eaten altogether and with prayer. It was a custom of the
Moravians, and it was from them Mr. Wesley copied it.

I have also heard that the love-feast was provided for the people, who
had walked a great many miles to hear Mr. Wesley preach, and were tired
and hungry. If this was the idea of the love-feast, they would have to
give the people a great deal more bread than they do now, or they would
still be hungry when they had done.

The year after Mr. Whitefield returned from Georgia, 1739, was a
wonderful year for the Methodists. It started with a love-feast and
prayer meeting, which lasted half through the night. Then a few days
later, on January 5th, the two Mr. Wesleys and Mr. Whitefield, with four
other ministers, met together to talk about all they hoped to do during
the year, and make rules and plans for their helpers and members.

I told you, if you remember, that first one pulpit and then another was
closed against these clergymen. At last there were only two or three
churches where they were allowed to preach. One day when Mr. Whitefield
was preaching in one of these, the people came in such crowds to hear
him, that hundreds could not get into the church. Some of them went
away, but a great number stood outside.

All at once there flashed across Mr. Whitefield's mind this thought:
"Jesus preached in the open air to the people, why can't I?" Numbers
had often before been turned away when he preached, but he had never
thought of having a service outside a church, it seemed a most shocking
thing. However, the message seemed to come straight from God. He dared
not act on it at once, for you see he was a clergyman, and had always
been brought up to believe that inside the church was the only place
where people can properly worship God.

When he mentioned the matter to his friends, some of them were very much
shocked, and thought to preach in the open air would be a very wrong
thing. But some said: "We will pray about it, and ask God to show us
what we ought to do." So they knelt down and prayed to be guided to do
the right thing.

Soon after this Mr. Whitefield went to Bristol, where he had been liked
so much before he went to America. When he got there he was invited to
preach first in one church and then in another, all were open to him.
But before very long the clergymen in the place showed that they
disapproved of the plain way in which he spoke to the people, and they
told him they would not allow him to p