is the "wisdom of
God, and the power of God to salvation." _Love_ was emphatically the
message which Whitefield, with tearful eyes and throbbing heart,
proclaimed to the wicked and the sorrowing. "God so _loved the world_,
that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish but should have everlasting life." Christ "came not
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him
might be saved."

Such were the themes which this apostolic preacher unfolded, and which
moved human hearts, in these new colonies as seventeen hundred years
ago they were moved by the preaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, and his
disciple Paul, upon the plains of Asia.

Whitefield taught that _belief_ controlled conduct. As a man sincerely
believes so will he act. Franklin, with his accustomed candor, in his
Autobiography, wrote in the following terms, the effects of the
preaching of this remarkable reformer:

"The multitudes of all sects and denominations that attended
his sermons were enormous. It was wonderful to see the
change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From
being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed
as if all the world were growing religious; so that one
could not walk through the town, in an evening, without
hearing psalms sung in different families of every street.

"Mr. Whitefield, on leaving us, went preaching all the way
through the colonies to Georgia. The settlement of that
province had been lately begun; but instead of being made
with hardy, industrious husbandmen, accustomed to labor, the
only people fit for such an enterprise, it was with families
of broken shop-keepers, and other insolvent debtors; many of
indolent and idle habits, taken out of the jails who, being
set down in the woods, unqualified for clearing land, and
unable to endure the hardships of a new settlement, perished
in numbers, leaving many helpless children unprovided for.

"The sight of their miserable situation inspired the
benevolent heart of Mr. Whitefield with the idea of building
an Orphan House there in which they might be supported and
educated. Returning northward, he preached up this charity,
and made large collections.

"I did not disapprove of the design; but as Georgia was then
destitute of materials and workmen, and it was proposed to
send