George Whitefield: A Biography, with special reference to his labors in America — John Shaqi
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 truth of the remark we have just
introduced from the discerning Wesley, we may mention an incident
which occurred in 1736. At this period dissent itself was reduced so
low in the country, that there were only six dissenting houses of
worship in all North Wales. One Sunday, Mr. Lewis Rees, a dissenting
minister from South Wales, and the father of Dr. Rees, the author of
the celebrated Cyclopedia which bears his name, visited Pwllheli, a
town on the promontory of Slëyn, in Caernarvonshire, and one of the
few places in which the Independents still had a chapel. After the
service, the congregation, collecting around him, complained very
sorely that their numbers were rapidly diminishing, that the few
who yet remained were for the most part poor, and that every thing
connected with their cause looked gloomy. To which the minister
replied, "The dawn of religion is again breaking out in South
Wales," referring them to the fact, that already a distinguished
man--Howel Harris--had risen up, going about instructing the people
in the truths of the gospel. Such was the character of the times
when God was raising up agents to revive and extend his cause. We
shall before long return to Wales with lively interest.
"Such," says the eloquent Robert Hall, "was the situation of things
when Whitefield and Wesley made their appearance, who, whatever
failings the severest criticism can discover in their character,
will be hailed by posterity as the second reformers of England.
Nothing was farther from the views of these excellent men than to
innovate on the established religion of their country; their sole
aim was to recall the people to the good old way, and to imprint the
doctrines of the Articles and Homilies on the spirits of men. But
this doctrine had been so long a dead letter, and so completely
obliterated from the mind by contrary instructions, that the attempt
to revive it met with all the opposition that innovation is sure to
encounter, in addition to what naturally results from the nature
of the doctrine itself, which has to contend with the whole force
of human corruption. The revival of the _old_, appeared like the
introduction of a _new_ religion; and the hostility it excited
was less sanguinary, but scarcely less virulent, than that which
signalized the first publication of Christianity. The gospel of
Christ, or that system of truth which was laid at the foundation of
the Reformation, has since made rapid advances, and in every step of
its progress has sustained the most furious assaults."
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