Remarkable instances are related of the manner in which Whitfield
impressed his hearers. A man at Exeter stood with stones in his
pocket, and one in his hand, ready to throw at him; but he dropped
it before the sermon was far advanced, and going up to him after
the preaching was over, he said, "Sir, I came to hear you with an
intention to break your head; but God, through your ministry, has
given me a broken heart." A ship-builder was once asked what he
thought of him. "Think!" he replied, "I tell you, sir, every Sunday
that I go to my parish church, I can build a ship from stem to stern
under the sermon; but, were it to save my soul, under Mr. Whitfield I
could not lay a single plank." Hume pronounced him the most ingenious
preacher he had ever heard; and said, it was worth while to go twenty
miles to hear him. But, perhaps, the greatest proof of his persuasive
powers was, when he drew from Franklin's pocket the money which that
clear, cool reasoner had determined not to give; it was for the
orphan-house at Savannah. "I did not," says the American philosopher,
"disapprove of the design; but as Georgia was then destitute of
materials and workmen, and it was proposed to send them from
Philadelphia at a great expense, I thought it would have been better
to have built the house at Philadelphia, and brought the children to
it. This I advised; but he was resolute in his first project, rejected
my counsel, and I therefore refused to contribute. I happened, soon
after, to attend one of his sermons, in the course of which I
perceived he intended to finish with a collection, and I silently
resolved he should get nothing from me. I had in my pocket a handful
of copper money, three or four silver dollars, and five pistoles in
gold. As he proceeded I began to soften, and concluded to give the
copper; another stroke of his oratory made me ashamed of that, and
determined me to give the silver; and he finished so admirably, that
I emptied my pocket wholly into the collector's dish, gold and all.
"At this sermon," continues Franklin, "there was also one of our club,
who, being of my sentiments respecting the building in Georgia, and
suspecting a collection might be intended, had, by precaution, emptied
his pockets before he came from home; towards the conclusion of the
discourse, however, he felt a strong inclination to give, and applied to
a neighbour who stood near him, to lend him some money for the purpose.
The request was fortunately made to perhaps the only man in the company
who had the firmness not to be affected by the preacher. His answer was,
'At any other time, friend Hopkinson, I would lend to thee freely; but
not now, for thee seems to me to be out of thy right senses.'"
One of his flights of oratory, not in the best taste, is related on
Hume's authority. "After a solemn pause, Mr. Whitfield thus addresses
his audience:--'The attendant angel is just about to leave the
threshold, and ascend to heaven; and shall he ascend and not bear with
him the news of one sinner, among all the multitude, reclaimed from the
error of his ways!' To give the greater effect to this exclamation, he
stamped with his foot, lifted up his hands and eyes to heaven, and cried
aloud, 'Stop, Gabriel! stop, Gabriel! stop, ere you enter the sacred
portals, and yet carry with you the news of one sinner converted to
God!'" Hume said this address was accompanied with such animated, yet
natural action, that it surpassed any thing he ever saw or heard in any
other preacher.--_Southey_.
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