George Whitefield Quotes

It is very remarkable, that in the book of life, we find some almost of all kinds of occupations, who notwithstanding served God in their respective generations, and shone as so many lights in the world.

Had I a hundred hands, I could employ them all. The harvest is very great. I am ashamed I can do no more for him who has done so much for me.

The reason why congregations have been so dead is because they have dead men preaching to them. How can dead men beget living children?

Numberless marks does man bear in his soul, that he is fallen and estranged from God; but nothing gives a greater proof thereof, than that backwardness, which every one finds within himself, to the duty of praise and thanksgiving.

For, if we have not charity, we are not Christians: charity is the great duty of Christians.

Press forward. Do not stop, do not linger in your journey, but strive for the mark set before you.

There are many likewise, who go on in a round of duties, a model of performances, that think they shall go to heaven; but if you examine them, though they have a Christ in their heads, they have no Christ in their hearts.

Take care of your life and the Lord will take care of your death.

Whoever reads the gospel with a single eye, and sincere intentions, will find, that our blessed Lord took all opportunities of reminding his disciples that His Kingdom was not of this world; that His doctrine was a doctrine of the Cross; and that their professing themselves to be His followers, would call them to a constant state of voluntary suffering and self-denial.

I began to read the Holy Scriptures upon my knees, laying aside all other books, and praying over, if possible, every line and word. This proved meat indeed and drink indeed to my soul. I daily received fresh life, light and power from above.

Fight the good fight of faith, and God will give you spiritual mercies.

It is a poor sermon that gives no offense; that neither makes the hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher.

The care of the soul is 'a matter of the highest importance;' beyond any thing which can be brought into comparison with it.

As God can send a nation or people no greater blessing than to give them faithful, sincere and upright ministers, so the greatest curse that God can possibly send upon a people in this world is to give them over to blind, unregenerate, carnal, lukewarm and unskilled guides.

Let us, therefore, not be weary of well-doing; for we shall reap an eternal harvest of comfort, if we faint not.

For it pleased God, after he had made all things by the word of his power, to create man after his own image.

The true believer can no more live without prayer, than without food day by day.

If we are not inwardly wrought upon, and changed by the powerful operations of the Holy Spirit, and our moral actions proceed from a principle of a new nature, however we may call ourselves Christians, we shall be found naked at the great day.

There is not a thing on the face of the earth that I abhor so much as idleness or idle people.

Left to himself, man is half beast and half devil.

I have just put my soul as a blank into the hand of Jesus, my Redeemer, and desired Him to write on it what He pleases; I know it will be His image.

When our Lord says, we must be converted and become as little children, I suppose he means also, that we must be sensible of our weakness, comparatively speaking, as a little child.

God, give me a deep humility, a well-guided zeal, a burning love and a single eye, and then let men or devils do their worst!

The fall of man is written in too legible characters not to be understood: Those that deny it, by their denying, prove it.

Mere heathen morality, and not Jesus Christ, is preached in most of our churches.

Come away, my dear brethren, fly, fly, fly for your lives to Jesus Christ; fly to a bleeding God, fly to a throne of grace; and beg of God to break your heart; beg of God to convince you of your actual sins; beg of God to convince you of your original sin; beg of God to convince you of your self-righteousness; beg of God to give you faith, and to enable you to close with Jesus Christ.

The sinner can no more raise himself from the deadness of sin than Lazarus, who had been dead four days, until Jesus came.

God forbid that I should travel with anybody a quarter of an hour without speaking of Christ to them.

If you know Christ and him crucified, you know enough to make you happy, supposing you know nothing else. And without this, all your other knowledge cannot keep you from being everlastingly miserable.

Dare, dare, my dear brethren in Christ, to follow the Captain of your salvation, who was made perfect through sufferings

Though you have sinned much, that is no reason why you should despair, but only why you should love much, having so much forgiven.

Christ is worth all, or he is worth nothing.

True repentance will entirely change you; the bias of your souls will be changed, then you will delight in God, in Christ, in His Law, and in His people.

O that unbelievers would learn of faithful Abraham, and believe whatever is revealed from God, though they cannot fully comprehend it! Abraham knew God commanded him to offer up his son, and therefore believed, notwithstanding carnal reasoning might suggest may objections.

But he is unworthy the name of a minister of the gospel of peace, who is unwilling, not only to have his name cast out as evil, but also to die for the truths of the Lord Jesus.

I got more true knowledge from reading the Book of God in one month, than I could ever have acquired from all the writings of men.

What could the Lord Jesus Christ have done for you more than he has? Then do not abuse his mercy, but let your time be spent in thinking and talking of the love of Jesus, who was incarnate for us, who was born of a woman, and made under the law, to redeem us from the wrath to come.

Know, by sad experience, what it is to be lulled to sleep with a false peace. Long was I lulled asleep; long did I think myself a Christian, when I knew nothing of the Lord Jesus Christ.

As for the extraordinary operations of the Holy Ghost, such as working of miracles, or speaking with divers kinds of tongues, they are long since ceased.

