“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord”
(1 Corinthians 15:5858Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:58)).
In the year 1734, Whitefield, only 20 years old, was appointed as an official clergyman of the Church of England by Bishop Benson. “I have thrown myself blindfolded and, I trust without reserve, into God’s almighty hands,” said Whitefield to the congregation attending his ordination. “Until you hear that I have died for doing my work, or while doing my work, you will not have heard what I expect to be my privileged end. For I would willingly go to prison or to death so that I could bring but one soul from the devil’s stronghold unto the salvation which is in Christ Jesus.”
In this spirit he left England on December 28, 1737, at 23 years old, in order to visit the English colony of Georgia in North America (the sovereign nation of the United States of America was not yet formed at that time). He took money with him in the amount of three hundred pounds that he had collected in England for the poor of that colony. The captain and crew of the ship in which he sailed were at first very hostile to his preaching, but Whitefield wisely worked to gain their respect.
I won’t force them to listen to teaching that they strongly dislike, he thought to himself. Let me first win their love, and then they will want to hear my message.
He therefore went around from prow to stern, looking after the sick in their cabins and showing simple kindnesses to all who crossed his path. Many quickly became strongly attracted to him due to his kindheartedness. Soon the captain said to Whitefield, “Well you’re a unique clergyman! I never saw one before who would go among the sailors and get close to them, helping the sick ones and being kind to all like you’ve done. You’re not getting paid to do this kind of work are you?”
“No,” George replied, “but God has called me to do anything and everything that lies within my power in order to make men happier.”
Obviously impressed, the captain made a suggestion that George had been waiting to hear. “I’m not usually the kind of man who changes his mind, but if you want, I’ll allow you to preach to the sailors. It might do the poor guys some good, and I think they’d like to hear what you have to say.”
“I’d be honored to take advantage of your kind offer. But, captain, if I preach to the servants in the forecastle, why shouldn’t I preach also to their masters, like yourself, in the main cabin?”
“I wish you hadn’t asked me that, but if it makes you happy to do so, then by all means preach in the cabin too.”
Thus for the rest of the long journey (it took weeks to cross the Atlantic ocean in a sailing ship in those days), George Whitefield worked to win the love of the sailors and his fellow-passengers and thereby to guide them to Christ. When he landed in Georgia, he continued to use the same methods of kindness and generosity, although some of his friends disapproved of him when he went so far as to go into the houses of the poor and preach to them there. Thinking that all preaching should be reserved for the pulpit in religious buildings, they criticized him.
“It’s not dignified,” they said, “the way that he goes from house to house expounding the Scriptures. It’s unusual and strange. Either he’s a fanatic or maybe he’s crazy.”
“If he’s crazy, I wish that he’d bite some of the other ministers around here and infect them with his craziness,” said another. “In my view, I think the man is truly in earnest, and even though I don’t always agree with him, he fills my soul with fervent love to Christ.”
But his critics would not be easily persuaded. “Now he is thinking of founding an orphanage. I want to know what right he has to interfere with other people’s business. He’s paid to preach, not to bother us about a lot of children who don’t have any claim on us whatsoever.”
“Except the claim that George Whitefield can’t resist, the claim of want and helplessness, I think that his care for the orphans is a very noble thing.”
“Well, when he goes home to England, he might be sorry for making himself so obnoxious by preaching the way he has here. We can reach him across the ocean, and we’ll make him feel pain there for what he has done here.”
The man who said all this was as good as his word, for when Whitefield returned home to England, he found that not one clergyman would allow him to preach from his pulpit. Even in Bristol, where he had been extremely popular before leaving for Georgia, the clergymen preached against Whitefield, and some of the other preachers threatened to take their people to court if they allowed the new preacher to pray and explain the Scriptures in their homes. Even the chancellor of the diocese, a man of high authority in the Church of England, approved of this unjust persecution.
“How dare you preach here?” he demanded of Whitefield one day, as he found him leaving a private home where he had been explaining the Bible. “You don’t have a license to do this.”
“I didn’t know that I needed one,” George replied calmly.
“The canons say that you must not pray in a private house.” These canons to which the chancellor referred are the lists of rules that human organizations, such as the Church of England, wrote to govern their actions. These organizations that are guided by their own canons do not recognize that all the directions for the operation of the Church of God are to be found in the Holy Bible alone, and that the entire Word of God is the only adequate statement of faith.
Whitefield was quick to reply. “The same canons also say that a clergyman shouldn’t play cards or go to taverns, and yet both evils are allowed in your territory. If you tolerate these, why not allow the other? Surely I can’t cause any harm by exhorting a few poor people to believe in Jesus Christ and have a change in their behavior.”
