Matthew 5:1,2; Mark 2:13; Mark 10:1; Luke 5:3
And seeing the multitudes, [Jesus] went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him: And he opened his mouth, and taught them.
And he went forth again by the sea side; and all the multitude resorted unto him, and he taught them…And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judaea by the farther side of Jordan: and the people resort unto him again; and, as he was wont, he taught them again.
And he entered into one of the ships, which was Simon’s, and prayed him that he would thrust out a little from the land. And he sat down, and taught the people out of the ship.
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): Jesus preached on the mountain; from a ship; in the fields; everywhere and every place.
GEORGE WHITEFIELD (1714-1770): Our Lord’s practise in this respect, gives a kind of sanction to itinerant preaching, when persons are properly called to, and qualified for, such an employ. And I believe we may venture to affirm―though we would by no means prescribe or dictate to the Holy One of Israel―that, whenever there shall be a general revival of religion in any country, itinerant preaching will be more in vogue…Was not the Reformation began and carried on by itinerant preaching? Were not John Knox and the other Reformers itinerant preachers?”
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): The first avowed preaching of Protestant doctrine was almost necessarily in the open air, or in buildings which were not dedicated to worship, for these were in the hands of the Papacy…In Germany and other continental countries the Reformation was greatly aided by the sermons delivered to the masses out of doors. We read of Lutheran preachers travelling the country proclaiming the new doctrine to crowds in the market-places, and burial-grounds, and also on mountains and in meadows. At Goslar, a Wittemberg student preached in a meadow planted with lime-trees, which procured for his hearers the designation of “the Lime-tree Brethren.”
J. H. M. d’AUBIGNÉ (1794-1872): At Appenzel [in Switzerland], as the crowds could not be contained in the churches, the preaching was held in the fields and public squares, and, notwithstanding keen opposition, the hills, meadows, and mountains echoed with the glad tidings of salvation.
C. H. SPURGEON: Throughout England we have several trees remaining called “gospel oaks.” There is one spot on the other side of the Thames known by the name of “Gospel Oak,” and I have myself preached at Addlestone, in Surrey, under the far-spreading boughs of an ancient oak, beneath which John Knox is said to have proclaimed the gospel during his sojourn in England. Full many a wild moor, and lone hill side, and secret spot in the forest have been consecrated in the same fashion, and traditions still linger over caves, and dells, and hill tops, where of old time the bands of the faithful met to hear the word of the Lord.
JAMES A. WYLIE (1808-1890): The first field-preaching in the Netherlands took place on the 14th of June, 1566, and was held in the neighborhood of Ghent. The preacher was Helman Modet, who had formerly been a monk, but was now the reformed pastor at Oudenard. “This man,” says a Popish chronicler, “was the first who ventured to preach in public, and there were 7,000 persons at his first sermon.”
The second great field-preaching in the Netherlands took place on the 23rd of July, the people assembling in a large meadow in the vicinity of Ghent. The Word was precious in those days, and the people, eagerly thirsting to hear it, prepared to remain two days consecutively on the ground. Their arrangements more resembled an army pitching their camp than a peaceful multitude assembled for worship. Around the worshippers was a wall of barricades in the shape of carts and wagons. Sentinels were placed at all the entrances. A rude pulpit of planks was hastily run up and placed aloft on a cart. Modet was preacher, and around him were many thousands of persons, who listened with their pikes, hatchets, and guns lying by their sides ready to be grasped on a sign from the sentinels who kept watch all around the assembly. In front of the entrances were erected stalls, where peddlers offered prohibited books to all who wished to buy. Along the roads running into the country were stationed certain persons, whose office it was to bid the casual passenger turn in and hear the Gospel.
When the services were finished, the multitude would repair to other districts, where they encamped after the same fashion, and remained for the same space of time, and so passed through the whole of West Flanders.
ROWLAND HILL (1744-1833): I am more than ever convinced that itinerant preaching does a world of good, and that God blesses it continually.
C. H. SPURGEON: During the lifetime of John Wycliffe, his missionaries traversed the country, everywhere preaching the word. An Act of Parliament of Richard II in 1382 sets it forth as a grievance of the clergy that a number of persons went from town to town, without the license of the ordinaries, and preached not only in churches, but in churchyards, and market-places, and also at fairs.
C. H. MACKINTOSH (1820-1896): An evangelist is, of necessity, more or less, a traveller. The world is his sphere.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): What is it that always heralds the dawn of a Reformation or of a Revival? It is renewed preaching. Not only a new interest in preaching, but a new kind of preaching.
C. H. SPURGEON: It would be very easy to prove that revivals of religion have usually been accompanied, if not caused, by a considerable amount of preaching out of doors, or in unusual places―It was a brave day for England when George Whitefield began field preaching.
GEORGE WHITEFIELD: At Usk, I preached upon a table under a large tree to some hundreds, and God was with us of a truth.
CHARLES WESLEY (1707-1788): I stood by George Whitefield while he preached on the mount in Blackheath. The cries of the wounded were heard on every side.
JOHN WESLEY (1703-1791): In the evening I reached Bristol, and met Mr. Whitefield there. I could scarce reconcile myself at first to this strange way of preaching in the fields, of which he set me an example on Sunday; having been all my life—till very lately—so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that I should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin, if had it not been done in a church.
C. H. SPURGEON: It was a blessed day when the Methodists and others began to proclaim Jesus in the open air―when John Wesley stood and preached a sermon on his father’s grave, at Epworth.
JOHN WESLEY: I am well assured that I did far more good to my Lincolnshire parishioners by preaching three days on my father’s tomb than I did by preaching three years in his pulpit…It is field preaching which does the execution still: for usefulness there is none comparable to it.
FRANCES BEVAN (1827-1909): At Gwennap, in Cornwall, there is a hollow in the hills, in the form of a horse-shoe. Here the crowds would sit around John Wesley, one row above another, so that twenty thousand or more could hear him at the same time.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): These gallant evangelists shook England from one end to the other.
