Quotes About Whitefield

Well, friends, we're continuing on in our study of the great British evangelist, George Whitefield. To study his labors in England and during America is quite a fascinating study. I want to read excerpts on quotes about George Whitefield taken from my two-volume biography on Whitefield published by Revival Literature.

Basically, there have been few preachers in the history of the church who have possessed such holy fire. His apostolic preaching startled those who heard him. When George Whitefield preached, he was like Mount Sinai.

He was altogether on a smoke. Other than Pope or King, a few men were as famous as George Whitefield in his day. It is astounding that in this century he's almost forgotten.

I want to go ahead and read these quotes by these different men, some that are peers of Whitefield in his day and others commenting about him later on. First, I want to start with a quote from J.C. Ryle. Ryle said about Whitefield, he wrote not books for the million or worldwide fame like Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.

He headed no crusade against an apostate church with a nation at his back and princes on his side like Martin Luther. He founded no religious denomination which penned his faith and its writings and carefully embalmed his best acts and words like John Wesley. There are Lutherans and Wesleyans in the present day, but there are no Whitefieldites.

No, the great evangelist of last century was a simple, gallus man who lived for one thing only and that was to preach Christ. If he did that, he cared for nothing else. The records of such a man are large and full in heaven, I have no doubt, but they are few and scanty upon earth.

This next quote is from Charles Spurgeon. Years on years, Whitefield continued his arduous labors, never resting. In the intervals of preaching, he was writing or walking and composing sermons.

He wrote letters, conversed with inquirers, visited gulls and sickbeds, attended to the orphan house, published various works, preached during his voyages, and at all times, even till the hour of death, was earnest and fervent. He was, as he said, tired in the work, but not tired of it, and he desired to preach once more and then to die. He had his wish, for he preached from examine yourselves, et cetera, and died at six the next morning of asthma at fifty-five years of age.

It is wrong to say preaching killed him, for fifty-five is as good an age as the average of man may expect to live, and if he had never preached, he might have died quite as soon. This next quote is from Whitefield's good friend, Ben Franklin. Whenever Whitefield preached in the city of Philadelphia, particularly during the Great Awakening, Franklin always had Whitefield at his home as a guest.

They were good pals, Franklin said of Whitefield. In 1739, the Reverend Mr. Whitefield arrived among us. He was, at first, permitted to preach in some of our churches, but the clergy, taking a dislike to him, soon refused him their pulpits, and he was obliged to preach in the fields.

The multitudes of all sects and denominations that attended his sermons were enormous, and it was a matter of speculation to me, who was one of the number, to observe the extraordinary influence of his oratory on his hearers and how much they admired and respected him, notwithstanding his common abuse of them, by assuring them they were naturally half-beasts and half-devils. It was wonderful to see the change soon made in the manners of our inhabitants from being thoughtless and indifferent about religion. It seemed as if all the world was growing religious so that one could not walk through Philadelphia in the evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street.

It's interesting to note, Fran said, that Ben Franklin one day was listening to Whitefield preach from the courthouse steps of Philadelphia, and he decided to estimate how many hearers could be heard by Whitefield by measuring the sound of his voice with pen and paper in hand. His little notebook, Franklin went around and counted groups of fifty, and it took him over an hour to do this, and Franklin estimated that Whitefield could be heard easily by thirty thousand people for a mile away, and incidentally, while Whitefield was preaching from the courthouse steps in Philadelphia that day, there was a little ship in the harbor, and some of the fishermen on the ship heard his entire sermon, and one of the sailors was soundly converted from listening to Whitefield's sermon as it wafted across the water. Here now is Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones on Whitefield.

There is one remarkable fact about this man Whitefield to which I must turn for a moment, and that is the amazing neglect which he has suffered. It would be very interesting to discover what the result would be if I asked everyone present now to write an essay on George Whitefield. How much would you have to say? I venture to assert that he is the most neglected man in the whole of church history.

The ignorance concerning him is appalling. One is constantly discovering this in reading and in listening to people. It has become the habit to refer to the great awakening and revival of two hundred years ago as the Wesleyan revival.

It is spoken of always in terms of what John Wesley in particular did. Even Charles has had to suffer. People seem to have the idea that all that happened in the eighteenth century was the sole result of the activity of John Wesley.

Thus, throughout the years, Whitefield has been either forgotten or depreciated. Books have been poured out on John Wesley without ceasing throughout the intervening years. But in the case of Whitefield, there was no religious denomination to do so.

