George Whitefield

[This transcript has been edited for easier reading]

For today's story, we're going to travel back to the 1700's in England, and we're going to talk about the man who is simply known as the evangelist, George Whitefield.

George Whitefield was born in the south of England in 1714 and into an inn-keeping family as his father was an innkeeper and his mother ran the inn, and this inn still exists in Gloucester, England. They were not particularly well off - they were working class, I guess and George grew up doing odd jobs for the family, but he was very fortunate to live in Gloucester which was quite a big city in England at that time - big enough to have a free school for boys. And so George Whitefield received a free education, and even though the family wasn't well off, his education was quite good.

Even at school, from a very young age, he was often selected to do public speaking. When the authorities came to visit each year, because he had an incredible voice and such a good manner, when it came to public speaking they always picked him to do the speech to the authorities. And not only that, but during his early years, when he became a teenager, he absolutely loved the theater. He thought, and so did many others, that he would have a life on the stage. He was excellent at memorizing huge chunks of plays and was very expressive with his voice. He was an excellent speaker and everyone agreed with him that he was destined to be a great actor.

Now, if we think of the time that George Whitefield lived, in the 1700s and in England, it appears on the outside to be a very Christian country. Every village was centered around the church, everybody, every respectable person at least, went to church every Sunday. The bells would ring out and there would be an evening service and a morning service. People went to church all the time, but often the very, very poor didn't go, simply because they were not welcome. They were too low, too dirty, simply too smelly, to go into a holy building like a church. To be a clergyman in England at that time was to have a really respectable position. It was like being a lawyer. It was a secure, well paid and comfortable job. The clergyman were well educated people who could read Greek and Latin, but often they were not saved, and had never even thought about salvation. They were simply educated, and that was their secure job. But the other thing about this time was, of course, that books were very expensive, and so very few people had a Bible, and most people were illiterate, particularly the poor people, and the commoners. And so the only time they would hear the gospel, or hear anything of God or the Bible, was when they attended church services run, often, by clergymen who didn't know God themselves. So, on the outside, England seemed to be such a Christian country, but actually, there was very little depth or life.

This was also a very tough time in England's history - the gap between the rich and the poor was immense. The poor were extremely poor, and the rich had their gardens, they had their tea parties and all of that - the aristocracy enjoyed a good life. And so the gap between the classes were very great and strongly entrenched. If you were born in a poor family, there was no hope for you to change your future. You just did what your parents did, and you were destined to the same miserable life that they had.

The other thing about this time was that the new American colonies were starting to be developed. People had settled there only a few years before and now these colonies were being built. Pennsylvania had just been established. There were places like Boston where they were clearing land, making roads and building towns. So that was George Whitefield's time, and that was when he was born.

Now, George Whitefield left school when he was about 16 years old, simply because the inn wasn't doing very well and his mother needed him to work there. And so he ended up cleaning rooms, washing dishes and so on. But his old school master remembered him because there was something unusual and very special about George Whitefield. And so the school master encouraged his mother to perhaps think about sending him for further education. But by the time he was 18 the family couldn't afford a university education. However they decided that they would send him, and, as his mother had a few contacts, they decided that they would send him to Oxford University, which was actually not too far away, as a servitor.

Now, a servitor was an undergraduate student who acted as a servant to the older students in exchange for free accommodation, free food, and very much reduced fees. They had to carry books around for the older students and the better off students, they had to shine their shoes and clean their robes and bring them food, take notes for them sometimes, do their homework, and all that kind of thing. So that's what George Whitefield did. He entered Oxford University, as a servant to the older students.

During this time, he was quite erratic. He would go with his peers to the taverns and play cards and do all the worldly things that everyone else was doing at that time. But he also had a strong sense of God, and he often came away very guilty. He really did want to pursue some sort of holiness and devotion, but he didn't really know what that meant. So he went between these two extremes - just mucking around and doing everything that his friends were doing, and then feeling very guilty and trying to be very devout and holy. But he didn't really want to change his behavior. As he continued at Oxford, he read a book called "A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life", and this book really made him change. He wanted to be holy, and he concentrated all his efforts on trying to be a holy and righteous person.

