“Do continue to be earnest in prayer to God for us. I want much humbling. Spiritual pride, at present, is my grand temptation.
“Having not any spare time, I am forced to write thus in haste, andconclude with subscribing myself your poorest son and servant for Christ’s sake,
“Rowland Hill.”[611]
The foregoing letter is valuable for its facts, if for nothing else. Rowland Hill was evincing courage hardly inferior to that of the first Oxford Methodists. Without courting persecution, he was not afraid of it. To be laughed at was not pleasant, but it was not heeded. Rowland was no longer threatened with expulsion; but he was made the object of collegiate ridicule. Eight months after this, he proceeded to his B.A. degree, and his name appeared in the list of honours.
There can be no doubt that one of the best ways to propagate any new creed or system is to implant it in the national Universities. Whether designedly or otherwise, Methodism had thus been rooted at both Oxford and Cambridge. The Heads of Houses at Oxford did their utmost to destroy it. Those at Cambridge were not so ruthless. Why? Was it because the expelled at Oxford were of low degree? and because the Cambridge leader, Rowland Hill, was the son of an English baronet? Perhaps it was.
Whitefield was generally jubilant. His path was often rough and difficult, but he pursued it singing. The following was addressed to Captain Joss:—
“London, May 17, 1768.
“My dear Man,—Go forward! go forward! is the watchword of the present day. Never mind the envious cry of elder brethren. Had they been hearkened to, the Prodigal must never have come home, nor Goliath’s head have been cut off. All temple-builders, especially when called to work in the field, must endure, not only the contradiction of sinners, but, the contradiction of saints. Happy are they who are so deeply engaged in building as not to have time to hearken to either. I long to come and lend a helping, though feeble hand. But Welsh horses move slowly. If the Welsh apostle comes, I purpose, in the Whitsun week, to make a short excursion into Sussex and Kent, and then for Bristol.
“Blessed be God! the shout of a King is heard in our camps. Let us march forward, with palms of victory in our hands, crying, ‘Hallelujah! The Lord God omnipotent reigneth!’”
A month after the date of this letter Whitefield was inEdinburgh; but how he went, and why he went, no one seems to know. His popularity, however, in the northern metropolis, was as great as ever. Hence he writes:—