Fetter Lane.--Popular preachers.--Old friends meet
again.--Love-feasts.--1739--Small beginning of a
great gathering.--A crowded church.--A lightning
thought.--But a shocking thing.--George
Whitefield's welcome at Bristol.--"You shall not
preach in my pulpit."--"Nor mine."--"Nor
mine."--Poor Mr. Whitefield.
WHILE Mr. Wesley was in Germany, his brother Charles had been preaching
and working in London, and when Mr. John returned he found about
thirty-two people had joined the society there. They had hired a room in
Fetter Lane, and here they held their meetings. Mr. Wesley had come back
so full of love to Jesus Christ, and therefore so full of love to
everybody, and so eager for all to be as happy as he was, that he soon
got many others to join them. When he wrote to his German friends, he
said: "We are trying here, by God's help, to copy you as you copy
Christ."
He and his brother still preached in any church where they were allowed,
and wherever they went crowds of poor people followed to hear them. They
used to go, too, to the prisons, and the hospitals, and preach to the
sinful and the suffering. They told them how Jesus forgave sins, and how
He used to heal the sick; and the sinful were made sorry, and the
suffering ones were comforted, and many believed in Jesus and prayed for
forgiveness.
Mr. Wesley had returned from Germany in September; a few months later
Mr. George Whitefield came back from Georgia. He had got on very well
with the people there, because he did not try to alter the ways they had
been accustomed to, unless it was really necessary.
Mr. Wesley went to meet his old friend, and, oh! how pleased they were
to see each other again. Mr. Whitefield joined the little society in
Fetter Lane, and they all worked together most happily.
I dare say most of my Methodist readers will have been to a love-feast;
those of you who have not, will at any rate have heard of them. Well, it
was just about this time that love-feasts were first started. The little
bands or companies that I told you about used to join together, and have
a special prayer meeting once a month on a Saturday; and the following
day, which, of course, was Sunday, they all used to meet again between
seven o'clock and ten in the evening for a love-feast--a meal of bread
and water eaten altogether and with prayer. It was a custom of the
Moravians, and it was from them Mr. Wesley copied it.
I have also heard that the love-feast was provided for the people, who
had walked a great many miles to hear Mr. Wesley preach, and were tired
and hungry. If this was the idea of the love-feast, they would have to
give the people a great deal more bread than they do now, or they would
still be hungry when they had done.
The year after Mr. Whitefield returned from Georgia, 1739, was a
wonderful year for the Methodists. It started with a love-feast and
prayer meeting, which lasted half through the night. Then a few days
later, on January 5th, the two Mr. Wesleys and Mr. Whitefield, with four
other ministers, met together to talk about all they hoped to do during
the year, and make rules and plans for their helpers and members.
I told you, if you remember, that first one pulpit and then another was
closed against these clergymen. At last there were only two or three
churches where they were allowed to preach. One day when Mr. Whitefield
was preaching in one of these, the people came in such crowds to hear
him, that hundreds could not get into the church. Some of them went
away, but a great number stood outside.
All at once there flashed across Mr. Whitefield's mind this thought:
"Jesus preached in the open air to the people, why can't I?" Numbers
had often before been turned away when he preached, but he had never
thought of having a service outside a church, it seemed a most shocking
thing. However, the message seemed to come straight from God. He dared
not act on it at once, for you see he was a clergyman, and had always
been brought up to believe that inside the church was the only place
where people can properly worship God.
When he mentioned the matter to his friends, some of them were very much
shocked, and thought to preach in the open air would be a very wrong
thing. But some said: "We will pray about it, and ask God to show us
what we ought to do." So they knelt down and prayed to be guided to do
the right thing.
Soon after this Mr. Whitefield went to Bristol, where he had been liked
so much before he went to America. When he got there he was invited to
preach first in one church and then in another, all were open to him.
But before very long the clergymen in the place showed that they
disapproved of the plain way in which he spoke to the people, and they
told him they would not allow him to preach in their pulpits again.
By and by all the churches were closed against him, and there was
nowhere but the prison where he was allowed to preach. Soon the mayor of
Bristol closed that door also.
Poor Mr. Whitefield! what could he do now? I think I know one thing he
would do. He would turn to his Bible, and there he would read: "In all
thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."
In the next chapter you shall hear how God fulfilled His promise to
George Whitefield.
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