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BEP(F.745.010
15 Apr 1745:11,12 (505)
Welcome once more, dear Mr. Whitefield. It was quite time
for you to come back again. Your cause suffered very much
by your absence. We have had fine work here since you have
bene gone. Next time you go away, do leave things in better
hands than in Mr. M----d's, to keep up your morning
lectures, and Mr. H---by's [the Rev. Mr. William Hobby] to
write in vindication of your itinerancy. they have both of
them come off badly. As for Mr. M----d, indeed, sir, he
won't do. It is not worth one' while to get up early for
him. . .
Your other assistant, poor Mr. H--by, what work they have
made with him ! They have whip'd him to some tune. They
call it only a twig, but it falls so heavy, that I should
take it for a stick as thick as my arm. But what frets one
the most is, that every body says it is no more than he
deserves. I had like to forgot dear Mr. F. he has done all
he could for you. . .
. . . [12] O, how tedious have been the hours of your
absence ! how long your delay ! How dull all the preaching
I have heard ! Lovely nymphs of New-Hampshire, less envied
for your beauty, than for the happiness of having dear Mr.
W------- so long among you; how has my heart been daily with
you ! Methoughts I saw you, as we us'd to do here, leaving
husbands, children, family concerns, and all the vain cares
of life, and crowding after the dear, the heavenly man,
listening to the charming musick of his tongue, and drinking
the melodious sounds. Then retiring with him from the
public exercises to his private abode, you pass'd the
livelong evening, in hearkening to a thousand pretty little
stories of his travels, which the dear creature tells with a
most winning sweetness. How many hair-breadth 'scapes he
has had from robbers, assassins, and men that lay in wait
with clubs: And how he dispossess'd the d---l of the
Assembly Room at Bristol, and instead of fiddles and dances,
introduc'd a more Christian entertainment of green peas and
chickens. . . [2 more paras.] [signed] Deb. Sherman.
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