CHRISTIAN LEADERS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

  { PT.  5 } - Above all, George Whitefield was the very first Englishman who seems to have thoroughly understood what Dr. Chalmers appropriately called the aggressive system. He was the first to see that Christ's ministers must do the work of fishermen. They must not wait for souls to come to them, but they must go after souls and compel them to come in ( LUKE  14:23 ). He did not sit quietly by his fireside, like a cat on a rainy day, mourning over the wickedness of the land. He went forth to face the devil in his high places. He attacked sin and wickedness face to face, and give them no peace. He dived into holes and corners after sinners! He hunted out ignorance and wickedness wherever they could be found. In short, he set on foot a system of action which, up to his time, had been comparatively unknown in this country. However, it is a system that, once begun, has never stopped being used down to the present day. City missions, town missions, district visiting societi...

  { 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, livi...