George Whitefield was born December 16, 1714, and died September 30, 1770. His father died when he was two years old.
In 1733, he was invited by Charles Wesley to breakfast to meet the members of the "Holy Club."
In 1739, he sailed to America and preached in New York and Philadelphia, were he met Ben Franklin. Although Benjamin Franklin found the preachers of his town very boring and even unscriptural, Whitefield really impressed him, and they became close friends. In fact, Whitefield always could count on a place to stay in Benjamin Franklin’s house, and Benjamin Franklin loved to attend his meetings. When Whitefield originally came to Philadelphia, the churches at first reluctantly let him speak, but soon the clergy of the town drove him from their pulpits. Unperturbed, Whitefield took his meetings to the open fields, and the whole town would come to hear him preach. Being in the open air, enabled everyone to hear him, and freed his audience from the confines of buildings. Franklin found it odd how much people admired Whitefield, even though he verbally abused them, proving to them that they were half animals and half devils. Franklin also reveled in the dramatic improvement in manners that came over the residents in the area, after Whitefield preached. The town went from being thoughtless and antireligious to completely converted! You could not walk through the town without hearing psalms sung by different families in every street.
After leaving Philadelphia, George Whitefield worked his way through all the American Colonies all the way to Georgia. Georgia was a late settlement, and was made up of broken families, failed businessmen, and other bankrupt people. Many of the residents had been released from jail to form the settlement. The people were incapable of establishing a settlement, not being made of hardy, industrious stock, but instead a people of horrible and lazy habits. The people refused to clear the land and make things livable, and since they were not hardy, they died in large numbers, leaving behind huge numbers of orphans. The scene of such misery inspired Whitefield to do something, and he set about to first build an orphanage so that the children could be rescued and educated. He immediately retraced his steps, heading north through the colonies, and raised a huge amount of funds.
Whitefield’s voice was loud, clear, and articulate. He was easily understood at great distances, and his audiences, no matter how large, were perfectly silent when he spoke. Franklin did a study in town, with all the town noises, and found he could easily be heard by 25,000 people, since his voice was clearly heard several blocks away!
On November 14, 1741, he married a widow named Elizabeth James. Even on February 8, 1744, when George's 4-month-old son died, it did not stop his preaching. He preached 3 times before his son's funeral and was preaching as the bells rang for the service itself.
In August 1768, Elizabeth Whitefield died.
While George was searching for salvation before his conversion, he fasted till his health broke, and then he was ordered by the doctor to stay in bed for seven weeks.
In Whitefield's lifetime he preached 18,000 times, and to 10,000,000 hearers.
While Whitefield was preaching brutal mobs would sometimes attack Whitefield and his followers. Whitefield got three letters with death threats, and once was stoned till he was almost dead, yet it did not stop him.
People made up several mean songs, and plays about Whitefield. Yet he was honored by famous poets Charles Wesley, William Cowper, and later, John Greenleaf Whittier, who described Whitfield as:
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That life of pure intent |
Sources
Christian History: George Whitefield. Electronic ed. Carol Stream IL: Christianity Today, 1993; Published in electronic form by Logos Research System, 1996. Issue 38.
Lagass, O.P., & Columbia University. The Columbia Encyclopedia. 6th ed. New York; [Detroit: Columbia University Press; Sold and distributed by Gale Group, 2000.
Benjamin Franklin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Redding, CA: Pleasant Places Press, 2004) pp. 131-136.
