Philip's biography of Whitefield remains the best account to be found in a single volume. Drawing on the testimony of those who had a personal knowledge of this subject, and from his own extensive study of Whitefield's journals, letters and sermons, Philip grasped the great lesson of the evangelist's life, namely, that it is the Holy Spirit who makes preachers. Philip is not an uncritical biographer, and he is ready to note weaknesses and failures that admirers of Whitefield have sometimes passed over. But the outstanding feature of his work is the way in which he allows his subject to speak for himself. He seems to have absorbed all that Whitefield ever said and wrote, and his selection brings us into direct contact with the man. Thus Philip can truthfully write: 'This work is chiefly from Whitefield's own pen. So far as it is mine, it is in his own spirit.' For those who want a work of quiet scholarship, Philip is not their man. But where there is a desire for the evangelical flame for words that burn, and reach heart and soul this volume will clearly show why the gospel can turn the world upside down.
