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
Mr. Parsons, in a note to his funeral sermon, says, "At one o'clock
all the bells in the town were tolled for half an hour, and all the
vessels in the harbor gave their proper signals of mourning. At two
o'clock the bells tolled a second time. At three the bells called
to attend the funeral. The Rev. Dr. Haven of Portsmouth, and the
Rev. Messrs. Rodgers of Exeter, Jewet and Chandler of Rowley, Moses
Parsons of Newbury, and Bass of Newburyport, were pall-bearers.
Mr. Parsons and his family, with many other respectable persons,
followed the corpse in mourning."
"The procession," says Mr. Smith, "was only one mile, and then the
corpse was carried into the Presbyterian church, and placed at the
foot of the pulpit, close to the vault; the Rev. Daniel Rodgers made
a very affecting prayer, and openly declared, that, under God, he
owed his conversion to that dear man of God whose precious remains
now lay before them. Then he cried out, 'O my father, my father!'
then stopped and wept as though his heart would break; the people
weeping all through the place. Then he recovered, and finished his
prayer, and sat down and wept. Then one of the deacons gave out the
hymn,
"'Why do we mourn departing friends?'
some of the people weeping, some singing, and so on alternately.
The Rev. Mr. Jewet preached a funeral discourse; and made an
affectionate address to his brethren, to lay to heart the death of
that useful man of God, begging that he and they might be upon their
watchtower, and endeavor to follow his blessed example. The corpse
was then put into the vault, and all concluded with a short prayer,
and dismission of the people, who went weeping through the streets
to their respective places of abode."
The Rev. Mr. Rodgers, from whose "Almanack Journal" we have quoted,
records that the vast assembly at the funeral consisted of "four,
since thought five thousand people," and adds, Oct. 7, "I preached
from those words in the first Philippians, 'Having a desire to
depart and be with Christ,' etc. I spoke extempore, somewhat
largely, of dear Mr. Whitefield's character."
The late venerable Mr. Bartlet of Newburyport, some years ago,
erected a monument to the memory of Whitefield in the church beneath
which his remains are interred. The cenotaph was executed by Mr.
Struthers of Philadelphia, after a design of Strickland, and the
inscription which follows was written by the late Rev. Dr. Ebenezer
Porter, of the Theological seminary at Andover.
THIS CENOTAPH
is ERECTED, WITH AFFECTIONATE VENERATION,
To the Memory
OF
THE REV. GEORGE WHITEFIELD,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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