The Rev. George Whitefield favored Philadelphia with another of his visits in 1764,[1] and on 9 October the Trustees appointed "Dr. Redman, Mr. Duche, and the Provost to wait on him and to request in Behalf of the Trustees that before his Departure from this City he would oblige the Institution with a sermon for the Benefit of the Charity Children educated in it," which he did on the 17th in the College Hall, "an excellent sermon from St. Matthew vi. 10, Thy Kingdom come. He concluded with a most fervent and Christian exhortation to the Youth of the Institution ; and the Collection at the doors amounted to one Hundred and Five pounds."[2] Whitefield speaks of this as "one of the best regulated institutions in the world ;" and in describing this service writes:
Dr. Smith read prayers fof me; both the present and the late Gov- ernor, with the head gentlemen of the city were present; and cordial thanks were sent to me from all the trustees, for speaking for the children, and countenancing the institution.[3]
Mr. Whitefield had attended and preached at the Commence- ment of the College of New Jersey at Princeton on 26 September.[4]
But the Kingdom of Peace, which Whitefield preached in October, did not spare the Province a strife of politics which was the severest experienced by its citizens for many years. Dr. Smith's return home was in the midst of this ferment, and as the two foremost men in the College annals became prominent on opposite sides, we must pause in the recital of these to take a view of the civil situation surrounding its academic halls. But we must go back a twelvemonth to obtain the key to the situation. The return of peace, that of 1763,
