I am compelled…

Before the thirteen colonies in America became a country, four-fifths of Americans had heard George Whitefield preach in person. Without amplification, he spoke to crowds numbering in the tens of thousands. He didn’t preach in a church; he preached in fields and fairgrounds. And when he did, entire towns shut down and went to hear him. He made thirteen trips to America, tallying 782 days at sea, crisscrossing the Atlantic Ocean. In total he preached 18,000 sermons during his thirty-four-year preaching career, proclaiming the gospel to more than ten million people. He often wept during his sermons, urgently pleading with people to come to Jesus. His last sermon was delivered in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on September 29, 1770. Barely able to stand, Whitefield preached for two hours, until 2 a.m. Later that morning, he literally ran out of breath, dying of an asthmatic fit. His friend and colleague John Wesley eulogized him with these words: “Oh, what has the church suffered in the setting of that bright star which shone so gloriously in our hemisphere. We have none left to succeed him; none of his gifts; none anything like him in his usefulness.” How did Whitefield have that effect? What drove him? The same thing that drove Paul: “I am compelled to preach. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” A poet once posed the question, “Can all of life represent one motive?” If he didn’t succeed at it, George Whitefield came close. His secret was he believed what he preached, and he lived what he believed. And God expects no less from each of us.