About the Author

GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1779) was born in Gloucester, England. He attended Pembroke College at Oxford, where he was a member of the Holy Club with Charles and John Wesley. The group was highly disciplined and "methodical" in their performance of religion. In 1735, he read Henry Scougal's The Life of God and the Soul of Man and had a spiritual new birth. Ordained in 1736, he started preaching and became very popular immediately. He crossed the Atlantic Ocean many times and preached in churches and open fields. Gifted with a prodigious voice and untiring energy he preached to huge crowds with great consequence.