File:The history of Methodism (1902) (14578817460).jpg

Identifier: historyofmethodi02hurs (find matches)
Title: The history of Methodism
Year: 1902 (1900s)
Authors: Hurst, J. F. (John Fletcher), 1834-1903 Internet Archive (Firm)
Subjects: Methodism
Publisher: New York, Eaton & Mains
Contributing Library: Mugar Memorial Library, Boston University
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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Text Appearing Before Image:
his gown and cried with genuine heroism, "Now, George,
play the man for God! The indefatigable industry of
Tyerman finds no evidence in proof that the marriage was
an unhappy one. Their only child, a son, died at the age of
four months, in the house in which Whitefield was born—
The Bell Inn, Gloucester—and was laid, says Whitefield,
in the church were I was baptized, first communicated, and
first preached. This loss was a great sorrow to him, for he
had been confident that the child was to succeed him as a
preacher.
For thirty-one years, from the date of his conversion (1739)
to his death, in 1770, Whitefield traveled and preached with
such consuming energy that the attempt to follow him pro-
duces a sensation of breathlessness. In 1744 he made his
third visit to America, remaining four years; his fourth visit
was in 1751, less than one year; the fifth in 1754, a little
over a year; the sixth in 1763, lasting about two years; his
last in 1769. His American friends at Portsmouth, N. H. (one of
whom was Colonel Pepperell, the hero of Louisbourg), ex-
Text Appearing After Image:
PAINTED BY HONE FROM THE MEZZOTINT BY GREENWOODE.
THE REVEREND GEORGE WH1TEFIELD, A.M.
Chaplain to the Countess of Huntingdon.


Whitefield's Illness 817

peeted his death during a severe illness in 1744, but when
the hour of service came he suddenly exclaimed, " By the
help of God I will go and preach, and then come home and
die." With great difficulty he reached the pulpit to bear
what he thought would be his dying testimony to the truth,
and to the invisible realities of another world. After an
hours preaching he was prostrate, and lying on a bed before
the fire, heard his friends say, " He is gone!" He rallied,
however, and soon after a poor negro woman sat down on
the ground, looked earnestly in his face, and said: " Master,
you just go to heaven's gate, but Jesus said, Get you down,
get you down; you must not come here yet. Go first and
call more poor negroes."
He became involved in a literary war. Some of the Presby-
terian and Congregationalist ministers opposed him, as well
as Episcopalians. He sometimes provoked them by his rash

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