Page:History of the United States of America, Spencer, v1.djvu/228

 could not contain them. They would not only fill the houses, but crowd round the doors and windows without, and press together wherever they could hear the preacher. They would not only thus assemble in their own towns and parishes when the word was preached, but if they had the knowledge of lectures in the neighboring towns and parishes, they would attend them. Sometimes they would follow the preacher from town to town, and from one place to another, for several days together. In some instances, in places but thinly settled, there would be such a concourse, that no house could hold them. There was, in the minds of people, a general fear of sin, and of the wrath of God denounced against it. There seemed to be a general conviction, that all the ways of man were before the eyes of the Lord. It was the opinion of men of discernment and sound judgment, who had the best opportunities of knowing the feelings and general state of the people at that period, that bags of gold and silver, and other precious things, might, with safety, have been laid in the streets, and that no man would have converted them to his own use. Theft, wantonness, intemperance, profaneness, sabbath-breaking, and other gross sins, appeared to be put away. The intermissions on the Lord's Day, instead of being spent in worldly conversation and vanity, as had been too usual before, were now spent in religious conversation, in reading and singing the praises of God. At lectures there was not only great attention and seriousness in the house of God, but the conversation out of it was generally on the great concerns of the soul.'

"There is a circumstance which considerably contributed to accelerate the diffusion of a revival spirit, which must not be overlooked—the visits of the celebrated contemporaries, Wesley and Whitfield, to the American continent, just at this period. The extraordinary exertions of the latter especially excited and emboldened many faithful ministers of Connecticut, whose labors and pecuniary sacrifices now became greater than they had ever before experienced or imagined they could endure. They not only abounded in active exertions among their own and neighboring congregations, but preached in all parts of the colony, where their brethren would admit them, and in many places in Massachusetts, and the other colonies. They were very popular, and their labors were generally acceptable to their brethren, and useful to the people. They were not noisy preachers, but grave, sentimental, searching, and pungent. Connecticut was, however, more remarkably the seat of the work than any part of New England, or of the American colonies. In the years 1740, 1741, and 1742, it had pervaded, in a greater or less degree, every part of the colony. In most of the towns and societies, it was very general and powerful.

"It has been estimated, that, during three years, from thirty to forty thousand persons had their minds affected in the decided manner which has been described. It might naturally have been supposed, that, as many of these impressions occurred at a period of