'I hope God will never suffer me to say, "I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come."'- George Whitefield
I would not have made George Whitefield a very good wife. I would have been rot in his bones, I am sure.
Once again I make my recommendation for the two volue set by Arnold Dallimore on George Whitefield. He was a man mightily used by God. A man who saw his whole life as but one continuous stream of pouring forth the Gospel until his life was entirely poured out.
But what of Mrs. Whitefield? We are talking mid-18th century England, not an ideal time for our idealistic mindset of love and marriage. Most people married for money or position in society. George and Elizabeth believed it was the will of God for them to marry. They had scarcely had a conversation before their wedding day, and in fact Elizabeth dearly loved another man. It was that other man that told Whitefield he should marry Elizabeth because she was a woman worthy to be his wife.
What a commendation!
What a position to be lived up to!
The man traveled every possible moment he could all over England, Scotland, Whales and America. He had people rushing to speak with all hours of the day and night. She knew this before marrying him. Perhaps in the back of her mind she hoped it would change when he was married, but perhaps she had no such ideals and entered the relationship soley based on desiring to be a helpmeet to such a man of God.
She had 4 miscarriages and one son who died as an infant. No other children.
Oh how I wish she had kept a journal. But perhaps she was human after all and would have taken up the pen at the most vexing of moments - when George was hundreds of miles away while she struggled at 8 1/2 months pregnant; When she fixed a beautiful anniversary dinner only to be told by an errand boy he had gone away at the last minute; When she miscarried four babies without a husband by her side to cling to in her distress.
Oh yes, modern psychology would have a heyday with the awfulness of George Whitefield as a husband. That too was my first reaction - why even marry? Why could he not bring himself to "just say no " to other people's demands?
His wife left no journal, no biography has been written, just glimpses here and there of her devotion to God and to her husband as well as brief hints to her humanity and emotional weakness. What it would have been like to sit by her side and hear from her heart how utterly she had to depend on God alone for strength. To hear her describe why she married him. Truly she must have been a "Wife of noble character" and when I get to Heaven I would so love to meet her and see the joy radiating from her face as she worships her King, who she had to learn to depend on so much here on earth.
Sometimes I just wonder....
.JPG)