“I’m resolved, sir,” said the chancellor angrily, “that if you dare to preach or teach anywhere within my territory, I’ll first suspend you, and then I’ll excommunicate you.”
Whitefield left the meeting with the chancellor and went to his brother, who also resided in Bristol, and told him what the chancellor had said.
“Why pay any attention to him?” asked his brother. “If you aren’t allowed to preach in the churches, the fields are open to you. They can’t keep you from preaching in the open air. As to a congregation, you won’t need to look very far for them. See how great their needs are! Talk about heathen! The poor coal miners in Kingswood are as bad as any people elsewhere in the world. George, go and preach to them.”
George Whitefield acted on this wise advice from his brother, and went and preached to about two hundred of the neglected miners. He was so happy with the Lord’s blessing on his first visit, that he went again, this time accompanied by his brother. The trees and bushes were soon crowded with the poor men, many of them of the most lawless and evil kind of people. Soon there were nearly ten thousand gathered together, their clothes and skin black with the coal dust, having come just as they were when they threw down their picks and left the coal heaps.
“Oh! Dear brother,” said Whitefield afterward, “my heart just melted with tenderness when I saw those poor outcasts. I felt that we Christian people had been largely responsible for the horrible lives these men live, and I pitied them so much that the tears ran down my cheeks. There was a great silence as I felt the power of God wash over my soul. I spoke for about an hour and was able to raise my voice so that all of them could hear me. They didn’t have any self-righteousness to leave behind, and the poor people melted at the good news that Jesus is a friend of publicans and sinners. Then it was wonderful to see how the tears ran down their faces and made white streams down their black cheeks. Hundreds and hundreds of them were melted down by the love of God and came under deep conviction of sin. Thank God for such a sight! Oh, what a Saviour He is, to be willing and able to redeem even Kingswood coal miners!”
The success of this (until then) unheard-of experiment encouraged Whitefield to try the method of outdoor preaching in London. The news of his plan to preach at Moorfields in London made the city buzz as much as if he had announced that he was going to fly through the air. Many tried to discourage him from doing it, due to the danger it would place him in. Many of his friends were sure he would be killed by the mob that would gather. But although some rowdy members of the crowd shattered the table on which he was standing, they allowed him to preach from the top of a nearby wall that ran through Moorfields.
He wrote to his brother the following summary of the surprising day: “I suppose many consider me to be now a more evil clergyman than I ever was before for going out last Sunday to preach in the open air to the large crowds gathered in Moorfields. They shouted and screamed and some of them threw stones and other things at me, but I stayed calm since I felt that I was where the Lord would have me to be and that therefore I could not be harmed unless it was His will. The crowd calmed down a little after a while, and then they listened to me with some serious attention.
“That evening I went over to Kennington Common and preached to nearly twenty thousand people. I never saw such a sight in all my life. There was a powerful silence in the crowd and for an hour and a half I spoke the counsel of God. Oh! Brother, but it was good to see how the people hung onto the words of life! Pray God that some of them may be saved. Oh! Brother, a true faith in Christ Jesus will never allow us to be lazy while souls are perishing. Faith is an active, working principle. It fills the heart so that it can’t rest until it is doing something for Jesus Christ. I feel sorry for those who complain about boredom! Let them only love Christ and spend their whole time in His service, and they will find comparatively few dull hours. I am myself only beginning to be a Christian in this respect. Oh, to be found faithful!”
“I’m still just a little child and a blind one too; I know nothing and I can do nothing except by the help of God my Saviour. Lord, prepare me for the work that I am to do and allow me to resemble Thee in Thy life and service here on Earth.”
In this spirit Whitefield lived and preached, and although many mocked and many opposed him, God blessed his faithful preaching of the gospel. Hundreds were saved, and many who were professing Christians were restored in their love to Christ. A full account of the success of his work will only be known in the future day of results, when the Master will reward His servants, every one according to how they lived their life on earth, “and then shall every man have praise of God” (1 Corinthians 4:55Therefore judge nothing before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God. (1 Corinthians 4:5)).
What will be your reward then? Will you be able to give a good account of your life, or will you be one who will be saved yet so as by fire? “Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire” (1 Corinthians 3:13-1613Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. 14If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. 15If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire. 16Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? (1 Corinthians 3:13‑16)). God deliver us from living a life of lost rewards! Rather, may the following verses guide us, who believe in Jesus, from now on: “Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:10-1110Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never fall: 11For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:10‑11)).