Great Rev i va l s and Ev an g e l i s t s ¡ii. George Wh i t e f i e l d 1 By J ohn H. H unter
at some loss; but in regard to the first, Mr. Whitefield exceeded so far every other man of my time, that I should be at none. He was the original of popular preaching, and all our popu lar ministers are only his copies.” Says Bishop John Charles Ryle, of Liverpool, in The Christian Leaders of England in the Eighteenth Century”: “The first and foremost whom I will name is the well-known George Whitefield. I place him first in the order of merit without any hesitation. Of all the spiritual heroes of this dark period none saw so soon as Whitefield what the times demanded, and none were so forward in the great work of spiritual aggression. I should think I committed an act of injustice if I placed any name before his.” The man who could elicit such high and hearty commendations from such representative men is surely worth knowing. George Whitefield was born in the city of Gloucester, England, on De cember 16th, old style, (corresponding to our December 27th), 1714, just two hundred . years ago. His father, Thomas Whitefield, was a wine mer chant and kept the Bell Inn at Gloucester. He died when George was two years old, leaving his widow with six sons and one daughter, George being the youngest child. When George was ten his mother married again, but this second mar riage, like the business of the Inn, was' not prosperous. When he was fifteen the state of home finances, compelled him to leave the school that he was attending and where he was making
INCE Paul closed his won(^er^u^ evangelistic ca- reer by laying down his ^or the Saviour whom
KVav. cc. served so loyally and so efficiently, God has raised up many mighty preachers of the Gospel. One of the mightiest of them all, and cer tainly the mightiest of his own gen eration, was George Whitefield. Listen to what John Wesley, his friend and fellow-laborer, thought of him: “What an honor hath it pleased God to put upon His faithful servant! Have we read or heard of any person since the Apostles, who testified the gospel of the grace of God through so widely extended a space, through so large a part of the habitable world? Have we read or heard of any person Who called so many thousands, so many myriads of sinners to repent ance? Above all, have we read or heard of any who has been a blessed instrument in His hand of bringing so many sinners from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God?” “I bless God that I have lived in his time,” says John Newton, of Olney; “many were the winter morn ings I have got up at four to attend his Tabernacle discourses at five; and I have seen Moorfields as full of lan terns at these times, as I suppose the Haymarket is full of flambeaux on an opera night. As a preacher, if any man were to ask me who was the second I ever had heard, I should be •Copyright, 1914, by John H. Hunter.
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