George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

IN IRELAND 283
Court. Her absence from Court after her conversion was not
unnoticed by the Prince ; and inquiring one day of Lady
Charlotte Edwin where she was, he received the laconic,
mocking answer, ' I suppose praying with her beggars.' The
Prince shook his head, and turning to her said, ' Lady
Charlotte, when I am dying, I think I shall be happy to
seize the skirt of Lady Huntingdon's mantle, to lift me up
with her to heaven.'
From January, 1751, to December, 1752, there occurred
nothing that deserves detailed record in a life like this, where
effort was generally at the full stretch, and where sufferings,
both mental and bodily, as well as joys, abounded. We
are prepared to hear of journeys and voyages made with the
promptness of a general at the head of an attacking army ;
and
of weariness and sickness paid as the price for the risks run.
A few pages of Whitefield's letters carry us into Wales, where,
since nothing is said about it, we must imagine what work he
did ; and into Ireland, where he was received into the house
of Mr. Lunell, a Dublin banker, and where the people
welcomed him, everything, apparently, having prepared his
way. Dublin was soon aroused by his earnest words, and
'Moorfield's auditories' rewarded him for his toil, as they stood
with solemn countenances,Jike men who were hearing as for
eternity. Athlone and Limerick, where, as a hunger-bitten,
weary traveller, he had preached fourteen years before, next
heard his voice. Then Waterford and Cork, where he stood
unhurt in the midst of a populace which had shamefully
treated the Methodists whom the Wesleys and their helpers
had gathered into a society. Hundreds in that city prayed
him to continue among them ; and many Papists promised td
leave their priests if he would consent to the request ; but
their pleading and promising were alike ineffectual. He was
soon in Dublin again, and as quickly away to Belfast and