Emmanuel Research Review, Issue No. 24

A fisherman speaks to the crowd in Jerusalem, “and about three thousand were added to their number that day” Acts 2:41. A former baseball player speaks to the crowds in Boston two thousand years later and 64,484 more were added. A simple country preacher speaks and thousands “make decisions” in 1950.

The History of Revivalism in Boston by Rudy Mitchell reminds us of how the Spirit of God can move across an entire city setting in motion a wave of transformation. After reading such accounts from the past, one can’t help but ask God, “What’s next?”

Production Note:

History of Revivalism in Boston

Revivalism

“Revivalism is the movement that promotes periodic spiritual intensity in church life, during which the unconverted come to Christ and the converted are shaken out of their spiritual lethargy.”¹ Revivalism has not been confined to rural and frontier areas, but has been strongly urban as well. Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities have all experienced revivalism. While revivalism has sometimes been characterized as highly emotional, it has had strong rational and educational elements as well. Preachers like Jonathan Edwards and Lyman Beecher were serious, rational theological writers. Even the dramatic and emotional Billy Sunday drew on considerable research and statistical data in some of his revival sermons. Other revivalists promoted education and started schools. While God has often used well-known Christian leaders in evangelism and revivals, local churches and lay people have also played an important role. For example, the Prayer Meeting Revival of 1857-1858 was initiated and led largely by laymen.

First Great Awakening in Boston

Prior to the First Great Awakening, there had been considerable religious interest in Boston on the occasion of the 1727 earthquake. Although a significant number were converted, this renewed spiritual interest was short-lived. After several years of declining spiritual life, the pastors were so dissatisfied “that in the summer of 1734 they agreed to propose another course of days of prayer and fasting among their several congregations, to humble themselves before God for their unfruitfulness under the means of grace, and to ask for the effusion of his Spirit to revive the power of Godliness among them.”² In spite of the prayer and fasting that summer there was no immediate revival in Boston. The pastors and people were receiving word of the awakening under Jonathan Edwards in Northampton and western New England. The news caused people to reflect and to pray that the revival might spread throughout the country. However, in Boston the lack of piety and spiritual vitality continued.

In the summer of 1735, Dr. Benjamin Colman of the Brattle Street Church wrote to Jonathan Edwards and received back a letter with a report of the Northampton revival. Colman was very impressed and sent a copy to Rev. Guyse in London.³ The resulting interest eventually led to the publication of a longer version of the report, titled A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God… in London in October, 1737. By the end of 1738, Boston printers had already published three editions with a second preface by some of the Boston ministers.⁴ This influential publication was certainly being read with interest in Boston, as well as in the British Isles. This very important report helped lay the foundation for the revival in 1740. Mark Noll says:

It was Edwards’s narrative of revival more than the theology he himself presented as its foundation that most fired the evangelical imagination. The Faithful Narrative became an instant classic. It was the exemplary exposition of revival,… [his] exposition of the preparation, onset, maintenance, regulation, dangers and effects of revival became normative for many in his generation and even more in the in the generations that followed.⁵

By 1738, some of the Boston pastors had received reports of the power and success of George Whitefield’s preaching. There was a general interest among the pastors and people to have Whitefield come to Boston. Not long after Whitefield came to America, Dr. Colman sent an invitation asking him to come to Boston. Later, other ministers, as well as the Secretary of Massachusetts (Mr. Josiah Willard), had also written to urge him to come.⁶ Whitefield “came to America just in time to infuse new energy into the languishing work begun under Edwards, and to thrust it forward like a flaming torch into all the colonies.”⁷

George Whitefield was well known and widely read about before he arrived in Boston. Printed accounts of his life, ministry and sermons were best sellers, which paved the way for his effective evangelistic ministry in Boston. In May 1740, Benjamin Franklin printed the first volumes of Whitefield’s Journals and Sermons. He and Whitefield had developed a subscription and distribution network of merchants and booksellers which included James Franklin, John Smith, Benjamin Elliot, and Charles Harrison in Boston. Elliot purchased 250 sets and Harrison received 1,000 volumes.⁸ The fifteen booksellers in Boston competed aggressively with each other to sell Whitefield’s books before, during and after his tour to New England. Some published their own editions. “In the peak revival year, 1740, Whitefield wrote or inspired thirty-nine titles, or 30 percent of all works published in America. …[F]rom 1739 to 1742, one of the largest publishers in the colonies, Daniel Henchman of Boston, spent more than 30 percent of his printing budget on producing the evangelist’s books.”⁹ News accounts in the Boston Weekly News-Letter and other sources all contributed to advance publicity for Whitefield. Rev. Thomas Prince of Boston noted the influence of all this printed publicity: “Accounts of the Rev. Mr. Whitefield as they successively arrived before his appearance here… prepar’d the Way for his Entertainment and successful Labours among us.”¹⁰

On Thursday, September 18, 1740, Whitefield started out at daybreak from Rhode Island and traveled all day to Boston. Four miles outside of town, he was met by a welcoming party, which included the son of the Governor, one or two ministers, and several other gentlemen. They arrived in Boston at 8:00 in the evening, and he conducted a time of devotions and prayer for blessing on his ministry.

