His Word Today

“Jonathan Edwards unites comprehensiveness of view, with minuteness of investigation, beyond any writer I am acquainted with. He was the greatest of the sons of men.” – Robert Hall, 1866.

What do we mean when we say the torch is passed? The metaphorical expression refers to giving one’s job or duties to another person. It alludes to the ancient Greek torch race, in which a lighted torch was passed from one runner to the next. The phrase is usually invoked when an older individual relinquishes their responsibilities to a younger protégé.

Upon the death of Solomon Stoddard, Jonathan Edwards assumed the pastoral responsibilities of the church at Northampton. It is one thing to be an assistant to the pastor, but another situation entirely when you become the pastor and are responsible for the spiritual health and wellbeing of a congregation. The individual in question no longer is playing second fiddle, but now occupies the position of the concert master.  

Edwards had the responsibility of the preaching of God’s Word three times week to a biblically literate congregation. Stoddard had faithfully discipled his flock for over five decades. Therefore, the expectations for Stoddard’s successor were high.

Edwards soon discovered that he would need as much time as possible to adequately prepare to preach and teach. The resulting theological output which Edwards produced in his sermon manuscripts and books is truly amazing. He was truly up to the task.

Edwards possessed a different personality than his grandfather. Solomon Stoddard was sanguine in temperament and was the life of any gathering along with being a fluent conversationalist. Stoddard was also a strongly opinionated individual. Edwards once remarked, “Mr. Stoddard, though an eminently holy man, was naturally of a dogmatic temper.”

Edwards, in contrast, was melancholier in temperament. He enjoyed quiet and solitary contemplation in the wilderness of the Connecticut River Valley. He was reserved and quiet; both in the pulpit and in most social settings.

“The people noticed that, unlike many minsters, Edwards did not intend to be part-time farmer, yet even so he seemed to have no time on his hands. From the outset it was not his custom to pull his horse and pass the time of day with his many parishioners. The world of crops and cattle was clearly not his principle interest. He lived somewhat apart and socially distant. He was clearly related to the men who wore white shirts rather than the common checkered ones,”  states Edwards’ biographer Iain Murray..

Edwards’ passion was not only to preach the Word of God, but also to give himself wholly to the study of the same. He took to heart the instruction from the Apostle Paul contained in 2 Timothy 2:15: “Do your best to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.”

Soli deo Gloria!

“The profoundest reasoner, and the greatest divine, in my opinion, that America ever produced.”  — Samuel Davies, July 1, 1759

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 says, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: ² a time to be born, and a time to die;”

The writer of Ecclesiastes expressed that there is an appropriate occasion for every human event and activity. In other words, life is incredibly complex and characterized by contrasts.

In today’s text, the writer sets forth the recognized contrast between when we are born and when we die. In effect the writer said that all of us have a point in time when we are born and conversely all of us have a point in time when we die. There are no exceptions.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 is a fitting text of Scripture when studying the life of Jonathan Edwards; especially in the year 1728-1730. It was during those three years that the Edwards’ would not only rejoice in the birth of children but also experience grief in the death of loved ones.

Jonathan and Sarah’s first child, their daughter Sarah, was born August 25, 1728. It was a Sunday. The Edwards family of two was now three.

Sadly, the following February Solomon Stoddard died. The man who faithfully preached the Word of God and served the people of God in Northampton was now in the presence of God in heaven. People throughout New England mourned his passing. Tributes were many and praiseworthy of this dedicated man of God.

“Stoddard was a Prophet and a Father to not only to the neighboring churches, and pastors of his own country, but also to those of the whole land. He was a Peter among the disciples and minsters of our Lord Jesus; very much our Primate and Prince among us, in an evangelical and truly apostolic sense,” wrote one individual in Boston.

Even more grievous was the death of Jonathan’s nineteen-year-old sister, Jerusha in December, 1729. While they may have differed in personality, their love for the Lod was fervent. In that, they were as one.

However, in the midst of grief the Lord often brings joy. The following April a second Edwards’ daughter was born. They named her Jerusha, after her deceased aunt. It was said that in both life and death, these two women resembled each other.

