Untitled - the Digital Library of Georgia

130 GEORGIA AND GEORGIANS
of his labors, he prepared the way for Wesley's itinerants. Abel Stephens, LL. £>.,
in History of American Methodism.
On Saturday, September 29, 1770, he left Portsmouth on horseback for Exeter,
where he preached in the open air to a large multitude. The effort was made in
opposition to medical advice and exhausted him greatly. After dinner he rode to
Newburyport with his friend, Jonathan Parsons, at whose house, close by the church,
he was wont to stay. The walk in the garden, where the two used to pace up and
down, is still shown. When they arrived he complained of weariness, took but a.
light supper, and thought of retiring. But the people of the place had gathered in.
front of the house to listen to words from the great preacher; and, with candle in
hand, he stood on the doorstep, then considerably higher above the roadway than
now. Earnestly he spoke to them regarding eternal salvation, until the candle was.
almost burned away and guttered in its socket. Then he withdrew and ascended to>
his bedchamber, where, at 6 o'clock the next morning, he succumbed to an attack of
asthma. His last act before going to bed was to read from the Bible and from a.
volume of hymns by Watts.
His funeral was attended by an immense concourse of all classes; flags were at
half-mast in the harbor, and the bells were thrice tolled for half an hour. He was-
buried according to his own request, in front of the pulpit of the Old South Church,,
in a brick vault. There in the coffin his bones are still to be seen; but the full
canonicals in which he was laid to rest have long since moldered. Beside him repose-
the remains of his friend, Jonathan Parsons, who died at Newburyport, in July,.
1776, after an honored pastorate of thirty years; also the remains of the blind
preacher, Joseph Prince, who survived them both. In. the corner to the left of the-
pulpit stands a cenotaph erected in 1828 to his memory by the Hon. William Bartlett;
and the inscription, composed by Prof. Ebenezer Porter, reads as follows:
"This cenotaph is erected with affectionate veneration to the memory of the-
Rev. George Whitefleld, born at Gloucester, Eng., Dec. 16, 1714; educated at Oxford
University; ordained 1736. In a ministry of 34 years he crossed the Atlantic 13
times, and preached more than 18,000 sermons. As a soldier of the cross, humble,,
devout, ardent, he put on the whole armor of God, preferring the honor of Christ to-
his own interest, repose, reputation or life; as a Christian orator, his deep piety,,
disinterested zeal, and vivid imagination, gave unexampled energy to his look, action,,
and utterance; bold, fervent, pungent, and popular in his eloquence, no other un
inspired man ever preached to so large assemblies or enforced the simple truths of the-
gospel by motives so persuasive and awful, and with an influence so powerful on the-
hearts of his hearers. He died of asthma, Sept. 30, 1770, suddenly exchanging his.
life of unparalleled labors for his eternal rest.'' James W. Lee, D. D., in Illustrated*
History of Methodism.