WHITE LINES ON BLACK FACES.
“Suffice that for the season past
Hell's horrid language filled our tongues,
We all Thy words behind us cast,
And loudly sang the drunkard's songs.
“But oh the power of grace divine!
In hymns we now our voices raise,
Loudly in strange hosannas join,
While blasphemies are turned to praise.
“Bring your harps and bring your odors'
Sweep the harp and pour the lay!
View His works! behold His wonders!
Let hosannas crown the day!”
IN the year 1734 Whitefield was ordained by Bishop Benson. "I have thrown myself blindfold and I trust without reserve into God's almighty hands," said Whitefield; "only I would have you observe that till you hear of my dying for or in my work you will not be apprised of all the preferment that I expect. For I would willingly go to prison or to death so that I could bring but one soul from the devil's stronghold unto the salvation which is in Christ Jesus.”
In this spirit he left England on the 28th of December, 1737, in the 23rd year of his age, in order to visit the English colony of Georgia in North America. He took with him a sum of three hundred pounds which he had collected for the poor of that colony. The captain and crew of the vessel in which he sailed were at first very hostile, but Whitefield prudently endeavored to disarm their hostility.
“I will not force them to hear doctrines that they intensely dislike," he said. "Let me first win their love, and then they will readily hear my message.”
Accordingly he went about from cabin to forecastle nursing the sick and rendering little offices of kindness to one and another, who thereby became intensely attached to him. After a time the captain said to Whitefield—
“Well you are a singular parson; I never saw one before who would go among the sailors, nursing them as you do. You are not paid for doing such work as this.”
“I am called upon to do anything and everything that lies within my power in order to make men happier.”
“I am not a man generally to go from my word, but you can preach to the sailors if you like. It may do the poor fellows some good and they will be glad enough to hear you, I daresay.”
“I will be thankful to avail myself of your kind permission, but if I preach to the servants in the forecastle, why shouldn't I preach also to the masters in their cabin?”
“I wish you hadn't asked me that, but if it will please you to do so, why by all means preach in the cabin also.”
Thus all the voyage through George Whitefield labored to win the love of his fellow-passengers and thereby to guide them to Christ. And when he landed in Georgia he continued to employ the same methods, although by so doing he very much vexed some of his friends.
“It is not dignified," they said. "Why he goes from house to house expounding the Scriptures. It is irregular and shocking. The man must be enthusiastic or else he is mad.”
“If he be mad, I wish that he would bite some of the other ministers, and infect them with his madness," said another. "For my part, I think the man is soberly in earnest, and even when I do not agree with him, he fills my soul with fervent love to Christ.”
“And now he is thinking of founding an orphan house. What right has he to meddle with other people's business I should like to know? He is paid to preach, not to bother us about a lot of children who have no sort of claim whatever upon us.”
“Except the claim that George Whitefield cannot resist—that is the claim of want and helplessness. I think that his care for the orphans is a very noble thing.”
“Well, when he goes home to England, he will perhaps regret having made himself so obnoxious here, in preaching such doctrines as he has done. We can reach him over the sea, and we will make him smart for what he has done.”
And the man was as good as his word, for when Whitefield returned home to England he found that not a clergyman would allow him to preach in his pulpit. Even in Bristol, where he had been extremely popular, the clergymen preached against Whitefield, and some of the preachers threatened their parishioners with legal proceedings if they permitted the innovator to pray and expound in their houses. The chancellor of the diocese endorsed this infamous persecution.
“How dare you preach here?" he asked Whitefield.
"You have not a license, sir.”
“I did not know that I required to have one.”
“The canons say that you must not pray in a private house.”
“And the same canons also require that a clergyman should not play at cards nor frequent taverns, and yet both are permitted in this diocese. If you allow the one, why not permit the other? I can do no harm by exhorting a few poor people to mend their ways and believe in Jesus Christ, surely.”
“I am resolved, sir," said the chancellor angrily, "if you dare to preach or expound anywhere within my jurisdiction, I will first suspend you, and then I will excommunicate you.”
