The Penn's Grove record., 1919-06-20

with settlements of every European
nationality. the little British colonies
of two hundred years ago presented,
in most respects the least hopeful as
oect Oh all the European dependencies
in the New World. No two existed
under a common charter; scarce two
had a like religion. Here a Romanlst
colony was nearest neighbOr to settle
ments of fugitive Huguenots; there
The plain quietistic Quaker was separ-
ated only by a boundary line from the
formal and rite-living Anglican. No
blemen and peasants, Papists and Pro-
testants, Roundheads and Cavaliers,
Royalist and haters of royalty, bellev-
ers and unbelievers all found them
selves standing on a common platform,
all faithful to their oId-WOrld atfinities.
Out of elements so utterly h~eterogene-
Gus whence could unity and order
eore?' Here was a double problem
to be worked out; political as well as
religious salvation required something
like divine interposition.
Ages earlier, the different Jewish
tribes more than once had been con
aolidated by REVEALS Of religion, and
upon the consultations, apparently,
depended the preservation and perpet-
uation Of the Jewish ~Theocracy. This
feature of Jewish history, as every n
is compelled to admit, was repeated in
America.
On this ground George Whiteield
ought to be designated, the spiritual
father of a great Christian nation.
"For the first time in their history,
the British colonies were agitated by
one thought, swayed by one mind,
moved by one impulse. Again and
again all these colonies this most
famous evangelist of history moved in
triumph. Puritan New England for
got that he was a gowned priest of the
very church from whose oppression
they had fled to the wilds of a new
world. Dutch New York and German
Pennsylvania almost unlearned their
d-egenerating vernacular, as they
listened to his celestial %eloquence. The
Quaker was delighted with his Gospel
simplicity, the Covenanter and Hugue-
nots with his doctrines of grace and
the ~Episcopalians were his by rightful
church-fellowship; and thus it came to
pass that when, after crossing the
ocean eighteen times in his flying min
istry, he lay down to death in New
berryport, Mass, he had built mightier
than his intention, and far wiser than
he knew; nay, he was an instrument
of an intention, and a wisdom-not
natural, but supernatural.
Whitefeld's evangelizing work and
triumphs in Boston during this great
awakening are noteworthy. Churches
were crowded, multitudes gathered on
the Common, stood in drilling rain
by the hour, listening to the gospel.
Harvard College, where "discip.ine was
low" "where tutors did not pray" and
where chad books We're read" and
which, as Whiteield writes, "was not
far superior to English universities in
piety and true godliness," was greatly
stirred. The professors and students,
standing in the college yard, listened
to the words of this r~evivalist, deeply
moved, "the Holy Ghost melting many
hearts,
We will dwell no longer on this great
revival. 1t is sufficient to say that the
mass of people were lifted by it from
the slums of infidelity and irreligion,
and were prepared, IS nothing else
seemingly could have prepared them,
liberty in America"
for the conquest of civil and religious