Page:The Works of the Reverend George Whitefield, M.A. (1771 Vol 1).djvu/262

 LETTER CCLXVII.

To Mrs. A. D.

My dear Sister,     On board the Minerva, Feb. 20, 1741.

MY conscience almost reproaches me, that I have not wrote to you often, nor full enough; accept this as an acknowledgement of my fault. I am sorry for it. We are now about a thousand miles off England. I hope this will provoke you to send me a letter immediately after my arrival. I find Luther's observation to be true: "Times of reformation are times of confusion;" as yet the churches in America are quiet, but I expect a sifting time ere long. My family in Georgia was once sadly shaken, but now, blessed be , it is settled, and, I hope, established in the doctrines of grace. Your name is precious among them. I wish you would send them a long letter. Your book on walking with has been blessed to one Mr. B, and others in South-Carolina. It hath also been serviceable to a dear friend now with me, as also to myself. I cannot well tell you what great things are doing abroad. I have a scene of sufferings lying before me; I expect shortly to cry out with the spouse, "Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me, my mother's children were angry with me." My Lord's command, now, I believe, is, "Take the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines; for our vines have tender grapes."—Help me by your prayers. It is an ease thus to unbosom one's self to a friend, and an instance of my confidence in you. O, my dear Sister, I am less than the least of all saints, I am the chief of sinners, and yet loves me, and sheds his love abroad in my heart abundantly by the Holy Ghost. I have been much assisted in composing some gospel sermons, which I intend for the press. I have sought the by prayer and fasting, and he assures me, that he will be with me. Whom then should I fear? Hitherto we have had an extraordinary passage, praise the. Herewith I send you a letter from one of the children which has given me: He will rejoice to receive a line from you. If possible, I hope, tho' you are in the decline of life, to see you face to face be