An Eyewitness Account

An Eyewitness Account

What was it like to hear a legendary preacher from the past in person?

ON October 23, 1740, twenty-five-year-old George Whitefield, the greatest evangelist of his day, preached in Middletown, Connecticut. Nathan Cole, a farmer and carpenter, heard him and recorded his experience in his own words:

[I]n the morning about 8 or 9 of the clock there came a messenger and said Mr. Whitefield preached at Hartford and Wethersfield yesterday and is to preach at Middletown this morning at ten of the clock. I was in my field at work. I dropped my tool that I had in my hand and ran home to my wife, telling her to make ready quickly to go and hear Mr. Whitefield preach at Middletown, then ran to my pasture for my horse with all my might, fearing that I should be too late. Having my horse, I with my wife soon mounted the horse and went forward as fast as I thought the horse could bear; and when my horse got much out of breath, I would get down and put my wife in the saddle and bid her ride . . . and so I would run until I was much out of breath and then mount my horse again, and so I did several times to favor my horse. We improved every moment to get along as if we were fleeing for our lives, all the while fearing we should be too late to hear the sermon, for we had twelve miles to ride double in little more than an hour. . . . And when we came within about half a mile or a mile of the road that comes from Hartford . . . to Middletown, on high land I saw before me a cloud of fog arising. I first thought it came from the great river, but as I came nearer the road I heard a noise of horses’ feet coming down the road, and this cloud was a cloud of dust made by the horses’ feet. It arose some rods into the air over the tops of hills and trees; and when I came within about 20 rods of the road, I could see men and horses clipping along in the cloud like shadows, and as I drew nearer it seemed like a steady stream of horses and their riders, scarcely a horse more than his length behind another, all of a lather and foam with sweat, their breath rolling out of their nostrils every jump. Every horse seemed to go with all his might to carry his rider to hear news from heaven for the saving of souls. . . . When we got to Middletown old meeting house, there was a great multitude, it was said to be 3 or 4,000 people, assembled together. We dismounted and shook off our dust. . . . When I saw Mr. Whitefield come upon the scaffold, he looked almost angelical; a young, slim, slender youth, before thousands of people with a bold undaunted countenance. . . . He looked as if he was clothed with authority from the Great God, and a sweet solemn solemnity sat upon his brow, and my hearing him preach gave me a heart wound. By God’s blessing, my old foundation was broken up, and I saw that my righteousness would not save me.

Reflection

Mr. Cole had little education and probably was unaccustomed to writing, yet this event was so earth-shattering in its importance to him that he felt compelled to record it. How would you explain the great drawing power of young George Whitefield? Why do you feel Nathan Cole and the other thousands of people were so anxious to hear him?

People can’t come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them to me.

John 6:44