"Upon seeing this, and finding that his Majesty and Parliament had the interest of the colony much at heart, I thought I could not better show my regard to God and my country than by getting a house and land for these children, where they might learn to labor, read, and write, and at the same time be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Accordingly, at my return to England, in the year 1738, to take priest's orders, I applied to the honorable society for a grant of five hundred acres of land, and laid myself under an obligation to build a house upon it, and to receive from time to time as many orphans as the land and stock would maintain. As I had always acted like a clergyman of the church of England, having preached in a good part of the London churches, and but a few months before collected near a thousand pounds sterling for the children belonging to the charity schools in London and Westminster, it was natural to think that I might now have the use at least of some of these churches to preach in for the orphans hereafter more immediately to be committed to my care. But by the time I had taken priest's orders, the spirit of the clergy began to be much imbittered. Churches were gradually denied me, and I must let this good design drop, and thousands, and I might add ten thousands, go without hearing the word of God, or preach in the fields. Indeed, two churches, one in London, namely, Spitalfields, and one in Bristol, namely, St. Philip's and Jacob, were lent me on this occasion, but those were all. I collected for the orphan-house in Moorfields two hundred and fifty pounds one Sabbath-day morning, twenty-two pounds of which were in copper. In the afternoon I collected again at Kennington Common, and continued to do so at most of the places where I preached. Besides this, two or three of the bishops, and several persons of distinction contributed, until at length, having gotten about a thousand and ten pounds, I gave over collecting, and went with what I had to Georgia. At that time multitudes offered to accompany me; but I chose to take over only a surgeon and a few more of both sexes, that I thought would be useful in carrying on my design. My dear fellow-traveller William Seward, Esq., also joined with them. Our first voyage was to Philadelphia, where I was willing to go for the sake of laying in provision. I laid out in London a good part of the thousand pounds for goods, and got as much by them in Philadelphia as nearly defrayed the families' expenses of coming over. Here God blessed my ministry daily....
"January following, 1739, I met my family at Georgia, and being unwilling to lose any time, I hired a large house, and took in all the orphans I could find in the colony. A great many also of the town's children came to school gratis, and many poor people that could not maintain their children, upon application, had leave given them to send their little ones for a month or two, or more as they could spare them, till at length my family consisted of between sixty and seventy. Most of the orphans were in poor case, and three or four almost eaten up with lice. I likewise erected an infirmary, in which many sick people were cured and taken care of gratis. I have now by me a list of upwards of a hundred and thirty patients, which were under the surgeon's hands, exclusive of my own private family. About March I began the great house, having only about one hundred and fifty pounds in cash. I called it Bethesda, because I hoped it would be a house of mercy to many souls. Many boys have been put out to trades, and many girls put out to service. I had the pleasure, the other day, to see three boys work at the house in which they were bred, one of them out of his time, a journeyman, and the others serving under their masters. One that I brought from New England is handsomely settled in Carolina; and another from Philadelphia is married, and lives very comfortably in Savannah. We have lately begun to use the plough, and next year I hope to have many acres of good oats and barley. We have nearly twenty sheep and lambs, fifty head of cattle, and seven horses. We hope to kill a thousand weight of pork this season. Our garden is very beautiful, furnishes us with all sorts of greens, etc., etc. We have plenty of milk, eggs, poultry, and make a good deal of butter weekly. A good quantity of wool and cotton have been given me, and we hope to have sufficient spun and wove for the next winter's clothing. The family now consists of twenty-six persons. Two of the orphan boys are blind, one is little better than an idiot. I have two women to take care of the household work, and two men and three boys employed about the plantation and cattle. A set of Dutch servants has been lately sent over. The magistrates were pleased to give me two; and I took in a poor widow, aged near seventy, whom nobody else cared to have. A valuable young man from New England is my schoolmaster, and in my absence performs duty in the family. On Sabbaths, the grown people attend on public worship at Savannah, or at White Bluff, a village near Bethesda, where a Dutch minister officiates. The house is a noble, commodious building, and every thing sweetly adapted for bringing up youth. Georgia is very healthy; not above one, and that a little child, has died out of our family since it removed to Bethesda."
