“REV. AND VERY DEAR SIR,――Perhaps I have heard from what corner your cross comes. It is a very near one indeed. A saying of Mr. B―――― has often comforted me: ‘I would often have nestled, but God always put a thorn in my nest.’ Is not this suffered, my dear brother, to prick you out, and to compel you to appear for the Lord Jesus Christ? Preaching is my grand _catholicon_, under all domestic, as well as other trials. I fear Dr. Stonehouse has done you hurt, and kept you in shackles too long. For Christ’s sake, my dear Mr. Hervey, exhort him, now that he has taken the gown, to play the man, and let the world see, that, not worldly motives, but God’s glory and a love for souls, have sent him into the ministry. I hope he will turn out a flamer at last. O when shall this once be! Who would lose a moment? Amazing! that the followers of a crucified Redeemer should be afraid of contempt! Rise, Hervey, rise, and see thy Jesus reaching out a crown with this motto, ‘_Vincenti dabo_.’ Excuse this freedom. I write out of the fulness of my heart, not to draw you over to me, or to a party, but to excite you to appear openly for God. “A letter may be directed (if you write immediately) to be left at the Rev. Mr. Ingham’s, Yorkshire. Thither I am bound now, and, if the season of the year should permit, I would stretch to Scotland. We have had most delightful seasons in London. The glory of the Redeemer filled the Tabernacle. If any doubt whether the cause we are embarked in be the cause of God, I say, ‘Come and see.’ Are you free that I should call upon you in my return to town? I think to come by way of Northampton. You shall hear what is done in Yorkshire. God has blessed my preaching at Oundle.” It is evident that Whitefield wished Hervey to itinerate like himself; but this was a work for which the gentle rector of Weston-Favell was physically and mentally unfit. No good end would have been answered by his attempting it. Besides, by his pen, he was doing a great work, which Whitefield, had he tried, could not have done; and which itinerancy would have set aside. The fact is, though Whitefield and Hervey were both Oxford Methodists, Whitefield had not seen his old acquaintance for many years, and seems to have had no idea of the extreme delicacy of his health. Whitefield’s progress to Ingham’s, at Aberford; to Grimshaw’s, at Haworth; and to other places, will be seen in the following extracts from his letters:―― “NEWCASTLE, _September 29, 1749_.