The Edwards’ family was growing. So too were the young pastor’s responsibilities in the wake of his grandfather’s death. However, Jonathan Edwards would prove to be up to the task the Lord sovereignly gave him.

The Lord remains faithful in the tasks He has given believers in Christ today. Have a blessed day in the Lord.

Soli deo Gloria!

³⁰ “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. ³¹ Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.” (Proverbs 31:30-31 ESV)

Jonathan Edwards began settling in to his new responsibilities in Northampton as the assistant to Pastor Solomon Stoddard. However, since his arrival another new event was shaping his life and ministry.. Edwards married Sarah Pierrepoint in New Haven on July 28, 1727. She was to bring, as a wife does, a sweetness and strength in his life for thirty years.

“Perhaps no event of Mr. Edwards’ life had a more close connection and his subsequent comfort and usefulness that this marriage,” Edwards biographer, Samuel Miller, explains,

Jonathan and Sarah met while he was a student at Yale.  Sarah was thirteen years old when the young Edwards fell in love with her. When they married, Jonathan was twenty-three and Sarah was seventeen.

“She is possessed of wonderful sweetness, calmness, and universal benevolence of mind. She will sometimes go about from place to place singing sweetly, and seems to be always full of joy and pleasure, and no one knows for what. She loves to be alone, walking in the fields and groves, and seems to have someone invisible always conversing with he,” Edwards wrote.

Sarah was the daughter of Rev. James Pierrepoint. James had served as a pastor in New Haven from 1685 until his death in 1714. He was one of the founders of Yale College.

Sarah was also the grand-daughter of Thomas Hooker (1586-1647). Hooker was not only a Congregational minister but also the founder of the Connecticut Colony. Hooker “was known as an outstanding speaker and an advocate of universal Christian suffrage,” one historian explains.

Sarah was an excellent wife and mother of eleven children, ten of whom would live to adulthood. She would survive several of her children and her husband.

“Their marriage, which lasted over thirty years, was a happy one. Much of that was owing to Sarah, who managed the home–and her scholarly husband–efficiently. Sarah worked hard to rear godly children, dealing immediately with sin when it showed itself. The many people who visited the home were impressed by the peace which flourished in the home. There was none of the quarreling or coldness so common in other homes. Husband and wife supported and admired each other. They prayed daily together. Evangelist George Whitefield, after spending a few days in the calm, happy Edwards home, was so impressed that he determined to get married himself. “A sweeter couple I have not yet seen,” he enthuse,.” a biographer of Sarah Edwards explains,

It is evident that Sarah Edwards fit the profile of an excellent wife of Proverbs 31:30-31.

Have a blessed day in the Lord.

Soli deo Gloria!  

“Mr. Edwards is a solid, excellent Christian…I think I have not seen his fellow in all New England.” – George Whitefield, October 17, 1740.

Jonathan Edwards accepted the call to be an assistant to Pastor Solomon Stoddard, his maternal grandfather, in 1727. Having served as pastor for well over fifty years in Northampton and at the age of 83, Stoddard needed assistance. With several previous, prospective candidates not succeeding in the position, the church leaders approached Edwards.

Edward’s biographer Steven J. Lawson explains, “Jonathan was ordained as his associate on Feb. 15, 1727, with the understanding that Stoddard would train young Edwards to succeed him.”

Solomon Stoddard began serving as pastor of the Northampton Church in 1670.His predecessor, Eleazer Mather, died and the pastoral search committee extended an invitation to the twenty-six year old Harvard graduate. In March 1670, having recently married Esther Mather, Solomon began preaching in the Northampton pulpit and would officially became the pastor in April 1672.

Stoddard believed that the “experience of the grace of God was the first necessity of a minister. Every learned and moral man is not a sincere convert, and so not able to speak exactly and experimentally to such things as souls want to be instructed in.”

In spite of Stoddard’s fifty-seven year ministry, the town of Northampton physically remained the same. It continued to be a farming community. Except for a few tradesmen and professionals, the people remained bonded to the soil.

