“Contrary to my intentions, I have been prevailed on to stay all this week in Gloucester; so that I do not expect to be at Bristol till the 12th instant. I am sorry to hear you are ill of an ague. Everything we meet with here, is only to fit us more and more for a blessed hereafter. Christ is the believer’s hollow square; and if we keep close in that, we are impregnable. Here only I find my refuge. Garrisoned in this, I can bid defiance to men and devils. O, my dear sir, what did I experience on the road this day! How did I rejoice at the prospect of a judgment to come, and in the settled conviction that I have no designs but to spend and be spent for the good of precious and immortal souls. The hand of the Lord Jesus, without adding our carnal policy to it, will support His own cause. When human cunning is made use of, what is it, but, like Uzzah, to give a wrong touch to the ark of God, and to provoke God to smite us? A bigoted, sectarian, party spirit cometh not from above, but is sensual, earthly, devilish. Many of God’s children are infected with it. They are sick of a bad distemper. May the Spirit of God convince and cure them!”
On arriving at Bristol, Whitefield wrote to the Countess of Huntingdon, as follows:—
“Bristol, February 12, 1750.
“Honoured Madam,—Since I wrote last, we have been favoured bothin Gloucester city, and in the country, with very pleasant and delightful seasons. I have preached about twenty times within these eight or nine days; and, though frequently exposed to rain and hail, am much better than when I left London. Everything I meet with seems to carry this voice with it,—‘Go thou and preach the gospel. Be a pilgrim on earth. Have no party, or certain dwelling-place; but be continually preparing for, and labouring to prepare others for, a house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens.’ My heart echoes back,—‘Lord Jesus, help me to do or suffer Thy will! And, when Thou seest me in danger of nestling, in pity, put a thorn in my nest, to preserve me from it!’”
On his way to Plymouth, Whitefield held sweet intercourse with two eminently pious Dissenting ministers,—the well-known Rev. Richard Pearsall, of Taunton, and the Rev. Risdon Darracott, of Wellington. Writing to Lady Huntingdon, he said:—
“Plymouth, February 25, 1750.
“The day after I wrote my last letter to your ladyship, I preached three times, once at Kingswood, and twice at Bristol. It was a blessed day. The next morning, I came on my way rejoicing. At Taunton, I met with Mr. Pearsall, a Dissenting minister,a preacher of righteousness before I was born.[269] At Wellington, I lay at the house of one Mr. Darracott, a flaming successful preacher of the gospel, and who may justly be styled,‘the star in the West.’[270] He has suffered much reproach; and, in the space of three months, has lost three lovely children. Two of them died the Saturday evening before the sacrament was to be administered; but weeping did not hinder sowing. He preached next day, and administered as usual; and, for his three natural, the Lord has given him above thirty spiritual children. He has ventured his little all for Christ; and last week a saint died, who left him £200 in land. At his place, I began to take the field for this spring. At a very short warning, a multitude assembled. The following evening, I preached at Exeter; and last night and this morning I have preached here. This afternoon, God willing, I am to take the field again.”
Mention has been already made of Benjamin Franklin issuing his “Proposals relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania,” a step which led to the founding of the present university of Philadelphia. This was a subject in which Whitefield took a profound interest, not only becausethe meeting-house which had been built for himself was likely to be occupied for this purpose; but, also, because, knowing the principles of his friend Franklin, he was afraid that, in the proposed academy, religion might not occupy the position which it ought to have. Franklin had written him on the subject; and the following is the substance of his answer:—
“Plymouth, February 26, 1750.
“My dear Mr. Franklin,—I am glad that the gentlemen of Philadelphia are exerting their efforts to erect an academy. I have often thought such an institution was exceedingly wanted; and I am persuaded, if well conducted, it will be of public service. I have read your plan, and do not wonder at its meeting with general approbation. It is certainly well calculated to promote polite literature; but, I think, there wants aliquid Christi in it, to make it as useful as I would desire it might be.