30 September 1770 A.D. Anglican Evangelist & Exhorter, George Whitefield, Dies
George Whitefield
(December 27 [O.S. December 16] 1714 – September 30, 1770), also known as George
Whitfield, was an English Anglican
preacher who helped spread the Great Awakening in Britain, and especially in the American colonies.
Born in Gloucester, England, he attended Pembroke College,
Oxford, where he met the Wesley brothers. He was one of the founders of Methodism and of the evangelical
movement generally.[1] In 1740, Whitefield
travelled to America where he preached a series of revivals that came to be
known as the "Great Awakening". He became perhaps the best-known
preacher in Britain and America during the 18th century, and because he
traveled through all of the American colonies and drew great crowds and media
coverage, he was one of the most widely recognized public figures in colonial
America.
Contents
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6 Death
·
10 Works
Early life
Whitefield was born at the Bell Inn, Southgate Street,
Gloucester in England. Whitefield was the 5th son (7th child) of Thomas
Whitefield and Elizabeth Edwards who kept an inn at Gloucester. At an early age, he found that he had a passion and talent for acting in
the theatre, a passion that he would carry on through the very theatrical
re-enactments of Bible stories that he told during his sermons. He was educated
at the Crypt
School, Gloucester, and Pembroke
College, Oxford.[2]
Because Whitefield came from a poor background, he did
not have the means to pay for his tuition. He therefore entered Oxford as a servitor, the lowest rank of
students at Oxford. In return for free tuition, he was assigned as a servant to
a number of higher ranked students. His duties included waking them in the morning,
helping them bathe, taking out their garbage, carrying their books and even
assisting with required written assignments.[3] He was a part of the
'Holy Club' at Oxford University with the Wesley brothers, John and Charles. An illness, as well as Henry Scougal's The Life of God
in the Soul of Man influenced him to cry out to the Lord for salvation.
Following a religious conversion, he became very passionate for preaching his new-found faith. The Bishop
of Gloucester ordained him a deacon.
Evangelism
Whitefield preached his first sermon at St
Mary de Crypt Church[4] in his home town of
Gloucester a week after his ordination. He had earlier become the leader of the
Holy Club at Oxford when the Wesley brothers departed for Georgia. He adopted
the practice of Howell Harris of preaching in the open-air at Hanham Mount, near Kingswood, Bristol.
In 1738 he went to Savannah, Georgia, in
the American colonies, as parish priest. While there he decided that one of the
great needs of the area was an orphan house. He decided this would be his
life's work. He returned to England to raise funds, as well as to receive
priest's orders. While preparing for his return he preached to large
congregations. At the suggestion of friends he preached to the miners of
Kingswood, outside Bristol, in the open air. Because he was returning to
Georgia he invited John Wesley to take over his Bristol congregations, and to
preach in the open-air for the first time at Kingswood and then Blackheath,
London.
Whitefield accepted the Church of England's doctrine of
predestination but disagreed with the Wesley brothers' views on the doctrine of
the Atonement, Arminianism. As
a result Whitefield did what his friends hoped he would not do—hand over the
entire ministry to John Wesley.[5] Whitefield formed and
was the president of the first Methodist conference. But he soon relinquished
the position to concentrate on evangelical work.
Three churches were established in England in his name: Bristol, and two churches in London: "Moorfields
Tabernacle"; and "Tottenham Court Road Chapel".
The society meeting at the second Kingswood School at
Kingswood, a town on the eastern edge of Bristol, was eventually also named Whitefield's
Tabernacle. Whitefield acted as chaplain to Selina,
Countess of Huntingdon, and some of his followers
joined the Countess
of Huntingdon's Connexion, whose chapels were built
by Selina, where a form of Calvinistic Methodism similar to Whitefield's was
taught. Many of Selina's chapels were built in the English and Welsh counties, and one was
erected in London—Spa Fields Chapel.
In 1739, Whitefield returned to England to raise funds to
establish the Bethesda Orphanage, which is the oldest extant charity in North America. On returning to
North America in 1740, he preached a series of revivals that came to be known
as the Great Awakening of 1740. In 1740 he engaged Moravian Brethren
from Georgia to build an orphanage for Negro children on land he had bought in
the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania. Following a
theological disagreement, he dismissed them but was unable to complete the
building, which the Moravians subsequently bought and completed. This now is
the Whitefield
House in the center of the Moravian settlement of Nazareth.He preached nearly every day for months to large crowds of sometimes
several thousand people as he traveled throughout the colonies, especially New England. His journey on
horseback from New York City to Charleston was the longest then undertaken in North America by a white man.
