Wayne
Tempus faciendi, Domine.
This from the AMREL forum earlier today, regarding George Whitefield's preaching:
Here is the excerpt from Franklin's Autobiography:
"He had a loud and clear voice, and articulated his words and sentences
so perfectly, that he might be heard and understood at a great distance,
especially as his auditories, however numerous, observ'd the most exact
silence. He preach'd one evening from the top of the Court-house steps,
which are in the middle of Market-street, and on the west side of
Second-street, which crosses it at right angles.
Both streets were fill'd with his hearers to a considerable distance.
Being among the hindmost in Market-street, I had the curiosity to learn
how far he could be heard, by retiring backwards down the street towards
the river; and I found his voice distinct till I came near Front-street,
when some noise in that street obscur'd it. Imagining then a
semi-circle, of which my distance should be the radius, and that it were
fill'd with auditors, to each of whom I allow'd two square feet, I
computed that he might well be heard by more than thirty thousand. This
reconcil'd me to the newspaper accounts of his having preach'd to
twenty-five thousand people in the fields, and to the antient histories
of generals haranguing whole armies, of which I had sometimes doubted."
Another excerpt describes the building that was erected for Whitefield
and for the use of all preachers without a home pulpit to their use:
"And it being found inconvenient to assemble in the open air, subject to
its inclemencies, the building of a house to meet in was no sooner
propos'd, and persons appointed to receive contributions, but sufficient
sums were soon receiv'd to procure the ground and erect the building,
which was one hundred feet long and seventy broad, about the size of
Westminster Hall; and the work was carried on with such spirit as to be
finished in a much shorter time than could have been expected.
Both house and ground were vested in trustees, expressly for the use of
any preacher of any religious persuasion who might desire to say
something to the people at Philadelphia; the design in building not
being to accommodate any particular sect, but the inhabitants in
general; so that even if the Mufti of Constantinople were to send a
missionary to preach Mohammedanism to us, he would find a pulpit at his
service."
Both excerpts are from Chapter 10, and I copied them from this website:
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin - Chapter 10