Now, at the time, there was a group of people, other older students, who were gathering together to live a very good and devout Christian life. Those in this group were very disciplined. They studied the Bible and other holy books and holy writings together. The group was led by a man called John Wesley and his younger brother Charles, who were also studying there at Oxford. They both took note of George Whitefield, and particularly Charles, and included him in this group, which the other students had nicknamed the Holy Club in a mocking way. And so Whitefield started to learn a lot from John and Charles Wesley. He borrowed a lot of books - he didn't have books of his own, of course, he had borrowed them from childhood. He started reading a lot more and he was quite desperate for salvation. He thought that if he could only achieve and attain this state of holiness and righteousness, he might be deemed worthy enough to go to heaven. He felt that if He fasted, prayed three times a day and attended every possible service then this would be like steps on a ladder leading all the way up to heaven.

Now one of the books that George Whitefield borrowed from Charles Wesley was a book called "The Life of God in the Soul of Man" by Henry Scougal. When Whitefield read it, he thought at first that it should be burned, because it talked about how we are saved, not by our works, but by grace. This was just too much for George Whitefield - he really felt that we needed to earn our way to heaven. To be born again, and to have this new life, was a completely new thought for the young George Whitefield. He then interpreted it in his own way. He thought that he would have to live a good and righteous life, and in that way, he would come to the point where he would be worthy to be born again. And so this led him to even more striving - he became really disciplined in every single way. In fact, and perhaps Satan had a little bit to do with this, he started to cut himself off from other people around him, even from the Holy Club that he had been so much helped by. He was no longer friends with John and Charles Wesley. He kept to himself and he felt that if he was singular in his devotion, he would have union with Christ and be deemed worthy to be born again.

He stopped meeting others, he fasted regularly, he prayed all the time. He did strange things like dressing in just only a shabby, kind of shawl and go out in the freezing cold at night and pray until his hands were blue and he was shaking all over. His tutor actually thought he'd gone mad. His other friends thought that, yes, he had also perhaps gone mad and they laughed at him and thought that he would die from all his fasting. But Charles Wesley was really worried. He thought that George was taking this holiness too far and he talked to his older brother, John, but they didn't really know what to do with him.

Well, one day, George Whitefield was walking across a bridge and, as he walked across, there was a woman staggering and running on the other side of the bridge. As she came closer, he recognized her. She was dripping wet, she was crying and she was in such a state. He recognized her as the wife of someone that he knew from the local prison. You see, George, in trying to attain his holiness, had also visited prisons and done all sorts of good deeds. He recognized her for she was often there because she lived nearby and was always visiting her husband who was in that prison. Anyway, this woman, when she saw Whitefield, fell down and cried and cried, and he tried to work out what was happening. She told him that she had just thrown herself into the river to end her life, and that a man had pulled her out and rescued her, and unfortunately, she was still alive. And she told Whitefield how she was absolutely hopeless. Her children were starving. They were living in the most horrendous conditions, and there was no way her husband would ever be released from prison, and she was alone. She had wanted to end everything and kill herself and just leave all her troubles behind. But then she'd been rescued.

He didn't really know what to do, but this woman begged him and said, "Please, Mr. Whitefield, you're the only person I know who can speak to God on my behalf". And so Whitefield accompanied her back to the prison, where she sat in misery next to her husband. And he didn't really know what to do, but, as was his habit whenever he went to the prison, he just read the Bible. That's what he did. And so when he was there, he just turned to John 3 and he started reading to them both. And as he read John 3 and came to verse 17, the woman jumped into the air. And she said, "I believe, I shall not perish, because I believe in Jesus Christ. Oh, I am saved, I am saved. I'm born again". And then her husband beside her started trembling, and said, "No, no, I'm still on the brink of hell. Read it again, Mr. Whitefield". And so George read John 3 again. And then suddenly, when he came to John 3:16, this man jumped up as well, and said, "Oh, I see it, I see it too. Oh, joy, I am saved." He looked at these two haggard, dirty and uneducated, notorious sinners, and he saw true and genuine joy in their faces, they were so sure that they had been forgiven. Whitefield was so shocked. How could it be that these two people were saved in a moment, and were born again? But it made him think.

With Easter approaching, George Whitefield renewed his efforts of discipline. He fasted even more. He went out at night in the freezing cold when there was frost and ice on the ground and he didn't put a shawl on - he did it on purpose until his hands were almost black with cold. And then, one day when he was making his way back up to his room on a staircase, he collapsed. His tutor found him and carried him up to his room and called a doctor. They found that he had collapsed from absolute exhaustion and malnutrition. His peers, his other friends, laughed at him. They thought, "What an idiot. He is fasting all the time. Of course, that's how he's going - he is killing himself at age 20". He was lying on the bed for three weeks, unable to move - that's how serious his condition was. He could only just sip a light soup. He was so ill - he had made himself so ill from all the physical and emotional exertion of trying to live a righteous, disciplined life.

