GLORIFY THE LORD IN THE FIRES.
Among the many illustrations of Scripture which Whitefield introduced into his sermons, one is truly worthy of record. Preaching from the words, “Wherefore glorify ye the Lord in the fires,” Isa. 24:15, he said: “When I was some years ago at Shields, I went into a glass-house, and standing very attentively, I saw several masses of burning glass of various forms. The workman took one piece of glass and put it into one furnace, then he put it into a second, and then into a third. I asked him, ‘Why do you put that into so many fires?’ He answered me, ‘O sir, the first is not hot enough, nor the second, and therefore we put it into the third, and that will make it transparent.’ Oh, thought I, does this man put this glass into one furnace after another that it may be rendered perfect? O my God! put me into one furnace after another, that my soul may be transparent, that I may see God as he is.”