Session 6:

Holy Affections
Leader Presentation
You will remember that I told you last week about John and Charles Wesley coming to Georgia in the 1730sand accomplishing nothing. They went back to England demoralized. However up north in the New England colonies, some very good things were happening. The background is this: The initial devotion of the Pilgrims (1620) had cooled off. The second and third generations turned out not to be as serious about God as their parents had been. By 1674, the Rev. Samuel Torrey wrote: Truly, the very heart of New England is changed, and exceedingly corrupted with the sins of the times. There is a spirit of profaneness, a spirit of pride, a spirit of worldliness, a spirit of sensuality, a spirit of gainsaying and rebellion, a spirit of libertinism, a spirit of carnality. 1 The preachers of that era even developed a specialized sermon type called the jeremiad, which basically lamented the spiritual decline of the culture the way the prophet Jeremiah had done. However the Holy Spirit had not given up! Notes

FIRST GREAT AWAKENING (1730s 40s)

Around the time George Washington was born, a spiritual stirring began to pick up. Theodore Frelinghuysen, a Dutch Reformed pastor in New Jersey, summoned the audacity to say out loud that to be a church
Samuel Torrey, An Exhortation unto Reformation, 8: cited in Thomas Jefferson Wertenbaker, The Puritan Oligarchy (New York: Scribners, 1947), p. 170
1

member, you needed to be saved! What an outrage, some declared. It ended up splitting his denomination. A few years later, Gilbert Tennent, a Pennsylvania Presbyterian, preached a sermon about the clergy entitled On the Dangers of an Unconverted Ministry. This too caused an uproar. Tennent got himself and his group kicked out of the presbytery. The name youve probably heard most often from this era is Jonathan Edwards. A bright young man, he entered Yale at age 13(!), and graduated as valedictorian at 17. His maternal grandfather was the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, pastor of the Northampton, Mass., Congregational Churchthe largest outside Boston. He had served there almost 60 years when the church, looking toward the future, called his promising grandson to be his understudy. Two years later, the old gentleman died, and Jonathan Edwards, at 26, became the official pastor in his place. He, too, was concerned about the prevailing immorality, especially among the youth. Believe it or not, during cold New England winters boyfriends and girlfriends were permitted to stay warm by retreating to one of the unheated bedrooms in the house and crawling in together under the covers. The term for this was bundling. When Pastor Edwards spoke out against this social custom, people said he was being moralistic and should mind his own business. But then In April 1734, this small community of just 200 families suffered the loss of two young people within a matter of days due to sudden illness. Edwards noticed that his congregation was suddenly more serious about eternal issues. That fall he set up small groups of young people to discuss the Bible and its teachings. Soon the older generations formed their own groups. And then it was, in the latter part of December, that the Spirit of God began extraordinarily to set in, and wonderfully to work amongst us, he

