( CHRISTIAN LEADERS OF THE 18TH CENTURY ) - [ CHAPTER 4 ] - { PT. 4 }


 { 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 whole gospel, and spreading the whole gospel. It was not the writings of Leland, the younger Sherlock, Waterland, and Leslie that stopped the flood of unbelief half as much as the preaching of Whitefield and his companions. They were the men who were the true champions of Christianity. Unbelievers are seldom shaken by mere intellectual reasoning. The best arguments against them are gospel truth and gospel life. 

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