Edwards’ biographer Iain Murray states, “Corn and wheat were sown in spring, calves and lambs were born and cared for. Then came hay-making and harvest, and before winter, apples were stored, animals slaughtered, and fields ploughed. Timber felling and wood cutting were constant necessities for building, for furniture and, not least, for hearting because there was to be no coal used in New England until after 1830. Country life was thus marked by an immobility and sameness. From week to week, and year to year, life went on as usual.”   

The townspeople, of upward to 1,000, lived close together and close to nature. However, it was their weekly church involvement that truly bound them together with cords that, at least on the surface, could not be broken.

Murray explains, “Almost the whole population would be at the one meeting house on Sunday mornings and again at 2 pm in the afternoon, at which times, it is said, sermons might last for two hours. The church also expected a ‘lecture’ on Thursday afternoons at 2 pm. Communal life indeed revolved around the church and even the town-meetings were held in the meeting house at Northampton until the late 1730’s when a separate building was erected for that purpose.”

The Northampton church had a membership of approximately 400-500. However, this does not mean that all were converted followers of Jesus Christ. We will address this subject when next we meet because this issue would play a significant part in Edward’s ministry at Northampton.

Have a blessed day in the Lord.

Soli deo Gloria!

Jonathan Edwards: “That good and sensible man …that great man.” – John Wesley

Jonathan Edwards returned to Yale College in June, 1724. He would serve as one of two tutors until 1726. However, the position of tutor during that time was more than just being a professor, lecturer and instructor. It involved administrative leadership of the college.

Edwards biographer, George Marsden, explains, “He (Edwards) was one of the two tutors at Yale tasked with leading the college in the absence of a rector, or president. Yale’s previous rector, Timothy Cutler, lost his position when he defected to the Anglican Church. After two years, he had not been replaced.”

In spite of the Yale’s trustee’s best efforts to fill the rector vacancy themselves on a rotating basis, it seems that from 1722 to 1726 Yale was virtually without a president. Edwards agreed to assume the position but not without some reservations.

Edwards biographer Iain Murray states, “A tutorship would represent a loss of freedom to plan his days his own way, and in addition to the study and teaching required of him, he knew that there would necessarily be many time-consuming commitments in the administration of the student body.”

Along with his studies, teaching and administrative responsibilities, Edwards was responsible for at least forty and up to sixty students. While this period of time was 300 years ago, it should be noted that college students then were as college students are today. While there were rules and behavioral standards in place, Yale students often disregarded these codes of conduct. Ecclesiastes 1:9 (ESV) applies here when the text says, “What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done, and there is nothing new under the sun.”

Having completed his first year as a tutor, Edwards became seriously ill. In September, 1725, Edwards became sick and attempted to come home to East Windsor. He made it as far as to the home of Isaac Stiles, the minister of North Haven. Nursed by his mother Esther, Edwards remained in the Stiles’ parsonage for three months, Eventually, Edwards regained his health. However, he came to the conclusion that being a tutor at Yale was not where he most wanted to be. During his long recovery, he prayed to the Lord for guidance.

The rector vacancy was finally filled in September, 1726. Elisha Williams, a popular tutor when Yale was located at Wethersfield, received the appointment to assume the same responsibilities at the college’s relatively new location in New Haven.

It was in August of 1726 that the church in Northampton, pastored by his maternal grandfather Solomon Stoddard, invited Edwards to become assistant pastor. Stoddard was well into his eighties and needed help where he had been pastor for nearly a half century. It was at Northampton that Edwards would serve the Lord for the next twenty-three years of his life. He would become known as Mr. Edwards of Northampton.  

Have a blessed day in the Lord.

Soli deo Gloria!    

“Tell the righteous that it shall be well with them, for they shall eat the fruit of their deeds.” (Isaiah 3:10 (ESV)

During the years 1722-1723, Jonathan Edwards completed his master’s degree from Yale and began an interim pastoral ministry in New York City. The church was a small Scottish Presbyterian church located near Broadway and Wall Street.

