EDWARDS 
 
 
 
 MEMORIAL 
 
//. /v5.74 
 
 Presented to Princeton Theological Seminary 
 
 By the l^ev. Wendell Prime, D.D. 
 
 To be Kept Always as a Separate Collection. 
 
 
/> i) n a /// ci n CcL vi^a r" w] 
 
J "CJ^ f\/L^- I ^ ^ 
 
 THE 
 
 
 Memorial Volume 
 
 >^ 
 
 DWARDS f AMILY ]] 
 
 EETING 
 
 STOCKBRIDGE, MASS., 
 
 SEPTEMBER 6-7, A.D. 1870. 
 
 BOSTON : 
 
 CONGREGATIONAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY, 
 
 1871. 
 
Boston : 
 Stereotyped ajtd printed by Rand, A z>ery, iSr" Frye. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Introductory 7 
 
 Organization 17 
 
 Opening Address of President, Hon. J. W. Edwards . . . -17 
 
 Original Ode. By E. W. B. Canning 18 
 
 Address of Welcome. By Kev. E. C. Hooker ly 
 
 Commemorative Discourse. By Dr. Woolsey 25 
 
 Original Hymn. By Mrs. Sarah Edwards Henshaw .... 82 
 
 AFTERNOON SESSION. 
 
 Early Life of Edwards. By Dr. Tareox 83 
 
 Characteristics of Edwards. By Dr. Park 104 
 
 The Ministry of Edwards at Northampton. By Dr. Todd . . 121 
 Life of Edwards at Stockbridge. By Dr. Hopkins . . . .131 
 
 Edwards at Princeton 138 
 
 Letter of Dr. McCosh, and Address of Dr. Prime .... 138 
 
 SECOND DAY. 
 
 Remarks of Rev. Dr. Woodbridge of Richmond, Va 146 
 
 Remarks of William W. Edwards 151 
 
 Remarks of Joseph E. Woodbridge 155 
 
 Remarks of Frank D. Clarke 158 
 
 Poem. By Mf.s. Mary Bayard Clarke 160 
 
 Remarks of Hon. Jonathan Edwards of New Haven .... 162 
 
 Memorial Poem. By Mrs, Sarah Edwards Henshaw .... 165 
 
 Dr. Sprague's Letter 178 
 
 Committee on Monument 182 
 
 Vote of Thanks to the Citizens of Stockbridge 183 
 
 THE DINNER. 
 Address. By Rev. Dr. H. M. Field . 
 Address. By Rev. Mr. Eggleston 
 Address. By Rev. Dk. Gale . 
 Poem. By Rev. G. T. Dole . 
 Address. By Hon. David Dudley Field 
 Genealogy 
 
 185 
 196 
 
 202 
 206 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 RESPECT for the dead is an instinct of human 
 nature. It is this principle that builds the 
 stately mausoleum, beautifies the costly cemetery, and 
 enshrines the great and the good in the memory of 
 successive ages. It is the same principle that in- 
 duces the posterity of revered ancestors to gather in 
 places made precious by their presence in times long 
 past. 
 
 To a mind properly constituted, argument to jus- 
 tify such action is superfluous. The North-Ameri- 
 can Indian, as he was at the discovery of this coun- 
 try, presents the best type the world has ever seen of 
 human nature in its instinctive developments. Indif- 
 ference to the graves of his ancestors was a state of 
 mind to which he was a stranger. The burial-places 
 of his tribe were visited with an intensity of reverent 
 emotion inferior only to that evoked by the thought 
 of the Great Spirit. 
 
6 Introductory. 
 
 If such a sentiment be in harmony with our consti- 
 tution, the gathering, once in a hundred years, of a 
 family that has become numerous from a common 
 stock, — especially if that stock be illustrious, — is 
 one of the most natural sequences in human affairs. 
 The infrequency of such assemblages is more a mat- 
 ter of surprise than their frequent recurrence. 
 
 In conformity with this common instinct of our 
 nature, there has been, in the breasts of the represen- 
 tatives of two generations, a desire to see a re-union 
 of the descendants of Jonathan Edwards. Such a 
 re-union was actualized last September, at Stock- 
 bridge. That it met a widespread want, the num- 
 ber of those present, their representative character, 
 the distance from which some of them came, and the 
 interest which all manifested in the occasion, are am- 
 ple proofs. It is believed that the number of those 
 who were unable to attend, and who regarded their 
 inability as a privation, was far in excess of those who 
 were present. Numerous letters, by way of apology 
 lor absence, have been received, some before and 
 some since the meeting, all regretful, and all ex- 
 pressive of a deep interest in the object of the 
 meeting. 
 
 These letters cannot be introduced into this volume. 
 There is one, however, that was designed to come 
 before the meeting, but failed of its design. It may 
 properly be inserted here. 
 
Introdiictoi'y. y 
 
 It consists of a message from Mrs. Mary Edwards 
 Whiting of Binghamton, N.Y., now more than ninety 
 years of age, and the only living representative of the 
 grandchildren of Jonathan Edwards. Here is 
 
 THE MESSAGE. 
 
 She wished to say that God' had fulfilled to her 
 and hers the covenant which he made with her 
 grandfather, even as he did his covenant with Abra- 
 ham. She wants all her grandfather's descendants to 
 study more, and put greater faith in, that covenant. 
 She wishes to bear her testimony at that meeting to 
 God's covenant faithfulness and to his covenant mer- 
 cies to her and hers ; that all her children and chil- 
 dren-in-Iaw, and nearly all her grandchildren and 
 great-grandchildren (in all about seventy souls), are 
 professors of religion, and, she thinks, bear some 
 fruit. 
 
 She feels that these are covenant blessings sent in 
 fulfilment of the covenant which God made with her 
 grandfather Jonathan and her father Timothy, not 
 only for themselves, but for their seed after them. 
 She longs to have her children appear there [at the 
 meeting at Stockbridge] to renew the covenant their 
 forefathers made with God, even as Israel was com- 
 manded to appear before God with their tribes. 
 
 This message is worthy to be pondered by every 
 descendant, and furnishes evidence of the light in 
 which this aged saint looked at this gathering of the 
 posterity of her venerated ancestor. It derives spe- 
 
8 Introductory. 
 
 cial interest from the fact, that it is the utterance of 
 one whose relation to the representative head of the 
 family is a generation in advance of any one now liv- 
 ing ; that it is a message from one whom age has 
 placed, as it were, on the confines of two worlds ; and 
 that, as " a mother in Israel," she speaks to a posteri- 
 ty of her own, quite as numerous as the patriarch took 
 with him into Egypt. 
 
 The origin oi the meeting requires a brief state- 
 ment. 
 
 One of the Andover professors, some three or four 
 years ago, was at the house of a friend in Auburndale. 
 In the course of the interview, the idea of a meeting 
 of the family was discussed. The execution of this 
 idea was regarded as entirely feasible. It was arranged 
 that they together, at some future time, would visit 
 New Haven, and confer with Pres. Woolsey and 
 other members of the family there. This was done 
 in the course of a few months ; and the project re- 
 ceived the indorsement of all who were consulted. 
 Pres. Woolsey, as a leading representative of the 
 family, was requested to make the Memorial Address 
 whenever the meeting should be held. This, after 
 some deliberation, he consented to do. 
 
 With this auspicious beginning, the work, according 
 to the Latin poet, was regarded as half done. 
 
 The next point of importance to be determined 
 was the place for the family gathering. Northampton 
 
Introductory. 9 
 
 and Stockbridge were both memorably associated 
 with the name of Edwards. With the former he had 
 identified himself as a spiritual builder of the Church 
 of God ; with the latter, as the foremost metaphysi- 
 cian of the ages. 
 
 Most who were consulted were in favor of North- 
 ampton. Accordingly, some half-dozen gentlemen, 
 representing the most numerous branches of the 
 family, met there by concert, and conferred witli each 
 other and with a number of the citizens. No defi- 
 nite conclusion was reached. 
 
 From this time, for eighteen months, the enterprise 
 hastened slowly. Some of the parties from whom 
 efficient aid was anticipated were abroad ; the idea 
 of a monument, as an element in the celebration, be- 
 gan to claim attention ; the place of meeting was still 
 a vexed question ; and either from lack of enthusiasm, 
 or some other reason, it was difficult to find one to 
 engineer the enterprise. 
 
 There were some, however, that were unwilling to 
 have the project of a meeting fail. They resolved 
 upon an advance movement. 
 
 As it seemed unadvisable to hold the meeting in 
 Northampton, attention was turned to Stockbridge. 
 A letter was received from Rev. Dr. H. M. Field 
 of New York, who has his summer home there, ex- 
 pressive of his own and his brother's interest in such 
 a meeting. 
 
10 Iiiirodiiclory. 
 
 Encouraged by these expressions, a correspond- 
 ence was opened with some of the leading citizens 
 of Stockbridge, who gave to the proposed meeting 
 their most prompt and hearty indorsement. We 
 were invited to come, and were assured that their 
 liomes and their hearts should be alike open to us ; 
 and never was assurance made more sure. The cor- 
 dial and affluent hospitality of the people of Stock- 
 bridge will never fade from the memory of those to 
 whom it was so courteously extended. 
 
 The preliminaries having been thus satisfactorily 
 arranged, the following circular, inviting a "gathering 
 of the tribes," was issued early in July, 1870 : — 
 
 CIRCULAR. 
 
 The descendants of Jonathan Edwards propose to hold a 
 family re-union at Stockbridge, Mass., on the first Tuesday and 
 Wednesday of September, 1870. 
 
 It would seem not less an act of piety toward the illustrious dead 
 than a measure of fraternal regard for each other on the part of the 
 living to inaugurate such a re-union. 
 
 The undersigned, in behalf of the family, do hereby invite all the 
 posterity of Jonathan Edwards to assemble at Stockbridge on 
 Tuesday, the 6th of September, at nine o'clock in the morning, in the 
 Congregational Church. 
 
 A .scheme of exercises, literary and social, has been arranged for 
 the two days. The descendants in every part of the country, who 
 
Introductory. 1 1 
 
 propose to be present, will report their names and post-office ad- 
 dress to Rev. E. C. Hooker, Stockbridge, Mass., who will present each 
 name to the Committee of Entertainment. 
 
 COMMITTEE. 
 
 Theodore Dwight Woolsey, New Haven, Conn. 
 Henry Edwards, Boston, Mass. 
 
 Jonathan Edwards Woodsridge, Auburndale, Mass. 
 Joseph Woodbridge Edwards, Marquette, Mich. 
 Benjamin Woodbridge Dwight, Clinton, N.Y. 
 Jonathan Edwards, Jun., New Haven, Conn. 
 , William Edwards Park, Lawrence, Mass. 
 Elias Cornelius Hooker, Stockbridge, Mass. 
 
 In accordance with the above circular, the meetine: 
 was held at the time and place appointed. 
 
 The exercises of the two days were continued with 
 unabated interest to the end. What these exercises 
 were will appear in the sequel. That they were of a 
 very high order, in the main, may be inferred from 
 the character of the men who took part in them, and 
 from the full attendance to the close. Large num- 
 bers were present from the neighboring towns and 
 the remote parts of the county. The hospitality of 
 the people was adequate to every exigency. Un- 
 der the spacious tent of Yale College, which was 
 kindly furnished for the occasion, and which was 
 spread near the church, liberal entertainment was pro- 
 vided for all between the morning and afternoon 
 exercises. The weather was well-nigh perfect. In 
 
12 
 
 Introductory. 
 
 this the favor of a benignant Providence was recog- 
 nized. The harmony, also, which characterized the 
 proceedings, furnishes occasion for gratitude to 
 God. 
 
 The unanimity with which the meeting voted to 
 erect a monument must be regarded as significant. 
 
 The expediency of this action seems to demand 
 something more than a mere passing notice. 
 
 The remark has often been made, " Jonathan Ed- 
 wards needs no monument." 
 
 Here is a man, who, by the unanimous verdict of 
 two hemispheres (and rendered by the most com- 
 petent tribunal), is pronounced the foremost pure 
 intellect of his time ; and, some hesitate not to say, 
 of all time. And his posterity of the fourth and fifth 
 generations come together to honor his memory, on 
 the spot where, more than a hundred years ago, he 
 labored as a humble and self-denying missionary, 
 and told to the poor Indians the story of the cross ; 
 and at the same time prepared for his generation, 
 yea, for all generations, those masterpieces of human 
 thought, that have received the unqualified sanction 
 of the realm of mind. 
 
 Now, is it a thing to be wondered at, that his de- 
 scendants, at such a time and in such a place, in the 
 fulness of their filial emotion, should conclude to 
 raise a monument, to testify the sincerity of their re- 
 gard, and to remind their own children of the precious 
 
Introductory. 1 3 
 
 legacy they enjoy, when, in future times, they shall 
 visit this consecrated spot ? 
 
 While looking at the expediency of such a measure, 
 it should be kept in mind, that there exists nowhere, 
 to our knowledge, any material memorial of Jonathan 
 Edwards, except a plain slab covering his remains in 
 the graveyard of Princeton, N. J. It would seem, 
 therefore, a duty to raise in his native New England 
 some enduring monument, to remind the traveller, in 
 a distant age, alike of the virtues of the man and the 
 piety of his race. 
 
 It is hoped that such a monument will be raised : 
 that it should stand in Stockbridge is so manifest 
 as to need no discussion ; and that it should be built 
 by his children, and consecrated by their prayers, few 
 will deny. 
 
 Let God be praised that he raised up such a man, 
 and endowed him with such wealth of intellect as 
 made him the acknowledged master of theological 
 thought for the world ; that he clothed him with such 
 affluence of holiness as enabled him to put in motion 
 a train of reviving influences for the Church, which 
 shall never cease ; and that he inspired him with 
 such zeal for truth, that he hesitated not to assail the 
 high places of error in doctrine and in practice, and, 
 with his colossal enginery, to lay them level with the 
 dust. 
 
 His influence is a precious gift to the world : may 
 
1 4 Introductory. 
 
 it be enjoyed so long as the sun and the moon shall 
 endure ! His memory is a precious legacy to his 
 descendants : may they, by their piety, prove them- 
 selves worthy of it to the latest generation ! 
 
 J. E. WOODBRIDGE. 
 
EDWARDS ARMS 
 
 As verified at the Heraldry Office, London. 
 
Edwards Memorial. 
 
 THE family, with tlie citizens and strangers, hav- 
 ing convened in the Congregational Church at 
 Stockbridge about ten o'clock on Tuesday morning, 
 Sept. 6, Henry Edwards, Esq., of Boston, rose, and 
 made a motion that the meeting be organized by the 
 appointment of the Hon. J. W. Edwards of Marquette. 
 Mich., as president ; and the Rev. J. E. Woodbridge 
 of Auburndale, Mass., as vice-president. 
 
 The president, on taking the chair, made the fol- 
 lowing 
 
 R E M A R K S. 
 
 More than a hundred and twelve years have gone 
 by since these grounds were last trodden by Jonathan 
 Edwards ; and now this goodly company of his pos- 
 terity gather, from all places whither we have scat- 
 tered, to the old homestead. 
 
 We come from all professions and pursuits, we 
 come from positions of varied influence and useful- 
 ness (inheriting in large measure the blessings of 
 
 2 17 
 
1 8 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 our father's God), to celebrate in fraternal and Chris- 
 tian fellowship his virtues and his graces. 
 
 And are there not invisible witnesses here, who, 
 on this hallowed ground, were wont to ofter the prayer 
 of faith for us, their children, to a thousand genera- 
 tions ? In such a presence, by such a company, 
 to be assigned such a position, to preside amid such 
 fellowship, I deem the highest honor and greatest 
 privilege of my life ; and it is bestowed, I am sure, not 
 on account of any peculiar personal fitness (for I am 
 the youngest and least of my father's house), but be- 
 cause of the double descent which myself and my two 
 brothers here present may claim from our illustrious 
 ancestor. 
 
 The duties of this position shall be discharged as 
 God shall give me ability. 
 
 The president then called upon Prof William S. 
 Tyler, D.D., of Amherst College, who married a 
 daughter of Mrs. Whiting of Binghamton, N.Y., to 
 offer prayer. 
 
 The following original ode, composed for the occa- 
 sion by E. W. B. Canning, A.M., of Stockbridge, 
 was sung in a very impressive manner by the church 
 choir : — 
 
 ODE. 
 1. 
 
 Lost echoes of the past. 
 
 From out your caverns pour, 
 And like a trumpet blast 
 Awake the soul once more ! 
 The dust again I And bow the knee 
 Shall voiceful be, | With living men. 
 
Edwards Memorial. 19 
 
 Down the long years, to-day, 
 
 Doth a bright spirit come. 
 
 With glory's proud array, 
 
 Back to his ancient home. 
 
 Again our vale , And faith believes 
 
 Its saint receives ; | His olden tale. 
 
 3- 
 With pilgrim staff he came 
 To teach his forest band ; 
 Now thousand sons proclaim 
 His name through all the land : 
 So saith the Power I The wise shall dwell 
 That cannot fail, — | Forevermore. 
 
 4 
 The good alone are great ; 
 
 Immortal only they : 
 Nor time nor darkening fate 
 Can write them in the clay. 
 Our sainted sage : Majestic down 
 
 Wears glory's crown | Through every age. 
 
 Then came the address of welcome on the part 
 of the people of Stockbridge. This was presented by 
 the Rev. EHas Cornehus Hooker, the pastor of the 
 church, himself in the hne of direct descent, and unit- 
 ing the blood of the Hookers with that of Edwards. 
 
 His call and settlement at Stockbridge took place 
 after the arrangements for the meeting there had been 
 made. It was regarded as a providential indication. 
 His service there was almost invaluable. 
 
 The welcome was extended by him with peculiar 
 felicity and grace. He spake as follows : — 
 
 Mr. President, and Ladies and Gentlemen, — 
 Four generations ago, Rev. Jonathan Edwards came 
 
20 Edwar'ds Memorial. 
 
 across the hills from Northampton, with his wife, 
 Sarah Pierrepont Edwards, and their ten children, to 
 take charge of the little church of mingled whites and 
 Indians located on this spot. To-day, as his chil- 
 dren's children, you have come together almost from 
 the four quarters of the globe to hold a family festival 
 in honor of his great name. 
 
 Before you proceed to the intellectual and social 
 " feast of fat things " that awaits you, allow me to 
 speak a few words in behalf of the people of Stock- 
 bridge, expressive of their hearty sympathy with the 
 objects which have called you together, and their 
 earnest desire to do all in their power to make your 
 brief stay a pleasant one. 
 
 I think I do not exaggerate when I say that you 
 could not have found a place in which to meet where 
 you would have received a more cordial welcome than 
 that which greets you here to-day. Wc arc, indeed, 
 a small community, and our resources for hospitality 
 are not large ; but we beg you to understand that 
 our inability in this respect, so far as any exists, is 
 natural, and by no means vioral. The people of 
 Stockbridge have always endeavored to live according 
 to the New-Testament precept about entertaining- 
 strangers ; and they regard it as in some sense a 
 reward for so doing, second only to the privilege of 
 entertaining "angels unawares," that they are per- 
 mitted at this time knowingly to have for their guests 
 the descendants of Jonathan Edwards and his virtu- 
 ous and beautiful wife, Sarah Pierrepont Edwards. 
 
 Moreover, we cannot help feeling that it is exceed- 
 ingly appropriate that you have chosen to hold your 
 family festival on this spot. We have nothing to say 
 
Edwards Memorial. 2 1 
 
 of the comparative claims of other places that are 
 associated with the name of Edwards : but surely a 
 place where he dwelt peacefully for a goodly series of 
 years, during which he performed his last and ripest 
 labors as a gospel-preacher ; where he was regarded 
 by his flock with an affection so unanimous and rev- 
 erent, that no breath of calumny, living or traditional, 
 has ever to this day dared attempt to stain his fair 
 fame ; where, by wihingly devoting himself to the 
 lowly duties of a home missionary in this then distant 
 and obscure field, he exhibited a humility of spirit 
 almost more rare than his great genius ; especially a 
 place where, as one of his biographers says, " He 
 doubtless made swifter advances in knowledge than 
 ever before," and where he wrought out those works 
 which have given him his great fame, — must have emi- 
 nent, if not pre-eminent claims to be associated with 
 him, as this gathering will make Stockbridge ever here- 
 after to be. We not only bid you a cordial welcome, 
 therefore, honored friends, but we thank you for com- 
 ing, and for thus setting your seal to our claims to a 
 share in so illustrious an inheritance. 
 
 As is natural, in visiting such a place, you will be 
 asking for objects that are more especially associated 
 with Mr. Edwards. -The "effacing fingers" of a hun- 
 dred years have left only a very few such objects ; 
 but those we shall be most happy to point out to you. 
 Yonder on the main street stands the house which he 
 and his family occupied during their entire residence 
 in Stockbridge, much of it comparatively unchanged. 
 Its present occupants will gladly receive you ; and 
 they can show you, among other things, the room, 
 and the very spot in it, where the great man sat when 
 
22 
 
 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 he penned his treatises on "The Freedom of the Will," 
 " The Nature of Virtue," and " Original Sin." A few 
 yards north-east of this place where we are gathered 
 stood the old Indian meeting-house where he preached. 
 The building itself was removed long since; but 
 through the thoughtfulness and enterprise of one 
 of our ladies, who has taken great interest in your 
 gathering, a fragment of oak preserved from it has 
 been wrought into various little useful and ornamental 
 articles, that such of you as wish it may have some 
 memento to carry away with you. In yonder burial- 
 place lies the dust of Mr. Edwards's immediate prede- 
 cessor, the first missionary to the Indians, and first 
 pastor of this church, — Rev. John Sergeant ; a sacred 
 spot, which he must have often visited. There, too, 
 lie many of the flock to whom he ministered, as well 
 as the good and great men who immediately suc- 
 ceeded him here, — Dr. Stephen West and Dr. David 
 Dudley Field. At a little distance west of here, and 
 overlooking the meadows, is the Indian burying- 
 ground, where he must have often performed the rites 
 of Christian burial over those who had been won from 
 heathen darkness by his teachings. You who are 
 familiar with Pres. Edwards's love of Nature, and 
 his exuberant delight in watching and musing upon 
 her various aspects, I hardly need point to these 
 graceful hills and meadows, and this beautiful wind- 
 ing river. His eyes must have often rested upon 
 them in a way to kindle anew contemplations of " the 
 sweet glory of God," wJiicJi zvas cva" revealed to him 
 in such things. 
 
 To these various objects, then, descendants of Jona- 
 than Edwards, we welcome you. We welcome you to 
 
Edwards Memorial. 23 
 
 this lovely valley, to these scenes amid which he 
 labored, to all that is here associated with his name 
 and memory ; and, while you linger among them, we 
 bid you a most cordial welcome to the best hospitality 
 our homes can afford. 
 
 Before I close, let me say that there was one per- 
 sonal Friend of the great man in whom he took great 
 delight; of whom he said himself,"! have often had 
 sweet complacency in" him. He "has appeared to me 
 a glorious and lovely Being." That Friend is living 
 still. He is the same, yesterday, to-day, and forever. 
 We have already joined with you, honored friends, in 
 special. and reverent invitation to him to be present on 
 this occasion. And is not this binght morning Jus smil- 
 ing acceptance ? May he indeed grace yonr festival .' 
 May he contribute, as none other can, to your en- 
 deavors to honor the memory of his faithful servant ! 
 Then shall your coming-together prove not only as you 
 intend it, " an act of piety toward the illustrious dead," 
 and " a measure of h-aternal regard for each other," but 
 also a means of promoting that cause to which your 
 revered ancestor devoted all his great powers of mind 
 and heart. 
 
 This welcome received from the president the fol- 
 lowing brief response : — 
 
 Mv DEAR Sir, — The welcome so eloquently ex- 
 pressed by you on behalf of the citizens of Stock- 
 bridge, is, I am sure, most heartily appreciated by 
 these descendants of Jonathan Edwards. 
 
 You speak most truly of the cordiality of this wel- 
 come, which our reception to these homes of culture 
 and refinement fully justifies. 
 
24 Ediuai'ds Memorial. 
 
 We are glad we have come to enjoy the hospitality 
 which your people have learned so well to use, ac- 
 cording to the apostolic injunction, without grudg- 
 ing. 
 
 In all our dispersions, we have remembered Stock- 
 bridge as the place where our great progenitor last 
 labored as a pastor, and where he penned those great 
 works mentioned by you, — works which had never, 
 perhaps, seen the light, had not God permitted the 
 removal of his servant hither, where his other duties 
 allowed time for this important service ; thus making 
 him a blessing to nations not a few. 
 
 We have remembered Stockbridge as the place 
 where the heads of two of our largest tribes lived hon- 
 orable and useful lives, and whence their children 
 went out to occupy positions of respectability and use- 
 fulness, and who often, in the days of their pilgrimage, 
 came hither to the old hearthstone. The heads of 
 these two tribes died here in peace, and were buried 
 in a good old age ; and their sepulchres are with you 
 until this day. 
 
 No wonder, then, that -their children of the third 
 generation should desire to come hither again ; and 
 that, when we received your invitation to come to 
 Stockbridge, we felt like Jacob when he saw the 
 wagons sent by Joseph, and said, " It is enough : the 
 spirit of our forefathers is still alive among the people 
 of Stockbridge. We will go and see them before 
 we die." 
 
 . The next exercise was the Memorial Address by 
 the Rev. Theodore Dwight Woolsey, D.D., LL.D., 
 President of Yale Collesre. 
 
Edwards Memorial. 25 
 
 COMMEMORATIVE DISCOURSE. 
 
 Twelve years more than a century have elapsed 
 since our common ancestor left these banks of the 
 Housatonic for the new field, which, in a few weeks, 
 was to become his grave. His children are no more; 
 and of his grandchildren, one lady, over ninety, is the 
 only survivor. The fourth generation is represented 
 here by a few elderly persons, one of whom now pro- 
 poses to speak to that and to the fifth and the sixth 
 on the life and character of the venerated man whose 
 blood flows in our veins. We are gathered from all 
 parts of the land, and from various walks of life. The 
 sacred calling which he followed, — the office of a col- 
 lege-instructor, — which death in his case cut short at 
 its very beginning, the professions and operations of 
 civil life, the fields of business and manufactures, have 
 their representatives in our family meeting. We may 
 differ too, in opinion, even on the most important sub- 
 jects. Some, following his lines of thought, may have 
 advanced beyond the positions which he occupied, but 
 in the same direction ; others, with an intelligence 
 inherited from him, may have discarded his theology 
 for another, whether worse or better : but, however 
 we differ, we agree in honoring the man who shone as 
 a metaphysical light in a remote colony ; the inde- 
 pendent thinker and actor ; the man who, beyond all 
 others, gave an impulse to the mind of New England, 
 and has commanded the homage of the best minds 
 of the world. 
 
 I welcome you, friends and kindred, to this gath- 
 ering. I welcome those ladies whom )'()u have 
 
26 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 brought with you, whom either you have Hnked to 
 the Edwards Hne, or who have admitted you to the 
 privileges of the race ; and those daughters of the 
 blood, who are destined to ally to us some favored 
 mortal, — probably some young minister or college- 
 professor, led by the perception of spiritual beauty to 
 the resting-place of his soul, as Jonathan Edwards 
 himself was led to Sarah Pierrepont. The race, let me 
 say here, has been rich in women " whose works have 
 praised them in the gates," from the ten sisters, or 
 " sixty feet of sisters," of our ancestor, as tradition 
 calls them, and his eight daughters, down to the most 
 recent times. Nor is there any sign that its qualities 
 in this particular are degenerating. From one of 
 those eight daughters, and from her daughter, I derive 
 my relationship ; and, if there were to be a quarrel 
 of sexes in the clan, I certainly should take the female 
 side. But of this I think there can be no danger : at 
 least, the standing of the women among us has been 
 too high to make it safe for the men to come to a 
 rupture with them. Nor have they any need to com- 
 plain of a disregard of their rights. At all events, we 
 are one here in our veneration for our common ances- 
 tor, of whom I have undertaken to speak. 
 
 It is not in terms of eulogy that I mean to speak 
 of him. My aim is to present you an idea of the man ; 
 interweaving, for that purpose, the circumstances of 
 his outward life, so far as they bear on that idea, but 
 making his inward life, intellectual, moral, and reli- 
 gious, the point towards which every thing is to be 
 referred and directed. 
 
 Jonathan Edwards was born in 1703, at an age 
 of English history, when, in the mother-country, the 
 
Edwards Memorial. 27 
 
 old religious feeling of the previous century had given 
 way to irreligion and to scepticism. We see a change 
 going on for the worse, not only in the Church of 
 England, but among the dissenters also. The seed 
 sown by Hobbes and others appears in the philosophy 
 of sensation, in new theories of government, in the. 
 prevalence of free thinking, in a lower standard of 
 morals and of honor. Theology was changing its 
 tone, and passing over from the Calvinism of the puri- 
 tanical age and of the early English Church, which 
 even Dr. South, with all his hatred of political Puri- 
 tanism, could not reject, beyond the Arminianism im- 
 ported from Holland, to the loose notions of Hoadlcy 
 and the semi-Arianism of Clarke. The Scotch almost 
 alone, or rather the stricter party in the Presbyterian 
 Kirk, presented a stout front to what they conceived 
 to be grievous doctrinal errors. 
 
 In the Puritan colonies, also, the spirit and faith 
 of the earliest ministers and magistrates was no lonsfer 
 fully kept up. What was called Arminianism — 
 whether it was in truth such, or only a weak shade of 
 Calvinism, I will not stop to inquire — was begin- 
 ning to be extensively prevalent. The churches were 
 settling on their lees without life or spirit. The usage 
 had crept in, against which the old Puritan theory 
 of conversion and the Puritan strictness of discipline 
 would alike have protested, that the Lord's supper 
 was a converting ordinance, from which persons who 
 gave no evidence of any thing more than a moral life 
 ought not to be excluded. Thus as many churches as 
 embraced this view, which prevailed extensively and 
 in the most important parishes, were deadened, and 
 filled with communicants who brou<rht in feebleness 
 
2 8 Edzvards Memorial. 
 
 in proportion to their numbers. To this we may acid, 
 that although the power of the clergy, as the leaders 
 of religious thought, was not yet much reduced, the 
 generations of ministers following the first were by 
 no means their equals in learning or in earnestness. 
 It is not the least among the claims of Edwards to 
 the respect and grateful recollections of New England, 
 that he stimulated thought as well as religious ac- 
 tivity : so that those who followed him, and partook 
 of his opinions, were in some important points another 
 kind of men, more powerful, more impressive, more 
 disposed to look to speedy results, than those were who 
 went before him. 
 
 Edwards was born in a parish lying on the eastern 
 bank of the Connecticut, which was separated from 
 the older parish of Windsor for the accommodation of 
 the inhabitants, who before had crossed a large river 
 by ferry when they went to church. His father, the 
 son of a leading settler in Hartford, a graduate of the 
 college at Cambridge, a son-in-law of Solomon Stod- 
 dard, minister at Northampton, and withal a man 
 of power and of standing among his brethren, was the 
 first minister of the new parish. In this simple, 
 somewhat retired settlement of farmers, Timothy 
 Edwards preached the Word and broke the bread for 
 sixty-three years. He died in the same year with his 
 son ; while his wife, Esther Stoddard, survived him 
 until she reached the age of ninety-nine. They had 
 ten daughters, seven of whom were married and left 
 posterity. Jonathan came after four of them. They 
 were well educated for their opportunities ; and we 
 find the brother reciting his Latin to his older sisters. 
 One may, not without reason, ascribe to this numerous 
 
Edwards Memorial. 29 
 
 band of sisters a decided influence on the manners 
 and character of the brother. May it not be said, 
 too, that the feminine element was infused from the 
 first into his nature more largely than it entered into 
 many or most of the New-England ministers ? With 
 his masculine intellect he had a gentleness, and per- 
 haps a receptivity of spirit, which does not always 
 belong to his sex. His face itself, if I mistake not, 
 indicates that in him the leading male and female 
 traits were blended.* 
 
 Edwards, I believe, had no instruction outside 
 of his father's house. His father was a scholar of con- 
 sideration, and received pupils into his family to fit 
 them for college ; but doubtless he did not differ 
 from the ministers around him in possessing a small 
 library, and that chiefly composed of religious works. 
 It was a happy circumstance for the child, that in the 
 seclusion of this new parish, and in the want of enter- 
 taining books which now dissipate and weaken the 
 minds of the young, he was thrown upon observation 
 of Nature and upon reflection. We are not accus- 
 tomed to attribute the first of these tendencies to his 
 mind, but to regard him rather like one of the school- 
 men, — as working over by logical processes the truth 
 furnished by consciousness and revelation. Such, 
 however, was not the case : at least, there was no bias 
 in the original traits of his mind which led him exclu- 
 sively to the metaphysical. His observations on the 
 habits of a wood-spider, written, as Dr. Sereno Ed- 
 wards Dwight, who first published it, judges from the 
 handwriting, at about the age of twelve, is remarka- 
 
 * The portrait, a copy of an original, supposed to be by Sniibert, 
 and taken at Dr. Erskine's request, hung near the pulpit. 
 
30 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 ble, alike for the nicety of the notices, and for the 
 attempt to detect the motives of the animal in its 
 operations. His notes on natural science, also pub- 
 lished by the same biographer, written, as it seems, 
 either during his college-life, or shortly afterwards, 
 disclose a subtlety and interest of mind in the attempts 
 to grasp and fix the metaphysics of natural philosophy, 
 which might easily have been diverted, under favoring 
 circumstances, from scholastic theology, and have 
 turned him into a natural philosopher of no mean 
 attainments. 
 
 Thus fitted at home for a college-life, he entered 
 Yale College in 1716, and was graduated just a 
 hundred and fifty years ago, — at the age of seventeen. 
 The year after his entrance was the year when an act 
 of the General Assembly removed it to New Haven ; 
 and when the college-building received from Elihu 
 Yale, a native of the town, sometime governor of 
 Madras, and lord of the manor of Wrexham in Wales, 
 the name which afterwards went over to the institu- 
 tion itself The great contentions in the colony touch- 
 ing the future seat of the college had dispersed the 
 students ; and, for a time, it had no rector. Edwards 
 studied in his second and third years with a part of the 
 students at Wethersfield. On the removal of a certain 
 cause of complaint, and the election of Rector Cutler, 
 the college was united ; and Edwards pursued his 
 studies in the latter part of his college-life under the 
 rector at New Haven. The number of students dur- 
 ing the infancy of the college, and while he was an 
 undergraduate, was never more than about thirty. 
 
 The education at the college when he was there 
 deserves to be taken into account as one of the lead- 
 
Edzuards Memorial. 31 
 
 ing influences in the formation of his mind. The 
 studies of the freshmen were devoted to Latin, Greek, 
 and Hebrew, until, towards the close of the year, they 
 might be put into logic, if the tutors thought them 
 mature enough. In the second year, four days in 
 each week were devoted to the study of logic ; in the 
 third, physics was the principal study ; and in the 
 fourth, metaphysics and mathematics. All the under- 
 graduates disputed syllogistically five times a week. 
 On Saturday morning, Ames's " Medulla," a compend 
 of theology, and on Sunday his " Cases of Conscience," 
 were text-books. The Assembly's Catechism in Latin 
 was also introduced into the course. Various text- 
 books were employed in logic ; as that of Ramus, 
 the eminent Huguenot, of Burgersdicius, of Cracken- 
 thorp, and of Keckerman. \\\ physics, a manuscript 
 prepared by Rector Pierson was at one time used. 
 Edwards, in one of his letters to his father, says that 
 the rector vv^ould have him get Alsted's Geometry 
 and Gassendi's Astronomy for study in his senior 
 year : the former was one of the many compilations 
 of Alsted, a reformed German divine ; and the other 
 a brief work of the celebrated French astronomer, 
 Gassendi, filling about one hundred and fifty pages. 
 They were both, perhaps, in the original Latin, as 
 several of the other text-books must have been. Latin 
 was talked freely, and was written, but with no great 
 correctness, hito the mathematical course only the 
 geometrical method entered ; and algebra was, I be- 
 lieve, not then studied. Neither rhetoric, nor the 
 practice of composition, nor aesthetics, nor political 
 and historical science, was cultivated ; and most of th^ 
 modern natural sciences were as yet undeveloped. 
 