Once he started to gain a bit of strength, he started to read, not so much all the other books that he had been reading, but he turned to the Bible itself. And of course, he had a Greek New Testament, and so read it in Greek. So he came to John 7, and something that Jesus Himself said suddenly struck him. Jesus stood and He cried out on that last day of the Feast, "If any man thirst, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart, will flow rivers of living water". And when George Whitefield read that, he threw himself on his bed, and he cried out to God and said, "God, I thirst, I thirst". This was the first time that George had thrown himself, in prayer, in utter dependence on God. There was nothing of himself, there was nothing of his own effort, he had come to the very, very end of himself, and he now threw himself onto God entirely. And suddenly, George Whitefield was full of great joy, a joy he hadn't felt for years. It was as if the Lord had said to him, "George, you have what you have asked. You ceased to struggle, and you have simply believed. You are born again."

The simplicity of this and the simplicity of his prayer made him laugh out loud. And he jumped up and ran, a little bit weakly, out of the room. The first person he saw was a college porter carrying all sorts of boxes up the stairs, and he gave this Porter a huge hug and slapped him on the back. He was a bit surprised. But then he went on his way to tell his friends that he'd been born again. And he wanted to write letters to his family, and tell them all that they also must be born again.

Well, a few years passed, and Whitefield graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from Oxford, and he was ordained as a clerk in Holy Orders at the very young age of 21. Now the bishop at Gloucester, where, of course he grew up, had recognized something about George Whitefield, and he actually gave him five guineas of gold, a huge amount of money in those days, to go and buy books. And he went and bought some books so that he could learn, and learn about the Scripture as well. Now the bishop was very supportive and really helped George Whitefield in his early days, but his family were not so - they actually thought he'd gone mad. They thought, "Why is he so enthusiastic about religious things?" And so he wasn't able to really communicate well with his family - they really didn't like to hear him talk.

But Whitefield found that when he went and visited the prisons as he used to, or when he went to the slums, there was such a hunger to know God. Sometimes he would sit with someone who looked particularly distressed in a marketplace. And then they would leave, having believed in God and being born again. Whitefield himself was so surprised at the hunger of people, the desperation that people had, to know the Scripture, to know God and to have hope in God.

Meanwhile, John Wesley had also left Oxford, and he was a missionary in the new colonies of America. He went over there to spread the gospel to the native people, the American Indians. George realized that even John Wesley and Charles Wesley had not experienced what he had experienced. They too were still in a frame of mind where they felt that they needed to do certain things, and have certain disciplines, in order to gain God's approval. And so George really prayed for his dear friends, John and Charles because he realized that they had not been born again. Actually, John's time as a missionary in America was an absolute misery. In fact, he wrote in a letter, "I have been sent over here as a missionary to convert the American Indians, but oh, who will convert me?" Wesley himself knew that there was something lacking. George prayed fervently for them both, and asked the Lord that they would be used mightily, that their eyes would be opened.

Now Whitefield was very, very young when he started preaching and he was preaching in a little church in London, and the congregations looked at him with great surprise. He was quite different. He was so young, only about 22 years old, and when they saw him, they thought he was just a boy. But then, when he opened his mouth, he spoke so differently, he spoke with such passion and emotion, his voice was so expressive. And he had a true heart for people. And soon people really loved to listen to him. He would talk to the sailors at the docks, he visited the jails, he visited the veteran guards at the palace and the army families. And so people could see that there was something different about this young man.

But one day, he received a letter that asked if it would come as a missionary, to replace John Wesley, to go over to the new colonies and help there where there were very few resources. They wanted someone to preach the gospel, not only to the Indians there, but also the new settlers who were coming in their droves. There were also many problems there - there were lots of orphans and nobody who was caring for them. Even John Wesley had written to Whitefield and said, "What if thou art the man, Mr. Whitefield for this?" And so Whitefield thought that perhaps his life would be lived over in America, and that he would be a missionary there, and that would be his calling. Well, his parents, well his mother at least - his father had died and he had a stepfather - actually begged him not to go. They were not in favor of this. The colonies were rough places, it was all very new, and the idea of him going over there and living there - well, she didn't like it at all.

But meanwhile, while he was staying with his family and trying to tell them about this new mission that he had, the old parson from Gloucester, from a local church there, ran down the street, and he said, "Oh, Mr. Whitefield, would you mind preaching this Sunday? You know, is this is your local parish, after all." Mr. Whitefield agreed. And he spoke, and the Lord really used Mr. Whitefield speaking and many people were saved that day. This old man was so shocked. And he said, "Well, would you mind speaking again?"

