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Essay on George Whitefield
George Whitefield was a British evangelist and arranger of the Calvinistic Methodists. He was born in Gloucester, England, and educated at Pembroke College, University of Oxford. Throughout his undergraduate days Whitefield met John and Charles Wesley and joined the Holy Club, the members of which were known as Methodists. In 1736 Whitefield was ordained deacon in the Church of England and two years later followed the Wesley brothers to Savannah, Georgia, as a missionary. Soon after that, Whitefield returned to England and was ordained a priest. Because of his unconventional manner of preaching and conducting services, many Church of England pulpits were closed to him; he therefore began to preach in the open air and attracted vast crowds by his eloquence.
At home in Gloucester Whitefield kept to the scheduled life of the Holy Club but it now had a new meaning. Not to win God's favor or to be righteous, but to focus him and the time he spent on serving God. In recuperation he was very diligent to do his Daily Bread. He would read a passage of the Bible in English, then in Greek, and then read Matthew Henry's commentary. He would pray over each line he read out of these three books until he received it and understood it and it became a part of him. He even founded a small society, which met nightly. The Bishop of Gloucester took notice of this exceptional young man and offered to ordain him as soon as the orders came. But Whitefield was afraid of being ordained too young and growing proud. So he made a Jacob's vow that he would be ordained if, by some miracle, money was supplied for him to return to Oxford and graduate. Soon money did come in drop by drop. An old vicar asked him to preach, and enjoyed the sermon so much he gave him a pound....