Like his contemporary and acquaintance, Jonathan
Edwards, Whitefield preached staunchly Calvinist theology that was in line
with the "moderate
Calvinism" of the Thirty-nine Articles.[6] While explicitly
affirming God's sole agency in salvation,
Whitefield freely
offered the Gospel, saying at the end of his sermons:
"Come poor, lost, undone sinner,
come just as you are to Christ."[7]
Revival meetings
The Anglican Church did not assign him a pulpit, so he
began preaching in parks and fields in England on his own, reaching out to
people who normally did not attend church. Like Jonathan
Edwards, he developed a style of preaching that elicited
emotional responses from his audiences. But Whitefield had charisma, and his
voice (which according to many accounts, could be heard over five miles), his
small stature, and even his cross-eyed appearance (which some people took as a
mark of divine favor) all served to help make him one of the first celebrities
in the American colonies.
Thanks to widespread dissemination of print media,
perhaps half of all colonists eventually heard about, read about, or read
something written by Whitefield. He employed print systematically, sending
advance men to put up broadsides and distribute handbills announcing his
sermons. He also arranged to have his sermons published.[8] A crowd Whitefield
estimated at 30,000 met him in Cambuslang in 1742.
Old South church in 2005.
Benjamin Franklin and Whitefield
Benjamin Franklin attended a revival meeting in Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania and was greatly impressed with Whitefield's ability to
deliver a message to such a large group. Franklin had previously dismissed, as
an exaggeration, reports of Whitefield preaching to crowds of the order of tens
of thousands in England. When listening to Whitefield preaching from the
Philadelphia court house, Franklin walked away towards his shop in Market
Street until he could no longer hear Whitefield distinctly. He then estimated
his distance from Whitefield and calculated the area of a semicircle centred on
Whitefield. Allowing two square feet per person he computed that Whitefield
could be heard by over thirty thousand people in the open air.[9][10]
Franklin admired Whitefield as a fellow intellectual but
thought Whitefield's plan to run an orphanage in Georgia would lose money. He
published several of Whitefield's tracts and was impressed by Whitefield's
ability to preach and speak with clarity and enthusiasm to crowds. Franklin was
an ecumenist and approved of
Whitefield's appeal to members of many denominations, but it is unknown if
Franklin was converted. While Franklin did not publicly express conversion, his
belief in a personal God is evident in his famous speech at the Constitutional
Convention where he recited the verse that not a single sparrow falls to the
ground without God's notice; how then could the Constitution convention hope to
succeed without God's careful oversight?[11] After one of
Whitefield's sermons, Franklin noted the:
"wonderful...change
soon made in the manners of our inhabitants. From being thoughtless or
indifferent about religion, it seem'd as if all the world were growing
religious, so that one could not walk thro' the town in an evening without
hearing psalms sung in different families of every street."[12]
A lifelong close friendship developed between the
revivalist preacher and the worldly Franklin. Looking beyond their public
images, one finds a common charity, humility, and ethical sense embedded in the
character of each man. True loyalty based on genuine affection, coupled with a
high value placed on friendship, helped their association grow stronger over
time.[13]
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Travels
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Death
Whitefield died in the parsonage of Old South Presbyterian Church,[15] Newburyport,
Massachusetts, on September 30, 1770, and was buried, according to his
wishes, in a crypt under the pulpit of this church. A bust of
Whitefield is in the collection of Gloucester City Museum & Art Gallery.
George Whitefield's grave in
the crypt of Old South Presbyterian Church, Newburyport, Massachusetts between
Jonathan Parsons and Joseph Prince.
