George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

RESULTS OF HIS WORK 349
1816, 2,927 in 1861. It is now 3,456, besides the congrega-
tions connected with 91 Wesleyan Methodist, and 32 Primitive
Methodist, circuits. The great increase between 1775 and
1 81 6 was owing to the separation of the Calvinistic Metho-
dists from the Established Church, which took place in 181 1 ;
and from 1816 to 1899 the increase is the result of the zeal
and labours of the Churches, crowned with the blessing of God.
Broadly stated, the result of Methodism in Wales has been the
changing of a nation of ignorant, irreligious Churchmen into
a nation of conscientious Nonconformists, who adhere to their
convictions in spite of much persecution and disadvantage.
Whitefield neither desired nor sought the Nonconformity; but,
as in the case of Scotland, an intense religious life would have
freedom of action.
(7) That in America he founded the Presbyterian Church
of Virginia, and helped more than any man to triple the
ministers of the New York Synod within seven years, and to
bring into existence a hundred and fifty Congregational
Churches in less than twenty years. He gave a welcome in
1769 to two of Wesley's preachers who were sent to America
Richard Boardman and Joseph Pilmoor—and his preaching
prepared the way for the formation of the Methodist Episcopal
Church, one of the strongest churches in the world. His
labours materially aided the building of Princeton College and
Dartmouth College. They also produced the same effect upon
Church government in America, which we have seen to have
been produced in Scotland, England, and Wales. The spiritual
life would not be fettered ;
State was broken.
and the union between Church and
What did Whitefield accomplish ? It is true that he did not
organise his converts into a new denomination, but some will
think that he did a nobler service by encouraging them to join
any existing Church to which their beliefs and sympathies