And so Whitefield spoke again, and soon the word got out that he was used by the Lord so incredibly, that other clergymen asked him to speak. And soon, when he went to Bristol, because that's where he was going to prepare for the new stage in his life as a missionary, soon all the clergymen were coming and saying, "Well, Mr. Whitefield, would you mind? Could you come and preach?" And soon he was preaching five times a week. And he saw that the Lord was really working - people were coming in their droves to hear him speak, and, for some reason, his voyage to America kept getting delayed, and so Whitefield was still available to be speaking. And his voyage was delayed again - the weather was bad, the ship, the captain, for all sorts of reasons. And although Whitefield was a little disappointed about this, he also could see that God was using him in a way that he wasn't expecting. He had already said to the Lord to write on his life whatever He willed. And so somehow, George Whitefield felt, perhaps this was part of God's plan. Well, when he went to London, because he was going to sail to America from London, he was actually famous. In Bristol everybody had heard of Mr. Whitefield and his preaching, and he had such an impact on that particular town that, when he went to London, fame followed him. And this scared George Whitefield quite a lot. He was very scared of fame and pride. But he again saw the Lord work.

Again and again, he was asked to preach, sometimes several times a day. And again, the Lord saved so many people there in London, and the thought crossed his mind, why should he go to America? It seemed like God was really working here, in England. But the time came when he needed to go. There was something that bothered him though in London.

What bothered him when he was there was the extreme poverty, and he realized that even though he was speaking so many times in all these different churches, there was a huge group of people who never heard a word - the really poor people, the children who were living in the alley ways, eating amongst the rats, the parents who were often glazed over with alcohol. These people had nothing, and that bothered George Whitefield.

But finally he set sail and he did go to America and landed in Georgia. And there in Georgia he was asked to help set up an orphanage. This was something Wesley had seen a need for as well. He had found it really difficult to leave England and even while he was on the voyage, he prayed that somehow, the Lord would do something to raise up other people, because he could see that there was a great harvest in England. So many people were hungry, and yet he was leaving. And so the Lord did honor Whitefield's prayer, because the Lord, at this very same point, opened the eyes of John Wesley.

John Wesley, when he'd returned in absolute misery to England, read again about the grace of God and that it was not by works, but by grace. And suddenly, John Wesley's eyes were opened, and he was born again. And not only he, but Charles also. And so while Whitefield was sailing over to America, little did he know that John and Charles Wesley had a renewed vigor and life and John's preaching took on a whole new character. He traveled up and down England, preaching the gospel. But of course, that's a story for another day.

The orphanage in Savannah, Georgia was one of Whitefield's biggest projects and he loved the children there. He looked at ways to teach them - he really wanted to care for these children, and not only the children, but also the people who worked there. But administration was not George Whitefield's gift, and this was always a very difficult thing for him. Looking back, it doesn't look like that this was something that was one of his skills and a gift that the Lord had given him. However, while he was there in Georgia, he also preached in many different gatherings. It was a very poor colony at the time, there were settlers from everywhere, even parts of Europe. The Georgians, the people who lived there and settled there, did not like John Wesley at all. They didn't warm to him one bit, they thought he was severe, they thought he was angry, but they loved George Whitefield. And so many of them were changed by him. But after a year, he needed to travel back to England to raise funds to expand this work and the orphanage.

When he returned to England, he found that things were completely different. You see, during that time in America, and also on the voyages that lasted many weeks of course, he wrote articles, and he wrote about this new birth, and he wrote directly to clergy and said, "Examine yourself. Are you born again? Or are the words that you preach every Sunday, are they death?" The clergymen were so offended that some young upstart could question their education and learning, and suggest that they were not in any way equipped to preach the gospel. And so when he returned, he found that the clergyman had closed their doors against him. They would not have Mr. Whitefield cross over their threshold and preach in their pulpit. In fact, many of the city clergy had come together and they had determined that they would preach against Whitefield, and that they would not allow Whitefield to come into the churches and preach. And so this was quite a surprise to Whitefield. When he had left he had constant invitations to preach in all the different churches, and now there was nothing.

