http://www.americademy.com/charles_wesley.htm
Whitefield's preaching was such as England had never heard before, theatrical, extravagant, often commonplace, but hushing all criticism by its intense reality, its earnestness of belief, its deep tremulous sympathy with the sin and sorrow of mankind.
It was no common enthusiast who could wring gold from the close-fisted Franklin and admiration from the fastidious Horace Walpole, or who could look down from the top of a green knoll at Kingswood on twenty thousand colliers, grimy from the Bristol coal-pits, and see as he preached the tears "making white channels down their blackened cheeks."
On the rough and ignorance masses to whom they spoke the effect of Whitefield and his fellow Methodists was mighty both for good and ill. Their preaching stirred a passionate hatred in their opponents. Their lives were often in danger, they were mobbed, they were ducked, they were stoned, they were smothered with filth.
David Miller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Lance wrote:
> That was then (John Wesley) and, this is now (David
> & Kevin). These are quite different cultural contexts.
Not really that different, certainly not as different as the culture of the
New Testament people and now. People use the different culture argument not
to believe Jesus too, but that does not make it right. What about the
American culture of the 18th century makes it so different that open air
preaching would be ok then but not now?
Have you ever read John Wesley's journal? The culture of man really hasn't
changed all that much. Some scholars tend to make the culture difference
bigger than it really is. Wesley kept nice accounts of his daily activities
and so we get a pretty nice picture into his culture. The attitude toward
public preaching then was very much like it is now.
Peace be with you.
David Miller.
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"Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man." (Colossians 4:6) http://www.InnGlory.org
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