at I am doing? Then suppose I do know what my
duty is--and certainly I do in some respects--I am not sure that I can
express it properly, but I feel as if I wanted something to come and
make me do it. I am like a watch, with all the wheels and springs
there, ready to go, but I want somebody to come and wind me up. And I
do not know how that is to be done. But Mr Whitefield made me wish, oh
so much! that that unknown somebody would come and do it. I never
thought much about it before, until that talk with my Uncle Drummond,
and now it feels to be what I want more than anything else.

I cannot write the sermon down: not a page of it. I think you never can
write down on paper the things that stir your very soul. It is the
things which just tickle your brains that you can put down in elegant
language on paper. When a thing comes close to you, into your real
self, and grapples with you, and leaves a mark on you for ever
hereafter, whether for good or evil, you cannot write or talk about
that,--you can only feel it.

The text was, "What think ye of Christ?"

Mr Whitefield saith any man that will may have his sins forgiven, and
may know it. I have heard Mr Bagnall speak of this doctrine, which he
said was shocking and wicked, for it gave men licence to live in sin.
Mr Whitefield named this very thing (whereby I saw it had been brought
as a charge against him), and showed plainly that it did not tend to
destroy good works, but only built them up on a safer and surer
foundation. We work, saith he, not for that we would be saved by our
works, but out of gratitude that we have been saved by Christ, who
commands these works to such as would follow Him. And he quoted an
Article of the Church, [Note 4] saying that he desired men to see that
he was no schismatic preaching his own fancies, but that the Church
whereof he was a minister held the same doctrine. I wonder if Mr
Bagnall knows that, and if he ever reads the Articles.

He spoke much, also, of the new birth, or conversion. I never heard any
other preacher, except Uncle, mention that at all. I know Mr Digby
thought it a fanatical notion only fit for enthusiasts. But certainly
there are texts in the Bible that speak plainly of it. And Mr
Whitefield saith that we do not truly believe in Christ, unless we so
believe as to have Him dwelling in us, and to receive life and
nourishment from Him as the branch does from the vine. And Saint John
says the same thing.