But there were still some clergymen, of course there were some, who were true believers. He was in a village one day and a clergyman had said, "Please, Mr. Whitefield, please can you preach?" This was in a particular little village church and it was mid-winter at this time, and all the congregation was inside and they'd closed all the windows and all the doors. When Whitefield got up there to preach, he noticed, well actually he smelled, that there were a lot of other people outside. The poorest of the poor had gathered outside and he could smell them before we could see them. There was a smell of dirt and grime and alcohol. He could see that they were gathered and that they were not coming in, but they were outside the church. He could see their eyes at the windows. And so Whitefield saw that these people were so hungry, they had gathered outside the church, standing there in the middle of winter, just hoping to hear a sentence or see Mr. Whitefield. And so Whitefield decided he would preach to them too. And he raised his voice. And he spoke so loudly that he was hoping his voice would reach the folk outside of the church as well. And the church wardens were getting very nervous because they actually thought the windows might shatter, because Whitefield was speaking so loudly in order for those people outside to hear every sentence he said.

When he finished and he walked out, he actually felt compelled to speak again to those ragged and desperate faces who were gathered outside. But this was not done. You only preached inside a church, you would never preach outside. The idea was so disrespected, it was almost seen as sinful. And so, of course, even though Whitefield did feel this strong urge, like someone was saying, "You need to speak to these people", he didn't, because he thought it would be wrong.

On the edge of Bristol, they were coal mines and these coal mines were pretty severe places. Now the poor in England were poor, but the coal miners were the poorest of the poor. They, in fact, were known as the Indians of England, because the coal dust had stained their skin so much that all their faces were black, and of course, they never had a bath. These miners lived in awful conditions, and their work was awful as well. They worked in the coal pits, they inhaled the poisonous dust from it, and they had a very, very short lifespan, their children were often neglected. They worked so hard, day in and day out, that they had no amusement other than to drink and to fight. They were known for their riotous living - people, in fact, left them alone. They were scared of the colliers or the coal miners. They were poor, and forgotten.

Now, Whitefield heard about the plight of these colliers from an old preacher who lived on the edge of the Kingswood Forest. And he told him that on the other side of the forest, near the mines, were little shanty towns, (they made their own houses out of leftover wood and metal) where these colliers lived. And the preacher talked about them and Whitefield thought, "We need to talk to these people. These are people who have never, ever heard the gospel". And so they decided, a small group of them as Whitefield really wanted to speak to them, to go at the time when they would be exiting the mines after a day's work.

And so, that very hour, Whitefield and his little group, the old preacher and a few others, went through the forest and went there, and they could see the people coming out, and Whitefield decided that he would preach to these colliers. He would preach because he read in Matthew 5 that Jesus stood on a mount and He preached to the multitude. So if it was good enough for Jesus, of course, Mr. Whitefield could stand on a hill and preach to coal miners, surely. He was very convinced that even though it was not the done thing in the day, that this was the right thing to do. And so Whitefield stood on a hill, and he took a deep breath, pitched his voice about 100 yards, and he said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the the kingdom of heaven".

The miners, when they came out of those mines, couldn't believe it, and they stopped and stared. There was this clergyman in his robe, standing on a hill bellowing at them. And so they all gathered, about 200, and they all gathered around. Meanwhile, the old preacher and the other friends were actually really scared and were praying silently behind Mr. Whitefield. They were scared that perhaps these coal miners might kill him or kill them, or maybe they would fight or maybe some riot or maybe some authority would come and arrest them all for preaching in public like this. But Whitefield went on and on. He spoke clearly to them about the love of God and just as clearly to them about hell, and the darkness of hell, darker than the pits that they had just come out from. And so 200 blackened faces were upturned in absolute wonder. They heard about the Lord Jesus Who called sinners to repentance and Who is a friend of these people.

There was utter silence that day except for Whitefield's voice. And soon, Whitefield noticed, there were white streaks on these black faces. And later, he wrote in his journal, "I soon realized that those white lines on those haggard faces were unchecked tears that were rolling down the black cheeks".

After a few days, Whitefield was called on by a young man by the name of Tom. Now Tom's face was scrubbed and a curious gray color. He announced that he was one of the coal miners from the Kingswood Forest and that he was sent by the Kingswood colliers to invite Mr. Whitefield to come back and speak to them on the same hill at an agreed time. Of course, Mr. Whitefield was overjoyed. This was an opportunity he'd been waiting for. And again, he turned out, and this time it wasn't just those 200 coal miners, but it was all of them, and their families. Not only that, but people in the surrounding villages have heard this rumor that Whitefield, this clergyman, had preached in a field. And so people gathered, and it was close to 1,000. And Whitefield again pitched his voice over the sea of people and said, "Except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God".

