CHRISTIAN LEADERS OF THE 18th CENTURY ( CHAPTER 4 ) - { PT. 12 }


 { CHAPTER  4 } - I will now ask you to add to this analysis of Whitefield's preaching that even by nature he possessed several of the rarest gifts that quip a person to be an orator. His action was perfect--so perfect that even David Garrick, the famous actor, gave it unqualified praise. Whitefield's voice was as wonderful as his action--so powerful that thirty thousand people could hear him at the same time, and yet his voice was so musical and well-toned that some said he could raise tears by his pronunciation of the word Mesopotamia. His manner in the pulpit was so wondrously graceful and fascinating that it was said that no one could hear him for five minutes without forgetting that he squinted. His fluency and command of proper language were of the highest order, prompting him to always use the right word in the right place. Add these gifts to the things already mentioned, and then consider whether there is not sufficient cause in our hands to account for his power and popularity as a preacher. I will not hesitate to say that I believe that no English preacher has ever possessed such a combination of excellent qualifications as George Whitefield. Some, no doubt, have surpassed him in some of his gifts, and others possibly have equaled him in other gifts, but for a well-balanced combination of some of the finest gifts that a preacher can possess, united with an unrivaled voice, manner, delivery, action, and command of words, Whitefield, in my opinion, stands alone. No Eglishman, I believe, dead or alive, has ever equaled him. 

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