Required reading
Life and times of George Whitefield by Robert Philip (available from Amazon or free on the internet, here for example)
- His birth and family;
- His wayward childhood;
- His work at the inn after leaving school for two years;
- His return to school in preparation to go to Oxford;
- His time at Oxford up until his conversion, including the time spent with the Methodists John and Charles Wesley.
It was sad to read how Whitefield understood the gospel but was led away from it by the Wesleys: 'In a short time he [Charles Wesley] let me have another book...At my first reading it, I wondered what the author meant by saying, "That some falsely placed religion in going to church doing hurt to no one, being constant in the duties of the closet and now and then reaching out their hands to give alms to their poor neighbours." Alas! thought I, if this be not religion, what is? God soon showed me; for in reading a few lines further, "that true religion was a union of the soul with God, and Christ formed with us," a ray of divine light instantaneously darted in upon my soul, and from that moment, but not till then, did I know that I must be a new creature."...But, unhappily, Whitefield was not left to follow out his own convictions: Charles Wesley...interfered with the young convert, and inoculated him with the virus of legality and quietism.'
Whitefield's example teaches us that we really must hold on tight to that faith we first professed and not let anyone lead us back under the law.
Next week's reading
The rest of Chapter One.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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