| George Whitefield at Middletown “Whitefield came to Middletown. His meeting there was not unusual in any way, for he merely says of it, ‘Preached to about four thousand people at eleven o’clock.’ But one of his hearers penned a description which shows how the mere news that he was to preach created a sudden excitement and brought almost the whole countryside hurrying to hear him. The writer was an unlettered farmer named Nathan Cole, and he wrote: ‘Now it pleased God to send mr whitefield into this land & . . . i longed to see & hear him . . . & then one morning all on a Suding there came a messanger & said mr whitefield . . . is to preach at middletown this morning at 10 o’clock i was in my field at work i dropt my tool that i had in my hand & run home and throu my house and bad my wife to get ready quick to go and hear mr whitefield preach at middletown & run to my pastire for my hors with all my might fearing i should be too late to hear him & took up my wife & went forward as fast as i thought ye hors could bear & when my hors began to be out of breth i would get down and put my wife on ye saddel and bid her ride as fast as she could & not Stop or Slack for me except i bad her & so i would run until i ws almost out of breth & then mount my hors again . . . fearing we should be too late to hear ye Sarmon for we had twelve miles to ride dubble in little more than an our. i saw before me a cloud or fog i first thought of from ye great river but as i came nearer ye road i heard a noise something like a low rumbling thunder & i presently found out it was ye rumbling of horses feet coming down ye road & this Cloud was a Cloud of dust made by the running of horses feet it arose some rods into ye air over the tops of ye hills and trees & when i came within about twenty rods of ye road i could see men and horses slipping along -- it was like a steady streem of horses and their riders scarecely a hors more than his length behind another -- i found a vacance between two horses to slip in my hors & my wife said law our cloaths will be all spoiled see how they look -- & when we gat down to ye old meeting hous thare was a great multitude it was said to be 3 or 4000 & when i looked towards ye great river i see ye fery boats running swift forward and backward -- when i see mr whitfield come up upon ye scaffold he looked almost angellical a young slim slender youth before thousands of people and with a bold undainted countenance & my hearing how god was with him everywhere as he came along it solemnized my mind and put me in a trembling fear before he began to preach for he looked as if he was Clothed with authority from ye great god and a sweet solemnity sat upon his brow and my hearing him preach gave me a heart wound & by gods blessing my old foundation was broken up & i see my righteousness would not save me.’”[1]
[1] The Spiritual Travels of Nathan Cole. “This is
Cole’s original draft of the narrative, the ms. of which is in the possession
of the Connecticut Historical Society.
There is also a copyist’s version which is edited and corrected as to
spelling and grammar, but which lacks the quaintness of the original. Cole’s Spiritual Travels and particularly
this experience are discussed by Leonard W. Larabee in the William and Mary
Quarterly, 3rd Series, VII, 1950, pp. 589-90.”
Quoted from Arnold A. Dallimore, George Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the Eighteenth-Century Revival, 2 vols., (Westchester, IL: Cornerstone Books, 1970), I: 540-41. Copyright © ScriptureWorkshop.com |