Note 42 — Chapter VII

As a proof of the power of Mr. Whitefield’s preaching, Mr. Newton mentioned, that an officer at Glasgow, who had heard him preach, laid a wager with another, that at a certain charity sermon, though he went with prejudice, he would be compelled to give something; the other, to make sure, laid all the money out of his pockets, but before he left the church he was glad to borrow some, and lose his bet. Mr. Newton mentioned another striking example of Mr. Whitefield’s persuasive oratory—his collecting at one sermon six hundred pounds for the inhabitants of an obscure village in Germany that had been burnt down: no very interesting object, surely, for the public in London. However, after the sermon, Mr. Whitefield said, “We shall sing a hymn, during which those who do not choose to give their mite on this awful occasion may sneak off.” Not one stirred; he got down from the pulpit, and ordered all the doors to be shut but one, at which he held the plate himself, and collected the above sum; more than was ever done on a similar occasion. Mr. Newton related as a fact, that at the time of his greatest persecution, when obliged to preach in the streets, in one week he received no fewer than a thousand letters from persons distressed in their consciences by the energy of his preaching.