Rowland Hill

Moreover, another man, much more gifted than either of these, was raised up of the Lord at this time, This was Rowland Hill (3 December 1795 – 27 August 1879).

During his days as an undergraduate at Cambridge University, Hill maintained a strong testimony for the Lord and gave leader ship to a company of students in their Christian activities. These efforts brought the severe opposition of his father, Sir Rowland Hill, and led to the threat of expulsion by the University officials. But he remained firm in his stand and was encouraged by Lady Huntingdon and Whitefield. The latter wrote to him several times, the following letter written Dec. 27, 1766, being typical:

I would not have you give way, no, not for a moment. ... Visiting the sick and imprisoned, and instructing the ignorant, are the very vitals of true and undefiled religion. If threatened, denied degree, or expelled for this, it will be the best degree you can take-a glorious preparative for...future usefulness. I have seen the dreadful consequences of giving way and looking back. How many, by this wretched cowardice, have been turned into pillars, not of useful but of useless salt.'

Hill and his little band of associates suffered bitter ridicule and sometimes endured mob rioting in their meetings. But Hill was not expelled - probably because of the social status of his father - and after taking his Master of Arts degree was ordained a deacon in the Church of England. 

Rowland Hill patterned his ministry after that of Whitefield. He preached in the open air, itinerated extensively, and after filling certain Church of England appointments built a large non denominational meeting house in London, the Surrey Chapel. The word 'eccentric' has often been applied to him but it is misleading. He was a highly zealous and powerful preacher, he ministered constantly to great crowds, and Lady Huntingdon said he was the nearest to Whitefield of any preacher she ever heard. 

During the last four or five years of his life Whitefield rejoiced in seeing Rowland Hill thus come forth for the Lord, particularly as Hill shared not only his zeal but was also of the same Calvinistic convictions as himself.

Dallimore, A. (1980). Last Labours in Britain. In George Whitefield. The Life and Times of the great evangelist of the 18th century revival (Vol. 2, pp. 468–469). Banner of Truth Trust.