CHRISTIAN LEADERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

  { PT.  8 } - Their unbought and unbiased opinions appear to me to supply unanswerable proof that there must have been something very extraordinary about Whitefield's preaching. Still, though, the question remains to be answered: what was the secret of Whitefield's unrivaled popularity and effectiveness? I honestly admit that with the sparse materials we possess for forming our judgment, the question is a very difficult one to answer. The person who turns to the seventy-five sermons published under Whitefield's name will probably be very disappointed. You will not find in them any superior intellect or grasp of mind. You will not find in them any deep philosophy or very remarkable thoughts. It is only fair, however, to say that most of these sermons were taken down in shorthand be reporters and published without correction. These worthy men appear to have done their work very poorly and were evidently ignorant of punctuation, paragraphing, grammar, and the gospel. The cons

  { PT.  7 } - He won the admiration of high as well as low, of rich as well as poor, of learned as well as unlearned. If his preaching had been popular with none but the uneducated and the poor, we might have thought it possible that there was little in it but rhetoric and noise. However, so far from this being the case, he seems to have been acceptable to many members of the nobility and upper class. Lothian, the Earl of Leven, the Earl of Buchan, Lord Rae, Lord Dartmouth, and Lord James   A.  Gordon can be named among his warmest admirers, in addition to Lady Huntingdon and a host of other ladies. It is a fact that eminent critics and literary men, like Lord Bolingbroke and Lord Chesterfield, were frequently his delighted hearers. Even the cold, artificial Lord Chesterfield was known to warm under Whitefield's eloquence. Lord Bolingbroke said, He is the most extraordinary man in our times. He has the most commanding eloquence I ever heard in any person. The philosopher Benjamin

  { PT.  6 } - The subject is one surrounded with considerable difficulty, and it is no easy matter to form a correct judgment about it. The common idea of many people, that he was a mere ordinary ranting Methodist, remarkable for nothing but great fluency, strong doctrine, and a loud voice, will not bear a moment's investigation. It is a fact that no preacher in England has ever succeeded in engaging the attention of such crowds as Whitefield constantly addressed around London. No preacher has ever been so universally popular in every country that he visited--England, Scotland, and America. No preacher has ever retained his hold on his hearers so completely as he did for thirty-four years. His popularity never warned. It was as great at the end of his day as it was at the beginning. Wherever he preached, people would leave their workshops in places of employment to gather around him and hear him, and they listened as if their eternal condition depended on it, for it did. This of i

  { PT.  4 } - His ministry was made a blessing to thousands who never either saw or heard him. He was among the first in the eighteenth century who revived attention to the old truths that produced the Protestant Reformation. His constant assertion of the doctrines taught by the Reformers, along with his repeated references to the beliefs, sermons, and theology of the best English theologians, motivated many people to think and to examine their own principles. If the whole truth were known, I believe it would prove that the rise and progress of the evangelical body in the Church of England received a mighty impulse from George Whitefield. This is not the only indirect good that Whitefield did in his day. He was among the first to show the right way to meet the attacks of unbelievers and skeptics on Christianity. He clearly saw that the most powerful weapon against such people is not cold, metaphysical reasoning and dry, critical discourse, but preaching the whole gospel, living the wh

  { PT.  3 } - His opinion was that if the greatness, extent, success, and unselfishness of a man's labors can give him distinction among the children of Christ, then we are justified in saying that hardly anyone has equaled Mr. Whitefield. He also said: He was abundantly successful in his vast labors. The seals of his ministry, from first to last, I am persuaded, were more then could be credited if the number could even be determined. It is certain that his amazing popularity was only from his usefulness, for he no sooner opened his mouth as a preacher than God commanded an extraordinary blessing upon his word. John Newton was a sincere man, as well as an eminent minister of the gospel. Here is his testimony about George Whitefield: That which polished Mr. Whitefield's character as a shining light, and is now his crown of rejoicing, was the extraordinary success that the Lord was pleased to give him in winning souls. It seemed as if he never preached in vain. Perhaps there is

  { PT.  3 } - However, I want my readers to understand that my high estimate of Whitefield's usefulness is based on a solid foundation. I ask them to notice well what Whitefield's contemporaries thought of the value of his labors. Benjamin Franklin, the well-known American philiosopher, was a matter-of-fact, calculating man, a Quaker by profession, and not likely to form too high an estimate of any minister's work. Yet even he confessed that it was wonderful to see the change soon made by his preaching in the manners of the inhabitants of Philadelphia. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world were growing religious. Franklin himself, it can be remarked, was the leading printer of religious works at Philadelphia, and his readiness to print Whitefield's sermons and journals shows his judgment of the hold that George Whitefield had on the American mind. Maclaurin, Willison, and Macculloch were Scottish ministers whose names are w