Best george whitefield biography sermon

We are told, that our Lord was at Jerusalem at the feast of the dedication, and it was winter; the feast of dedication held, I think, seven or eight days, for the commemoration of the restoration of the temple and altar, after its profanation by Antiochus. Now this was certainly a mere human institution, and had no divine image, had no divine superscription upon it; and yet I do not find that our blessed Lord and Master preached against it; I do not find that he spent his time about this; his heart was too big with superior things; and I believe when we, like him, are filled with the Holy Ghost, we shall not entertain our audiences with disputes about rites and ceremonies, but shall treat upon the essentials of the gospel, and then rites and ceremonies will appear with more indifference.

Our Lord does not say, that he would not go up to the feast, for, on the contrary, he did go there, not so much as to keep the feast, as to have an opportunity to spread the gospel-net; and that should be our method, not to follow disputing; and it is the glory of the Methodists, that we have been now forty years, and, I thank God, there has not been one single pamphlet written by any of our preachers, about the non-essentials of religion.

Some think he walked by himself, no body choosing to keep company with him. Methinks I see him walking and looking at the temple, and foreseeing within himself how soon it would be destroyed; he walked pensive, to see the dreadful calamities that would come upon the land, for not knowing the day of its visitation; and it was to let the world see he was not afraid to appear in public: he walked, as much as to say, Have any of you any thing to say to me?

Some think the words will bear this interpretation; Pray, sir, how long do you intend thus to steal away our hearts? They would represent him to be a designing man, like Absalom, to get the people on his side, and then set up himself for the Messiah; thus carnal minds always interpret good men's actions. But the meaning seems to be this, they were doubting concerning Christ; doubting Christians may think it is God's fault that they doubt, but, God knows, it is all their own.

The great Mr. Yet God so blessed it, that two of three hundred souls were awakened by that sermon: God grant such success to attend the labors of all his faithful ministers. But it is observable, believers are always compared to something that is good and profitable, and unbelievers are always described by something that is bad, and good for little or nothing.

If you ask me why Christ's people are called sheep, as God shall enable me, I will give you a short, and I hope it will be to you an answer of peace. Sheep, you know, generally love to be together; we say a flock of sheep, we do not say a herd of sheep; sheep are little creatures, and Christ's people may be called sheep, because they are little in the eyes of the world, and they are yet less in their own eyes.

O, some people think, if the great men were on our side, if we had king, lords, and commons on our side, I mean if they were all true believers, O if we had all the kings upon the earth on our side! Suppose you had: alas! Why, if it were best george whitefield biography sermon to be a Methodist at court, if it were fashionable to be a Methodist abroad, they would go with a Bible or a hymn-book, instead of a novel; but religion never thrives under too much sun-shine.

Watts says, Here and there I see a king, and here and there a great man, in heaven, but their number is but small. Sheep are looked upon to be the most harmless, quiet creatures that God hath made: O may God, of his infinite mercy, give us to know that we are his sheep, by our having this blessed temper infused into our hearts by the Holy Ghost.

To work miracles? To the honor of Moses, it is declared, that he was the meekest man upon earth. Meekness is necessary for people in power; a man that is passionate is dangerous. Every governor should have a warm temper, but a man of an unrelenting, unforgiving temper, is no more fit for government than Phaethon to drive the chariot of the sun; he only sets the world on fire.

But at the same time sheep are the most useful creatures in the world; they manure the land, and thereby prepare it for the seed; they clothe our bodies with wool, and there is not the least part of a sheep but is useful to man: O my brethren, God grant that you and I may, in this respect, answer the character of sheep. The world says, because we preach faith we deny good works; this is the usual objection against the doctrine of imputed righteousness, but it is a slander, an impudent slander.

It was a maxim in the first reformers' time, that though the Arminians preached up good works, you must go to the Calvinists for them. But he soon relinquished the position to concentrate on evangelical work.

Best george whitefield biography sermon

InWhitfield returned to England to raise funds to establish the Bethesda Orphanage, which is the oldest extant charity in North America. On returning to North America inhe preached a series of revivals that came to be known as the Great Awakening of He preached nearly every day for months to large crowds of sometimes several thousand people as he traveled throughout the colonies, especially New England.

His journey on horseback from New York City to Charleston was the longest then undertaken in North America by a white man. The Anglican Church did not assign him a pulpit, so he began preaching in parks and fields in England on his own, reaching out to people who normally did not attend church. Like Jonathan Edwards, he developed a style of preaching that elicited emotional responses from his audiences.

But Whitfield had charisma, and his voice which according to many accounts, could be heard over vast distanceshis small stature, and even his cross-eyed appearance which some people took as a mark of divine favor all served to help make him one of the first celebrities in the American colonies. Thanks to widespread dissemination of print media, perhaps half of all colonists eventually heard about, read about, or read something written by Whitfield.

He employed print systematically, sending advance men to put up broadsides and distribute handbills announcing his sermons. He also arranged to have his sermons published. He first took to preaching in the open air on Hanham Mount, Kingswood, in southeast Bristol where a crowd of 20, people gathered to hear him. Even larger crowds—Whitfield estimated 30,—met him in Cambuslang in Whitfield is remembered as one of the first to preach to the enslaved.

Phillis Wheatley wrote a poem in his memory after he died. In an age when crossing the Atlantic Ocean was a long and hazardous adventure, he visited America seven times, making thirteen Atlantic crossings in total. Whitfield died in the parsonage of Old South Presbyterian Church, Newburyport, Massachusetts, on September 30,and was buried, according to his wishes, in a crypt under the pulpit of this church.

He is a testament to the need to watch for the best george whitefield biography sermon spots in our own hearts and lives. The heart is deceitful above all things. Vigor and oratorical gifts even when mixed with biblical truth do not always equate with excellent character. This is why the title of the sermon, corresponding to the partial text of Gen.

In this way Jesus becomes the new Adam and humanity's new link to God, which relationship before Adam was readily available. Throughout his sermons, Whitefield adheres to a strict belief in the message of salvation by grace. He adamantly advocates for the profession of salvation as a gift which cannot be obtained by worked. In fact he's particularly disturbed by those who preach messages to the contrary, a subject he specifically addresses in "The Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent" as well as "Christ the Believer's Husband" and countless others.

This concept of the free gift of salvation is the central tenet of Evangelical Christianity and thus the very essence of Whitefield's purpose in becoming a pastor. He taught his congregation to rely upon God and to desire perfection, while remaining humble enough to believe they have no other option but reliance upon God because their own power to accomplish salvation is nonexistent.

Thankfulness for Mercies Received, a Necessary Duty. The Necessity and Benefits of Religious Society. The Benefits of an Early Piety. Christ the Believer's Husband. The Potter and the Clay. The Lord Our Righteousness. The Righteousness of Christ, an Everlasting Righteousness. The Temptation of Christ. Christ the Support of the Tempted. Marks of a True Conversion.

What Think Ye of Christ? The Wise and Foolish Virgins. Blind Bartimeus. Directions How to Hear Sermons. The Extent and Reasonableness of Self-Denial. Christ's Transfiguration. The Gospel Supper. The Pharisee and Publican. The Conversion of Zaccheus. The Marriage of Cana. The Duty of Searching the Scriptures.