Lost for 290 Years: Whitefield’s Personal Cipher Diary and the 15 Questions
A month spent decoding diary records written by George Whitefield – one of the original Holy Club members at Oxford with John and Charles Wesley - reveal a powerful spiritual checklist for Methodists today.
A hidden treasure on a bookshelf
This winter, during a short and costly holiday in London, I stepped into the British Library’s manuscript reading room with one purpose: to examine a small diary kept by George Whitefield (1714–1770), one of the original Holy Club members at Oxford alongside John and Charles Wesley. With a letter of introduction from Rev. Peter Norman, I was able to consult the manuscript.
What I found was John Wesley’s private cipher in Whitefield’s 1735–1736 diary. It was more than old ink on paper; it was a clue that early Methodists shared Wesley’s cipher. For nearly 280 years it had not been fully understood. After a month of comparing the symbols with Wesley’s coded diaries, a pattern emerged. Hidden within was a set of 15 searching self-examination questions that became Whitefield’s spiritual checklist, adapted from Wesley’s method and woven into his disciplined life.
The young evangelist’s methodical life
Before he became one of the best-known preachers of the Great Awakening, Whitefield was an Oxford student shaped by the Wesleys’ “exact diary” habits: recording each day in tightly structured, hour-by-hour blocks and tracking prayer, Scripture, conversation, and work. Like other Holy Club members, Whitefield used Wesley’s code of letters, numbers, and abbreviations to simplify self-examination, a system that kept his focus on God and away from temptations and distractions.
The diary reveals a life lived deliberately. The entries are practical and rhythmic: prayer, speaking, visiting, study, rest, and regular checks on the heart. Running through it are 15 questions, designed not to measure public success but to test private faithfulness.
The breakthrough
Decoding began with repeated symbols linked to regular activities (prayer, study, meetings) and by cross-checking them against Wesley’s cipher diaries. The turning point came when I recognized a familiar phrase tied to motive: “God’s glory.” From there, the system opened.
One page included questions like: “Have I been fervent in public and in private prayer?” and, at the close, “Have I confessed all sins?” Taken together, the full set functions as a spiritual map for hourly recollection and end-of-day examen.
Whitefield’s 15 General Questions
(Deciphered from the diary and lightly expanded for clarity)
Have I been fervent in public prayer and private prayer?
Have I used stated hours of prayer?
Have I used ejaculatory prayers every hour?
Have I, after or before every deliberate conversation or action, considered how it might tend to God’s glory.
Have I, after any pleasure, immediately given thanks, or after every commendation?
Have I planned business for the day?
Have I been simple and recollected in everything?
Have I been zealous in undertaking and active in doing what good I could?
Have I been meek, cheerful, attentive, and courteous in everything I said or did?
Have I had proud, vain, unchaste, or envious thoughts?
Have I been recollected in eating and drinking, thankful, and temperate in sleep?
Have I taken time to give thanks by Saturday rules?
Have I been diligent in studies?
Have I thought or spoken unkindly of anyone?
Have I confessed all sins?
Why it matters
Whitefield’s questions mirror the best of Wesley’s disciplined spirituality. They remind us that the great evangelist scrutinised his own heart hourly. In our digitised, distracted, and complicated century, this discipline is a gift:
Prayer: not only at set hours but also through brief, frequent turnings to God.
Intentional living: weighing whether conversations and actions serve love and God’s glory.
Inner honesty: naming proud or unkind thoughts before God, quickly and simply.
The questions are not an end in themselves. They are fuel for revival, shaping words, actions, and thoughts in holiness for everyday discipleship today.
For today’s Methodists
We often ask how to examine our lives before God. Whitefield’s list is simple and portable. You can run through it in a few seconds on a bus ride, over morning coffee, or before bed. During Lent or the Season of Creation, Question 11 invites mindful eating, gratitude, and temperance. Question 8 can prompt community action. Question 14 can nudge reconciliation. Practiced together, these tiny acts become a healthy, public witness.
Echoes from the past
In early Methodism, personal holiness and social holiness belonged together. Wesley’s methodical piety (prayer, examen, self-denial, and active love) became an engine for social movements and mission, from prison ministry to social reform. Whitefield’s coded diary carries us back to those roots and shows where revival usually begins: in the quiet, hidden space where a person asks hard questions before God.
The last question is stark: Have I confessed all sins? In a time of rapid change and many sorrows, this old Methodist habit calls us back to basics, authentic faith examined in Christ’s light. Revival rarely starts in the spotlight. It starts on the small page of a private diary in the prayer of an honest heart.
What’s next
I plan to continue exploring early Methodist spiritual discipline, from the Holy Club’s ciphered notebooks to their influence on social engagement. I invite congregations to try these questions in personal or group devotion for four weeks. Who knows? A small diary, lost for centuries, may help us recover what we need most today: a faith tested daily, in the closet (Matthew 6:6) and in the public square.