My friend is publishing a new family magazine that you can view online here , and she asked me to write something about one of my favorite people: Jonathan Edwards. Most folks don’t know too much about this fascinating man who is important to us both in American history and in Church history. Here’s an intro.; there’s several great biographies about him if you want to read more.
Jonathan Edwards is widely considered the greatest mind that America has ever produced, so why do we know so little about him? How is it even possible for a woman living on the edge of the wilderness in 1703, to raise American’s greatest mind? And Edwards was not alone; the sturdy colonists of New England churned out a host of the most cultured, ennobled, and intelligent young people the world had ever seen. As we seek to make wise decisions about our children’s education, perhaps we can show a little humility, look backward, and learn from the people who got results, instead of those who have only theories.
Maturity
In Jonathan Edwards’ early life, we notice a maturity that is startling compared with today’s young people. Edwards’ father, Timothy, confidently sent his young son down the river to Yale College when Jonathan was only 13 years old. At age 18, Jonathan was in the fields, but instead of sowing his wild oats, he was thinking about God.
I spent most of my time in thinking of divine things, year after year; often walking alone in the woods, and solitary places, for meditation, soliloquy, and prayer, and converse with God.
Nineteen year-old Edwards was ready to be licensed to preach and to pastor in New York. In that first year of ministry, he wrote a series of Resolutions:
Resolved, Never to do any manner of thing, whether in soul or body, less or more, but what tends to the glory of God.
Resolved, Never to lose one moment of time, but to improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can.
Resolved, To strive every week to be brought higher in religion, and to a higher exercise of grace, than I was the week before.
At a time when most young people are thinking about friends, jobs, and family, Edwards had one consuming passion:
I had great longings for the advancement of Christ’s kingdom in the world; and my secret prayer used to be, in great part, taken up in the morning for it.
Edwards was not, however, indifferent to God’s good gifts in this world, for at age 20, he developed a friendship with Sarah Pierrepont whom he described to be of a wonderful sweetness, calmness and universal benevolence of mind; specially after this great God has manifested himself to her mind. She will sometimes go about from place to place, singing sweetly; and seems to be always full of joy and pleasure. Jonathan wrote this account of Sarah when she herself was only 13 years old. They were married four years later, when Edwards was serving as pastor of the North Hampton congregation in New Haven, Connecticut.
Education
Edwards did not separate the spiritual realm from the intellectual realm; on the contrary, he saw the intellectual realm as the chief means for understanding God and His ways. As a child, Edwards received a classical education, mastering the classic languages and literature, and at Yale, he rounded out the liberal arts with pure mathematics, astronomy, logic, philosophy, geometry, and even medicine. The goal of education in Edwards’ day was a person who could think for himself, a person who could do anything or be anything. Those early schools, homes and colleges, using similar curriculums, poured out ministers, doctors, lawyers, mothers, and statesmen who were able to be all that God had made them to be.
It’s a common misunderstanding to believe that rigorous, disciplined academic pursuits pose a threat to a student’s spiritual development. Edwards, the most intellectual man in American, was also one of the most spiritual. His sermons, which knew nothing of sensationalism, left his audience in holy awe, and some have called his preaching style “scholarship on fire.” Indeed, it was Edwards’ fiery discourses that began and sustained the First Great Awakening, the greatest spiritual movement in the history of America.
Sense of Calling
The prosperous New Englanders did not steer their children toward making money; instead, they valued piety, intellectualism, hard work, and leadership. As others in his day, Jonathan Edwards did not view himself as an individual, but as part of an extraordinary community that had made him who he was and his life work would be giving back to that community.
The Puritans, and their progeny in New England, chose their life work based on a sense of calling, based on one’s natural gifts and inclinations, the needs of the community, and the recognizing of one’s gifts by the community. Growing up in a minister’s home, young Jonathan had heard many a prayer said on his behalf and many godly men had laid their hands on his head and said a blessing for his life. A strong sense of community gave his life a loving purpose and a grateful ambition to change the future.
And change the future, he did. After his long tenure as pastor, evangelist, and missionary to the Indians, Edwards helped his son-in-law found the College of New Jersey, which later became Princeton University. In a study done on the numerous descendents of Jonathan Edwards, there was found hundreds of ministers, physicians, statement, authors, college professors, and at least 13 college presidents.
As we consider our goals for our children, let us reflect on past successes. Sometimes, despite evolutionary claims to the contrary, our ancestors in the unenlightened past exhibited far more intelligence, wisdom, and grace than we can even imagine. Let us look to the past and aim high, not allowing our kids to settle for less than their best. We can give them a real education, not just an educational experience. We can help them discover their calling in life and hope in the God who lit a fire in New England to fulfill all His good promises in them.
Edwards, thou should’st be
living at this hour:
America hath need of thee:
She is a fen (spiritually)
of stagnant waters.
Paraphrase of Wordsworth by Leonard Ravenhill
[...] comprehensive biography of JE. He’s a man worth knowing a lot about. Here’s a good super-summary of why you should like him that is posted at Redeeming [...]