From information derived from historical documents, it is most likely that of the initial ten sermons Jonathan Edwards prepared to preach, his first biblical text was from Isaiah 3:10. The emphasis on the sermon was the joy of the Christian.

“When a man is enlightened savingly by Christ, he is, as it were, brought into a new world. The excellency of the (Christian) religion and the glorious mysteries of the gospel seemed as a strange thing to him before, but now…he sees with his own eyes and admires and is astonished, ” wrote Edwards.

Edwards’ atypical sermon structure was as follows: from the text, to doctrine, to application. Edwards had to discipline himself that his spiritual energy and enthusiasm did not overshadow proper and conventional 18^th century decorum. In other words, Edwards strove to balance enthusiasm for the text with a proper exposition and understanding of the text.

Chief among Edwards’ sermon themes was true conversion and the evidences of true conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ. “Zeal in the external exercises of religion proves nothing,” he explained.

Edwards’ extra-biblical readings during this time were books written by his maternal grandfather and pastor, Solomon Stoddard. Stoddard was the best-known living author, concerning the biblical gospel and conversion to the same, in New England at the time.

During the year 1722 as he recalled his time spent in New York. “My longings after God and holiness, were much increased. Pure and humble, holy and heavenly, Christianity appeared exceeding amiable to me. I felt a burning desire to be in everything a complete Christian; and conformed to the blessed image of Christ; and that I might live, in all things, according to the pure, sweet and blessed rules of the gospel.”

“It was my continual strife, day and night, and constant inquiry, how I should be more holy and live more holily and more becoming a child of God and a disciple of Christ. I now sought more an increase of grace and holiness, and a holy life, with much more earnestness than ever I sought grace before I had it.”

The Presbyterian Church of which Edwards provided pulpit supply was the result of a church split. A dissatisfied minority withdrew from the majority congregation and began meeting in their own building. It was during Edwards’ preaching ministry that the smaller congregation realized their error in leaving. Edward also believed a reunion was in the best interests of all concerned.

Since a reunion of the congregation was eminent, Edwards understood that he would no longer be needed. He decided to leave New York during April, 1723.

Edwards returned home to East Windsor, Conn. There is little documentation as to what Edwards did and thought during the summer days of 1723. One diary entry of Edwards, during that time, says, “I now plainly perceive what great obligation I am under to love and honour my parents. I have great reason to believe that their counsel and education have been my making.”

It was during these remaining days of 1723, in considering what he now would do in the ministry, that Edwards sensed God’s call for him to return to Yale as a tutor. This he did so. He returned to Yale in June, 1724.

Have a blessed day in the Lord. May you serve Him where He has sovereignly placed you.

Soli deo Gloria!    

“What God aims at in the in the disposition of things in the affair of redemption is that man should not glory in himself, but alone in God (I Cor. 1:29-31). That no flesh should glory in His presence, that according as it is written, he that glories, let him glory in the Lord.” – Jonathan Edwards, July 8, 1731.  

During the years 1722-1723, Jonathan Edwards completed his master’s degree from Yale and began an interim pastoral ministry in New York City. The church was a small Scottish Presbyterian church located near Broadway and Wall Street.

Biographer Iain Murray explains “All his personal papers from this period indicate that a new master-interest possessed him: it was to enjoy the Word of God.”

Of that particular time in his life, Edwards wrote, “I had then the greatest delight in the Holy Scriptures, of any book whatsoever. Oftentimes in reading it, every word seemed to touch my heart. I felt a harmony between something in my heart and those sweet and powerful words. I seemed often to see so much light exhibited by every sentence, and such a refreshing food communicated, that I could not get along in reading; often dwelling long on one sentence to see the wonders contained in it, and yet almost every sentence seemed to be full of wonders.”   

It was during these two years that Edwards seriously considered what the Lord specifically wanted him to do. It was a soul searching and soul stretching time for the young eighteen year old. It was then that Edwards began writing his “Resolutions.”

