Once or twice, he had found himself giving her an affectionate smile, or touching her shoulder lightly, in a way that might have invited a response. But she had always chosen to treat these as signs of friendship, and nothing more. Indeed, he’d even wondered recently if she might deliberately be keeping him at a distance.

It was when they went to the preaching that everything changed.

Many times in Christianity’s history there have been charismatic preachers: men who gather others to them and inspire more, so that a movement begins—each movement, like a river in flood, leaving a rich deposit of fertile soil for future generations.

John Master had heard of the Wesley brothers some years ago. Inspired by an intense faith and a desire to preach, they and some Oxford friends had begun an evangelical movement within the Anglican Church. In 1736, John Wesley had arrived in the American colonies, at Savannah, Georgia, hoping to convert the native American Indians there. And although he’d returned somewhat disappointed after a couple of years, he had immediately been replaced in Georgia by his Oxford friend George Whitefield. Meanwhile, the Wesleys’ evangelical mission in England was quietly growing. Texts of their sermons had crossed the Atlantic to Philadelphia, Boston and New York. Some churchmen thought the movement unseemly, and contemptuously referred to these earnest young men as “Methodists.” But many more were inspired by their fervent preaching.

In the summer of 1739, after a visit to consult with the Wesleys in England, George Whitefield had returned to spread the word more widely in the colonies. His first stop had been in Philadelphia.

“He is quite remarkable, you know,” Mercy told John Master.

“You went to hear him preach?”

“Of course I did. I went with Ben Franklin, who is a friend of his. For you may be sure,” she added with a smile, “that Mr. Franklin does not allow any person of celebrity to remain a day in Philadelphia without his making their acquaintance.”

“He impressed you?”

“Very much. His voice is powerful, and has such clarity of tone that they say he can be heard a mile away—like Our Lord at the Sermon on the Mount, I suppose. And though the words themselves are such as other preachers use, he has a way of describing scenes so that you feel you see them directly before your eyes. It is very affecting. He spoke in the open to a crowd of thousands. Many were quite overcome.”

“Was Mr. Franklin overcome?”

“Before we set off, he said to me: ‘Whitefield is a good fellow, but I shall not allow myself to be led by the nose. So you see, I have taken all the money out of my pocket. Then I cannot be tempted to give him anything until my head is cool.’”

“Franklin gave him nothing, then?”

“Quite the contrary. Mr. Whitefield was collecting for the orphans in Georgia, and by the end of the preaching, Mr. Franklin was so excited he made me lend him money to put in the collection. He paid me back, of course,” she added.