George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

246 GEORGE WHITEFIELD
tations among the Tombs,' was complimented on his appear-
ance as an author, and encouraged to persevere, because his
writings were so adapted to the taste of the polite world.
Times have greatly changed since then, and taste too. Thus
he tried to keep his place in hearts that had once received
him.
An unexpected call was made upon him on the occasion of
this return. Howel Harris had instructions to take him, as
soon as he landed, to the house of the Countess of Huntingdon,
at Chelsea. That remarkable woman was already acquainted
with the power of his oratory over popular assemblies, for she
had often seen and felt it ; now
she wanted to see what it
could avail in her drawing-room upon the hearts of high-born /
ladies and gentlemen. It does not appear what kind of an /[
audience he had when he preached in her house the first two
times, but after the second service the Countess wrote to
inform him that several of the nobility wished to hear him, if
he would come again. In a few days a brilliant circle was
gathered round him, and he spoke to them with all his usual
unaffected earnestness and natural gracefulness, while they
listened with attention and some degree of emotion. The
Earl of Chesterfield thanked him, and paid him one of his
studied, high-mannered compliments at the close. ' Sir,' he
said, T will not tell you what I shall tell others, how I approve
of you.' The wife of Lord Chesterfield and two of his sisters,
Lady Gertrude Hotham and the Countess Delitz, became con-
sistent lifelong disciples of the new teaching. The Earl
himself went so far as to allow Whitefield the use of Bretby
Hall in Derbyshire for meetings. Bolingbroke was afterwards
prevailed upon to come ;
' he sat like an archbishop,' and at
the conclusion condescended to assure Whitefield that he had
done great justice to the Divine attributes in his discourse.
In a letter to ' Lady Huntingdon he said : Mr. Whitefield is
'