Evangelist Gilbert Tennent (1703-1764), though little known today, powerfully influenced the First Great Awakening in America. The more famous George Whitefield said of the preaching of Tennent: "I never before heard such a searching sermon. He convinced me more and more that we can preach the Gospel of Christ no further than we have experienced the power of it in our own hearts. Being deeply convicted of sin, by God’s Holy Spirit, at his first conversion, he has learned experimentally to dissect the heart of a natural man. Hypocrites must either soon be converted or enraged at his preaching. He is a son of thunder, and does not fear the faces of men."
