CHRISTIAN LEADERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

  { PT.  6 } - The news about Whitefield's open-air preaching soon spread. The number of hearers rapidly increased until the congregation amounted to many thousands. His own account of the behavior of these neglected miners, who had never been in a church in their lives, is deeply touching. He wrote to a friend: Having no righteousness of their own to renounce, they were glad to hear of a Jesus who was a friend to publicans, and who came not to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. The first discovery of their being affected was the sight of the white gutters made by their tears, which plentifully fell down their black cheeks as they came out of their coal pits. Hundreds of them were soon brought under deep conviction, which, as the event proved, happily ended in a sound and thorough conversion. The change was visible to all, though many people chose to impute it to anything other than the finger of God. As the scene was quite new, it often occasioned many inward con...

  { PT.  5 } - After preaching for a few months in Cloucestershire, and especially at Bristol and Stonehouse, he sailed for America in the latter part of 1737, and continued there about a year. The affairs of this orphan house, it can be noted, occupied much of his attention from this period of his life until he died. Although well-intentioned, it seems to have been a design of very questionable wisdom, and certainly brought Whitefield a world of anxiety and responsibility to the end of his days. Whitefield returned from Georgia in the latter part of the year 1738, partly to obtain priest's orders,which were conferred on him by his old friend Bishop Benson, and partly on business connected with the orphan house. Soon, however, he discovered that his position was no longer what it was before he sailed for Georgia. The majority of the clergy were no longer favorable to him, but regarded him with suspicion as an enthusiast and a fanatic. They were especially opposed to him preach...

{ PT.  4 } - Almost immediately after his ordination, Whitefield went to Oxford and earned his bachelor degree. He then began his regular ministerial life by undertaking temporary duty at the Tower Chapel in London for two months. While there, he preached continually in many London churches of Islington, Bishopsgate, St Dunstan's, St Margaret's, Westminster, and Bow in Cheapside. From the very beginning, he obtained a degree of popularity such as no preacher, before or since, has probably ever reached. Whether on week-days or Sundays, the churches were crowded wherever he preached, and an immense impression was made. The plain truth is that a really eloquent, extemporaneous preacher, preaching the pure gospel with most uncommon gifts of voice and manner, was at that time entirely unique in London. The congregations were taken by surprise and carried by storm. From London, George Whitefield went for two months to the village of Dummer, a little rural parish in Hampshire, near Ba...