"Some of Mr. Whitefield's enemies affected to suppose that he
would apply these collections to his own private emolument;
but I, who was intimately acquainted with him, (being employed
in printing his sermons, journals, etc.,) never had the least
suspicion of his integrity; but am, to this day, decidedly of
opinion that he was, in all his conduct, a perfectly _honest
man_. Our friendship was sincere on both sides, and lasted
to his death. He used sometimes to pray for my conversion,
but never had the satisfaction of believing that his prayers
were heard. Upon one of his arrivals from England, at Boston,
he wrote to me that he should come soon to Philadelphia, but
knew not where he could lodge when there, as his old friend
and host, Mr. Benezet, was removed to German Town. My answer
was, 'You know my house. If you can make shift with its scanty
accommodation, you will be most heartily welcome.' He replied
that, if I made that kind offer for _Christ's_ sake, I should
not miss of a reward. And I returned, 'Don't let me be mistaken;
it is not for _Christ's_ sake, but for _your_ sake.' This
incident will shew the terms on which we stood.
"The last time I saw Mr. Whitefield was in London, when he
consulted me about his Orphan-house concern, and his purpose
of appropriating it to the establishment of a college. He had
a loud and clear voice,[333] and articulated his words so
perfectly that he might be heard and understood at a great
distance, especially as his auditories observed the most
perfect silence.[334] He preached one evening from the top
of the Court House steps, which are in the middle of Market
Street, and on the west side of Second Street, which crosses
it at right angles. Both streets were filled with his hearers
to a considerable distance. Being among the hindmost in Market
Street, I had the curiosity to learn how far he could be heard,
by retiring backwards down the street towards the river, and
I found his voice distinct till I came near Front Street,
when some noise in that street obscured it. Imagining then a
semicircle, of which my distance should be the radius, and that
it was filled with auditors, to each of whom I allowed two
square feet, I computed that he might well be heard by more than
thirty thousand. By hearing him often, I came to distinguish
easily between sermons newly composed and those which he had
often preached in the course of his travels. His delivery of
the latter was so improved by frequent repetition, that every
accent, every emphasis, every modulation of the voice, was
so perfectly well turned and well placed, that, without being
interested in the subject, one could not help being pleased with
the discourse. His writing and printing from time to time, gave
great advantage to his enemies. Unguarded expressions, and even
erroneous opinions, delivered in preaching, might have been
afterwards explained or qualified; but _litera scripta manet_.
Critics attacked his writings violently, and with so much
appearance of reason, as to diminish the number of his votaries,
and prevent their increase. So that, I am satisfied that if he
had never written anything, he would have left behind him a
much more numerous and important sect; and his reputation, in
that case, would have been still growing even after his death;
because, there being nothing of his writing on which to found
a censure and give him a lower character, his proselytes would
be left at liberty to attribute to him as great a variety of
excellences as their enthusiastic admiration might wish him to
have possessed."[335]
[333] It is said that once, when preaching on Society Hill,
Whitefield was heard at Gloucester Point, a distance, by water, of
two miles. (Belcher's Biography of Whitefield, p. 102.)
[334] The following anecdote is given, as a foot-note, in Franklin's
Memoirs. Early in life, Whitefield was preaching in a field. A
drummer, who happened to be present, rudely beat his drum to drown
the preacher's voice. Whitefield spoke very loud, but failed to make
himself heard. "Friend," cried he, "you and I serve the two greatest
masters existing: you beat up for volunteers for King George; I for
the Lord Jesus. In God's name, let us not interrupt each other.
The world is wide enough for both; and we may get recruits in
abundance." The drummer went away in great good humour, and left
Whitefield in full possession of the field.
[335] "Memoirs of Life and Writings of B. Franklin," vol. i., p. 87.
A testimony such as this from an outsider like Benjamin Franklin
is worth quoting. What about others? The Rev. John Muirhead, in a
letter to the Rev. Ralph Erskine, wrote:--
"Mr. Whitefield, that man of God, came into this town last
September, and preached with surprising success. Consolation
and thunder were intermixed in all his discourses, so that
numbers were made to cry out, 'What shall we do to be saved?'
While the iron might be said to be hot, that Boanerges, Mr.
Gilbert Tennent, came, and laboured with still greater success
among us. Many hundreds of souls came under great distress.
Lectures are set up and continued almost every day in the week.
God's blessed Spirit is poured out on some of all ages and
complexions. God has perfected praise from the mouths of many
hundreds of children. Many poor Ethiopians are made to stretch
out their hands to God. In my little congregation, a hundred and
seventy-eight souls have applied to me, either to relate what
God had done for them, or to ask direction how to manage under
soul trouble. One thing I would notice, the work of Christ has
been greater since these men of God have gone hence; but they
brought the sacred fire along with them, and now it is kindled
into a divine flame. God has made many townships and ministers
light tapers at our torches; namely, Roxburg, Brookline,
Cambridge, Charleston, Ipswich, Newburg, Rhode Island, with many
more towns through almost all the provinces of English America.
I do not know that I have ever read anything like this blessed
time since the apostles' days."[336]
[336] "Life and Diary of the Rev. Ralph Erskine," p. 284.