The next day, Friday, Sept. 19, he met with Gov. Belcher, who was moved to tears several times during personal meetings with Whitefield. Later Whitefield worshipped at King’s Chapel and then met with the Church of England clergy, who questioned him on his beliefs. He met with several other ministers, and then was asked to preach at the Brattle Street Church in the afternoon. Rev. Prince observed that a crowd of 2,000 or more quickly gathered. The sermon was from John 17: 2, “As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.” Whitefield made it clear that education and morality would not save them, but they must come to know God personally and experientially in Christ. Thomas Prince observed that Whitefield spoke “in demonstration of the Spirit and power. And especially when he came to his application, he addressed himself to the audience in such a tender, earnest and moving manner, exciting us to come and become acquainted with the dear Redeemer, as melted the assembly into tears.”¹¹

On Saturday, Dr. Sewall and his associate, Rev. Prince, arranged for Whitefield to speak at Old South Church. The message emphasized the Reformation teaching of justification by faith and the necessity of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. He spoke “with a mighty sense of God, eternity, the immortality and preciousness of the souls of his hearers, of their original corruption, and of the extreme danger the unregenerate are in.”¹² His message was well received, and the pastors were charitable about the youthful preacher’s occasional slips. In the afternoon he spoke to 5,000 people on the Common.¹³

At the First Church of Boston, the senior pastor, Rev. Thomas Foxcroft, was sympathetic to Whitefield’s efforts to kindle the flames of revival. He gave a supportive sermon occasioned by Whitefield’s visit and ministry (published in 1740), and in 1745 wrote an “Apology” defending his right to a fair hearing.¹⁴ On the other hand, Foxcroft’s colleague, pastor Charles Chauncy, was a strong opponent of the revival and its accompanying “enthusiasm.” Although the pastors had their differences, Whitefield was invited to come over after attending the Sunday morning service at Brattle Street Church and preach at the First Church in the afternoon. His message had “a great and visible effect”¹⁵ on the large audience. Apparently many more people were eager to hear him because immediately following this he went over to the Boston Common and preached to a huge crowd of 12,000 to 15,000 people.¹⁶

When Whitefield spoke in the Boston churches, they were often crowded with people squeezed into the pews, standing in the aisles, filling the pulpit area and stairways, and stretching to look in the windows. On at least one occasion the crowd was so packed that he had to enter the Old South church through a window.¹⁷ After preaching at Rev. Webb’s New North Church on the morning of Monday, September 22, he went to speak at the Rev. Checkley’s New South Church. That church was so overcrowded that when people heard the sound of a cracking board they were thrown into a panic, thinking the galleries were falling.¹⁸ People jumped from the galleries onto the people below, threw themselves out of the windows, and trampled people trying to get outside. Within a couple of days, five people died as a result of the panic. Whitefield arrived in the midst of the chaos and had the presence of mind to calm the stampede and announce that he would preach on the Boston Common instead. Even though the weather was wet that day, many thousands followed Whitefield for his outdoor sermon.

The following day Whitefield went to Roxbury to visit Rev. Walter, who had succeeded Rev. John Eliot, Apostle to the Indians, as pastor of the First Church of Roxbury. Later in the day he returned to Boston and preached at both the Second Church and Old South Church. As usual he also exhorted and ministered in the evening to a crowd gathered around the house where he was lodging.

On Wednesday he went over to Cambridge and spoke twice at Harvard Yard to a large audience of students, teachers, and a great number of ministers from neighboring areas. Whitefield said, “In the afternoon I preached again in the College Yard with particular application to students. I believe there were seven thousand hearers. The Holy Spirit melted many hearts.”¹⁹ He had an opportunity to meet the lieutenant governor, Spencer Phipps; the local minister, Rev. Appleton; and the president of Harvard, Mr. Holyoke. The latter observed that religion had been “too much in show and profession only” and lacking in power at Harvard. President Holyoke commended the work of Whitefield and, later, Gilbert Tennent:

