anxious care.89
6. To my having had so little pain in my life, and so little sorrow or anxious care.89
At eighty-six, during a nine-week tour of Ireland, he preached one hundred sermons in sixty towns and villages; six of those sermons he preached in the open air. On June 28, 1790, he wrote in his journal,
Monday, June 28—This day I enter into my eighty-eighth year. For above eighty-six years, I found none of the infirmities of old age; my eyes did not wax dim, neither was my natural strength abated. But last August I found almost a sudden change. My eyes were so dim that no glasses would help me. My strength likewise quite forsook me and probably will not return in this world. But I feel no pain from head, to foot; only it seems nature is exhausted and, humanly speaking, will sink more and more, till the weary springs of life stand still at last. 90
Two days prior to his next birthday, he preached to two large audiences who had gathered to honor the venerable John Wesley.
On October 7, 1790, he preached his last outdoor sermon under an ash tree in the churchyard of Rye in Kent, crying, like "the voice of the Woes," "Repent!" On February 22, 1791, he preached his last sermon from the pulpit at City Road Chapel in London. The next day, he preached his last sermon on this side of heaven at a friend's house in Leatherhead on "Seek ye the Lord while He may be found."
On the following day, February 24, 1791, John Wesley wrote his famous letter to William Wilberforce—a Member of Parliament who dedicated his life to ending slavery in the British Empire—encouraging him to carry on his crusade against the slave trade. While he could no longer preach the cause of Christ, he wrote in this letter:
But if God be fore you, who can be against you? Are all of them together stronger than God? O be not weary of well doing! Go on, in the name of God and in the power of his might, till even American slavery (the vilest that ever saw the sun) shall vanish away before it.
He signed it, "Your affectionate servant, John Wesley."91
By February 25, John was feeling weak, and he returned to City Road,
where he slept for the next two days. On February 27, he seemed to have recovered a bit, joining his companions for dinner. He retired to his room that evening, exhausted. He did not get up again. On March 2, 1791, surrounded by loved ones, he breathed his last breath.
During his ministry, John Wesley rode over 250,000 miles by horseback (approximately 5,000 miles a year)—a distance comparable to circling the globe ten times. He preached more than forty thousand sermons and published more than five thousand sermons, pamphlets, and books of all kinds. At the time of his death, Wesley had 79,000 followers. Today, in England alone, there are 800,000 members of the Methodist Church; worldwide, there are seventy million members.
John Wesley brought the challenge of new life to the English church when it had lost sight of Christ as the ultimate Redeemer. By preaching justification by faith, John and Charles Wesley lifted many thousands of the forgotten masses of England from their unfortunate circumstances and evil habits, making them hopeful of righteousness and salvation. John's passionate efforts to bring the knowledge of redemption to mankind were felt not only in England, but also throughout continental Europe and the developing world—predominantly in America. As Rigg said of him,
He seems to have had a settled and governing conviction that there was a great work to be done for the Church and the world, for the present and yet more for the future; a work which God had called him to do. He saw around him the need of such a work—a hollow and heartless world full of corruption, vanity, and unrest, and a supine, undisciplined, insensible Church; and he felt stirring strongly within him the power and the call to awaken and organize the Church, and to impress and convert the world.92
The world would indeed be touched by the Wesleys as Methodism would provide the way of revival far into the next century.
3 Keith J. Hardman, The Spiritual Awakeners (Chicago: Moody Press, 1983), 76.
4 C. Grant Robertson, England under the Hanoverians, (London: Methuen and
Company, 1923), 210–11, quoted in John Telford, The Life of John Wesley (London: The Epworth Press, 1924), 1.
5 The Anglican equivalent of a pastor.
6 Telford, Life of John Wesley, 14.
7 Samuel and Susanna actually had nine children at this point: Samuel Jr. was off at Westminster School, where he boarded and studied, so he did not include him in the remark above.
8 Robert Southey, The Life of Wesley and the Rise and Progress of Methodism (London: Frederick Warne and Company, n.d., ca. 1820), 11.
9 Ibid.
10 Telford, Life of John Wesley, 19.
11 Ibid., 19–20.
12 Ibid., 20.
13 Pastor.
14 Southey, Life of Wesley, 13.
15 Telford, Life of John Wesley, 31.
16 Ibid.
17 Southey, Life of Wesley, 20.
18 James H. Rigg, The Living Wesley (London: Charles H. Kelley, 1891), 87.
19 Ibid., 41.
20 John Wesley, Wesley's Works, 8: 468, quoted in Rigg, Living Wesley, 67.
21 Rigg, Living Wesley, 74.
22 Ibid., 72, 74.
23 Elesha Coffman, "Attack of the Bible-Moths," Christian History 20, no. 1
[Issue 69] (2001): 22.
