George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

MISTAKES CONFESSED 243
were few dry eyes. The Negroes without doors, I heard, wept plentifully.
My own heart was affected, and though I have parted from friends so often,
yet I find every fresh parting almost unmans me, and very much affects my
heart. Surely a great work is begun in some souls in Bermudas. Carry
it on, O Lord ; and if it be Thy will, send me to this dear people again !
Even so, Lord Jesus. Amen.
The voyage home was not to be without alarms, though it
proved, on the whole, both rapid and pleasant. Those dread-
ful men-of-war were hanging about like hungry sharks, and on
the first day of the voyage one of them gave chase; and when
the Betsy approached the English Channel, where they
swarmed, 'a large French vessel shot twice at, and bore down
upon us. We gave up all for gone.' But some pang of com-
passion or a panic seized the Frenchman ; he turned about
and left his trembling prey unhurt.
Whitefield might not preach during this voyage, because his
' health was so impaired. He says : This may spare my lungs,
but it grieves my heart. I long to be ashore, if it was for no
other reason. Besides, I can do but little in respect to my writing.
You may guess how it is when we have four gentlewomen in
the cabin !
' However, he did write, and finished his abridge-
ment of Law's ' Serious Call,' which he endeavoured to
' gospelise.' His journals, too, were revised ; and in reference
to that work, he makes some remarks which will illustrate his
ingenuousness of temper. The revision had brought under his
notice many things that his maturer judgment and calmer,
though not less earnest, spirit could not but disapprove of.
'Alas, alas !' he says, 'in how many things have I judged and acted
wrong. I have been too rash and hasty in giving characters, both of places
and persons. Being fond of Scripture language, I have often used a style
too apostolical, and at the same time I have been too bitter in my zeal.
Wild-fire has been mixed with it ; and I find that I frequently wrote and
spoke in my own spirit, when I thought I was writing and speaking by the
assistance of the Spirit of God. I have likewise too much made inward