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HISTORY |
The Remnant International |
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George Whitefield MODERN HISTORY Carol
Arnott |
by David Littlewood/History Editor SWALLOWNEST, ENGLAND -- As the tall, angular preacher mounted the steps to the pulpit, the attitude of the congregation (to quote a contemporary witness) "was thoughtless and vain. They hardly conducted themselves with common decency."1 However, as the preacher gave out his text – Deuteronomy 32:35: ‘Their foot shall slide in due time’ – and began giving vivid descriptions of the doom that awaited the ungodly and unrepentant, a tremendous sense of conviction swept over the people. Shrieks and cries rent the air throughout the meeting house as strong men clung to the pillars, crying out, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ The commotion was so great that several times the preacher had to stop speaking so that order could be restored. By the end of the meeting, the town was filled with people crying to God to save them. It is said that 500 people were converted that night. The occasion was Enfield, Massachusetts, in 1741, at the height of the revival known as ‘The Great Awakening’. The preacher of what has probably become the most famous sermon ever given, ‘Sinners in the hand of an angry God’, was, however, no tub-thumping raconteur who looked to theatrical emotion to achieve effect. He was, instead, an intellectual giant, a man of rare integrity and spiritual experience, who, in the years following his untimely death at the age of 54, has become regarded as the foremost theologian of revival. The twentieth-century historian, Perry Miller, calls him "the greatest philosopher-theologian yet to grace the American scene," and over two centuries later his writings are still regarded as classics of American literature. Hence today, whenever arguments break out over the theology of revival, it is almost certain that Jonathan Edwards will be called upon to referee the dispute. Jonathan Edwards – revivalist, theologian, philosopher, man-of-letters, pastor, missionary, college president and devoted husband and father – is regarded as one of the towering figures of American evangelicalism. It must be remembered, however, that in his day he was also one of the most controversial. He was born in October 1703, in the then frontier town of East Windsor, to Rev Timothy and Esther Edwards, the only boy among eleven children. All of Jonathan’s ten sisters grew to six feet in height, causing the townspeople to refer to Timothy Edwards’ ‘sixty feet of daughters.’ As a boy, Jonathan Edwards showed prodigious evidence of the brilliant mind which was later to shine through in his sermons and writings. When only twelve years old he produced a thesis entitled, ‘Of Insects,’ based largely on his observations of spiders, in which he displayed a remarkably scientific sense. In fact, his observations of flying spiders were so accurate that they have been preserved and acknowledged in the scientific community. But above all, the great concern of Jonathan’s mind was the being of God. From a boy Edwards’ obsession was not just knowing about God, but knowing and experiencing God first hand. Christianity must be more than mere religious observances; it is rather an individual experience of the heart responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. One day when meditating on 1 Timothy 1:17, "there came into my soul ……a sense of the glory of the Divine Being; a new sense, quite different from anything I ever experienced before…….I thought with myself how excellent a being that was; and how happy I should be, if I might enjoy God, and be wrapt up to God in heaven, and be as it were swallowed up in Him. I kept saying, and as it were singing over these words of scripture to myself; and went to prayer, to pray to God that I might enjoy Him; and prayed in a manner quite different from what I used to do; with a new sort of affection."2 The young Jonathan had come to a realisation of salvation in Christ, the depth of which can be judged by his description: "The sense I had of divine things, would often of a sudden as it were, kindle
up a sweet burning in my heart; an ardour of my soul, that I know not how to express."3 This experiential sense of God’s presence and the movings of the Holy Spirit within him were to remain with Edwards throughout his life and ministry and made him amply qualified to analyse what he later called, ‘The distinguishing marks of the Spirit of God’ in revival. Having received his early tuition from his parents, Jonathan departed for the Collegiate School (later known as Yale College) in New Haven at the age of thirteen. He graduated in 1720 at the head of a class of ten and then stayed for an additional two years, taking theological studies to prepare him for the ministry. In 1723, at the age of 18, he was granted a Master of Arts degree and was open to a church appointment. Edwards’ first pastorate was in New York, at a Presbyterian church on Wall Street, for seven months, from which he went to a position in Bolton, Connecticut, not far from his home in East Windsor. This again was short lived as he accepted a position as a tutor at Yale College, and arrived in New Haven in May, 1724. The move to New Haven may have been spurred on by Jonathan’s relationship and affection for a highly spiritual young lady who lived there – Sarah Pierrepont, daughter of a New Haven minister. Sarah appears to have been as much in love with Christ as her suitor was, and after their