Whitefield went to his brother, who also resided in Bristol, and related to him what the chancellor had said.
“Why heed him?" asked his brother. “If you are forbidden to preach in the churches, the fields are open to you. They cannot prevent you preaching in the open-air. And for a congregation you have not much need to look far for them. And first, see how great their needs are! Talk of the heathen! the poor colliers in Kingswood are as bad as any Indians can be. George, go and preach to them.”
George Whitefield acted upon this wise advice, and he preached to about two hundred of the neglected miners. He was so delighted with his success upon this occasion, that he went again, once more accompanied by his brother.
The trees and hedges were soon crowded with the poor fellows, many of them of the most lawless and abandoned type. There were upwards of ten thousand present, soiled and dirty, just as they had flung down their picks and left the coal heaps.
“Oh! brother," said Whitefield afterward, "it made my heart melt with tenderness when I looked upon these poor outcasts. I felt that for their hardness and impenitence Christian people had been largely responsible, and I pitied them so greatly that the tears ran down my cheeks. And there was an awful hush as I felt the might of God come down upon my soul. I spoke for nearly an hour and so loudly that all of them heard me. They had no righteousness of their own to renounce, and the poor things melted at the news that Jesus is a friend of publicans and sinners. Then it was wonderful to see how the tears ran down their faces, and made white gutters on their black cheeks. Hundreds and hundreds of them were melted down by the love of God and brought under deep conviction of sin. Thank God for such a sight! Oh! what a Savior He is to be able to redeem even Kingswood colliers!”
The success of this (as it was then) extraordinary experiment led to Whitefield's attempting a similar method of Christian service in London. The news of his intention startled all the city, and it amazed people to hear that he intended to preach at Moor-fields as much as it would have done if he had announced his intention to fly through the air. Many attempted to dissuade him from the dangerous undertaking; indeed, not a few of his friends supposed that he would certainly be killed by the mob. But although the roughs broke his table to pieces they permitted him to preach from the wall that then divided Moorfields into two parts.
He wrote to his brother an account of the surprising day thus:—
“I began to be yet more vile yesterday than ever I was before, for I ventured on the last Sunday in April, 1739, to preach to an exceeding great multitude in Moorfields. They hooted and yelled and some of them flung stones and other missiles at me, but I remained calm for I felt that I was in the path of duty and that therefore I could not be harmed. They calmed down after a time a little, and then they heard me with some attention. In the evening of that day I went to Kennington Common and preached to upwards of twenty thousand people. I never saw such a sight in all my life; there was an awful silence in the crowd and for the space of an hour-and-a-half I uttered the counsel of God. Oh! brother, but it was good to see how the people hung upon the word of life! Pray God that some of them may be saved. Oh! brother, a true faith in Christ Jesus will never suffer us to be idle while souls are perishing. Faith is an active restless principle; it fills the heart so that it cannot be easy until it is doing something for Jesus Christ. How I do pity those who complain that time hangs upon their hands! Let them but love Christ and spend their whole time in His service and they will find comparatively few melancholy hours. I am myself only beginning to be Christian in this respect. Oh to be found faithful! I am a little child and a blind one too; I know nothing and I can do nothing except by the help of God my Savior. Lord, prepare me for all events and enable me to resemble Thee, who, in the days of Thy flesh wheresoever Thou didst go talked of nothing but the one thing needful.”
In this spirit Whitefield lived and preached, and although many mocked and many opposed him, God gave His blessing to the faithful preaching of the Gospel. Hundreds were converted, and many who were professing Christians were quickened in their love to Christ. The full measure of his success in work will only be known in the great day of results, when the Master shall reward His servants, every one according to their deeds. What will be thy reward then I Wilt thou be able to render an account without shame, or wilt thou be one who shall be saved so as by fire, and be crownless and ashamed I Our Lord speaks of some who shall be saved but of whom He shall be ashamed! Will it not then darken heaven to hear Him say, "You did nothing, bore little, reflected little glory: you may enter heaven, but I am ashamed of you?”
God deliver us from the ignominy of such a fate!