George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

DELIGHTS IN OPEN-AIR WORK 313
thunder out rebukes. Edinburgh had more self-respect than
London.
Whitefield was this same year brought into contact with the
notorious Earl Eerrers, cousin of Lady Huntingdon. He was
tried by his peers for the murder of his steward, Mr. Johnson.
His execution was delayed from April 16th to May 5th, an
interval which he spent in careless self-indulgence, and in indif-
ference to all the religious solicitude shown in his behalf.
Lady Huntingdon restrained him a little, and kept him from
appearing utterly shameless. He twice received Whitefield
very politely ; but his heart was unmoved. His last words
before the bolt was drawn were :
' O God, forgive me all my
errors ; pardon all my sins.'
An unusually sad and weary tone is perceptible in nearly all
Whitefield's letters of 1761, nor did he write many. For
weeks he did not preach a single sermon ; the ability to- say
but a few words was gratefully received as a little reviving in
his bondage. He was beginning to know what nervous dis-
orders are, and was thankful when his friends were prudent,
and did not press him to preach much. His prayer was for
resignation, so long as the Lord Jesus enforced silence upon
him. As to the cause of his weakness and sickness, he
thought it was the loss of his usual voyages, which certainly
had always been an acceptable cessation of the toils of preach-
ing, if they often brought the quieter and less exhausting toils
of writing. Thus he proceeded slowly from place to place,
getting as far north as Edinburgh, where he had to say, ' Little,
very little, can be expected from a dying man.' It was his old
enjoyment, field-preaching, which revived him again. The
open sky above his head, the expansive landscape, and the
sight and sound of all nature's charms, refreshed him, as an
imprisoned Indian would live a new life at the sight and touch
of the prairie. ' How gladly would I bid adieu to ceiled