Well, the next Sunday, all the clergymen around the area closed their doors to Whitefield. He would not be preaching in their pulpit! But the colliers of Kingswood invited him to preach again and again, and they wanted him there on the Sunday to stand on the hill. This time, there were 2,000 people. People had come even from Bristol on horseback and in carriages. And they had come and somebody even got to a table and they put it on that hill. And Whitefield climbed onto the table so he could pitch his voice out over the sea of people. It was an immense crowd.

The change in these coal miners was so evident. In fact, they took up a little collection between the all and together they built a school for their children and they changed their habits. The Lord worked so mightily amongst this group, who had been so utterly neglected by the religious leaders of the day.

There was one thing that weighed heavily on Whitefield. His very dear friend, John Wesley, was also at this time preaching up and down England. He had taken George Whitefield's lead and had preached in the open air as well, even though he too, at first, felt that it was not the right thing to do. But John Wesley had a very imperious mind and he found it very difficult because he disagreed with Whitefield on one point of doctrine, and he wrote about it publicly. This grieved Whitefield a little bit and then Whitefield did reply publicly. Now, although the two of them were friends, and they were brothers and Whitefield himself said, "My dear brother John, let us put these small matters of doctrine aside, and let us have fellowship on our common ground, on the Lord Jesus Christ". And although they were reconciled, unfortunately, because the divide was public, people took sides. And perhaps Whitefield sometimes in his writing was a bit impulsive, perhaps he wasn't as refined in his writing as was Wesley, and perhaps Wesley should have conceded a little bit. Perhaps Whitefield was right. Whitefield was scared that Wesley was preaching a gospel that again was more about works than about the grace of God. But whatever it was, the fact is, the two remained brothers. And we can see this from one small incident.

One day, a man who saw himself as a Wesleyan - he was definitely a Wesley man, as he would say - and who didn't agree with anything that Whitefield said, had an opportunity to actually meet John Wesley. He wanted to ask this question and he was smirking to himself. He said to John Wesley, "Sir, will we see George Whitefield in heaven?" And John Wesley didn't even pause. He said, "No". The man couldn't help but smile, and he felt very confirmed in the fact that he had taken John Wesley's side in all these matters. But Wesley continued and said, "No, we will not see George Whitefield in heaven, because George Whitefield will be so close to the throne of God, and we, at such a distance, will hardly get a glimpse of him." Well, the man was rather shocked and didn't quite know what to say.

For 30 years, George Whitefield traveled up and down England, and he traveled between England and America seven times, which was extraordinary in that day, because the voyages were long and dangerous. Yet he did that seven times. He kept up an incredibly punishing schedule, preaching the gospel in every county in England, and through all the new colonies in America. He never wanted to turn down a speaking invitation because he knew that the Lord had given him a gift of speaking. And so, whenever he was invited, even if he was sick, he always wanted to preach. In the warmer seasons, he could preach in the fields. He was able to preach in the open and he did that quite a lot. He preached in market squares, he preached in fields, in hills and in commons, in all types of places. But in the winter, when it was impossible to do that, he built a place called the Moorefield Tabernacle - he named it the Tabernacle because he felt it was temporary. He liked the idea of being able to move around and he had these tabernacles where he could preach and people could come. He often spoke there at 6:00 in the morning, sometimes teaching people. And it was in this particular place that John Newton heard Whitefield preach several times. John Newton, as a new convert, was so very much helped by George Whitefield's preaching on the amazing grace of God.

Now the Lord has given Whitefield a unique gift in speaking - his voice was like nothing anyone had ever heard. It was so expressive that even actors of the day took note of George Whitefield as an incredible storyteller. He spoke without notes, which was not done in those days and in fact, people thought that it was very strange to do that. But he spoke as the Lord led, and that was the difference. Often he spoke with tears but also with great humor. He would ensure that his illustrations suited the people he was speaking to. There was one day when he was in Philadelphia in America, and he was preaching on the court house steps. And there was a young man in the audience, in the massive crowd, who was listening and he was very taken by Whitefield's voice. This young man was Benjamin Franklin. Now, Benjamin Franklin decided he would do an experiment. He saw that from the courthouse steps there was a main road that stretched out. And so he paced back, bit by bit, back through the crowd, until he could no longer hear Whitefield's voice clearly, and he could no longer make out the words. And then he worked out the distance from there to where Whitefield was, directly ahead of him. He then tabulated the semicircle, and that it was about two feet square per person. He calculated that Whitefield, with his voice, could speak to a crowd of 30,000 people, and that is without any amplification. And so Benjamin Franklin in fact went several times to hear Whitefield, but unfortunately, as he said to Whitefield himself, "I refuse to be prayed into the kingdom of God". So Benjamin Franklin, as far as we know, never actually received the Lord.

