George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

OPEN-AIR PREACHING SUGGESTED 71
to England, to receive ordination as a priest, was not lost sight
of. At the end of December he was appointed by the Trustees
to be minister of Savannah. With the fire of the Fetter Lane
meetings burning in his soul, he returned to Oxford ; and on
January 14, 1739, had the hands of good Bishop Benson laid
on him. The bishop sent Lord Huntingdon, evidently for
the benefit of Lady Huntingdon, an account of the ordination,
and added—
' I hope this will give some satisfaction to my lady, and that she will not
have occasion to find fault with your lordship's old tutor. Though mis-
taken on some points, I think him (Mr. Whitefield) a very pious, well-
meaning young man, with good abilities and great zeal. I find his Grace
of Canterbuiy thinks highly of him. I pray God grant him great success
in all his undertakings for the good of mankind, and a revival of true
religion and holiness among us in these degenerate days ; in which prayer
I am sure your lordship and my kind, good Lady Huntingdon will most
heartily join.'
A noticeable incident was his visit to Dr. Watts, now an
old man, who received him 'most cordially.' But the most
important fact of the month was the thought of preaching in
the open air, which was suggested to him by a crowd of a
thousand people having been unable to gain admission to
Bermondsey Church, where he preached one Sunday after-
noon. It met with no encouragement when he mentioned it
to some of his friends ; they thought it was a ' mad
notion.'
However, it would have been carried out the next Sunday at
Ironmongers' Almshouses had not the preacher been disap-
pointed in his congregation, which was small enough to hear
him from the pulpit. He took two sermons with him—one for
within and the other for without. What were his impressions
about this untoward circumstance he nowhere says ; most
probably he had humble and self-reproachful thoughts for
having run before there seemed to be need.
Such intense and lons;-continued work as he rushed into