Young Men Who Did Not Waste Their Youth

Today we visited the grave of Great Awakening preacher, George Whitefield at Old South Church in Newberryport, Mass. He is buried under the church pulpit. It caused us to contemplate the use of time. Notice the casting of his skull and bible on his casket - a vivid reminder of the brevity of life and the importance of using our minutes for the glory of God. Each night Whitefield asked himself 15 questions to help him judge his actions during the day. He asked,

Have I,

1. Been fervent in private prayer?

2. Used stated hours of prayer?

3. Used spontaneous prayer every hour?

4. After or before every deliberate conversation or action, considered how it might tend to God’s glory?

5. After any pleasure, immediately given thanks?

6. Planned business for the day?

7. Been simple and recollected in everything?

8. Been zealous in undertaking and active in doing what good I could?

9. Been meek, cheerful, affable in everything I said or did?

10.Been proud, vain, unchaste, or enviable of others?

11.Recollected in eating and drinking? Thankful? Temperate in sleep?

12.Taken time for giving thanks according to Law’s rules?

13.Been diligent in studies?

14.Though or spoken unkindly of anyone?

15.Confessed all sins?

Arnold A. Dallimore, George Whitefield, The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the Eighteenth-Century Revival, Volume I (Edinburg: The Banner of Truth, 2001), 80, 81.