Indeed, these two pious and valuable men of God, who have been labouring more abundantly among us, have been greatly instrumental, in the hands of God, to revive this blessed work; and many, no doubt have been savingly converted from the error of their ways, many more have been convicted, and all have been in some measure roused from their lethargy.²⁰

Thus the College, which had been founded one hundred years earlier to train clergy for the churches, received a new infusion of spiritual life. Dr. Colman wrote, “At Cambridge the college is a new creature; the students full of God.”²¹ The Harvard visiting committee of the overseers reported in June 1741 that “they find of late extraordinary and happy impressions of a religious nature have been made on the minds of a great number of students.”²²

On Thursday, Whitefield spoke at the weekly lecture at the First Church taking Dr. Sewall’s place. He then had dinner at the governor’s home, along with most of the pastors. At the governor’s request Whitefield prayed for all the ministers. After ministering privately to the governor, he took the ferry over to Charlestown where he preached in the afternoon. The next day he preached in Roxbury where Rev. Walter was pastor. This elderly minister commended his preaching saying it was “Puritanism revived.” Later in the day Whitefield returned to Boston and spoke from a scaffold raised up outside the Hollis Street Church of Rev. Mather Byles.

On Saturday he preached in the morning at the New Brick Church pastored by Rev. Welsteed. In the afternoon, Whitefield again preached on the Boston Common to a huge audience of 15,000. Both sermons apparently had a powerful effect.²³ Rev. Thomas Prince of Old South Church described his sermon on the story of Zaccheus the next morning, saying he preached “to a very crowded auditory, with almost as much power and visible appearance of God among us as yesterday afternoon.”²⁴ Although he was very ill in the afternoon, he was able to preach at the Brattle Street Church, where “Dr. Colman said it was the pleasantest time he had ever enjoyed in that meeting house through the whole course of his life.”²⁵ In both services Whitefield took up a collection for his Bethesda Orphanage in Georgia, and the total received was over 1,000 pounds (Massachusetts currency). Then he went and preached to a large group of African Americans at their request. He spoke on the conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch and had a great impact. When he returned to his lodging place, he found a large crowd waiting for him, and so he gave another message of exhortation. He wrote in his journal that he was exhausted and thought his legs would give out from under him, but the Lord gave him strength and he went to bed refreshed.

Early the next morning, Monday, September 29, he left Boston and traveled up the New England coast speaking at Marblehead, Salem, Ipswich, Newbury, Hampton, Portsmouth, and York during the week. The following Tuesday, October 7, he was back in Boston preaching morning and evening services at Dr. Colman’s church. During that week many people under conviction and spiritual distress sought to meet with him.

On Wednesday he spoke at the New North Church where he noted in his journal, “Many hearts were melted down. I think I never was so drawn out to pray for little children, and invite little children to Jesus Christ, as I was this morning.”²⁶ The next day he decided to speak on Nicodemus, since there were many ministers present at the public lecture at Old South Church. This is the occasion of his famous words, “For I am verily persuaded the generality of preachers talk of an unknown and unfelt Christ; and the reason why congregations have been so dead is, because they have had dead men preaching to them.”²⁷ In the afternoon he spoke to a vast audience on the Boston Common. On Friday he spoke in Charlestown and Reading, and on Saturday he preached on Noah from the meetinghouse steps in Cambridge to a great crowd standing in the rain.

On Sunday, October 12, his final day in Boston, George Whitefield preached to an estimated 23,000 on the Boston Common at his farewell sermon.²⁸ This was probably the largest gathering of people in North America up to that time. It was more than the entire population of Boston (which was 17,000 in 1740). Whitefield described the gathering, “a sight, perhaps never before seen in America. It being nearly dusk before I had done, the sight was more solemn. Numbers, great numbers, melted into tears when I talked of leaving them.”²⁹

On Monday morning, Whitefield left Boston and continued his New England tour westward through Massachusetts. “In a whirlwind forty-five day tour of central places in Massachusetts and Connecticut, Whitefield delivered over 175 sermons to thousands of hearers that included virtually every New England inhabitant.”³⁰ By that Friday he reached Northampton, where he was able to spend the weekend with Rev. Jonathan Edwards and speak several times in his church, the site of the 1734-35 revival.

Jonathan Edwards wrote of Whitefield’s visit to his church, “The congregation was extraordinarily melted by each sermon, almost the whole assembly being in tears for a great part of the time.”³¹ His wife, Sarah Edwards, described him in a letter.

