George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

•ONE OF WHITEFIELD'S GANG' 95
more vile. I know this foolishness of preaching is made instrumental to
the conversion and edification of numbers. Ye scoffers, mock on ; I rejoice,
yea, and will rejoice.'
The intenseness of his feeling while writing those words
was not the calm satisfaction of one who could afford to let
others scoff or praise as they might please ; it was the struggle
of a man who felt acutely the disadvantages of his new posi-
tion, and who was determined to accept them only because
they were associated with duty and heavenly privilege ; there
was a conflict between the flesh and the Spirit.
It is not an unwelcome release to get disengaged from these
eager, excited congregations, to follow the preacher, and mark
how he attempted to fulfil the precepts he had publicly taught.
He does not appear to disadvantage when seen nearer at hand.
One day he received a letter dated from Bethlehem Hospital,
No. 50, signed Joseph Periam. Periam was supposed to be
mad, but in a new way ; he was ' Methodically mad ; and his
'
tender relations, father and sister, had sent him to Bethlehem
Hospital until the fits should leave him. The officials of the
hospital treated him, on his reception, with the gross cruelty
which one-while was practised towards all who were of weak
mind. They thought he ought to have a huge dose of physic,
but Periam, knowing that he was quite well, declined it, when
fou: or five attendants ' took hold of him, cursed him most
heartily, put a key into his mouth, threw him upon the bed,
and said (though Whitefield had not then either seen him or
heard of him), " You are one of Whitefield's gang," and so
drenched him.' Orders were given that neither Whitefield,
nor any of Whitefield's friends, should see him ; but Whitefield
and his friend Seward were both admitted when, in answer to
Periam's request, they went to the hospital. They thought
him sound, both in body and mind. His sister was of a
different opinion, and cited three symptoms of his madness.