32 Edzvards Memorial. 
 
 This narrow culture was not so bad in shaping the 
 mind as one might think ; but it was one-sided : too 
 much was made of formal logic ; and the wHoIe system 
 was intended for students of theology, who formed more 
 than half of almost every class. In his second year, 
 Edwards read " Locke on the Human Understandins:," 
 in connection with his logical studies ; and this, if we 
 mistake not, more than every thing else, attracted his 
 attention towards metaphysical science. He was, as 
 I understand it, a disciple of Locke in his doctrine of 
 perception and of ideas, but with a mind quite too deep 
 to be satisfied with applying the principles of the phi- 
 losopher to the study of theology. What other books 
 tended to form his philosophy, I do not know. He 
 quotes in one of his early notes Cudworth's " Intel- 
 lectual System ; " and, in another place, contrasts the 
 old logic with a system that had more recently become 
 known to him. The college library, when he was a 
 student and a tutor, might have supplied him with 
 some of the principal books then known. But he was 
 as much indebted to his own reflection as to any 
 outward source, if not more. 
 
 The biographer of Edwards, Dr. Sereno E. Dwight, 
 has given to the world his speculations on the mind 
 and on natural science, begun, perhaps, when he was 
 in college, and continued for some few years after- 
 wards. I have not found any evidence that these 
 inquiries were resumed at a later period : probably 
 his ministerial work and the science of theology 
 with the study of the Scriptures occupied all his 
 attention during his later years. They are therefore 
 the speculations of the boy and the youth, from the 
 age of seventeen to that of twenty-two ; and, as such, 
 
Edwards Memorial. -x^-ii 
 
 are truly remarkable for the indications they give 
 of subtlety and profound thought at such an age, as 
 well as of independence. It seems that they took the 
 shape of a treatise, which he entitles " The Natural 
 History of the Mental World, or of the Internal 
 World," which was to be preceded by an Introduction 
 "concerning the two worlds, — the external and the 
 internal ; the external the subject of natural piii- 
 losophy, the internal our own minds." Then follow 
 subjects to be handled in the treatise on the mind, 
 which run through all the departments of the science, 
 but are arranged as they happened to occur to him 
 while his pen was in his hand. A specimen or two 
 will show his strain of reflection : " All sorts of ideas 
 of things are but the repetitions of those things over 
 again." " Perceptions or ideas that we passively 
 receive by our bodies are communicated to us imme- 
 diately by God, while our minds are united to our 
 bodies ; but only we in some measure know the rule." 
 " The knowledge of inspiration " [that is, knowledge 
 conveyed to a mind by inspiration] " is in a sense 
 intuitive, much in the same manner as faith and 
 spiritual knowledge of the things of religion ; but yet 
 there are, doubtless, various degrees in inspiration." 
 "Genus is not merely a tying of things together 
 under the same name (for I do believe that deaf and 
 dumb persons abstract and distribute things into 
 kinds) ; but it is so putting them together under a 
 common notion, as if they were a collective substance." 
 He has a long examination of what "excellency" 
 means, which he regards as synonymous with beauty. 
 " Simple equality without proportion is the lowest 
 kind of regularity, and may be called simple beauty : 
 
34 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 proportion is complex beauty. All beauty consists 
 in similarness, or identity of relation. Spiritual har- 
 monies are of vastly larger extent ; i.e., the propor- 
 tions arc vastly oftener redoubled, and respect more 
 beings, and require a vastly larger view to comprehend 
 them. Excellency consists in the similarness of one 
 l^eing to another ; not merely equality and propor- 
 tion, but any kind of similarness, — thus similarness 
 of direction." In the notes on natural science, — 
 which were written at the same early period, and 
 perhaps intended to form one whole with the notes 
 on the mind, — he goes in one place almost to the 
 extreme of idealism. " Suppose," says he, " there 
 were another universe merely of bodies, created at 
 a great distance from this ; created in excellent order, 
 [with] harmonious motions and a beautiful variety ; and 
 there were no created intelligence in it, nothing but 
 senseless bodies, and nothing but God knew any thing 
 of it. I demand where else that universe would have 
 a being but only in the divine consciousness } Let 
 us suppose, for illustration, this impossibility, — that 
 all the spirits in the universe were for a time deprived 
 of their consciousness, and that God's consciousness 
 were at the same time to be intermitted. I say, the 
 universe, for that time, would cease to be of itself" 
 That is, thought is the only being ; ideas, and so exist- 
 ence, are in God ; which is the pantheistic extreme 
 of ideal philosophy. But he was, in truth, far from 
 this theory. 
 
 In other places of his notes on natural philoso- 
 phy he makes some striking remarks. He maintains 
 the compressibility of water in the abyss under the 
 earth, and that to such an extent as to become spe- 
 
Edzuards Memorial. 35 
 
 cifically heavier than the soil ; so that a column of 
 earth will float on its surface. He is aware that 
 water becomes lighter when it is frozen, and tries 
 to show how this ought to be so. He thinks it cer- 
 tain, when God first created matter, that besides 
 creating the atoms, and giving the whole chaos its 
 motion, he designed the figure and shape of every 
 atom, and likewise their places ; so that, " without " 
 [his] " doing any thing more, the chaoses of them- 
 selves, according to the established laws of mat- 
 ter, were brought into these various and excellent 
 forms, adapted to every of God's ends, excepting the 
 more excellent works of plants and animals, which 
 it was proper and fit God should have an immediate 
 hand in." 
 
 r know not how far any of these early thoughts 
 were original, and how far suggested ; but they show 
 an early if not irresistible tendency to speculation, 
 which was fostered by the prominence of logic in the 
 discipline of the college, and by the fewness of books, 
 which threw inquiring minds upon themselves. They 
 show, also, a mind of vast comprehension, which at 
 such an age opened itself to all intelligible things. 
 There is no doubt, I think, that, with other op- 
 portunities, he might have been as eminent in nat- 
 ural philosophy as he afterwards became in meta- 
 physics and theology. On the whole, then, he was 
 none the worse for his one-sided education, if we 
 consider the sphere which he was afterwards called 
 to fill. 
 
 Having passed through the academical course with 
 the highest rank in his class, and delivered the fare- 
 well address at his graduation, — the only one besides 
 
36 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 the usual tTieses,* — he spent the greater part of the 
 next two years at the college in the study of theology 
 and philosophy. He began to preach before he was 
 nineteen ; and was soon afterwards called, in August, 
 1722, to minister to a small congregation of Presby- 
 terians in New York. He preached there about 
 eight months ; then spent a short time in study at his 
 father's house ; then continued his studies for a time 
 at Yale College, until he entered upon the office of a 
 tutor. This office, commencing in June, 1724, he 
 filled through the two succeeding academical years. 
 They were years of confusion and responsibility ; for 
 the infant college was without a rector, and was 
 wholly dependent on the tutors for instruction : but 
 he and his c611eagues were fully equal to their respon- 
 sibilities, as appears from the testimony of a most 
 competent judge, Pres. Stiles, who was familiar with 
 the history of the institution more than any other 
 man, and whose father was intimately acquainted with 
 Edwards and his family. 
 
 These years, from 1720 to 1726 inclusive, while 
 they mark the formative stage of his philosophical 
 and theological system, were more important on ac- 
 count of the development of his religious life, which 
 must be specially referred to this period. He was a 
 Puritan boy, brought up in the simple manners of a 
 new country parish and in the strict morals of a Puri- 
 tan minister's family, unacquainted with temptation, 
 and having no struggles to pass through such as 
 appear in the history of Augustine, Luther, and some 
 
 * This salutatory and valedictory address is in tlie liands of Mrs. 
 Cyntliia Woodbridge of Spencertown, N.Y., wife of Rev. Timotliy 
 Woodbridfie. 
 
Edwards Mc^norial. t^j 
 
 others of the greater lights of the Christian Church. 
 He records his trouble in regard to his religious his- 
 tory in these words : " The chief thing that now 
 makes me in any measure to question my good estate 
 is my not having experienced conversion in those par- 
 ticular steps wherein the people of New England, and 
 anciently the dissenters of Old England, used to expe- 
 rience it. Wherefore now resolved never to leave 
 searching till I have satisfyingly found out the very 
 bottom and foundation, — the real reason why they 
 used to be converted in those steps." And yet he 
 speaks of " a variety of concerns and exercises about 
 his soul from his childhood, which seemed to him to 
 end in nothing, until, after an attack of pleurisy in his 
 last year in college, he made seeking salvation the 
 main business of his life." Now it was that the doc- 
 trine of God's sovereignty was accepted by him ; now 
 it was that he began to have (we repeat his expres- 
 sions) " a new kind of apprehensions and ideas' of 
 Christ, and the work of redemption, and the glorious 
 way of salvation through him." " I found," he says, 
 " an inward sweetness that would carry me away in 
 my contemplations. This I know not how to ex- 
 press otherwise than by a calm, sweet abstraction 
 of soul from all the concerns of this world ; and some- 
 times a kind of vision, or fixed ideas and imagination, 
 of being alone in the mountains, or some solitary wil- 
 derness, far from all mankind, sweetly conversing with 
 Christ, and rapt and swallowed up in God. 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." 
 This passage shows one of the capacities and ten- 
 
38 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 dencics of his religious life, — a leaning towards the 
 ideal and mystical, of which we intend to speak again, 
 and which formed a happy amalgam with the ration- 
 alism of New England and of Calvinism generally. 
 He did not, however, rest in such frames of exalted 
 religious thought and feeling ; but his aim, especially 
 from the time when he began to preach, — at the age 
 of nineteen, in New York, — was to become a thorough- 
 ly holy man in purpose and life. This appears in his 
 resolutions and his contemporaneous diary of the 
 years between 1722 and 1725. The resolutions are 
 well known, and have helped the religious progress 
 of many who believed in heart-religion, and in living 
 on a plan of subordinating everything to the interests 
 of the spiritual life. They are of such a kind, that a 
 religious Catholic or Lutheran or English Churchman 
 would receive with joy, and act on, nearly all of them. 
 Some of them show the comprehensiveness and scope 
 of his mind : " Resolved that I will do whatsoever I 
 think to be most to the glory of God and my own 
 good profit and pleasure in the whole of my dura- 
 tion, without any consideration of the time, — whether 
 now, or never so many myriads of ages hence." Others 
 show a tendency towards self-analysis which was in 
 him, and which he, by his works, subsequently aided 
 to propagate in others : " Resolved constantly, with 
 the utmost niceness and diligence, and the strictest 
 scrutiny, to be looking into the state of my soul, 
 that I may know whether I have truly an interest in 
 Christ or not." Others, again, show a purpose of the 
 strictest self-government, reaching to asceticism : 
 " Resolved never to lose one moment of time, but to 
 improve it in the most profitable way I possibly can." 
 
Edwards Alcmorial. 39 
 
 "Resolved to maintain the strictest temperance in 
 eating and drinking." " Resolved never to say any 
 thing at all against anybody but when it is perfectly 
 agreeable to the highest degree of Christian honor 
 and of love to mankind, agreeable to the lowest 
 humility, and sense of my own faults and failings, 
 and agreeable to the golden rule." The same views 
 re-appear in his diary. "These things" [are] "estab- 
 lished," he says, "that time gained in things of lesser 
 importance is as much gained in things of greater ; 
 that a minute gained in times of confusion, conversa- 
 tion, or in a journey, is as good as a minute gained in 
 my most retired times." And he determines, when he 
 is unfit for any other business, to perfect himself in 
 writing short-hand ; and, when he is in want of good 
 books, to spend time in studying mathematics and in 
 reviewing other kinds of old learning. More than 
 once he returns to the subject of a spare diet, and he 
 set up quite a severe rule for himself; but he con- 
 fesses that he finds, when eating, that he cannot be 
 convinced in the time of it, that, if he should eat 
 more, he should exceed the bounds of temperance, 
 though he has had the experience of two years. 
 
 If we had time, we would willingly dwell on this 
 part of his religious history, which shows the forma- 
 tion of his character and the foundation of his future 
 greatness. Some of his utterances are truly beauti- 
 ful and striking ; such as these : " Resolved to live so 
 at all times as I think is best in my most dcv^out 
 frames, and v/hen I have the clearest notions of the 
 things of the gospel and another world." " Re- 
 solved to endeavor to obtain for myself as much hap- 
 piness in the other world as 1 possibly can with all 
 
40 Edwards- MeinoiHal. 
 
 the power, might, vigor, and vehemence, yea, violence, 
 I am capable of, or can bring myself to exert, in 
 any way that can be thought of" " Resolved to en- 
 deavor, to my utmost, to deny whatever is not most 
 agreeable to a good and universally sweet and benevo- 
 lent, quiet and peaceable, contented and easy, compas- 
 sionate and generous, humble and meek, submissive 
 and obliging, diligent and industrious, charitable, and 
 even patient, moderate, forgiving, and sincere tem- 
 jier." Others seem to me to be quite characteristic ; 
 as, " Resolved, when I thnik of any theorem in divinity 
 to be solved, immediately to do what I can towards 
 solving it, if circumstances do not hinder." So in 
 his diary he determines, when violently beset with 
 temptation, or unable to rid himself of evil thoughts, 
 to do some problem in arithmetic or geometry, or some 
 other study, which keeps his thoughts from wander- 
 ing. He notices in another place that some evil 
 habits appear in old age, even in some good people, 
 and obscure the beauty of their character ; and that 
 old Christians are very commonly, in some respects, 
 more unreasonable than those who are young. " I am 
 afraid," he continues, "of contracting such habits, par- 
 ticularly of grudging to give and to do, and of pro- 
 crastinating." 
 
 A grand resolution, showing the man, may finish 
 what we have to say of this part of his life : " On the 
 supposition that there never was to be but one indi- 
 vidual in the world, at any one time, who was properly 
 a complete Christian of a right stamp, having Chris- 
 tianity always shining in its true lustre, from whatever 
 part and under whatever character viewed, resolved 
 to act just as I would do if I strove with all my might 
 
Edwards Memorial. 41 
 
 to be that one." And this end of sauithness in heart 
 and life, beyond the men of his time, he did, in some 
 measure, reach. 
 
 Fitted in ah eminent degree to take care of souls by 
 the care he had taken of his own soul and of his rea- 
 son, he was ordained, near the beginning of 1727, at 
 the age of twenty-three, as colleague with his grand- 
 father Stoddard, over the parish of Northampton. 
 This was one of the leading inland parishes of New 
 England. He received the call to settle here, doubt- 
 less, partly on account of his own repute as a scholar 
 and a Christian, and partly on account of his relation 
 to the present incumbent, who had now stood at his 
 post for more than half a century, and was surpassed 
 in esteem and influence by few of his brethren. The 
 first duty of the young minister was to find a wife ; and 
 his eye had already been turned toward;; ihc daugh- 
 ter of the minister at New Haven, — James Pierre- 
 pont, a descendant in the younger line of the noble 
 English family bearing that name, who was a promi- 
 nent clergyman in the Colony of Connecticut, one of 
 the founders of Yale College, and the leading origi- 
 nator of the Saybrook Platform, on which the ecclesi- 
 astical order of the churches in that Colony, as estab- 
 lished by law in 1708, was resting. As early as 1723, 
 he had heard an account of the high religious charac- 
 ter of this young lady, then under the age of fourteen, 
 and has left a record of that date concerning her, 
 which at once shows her fitness for him as a religious 
 companion, and his own idealizing, somewhat poetical 
 conception. " They say," writes he, "there is a young 
 lady [in New Haven] who is beloved of that great 
 Being who made and rules the world ; and that there 
 
42 Edwards Mcmoidal. 
 
 are certain seasons in which this great Being, in some 
 way or other invisible, comes to her, and fills her 
 mind with exceeding sweet delight ; and that she 
 hardly cares for any thing except to meditate on him ; 
 that she expects, after a while, to be received np where 
 he is, — to be raised up out of the world, and caught 
 up into heaven ; being assured that he loves her too 
 well to let her remain at a distance from him always. 
 She has a strange sweetness in her mind, and singular 
 purity in her affections ; is most just and conscien- 
 tious in all her conduct ; and you could not persuade 
 her to do any thing wrong or sinful if you would give 
 all the world, lest she should offend this great Being. 
 She is of wonderful sweetness, calmness, and univer- 
 sal benevolence of mind, especially 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 pleas- 
 ure, and no one knows for what. She loves to be 
 alone, walking in the fields and groves ; and seems to 
 have some one invisible always conversing with her." 
 When he wrote this remarkable passage, he had not 
 become acquainted with her, but was evidently pre- 
 pared to love the image which he describes. Nor 
 when he made her his own, and bore her away to the 
 banks of the Connecticut, did the image turn out to 
 be an unreal one. This mother of his eleven chil- 
 dren, this mother of us all, Iriends and kindred, de- 
 serves to be held in grateful remembrance, especially 
 on a day like this. She was not only a conditio sine 
 qua non for the ministerial usefulness of her husband, 
 but a soul whose standard of Christian life was as 
 high as his own ; and probably her more joyous, occa- 
 
Edwards Memorial. 43 
 
 sionally rapturous experience helped his broad-look- 
 ing, over-burdened mind over many an obstacle in the 
 road of life. It was to this exalted religious life 
 of hers that " Father Moody " of York must have 
 alluded, when, having spoken highly of Edwards on 
 a public occasion, supposing him to be absent, he 
 added, on discovering his mistake, "Mr. Edwards, I 
 didn't intend to flatter you ; but there is one thing 
 I'll tell you : they say that your wife is a-going to 
 heaven by a shorter road than yourself" Perhaps, 
 without disparagement to her female descendants, we 
 may say of her with truth, " Many daughters have 
 done virtuously ; but thou excellest them all." 
 
 Edwards remained minister of the church in North- 
 ampton three and twenty years. His grandfather 
 survived the beginning of his pastorate about two 
 years. The end of it was clouded by a difference 
 of opinion between him and his people on a most 
 important point of Christian order in the church, as to 
 which he evidently coitld make no concessions in 
 good conscience ; and they, urged on by their advisers 
 within and without the parish, zuotild make none : 
 and so he was dismissed from his charge, and thrown 
 into the uncertainties of life, at a time when his large 
 family most needed support. The years between his 
 ordination and this greatest of his' trials were the sum- 
 mer-time of his life : the years that went before 
 were the sowing of the seed ; those that followed were 
 chiefly the gathering-in of the sheaves. We might 
 dwell long upon them, if it were possible ; but wc shall 
 content ourselves with a few words devoted to certain 
 points which are fitted to bring out the man and his 
 efficiency in a clear light. These are his habits of life 
 
44 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 and study; his success as a minister, together with 
 the extraordinary revivals of religion which followed 
 his preaching ; and the controversy on the terms of 
 church-membership, which put an end to his ministe- 
 rial life at Northampton. The revivals of religion first 
 made him extensively known as an author, not only in 
 the Colonies, but in Great Britain, especially in Scot- 
 land, where men of kindred minds appreciated his 
 worth, supplied him with books which he could not 
 otherwise have had access to, and stimulated him by 
 their correspondence. This again re-acted greatly in 
 favor of his literary efficiency ; and beyond question, 
 while he would have been the same man without the 
 aids and helps of these foreign friends, he would not 
 have been known as one of the leading metaphysicians 
 and theologians of tl>e century. 
 
 He entered into his new sphere, as we have seen, 
 with a most strict view of the importance of time, and 
 of his obligation to economize it as far as possible. 
 He was in his study writing sermons, and thinking, 
 with his pen in his hand, on subjects of theology or 
 passages of Scripture, thirteen hours daily. When he 
 went abroad, as he did on horseback, for exercise, he 
 had some special topic selected for his meditations. 
 If thoughts struck him during his rides that were 
 of peculiar interest, he tried to detain them by an 
 artificial method of pinning papers on different parts 
 of his clothes ; and, when he stopped to walk in the 
 woods, he was not unprovided with pen and ink to give 
 shape to whatever might occur to him of value. In 
 order to be able to lead such a life of constant study, 
 he needed, in accordance with his earlier resolutions, 
 to be very abstemious in the use of food ; and delicacy 
 
Edwards Memorial. 45 
 
 of health also added motives in the same direction. 
 His life was thus one of constant thQught, with little 
 relaxation or recreation. One ministerial duty he felt 
 himself unequal to, — that of pastoral visiting. He 
 seemed to himself to have no skill for ordinary inter- 
 course with his flock ; so that the amount of time 
 which would have gone to the account of this duty, 
 had he regarded it as such, was devoted to the inter- 
 ests of study. Probably his natural shyness, and 
 inaptness for familiar intercourse with his parish- 
 ioners, would have always been an obstacle in the 
 way of free and useful family visitation, with however 
 great perseverance he might have continued it ; for the 
 habits of philosophic thought were too fixed and too 
 deeply founded in his nature to be shaken off He 
 had well considered his talents in this respect, and 
 inquired what his duty as a minister demanded of 
 him. Dr. Hopkins, his pupil and close friend, speaks 
 of him on this point as follows : " He did not nqglect 
 visiting from house to house because he did not look 
 upon it, in ordinary cases, to be an important part 
 of the work of a gospel minister, but because he 
 supposed that ministers should, with respect to this, 
 consult their own talents and circumstances, and visit 
 more or less according to the degree in which they 
 could hope thereby to promote the great ends of the 
 ministry. . . . He was not able to enter into a free con-- 
 versation with every person he met, and in an easy 
 manner turn it to whatever topic he pleased, without 
 the help of others, and, it may be, against their 
 inclinations. He therefore found that his visits of 
 this kind must be, to a great degree, unprofitable. 
 And, as he was settled in a large parish, it would have 
 
46 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 taken up a great part of his time to visit from house 
 to house ; which he thought he could spend in his 
 study to much more valuable purposes, and so better 
 promote the great ends of his ministry : for it ap- 
 peared to him that he could do the greatest good to 
 the souls of men, and most promote the cause of 
 Christ, by preaching and writing and conversing with 
 persons under religious impressions in his study; 
 whither he encouraged all such to repair, where they 
 might be sure, in ordinary cases, to find him, and 
 where they were treated with all desirable tender- 
 ness, kindness, and familiarity." 
 
 These words of Dr. Hopkins show that he had 
 carefully considered his duty, and it is likely that he 
 was right in his judgment ; but he ought not to be 
 quoted as a rule for others, since his own justification 
 of himself rests on his special inaptitudes. But the 
 want of a free intercourse with his people, without 
 doubt, made the relation between him and them more 
 distant and less affectionate. We cannot help be- 
 lieving that it was all the easier for them to separate 
 from him when the time of alienation came. Nor 
 could his sermons have failed to suffer injury from the 
 want of intimate acquaintance with varying phases 
 of parish and of family life. 
 
 Let us now view him for a moment as a preacher. 
 It has struck us as something quite worthy of notice, 
 that while his followers, who were the great lights 
 of New England in the two next generations, were 
 often theological and metaphysical preachers, this 
 man, of such strong tendencies towards logic and 
 philosophy, should be remarkably scriptural in his 
 mode of sermonizing, — doctrinal, it is true, but 
 
Edwards Memorial. 47 
 
 biblical, and never departing from a mode of present- 
 ing thought which was the right one for reaching the 
 common mind. If he could not adapt himself to the 
 turns of familiar conversation, he certainly could, in 
 his pulpit, make himself apprehensible by all. 
 
 His sermons (and the same is true of his writings' 
 in general) are not models of style, but rather often 
 inelegant, and wearisome by their repetitions. This 
 fault must be laid at the door of the writers of the 
 seventeenth century, who were most esteemed in New 
 England, and of the college education ; in which, style 
 and the refinement of taste seem to have been neg- 
 lected. They are almost devoid, also, of enlivening 
 illustrations ; and they show but little imaginative 
 power. But Edwards was a strong, I may say a 
 mighty preacher, notwithstanding ; and his power 
 consisted, first of all, in the strength of his convictions 
 in regard to spiritual truth, which took hold of his 
 powerful conceptive faculty, his tender sensibility, and 
 his great intellect, making him always earnest, and 
 bent upon the great end of preaching, — sometimes 
 terrible, and sometimes gravely eloquent. 
 
 His preaching was blessed ; and we may say, that, 
 during his ministry at Northampton, that place was 
 more a centre of spiritual influence than any other 
 in New England. The revival of 1734-35, which began 
 here, and spread over a number of towns in Massa- 
 chusetts and Connecticut, had more than three hun- 
 dred persons for its fruits in his parish. The rem.arka- 
 ble character of this movement, as well as its novelty, 
 awoke inquiry in regard to its nature and its particu- 
 lars. To answer such inquiry, he wrote first a brief, 
 and afterwards a fuller account ; which last was pub- 
 
48 Edivards Memorial. 
 
 lished at London, in 1736, under the title of "Narra- 
 tive of Surprising Conversions," and a^'ain, the year 
 after, at Boston, together with several discourses on 
 practical subjects, chiefly preached during the re- 
 vival. Of these, the discourse on Justification, made 
 out of several sermons, formed a treatise of itself 
 The "Narrative" just spoken of was the first work 
 which made Edwards extensively known both in and 
 beyond the bounds of New England. He began to 
 be regarded as a favored instrument of God and as a 
 man of power. Young men, ere long, such as Bellamy 
 and Hopkins, looked to him as a guide in their stud- 
 ies, or a counsellor in their parish-work ; and by 
 degrees he became the centre of new thoughts and 
 new practical efforts. 
 
 The next great work in which he was called to have 
 an important part was the Great Revival — to give 
 it the name by which it is known in New-England 
 history — of 1740-42 ; which pervaded all the northern 
 Colonies, showing its power in more than a hundred 
 and fifty congregations. In this widely-extended 
 series of religious awakenings George Whitefield was 
 a principal instrument. The awakening began at 
 Northampton in the spring of 1740 ; and was increased, 
 after Whitefield had preached several sermons there, in 
 the autumn of the same year. It was at this time that 
 Edwards "withstood him to his face" on account 
 of his rashness in speaking of other professed Chris- 
 tians, especially of ministers, as in an unconverted 
 state, and of his practice of attributing importance to 
 impulses as proceeding from the Spirit of God. The 
 followers of Whitefield went far beyond their master 
 in the heat of their zeal and their want of judgment. 
 
Edwards Memorial. 49 
 
 It is well known that the evils which attended this 
 revival marred its beauty, and weakened its happy in- 
 fluence. It was, says Edwards, no uncommon thing 
 "to see a house lull of outcries, faintings, convul- 
 sions, and such like, both with distress and [also] wi'Ji 
 admiration and joy."* It was at Northampton much 
 more pure in 1740 and 1741 than the former work 
 of 1734-35, at first ; but in 1742 "we were infected," 
 he says, "from abroad. Our people hearing of, and 
 some of them seeing, the work in other places, where 
 there was a greater visible commotion than here, and 
 the outward appearances were more extraordinary, 
 were ready to think the work in those places far ex- 
 celled what was amongst us ; and their eyes were 
 dazzled with the high profession and great show that 
 some made who came hither from other places." 
 " Formerly," he says in another place, " there 
 was too great reservedness in talking of religious 
 experiences ; but of late many have gone to an un- 
 bounded openness, frequency, and constancy in talk- 
 ing of their experiences, declaring almost every thing 
 that passes between God and their own souls every- 
 where and before everybody. Religion all runs into 
 that channel : other duties, that are of vastly greater 
 importance, have been looked on as light in compari- 
 son with this ; so that other parts of religion have 
 been really much injured thereby." Edwards did his 
 best to counteract among his people this prepon- 
 derance of unreflecting emotion over thoughtful god- 
 liness. He felt the danger there was when instances 
 occurred of " persons lying in a sort of trance, remain- 
 
 * Dwight's Edwards's Works, i. 162. The other quotations fol- 
 low in the same work. 
 4 
 
50 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 ing, perhaps, for a whole twenty-four hours motion- 
 less, with their senses locked up, but in the mean 
 time under strong imaginations, as though they went 
 to heaven, and had there a vision of glorious and 
 delightful objects." The evil was, that, "when the 
 people were raised to this height, Satan took the 
 advantage ; and his interposition in many instances 
 soon became very apparent ; and a great deal of cau- 
 tion and pains were found necessary to keep the peo- 
 ple, many of them, from becoming wild." 
 
 One measure taken by Edwards to counteract this 
 dangerous tendency was to draw the minds of his 
 flock, by means of a solemn covenant, to the great 
 precepts of Christian morality, especially in the inter- 
 course of life. By this he hoped to lead their minds 
 to the contemplation of positive duty, that the prac- 
 tical aims of the gospel might take their proper place 
 amid the luxurious pleasures of overwrought feeling. 
 
 If this revival had evil mingled with its good when 
 so doctrinal a minister as Edwards controlled the 
 community, in many other parts the evil was more 
 apparent. The radical evil was misjudging zeal taking 
 the occasional adjuncts of religion for religion itself; 
 condemning with bitterness those who did not adopt 
 its measures, and thus converting them into opponents 
 of a work, which, in its essential features, was from 
 God. Ministers like Davenport, who took Whitefield 
 for their model, intruded into parishes against the 
 will of the ministers, pronounced them unconverted, 
 and took steps which led to the separation of parts 
 of churches from their ministers and from the old 
 parishes : so that, perhaps, more than tiveiity such 
 churches of separatists were formed in Connecticut 
 
Edwards Memorial. 51 
 
 alone. This led to angry divisions, and the arm 
 of the law interfered to put down the new exercise 
 of religious liberty. But the evil done to religion was 
 not confined to these outward phenomena. The stan- 
 dard of religion, the conception of what it consisted 
 in, was modified. Feeling, rather than a life of piety 
 and obedience, was the point of desirable attainment. 
 Hence, when feeling became exhausted, godliness 
 seemed to die also. Hence, also, censorious judg- 
 ments that others were unconverted, and the disposi- 
 tion to follow inward impulses as the rule of duty. 
 Hence, finally, in many places, a lasting prejudice 
 against revivals of religion. One who, were he living, 
 would be the fittest person to make the address 
 assigned to me, — Dr. Sereno Edwards Dwight, — 
 says that " it is deserving, perhaps, of inquiry, 
 whether the slumber of the American Church for 
 nearly seventy years may not be ascribed, in an 
 important degree, to the fatal re-action of [the] un- 
 happy measures" adopted in this revival. 
 
 I have dwelt the longer on this revival and its pecu- 
 liarities because they called forth the analyzing power 
 of Edwards's mind, so that he became, for the Church 
 of the succeeding generations, the religious critic — 
 using these words in a good and a high sense — of the 
 movements in which God and the human mind con- 
 spire. He had firm faith that the revival was a work 
 of the Divine Spirit : he hoped that otKer and purer 
 ones would follow, until the millennial glory should 
 begin. But he believed that the preaching of the 
 sober truth, the great realities of the Scriptures pre- 
 sented to reflecting minds, were the instruments 
 of conversion. He felt also, perhaps too strongly, 
 
52 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 that almost all the steps of conversion could be coun- 
 terfeited, for which the only cure within man's reach 
 was the application of the most scriptural tests for 
 judging of Christian character. Views like these led 
 him to publish in 1741 his sermon "On the Distin- 
 guishing Marks of a Work of the True Spirit ; " in 
 1742, his "Thoughts on the Revival of Religion in 
 New England ;" and, in 1746, his treatise "On Reli- 
 gious Affections." The high position which these 
 last-mentioned works soon occupied, and their exten- 
 sive influence, — the one of them determining the 
 views and measures of New England in respect to 
 religious awakenings in a spirit at once devout and 
 scientific, the other establishing criteria of religious 
 character as scriptural as they are severe, — will ex- 
 cuse me from praise and criticism. I cannot, how- 
 ever, forbear saying, that the work on religious aftec- 
 tions, by the introspection and analysis which it en- 
 courages, notwithstanding its great merits, has been 
 the source of great evils : it has led minds away fror^ 
 the great object and fountain of hope to a scrutiny 
 of their own miserable selves ; and thus has, in many 
 cases, produced self-distrust and despondency, instead 
 of hope and peace. 
 
 From the termination of the " great revival " until 
 the close of the ministry of Edwards at Northampton 
 in 1750, about eight years elapsed, in which, besides 
 the writings which we have just spoken of. not a 
 little occurred in his life that is worthy of notice. 
 Our limits, however, do not allow us to give them 
 more than a j^assing mention. The brief career 
 of David Brainerd, who had been befriended by him 
 in his troubles at New Haven with the authorities 
 
Edwards Memorial. 53 
 
 of the college, and who had kept up an intimacy with 
 him from that time, came to an end at his house in 
 1747 : and two years afterwards he gave to the world 
 the well-known and much-read Life and Diary of the 
 Indian missionary, — a book which, notwithstanding its 
 sombre coloring, has been of great use to the Christian 
 world ; above all, in stimulating missionary efforts. 
 During these years, also, he entered with zeal into a 
 plan communicated to him by his friends in Scotland 
 for a concert of prayer among all Christians for " the 
 coming of Christ's kingdom." This he recommended 
 to his people from the pulpit, and afterwards reduced 
 his sermons into the form of a treatise, entitled " An 
 Humble Attempt to promote Explicit Agreement and 
 Visible Union among God's People, in Extraordinary 
 Prayer for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement 
 of Christ's Kingdom on Earth, pursuant to Scripture 
 Promises and Prophecies concerning the Last Time." 
 This treatise was published on both sides of the 
 Atlantic, and was a principal means of extending such 
 a concert through a large number of churches. His 
 works on the religious revivals brought him into 
 correspondence and friendship with a number of min- 
 isters in Scotland, who gave him the glad news of a 
 similar event begun in their own country in 1744. 
 Of these Scotch friends, the one who was his longest 
 and most valued correspondent, but who was not 
 brought into relations with him until 1747, was John 
 Erskine, first of Kirkintilloch, then of Edinburgh. In 
 that year, while yet quite a young man, he sent 
 Edwards a memorial of a fellow-student in theology 
 who had died before entering the ministry. In ac- 
 knowledging that gift, Edwards, according to the 
 
54 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 biographer of Erskine, — Sir Henry M. Wallwood, as 
 quoted by Dr. S. E. Dvvight, — gave a sketch of a work 
 on the freedom of the will which was then in his 
 mind. "I have thought," he says, "of writing some- 
 what particularly and largely on the Arminian con- 
 troversy, in distinct discourses on the various points 
 in dispute, to be published successively, beginning 
 first with a discourse concerning the freedom of the 
 will and moral agency ; endeavoring fully and thor- 
 oughly to state and discuss those points of liberty and 
 necessity, moral and physical inability, efficacious 
 grace, and the ground of virtue and vice, reward and 
 punishment, blame and praise, with regard to the dis- 
 positions and actions of reasonable creatures." Er- 
 skine proved to be a truly useful and helpful friend 
 by the supplies of new books in theology which were 
 coming out in Europe, and which he could have 
 obtained from no other source. He held Edwards in 
 the highest honor, and, long after his death, edited a 
 number of his works at the Scotch capital. 
 
 The mention of Erskine leads me to sjieak of 
 another work which Edwards wrote in the form 
 of sermons a little before the great revival, and which 
 his Scotch friend procured to be printed after his 
 death from a manuscript supplied by his son. The 
 " History of Redemption " to which I refer belongs in 
 its present form to the year 1739; but the preface to 
 the work, from the hand of the younger Pres. Ed- 
 wards, informs us that he had meditated something 
 more extensive and more perfect. The son says that 
 "he had planned a body of divinity in a new method, 
 and in the form of history, in which he was first to 
 show how the most remarkable events in all ages, 
 
Edwards Memorial. 55 
 
 from the fall to the present times, recorded in sacred 
 and profane history, were adapted to promote the 
 work of redemption ; and then to trace, by the light 
 of Scripture prophecy, how the same work should be 
 yet farther carried on, even to the end of the world. 
 His heart was so much set on executing this plan, 
 that he was considerably averse to accept[ing] the 
 presidentship of Princeton College, lest the duties of 
 that office should put it out of his power." 
 
 I do not claim for this work a masterly treatment 
 of history ; nor would I accept its interpretations 
 of prophecy without qualification. But it deserves to 
 be called a remarkable production on two accounts : 
 first, it shows the comprehensiveness of a mind which 
 was not content with exploring philosophical and 
 biblical theology, but wandered through the fields 
 of history to gather up marks of the presence 
 of God among mankind ; and, second, it is founded 
 on the truly great thought, that the unity of mankind 
 is to be sought for in Christ. It is thus a work built 
 on a grand foundation, and belongs to the class 
 of which Augustine's treatise " On the City of God " 
 affords the earliest and the noblest specimen. 
 
