V. PRESIDENT JONATHAN EDWARDS. Jonathan Edwards, the elder, was born at Windsor, Connecticut, October 5, 1703. His father, Timothy Edwards, was pastor at Windsor almost 60 years and was a most godly and greatly beloved man. Jonathan was the only son among eleven children, and four of his sisters were older than himself. At a very early age he gave proof of the wonderful gifts with which he was endowed. He was reading Latin at six; at twelve, he wrote a paper refuting materialism; also, an elaborate account of the habits of the field-spider, based upon his own observations. Before he was thirteen he entered Yale College, then a struggling and homeless school at New Haven. While he was still a freshman he read John Locke's "Essay on the Human Understanding," and he has left on record the great enjoyment thus afforded him. At the end of four years he was graduated with high honors, and after studying divinity two years, he was approbated to preach. He then came out West to preach in a small Presbyterian church in New York City, and though he was urged to remain as pastor, the new and crude conditions of the springing town did not attract him, and accordingly, he returned to Yale and his native New England. Here he held a tutorship till 1727, whsn he was invited to become associated with his distinguished grandfather, the Reverend Solomon Stoddard, the venerable pastor of the church of Northampton. He accepted this call and in this historic town, then one of the foremost communities in New England, he spent the most of his active life. That summer he married Sarah Pierrpont, the lovely daughter of an eminent minister in New Haven, whom he had loved since she was thirteen, and who was to him a most worthy and sympathetic companion throughout all his after life. For only two years after his coming to North ampton Dr. Stoddard continued in the pastorate and, upon his death, Mr. Edwards became the sole pastor. Here he remained for twenty-three years, and here was the scene of his most remarkable labors in connection with the "Great Awakening," a movement of inestimable importance in the history of American Christianity. Here for a score of years he was a tower of strength to his church, the town and that general region of New England. His marvelous preaching, for the discriminating historian has not hesitated to call him the greatest preacher of the age, made him not only the pride of his parish, but also a sort of oracle of wisdom and faith, consulted by great and small, from far and near. His principles were puritanical and his ideas of policy and conduct were equally so. As a kind of reaction from the great seasons of spiritual activity and ingathering through which they had passed, there came a time of religious indifference among the Christian people of Northampton. The pure-minded pastor found occasion to denounce "frolics" in severest terms; he encountered a spirit of frivolity unseemly in the saints; and he was particularly annoyed to learn that an impure, obscene literature was being handed around among the young. Mr. Edwards consulted his deacons and they resolved forthwith to proceed against such evils in a way befitting their gravity. But human nature was the same among Puritan deacons among their degenerate sons of later times; for when, after some preliminary inquisitions, it transpired that among the youthful offenders were some of the sons and daughters of these good deacons, their resolution suddenly halted and the earnest pastor, little daunted, found himself with a very broken support. as But this irritation was rather the occasion than the cause of the saddest incident in the life of this faithful man of God. Dr. Stoddard had held peculiar views of what should be required of a participant in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. His theory is commonly referred to now as that of the "two-fold covenant." In a word, it required moral sincerity, decent deportment and an intellectual assent, in a general way, to the truth of the Christian religion. It did not contemplate a confession of personal Christian faith or experience. It seemed to regard this sacrament as a converting as well as an edifying ordinance and hence might with propriety be administered to certain of the unregenerate as well as to the saints in Christ. Mr. Edwards had had his doubts on this matter even before the death of his grandfather, but he modestly kept them in abeyance; in course of time, however, his views became more pronounced, the wonderful seasons of grace through which he had passed had sharpened in his mind the radical distinction between the converted and the unconverted, while his maturing years and his undivided responsibilities made it with him a matter of gravest conscientious concern whether he should longer keep silence. In 1744, he preached his sermons on The Religious Affections in which he strongly declared his dissent from the custom which they had been following. Unhappily, the congregation was not in any frame just then to follow his lead, particularly in a direction which might be construed as a reflection upon the memory of their late beloved pastor. For four years after these sermons no one was presented for admission to this sacrament. In 1748, to one who sought admission, Mr. Edwards declared what he should require. These terms were declined and the issue was then fairly on. He asked of his church the privilege of discussing the subject in a series of sermons but his request was refused; rather, a storm of passion broke out and the angry cry was for his immediate dismissal. He did procure their consent to write a book on the Qualifications of Full Communion, but the people soon became impatient and would not wait. A Council was called and there was a preliminary wrangle as to the constituting of that body. Dr. Stoddard's views did not prevail generally throughout New England, but they had a strong hold upon the churches and ministers in the immediate vicinage of Northampton. Accordingly, the people were afraid that if they went outside of the county -an entirely proper and regular thing to do the Council would sustain Mr. Edwards. At last, the Council voted by a majority of one, that the pastor should go, and, afterward, the congregation ratified this decision by a vote of 200 against 20. He was dismissed June 22, 1750. He remained in Northampton some months, but a town meeting voted formally that he should not again be permitted to enter the pulpit. It is sad to see that great and good man, after twenty-three years of faithful service, with a large family dependent upon him, with no resources or means of support, coldly turned adrift upon the world; but it is far sadder to see the church that could do it. The best people in the congregation repented bitterly of their wrong afterward but it was too late. Nothing but the grace of God can account for the beautiful tenderness and forbearance which characterized Mr. Edwards' course through all this this most trying experience. His Farewell Sermon is magnificent in its Christian dignity, eloquent in its judicious. omissions and really sublime in its expression of unfeigned affection for all the people. From Northampton, he went to Stockbridge to be a missionary among the Indians. It is not claimed that he was especially suited for this work but it is very significant that he chose it in preference to flattering invitations to Scotland or a Presbyterian pastorate in Virginia. Here among the red-skins of the wilderness, with the trees for his companions and his well-trained mind for his library, he did the best of his literary work. While his wife and daughters were doing needlework to be sold in Boston for their support, he was writing his Treatise on the Freedom of the Will, and some of his other works. His fame was soon assured and the missionary among the Indians was the only American whose name commanded high respect in the cir |