“Why George! What a surprise to see you! We never expected to see you here in Bristol. Have you given up the tavern business? Did you get tired of clearing tables and running errands at the Bell Inn?”
“No, that’s not exactly why I left the inn and came here,” George Whitefield replied to his brother. “But I’ve been very uncomfortable working there ever since mother retired from the tavern. As long as our brother who carried on the business remained single it was fine, but ever since he got married the place has become a lot more difficult for me to put up with.”
“You didn’t have a big argument with them, I hope. Of course disagreements will come up even in the best of homes, but there should be no hard feelings by the end of the day. It’s difficult to imagine that some otherwise very good people are hard to get along with in the home or at work. If two people must have different opinions, they should be able to politely discuss their differences, but shouldn’t hold grudges or hate the other person because of their different ideas.”
“I don’t feel like I meant to cause any trouble, but for almost a month now my sister-in-law and I haven’t spoken to each other. I’ve been feeling bad about the barrier between us, and I’ve often gone up to my room and cried for hours before the Lord, but I couldn’t make the first move toward reconciliation. I think it will be much better for us to be apart, so I’ve come to stay with you for a while in Bristol.”
“Well, we’re sure glad to see you,” replied his brother. “Bristol’s a great place for a vacation, and you may be able to find something to do here for work if you plan to stay longer.”
“I actually want to be a clergyman. I really believe that I’ll be one someday.”
“Well George, if it’s to be it’ll be, but I can’t quite see how you will be able to do that. Our family doesn’t exactly have the money to send you to college.”
After two months’ stay in Bristol, George Whitefield went back to Gloucester where he had been working before at the Bell Inn. He lived at home with his mother for quite a while after returning, and he seemed to forget his desire to become a clergyman. But one day a young man who had been one of George’s friends from high school visited him in Gloucester and his dreams revived.
“I wish that George could go to college,” said Mrs. Whitefield to George’s friend. “We might’ve had the money if his father was still alive, but now it’s out of the question. His great-grandfather was a clergyman, and I often think that my dear husband would’ve preferred being one to selling wine for a business. He meant George to be one, but he died in 1716 when George was only two years old, and now college is beyond our means.”
“I work in a servitor’s position at Pembroke College, Oxford, and you know, Mrs. Whitefield, that I paid all my expenses last quarter, and even saved a penny out of my earnings!” said the young visitor. “Servitors are poor students who do chores for the rich students in order to earn enough money for college. I wouldn’t be able to go to college either if it wasn’t for this opportunity of working as a servitor at the same time to pay my way.”
“That kind of thing would work fine for my George!” exclaimed Mrs. Whitefield, and turning to her son she asked him, “Would you go to Oxford as a servitor, George?”
“In a heartbeat, mother!” he answered, his eyes large with excitement. “I already have three sermons ready and I really want to go to college.”
Mrs. Whitefield succeeded in borrowing ten pounds from a friend, and, as she was also able to find an open servitorship for George in Oxford, he left at once for that city in order to study for life as a clergyman. But up to this point he hadn’t believed the gospel of the grace of God for himself – he wasn’t yet a true child of God.
Religion to him was at that time only a complicated list of rules and regulations, and he hoped to get to heaven by doing everything on that list as best he could. One night when he was younger, however, he had had a nightmare in which he saw the burning and smoking Mount Sinai, and God there on a throne as his judge, and he was terrified at the awful doom he was nearing as an unpardoned sinner. God is speaking to me, he had thought, but he hadn’t taken the time to listen to God’s voice then.
Later, when he entered the University of Oxford at eighteen years old, those who said they were the ministers of Christ were teaching that the gospel had been proved to be only a fable. The unbelief of the gospel that was then growing and being taught at the University gave many of George Whitefield’s peers an excuse to make fun of him when he wouldn’t join in their wild parties. He continued to work diligently, however, as a servitor, and was hired by many of the wealthy students. He earned enough money as a servitor that during the three years he went to college he didn’t have to borrow more than twenty pounds.
But as God never leaves Himself without witnesses even in the worst times and places, there were then in Oxford a number of godly young men who met together in a group that their mockers labeled the “Holy Club.” Mr. John Wesley, the leader of this new student society, had noticed George Whitefield, and, although George did everything he could to remain undetected, John Wesley personally invited him to his room for breakfast. These two earnest seekers after truth talked together mainly about the serious matters of the soul, and Mr. Wesley tried to figure out what was bothering his younger friend.
“I’ve laid awake whole nights groaning under the weight of the regret that I feel for my sin. I’ve spent whole days, even weeks, lying on the ground begging for deliverance from the evil thoughts that fill my mind,” explained Whitefield, shuddering at the thought of his hopelessness.
“But you still haven’t found deliverance?” asked Wesley, his brow furrowed.