 We have now reached that more than a year of 
 painful controversy with his parish, — that one great 
 trial of his life, which ended in an event then much 
 rarer than it is now, — his separation from an alienated 
 people by their own persistent measures. The docu- 
 ments touching this chapter of his life are copious : 
 they are a broad if not a smooth stream, over which 
 it becomes us to wade with as dry feet as possible. 
 The point at issue between the parties was one 
 of direct and instant application to the practice of the 
 
56 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 church. It was, whether, as had been the usage for 
 years in the parish, new members should be received 
 without any evidence of Christian character ; or whe- 
 ther the rule should be altered, and no one received 
 who could not be regarded as a follower of Christ. A 
 picparation for such a state of things lay in the loose- 
 ness of some church-members admitted on such a 
 platform. T'-^o. parlies were Edwards with a minority 
 of the most religious of his people, and most of the 
 leading persons in the town with a majority under 
 their control. The facilitating causes, probably, were 
 his reserve, and neglect of familiar intercourse with his 
 parish, of which we have spoken before ; his powerful 
 understanding, which made men important in the 
 State feel themselves his inferiors ; the natural love of 
 slack discipline which many feel, and the prejudices 
 of theology which were kindled by ministers outside 
 of the town, together with the ill-will aroused by 
 rebukes of the conduct of members of important fami- 
 lies. His opponents had an advantage in this, that 
 the existing practice had come down from the vener- 
 ated grandfather of Edwards, who had held the pas- 
 torate for sixty years ; that he had accepted the prac- 
 tice, nor said a word against it for a long time ; and 
 that the churches all around in the Commonwealth 
 had adopted it, as well as a large number in other 
 colonies. Tlicy were strong in reliance on usage : Jic 
 was weak in having changed or slowly settled his 
 mind on an important practical subject. Their over- 
 bearing sense of strength led them to an extreme 
 ground, even when he had only avowed and preached 
 his opinion. It was felt, in fact, to be a point on 
 which there could be no compromise : he or they 
 
Edwards Memorial. 57 
 
 must yield. He bravely stood his ground. Yet no 
 honest partisan of the other side could fairly charge 
 him with obstinacy or violence. No one could doubt 
 that he went through the long series of painful con- 
 troversies in uprightness and honesty. He came out 
 of them the loser, yet the winner. Posterity is on his 
 side. Had he flattered and yielded, the opinion of 
 New England would have rebuked him, and genera- 
 tions of descendants, and of minds led by him up to 
 God, would not have blessed his memory. And 
 doubtless his own spiritual life needed and was blessed 
 by the bitter lesson. 
 
 When Edwards was settled at Northampton, this 
 practice, introduced by the influence of his grand- 
 father, had prevailed more than twenty years. At the 
 time of his settlement, he had, according to Dr. Hop- 
 kins, some scruples about the practice, but did not, 
 for some time, " receive such a degree of conviction 
 as to prevent his adopting it with a good conscience." 
 "At length his doubts increased," for which his ex- 
 perience as a minister will readily suggest one reason ; 
 and he was led to examine the question with thor- 
 oughness " by searching the Scriptures, and reading 
 such books as were written on the subject." The 
 result was a full conviction that it was wrong, and that 
 he could not retain the practice with a good con- 
 science. His treatise " On Religious Affections," 
 published in 1746, shows that his mind was then 
 already made up on the subject. He had, however, 
 no occasion to publish his convictions for some time 
 afterward, as no case involving the principle occurred 
 until the end of 1748 and the beginning of the next 
 year. He then declared his views to the committee 
 
58 lidzuards Memorial. 
 
 of the church, and proposed to them to give his 
 reasons from the pulpit. This was unacceptable to 
 the major part of the committee ; but it was agreed 
 that he should justify his opinions through th6 press. 
 The printing was not finished until August. Mean- 
 while there was a great ferment in the town ; and, to 
 show what he regarded as the probable end of 
 the difficulty, we repeat here a few words from a 
 letter to his Scotch friend Erskine, written in this 
 interval, under date of May, 1749: "I have nothing 
 very comfortable to inform you of concerning the 
 present state of religion in this place. A very great 
 difficulty has arisen between [me and] my people 
 relating to qualifications for communion at the Lord's 
 table. My honored grandfather Stoddard, my prede- 
 cessor in the ministry over this church, strenuously 
 maintained the Lord's Supper to be a converting 
 ordinance ; and urged all to come who were not of 
 scandalous life, though they knew themselves to be 
 unconverted. I formerly conformed to his practice : 
 but I have had difficulties with respect to it, which 
 have been long increasing, till I dared no longer to 
 proceed in this way ; which has occasioned great 
 uneasiness among my people, and has filled all the 
 country with noise ; which has obliged me to write 
 something upon the subject, which is now in the 
 press. I know not but this affair will issue in a sepa- 
 ration between me and my people." 
 
 His own position against this practice, introduced 
 into the church by his grandfather, would now be 
 regarded as a very moderate one. He did not even 
 demand that the applicant for communion should 
 think himself to be a true Christian, but only looked 
 
Edzvards Memorial. 59 
 
 for those affections and that faith which would lead 
 the person or persons responsible for admission into 
 the church to believe him to be such. There might 
 be persons of sincere piety, who, for some reason, had 
 not, as yet, a Christian hope : he would not exclude 
 such, but only those who made no pretensions to, and 
 gave no evidence of, a religious character. He says 
 that a person making a profession willingly to comply 
 with the commandments of God requiring the service 
 of his soul and body ought to be received to the com- 
 munion, and had a right to be [so] received as an 
 object of public charity, whatever scruples he might 
 have from not knowing the time or method of his 
 conversion, or from finding in himself great remain- 
 ing sin. 
 
 It would be an unprofitable task to dwell upon the 
 stages through which the controversy passed until a 
 preparatory council was called to consider whether 
 a final council should be convoked from the county 
 only, or from churches both within it and beyond its 
 borders. Edwards was earnest and persistent for the 
 latter course, well knowing what he had to expect 
 from a number of the neighboring ministers and 
 churches. At last, it was agreed that he should nomi- 
 nate two churches to be upjn the council which were 
 not within the bounds of the county. The council 
 met June 19, 1850, chosen in equal numbers by the 
 two parties, and with power, if they should "judge it 
 best that pastor and people be immediately separated, 
 to dissolve the connection between them." The coun- 
 cil, by a majority of one, — one of Mr. Edwards's 
 nominees did not appear, — passed the following 
 vote : " That it is expedient that the pastoral relation 
 
6o Edwards Memorial. 
 
 between Mr. Edwards and his church be immediately 
 dissolved, if the people still persist in desiring it." 
 When the vote was put in the church, the great 
 majority of those who were present — out of two 
 hundred and thirty, all but twenty-three — voted for 
 tlie dismission. The acts of the council were read at 
 a public meeting of the parish on the 22d of June ; and, 
 soon after, Edwards delivered his farewell sermon.* 
 
 In all these proceedings Edwards was calm and 
 meek, but persistent, and bent on justice. It must 
 have been obvious to him, months before the issue, 
 that the breach could not be healed ; and we doubt 
 
 * In this sermon (D wight's edition of Edwards's Works, i. 642) he 
 uses the following language : " Then " (i.e., in the day of account) " it will 
 appear whether I acted uprightly, and Irom a truly conscientious, care- 
 ful regard to my duty to my great Lord and Master, in some former 
 ecclesiastical controversies, which have been attended with exceeding 
 unhappy circumstances and consequences : it will appear whether there 
 was any just cause for the resentment which was manifest on these oc- 
 casions. And then our late grand controversy, concerning the qualifi- 
 cations necessary for admission to the privileges of members in com- 
 jDlete standing in the visible Church of Christ, will be examined and 
 judged in all its parts and circumstances, and the whole set forth in a 
 clear, certain, and perfect light. . . . And then it will appear, whether, in 
 declaring this doctrine, and acting agreeably to it, and in my general 
 conduct in this affair, I have been influenced from any regard to my 
 temporal interest or honor, or any desire to appear wiser than others ; 
 or have acted from any sinister, secular view whatsoever ; and whether 
 what I have done has not been from a careful, strict, and tender regard 
 to the will of my Lord and Master, and because I dare not offend him, 
 being satisfied what his will was, after a long, diligent, impartial, and 
 careful incjuiry ; having tliis constantly in view and prospect to en- 
 gage me to great solicitude not rashly to determine truth to be on 
 this side of the question, where I am now persuaded it is, — that such 
 a determination would not be for my temporal interest, but every way 
 against it, bringing me a long series of extreme difiiculties, and plun- 
 ging me into an abyss of trouble and sorrow." A noble ii]irightness 
 and self-approval runs through all this. 
 
Edwards Memorial. 6i 
 
 whether the wiser course would not have been to 
 shorten the term of controversy by early resignation. 
 Among the opponents of the minister, the leading 
 manager before the council was his own cousin, Joseph 
 Hawley, a grandson of Stoddard. Ten years after- 
 wards, this man, a lawyer of high standing, published 
 a letter in a Boston paper, in which he humbled him- 
 self for his animosity and hurry, for his disrespect to 
 the council, and his injustice towards his pastor. 
 Edwards was now dead : but he says that he made the 
 substance of the same confessions to him in writing: 
 before he (Edwards) left Stockbridge ; and that Ed- 
 wards, from his great candor and charity, forgave him, 
 and prayed for him ; yet, because this was not gener- 
 ally known, he looked on himself as obliged to take 
 further steps. Therefore, for all these his great sins, 
 he humbly and earnestly asked forgiveness of God, and 
 of the relatives and near friends of Edwards, of his 
 adherents, of the council, and of all Christian people 
 to whom the transactions were known. 
 
 This is testimony of the first quality for the sub- 
 stantial righteousness of Edwards's cause. And this, 
 so far as we know, is the (?nly repentance that came 
 from the people of Northampton. A bitter memory 
 was left there until these things were forgotten. 
 
 His treatise " On the Qualifications for Full Com- 
 munion in the Visible Church," which was published 
 during the controversy in 1749, was a work of great 
 practical value. It changed by slow degrees the 
 ooinions of the ministers of New England, until the 
 practice which unsettled Edwards fell entirely into 
 disuse Afterwards, in 1752, another writing of his 
 on the same subject was published, in reply to the 
 
62 Edivards Memorial. 
 
 Rev. Solomon Williams, who had undertaken to defend 
 in print the half-way covenant. 
 
 After this dismission, Edwards remained a few 
 months in Northampton ; and while the larger part 
 of the people were unwilling that he should preach for 
 them, and preferred having no preaching at all to his 
 occupying the pulpit, a few wished him to remain and 
 gather a separate congregation. This, by the advice 
 of a council of ministers, he was led to negative ; and 
 his views were ere long turned to another quarter by 
 a proposition from the people of Stockbridge that he 
 should become their minister, and by an offer, from 
 the commissioners at Boston of the " Society in Lon- 
 don for propagating the Gospel in New England and 
 the Parts Adjacent," of the appointment of missionary 
 to the Pfousatonic Indians who were settled there 
 and in the neighborhood. Having spent the first 
 months of 1751 in preaching at Stockbridge both to 
 the white settlers, and, through an interpreter, to the 
 Indians, he returned to his family at Northampton, 
 and soon afterwards decided to remove to his new 
 field. This was effected in August, 175 I. One of the 
 chief movers in these new arrangements seems to have 
 been Samuel Hopkins, his friend and scholar, then 
 settled at what is now Great Barrington. The salary 
 of Edwards was to be drawn from three sources, — the 
 contributions of the people, the money coming from 
 the Society for propagating the Gospel, and an addi- 
 tional sum devoted to the benefit of the Indians by 
 the legislature of the Colony. The amount derived 
 from the people was (probably in sterling value) 61. 
 \},s. Atd., besides 2/. for wood, — a very small sum, no 
 doubt. But it must be remembered that the settle- 
 
Edwards Memorial. 63 
 
 ment was in its infancy, on the frontiers of civiliza- 
 tion, at a distance from the market.* Edwards had 
 left the largest salary paid by any New-England inland 
 parish, from which he had saved enough to procure a 
 homestead and build a house. As this property could 
 not be turned into money all at once, his family was 
 considerably embarrassed for a time in regard to the 
 means of support. He tells his father, in a letter 
 written not long after his removal, that he was then, 
 on account of the removal and of giving an outfit to 
 two recently-married daughters, about two thousand 
 pounds of provincial money in debt ; that is, perhaps, 
 not far from thirty-five hundred dollars. The neces- 
 sity of extreme economy at this time appears in the 
 daughters of the family making embroidery and other 
 articles of ornament for sale at Boston, and in his own 
 use for his private writings of every scrap of paper 
 which he could save. 
 
 The mission among the Housatonic, River, or 
 Stockbridge Indians, seems to have been first thought 
 of in a practical way by the Rev. Samuel Hopkins 
 of Springfield (that is, now West Springfield), a broth- 
 er-in-law of Edwards. In 1734, Oct. 13, John Ser- 
 geant, then a tutor in Yale College, preached to the 
 Indians in Housatonnuck for the first time ; and Mr. 
 Timothy Woodbridge of Springfield began soon after 
 to take care of the Indian school, — a work to which he 
 devoted himself with energy and success during Ser- 
 geant's life, and Edwards's stay in Stockbridge, to 
 whom he showed himself a most trusty and helpful 
 friend. Mr. Sergeant was ordained and regularly 
 
 * Miss Jones's History of StockbridLje, p. 156. 
 
64 Edwards Manorial. 
 
 intrusted with the mission the next year. The re- 
 moval of the mission to Stockbridge was a Httle 
 subsequent. 
 
 Mr. Sergeant learned the Indian language so as to 
 use it with a moderate degree of fluency and correct- 
 ness. The results of his work are thus summed vp 
 by Samuel Hopkins of West Springfield, in his his- 
 torical memoirs of the mission : *' " I cannot think that 
 any judicious person, upon mature consideration, will 
 judge [that] that which has been brought to pass by 
 Mr. Sergeant's ministry among the Indians is small 
 and inconsiderable. In the year 1734, when he first 
 went to those Indians, their number, great and small, 
 was short of fifty, and they fwere] in the depths of 
 barbarity. In the year 1749, when he died, they were 
 increased to two hundred and eighteen. One hundred 
 and eighty-two Indians had been baptized by him, and 
 a church consisting of forty-two Indian communicants 
 commemorated the sufferings of Christ at the Lord's 
 table. Mr. Woodbridge's school (separate from the 
 boarding-school) had belonging to it fifty-five schol- 
 ars, who were taught to read and write, and were 
 instructed in the principles of religion. We, in this 
 part of the country, have seen nothing like it respect- 
 ing the poor natives who live upon our borders. And 
 if Mr. Sergeant's life had been spared to have prose- 
 cuted the affair of the boarding-school according to his 
 intention, and with his wonted wisdom, prudence, and 
 skill, is it not highly probable that we should by this 
 time have seen a considerable number of the Indian 
 youth educated there in labor, industry, and good hus- 
 
 * The preface is dated at Springfield in 1752, while his brother-in- 
 law Edwards was in Sergeant's place. 
 
Edivards Memorial. 65 
 
 bandry, as well as in learning, who probably might 
 have proved not only useful members of society, but 
 also of the Church of Christ ? " 
 
 The boarding-school spoken of in this passage was 
 one projected by the Rev. Isaac Hollis of London in 
 1736, and actually begun in 1738 on the scale of a 
 support for twelve boys. The fortunes of this school 
 were various. For a while, the scholars were instructed 
 in Connecticut by a man who had acquired, during a 
 captivity among the Mohawks, some knowledge of 
 their language. Then the instructor removed to 
 Stockbridge, where a schoolhouse was put up under 
 Mr. Sergeant's directions. Near the close of his life, 
 the missionary intended to go into the country of the 
 Six Nations for the purpose of persuading them to send 
 their children to the boarding-school. This was done 
 after his death, when Edwards was placed in charge 
 of the mission. Some twenty came at first ; then 
 others joined them, until the number arose to ninety. 
 The native Indians offered a portion of their lands to 
 settlers from, the Mohawk country : few, however, were 
 ready to leave their homes. The instructor, who was 
 an uneducated and incompetent man, was removed ; 
 and a young man of college-training, afterwards set 
 apart for the missionary-work, was put in his place. 
 He subsequently left Stockbridge for a mission among 
 the Onoquaugahs under the direction of the commis- 
 sioners, and the boarding-school dwindled away. A 
 third school, for female Indian children, .projected by 
 benevolent persons in London, was never, I believe, 
 actually set up. 
 
 The success of the missions during the few years 
 of the ministry of Edwards at Stockbridge was small. 
 
66 Edwards Meviorial. 
 
 This was due partly to the nature of the work ; partly 
 to the war between Great Britain and France, which 
 excited and disaffected the savages all over the land ; 
 partly to the schemes of interested persons, which he 
 was obliged to counteract, but which alienated the 
 Indians, and put repeated obstacles in his way.* His 
 duties, besides those of an ordinary parish-minister, 
 consisted in preaching to the Indians, through an 
 interpreter, once a week to the Housa'.onics, and once 
 to the Mohawks, and in catechising their children. 
 Of his work he writes thus to his iriend Erskine in 
 1755 : "The business of the Indian mission, since I 
 have been here, has been attended with strange em- 
 barrassments, such as I never could have expected or 
 even dreamed of, — coming from such a quarter, that 
 I take no delight in being very particular and explicit 
 upon it." He then adds new causes of anxiety ; as the 
 killing of an Indian in the woods by two wayfarers ; 
 the attack of certain Canada Indians upon the settle- 
 ment, and their slaughter of four persons. The place 
 needed, in fact, the presence of a military force for its 
 defence. At this time Mr. Havvley was among the 
 Six Nations, who were in doubt whether to adhere 
 to England or France. " It seems to be the most 
 critical season," continues Edwards, " v/ith the British 
 dominions in America, that ever was seen since the 
 first settlement of these colonies ; and all, probably, 
 will depend on the warlike transactions of the present 
 year." But it was not until four years afterwards that 
 Gen. Wolfe decided the fate of America, and estab- 
 lished the power of Great Britain on the North- 
 American continent. 
 
 * See note at end of the discourse. 
 
Edwards Memorial. 67 
 
 During the time of his ministry at Stockbridge, 
 Edv/ards had leisure to take up again some of those 
 lines of speculation which had employed many of his 
 retired hours, and from which the controversy at 
 Northampton had diverted him. " The Treatise on the 
 Will," which he commenced in August, 1752, but soon 
 laid aside for some time on account of "extraordinary 
 avocations and hinderances," was taken up in earnest 
 in the November following, and finished in the first 
 draft by or before April 14, 1753 ; on which day he 
 writes to a Scotch friend that he is sending the pro- 
 posals for subscription to Boston to be printed. It 
 was published early in 1754. After an illness of more 
 than six months from chills and fever, he began two 
 others of his speculative treatises, " The Dissertation 
 concerning the End for which God created the 
 World," and that "Concerning the Nature of Virtue," 
 which were not given to the public until long after 
 his death. In 1756, he must have composed the 
 greater part of his treatise " On Original Sin," the 
 preface to which bears date May 26, 1757, and which 
 was first printed in 1758. 
 
 A few months after the completion of this fourth 
 of his leading essays in scientific theology, his son-in- 
 law, Aaron Burr, president of the college in New Jer- 
 sey, died ; and, two days afterwards, the corporation 
 of the college elected Edwards to be the president. 
 His reputation justified this choice. He had been 
 brought into close relations long before with ministers 
 and others in New Jersey. He was looked upon as a 
 champion of those Calvinistic views from which the 
 two colleges of New England had been charged with 
 iiaving swerved, and which vverc one cause of the 
 
68 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 establishment of the younger college. The appoint- 
 ment, however, according to Hopkins, — an excellent 
 authority, — was not a little surprising. Indeed, we 
 learn the same from that remarkable letter of Oct. 19, 
 1757, in which Edwards gives the reasons of his hesi- 
 tation to accept the oftcr, and wishes for time to take 
 counsel of his friends. The reasons are, first, the 
 inconveniences and losses of removing ; next the 
 sense of his unfitness ; and then the studies and writ- 
 ings which he had set his heart to complete. He. 
 says on the point of his unfitness, " I have a consti- 
 tution in many respects peculiarly unhappy, attended 
 with flaccid solids, vapid, sizy, and scarce fluids, and 
 a low tide of spirits, often occasioning a kind of child- 
 ish weakness and contemptibleness of speech, presence, 
 and demeanor, with a disagreeable dulness and stiff- 
 ness, much unfitting me for conversation, but espe- 
 cially for the government of a college. I am also 
 deficient in some parts of learning, particularly in 
 algebra and the higher parts of mathematics, and in 
 the Greek classics, my Greek learning having been 
 chiefly in the New Testament." 
 
 Having thus analyzed his constitution according to 
 an exploded medical theory, and summed up his amount 
 of academical learning, he goes on to speak of some- 
 thing dear, no doubt, to his heart, and entering into his 
 view of his very life-work. His habit had ever been, 
 he says, to think with his pen in his hand ; and the 
 more he thought and wrote, the more and wider the 
 field opened. He desired to consider in writing all 
 those other main points between the Arminians and 
 Calvinists on which he had not already published. He 
 had on his mind and heart a great work, which he 
 
Edwards I\IanoriaL 69 
 
 calls a " History of the Work of Redemption centring 
 in Christ ;" as well as another great (i.e., large or long) 
 work, — "A Harmony of the Old and New Testa- 
 ments," in which the prophecies, the types, the doc- 
 trines and precepts, of the Jewish economy were to be 
 considered in their relations to the new dispensation. 
 His heart is so much in these studies, he says, that 
 he could not consent to preclude himself from pursu- 
 ing them further; and, if he should "see light to accept 
 .the place offered to him," he would not consider it in 
 his way " to spend time in constant teaching of the 
 languages, except the Hebrew, which [he] would be 
 willing to improve himself in by instructing others." 
 
 To decide the question, whether he ought to leave 
 his present charge, a council was called on the 4th 
 of January, 1758 ; and the opinion was, that it was his 
 duty to go to Princeton. He acquiesced, but not 
 without bursting into tears when he heard their sen- 
 tence, and remarking that he wondered they attached 
 no more weight to his objections. He resigned his 
 positions of minister, and superintendent of the mis- 
 sion, — having obtained the consent of his people and 
 of the commissioners in Boston, — and went to Nas- 
 sau Hall, leaving his family at Stockbridge to follow 
 him in the spring. His stay there and on earth was 
 short. He preached in the college-hall, and gave out 
 some questions in divinity to the senior class ; which 
 they answered, and then received his remarks. He- 
 had apparently formed no settled plans for the future ; 
 when, ill consequence of the appearance of the small- 
 pox at Princeton, he, having never been inoculated, 
 proposed to submit to this treatment, if the physician 
 should advise it, and the corporation give their con- 
 
70 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 sent. He was accordingly inoculated on the 13th 
 of February. " Although he had the small-pox favora- 
 bly," — we quote the words of his physician, Dr. Ship- 
 pen, — " yet, having a number of them in the roof of 
 his mouth and throat, he could not possibly swallow a 
 sufficient quantity of drink to keep off a secondary 
 fever, which has proved too strong for his feeble 
 frame ; and this afternoon (March 22, 1758), between 
 two and three o'clock, it pleased God to let him sleep 
 in that dear Lord Jesus whose kingdom and interest 
 he has been faithfully and painfully serving all his 
 life." Two daughters were with him in Princeton. 
 When death drew nigh, he said to one of them, " It 
 seems to me to be the will of God that I must shortly 
 leave you : therefore give my kindest love to my dear 
 wife, and tell her that the uncommon union which 
 has so long subsisted between us has been of such a 
 nature, as, I trust, is spiritual, and therefore will con- 
 tinue forever ; and I hope she will be supported under 
 so great a trial, and submit cheerfully to the will of 
 God." His last words — and he uttered but little in 
 his illness — were spoken when certain persons who 
 looked for his speedy death were lamenting the 
 calamity to the college: they were, "Trust in God, 
 and ye need not fear." 
 
 His death was preceded a few days by that of his 
 father, in his eighty-ninth year ; and, about a fortnight 
 afterwards, his daughter, Mrs. Burr, followed him, — 
 mother of that ill-fated man whose name no descend- 
 dant transmits, — at the age of twenty-seven. His 
 wife reached Princeton the next autumn in order to 
 take charge of Mrs. Burr's two children ; and went on 
 with them to Philadelphia, where she was attacked 
 
Edivards Memorial. "ji 
 
 with a dysentery which soon proved fatal. She was 
 in her forty-ninth year. Pres. Edwards was in his 
 fifty-fifth year. She was buried in Princeton by hei 
 husband's side. 
 
 Thus, at an age when neither the faculties of mind 
 nor the power of doing good to men had been at all 
 abridged, when with the continuance of life there had 
 been promise even of larger things, one passed away 
 who is generally reckoned among the very foremost 
 divines of the Protestant churches, and who certainly 
 has had no superior in America. Of his theological 
 opinions I shall not distinctively speak : that is ex- 
 pected to fall to the part of some one else in the 
 present gathering. I shall have fulfilled what I con- 
 ceive to be my part if I close this discourse by a few 
 brief strokes, setting forlh his mind, character, and 
 influence, so far as I have been able to penetrate into 
 them. 
 
 And this regret I must express at the outset, that 
 so few minor points of his character can be de- 
 tected by the help cf his life or of his letters. The 
 man of thirteen or fourteen hours of daily study, who 
 left all domestic concerns to his wife, so as, according 
 to his friend Dr. Hopkins, not even to know " how 
 many miik-kine he had ; " who rarely visited his peo- 
 ple ; who was absorbed in the speculations of theology 
 and the duties of the ministry, — such a man is apt 
 to live at a distance from us : " he [is] a separate star, 
 and dwells apart." We seek for something specific- 
 ally human on which our sympathies can fasten. Wc 
 should rejoice if it had been on record, that, tired 
 of endless thought, he read the English poets ; or 
 indulged in repartee, and did not disrelish a joke ; or 
 
72 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 was all alive to the glories of the sky and the hills ; 
 or, like his grandson Pres. Dwight, loved conversation, 
 and felt an interest in all the subjects of common 
 life. There was in his way of life, we fear, too much 
 absorption in one thing for healthy development ; too 
 much repression of natural qualities in the endeavor 
 after a perfect conformity of will and soul to the will 
 of God. Or, at least, his greatness in other respects 
 overshadowed these special traits to the view of those 
 who knew him best ; and they are lost to the knowl- 
 edge of posterity. Probably the first was true. He 
 and others among the best Puritans of New England 
 succeeded in the crowning struggle of the human 
 soul to rise above earthly things, and to lead a spir- 
 itual life on the principles of Christ's gospel. But as 
 a ship in a storm is forced to throw away some of its 
 less essential freight in order to save the more pre- 
 cious, so they sacrificed what is akin to the human 
 for converse with the divine. To unite the two is 
 perfection ; and so they reached it only on one side. 
 
 The portrait of Pres. Edwards reveals to us, I 
 think, clearness of intellect, purity, mildness, and the 
 sway of the idea. He was over six feet in height, 
 with a body emaciated by study, and naturally feeble, 
 yet capable at his death of as long-sustained exertion 
 as he was in his youth. He seems to have kept up his 
 health by solitary riding ; in which, however, instead 
 of giving himself up to the enjoyment of the beauties 
 of Nature, he carried with him his pack of problems 
 and texts for the food of his soul. He was no ascetic 
 in his habits of life ; yet he followed the rigid purposes 
 of his youth in his rules of diet. He lived hospitably, 
 and gave freely. 
 
Edzuards Manorial. j^) 
 
 No one will doubt that a large measure of the quali- 
 ties of clearness and penetration, of whatever consti- 
 tutes logical power, belonged to Pres. Edwards. On 
 this I need not dwell : but what has been already 
 noticed is less obvious, — that he had natively the 
 gift of observation also ; that, even from early youth, 
 he could watch natural objects, collect the leading 
 facts, and arrange them for their appropriate infer- 
 ences. 
 
 Another characteristic of his mind, as it strikes 
 me, was a tendency toward the ideal. He had a high 
 standard in all things, and a sense of spiritual beauty, 
 which were native ornaments of his religious life. 
 With this was united a leaning towards the mystical, 
 slight indeed, and in a manner controlled by his logic, 
 but enough to give a hue to his mind, which modified 
 the rationalism so common to Calvinistic theologians. 
 His sermon "On the Reality of Spiritual Light" will 
 illustrate what I mean. He held that a soul is initi- 
 ated into the knowledge of God by an interior percep- 
 tion answering to the perceptions of the senses. He 
 united the traits of Paul and John, and was under the 
 sway of the theologies of both these apostles. 
 
 It is remarkable how comprehensive his mind was, 
 both in its cravings for knowledge until he confined 
 himself chiefly to divine truth, and, in its demands 
 after his ministry began, that he should accomplish 
 himself as a theologian at every point. This, of 
 course, his high standard also, and his sense of obli- 
 gation, would prompt him to reach. It is noteworthy, 
 that all his first works were practical, and grew out 
 of experience. He analyzed revivals ; studied their 
 phenomena ; separated what is from man in them, and 
 
74 Edzvards Memorial. 
 
 what is from God. He saw with a far-reaching eye 
 the tendencies of the wildness and fanaticism in 
 1740-42 ; and taught the Church what to desire, and 
 what to fear. He felt that many were self-deceived ; 
 and this led him to his work on the affections. He 
 tried the terms of communion at Northampton ; and, 
 finding them wanting, appealed to New England in 
 favor of another discipline." When a missionary at 
 Stockbridge, he saw all the obstacles in the way of suc- 
 cess arising from the methods of instruction ; watched 
 the French intrigues with the Indians, and guided 
 the views of men abroad and at home into the best 
 measures for Christianizing the sons of the forest. His 
 •theology again shows his comprehensiveness by being 
 biblical as well as metaphysical. The Bible being his 
 foundation, he studied it intently, and wrote those 
 thoughts on the types of the Messiah which were first 
 published about forty years since. But his " History 
 of Redemption," of which we have spoken before, 
 shows, more than any of his works, the scope of his 
 mind. That the theologian in the wilderness, who 
 had few if any good guides in history, should not only 
 conceive of a work on so grand a plan, but regard it 
 as of such importance as to be willing to decline the 
 most honorable calls to a larger field of usefulness, 
 rather than leave it in an imperfect state, — this, I 
 think, will lead us to rate the largeness of his mind as 
 high as his logical and speculative faculty. 
 
 Of the traits which appeared in Pres. Edwards's 
 character, we have already said that they seem to us 
 to unite female softness with masculine vigor. He 
 was shy, desponding, tender, yet positive ; strong in 
 his convictions, and firm. His tenderness, united 
 
Edwards Alcniorial. 75 
 
 with gentleness and meekness, appears in several 
 passages of his Hfe. lie speaks of "turns of weeping 
 and crying for his sins" (Dwight, i. 134) ; he wept, as 
 we have seen, when the council decided that his duty 
 was to go to Princeton : and, in all his controversies, 
 there appears meekness and self-control. Yet he was 
 firm ; and the impression seems to have been made on 
 those who differed from him, that he was unyielding. 
 I should not wonder if they were right. He saw clearly ; 
 he relied on his conclusions ; he followed out his con- 
 victions : why should he be yielding in matters of 
 truth and of duty .'' 
 
 His religious character shines forth with no unsteady 
 or fitful light from the last year of his college-life until* 
 his dying day, and calls, perhaps, after what has been 
 said in several places of this discourse, for no especial 
 remark. It united principle and feeling. He laid 
 down rules for himself in regard to every part of 
 Christian living, and kept to them with strict consist- 
 ency. It was comprehensive, like his mind. Towards 
 God he shows the submission and veneration of a 
 lofty soul, that longed to be swallowed up in the 
 divine excellence and beauty. Benevolence, or love 
 to being in general as he called it, was his idea 
 of virtue, which he strove to realize. It was uniform, 
 so that all Christian excellence appeared in his life. 
 It was, however, severe, and, one might say, almost 
 ascetic : a rigorous self-analysis, daily habits of self- 
 examination, a high standard of attainment, intense 
 convictions of the evil that was in his nature, made it 
 a religion of struggle for som.ething higher, of grave 
 and earnest duty, more than of serenity and heav- 
 enly joy. 
 
76 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 And, now, how shall we estimate the influence he 
 has had, especially his influence on religious life and 
 thought in New England ? Here we are to take into 
 account the general fact, that any influence, the work 
 of thinking or of acting done by any man, is distinct 
 and separate at first, but ere long mingles with the 
 stream of thought, and, having moulded other minds, 
 operates on mankind through them, even when they 
 modify, or in part abandon, his system. That Edwards 
 has had a leading influence \m\\ be admitted by all. 
 Let us look at some of the particulars of which it 
 consists. 
 
 As a minister, his great work was preaching ; and 
 it must be admitted that neither his style, which was 
 wanting in more than one respect, nor his manner 
 of reading his little pages, covered with almost micro- 
 scopic characters, with one elbow resting on the 
 desk, and the other hand seldom lifted up in gesture, 
 nor the great length of his sermons, which sometimes 
 were two hours in the delivery, would be endured at 
 the present time.* It must be added, also, that his 
 delineations of the anger of God, and of the punish- 
 
 * Dr. Hopkins says that he "had the most universal character 
 of a good preacher of ahnost any minister in [his] age ; " and ascribes 
 his eminence to his great pains in composing his sermons, especially in 
 the first part of his life ; to his gi-eat acquaintance with divinity, his 
 study and knowledge of the Bible, his extensive knowledge and great 
 clearness of thought, and to his deep religious experience. He was 
 not, in delivering his sermons, Hopkins adds, so confined to his notes 
 as not to give expression to thoughts occurring while he was speak- 
 ing ; nor did he prefer preaching with notes in itself, but, " in the latter 
 part of his life, was inclined to think it had been better if he had never 
 accustomed himself to use notes at all." But the alternative in his 
 mind was committing written sermons to memory, and not delivering 
 them unwritten after careful thought. 
 
Edwards Memorial. "]*] 
 
 ment of the wicked, were strong, severe, and even 
 harrowing ; going far beyond what the purposes 
 of teaching from the pulpit require ; still farther be- 
 yond what an age like ours, of tender benevolence, 
 with no strong-backed sense of justice, could endure. 
 And yet, without proper eloquence, or charm of style 
 or of manner, he was a mighty preacher for his day, 
 and was so regarded. Dr. Hopkins says that " most 
 admired him beyond all that ever they heard." His 
 noted sermon, preached at Enfield, in Connecticut, ac- 
 cording to Trumbull, the historian of that State (vol. 
 ii. chap. 8), so affected the audience, there was such 
 breathing of distress, that the preacher was obliged 
 to speak to the people, and desire silence, that he 
 might be heard." He adds, that this was the begin- 
 ning of the revival in that parish. The account of this 
 scene by an actor in it, while it differs in some points 
 from Trumbull's statement, confirms it in the main 
 point, — as it regards the amazing impression that was 
 made.* This impressiveness we have already ascribed 
 
 * The account of this occurrence, given by Dr. Stephen WiUiams of 
 Longmeadovv, Mass., kindly communicated to me by Rev. J. W. Har- 
 ding of that place, runs as follows, under date of July 8, 1741: "We 
 returned to Mr. R.'s, and dined ; and then went over to Enfield, and 
 here met dear Mr. E. of N. H., who preached a most awakening ser- 
 mon from Deut. xxxii. 35 : and, before sermon, [there was] a great 
 mourning and crying out throughout the whole house, 'What shall 
 I do to be saved? Oh! I am going to hell! Oh! what shall I do 
 without Christ } ' &c. ; so that the minister was obliged to desist. 
 The shrieks and cries were piercing and amazing. After some time 
 of waiting, the congregation were still, so that a prayer was made 
 by Mr. W. [i.e., by himself] ; and after that we descended from the 
 pulpit, and discoursed with the people, some in one place, and some in 
 another," &c. From this it would appear that the services were in- 
 terrupted, and probably not finished. It is also probable that the 
 people were already in an excited condition. I'klwards, it should be 
 
78 Edzuards Memorial. 
 
 to his intense convictions, and to the intellectual 
 power which was in him, and which, in its way 
 of manifesting itself, was suited to the people whom 
 he addressed. Had he lived a century later, the im- 
 pressiveness would not have been lost, but would have 
 reached its mark by another style and manner. 
 
