George Whitefield: A Biography, with special reference to his labors in AmericaBelcher, Joseph
Religion
George Whitefield: A Biography, with special reference to his labors in America
Belcher, Joseph
Whitefield, George, 1714-1770
As an illustration of the spirit of the energetic ministers of
Christ in those days, we quote a fact or two from the life of
Rowland Hill; the more readily as Howel Harris is the principal
subject. In 1774, four years after the death of Whitefield, Mr.
Hill travelled through Wales, preaching three or four times every
day; many conversions took place, which greatly sustained him under
an attack of illness; and led to the remark in his "Journal," "My
body quite weak, but my soul was refreshed." "A like example,"
says Sidney, one of the biographers of Hill, "had been previously
before his eyes in the case of Howel Harris, one of Mr. Whitefield's
energetic followers, who was a man of extraordinary powers of body
and mind. Harris used to relate of himself, that being once on a
journey through Wales, he was subjected to great temptation to
desert his Master's cause, when he said, 'Satan, I'll match thee
for this;' and 'so I did,' he used to add; 'for I had not ridden
many miles before I came to a revel, where there was a show of
mountebanks, which I entered, and just as they were commencing, I
jumped into the midst of them and cried out, 'Let us pray,' which
so thunderstruck them that they listened to me quietly, while I
preached to them a most tremendous sermon, that frightened many
of them home.' Mr. Hill greatly delighted in this anecdote, and
often said that amidst somewhat similar scenes, he had been enabled
successfully to attack the kingdom of Satan."
CHAPTER VIII.
FIRST AND SECOND VISITS TO SCOTLAND--LABORS IN ENGLAND AND WALES.
1740-1744.
We have seen the spirit in which Mr. Whitefield returned to London,
and the cool manner in which he was too generally received. It is
painful to say that this coldness was not confined to enemies of the
truth; it appeared in some degree in eminent dissenting ministers,
as Watts and Bradbury, Barker, and even, to some extent, Doddridge.
A plan had a few years before been agitated to restore the
dissenters to the church, usually called the _Comprehension scheme_,
and assuredly, under the circumstances, friendship with Whitefield
was by no means favorable to such a plan being accomplished, though
it was at this period greatly desired by many of both parties.
Still, however, good was done; Whitefield preached, and God was
glorified. More union between Christians in advancing the cause of
Christ would have been exceedingly desirable, but even the want of
this was not permitted to stay the progress of this man of God.
One of the most popular and useful ministers employed by Whitefield
and his friends at this time was John Cennick, the author of two
well-known hymns, beginning,
"Jesus, thy blood and righteousness;"
"Jesus, my all, to heaven is gone."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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