Thus ended Whitefield's ministry in London, in the year 1737. The biographer of James Hutton says, "Whitefield was young and modest, but an earnest preacher. He said little, however, of justification through the Saviour, but forcibly insisted on the necessity of being born again. In this way, he arrested the attention of many, particularly of the young, and led them to seek the salvation of their souls. Age 22 They fasted, they wept, and they strove; but how salvation was to be effected they knew not."[109]
This is a somewhat startling statement, and yet there is truth in it. It is an undeniable fact, that, in the nine sermons already mentioned, there is scarcely a single trace of the doctrine of justification _by faith only_. This is one of the great doctrines of the Word of God. It was pre-eminently one of the doctrines of Luther and of the Reformation. In 1739, it was the doctrine that created the Methodism that now exists; but, evidently, it was not as yet a doctrine Whitefield preached. After all that has been said, it is difficult to account for this; but, at the same time, it is impossible to deny it. Whitefield learnt the doctrine soon afterwards; and, to the end of life, faithfully proclaimed it.
Another point deserves attention. Except, perhaps, the once uttered opinion that sin cannot be destroyed previous to the hour of death, there is not the least allusion, in any of the nine sermons, from which extracts have been given, to _any_ of the _Calvinian_ doctrines with respect to which Whitefield afterwards differed from his friend Wesley. These were dogmas which he had yet to learn. He found them not in the school of the Oxford Methodists, but among the Presbyterians and Independents of America.
The quotations from his sermons may seem numerous, and, to some readers, may be tedious; but, if it be a fact, as it unquestionably is, that Whitefield is famous _chiefly as a preacher_, it is important to be able to form an idea of the style and spirit of his preaching in this the first year of his marvellously popular and powerful ministry. It is hoped that, in this respect, the foregoing extracts will be found useful. His voice, his intonation, and his pulpit action cannot be put in type; but the reader may easily ascertain what were his leading sentiments, and what the fidelity, zeal, simplicity, and earnestness that marked his preaching.