 The influence of Pres. Edwards, again, was pre- 
 dominant in various departments of practical the- 
 ology. In this, probably, we shall find the most 
 lasting contribution that he made to the churches 
 of New England ; I may say, of our whole country. 
 The first, .as we have seen, to explore revivals ; the 
 first to sound a warning against their evils, while he 
 believed in them as a work of God ; the first to oppose 
 effectually and overthrow the opinion that the Lord's 
 Supper was a converting ordinance ; the first, or 
 among the first, on this side of the Atlantic, to rec- 
 ommend a universal concert of prayer, — he, in one 
 or more of these ways, entered into every parish, and 
 affected the views and usages of every minister in 
 New England. And this was an influence almost ex- 
 clusively good. 
 
 His power, again, is shown by the number of men, 
 especially of young men, whom he drew into the circle 
 of his influence, and whose minds got from him their 
 leading stimulus. Notwithstanding his disadvantages 
 for wielding a strong personal power, he really formed 
 a school from which many of the great preachers and 
 thinkers of New England proceeded. Hopkins of 
 Great Barrington, afterwards of Newport, and Bellamy 
 
 observed, did not generally aim at arousing strong feeling, but gave a 
 simple yet amplified exhibition of the truths of religion as he under- 
 stood them. 
 
Edzvards Memorial. 79 
 
 of Bethlehem, wer.e his especial friends, and embraced 
 the main points of his theology ; not to mention his 
 son, the younger Pres. Edwards, and others whom 
 his works instructed, and who handed down his spirit 
 to younger generations. From this school came the 
 more earnest preachers of New England, — the ac- 
 tive, aggressive men, with whom disinterested benevo- 
 lence was not a theory, but a law. 
 
 Doubtless it was, more than any thing else, the 
 theological power of Edwards that drew these conge- 
 nial minds to him. Through them, his theories on 
 the nature of moral agency and of the freedom of the 
 will, on God's end in creation, on the nature of virtue, 
 on original sin, became the staple of thought in New 
 England, were introduced too much into the pulpit, 
 and have had a decided effect on religious character. 
 In the course of time, these followers have more or 
 less modified the system of their master. They have 
 discarded his doctrine of original sin, especially his 
 old Calvinistic views of imputation. They have gone 
 beyond him in explanations of the atonement ; and 
 here his own son, a man of powerful mind, led the 
 way. They have more recently, some of them, set 
 aside his theory of the will. These and other changes 
 of doctrine are due to his spirit. Meanwhile they 
 carried practical view^s borrowed from him to an ex- 
 treme, as on the point of disinterested benevolence. 
 In all this I seem to see several new tendencies im- 
 pressed on religious life. First, there is a tendency 
 in a greater degree towards the subjective in religion. 
 This is good ; but when it impels the mind into self- 
 analysis, and continual examination of motives, may 
 end in great evil. Again : there is a tendency to 
 
8o Edivards Mnnorial. 
 
 greater activity in religious life. This is due to the 
 putting of benevolence as a leading idea into the 
 place which faith took among earlier Protestants ; and 
 hence spring with the more ease the thousand efforts 
 to do good which have emanated in New England. 
 This is the glory of New England ; but it may run out 
 into work without thought, undervaluing of doctrine, 
 a superficial form of Christianity. 
 
 But, whatever a future age may think of the system 
 of doctrines which was received by the school of Ed- 
 wards, it will not deny to him a singular purity and 
 holiness of life, a practical wisdom as great as his 
 power in metaphysical science, and a certain adapta- 
 tion to his times and the circumstances where he was 
 called to work, which made him as much the bene- 
 factor of his times as his great views in theology and 
 great logical power made him a man for all times. 
 And for this double power we honor him ; for his 
 godliness we revere him. 
 
 Note. — Dr. S. E. D wight gives the impression, as it seems to me, that 
 all tlie opposition to Edwards at Stockbridge arose from a single man, 
 who aimed at making money out of the Indians, and was thwarted in his 
 unrighteousness by Edwards's rigid rectitude. The rest of the set- 
 tlers, except this family, were on the side of Edwards. But it can be 
 made out, I think, that the partisans of a half-way covenant, and 
 of another type of theology, were not prepared to welcome him before 
 he was called to preach in the place. One of them, who says, in one 
 letter, "Call me any thing else [but a new light], and I will excuse 
 you," in another, dated Nov. 6, 1750, writes as follows: "The wor- 
 thy deacon " (i.e., Timothy Woodbridge, the Indian schoolmaster) 
 
 "pressed Edwards on the commissioners. , , and are 
 
 bitter against it : first, as he does not know the language ; second, be- 
 cause they do not like the man." " How unsuitable a person is 
 Mr. Edwards on almost every account for this business ! I have not 
 time so much as to mention a hundred things that I could talk a day 
 upon." " Can't the commissioners be led to think it of the lastimpor- 
 
Edwards Memorial. 8i 
 
 tance that a gentleman should lie young in order to be [soon] expert (?) 
 in the language ; should be of a generous, catholic spirit, not only to 
 recommend himself and mission to the prince and others abroad, but 
 [to] do forty times as much good at home ? " 
 
 "Mr. Hopkins of Springfield is far from thinking his brother-[in- 
 law] proper to come here. He freely told Mr. Woodbridge so. But 
 he [Woodbridge] can get the Indians to say just what he bids them ; 
 and their humble petition with his earnest desire will be sufficient for 
 the purpose. Our neighbor, Mr. Hopkins (Dr. Hopkins, afterwards 
 of Newport), is deeply engaged with him. Mr. Hopkins of .Spring- 
 field is so nearly related, that I fear he will be loath to act against his 
 brother-[in-law3," &c. 
 
 But the prejudice wore off in part. The same person writes, Feb. 
 15, 1 75 1, "Mr. Edwards is now with us. He has conducted with 
 wisdom and prudence ; and, I must confess, I am not a little disap- 
 pointed in him. He is learned, polite, and free in conversation, and 
 more catholic than I had supposed." 
 
 In 1754 there is another outburst of dislike. A letter of Aug. 6 con- 
 tains these words : " They [our ditficulties] are altogether of an eccle- 
 siastic kind, too many to be enumerated, too base to be named. Mr. 
 Edwards and his abetters, by these deep-concerted schemes, have 
 induced Mr. Holiis to submit himself with his whole charity and yearly 
 donations into the hands of Mr. Edwards, to be disposed cf entirely 
 agreeable to the judgment and humor of his own mind. Upon the 
 receipt of his orders, the school [the HoIlis boarding-school] suddenly 
 broke up. Soon after, all the families, with their children, went home 
 to Onoquaugah and Canajohary." 
 
 It was reasonable to make objections to Edwards on account of his 
 age, and ignorance of the language at such an age. But theological 
 and perhaps family dislikes shine through these letters. As for " deep- 
 concerted schemes," any one who will read chapters 26-28 of Dr. 
 Dwight's biography of his great-grandfather will see that they were 
 upright attempts to throw off more than one incubus from the mission. 
 There is no evidence that he had any thing of trick in his character. 
 His opinion was, perhaps, a wrong one, — that the Indians ought to be 
 made to learn English. He thereby condemned his predecessor. But 
 he sent his own son among the Indians of New York to learn tlieir 
 language. 
 
 6 
 
82 Edwards Manorial. 
 
 When this discourse was finished, the following 
 hymn, composed for the occasion, was. sung. It was 
 written by Mrs. Sarah Edwards Henshaw of Ottawa, 
 III, one of the family, who, however, was unable to 
 be present. 
 
 HYMN. 
 
 In clays and years long since gone by, 
 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place ; 
 Alike when joy and grief were nigh, 
 The refuge of our name and race. 
 
 Who, who should bless thy holy name, 
 Who yearn to thee with pure desires, 
 And who thy faithfulness proclaim, 
 If not the children of our sires .'' 
 
 They for their portion chose thee, Lord ; 
 And we, their seed, renew the choice : 
 They rested on thy covenant-word ; 
 We in that covenant rejoice. 
 
 To-day we gather round thy feet. 
 On the long ^ears we backward gaze, 
 With hearts too full for utterance meet, 
 With thoughts of joy, and hymns of praise. 
 
 Seed of the lighteous, wake, oh ! wake 
 To grateful songs and ardent prayers. 
 God owns us for our fathers' sake : 
 The Lord is ours, as he was theirs. 
 
 The time for adjournment had now arrived. But, 
 before it took place, the Hon. J. Z. Goodrich, chair- 
 man of the Committee of Entertainment, rose, and ex- 
 tended an invitation to the family and to the strangers 
 present to partake of refreshment during the recess, 
 at tables spread under the mammoth tent on the green 
 grass by the side of the church. 
 
Edivards Memorial. 83 
 
 The meeting was then adjourned to two o'clock, p.m. 
 When the company of four or five hundred was seated, 
 the president called upon Rev. Dr. Prime of New 
 York to invoke the divine blessin";. 
 
 AFTERNOON SESSION. 
 
 At two, P.M., the meeting came to order ; the presi- 
 dent in the chair. It had been arranged that four or 
 five epochs or periods of the life of Edwards should 
 be presented somewhat in detail by about the same 
 number of gentlemen, that the salient points of those 
 periods might be brought into stronger relief than 
 would otherwise be practicable. 
 
 Rev. Increase N. Tarbox, D.D., of Boston, himself a 
 native of East .Windsor, was invited to present the 
 early life of Edwards. His graphic delineations will 
 be read with deep interest. 
 
 I. N. TARBOX, D.D., 
 
 ON THE EARLY LIFE OF JONATHAN EDWARDS 
 
 It was at the close of ane of the longest and hottest 
 days of last June, just as the sun was going down, that 
 I stood in the old burying-ground of East Windsor, 
 Conn., amid some of the early graves of the Edwards 
 family. Any one who has passed along the road from 
 East-Windsor Hill toward Hartford may remember 
 this ancient grave-yard on the west side of the way, 
 about half a mile below the buildings formerly occu- 
 pied by the Connecticut Theological Institute. The 
 spot long since ceased to be used as a common place 
 
84 Edzvards Memorial. 
 
 for burial. It is kept neatly though plainly enclosed ; 
 and, within, every thing bears the marks of a rude and 
 simple antiquity. [These are not, it is true, the old- 
 est graves in the town, since the earliest burial-place 
 was on the other side of the river. This lot was 
 opened not far from the year 1700.] Often as I had 
 passed this spot in my early life, I never realized until 
 recently how beautiful it is for situation, especially 
 under certain conditions of light and shade. From 
 the back side of this lot, the ground falls off suddenly 
 down to the broad meadow-lands skirting the Con- 
 necticut. Standing upon the very place where these 
 graves are found, the eye has an easy and compre- 
 hensive sweep across these wide and rich meadows, 
 far away to the western hills. In the freshness of its 
 June beauty, and with the glory of its summer cul- 
 ture upon it, especially when seen in the soft light 
 of the setting sun, it would be hard to find a land- 
 scape over which the eye ranges with more delight. 
 
 Bending over these weather-beaten and moss-grown 
 stones, and reading the simple inscriptions upon them, 
 one seems to be borne far away from all the associa- 
 tions of our own noisy, changing, bustling age, back 
 to a period of ancient stability and rest. There .rises 
 before us the picture of a long and venerable life, 
 passing quietly with the quiet years. 
 
 On this massive, horizontal slab, lifted upon its four 
 pillars, one reads how Rev. Mr. Timothy Edwards 
 died and was buried here in 1758, in the eighty-ninth 
 year of his age, and in the sixty-fourth of his min- 
 istry. By the side of this monument, on a stone once 
 upright, but now swayed and bent by the frosts of 
 many winters, we spell out with difficulty the inscrip- 
 
Edzuards Manorial. 85 
 
 tion which tells us that Mrs. Esther Edwards, daugh- 
 ter of Rev. Mr. Stoddard of Northampton, and the 
 consort of Rev. Thnothy Edwards of Windsor, died 
 twelve years after her husband, in 1770, in the ninety- 
 ninth year of her age. Three other rude headstones 
 mark the graves of Mary, Lucy, and Jerusha lulwards, 
 the three daughters who died unmarried. 
 
 The meeting-house in which Mr. Timothy Edwards 
 fulfilled his long ministry was at the north-east cor- 
 ner of this lot. There were two meeting-houses, 
 indeed, during Mr. Edwards's time, both built upon 
 this same spot, — the one a rough, unfinished struc- 
 ture, lasting some fifteen or twenty years through 
 the day of small things ; the other a building of 
 mere pretension, having the stately proportions of 
 " forty feet square." This last continued till Mr. 
 Edwards's death. Just after his death, as a new 
 parish had now been formed in the northern part 
 of the town, the natural place for the meeting-house 
 in the south part was some two miles below, where it 
 was built in 1760, near the spot on which the present 
 meeting-house in South Windsor stands. Here and 
 there, in my own early life, there were elderly men 
 and women in East Windsor, who, in their early life, 
 attended upon the ministry of Mr. Edwards. And 
 there were still more who well remembered Mrs. Ed- 
 wards, living on to the great age of ninety-nine, and 
 who was always, but especially in her latter years, held 
 in peculiar reverence. It is a fresh and well-remem- 
 bered tradition, how the women of the parish used to 
 gather abjut her, day by day, in her old age, as around 
 some heavenly oracle, to minister to her earthly com- 
 fort, and to catch her elevated and saintly conver- 
 sation. 
 
86 Edzvards Manorial. 
 
 The dwelling-house occupied by the Edwards fam- 
 ily was on the other side of the road from the meet- 
 ing-house, and a little way below. It was a most 
 substantial house for those times. 
 
 It was built in 1694 or 1695, and lasted till about 
 the year 18 10. The old people now living in that 
 vicinity remember well the antique structure as it 
 appeared in the early years of the present century. 
 On the spot where it stood, using, if I mistake not, 
 the identical cellar, there was afterwards erected a 
 plain, one-story house, which yet remains. It may 
 serve to show the changes wrought by time when we 
 state that this house is now occupied by one of our 
 adopted fellow-citizens from old Ireland, by the name 
 of Mr. Christopher McNary. Though he lives upon 
 a spot that is famous, he seems not to be aware of his 
 privileges in this regard. He is not well read up in 
 the Edwardean history. The associations of the past 
 disturb him not. Though his name bears the plucky 
 Scotch prefix of Mc, yet he gives no signs, as yet, 
 of writing a treatise " On the Method of the Divine 
 Government, Physical and Moral." Nay, he hardly 
 takes thought enough upon such subjects even to 
 illustrate Pres. Edwards's treatise " Concerning the 
 Nature of True Virtue." Like most of his neighbors, 
 whether native or foreign-born, I am sorry to say, he 
 finds his chief occupation in raising tobacco. 
 
 But we must go back a little, in order to compass 
 clearly the matters we have in hand. Cotton Mather, 
 in his " Magnalia," gives us a list of the churches in 
 the four New-England colonies, with their ministers, 
 as they stood in the year 1696. In the Connecticut 
 list we read, "Windsor, Mr. Samuel Mather, H. C. , 
 
Edzvards Alcmorial. 87 
 
 and Farmc, Mr. Timothy Edwards, H.*C." Wind- 
 sor was the oldest Enghsh settlement in the little 
 State of Connecticut. As the town was originally 
 laid out, it was a large tract, some twelve or fifteen 
 miles square on both sides of the river, and covering 
 one of the richest portions of that fertile valley. [On 
 this territory, at the time the white settlements be- 
 gan, the Indians were congregated in numbers which 
 for them, with their habits of life, were very unusual. 
 They had been attracted thither by the beauty of 
 the landscape, by the excellent fishing and hunting 
 grounds, by the genial and sunny aspects of Nature, 
 and by the productiveness of the soil, which was easily 
 worked, and on which their corn would grow to per- 
 fection.] The first white settlements were on the 
 west side of the river. There the first church was 
 planted under the pastoral care of Rev. John Warham 
 in 1635, — a church that was formed in England in 
 1630, coming over to the new worJd in a body, and 
 stopping for a time at Dorchester, and afterwards re- 
 moving to Windsor. The old burying-yard in Wind- 
 sor marks the spot where the first settlers made their 
 habitations. This elevated ground, with the Farm- 
 ington River coming in on one side, was fortified by a 
 trench and palisades for protection against the Indi- 
 ans. But the wide meadows on the other side of the 
 river were rich and attractive ; and, as the years passed 
 on, the settlers went over to establish themselves 
 upon these fertile lands. We have just noticed, that, 
 in Cotton Mather's numeration of the churches in the 
 year 1696, this region east of the river, which was 
 afterwards the town of East Windsor, is called the 
 "Windsor Farmc," — a most appropriate designation, 
 
88 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 as any one will feci who rides along the valley to-day 
 on the east side, and takes note of the natural beauty 
 and richness of those lands. And so it happened, 
 that, between the years 1635 and 1694, there had 
 grown up a population on the- east side of considera- 
 ble extent, the scattered farm-houses reaching up and 
 down the river over a range of some seven or eight 
 miles. This population, for the most part, was 
 stretched along in a line, just up on the second bank 
 above the floods. The farms were made up in part 
 of these wide and rich bottom-lands along the river, 
 and in part of these dryer and sandier uplands. 
 During all these years, up to 1694, the dwellers on 
 the east side had attended church upon the other 
 side. Thither their dead had been borne for burial. 
 In heat and cold and storm, they had crossed and 
 recrossed in boats, — nothing like a bridge over this 
 broad river being yet thought of Those who are 
 acquainted with the shape of the ground and the 
 operations of Nature along that valley will understand 
 that this passing of the river back and forth was at 
 all times laborious, frequently it was difficult and dan- 
 gerous, and sometimes it was well-nigh impossible. 
 In the great floods of the winter and spring, and in 
 the breaking-up of the ice, the dwellers on the one 
 side would be cut off from intercourse with those upon 
 the other side. 
 
 About the year 16S0 'there began to be a move- 
 ment looking to a separate parish on the east side of 
 the river. Some of the early efforts failed. In 1691 
 a petition was sent in to the General Court, and in 
 this we have a clew to the population : " God having 
 increased the number of our families to above fifty, 
 
Edwards Memorial. 89 
 
 wherein it is reckoned there are near three hundred 
 persons capable of hearing the word of God to profit." 
 It was not until the year 1694 that the prayer of the 
 petitioners was granted and a separate parish organ- 
 ized. 
 
 It so happened that Timothy Edwards, son * of 
 Richard Edwards of Hartford, and grandson of William 
 Edwards, the first settler of the name in that city, had 
 just completed his education, collegiate and theologi- 
 cal, and stood ready to enter upon his life-work. 
 Harvard was then the only college in the New-Eng- 
 land colonies ; and there the youthful Timothy had 
 graduated in the year 1691, at the age of twenty-two, 
 with peculiar honors. Because of the accuracy and 
 superiority of his scholarship, the degrees of A.B.and 
 A.M. were both conferred upon him on his graduat- 
 ing-day, — a mark of approbation never before shown, 
 it is said, to a student at the college. After graduat- 
 ing, he had given long and careful attention to theo- 
 logical studies ; and, when the parish of Windsor 
 Farme was ready for its first minister, he was just 
 ready for his first and only parish. And so the two 
 were brought together. No sooner was this arrange- 
 ment made than another important step was taken. 
 The young minister went up to Northampton, and, 
 from the parsonage-house with its twelve children, 
 brought away the second, Esther Stoddard, to share 
 the joys and sorrows of his new life. She was then 
 
 * It is an interesting circumstance, tliat, as Jonathan Edwards was 
 the great-grandson of William Edwards, known as the settler, so his 
 wife, Sarah Pierrepont, was the great-granddaughter of Rev. Thomas 
 Hooker, the first minister of Hartford. The town of Hartford was the 
 ancestral home of bot'.i. 
 
go Edzvards Memorial. 
 
 twenty-three years old, and he twenty-five. She had 
 been at school at Boston, and had received there the 
 best education which New England could then give. 
 It is no very rash supposition, perhaps, to conjecture 
 that the incipient stages of this courtship were gone 
 through with while Timothy was a member of Plar- 
 vard College, and Esther was a school-girl in the 
 neighboring city. Such things have been, are now ; 
 and " there is nothing new under the sun." Still, in 
 coming down to grace the East-Windsor parsonage, 
 she was coming amid ancestral associations ; for her 
 mother was born and reared on the other side of the 
 river, being the daughter, of Rev. Mr. Warham, and 
 she, too, bearing the beautiful name of Esther. 
 
 Richard Edwards, the father, was disposed to make 
 the most generous provisions for a son whom he 
 loved, and who had done honor to his family by his 
 course at Harvard. Being a substantial Christian 
 merchant of Hartford, so soon as Timothy had ar- 
 ranged to settle in the ministry at East Windsor, he 
 came up and purchased a farm of good proportions, 
 and built the house which has already been described. 
 These he gave to his son, that his ministerial life 
 might have a basis of strength and respectability. It 
 must be confessed that Mr. Edwards began his minis- 
 try here under most happy auspices. 
 
 Into this newly-formed household the children 
 came according to the laws of ancient order. Eleven 
 were born into it in the course of twenty-one years, 
 no one of whom died in infancy or childhood. The 
 earliest break in the circle was made by the death of 
 Jerusha, the eighth child, dying when near the age of 
 twenty, in the year 1729. For thirty-five years, into 
 
Edzvards Memorial. 91 
 
 this family, embracing at last thirteen individuals, the 
 shadow of death had not intruded. 
 
 In this household, the fifth child and the only son 
 was that illustrious person whose greatness we cele- 
 brate here to-day. When we consider the general 
 conditions of life and society about him, how little 
 there was to stir the imagination and stimulate intel- 
 lectual growth, it certainly seems a strange thing, that 
 on this spot, and in these circumstances, a child should 
 be born who should grow into the stateliest propor- 
 tions, and be recognized far and wide in the earth as 
 one of the greatest masters of human thought. Every 
 thing around him, during the period of his childhood, 
 was in the very shadows of the wilderness. As he 
 went up from sabbath to sabbath with his father and 
 mother and sisters to the house of God, that house 
 itself was so rude as to convey the idea of only a half- 
 civilized state. Without and within it was unfinished, 
 with no pews or seats, or even floor. Stiles, in his 
 "History of Windsor," says, " This house, so far as we 
 can learn, was merely a covered frame, without floor 
 or seats ; and the people sat upon the sills and sleep- 
 ers." In this old parish of East Windsor, at the time 
 of Mr. Edwards's settlement, there was a large fund of 
 character ; but it was, as yet, in the rough. Among 
 the men and women to whom Mr. Edwards preached, 
 there were many of great native strength ; but they 
 were occupied with plain and humble cares, such as 
 always pertain to the early life of a new land. Here 
 were the Ellsworths, the Wolcotts, the Bissells, the 
 Tudors, the Stoughtons, the Bartlctts, the Grants (an- 
 cestors of our President), the Phelpses, the Rockwells, 
 the Bancrofts, the Trumbulls, and others, — names 
 
92 
 
 Ediuards ManoriaL 
 
 which have always been names of dignity and worth 
 in this land. But, so far as books and schools and arts 
 were concerned, it was but a rude and unpolished age ; 
 and yet no age can be really rude where the open 
 Bible is enthroned in the sanctuary and in every pri- 
 vate dwelling, and light and instruction are daily 
 sought from its pages. 
 
 But, however rough and unformed may have been 
 the condition of things in the Connecticut Valley at 
 that time, we must not forget that the parsonage-house 
 at East Windsor was itself a little seminary, where 
 not only the inmates of the house, but the young peo- 
 ple from the surrounding homes, received instruction. 
 The young minister here, as we have seen, was one of 
 the choicest and best scholars that Harvard had then 
 sent out ; and his young wife w^as a pattern of grace 
 and culture and dignity. As the children, one by one, 
 came forward into life, they were instructed, not alone 
 in the simple elements of knowledge, but in the 
 higher ranges of education. It is a well-preserved 
 item, that each of these ten daughters, in their quiet 
 country-home, far away from cities and seminaries, 
 received the education preparatory to entering college. 
 As four sisters preceded the boy in the order of the 
 family history, the eldest of these were themselves 
 fitted to act as his instructors, and to lead him along 
 in the paths of wisdom. In the year i/ii, Mr. 
 Edwards was absent for a time from his home by ap- 
 pointment of the colonial government, acting as chap- 
 lain in the army in an expedition to Canada. At that 
 time, the boy Jonathan was eight years old. The fa- 
 ther writes home that he wishes him and the girJs to 
 continue the study of Latin ; and a few days later he 
 
Edwards MetiioriaL 93 
 
 writes again, directing that Jonatlian continue to 
 recite his Latin to his elder sisters. The boy had 
 begun this study of Latin at the age of six years ; so 
 that he was now well along in it. 
 
 This house was for many years a thorough intel- 
 lectual work-shop. I have borrowed for this occasion 
 an old rnanuscript-book, — a venerable 'Edwardean 
 relic, — which reveals in a most simple and natural 
 way many of the incidents of the life which was lived 
 in the Connecticut Valley a hundred and fifty years 
 ago. It is the account-book, in which Mr. Edwards 
 kept a debtor and creditor account with each one of 
 his tax-paying parishioners. This book belongs to 
 Hon. John W. Stoughton of East- Windsor Hill, who, 
 though not a descendant of Jonathan Edwards, is, as 
 a host of other people are, descended from Timothy 
 Edwards through the daughters. Mr. Edwards's pa- 
 rishioners paid their taxes directly to him : but they 
 did not generally pay in money, but in the produce 
 of the farm ; in the merchandise from the store ; in 
 the work of the trades, — shoemaking, tailoring, black- 
 smithing, joiner-work, and the like. This is not the 
 earliest of these account-books, since it ranges over 
 the years from about 1723 on to 1745. Mr. Edwards 
 was a very careful and systematic man ; and no doubt 
 he did the same thing through all his long ministry : 
 indeed, it was a necessity in those times. While 
 absent on the military expedition before referred to, he 
 writes to his wife, " I would have you very careful of 
 my books and account of rates." This l)ook contains 
 the names of two hundred and thirty-three persons 
 with whom Mr. Edwards kept accounts ; and many 
 most interesting facts may be gleaned from it. 
 
94 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 But the point we would now illustrate is the intel- 
 lectual activity at the East-Windsor parsonage. A 
 frequent item in these accounts has reference to the 
 education given by Mr. Edwards and his daughters to 
 the children of those scattered households. For ex- 
 ample, in Mr. John Rockwell's account, under the 
 date of 1723 and 1724, he is charged with the follow- 
 ing item : — 
 
 " To teaching his son one year and eight months, — 
 viz., his eldest son, — in all, ^10. 17^-. 6dr 
 
 Under date of 1732, we find the following : — 
 
 " John Diggens came to me, by his father's desire, 
 to be instructed in the Latin tongue, &c., on a Mon- 
 day. The first week, he was here but three days." 
 
 This John Diggens, son of Mr. Jeremiah Diggens, 
 continued his studies in this line for some years ; for 
 in the year 1737 there was a reckoning, and we find 
 the following record : — 
 
 " Reckoned with John Diggens by his father's order, 
 and due to me for teaching him the tongues, — viz., 
 Latin and Greek, — forty-seven weeks in all, ^g. Sjt." 
 
 By looking at thg; triennial catalogue of Yale, it will 
 be seen that this same John Diggens graduates there 
 in 1740. 
 
 They were very particular and exact in those days 
 about the absences. Under date of March, 1732, 
 there is this memorandum : — 
 
 " John Anderson came again to my house to board, 
 and to learn to read, write, and cipher ; and, from 
 time to time, went home on Saturday as he wished to 
 to do." 
 
 Farther down we read, — 
 
 "John Anderson was absent two weeks and one 
 
Edwm'ds Memorial. 95 
 
 day. He went home on Saturday before the election ; 
 and, May 22, he came agahi." 
 
 In 1729, Major Roger Wolcott, afterwards colonial 
 governor of Connecticut, is charged with his son 
 Alexander's schooling ; and he also graduated at Yale 
 in 173 1. Quite a number of others are brought to view 
 who went through the same experience. Serg. David 
 Bissell, Mr. William Wolcott, the Widow Gaylor, all 
 have sons who are instructed in " the tongues " by 
 Mr. Edwards, and who afterward graduate at Yale. 
 
 Not only were the boys of his own parish thus 
 taught, and, if they desired it, fitted for college, but from 
 other places they came lor the same purpose ; so that 
 the East-Windsor parsonage was really the academy for 
 that region. It is handed down as a tradition, that, 
 when young men from under Mr. Edwards's tuition 
 presented themselves before the authorities to be ex- 
 amined for entrance into college, it was felt that any 
 lengthy examination was quite superfluous. If Mr. 
 Edwards said they were ready for college, that was 
 enough. 
 
 It will be seen by this review, that, however rude 
 society may have been in the time of Jonathan 
 Edwards's childhood and youth, his own home was one 
 of great literary and intellectual activity. Accurate 
 and systematic study was the order of the day in the 
 Edwards household. 
 
 No one, however, will pretend to find the real key 
 to Edwards's greatness in any thing merely outward. 
 Back of all surrounding influences, we are to recog- 
 nize a mind of lordly grasp and compass, — a soul en- 
 dowed by its Creator with marvellous powers and ca- 
 pacities. From the beginning, there was an original 
 
96 Edivai'ds Memorial. 
 
 and masterly force which Hfted him above the ordi- 
 nary conditions and temptations of childhood. There 
 was a native strength of understanding, which made 
 him, in a great measure, a law unto himself 'Still, no 
 child, however remarkable, can be wholly independent 
 of his surroundings ; and, in the making-up of his 
 character and destiny, we are to study these out- 
 side infiuences as well as the original bent of his 
 genius. 
 
 From his early years, Jonathan Edwards was cer- 
 tainly most peculiarly situated as to his home-influ- 
 ences. Flanked by sisters on either hand, had this 
 been a weak and sentimental household, the ecrowine: 
 boy might easily have been petted and spoiled. 
 When he went to college in 1716, there were four 
 sisters on the one side, and five on the other ; and 
 little Martha, the last of tlie race, was born during 
 his freshman-year. For three generations, at least, 
 this branch of the Edwards family ran remarkably to 
 daughters. 
 
 Mr. Molhster, in his " History of Connecticut," 
 gives a striking passage to Jonathan Edwards ; and, in 
 the course of it, he thus beautifully alludes to the strong 
 female influence by which this remarkable child was 
 enveloped: "He enjoyed," says Mr. Hollistcr, "the 
 rare advantage, never understood and felt except by 
 those who have been fortunate enough to experience 
 it, of all the softening and hallowed influences which 
 refined female society sheds like an atmosphere of 
 light around the mind and soul of boyhood. Had 
 that fond mother and those loving sisters been fully 
 aware of the glorious gifts that were even then begin- 
 ning to glow in the eyes of their darling; had they 
 
Edwards Memorial. 97 
 
 been able to see in its full blaze the immortal beauty, 
 borrowed from the regions of spiritualized thought 
 and hallowed affections, that was one day to encir- 
 cle that forehead as with a wreath from the bowers 
 of paradise, — they could hardly have unfolded his 
 moral and intellectual character with more discreet 
 care." 
 
 We have already given a general glance at the scene- 
 ry that prevails along that part of the Connecticut 
 Valley. As compared with most of our New-England 
 country, this region would be called level ; but it is 
 not the level of the prairie. It has hills and valleys 
 of its own ; sharp inequalities of surface, affording 
 cosey nooks and corners, romantic hiding-places in 
 the forests ; leafy dells, where the shy wood-thrushes 
 sing, and where the little brooks ripple under the 
 shadows. The whole region, too, is remarkably pro- 
 lific in animal, insect, and vegetable life. 
 
 Just east of the spot where the old Edwards man- 
 sion stood, partly upon the Edwards farm, and partly 
 beyond and outside of it, is one of these broken and 
 irregular tracts of country. A traveller passing along 
 the ancient road, up and down the river, would hardly 
 realize in what a pleasant and romantic spot he might 
 lose himself by passing in at the gate, and going 
 eastward a hundred rods into the woods. One may 
 be perfectly certain that the feet of Jonathan Ed- 
 wards threaded this region in all directions. It re- 
 quires, indeed, just a little stretch of imagination to 
 think of him as setting snares in the woods to catch 
 partridges, or as fixing his. box-traps for rabbits, or 
 as going with other boys to swim in the Connecticut. 
 We are apt to think, even of his childhood, as sol- 
 
98 Ediuards Memorial. 
 
 emn, dignified, and stately, like those after-years when 
 he was contending for the truth in Northampton, or 
 writing his great works here in Stockbridge. But 
 there is no good reason, so far as I am aware, for 
 supposing that he did not have the playful element 
 in him ; that he was not a boy among boys ; that 
 there was not, in short, a large out-door kingdom 
 with great and pressing interests, in which he took 
 the keenest delight. But, however this may be, we 
 know well that these wild woodlands must have been 
 familiar to Edwards from his early years. His love 
 of Nature and his kindling imagination would have 
 led him thither, if there were no partridges or rabbits 
 to be caught. He would be there to feel the soft 
 influences of the shadows ; to catch the notes of the 
 different woodland birds, and learn their habits ; to 
 be acted upon by all the sights and sounds of what 
 was then well-nigh the primeval forest. What we 
 may call the poetic faculty was present in him in large 
 measure. Many passages in his earlier and later life 
 abundantly attest this. When he gave reins to his 
 imagination, when he let his fancy loose to play upon 
 the winds, it was seen that he could easily have taken 
 wide and lofty flights in this ideal realm. 
 
 In men like him, where the reasoning and logical 
 powers are in such massive proportions, and where the 
 life naturally turns toward \\\q. philosophical rather than 
 the ideal, we easily lose sight of that creative element 
 of imagination which is kept so constantly in the 
 background, and used only in the service of the other 
 powers. If Edwards had not been the great meta- 
 physician of America, if another bent and direction 
 had early been given to his mind, he might have 
 
Edivards Memorial. 
 
 99 
 
 proved the Milton of this new world, and sung songs 
 which would have been immortal. 
 
 That he loved Nature, and looked upon her both with 
 the aesthetic and philosophical eye, is largely attested. 
 That he was one of the closest observers of the phe- 
 nomena of the natural world is made clear by that 
 remarkable paper on the habits of spiders, written 
 by him, as is supposed, when he was twelve years 
 of age. It is true, the exact time when this paper was 
 written cannot be made out : but it appears by all the 
 evidence to have been finished before his entrance 
 into college ; and this took place in September, 1 7 1 6, — 
 a month before he was thirteen years old. This paper 
 on spiders may justly be regarded as one of the won- 
 ders of literature. It would be difficult, from all the 
 centuries, to find a production, written by a child 
 of that age, showing such a masterly comprehen- 
 sion of a difficult subject ; such close and delicate 
 observation ; such philosophical arrangement, and 
 compass of thought. Hear a few of the opening 
 sentences : — 
 
 " There are some things that I have happily seen 
 of the wondrous way of the working of the spider. 
 Although every thing pertaining to this insect is 
 admirable, there are some phenomena relating to 
 them more particularly wonderful. Everybody that 
 is used to the country knows their marching in the 
 air from one tree to another, sometimes to the dis- 
 tance of five or six rods. Nor can one go out in a 
 dewy morning in the latter end of August and the 
 beginning of September but he shall see multitudes 
 of webs, made visible by the dew that hangs on them, 
 reaching from one tree, branch, or shruli, to anolher: 
 
lOO Edivards Memorial. 
 
 which webs are commonly thought to be made in the 
 night, because they appear only in the morning ; 
 whereas none of them are made in the night, as these 
 spiders never come out in the night when it is dark, 
 as the dew is then falling. But these webs may be 
 seen well enough in the day-time by an observing 
 eye, by their reflection in the sunbeams. Especially 
 late in the afternoon may these webs, that are between 
 the eye and that part of the horizon that is under the 
 sun, be seen very plainly, being advantageously pos- 
 ited to reflect the rays. And the spiders themselves 
 may be very often seen travelling in the air, from one 
 stage to another amongst the trees, in a very unac- 
 countable manner. But I have often seen that which 
 is much more astonishing. In very calm and serene 
 days in the fore-mentioned time of year, standing at 
 some distance behind the end of a house or some 
 other opaque body, so as just to hide the disk of the 
 sun and keep off his dazzling rays, and looking along 
 close by the side of it, I have seen a vast multitude 
 of little shining webs and glistening strings brightly 
 reflecting the sunbeams, and some of them of great 
 length, and of such a height that one would think 
 they were tacked to the vault of the heavens." 
 
