When the great Methodist George...
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When the great Methodist George Whitefield preached on this passage, he claimed that the burning bush was "a significant emblem of the church, and every individual child of God ..."
Particularly he was impressed that, like the church, God spoke through "a bush, a little bush of briers and thorns ... because the church of Christ generally consists of poor, mean despicable creatures; though it is all glorious within, yet it is all despicable without."
He went on to argue that the effectiveness of the church diminishes when it sheds its "bushlike" qualities for more prestigious ones. "It is observable that the church came to prosper when Constantine smiled on it, (but) it was soon hugged to death; and that the great poet Milton observes, that when the emperor gave ministers rich vestments, high honors, great livings, and golden pulpits, there was a voice heard from heaven, saying this day there is a poison come into the church."
(The Burning Bush, by George Whitefield, The Protestant Pulpit, Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1947, p. 34.)
--Cueni
Particularly he was impressed that, like the church, God spoke through "a bush, a little bush of briers and thorns ... because the church of Christ generally consists of poor, mean despicable creatures; though it is all glorious within, yet it is all despicable without."
He went on to argue that the effectiveness of the church diminishes when it sheds its "bushlike" qualities for more prestigious ones. "It is observable that the church came to prosper when Constantine smiled on it, (but) it was soon hugged to death; and that the great poet Milton observes, that when the emperor gave ministers rich vestments, high honors, great livings, and golden pulpits, there was a voice heard from heaven, saying this day there is a poison come into the church."
(The Burning Bush, by George Whitefield, The Protestant Pulpit, Nashville, Abingdon Press, 1947, p. 34.)
--Cueni