But all this speaking by George Whitefield was not without effort. In fact, after speaking for an hour, he was often drenched in sweat. Sometimes, after speaking, he would vomit because of the exertion of the projecting his voice that far, and the pressure, the emotional pressure, of preaching to such a crowd. But the thing he was most scared of was his pride. He wrote in his journal, "Let the name of Whitefield perish, but let Christ be glorified". That was always his prayer.

Whitefield spoke in every single county in England, Scotland and Wales. He spoke to all the colonies in America, including to 23,000 people in Boston. He was invited to speak to two new colleges in America that had just been built. One was called Yale, the other Harvard. He spoke to groups of Negro slaves working in the field. He was invited to speak to royalty in their drawing rooms while they were sipping tea. But he also spoke to prisoners and went into the slums and he spoke in the marketplaces.

On one occasion, he was called on by a man who was about to be executed. He had heard that Whitefield was in town and he begged Whitefield to come. So Whitefield came immediately. And he stood there on the platform where the gallows were, and he stood by this man, and he preached. The crowd had already gathered, because that was the entertainment of the day - people loved to watch a public execution. They would cheer and they would watch as the person died, and they loved to see the fear on their faces. It was entertainment. And so this ragged crowd had gathered, waiting to see the execution, but then they heard Whitefield, and Whitefield preached that day about the thief on the cross. And he told that man that he needed the strength to meet his death. And that he needed to know for sure, that Christ had overcome death and had completely forgiven his sins, and that soon he would see the Lord, face to face. And that young man, when Whitefield had finished speaking, and the death cap went over that man's face, walked with confidence to the hangman's noose. That crowd was so silent as they watched that man hang, and they knew the reality of the Lord's forgiveness. And Whitefield himself was so affected by this, that he couldn't stay. He himself went and wept and wept. But that crowd, they went away as well and wept, because they too had been so touched by this speaking, and many of them was saved that day.

Now, in New Jersey, there was another occasion, a very different occasion, where Whitefield was preaching to a very small church. This was a very sleepy congregation. Many of them hadn't heard of Whitefield, and they were quite sleepy and bored. In fact, they turned up on a Sunday in order to have a nap! And so they came and they sat in the pews, and many of them were settling down - they brought their little cushions. And the man in the front row, even as Whitefield had ascended to speak in the pulpit, had already almost closed his eyes ready for a nice little nap. And so Whitefield began preaching and he thought, "Look at this, they're all asleep, and I've hardly started". And so he stopped preaching. He leaned forward and, in a very ominous whisper, he said, "If I had come to you in my own name, then by all means go to sleep. But," he then thundered, and he banged his fist on the pulpit, he stamped his foot, and he said, "I have come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts, and I must, and will be heard". Well, that congregation jumped up, that old man snapped his eyes open, and the congregation did not even blink during the rest of it. But that was Whitefield. He knew the urgency of the gospel.

You know, if we think about this time, it seems like everybody heard Whitefield gladly - the common people, the aristocracy - he was just a clergyman. But actually it wasn't exactly like that, because preaching out in the open had many dangers. In fact, other people who had done similar things to Whitefield had actually been killed. People had stoned them, just bashed them up and so on. That's what happened in those days - it was a pretty rough time. So it wasn't all easy for Whitefield, and that's for sure.

On one occasion Whitefield decided that he would speak at an Easter Fair. Now these Easter Fairs, these holiday fairs, were often circuses that had "freak shows", there were often people who trained bears to do certain tricks - think about the greatest showmen - that's the type of fair it was. Often there were liquor stores and there were fighting cages - it was really for the common people, and they were often pretty awful places to be. Whitefield called them Vanity Fair, and he saw this as an opportunity, again, to preach. And so he stood there and he started to preach on the edge of this Easter Fair. People were drawn by his stories, his passion, his emotion, and soon a crowd gathered around, and he taught them from John 3, "As Moses lifted the serpent up in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up". And the crowd increased. But soon, the people at the Easter Fair, the people who owned the stores and the circuses and the liquor places, they were losing out. And so they started to get really angry. And so he did this on a few days, and on the second day, a group of them got together, and they thought, "Well, let's disperse this crowd in a really horrific way". And so a group of them decided that they would get a pole, a huge iron pole that had been used to stabilize something. And this group of stall owners and circus men got this and they thought, what they'd do was that they would run into the back of the crowd that was packed in and they would swing the pole and injure as many people as possible. And they thought it would create a stampede, and the whole thing would just go to pieces. So that was their plan. And when they first started and the crowd was packing in, and people were just standing looking at Whitefield, they started to pick up the pole, but Whitefield caught sight of them at the back. Immediately he tweaked to what they were about to do. And so immediately Whitefield stopped preaching, and he prayed out loud, and he asked the Lord to protect this crowd and to protect this opportunity. The crowd didn't know what was happening, but the men started to run with this huge pole. And then suddenly they all stopped and they froze. And Whitefield was still praying. And then they all looked at each other. Then they dropped the pole. And they all started arguing. They just started arguing until they all were at fisticuffs and blows and they all started fighting amongst themselves. And Whitefield saw that and thought, "Thank You, Lord". And he just continued on. But he was, also during this time and at many other times, pelted with rotten fruit, offal, stinking offal, rotten eggs, dead cats. People did that. And he would just stop and wipe the juice out of his face and continue on.

