You will rule in the midst of your enemies Psalm 110:2

• DAY 23 MORNING PSALM 110-113

• DAY 23 EVENING PSALM 114-115

While John Wesley was travelling around the country preaching the Gospel, so was George Whitfield, Wesley’s friend and fellow labourer.

Every Easter week the London poor gave themselves to fun at Moorfields. Strolling players, bears that were taught to dance using cruelty; clowns and ‘merry-andrews,’ and a whole host of conjurers and troupers would converge on the capital. For weeks beforehand in the spring of 1742 George Whitfield had been summoning his courage to ‘lift up a standard among them in the name of Jesus Christ.’

As he stood up to preach, he felt a tug at his gown and looked down. Elizabeth his wife had her eyes firm upon him. ‘George,’ she called. ‘Play the man for God!’ Strengthened, encouraged, he felt a surge of compassion for those who would hear. He called out across the fairground: ‘I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes.’ Whitfield preached for three days over the Easter weekend.

Sometimes he was silenced for a moment when a rotten egg or tomato hit him in the mouth. If the contemporary account is read between the lines a man urinated towards the pulpit. Even Whitfield was shaken at such beastly behavior. The jeering section of the crowd loved it. Whitfield quickly recovered. His voice boomed above the uproar. ‘Now he cried ‘Am I wrong when I say ... that man is half a devil and half a beast?’ At that the jeerers quietened. Whitefield followed up his advantage and said … ‘a half devil, half beast must be born again to become wholly a child of God.’ As the dusk fell at Moorfields this great mass evangelist preached and pleaded and prayed and men and women listened in silence and knew that Another stood there too, and were born again by the Spirit. George Whitfield had won this battle at Moorfields in London at Easter in 1742. He was just twenty seven years and four months.’

• Latimer encouraged Ridley as they went to the stake, ‘Be of good comfort, Mr. Ridley, and play the man! We shall this day light such a candle by God's grace, in England, as I trust never shall be put out.’ Latimer’s words to Ridley were the words Elizabeth used to encourage her husband George Whitfield just under 200 years later. ‘Play the man of God.’ Lord , help not us to shrink back out of fear, but to step up to the task of sharing our faith despite the mockery, the disdain and the resistance. Help us to play the man and woman of God today. Give us your courage and your compassion for the lost. Let the candle of the gospel blaze across our land once again. Let your troops be willing on your day of battle. Rule and reign in the midst of the enemies of the gospel today in our land, we pray. .

REFERENCES

Pollock, J Whitfield: the Evangelist, 203-209,br />