“Honoured Sir,—Will you permit a young soldier of Jesus Christ to write to an experienced veteran, before he goes hence and is no more seen? I am sorry that my visit to York was short, yet glad that our Lord gave me to see you once more ready to sing your ‘Nunc dimittis,’ with steadiness and composure, if not with joy unspeakable. Happy, thrice happy, reverend sir! You have gone through that wilderness, which, if hoary hairs should be my lot, awaits me, your younger son and servant. Well! this is my comfort: I have the same Beloved to lean upon, as you have had. The way, though narrow, is not long; the gate, though strait, opens into life eternal. O that I might pass through it when young! But, Father, not my will, but Thine be done!
“Honoured sir, be pleased to pray for me. I remember you and your dear flock. May He, who kissed away the soul of His beloved Moses, appoint a Joshua to succeed you, when He bids you come up to the mount and die! I hope my cordial respects will find acceptance with your dear yoke-fellow; and I beg leave to subscribe myself, honoured sir, your most affectionate, though unworthy, younger son and willing servant in Him who liveth for ever,
“George Whitefield.”
Little more remains to be recorded respecting the year 1747. After spending a few days in Maryland, Whitefield passed into Virginia, where he “preached once, and would have preached oftener, but the small-pox was spreading.” He then “posted” to Bath-Town, North Carolina. Writing to a friend, he says:—
“I am hunting after poor lost sinners in these ungospelized wilds. People are willing to hear, and I am willing to preach. My body is weak, and a little riding fatigues me. I long to be dissolved, and to be with Jesus, but cannot die. I would have you still pray for me as a dying man;but O pray that I may not go off as a snuff. I would fain die blazing, not with human glory, but, with the love of Jesus.”
After riding “on horseback through the woods a hundred and sixty miles,” and preaching as he went, Whitefield, on October 18, arrived at Wilmington, Cape Fear. He then proceeded to Charleston; and, on October 26,set out for Georgia.[183] He closed the year, however, at Charleston. Hence the following, addressed to John Edwards, one of his preachers:—
“Charleston, December 28, 1747.
“My very dear Brother Edwards,—I have but just time to inform you that I wait for answers, to my last letters, from dear brother Harris and you, in order to be determined about my coming to England. My affairs here are brought under foot. If friends at home exert themselves, I may be freed from all outward embarrassments. The Lord is yet with me. All is well at Bethesda, and at my new plantation. My dear yoke-fellow is at the Orphan House. We are always praying for you all. The Lord be with you! That we may keep an eternal new year in the New Jerusalem, is the hearty prayer of, my very dear man,
“Ever yours, whilst
“George Whitefield.”[184]