George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

KINGS WOOD COLLIERS 73
exclamation which a not devout observer uttered when White-
' field started from London : I believe the devil in hell is in
you all '—that was the untrue half ;— '
Whitefield has set the
town on fire, and now he is gone to kindle a flame in the
country'—that was the true half.. There was alarm among the
powers of the Church in the cities of Bath and Bristol before
his arrival there; and his application to preach in the Abbey
Church at Bath on behalf of the orphan-house was met with
a positive refusal, although the bishop had given the Trustees
of Georgia a promise, before Whitefield sailed for Georgia,
that such a service might be held. The refusal came not,
however, from the bishop. Similar treatment at Bristol, to
which he at once withdrew, led to most important results.
Long ago, Kingswood was a royal chase near Bristol ; in
Whitefield's time it had become a colliery district, inhabited
by men of a rough, ungodly type, who had no church nearer
than one, three, or four miles away. They were regarded as so
many Indians, and when Whitefield first went to Georgia it
was said to him :
' If you have a mind to convert Indians,
there are colliers enough in Kingswood.' And they were still
in their sins and misery when he returned. Even he might
have failed to undertake their evangelisation had he not been
almost compelled. When clergymen were cold, and the chan-
cellor of the diocese captious, and churches scarce, he had
time and inducements to carry out those loving wishes towards
the colliers, which had stirred his heart for a long time ; nor
was the desire to attempt open-air preaching without its weight
on the same side.
Understanding that the minister of St. Mary Redcliffe was
willing to lend his church for sermons to be preached on
behalf of the orphan-house, Whitefield applied first of all to
him, and the answer was a civil refusal ; the church could not
be lent without a special order from the chancellor. To the