But enough of floating anecdotes, which may, or may not be true.
It must be owned that Whitefield rendered but little service to "The Associate Presbytery," at whose invitation he went to Scotland; but that was the fault, not of Whitefield, but, of the members of the Presbytery themselves. His labours were almost entirely those of an evangelist preaching in the fields, or of a brother minister, belonging to another church, courteously admitted to the pulpits of the established Kirk of Scotland. His services, however, were none the less successful because not confined to the Seceders. There cannot be a doubt, that, as the labours of the Wesleys and of Whitefield were the means of quickening the religious life of the Church of England, so the labours of Whitefield were, to a great extent, the means of arousing the dormant energies of the sister Church of Scotland. Whitefield, as well as Knox, deserves a monument on the Calton Hill. Some evidence of this has been already furnished, and much more will be found in succeeding pages. Whitefield's own account of his first visit to Scotland may seem extravagant, and scarcely deserving of implicit credence. To silence such suspicion, the following extracts from letters written at the time, will be as useful as they are welcome.
A week after Whitefield's departure, a friend wrote to him as follows:—
"Edinburgh, November 5, 1741.
"In the Tolbooth Church," (where the Rev. Alexander Webster was minister,) "there has been at sacrament a hundred more than usual, whereof about thirty young ones had never been admitted before, and of these, eighteen were converted by your ministry."[480]
A fortnight later, another friend in Edinburgh said:—
"The seed sown by your ministry daily appears, and in new instances. I am told the first night a play was acted here this season there were but about six ladies at it; the second, two; and the third and last, none at all. The little children of this city cannot forget you. Their very hearts leap within them upon hearing your name."[481]
In another letter, from a friend in Scotland, dated, "December 12, 1741," it is stated, that, Whitefield spent five days in Glasgow, and preached ten times in the High Church yard, to vast multitudes reckoned at from ten to fifteen thousand. Above sixty persons were converted by his preaching.[482]
Six months after Whitefield's departure, a minister in Edinburgh wrote:—
"Since you left Scotland, numbers, in different places, have been awakened. Religion, in this sinful city, revives and flourishes. Ordinances are more punctually attended. People hear the word with gladness, and receive it in faith and love. New meetings, for prayer and spiritual conference, are being begun everywhere. Religious conversation has banished slander and calumny from several tea-tables. Praise is perfected out of the mouths of babes and sucklings. Some stout-hearted sinners are captivated to the obedience of Christ."[483]
In reference to the same city, Edinburgh, the Rev. Dr. Muir wrote:—