Page:The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A. (1771 Vol 1).djvu/143

 to walk with. It is a difficult thing to be a christian indeed. Numbers are Pharisees, and do not know it. I pray you may be delivered from them, and be made experimentally to know that no one can call "his ," till he has really received the Holy Ghost. I could dwell on this, but other business obliges me to hasten to subscribe myself, dear Mr. B,

Your most obliged friend and servant, G. W.

LETTER CXLI.

Reverend Sir,     Philadelphia, Nov. 28, 1739.

I AM not willing to go on shore till I have performed my promise, and sent you a line. I heartily wish I could write something which might advance the glory of and the good of his church. As we both profess ourselves ministers of the gospel, these two things ought to be our chief and only concern, and more especially at this time, when men seek their own and not the things of the. Oh, dear Sir, the care of souls I find to be a matter of the greatest importance. You have a great number committed to your charge. What a dreadful thing will it be for any of them to perish through your neglect? And yet I fear, Sir, you do not walk worthy of the holy vocation wherewith you are called. It is no good report that I hear of you in common life. Your practice contradicts your doctrine, and what good can you do, if every one of your parishioners, whilst you are preaching, may reply, "Physician heal thyself?" Besides, Sir, how can you preach to others, when you are a stranger to his power yourself? It is next to impossible. I make no apology for this plain-*ness of speech. Simplicity becomes embassadors of. I am, reverend Sir,

Your obliged friend and servant, G. W.