In the month of August, Whitefield visited Frederica,[136] a town above a hundred miles from Savannah, "and consisting of about a hundred and twenty inhabitants." Two years ago, the ill-natured inhabitants of Frederica had worried Charles Wesley almost into madness; but Whitefield says: "The people received me most gladly, having had a famine of the word for a long season." Though timber was being sawn for the purpose, as yet no church had been built; and Whitefield's first service was under a large tree, where he read prayers and expounded the Second Lesson.[137] "Poor creatures!" said he, "my heart ached for them, because I saw them and their children scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd." [136] In reality Whitefield was appointed to be the minister, not of Savannah, but, of Frederica. The reason why he settled at Savannah was because, since Wesley's departure, the town had been without a minister; and the reason why he deferred his residence at Frederica was because there, there was not a church. (See Whitefield's Letter to Rev. Thomas Church, in 1744.) [137] During the whole of his residence in Georgia, it was Whitefield's custom, after reading the Second Lesson, to expound it, and, to make time for this, he omitted the First Lesson and the Psalms for the day. (Stephens's "Journal of Proceedings in Georgia," vol. i.) During his five days' stay at Frederica, he paid a flying visit to Darien, about twenty miles distant, where the Highlanders were settled, his object being to hold Christian fellowship with Mr. McLeod, whom he describes as "a worthy minister of the Scotch Church." On the 16th of August, he again arrived at Savannah, where he spent the next twelve days; at the end of which he set sail for England. During this brief interval, two events occurred which must be noticed. The first was his refusal to read the Burial Service over a dead infidel.[138] Whitefield had frequently visited the man during his lingering illness, and had offered to pray with him, which he would not permit. Two days before his death, Whitefield asked him, "Do you believe Jesus Christ to be God, the one Mediator between God and man?" The answer was, "I believe Christ was a good man." "Do you believe the Holy Scriptures?" "I believe," replied he, "something of the Old Testament--the New I do not believe at all." "Do you believe a judgment to come?" "I know not what to say to that," answered the dying sceptic. Whitefield writes: "The day after his decease, he was carried to the ground, and I refused to read the office over him, but went to the grave and told the people what had passed between him and me; warned them against infidelity; and asked them whether I could safely say, 'As our hope is this our brother doth.' Upon which I believe they were thoroughly satisfied that I had done right."[139]