CHAPTER II.

1736.

HIS ORDINATION AS DEÁCON-ESSAYS IN PREACHING.

It was time for the irregular soldier to become a captain of the Lord's host ;-time, if a good understanding of the word of God, an intense delight in its spirit, and a fervent desire to preach it, together with abundant scope for the exercise of his talents and the concurrent favourable judgment of good men, could mark any day of a man's life as the time for him to go to the front. The homes of the poor and the gaols of Oxford and Gloucester had been, along with the halls of Oxford, the finest training schools for the coming leader. What progress he had made in learning, I cannot say; for all other considerations were lost in his supreme pleasure in religion. All learning was nothing in comparison of the knowledge of God and of His Son Jesus Christ, and in that knowledge he was well instructed; nor was he ignorant of his own heart, of its weakness and sinfulness. What natural fitness he had for speaking none could fail to perceive, when once they heard his rich, sweet voice, and saw the artless grace of all his movements. He had not waited for a bishop's ordination and license to preach the gospel to the poor, any more than Saul of Tarsus waited for apostolical recognition before preaching that Jesus is the Son of God;' but a license was ready so soon as he found peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.'

Whitefield was not in a hurry to be publicly ordained.

He was well pleased to toil among the lowest; and only at the suggestion of friends did the question of his receiving orders come into his mind. It imme

diately recalled to him the solemn words of St. Paul to Timothy: Not a novice, lest, being puffed up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil.' A question which he must answer on ordination-day, ‘Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this office and administration?' filled him with trembling. With strong crying and tears he often said, 'Lord, I am a youth of uncircumcised lips; Lord, send me not into the vineyard yet.' He even went so far as to ask the prayers of his Oxford friends, that God would confound the designs of his Gloucester friends to have him at once in orders; but they, as might have been expected, replied, 'Pray we the Lord of the harvest to send thee and many more labourers into His harvest.' Timidity still held its ground; he continued to pray against becoming a keeper of souls so soon.

As he had longed to be with the Methodists when he saw them insulted, but was staggered when the first experience of their daily shame came to his lot, so he was desiring the office of a bishop' while fearing to enter upon it. His sensitive nature was quick to feel the presence of difficulties, and frank to acknowledge them; and hence his course was fashioned, not by blindness to objections and insensibility to criticism, but by the commanding influence of the things of God.' Wesley said of him, that, "in whatever concerned himself, he was pliant and flexible; in this case he was easy to be entreated, easy to be either convinced or persuaded; but he was immovable in the things of God, or wherever his conscience was concerned. None could persuade, any more than affright, him to vary in the least point from that integrity which was inseparable from his whole character, and regulated all his words and actions.' When friends were urging

him to be ordained, and he was partially engaged in the very work to which ordination officially conducts the minister of the Gospel, he was pleasing himself with the persuasion that he could not enter holy orders for two more years, because Bishop Benson had expressed his resolution not to lay hands on any one who was under twenty-three years of age. That he strongly desired to do what yet he would not do, because his judgment and his conscience were not fully convinced, is evident from the way in which his mind ran in his dreams; for though he calls the dream spoken of in the next sentence a notice from God,' it was undoubtedly the consequence of his state of mind about the ministry. He says, Long ere I had the least prospect of being called before the bishop, I dreamed one night I was talking with him in his palace, and that he gave me some gold, which seemed to sound again in my hand. Afterward this dream would often come into my mind; and, whenever I saw the bishop at church, a strong persuasion would arise in my mind, that I should very shortly go to him. I always checked it, and prayed to God to preserve me from ever desiring that honour which cometh of man. One afternoon it happened that the bishop took a solitary walk-as I was afterwards told-to Lady Selwyn's, near Gloucester, who, not long before, had made me a present of a piece of gold. She, I found, recommended me to the bishop; and, a few days after, as I was coming from the cathedral prayers, thinking of no such thing, one of the vergers called after me, and said the bishop desired to speak with me. I-forgetful at that time of my dream-immediately turned back, considering what I had done to deserve his lordship's displeasure. When I came to the top of the palace stairs, the bishop took me by the hand, told me he was glad to see me, and bid me wait a little till he had put off his habit, and he would return to me again. This

gave me opportunity of praying to God for His assistance, and for His providence over me.

'At his coming again into the room, the bishop told me he had heard of my character, liked my behaviour at church, and inquiring my age, "Notwithstanding," says he, "I have declared I would not ordain any one under three and twenty, yet I shall think it my duty to ordain you whenever you come for holy orders." He then

made me a present of five guineas, to buy me a book; which, sounding again in my hand, put me in mind of my dream; whereupon my heart was filled with a sense of God's love.'

Eager friends knew of the interview before Whitefield got home, and were full of anxiety to learn what his lordship had said; and, on hearing it, they at once judged that he who should neglect such a plain leading of providence would be going against God. It was time to yield; Whitefield determined to offer himself for ordination the next Ember-days.

That determination made, the next question was as to his place of labour; and here contending interests disturbed him. At Gloucester he had been useful, and his friends wished to have him with them. But when he went up to Oxford, his old friends there made out a still more urgent case on behalf of his staying with them: John and Charles Wesley had sailed to Savannah to act as chaplains to a new colony there, and to attempt the conversion of the Creek Indians: the prisoners in the gaol needed some one to supply their lack of service: Whitefield had been as useful at Oxford as at Gloucester: Oxford was one of the schools of the prophets, and every student converted was a parish gained. To remove any objection of a pecuniary nature which might have been urged, application for money aid was made to Sir John Philips, who was a great friend of Methodists, and who at once said that Whitefield should have twenty pounds

a year from him, even if he did not stay at Oxford, but thirty pounds if he did. Oxford prevailed over Gloucester, but its triumph was not for long; all English-speaking countries came and claimed their right in him; and his large, brave heart was not slow to respond. Wesley uttered the fine saying-The world is my parish;' Whitefield, the most nearly of any man, made the saying a simple statement of fact.

Meanwhile devout and conscientious preparation was made for the approaching ordination, three days before which the candidate waited on the fatherly bishop who had shown him such marked kindness, and who now expressed his satisfaction both with the candidate's preparation and the provision of Sir John Philips; and further said, that, but for the intention concerning Oxford, with which he was well pleased, there were two little parishes which he had purposed to offer Whitefield. The ordination was to be on Trinity Sunday. The preceding day was spent by Whitefield in abstinence and prayer; in the evening,' he says, I retired to a hill near the town, and prayed fervently for about two hours, in behalf of myself and those who were to be ordained with me. On Sunday morning I rose early, and prayed over St. Paul's epistle to Timothy, and more particularly over that precept, 'Let no one despise thy youth;' and when the bishop laid his hands upon my head, if my vile heart doth not deceive me, I offered up my whole spirit, soul, and body to the service of God's sanctuary; and afterwards sealed the good confession I had made before many witnesses, by partaking of the holy sacrament of our Lord's most blessed body and blood.' Elsewhere he says, this is a day' (June 20, 1736) much to be remembered, O my soul! for, about noon, I was solemnly admitted by good Bishop Benson, before many witnesses, into holy orders, and was, blessed be God! kept composed both before and after imposition of hands. I

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