George+Whitefield

=George Whitefield=

toc 1714-1770

Information
 On December 16th, 1714 in Gloucestor, England George Whitefield was born as the youngest of seven children. His father, Thomas Whitefield, died when George was only two years old. Therefore his mother, Elizabeth, struggled significantly to provide for the family. When George was about 15, he asked his mother if he could just not go to school and work in the inn that their family owned because he thought that he would never get any use out of his education anyway. However, George would find himself staying up late nights becoming a diligent student of the Bible. One day when an Oxford student visited the inn, George was inspired to further in education into a university atmosphere. He finished up lots of preparation for college and ended up entering into Oxford only losing about one year of school.

By age 17, he entered Pembroke College at Oxford. It was here that he joined a group known as the "Holy Club." And through this club, he met Charles and John Wesley. They loaned him a book called "The Life of God in the Soul of Man" which caused him to convert in 1735. However, through this conversion his health severely diminished. Thus he was forced to leave school. For nine months he stayed at home where he was accompanied by the bishop of Gloucester. The bishop ordained him as a deacon and later a priest in the Church of England. Upon finishing his degree at Oxford, in 1736 he was ordained by Bishop Benson.

Whitefield is remembered as a great preacher who attracted thousands of people. His views were extremely Calvinistic. However, he reached out towards all denominations such as Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Baptists. With the Wesleys, he inspired the Methodist movement. In his lifetime, he preached more than 18,000 sermons. And many of them were repeated, however, fewer than 90 of them still survive.

=References=

//Portrait of George Whitefield // = =

[|The Anglican Library]