George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

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GEORGE WHITEFIELD
had soon to share in its troubles. ' Polite students ' shot
barbed words at him, mean ones withdrew their pay from him,
and brutal ones threw dirt at him. Friends became shy. The
master of the college rebuked him, and threatened to expel
him. Daily contempt was poured upon him. His tutor alone
forbore to torment him. At first he did not accept his
reproach calmly ; it shook his feeble strength. When he
went to St. Mary's, for the first time, to receive the
sacrament publicly on a week-day — sure sign to all the
University that he had 'commenced Methodist'—
'Mr. Charles
I must always mention with the
Wesley,' he says, ' whom
greatest deference and respect, walked with me from the
church even to the college. I confess to my shame I would
gladly have excused him ; and the next day, going to his
room, one of our fellows passing by, I was ashamed to be seen
to knock at his door.' The displeasure of the master of his
college, and the master's threat to expel him if he ever visited
the poor again, surprised him, as well it might. ' Overawed,'
he says, ' by the master's authority, I spoke unadvisedly with
my lips, and said, if it displeased him, I would not. My
conscience soon pricked me for this sinful compliance. I
immediately repented, and visited the poor the first oppor-
tunity, and told my companions if ever I was called to a stake
for Christ's sake, I would serve my tongue as Archbishop
Cranmer served his hand, viz., make that burn first.' His fear
of man gradually wore off, and he ' confessed the Methodists
more and more publicly every day,' walking openly with them,
and choosing rather to bear contempt with them than 'to
enjoy the applause of almost Christians for a season.'
The advantage of his trials was that they inured him to
contempt, of which he was to get a full share, and lessened
his self-love. His inward sufferings were also of an uncommon
kind, Satan seeming to desire to sift him like wheat j and the