It was John Wesley who preached his
funeral sermon in London, at Whitefield's request.[16] (Wesley's Journal
entry for Nov. 10, 1770)
Relation to other Methodist leaders
In terms of theology, Whitefield, unlike John Wesley, was a supporter of Calvinism. The two differed on
eternal election, final perseverance, and sanctification, but were reconciled
as friends and co-workers, each going his own way. It is a prevailing misconception
that Whitefield was not primarily an organizer like Wesley. However, as
Wesleyan historian Rev. Luke Tyerman states, "It is notable that the first
Calvinistic Methodist Association was held eighteen months before Wesley held
his first Methodist Conference."[17] He was a man of
profound experience, which he communicated to audiences with clarity and
passion. His patronization by the Countess
of Huntingdon reflected this emphasis on practice.
Democracy
The First Great Awakening democratized religion by redressing the balance of power between the
minister and the congregation. Rather than listening demurely to preachers,
people groaned and roared in enthusiastic emotion; new divinity schools opened
to challenge the hegemony of Yale and Harvard; personal experience became more
important than formal education for preachers. Such concepts and habits formed
a necessary foundation for the American Revolution.[18][19]
Advocacy of slavery
In the early 18th century, slavery was outlawed in Georgia. In 1749, George Whitefield campaigned for its legalisation, claiming that
the territory would never be prosperous unless farms were able to use slave
labor.[20] He began his fourth
visit to America in 1751 advocating slavery, viewing its re-legalisation in
Georgia as necessary to make his plantation profitable.[21] Partly through his
campaigns and written pleas to the Georgia Trustees, it was re-legalised in
1751. Whitefield purchased slaves, who then worked at his Bethesda Orphanage.
To help raise money for the orphanage, he also employed slaves at Providence
Plantation. Whitefield was known to treat his slaves well; they were
reputed to be devoted to him, and he was critical of the abuse of slaves by
other owners.[22] When Whitefield
died, he bequeathed his slaves to the Countess of Huntingdon.[23] His attitude towards
slavery is expressed in a letter to Mr B. written from Bristol 22 March 1751:
As for the lawfulness of
keeping slaves, I have no doubt, since I hear of some that were bought with
Abraham's money, and some that were born in his house.—And I cannot help
thinking, that some of those servants mentioned by the Apostles in their
epistles, were or had been slaves. It is plain, that the Gibeonites were doomed
to perpetual slavery, and though liberty is a sweet thing to such as are born
free, yet to those who never knew the sweets of it, slavery perhaps may not be
so irksome. However this be, it is plain to a demonstration, that hot countries
cannot be cultivated without negroes. What a flourishing country might Georgia
have been, had the use of them been permitted years ago? How many white people
have been destroyed for want of them, and how many thousands of pounds spent to
no purpose at all? Had Mr Henry been in America, I believe he would have seen
the lawfulness and necessity of having negroes there. And though it is true,
that they are brought in a wrong way from their own country, and it is a trade
not to be approved of, yet as it will be carried on whether we will or not; I
should think myself highly favoured if I could purchase a good number of them,
in order to make their lives comfortable, and lay a foundation for breeding up
their posterity in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. You know, dear Sir,
that I had no hand in bringing them into Georgia; though my judgement was for
it, and so much money was yearly spent to no purpose, and I was strongly
importuned thereto, yet I would not have a negro upon my plantation, till the
use of them was publicly allowed in the colony. Now this is done, dear Sir, let
us reason no more about it, but diligently improve the present opportunity for
their instruction. The trustees favour it, and we may never have a like
prospect. It rejoiced my soul, to hear that one of my poor negroes in Carolina
was made a brother in Christ. How know we but we may have many such instances
in Georgia ere it be long? [24]
Works
Whitefield's sermons were widely reputed to capture his
audience's enthusiasm, and many of them as well as his letters and journals
were published during his lifetime. He was an excellent orator as well, strong
in voice and adept at extemporaneity. His voice was so expressive that people
are said to have wept just hearing him allude to "Mesopotamia". His
journals, originally intended only for private circulation, were
surreptitiously published by Thomas Cooper. This led James Hutton to publish a
version with Whitefield's approval. Exuberant and "too apostolical"
language resulted in great criticism and his journals ceased publication after
1741. Although Whitefield prepared a new installment in 1744–45, it wasn't
published until 1938, and nineteenth century biographies refer to an earlier
manuscript. Whitefield published A Short Account of God's Dealings with the
Reverend George Whitefield in 1740, which covered his life up to his
ordination. In 1747, he published A Further Account of God's Dealings with
the Reverend George Whitefield, covering the period from his ordination to
his first voyage to Georgia. In 1756, a heavily edited version of his journals
and autobiographical accounts was released.
