The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-09-29

"Oh, how I do long to see bigotry
and party zeal taken away" said he
on one occasion. ct wish all names
among the saints Of God were swal
lowed UP in that one of Christian"
Another time, in later years. while
preaching from the balcony of the
Court House in Philadelphia, he cried
out:
Father Abraham, who have you in
heaven? Any Episcopalians"
mo" a
ANY Presbyterians?"
mo" i
amy Baptists?"
mo"
Have you any Methodists there"
mo"
Have you any Independents or Sc
ceders?"
mo. no."
why, who have you them"
1--WE don't know those names here.
All that are here are Christians, be-
levers in Christ, men who have over
come by the blood of the Lamb and
the word of His testimony"
20, is this the case? Then God help
me, God help us all. to forget party
names and to become Christians in
deed and in truth"
And in those last words he gave the
keynote of his life. Whitefield ever
sought to be a Christian in deed and
in truth.
Whitefield was a born, not an arti-
fetal. evangelist. Evangelizing, as he
said, was his province. He preferred
the field to the church, but was ever
ready to avail himself of any time or
place to preach. TT would speak in st.
Peters. IL the Pope would permit,
said he. But II was on the great COM
y,oopS that he felt at his best.
Mounts" said he, "are the best pull
pits. and the heavens the best sound
ing boards. This spiritual hunting is
delightful sport when the heart is In
the work" and his heart was In the
work if ever mans was. His soul was
filed with a holy zeal.
There was nothing of the bigot In his
composition. The circumstances sur
rounding him, the prosecutions OF
which he was the victim, would have
tended to make men of smaller Chris
tian caliber intolerant and narrow
perhaps even revengeful. But no feel
ing of this nature cropped out In
WHITEHEAD. He found no qualification in
casting disparaging reflections on otn-
er clergymen. When forced, for the
protection of his life and those of his
friends. to appeal to the law, there was
none Quicker than he to stay the hand
of Justice after the desired erect had
been secured. All that he ever sought
was to impress upon the disturbing ele-
ments that he and his follow
ers were under the aegis or
the courts and could not De
moIested with impunity. II have the
authority of the apostles to appeal url-
to Caesar" said he, land thanks be
to God we have a Caesar to appeal
to. whose laws will not suffer any of
his loyal subjects to be used In an
Thurman manner" On several oc-
casions he narrowly escaped with his
life. At Dublin he was assaulted with
rocks and received many wounds. In
Ireland" he said in referring to this,
he had 'been elected to the rank of
an apostle in having had the honor
of being stoned" At another place
he was assaulted and severely beaten
while in bed by a stranger who had
secured admission to his chamber un-
der the impression that he was seek
ing religious advice. At Edinburg he
was burlesqued in blasphemous COM
edy at the theater. SANDERS followed
him, only to fall impotent before the
uprightness of his life. Theological
enemies impugned his motives and crit
icised and condemned his methods.
But all alike failed to turn him from
the course he had marked out.
whitefeld was quick to discover and
prompt to publicly recognize the good
in other men, regardless of divergen-
cies of belief. II have had some sweet
hours with several of the Lutheran
ministers at Philadelphia" he wrote.
And again he referred in terms of en-
dearment to other clergymen and lay
men of different faiths whom he had
met in his travels. He was full Oh
"the milk of human kindness" None
was too lowly for his efforts. He was
especially solicitous about the negro
slaves in the main colonies and in Ber-
muda, and sought both the improve
ment of their physical condition and
their betterment spiritually. In Eng
land and in the colonies he collected
considerable sums for the Indian
schools and no worthy object ever APP
pealed to his sympathies in vain. In
New York on the day he preached for
the charity fund double the sum was
collected that was ever raised upon
like occasion" The orphans of Edin-
burgh, the distressed Protestants or
Prussia and of France, the unhappy
sufferers by fire in Boston. the high
lands destitute children, the poor wild
ows of London, the unfortunate every
where were the objects of his solicit
tude and labors. To such man 1t
was but natural that the necessities OF
the little settlement in the wilderness
of Georgia should appeal with irresis-
tible force and to the charities that
blessed his name in the old world
should be added the Bethesda of the
new.
The idea of an orphanage in the col
ony at Savannah did not originate with
Whitefeld. ut was first proposed to
me-" says he, "by my dear friend
Charles Wesley, who. with Gen. Ogle-
thorpe, had concerted a scheme for
carrying on such design before I had
any thought of going abroad myself"
Charles Wesley had returned to Eng
land, though, before Whiteheld's ar
rival in May, 1888. John Wesley had
soon followed his brother, and no
steps had been taken for the establish
ment of the home. Prior to his depar-
ture from England to assume the GU