George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

MARRIAGE 179
ness for a wrong he felt he had done him, and in another to
Peter Bohler, whose name he had mentioned in a very
inoffensive way in his famous letter to Wesley from Bethesda.
In the case of Bohler he had not sinned openly, but he knew
that he had broken the law of charity in his own heart ; and
such faults are much to the true Christian.
His Scotch excursion did much for the kingdom of God, if
little for the Associate Presbytery ; it also brought him more
worldly honour than he had ever before known. He was wel-
comed to their houses by several of the nobility, and became
the friend, correspondent, and religious helper of the Marquis
of Lothian, the Earl of Leven, Lord Rae, Lady Mary Hamil-
ton, Colonel Gardiner, Lady Frances Gardiner (wife of the
Colonel), Lady Jean Nimmo, and Lady Dirleton. Lord
Leven gave him a horse to perform his journeys on ; the
Scotch people gave him above five hundred pounds for his
orphans.
Riding his gift-horse, he took his way from Scotland to
Wales to be married. Not a word has been found about his
courtship. Whether he preached on his journey or not, does
not appear, but in ten days (Nov. 14, 1741) he was at Aber-
gavenny, ready to be joined in matrimony to Mrs. James, a
widow of about thirty-six years of age (he was twenty-six),
neither rich nor beautiful, ' once gay, but for three years last
past a despised follower of the Lamb,' one of whom he
cherished the hope that she would not hinder him in his
work. Wesley, who speaks of her in his journal but a month
before the marriage, had a favourable opinion of her ; he calls
her 'a woman of candour and humanity,' and, we may add,
courage, seeing she compelled some complainers, who had
been free with their tongues in Wesley's absence, to repeat
everything to his face. There is an Eden-like story told about
the marriage with the matronly housekeeper, which, though not