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best was a very different matter from what it now is. The ship being out of repair, and poorly provisioned, the passengers and crew were soon reduced to an allowance of water, and the voyage proved a most perilous one.

HEROISM.

They were overtaken by a vessel having a plentiful supply of water and provision. The captain sent for Mr. Whitefield to come on board, and offered him a most commodious berth. But he declined to leave his shipmates in distress, and remained on board the vessel, sharing in their sufferings and fate. Here was genuine heroism! Here was nobleness of soul! Here was abnegation of self! The remainder of the voyage was still more distressing; not only on account of a short allowance, but also from being beset with terrific storms, fierce gales of wind, and huge waves, causing death to stare them in the face

son.

FRUIT.

Whitefield was instant in season and out of seaHe worked for his Master on the ocean as well as on the land. He was comforted with the large attendance on public worship twice a day, and the impressions that were made under the word. God gave him souls upon the ocean and in the midst of storms. The captain of the vessel cried out under the word, "Lord, break this heart of mine!" A Captain Gladman, one of the passengers, was converted; and afterward, at the earnest request of Whitefield, became his fellow-traveller.

Blessed are they that sow beside all waters ! After nine weeks' tossing and beating to and fro they heard the joyful cry of "land," and soon after found themselves safe in the harbor of Limerick.

Whitefield and the Chancellor.

Whitefield when rapidly rising to eminence as a popular minister visited Bristol. The Chancellor of that diocese had told him that he would not prohibit any minister from lending him a church; but in the course of a week he sent for him, and told him he intended to stop his proceedings. He then asked him by what authority he preached in the diocese of Bristol without a license. White

field replied, "I thought that custom obsolete." "And pray, sir," said the Chancellor, "why did you not ask the clergyman this question who preached for you last Thursday?" He then read to him those canons which forbade any minister preaching in a private house. Whitefield answered that he apprehended they did not apply to professed ministers of the Church of England. When he was informed of his mistake he said, "There is also a canon, sir, forbidding all clergymen to frequent taverns and to play at cards. Why is not that put in execution ?" and he added that, notwithstanding those canons, he could not but speak the things which he knew, and that he was resolved to proceed as usual. The answer was written down, and the Chancellor then said, "I am resolved, sir, if you preach or expound any

where in this diocese till you have a license I will first suspend and then excommunicate you." With this declaration of war they parted, but the advantage was wholly on the side of Whitefield.

In recording his interview with the Chancellor he says, "This day my Master honored me more than he ever did yet." He rejoiced that he was counted worthy to suffer for the cause of his Master, and on he went with his heaven-approved work.

Whitefield and his First Field Pulpit.

To Whitefield belongs the high honor of first. introducing field preaching. He was preaching one Sunday at Bermondsey Church to a crowded audience, and hundreds had gone away, not being able to find room, besides which there were a thousand people in the church-yard, and he had a strong inclination to go out and preach to them from one of the tomb-stones. "This," he says, "put me first upon thinking of preaching out of doors. I mentioned it to some of my friends, who looked upon it as a mad notion. However we knelt down and prayed that nothing might be done rashly."

Kingswood, that had in its day been a royal chase, was inhabited by colliers, who were savage and ignorant, and had no house of worship. Mr. Whitefield having spoken at Bristol of his being about to start for America for the purpose of converting the savages, some one remarked, "What

need of going abroad for this? Have we not Indians enough at home? If you have a mind to convert Indians, there are colliers enough in Kingswood." For these colliers Whitefield felt wonderful sympathy, they being very numerous, and like sheep without a shepherd. On Sabbath, February 17, 1739, he stood upon a mount, in a place called Rose Green, his "first field pulpit," and preached to the colliers the "word of life." "I thought," said he, "it might be doing the service of my Creator, who had a mountain for his pulpit and the heavens for a sounding-board; and who, when his Gospel was refused by the Jews, sent his servants into the highways and hedges." He had crossed the Rubicon. He was fully aware of the importance of this first step. In his Journal he says, "Blessed be God that the ice is now broken, and I have now taken the field. Some may censure me, but is there not a cause? Pulpits are denied, and the poor colliers ready to perish for lack of knowledge."

Field Preaching.

Whitefield having once taken the field was encouraged to go on, for God set the broad-seal of his approbation upon his course. All the churches being shut against him, and, if open, not able to contain half who came to hear him, he went again to Kingswood; his second audience consisted of two thousand persons, his third from four to five thousand, and they kept on increasing to ten, four

teen, and twenty thousand. "The sun shone very bright," he says, "and the people standing in such an awful manner round the mount, in the profoundest silence, filled me with holy admiration." On another occasion he says, "The trees and hedges were full. All was hushed when I began; the sun shone brightly, and God enabled me to preach for an hour with great power, and so loud that all could hear me." No wonder one exclaimed, "The fire is kindled in the country." The deep silence of his rude auditors was the first proof that he had impressed them; then he saw the white gutters made by the tears which plentifully rolled down their blackened cheeks-black as they came out of their coal-pits. "The opening firmament above me," says he, "the prospect of the adjacent fields with thousands and thousands in view, some in coaches, some on horseback, and some in the trees, and at times all affected and drenched in tears together-to which sometimes was added the solemnity of the approaching evening-were almost too much for, and quite overcame me."

Whitefield and John Wesley at Bristol.

Bristol is one of the most ancient and beautiful cities in England, and many persons of distinction have been born and buried there. It was the birthplace of Sebastian Cabot, the famous navigator, who first discovered the continent of America, and it was from this port that he sailed on his

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