Message from George Whitefield.
Let me write a line or two. I have been present with you since you returned from church and have listened to your conversation. I was with you tonight at the prayer meeting and heard what the preacher said, and was particularly interested in his ideas about the coming of the great world teacher, and saw that his idea of what constituted greatness in this particular arose from his estimate of human greatness.
The teacher will not be a great preacher, or a magnificent specimen of physical development, or a man with a wonderful voice, but a man who can reveal to the world the Truths of the Father regarding the relationship of man to the Father and the plan provided for the redemption and reconciliation of man to the Father.
It is a fact, and I know whereof I write, that the regeneration of the human Soul is caused more by the quiet meditations of mortals of the Truths of the Father and by the silent Longings of the soul, than by the emotions that arise from the fervid and persuasive sermons of the preachers and evangelists. These latter may arouse the dead souls to a realization of their need of a reconciliation to God, but not so often do these emotions bring the soul into rapport or unison with the Father, as do the silent meditations of which I speak.
There must be the true soul longings and aspirations for this Love of the Father and, in such cases, these longings do not arise from the emotions produced, as I have mentioned, and especially where such emotions are the results of fear created by the picturing of an angry and revengeful God. No, in the silence of the home chamber, where the mortal is, as it were, alone with God, and lets his longings go to the Father for the bestowal of His Love. Because of the love that the mortal may have for the Father, does this Divine Love come in response and regenerating power....
