Fear Not the Face of Man

In the summer of 1739 George Whitefield left for a second voyage to America. Restless on board, he occupied himself by writing many letters to young rising preachers he knew back in England. One was a Rev. Henry Piers, who, writes Arnold Dallimore, 'had proved timid about declaring the Gospel.'

Whitefield wrote to Piers--

Let me exhort you, by the mercies of God, to continue unwearied in well-doing. You have seen the afflictions of God's spiritual Israel. 'Do and Live' is the most they hear, and what is this but requiring them to make bricks without straw?

Arise, arise then, my dear Mr Piers and proclaim the Lord to be their righteousness. . . . Fear not the face of man. . . . I hope my dear friend ere now hath prevented my exhortations. Methinks I see him, with all boldness, declaring the whole counsel of God and the attentive people joyfully receiving the gracious works which proceed out of his mouth.

--quoted in Arnold Dallimore, George Whitefield: The Life and Times of the Great Evangelist of the 18th Century Revival (2 vols; Banner of Truth, 1970, 1980), 1:397-98