Issue 04 Preaching in the digital ageBlog | The Late Greats George Whitefield
The Late Greats George Whitefield
Author: Andy PeckPost Date: 09.09.15
‘With what divine pathos did he persuade the impenitent sinner to embrace the practice of piety and virtue! ... From the pulpit he was unrivalled in the command of an ever-crowded auditory.’1 So, according to John Wesley, the Boston Gazet te praised George Whitefield who, at his death in 1770, was quite simply the most popular preacher of his age on both sides of the Atlantic.
The printed sermons that we have from Whitefield cannot do justice to what his hearers experienced.2 Apparently he preached as a rule without notes and the sermons that we have were taken down verbatim, though possibly edited by him. But the accounts that survive from those who heard Whitefield make it clear that he was renowned as much for the way in which he spoke as for what he said. There was something of the stage in Whitefield’s approach; famous actors of the time would go to hear him preach