24 Rigg, Living Wesley, 89.
25 Telford, Life of John Wesley, 72.
26 Telford, Life of John Wesley, 78.
27 Southey, Life of Wesley, 52.
28 Southey, Life of Wesley, 61.
29 Telford, Life of John Wesley, 84.
30 Southey, Life of Wesley, 62.
31 John Wesley, The Journal of John Wesley, Christian Classics Ethereal Library, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/journal.vi.ii.vii.html.
32 Southey, Life of Wesley, 75.
33 Ibid., 80.
34 Ibid., 84. The emphasis is Southey's.
35 "December 15, 1737: Zinzendorf Ordained Peter Bohler," Christian History Institute, http://chi.gospelcom.net/DAILYF/2003/12/daily-12-15-2003.shtml.
36 Ibid.
37 Southey, Life of Wesley, 86.
38 A severe respiratory illness.
39 Telford, Life of John Wesley, 100.
40 Southey, Life of Wesley, 90. The emphasis is Southey's.
41 Wesley, Journal of John Wesley, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/journal.vi.ii.xvi.html.
42 Charles Yrigoyen Jr., Holiness of Heart and Life, 33, quoted in "Spiritual Disciplines: Works of Piety," John Wesley: Holiness of Heart and Life,
General Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Church, http://gbgmumc.org/umw/wesley/disciple.stm.
43 Randy L. Maddox, "Be Ye Perfect?" Christian History 20, no. 1 [Issue 69] (2001): 32.
44 John Wesley, "Salvation by Faith," Christian Classics Ethereal Library, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/sermons.v.i.html.
45 Southey, Life of Wesley, 103.
46 Ibid., 104–105.
47 Southey, Life of Wesley, 113.
48 John Wesley, The Journal of John Wesley, vol. 2, ed. Nehemiah Curnock (London: Epworth Publishing, 1938), 122–125, quoted in Eddie L. Hyatt, 2000 Years of Charismatic Christianity: A 20th Century Look at Church History from a Pentecostal/Charismatic Perspective (Chicota, TX and Tulsa, OK: Hyatt International Ministries, Inc., 1996), 106.
49 Southey, Life of Wesley, 123.
50 Basil Miller, John Wesley: The World His Parish (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, 1943), 71.
51 Ibid., 75.
52 Telford, Life of John Wesley, 122–123.
53 John Wesley, The Works of the Reverend John Wesley, A.M., vol. 3. Edited by John Emory. (New York: T. Mason and G. Lane, 1840), 162.
54 Wesley, Works of the Reverend John Wesley, A.M., vol. 3, 274–275.
55 John Wesley, The Works of the Reverend John Wesley, vol. 1 (London: The Conference Office, 1809), 388.
56 John Crowder, The New Mystics: How to Become Part of the Supernatural Generation (Shippensburg, PA: Destiny Image Publishers, 2006), 276–277.
57 Ibid., 277.
58 Richard P. Heitzenrater, "A Tale of Two Brothers," Christian History 20, no. 1 [Issue 69] (2001): 16.
59 Wesley, Journal of John Wesley, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/journal.vi.iii.v.html.
60 Wesley, Journal of John Wesley, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/journal.vi.iv.v.html.
61 Ibid., http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/journal.vi.vii.i.html.
62 Southey, Life of Wesley, 187.
63 John Wesley, "Free Grace," 1740, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/sermons.viii.ii.html.
64 J. D. Walsh, "Wesley vs. Whitefield: The conflict between the two giants of the eighteenth-century awakening," Christian History 12, no. 2 [Issue 38] (1993): 36.
65 The author was eventually revealed to have been one J. Oswald, of whom little is known. The pamphlet was reprinted in New England by none other than Benjamin Franklin, who had become a good friend of Whitefield.
66 George Whitefield, "Come, Poor, Lost, Undone Sinner," Christian History 12, no. 2 [Issue 38] (1993): 19.
67 John Wesley, "On Dress." http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/sermons.vi.xxxv.html.
68 Rigg, Living Wesley, 162.
69 Ruth Daugherty, John Wesley: Holiness of Heart and Life (study guide), 1996, quoted in "Grace Murray," John Wesley, Holiness of Heart and Life, General Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Church, http://gbgmumc.org/umw/Wesley/gracemurray.stm.
70 Ibid.
71 Janine Petry, "The Matchmakers," Christian History 20, no. 1 [Issue 69] (2001): 24.
72 Telford, Life of John Wesley, 246.
73 Ibid., 247.
74 Ibid., 248.
75 Ibid.
76 Henry Moore, The Life of the Reverend John Wesley, A.M.: Fellow of Lincolnshire College, Oxford, vol. 2 (New York: N. Bangs and J. Emory, 1826), 103, quoted in Telford, Life of John Wesley, 250.
77 Telford, Life of John Wesley, 251.
78 Charles Edward White, "Spare the Rod and Spoil the Church," Christian History 20, no. 1 [Issue 69] (2001): 28–29.
79 Ibid., 29.
80 White, "Spare the Rod," 30.
81 Sam Wellman, John Wesley: Founder of the Methodist Church (Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 1999), 126.
82 White, "Spare the Rod," 29.
83 J. F. Hurst, John Wesley the Methodist: A Plain Account of His Life and Work (New York: The Methodist Book Concern, 1903), Wesley Center Online, http://wesley.nnu.edu/john_wesley/methodist/ch13.htm.
84 White, "Spare the Rod," 30.
85 John Wesley to Mrs. Martha Wesley Hall, 17 November 1742, Wesley Center Online, http://wesley.nnu.edu/John_Wesley/letters/1742.htm.
86 Hurst, John Wesley the Methodist, http://wesley.nnu.edu/john_wesley/methodist/ch11.htm.
87 White, "Spare the Rod," 29.
88 Hurst, John Wesley the Methodist, http://wesley.nnu.edu/john_wesley/methodist/ch13.htm.
89 Luke Tyerman, The Life and Times of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., Founder of the Methodists, vol. 3 (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1871), 540.
90 John Wesley, The Journal of John Wesley, (Chicago: Moody Press, 1951; Grand Rapids: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 2000), 265, http://www.ccel.org/ccel/wesley/journal.html.
91 John Wesley to William Wilberforce, 24 February 1791, John Wesley: Holiness of Heart and Life, General Board of Global Ministries, United Methodist Church, http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/wesley/wilber.stm.
92 Rigg, Living Wesley, 99.
Chapter 2
George Whitefield
"The Divine Dramatist"
I can call heaven and earth to witness that when the bishop laid his hands upon
me, I gave myself up to be a martyr for Him who hung upon the Cross for me....I have thrown myself blindfold, and I trust, without reserve, into His
almighty hands.93 —George Whitefield, on his ordination as a minister
Although George Whitefield was probably the most famous personality of his time in the American colonies—roughly four out of every five colonists heard him preach at least once—few today are familiar with the wake of "experiential evangelism" he left. He shook two continents with his dramatic and penetrating preaching style, transforming the spiritual climate of two worlds—the British Isles as well as the new settlements in America. He took New England by storm during one year of itinerant preaching at the age of twenty-five and returned six times to continue stirring the hearts of countless thousands who thronged to hear his moving sermons.
When Boston's population was about sixteen thousand, Whitefield preached his farewell address in Boston Common to a crowd of twenty-three thousand— probably the largest crowd to have gathered in America up to that point. He was likely the only living person with the exception of royalty that every American colonist could recognize. Never before had a single person commanded such great audiences or garnered such widespread fame with no instrument other than his voice, no support other than the horse on which he rode or the box on which he stood, and no word of wisdom other than the gift of salvation.
Though the Wesley brothers were long his mentors, his fame surpassed theirs. John Wesley preached his first open-air sermon at the age of thirty-six in a field outside of Bristol to a mind-boggling three thousand, but Whitefield was still in his twenties when he preached to a crowd of about thirty thousand. When John Wesley's crowds had climbed to six thousand, Whitefield was preaching to an unprecedented sixty thousand.
George Whitefield was known as the Great Orator, the Divine Dramatist, and the Heavenly Comet. He appealed to the emotions and used all of his faculties to bring the message of the "new birth" home to the hearts of his hearers. He undoubtedly adopted this term from John Wesley, who was probably the first to use it to refer to becoming a Christian by being "born again." This idea is taken from Jesus' statement in John 3:3: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Though Whitefield incurred criticism for his theatrics, his heart was sincere and upright before God. His intentions were pure and his love for his hearers was genuine.
Whitefield was an evangelistic pioneer. Moved with such deep compassion for the lost, he was the first to preach "out in the open" to coal miners and shipyard workers as they passed on their way to and from work, for they had no other opportunities to hear the Gospel. He carried the hope of God's redeeming grace not only to the working classes, but also to the nobility—he attended gatherings of famous lords and ladies, holding them spellbound with his dramatic messages. His charisma and compassion carried him from parlors to prisons in England and from politicians' houses to Native Americans' huts in the New World. He was moved most of all by the plight of widows and orphans in the new colonies, as well as by the welfare of the African slaves he also encountered there.
