It is characteristic of Mankind that he is
always in search of a path to reconcile himself to the woes and hardships of
existence and to find a way to live in harmony with his fellow humans. Some
have followed the ancient teachers, like Socrates, Pythagoras or Epictetus,
others are adherents of Islam, Buddhism or the Hindu cosmology, while the West
fell under the sway of the sophisticated doctrines of Christianity for almost
2000 years. The 19th century saw the growing influence of the
Marxist ideology, balefully climaxing in the 20th, while our own
time has produced a number of eminent prophets with enthusiastic followings. My
first piece on this subject will concentrate on the highly successful Christian
evangelist George Whitefield.
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| George Whitefield |
George Whitefield (or often spelled as it is pronounced
“Whitfield”) was born in Gloucester in 1714 and died in Newburyport, Mass, in
British America in 1770. He was the son of an innkeeper of uncertain financial
stability, was schooled in Gloucester, where he showed acting talent, and went
up to Pembroke College, Oxford in 1732 as a student “servitor”, studying, but
also acting as a servant to richer undergraduates. Pembroke had briefly enjoyed
the presence of the matchless Samuel Johnson in 1728. At Oxford Whitefield
became friends with John and Charles Wesley and joined the Holy Club, a society
devoted to the pious life, and when the Wesleys departed to a ministry in
Savannah, Georgia, Whitefield succeeded John as leader of the Club. On
graduation Whitefield decided to become an itinerant preacher and made his
first of 7 visits to the American colonies in 1738. He briefly succeeded John
Wesley as priest in Savannah and became convinced that his life-work should be
raising the funds for an orphanage in nearby Bethesda. The orphanage was built
and is the oldest extant charity in America.
Returning to England to raise money, he gave
his first outdoor address to a large crowd of miners at Kingswood, by Bristol.
He also had founded 2 churches in London but he gave these and the church at
Kingswood to John Wesley to organize and develop in his “Methodist” fashion.
Over the next years Whitefield travelled extensively in Britain and British
America. Whitefield was of short build but he had a loudly resonant voice which
could be heard at a great distance. Moreover, he was decidedly cross-eyed
(thought by some to be a sign of divine favour!) and made a striking figure. He
later befriended worldly Benjamin Franklin and Franklin calculated that
Whitefield could be well heard by an assembly of 30,000 people in the open air.
His religious oratory had a strong emotional and theatrical impact: to borrow the phrases of H L Mencken on Woodrow Wilson, “He knew how
to make them glow, and weep. He wasted no time on the heads of his (listeners),
but aimed directly at their ears, diaphragms and hearts.” The eminent
American theologian and writer, Jonathan Edwards, came to a Whitefield revival
and wept along with the rest of the assembly and Whitefield himself. These
displays of emotion were not considered dignified by the 18th
century Anglican church and Wesley himself had his reservations.
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| Whitefield preaching 1757 |
The early 1740s were a time of turmoil within
the Protestant churches. In America it is known as The First Great Awakening
and Whitefield and Edwards were leading lights. In Britain Wesley tried to keep
his Methodists within the discipline of the Church of England but his
insistence on ordination without the involvement of a bishop eventually led to
a breach. Scotland, always a theological tinder-box, saw an extraordinary
revivalist campaign centred on The Preaching Braes of Cambuslang and climaxed
with energetic George Whitefield addressing 30,000 souls in 1742. Charismatic
Wesley was building up an English Methodist sect which was challenging
Anglicanism and its hold on all classes.
There were areas of theological controversy.
Whitefield was a Calvinist and accepted predestination. Wesley was Arminian
believing in free will and that men could be saved by God’s grace. The gulf is
quite substantial but Whitefield and Wesley agreed to differ and became close
colleagues in later years. It is their collective persistence that impresses
and their defiance of many clerical enemies.
It is said that Whitefield gave 18,000 sermons
to some 10 million people in Britain and British America, making him the very
first transatlantic celebrity and one of the most well-known characters in the
18th century. The Methodists remain the largest Protestant
denomination in America and though they are in decline in Britain, they left a
powerful legacy of piety, temperance and community-consciousness throughout the
world.
SMD,
26.07.2019,
Text Copyright © Sidney Donald 2019
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