“Yesterday, I was enabled to preach five times, and, I suppose, the last time to near twenty thousand. At Edinburgh, I preached twice every day to many thousands, among whom were many of the noble and polite. Attention sits on the faces of all; and friends come round me, like so many bees, to importune me for one week’s longer stay in Scotland.”
As already stated, Whitefield started, from Edinburgh to London, on Tuesday, August 7th. On Wednesday, he preached at Berwick, and again on Thursday morning. On Thursday night, he arrived at Alnwick, and “it being the time of the races,” he preached on the words, “So run that ye may obtain.” He writes:—
“Whilst I was discoursing, the gentlemen came down from the race, and surrounded the congregation, and heard very attentively. The next morning, at five, I preached again; and, about noon, at a place called Placey; and, in the evening, about nine, at Newcastle, where a great number expected me, and my text was, ‘At midnight, a cry was made, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh.’”
On the Sunday following, he wrote to Mr. Gillies, of Glasgow:—
“I am to preach three times every day this week. This promise supports me—‘As thy day is, so shall thy strength be.’ By the enclosed, you will see the devil owes me a grudge for what was done at Glasgow. Would it not be proper to insert a paragraph to contradict it?”
Next day, August 13th, he wrote to another friend:—
“My route is now fixed. After preaching here” (Newcastle) “and hereabouts three times each day, I am to leave this place on Thursday; to be at Stockton on Sunday; at Osmotherley on Monday noon; lie at Topcliff, and reach York, by way of Boroughbridge, on Tuesday next; and then come forwards to Leeds.
“I could not finish this letter last night. It is now Tuesday morning. Surely heaven came down amongst us, under the last evening’s preaching. It was almost too much for my body. I must away to Horsley to preach, from whence I am to return here to preach again this evening. Thrice a day tries me, but in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. If you hear of a mob being raised, by my preaching, at Glasgow, assure your friends there was none; but Satan owes me a grudge for speaking against the play-house.”
It is important to bear in mind, that, at nearly all, if not actually all, the places in the north of England, where Whitefield preached, there were meeting-houses and Societies belonging to his friend Wesley. In truth, whatever might be the case in London, Whitefield, in the country, was Wesley’s fellow-labourer. There was no formal and avowed union between the two, and, on some important doctrines, they differed; but wherever Whitefield went, Wesley’s people were prepared to welcome him; and he was equally prepared to do them all the good he could.[332] Osmotherley[333] is mentioned in the foregoing extract. This was a small moorland village, quite out of Whitefield’s way to London, and difficult of access; but one of Wesley’s Societies had been formed even here, and they were about to erect a chapel. On no other ground, except that Whitefield, without professing it, was acting as Wesley’s lieutenant, is it possible to account for Whitefield’s visits to places like Osmotherley, Placey, Horsley, Sheephill, Stockton, and others which might be mentioned.
The mob at Glasgow has been named. The explanation is, the proprietor of a play-house was supposed to be so affected by Whitefield’s preaching, that he, at once, began to take down the roof of his edifice. Either through malice or misinformation, several of the newspapers of the day represented this as being done by a mob, under the exciting influence of Whitefield’s ministry.[334] Whitefield hadbeen so often mobbed himself, that he had no wish to be announced as allied to mobs. Hence, before he left Newcastle, he wrote the following letter, which was printed, by the publishers, in the Newcastle Journal:—