There was another time, when he had finished, that he had come down off a little platform where he'd been speaking, and a young man had come towards the front and pulled out a knife and went to stab him. But somehow there was another man, maybe an ex-military person, who stood there and with lightning speed got his cane and just whipped up the knife and disarmed the guy, just inches from Whitefield.

There was another boy who came to hear Whitefield with his pocket full of rocks. He was going to worm his way through the crowd, and then, when he was close enough, he was going to stone Whitefield. That was his idea. And so he did it. He had his pocket full of rocks, ready to stone him. And he wormed his way through the crowd. But while he did that, because the crowd was so thick, he heard what Whitefield was saying. And he was so touched by Whitefield's words, that he emptied the rocks, right where he stood. And afterwards, he came to George Whitefield, and he confessed everything and he said, "I came here, sir, to break in your skull, but you broke my heart". And he was converted that day.

On September 29th 1770, Whitefield arrived at Newbury Port in America. And he had just been preaching in Boston in New England and he had just come from Exeter. There in Exeter in America, he preached a sermon to a group of people, and he was so ill that people thought, "Really? Should you be preaching? You look like death. You don't look like you're healthy enough". But, of course, Whitefield would never turn down a speaking invitation. He would say, "I would rather wear out than rust out". He even agreed to speak the next morning, even though he was sick and exhausted. He was so exhausted that when he arrived on the boat, he actually had to be helped out because he was that tired. When he finally reached his lodgings, the people in the town heard that he had arrived, and so they gathered at the house, and they wanted to hear something from him. Whitefield was actually that tired that he said, "No, please, please come back in the morning. I can't". But then he saw their desperate faces. And so he already had his candle lit, and he was up the stairs, almost ready to retire. But he decided that he would turn around and address this crowd, because they were so desperate to hear something. And so he stood there on the top of the stairs and they gathered on the stairs and in in the rooms below, and he spoke to them and encouraged them until that candle had burned all the way down. And then, completely exhausted, 55 year old Whitefield retired to his room to rest. And he never came out.

The Lord took him early that morning. He died from complete and utter exhaustion. His heart gave way, and he was unable to breathe.

The very last sermon he preached in Exeter to the people there have been on Second Corinthians 13:5, "Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith".

Whitefield was like no other man of his time and perhaps no other man in history. He spoke on average 40 hours per week. And that's not talking about the preparation, that talking about him speaking. Sometimes he spoke 60 hours in a week. And between these times he was building up the orphanage, writing letters, writing articles, writing journals, meeting hundreds of people who came to seek His help and advice. It is estimated that he spoke, in the 34 years of his converted life, 18,000 times and to up to 10 million people. In fact, about 80% of the people who were contemporary to him in America at the time, heard him, and not only heard him, but saw him and could recognize him. That's how extensive his traveling and influence was. And in all of this business, and with this immense endurance that he had, he maintained a very strict schedule of reading the Scripture. In fact, he read the Bible on his knees, because he knew the importance of his personal time with the Lord. He understood that he needed to worry about the depth of his ministry, the depth of his walk with God, and let God worry about the breadth of it.

God used His dear servant George Whitefield to awaken an entire generation. And it was John Wesley who spoke at Whitefield's funeral. Wesley said, "May the rising generation, catch a spark of that flame, which shone with such distinguished lustre in the spirit and practice of this faithful servant of the Most High God, George Whitefield."

Let us end here with an exhortation from Whitefield himself:
"Press forward. Do not stop. Do not linger in your journey, but strive for the mark that is set before you."