p.i For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.

For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God.

The Apostle Paul

1 Corinthians 1 and 2

p.17 "God showed me that I must be born again, or be damned! I learned that a man may go to church, say prayers, receive the sacrament, and yet not be a Christian. . . .

"Shall I burn this book? [The Life of God in the Soul of Man by Henry Scougal] Shall I throw it down? Or shall I search it? I did search it, and holding the book in my hand I thus addressed the God of heaven and earth: ‘Lord, if I am not a Christian, or if not a real one, for Jesus Christ’s sake show me what Christianity is, that I may not be damned at last!’

"God soon showed me, for in reading a few lines further, the ‘true Christianity is a union of the soul with God, and Christ formed within us,’ a ray of divine light was instantaneously darted into my soul, and from that moment, and not till then, did I know I must become a new creature."

p.22 "God made me instrumental to awaken several young people who soon formed themselves into a little Society and had quickly the honour of being despised at Gloucester as we had been at Oxford."

p.25 "All I can say is I look for perpetual conflicts and struggles in this life, and I hope for no other peace, only a cross, while on this side of eternity."

p.30 "God give me a deep humility, a well-guided zeal, a burning love and single eye, and then let men or devils do their worst."

p.47 "Having no righteousness of their own to renounce, they were glad to hear of a Jesus who was a friend of publicans and sinners, and came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. The first discovery of their being affected was to see the white gutters made by the tears which plentifully fell down their black cheeks, as they came out of their coal pits. Hundreds and hundreds of them were soon brought under deep convictions, which, as the event proved, happily ended in a sound and thorough conversion."

p.98 Whitefield’s chief sorrow, however, arose from the opposition of John and Charles Wesley. ". . . Many, very many of my spiritual children," he wrote, "who at my last departure from England would have plucked out their own eyes to have given them to me, are so prejudiced by the dear Messrs. W’s dressing up the doctrine of election in such horrible colours, that they will neither hear, see, nor give me the least assistance: Yes, some of them send threatening letters that God will speedily destroy me." Yet he still spoke of ". . . my dear, dear old friends, Messrs. John and Charles Wesley, whom I still love as my own soul."

p.105 "A portly well-looking Quaker, taking me by the hand, said, ‘Friend George, I am as thou art; I am for bringing all to the life and power of the everliving God: and therefore, if thou wilt not quarrel with me about my hat, I will not quarrel with thee about thy gown.’ I wish all of every denomination were thus minded."

-- regarding doctrinal division

p.115 One of Whitefield’s most noticeable faults had been his practice of depending on impulses, believing they were given by God. But following the manifest failure of his certainty that his boy was to become another John the Baptist, he realized the falsity of the practice. It did not again appear throughout his life.

p.154 "Let the name of Whitefield perish, but Christ be glorified."

"Let my name die everywhere, let even my friends forget me, if by that means the cause of the blessed Jesus may be promoted."

"But what is Calvin, or what is Luther? Let us look above names and parties; let Jesus be our all in all – So that He is preached. . . . I care not who is uppermost. I know my place . . . even to be the servant of all."

"I am content to wait till the judgment day for the clearing up of my reputation; and after I am dead I desire no other epitaph than this, ‘Here lies G. W. What sort of man he was the great day will discover.’"

p.164 "Though long by following multitudes admired,

No party for himself he e’er desired;

His one desire to make the Saviour known,

To magnify the name of Christ alone:

If others strove who should the greatest be,

No lover of preeminence was he,

Nor envied those his Lord vouchsafed to bless,

But joyed in theirs as in his own success."

-- Charles Wesley

An Elegy on the Late Rev. George Whitefield

1770

p.198 "He loved the world that hated him: the tear

That dropped upon his Bible was sincere;

Assailed by scandal and the tongue of strife,

His only answer was a blameless life,

And he that forged and he that threw the dart,

Had each a brother’s interest in his heart."

-- William Cowper

Hope