GEORGE WHITEFIELD

The name of George Whitefield, the prince of open-air preachers, will ever rank high among those of great soulwinners. Perhaps no preacher was ever gifted with a more powerful voice for open air work, or ever preached to larger out-door congregations than did Whitefield. It is estimated that he preached to a hundred thousand persons at Cambuslang, in Scotland, and that ten thousand persons professed conversion to Christ as the result of his sermon. Although frail in body and having weak lungs, God seemed to endow him with supernatural strength for open air work at a time when church doors were closed against him. Benjamin Franklin claimed to have tested the voice of Whitefield to find out how far he could hear him distinctly, and he heard him clearly for over a mile.

Whitefield's grandfather was a clergyman in the Church of England, but his father was a wine merchant and innkeeper. George was born in 1714. He was the youngest of a family of seven-six sons and a daughter. His father died when he was an infant, and his mother-like the mother of Mr. Moody-was left to struggle through poverty with a large family. When four years old George had the measles, which through neglect left one of his lively dark blue eyes with a slight squint. This, however, did not mar the charm of his countenance.

His early life was stained with lying, cheating, evil speaking, small thefts, and other juvenile sins. In this he

much resembled the celebrated Saint Augustine. He would sometimes run into the dissenting meeting-house during services and shout the name of the worthy minister-" Old Cole! old Cole! old Cole!" and then he was off in a hurry. A member of the same chapel once asked him what he intended to be. "A minister," said he, "but I would take care never to tell stories in the pulpit like the old Cole," he added. The worthy old minister afterwards rejoiced to hear Whitefield relate anecdotes and incidents with a vividness and power far exceeding his own capabilities.

Whitefield was a wild, unrestrained lad. His mother tried to keep him from taking part in the business, but he sometimes sold drinks over the counter and kept the money. "It would be endless," says he, "to recount the sins and offences of my younger days." He had many good thoughts and compunctions of conscience. Thus, he did not use all the money he stole from his mother, but gave some of it to the poor. Among the books that he stole from others were devotional books as well as books of romance-he afterwards restored them fourfold. He was very hightempered, and once when some persons, who took pleasure in exasperating him, had greatly provoked him, he went to his room and on his knees, with tears in his eyes, prayed over the 118th Psalm. He was familiar with the Bible, and although he ridiculed sacred things, he was fond of the thought of some day being a clergyman, and he frequently imitated the clergyman's manner of reading prayers, or intoning them in the manner so common at that time.

In the Church of St. Mary de Crypt, Gloucester, Whitefield was christened as a baby, made fun as a boy of ten, and preached his first sermon as a deacon at the age of twenty-one. When he was ten years of age his mother married again, but this does not seem to have improved

their condition, financially at least. At the common school of St. Mary de Crypt, young Whitefield's memory and elocutionary powers won him great distinction in the amateur theatricals of which he was very fond. At fifteen years of age he gave up the common school and commenced helping his mother in the housework at Bell Inn. In the evenings he often read his Bible and even composed several sermons. Finally his brother took charge of the inn, and George could not agree with the sister-in-law, and so left and went to another brother's in Bristol. Here he first felt the power of God's Spirit working upon his heart. He felt a great longing for the things of God. After two months he returned home and these convictions and longings left him. His mother gave him the best she coulda bed on the floor. No business seemed to open up for him, and one day he said to his sister, "Sister, God intends something for me that we know not of." His mother also seems to have had presentiments of his coming greatness.

After remaining idle for some time he found that there was opportunity for him to work his way, as a servitor, through Oxford University. He went to school again to prepare for Oxford, and was led off into atheism by sinful companions. This did not last long, and he finally made up his mind to prepare to take communion on his seventeenth birthday. A dream about God, and a powerful impression that he was to preach the gospel seem to have greatly sobered him. A brother also gave him a straight talk about his rapid changes from saint to sinner and from sinner to saint.

In 1732, when eighteen years of age, he went to Oxford. At Oxford, to his great delight and after long desiring it, he was taken into the band of "Methodists," which then numbered fifteen. A book entitled "The Life