There is something profoundly mournful in all this. The Erskines were sincere, but sour. Their zeal to reform the Church of Scotland might be commendable; their opposition to the work of God cannot be too severely censured. They had been the friends of Whitefield. At their invitation, he, eleven months before, had come to Scotland; but, instead of co-operating with him, they almost immediately disowned him. Only a week after this, his second arrival in Scotland, he wrote a most friendly letter to Ebenezer Erskine; but, as will soon be seen, without good effect. The letter was as follows:――
“REVEREND AND VERY DEAR SIR,――The love which I bear you, for my Master’s sake, constrains me to send you a line. It is some concern to me, that our difference as to outward things should cut off our sweet fellowship with each other. God knows, I highly value and honour you. Reverend and dear sir, I do assure you, I love you and your brethren more than ever. I applaud your zeal for God; and, though, in some respects, I think it not according to knowledge, and to be levelled frequently against me, yet I feel no resentment, and should joyfully hear you and your brethren preach. I salute them all; and pray our common Lord to give us all a right judgment in all things. I hope the glorious Emmanuel will be present at the sacrament, and will make Himself known to you in breaking of bread. When I shall come to Stirling, I know not. O when shall the time come, when the watchmen will see eye to eye? Hasten that time, our Lord and our God! But, perhaps, I am troublesome. Forgive me, reverend and dear sir, being, without dissimulation, your younger brother and servant in the gospel of Christ,
What was the response to this loving letter? Exactly five weeks afterwards, on the 15th of July, “The Associate Presbytery” issued a document announcing a “Public Fast,” and the reasons for observing it. One reason was, that the “bitter outcryings, faintings, severe bodily pains, convulsions, voices, visions, and revelations,” connected with the revivals at Cambuslang and other places, were a proof that the work there was a delusion, and of the devil; and another was, “the fond reception given to Mr. George Whitefield, notwithstanding it is notoriously known, that he is a _priest of the Church of England_, who has sworn the _oath of supremacy_, and abjured the _Solemn League and Covenant_, and endeavours, by his _lax toleration principles_, to pull down the hedges of government and discipline, which the Lord has planted about His vineyard in this land.”[15]