George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

DETERMINES TO BUILD AN ORPHAN-HOUSE 63
when they ought to have been at school, and were kept at
work so long and so hard, that educating them in their present
position was impossible. The morals of all were corrupted by
bad example ;
the learning of those who had learned anything
at all was forgotten. There was but one feasible plan for
curing the mischief: a home must be built, and the children
must be lodged, fed, clothed, and taught in it. Meanwhile,
until he could return to England to take priest's orders, and
procure a grant of land from the Trustees, and beg money
enough to build the home, and give it a start, he wisely
did what he could to ameliorate the condition of them and
of all other children by establishing schools in the villages.
The moral influence of the orphan-house, the establishment
of which was now his fixed purpose, was to prove as great and
as happy over Whitefield as over the destitute children. He
was to receive as much as he gave. It was to be a standing
appeal to his tenderness and test of his faith, a constant spur
to his effort, and an anchor to his excitable mind, which might
have spent itself upon trifles, because unable to cope with the
statesmanlike work which the legislative mind of Wesley
gloried in mastering. It was to become the ballast of a noble
ship which had to carry high sail in dangerous seas. So far as
good to himself was concerned, there was no reason why he
should have been sent to his ' little foreign cure,' in which he
was really happy, and where (such was his humility and care-
lessness about popularity) he could have cheerfully remained,
excepting to undertake the charge of the orphans. Saving
this, he did nothing in Georgia which he might not have done
elsewhere, and done better. But it is remarkable to observe
how the door of America was closed against Wesley, whose
talents were most serviceable when concentrated on one
place; while Whitefield received a charge which supplied a
constant motive to him to range through every country where