CHRISTIAN LEADERS OF THE 18th CENTURY - ( CHAPTER 4 ) - { PT. 14 }


 ( CHAPTER  4 )  -  { PT.  14 } - Rather, spur me on, I beg you, with an Awake, you sleeper, and begin to do something for your God. Language like this, no doubt, seems foolish and artificial to the world, but the well-instructed Bible reader will see in it the heartfelt experience of all the holiest saints. It is the language of men like Richard Baxter, David Brainerd, and Robert Murray McCheyne. It is the same mind that was in the inspired apostle Paul. Those who have the most light and grace are always the most humble.                            George Whitefield was a men of burning love for our Lord Jesus Christ. That name which is above every name ( PHILIPPIANS  2:9 ) stands out incessantly in all his correspondence. Like fragrant ointment,it gives a sweat savor to all his communications. He never seems weary of saying something about Jesus. My Master, as George Herbert said, was never out of his mind for long. His love, His atonement, His precious blood, His righteousness, His readiness to receive sinners, His patience and tender dealing with saints--are themes that always appear fresh before his eyes. In this respect, at least, there is a curious likeness between him and that glorious Scottish clergyman Samuel Rutherford.                                                                He was a man of unwearied diligence and work about his Master's business. - It would be difficult, perhaps, to name any one in the history of Christianity who worked so hard for Christ, and who so thoroughly consumed himself in His service. Henry Venn, in a funeral sermon for him that was preached in the city of Bath, gave the following testimony: What a sign and wonder this man of God was in the greatness of his labors! One cannot but stand amazed that his mortal frame could, for the space of nearly thirty years, without interruption, sustain the weight of them, for what is so demanding to the human frame in youth especially, as long-continued, frequent, and violent straining of the lungs? Who that knows their structure would think it is possible that a person a little above the age of manhood could speak for forty hours in a single week? Yet Whitefield typically preached forty hours in a week for many years, and in very many weeks sixty hours--and that to thousands of people.   

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