 He then goes on and explains the whole law and 
 mechanism of these movements in a way which, for 
 any one of any age, would be thought original and 
 striking, but, for a boy of twelve years, was truly mar- 
 vellous. And he was an original explorer in this 
 field. This boy, untaught by books, unprompted by 
 others, saw and comprehended what none before him 
 had seen, and what few now have the eye to see, even 
 though the whole process has been described. 
 
Edwards Memorial. loi 
 
 A gentleman who lives near where the old Edwards 
 house stood, told me, this summer, that he had from 
 time to time tried this experiment in these later 
 years, and had seen the same thing going on upon 
 that spot which this boy saw as an original discov- 
 erer a hundred and fifty years ago. He says, more- 
 over, that the broad meadow-lands of the Connecticut 
 are peculiarly prolific in this insect-life ; and, from the 
 position of the land, — falling off as it does down to 
 the west, only a little way from where the Edwards 
 mansion was placed, — the position in the afternoon 
 sun is peculiarly favorable for these observations. 
 
 And the beauty of it all, as it pertains to Edwards, 
 is, that, while he was doing what none of the full-grown 
 men along that valley had ever done before, he seems 
 not to be aware that it is any thing unusual. As one 
 reads the production, he might infer that the boy who 
 wrote it supposed this was the natural occupation 
 of boys of twelve years, and that lads generally of that 
 age were doing the same or similar things. 
 
 There are many more trains of thought which 
 might be followed out ; but we must close. The reli- 
 gious life of Edwards did not begin until some years 
 later than this. Though he had deep religious im- 
 pressions in his early childhood, yet he did not claim 
 for himself a religious character until after his gradu- 
 ation. All his leanings were, from the first, in that 
 direction ; and he seems never to have had an evil 
 nature to contend with. 
 
 As already stated, a month betbre reaching the 
 age of thirteen years, we see him entering upon his 
 collegiate course at Yale College. 
 
I02 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 It had been originally arranged that the college-life 
 of Edwards should be made the subject of a separate 
 address on this occasion ; but, as that plan is not to 
 be carried out, it seems proper that a word should be 
 said at this point about this portion of his life. At 
 that time, Yale College was in its infancy. The insti- 
 tution was only sixteen years old when Jonathan Ed- 
 wards entered it. It had as yet no settled habitation, 
 and hardly a name. It was wandering about the 
 country like the tabernacle in the wilderness. There 
 was an old New-England custom, still lingering in 
 some primitive communities, of boarding the school- 
 master around the district ; but, in this case, the 
 college itself was boarded around the district. Some- 
 times it was at Milford, sometimes at Wethersfield, 
 sometimes at Saybrook, sometimes at New Haven ; or 
 rather it seemed sometimes to be at all these places 
 at once, — one class being at one place, and another 
 at another. The question where it should be finally 
 located was fiercely contested ; and it was not until 
 near the close of Mr. Edwards's course that the col- 
 lege was fixed at New Haven. 
 
 There is no time to follow out this college-life in 
 detail. It was in the early part of his course that he 
 first read " Locke on the Eluman Understanding." 
 He read it, as he seems to have read every thing all 
 his life long, pen in hand, ready to record his own 
 thoughts and impressions. The writings of John 
 Locke have not usually been chosen for light reading, 
 even by adult men and women ; his works do not 
 figure largely at summer watering-places : but this 
 boy of fourteen years read this work of Locke as one 
 fascinated and spell-bound. No young lady this 
 
Edwards Memorial. 
 
 lO 
 
 summer has risen from the perusal of the last new 
 novel with such a glow of enthusiasm and delight as 
 that with which he finished this book in the year 
 1717. He read it with a certain forecasting of his 
 own great destiny. Without affectation, simply as 
 something which he could not repress, he tells how 
 he found a delight in the contents of this book, such 
 as misers feel when they grasp handfuls of gold and 
 silver. 
 
 Toward the close of his course in college, Rector 
 Cutler, then at the head of the institution, writes a 
 flattering letter to Timothy Edwards, the father, tell- 
 ing him of the excellent use Jonathan is making 
 of his time, and what high hopes may justly be enter- 
 tained of the boy. He graduates a month before he 
 is seventeen. His birthday fell in October ; and the 
 old commencement at Yale was in September. Young 
 men graduated at college in those days earlier in life 
 than now. The course of study was not so extended. 
 By the rules of our colleges, a young man could not 
 now get through his course as young as Edwards 
 then was. Still, in those times, it was very rare for 
 students to graduate before they were eighteen or 
 twenty. Cotton Mather graduated at Harvard, if we 
 mistake not, at fifteen ; and there are individual 
 cases of this kind. But Timothy Edwards, as we 
 have seen, graduated at twenty-two ; and the average 
 age in those times v/as somewhere between the father 
 and the son. We leave Jonathan Edwards, then, 
 going forth from the walls of Yale College in 1720 for 
 his great life-work. 
 
I04 Edzvards Memorial. 
 
 Prof. Edwards A. Park of Andover Seminary was 
 the next speaker. He chose to discuss some of the 
 characteristics of Edwards as a thinker and preacher. 
 This he did with his usual discrimination and ability. 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 liY EDWARDS A. PARK, D.D. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, — I ought not to make any remarks 
 on this occasion ; for I have but recently left the At- 
 lantic steamboat, and have become so wonted to the 
 sea, that I cannot uniformly believe myself to be on 
 the land. I have had no time to write my remarks, 
 and can only console myself by remembering, that, in 
 the later years of his life, Prcs. Edwards was accus- 
 tomed to speak ex tempore ; and his later manuscripts 
 prove, according to Mr. Grosart, "that his rule, in 
 the proportion of ninety-five to a hundred, was to 
 jot down the leading thoughts and illustrations, and 
 trust to the suggestions of the moment " for all be- 
 sides. Perhaps, then, in speaking of him, I may 
 be allowed to follow his example of extemporaneous 
 speech. 
 
 The first thought suggested to me by this assem- 
 blage of his descendants is the importance of a family. 
 God has not made the angels as he has made men, 
 — one generation depending on another. He has di- 
 vided our race into tribes, and subdivided the tribes 
 into families ; and one family preserves and transmits 
 its distinctive character from age to age. The ocean 
 is not one mass of waters, all the parts of which are 
 alike in their influence on each other ; but there are 
 different currents in the sea, and the waters of one 
 
Edwards Memorial. 105 
 
 latitude receive impulse and direction from the waters 
 of another. The family is a kind of Gulf stream. 
 There are several of Pres. Edwards's descendants 
 who have exhibited a marked resemblance to him. 
 He has contributed much to form their characters. 
 So there are several of his ancestors to whom he 
 had an evident likeness. They exerted a formative 
 influence upon him. The traits of his grandfather 
 and grandmother Stoddard are conspicuous in him ; 
 so were those of his father and mother ; and there is 
 a peculiar resemblance between the characteristics 
 of the president and those of his grandfather, Richard 
 Edwards of Hartford. I hold in my hand a copy of a 
 manuscript in the handwriting of Rev. Timothy Ed- 
 wards, the president's father, which is entitled, " Some 
 things written concerning my very dear and honored 
 father, Mr. Richard Edwards, late of Hartford, de- 
 ceased, who departed this life in the comfortable 
 hopes of a glorious resurrection to life again, April 
 20, 1 71 8, on a sabbath day, about singing-time in the 
 forenoon ; aged, according to his own account, within 
 about a fortnight or three weeks of seventy-one, or 
 within a very little of it at least." The style of the 
 father in this document might easily be mistaken for 
 the style of the son ; and the description of the grand- 
 father might well be mistaken for the description 
 of the grandson. When we read the controversial 
 tracts of the president, and hear of his troubles with 
 his parishioners, we can say of him, as his father says 
 of Richard Edwards, "Another thing savoring of a 
 religious, Christian spirit in him, was his dealing with 
 his neighbors, as there might be occasion, in a way 
 of friendly and Christian admonition ; which he would 
 
io6 Edivards Memorial. 
 
 do so seriously, mode'-ately, lovingly, and wisely, and 
 sometimes (the case calling for it) in a very close, 
 heart-convincing, and affecting manner. And, in- 
 deed, as there were but few that could do this duty 
 so well, so there were not many that did so much at 
 it, or did so much good by it, as I have reason to 
 think he did." No small part of Pres. Edwards's 
 trouble in life sprang from the fact that he was plain- 
 spoken in reproof, and " did so imtcJi at it!' Still, no 
 one can read his funeral-sermons without feeling that 
 what Timothy Edwards says of Richard may also be 
 said of the president : " There were but few, at least 
 among private Christians, that could apply themselves 
 so pertinently, pithily, and properly, savorily and 
 suitably, and in so comprehensive a manner, and 
 that both for direction and support of those who were 
 in affliction, as he could." [Here the speaker read 
 further extracts from the unpublished manuscript of 
 Rev. Timothy Edwards.] 
 
 Another thought suggested by this gathering of 
 the Edwards family is tJie coviprcJicnsiveness of Jus 
 character and writings. I am not comparing him and 
 his works to the Bible, so as to imply that they re- 
 semble it in all respects ; but they have in one respect 
 a likeness to it : they comprehend a large variety of 
 elements which are not ordinarily found united. The 
 Bible has been condemned because it is the book to 
 which the partisans of differing sects and schools 
 make their appeal, and from which they profess to 
 derive support. How can it be harmonious with itself, 
 when it seems to favor so many conflicting opinions } 
 Still it is a self-consistent volume, although men of 
 diverse methods of thinking claim it in their favor. 
 
Edwards Memorial. 107 
 
 All Christian sects and Christian schools have some 
 elements of truth and right in them ; and the Bible 
 contains all the elements of truth and right to which 
 these contending parties are attached. It is not a one- 
 sided book ; is not shaped after any one human stan- 
 dard. But every human standard is in a greater or 
 smaller degree one-sided ; and its advocates appeal to 
 that part of the Bible which favors more or less their 
 one side. The character and writings of Pres. Ed- 
 wards make an approach to the consistent many-sided- 
 ness of the Sacred Scriptures. They contain ele- 
 ments to which differing classes of partisans appeal, 
 and from which they seem to draw strength ; yet they 
 harmonize with each other well enough to form a dis- 
 tinct system. 
 
 There are metaphysical preachers who crowd into 
 their sermons logical statements and philosophical 
 discussions. When these men are reprimanded for 
 their abstract trains of thought, they refer to Edwards 
 as a metaphysical preacher. They are half right ; for 
 he was a metaphysical preacher in some particulars. 
 Still he did not, like many of the old English divines, 
 burden his discourses with formal syllogisms and 
 scholastic technicalities. In the general, his sermons 
 were plain enough to be understood by his auditors. 
 They did contain the skeleton of logic ; but it was 
 covered with muscles, veins, and arteries. He did 
 not wear his bones on the outside of him. 
 
 There are other preachers who are fervid in their 
 appeals, and passionate in their exhortations. They 
 are condemned as too emotional ; perhaps too severe 
 in their denunciations of sin, and their threatenings 
 oi i)unishnicnt. When thus condemned, they a[)peai 
 
io8 Edzvards Alnnorial. 
 
 to Edwards as an exciting preacher, terrific in his in- 
 vectives, overwhehning in his descriptions of coming 
 woe. It has been reported of him, that, on one occa- 
 sion at least, he could not be heard by his congrega- 
 tion on account of the sobs and cries of those whom 
 he had alarmed by his impassioned utterances. Now, 
 it is true that he was a fervid preacher : he did work 
 on the passions of men. Still he did not address the 
 feelings until he had addressed the judgment of his 
 hearers. He was not rhapsodical, nor technically 
 philosophical, as a preacher ; but he was one of the 
 first American divines who united the results of phil- 
 osophical study with a warm, evangelical spirit. 
 Hence his sermons were instructive as well as ex- 
 citing : they were not the alcohol distilled from the 
 wheat ; but they were the wheat penetrated with the 
 alcohol, nourishing as well as stimulating. 
 
 There are ministers who have a nice sense of cleri- 
 cal dignity, a scrupulous regard for the rights of an 
 established pastor. They contend that a clergyman, 
 when ordained over a church, is the president of that 
 church, and the bishop of the parish connected with 
 it ; and no other clergyman has a right to interfere 
 with his diocese. They appeal to Edwards as a man 
 of rare personal and official dignity, a pastor on whose 
 clerical prerogative other pastors would hardly ven- 
 ture to intrench. This appeal is, in many respects, 
 just. He was a man of rare elevation of character. 
 Men did approach him with a kind of awe. He 
 labored to maintain the rights of pastors. He con- 
 demned the extravagances of Davenport and other 
 fanatical preachers. In no small degree are we in- 
 debted to him for whatever now remains of the irood 
 
Edwards Mc7noriaL 109 
 
 order of the churches and the stability of the pastoral 
 relation. But he was not so stiff as to be unbending: 
 in his determination to sustain the clergy. When he 
 was convinced that the welfare of " being in general " 
 required him to oppose his ministerial brethren, he 
 did oppose them. He knew that his opposition would 
 imperil his own interests ; but he consented to en- 
 counter the peril for the sake of promoting the gen- 
 eral good. 
 
 There are other ministers who regard it their duly 
 to break over parish lines and to break through parish 
 usages. They will preach to a community having an 
 ordained pastor who not only does not invite them, 
 but positively refuses to see or tolerate them. They 
 will plant and harrow and reap in fields belonging to 
 husbandmen who insist on doing their own work. 
 They are often the means (perhaps unintentional) 
 of expelling pastors from their pulpits, and of intro- 
 ducing confusion into the community. They claim 
 the authority of Edwards for their readiness to preach 
 the gospel in season or out of season, in compliance 
 with the will, or in defiance of the command, of regu- 
 lar pastors. He sympathized with many of the sepa- 
 ratists. He encouraged Whitefield, who was the 
 occasion of dividing churches and upturning old es- 
 tablishments. The innovations of the " New Lights," 
 however, so far as they were sanctioned at all by 
 Pres. Edwards, were sanctioned with extreme reluc- 
 tance, and as the results of extreme necessity. The 
 churches had declined so far from their primiti\'e 
 faithfulness, that new measures were needed for the 
 new exigency. He did not favor the extravagances 
 attending those measures ; but he felt compelled to 
 
no Edwards Manorial. 
 
 advocate the principle out of which those extrava- 
 gances needlessly sprang. He did more, perhaps, 
 than any other American divine in promoting the 
 doctrinal purity, and at the same time quickening 
 the zeal, of the churches ; in restraining them from 
 fanaticism, and at the same time stimulating them to 
 a healthy enthusiasm. His writings were in his own 
 day, and are in our day, a kind of classic authority for 
 discriminating between the warmth of sound health 
 and the heat of a fever. He did not remain station- 
 ary, like the centre of a circle : he moved in an 
 orbit not eccentric, but well-rounded and complete. 
 
 Pres. Samuel Davies made the most strenuous 
 effort to secure the services of Pres. Edwards for the 
 State of Virginia, after he had been dismissed from 
 Northampton. In a letter dated Hanover, July 4, 175 i, 
 Dr. Davies thus writes to Dr. Joseph Bellamy: "I as- 
 sure myself, dear sir, of your most zealous concur- 
 rence to persuade him to [come to] Virginia. Do not 
 send liim a cold, paper message, but go to him yourself 
 in person. If he be not as yet engaged to any place, I 
 depend upon your word, and make no doubt but he 
 will come. If he is engaged, I hope he may be regu- 
 larly dismissed upon a call of so great importance. 
 Of all the men I know in America, he appears to me 
 the most fit for this place ; and, if he could be ob- 
 tained on no other condition, I would cheerfully resign 
 him my place, and cast myself into the wide world 
 once more. Fiery, superficial ministers will never do 
 in these parts : they might do good ; but they would 
 do much more harm. We need the deep judgment 
 and calm temper of Mr. Edwards among us. Even 
 the dissenters here [Lunenburg] have the nicest taste 
 
Edwards Memo7'ial. 1 1 1 
 
 of almost any congregation I know, and cannot put 
 up with even the truths of the gospel in an injudi- 
 cious form. The enemies are watchful, and some 
 of them crafty, and raise a prodigious clamor about 
 raving, injudicious preaching. Mr. Edwards would 
 suit them both." 
 
 On an occasion like the present, it may seem unfit 
 to introduce any topic on which the descendants of 
 Pres. Edwards may differ among themselves, either 
 in opinion or feeling. They belong to differing 
 schools in theology : still they are equally enthusiastic 
 in their veneration for him. They meet on the 
 ground where he preached, and in the house where 
 he lived ; and no one party exceeds the other in ex- 
 pressing reverence for him. Therefore, perhaps, there 
 may be no harm in simply hinting at his relation to 
 the advocates of the "old divinity" and of the 
 " new." There are old-school divines who claim him 
 as their patron : and they have some right to do so ; 
 for he did cling to some of their distinctive tenets. 
 There are also new-school men who claim him ; and 
 there is some truth in their pretension that he favored 
 their views. He did adopt certain theories which are 
 the germ of what is called the "new theology." He 
 started certain trains of thought, which, when consist- 
 ently followed out, form the new-school system. He 
 was an original thinker. He does not coincide with 
 either of the two parties to the exclusion of the other. 
 He is broad enough to reach into both parties. 
 When I was in the pastoral office, one of my near 
 neighbors was Rev. Dr. Codman of Dorchester. He 
 was a man of large wealth, of genial manners, and a 
 decided adherent to the old school in theology. He 
 
112 
 
 Edivar^ds Memorial. 
 
 owned two excellent horses. One of them was large, 
 majestic, and was noted for its stately trot : this 
 horse the doctor named " Old School." The other 
 was nimble, spirited, and drove ahead with great fleet- 
 ness : this he named " New School." He was wont 
 to say, " When I wish to visit the gentry of my par- 
 ish, and ride through the streets with dignity, I take 
 ' Old School ;' but when I am in haste to visit a sick 
 man, or to transact some urgent business, and must 
 ride fast at the risk of losing my hat, then I take 
 ' New School' " Now, Pres. Edwards could not be 
 called by the farmers either a " nigh-horse " or an 
 " off-horse," but would rather be called a complete 
 span in himself, — "a whole team." 
 
 Pres. Edwards combined the abstract habits of a 
 philosopher with the practical tendencies of a pastor. 
 He interested great minds. Robert Hall says, " I 
 consider Jonathan Edwards the greatest of the sons 
 of men. He ranks with the brightest luminaries 
 of the Christian Church, not excluding any country 
 or any age, since the apostolic." Sir James Mackin- 
 tosh says of Edwards, "This remarkable man, tlie 
 metaphysician of America. . . . His power of subtle 
 argument, perhaps lunnatc/ied, certainly itnsitrpassed, 
 aviong men, was joined, as in some of the ancient 
 mystics, with a character which raised his piety to 
 fervor." Robert Morehead says, " Edwards comes 
 nearer Bishop Butler, as a philosophical divine, than 
 any other theologian with whom we are acquainted." 
 I was once riding with an eminent author and states- 
 man, who has held high offices under our national 
 government ; was an ardent friend of Gen. Jackson, 
 and an advocate of his policy ; and, withal, a great 
 
Edwards Memorial. 1 1 3 
 
 admirer of Pres. Edwards. Happening to speak of 
 Edwards's " Treatise on the Nature of True Virtue," 
 the statesman remarked, " I regard that as the great- 
 est ethical treatise in the Enghsh language, and as 
 the real foundation of the Democratic party in the 
 United States." It need not be said that the man 
 who, in an obscure New-England parish, wrote such 
 treatises as called forth the encomiums of Lord 
 Kaimes, Dugald Stewart, Sir William Hamilton, — 
 three philosophers who are known to have carefully 
 studied these treatises, — must have been habitually 
 absorbed in thought. While we are in Stockbridge, 
 we visit the room which is called his " study ; " but, in 
 fact, his "study" was wherever he went. As he 
 walked' in the groves, or rode along the streams, he 
 was meditating on great subjects ; and would often 
 stop to write down his new thoughts, and pin the 
 paper containing them upon his coat. I have heard 
 one of his grandsons say, that, on one occasion, Mr. 
 Edwards rode on horseback to his pasture for his 
 cows ; and, when he came near the bars of his pasture, 
 a small boy ran to them, and let them down for him. 
 As the minister was riding over the bars, he bowed 
 to the boy, and asked, " Whose boy are you .-* " — 
 "John Clark's' boy," was the answer. Mr. Edwards 
 soon came back, driving his cows before him. The 
 boy stood ready to put up the bars, and took off his 
 hat as the pastor drew near. " Whose boy are you .'* " 
 was the question asked the second time ; and the 
 answer came, " The same man's boy that I was five 
 minutes ago." This incident shows how absorbed 
 Mr. Edwards was in his studies, and how abstracted 
 from the world. Still he was a preacher to the poor, 
 
114 Edzvards Memorial. 
 
 and " the common people heard him gladly." He took 
 a deep interest in the welfare of his parishioners and 
 in the details of their daily life. He preached not 
 only on their high spiritual duties, but on their 
 " minor morals " and small proprieties. I will read a 
 few extracts from one of his sermons preached to the 
 people of Northampton, and recently printed in Rev. 
 Mr. Grosart's interesting volume. Like many of his 
 other sermons, it was never written out in full ; and his 
 manuscript contains merely the prominent divisions, 
 and a few bold hints of the manner in which they were 
 filled up. His text is i Pet. iii. 19, 20, He closes 
 his sermon with various practical " directions." One 
 of them is the necessity of avoiding " pride and ex- 
 travagance in apparel." Under this head he re- 
 marks, — 
 
 • "Not that I condemn all adorning the body. 'Tis 
 evident by Scripture that some moderate degree 
 of this is lawful. Oil that makes his face to shine 
 (Eccles. ix. 8 ; Matt. vi. 17 ; Prov. xxxi. 21, 22 ; Exod. 
 iii. 22). But yet 'tis apparent that there is a most 
 sinful extravagance in this kind (i Tim. ii. 9 ; i Pet. 
 iii. 3, 4; Isa. iii. 16, 18, &c.). Appears to be very 
 provoking to God . . . when persons go beyond 
 their rank. One end of apparel seems to be to dis- 
 tinguish (Prov. xxxi. 22, 23) ; common people to 
 show an affectation to be like those of high rank ; 
 country towns to affect to be like the metropolis. — 
 When they go beyond their estate, disable themselves 
 from paying their debts ; deprive themselves of other 
 things more necessary and more profitable ; disable 
 themselves much from deeds of charity. An aflecta- 
 tion to distinguish themselves in imitating the fash- 
 
Edwards Memorial. 115 
 
 ions of the more gay part of the world. Complying 
 with the general customs of a country in clothing is 
 not vulgar : on the contrary, 'tis not decent to be 
 singular. But some fashions in themselves are ill, 
 . . . extravagant, . . . very costly, . . . immodest. . . . 
 " All this care and pains and cost to adorn them- 
 selves show persons to much affect outward orna- 
 ment ; . . . seem to show that they make much of 
 themselves ; ... all that which tends to encourage a 
 general excess. Such things as these have been 
 condemned by wise men of all nations. 
 
 " 'Tis a time when the nations here have got to a 
 vast excess. The land is become exceeding extrava- 
 gant ; more so than in England, in proportion to our 
 ability and ranks. Prevents great good that might be 
 done ; ... is continually running in debt. The main 
 thing that brings our greatest national calamities, . ., . 
 particularly the present state the country is in with 
 regard to a medium [currency] ; and is the main source 
 of that general injustice that has been so long com- 
 plained of . . . Keeps the country in constant dis- 
 tress. . . . Maintains constant injustice. . . . Threat- 
 ens us with ruin. . . . We in this town [Northamp- 
 ton] are evidently got to a great excess. Boston is 
 extravagant beyond London ; and we, considering 
 all things, I think beyond them. . . . How far below 
 we fall short in rank, . . . state, . . . education, and 
 our situation in the world, ... far beyond them ! 
 
 " I had occasion to observe the people at Portsmouth 
 in both the congregations in that place. That is a 
 place very much famed for politeness, and is a city 
 much like Boston in many respects. I judged the 
 apparel of our congregation was fully as costly. 
 
ii6 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 Many things that might make it proper for them to go 
 beyond us." 
 
 This "brief" of Pres. Edwards is important as illus- 
 trating not merely his method of preparing his dis- 
 courses for the pulpit, but also his boldness in reproof; 
 for " he did much at it." We hear of his theological 
 peculiarities, of the Half-way Covenant, as the cause 
 of his dismission from Northampton. But a pastor is 
 almost sure to incur the peril of dismission if he make 
 his theology so practical as to reach the bonnets of 
 his people : then his " usefulness is at an end." Ab- 
 stract doctrines are comparatively inoffensive. 
 
 Another of Mr. Edwards's manuscripts contains 
 the heads of a sermon which he delivered to the 
 Indians at Stockbridge. It will be seen, that, in these 
 brief hints of his train of thought, he has condensed 
 an elaborate system of reasoning in favor of the 
 Bible as a book having divine authority. The rough 
 notes which he has left of his argument betray his 
 interest in scientific theology, and also in the welfare 
 of the savages, to whom he accommodated his scien- 
 tific discussion. I will read a few extracts from this 
 pulpit sketch : they are taken from Mr. Grosart's vol- 
 ume : — 
 
 2 Tim. iii. 16 : " All Scripture is given by inspiration of God." 
 Doctrine : The Scripture is the word of God. 
 
 I. There imist be some ivord of God. 
 
 'Tis unreasonable to think that God would always keep silence, and 
 never say any thing to mankind. 
 
 God has made mankind, and given him reason and understanding. 
 
 Has made him the chief of all the creatures. 
 
 Given him reason, that he might know God and serve him. 
 
 Did not give the other creatures reason : he did make 'em to serve 
 him. 
 
Edwards Memorial. 1 1 7 
 
 Other creatures are made for man. 
 
 Man was made for God, to serve God ; or else he was made for 
 nothing. 
 
 But we may be sure he did not make sucli a creature as man for 
 nothing. 
 
 But how unreasonable is it to think that God would make us for 
 himself, and never say any thing to us ! 
 
 God is the King that rules over all nations. 
 
 But how unreasonable is it to suppose that he should be a King, 
 and never say any thing to his subjects ; ... be a King, and never tell 
 them what his will or what his commands are, that his subjects may 
 obey him ! 
 
 Is as a Father : all his family. 
 
 But will a father be always dumb and silent, &c. ? 
 
 God has given mankind speech ; so that they are able to speak, and 
 make known their minds to one another. 
 
 And therefore 'tis unreasonable to think that God never would speak 
 to men, and make known his mind to them. 
 
 II. Another thing that shows that the Scriptures are the word of 
 God is this : — 
 
 That, when God told the wise and holy men to write the Bible, he 
 gave "" em. power to -work great miracles, to convince men that it was his 
 work. 
 
 III. Another thing that shows the Scriptures to be the word of 
 God is, that the Scripture FORETELLS a great many things. 
 
 The Old Testament, that was given to the Jews a great while before 
 Christ was born, foretold Christ's coming. 
 
 And a great many things concerning him, — all which are FUL- 
 FILLED. 
 
 The Scriptures of the New Testament foretell a great many things : 
 ... all came to pass. 
 
 IV. Another thing that shows that the Scripture is the word of 
 God is this : — 
 
 That the Scripture has been the means of enlightening so many nations. 
 
 V. Another thing that shows [it is] 
 
 . . . Great opposition.: the Devil and wicked men make against it. 
 
 VI. Another thing that shows [that it is] the word of God is this : 
 It has prevailed agaittst such great opposition. 
 
 VII. Another thing: No other luord eiier was nsed as the means of 
 bringing men to k?tow the true God but the Scriptures. 
 
1 1 8 Ediuards Memorial. 
 
 Where the Scriptures have come, there has been light : all the rest 
 of the world has remained in darkness. So 'tis now all over the world. 
 
 VIII. Another thing that shows [it] is this : No man could make such 
 a book as the Bible. 
 
 It must be made by wicked men or good men. . . . Wicked men 
 woLdd not make it : good men could not. 
 
 IX. Another thing : No book reaches the hearts of men so much. 
 A'o word so AWAKEXS Ihe conscience. No word is so powerful to change 
 the heart. Great many have been made ' new men : ' very wicked men. 
 
 No word so powerful to comfort the hearts of men ... in death, 
 . . . cruel deaths. 
 
 X. Another: Good men all love the Bible. Better they are, the more 
 they love it, . , . the more they are convinced that it is the word of 
 God. The more wicked men [arc], the more they are against it. 
 
 Application : — 
 
 1. How thankful we should be to God ! . . . 
 
 2. Hence we may learn that all the Scripture says to us is certainly 
 true. 
 
 3. Hence 'tis worth the while to take a great deal of pains to learn 
 to read and understand the Scriptures. 
 
 I would have you, all of you, think of this. 
 
 When there is such a book that you may have, how can you be con- 
 tented without being able to read it? 
 
 How does it make you feci when you think there is a book that is 
 God's own word .'' That tells . . . 
 
 Ancl you think with yourself that you are not able to read it. . . . 
 See and think about it. All that you know is only what others tell you : 
 . . . see nothing with your own eyes. 
 
 Especially I would have you that are y jung people take notice of 
 these things. 
 
 Parents should take care^ that their children learn. . . . 
 
 This will be the way to be kept from the Devil. . . . Devil can't 
 bear [the Bible]. Kept from hell. To be happy forever. 
 
 But if you let the word of God alone, and never use, and you can't 
 e.xpect the benefits of it . . . 
 
 You must not only hear and read, &c., but you must have it sunk 
 down into your heart. Believe. Be affected. Love the word of God. 
 Written in your heart. 
 
 Must not only read and hear, but do the tilings. Otherwise no 
 good, but will be the worse for it. 
 
Ediuards Memorial. 119 
 
 And you should endeavor to understand. To that end, to Icara llie 
 English tongue. 
 
 If you had the Bible in yoiu' own language, I should not say so 
 much. 
 
 Endeavor to promote your children's learning English. 
 
 You that can read should often read, . . . meditate, . . . pray that 
 God would enlighten you. 
 
 Consider how much it is worth the while to go often to your Jiible 
 to hear the great God himself speak to you. 
 
 There you may hear Christ speak. 
 
 How much better must we think this is than the word of men ! — 
 l:)etter than the word of the wisest man of the world. 
 
 Another thought suggested by the occasion of this 
 gathering is the patience and perseverance of Pres. 
 Edwards in the attainment of one great object. A 
 prominent aim of his Hfe was to combine a bibhcal 
 theology with a sound philosophy. In order to fulfil 
 this aim, he must devote himself to abstruse study. 
 But he was perplexed with the controversies of his 
 parishioners, and was sometimes obliged to strug- 
 gle with poverty. Many would not have blamed 
 him if he had intermitted his recondite studies, and 
 devoted himself to the maintenance of his wife and 
 children, — his wife, that truly remarkable woman; 
 his children, some of whom belonged to the aristoc- 
 racy of talent. But, if he had given to his family 
 " what was meant for mankind," his posterity would 
 not now have met to honor him. He was compelled 
 to adopt mortifying expedients for the preparation of 
 those treatises of which his descendants are proud. 
 He could not afford to buy clean paper for writing 
 down his valuable thoughts : but he wrote them on 
 the margins of newspapers ; over and under the home- 
 ly advertisements ; on the paper-patterns which his 
 daughters had used for making fans and collars, which 
 
I20 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 they sold in order to defray the family-expenses ; on 
 the blank parts of the " notes " which his parishioners 
 had sent up to his pulpit for the purpose of requesting 
 prayer in their behalf, — a husband requesting "prayers 
 for the death of his wife." (Here the speaker exhib- 
 ited several newspapers and fan-patterns on which 
 the president had written the results of his study ; 
 also read a letter of Mr. Edwards to Dr. Bellamy, so- 
 liciting the doctor's aid in selling a few sheep of which 
 that vigorous theologian had taken the oversight.) 
 There is something morally sublime in the very idea 
 of a philosopher writing letters to a divine about the 
 sale of his sheep, making his home in a valley where 
 he expected to be, as he was, afflicted with the " fever 
 and ague," writing without the conveniences for writ- 
 ing, studying without the fit apparatus for studying, 
 and yet having a genius by which he was destined to 
 be the earliest American divine whose union of original 
 and evangelical thoughts was destined to command 
 the reverence of European scholars. Dr. Chalmers 
 expressed his admiration of Edwards viewed as devot- 
 ing his high accomplishments to the people of North- 
 ampton : how much greater admiration is due to hmi 
 viewed as consecrating the best years of his life to 
 the red men of the wilderness, among whom he lived 
 indigent, and often an invalid ! Dr. Chalmers says, — 
 " Edwards is far the highest name which the new 
 world has to boast of; and, if aught can enhance our 
 reverence for the achievements by which he distanced 
 so immeasurably all the speculations of all the schools 
 in Europe, it must be that his was an achievement 
 consecrated by the deepest spirit of religion, and per- 
 formed by a man, who, almost unconscious of science, 
 
Ediua7'ds Memorial. i 2 1 
 
 or at least unconscious of all its honors, was prompted 
 to the task which he fulfilled so admirably by his 
 devotedness to the cause which, as a Christian min- 
 ister, he felt to be the nearest and best. Thei-e is, 
 indeed, a striking contrast between the unlettered 
 people among whom he labored as a pastor, and 
 philosophers whom, as an author, he held converse 
 with ; and something most touchingly beautiful in the 
 adaptation that he made of himself to both, giving rise 
 to a corresponding contrast between the plain minis- 
 trations of his sabbath and the profound musings and 
 inspirations of his solitude." 
 
 The ministry of Edwards at Northampton was dis- 
 cussed by Rev. Dr. Todd of Pittsfield, who had, as 
 will be seen by his address, peculiar fitness for the 
 service. 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 BY REV. lOUN TODD, D.D. 
 
 When a young student, I found a woman among 
 the fevers of the rice-swamps of South Carolina who 
 amazed and confounded me by her knowledge of the- 
 ology. She was so far above me, that I felt myself to 
 be nothing. The secret was, that she had for years 
 lived upon the works of Jonathan Edwards. 
 
 In the revival in Yale College in 1820, under the 
 teachings of Asahel Nettleton, after many wrestlings 
 of the spirit and intellect, I deliberately adopted the 
 theology of this master in Israel ; and have, as yet, 
 never grown great enough or wise enough to change 
 my opinions. A little later, down on Cape Cod, I 
 met an old deacon, who, for profound and accurate 
 
122 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 theology, might have been a theological professor, and 
 before whom I fairly stood in awe. He too, for years, 
 had lived and grown upon a set of Edwards's works. 
 
 Afterwards I had a parishioner who had read Ed- 
 wards " On the Affections" through six times ; and he 
 was a giant in theology. 
 
 Afterwards I married a wife, and it was years before 
 I found out what made her so much my superior ; but 
 when I discovered that she belonged to the Edwards 
 family, and that she had their blood in her veins, I 
 gave up the contest, and have admitted all that she 
 demanded ever since. 
 
 When called to the pastorate of an infant church in 
 Northampton, I found most of my flock were the 
 descendants of those who had been Mr. Edwards's 
 fast friends through all his troubles there ; and I had 
 the honor to propose to them, and see them cheerfully 
 assent, that we should call the church " The Edwards 
 Church," — a perpetual memorial of Edwards. The 
 council which organized the -church objected to the 
 name, and questioned the wisdom of it : till I finally 
 had to tell them that we submitted our creed and 
 covenant for their diction ; but the name of the church 
 was our own, and that we did not submit. 
 
 And when I add that I gave the name of Edwards 
 to a son now in the ministry, I think I have estab- 
 lished my claim to be among those who admire the 
 great character of Edwards, and to sit among those 
 who weave garlands to lay upon his tomb this day. 
 
 Edwards went to Northampton fresh from :he col- 
 lege-walls, young, and with no experience but the deep 
 teachings of the Spirit upon his heart. I consider the 
 twenty-three years which he spent in Northampton 
 
Edwards Memorial. 123 
 
 as the most important period of his Hfe. He settled 
 with his grandfather Stoddard, a name widely known, 
 and a man who had filled a long and successful min- 
 istry. 
 
