“B. Ingham.”
The above is given verbatim from the manuscript letter, and is of great importance as revealing the views, doubts, and difficulties of the leaders of the Methodist movement.
Before proceeding further, it may be added that Ingham was not forgotten by his old friend Whitefield, who wrote to him as follows:—
“Savannah, March 28, 1740.
“How glad I should be of a letter from dear brother Ingham. When shall my soul be refreshed, with hearing that the work of the Lord prospers in his hand? I suppose before now you have received my letters and seen my journal. I believe God is yet preparing great things for us. Many at Charles-Town lately were brought to see their want of Jesus Christ. The Orphan House goes on bravely. I have forty children to maintain, besides workmen and their assistants. The great Householder of the world does, and will, I am persuaded, richly provide for us all. The colony itself is in a very declining way; but our extremity is God’s opportunity. Our brethren, I trust, go forwards in the spiritual life. I have often great inward trials. I believe it to be God’s will that I should marry. One, who may be looked upon as a superior, is absolutely necessary for the due management of affairs. However, I pray God, that I may not have a wife, till I can live as though I had none. You may communicate this to some of our intimates; for I would call Christ and His disciples to the marriage. If I am deluded, pray that God would reveal it to your most affectionate brother and servant,
“George Whitefield.”
In the midst of all this, a new evangelist sprang up, who, without the educational advantages of the Oxford Methodists, had a kindred soul.
John Nelson, the brave-hearted Yorkshire stonemason, after hearing almost all sorts of religionists,—Church of England men, Dissenters, Papists, and Quakers,—had been brought to a knowledge of the truth by Wesley. This was under the first sermon preached by Wesley in Moorfields. In 1740, Nelson returned to Yorkshire, and related to his friends his happy experience. He writes:—
“They begged I would not tell any one that my sins were forgiven, for no one would believe me, and they should be ashamed to show their faces in the street. I answered, ‘I shall not be ashamed to tell what God has done for my soul, if I could speak loud enough for all the men in the world to hear me at once.’ My mother said, ‘Your head is turned.’ I replied, ‘Yes, and my heart too, I thank the Lord.’”
He went to Adwalton, to hear Ingham preach; and remarked:—