George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

CAMBUSLANG REVIVAL 191
Such a day might well have been followed by quietness and
repose, but his was no heart to cry for leisure, whatever his
body might do. The following Monday was sure to be just
such a day as he could most thoroughly enjoy, for the day
after communion Sunday has had among Presbyterians almost
more sanctity than the Sunday itself. Preachers have preached
their most effective sermons on that day, and it was a memor-
able time at Cambuslang. 'The motion,' Whitefield says,
'fled as swift as lightning from one end of the auditory to
another. You might have seen thousands bathed in tears.
Some at the same time wringing their hands, others almost
swooning, and others crying out and mourning over a pierced
Saviour. It was like the Passover in Josiah's time.'
The sermon preached by him on the Sunday night was upon
Isa. liv. 5— ' For thy Maker is thy husband '—and was a sermon
more frequently referred to by his converts than any other ;
yet we look in vain for a single passage of interest or power in
it. The thought is meagre and the language tame ; there is
a total absence of the dramatic element which abounds in all
his treatment of narrative and parable. But, remembering
how perfectly his heart realised the idea of union with God,
and how intense was his personal devotion to the will of God,
it becomes easier to understand the unfailing unction with
which his common thoughts were clothed. He could hardly
fail to have power, when entreating sinners to yield to God and
be joined to the Lord Jesus, who could say, without affectation
or boast, ' The hopes of bringing more souls to Jesus Christ
is the only consideration that can reconcile me to life. For
this cause I can willingly stay long from my wished-for home,
my wished-for Jesus. But whither am I going ? I forget my-
self when writing of Jesus. His love fills my soul.'
His qualities of meekness and self-restraint were as hardly
tested by the meddlesomeness of would-be advisers as by the