George Whitefield

The First Transatlantic Revivalist

Nigel D Scotland

• Publisher: Lion Books
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9780745980287
• eBook ISBN: 9780745980270
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religious Biographies

George Whitefield proclaimed the Christian message to more people in history than anyone else, before or since, who spoke with an unaided voice.

A preacher of revival almost form his childhood, when he prophesied his own destiny, he had a profound impact on the social, religious and political life of both Britain and America. He crossed the Atlantic thirteen times, and merged as a celebrity figure, whose message captivated both rich and poor alike. Whitefield heralded a new kind of revival that was both spiritually powerful and entertaining at the same time.

He was also a man of contradictions. He loved the Anglican liturgy but would happily break canon law. He was a devoted Puritan yet he was also able to befriend those with more liberal morals, Above all, Whitefield was a driven man, and his overwhelming passion was to preach New Birth in Christ - the theme he was to speak on over a thousand times. He valued education, opposed slavery, cared for orphan children and changed the course of both British and American history.

Chapter 1

From Rebellious Youth to Ordination

George Whitefield was born the youngest of seven children at the Bell Inn in the city of Gloucester on 16 December 1714. His father, Thomas, had previously worked for a Bristol wine merchant during which time he married Elizabeth Edwards. Then at some earlier point his parents moved to Gloucester and took over the running of the hostelry in Southgate Street. The Bell comprised of the main inn, outhouses, stables, several shops, land, and a garden worth £130 per year.¹ The city skyline, noted for its church spires, was dominated by the cathedral, which, during the eighteenth century, became a focus of choral music with soloists sometimes coming from as far away as London. The city, which had just over 1,000 houses, and a population a little over 5,000 in 1710, was a centre of corn trading. However, as larger ships were built Gloucester’s port began to lose its importance to that of Bristol, which had the capacity to accommodate them. Despite this, Gloucester continued to be a growing centre of commerce which attracted many visitors. By 1720 the Saracen’s Head in Eastgate Street was able to offer stables for sixty horses.² It is a significant fact that at this time many wealthy families in Gloucestershire kept black African slaves; this may well have impacted on Whitefield’s later controversial advocacy of slavery in the American colonies.

George, it should be said, had clerical blood in his veins. His great-grandfather, Samuel Whitefield, had been rector of North Ledyard in Wiltshire and then moved on to become incumbent of the parish of Rockhampton in Gloucestershire where his son, also Samuel, succeeded him as incumbent.³

Very little information about Whitefield’s infancy has come to light. It is known from extant records that he enrolled at a school run by the cathedral in 1726. The main source of his early years is a brief autobiographical sketch of his life entitled A Short Account of God’s Dealings with the Reverend Mr. George Whitefield. This was supplemented by A Further Account of God’s Dealings which covered the time from his ordination to his embarking on a ship bound for Georgia in 1737. The “Short Account” was written in 1740 at an early point in his ministry and gives some fairly detailed accounts of the misdemeanours of his youth, some of which he toned down in a later edition. At the time of writing the first account Whitefield was only at the beginning of his ministry but already he had become a celebrity preacher. He was keen that the people who hung on his every word should not cherish unreal opinions of him. At the outset he tells his readers that in most of the biographies of other men that he had read the writers “have given us the bright, but not the dark side of their character. This, I think, proceeded from a kind of fraud, lest mentioning a person’s faults should encourage others to sin.”⁴ Whitefield justified this baring of his soul on a biblical ground recalling that the sacred writers give an account of their failings as well as their virtues. In particular he mentioned Peter who was not ashamed to confess that he had denied his Master three times with oaths and curses. Nor, he pointed out, did the Gospel writers avoid telling us that Jesus had cast out seven devils from Mary Magdalene. So, he concluded, “I have… follow[ed] their good example” and “simply told what I was by nature, as well as what I am by grace.”⁵

From a young age George remembered his mother telling him that she had endured fourteen weeks of sickness after she had brought him into the world and “that she expected more comfort from me than any other of her children”.⁶ These expectations coupled with experience of working in the inn later stirred his desire to be a wholehearted follower of Christ. Notwithstanding these aspirations George was able to recall and recount a number of aspects of misspent youth.

