We hurried to get our act together this morning. We planned to join with the believers of The Cornerstone Church in Beverly (all you Beverleyites reading this note that this one has one less ‘e’). It soon became clear that it was going to be impossible to get there until half-way through the meeting. So we went on to the next in the list that Bob Davis had given us, First Congregational Church, Hamilton. They were a nice crowd and the pastor preached on Ephesians 1:22–23. Interestingly, they run an Alpha Course, including watching Nicky Gumbel videos. Not exactly my cup of tea.

There we met Frank and Florina Grotto. Making us very welcome they invited us to join them at Linebrook Church (www.linebrook.org), west of Ipswich, this evening. This was very attractive as it was just round the corner from Pulpit Rock, a rocky outcrop that Whitefield had used as a pulpit in the early 1740s. When we got there, Frank was waiting to make sure we got the right place. It was amusing to find that the sign-writer, having written Whitefield’s name once, spelt it Whitehouse the second time! The rock overlooks a small natural amphitheatre, typical of the places Whitefield would use, and accommodated about 2,000 people when he preached there. Frank also told us that the John Whipple house, now a museum, contained a portrait of Whitefield. So yet another place to visit!

One of the pastors at Linebrook Church is Doug Stuart, professor of Old Testament at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. He was delighted to hear of the work we had done on Whitefield, especially as they had bought the parsonage in Newburyport (where Whitefield died) in the mid 70s. Financial demands required them to sell it later. They were saddened to hear that the stairs where Whitefield spoke before he died, had been removed.