CHAPTER XV.
Fetter Lane.—Popular preachers.—Old friends meet again.—Love-feasts.—1739—Small beginning of a great gathering.—A crowded church.—A lightning thought.—But a shocking thing.—George Whitefield's welcome at Bristol.—"You shall not preach in my pulpit."—"Nor mine."—"Nor mine."—Poor Mr. Whitefield.
HILE Mr. Wesley was in Germany, his brother Charles had been preaching and working in London, and when Mr. John returned he found about thirty-two people had joined the society there. They had hired a room in Fetter Lane, and here they held their meetings. Mr. Wesley had come back so full of love to Jesus Christ, and therefore so full of love to everybody, and so eager for all to be as happy as he was, that he soon got many others to join them. When he wrote to his German friends, he said: "We are trying here, by God's help, to copy you as you copy Christ."
He and his brother still preached in any church where they were allowed, and wherever they went crowds of poor people followed to hear them. They used to go, too, to the prisons, and the hospitals, and preach to the sinful and the suffering. They told them how Jesus forgave sins, and how He used to heal the sick; and the sinful were made sorry, and the suffering ones were comforted, and many believed in Jesus and prayed for forgiveness.
Mr. Wesley had returned from Germany in September; a few months later Mr. George Whitefield came back from Georgia. He had got on very well with the people there, because he did not try to alter the ways they had been accustomed to, unless it was really necessary.
Mr. Wesley went to meet his old friend, and, oh! how pleased they were to see each other again. Mr. Whitefield joined the little society in Fetter Lane, and they all worked together most happily.
I dare say most of my Methodist readers will have been to a love-feast; those of you who have not, will at any rate have heard of them. Well, it was just about this time that love-feasts were first started. The little bands or companies that I told you about used to join together, and have a special prayer meeting once a month on a Saturday; and the following day, which, of course, was Sunday, they all used to meet again between seven o'clock and ten in the evening for a love-feast—a meal of bread and water eaten altogether and with prayer. It was a custom of the Moravians, and it was from them Mr. Wesley copied it.
I have also heard that the love-feast was provided for the people, who had walked a great many miles to hear Mr. Wesley preach, and were tired and hungry. If this was the idea of the love-feast, they would have to give the people a great deal more bread than they do now, or they would still be hungry when they had done.
The year after Mr. Whitefield returned from Georgia, 1739, was a wonderful year for the Methodists. It started with a love-feast and prayer meeting, which lasted half through the night. Then a few days later, on January 5th, the two Mr. Wesleys and Mr. Whitefield, with four other ministers, met together to talk about all they hoped to do during the year, and make rules and plans for their helpers and members.
I told you, if you remember, that first one pulpit and then another was closed against these clergymen. At last there were only two or three churches where they were allowed to preach. One day when Mr. Whitefield was preaching in one of these, the people came in such crowds to hear him, that hundreds could not get into the church. Some of them went away, but a great number stood outside.
All at once there flashed across Mr. Whitefield's mind this thought: "Jesus preached in the open air to the people, why can't I?" Numbers had often before been turned away when he preached, but he had never thought of having a service outside a church, it seemed a most shocking thing. However, the message seemed to come straight from God. He dared not act on it at once, for you see he was a clergyman, and had always been brought up to believe that inside the church was the only place where people can properly worship God.
When he mentioned the matter to his friends, some of them were very much shocked, and thought to preach in the open air would be a very wrong thing. But some said: "We will pray about it, and ask God to show us what we ought to do." So they knelt down and prayed to be guided to do the right thing.
Soon after this Mr. Whitefield went to Bristol, where he had been liked so much before he went to America. When he got there he was invited to preach first in one church and then in another, all were open to him. But before very long the clergymen in the place showed that they disapproved of the plain way in which he spoke to the people, and they told him they would not allow him to preach in their pulpits again.
By and by all the churches were closed against him, and there was nowhere but the prison where he was allowed to preach. Soon the mayor of Bristol closed that door also.
Poor Mr. Whitefield! what could he do now? I think I know one thing he would do. He would turn to his Bible, and there he would read: "In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."
In the next chapter you shall hear how God fulfilled His promise to George Whitefield.