 The grandfather, and the people trained up by 
 him, and the ministers and churches generally in all 
 the region, from the best of motives, undoubtedly, had 
 fallen into a sad mistake ; and that was, that the 
 ordinance of the Lord's Supper, like the ordinary sab- 
 bath services, was to be used as a means of grace, and 
 was a converting ordinance. And thus all who were 
 not openly immoral were welcomed to the Lord's 
 table, and became members of the church. This 
 made the world and the church one ; or, if there was 
 any line of demarcation between them, it was not 
 visible. Edwards seemed, at his settlement, to have 
 adopted these views ; or, if he did not in full, he made 
 no objection to them. 
 
 It was here, in this quiet place, that he became the 
 severe student, the deep thinker, the original father 
 of thought, which has made him a marvel among men. 
 For thirteen hours a day, beginning before or at early 
 dawn, he labored in the quarries of Truth, and dug out 
 ore which smaller men have been using ever since. 
 There seem to have been no brilliant flashes of truth 
 darting into his soul ; but he had the power of lifting 
 up the ore, holding it up to the sunlight, separating the 
 dross from the pure metal, and then forging that metal 
 at will. Of a feeble, nervous temperament, with 
 spirits always low, with a bodily organization exceed- 
 ingly frail, he accomplished an amount of severe study 
 that is at once an example and a rebuke to all who 
 f()lk)W him. He was, in the popular sense of the 
 
124 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 term, no orator ; yet there was often a power and 
 impression upon his hearers that has probably never 
 been exceeded. He held up his little, fine-written 
 sermon, and read it off, scarcely taking his eyes 
 off the paper ; but, before the hour-sermon was 
 through, the hand, the paper, the voice, trembled 
 together, and conviction was rolled down on his hear- 
 ers, and entered their hearts, till it welled up again, 
 and ran over in tears, in sobs, and sometimes in audi- 
 ble groanings. Perhaps it would be difficult for us to 
 say wherein his great j3ulpit strength lay. It was not 
 in ornament, tropes, figures, illustrations, or anec- 
 dotes ; for he moved in a straight line, — clear, simple 
 logic, and unanswerable argument. But there was an 
 unction, a savor of God, about the man, that was itself 
 a power. He went up into the mount of God so 
 often, and staid so long, that his face shone. It is 
 among the traditions of the place, that two strangers 
 stopped over the sabbath in Northampton. They 
 were greatly prejudiced against Edwards, and were 
 greatly rejoiced to learn that he was expected to be 
 out of town, and another man supply his pulpit. 
 They had never seen Edwards. On the morrow, 
 they sat side by side. The preacher went through 
 the preliminary services, and began his sermon. 
 Soon one of the strangers whispered to the other, 
 " This is a good man." A little after, " He is a very 
 good man." On went the preacher, and again the 
 whisper, " Whoever he may be, he is a holy man." 
 And soon again, " This is the holiest man I ever saw 
 or heard." I hardly need add that it was Edwards 
 himself And this holiness, deep exercise of his own 
 heart, together with communion with God, was, I 
 
Edwards Manorial. 125 
 
 apprehend, one source of his great power as a 
 preacher. 
 
 He gave himself, simply, wholly, and humbly, to 
 the ministry. And the name of Sarah Pierrepont Ed- 
 wards, his noble wife, a great specimen of exalted, 
 almost seraphic piety, of great intellectual strength 
 united to a worldly wisdom hardly inferior, the true 
 nobility of our nature, is destined to be immortal. She 
 took all the care of his family and worldly concerns, 
 that he might give himself wholly to his work. She 
 was a great specimen of a thousand New-England 
 ministers' wives, — true helpers in the Lord. Our 
 food is cooked by intelligence, our homes are j^resided 
 over and made tasteful, our friends are welcomed and 
 entertained, our children are trained and instructed, 
 our little means are made to go a great way, our fami- 
 lies are made respectable, our charities are never 
 stinted, our failings are concealed and covered up, our 
 sluggishness is prompted into effort and action, our 
 usefulness is every way greatly enhanced, because the 
 angel of our homes, in the form of a noble wife, ever 
 forgetting herself, does all this in order to aid us to 
 be useful to our people. By the time a man has been 
 in the ministry twenty years, all that is good and 
 great in his wife is absorbed and woven into the 
 character of the husband, leaving the wife none the 
 poorer ; and, whenever I have found a man especially 
 successful in the ministry, I have always found a 
 noble wife in the shadow at his side. Oh ! " many 
 daughters have done virtuously ; " but " thou," wife 
 of the humble, New-England minister, "hast excelled 
 them all." 
 
 It has been a wonder, the world over, how I'^lwards 
 
126 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 could shut himself up in his little study, and write his 
 great work on " The Will " in about four months. 
 The fact is, he was making the book during all his 
 stay at Northampton. Not that he wrote it on paper ; 
 but it was worked out in his brain. If you will go to 
 the old records of the Ministerial Association, to 
 which he belonged, ) ou will find that, meeting after 
 meeting, and year after year, are recorded questions 
 which " Mr. Edwards proposed " for discussion, and 
 which were discussed again and again ; and all these 
 questions are in the line of that wonderful work, — a 
 work so profound, that it frightens most from attempt- 
 ing to read it, and which the English reviewer asserted 
 was based on a mistake ; but he was candid enough 
 at the same time to say, that he could not point out 
 the mistake. And the work remains, like Wellington 
 on Waterloo, whipped several times, as the French 
 said, if he " only had sense enough to know it." Most 
 who have tried to upset the work remind one of pig- 
 mies taking hold of the corner of the mantle of a giant 
 and trotting along after him, and wondering why the 
 mantle don't come off'. 
 
 Arminianism extensively prevailed in the days of 
 Edwards through all the churches, almost without ex- 
 ception. He felt it his duty to meet the swollen tor- 
 rent ; and meet it he did, and, by intellectual and 
 spiritual columbiads, destroyed its strongholds first. 
 Those who met and tried argument with him soon 
 found his terrible logic too much for them. Their 
 forts were demolished ; and they themselves were 
 gently laid on the back, with no more power to rise 
 than if an elephant's foot had been on them. If they 
 lifted a spear, it was broken. If they used rhetoric, 
 
Edwards Memorial. 127 
 
 it was putting violets under a trip-hammer. More 
 brilliant controversialists have been known ; but for 
 pure logic, and strong, unanswerable argument, you 
 will have to go far before you find his equal. I have 
 never known a man to speak slightingly of Edwards 
 who had read him. As a mere exercise of the intel- 
 lect, and a very high one too, we may safely commend 
 his work on " The Will," — second to none. 
 
 Most earnestly, solemnly,- and faithfully did Ed- 
 wards preach the gospel at Northampton in all its 
 uncompromising claims ; and great were the results. 
 Two revivals, one of which shook the land, and moved 
 many hearts across the ocean, were the results of his 
 ministry. Such outpourings of the Spirit seemed a 
 new thing in the land ; and, as a consequence, there 
 were many wild things taught and acted out, till it 
 seemed as if, in breaking up the crust which had so long 
 been gathering, the waters would sweep away all the 
 foundations. Hence Edwards was called upon to 
 l^reach much in churches out of his own town, and 
 also to settle the great questions as to what is, or is not, 
 the work of the Holy Spirit ; what is, and what is not, 
 true religion. The latter he did with his pen ; and his 
 " True Religion Delineated," and his work on " The 
 Affections," have done a vast work in shaping the pul- 
 pit-teachings, the action and character of our churches, 
 and individual religious experience, from that day to 
 this. His spirit v,'as so warm with piety, his intellect 
 was so clear, and his teachings so in accordance with 
 the best experience of good men, that our churches 
 and our times have been formed or greatly influenced 
 after his model. 
 
 During a long period, he and his church lived in 
 
128 Edwards Memorial, 
 
 harmony and peace. Few churches ever loved their 
 pastor so weh, and few ever had occasion to love him 
 so much. Pastorates and marriages, in those days, 
 were for life. The husband and the wife never thought 
 of a divorce; and the pastor, instead of running from 
 place to place, and spending his life in ever beginning 
 and never having time to do more, had the opportu- 
 nity of forming the character of at least one generation 
 by his ministry.* This tie, and that of marriage, is so 
 sacred, that, when an efibrt is made to sunder it, there 
 is a peculiar bitterness engendered. It would be diffi- 
 cult, since the time when the Galatians at one time 
 were ready to give their eyes to Paul, and, a little after, 
 quite as ready to tear his eyes out, to find an example 
 of a more unreasonable and cruel treatment of a good 
 minister than that which Edwards received from his 
 flock. 
 
 Of all unsafe places for truth to live and breathe, 
 the excitement of good men is one of the most unsafe. 
 When worldly men become excited and maddened, .they 
 have the good sense to know that it is all will : but, 
 when good men get excited, they are the most un- 
 reasonable of all men ; and for the plain reason, that 
 they can't tell their will from their conscience. They 
 call it all conscience, when, perhaps, there is not a sin- 
 gle pulsation of conscience. The people of North- 
 ampton turned against Edwards with a violence and a 
 ferocity that makes it a painful history even now to 
 read. The occasion of it was, that gradually, and 
 after great thought and much prayer, Edwards came 
 to the conclusion that it was not scriptural to receive 
 confessedly worldly men and unconverted men into 
 the communion of the church. This was, undoubted- 
 
Edwards Memorial. 1 29 
 
 ]y, a change from his own former opinions : but they 
 knew he was an honest man ; that slowly and cautious- 
 ly he came to the new conclusions ; that he was very 
 kind and moderate in announcing them, and only want- 
 ed an opportunity to present his reasons for his belief 
 to his people. This roused his people into a very 
 whirlwind of excitement. Edwards proposed to pre- 
 sent the subject in the pulpit, — not to force his opin- 
 ions on them, but to give his reasons. No : they would 
 not allow that. He then printed his views ; and tliey 
 would not read them. He next proposed to present 
 them in a week-day lecture. No : they would not 
 allow that. He then proposed to submit their dis- 
 agreements to a mutual council : this they would not 
 do, unless Edwards would select his half among the 
 churches in the couat}^ — all which, as they knew, 
 were hostile to his views. They finally did allow him 
 to select two churches out of the county, but took care 
 that there should be a majority against him. All this 
 time Edwards was calm, gentle, though slandered atro- 
 ciously, abused, reviled, and persecuted, and expecting 
 all the time that the result would be the sundering 
 the ties of years, and reducing his family to beggary. 
 He was dismissed, maligned, traduced, and with no 
 prospect of employment. Even then, when he re- 
 mained in town after his dismission, they would not 
 allow him to preach the gospel ; choosing, rather, to 
 edify one another by what were called " deacons' 
 meetings." God sent the good man help, not by 
 ravens, but from strangers in Scotland. 
 
 I rejoice to add that the people of Northampton, 
 after their passions had time to cool, not only adopted 
 his views, but have ever since been among the most 
 
130 Ediuards Memorial. 
 
 intelligent, stable, and minister-loving people in all 
 New England. The impress of his strong hand re- 
 mains there to this day. 
 
 But the fall of Edwards was the mightiest victory 
 of his life. He was so well known, his church had 
 been so distinguished by his labors, that the eyes of all 
 churches were turned towards Northampton. They 
 who, in the spirit of the worldly, had so persecuted their 
 pastor for righteousness' sake, were a powerful argu- 
 ment for the Edwardean view : and men read his writ- 
 ings, and searched the Scriptures ; and the result was, 
 that the churches through New England and through 
 the land were brought back to the scriptural idea 
 of church-membership. Nothing, probably, short of 
 all that took place, would have drawn the attention 
 of the American people to this subject, and nothing 
 short of his great pen could so quickly and so univer- 
 sally have settled this great question ; and hundreds 
 of churches are to-day walking in their purity, sepa- 
 rated from the world, enjoying peace, Vv^ithout ever 
 knowing how that peace had been procured. 
 
 The letter of Major Hawley, one of the leading spirits 
 against Edwards, containing his confessions, rehears- 
 ing the wrongs that were done, and pouring out his 
 soul in shame and remorse and repentance, more 
 than confirms all I have said concerning this unhappy 
 affair ; but I must add, that, while we can hardly see 
 how it was possible for a Christian people to do as his 
 people did, it is almost as difficult for us to conceive 
 how a man so treated could behave as he did, — so 
 much like his Master. 
 
 Thus we hardly know which most to admire-^and 
 wonder over in the ministry of Edwards, — his 
 
Edzuarcis Memorial. 131 
 
 original and luminous investigations, his weighty 
 sermons and powerful preaching, his great and per- 
 manent contributions to human thought and elucida- 
 tion of divine truth, his meekness and gentleness 
 under an ordeal that few could endure, his power in 
 directing and controlling the churches when heaving 
 with excitement, his bringing them back to scriptural 
 views, or in the combined greatness, simplicity, and 
 strength of character, by which he still walks the 
 earth, and which will cause his footsteps to echo on 
 the shores of Time, till Truth will no longer need 
 to contend with Error, because her victory is complete 
 and her triumph is eternal. 
 
 EDWARDS AND STOCKBRIDGE. 
 
 The humble yet really brilliant epoch of Edwards 
 at Stockbridge was presented by Rev. Dr. Hopkins, 
 President of Williams College, himself a native of 
 Stockbridge, and a descendant of John Sargeant. 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 BY REV. MARK HOPKINS, D.D., LL.D. 
 
 The grandest product of this planet is a great man. 
 There are upon it great mountains, great cataracts, 
 great prairies, great trees, great works of art. These 
 we visit for the impression which the things them- 
 selves make upon us ; but, if we suppose them re- 
 moved, they could have no power to consecrate the 
 places where they once were. This power belongs 
 only to great men and great events. To these it does 
 so belou": as to constitute a striking feature in the 
 
132 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 history of the race. Hence literary and religious pil- 
 grimages ; hence seven cities contended for the 
 honor of having been the birthplace of Homer ; 
 hence Cicero visited with so deep an interest the 
 place where Plato taught ; hence travellers visit the 
 birthplace of Shakspeare and the seat of Sir Walter 
 Scott ; and it is from the same principle that so many 
 thousands and tens of thousands have turned their 
 feet towards Jerusalem and Olivet, Gethsemane and 
 Calvary. 
 
 This principle it is that brings us to Stockbridge 
 to-day. From places near and remote we have come 
 to this goodly town, not, as we might well have done, 
 for its own beauty, but because, more than a hundred 
 years ago, there lived here a great man, — one of the 
 greatest and best men that has ever lived. Here it 
 was that Jonathan Edwards came in 1751 to succeed 
 Sargeant in his missionary labors for the Indians, and 
 as pastor to the few whites then settled among them ; 
 and it is upon his life and labors while here, that, as 
 a native of the town thus honored by his residence, I 
 have been invited to make a few remarks before his 
 gathered descendants. 
 
 It was but six years that Edwards resided here ; 
 and, to appreciate what he did, we must understand 
 his position. The country was comparatively a wil- 
 derness. His labors were primarily and chiefly for 
 those just emerging from heathenism and from a 
 savage state. He had a large family. His means 
 were limited. He was harassed for a time by persist- 
 ent opposition to his mission. He was alarmed and 
 endangered by border warfare during the second 
 French war, — four persons having been killed in 
 
Edwards Memorial. 133 
 
 the place by Canada Indians ; and he had soldiers 
 quartered upon him. He suffered from the ague and 
 fever incident to new settlements. He was far re- 
 moved from books, and from much converse with 
 learned men ; so that, if his reading was limited, it 
 was not his fault. With such embarrassments, an 
 ordinary man might well have congratulated him- 
 self if he could meet satisfactorily the current respon- 
 sibilities of his position. This Edwards did ; and, in 
 addition to much correspondence, it required an 
 amount of labor to which few ministers would now 
 submit. Twice each sabbath he preached in English, 
 and twice to the Indians by an interpreter, besides 
 catechising the children of each of the two tribes 
 under his care. Thus doing, he satisfied the patrons 
 and friends of the mission, and perhaps accomplished 
 all that could have been accomplished in circum- 
 stances so untoward, and with the minds of the Indi- 
 ans distracted and alienated from the English as they 
 then were. But in spite of all this, or rather in con- 
 nection with it, Edwards spent thirteen hours a day 
 in his study ; and during this brief period, the most 
 important to the world in his history, he produced 
 the chief of those immortal works which have wrought 
 so efficiently in changing and guiding the course of 
 human thought, and which have given him a name, 
 both in this country and in Europe, among the great- 
 est thinkers the world has produced. If we consider 
 the disadvantages under which he labored, it may be 
 questioned whether the world can furnish a more 
 signal example of the results of solitary thought. 
 
 The works just referred to as written here were 
 the treatises " 0:i the Will," " On God's Last End in 
 
134 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 the Creation," " On the Nature of True Virtue," 
 and " On Original Sin." He was also at work, when 
 called to Princeton, on "The History of Redemp- 
 tion," which he intended should be a complete system 
 of theology on a new plan. 
 
 Of these works, that " On the Will " is the most 
 celebrated, in part, perhaps, as connected with con- 
 troversies rife at the time and since. Speaking of 
 Edwards and of this work, Dr. Chalmers says, " There 
 is no European divine to whom I make such frequent 
 appeals in my class-room as I do to Edwards ; no 
 book of human composition which I more strenuously 
 recommend than his ' Treatise on the Will,' read by 
 me forty-seven years ago with a conviction that has 
 never since faltered, and which has helped me more 
 than any other uninspired book to find my way 
 through all that might otherwise have proved baffling 
 and transcendental and mysterious in the peculiarities 
 of Calvinism." 
 
 Thus was this treatise useful to theologians, and 
 still is. It holds with them the highest rank. But, 
 for the common mind, the fact of freedom will always 
 be found in the very act of choice with an alternative 
 in kind ; and the certainty of that fact will be assured 
 by an intuitive conviction which metaphysical reason- 
 ing can neither strengthen nor eradicate. 
 
 Of the treatises mentioned, that " On the Nature 
 of True Virtue " is the least in size, and has been 
 received with the least favor, even by those who have, 
 in general, thought with Edwards. To me, however, 
 it seems, that, in this, Edwards is no less original and 
 profound than in the others, adopting, as he does, the 
 simple, scriptural, and philosophical ground, that true 
 
Edivards Memorial. 
 
 135 
 
 virtue consists in love, and is thus the product, not 
 of the intellect or of the sensibility, or of both com- 
 bined, but of the will, or heart, which he uses as 
 synonymous terms, and supposing, of course, that the 
 will can act only on condition of the previous action 
 both of the sensibility and of the rational intellect. . 
 
 In these treatises especially, Edwards grappled with 
 those universal and perennial problems which con- 
 front man as man, and which probably confront every 
 finite, rational being ; and also with those which arise 
 from the necessity there is felt to be of reconciling 
 revelation with reason and with facts known from 
 other sources. Of these two classes of problems, 
 some confine themselves wholly to the first, ignoring 
 the Scriptures. They speak of the absolute and the 
 infinite, of being, of time and space, of causation, 
 of free-will and fate, and think themselves philosophers 
 par eminence. Others confine themselves chiefly 
 to the second class of problems. They receive the 
 Scriptures as authority ; they accept the solutions 
 they give of the great problems of being and of life, 
 and seek to reconcile these with reason and with 
 science. But, in both these lines of thought, Ed- 
 wards was pre-eminent. No man has wrestled more 
 freely, independently, strongly, with the first class 
 of questions. No man more reverenced the Scrip- 
 tures, or studied them more thoroughly, or felt more 
 fully the necessity of reconciling them with reason 
 and with science. Hence he stands at the head, 
 not so much of a school, as of a movement, — the 
 movement of free thought towards the rational com- 
 prehension of all questions that can be compre- 
 hended, and the movement of faith towards the ra- 
 
136 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 tional acceptance of the facts and solutions which 
 are revealed ; the faith being made rational, because 
 its ground, as confidence in the person making the 
 revelation, is distinctly seen. It is of the essence of 
 reason that it should be rational ; it is of the essence 
 of faith that it should be confiding : and no being that 
 is at once finite and a child can be in right relations 
 except as these two are in harmony within him. 
 Hence the greatness of Edwards as complete, he 
 being equally free from the one-sidedness of ra- 
 tionalism on the one hand, and of credulity on the 
 other. 
 
 But, while his own example was thus perfect, his 
 very intellectual greatness endangered the progress 
 of others. Men make progress as they deal directly 
 with truth. That is the mother-earth of the soul ; and 
 it is direct contact with that, and not with what others 
 have said about it, that gives vitality. But great men 
 stride before the masses. These come up to them 
 but slowly ; and, when they do, they make their power 
 and success in following a right method a ground for 
 rejecting that very method. Instead of looking at 
 Nature and at Truth, they look at the great man. 
 They rest in authority, and dwindle into commen- 
 tators. An age of commentators is an age of feeble- 
 ness ; and those who read them most generally show 
 that they have lived on diluted food. Of a great man 
 thus obstructing progress, Aristotle was a conspicuous 
 example. So, too, was it with Luther and with Cal- 
 vin. So has it always been with very great men ; and 
 nothing could more strikingly show the greatness 
 of Edwards in the works here produced than the 
 extent to which men have commented upon him, and 
 
Edwards Memorial. 137 
 
 disputed about his meaning, and deferred to his au- 
 thority. Almost immediately on his decease, he took 
 an unquestioned place among 
 
 "The dead Init sceptred sovereigns who still rule 
 Our spirits from their urns." 
 
 That he is the first metaphysician this country has 
 produced, no one can doubt. 
 
 Such was Edwards intellectually ; but his chief 
 distinction was the union in him, here as elsewhere, 
 of this intellectual power with a saintly life. Not 
 merely did he regard the moralities, the proprieties, 
 and the courtesies of life ; but he was distinctively and 
 eminently a man of God. He repented of sin, and 
 lived by faith, and communed with God, and sought 
 to be conformed in all things to him as he has revealed 
 himself in the perfect manhood of Christ. And this 
 is what the world needs. It needs intellectual power 
 in combination with love to God and love to man. 
 His views may have been, on some points, erroneous ; 
 his tetnperament may have been more or less unfor- 
 tunate : of that I know nothing, except what he has 
 himself stated. But his spirit and temper and char- 
 acter were such as must become prevalent among 
 men, if this world is to be essentially improved. Well 
 may his descendants, well may the world, honor such 
 a man. 
 
 In speaking of Edwards as related to Stockbridge, 
 it is pleasing to notice, that, as a great man, he does 
 not stand alone. For a town no larger than this, 
 there have been and are connected with it, by resi- 
 dence or birth, an unusual number of those whose 
 names will live in history. In the same line with 
 
138 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 Edwards, West and Field were great men, and were 
 worthy of the ta^^lets in this church by which they 
 are commemorated in connection with him. In 
 another hne are the names of Judge Sedgwick, and 
 Miss Catharine Sedgwick, and Mrs. Theodore Sedg- 
 wick. We have also among the living a codifier 
 of laws, the most eminent of this age ; a judge of the 
 Supreme Court of the United States ; and still another, 
 whose name will be remembered as long as the swift 
 messages of the telegraph shall make the ocean-bed 
 their highway, and shall outrun the sun in his course. 
 At the head of these, Edwards stands the greatest 
 of all, — great as a man, great as a Christian minis- 
 ter and preacher, great pre-eminently as a metaphy- 
 sician ; not great before God (for that no man can 
 be), but great as walking humbly with him. 
 
 EDWARDS AND PRINCETON. 
 
 It had been early arranged that Dr. McCosh, Presi- 
 dent of the College of New Jersey, should represent 
 Edwards at Princeton ; but his engagements in col- 
 lege just at the time of the meeting prevented. The 
 following letter, read by the vice-president, who was 
 now in the chair, will show the reason of his ab- 
 sence : — 
 
 Cacowna, Lower Canada, Aug. 24, 1S70. ■ 
 
 My dear Sir, — Your circular, with letter, has just 
 reached me here, where I have been for the last few 
 weeks. 
 
 I have been looking forward with intense interest 
 to your meeting. It seemed to promise me a favora- 
 ble opportunity of expressing my profound respect for 
 
Edwards Memorial. 1 39 
 
 Jonathan Edwards ; and I expected so much pleasure 
 and profit from meeting his descendants ! 
 
 But the committee has fixed on the only days in 
 September or October on which I cannot be with 
 you. I was under an impression that the meeting 
 would be held later in September, or perhaps at the 
 beginning of October. I was keeping free of every 
 engagement which might interfere with my joining 
 your gathering. 
 
 The time you have fixed is, I believe, a good one 
 for your purpose ; but it so happens that it is the 
 opening of the academic year in the College of New 
 Jersey. On Tuesday, the new students come up with 
 their parents ; and, on Wednesday, we formally open, 
 the session. We have to enter new recitation-rooms, 
 and have otherwise multiplied arrangements to make, 
 owing to improvements we are making ; and the 
 president of the college cannot be away. 
 
 This is no loss to you, for you have abundance 
 of other speakers ; but I feel that it is a very, very 
 great disappointment to me. 
 
 I go home to Princeton, the middle of next week, 
 
 to prepare for the opening of our session. I will 
 
 make a reference to your gathering in my opening 
 
 address. * 
 
 I am yours ever, 
 
 James McCosh. 
 Rkv. Jona. Edwards Woodbridge. 
 
 Upon the receipt of this letter, the Rev. Dr. Prime 
 of " The New-York Observer " was addressed, and 
 invited to take this part of the service. This he 
 kindly consented to do, thougli the notice was so very 
 
140 Edwcwds Memorial. 
 
 brief; but he protested against being regarded as a 
 substitute for Dr. McCosh. He, however, performed 
 the part with a power that deeply impressed the 
 whole assembly. 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 BY S. IREN.«US PRIME, D.D. 
 
 The thoughts of Jonathan Edwards have wrought 
 more efficiently for good in others than the writings 
 of any other uninspired man. 
 
 That system of philosophy which Paul taught to 
 the Romans, and Calvin illustrated in his Institutes, 
 and which became the accepted system of Holland 
 and Scotland and New England, has had power to 
 subdue kingdoms, and reign over the religious mind 
 of ages and nations. Its energy and vitality lie in its 
 exhibition of the cHvine-human, the Dens Homo, 
 the life of God in the soul of man, divine sover- 
 eignty with human freedom mysteriously blended, but 
 distinctly pronounced, as in the person of Him who 
 was " God manifest in the flesh." It is the system 
 which consistently recognizes the double or complex 
 nature of the human soul, addressing the intellect with 
 the resistless logic of truth, and overwhelming the 
 affections with the almighty power of love. This the 
 Holy Ghost did through Paul ; this Jonathan Edwards 
 did with the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ burning 
 in his heart, while the enginery of a gigantic intellect 
 worked wondrously in his head. If I have a just ap- 
 preciation of the constituents of his greatness, of the 
 elements that made him a power in the moral and meta- 
 physical world, acting like the sun in the solar system 
 among all the lights of the Church since his time, and 
 
Edwards Memorial. 141 
 
 destined, doubtless, so to act till systems fade and 
 suns themselves dissolve in the blaze of celestial 
 glory, when the light of eternity makes all things 
 clear, even the deep things of God, his greatness was 
 in that marvellous junction of the S021I and spirit in 
 his machinery of thought ; so that his philosophy was 
 swallowed up in his religion, and his religion was 
 saturated with divine philosophy. 
 
 When I was a boy of fifteen at college in Williams- 
 town, a number of my fellow-students with me became 
 seriously disposed to seek the salvation of our souls. 
 We sent a committee to ask the president, Dr. Grif- 
 fin, to meet us in the recitation-room, and tell us what 
 to do. He was so engaged, that he could not come 
 that moment ; but he sent a sermon, with the request 
 that we would have it read by one of us in the hearing 
 of all. Was it one of his own matchless, rhetorical, 
 overwhelming appeals } No : it was an old yellow 
 volume of sermons by Jonathan Edwards. The one 
 he commended to us was read ; and I remember well 
 that I was afraid at its close to walk across the floor, 
 lest it should prove the cover of hell, and rotten at 
 that. 
 
 His tJieology had revivals and repentance, and sal- 
 vation from hell, in it ; and this made it and makes 
 it and will keep it divine theology till Christ is all in 
 all. O brethren ! if Edwards preached the terror 
 of the Lord too much, do we not preach too little 
 of it .? 
 
 This was the flux which it cast in with the ore 
 of Scotch theology, giving it spirituality and warmth 
 and growth, and power of assimilation with the thought 
 of the age and the ages, which it had not before that 
 
142 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 mightiest of modern preachers, Thomas Chalmers, 
 was born and born again. Read his testimony for 
 Edwards in his letter to Dr. Stebbins of Northamp- 
 ton : — 
 
 '■ I have long esteemed him as the greatest of theo- 
 logians, combining, in a degree that is quite unexam- 
 pled, the profoundly intellectual with the devotedly 
 spiritual and sacred, and realizing in his own person 
 a most rare yet most beautiful harmony between the 
 simplicity of the Christian pastor on the one hand, 
 and, on the other, all the strength and prowess of a 
 giant in philosophy ; so as at once to minister from sab- 
 bath to sabbath, and with the most blessed effect, to the 
 hearers of his plain congregation, and yet in the high 
 field of authorship to have traversed, in a way that none 
 had ever done before him, the most inaccessible 
 places, and achieved such a mastery as had never till 
 his time been realized over the most arduous difficul- 
 ties of our science. 
 
 " There is no European divine to whom I make 
 such frequent appeals in my class-room as I do to 
 Edwards ; no book of human composition which I 
 more strenuously recommend than his ' Treatise on 
 the Will,' read by me forty-seven years ago with a 
 conviction that has never since faltered, and which 
 has helped me, more than any other uninspired book, 
 to find my way through all that might otherwise have 
 proved baffling and transcendental and mysterious in 
 the peculiarities of Calvinism." 
 
 The Scotch theology and metaphysics came to the 
 Presbyterian Church in America ; and so thoroughly 
 
Edwards Memorial. 143 
 
 were the churches and ministers made acquainted 
 with the views and the powers of this Stockbridge 
 missionary and rural pastor, then (compared with his 
 renown to-day) an obscure and unknown man, that 
 they sought him to take the presidency of their col- 
 lege. Burr, his son-in-law, had died at its head. 
 They asked Edwards to succeed him. His letter 
 begging to be excused, is a marvel of modesty and 
 self-abasement. Mea in our day do not refuse honors 
 and place for the reasons he gave. 
 
 He was prevailed upon to go. How he wandered 
 about on the wharf in New York, hesitating and 
 trembling ! With what diffidence he entered upon 
 his work ! He had not been there forty days when 
 he was seized with mortal sickness. His friends and 
 the friends of the college stood by him when they 
 thought him unconscious ; and they said one to an- 
 other, " What will become of tl're college } " And he 
 ojiened his dying lips, and said, "Trust God, and you 
 need not fear." 
 
 His sepulchre is with them (us) unto this day. His 
 power is there. Being dead, he yet speaks, and de- 
 livers lectures on systematic theology in Princeton 
 every day in every year. There is more sound the- 
 ology in the mouldering bones of dead Jonathan in 
 that Princeton cemetery than in all the systems which 
 crowd out Christ and the Holy Ghost that have ever 
 been propounded among men. Princeton theology 
 has all that is good in every other, and its spirit is 
 thoroughly of Edwards. It has the life of Christ in 
 it : it subordinates the reason- to divine authority, and 
 adores the Holy Ghost. 
 
 Every young pilgrim who comes to take the living 
 
144 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 waters of truth at those fountains pays an early visit 
 to the tombs of the prophets there. He finds the 
 grave of Jonathan Edwards among those of Burr and 
 Witherspoon and Davies, Finley and Stanhope Smith 
 and Green and Carnahan and Miller, and three great 
 Alexanders. He stands over their ashes, and some- 
 thing of their fire kindles in his soul. 
 
 I do not know that it matters where we are buried, 
 or where we happen to be when the dead arise to 
 meet the Lord in the air. In the catacombs among 
 the saints of primitive Christianity, in the silent sep- 
 ulchres of departed princes, in the abbey where genius 
 and eloquence and lame have monuments of marble, 
 it would be glorious to stand in that day and behold 
 the mighty dead come up in the resurrection. 
 
 But there is one small graveyard in New Jersey 
 where sleep the men who have "turned many to right- 
 eousness," and whom He who walks among the golden 
 candlesticks will set amid the stars. In their graves 
 were buried wisdom, -knowledge, and power. Love 
 and piety wept floods of grief on the grass that cov- 
 ered them. So small a space of this great round 
 globe does not contain more sacred dust. And, when 
 the earth gives back its trust, a train of white- 
 robed prophets will arise in that Princeton cemetery, 
 and walk forth, the mortal putting on immortality ; 
 and he whose memory we have met to celebrate shall 
 lead the way to the foot of the throne and the. Lamb. 
 
 At the conclusion of Dr. Prime's remarks, and 
 before the adjournment. Col. Goodrich gave an invi- 
 tation to the descendants to visit " The Edwards 
 House" between the hours of seven and eicrht in the 
 
Edwards Memorial. 145 
 
 evening, and afterwards to meet at his own house for 
 a reception. 
 
 An adjournment was then made to nine o'clock the 
 next morning. 
 
 The visit to " The Edwards Place " was made very 
 interesting by the politeness of Mr. Reed, the owner, 
 who took pleasure in pointing out to his visitors every 
 thing which was associated with the name of Edwards. 
 The little eight-by-four corner in which, and the table 
 on which, as some think, he wrote " The Treatise on 
 the Freedom of the Will," and other associated ob- 
 jects, were inspected by many a curious eye. 
 
 The reception at Col. Goodrich's afforded great 
 enjoyment. The house was built by the oldest son 
 of Pres. Edwards, Judge Timothy Edwards, who lived 
 and died there in 1813. Under its roof, that evening, 
 were gathered nearly two hundred people in whose 
 veins flowed the blood of a common ancestor. The 
 company dispersed between ten and eleven o'clock, 
 recognizing with gratitude the hospitality of their 
 host, which had contributed so largely to their enjoy- 
 ment. 
 
 WEDNESDAY, Sept. 7. 
 
 At nine o'clock, the meeting was called to order by 
 the vice-president, who to-day, in consequence of the 
 indisposition of the president, occupied the chair. 
 The hymn by Dr. Dwight, — 
 
 " I love thv kingdom, Lord," — 
 
 was sung by the congregation ; after which prayer 
 was offered by Rev. Dr. IL W. Hooker. 
 10 
 
146 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 The arrangement for this morning's session had 
 been several short addresses and the reading of two 
 poems by members of the family. There were also 
 letters to be read, and some business to be trans- 
 acted : and it was hoped there would be time for vol- 
 unteer speeches and some devotional exercises in 
 conclusion ; but, for want of time, this plan could not 
 be fully carried out. 
 
 The chairman, rising, said, There is one of the de- 
 scendants present who has been rector of the Mon- 
 umental Church in Richmond, Va., for nearly forty 
 years. I am happy to introduce to you Rev. George 
 Woodbridge, D.D., of Richmond. 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 OF REV. DR. WOODBRIDGE. 
 
 Mr. President, and Members of this Edwards 
 Gathering, — One in object and one in relationship, 
 I greet you all. 
 
 There are two facts in the life of our common an- 
 cestor which may not be generally known ; or which, 
 if known, have hardly been considered with the at- 
 tention they deserve. The fiist is, that, out of his 
 eleven children, seven were born on Sunday: the 
 other is, that each of his children was baptized the 
 Sunday after its birth. 
 
 The first of these is certainly remarkable. How 
 often do we observe, in the lives of holy men of God, 
 that the events of Providence seem to be so arranged 
 as to meet and anticipate their wishes and desires ! 
 Especially is this to be observed in the events attend- 
 ing the close of life. How strikingly was this the 
 case with William Wilberforcc and Henry Venn! 
 
Edwards Memorial. 147 
 
 We have often heard and read of those who ex- 
 pressed a wish that they might leave this world and 
 enter upon hfe eternal on Sunday ; and how often 
 have we seen their desires granted ! It would seem 
 as though God, with all a father's tenderness and 
 love, desires to gratify the wishes of his children 
 when it can be done without injury to themselves or 
 to others. 
 
 There might not have been, and probably there was 
 not, in Pres. Edwards's mind, any wish or thought en- 
 tertained on this subject. Yet still we cannot but 
 believe that the kind providence of God so ordered 
 these, events as to give pleasure to the mind of his 
 servant. For, if it would be a pleasure to enter upon 
 life everlasting on that day, when, throughout the 
 earth, his servants are engaged in his worship, and 
 are offering their prayers and their praises in his holy 
 place, much more would it be gratifying to enter 
 upon existence at such a time ; to begin a life which is 
 to run parallel with the lifetime of the Almighty, 
 and especially a life which needs every advantage and 
 eV'Cry influence we can gain from any and every 
 source, that it may be spent for our good and for his 
 glory. 
 
