ntense religious enthusiasm that was generated, many of the ties
of life were snapped in twain. Children treated with contempt the
commands of their parents, students the rules of their colleges,
clergymen the discipline of their Church. The whole structure of
society, and almost all the amusements of life, appeared criminal. The
fairs, the mountebanks, the public rejoicings of the people, were all
Satanic. It was sinful for a woman to wear any gold ornament or any
brilliant dress. It was even sinful for a man to exercise the common
prudence of laying by a certain portion of his income. When Whitefield
proposed to a lady to marry him, he thought it necessary to say, "I
bless God, if I know anything of my own heart, I am free from that
foolish passion which the world calls love." "I trust I love you only
for God, and desire to be joined to you only by His commands, and for
His sake." It is perhaps not very surprising that Whitefield's marriage,
like that of Wesley, proved very unhappy. Theaters and the reading of
plays were absolutely condemned, and Methodists employed all their
influence with the authorities to prevent the erection of the former. It
seems to have been regarded as a divine judgment that once, when
_Macbeth_ was being acted at Drury Lane, a real thunderstorm mingled
with the mimic thunder in the witch scene. Dancing was, if possible,
even worse than the theater. "Dancers," said Whitefield, "please the
devil at every step"; and it was said that his visit to a town usually
put "a stop to the dancing-school, the assemblies, and every pleasant
thing." He made it his mission to "bear testimony against the detestable
diversions of this generation"; and he declared that no "recreations,
considered as such, can be innocent."

Accompanying this asceticism we find an extraordinary revival of the
grossest superstition. It was a natural consequence of the essentially
emotional character of Methodism that its disciples should imagine that
every strong feeling or impulse within them was a direct inspiration of
God or Satan. The language of Whitefield--the language in a great degree
of all the members of the sect--was that of men who were at once
continually inspired and the continual objects of miraculous
interposition. In every perplexity they imagined that, by casting lots
or opening their Bibles at random, they could obtain a supernatural
answer to their inquiries.

In all matters relating to Satanic interference,