“Honoured Madam,—Blessed be God! I have still good news tosend your ladyship. All was quiet at Manchester; and, I humbly hope,the Redeemer will gather to Himself a people there.[281] Kind Captain Galatin and his lady will acquaint you with particulars. I hope he will prove a good soldier of Jesus Christ. We had sweet seasons at places adjacent to Manchester. Only, at Bolton, a drunkard stood up to preach behind me; and a woman attempted twice to stab the person who was putting up a stand, for me to preach on, in her husband’s field. Since that, we have had very large and powerful meetings,where formerly were the most violent outrages.[282] Perhaps, within these three weeks, sixty thousand souls have heard the gospel. I am now in Mr. Ingham’s circuit, and purpose being at Kendal next Thursday.”
To this Whitefield appends the following postscript:—
“June 17th, seven in the morning. Last night Satan shewed his teeth. Some persons got into the barn and stable, and cut my chaise, and one of the horse’s tails. What would men do, if they could?”
Whitefield arrived at Kendal four days after this, where he wrote the following to his friend Hervey:—
“Kendal, June 21, 1750.
“Rev. and very dear Sir,—I arrived at Kendal this morning, where I shall preach this evening. An entrance is now made into Westmoreland. Pen cannot well describe the glorious scenes that have opened in Yorkshire, etc. Perhaps, since I saw you, seventy or eighty thousand have attended the word preached, in divers places. At Haworth, on Whit-Sunday, the church was almost thrice filled with communicants; and, at Kirby-Stephen, the people behaved exceedingly well.
“In my way, I have read Mr. Law’s second part of ‘The Spirit of Prayer.’ His scheme about the fall is quite chimerical; but he says many noble things. The sun has its spots, and so have the best of men. I want to see my own faults more, and those of others less. It will be so, when I am more humble. If mercies would make a creature humble, I should be a mirror of humility. But I am far from the mind that was in Jesus. You must pray, while I go on fighting. Next week, I hope to reach Edinburgh. You shall have notice of my return. Glad shall I be to meet such a friend upon the road.”
On the same day, he wrote to the Rev. William Baddiley, domestic chaplain to the Countess of Huntingdon. Mr.Baddiley was now in London, and his place at Ashby was supplied by the Rev. Charles Caspar Graves and the Rev. Mr. Simpson, the former a brave-hearted Oxford Methodist, who, in 1742, had accompanied Charles Wesley to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and helped him in forming the Methodist Society in that important town, and who, in the year following, preached, for months, among the almost incarnate fiends in Wednesbury, and in other parishes adjacent, but who now had a church not far from Lady Huntingdon’s country residence. Mr. Simpson, also, was one of the Oxford Methodists, and had been ordained, and presented to a living of considerable value in Leicestershire. This, however, he resigned, and, having left the Church of England, was now a Moravian minister at Ockbrook.
“Kendal, June 21, 1750.
“Rev. and very dear Sir,—I am glad you have sounded the silver trumpet in London. ‘Crescit eundo’ must be your motto and mine. There is nothing like keeping the wheels oiled by action. The more we do, the more we may do; every act strengthens the habit; and the best preparation for preaching on Sundays, is to preach every day in the week.