CHAPTER 3 - ( GEORGE WHITEFIELD THE MAN ) { PT. 1 )

 { PT.  1 } - Who were the men who revived true religion in England a hundred years ago? What were their names so we can honor them? Where were they born? How were they educated? What are the main facts of their lives? What was their special area of labor? I want to provide some answers to these questions in the present and future chapters. I feel sorry for the person who has no interest in such matters. The instruments used by God to do His work in the world deserve a close inspection. The person who would not care to look at the rams horns that blew down Jericho, the hammer and nail that slew Sisera, the lamps and trumpets of Gideon, or the sling and stone of David, might reasonably be considered a cold and heartless person.I hope that all who read this book want to know something about the English evangelists of the eighteenth century. The first and foremost person whom I will name is the well-known George Whitefield. Though not the first in order, if we look at the date of his birth, I place him first in the order of merit without any hesitation. Of all the spiritual heroes of a hundred years ago, no one saw what the times demanded as soon as Whitefield, and none were so bold in the great work of spiritual aggression. I would think it would be an act of injustice if I placed any name before his. George Whitefield was born at Gloucester in the year 1774. The city where John Hooper preached and prayed, and the city where the zealous Miles Smith pretested, was the place where the greatest preacher of the gospel that England has ever seen was born. Whitefield's early life, according to his own account, was anything but religious, although like many boys, his conscience occasionally bothered him and he experienced random fits to devout feeling. However, habits and general tendencies are the only true test of young people's characters. He confesses that he was addicted to lying, filthy talking and foolish jesting, and that hew was a Sabbath-breaker, a theater-goer, a card-player, and a romancer reader. All this, he says, went on until he was fifteen years old. At the age of fifteen, Whitefield appears to have left school and to have given up Latin and Greek for a time. In all probability, his mother's difficult circumstances made it absolutely necessary for him to do something to assist her in business and to get his own living. Therefore, he began to help her in the daily work of the Bell Inn. At length, he says, I put on my blue apron, and I washed cups, cleaned rooms, and, in one word, became a professed common laborer for about a year and a half. This state of things, however, did not last long. His mother's business at the Bell Inn did not flourish, and she finally retired from it altogether. A former classmate revived in Whitefield's mind the idea of going to Oxford, and he went back to the grammar school and renewed his studies. Some friends recommended him for Pembroke College, Oxford, where the grammar school of Gloucester held two exhibitions. Eventually, after several providential circumstances had smoothed the way, he entered Oxford as a servitor at Pembroke at the age of eighteen. Whitefield's time at Oxford was the great turning point in his life.                           ________________________________________________________