George Whitefield: A Biography, with special reference to his labors in AmericaBelcher, Joseph
Religion
George Whitefield: A Biography, with special reference to his labors in America
Belcher, Joseph
Whitefield, George, 1714-1770
the morning, to nearly, as they were computed, ten thousand souls.
Arrows of conviction seemed to fly fast." Again, in a communication
to the Countess of Huntingdon, he says, "I have been very near
the Land's End, and everywhere souls have fled to hear the word
preached, 'like doves to their windows.' The harvest is great, yea,
very great, but laborers are few. O that the Lord of the harvest
would thrust out more laborers." And yet again he says, "Invitations
are sent to me from Falmouth and several other places, but I cannot
attend to them all at present. I want more tongues, more bodies,
more souls, for the Lord Jesus. Had I ten thousand, he should have
them all." Such was the noble spirit he displayed, and such were
the manner and fruits of his "entering in among" the, at that time,
benighted children of Cornwall. A great light shone upon them. They
came from the caverns of the earth to welcome its rising, and to
look upon its brightness. Thousands of them were indeed "brought out
of darkness into marvellous light," and turned by it from sin to
holiness, and from Satan to God; and thousands are still rejoicing
in its beams.
On his return to London, Whitefield found his assemblies at the
countess's "brilliant indeed," and Lord Bolingbroke still one among
them. Of this talented nobleman our evangelist at this time indulged
a happy hope, which, alas, seems never to have been realized.
In February, 1749, Whitefield made an excursion to Exeter and
Plymouth, where he was agreeably surprised to find a great
alteration had taken place since his preceding visit, five years
before. He loved to "range," as he called it, "after precious
souls," and happily for him and for others he found them. During
this and subsequent visits to Plymouth, he resided with the Rev.
Andrew Kinsman, an excellent Congregational minister, of whom we
have already spoken. He was born in Devonshire in 1724, and was
therefore ten years younger than Whitefield. While peculiarly
amiable in his manners, and remarkable for his regard to his
parents, he was unacquainted with the religion of the heart till
his seventeenth year, when he met with a volume of Mr. Whitefield's
sermons, and one of those on the new birth alarmed him. His pious
friends were few, but his religious feelings were deeply moved,
and God at length gave him "the oil of joy for mourning, and the
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." Concerned for the
highest interests of his relatives, he one night, as the family were
retiring to rest, broke out, with intense emotion, "What, shall we
go to bed without prayer? How do we know but some of us may awake
in hell before morning?" This unexpected address struck the family
with solemn awe; and while they looked at each other with conscious
shame, for the neglect of so clear a duty, he fell upon his knees
and prayed with so much readiness and fervor that it excited their
astonishment.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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