George Whitefield

American patriot Benjamin Franklin and British evangelist George Whitefield (1714-1770) were worlds apart when it came to theological convictions, yet they held each other in high regard. Franklin spoke warmly of their “friendship, sincere on both sides.” He said of Whitefield’s preaching, “Every accent, every emphasis, every modulation of voice was so perfectly well tuned and well placed that without being interested in the subject, one could not help being pleased with the discourse.” It’s estimated that Whitefield preached 18,000 sermons in his life, an average of 500 a year or ten every week. When staid Church of England clergy became wary of his exuberant style and closed their pulpits to him, Whitefield turned to open-air preaching. “The earth is my pulpit, and heaven is my sounding board,” he said of his itinerant ministry. Despite his enormous popularity, detractors mocked his bold, passionate preaching style. Some ridiculed it as mere acting on a stage. In a sermon, he once addressed this criticism by referencing a conversation between the Archbishop of Canterbury and actor Mr. Butterton in 1675. The archbishop (leader of the Church of England) asked this famous actor how it was possible for people on stage to achieve such a dramatic effect on their audiences while preachers failed to generate the same influence. “Why, my lord,” said Butterton, “the reason is very plain. We actors on stage speak of things imaginary as if they were real, and you in the pulpit speak of things real as if they were imaginary.” Whitefield’s preaching was hardly an act. He believed what he read in the Bible was real and lived accordingly. He included the following prayer in a 1739 letter to a friend as he traveled to America: