the settlement was all activity to build a preaching-room, to serve the place, pro tempore, of a church; how the sturdy Highlanders of Darien, settled under the pastoral care of a worthy minister named McLeod, crowded the house in which he preached to them at the end of a single day's visit; and how the Saltzburgers, who were settled, after weary wanderings over land and sea, at a place which their grateful hearts called Ebenezer, received him with brotherly love, while he 'joyed at beholding their order.' Their lands were the best cultivated in the colony, and yielded the best crops. Their differences were referred not to any court, but to the judgment of their two pastors, Boltzius and Gronau, whom they loved devotedly, and to whom they looked up as fathers. Their orphanhouse, founded on the model of Professor Franck's, of Halle, was a model of the one he was purposing to build; and when, at the close of his visit, the seventeen orphan children the little lambs,' he calls them-came and shook hands with him, his heart must have renewed its vow of devotion to all who were in like distress.

On Sunday, August 27, he preached his farewell sermon to his people, who, sorrowing to lose him, were comforted by his assurance that he would not delay his return to them. On the following day the chief magistrate, Mr. Causton, and the recorder, called to take their leave of him. The general demonstrations of affection for him overwhelmed him; and he took the first opportunity of ' venting his heart by prayers and tears.' 'O these partings!' he exclaims; hasten, O Lord, that time when we shall part no more!'

The voyage was to prove one of the most dangerous that he performed. When they had been a month at sea, they were caught by a gale from the east, which 'put all the sailors to their wits' end.' Sails were slit, and tackling rent. The sea broke over the vessel with such violence that not a dry spot was left anywhere; and

Whitefield, who slept in the most secure part, wrapped in a buffalo's hide, was drenched twice or thrice in one night. His composure and faith in God made so deep an impression on the crew, that they would say, 'How should we have been blaming and cursing one another, had not Mr. Whitefield been amongst us!'

The storm left the vessel sadly disabled, besides having destroyed or washed away a large portion of the provisions. There was the prospect of a tedious voyage and much hardship, and so it turned out. Contrary winds prevailed for a long time; at the end of October the passengers were allowed a quart of water a day. Their constant food for a long time was salt beef and water dumplings, which, says Whitefield, 'did not agree with the stomachs of all amongst us.' To bodily trials were added, in Whitefield's case, ' a variety of inward trials;' but these were in due time followed by great comfort.' No doubt the inactivity of his life, together with the excitement caused by danger, and the physical depression consequent on short rations, had quite their share in producing his inward trials;' although there is a solemn reality in that sense of spiritual desolation, as if God had forgotten the soul, or as if He had cast it away, of which Whitefield, in common with all devout men, frequently complained.

With a humble, constant recognition of the working of the Almighty in all things did Whitefield hold on to the close of this distressing voyage. Three days before they sighted land, most of those in the cabin had begun to be weak, and to look hollow-eyed. He exclaims, May we patiently tarry God's leisure! Amen! Amen!'" On November 11 they were reduced to an ounce or two of salt beef, a pint of muddy water, and a cake made of flour and skimmings of the pot, as the allowance for each Cold weather had also set in, and, to add to their distresses, they did not know where they were, there

man.

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being only a prevalent opinion that they were off the coast of Ireland. That day was closed with the appropriate prayer, May we now learn that man liveth not by bread alone.' And the next day, Sunday, November 12, opened with the grateful ascription, 'Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who this day hath visited a distressed people!' They had entered Carrickaholt Bay, in the mouth of the Shannon, and were hospitably received and succoured by Mr. Mac Mahon, whose house stood at the head of the bay.

Here Whitefield was kindly furnished with horses for his journey to Dublin; and on his way he called to pay his respects to Dr. Burscough, the bishop of Limerick, who received him with the utmost candour and civility.' The day being Sunday, the traveller was sure to be made the preacher; for nothing but absolute inability could ever keep him out of the pulpit. Limerick cathedral rung to his eloquence, and Irish hearts gave a quick and deep response. But for his unquestionable truthfulness in every detail of his life given by himself, and for the universally-attested fact that his sermons generally produced intense excitement and awakened for himself such a degree of personal affection as few men enjoy even among their friends, it would be hard to believe that, on the Monday, the inhabitants looked alarmed as they passed along the streets, and followed him wishfully with their eyes wherever he went; that one man compelled him to enter his house, and accept his hospitality; and that the bishop, when he took leave of him, kissed him, and said, Mr. Whitefield, God bless you; I wish you success abroad: had you stayed in town, this house should have been your home:'-yet such, he assures us, was the case.

At Dublin he preached with the same success; and was cordially received by Dr. Delany, dean of St. Patrick's, by Dr. Rundel, bishop of Derry, and by Dr. Boulter, primate of all Ireland. He dined with the primate, and

at his table heard an expression fall from the lips of Dr. Delany which he never forgot, and never failed to act upon:- I wish, whenever I go up into a pulpit,' said the Dean, to look upon it as the last time I shall ever preach, or the last time the people may hear.'

On December 8 he reached London, accompanied by some friends who had gone to meet him on his way. Wesley was at Oxford; and, as soon as the news of Whitefield's arrival reached him, he hastened up to London, and 'God gave us,' he says, 'once more to take sweet counsel together.'

At the close of such a year of travel and labour Whitefield had some reasons for winding up his journal with this emphatic verse:

CHAPTER V.

Dec. and Jan. 1738-39.

FETTER LANE MEETINGS-ORDAINED PRIEST.

NOTHING could have been more opportune for the welfare of Methodism in England than the arrival of John Wesley at Deal at the same time that Whitefield sailed for Georgia. The newly-kindled fire had no time to burn low. Wesley at once began his labours, and that with such power as to bring upon him the anger and opposition which must. have come upon Whitefield, had he stayed any longer in London. On Saturday, February 4, 1737-8, one day after his arrival in London, he preached at St. John the Evangelist's, and so offended many of the best of the parish, that he was afterwards informed he was not to preach there any more. Eight days afterwards he preached with the same result at St. Andrew's, Holborn; then in quick succession the doors of St. Lawrence's, St. Catherine Cree's, Great St. Helen's; St. Ann's, Aldersgate; St. John's, Wapping; St. Bennett's, Paul's Wharf; St. George's, Bloomsbury; and the chapel at Long Acre, were closed in his face. More rejections might have followed, but early in June he started with his friend Ingham to see the brethren at Hernhuth, that they might together be refreshed by fellowship with enlightened and saintly men, whom Wesley regarded with holy envy as possessors of spiritual truth which he understood not. His mind seems to have been in much the same condition as was Whitefield's in the early part of his Oxford life, yet none can think that he was so far from the kingdom of God as he always