A Town Awakened to Eternal Realities
By April 1735, the evidence of a changed spiritual atmosphere in the community was undeniable.
Jonathan himself described it this way:
A great and earnest concern about the great things of religion, and the eternal world, became universal in all parts of the town, and among persons of all ages… All other talk but about spiritual and eternal things, was soon thrown away… The minds of people were wonderfully taken off from the world; it was treated amongst us as a thing of very little consequence… The temptation now seemed to lie on that hand, to neglect worldly affairs too much, and to spend too much time in the immediate exercise of religion.
Social Transformation and Renewed Worship
Without being prompted, neighbors took up a collection for the owner of a general store after it burned to the ground. Backbiting and gossiping stopped. Taverns were reported to have emptied. Even church services were transformed:
Our Public assemblies were then beautiful; the congregation was alive in God’s service, everyone intent on the public worship, every hearer eager to drink in the words of the minister as they came from his mouth; the assembly were from time to time in tears while the word was preached; some weeping with sorrow and distress, others with joy and love, others with pity and concern for the souls of their neighbours.
Remarkable Physical and Spiritual Changes
Another notable occurrence during the revival was that illness nearly disappeared from the town. When Jonathan later detailed what occurred during the revival in his Faithful Narrative, he wrote that although he didn’t see this disappearance of disease as evidence required to prove revival, he did feel that it was necessary to acknowledge it.
Opposition, Growth, and Regional Impact
His critics called all that he wrote about “fanaticism,” especially the showing of emotions and stories of unlikely people being converted. Some reports say that more than five hundred people half of them men joined the church as a result of the revival. Word began to spread in the surrounding areas and people came from other towns to see the excitement.
The Edwards household overflowed with visitors. The revival continued to spread throughout the Connecticut River Valley as far as New Haven and the coastal settlements, even reaching outside of New England.
Documenting Revival for the World
In Boston, a place untouched by the awakening, a minister by the name of Benjamin Colman asked Jonathan to send him a report of the happenings in Northampton. Jonathan’s talent for recording details and interpreting them made it a job for which he was well suited. Jonathan’s letter was then forwarded to friends of Colman in England.
The report turned into a complete ‘how to’ manual ‘for conducting a revival from preparation to onset’ the maintenance, regulation, dangers, and effects of revival. This guidebook was eventually published under the title ‘A Faithful Narrative of the Surprising Work of God’. Even though he penned the words, Jonathan was well aware that it was ultimately God who authored this work of conversion. This publication made Jonathan famous throughout New England, as well as in Scotland and England, where George Whitefield and John Wesley were eventually acquainted with it.
Tale Tuesday 053
Date: 22nd August, 2023
Title: : Jonathan Edward: The Revivalists
Source: God’s Generals: The Revivalists
Author: Roberts Liardon
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