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reported. And there were very suddenly, one after another, five or six persons, who were to all appearances savingly converted, and some of them wrought upon [impacted] in a very remarkable manner. There was scarcely a single person in the town, old or young, left unconcerned about the great things of the eternal world. Those who were wont to be the vainest and loosest, and those who had been disposed to think and speak lightly of vital and experimental religion, were now generally subject to great awakenings. Edwards summarized his report by saying2: PowerPoint: More than 300 souls were savingly brought home to Christ, in this town, in the space of half a year, and about the same number of males as females. Apparently, the times are never too dark to discourage the Spirit of God! This awakening spread to nearby towns up and down the Connecticut River, and even farther. Here is a fascinating video clip that will show us what happened next: You heard me mention George Whitefield last week; he was a colleague of the Wesley brothers going all the way back to their students days at Oxford and the Holy Club. Now he arrived in the New Worldand during his first week, he preached on the Boston Commons to a crowd of 8,000 people! (No amplification in those days, obviously. Just a strong set of lungs.) The next week, he traveled west to Jonathan Edwardss church in Northampton, Mass. According to an eyewitness account: The people were exceedingly moved, crying out in great numbers in the meetinghouse. There were some instances of persons lying in a trance, remaining for perhaps a whole 24 hours motionless. A great deal of caution and pains were found necessary to keep the people, many of them, from running wild. When Whitefield came to Philadelphia, even the kindly agnostic Benjamin Franklin heard him and had to admit he was impressed. Here is a touch of the
Jonathan Edwards, A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God, 1737 (posted at: http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/ipb-e/epl-10/web/edwards-narrative.html ).
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evangelists colorful preaching from the courthouse balcony: Father Abraham, whom have you in heaven? Any Episcopalians? No! Any Presbyterians? No! Any independents and Methodists? No, no, no! Whom have you there? We dont know those names here. All who are here are Christians. Oh, is this the case? Then God help us to forget party names and become Christians in deed and in truth. After traveling through a number of mid-Atlantic cities, Whitefield came back to Boston for more meetings. On the street one day, he ran into his chief critic, the Rev. Charles (Old Brick) Chauncy, who had been the minister of First Congregational Church, Boston, for 60 years and was well set in his ways. He said with an icy tone, Ah, Mr. Whitefield. I am sorry to see you return. Whitefield didnt miss a beat. Quickly he shot back: So is the devil! If there was a peak year for the First Great Awakening, it would have to be 1741. That was the year when Jonathan Edwards, on a hot Saturday in July, preached his now-famous Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God at Enfield, Connecticut. Today, it seems that every high school American Literature class reads this sermonand stereotypes it as an over-the-top example of hellfire-and-brimstone ranting in the colonial period. Well, there are two things that need to be said: 1. Edwards was preaching to church folks that day, not pagans. 2. He was by no means a fiery screamer. Jonathan Edwards was in fact a quiet man who read his sermons and he was near-sighted, which meant he had to hold his

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manuscript close to his face. Yet his delivery was powerful. Here are some clips from that sermon, as recorded by the talented actor Max McLean. (If anyone is interested in the full recording, its available from: Fellowship for the Performing Arts, 1674 Broadway, Suite 404, New York, NY 10019. Phone: 212-582-2920.) DISCUSSION What do you think?! How does this strike you? What should you and I take away from this famous sermon? One historian says that during the First Great Awakening, Physical demonstrations were common in many communities; strong men fell as though shot, and women became hysterical. Sometimes Edwards would have to stop and wait for the crowd to calm down. But he did not apologize for their reactions. In his book A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections (1746), he wrote: PowerPoint: True religion, in great part, consists in holy affections. I am bold to assert that there never was any considerable change wrought in the mind or conversation [lifestyle] that had not his affections moved. He that has doctrinal knowledge and speculation only, without affection, never is engaged in the business of religion. Would you like to know what eventually happened to Jonathan Edwards? Around 1750, he began to insist in his church that Communion should be taken by believers only. If someone was attending church for social reasons but was not a genuine Christian, they should refrain from receiving the Lords body and blood. This ruffled feathers among the established citizenry of Northampton. How could their minister discriminate so harshly? Some grumbled that this was not the Stoddard way of Jonathan Edwardss grandfather. Things got ugly and finally came to a head. Can you believe the church actually voted him out of his pastorate, after 21 years?! Edwards left graciously. His farewell sermon was a model of mature forbearance. He moved with his wife and seven children out to the western frontier (todays
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Stockbridge, Mass.) where he would preach to the Indians and write books. Somehow they survived the next seven years. Then, in 1757, his son-in-law, Aaron Burr Sr., president of Princeton University, died of malaria. The board invited the father-in-law, Jonathan Edwards, to take over. He moved down to Princeton in the middle of the winter alone, leaving his wife Sarah and the children to come later when weather improved. Just then, the medical profession had come up with a newfangled idea: smallpox vaccination. Jonathan Edwards willingly lined up to get the shot, expecting it to protect him from this all-too-common scourge. He was inoculated on February 23, 1758and died a month later of smallpox, at the age of 54! Esther, his married daughter, got the same inoculation, and died too, leaving two children. One of these was Aaron Burr Jr.a future vice-president of the United States, under Thomas Jefferson. (Unfortunately, he totally rejected his grandfathers faith.) Jonathan Edwards today is hailed by many scholars as the greatest theologian born on American soil. If you want to read more of his work, check out this website: www.jonathanedwards.com. The story of the First Great Awakening would not be complete without mentioning another son-in-law of Jonathan Edwards (well, almost a son-in-law; thats a story Ill tell you in a minute). He was:

DAVID BRAINERD (1718 1747)

He, like Edwards, studied at Yale. He tangled more than once with the administration, which frowned upon the revival that was going on. Young David felt a call to become a missionary to the Indians, among whom he served after college and was particularly effective. His biography has become a classic source

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of inspiration to Christians ever since. It tells how he spent long times of prayer in the woods, enduring rain, cold, and snow. He wanted the power of God in his life and preaching more than anything else. And God heard. For example: Sept. 2, 1744: Was enabled to speak to my poor Indians with much concern and fervency. I perceived that some of them were afraid to hearken to and embrace Christianity, lest they should be enchanted and poisoned by some of the Powwows [conjurers]. But I was enabled to plead with them not to fear these; and I bid a challenge to all these powers of darkness to do their worst upon me first. I told my people I was a Christian, and asked them why the Powwows did not bewitch and poison me. Dec. 18, 1744: Went to the Indians, and discoursed to them near an hour, but without any power to come close to their hearts. At last I felt some fervency, and God helped me to speak with warmth. My interpreter was also amazingly assisted; and I doubt not but the Spirit of God was upon him, though I had no reason to think he had any true and saving grace. Presently most of the grown persons were much affected, and the tears ran down their cheeks. The next day, Dec. 19, 1744: Spent a great part of the day in prayer for the outpouring of His Spirit on my people, also to bless His name for awakening my interpreter and some others, and giving us tokens of His presence yesterday. I had much freedom in prayer and praise, and felt a weighty concern for the salvation of those precious souls.

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PowerPoint: August 8, 1745: In the afternoon I preached to the Indians upon Luke 15:16-23. There was much visible concern among them, while I was discoursing publicly. The power of God seemed to descend upon the assembly like a mighty rushing wind, and with an astonishing energy bore down all before it. I stood amazed at the influence, which seized the audience almost universally. Almost all persons of all ages were bowed down with concern together, and scarcely one was able to withstand the shock of this surprising operation. Old men and women, who had been drunken wretches for many years, and some little children, not more than six or seven years of age, appeared in distress for their souls, as well as persons of middle age. This earnest young man did find brief amounts of time, however, to leave his work in the Indian territory and visit the Edwards family in Northampton. There he became engaged to Jerusha Edwards. But there was something wrong with his health. He often coughed and even spit up blood. It eventually became apparent that David Brainerd had tuberculosis. He went to Northampton to be cared forbut soon died there, at the age of just 29. And dear Jerusha, in caring for him contracted TB and died, too. What can we summarize about the results of the First Great Awakening? Well, it is truly remarkable that between 30,000 and 40,000 New Englanders became convertedout of a population of just 300,000. Some 150 new churches were planted across New England, New York, and the mid-Atlantic states. Methodist preachers from England started arriving in the 1760s, helping to fan the flames of revival. Heres a sound bite from the very first sermon preached in America by a Methodist, Capt. Thomas Webb. He was a bold fellow who had already lost one eye in the French and Indian War, and so he didnt

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mince words. We dont know what Scripture he was using on this day in New York City, but theres no mistaking his passionate emphasis:

PowerPoint: The words of the text [??] were written by the Apostles after the act of justification has passed on them. But you see, my friends, this was not enough for them. They must receive the Holy Ghost after this. So must you. You must be sanctified. But you are not. You are only Christians in part. You have not received the Holy Ghost. I know it. I can feel your spirits hanging about me like so much dead flesh. By the 1770s, however, many people up and down the Eastern Seaboard were thinking more about politics than religion, as the conflict with Great Britain heated up. The spotlight of fame passed from George Whitefield to another George W named George Washington. The Revolutionary War began in 1775 and ran for the next eight years. But as the video explained, the Awakening had helped to set the stage for greater initiative, more public discourse, and a determination to be a new and different kind of culture. It was a definite factor in the rise of this unique entity called the United States of America. Once again, make sure your group members get their copies of Whispers of the Divine Wind for this week.

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