I can truly say, I was froward from my mother’s womb. I was so brutish as to hate instruction, and used purposely to shun all opportunities of receiving it. I can date some very early acts of uncleanness… Lying, filthy talking, and 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 was no theft at all, and I used to make no scruple of taking money out of her pocket before she was up. I have… more than once spent the money I took from the house, in buying fruits, tarts etc., to satisfy my sensual appetite. Much money have I spent in plays, and in the common entertainments of the age. Cards and reading romances were my heart’s delight.⁷

In December 1724, when Whitefield was about ten years old, his mother was remarried to a Mr Capel Longdon, who was a near neighbour. It proved to be a disastrous union and Elizabeth finally left her husband in 1728. Notwithstanding this hardship George’s mother always took great care over her young son’s education and when he was twelve years old he was sent to the Crypt School in Gloucester where he became an avid reader. George was clearly a bright child but his education was of short duration owing to his mother’s reduced circumstances. He later wrote, “My mother was very careful of my education and always kept me in my tender years, for which I can never sufficiently thank her.”⁸ Whitefield recalled that during his time at school he was blessed with a retentive memory and was very good at elocution. He also became especially fond of reading plays and acting in them, skills which were later to prove highly valuable in his dramatic preaching and public speaking. It also enabled him to be confident in conversation and at ease with all sections of society from mine workers to London aristocrats and Oxford dons.

With the passing of time it became clear to the young Whitefield that his mother’s circumstances were insufficient to give him a university education. He therefore left off learning Latin and began to help her run the hostelry. He wrote, “I put on my blue apron and my snuffers, washed mops, cleaned rooms, and in one word, became a professed and common drawer for nigh a year and a half.”⁹

After this early period of George’s “servile employment” his mother decided to leave the inn. The business was then placed in the hands of his younger brother who had recently married, with George appointed as his assistant. Unfortunately the situation became difficult with George falling out with his sister-in-law and it was eventually agreed that he should go and stay with his older brother in Bristol. There, in St John’s Church, he related how “God was pleased to give me great foretastes of His love” and filled him “with such unspeakable raptures” that he “was carried out beyond [him]self.” These were accompanied with “great hungerings and thirstings after the blessed Sacrament”. By this he referred to his strong desire to receive Holy Communion, a practice that became his lifelong habit. In consequence of this experience he wrote many letters, including one to his mother, telling her that he would never go into public employment again. At this same time he found a “great delight” in the writings of medieval mystic, Thomas à Kempis, and must have wondered at his beautifully written The Imitation of Christ. He also read at this time Thomas Ken’s Manual for Winchester Scholars, “a book which much affected me”.¹⁰

After about two months away in Bristol George returned to Gloucester where he recalled “Alas! All my fervour went off.” Much of his days reverted to “reading plays and in sauntering from place to place”. In short it was, he said, “a proper season for Satan to tempt me.¹¹ During this time all George’s efforts to obtain an apprenticeship in the city came to nothing and it struck him that God was going to provide some other way he could not comprehend. And so it proved!

Oxford bound!

A young student who had been one of Whitefield’s friends at the Crypt School chanced to pay a visit to his mother. During the course of their conversations he mentioned that he was a servitor at Pembroke College, Oxford, and explained how in this position he had been able to pay his way by performing the duties of a domestic servant for his fellow wealthier students. George vividly recalled that, on hearing this, his mother cried out, “This will do for my son” and turning to him said, “Will you go to Oxford George?” His reply was, “I will with all my heart.”¹²

George’s mother shared the same friends who had sponsored this young undergraduate student. They promised to do their best to get him a servitor’s place in the same college. In little more than a week Elizabeth Whitefield approached her son’s Master at the Crypt who proved to be much in favour of this proposed move. George who at once returned to his studies had clearly not lost his Latin and surprised his master by an almost faultless translation of the first passage he was given. Now with his eyes set on Oxford George recalled that “I learned much faster than I did before.”¹³

Although the young Whitefield made great strides with his studies his behaviour didn’t follow suit. “All this while,” he wrote, “I continued in secret sins and at length got acquainted with such a set of debauched, abandoned, atheistical youths, that if God by his free, unmerited, and especial grace, had not delivered me out of their hands, I should long since have sat in the scorner’s chair and made a mock at sin.”¹⁴ Among other ills he got drunk on at least two occasions, took part in lewd conversation and struggled with “his corrupt passions”; probably a reference to his strong sexual desires. Whitefield also recalled having fallen into “abominable sin” which Kidd has suggested was likely to have been masturbation.¹⁵

Shocked at having been “overtaken in liquor” and finding himself at the beginning of his seventeenth year and now an “upper boy in the school”, George resolved to take himself in hand. He began to study with even greater determination and was especially diligent in reading his Greek New Testam...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Preface
• Chapter 1: From Rebellious Youth to Ordination
• Chapter 2: Georgia Missionary
• Chapter 3: The Great Outdoors
• Chapter 4: Awakening in America
• Chapter 5: Catalyst of Revival in Scotland
• Chapter 6: Howell Harris and the Countess
• Chapter 7: Trapped in the Homeland
• Chapter 8: The Grand Itinerant
• Chapter 9: Preacher Extraordinaire
• Chapter 10: Social Gospeller
• Chapter 11: Theologian and Churchman
• Chapter 12: A Fervent Spirituality
• Chapter 13: Last Days and Assessment
• Bibliography
• Index