and, when he found that Whitefield was between twenty-one and twenty-two years of age, told him that, although he had resolved not to ordain any one under three-and-twenty, he should think it his duty to ordain him whenever he came for holy orders. And so he was ordained by the Anglican bishop. "I can call heaven and earth to witness,' he said at a later time, "that, when the bishop laid his hand upon me I gave myself up to be a martyr for Him who hung upon the Cross for me." Whitefield's first sermon was preached at Gloucester, in the Church of St. Mary de Crypt. There was a large congregation; and, though some laughed at his youthful appearance, he seems to have at once made his mark. Complaint was

made to the bishop that fifteen people had been driven mad by his preaching, but Dr. Benson merely replied that he hoped the madness might not be forgotten by next Sunday.

Coming up to London, Whitefield read prayers and preached for some two months at Wapping Chapel and at St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower; and, as Southey puts it, proof enough was given that an "earnest minister will make an attentive congregation." It was while he was in London that he was accepted and presented to the Bishop of London and the primate for the Georgian mission. That his reputation was already becoming wide-spread is clear from the fact that, having occasion to take Bristol on his way to his port of embarkation,

- he had gone down to Gloucestershire to bid his family and friends good-bye,multitudes of the people came out from Bristol in coaches and on foot to meet him, and where he preached the churches

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