George Whitefield

By Owly

Good morning, everyone. Yesterday, I read an essay in the library, written by Daleron's most famous sage, when he was still in his youth. Here it is:

"George Whitefield was born on December 16, 1714, in the town of Gloucester, to hard working innkeeper parents who kept the Bell inn. Whitefield once stated that he was “addicted to lying, filthy talking, and foolish jesting.” Whitfield was good at acting and giving speeches, a talent that would be useful later. George had very low moral standards, to the point that he often stole money from his mother. When he was fifteen years old, he stopped school and helped with the inn. Whitfield’s mother wanted him to attend oxford university, but they could not afford to go, until they learned that he could go as a servant. Whitfield accepted, and while he was at oxford, he joined a club called the holy club which imposed the strictest possible discipline in an effort to earn salvation. While he was at oxford, John Wesley, a member of the holy club, gave him a book by Henry Scrougal on how to be saved. Soon after reading this book, Whitefield was saved.

              Soon after he was saved, Whitefield was ordained a deacon on June 10, 1736. 16 days later, he preached his first sermon, a sermon so powerful that he was accused of “driving fifteen people mad”.   He then preached for two months to thousands of people in Glouster, Bristol, and London, and hundreds accepted Christ as their savior. Afterwards, Whitefield sailed to Georgia and preached there, with plans to build an orphanage. Finding the churches closed when he returned to England, he attempted open air meetings. The first time he preached outdoors was to coalminers in Kingswood, a city close to Bristol. Afterward he often preached outdoors. It is estimated that Whitefield often preached to more than twenty thousand people at once. Whitefield organized the first Methodist society and many other societies for the purpose of supervising the converts.

              In his entire life, Whitefield preached more than eighteen thousand sermons to more than ten million people, crossed the Atlantic thirteen times, and changed the hearts of hundreds, so that Benjamin Franklin once said “It was wonderful to see the change soon made by his preaching in the manners of the inhabitants. From being thoughtless or indifferent about religion, it seemed as if all the world was growing religious, so that one could not walk through the town in an evening without hearing psalms sung in different families of every street”.

              Despite all these accomplishments, Whitefield always gave God the glory. Whitefield once said “let the name of George Whitefield perish, so long as Christ is exalted.” Like George Whitefield, we should always obey God’s calling, and always be humble."

This is a very simplistic essay, but it still kind of works.