[511] Whitefield's "field-pulpit" was in existence, at the Tabernacle, Moorfields, as recently as 1839. (See "Services at the Centenary of Whitefield's Apostolic Labours, 1839," p. 22.) It so happens, however, that, in this very year 1876, another pulpit, or perhaps the same, is on view in the great Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia. The following is taken from the London Watchman and Wesleyan Advertiser, of June 14, 1876: "The portable pulpit of George Whitefield, which belongs to the American Tract Society, is on view at the Centennial Exhibition. It is made of pine wood, and is so contrived that it can be easily taken apart and put together. The great preacher delivered more than two thousand sermons from this pulpit in the fields of England, Wales, and America; and he once remarked that the gospel had been preached from it to more than ten millions of people."
[512] Whitefield's Works, vol. i., p. 383.
[513] Charles Square, Hoxton, was a favourite preaching place of the first Methodists. The following, taken from the New Weekly Miscellany, pretends to describe one of these preaching scenes: "When the teacher ascends the place appointed for him, he uses all the gestures of a mountebank, or posture-master. His constant hearers are frequently about two thousand,—all of them the scum of the people, and consisting of near ten women to one man. Of the rest of the people, some are coming only to look on, and satisfy their curiosity; and others are going off as soon as their curiosity is satisfied. Some are laughing, others swearing; some are selling gin, and others ballads. Some take the opportunity of vending the printed controversies between Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Wesley; others are in a maze to see religion brought into such contempt and ridicule by men in gowns. The houses of the gentlemen living in the Square are filled with their acquaintances, from the city, as though they had come to see bears or monkeys. One of the gentlemen said, he would get a French horn, for his diversion during the time of these preaching performances. The story took air, and near a hundred of the gang stood before his house, as if they intended to assault it; while the preacher, in his gown, looked at the gentleman, and said, 'You unbeliever! you are certainly damned!'"
[514] Wesley's Works, vol. i., p. 302.
[515] See "Memoirs of James Hutton," pp. 109, 110.
Transcriber's note:
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