Note 410 — SECOND VISIT TO AMERICA. (continued 4)

The following account of Mr. Barber is extracted from a pious, but unfriendly, writer, and must be taken cum grano salis:—When Whitefield came to America, Barber "esteemed him a wonderfully holy man," and believed he would "be an eminent promoter of a glorious revival of vital religion through the whole land." Barber, at once, set to work, "and spent about a week in going from house to house through all the parish of Oyster-Ponds, solemnly warning the people, and exhorting them to repent, for the kingdom of heaven was at hand. And this he did as one extraordinarily instructed and commissioned for that purpose." He then went through all the parishes of Southold, where Mr. Davenport was pastor; and, "as he counted his mission somewhat like that of our Lord's disciples, who were sent before Him into every city, whither He Himself would come, he took no money with him, neither change of apparel, nor shoes, but was shod with boots; and, as he passed along, he publicly declared that he "had laid aside all study and forethought of what he should deliver in his public speeches to the people, and depended wholly on the immediate direction of the Holy Ghost." He next proceeded to Oldmans, where "he abode some months, and led an inactive and idle life, till he was grown very fat and ragged, alleging, in his justification, that he had received no direction from the Spirit to remove thence, and must remain there so long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle." At length, "he went to Rhode Island to see Mr. Whitefield, and joined himself to him." ("Seasonable Thoughts on the State of Religion in New England." By Charles Chauncy, D.D., 1743, pp. 183-189.)