A tabular statement follows this account, giving full particulars of the eighty-six children who to that period had been admitted into the establishment.
Old newspapers, as daguerreotyping the facts, and even the feelings of any particular period, are sometimes invaluable. In New York, as everywhere else, Whitefield had his enemies, and many charges were brought against him. But that there were those who took a strongly favorable view of his character and conduct, is very clear from an extract we give from "The New York Post-Boy," of April, 1746: "Mr. Whitefield's excellent parts, fine elocution, and masterly address; his admirable talent of opening the Scriptures, and enforcing the most weighty subjects upon the conscience; his polite and serious behavior, his unaffected and superior piety, his prudence, humility, and catholic spirit, are things which must silence and disarm prejudice itself. By these qualifications of the orator, the divine, and the Christian, he has not only fixed himself deeper in the affections of his former friends, but greatly increased the number wherever he has preached; and made his way into the hearts of several who, till this visit, had said all the severe things against him that enmity itself seemed capable of."
From this period, this paper especially noticed the various movements of this apostolic man; his arrivals in the city, his engagements in it, his departures from it, and the places of his destination, were all given with the minutiæ with which even the movements of monarchs are recorded.
It was not without its use that the organs of the public thus expressed their high sense of his character. In 1745, suspicions were whispered abroad as to the entire integrity of this excellent man in the appropriation of the funds collected for Bethesda. But happily for all parties, the magistrates of Savannah published in the Philadelphia Gazette an affidavit, that they had carefully examined Mr. Whitefield's receipts and disbursements, and found that what he had collected in behalf of the orphans, had been honestly applied, and that besides, he had given considerably to them of his own property.
Having done what he could at Bethesda, feeling his health failing him, needing resources for his orphans, and urged on by his love of preaching, Whitefield was soon again in the field, far away from his home. In the autumn of 1746, we find many passages in his journals and letters like these, while in Maryland: "I trust the time for favoring this and the neighboring southern provinces is come. Everywhere, almost, the door is opened for preaching, great numbers flock to hear, and the power of an ascended Saviour attends the word. For it is surprising how the Lord causes prejudices to subside, and makes my former most bitter enemies to be at peace with me.... Lately I have been in seven counties in Maryland, and preached with abundant success." At Charleston, South Carolina, he writes, January 1747, "The Lord Jesus is pleased to give me great access to multitudes of souls." A few weeks later, he writes from the same place, that Bethesda was never in a better condition; that he had opened a Latin school there during the winter, and that he hoped yet to see ministers furnished from Georgia.
In April, we again find him in Maryland, as he writes on the twenty-fifth of that month from Bohemia, in that province, and speaks of the success of Mr. Samuel, afterwards President Davies, in Virginia, but adds that a proclamation had been issued in that state against itinerants, so that he himself was shut out of it. In the middle of May he exults, "Maryland is yielding converts to the blessed Jesus. The gospel seems to be moving southward. The harvest is promising. The time of the singing birds is come;" and five days afterwards he says, "I have been now a three hundred miles' circuit in Maryland, and through one or two counties in Pennsylvania. Everywhere the people have a hearing ear, and I trust some have an obedient heart."
On the first of June we find him in Philadelphia, from whence he writes, "At present I have full work here. The congregations yesterday were large, and for this month past I have been preaching to thousands in different places." During the whole of this month his health was in a very critical state. Here we have a few sentences from his pen, as given on different days: "I am sick and well, as I used to be in England; but the Redeemer fills me with comfort. I am determined, in his strength, to die fighting.... I have almost a continual burning fever. With great regret I have omitted preaching one night to oblige my friends, and purpose to do so once more, that they may not charge me with murdering myself. But I hope yet to die in the pulpit, or soon after I come out of it.... Since my last, I have been several times on the verge of eternity. At present I am so weak that I cannot preach. It is hard work to be silent, but I must be tried every way."