George Whitefield: A Biography, with special reference to his labors in America

by Joseph Belcher

October 28th, 1767, Whitefield preached at the London Tabernacle before the society for promoting religious knowledge among the poor, usually called, The Book Society. This society had been organized seventeen years before this period, and included in it such men as Watts, Doddridge, and Gifford. He gave way to all the zeal of his heart while he discussed the petition, "Thy kingdom come." Luke 11:2. The congregation was immense, many had to go away unable to obtain admittance. It was believed that a larger number of dissenting ministers were present than ever before heard a sermon from an Episcopal minister, and the collection reached more than five hundred dollars, or above four times the usual amount, besides eighty new annual subscribers. After the service, he dined with a very large party, including the ministers, where harmony reigned, and much respect was shown him.

It may be readily supposed, that with advancing years and increasing experience, some changes might have taken place both in the style and manner of Whitefield's preaching. The Rev. Cornelius Winter, who had become somewhat closely associated with him, says, "He dealt more in the explanatory and doctrinal mode on the Sabbath morning than at any other time, and sometimes made a little, but by no means an improper show of learning. His afternoon sermon was more general and exhortatory. In the evening, he drew his bow at a venture; vindicated the doctrines of grace, fenced them with articles and homilies, referred to the martyr's seal, and exemplified the power of divine grace by quotations from the venerable Foxe. Sinners were then closely plied, numbers of whom, from curiosity, coming to hear for a minute or two, were often compelled to hear the whole sermon. How many in the judgment-day will rise to prove that they heard to the salvation of the soul. Upon the members of society, the practice of Christianity was then usually inculcated, not without some pertinent anecdote of a character worthy to be held up for an example, and in whose conduct the hints recommended were exemplified. On Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, he preached at six in the morning; and never, perhaps, did he preach greater sermons than at this hour." This, with the frequent administration of the Lord's supper to hundreds of communicants, was his usual plan for several years; but now he became more colloquial in his style, with but little action; he gave pertinent expositions of the Scriptures, with striking remarks, all comprehended within an hour. Winter adds, "The peculiar talents he possessed, subservient to great usefulness, can be but faintly conceived from his sermons in print; though, as formerly, God has made the reading of them useful, and I have no doubt that in future they will have their use."

But even yet our evangelist had to engage in war. The opposition of the universities in Oxford and Cambridge to the principles and practices introduced by Whitefield, Wesley, and their companions, grew and strengthened, till an event occurred at Oxford singularly remarkable in its history for opposition to evangelical religion, which for many years continued to excite very extraordinary interest. The London "St. James' Chronicle," of Thursday, March 17, 1763, contained the following "extract of a letter from Oxford:" "On Friday last, six students, belonging to Edmund Hall, were expelled the university, after a hearing of several hours before Mr. Vice-Chancellor and some of the heads of houses, for holding methodistical tenets, and taking upon them to pray, read, and expound the Scriptures, and singing hymns in a private house. The —— of the —— [The Principal of the Edmund Hall, Rev. Dr. Dixon] defended their doctrines from the Thirty-nine Articles of the established church, and spoke in the highest terms of the piety and exemplariness of their lives; but his motion was overruled, and sentence pronounced against them. Dr. ——, [Dixon,] one of the heads of houses present, observed, that as these six gentlemen were expelled for having too much religion, it would be very proper to inquire into the conduct of some who had too little; and Mr. —— [Dr. Nowell] was heard to tell their chief accuser, that the university was much obliged to him for his good work."

To detail the events which followed this extraordinary act, and to describe the excitement thus created, form no part of the design of our volume. We have referred to the fact because Mr. Whitefield and his friend Sir Richard Hill took part in the controversy. Referring to Dr. Nowell's assertion to Mr. Higson, their "chief accuser," and who was also their tutor, that the university was obliged to him, Whitefield says to the Vice-Chancellor, "What thanks, reverend sir, he may meet with from the whole university I know not; but one thing I know, namely, that he will receive no thanks for that day's work from the innumerable company of angels, the general assembly of the first-born which are written in heaven, or from God the Judge of all, in that day when Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant shall come in his own glory, in the glory of the Father and his holy angels, and gather his elect from all the four corners of the world.

