"1739, March 14. Being forbid preaching in the prison, and,
withal, being resolved not to give place to my adversaries,
no, not for an hour, I preached at Baptist Mills, a place very
near to the city, to three or four thousand people. Blessed be
God! all things happen for the furtherance of the Gospel. I now
preach to ten times more people than I should if I had been
confined to the churches. Surely the devil is blind, and so
are his emissaries, or otherwise they would not thus confound
themselves. Every day I am invited to fresh places. I will go to
as many as I can; the rest I must leave unvisited till it shall
please God to bring me back from Georgia."
In this way, Whitefield became an itinerant outdoor preacher.
At four different times, he went to Bath. Here he met the Rev.
Griffith Jones, a devoted clergyman, who, two years before, had
instituted his locomotive schools for educating the children of the
poor in Wales, and who gave to Whitefield "an account of the many
obstructions" he had encountered in his ministry, and convinced his
visitor that he "was but a young soldier just entering the field."
Here also he was introduced to the Rev. George Thompson, Vicar of
St. Gennys, Cornwall, from the first a hearty friend of the Oxford
Methodists.[182] He read prayers at the hospital; and, in the midst
of a storm of snow, preached on the "Town Common." On another
occasion, he preached out of doors to a congregation of four or five
thousand, "of high and low, rich and poor." He writes: "As I went
along, I observed many scoffers; and, when I got upon the table to
preach, many laughed; but, before I had finished my prayer, all were
hushed and silent; and, ere I had concluded my discourse, God, by
His word, seemed to impress a great awe upon their minds; for all
were deeply attentive, and appeared much affected with what had been
spoken."
[182] Paul Orchard, Esq., of Stoke Abbey, was also now at
Bath, to whom James Hervey, his most intimate friend, wrote
as follows:--"1739, March 15. You have by this time seen Mr.
Whitefield, and are able to judge whether fame has flattered in the
account of him; or whether he be not indeed that amiable, excellent,
and heavenly young man which he was always represented to be."
(Letters Elegant, Interesting, and Entertaining, illustrative of the
author's amiable character. Never before published. By James Hervey.
London: 1811. 8vo. 348 pp.)
Whitefield went to Brislington, "a village," says he, "about two
miles from Bristol, where was such a vast congregation, that, after
I had read prayers in the church, I thought proper to preach in the
churchyard,[183] that none might be sent empty away. The people
were exceedingly attentive, and God gave me great utterance; and,
what was best of all, by the leave of the minister who invited me
thither, we had a sacrament, and I hope it was a communion of saints
indeed."
[183] It must be remembered that all these outdoor services were
held in the depth of winter.