GEORGE WHITEFIELD THE GREAT EVANGELIST

Little-known or remarkable facts about George Whitefield (1714-1770)

About 80 percent of all American colonists heard him preach at least once. Other than royalty, he was perhaps the only living person whose name would have been recognized by any colonial American.

America's Great Awakening was sparked largely by Whitefield's preaching tour 1739- 40. Though only 25 years old, the evangelist took America by storm. Whitefield's farewell sermon on Boston Common drew 23,000 people - more than Boston's entire population. It was probably the largest crowd that had ever gathered in America.

Whitefield preached at both Harvard and New Haven College(Yale). At Harvard it was reported that "The College is entirely changed. The students are full of God." Yet Harvard's leading professors later wrote a pamphlet denouncing Whitefield.

Brutal mobs sometimes attacked Whitefield and his followers, maiming people and stripping women naked. Whitefield received three letters with death threats, and once he was stoned until nearly dead.

Whitefield usually awoke at 4 A.M. Before beginning to preach at 5 ~ 6 A.M. In one week he often preached a dozen times or more and spent 40 or 50 hours in the pulpit.

Whitefield pushed himself so hard and preached with such intensity that often afterward he had "a vast discharge from the stomach, usually with a considerable quantity of blood."

Whitefield became close friends with Benjamin Franklin. Franklin once estimated that Whitefield, without any amplification, could be heard by more than 30,000 people.

George Whitefield traveled seven times to America, more than a dozen times to Scotland, and to Ireland, Bermuda, Holland.

In his lifetime, Whitefield preached at least18,000 times. He addressed perhaps 10,000,000 hearers.

In England People tried to whip Whitefield, who said, "I was honoured with having a few stones, dirt, rotten eggs, and pieces of dead cats thrown at me. Yet he kept on preaching for 3 hours, and 350 people were "awakened"