Author's Note
Author’s Note
Two names were known throughout all the American colonies in the 1700’s: the name of the king, and George Whitefield’s. Thousands came to hear him, often like the farmer who hearing that Whitefield was coming to preach in a town twelve miles away left his fields and ran to get his wife and horse to be there in time to hear him. Who was this young preacher that God used in what is called the Great Awakening that swept through not just America, but England, and Scotland? From his first sermon at age twenty-three, to his last the day before he died, he preached the new birth in Jesus and did so with all his heart. It was his hope he said to the thousands listening to him, “… to touch your hearts.”
George Whitefield loved the Lord Jesus wholeheartedly and lived what he preached. He spent his whole life taking the good news of the new birth to as many people as he could reach. He wrote a sermon to teach the basic truths of the Bible that traders could translate for the Indians. He spoke to slaves, to the poor, and to the rich with the same love of Jesus for them all. God gave him the gift of a voice that reached not just great crowds of many thousands at a time, but the hearts of thousands of those who listened. He was the most important preacher of his times, and one who lived what he preached. All we know of him tells us of a man of cheerful temper, great kindness, clear thinking who knew the Bible well, believed God’s promises, loved and felt great joy in who Jesus was and served him with all his heart faithfully. We know too that he had tender love for orphans and the poor, and never turned away anyone in need from the Bethesda orphanage, not even an old man who took refuge there. There is much more that George Whitefield did to influence his times, but as he said, “You may write on my tombstone, The great day will reveal what sort of man he was.”
In the book I have put George Whitefield’s words in italics to set off his exact words. In all the major events of his life I have used his words wherever I could, but where I felt the need to put them in my own words for the sake of the story they are quoted without italics. In some situations where the story requires conversation I have imagined his words as he might have said them. Though he did lead a friend at Oxford to Jesus, I have given the friend the name Marcus. The orphan boy who graduated from Bethesda and became an assistant to a local pastor, I gave the name Martin. George Whitefield loved children and loved getting their letters and writing back to them as a loving father would, but Martha, the little girl who wrote about trying to ride the slippery pig is imagined for the sake of showing how Whitefield cared for children.
I have barely touched the full life of George Whitefield in this little book, but I hope that you will come from it being as glad as he was to know and believe that truly Jesus is our Righteousness.