"It is true, indeed, one article of impeachment was, that 'some of them were of trades before they entered into the university.' But what evil or crime worthy of expulsion can there be in that? To be called from any, though the meanest mechanical employment, to the study of the liberal arts, where a natural genius hath been given, was never yet looked upon as a reproach to, or diminution of any great and public character whatsoever. Profane history affords us a variety of examples of the greatest heroes, who have been fetched even from the plough to command armies, and who performed the greatest exploits for their country's good. And if we examine sacred history, we shall find that even David, after he was anointed king, looked back with sweet complacency to the rock from whence he was hewn, and is not ashamed to leave it upon record, that God took him away from the sheepfolds, as he was following the ewes great with young; and, as though he loved to repeat it, he took him, he says, 'that he might feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.'

"But why speak I of David, when Jesus of Nazareth, David's Lord and David's King, had for his reputed father a carpenter? and in all probability, as it was a common proverb among the Jews, that 'he who did not teach his son a trade, taught him to be a thief,' he worked at the trade of a carpenter himself. For this, indeed, he was reproached and maligned: 'Is not this,' said they, 'the carpenter's son?' Nay, 'Is not this the carpenter?' But who were these maligners? The greatest enemies to the power of godliness which the world ever saw, the scribes and Pharisees, that 'generation of vipers,' as John the Baptist calls them, who, upon every occasion, were spitting out their venom, and shooting their arrows, even bitter words, against that Son of man, even that Son of God who, to display his sovereignty, and confound the wisdom of the worldly wise, chose poor fishermen to be his apostles; and whose chief of the apostles, though brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, both before and after his call to the apostleship, labored with his own hands, and worked at the trade of a tent-maker."

It is pleasant to know that the young men thus expelled became useful in the church of Christ. One of them, indeed, Erasmus Middleton, who had been sustained at Oxford by Mr. Fuller, a dissenter and banker in London, was ordained in Ireland by the bishop of Down, and having married a lady of the ducal family of Gordon, in Scotland, was curate successively to the Rev. Messrs. Romaine and Cadogan in London, and finally rector of Turvey, in Bedfordshire, where he was the immediate predecessor of the sainted Legh Richmond.

Many delightful evidences yet exist that as Whitefield drew nearer the end of his career on earth, his holy zeal increased, rather than lessened. We have lying before us three of his letters, not included either in the collection of his printed correspondence, or in the lives which have been published. The first was addressed to a gentleman at Wisbeach, and appears to have been written from London. It is dated Sept. 25, 1766.

"Dear Sir—As your letter breathes the spirit of a sincere follower of the Lamb of God, I am sorry that it hath lain by so long unanswered; but bodily weakness, and a multiplicity of correspondents, both from abroad and at home, must be pleaded as excuses. 'Blessed be God, our salvation is nearer than when we believed.' It should seem that you have now served three apprenticeships in Christ's school, and yet I suppose the language of your heart is, 'I love my Master, and will not go from him;' and Oh, what a mercy, that whom Jesus loves, he loves to the end! Do you not begin to long to see him more than ever? Do you not groan in this tabernacle, being burdened? Courage, courage; he that cometh will come, and will not tarry. Oh that patience may have its perfect work! Many in this metropolis seem to be on the wing for God; the shout of a king is yet heard in the Methodist camp. Had I wings, I would gladly fly from pole to pole; but they are clipped by thirty years' feeble labors. Twice or thrice a week I am permitted to ascend my gospel throne. The love of Christ, I am persuaded, will constrain you to pray that the last glimmering of an expiring taper may be blessed to the guiding of many wandering souls to the Lamb of God."