[143] Such is Whitefield's description of Mr. Garden; who, however, in 1740, instituted proceedings against him in the ecclesiastical court, and suspended him from his ministerial office. But more of this anon. With the exception of two or three days, the first month of the passage home was a continual storm. During the first week, Whitefield never undressed, and lay upon deck, or on a chest, every night. On October 3, when they had sailed about 150 miles, they encountered a tempest which slit nearly all their sails to strips. The captain's hammock, in the great cabin, was half filled with water. Whitefield, in his berth, was drenched. Most of the fresh provisions were washed overboard; and the tackling of the ship was seriously injured. In the midst of all, however, Whitefield was kept in peace. "God," says he, "was exceeding gracious unto me, and enabled me greatly to rejoice. My sphere of action was now contracted into a very narrow compass; for there are but few souls on board, and all that I can do is to read public prayers, and add a word of exhortation, twice every day. The captain and all are very civil." Whitefield did not forget his friends. On the 2nd of October, he wrote a long letter "to the Inhabitants of Savannah,"--a sort of pastoral epistle--in which he strongly insists upon that which had so often been the subject of his sermons--"the new birth in Christ Jesus--that ineffable change which must pass upon our hearts before we can see God." "The author of this blessed change," says he, "is the Holy Ghost; and the means to attain this Holy Spirit, you know, and the way you know." It is a remarkable fact, however, that, whilst specifying the _means_, as 1. Self-denial; 2. Public Worship; 3. Reading the Scriptures; 4. Secret Prayer; 5. Self-examination; and 6. Receiving the blessed Sacrament,--there is not a word about faith in Christ; and, further, it is equally remarkable that, until after this, the doctrine of salvation by faith in Christ only, is never even mentioned in any of Whitefield's published sermons, nor in any of his private letters to his friends. The fact is, whilst he himself fully trusted in the infinite sacrifice of Christ as the alone _procuring_ cause of a sinner's salvation, he had yet to learn that the doctrine of justification by faith alone, is not only a doctrine of _paramount importance_ in the great scheme of Christian truth, but one which stands pre-eminent throughout the whole of the New Testament Scriptures. The Wesley brothers, in this very year, 1738, to their own great amazement, had been brought to the knowledge of this unspeakably important dogma of revealed religion, and had begun to preach it. A few months later, Whitefield was led to embrace the same doctrine, and had the same divine conviction; and henceforward, to the end of life, was second to none in expounding and enforcing the text of the inspired Apostle, "To him