George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

268 GEORGE WHITEFIELD
an unequalled preacher, whose fame was familiar through the
lips of their pastor, and by a deep and real interest in the great
subjects on which he discoursed, as the congregations at Cam-
buslang and in the American woods were called together. ' It
was,' says Whitefield, 'a great day of the Son of man.'
Whitefield paid his first visit to Leeds at the request of
one of Wesley's preachers and of all Wesley's people ; he was
welcomed by all, and had a congregation of ten thousand to
hear him. About the same time he visited Armley, Pudsey,
and Birstall. 1
Proceeding northwards, he met Charles Wesley returning
from Newcastle, where Methodism had already won a remark-
able triumph, and where he had been confirming the believers.
Charles immediately turned his horse's head round towards
Newcastle, and went (a pleasant sight to see) to introduce his
brother in Christ to the Methodist pulpit in that town. He
wrote a letter giving an account of what took place which
reflects the highest credit upon the spirit in which the three
friends were now doing their work :
' I snatch a few moments before the people come to tell you what you
will rejoice to know—that the Lord is reviving His work as at the
beginning ; that multitudes are daily added to His Church; so that G. W.
and myjjroth pr n,ntU_are one—a threefold cord which shall no more be
broken. The week before last I waited on our friend George to our
house in Newcastle, and gave him full possession of our pulpit and
people's hearts ; as full as was in my power to give. The Lord united all
1 Tradition long retained a story about the preaching at Birstall. Nancy
Bowling, a pious old maid of Heckmondwike, who died sixty years ago
at the advanced age of eighty, used to tell how the wind blew from Birstall
towards Heckmondwike when Whitefield preached, and that his voice could
O
be heard on Staincliffe Hill, a mile and a half from where he stood, crying,
'
' The story must have been
earth, earth, hear the Word of the Lord !
lold her ; but most likely she heard him preach, as she was ten years old
when he died,
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