That is, I think, the main explanation of why he has been so sadly neglected. I want to read a quote of Jonathan Edwards regarding Whitefield. Jonathan Edwards had written a letter inviting Whitefield to come to Northampton to preach for him during the Great Awakening.

The Great Awakening started under some of the powerful and mighty sermons of Jonathan Edwards and others in the New England area. Whitefield did not start that revival there. It was often said that Jonathan Edwards lit the fire of revival in New England and George Whitefield came and poured gasoline on it.

That he did, indeed, here now are Jonathan Edwards comments about Whitfield. Mr. Whitfield's sermons were suitable to the circumstances of the town, containing just reproofs of our backslidings in a most moving and affecting manner, making use of our great profession and our great mercies as arguments with us to return to God from whom we had departed. Immediately after this, the minds of the people in general appeared more engaged in religion, showing a greater forwardness to make it the subject of their conversation and to meet frequently for religious purposes and to embrace all opportunities to hear the word preached.

The revival at first appeared chiefly among professors and those who had entertained the hope that they were in a state of grace to whom Mr. Whitfield chiefly addressed himself. But in a very short time, there appeared an awakening and deep concern among some young persons that looked upon themselves in a Christless state. And there were some hopeful appearances of conversion and some professors were greatly revived.

In about a month or six weeks, there was a great alteration in the town, both as to the revivals of professors and awakenings of others. Well, this next quote, friends, is from a publication called The Rebels, which this man was an eyewitness to Whitfield preaching. There is nothing in the appearance of this remarkable man which would lead you to suppose that a Felix would tremble before him to have seen him when he first commenced.

One would have thought him anything but enthusiastic and glowing. But as he proceeded, his heart warmed with the subject and his manner became impetuous till forgetful of everything around him. He seemed to kneel at the throne of Jehovah and to beseech in agony for his fellow beings.

After he had finished his prayer, he knelt a long time in profound silence. And so powerfully had it affected the most heartless of his audience, that a stillness like that of the tomb pervaded the whole house. This next quote, Francis, from Henry Venn.

What a sign and wonder was this man of God and the greatness of his labors. One cannot but stand amazed that his mortal frame could, for the space of near 30 years without interruption, sustain the weight of him. For what so trying to the human frame, in youth especially, is long-continued, frequent and violent straining of the lungs.

Who that knows their structure would think it possible that a person above the age of manhood could speak in a single week and that for years, in general 40 hours and in every and in very many weeks, 60 and that the thousands and after this labor, instead of taking any rest, could be offering up prayers and intercessions with hymns and spiritual songs, as his manner was in every house to which he was invited. The truth is that in point of labor, this extraordinary servant of God did as much in a few weeks as most of those who exert themselves are able to do in the space of a year. Well, this antidote of Whitfield is from Richard Owen Roberts, taken from his great work, Whitfield and Print.

Williams, Solomon Williams, a grandson of Solomon Stoddard, was a dedicated friend of Whitfield's and repeatedly invited him to preach from his pulpit. On the last occasion of Whitfield's preaching there, a large number of persons from outside the parish had assembled following the main meeting after Whitfield and the pastor had left. They remained in the church carrying on a bedlam like gathering.

The leaders were summoned back by a godly deacon to gain the attention of the boisterous mob. Whitfield stopped violently on the floor and cried, What means all this tumult and disorder? The noisy crowd declared they were so filled with the Holy Spirit they could not forbear their demonstrations of joy. To this, the saintly evangelist replied, My dear children, you were like little partridges just hatched from the egg.

You run about with eggshells covering your eyes and you cannot see and know where you are going. The disorder ceased and they went quietly home. This last quote on Whitfield is again from J.C. Ryle, and it really typifies the life and ministry of George Whitfield.

He loved the church in which he had been ordained. He gloried in her articles. He used her prayer book with pleasure, but the church did not love him and so lost the use of his services.

The plain truth is that the Church of England of that day was not ready for a man like Whitfield. The church was too much asleep to understand him and was vexed at a man who would not keep still and let the devil alone. He was once married to a widow named James, who died before him.

If we may judge from the little mention made of his wife in his letters, the marriage does not seem to have contributed much to his happiness. He left no children, but he left a name far better than that of sons and daughters and never perhaps was there a man of whom it could be so truly said that he spent and was spent for Christ than George Whitfield. And J.C. Ryle also said that there's never been an Englishman dead or alive who ever equaled him.