George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

A FAST FOR THE REVIVAL 193
expressed himself with much composure in a letter to a
friend :
'The Messrs. Erskine,' he says, 'and their adherents, would you think
it ? have appointed a public fast to humble themselves, among other things,
for my being received in Scotland, and for the delusion, as they term it,
at Cambuslang, and other places ; and all this because I would not consent
to preach only for them, till I had light into, and could take, the Solemn
League and Covenant. But to what lengths may prejudice carry even
good men ! From giving way to the first risings of bigotry and a party
spirit, good Lord, deliver us !
And the charity of this large-hearted man was not words
on paper; he could believe in the goodness of another, in
spite of personal wrong done to himself, and wait with full
confidence the time when evil should be overcome with good
Soon after the fast, which was proclaimed from Dunfermline,
he had a short interview with Ralph Erskine, and brotherly-
love so prevailed that they embraced each other, and Ralph
said, ' We have seen strange things.' Whitefield's faith in the
power of love to bring brethren to a right state of mind was
justified even in the case of violent Adam Gib, who, when an
old man, confessed to his nephew that he wished that no
copies of his pamphlet against Whitefield were on the face
of the earth, and that, if he knew how to recall them, every
copy should be obtained and burnt :
' My blood at that time
was too hot,' said he, 'and I was unable to write with becoming
temper.
The strain made upon Whitefield by his exhausting labours
brought back again the spasms of sickness with which he had
been so frequently seized in America. Writing to one of his
friends, he said :
' Last night some of my friends thought I
was going off; but how did Jesus fill my heart! To-day
I am, as they call it, much better. In less than a month we
are to have another sacrament at Cambuslang—a thing not
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