marriage in 1727 Jonathan and Sarah Edwards formed one of the most famous and successful of all Christian marriages. Shortly before his marriage, Edwards received the call to assist his grandfather, the famous Solomon Stoddard at the pastorate of Northampton, New England. Stoddard was by this time 84 years old and had exerted a tremendous influence in New England, especially in his advocacy of the ‘Half-Way Covenant’, in which he taught that unregenerate members of the community could come and participate in the Lord’s Supper provided they were not ‘scandalous’ in their way of life. This liberalising of the scriptural position was later to have fatal consequences for his grandson’s ministry at Northampton. Edwards was ordained at Northampton in February 1727 and after two years, following the death of Stoddard, succeeded his grandfather as pastor of the church at the age of 25. The ministry of Jonathan Edwards was characterised by his outstanding preaching, fed by long hours of study. Rising at four in the morning he would light his candle and begin to study for thirteen hours a day, making notes on all sorts of scraps of paper (paper was comparatively scarce and valuable in those days). On fine days he would ride his horse for relaxation, making notes of his thoughts and pinning them to his coat. It is said that when he arrived back with papers pinned all over his coat, Sarah would unpin him and arrange the notes in order! In spite of these long hours of study, Jonathan always found time for his large family of eleven children – eight daughters and three sons – spending an hour with them every day before they went to bed. It was felt by the Puritans that a happy home was one of the truest proofs of Christianity, and in this respect the Edwards’ home was outstanding. Sarah and Jonathan’s children adored their parents and the family produced a remarkable progeny , a tribute to the godly and intellectual influence of their parents. In a study of Jonathan and Sarah’s descendants in 1903, there were found among them presidents of eight colleges, about one hundred college professors, more than a hundred lawyers, sixty physicians, thirty judges, eighty holders of important public office, twenty-five officers in the army and navy, and innumerable clergymen and missionaries! Firmly ensconced in the Northampton pulpit, which had declined in vigour as Stoddard got older, Edwards now made appeal to a return to biblical values. He introduced singing from hymn books in worship – highly controversial in its day – and spoke of the terrible wrath of God and need of salvation. It should not be thought, however, that Edwards was just a ‘hell-fire’ preacher – many of his sermons contain wonderful descriptions of the joys and pleasures of the Christians life and practical instruction of how to live it.4 The preaching bore fruit in 1734 when many of the young people began to come to Edwards in great concern about the state of their souls. God’s Spirit was moving and soon the whole town was awakened, with people asking the question, "What must I do to be saved?" When in December a notorious young woman sought salvation, it ignited a revival which continued for the next few years and affected the neighbouring towns. Then, as now, people came to the revival centre to see what was going on, and, on return, helped spread the revival fire to their villages. Edwards describes the effects of the revival: "The work soon made a glorious alteration the town. So that in Spring and Summer following it seemed……to be full of the presence of God. It was never so full of joy and yet so full of distress as it was then. There were remarkable tokens of God’s presence in almost every house……Out public assemblies were then beautiful. The congregation was alive in God’s service……Some weeping with sorrow and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity and concern for the souls of their neighbours." 5 The revival caused the meeting house at Northampton to be filled to overflowing, and in December 1737 a new building was dedicated. It was an outwards tribute to both the power of God and the effectiveness of Edwards’ preaching, which resulted in conviction of sin, repentance and a sincere desire for Christian living in the community. In 1740, as the effects of the first revival had died down, the whole of New England was shaken by a tremendous revival which was to become known as ‘The Great Awakening.’ The spearhead of the revival was a fiery young English preacher called George Whitefield, who preached to vast crowds with incredible powers of oratory. But above all it was the power of the Holy Spirit working with Whitefield that spread the flames of revival under his ministry. It is estimated that during the Great Awakening, 50,000 out of a population of 250,000 people were converted. Whitefield spent four days at Northampton in October 1740. Although the men were very different – the mighty intellectual and the still raw young evangelist – they recognised one another’s deep spirituality. Whitefield reported Edwards to be a "solid, excellent Christian," and of Jonathan and Sarah together he wrote, "A sweeter couple I have not yet seen." Edwards confirms that under Whitefield’s preaching, "the congregation was extraordinarily melted by every sermon; almost the whole assembly being in tears for a great part of the sermon time." Sarah wrote to her brother: "It is wonderful to see what a spell he [Whitefield] casts over an audience by proclaiming the simplest truths of the Bible." With Whitefield’s departure, Edwards and others were