 The first that broke the chain in this succession 
 was my grandmother Lucy, who was the fifth in the 
 order of birth, and who was born on Tuesday. 
 
 The other fact, that each of his children was bap- 
 tized the Sunday after its birth, is also a fact of great 
 interest. 
 
 It is very evident that Pres. Edwards entertained a 
 far higher sense of the importance cf the sacraments 
 than is generally entertained by Christian j^eople 
 
148 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 now, or even by his descendants. He advocated the 
 celebration of the Lord's supper every Lord's Day ; 
 and he had so high a sense of the importance of bap- 
 tism, that he felt he could not too soon, for the benefit 
 of his children, avail himself of the blessings of God's 
 covenant, nor too soon bring them to Christ for his 
 blessing, nor too soon introduce them into the mem-, 
 bership of his church. " Every Christian family," said 
 he, " ought to be, as it were, a little church consecrated 
 to Christ, and wholly influenced and governed by his 
 rules." 
 
 Hence, therefore, his children grew up into Christ. 
 They knew no time in their lives when they were not 
 influenced by Christian principles ; and therefore, at 
 a very early period, they openly consecrated them- 
 selves to the service of Christ. This, I believe, is the 
 history of the majority of his children ; though with 
 that of some I have no precise information. This, 
 however, is certainly true, that there are here this day 
 two hundred of his descendants upon whom his man- 
 tle has fallen, and if not with a double portion, with 
 at least a large portion, of his spirit. 
 
 It is remarkable, too, to observe the respectful ven- 
 eration which his children ever entertained towards 
 him. In all their correspondence with their parents, 
 they ever addressed them as " Honored Sir," or " Hon- 
 ored Madam." And yet the letters on both sides 
 breathe throughout the utmo'st tenderness and love. 
 This respect and reverence seemed to pervade the 
 whole household. Whenever the parents entered the 
 room, all rose till they were seated ; whenever the par- 
 ents spoke, instantly every voice was hushed in respect- 
 ful silence till they had finished : and yet there was 
 
Edwards Memorial. 149 
 
 the utmost unreserve in all the domestic intercourse. 
 And, after the evening meal, the father, abandoning 
 himself to the full tide of gentleness and tenderness 
 that was in his nature, gave himself up to the quiet 
 enjoyment of the family conversation, contributing his 
 full share of genial humor and amusement to the 
 pleasant fireside-scene. 
 
 Mr. President, if there be one thing more than 
 another for which a man should be devoutly grateful, 
 it is that of being descended from parents of great 
 moral worth, and integrity of character ; for certainly 
 moral qualities are transmitted as well as intellectual 
 and physical. In the old Roman families, we find the 
 peculiar features of the. progenitors perpetuated for 
 ages all along the line, and reproduced long after- 
 wards in the children. The Catos, the Scipios, the 
 Brutuses, were individualized throughout the whole 
 history of the republic. The family of the Guises in 
 France were distinguished for several generations for 
 the same striking qualities, of which one was the far- 
 famed smile of the race. 
 
 But it is important, too, to observe that even piety 
 is, to a certain extent, an inheritance. " The chil- 
 dren are holy " by virtue of their very birth from 
 Christian parents. 
 
 With a spirit of devout thankfulness, therefore, am 
 I here this day to join you all in returning thanks to 
 the God of our fathers that we have received our birth 
 from one so highly favored of God as was President 
 Edwakd.s. I have come to this place because here 
 he found a refuge and a home. I have come to this 
 place on a pilgrimage, as a religious duty, that I might 
 contribute to swell the anthem of praise and f)f prayer 
 
150 Edzvards Memorial. 
 
 to Him who hath given us such a goodly heritage ; 
 and I have come that I may catch and carry back to 
 my distant home a higher, hoHer spirit of consecra- 
 tion to Him who hath done such great things for us. 
 
 Among the addresses to which I yesterday list- 
 ened, I was much surprised to hear the wonder ex- 
 pressed, and expressed more than once, that he should 
 have produced so great an impression by his preach- 
 ing ; and I was still more surprised to hear it 
 ascribed to the force of his intellect. That had, un- 
 doubtedly, something to do with it ; but compara- 
 tively little, however. He was known and felt to be 
 a man of God : ''there was the hiding of his power." 
 It was his holiness which produced such effects : 
 herein lay his great strength and his commanding 
 eloquence. His biographer says of him, " One of the 
 positive causes of his high character and great success 
 as a preacher was the deep and pervading solemnity 
 of his mind. He had at all times a solemn conscious- 
 ness of the presence of God. This was visible in his 
 looks and general demeanor. It obviously had a con- 
 trolling influence over all his preparations for the 
 desk, and was most manifest in all his public services. 
 Its effect on an audience was immediate, and not to 
 be resisted." 
 
 Mr. Woodbridge. — I see before me one of the 
 descendants, whom I know to be possessed of some 
 interesting facts pertaining to the oldest son of Pres. 
 Edwards and his connection with Stockbridge and 
 Berkshire County, and who is himself also the oldest 
 son of Col. William Edwards, who, for far-reaching 
 l)lans and true nobility of character, was surpassed 
 
Edwards Memorial. 1 5 1 
 
 by few men of his generation. I am happy to intro- 
 duce to you William W. Edwards, Esq., of Brooklyn, 
 
 N.Y. 
 
 WILLIAM W. EDWARDS'S STATEMENTS. 
 
 Ladies a\d Gentlemen, — Allow me to congrat- 
 ulate you that so many of the descendants of our 
 venerated ancestor are enabled to meet on this inter- 
 esting occasion in this beautiful village, where he 
 spent an important period of his life, and where he 
 composed some of his most valued works. Taken 
 away in the prime of his manhood and usefulness, 
 the care of his orphan family devolved largely upon 
 his oldest son Timothy, who, after graduating at 
 Princeton, had married Miss Rhoda Ogden of Eliza- 
 bethtown, N.J., and had settled in the midst of her 
 relatives as a merchant. 
 
 The brief residence of the president at Stockbridge 
 gave this son an opportunity to discover the great 
 value of its location for mercantile business with the 
 settlers, who were drawing rich harvests of wheat from 
 its virgin soil ; and in the year 1771 he removed his 
 family — wife and six small children — hither, and 
 opened, it is believed, the first store in the county of 
 Berkshire, greatly prospering. 
 
 He built the house now owned by Mr. Henry 
 Owen, on the green, occupying the east part of it for 
 a store. He soon gained the esteem and confidence 
 of the people, and became a leader among them. He 
 was a decided Whig through the Revolutionary period ; 
 was a member of the Committee of Safety in 1776 
 for the county ; was commissary of supplies for the 
 United-States army ; and devoted his private means 
 
152 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 without stint to aid the government, and advance the 
 cause of freedom in every possible way. 
 
 My father, Col. William Edwards, his sixth child, 
 had a distinct recollection (being then five years and a 
 half old), that, one sabbath morning, Squire Wood- 
 bridge and Deacon Nash came to his house with each a 
 loaded musket ; and, after a few moments' consultation 
 with his father, the three went out on to the green in 
 front of the house, and each discharged his gun in quick 
 succession ; that presently armed men came in by all 
 the roads centring there ; that Dr. West came down 
 from the hill among them ; that all gathered in the 
 porch and in front while the good doctor commended 
 them to the divine protection and blessing ; when 
 the company formed, and marched towards Cambridge. 
 Before twelve o'clock, noon, they had news of the 
 battle of Lexington. 
 
 When Schuyler's army had gathered at Albany 
 to repel Burgoyne's invasion, a messenger was de- 
 spatched to him, requiring two thousand crowns in 
 silver for contingencies before the army could move 
 forward. The money was sent, the invader was 
 captured, forming one of the crowning events of the 
 war. 
 
 These advances were repaid in Continental money, 
 which his patriotism constrained him to hold ; so that, 
 at the close of the war, his whole personal estate was 
 swallowed in its almost total depreciation. He 
 was afterwards a judge of probate, and filled many 
 offices of trust and responsibility in the town and 
 county. I knew him well the first sixteen years 
 of my life. He was a fine specimen of the old 
 school ; wore a drab suit, standing collar, and white 
 
Edwards Memorial. 153 
 
 top-boots ; whose presence commanded respect from 
 all who saw him. He died in 18 12. His remains, 
 with those of his wife, repose in the beautiful cemetery 
 opposite this church ; while the remains of twelve of 
 his children are scattered from Maine to South Caro- 
 lina, and west to the Great Lakes, — one only surviv- 
 ing, now ninety years of age. 
 
 My first introduction to his family was on this wise: 
 Three boys of us, aged eight and six years and six 
 months, were brought over from Northampton, in 
 1805, in a sleigh, through a driving snow-storm, by 
 our parents, over the Becket Hills, to Stockbridge, in 
 a day and a half, with severe exposure. These three 
 boys are here to-day, — two of them the oldest pres- 
 ent who have the name of Edwards. 
 
 This beautiful village now presents many of the 
 features of that hour. Its skirt of mountains and 
 hills ; its meadows, and the swift river which flows 
 through them ; its broad streets and lanes, now so 
 beautifully shaded by the growth of its trees, — are 
 but little changed. 
 
 We lived in the plain house, now greatly improved, 
 and owned by Hon. J. Z. Goodrich, — the first house to 
 the left as you enter the village from the dcpjt ; the 
 iron horse and his solid rails having superseded the 
 old paths. His fine meadow lay over the way up 
 the Housatonic ; and his large farm was imbosomcd 
 in the Tyringham Mountain, about a mile south of 
 his residence, — a famous place in that day for straw- 
 berries. 
 
 There was the fine old mansion of Judge Sedgwick, 
 imbosomed, then as now, with shade-trees and flow- 
 ers, — only smaller trees and fewer flowers. 
 
154 Edivards Memorial. 
 
 I was early taught to reverence the fearless old judge, 
 who decided that the plain language of the Bill of 
 Rights of the nation meant as it read, " That all men 
 were created free and equal," &c. ; thereby striking 
 off the chains of every slave in the State. What 
 torrents of blood, to which many members of this 
 great family have contributed their full quota, would 
 have been spared, had this decision been confirmed 
 by the Supreme Court of the United States, as it should 
 have been! The house my grandfather built, then 
 Owned and occupied by Barnabas Bidwell, the great 
 Democratic lawyer of that day, now owned and 
 greatly improved by Mr. Owen ; the old tavern and 
 stage-house of Mrs. Bingham, on the corner ; the 
 academy, where our cousin Sally Woodbridge first 
 taught our young ideas how " to shoot " at the public 
 school therein ; the dwelling of Squire Woodbridge, 
 and many others, — all more or less modernized, — 
 still mark the abodes of elegance and ease ; while the 
 appearance of such numbers of strangers here to-day, 
 sharing so largely the hospitality of the citizens, is 
 evidence unmistakable that the present generation of 
 its citizens are the worthy descendants and succes- 
 sors of its early founders. 
 
 Mr. Woodbridge. — There are many present who 
 remember the beautiful Louisa Hopkins. She was 
 the aunt of Pres. Hopkins. One of her sons is 
 here to-day. He was born in the house where Lucy 
 Edwards lived and died. Whatever his speech may 
 be, his " bodily presence " at least, as you see, is not 
 " contemptible." I have the pleasure of introducing 
 Joseph Effingham Woodbridge, Esq., of Brooklyn, 
 N.Y. 
 
Edwards Memorial. 155 
 
 REMARKS OF JOSEPH E. WOODBRIDGE. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, — I was deeply interested when I 
 was informed that this meeting was to be held in my 
 native village of Stockbridge. 
 
 And, sir, I feel under personal obligations to you 
 for the persistent efforts that have contributed in so 
 large a degree to secure this gathering of the " clan " 
 from such distant and different points of our common 
 country. 
 
 We are convened under very happy auspices, and 
 surrounded by very pleasant associations. It gives 
 me great pleasure to meet you, and extend to you all 
 my cordial, personal congratulations. 
 
 We meet as the descendants of a great and good 
 man, whose character we admire, whose labors we 
 honor ; who illustrated the power of the gospel by his 
 earnest and well-spent life. We have always been 
 taught to cherish his memory. We rejoice to believe 
 that his example and his writings' are still working 
 down through the centuries of time, and accomplish- 
 ing the ends for which he labored while here on the 
 earth. 
 
 When I look around upon this assemblage, the 
 inquiry naturally suggests itself, "The fathers — where 
 are they .^ and the prophets — do they live forever.''" 
 We of the third generation are here, and are now the 
 fathers. We stand in the front rank. Some of us, 
 more or less recently, have been called to part with 
 friends that were very dear to us ; who, had they 
 lived to this time, would have felt the deepest inter- 
 est in this meeting. We are soon to follow them, 
 and our children are to fill our places. 
 
156 Edivards Memorial. 
 
 When my grandfather, Jahleel Woodbridge, had 
 become old, and his eyes were dim by reason of age, 
 he asked my father every day to read to him from the 
 Bible ; and he often requested him to read from Deu- 
 teronomy. It was matter of curiosity with me why 
 this particular portion of Holy Scripture had such at- 
 traction for him. I concluded it was because the 
 providence of God in that book had such manifest 
 development, and because such specific instructions 
 are given for teaching children the words of God, as 
 in that remarkable passage, — " And thou shalt teach 
 them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk 
 of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when 
 thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, 
 and when thou risest up." On one occasion, when 
 thinking on this subject, I opened to the thirty-third 
 chapter, which begins, " And this is the blessing 
 wherewith Moses, the man of God, blessed the chil- 
 dren of Israel before his death : and he said, The Lord 
 came from Sinai, and rose up from Seir unto them ; 
 he shined forth from Mount Paran, and he came with 
 ten thousand of saints : from his right hand went a 
 fiery law for them," &c. I could not but think the 
 whole chapter must have afforded him the richest 
 Christian delight. 
 
 It was on such sublime truths the men of that gen- 
 eration fed ; on such revelations of the wondrous 
 power and faithfulness of God, which wrought in 
 them the fidelity and strength of Christian character 
 which call forth our respect, and deserve our imitation. 
 He, and his brother-in-law Timothy Edwards, lived 
 here in Stockbridge. My father has often said that 
 his father and Timothy were bosom-friends. They 
 
Edwards Memorial. 157 
 
 were about the same age, lived near each other, and 
 were much together. Eighty years ago, Squire Ed- 
 wards and Judge Woodbridge were famihar names in 
 Stockbridge. 
 
 Both of these good men thought every thing of 
 family influence, of the proper training of children. 
 They both had large families ; and it is safe to say 
 that few families in Stockbridge were under better 
 discipline. Household religion was, with them, a 
 matter of deep concern : they endeavored to make 
 it a reality. In each family, there were eight or ten 
 children that grew up ; and all, we think, of both 
 families, lived and died with a good Christian name. 
 
 Mr. Chairman, I understand that it is in contempla- 
 tion to erect a monument to the memory of Pres. Ed- 
 wards ; to locate it on the ground where the mission- 
 chapel stood, and where the Rev. John Sergeant first 
 labored for the benefit of the Stockbridge tribe of 
 Indians, and where Edwards, his successor, took up 
 the work, and, for nearly seven years, labored in the 
 gospel for his red and white brethren. 
 
 Sir, let us build this monument, and locate it on 
 that sacred spot in this beautiful Valley of the Housa- 
 tonic ; and, in the words of Webster at the completion 
 of the monument on Bunker Hill, "may the earliest 
 light of the morning gild it, and the last rays of the 
 setting sun linger and play on its summit ! " 
 
 We are soon to meet for the last time around those 
 tables spread by the hospitable people of Stockbridge 
 under yonder capacious tent. We shall then sepa- 
 rate. But I believe we shall meet again in our heav- 
 enly home in our Father's house, with our Elder 
 Brother and our kindred who have gone before us, 
 
158 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 where our social enjoyments will be perpetual with 
 each other and with Him who has redeemed us by 
 his blood, and we shall go no more out forever. 
 
 Mr. Woodbridge. — The women of the Edwards 
 family have ever been distinguished for character. 
 They are still a power in the land. How much is due 
 to their sweet and gentle influence, their earnest 
 prayers and Christian example, their faith and works 
 combined, eternity only will reveal. 
 
 And they come to this gathering from the South 
 and from the West. 
 
 Mrs. Mary Bayard Clarke, accompanied by two 
 of her sons and her daughter, is here to-day from 
 Newbern, N.C. 
 
 Mrs. Clarke is the grand-daughter of Mrs. Fran- 
 ces Devereux, who was herself a grand-daughter 
 of Pres. Edwards. " Mrs. Devereux was a woman of 
 remarkable intellectual endowments ; and was famed 
 in the Presbyterian Church, both North and South, 
 for her piety and liberality." It will be seen that 
 Mrs. Clarke inherits in no small degree the intellect 
 and genius of her honored grandmother. 
 
 I am happy to introduce to you Prof. Frank D. 
 Clarke, of the Institution for the Deaf and Dumb, 
 New-York City, who will make a few remarks, and 
 will read a poem furnished for the occasion by his 
 mother. 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 BY FRANK D. CLARKE; 
 
 AND POEM. 
 We are gathered here to-day not only in memory 
 of our renowned ancestor, but also, I hope, to form 
 
Edwards Memorial. 159 
 
 friendships among ourselves, — friendships which shall 
 place these two days among the pleasant memories 
 of life, and cause them, in life's checkered calendar, to 
 be mai'ked evermore with white. 
 
 In my whole life, I have never before had"\he good 
 fortune even to see such an assembly a:; this, — one 
 so large, so cultivated and refined, and though from 
 so many different States of the Union, yet looking up 
 to one common ancestor, and collected Jiere, on the 
 field of his greatest labors, to do honor to his illustri- 
 ous name. 
 
 I feel very much as the youngest son of some large 
 family must when he is " stood " upon a table, and told 
 to declaim before*an assembled host of uncles, aunts, 
 cousins, brothers, and sisters : only I feel a thousand 
 times more honored, and not half so confident of 
 success. 
 
 Wherever I have wandered, — in the forests of Car- 
 olina, or on the prairies of Texas ; among the hills 
 of New England, or by the bayous of Louisiana ; by 
 the borders oi the Mississippi, or on the banks of the 
 fiudson, — in every place I have heard the name of 
 Jonathan Edwards extolled, not only as the ablest 
 metaphysician from Leibnitz to Kant, and the great- 
 est theologian of his century, but as the brightest 
 example of Christian purity and humility carried into 
 the daily affairs of life. And the fact that his blood 
 flows in my veins has been one of those things 
 which I have always mentioned with a blush of hon- 
 est pride. 
 
 Whether teaching the savage Housatonnucks, or 
 the enlightened students of Princeton ; whether ad- 
 dressing his congregation with his voice, or the whole 
 
i6o Edwards Alemorial. 
 
 English-speaking world, both present and to come, 
 with his pen, — he never forgot to live as though the 
 present hour would be his last. To know his duty, 
 and to perform it, was the object he kept constantly 
 in sight. Well would it be for America if her young 
 men would take him for an example, and strive, if not 
 to equal him in Intellect, at least to imitate his Chris- 
 tian, God-fearing life. 
 
 But of the fame of Edwards it is needless for me 
 to speak. His name will ring through the world ; 
 his works will be read when most of the hosts of war- 
 riors, statesmen, poets, and orators, who have arisen 
 since, shall be known no more ; and the names of 
 Washington, Franklin, and Edwards, — America's pa- 
 triot, philosopher, and divine, — will be remembered 
 as long as she shall continue a nation. 
 
 I trace my descent from Pres. Edwards through 
 one of his daughters. Perhaps it is owing to this fact 
 that I am so strongly in favor of woman's rights; at 
 least, in favor of that right of every woman to get all 
 the work she can out of every man. Believing in this 
 right of woman, I am here to-day to read the follow- 
 ing poem, written by my mother, Mrs. Mary Bayard 
 Clarke of North Carolina : — 
 
 Who is this we come to honor .'' 
 
 'Tis no hero of renown, 
 Who, amid the rush of battle, 
 
 Seized a deathless laurel -crown. 
 
 'Tis no statesman famed in council, 
 Who, with skill and wisdom great, 
 
 Steered through reefs and shoals and quicksands 
 Into port the Ship of State. 
 
Edwards Alemorial. i6i 
 
 'Tis no poet, all impassioned, 
 
 And by genius true inspired ; 
 Nor a speaker, fervid, glowing, 
 
 Who his country's heart hath fired. 
 
 Stars like these in clusters have we, 
 
 Who to fame are not unknown ; 
 But the one we come to honor 
 
 In his glory shines alone. 
 
 Monarch of a realm majestic. 
 
 Where no action could intrude, 
 He, an iceberg on Time's ocean, 
 
 Floats in mighty solitude. 
 
 P'ancy lends his fame no brightness ; 
 
 Thougli at times her dyes are wrought. 
 Round the lofty pinnacles 
 
 Of his pure, clear, icy thought. 
 
 His was not the tongue of fire 
 
 Which his hearers swayed at will ; 
 But his voice was that of reason. 
 
 Irresistible and still. 
 
 And o'er heroes, statesmen, poets. 
 
 Great logician and divine. 
 With thy calm and steady radiance 
 
 Thou torevermore shalt shine ; 
 
 For thou wert no freak of Nature, 
 
 Wert no meteor flashing bright. 
 But the sun of Reason's system, 
 
 Giving to the world thy light. 
 
 Hon. Jonathan Edwards of New Haven here made 
 some very interesting statements respecting the por- 
 traits of Pres. Edwards and wife, which hung, dur- 
 ing the whole meeting, one on cither side of the 
 pulpit. 
 
1 62 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 OF JONATHAN EDWARDS OF NEW IIAVEN, CONN., ON THE PICTURES 
 OF REV. JONATHAN EDWARDS AND HIS WIFE SARAH PIERREPONT. 
 
 The original portraits of Pres. Edwards and his 
 wife are now in possession of the family of the late 
 Jonathan Walter Edwards, Esq., of Hartford, Conn. 
 They were painted about the year 1740, in Boston, at 
 the request and expense, it is believed, of a Mr. Hogg, 
 and were forwarded to him in Scotland. At the 
 decease of Mr. Hogg they passed into the hands of 
 his sister, who presented them to the Rev. Dr. John 
 Erskine of Edinburgh. After the American Revolu- 
 tion, my grandfather,. the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Edwards, 
 the second son of the president, made application to 
 Dr. Erskine to purchase the portraits ; and the latter 
 gentleman declined to sell them : but, on learning 
 that no other portraits ot the president and his wife 
 existed, he sent them to this country as a present to 
 Dr. Edwards ; and they have remained in my father's 
 family since the death of his father in 1801. 
 
 This is the tradition in the family respecting these 
 portraits. I regret that no additional facts have been 
 ascertained ; nor can any letters regarding them now 
 be found. I am indebted to my aunt, the late Mrs. 
 Mary Hoyt, who was the oldest daughter of my grand- 
 father, for the tradition as here given. The pictures 
 probably reached this country toward the close of 
 the last century ; as the Rev. Timothy Woodbridge, 
 a grandson of Pres. Edwards, says in his autobiog- 
 raphy that he visited his uncle in Colebrook, Conn., 
 in 1798, when in the fourteenth year of his age, and 
 there saw those pictures, — a fact which he recol- 
 
Edwards Memo^Hal. 163 
 
 lected through a long life of subsequent blindness 
 with satisfaction and pleasure. I have myself a dis- 
 tinct remembrance of the arrival of those pictures at 
 my father's house in Hartford after the death of Dr. 
 Edwards in 1801. They remained there until the 
 death of my father in 1831, and have since been care- 
 fully preserved by my sisters. 
 
 These portraits were probably painted by John 
 Smybert ; but this is not capable of demonstration. 
 Rev. Sereno Edwards Dwight, in his Life of Pres. 
 Edwards, states that they were painted in Boston 
 about the year 1 740, and- that the president and his 
 wife went to Boston to sit for them ; the journey from 
 Northampton having, it is said, been made on horse- 
 back. There were at that time but two portrait- 
 painters in Boston, Smybert and Blackburn ; and the 
 former had the best reputation. Smybert came to 
 this country in 1728 with Dean (afterwards Bishop) 
 Berkeley, who came here with the object of founding 
 a college in Bermuda. He brought Smybert with 
 him as an artist of reputation, who had studied in 
 Italy, and who would probably become "professor 
 of drawing, painting, and architecture, in his intended 
 institution." Bishop Berkeley established himself 
 at Newport, R. I., and remained there about two 
 years ; but, his plans and his funds failing, he re- 
 linquished his design, and returned to England. 
 Smybert, however, preferred to remain here, and 
 established himself in Boston in 1730, where he re- 
 mained until his decease in 175 1. Hon. Gulian C. 
 Verplanck says of him and his pictures, that "the 
 best portraits we have of eminent magistrates and 
 divines of New riniiland and New York, who lived 
 
164 Edwards Manorial. 
 
 between 1725 and 175 1, are from his pencil." Of 
 Blackburn all that we know is that he was nearly- 
 contemporary with Smybert, and painted very re- 
 spectable portraits in Boston. William Dunlap, in 
 his " History of the Rise and Progress of the Arts of 
 Design in the United States," says that " Smybert 
 had a powerful and lasting effect on the arts of design 
 in this country. We see the influence of Smybert 
 and his works upon Copley, Trumbull, and Allston." 
 There is in the Trumbull Gallery at Yale College a 
 large picture painted by Smybert, representing Bishop 
 Berkeley and his family, together with the artist him- 
 self, on their first landing in America, — the largest 
 picture then ever painted in the United States ; and 
 it is stated also to be the first picture painted in this 
 country that embraced more than a single figure. 
 This picture represents the bishop, his wife and child, 
 a young lady, and three gentlemen, friends of the 
 family. In style of painting and of execution it cor- 
 responds with that of the portraits of Pres. Edwards 
 and his wife very strongly ; which leads to the conclu- 
 sion that they were painted by the same artist. 
 
 It has been stated that these portraits were painted 
 by Copley. But this is improbable, as Copley was but 
 thirteen years of age when Smybert died in 175 i, and 
 but three years old when these portraits were painted. 
 
 The portraits exhibited at Stockbridge were painted 
 about the year 1828 by Rembrandt Peale of Phila- 
 delphia, and are now in the possession of Eli Whit- 
 ney, Esq., of New Haven, Conn. Copies painted by 
 J. H. Shegogue, formerly of New-York City, about the 
 year 1845, are now owned by Dr. T. D wight Porter 
 of New York. At a later date, E. A. Loop of New 
 
Edwards Memorial. 165 
 
 York made a number of copies, which are now owned 
 by Alfred Edwards and Jonathan Edwards, Esqs., of 
 New- York City, by William Samuel Johnson, Esq., of 
 Stratford, Conn., and by Prof. Edwards A. Park of An- 
 dover, Mass. By the same artist, copies of the picture 
 of the president were painted, which are now in the 
 galleries of Yale and Princeton Colleges. The family 
 owning the originals will cheerfully afford lacilities 
 for copying them whenever requested. 
 
 At the conclusion of Mr. Edwards's remarks, a re- 
 cess was proposed, during which the whole family 
 present were photographed. The picture was taken 
 on the green in front of the church, under an elm- 
 tree, and within a few feet of the very spot where 
 stood the old Indian meeting-house in which Edwards 
 preached more than a hundred years ago. The pic- 
 ture proved to be a good one, and is highly valued by 
 those who possess it. 
 
 This occupied nearly three-quarters of an hour, 
 when the exercises were resumed in the church. 
 The meeting was called to order ; and the chairman 
 introduced to the audience Col. Mason W. Tyler of 
 New York, son of Prof Tyler of Amherst, one of the 
 descendants, as the reader of the 
 
 MEMORIAL POEM 
 
 BY MRS. SARAH EDWARDS TYLER HENSHAW OE OTTAWA, ILL. 
 
 • OUR ROLL OF HONOR. 
 L 
 
 Cousins of near and of remote degree, 
 Nourished by sap of the same fruitful tree, 
 
1 66 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 More distant branches some, while others run 
 Directly from the stem, — our Jonathan, — 
 Whether the Edwards name ye proudly wear, 
 Or titles scarcely less familiar bear, — 
 TJiese who the Pierrepont and the Ogden write, 
 And tJiose who claim the Davenport and Dwight, — 
 Woolsey and Winthrop, Whitney, Devereux, 
 Parsons and Porter, — better names few show, — 
 Woodbridge and Williams, Sedgwick, Park, and Whi- 
 ting, 
 Tyler, Cornelius, Johnson, — all uniting. 
 With hands extended, and with words of greeting, 
 We bid yoLi welcome to this Edwards meeting. 
 
 II. 
 
 To take appropriate and fit position 
 Such as will suit the family tradition, 
 I ought to say that hither we have sped 
 (Hereto, through free-will and fore-ordination. 
 Predestined, doubtless, from the world's foundation) 
 In recognition of our Federal Head, 
 Jonathan Edwards ; whom the Muse doth paint 
 Metaphysician, author, preacher, saint. 
 His works we have, bound in enduring calf, 
 (Excepting for the learned, too deep by half;) 
 Ikit that they really are with us still, 
 In livinq forms of " Edwards on the Will," 
 Witness, yc Edzvards wives ! who one and all 
 Are forced to sec how fell we at the P^all ! 
 Total depravity — forgive the hint — 
 They (orthodox !) believe in without stint ! 
 
Edwards MemoiHal. 167 
 
 III. 
 And, first, a backward look is meet and right 
 At him in whom our blood and name unite. 
 Let then Great Jonathan, immortal shade ! 
 Stand forth, a vision to our eyes displayed. 
 Mark the grand mien ; the distant, cold gray eyes ; 
 And, as he enters, like his children rise, — 
 Rise, and, like them, in reverent silence stand 
 Till seated by a gesture of his hand. 
 Then listen to his words, nor dare presume 
 To speak so long as he is in the room. 
 When he departs, once more obeisance pay ; 
 And once more rise as soft he glides away. 
 
 IV. 
 
 The times are changed ; and vainly we inquire 
 
 To-day for such respect from son to sire. 
 
 Let us confess these are degenerate days. 
 
 And from this lesson mend our modern ways. 
 
 Truly the times are changed ; and, treasured deep, 
 
 This strong example let us inly keep. 
 
 Surely the Edwards face should not neglect 
 
 To offer or exact a due respect. 
 
 Not only love let us our children teach. 
 
 But prompt obedience and fitting speech. 
 
 And all set forth by such a manner meet 
 
 As only makes affection quite complete. 
 
 v. 
 The silver porringer from which he ate 
 While pondering the deep decrees of fate ; 
 The city fair, within whose classic shades 
 He wooed and won the loveliest of maids ; 
 
1 68 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 The giant elm, beneath whose branches grand 
 His philosophic works he sat and planned ; 
 The college, where his memory, like a shrine, 
 Sheds, as is held, a lustre nigh divine ; 
 Stockbridge, Northampton, Princeton, each a name 
 Wrought with his own in an enduring iame ; 
 And fair New Haven, birthplace of his wife, — 
 Round the still picture of our sire's still life. 
 
 VI. 
 
 But, though that life stole silently along, 
 
 Think not it lacked a current deep and strong. 
 
 Behold him in the pulpit ! — as a seer 
 
 He handles heights and depths, the far and near : 
 
 Forth flash the lightnings from those dark gray eyes, 
 
 As, painting sin, and challenging the skies. 
 
 The sinner's deep damnation he portrays. 
 
 And points to reeling worlds and hell ablaze ! 
 
 Men listen, mutely cowering in amaze, 
 
 Then shuddering sob, and rise as if to fly ; 
 
 While women shriek, and, fainting, prostrate lie ; 
 
 And the scared pastor, rallying from the shock, 
 
 Begs him to spare his terror-smitten flock ! 
 
 vii. 
 From sacred desk to-day we seldom hear 
 The ponderous terms unto our fathers dear : 
 Like Titans with the rocks in times of old. 
 They fought with weapons we could never hold. 
 " The federal headship," " the effectual call," 
 " Predestination," "sin original," 
 " God's sovereignty," " imputed righteousness," 
 " The twofold covenant of works and grace," 
 
Edwards Memorial. 169 
 
 " Free-will," " election," and " fore-ordinalion," 
 
 " Total depravity" and " reprobation," 
 
 " Saints' perseverance" and God's deep " decrees," — 
 
 Although we hear but little now of these, 
 
 We yet may humbly hope to us are given 
 
 Faith, hope, and charity beloved of Heaven. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 Theology, 'tis thus the Muse declares. 
 
 Is but the costume which Religion wears. 
 
 In shape and fit the garments widely range ; 
 
 But the sweet form beneath them knows no change. 
 
 The same in every race, in every age. 
 
 The same as painted on the sacred page. 
 
 Love is her life, love is her essence fine, — 
 
 Love for her brother-man and God divine. 
 
 Sometimes her votaries adoring praise 
 
 Her tender sweetness, her majestic ways ; 
 
 Anon some more devoted worshipper 
 
 Is moved to wrath at those who love not Jier. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Thus was our ancestor : his spirit stern 
 
 With central fires intense thus came to burn. 
 
 Like Babylonian shrine of sacrifice, 
 
 Seven times more hot the flames were seen to rise. 
 
 Because within that fiery, glowing heart 
 
 Walked the dear Saviour of our race apart. 
 
 What though the flames singed those who came too 
 
 nigh : 
 What though the heat warned other some to fly : 
 Thus did that burning soul devotion prove, 
 And thus his anger measured forth his love. 
 
lyo Edwards Memorial. 
 
 X. 
 
 Sweet Sarah Pierrepont ! 'twere no act of grace 
 Did the Muse fail to call tJice forth to-day : 
 
 Sweet ancestress ! I see thy radiant face, 
 Although so long it has been hid in clay. 
 
 fair and pure ! whose tender young heart turned 
 Unto our sire and God until it burned 
 
 With a thrice holy flame of sacred fire 
 
 That shot up heavenward, higher still, and higher, 
 
 Bearing, most like Manoah's sacrifice. 
 
 The angel that thou wast into the skies. 
 
 Sweet mother ! thy forgiveness here I seek, 
 
 If gazing in thy face, which seems to speak. 
 
 With sigh, and swelling heart, and springing ttar, 
 
 1 thus conjure thee, fancying thou canst hear : — 
 
 TO THE PORTRAIT OF SARAH PIERREPONT. 
 
 I. 
 
 O lustrous eyes so dark and deep, 
 Filled with a shimmering haze ! 
 
 O eyes that holy vigils keep ! 
 
 Tears into mine unbidden leap 
 As I return your gaze. 
 
 Why look on us with mild surprise, 
 
 Ancestress of the beautiful eyes.'' 
 
 O delicate mouth so firm and sweet. 
 
 So tender and so mild ! 
 Would it could break in blessings meet, 
 And words of wisdom here repeat 
 
 Unto thy yearning child ! 
 
Edivards Memorial. 171 
 
 Even thy chiclings would confess, 
 O mother fair ! thy tenderness. 
 
 3- 
 For, though thou might'st not all approve 
 
 Thy children of to-day, 
 Thy warnings would be filled with love ; 
 And sunlight, as from heaven above, 
 
 Around thy words would play, — 
 A light to guide and cheer and bless, 
 O dear and lovely ancestress ! 
 
 4- 
 •A halo seems to gild thy brow, 
 
 A radiance not of earth 
 Thee doth a saintliness endow, 
 As if the heaven where thou art now 
 
 Dwelt near thee from thy birth ; 
 And I could fancy thou dost pray 
 For us, thy children, here to-day. 
 
 XI. 
 
 In making up our roll of mark and fame, 
 We pause at one illustrious, clouded name, 
 Then write it with a sigh. Oh, cease to slur. 
 Harsh critic, our proud, brilliant A.vro.n Burr ! 
 In Calvinism stern a keen adept, — 
 Theology which he could ne'er accept, — 
 Like Noah's dove which from the ark arose, 
 He found no other shelter or repose, 
 liy light of lurid fires yet scarcely dim, 
 How looks the justice meted out to him } 
 
1/2 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 What was the treason of a dreamer's brain 
 To that which hath its tens of thousands slain ? 
 What that which would acquire a foreign land 
 To that against its own which raised its hand ? 
 And wherefore o'er Burr's memory ceaseless rave, 
 While Davis goes unchallenged to his grave ? 
 
