“I have preached twice in St. Bartholomew’s Church, and helped to administer the sacrament once. I believe, on Sunday last, we had a thousand communicants. Moorfields are as white as ever unto harvest,and multitudes flock to hear the word. The old spirit of love and power seems to be revived amongst us.”
In another letter, written eight days later, he says:—
“It is too much for one man to be received as I have been by thousands. The thoughts of it lay me low, but I cannot get low enough. I would willingly sink into nothing before the blessed Jesus, my All in all.”
Whitefield, however, was not exempt from anxieties. His Bethesda debt was still a burden. Besides this, he wrote:—
“Satan has been sifting all our poor Societies. This is no more than I expected. Antinomianism has made havoc here; but, I trust, the worst is over. Our scattered troops begin to unite again, and the shout of a king is amongst us.”
There can be no question, that Whitefield’s presence was greatly needed by the Societies, of which he was moderator. Howell Harris was one of the most devoted and laborious preachers that ever lived; but his influence was not equal to that of Whitefield. In a letter, dated March 3, 1748, he speaks of having travelled about a thousand miles, in the depth of winter, since he left London on December 20th, and of having preached two, three,or four times every day.[191] Still the people were clamorous to have Whitefield back.
The Countess of Huntingdon, also, had lately been associated with the Societies with which Whitefield was connected; and, within the last two months, had been present at a series of memorable services in Wales. In the month of May, her ladyship and her daughters, accompanied by Lady Anne and Lady Frances Hastings, were met, in Bristol, by Howell Harris, and the Revs. Griffith Jones, Daniel Rowlands, and Howell Davies, three Methodist clergymen of the Church of England; and, as a sort of evangelistic cavalcade, the whole set out for the neighbouring principality. For fifteen days successively, two of the ministers, who accompanied the Countess, preached in the Welsh towns and villages, through which they passed. On their arrival at Trevecca, they were joined by five other clergymen, also by several pious and laborious Dissenting ministers, and a number of Whitefield’s preachers. Here they hadpreaching four or five times every day, immense crowds flocking together from all the adjacent country. The scenes witnessed by the Countess and the ladies attending her, were, to them, new and startling. Numbers of the people, convinced of their guilt and misery, gave utterance to loud and bitter cries; whilst others, filled with “joy unspeakable,” magnified the Lord, and rejoiced in God their Saviour. No wonder, that, after this, the Countess of Huntingdon deeply sympathised with these earnest clergymen and powerful preachers.
“On a review,” she writes, “of all I have seen and heard, during the last few weeks, I am constrained to exclaim, ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name!’ The sermons were, in general, lively and awakening, containing the most solemn and awful truths, such as the utter ruin of man by the fall, and his redemption and recovery by the Lord Jesus Christ, the energetic declaration of which produced great and visible effects in many. I enquired the meaning of the outcry which sometimes spread through the congregation; and, when informed that it arose from a deep conviction of sin, working powerfully on the awakened conscience, I could not but acknowledge, ‘This is the Lord’s doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes.’ Many, on these solemn occasions, there is reason to believe, were brought out of nature’s deepest darkness into the marvellous light of the all-glorious gospel of Christ. My earnest prayer to God for them is,that they may continue in His grace and love.”[192]
Accompanied by Howell Harris and Howell Davies, the Countess of Huntingdonarrived in London on the 15th of June,[193] exactly three weeks before Whitefield’s arrival there. Her ladyship, through Howell Harris, invited Whitefield to her house at Chelsea, where he, at once,began to preach to crowded and fashionable congregations.[194] This, to Whitefield, was the beginning of a new career. Henceforth, Hervey by his writings, and Whitefield by his preaching, began to mould the character of not a few of the highest nobility in the land.
Howell Harris was a glorious evangelist; but, somehow, he hardly succeeded in keeping Whitefield’s preachers in proper order. The Countess of Huntingdon was a remarkable woman; but she could scarcely preside, as a female prelate,in the “Associations,” or conferences of the Calvinistic Methodists. Five years ago, the preachers had elected Whitefield to be their moderator at all times when he was resident in England, and had decided that, in his absence, Howell Harris should be his substitute. For nearly four years past, Whitefield had been in America, and Harris had done his best, in governing as well as preaching. Affairs, however, had got into confusion; and, hence, a fortnight after Whitefield’s arrival in London, he resumed his place as moderator. The following is taken from the “Life and Times of Howell Harris,” and is an abridgment of the minutes entered in the “Conference Book,” already mentioned:—