Edwards’ Resolutions were/are seventy purpose statements. He designed each one of them as directives for his Christian life and living. They became his guidelines. They were a spiritual checks and balances for him. By them, Edwards could continually evaluate his relationships, conversations, desires and activities.

The first twenty-one Resolutions were written in one sitting. The seventieth was composed on August 17, 1723. Here is but a sample.

• 1. Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriad’s of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many and how great soever.
• 5. Resolved, never to lose one moment of time; but improve it the most profitable way I possibly can.
• 7. Resolved, never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if it were the last hour of my life.
• 17. Resolved, that I will live so as I shall wish I had done when I come to die.
• 24. Resolved, whenever I do any conspicuously evil action, to trace it back, till I come to the original cause; and then both carefully endeavor to do so no more, and to fight and pray with all my might against the original of it.
• 25. Resolved, to examine carefully, and constantly, what that one thing in me is, which causes me in the least to doubt of the love of God; and to direct all my forces against it.
• 28. Resolved, to study the Scriptures so steadily, constantly and frequently, as that I may find, and plainly perceive myself to grow in the knowledge of the same.
• 53. Resolved, to improve every opportunity, when I am in the best and happiest frame of mind, to cast and venture my soul on the Lord Jesus Christ, to trust and confide in him, and consecrate myself wholly to him; that from this I may have assurance of my safety, knowing that I confide in my Redeemer.

I encourage you to take note of Jonathan Edwards’ Resolutions and compile your own series of resolutions by which you may glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. Have a blessed day.

Soli deo Gloria!

“If someone were to ask me, for example, who I thought was the godliest person that God ever gave to America, the godliest person who ever lived in North America, I would not hesitate to answer that question by saying; Jonathan Edwards.”  — Dr. R. C. Sproul 

Edwards returned from Yale to his parent’s home in the summer of 1721. Upon his return home, and of his recent conversion to Christ, Edwards fondly recalled those memorable days.

“Not long after I first began to experience these things, I gave an account to my father of some things that had passed in my mind. I was pretty much affected by the discourse we had together, and when the discourse was ended, I walked abroad alone, in a solitary place in my father’s pasture, for contemplation. And as I was walking there, and looking up to the sky and clouds, there came into my mind so sweet a sense of the glorious majesty and grace of God, that I know not how to express. I seemed to see them both in a sweet, and gentle, and holy majesty; and also, a majestic meekness; and awful sweetness; a high and great and holy gentleness.”

Edwards’ joy as a new believer in Christ continued during those initial days. It reminds me of my own conversion and the immediate aftermath of God-enabled insight into life, living and creation. 

“After this my sense of divine things gradually increased, and became more and morel lively, and had more of that inward sweetness. The appearance of everything altered. There seemed to be, as it were, a calm, sweet, cast, or appearance of divine glory, in almost everything.”

“I felt then great satisfaction, as to my good state; but that did not content me. I had vehement longings of soul after God and Christ, and after more holiness, wherewith my heart seemed to be full, and ready to break; which often brought to my mind the words of the psalmist in Psalm 119:20: ‘My soul is crushed with longing after Your ordinances at all times.’ I often felt a mourning and lamenting in my heart that I had not turned to God sooner, that I might have had more time to grow in grace.” 

“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 conversing with God. It was always my manner, at such times, to sing forth my contemplations.”

How wonderful it is to remember when the Lord first broke into our dead souls and raised us into new life in Christ. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for your ministry of regeneration (John 3:1-8). Soli deo Gloria!  

“Those who are truly converted are new men, new creatures; new, not only within, but without; they are sanctified throughout, in spirit, soul and body; old things are passed away, all things are become new; they have new hearts, new eyes, new tongues, new hands, new feet; i.e. a new conversation and practice; they walk in newness of life and continue to do so to the end of life.”   — Jonathan Edwards 

Jonathan Edwards’ conversion to personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ approximately occurred in March of 1721. “That change by which I was brought to those new dispositions and that new sense of things,” wrote Edwards in speaking of his conversion to Christ.

