WHITEFIELD
984
WHITON
the hearts of his coii<;regalions. lie was benevolent anil kind, forijivini; ami gentle; bnt lie was zealous and tirin, and seldom allowed his feelings to overcome his judgment. He was eminently' useful in having ex- cited a greater degree of attention to religion ; and millions have doubtless blessed his name, as tens of thousands revere his memory.
\Miitetield was no common preacher. Parties of the most o])|)osite character and principles, such as FranU- lin, Hume, and John Newton, have united in bearing testimony to the beauty and effectiveness of Whitefield's pulpit oratory. Dr. James Hamilton, of London, de- scribing W'liitetield, said, •' He was the prince of English preachers. !Many have surpassed him in making ser- mons, but none have approached him as a ptdpit orator, ^lany have outshone him iu the clearness of their logic, the grandeur of their conceptions, and the sparkling beauty of single sentences ; but in the power of darting the (Jospel direct into the conscience, he eclipsed them all. With a full and beaming countenance, and the frank and easy port whicli the English people love, he combined a voice of rich compass, which could equally thrill over JMoorfields in musical thunder or whisper its terrible secret in every private ear; and to his gainly aspect and tunefid voice he added a most expressive and eloquent action. None ever used so boldh", nor with more success, the higher styles of impersonation. His thoughts were possessions and his feelings were transformations; and if he spoke because he felt, his hearers understood because thej"^ saw. They were not only enthusiastic amateurs, like Garrick, who ran to weep and tremble at his bursts of passion, bnt even the colder critics of the Walpole school were surprised into momentary sj'mpathy and reluctant wonder. Lord Ches- tertield was listening in lady Huntingdon's pew when he described the sinner under the character of a blind beg- gar led by a little dog. The dog escapes, from some cause, and he was left to grope his way guided only by liis staff. Unconsciously he wanders to the edge of a precipice; his staff drops from his hand, down the abyss too far to send back an echo ; he reaches forward cau- tiously to recover it; for a moment he poises on vacan- cy, and — ' Good God !' shouted Chesterfield, ' he is gone,' as he sprang from his seat to prevent the catastrophe. But the glory of Whitefield's preaching was its heart- kindled and heart-melting Gospel. Without this all his bold strokes and brilliant impersonations would have been no better than the rhetorical triumphs of many pulpit dramatists. He was an orator, but he only sought to be an evangelist. Like a volcano where gold and gems may be ejected as well as common things, l)ut where j^old and molten granite How all alike in iierj' fusion, bright thoughts and splendid images might be projected from his pidpit, but all were merged in the stream that bore along the Gospel and himself in blend- ed fervor. Indeed, so simple was his nature that gloiy to God and good-will to man had tilled it, and there was room for little more. Having no Church to found, no family to enrich, and no memorv to immortalize, he was simply the ambassador of God, and inspired with its ge- nial, piteous spirit— so full of heaven reconciled and hu- manity restored — he soon himself became a living Gos- pel. . . . Coming to his work direct from communion with his Master, and in the strength of accepted prayer, there was an elevation in his mien which often para- lyzed hostility, and a self-possession which made him, amid uproar and confusion, the more sublime. With an electric bolt he would bring the jester in his fool's- cap from his perch on tlie tree, or galvanize the brick- bat from the skulking miscreant's grasp, or sweep down iu crouching submission and shame- faced silence the whole of Bartholomew Fair; while a revealing flash of sententious doctrine, of vivified Scripture, would disclose to awe-struck hundreds the forgotten verities of another world or the unsuspected arcana of the inner man. 'I came to break your head, but througli you God has broken my heart' was 4 sort of confession with which
he was familiar; and to see the deaf old gentlewoman, who used to utter imprecations on him as he passed along the street, clambering up the |)ulpit stairs to catch his angelic words, was a sort of spectacle which the tri- umphant (Jospel often witnessed iu his day. When it is known that his voice could be heard by twenty thou- sand, and that ranging all the empire, as well as Amer- ica, he would often preach thrice on a working day, and that he has received in one week as many as a thousand letters from persons awakened by his sermons — if no estimate can be formed of the residts of his ministry, some idea may be suggested of its vast extent and sin- gidar effectiveness."
Whitefield published a number of sermons, journals, etc., and his entire works were printed in London in 1771-72 (7 vols. 8vo), including a Life by Gillies. For other literature, see Allibone, Diet, of Brit, and Amer. A iithors, s. v. The best biography is by Tyerman, Life ofGeovf/e Whitefield (Loud. 1876, 2 vols. 8vo).