John Wesley and Whitefield

VOL. IX.—No. 4 54.]

NEW YORK, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1865.

SINGLE COPIES TEN CENTS.

 $4,00 PER YEAR IN ADVANCE.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the Year 1865, by Harper & Brothers, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Southern District of New York.

WHITEFIELD PREACHING IN
MOORFIELDS.

THE illustration on page 572 is copied from a painting by Mr. CROWE, a young English artist, who has now taken a distinguished place as a historical painter. No better explanation can be given of the situation chosen by the artist than the following quotation from PHILIP'S " Life and Times of WHITEFIELD:" "The merry-andrew—attended by others, who complained that they had taken many pounds less that day on account of my preaching—got up upon a man's shoulders ; and, advancing, attempted to slash me with a long, heavy whip several times, but always, with the violence of his

motion, tumbled down. They got a recruiting-sergeant with his drum to pass through the congregation....Others, having got a large pole for their standard, advanced from the opposite side with steady and formidable steps ; but just as they approached us they quarreled among themselves, threw down their staff, and went their way....My pockets were full of notes from persons brought under concern. Boys and girls who were fond of sitting round me while I preached handed me these people's notes, though often pelted with eggs, dirt, etc., and they never once gave way."

The picture so closely illustrates this passage that to offer further merely descriptive remarks would be entirely supererogatory. All the incidents

 of the quotation are given, or suggested as likely to follow, together with some others which the reader can not fail to observe for himself. We may add, however, that WHITEFIELD says that the scene described in the quotation occurred on a Whit-Monday. " For many years, from one end of Moor-fields to the other, booths of all kinds had been erected for mountebanks, players, puppet-shows, and such like." At such a resort for amusement the concourse on the most popular holiday of the year would, of course, be enormous. WHITEFIELD estimates that there could not have been less than twenty or thirty thousand people present. Three times did he preach to them during the day ; the incidents of the picture occurring during his third

sermon in the evening. It will be remembered that the Moorfields district was often the scene of the missionary labors of WHITEFIELD'S contemporary revivalist WESLEY, that similar persecution from the mob attended his preaching, and that still more permanent and wide-spread results have followed his ministry. These two remarkable men began their apostolic labors in concert, but disagreed on doctrinal points, WHITEFIELD adopting Calvinism and WESLEY Arminianism. Moorfields, where WHITEFIELD preached, is now far within the limits of London. But though Moorfields is changed the power of WHITEFIELD'S bold and almost inspired utterances still remains and works among men. WHITEFIELD and WESLEY commenced the work—

"IN THE WOODS."--[FROM A PAINTING BY W. F. C. DOBSON]