Colonel and Mrs. Galatin were sincere and warm-hearted friends both of Whitefield and the Wesleys. Whitefield met them in Manchester, where the colonel[257] was then stationed, and made the best use of his opportunity to benefit him and his subordinate officers. Hence the following to the Countess of Huntingdon:――
“I forwarded your letter to Mrs. Galatin, at Manchester. She seems to be quite in earnest. I conversed for about two hours with the captain and some other officers, upon the nature and necessity of the new birth. He was affected; and, I hope, the conversation was blessed. Since I left them, I have preached to many thousands in Rosendale, Aywood” (Ewood?) “and Halifax; also at Birstal, Pudsey, and Armley; and I have had three precious seasons here. Congregations are exceeding large, and both the Established and Dissenting Clergy are very angry. I hear that yesterday they thundered heartily. But truth is great, and will prevail, though preached in the fields and streets.
“I thought to have been at Ashby next Lord’s-day, but a door seems to be opened at Nottingham, and I have thoughts of trying what can be done there. This morning I shall set out for Sheffield. This day week, your ladyship may depend on seeing me at Ashby.”
On November 13th, Whitefield left the country residence of Lady Huntingdon for London. On arriving there, he found letters, which turned his attention to Ireland.
After John Cennick seceded from Whitefield, he, in June 1746, went to Dublin, and commenced preaching in Skinner’s Alley. Soon after this, Cennick had to attend a Moravian Synod in Germany; and, during his absence, Thomas Williams, one of Wesley’s itinerants, visited Dublin, began to preach, and formed a Society. In August, 1747, Wesley himself went to Dublin, and became the guest of Mr. William Lunell, a banker, a man of wealth and great respectability, who had been converted under the preaching of Cennick and Williams. A year afterwards, Charles Wesley found him mourning the loss of his wife and child, and did all he could to comfort him. Mr. Lunell became one of Wesley’s most liberal supporters. He gave £400 towards the erection of Dublin chapel; and, more than twenty years subsequent to this, Wesley declared that Mr. Lunell, of Dublin, and Mr. Thomas ♦James, of Cork, were the most munificent benefactors that Methodism had ever had.[258]