George began to experience hostility from the established Church in Britain many churches were closed to him. His connection with Methodist societies, and in particular his association with the Wesley brothers, was strongly objected to by the Anglican leadership.

However, he continued preach wherever he was able to do so, working mainly with the many non-conformist groups in London. However, their buildings were often far too small to accommodate the crowds who wanted to hear him.

It was at this point in 1739 that Whitefield decided to preach to the people in the open air. His first open air sermon was on Kingswood Hill, a district of the town of Bristol. On the first occasion only about 200 people were present but soon he was preaching to 10,000 people. Other outdoor locations followed, including one of his favourite preaching places: Moorfields, just outside London.

On August 1^st 1739,the Bishop of London denounced Whitefield but this did not deter him, and later that month he made his second trip to America to deliver the money he had been able to raise for the American orphans. This time he landed near Philadelphia on October 30th, preaching there before going south.

From Philadelphia Whitefield travelled to New York where again the people flocked to hear him in their thousands. He preached to 8,000 in a field, then on the Sunday morning to 15,000, and to 20,000 in the afternoon.

He did not stay there long as he was anxious to reach Georgia. Once there the first thing he did was to get his orphanage started. He rented a large house for a temporary measure and on March 25^th 1740, he laid the first brick of the permanent building of Bethesda orphanage.  When this was accomplished he moved on to New England (September, 1740) and while there he was to witness the first great awakening in that area. Jonathan Edwards had been patiently sowing the seed throughout the area. Whitefield preached in Boston to the greatest crowds ever assembled there to hear the gospel. Some 8,000 assembled in the morning and some 15,000 returned in the evening.

He then preached four times for Jonathan Edwards in Northampton, Massachusetts. The New England revival that he started lasted for a year and a half. Whitefield returned to England in March 1741 and when he got back he found it necessary to disassociate from John Wesley- they later re-established their friendship but they both worked separately from that point on.

From this point Whitefield was considered the unofficial leader of Calvinistic Methodism in England.

In 1741 began the first of Whitefield's fourteen trips to Scotland. He was received everywhere with great enthusiasm. The largest audience he ever addressed was at Cambuslang, not far from Glasgow, where he spoke to around 100,000 people! He preached for an hour and a half to the tearful crowd. Converts from that one meeting numbered up to 10,000. He loved it so much he cried out, "May I die preaching."

After Scotland he went on to Wales, where he was to make frequent trips in the future,and was received with great respect and honour. It was here that he met his wife to be,Elizabeth James,a widow. They were married on November 14, 1741.

In 1742 he made a second trip to Scotland.  A tour of England and Wales was made from 1742 to 1744, and it was in 1743 that he began as moderator for the Calvinistic Methodists in Wales, a position which he held for a number of years. From 1744 to 1748 he was back in America. On his way back to England due to poor health, he stopped off in the Bermudas where he preached regularly and saw many souls won to the Lord. It was in 1748 that he said,"Let the name of Whitefield die so that the cause of Christ may live."

His wife Elisabeth died on August 9, 1768, and Whitefield preached the funeral sermon, from the text Romans 8:28. He dedicated the famous Tottenham Court Road Chapel on July 23, 1769. On September 4, 1769, he started on his way to America for the last time. He made arrangements for his orphanage to be converted into Bethesda College. On September 29, he journeyed from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, to Newburyport, Massachusetts. On the way he preached in the open at Exeter, New Hampshire. Looking up he prayed:

"Lord Jesus, I am weary in thy work, but not of thy work. If I have not yet finished my course, let me go and speak for thee once more in the fields, seal thy truth, and come home and die."

He was given strength for one more sermon. The subject he took was Faith and Works. Although scarcely able to stand when he first came before the group, he was enabled to preach for two hours to a crowd that no building then could have held.

When he arrived at the First Presbyterian Church in Newbury port, he had supper with his friend, Rev. Jonathan Parsons and then intended to go straight to bed. However,having heard of his arrival, a great number of friends gathered at the parsonage and begged him for just a short message. He paused a few moments on the stairs,holding a candle and spoke to the people until the candle went out. At 2 a.m. that night struggling to breathe, he told his travelling companion Richard Smith,"Myasthma is returning; I must have two or three days' rest." His last words were,"I am dying," and at 6 a.m. on the morning of 30 September 1770 he died.

In the wake of George Whitefield's fearless preaching, revival swept across the British Isles, and the Great Awakening transformed the American colonies. When Whitefield died at age 55, he had preached 30,000 sermons. His hearers included not only the poor and the uneducated, but prominent English aristocrats and American statesmen such as David Hume and Benjamin Franklin.

"I know no other reason,” Whitefield said, “why Jesus has put me into the ministry, than because I am the chief of sinners, and therefore fittest to preach free grace to a world lying in the wicked one."

· Arnold Dallimore, George Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the Eighteenth-Century Revival

· J. I. Packer,The Spirit with the Word: The Reformational Revivalism of George Whitefield