George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

GEORGIA 41
To keep the sanctions of religion before the minds of the
settlers, a chaplain, by name Bosomworth, was sent out with
the first company ; but unfortunately he was a hypocrite,
and, taking to himself a native woman as wife, through her he
raised an armed opposition among the Indians, and unsuccess-
fully sought to destroy the whites. The moral condition of
the colony, not over good to begin with, rapidly deteriorated,
and a native chief, when urged to embrace Christianity, refused,
saying :
' Why, these are Christians at Savannah !
these
are
Christians at Frederica ! Christian much drunk!' ('Christian
' had smuggled drink in). ' Christian beat men ! Christian
tell lies ! Devil Christian ! Me no Christian !
' To this
strange mixture of men and women came John and Charles
Wesley on February 5, 1736. With the best of intentions they
both signally failed— John at Savannah, Charles at Frederica.
Neither of them knew the liberty which is in Christ Jesus, and
that same pitiless legalism, or ' methodism,' which they applied
to themselves, they strove to enforce on the colonists, with the
result that they were hated, abused, resisted, and persecuted.
John says that after having preached there, not as he ought,
but as he was able, one year and nine months, he shook off
the dust of his feet and left Georgia. Charles had been glad
to sail again even sooner than John. Thus the colony was
without a chaplain, and the experience of the Trustees might
have made them decide to meddle no more with spiritual
guides.
Yet ' James Oglethorpe, Esq., and the Honourable Trustees'
received the young preacher, George Whitefield, with kind-
ness, when he appeared before them early in March, 1737,
desiring an appointment in their colony of Georgia. The
Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London both
approved of Whitefield's design ; the former prelate, however,
expressing himself in these ungracious words '
: I shall take