Edwards returned to his home in May or June of 1721 full of the joy and love for Jesus Christ. “Edwards’ account of what took place in 1721, as given in his (Edwards’) ‘Personal Narrative’, is the most important statement he ever wrote about himself,” explains Edwards biographer Iain Murray.

“The first instance that I remember of that sort of inward, sweet delight in God and divine things that I have lived much in since, was on reading those words (I Tim. 1:17) ‘Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be honour and glory for ever and ever, Amen.’ As I read those words, there came into my soul, and was as it were diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the Divine Being; a new sense, quite different from any thing I ever experienced before,” Edwards describing his conversion to Christ.

“Never any words of Scripture seemed to me as these words did. I thought with myself, how excellent a Being that was, and how happy I should be, if I might enjoy that God, and be rapt up in Him in heaven, and be as it were swallowed up in Him forever!”

“I kept saying, and as it were singing over these words of Scripture to myself; and went 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. But it never came into my thought, that there was any thing spiritual, or of a saving nature in this.” 

Edwards began to have new comprehensions and ideas of Christ. This included the work of redemption and the glorious way of salvation in the person and work of Jesus Christ. He had an increasing, sweet sense of the things of God.  

Edwards was increasingly captivated in reading and meditating upon Christ. This included the beauty and excellency of the person of Jesus along with the lovely way of salvation by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. 

“The sense I had of divine things, would often of a sudden kindle up, as it were, a sweet burning in my heart; an ardor of soul, that I know not how to express,” wrote Edwards.

May this be said of us. Pray today that the Lord would rekindle the fire and devotion within your soul for Him and for His Word. Have a blessed day in the Lord.

Soli deo Gloria!

“Jonathan Edwards has always seemed to me the man most like the Apostle Paul.” – D. Martyn Lloyd Jones

In spite of Jonathan’s rigorous upbringing and exposure to biblical Christianity by his family, he remained unconverted. When Jonathan turned thirteen, his father Timothy enrolled him at the newly founded Collegiate School of Connecticut. The school would later be known as Yale.

Timothy Edwards received his education at Harvard. Harvard began as a Calvinistic school, but had theologically weakened under unbiblical influences. It was due to this “doctrinal erosion” that Timothy decided to enroll Jonathan at Yale, which at the time was strongly committed to Reformed theology. .

At Yale, Jonathan received an excellent college education. He studied grammar, rhetoric, logic, ancient history, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, metaphysics, ethics, natural science, Greek, Hebrew, Christian theology, natural philosophy, and classical literature. He also had a healthy education in the writings of John Calvin, John Owen, William Ames and other Puritan scholars.

Jonathan graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1720. He was at the head of his class. He delivered the valedictory address. However, he still was not a converted Christian.

Upon graduation, Jonathan immediately began pursuing a master’s degree at Yale. His studies required two years of independent study. It was during his second year of graduate studies that he received Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord (John 1:12-13). In contemplating I Timothy 1:17, he wrote, “There came into my soul, and there was as it were diffused through it, a sense of the glory of the Divine Being; a new sense, quite different from anything I ever experienced before.”

Concerning his conversion, Jonathan would later write, “I began to have a new kind of apprehensions and ideas of Christ, and the work of redemption, and the glorious ways of salvation by Him. An inward, sweet sense of these things, at times, came into my heart; and my soul was led away in pleasant views and contemplations of them. My mind was greatly engaged to spend my time in reading and meditating on Christ, on the beauty and excellency of His person, and the lovely way of salvation by free grace in Him.”

Dr. Steven J. Lawson writes, “We live in a day of spiritual laxity. Many who confess Christ are pampering themselves to death rather than pushing themselves to holiness. Their spiritual muscles are untrained and unfit. Their wills are soft and unresolved. This is why a study of the life of Jonathan Edwards is so valuable. Considered the towering figure in American Colonial history – arguably the greatest pastor, preacher, philosopher, theologian and author America has ever produced – Edwards lived with an enlarged desire to experience personal godliness.”

May we pursue godliness in much the same way. Have a blessed day in the Lord.

Soli deo Gloria!