After his death, John
Gillies, a Glasgow friend, published a memoir and six volumes of
works, comprising three volumes of letters, a volume of tracts, and two volumes
of sermons. Another collection of sermons was published just before he left
London for the last time in 1769. These were disowned by Whitefield and Gillies,
who tried to buy all copies and pulp them. They had been taken down in
shorthand, but Whitefield said that they made him say nonsense on occasion.
These sermons were included in a nineteenth-century volume, Sermons on
Important Subjects, along with the "approved" sermons from the Works.
An edition of the journals, in one volume, was edited by William Wale in 1905.
This was reprinted with additional material in 1960 by the Banner of Truth
Trust. It lacks the Bermuda journal entries found in Gillies biography and the
quotes from manuscript journals found in nineteenth century biographies. A
comparison of this edition with the original 18th century publications shows
numerous omissions—some minor and a few major.
Whitefield also wrote several hymns. In 1739, Charles Wesley composed a hymn,
"Hark, how all the welkin rings”. In 1758, Whitefield revised the opening
couplet to Hark,
the Herald Angels Sing[25]
Veneration
Whitefield is honored together with Francis Asbury with a feast day on the liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church (USA) on November 15.
References and sources
References
1.
Jump up ^ Mark
A. Noll, The Rise of Evangelicalism: The Age of Edwards, Whitefield and the
Wesleys (2010)
4.
Jump up ^ Heighway,
Carolyn. Gloucester: a history and guide. Gloucester: Alan Sutton
Publishing Limited, 1985, p. 141. ISBN 0-86299-256-7
5.
Jump up ^ Warren
W. Wiersbe, "50 People Every Christian Should Know", pp. 42–43.
(2009) ISBN 978-0-8010-7194-2.
8.
Jump up ^ Harry
S. Stout, The Divine Dramatist: George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern
Evangelicalism(1991).
9.
Jump up ^ The
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, pp. 163–164. Applewood Books, Bedford,
MA, ISBN 978-1-55709-079-9
10.
Jump up ^ Peter
Charles Hoffer, When Benjamin Franklin Met the Reverend Whitefield:
Enlightenment, Revival, and the Power of the Printed Word (Johns Hopkins
University Press, 2011). 156 pp.
12.
Jump up ^ The
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, pp. 104–108; Samuel J. Rogal,
"Toward a Mere Civil Friendship: Benjamin Franklin and George
Whitefield." Methodist History 1997 35(4): 233–243. 0026-1238
13.
Jump up ^ H.W.
Brands, The First American: The Life and Times of Benjamin Franklin
(2000), pp. 138–50
16.
Jump up ^ Wesley,
John (1951). The Journal of John Wesley. Online: Moody Press / Chicago. p. 202.
17.
Jump up ^ Arnold
A Dalimore, George Whitefield: God's Annointed Servant in the Great Revival of
the Enlightened Century. Crossway: 1990. p. 130
18.
Jump up ^ Nancy
Ruttenburg, "George Whitefield, Spectacular Conversion, and the Rise of
Democratic Personality." American Literary History 1993 5(3):
429–458. 0896-7148
19.
Jump up ^ Jerome
Dean Mahaffey, "The Accidental revolutionary: George Whitefield & the
Creation of America." '(Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2011) ISBN 978-1-60258-391-7
20.
Jump up ^ Arnold
Dallimore, George Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of
the Eighteenth Century (1980), Volume 2
21.
Jump up ^ Frank
Lambert, Pedlar in divinity: George Whitefield and the Transatlantic
Revivals, 1737–1770. pp. 204–205. Princeton: Princeton
University Press,
1993. ISBN 978-0-691-03296-2
22.
Jump up ^ Pollock,
John, "George Whitefield: The Great Awakening", Published by
Christian Focus, 2009, ISBN 1-84550-454-2, ISBN 978-1-84550-454-0
23.
Jump up ^ Edward
J. Cashin, Beloved Bethesda : A History of George Whitefield's Home for
Boys (2001)
25.