God enabled me to speak with the demonstration of the Spirit, and with power.

It is an undoubted truth that every doctrine that comes from God, leads to God; and that which doth not tend to promote holiness is not of God.

I say salvation is the free gift of God. It is God's free grace, I preach unto you, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Jesus Christ justifies the ungodly. Jesus Christ passed by and saw you polluted with your blood and bid you live.

Our food and our rest, our trades and our labors, are to be attended to, and all the offices of humanity performed in obedience to the will of God, for the glory of Christ ...

If you are going to walk with Jesus Christ, you are going to be opposed ... In our days, to be a true Christian is really to become a scandal.

Other men may preach the gospel better than I, but no man can preach a better gospel.

No doubt [women of faith in the past] were reproached for His name's sake, and accounted mad women; but they had a faith which enabled them at that time to overcome the world, and by which they climbed up to heaven.

The renewal of our natures is a work of great importance. It is not to be done in a day. We have not only a new house to build up, but an old one to pull down.

You need not fear the greatness or number of your sins.

True conversion means turning not only from sin but also from depending on self-made righteousness. Those who trust in their own righteousness for conversion hide behind their own good works. This is the reason that self-righteous people are so angry with gospel preachers, because the gospel does not spare those who will not submit to the righteousness of Jesus Christ!

God is well pleased when all our actions proceed from love, love to Himself, and love to immortal souls.

Man is nothing; he hath a free will to go to hell, but none to go to heaven, till God worketh in him" and "you dishonour God by denying election. You plainly make salvation depend, not on God's 'free grace' but on Man's 'free will.'

The great and important duty which is incumbent on Christians, is to guard against all appearance of evil; to watch against the first risings in the heart to evil; and to have a guard upon our actions, that they may not be sinful, or so much as seem to be so.

Most talk of a catholic spirit but it is only till they have been brought into the pale of their own church. This is downright sectarianism, not Catholicism. How can I act consistently, unless I receive and love all the children of God, whom I esteem to be such, of whatever denomination they may be?

To preach more than half an hour, a man should be an angel himself or have angels for hearers.

I offer you salvation this day; the door of mercy is not yet shut, there does yet remain a sacrifice for sin, for all that will accept of the Lord Jesus Christ. He will embrace you in the arms of His love.

Oh that I was lowly in heart! Honor and dishonor, good report and evil report would then be alike, and prove a furtherance to me in my Christian cause.

Come poor, lost, undone sinner, come just as you are to Christ.

The Lord Jesus sits in heaven, ruling over all, and causing all things to work for his children's good.

Believers keep up and maintain their walk with God by secret prayer. The spirit of grace is always accompanied with the spirit of supplication. It is the very breath of the new creature, the fan of the divine life, whereby the spark of holy fire, kindled in the soul by God, is not only kept in, but raised into a flame.

This discourse, and the present frame of my mind, lead me rather to speak to those, who by feeling Satan's fiery darts, know assuredly that there is a devil.

Let us ... once and forever put an end to that lie which says that Calvinism and an interest in evangelism are not comparable.

It is God alone who can subdue and govern the unruly wills of sinful men.

My prayer today is that God would make me an extraordinary Christian.

O poor New England! There is a deep laid plot against your civil and religious liberties, and they will be lost. Your golden days are at an end. You have nothing but trouble before you ... Your liberties will be lost.

Lord, we thank thee for all those with whom we spoke today and we rejoice that their lives and destinies are entirely in thy hand. Honor our efforts according to thy perfect will. Amen.

I was honored today with having a few stones, dirt, rotten eggs, and pieces of dead cat thrown at me

I found by daily experience, the more I did, the more I might do for God.

If your souls were not immortal, and you in danger of losing them, I would not thus speak unto you; but the love of your souls constrains me to speak: methinks this would constrain me to speak unto you forever.

Congregations are lifeless because dead men preach to them.

You blame me for weeping, but how can I help it when you will not weep for yourselves, though your immortal souls are on the verge of destruction.

As Christ was born of the Virgin's womb, so must He be spiritually formed in our hearts. As He died for sin, so must we die to sin. And as He rose again from the dead, so must we also rise to a divine life.

You see, my brethren, my heart is full; I could almost say it is too big to speak, and yet too big to be silent, without dropping a word to you.

Give diligent heed to the things that are spoken from the Word of God.

The Judge is before the door: he that cometh will come, and will not tarry: his reward is with him.

No, the religion of Jesus is a social religion.

Whole days and weeks have I spent prostrate on the ground in silent or vocal prayer.

Pray that I may be very little in my own eyes, and not rob my dear Master of any part of his glory.

I believe I never was more acceptable to my Master than when I was standing to teach those hearers in the open fields. I now preach to ten times more people than I would if I had been confined to the churches.

At the day of judgment we shall all meet again.

All our afflictions, all our temptations are to make heaven more desirable, and earth more loathsome.

Let the name of Whitefield perish, but Christ be glorified

See that you feel the truths that you speak.