052. George Whitefield

Whitefield

1714-1770 Biographical Note

George Whitefield, evangelist and leader of Calvinistic Methodists, who has been called the Demosthenes of the pulpit, was born at Gloucester, England, in 1714. He was an impassioned pulpit orator of the popular type, and his power over immense congregations was largely due to his histrionic talent and his exquisitely modulated voice, which has been described as “an organ, a flute, a harp, all in one,” and which at times became stentorian. He had a most expressive face, and although he squinted, in grace and significance of gesture he knew perfectly how to “suit the action to the word.” But he had not the style or scholarship of Wesley, and his printed sermons do not fully bear out his reputation. Whitefield died in 1770.