George Whitefield, of Gloucester, England, inter-continental gospel preacher, with a voice like organ music and a lifelong West Country accent, was a phenomenon. He was an unusual human being whom God equipped:and used in a quite unique way.

He was very godly man. From the time when as a student in Oxford he met the Wesleys, his passion was to grasp and be grasped by the God they served, the God of the Bible, the God and Father of the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Following his conversion he left Oxford and ministered in and around his home town; he came to the bishop's notice and received ordination at twenty-one, two years younger than the statutory minimum age. Overnight he became a popular preacher, always highlighting the new birth. Throughout his ministry he lived "by rule," maintaining a steady devotional life each day, reading and re-reading the marvelous Puritan exposition of the Bible by Matthew Henry, usually on his knees, and interceding at length for the advance of God's kingdom. His penitent humility before God was lifelong and deep, and was the taproot of the compassionate, confident and confidential boldness that never ceased to amaze his hearers. He was a disciplined man, abstemious in food and drink, taking no more sleep than he needed (and he could manage on less sleep than most), and always meticulous in his personal affairs. Single-minded and eager, well-focused and joyful, genial and practical, he lived every day full-stretch for his Lord. Premature aging and the onset of asthma (or angina, or perhaps both) did not slow him down. The awed response that he commanded whenever he preached was as much admiration for his transparent spiritual zeal as for the stupendous force of his preaching as such.

He was a very gifted man. To his natural energetic alertness and charm were added, in sanctified mode, all the powers that mark great actors. What were these? First, the power to command and hold attention. Movement, or action as the classical theorists of rhetoric called it, is central here, and Whitefield was never still in the pulpit. Second, a big-in Whitefield's case, a huge-voice, capable of expressing the whole range of human emotions and attitudes. Whitefield could thunder, lament, caress and encourage with overwhelming, heart-searching, heart-breaking power. Third, total identification with what he was projecting-not, in Whitefield's case, a character on stage, but the holiness and mercy of God, and the transformation of life that Christ brings when through faith and repentance we learn to live in, through, to and for him. Fourth, the ability to make every utterance an easy flow of vivid and arresting speech. All great actors, and all great preachers, can do this. Fifth, power so to impact each individual in the crowd that he or she feels personally addressed, arrested, and drawn into what is going on-in Whitefield's case, persuasion from God through his messenger. Thus gifted as a dramatic communicator, Whitefield had an evangelistic and nurturing ministry in the pulpit of unprecedented power and fruitfulness.

Dr. Johnston tells Whitefield's story in a way that celebrates him as a servant of God, and thus can fairly be described as hagiographical. But there is nothing wrong with that, even though it is a kind of writing at which today's secular historians tend to turn up their noses. The author does not hide Whitefield's failings and imprudences, but concentrates on celebrating the way God used his servant, which makes his book hagiography of the most distinguished kind. He praises God for Whitefield, and wants his readers to do the same. We should agree with him that Whitefield is not a man to be forgotten, and be grateful for his labors to keep the great evangelist's memory green. If you care about the glory of God in the salvation of souls, you will find this book a tonic.

J.I. PACKER
Vancouver