left to shepherd the revival – no easy task as, with every revival, there were amazing scenes of excitement and many extraordinary physical manifestations such as faintings, tears, groans, agonising outcries and bodily tremors. As a result, many were attacking the revival as mere human excitement – some even said it was of the devil! Edwards himself had too much spiritual integrity to be led astray by human excitement, but he also hated lukewarmness. He believed passionately in experimental religion but realised much of the religion taught in pulpits was both cold and theoretical. The revival was God’s way of waking people up to the fact that the Christian faith is to be experienced as well as talked about! He was also wise enough, however, to realise that religious experience is never free from the human element, and just because what men deem ‘excesses’ take place, it does not mean that God is not working deeply. His own experience at places like Enfield taught him the extraordinary effect the Spirit of God can have on a congregation. Edwards must also have noted the experiences of his wife, who on occasions under the power of the Holy Spirit, would lose all bodily strength and lie, sometimes for days on end, in rapturous communion with God. In 1740, Edwards produced a thesis entitled, ‘Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the True Spirit,’6 in which he defends the revival, while admitting there may be elements of the human and even demonic which may creep in. Errors or excesses do not mean that the revival is not of God. The work of the Spirit may also give rise to certain physical manifestations, but these alone are not to be used as the sign that God is at work. The ultimate sign of genuine revival lies in changed lives. Edwards followed this in 1744 with a series of sermons of the nature of true religion. These were later preserved as ‘A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections’ in 1746. Here Edwards provides a magnificent comparison between true saints and those merely puffed up by the experience of vigorous and fleeting emotions. It was this work, however, which began a controversy which was to end Edwards’ distinguished pastorate at Northampton, for in ‘The Religious Affections’ he rejected the ‘Half Way Covenant’ his grandfather had instituted. Church membership and holy communion, Edwards believed, should be for those who give evidence of true conversion. It was this stand, together with an unfortunate incident in which Edwards attempted to discipline some young people for passing round a handbook for midwives (complete with graphic diagrams) among themselves, which caused many in the church at Northampton to rise up against their pastor, finally voting for his dismissal in June 1750. Ten days later, Edwards preached his farewell sermon, remarkable for its spiritual candour and lack of personal bitterness. This controversy came at a difficult time for Jonathan and Sarah, as they had lost their future son-in-law, the missionary David Brainard, to tuberculosis in October 1747. Four months later, their daughter Jerusha, who had nursed her fiancé during his final illness, was also gone. As a tribute, Edwards edited Brainard’s voluminous diaries and the result, ‘The Life of Rev David Brainard’, has inspired generations to the mission field ever since. Now without a pulpit and in serious financial difficulties, Jonathan and Sarah continued to trust God for the future, certain that he would provide for the next stage of their pilgrimage. However, such was the controversial nature of Edwards’ ministry that he found pulpits closed to him. The only offer of ministry came in the form of an invitation to Stockbridge, the frontier site of a mission to the Housatonic Indians and the home of a few white families. Edwards accepted and became a missionary to the Indians in August 1751 for the next seven years. Here, he and his family had to endure Indian attacks and war with the French, as well as obstinacy and political intrigues from some of the settlers. However, in it all, Edwards showed himself a faithful and caring missionary and pastor, as well as producing some enormously influential works of theology. In 1757 came an invitation for Edwards to succeed his son-in-law, Aaron Burr (who had recently died at the age of 41) as President of Princeton College, New Jersey. After much deliberation, Edwards accepted, and was inducted into the presidency in February 1758. Trustees of the college, friends and students were overjoyed at having America’s most distinguished theologian in their midst. Such laudatory treatment, however, was to be short lived. A smallpox epidemic, which had claimed many lives in previous months, was raging in the city. A primitive form of vaccination was available and, after taking medical advice, Edwards was vaccinated. At first the vaccine appeared to take successfully, but then a secondary infection developed in Edwards’ throat which proved fatal. After telling those at his bedside, "Trust in God and you need not fear," Jonathan Edwards passed into eternity on March 22nd, 1758, at the age of 54. Sarah, who had not yet joined Edwards at Princeton, was grief stricken at receiving the news, yet expressed her determination to continuing trusting in "a holy and good God…." In October the same year, having journeyed to Princeton to visit her husband’s grave and then on to Philadelphia, she succumbed to dysentery and was buried beside her husband. So ended one of the most remarkable Christian marriages in the history of the church. |
Jonathan
Edwards