Whitefield was the catalyst of the Great Awakening that swept America and Britain into evangelicalism—a new move of God that emphasized the authority of the Bible and the need for every person to make Jesus Christ his personal Lord and Savior. The Great Awakening brought to the masses not only the message of redemption, but also an underlying message of social equality. The first waves of revival prompted a shift in values that affected politics, trade, and traditional religious hierarchies, as well as daily social life. It created within the common man a new sense of self-worth. People of all classes became more involved in religious affairs and began studying the Scriptures for themselves.
These attitudes were the beginning of a sense of independence and equality that would set the stage for the American Revolution. As the spirit of freedom was proclaimed in the colonies by the Declaration of Independence, it followed the example of itinerant evangelists such as Whitefield, who had
been the first to preach universal equality and liberty in Christ.
Humble Beginnings
George Whitefield was born to innkeepers in the cosmopolitan city of Gloucester, England, on December 16, 1714. He was the youngest of Thomas and Elizabeth's seven children. From an early age, he became familiar with the unrefined life of running an inner-city tavern. The Whitefield family owned the busy Bell Inn on Westgate Street in Gloucester's urban center. Two years after George's birth, his father passed away and his mother was left alone to run the inn and care for her large family.
George's upbringing contrasted starkly with the disciplined and refined parsonage where John and Charles Wesley were raised under the watchful eye of their mother. Whitefield was raised by a single mother who did whatever was required to keep the family business afloat, from serving beer to cleaning up after rowdy patrons. George was exposed to the most decadent of pleasureseekers, the crudest language, and certainly some of the seediest characters. Of his boyhood tendencies Whitefield recorded:
I can date some very early acts of uncleanness. Lying, filthy talking, foolish jesting I was much addicted to even when very young. Sometimes I used to curse, if not swear. Stealing from my mother I thought no theft at all, and used to make no scruple of taking money out of her pocket before she was up.94
Doing what she felt was necessary to keep the inn running, his mother remarried when George was ten years old. The marriage proved disastrous and ended in a divorce that left Elizabeth and her children no better off than before. Shortly thereafter, Whitefield's older brother moved away to start a family of his own, and Whitefield left to attend grammar school at St. Mary de Crypt, where he discovered a love of theater. Although he progressed rapidly in the standard classical studies, his passion for winning the lead role in school plays was all-consuming. He often skipped class to memorize his lines and rehearse his parts, and because of his acclaimed oratory abilities, he was called upon to deliver a speech whenever important people visited the school.
His mother had always loved the theater, and the young, impressionable Whitefield inherited her drive to "be somebody." Whitefield was fifteen when his mother's marriage collapsed, and he persuaded her to let him leave school
to help her run the inn. He felt she could no longer afford to support his education, which he resolved "would spoil me for a tradesman."95 He put on his blue apron and, for a year and a half, "washed mops,…cleaned rooms, and in one word, became professed and common drawer"96—that is, a common beer tapster in the tavern.
Whitefield and his mother were always very close. After his birth, she had battled a debilitating illness for fourteen weeks and concluded that she would receive more comfort from George for the rest of her life than from any other of her children. She took special care to look after him and did all that she could to provide him with a suitable education outside of school. Perceiving the special place he held in his mother's heart and the ambitious nature they shared, Whitefield later wrote,
This, with the circumstance of my being born in an inn, has been often of service to me, in exciting my endeavours to make good my mother's expectations, and so follow the example of my dear Saviour, who was born in a manger belonging to an inn.97
George thus grew up bringing beer and food to patrons who became obnoxiously drunk, and cleaning up after them. He worked as a dishwasher as well as a chambermaid. But at night, he stayed up late reading plays, perfecting his delivery of each line and the development of each part. He attended preachers' sermons just so he could return home and imitate them for his sisters. As he mimicked ministers' prayers, the words started to stir his heart. Soon he began to study the Bible and read devotional books, which planted within him the desire to pursue a dramatic and no less significant life as a clergyman in the Anglican Church. Dreaming of one day becoming a priest, he knew he would have to complete his education by somehow finding his way to Oxford University.
At this time, Whitefield's older brother returned to manage the inn with his wife. It was no longer necessary for Whitefield to remain there, and he floundered a bit in Bristol before returning to Gloucester. He remained faithful in his devotions and read plays both to entertain others and amuse himself. One morning as he read a play to his sister, he told her,
God intends something for me which I know not of. As I have been diligent in business, I believe many would gladly have me for an apprentice, but every