“Not even a little! So, thinking that I must not have been sorry enough about my sin, I began to fast twice a week, and I wore dirty shoes, a patched gown, and woolen gloves, thinking that a repenting sinner shouldn’t wear nice clothes. In spite of all this I haven’t yet been able to find the peace that I so much need! Oh, Mr. Wesley, I really want security and to know that all my sins are forgiven, but I don’t yet feel like this is the case.”
“I heard that you were sick due to all the grief and stress that has overwhelmed you,” observed Wesley.
“Yes, I was,” replied Whitefield, “but by God’s mercy my health has improved. But I wish to be useful to God. How can I do anything that is worth doing in life unless God saves my soul?”
“That is a good question,” said Mr. Wesley thoughtfully, and with that they closed their meeting together.
After nearly twelve months of darkness, Whitefield, advised by his friends, left Oxford for a time, and went to visit his relatives in Gloucester. It must have been around this time that he came to trust completely in Jesus for salvation, because from then on he was able to rejoice in the Lord and His deliverance from sin. His family members were surprised to find him so cheerful and happy, thinking that, because he was studying to be a clergyman, he would be characterized by the sad, stern attitude that usually goes with the profession.
The society he first met with when back at home did not suit him, being so different from that of those dear friends he had left behind at the university. But he found it impossible to live without spiritual companions. “I decided that I would try either to find or make a friend,” he determined. “So one day I went to Mrs. W., to whom I used to read plays, hoping the change she would see in me might, under God, touch her soul. God was pleased to bless the visit.” Soon after, he was again used of God to awaken several young people, and a little society was formed after the model of the one in Oxford, “where,” he said, “we soon had the honor of being as despised at Gloucester as we had been before at Oxford.”
During his break from Oxford, George began a diligent study of the Scriptures, pouring all his energy into the effort. He put away all his other books and devoted himself to a close and careful study of the Bible. Only by systematic study of the Word of God, together with depending on the Spirit of God, can the hidden beauties of the sacred page be found: persistent reading of the Scriptures will lead the believer to find peace and satisfaction in Christ.
“I get more true knowledge and solid satisfaction from reading the Word of God,” he said to his mother, “than I ever got from all the other books that I ever read. Oh, mother, this book is well worth your study. You need to read it for yourself.”
“I can’t find time for everything I have to do as it is, and I still have a while before I die,” replied Mrs. Whitefield, slightly indignant but slightly amused. “Bless you George, but we can’t be reading the Bible and saying prayers all day long!”
“But, mother, think about it: you are not too busy to die, and I’m sure you’d like to be saved.”
“Of course, son, of course, we all hope to get to heaven in the end. You have your way, and I have my way, but we will all get to the same place at last.”
“But, dear mother, suppose that we don’t all get to the same place at last? What if some of us find out that we were wrong and are then shut out of heaven? There’s only one way to enter heaven, and that is through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the only Saviour and Redeemer.”
“Ah, child, the way you talk makes it sound like I’m a sinner. Our family has always been a decent, law-abiding family who contributed to society. No, I’m not a sinner. Why, when I managed the Bell Inn in Gloucester, I never allowed a drunken man to have more wine than was good for him, and I’m sure I’ve done my duty to my husband and children as well as I could.”
“All that is true, mother, but even in spite of all those good works, God regards you as a sinner. Even those of us who have never done big crimes are sinners in His sight. When I was a boy . . .”
“Don’t talk like that,” scolded his mother, cutting him off in mid-sentence. “You were no worse than any other boy your age.”
“. . . I lied and cursed and swore, and many other foolish and filthy things came out of my mouth,” continued George earnestly. “And I didn’t love God or try to serve Him, which was also sin in His sight. All sin deserves the just punishment of God.”
“But all these things are just small faults that we all have when we’re young. God isn’t hard or stern.”
“No, but He is just,” countered George, “and He will not pass over iniquity as if it didn’t happen. Mother, we’ll be lost forever unless we’re pardoned by God’s free mercy. ‘These shall go away into everlasting punishment,’ the Bible says.”
“Well, I can’t understand all these things in the Bible. I only hope God will be kind to me.”
“He’s indeed kind to us, dear mother, and so He has provided Jesus as a Saviour for us. Jesus died for our sins, and if we accept Him for our Saviour, trusting only in Him, we shall be saved.”
Even though we, like George’s mother, might think we are good people who haven’t done really bad things, God tells us that “there is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one . . . there is no difference: for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:10-12, 22-2310As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. (Romans 3:10‑12)
22Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: 23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; (Romans 3:22‑23)). What are we to do? Can we change our life and make it good enough for God to accept us into heaven when we die? No. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:1212Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved. (Acts 4:12)). What name is this? “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:2121And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Acts 2:21)).