George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

92 GEORGE U'/IITEFIELD
power may.be seen to be not of man, but of God. Let letter-learned
Pharisees, then, despise my youth ; I care not how vile I appear in the
sight of such men—I glory in it ; and I am persuaded, if any of you should
be set upon your watch by this preaching, you will have no reason to repent
that God sent a child to cry, " Behold, the Bridegroom cometh ! " O, my
brethren ! the thought of being instrumental in bringing some of you to
glory fills me with fresh zeal. Once more, therefore, I entreat you —
"Watch, watch and pray" ; for the Lord Jesus will receive all that call
upon Him faithfully. Let that cry, " "
Behold, the Bridegroom cometh !
be continually sounding in your ears ;
and begin now to live as though you
were assured this was the night in which you were to be summoned to go
forth to Him.'
Whitefield, it will be seen, preached up to his congregation
he gave them the best. Think of a theme so lofty, of a manner
so bold yet so humble, of a spirit moved with such yearning
for a crowd, hundreds of whom had come for sport, and score's
for violence and crime. He saw in them men who had been
made in the image of God, and for whom Christ had died. He
summoned them to their high duties and privileges ; he laid
on them their solemn responsibilities ; he pleaded with them,
and wept over them as with a mother's love ; he opened
judgment and heaven and hell to their view ; he called upon
them to forsake sin and come to God ; he offered them pardon
and reconciliation and eternal life through the blood of Christ.
And the roughs were transformed into saints
At five o'clock in the evening of the same day he met, on
Kennington Common, 1 an audience computed at twenty
thousand, and of a higher class of people than he had
addressed in the morning. The wind, which was favourable,
carried his words to the furthest hearer ; the whole company
lis-tened with as much decorum as a congregation in a church,
joined in the Psalm and the Lord's Prayer, and dispersed,
evidently touched and moved by what they had heard.
' Criminals were executed here, and in old prints the congregations are
represented as fringed with many of them hanging on the gallows.