It is wonderful to see what a spell he casts over an audience by proclaiming the simplest truths of the Bible. I have seen upwards of a thousand people hang on his words with breathless silence, broken only by an occasional half-suppressed sob…. A prejudiced person, I know, might say that this is all theatrical artifice and display; but not so will anyone think who has seen and known him. He is a very devout and godly man, and his only aim seems to be to reach and influence men the best way. He speaks from a heart aglow with love, and pours out a torrent of eloquence which is almost irresistible.³²

Gilbert Tennent, a Presbyterian leader from New Jersey, came to Boston in December, 1740 to continue the Awakening at the request of Whitefield. He stayed through the cold winter months until March, 1741.

Results of the revival included an increased reading of religious books, increased demand for church meetings, home meetings, widespread demand for pastoral counsel, increased church membership, and a renewal among the pastors themselves. The churches had to add new weeknight meetings for teaching because there was such a demand for religious instruction. Small groups also sprang up in a great many private homes. These private societies for religious exercises increased to a greater number than ever before, until there were thirty groups. “The people were constantly employing the ministers to pray and preach at these societies, as also at many private houses where no formed society met; and such numbers flocked to hear us as greatly crowded them as well as more than usually filled our Houses of public worship both on Lord’s day and Lectures…”³³ Rev. Prince stated, “The Rev. Cooper was wont to say, that more came to him in one week in deep concern for their souls, than in the whole twenty-four years of his preceding ministry. I can also say the same as to the numbers who repaired to me. Mr. Cooper had about 600 persons in three months; and Mr. Webb has had in the same space above a thousand.”³⁴ These and other visible signs showed that the city had been transformed by the Awakening.

Chart of Boston Churches and Pastors Related to the 1740 Visit of Whitefield

¹ W. G. Travis, “Revivalism, Protestant,” Dictionary of Christianity in America, ed. Daniel G. Reid (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1990), 1012.
² Hamilton Hill, History of the Old South Church, vol. 1 (Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1890), 1:503.
³ Mark A. Noll, The Rise of Evangelicalism: The Age of Edwards, Whitefield, and the Wesleys (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2003), 79.
⁴ Jonathan Edwards, A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God… 3rd edition (Boston: S. Kneeland, T. Green, 1738). Shorter preface by the Boston ministers signed by Joseph Sewall, Thomas Prince, John Webb, and William Cooper.
⁵ Mark A. Noll, 91.
⁶Arnold A. Dallimore, George Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the Eighteenth-Century Revival, vol.1 (Westchester, Ill.: Cornerstone Books, 1970), 1:527.
⁷ Edward S. Ninde, quoted in Dallimore, 1:412.
⁸ Frank Lambert, “Pedlar in Divinity”: George Whitefield and the Transatlantic Revivals (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1994), 123.
⁹ Ibid., 128.
¹⁰Ibid., 127.
¹¹ Hill, 1:506.
¹² Hill, 1:506 (Quoting Rev. Thomas Prince’s account).
¹³ Edwin Scott Gaustad, The Great Awakening in New England (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1957), 26. Quoting The Boston Weekly News-Letter, 25 Sept. 1740.
¹⁴ Arthur B. Ellis, History of the First Church in Boston, 1630-1880 (Boston: Hall and Whiting, 1881), 182, 202.
¹⁵ Hill, 1:506.
¹⁶ Ibid.
¹⁷ Dallimore, 1:533.
¹⁸ This had actually happened in Jonathan Edwards’s church, and he had written up the account of how God had miraculously preserved the congregation from death and serious injury.
¹⁹ Hill, 1:508 (quoting Whitefield’s Journals).
²⁰ Ibid., 1:508 footnote.
²¹ Hill, 1:510 footnote.
²² Justin Winsor, editor, The Memorial History of Boston, 4 vols. (Boston: Ticknor and Company., 1881), 1:234.
²³ Dallimore, 1:531; Hill, 1:508.
²⁴ Hill, 1:508.
²⁵ Ibid., 1:509.
²⁶ Dallimore, 1:532.
²⁷ Hill, 1:509 (quoting Whitefield’s Journals).
²⁸ Mark A. Noll, 105. (Citing Peter Timothy’s crowd estimate. Whitefield estimated 20,000).
²⁹ Hill, 1: 534.
³⁰ Harry S. Stout, “Whitefield, George,” Dictionary of Christianity in America, ed. Daniel G. Reid (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1990), 1252.
³¹Dallimore, 1:538.
³² Ibid., 1:539.
³³ Hill, 1:519
³⁴ Dallimore, 1:536-537.

Emmanuel Research Review

Resources for the urban pastor and community leader
published by Emmanuel Gospel Center, Boston
Issue No. 24 — January-February 2007

In this issue—
History of Revivalism in Boston

Introduction

Production Note:

History of Revivalism in Boston

Revivalism

First Great Awakening in Boston