WHITEFIELD, GEORGE, one of the founders of Methodism, was b. in the Bull inn, at Gloucester, on Dec. 16, 1714. He was educated at the grammar-school of his native town, at which lie appears to have distinguished himself, especially by elocutionary displays at the annual visitations. On leaving school, he was for a time engaged assisting in the business of his mother, the hostess of the Bull inn; but lie obtained admission as a servitor at Pembroke college, Oxford, when in his 18th year. About three years earlier, John and Charles Wesley had laid, in the university of Oxford, the foundations of Methodism—a system which at first resembled the rule of a religious order more than the bond of a religious sect; requiring from its professors ascetic obser vances and devotion to works of piety and charity. It was not till he had been upward of a year at the university that Whitefield became associated with the Methodists. He at once made himself remarkable among them for zeal, for the austerity of his ascetism, for labor too great for his strength among the sick and the prisoners in the jail. Hia health gave way, and he had to go home, when his native air soon restored him; after which he carried on at Gloucester the same pious and self-denying practices which he had begun at the university. His conchIct drew upon him the attention of the bishop of the diocese, who offered, though Whitefield was only twenty-one, to admit him immediately into orders. The offer was accepted, and Whitetield was ordained a deacon in 1736, before lie had taken his degree. He preached his first sermon in Gloucester cathedral, and the erect of it was remarkable. The vehemence and earnest ness of his oratory deeply moved the audience; and five persons are said to have been driven mad with fear and excitement. Complaints were made to the bishop; but this good man gave no heed to them—simply saying that he hoped the madness would last to the following Sunday. During the next two years, Whitefield preached with similar results in various churches in England.
Meanwhile, Wesley bad been in America establishing missions among the colonists; and in 1738 he desired' Whitefield to join him, a request that was immediately complied with. Whitefield had to go to London to make arrangements for his journey; and this visit, though not his first, seems first to have made him known to the inhabitants of the metropolis, upon all classes of whom—fine gentlemen like Chesterfield, and cool skep tics like Bolingbroke, as well as the more mobile crowd—he afterward made an impres sion such as, probably, no other preacher ever produced. His success in London was
immediate, and much exceeded all that had befallen him previously. The doors of the church in which he was to preach were besieged before the dawn; the unlighted streets in the early morning were filled with persons carrying lanterns, making their way to the place of worship many hours before the time of service. This lasted until his departure for America. IIe was hereafter to be almost as closely connected with evan gelical labors in America as in England itself; but on this first occasion, his stay was short—only a few months. He returned to be admitted to priest's orders, and to collect funds for the establishment of an orphanage in Georgia. He soon went hack to Amer ica, but not before a beginning had been made of his split with the English church, whose clergy lie offended by preaching in the open air, whether lie got permission from the parish clergyman or not, and by deviating, whenever he thought tit, from the liturgy of the church. But the remarkable and beneficial effects of his preaching on the rude miners and others who flocked to hear him, consoled him for clerical censures; and after this, lie seems to have preached almost by preference in the open air. His second visit to America occupied nearly two years. He came hack in 1741.
It was about this time that doctrinal differences led to his separation from John Wesley—both of them being by this time disowned by the established church. Wesley believed and preached the doctrine of universal redemption; Whitefield was a rigid Calvinist. Each thought his belief of the utmost importance. and, in the end, each excommunicated the other. Whitefield's supporters now built him a large shed at Moorfields, near Wesley's chapel—which, being temporary, was known as the tabernacle; and his preaching gathered immense audiences around him. But he had no talent for organization; and as soon as lie went away on his frequent protracted journeys, Ma supporters began to disperse. But that the countess of Huntingdon, a lady of wealth and of abilities, became a convert to his views, Whitefield, in all probability, would not have founded a sect. But this lady appointed him her chaplain; she built and endowed chapels to maintain his Calvinistic doctrines; and thus a slight memorial of Whitefield's preaching, though it more directly commemorated the zeal and energy of lady Hunting don, remains in what is known as the Huntingdon connection.