Jump up ^ bowler, Gerry. "“Hark! The Herald Angels Sing”, UM
Today, University of Manitoba, December 29, 2013
Sources
·
Armstrong, John H. Five
Great Evangelists: Preachers of Real Revival. Fearn (maybe Hill of Fearn), Tain: Christian Focus
Publications, 1997. ISBN 978-1-85792-157-1
·
Bormann, Ernest G. Force
of Fantasy: Restoring the American Dream. Carbondale: Southern
Illinois University Press, 1985. ISBN 978-0-8093-2369-2
·
Dallimore, Arnold A. George
Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the
Eighteenth-Century Revival (Volume I). Edinburgh or Carlisle: Banner of Truth Trust, 1970. ISBN 978-0-85151-026-2
·
Dallimore, Arnold A. George
Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the
Eighteenth-Century Revival (Volume II). Edinburgh or Carlisle: Banner of Truth Trust, 1980. ISBN 978-0-85151-300-3
·
Johnston, E.A. George
Whitefield: A Definitive Biography (2 volumes). Stoke-on-Trent: Tentmaker
Publications, 2007. ISBN 978-1-901670-76-9
·
Gillies, John and
Whitefield, George Memoirs of the Rev. George Whitefield: to which is
appended an extensive collection of his sermons and other writings: E.
Hunt, 1853 (full text online)
·
Kenney, William Howland,
III. ″Alexander Garden and George Whitefield: The Significance of Revivalism in
South Carolina 1738-1741″. The South Carolina Historical Magazine, Vol.
71, No. 1 (January 1970), pp. 1–16.
·
Kidd, Thomas S. The Great
Awakening: The Roots of Evangelical Christianity in Colonial America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009. ISBN 978-0-300-15846-5
·
Lambert, Frank. Pedlar in
divinity: George Whitefield and the Transatlantic Revivals, 1737–1770. Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1993. ISBN 978-0-691-03296-2
·
Mahaffey, Jerome. Preaching
Politics: The Religious Rhetoric of George Whitefield and the Founding of a New
Nation. Waco: Baylor University
Press, 2007. ISBN 978-1-932792-88-1
·
Mahaffey, Jerome. The Accidental Revolutionary: George Whitefield and the
Creation of America. Waco: Baylor University
Press, 2011. ISBN 978-1-60258-391-7
·
Mansfield, Stephen. Forgotten
Founding Father: The Heroic Legacy of George Whitefield. Nashville: Cumberland House Publishing (acquired by Sourcebooks), 2001. ISBN 978-1-58182-165-9
·
Noll, Mark A. The Rise of
Evangelicalism: The Age of Edwards, Whitefield and the Wesleys (2010)
·
Philip, Robert. The Life
and Times of George Whitefield. Edinburgh: Banner of Truth Trust, 2007 (reprint of 1837 edition). ISBN 978-0-85151-960-9
·
Reisinger, Ernest. The
Founder's Journal, Issue 19/20, Winter/Spring 1995: "What Should We Think Of Evangelism and
Calvinism?". Coral Gables?: Founders Ministries.
·
Stout, Harry S. The
Divine Dramatist: George Whitefield and the Rise of Modern Evangelicalism. Grand
Rapids: William
B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1991. ISBN 978-0-8028-0154-8
·
Whitefield, George, et al. The
Works of George Whitefield on CD-ROM (compilation). Weston Rhyn: Quinta Press, 2001.
ISBN 978-1-897856-09-3
External links
Bust of Whitefield at Gloucester City Museum & Art Gallery.
·
59 Sermons by George Whitefield at
the 'Asia-Pacific Institute of Biblical Studies (APIBS)' "103 Classic
Seremons – Library"
·
George Whitefield's Journals project – Project to publish a complete edition of Whitefield's Journals
Thank you for the post. For more on George Whitefield, I would like to invite you to the website for the book series, The Asbury Triptych Series. The trilogy based on the life of Francis Asbury, the young protégé of John Wesley and George Whitefield, opens with the book, Black Country. The opening novel in this three-book series details the amazing movement of Wesley and Whitefield in England and Ireland as well as its life-changing effect on a Great Britain sadly in need of transformation. Black Country also details the Wesleyan movement's effect on the future leader of Christianity in the American colonies, Francis Asbury. The website for the book series is www.francisasburytriptych.com. Please enjoy the numerous articles on the website. Again, thank you, for the post.
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