George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

A SLEEPER AROUSED 321
fault were in his hearers, he would correct it ; if they were
thoughtless, he would charge them with it as they sat ; if they
were stupid and uninterested, he would ask them whether he
were preaching to men or to stones. Dr. Young is said to
have sat down and wept when his royal hearers slept during
his sermon j but Whitefield would have done something very
different— most likely what he did to a small American con-
gregation on a rainy day. A curious student from Princeton
(New Jersey) College was present, and has told the story. The
first part of the sermon made no impression upon the student,
and he began to say to himself, ' This man is not so great a
wonder after all. His ideas are all commonplace and super-
ficial—mere show, and not a great deal even of that.' The
congregation seemed as uninterested as himself, one old man
who sat in front of the pulpit having fallen sound asleep
Whitefield now stopped ; his face darkened with a frown ; and
changing his tone, he cried out, ' If I had come to speak to
you in my own name, you might rest your elbows on your
knees, and your heads upon your hands, and sleep ;
and once
in a while look up and say, "What does the babbler talk of? "
But I have not come to you in my own name. No :
I come
to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts '—here he brought
his hand and foot down with a force that made the building
!
ring—
' and I must and will be heard ' The
congregation
started, and the old man awoke. ' Ay, ay/ said Whitefield,
fixing his eyes on him, ' I have waked you up, have I ? I
meant to do it. I am not come here to preach to stocks and
stones ; I have come to you in the name of the Lord God of
Hosts, and I must, and I will, have an audience.' There was
no more sleeping or indolence that day.
Other things besides preaching filled his mind when, after a
long delay in the north of the colonies, caused by bad health
and the unsettled state of the Indians, he travelled to Bethesda,
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