Quick, Get the Horse, Mrs. Cole: Nathan Cole

Before cars were invented, you needed a strong horse to make it to your destination on time. Today, Dr. Stephen Nichols tells the story of a husband and wife who rode for miles to hear George Whitefield preach.

Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. On this episode, we are going back to October, 1740 to a very packed week in that month. The week starts in the home of Jonathan and Sarah Edwards and in his church there at Northampton, and they have a very special guest, George Whitefield is there. And we have an account of his time. Sarah wrote a letter to her brother James, and in it she writes, “I have seen upwards of a thousand people hang on his words with breathless silence, broken only by an occasional half-suppressed sob.” Sarah Edwards continues, “He impresses the ignorant, and not less, the educated and refined. It is reported that while the miners of England listen to him, the tears made white furrows down their smutty cheeks. So here our mechanics shut up their shops and the day laborers throw down their tools, to go and hear him preach, and a few return unaffected.”

Well, one of those laborers is Nathan Cole. Whitefield left the Edwards home and alongside of Jonathan Edwards, rode horseback down to East Windsor where Edwards grew up into his parents’ home. They spent some time there and then Edwards bid adieu to his friend, and he went back home, and Whitefield went on to Middletown, Connecticut, about 30 miles south of East Windsor, right along the Connecticut River.

And here enters the story Nathan Cole and his wife, Mrs. Cole. Nathan writes then on a sudden, in the morning about 8 or 9 of the Clock there came a messenger and said, Mr. Whitefield is to preach at Middletown this morning. Well, I was in my field at work. I dropped my tool and I had in my hand and I ran home to my wife telling her to make ready quickly to go and hear Mr. Whitefield preach at Middletown. I then ran to the pasture for my horse with all my might, fearing that we should be too late. Having my horse and with my wife ready, we soon mounted the horse and went forward as fast as that horse could bear. Actually, what husband and wife did was one would run alongside of the horse while the other rode the horse, and then they would switch, and they did this off and on until they made it to Middletown.

Nathan Cole picks up the story from there, and when we came within about a half a mile or a mile of the road that comes down to Middletown, on high land I saw before me a cloud or a fog rising. I first thought it came from the Great River, but as I came near the road, I heard the noise of something like a low rumbling thunder and presently found it was the noise of horses’ hooves coming down the road. And this cloud, it was a cloud of dust made by their feet. He says, this group moving to Middletown along the road was like a large flowing river. And he finds a vacancy and opening in that river he says, and he slid his horse into it and there they arrived covered in dust with upwards of 4,000 people, we understand were there in Middletown to hear Whitefield.

Nathan Cole continues that Whitefield looked as if he was clothed with authority from the great God and a sweet solemn solemnity sat upon his brow, and hearing him gave my heart a wound. He continues, “By God’s blessing, My old foundation was broken up and I saw that my righteousness would not save me.”

Well, let’s go back to that letter from Sarah Edwards because she adds, I think, a very important point about Whitefield and his impact on these laborers and farmers like Nathan Cole and Mrs. Cole. She writes that, “A prejudiced person, I know, might say that this is all theatrical artifice and display; but not so will anyone think who has seen and known him. He is a very devout and godly man, and his only aim seems to be to reach and influence men in the best way. He speaks from a heart aglow with love, and pours out a torrent of eloquence which is almost irresistible. I wish him success in his apostolic career.”

Well, that’s Sarah Edwards on George Whitefield, whom Nathan Cole and his wife rode a horse to hear. And I'm Steve Nichols and thanks for listening to 5 Minutes in Church History.