Charles Wesley often wrote more polished poetry than this, but his loving lines truthfully pourtray some of the features of Whitefield’s character, and, likewise, shew theprofound affection which he cherished for his brother George.
Before leaving the poets, another extract may be welcome. There is no evidence to shew that Whitefield and William Cowper were personally acquainted, but John Newton and some other of Cowper’s friends were among Whitefield’s most ardent admirers; and, therefore, it is not surprising that Cowper should have enshrined the famous preacher in his poesy. Soon after Whitefield’s death, Cowper wrote his well-known poem, entitled “Hope,” in which Whitefield was graphically described as follows:—
“Leuconomus (beneath well-sounding Greek)
I slur a name a poet must not speak,
Stood pilloried on infamy’s high stage,
And bore the pelting scorn of half an age,
The very butt of slander, and the blot
For every dart that malice ever shot.
“The man that mention’d him, at once dismiss’d
All mercy from his lips, and sneer’d and hiss’d;