CHAPTER IV.

1738.

SIX MONTHS IN GEORGIA-SECOND VOYAGE.

WHITEFIELD, on his arrival at Savannah, knew nothing of the circumstances under which his friend Wesley had left it. The whole story was related to him, and he wisely determined to act as if nothing of an unhappy kind had occurred; he would not even make any record of it in his journal. His original journal says, Mr Charles Wesley had chiefly acted as secretary to General Oglethorpe, but he soon also went to England to engage more labourers; and, not long after, his brother, Mr. John Wesley, having met with unworthy treatment, both at Frederica and Georgia ( Savannah ?) soon followed. All this I was apprised of, but think it most prudent not to repeat grievances.' In his revised journal he says, "I find there are many divisions amongst the inhabitants; glad shall I be to be an instrument of healing them.' Full of loving anxiety to do his work well, and heartily believing that the gospel he preached could promote peace and harmony, he never gave a thought to the unhappy past, in which his friends had, though not without provocation, received harsh treatment, but began early and zealously to preach and teach. At five o'clock on the morning after his arrival he read public prayers, and expounded the second lesson to a congregation of seventeen adults and twenty-five children. Such was the exchange for crowded churches in England!

In the afternoon of the same day, Mr. Causton, Wesley's

keen enemy, sent word that he and the magistrates would wait upon Whitefield, but Whitefield chose to wait upon them, a courtesy which could hardly fail to prepare the way for kindly intercourse. The interview was marked by much ‘civility' shown to the new chaplain; and the principal part of the conversation was upon the place of his settlement. The magistrates were as. diplomatic as civil; for it was resolved that the place should be Frederica, where a house and tabernacle were to be built for him-then they themselves would not run the risk of any trouble with him-but that he should serve at Savannah, when, and as long as he pleased.' Thus they avoided raising a contention with him, by not arbitrarily sending him away from the principal place. They had evidently learned the secret of conceding for the sake of getting; but, in the present case, their caution was needless.

The ship-fever had not quite left Whitefield, when, with his usual promptness, he arranged the plan of his work and made a beginning. His first week in Savannah was spent in confinement, and, on the second Sunday, his attempt to officiate broke down before he reached the second service; but, on the following Tuesday, he was out at his pastoral work, and made a call on Tomo Chichi, the Indian king, who had refused to become a Christian, on the ground that Christians were such bad wretches. The poor emaciated man lay on his blanket, his faithful wife fanning him with Indian feathers; and, as there was no one who could speak English, the chaplain could do no more than shake hands with him and leave. Four days afterwards Whitefield made a second call on the chief, and had some conversation with him through his nephew, who knew English. He says, 'I desired him to inquire of his uncle, whether he thought he should die? who answered, "He could not tell." I then asked, where he thought he should go after death? He replied, to

heaven. But, alas! how can a drunkard enter there? I then exhorted Tooanoowee (who is a tall, proper youth) not to get drunk, telling him he understood English, and therefore would be punished the more if he did not live better. I then asked him, whether he believed a heaven? He answered, "Yes." I then asked, whether he believed a hell? and described it by pointing to the fire; he replied, "No." From whence we may easily gather, how natural it is to all mankind to believe there is a place of happiness, because they wish it may be so; and, on the contrary, how averse they are to a place of torment, because they wish it may not be so. But God is true and just, and as surely as the righteous shall go into everlasting happiness, so the impenitently wicked shall go into everlasting punishment.' The severity of this kind of address to an untaught heathen is strange in one who was so full of the spirit of love; and though he may have thought, that only by terror could the dormant conscience be aroused and the heart prepared for the gentler message of the work of Jesus Christ for sinners, one wonders why he did not say something about love as well as wrath. There can be no doubt, however, that he had no fitness, though much zeal, for preaching to the Indians. Along with the Wesleys he had dreamed of winning both natives and colonists to the faith of his Lord, but he knew nothing of the language of the Indians, and had no great aptitude for acquiring it.

For oratory there was little scope in Georgia, where a congregation of one or two hundred persons was the largest that could be mustered; but there was ample room for industry, for humility, for gentleness, and for self-denial; and Whitefield, by his assiduous cultivation of these graces, showed that he cared more for charity than for the gift of speaking with the tongues of men and of angels.' Oratory was nothing to him as an art : it was supremely valuable as a talent to be used for his

AMONG THE COLONISTS.

87

Lord, an instrument by which hearts might be drawn to the cross. When it could no longer be exercised, except in a limited way, his zeal and ready tact immediately adopted the only method by which truth and purity could be diffused among the colonists. He went among the villages, like a travelling missionary in a heathen → country; made himself the friend of every one in them, men, women, and children, no matter what their nation or their creed; praised their industry and success; reproved their faults; and invited them to trust in Him who could save them from their sins. He was scrupulously careful not to offend the religious or national prejudices of any; and strove to draw all by the cords of love,' because he rightly judged that obedience resulting from that principle was the most genuine and lasting.' It is easy to believe that a chaplain whose heart was touched with the colonists' every sorrow, who entered into their difficulties, who came to cheer them at their work, and sit as one of them in their huts, where the children gathered round his knee and the workers talked about the soil and the crops, was loved as a personal friend. As such they looked upon him. The love which won Dummer, Bristol, London, and Gibraltar was simply repeating its inevitable conquests. His dauntless and brotherly spirit, which still retained a touch of the asceticism of his Oxford days, made him resolve to endure the worst hardships of colonial life. The weather was intensely hot, sometimes burning him almost through his shoes; and seeing others do it who,' he says, 'were as unable, I determined to inure myself to hardiness by lying constantly on the ground; which, by use, I found to be so far from being a hardship, that afterwards it became so to lie on a bed.' With this endurance he combined the charming quality of gratitude for any kindness either to himself or his friends. This was particularly displayed when the brother of his friend Habersham was

lost for some days in the woods, and the colonistshappily with success-made every effort to recover him: Whitefield went from house to house to thank them, and again at evening prayers, when a large congregation was present, I returned my dear hearers,' he says, 'hearty thanks for the late instance of their sincere affection.'

The settlers in the villages had but a hard lot. Their children offered the best field for Whitefield's efforts; and he at once arranged to begin schools for them. ‘I also,' he says, inquired into the state of their children, and found there were many who might prove useful members of the colony, if there was a proper place provided for their maintenance and education. Nothing can effect this but an orphan-house, which might easily be erected at, or near, Savannah, would some of those that are rich in this world's good contribute towards it. May God, in His due time, stir up the wills of His faithful people, to be ready to distribute, and willing to communicate on this commendable occasion.' The following extract shows the need of the flock and the tender-heartedness of the shepherd: Began to-day visiting from house to house, and found the people in appearance desirous of being fed with the sincere milk of the word, and solicitous for my continuance amongst them. Poor creatures! My heart ached for them, because I saw them and their children scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd.'

The first of these extracts points to the inference, that the idea of an orphan-house for the colony was Whitefield's own; and many of his friends who helped him gave him the credit of it; but he was frank in undeceiving them, and in giving the praise to Charles Wesley and the humane governor, General Oglethorpe. Before he had thought of going abroad, they had seen and felt the necessity of some provision being made for the orphans, who must inevitably be thrown upon the colony