Note 178 — COMMENCEMENT OF OUTDOOR PREACHING.
Reading edition
In a letter to her son Samuel, dated March 8, 1739, Susannah Wesley writes:—"Mr. Whitefield has been taking a progress through these parts to make a collection for a house in Georgia for orphans and such of the natives' children as they will part with to learn our language and religion. He came hither to see me, and we talked about your brothers. I told him, I did not like their way of living, and wished them in some place of their own, wherein they might regularly preach. He replied, 'I could not conceive the good they did in London; that the greatest part of our clergy were asleep; and that there never was a greater need of itinerant preachers than now.' I then asked Mr. Whitefield if my sons were not making some innovations in the Church, which I much feared. He assured me they were so far from it, that they endeavoured all they could to reconcile Dissenters to our communion. His stay was short, so I could not talk with him so much as I desired. He seems to be a very good man, and one who truly desires the salvation of mankind. God grant that the wisdom of the serpent may be joined to the innocence of the dove!" ("Memorials of the Wesley Family," by G. J. Stevenson, p. 216.)