08 History of Methodism 



He was ready and eager to preach whenever and wher- 

 ever an opportunity was presented. Like Melanch- 

 thon, when he made the great discovery of the truth, 

 he imagined that no one could resist the evidence that 

 convinced his own mind, and longed to tell everybody 

 that there was such a thing as the new birth. No 

 power on earth could confine him to a single parish, 

 or a single Church. He became a roving evangelist, 

 a traveling preacher, and opened the way to Methodist 

 itinerancy. In Bristol, in London, in Bath, and every- 

 where, his popularity was unbounded. The people 

 came in crowds to see and hear the orator, and went 

 away more impressed with what he said than how he 

 said it. The doctrines he preached soon excited as 

 much attention as the man, and when John and 

 Charles Wesley came preaching the same great truths, 

 the people were as eager to hear them as they had be- 

 fore been to hear Whitefield. 



Governor Oglethorpe had returned to England, and 

 reported to a special meeting of the trustees of the 

 colony, January 19, 1737, that " the people on the 

 frontiers suffered under constant apprehension of in- 

 vasion, as the insolent demands and threats of the 

 Spanish commissioners from Cuba virtually amounted 

 to an infraction of the treaty which had been formed 

 with the Governor of Florida; " and his majesty, in 

 response to a petition of the trustees, had appointed 

 Oglethorpe general of all his forces in Carolina and 

 Georgia, and likewise commissioned him to raise a 

 military force adequate to the defense of Georgia and 

 South Carolina. The embarkation of the troops of- 

 fered the desired opportunity to Whitefield to make 

 his first visit to America. He had been presented 

 with the living of Savannah, and longed to be among 