 XII. 
 
 For Burr, then, and his Theodosia, rise 
 
 From us, at least, regrets and sorrowing sighs. 
 
 The child of Error, but of Genius too, 
 
 We, we, at least, hold not his faults to view : 
 
 We only know he was a child of prayer ; 
 
 We only feel, of none should we despair ; 
 
 Wc only think how, through long, anxious years. 
 Our pious Edwardses with hopes and fears 
 For his salvation wrestled, prayed, and wept, 
 Concerts of prayer and frequent vigils kept. 
 Now lay a wreath upon his lowly sod. 
 And leave the sleeper with his fathers' God. 
 
 XIII. 
 
 Noting "the second president," — the son 
 
 Of Jonathan the first, — whose name has won. 
 
 Despite his father's overshadowing claim, 
 
 A place conspicuous on our roll of fame, 
 
 The Muse, in characters of living light, 
 
 Hastes to inscribe the lustrous name of Dwight. 
 
 Yale's brilliant president in by-gone days. 
 
 Winning the scholar's, poet's, author's praise, 
 
 With gentle dignity almost are seen 
 
 His steps still moving o'er the college-green ; 
 
 And ever on that college from afar 
 
 Shines his pure memory as a radiant star. 
 
Edwards^ MemoriaL \ 73 
 
 XIV. 
 
 Whether or no the Edwards intellect 
 
 To-day is such as challenges respect, 
 
 Although the Muse too modest is to show it, 
 
 Speak Wendell Holmes, philosopher" and poet! 
 
 The Brahmins of New England, thus he says. 
 
 Are chiefly found in certain families, 
 
 Of whom the Edwards line is one. And they — 
 
 These Brahmins — form our ruling caste to-day, — 
 
 The intellectual nobles of mankind, 
 
 Aristocrats in the great realm of mind. 
 
 From such a source such praise is choice indeed ; 
 Permit it no small vanity to breed ; 
 But rather let it gratitude evolve. 
 Lofty ambition, and a high resolve. 
 
 XV. 
 
 At least, we know our Edwards women fair 
 
 Have, by their marriages, brought talent rare, 
 
 And such as well may call out all our pride 
 
 Into the line to which they are allied, — 
 
 Hopkins, the theologian and the sage. 
 
 Original thinker of a thinking age ; 
 
 Cornelius, whose rich powers of mind and heart 
 
 Drew, in his manhood's prime. Death's venomed dart ; 
 
 Sedgwick, a name that everywhere doth seem 
 
 Of talent versatile the synonyme ; 
 
 Whitney, whose rare inventive genius shone 
 
 To light King Cotton to his Southern throne ; 
 
 And our own Park, the reverend and dear, 
 
 The wise philosopher, the brilliant, clear. 
 
 And learnetl professor, author, wit, divine. 
 
 An ornament to any age and line. 
 
174 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 No Edwards now at Princeton, Learning's seat, 
 
 Wakes echo with his presidential feet ; 
 
 But at Yale point we with a conscious pride. 
 
 Where Woolsey sits revered, the chief and guide. 
 
 Whatever others may be written down, 
 
 How make of mar tlie family renown, 
 
 In him we are assured great Jonathan 
 
 Would recognize his true, his worthy son. 
 
 In learning, scholarship, and culture fine. 
 
 As author, teacher, moralist, divine. 
 
 Him do we own — who will the Muse gainsay .-^ — 
 
 Our Edwards representative to-day. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 Our Edwards ladies do not seem to share 
 Concerning "women's rights" the present care. 
 If any are " strong-minded " found the while, 
 (Save in the practical, old-fashioned style, 
 Of late so oui" of vogue, so little known,) 
 Unto the Muse it hath not yet been shown. 
 They think no hardship that their talents fine 
 Upon their families should chiefly shine, 
 But rather to their households careful look. 
 As witness the Cornelius Cookery Book ! 
 Almost inspired, how shall I set thee forth } 
 What Edwards work excels thee, book of worth .'' 
 To housekeeper distressed, to novice tried, 
 Thou'rt known as comforter and help and guide. 
 And prov'st the Edwards mind at home can be 
 In metaphysics or gastronomy. 
 
Edivards Memorial. 175 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 Elizabeth Sedgwick's pen in former years 
 Knew how to reach the source of smiles and tears ; 
 The children's books of Laura Johnson lie 
 On nearest shelf of many a library ; 
 Sweet Mary Porter, by far China seas, 
 To-day. ease, friends, and home relinquishes, 
 That she may teach her heathen sisters there 
 The bliss of purity, and worth of prayer ; 
 While Sarah Cowen, in the war just fought, 
 With head and heart and pen so grandly wrought, 
 As with Connecticut's her name to write 
 On page historic, in enduring light. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 And the dread war through which we just have passed 
 (Oh, pray sweet Heaven that it may be our last !) 
 Proved that in loyalty and courage grand 
 Our blood compares with any in the land. 
 WiNTHROP, with whom so oft beneath the shade 
 Of fair New Haven's noble elms P-ve strayed, 
 Offer what word can I to swell thy praise .■' 
 What leaf contribute to thy wreath of bays .'' 
 Who would have thought as thus we gently walked, 
 'Who would have thought as thus we playful talked. 
 That storm and fire and blood and death and night 
 Would wrap our land, and snatch thee from our 
 
 sight .'' 
 Warrior, scholar, author, loyal heart ! 
 With pen and sword well hast thou done thy part. 
 Pass on, pass on, and take a foremost place 
 Amonq; the choicest of our blood and race. 
 
1 76 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 XX. 
 
 Antietam, field of blood ! before mine eyes, 
 Dimmed with quick-springing tears, dost thou arise. 
 O August sun ! remit thy fiercest rays ; 
 O sulphurous clouds ! dissolve, that we may gaze 
 Where helpless, wounded, bleeding, soon to die, 
 William Dwight Sedgwick doth all prostrate lie. 
 Far in the front, fallen early in the fray. 
 With heart undaunted, all that fearful day 
 'Twixt the two armies calmly there he lay. 
 While thundering cannon shook his dying bed. 
 And demon shells flew screaming o'er his head, — 
 Lay, and inscribed on tablets (oh, how dear !) 
 Notes of the fray, words of farewell and cheer. 
 O grand heroic soul ! thy courage high 
 Thrills every heart, and moistens every eye : 
 With tender pride thy kindred speak thy name, 
 And to the gallant Winthrop's join thy fame. • 
 
 XXI. 
 
 Poured out at Wagner's fierce, tremendous strife. 
 Young Robert Sedgwick Edwards his brave life. 
 Fair, noble boy ! no fragrant flowers of May 
 Thy grave shall deck on the Memorial Day ; 
 For where thy manly form went down in death. 
 Where was exhaled thy last expiring breath. 
 To mourning kindred never may be known, 
 That we may mark the spot with tear or stone. 
 Thy sword upon the rampart thou didst wave, 
 Then sink among the loyal, true, and brave. 
 Enough that, while life lasts, a brother's sighs 
 Unto thy memory shall as incense rise ; 
 Enough that still a sister's sorrowing tears 
 Baptize that memory through the lonely years. 
 
Edwards Memorial. 177 
 
 XXII. 
 
 Our Tylers of Connecticut — a rare 
 Uncle and nephew, patriotic pair ! — 
 Flew to the field with lofty hearts and bold, 
 And from the strife brought honors manifold. • 
 Each won a general's stars, and each a name 
 Hailed by their countrymen with loud acclaim : 
 " General Robert Ogden," " General Dan," — 
 Young hero brave and brave old veteran, — 
 We have no prouder names in all the clan. 
 
 XXIII. 
 
 Of social dignities and titles fair 
 
 Thus seems it that our race has had its share: 
 
 Our Edwards to philosophy we've lent, 
 
 And to our nation a vice-president ; 
 
 Our judges have administered the laws ; 
 
 We've had our generals and governors, 
 
 Learned professors, college-presidents ; 
 
 Women of common and ^//common sense ; 
 
 Poets and authors have adorned our line, 
 
 The missionary, soldier, and divine ; 
 
 While honorables, D.D.'s, and LL.D.'s, 
 
 Lie 'mong us like the leaves in autumn breeze. 
 
 Or, in more common parlance, "thick as peas." 
 
 XXIV. 
 
 But time doth fail. The Muse with warning look 
 Her white forefinger hath in private shook, 
 And whispered, " Cease this effort to indite : 
 The worthies of this line who all could write .'' 
 Unsaid, unsung, so many yet remain, 
 That to recount them all were all in vain. — 
 12 
 
178 Edivards Memorial. 
 
 Whate'er you write," she adds, " sermon or song. 
 You may be any thing except too long ; 
 Whate'er of knowledge you have sought or won, 
 'Tis nought unless you know when to have done." 
 Thus warned, 1 haste on you, O Edwards race ! 
 To pray all heavenly good, all heavenly grace. 
 Long may it wave, the green old family-tree, 
 And cast its shadow broad from sea to sea ! 
 The Edwards Ime — may it forever last ! 
 The Edwards present — may it match the past ! 
 The Edwards future — may it proudly claim 
 A record worthy our ancestral fame ! 
 
 When this poem, which was read with great effect 
 and listened to with deep interest, was concluded, the 
 chairman read the following letter received by him 
 from Rev. William B. Sprague, D.D., formerly of Al- 
 bany, now Flushing, N.Y. : — 
 
 DR. SPRAGUE'S LETTER. 
 
 Flushing, L.I., Aug. 14, 1870. 
 
 My dear Mr. Woodsridge, — Your very kind 
 request, that I should be present at the great gather- 
 ing in honor of your illustrious ancestor, I regret that 
 I shall be obliged to decline. But I hardly need tell 
 you that the occasion is one in which \, in common 
 with a large portion of the Church, feel a very deep 
 interest. Though Pres. Edwards had been in his 
 grave more than thirty-five years before my birth, I 
 well remember that his name was a household word 
 in the neighborhood in which I lived, and especially 
 in the family to which I belonged. The book of which 
 
Edwards MemoriaL 179 
 
 I have more vivid recollections than any other in my 
 father's house was a volume of his sermons ; and there 
 was but one book that we were taught to regard with 
 higher veneration. Indeed, I may say that I was 
 trained to a feeling of reverence whenever I took his 
 name upon my lips ; and the fact that his birthplace 
 was not very far from mine, probably rendered the 
 feeling more intense. Well do I remember making 
 diligent inquiry for the house where he was born at 
 East Windsor ; and, at a later period, for the house in 
 which he lived at Northampton ; and, later still, at 
 Stockbridge. And, familiar as I have been with the 
 house in which he lived and died at Princeton, I think 
 I have rarely been in it without having visions of his 
 august presence. And herein I suppose that I am 
 only a faithful representative of a large portion of those 
 who have enjoyed the same opportunities. 
 
 I doubt not that I have met in my early days a con- 
 siderable number who have seen Pres. Edwards, and, 
 perhaps, some who knew him well ; but the only indi- 
 vidual whom I can now recall as having enjoyed the 
 privilege even of seeing him was the venerable Dr. 
 Lathrop of West Springfield. For some time after 
 Dr. Lathrop's pastorate began there, he was a boarder 
 in the family of Mrs. Hopkins, who was Mr. Edwards's 
 sister. Some time during this period (I think it must 
 have been while he was a resident of Stockbridge), he 
 came to see her : but he came with his heart burdened 
 with sorrow on account of having just heard of the 
 death of some very dear relative ; if I mistake not, 
 one of his own children. When the evening-hour for 
 family devotion came, Mr. Lathrop asked Mr. Edwards 
 to conduct the service ; but he declined, on the ground 
 
i8o Edwards Memorial. 
 
 that his sensibiHties were so much awakened as to 
 prevent his continued utterance. The next morning, 
 however, when his spirit had become more calm, he 
 consented to officiate ; and well do I remember Dr. 
 Lathrop's saying, that he never heard another prayer 
 that brought heaven and earth so near together. The 
 impressions that he received from that interview were, 
 that, while Mr. Edwards had the strongest .natural 
 affections, he had a measure of faith that could ulti- 
 mately control their exercise. The particulars of this 
 interview are more familiar to me from my having 
 heard Dr. Lathrop repeat them in a conversation 
 with the Rev. Sereno E. Dwight, then of Boston, who 
 was interested in gathering up all Dr. Lathrop's recol- 
 lections concerning his great-grandfather. I remem- 
 ber, too, that Mr. Dwight inquired of him in respect 
 to the personal appearance of Mr. Edwards, — espe- 
 cially whether he was fairly represented in his por- 
 traits ; and his reply was, that he had seen no portrait 
 of him that faithfully reflected his image as it was 
 enstamped on his own memory. I do not remember 
 that he attempted to tell wherein the portraits were 
 deficient. 
 
 As I suppose that every thing pertaining to this 
 great and good man has its interest, I will transcribe 
 one or two very brief communications, the originals 
 of which are in my possession, that seem to have an 
 important bearing upon his history, though they shed 
 no new light upon it. The first is a note addressed 
 by his grandfather, the Rev. Solomon Stoddard, to 
 the Rev. John Williams of Deerfield, the redeemed 
 captive, inviting him to Mr. Edwards's ordination. It 
 is as follows : — 
 
Edwards Memorial. i8i 
 
 " NORTHAMI'TON, Jail. 26, \']^^-. 
 
 "Rev. Sir, — Our church do desire your presence 
 and attendance at the ordination of Mr. Jonathan 
 Edwards this day three weeks. 
 
 " Your servant, 
 
 " Solomon Stoddard." 
 
 The other is important from its connection with 
 the controversy in Northampton that brought about 
 the disruption of his pastoral relation. Of the par- 
 ticular design of it I have no knowledge beyond what 
 the document itself imparts : — 
 
 " I, the subscriber, do hereby signify and declare to 
 such as it may concern, that if my people will wait 
 till the book I am preparing for the press, relating to 
 the admission of members into the church, is pub- 
 lished, I will resign the ministry over this church, if 
 the church desires it, after they have had opportunity 
 pretty generally to read my said book, and after they 
 have first asked advice of a council mutually chosen. 
 The following things also being provided ; viz., that 
 none of the brethren be admitted to vote on this affair 
 but such as have either read my said book, or have 
 heard from the pulpit what I have to say in defence 
 of the doctrine that is the subject of it ; and that the 
 society will engage that I shall be free from all rates, 
 and also that a regular council approve of my thus re- 
 signing my pastoral office in this church. J. E. 
 
 "Northampton, April 13, 1749." 
 
 I cannot forbear to add, that your anticipated gath- 
 ering will be most gratefully responded to by many 
 on the other side of the water ; and I congratulate 
 
1 82 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 you that you will have the presence of one who comes 
 from the very institution of which Edwards also was 
 president, and from the very house in which he died, 
 whose testimony in regard to his transatlantic fame 
 will be all that you could desire. I remember well, 
 that, during the two brief visits that I have made in 
 Europe, I heard the name of Edwards spoken more 
 frequently and more reverently than that of any other 
 of my countrymen ; and no one was more loud and 
 earnest in his praises than the great Dr. Chalmers, 
 and that notwithstanding their views on some minor 
 points were not in perfect harmony. It is safe to say, 
 that no man has lived since the Reformation who has 
 left behind him a brighter or more enduring record 
 than Pres. Edwards. 
 
 Regretting that I cannot be present to enjoy the 
 jubilee, and rejoicing with you in the prospect of it, 
 I am, with great regard, most sincerely yours, 
 
 W. B. Sprague. 
 
 The question of erecting a monument by the de- 
 scendants to the memory of Jonathan Edwards was 
 then introduced ; and, alter a brief discussion, it was 
 moved that a committee of six be appointed by the 
 chair to take action on the subject, according to their 
 discretion. 
 
 The following gentlemen were named : — 
 
 Hon. Jonathan Edwards of New Haven. 
 
 Henry Edwards, Esq., of Boston. 
 
 Hon. Jos. W. Edw\\rds of Marquette, Mich. 
 
 Eli Whitney, Esq., New Haven, 
 
 Prof. Theodore W. Dwight, LL.D., New York. 
 
 W. DwiGiiT Bell, Esq., Philadelphia. 
 
Edwards Memorial. 183 
 
 Rev. JoNA. E. WooDBRiDGE of Aubumdalc was 
 added to the number by an amendment proposed by 
 Prcs. Woolsey. 
 
 Hon. Jonathan Edwards of New Haven submit- 
 ted the following resolutions to the meeting for their 
 adoption : — 
 
 RESOLUTIONS. 
 
 Resolved, That the cordial welcome which has 
 been extended to us by the people of Stockbridge, 
 and the unbounded liberality which they have dis- 
 played in preparing for our reception, have contributed 
 greatly to the pleasure of our visit, and merit our 
 warmest thanks. 
 
 Resolved, That the name of this beautiful town, 
 and the memory of its warm-hearted inhabitants, will 
 hereafter be associated in our minds with the recol- 
 lections of this family gathering ; and that Stockbridge 
 will, from this time forth, be considered the tradi- 
 tional home of the Edwards family. 
 
 Resolved, That the thanks of the Edwards family 
 be presented to the choir of this church, and to the 
 curator of this house, for the services they have kindly 
 rendered us during our meeting. 
 
 Resolved, That we tender to the committee of enter- 
 tainment, and to the ladies and gentlemen who have 
 assisted them, our sincere thanks for the hospitality 
 and courtesy they have extended to us, and for the 
 generous provisions they have made for our comfort. 
 
 It was proposed that the vote with regard to the 
 resolutions be taken by rising. The chair then put 
 the motion, and the whole family rose en masse. 
 
184 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 The hour of adjournment having arrived, the morn- 
 ing's session was closed with prayer by Mr. Jonathan 
 Edwards of Forest City, Neb. 
 
 This venerable man came from that distant region 
 to attend the " family gathering." The last occasion 
 of his visiting Stockbridge was to attend the funeral 
 of his grandfather, Timothy Edwards, in 18 13, — fifty- 
 seven years previous. 
 
 The meeting was then adjourned to the tent for 
 dinner ; after which an hour or so was to be spent in 
 listening to addresses from several gentlemen of 
 Stockbridge and Berkshire County. 
 
 AT THE TABLES, 
 
 Blessing was invoked by Pres. Wools^ey. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Hooker exhibited the silver porringer 
 from which Pres. Edwards was accustomed to eat his 
 simple meal, of bread and milk. This was passed 
 around from one to another at the tables, that such 
 as chose might take from it a sip of coffee. Other 
 relics were also shown. And here we take occasion 
 to mention, that the wedding-dress in whicn, more 
 than a century and a half before, the beautiful Sarah 
 Pierrepont became the bride of the young minister, 
 was on exhibition ; also Pres. Edwards's valedictory 
 address in 'his own hand, in Latin, which he uttered 
 when he took his bachelor's degree, September, 1720, 
 being then not quite seventeen years of age. Two 
 large books, " Poole's Annotations," printed more than 
 two hundred years ago, which lay constantly upon 
 his study-table, together with letters, manuscripts, 
 and a portrait of the only surviving grandchild of the 
 president, were on exhibition at the church. 
 
EdiuaTcis Memorial. 185 
 
 At the dinner, David Dudley Field, Esq., invited 
 the entire company to an afternoon reception at his 
 summer mansion, which crowns the hill, and looks 
 down upon a magnificent expanse of vale and field 
 and hills. We may here say that an hour or two of 
 great enjoyment was passed at this magnificent place. 
 
 When the dinner had been sufficiently discussed, 
 the chairman proposed the following sentiment : — 
 
 " Stockbridge, — her record is on high ; " which 
 called up Rev. H. M. Field, D.D. 
 
 ADDRESS BY REV. DR. FIELD. • 
 
 Mr. President, — This day is sacred to our guests ; 
 and we who are not of your blood and lineage hardly 
 feel at liberty to intrude upon this domestic scene. 
 We know how it is here in New England when a 
 large family comes together to keep its thanksgiving 
 festival; when father and mother, and th.e aged grand- 
 parents, and children of several generations, are gath- 
 ered under one roof, and the huge fire is blazing on 
 the broad hearthstone, and the curtains are let down 
 to shut out the world. It is the prayer of all, 
 
 " To-night let no cold htrani.cr come.'" 
 
 So we stand without, content only to look on silent 
 but delighted spectators. It is ours only to speak 
 the words of welcome and farewell. Your welcome is 
 in all our hearts. When Mr. Woodbridge wrote to 
 me to ask if the descendants of Pres. Edwards niight 
 hold a family gathering in old Stockbridge, I an- 
 swered at once, speaking, as I felt it safe to do, for 
 the people of this hospitable town, that we should 
 
1 86 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 count it an honor to receive them as our guests. It 
 is indeed a privilege thus to receive the gifted and 
 the good ; to have them sit at our firesides and our 
 tables. The saying of our Saviour, " It is more bless- 
 ed to give than to receive," is nowhere more true 
 than in the giving of hospitality. When a good man 
 enters under our roof, he brings a blessing with him ; 
 and, though he tarry but for a night, the savor of his 
 presence abides when he is gone. The serenity of 
 his countenance diffuses a sweetness in the room, 
 and the memory of his prayers lingers in the very air 
 like a benediction. You, sir, and your kindred, have 
 rendered us a double favor by your coming, — in the 
 enjoyment of your own society, and in the memo- 
 ries you revive of your illustrious ancestor. We 
 knew his history before ; *-we pass every day the house 
 where he lived : but you have brought back afresh all 
 the details of his life among us ; you have opened 
 your stores of tradition and family letters, and thence 
 unfolded so many reminiscences of the great man, 
 that he seems to wake from the sleep of a hundred 
 years, and to walk under these elms. By this gather- 
 ing you have consecrated Stockbridge as — more 
 than any other place ; more than Windsor, where he 
 was born ;, or Northampton, where he preached twenty 
 years ; or Princeton, where he died — the home of the 
 Edwards family, and have given us a right hence- 
 forth to associate our quiet village with that immortal 
 name. 
 
 But as, in the sentiment you have read, you refer 
 not to him alone, but to others of the sainted dead, I 
 may speak briefly of those who went before and who 
 came after him. A hundred and forty years ago, this 
 
Edwards Memorial. 187 
 
 was but a hamlet on the borders of the wilderness, — 
 the seat of a small tribe of Indians. A few white 
 men from the Connecticut Valley, venturing over the 
 mountains, came down into this peaceful spot. When 
 once they had formed a little settlement, their first 
 want was a minister ; and hither came, in answer to 
 their call, John Sergeant, a tutor in Yale College ; a 
 man whose .looks were those of the scholar, but who, 
 like Eliot and Brainerd, willingly banished himself to 
 the wilderness to preach the gospel to the children 
 of the forest. His culture and refinem_ent were not 
 lost even upon them. They soon recognized in him 
 a man of God, and sat at his feet ; and when, after a 
 ministry of fourteen years, he was borne to his rest in 
 yonder graveyaixl, it was amid the weeping of the 
 simple natives, who desired, when they should be 
 buried, to be laid near him, that they might rise at 
 his side at the resurrection. I have just been to his 
 grave, and from the moss-grown stone which covers 
 his dust have copied these words : — 
 
 "Here lyes the Body of the Rev. Mr. John Sergeant, 
 who dyed the twenty-seventh day of July, 1749, in the for- 
 tieth year of his age. 
 
 " Where is that pleasing form, I ask ? Thou canst not show : 
 He's not within, false stone ! there's nought but dust helow. 
 And Where's that pious soul, that thinking, conscious mind.' 
 Wilt thou pretend, vain cypher, that's with thee enshrined t 
 Alas ! my friend's not here with thee, that I can find ; 
 Here's not a Sergeant's body, nor a Sergeant's mind : 
 I'll seek him hence, for all's alike deceptive here ; 
 I'll go to heaven, and I shall find my Sergeant there." 
 
 After Sergeant came the great man whom you are 
 met to honor ; and I repeat, it is a fiigh satisfaction to 
 
1 88 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 LIS, as well as to you, to have his name associated with 
 a place so dear to us. Here he lived. The scenes 
 which you look upon to-day were all familiar to his 
 eye. He was an intense lover of Nature : and you can 
 imagine how he revelled in the beauty of this spot ; 
 how he often climbed yonder hill to watch the slowly- 
 descending sun, and wandered alone in the paths 
 of the forest when the autumn leaves rustled beneath 
 his tread. Here he spent six years, — the happiest 
 of his life. Coming from the " strife of tongues " at 
 Northampton, this was to him a valley of peace. The 
 mountains were a barrier that shut out persecution ; 
 and we can imagine him often saying to himself, " As 
 the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the Lord 
 is round about them that fear him." Thus begirt 
 and defended, he was set apart for a peculiar work. 
 It seemed as if He who sent the apostle John to the 
 Isle of Patmos had sent Edwards into the wilderness, 
 that he might do a great work for his Church. 
 
 After Edwards came another who holds an hon- 
 ored place among the theologians of New England, — 
 Dr. Stephen West. He came here a young man, 
 and remained pastor of this church sixty years. The 
 older people of this town remember him well as he 
 appeared in the pulpit on Sunday, or as he went about 
 the parish with his three-cornered hat and his gold- 
 headed cane. Miss Sedgwick has often described 
 him to me. He was a warm friend of her father. Judge 
 Sedgwick ; and never did a Monday morning pass 
 that he did not come down the hill to pay him a 
 visit. She described his appearance and his man- 
 ners. He was small in person, but very neat in his 
 attire, wearing the old-fashioned short-clothes fastened 
 
Edwards Aleinorial. 189 
 
 with silver knee-buckles, and had the manners of a 
 gentleman of the old school. She told how he en- 
 tered the room, and how he bowed to the ladies, and 
 how he bowed to the judge, and how he stroked his 
 thin, silvery hair, and then sat down and began to 
 converse. 
 
 But from these precise manners, which belonged to 
 the time, you must not imagine that he was without 
 intellectual force : on the contrary, he was all compact 
 with mind and will. It is one of the traditions of 
 Stockbridge, how, on the morning that news came 
 of the battle of Lexington, the old man came down 
 the hill with fire in his eye. It was the sabbath day ; 
 but that did not prevent the drum to beat. From all 
 parts of the town, the minute-men gathered " in hot 
 haste ; " and, before the sun went down, a company had 
 started for Bunker Hill. 
 
 But the chief force of Dr. West was as a theologian. 
 Possessed of an acute mind, he bent all his thoughts 
 to the solution of those great problems which had so 
 long exercised the first intellects of New England, — 
 of his predecessor Edwards, and of Samuel Hopkins, 
 who lived in the neighboring town of Great Barring- 
 ton. That West was no "light weight" in theology, 
 is sufficiently shown by the fact that Dr. Nathaniel 
 Emmons, himself the most acute reasoner of his 
 day, regarded him as a formidable opponent. What 
 he studied himself he taught to others. There were 
 then no theological seminaries ; but on yonder hill he 
 had a school of the prophets, where he taught many 
 who have since been distinguished in the puli)it, and 
 through whom his voice still echoes in the churches 
 of New Ens-land. 
 
I go , Edwards Memorial. 
 
 Of him who followed Stephen West in this pulpit I 
 cannot speak, as I regard him with that mingled respect 
 and tenderness, that love and veneration, which one 
 can feel only towards a father. It is but three years 
 since that that " good gray head " was laid beneath 
 the dust. Yonder a granite obelisk marks the spot 
 where he sleeps, on which is written, with what truth 
 you know, — 
 
 " A Puritan of the Puritans. 
 
 Stern in principle, but gentle in heart. 
 
 His only aim was 
 
 To be good and to do good." 
 
 And such, I trust, is the highest ambition of his de- 
 scendants. 
 
 Such is the past of Stockbridge, which answers to 
 your sentiment, " Its record is on high." Of the 
 present it does not become us to speak. Sometimes, 
 when we have boasted of these great names, in terms, 
 perhaps, going a little beyond the bounds of modesty, 
 our kind friends of neighboring towns have checked 
 our vanity by saying wittily, and perhaps justly, that 
 " the best part of Stockbridge was under ground." 
 Be it so. We are not careful to answer in this mat- 
 ter ; though I trust the good is not all there. Yester- 
 day, when we were listening to Pres. Hopkins as he 
 stood upon the platform, there were many who 
 marked the striking resemblance between that fine 
 intellectual countenance and the portrait which 
 hung upon the wall. Looking on these two faces, 
 we felt that we might say with truth, that Stock- 
 bridge had a living son, -^- an original thinker too, — 
 who was, at least, a worthy disciple of Jonathan Ed- 
 wards. 
 
Edivards Memorial. v 191 
 
 But what need to make comparisons ? If our 
 fathers were greater and nobler than their sons, we at 
 least may sit in the shadow of their mighty memories 
 as we sit in the shadow of these mountains. We who 
 are on the stage have no jealousies of those who have 
 gone before us. The praises bestowed on the dead 
 excite no envy in the breasts of the living. We are 
 glad to have their virtues celebrated. Their goodness 
 is to us a precious inheritance ; their examples, a per- 
 petual inspiration. It is something to live in the 
 place made sacred by their presence, to breathe the 
 hallowed air. It is thus that 
 
 " The memory of the just 
 Smells sweet, and blossoms in the dust." 
 
 The prayers which have gone up like clouds of 
 incense from this mountain -guarded valley, — the 
 prayers of our fathers, — we cannot but feel, will bring 
 i^lessings on their children. So may it prove ! and for 
 the rest, our highest wish for dear old Stockbridge 
 is that the present and the future may be not unwor- 
 thy of the former generations. 
 
 The chair announced the following sentiment, — 
 " The friends and companions of Edwards in Berk- 
 shire," — which was responded to by Rev. Mr. Eggles- 
 ton, late pastor of the church in Stockbridge. 
 
 ADDRESS BY MR. EGGLESTON. 
 
 Mr. President, — I have been puzzled not a little 
 this morning, since your kind invitation was given 
 me, to decide on what principle or for what reason I 
 have been selected as one of the speakers on the 
 
192 Edwai^ds Memorial. 
 
 present occasion. I am neither an Edwards, nor have 
 married an Edwards ; and cannot claim, therefore, as 
 Dr. Todd did yesterday for himself, a relationship to 
 the family by having the Edwards blood running, if 
 not in me, alongside of me. I have, indeed, had some- 
 thing to do with the erection of that memorial tablet 
 in thj church, as it has been my privilege and honor 
 to stand for nine years in that pulpit as the successor 
 of your honored ancestor : and possibly Darwin, on- 
 his principle of natural selection, might suggest, that 
 as the elephant has got his trunk and become an 
 elephant in the endeavor to stretch his nose to the 
 ground, and the giraffe has gained his elongated neck 
 and become a giraffe by continued and persevering 
 effort to reach the branches of the trees above him ; 
 so my following after Edwards, and the effort to 
 reach up to him and comprehend him, may have 
 given me, at length, a sort of family relationship to 
 him, — sufficient, at least, for the occasion. 
 
 Or is it that comprehensive spirit of which Prof. 
 Park spoke as characterizing Pres. Edwards, which, 
 ruling also in his descendants, has moved them to 
 welcome me as one of them } 
 
 And yet I do remember one slender tie of connec- 
 tion with your honored family. It was my lot in 
 boyhood to live in the near neighborhood of a grand- 
 son of Pres. Edwards, in the old ancestral city of your 
 tribe, Hartford, and to have some of his children as 
 my playmates. 
 
 Well, Mr. President, if I am not strictly an Edwards, 
 and so cannot fitly speak of him whose memory you 
 rightly come here to honor, it has seemed to me that 
 I might, perhaps, place a not inappropriate fringe, or 
 
Edwards Memorial. 193 
 
 border, around the great central theme of interest, by 
 sketching the portraits of some of Edwards's friends 
 and companions here. I have not time, however, to 
 do tliis ; for the cars are even now near which are to 
 bear me away from this scene : yet, if ever one could 
 consent to be left by the train, it would be when he 
 would be left in such a company as this. But, were 
 there time, I should like to speak of the two men 
 especially who were the companions of Edwards when 
 he was toiling here, seemingly hidden and alone in 
 the wilderness. One of them was Samuel Hopkins, 
 afterwards known as the Newport divine. Himself a 
 pupil of Edwards at Northampton, he had been led 
 to gather a little church among the few whites at 
 Great Harrington, a few miles below us. On the 
 death of Sergeant, first missionary to the Stockbridge 
 Indians, which took place five or six years after Hop- 
 kins came to this region, the latter was invited by the 
 Commissioners for Indian Affairs to become his suc- 
 cessor. He declined the invitation, partly from a 
 modest distrust of his own abilities, and partly in the 
 hope that he might draw his beloved and revered 
 instructor to his neighborhood. He accordingly rec- 
 ommended Edwards to the commissioners, and proba- 
 bly, also, to the young church at Stockbridge ; for the 
 latter invited him to become their pastor at the same 
 time that he was solicited by the commissioners to 
 become their missionary to the Indians. The double 
 invitation was accepted ; and henceforth, until Edwards 
 left this place for Princeton, he and Hopkins were as 
 brothers. Both men of the most entire devotion to 
 the cause of the Redeemer, and given to the pro- 
 foundest thought upon religious themes, they were 
 
 13 
 
194 Edivards Memorial. 
 
 accustomed to confer together constantly about their 
 plans and work. It is related, that on one occasion, 
 on account of difficulty in submitting what he had 
 written to Hopkins's criticism, Edwards ventured to 
 publish something which had not passed under the 
 eye of the former. After it was published, Hopkins 
 pointed out what he deemed a mistake. Edwards 
 at once acknowledged it to be such, and promised his 
 friend, that, so long as the latter should live, he would 
 never publish any thing without previously submitting 
 it to his judgment. 
 
 Farther down this range of hills and valleys, fifty 
 miles, more or less, in the little village of Bethlehem, 
 Conn., was Bellamy, author of "True Religion Delin- 
 eated." He had also been a pupil of Edwards at 
 Northampton, but was now accepted as a friend and 
 counsellor. It would be most interesting if we could 
 reproduce the scenes in which this trio of worthies 
 were engaged together; if we could see them a^ they 
 made their way from time to time through the wil- 
 derness to visit one another, to borrow, books, to revise 
 one another's manuscripts, and hold their consulta- 
 tions concerning the highest themes which can en- 
 gage the human mind. Their friendship, so sweet 
 and ardent, and their consecrated devotion to what 
 was best and holiest, recalls the later friendship 
 of Drs. Beecher and Taylor. And so we read in the 
 diary of Hopkins such passages as these: "This 
 day being attended as a public fast, Mr. Bellamy 
 preached for me all day. I believe there is not a 
 better preacher in America, on all accounts." And 
 again : " Mr. Bellamy came to my house last Tuesday, 
 with whom I went to Stockbridge, and staid there 
 
^ Edwards Alemorial. 195 
 
 two nights and one day to hear Mr. Edwards read a 
 ' Treatise upon the Last End of God in the Creation 
 of the World; " 
 
 These were Edwards's friends, and such was his 
 society wliile he dwelt here. He was alone, yet not 
 alone. And what a work was done by these com- 
 panions and fellow-helpers in the gospel ! What influ- 
 ences went out from them ! They seemed to be shut 
 off from the world. Their most important work was 
 hidden from public observation. But they were great 
 associated moral forces, which, however unnoticed at 
 the time, were really moving the world. If there were 
 time, it would be pleasant to trace the influences 
 reaching out from these men, and working onward 
 still through others. I might speak, for instance, of 
 West, who has already been alluded to, the friend and 
 neighbor of Hopkins, as he was also the follower 
 of Edwards in spirit as well as in yonder pulpit. I 
 might speak of the eminent men whom he trained for 
 the ministry from time to time in his early theological 
 seminary on that lovely hill-side now within our 
 sight. Among these were Drs. Hyde and Catlin of 
 our own county ; Kirkland, afterwards president of 
 Harvard ; and Dr. Samuel Spring, to the latter 
 of whom we are chiefly indebted for the origin of An- 
 dover Seminary, which most appropriately sends us 
 to-day, therefore, one who is at the same time a lineal 
 descendant of Edwards, and the chosen exponent in 
 her halls of the Edwardean theology as inherited from 
 Edwards, Hopkins, and West. 
 
 But I must forbear, and leave you. 
 
 The ne.\t sentiment from the chair was, " The 
 
196 Edivards Memorial. 
 
 ministry of Berkshire County in the present and in 
 the past, as illustrated by Rev. Dr. Hyde of Lee." 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Gale, as his successor, made the 
 following response : — 
 
 REMARKS 
 
 BY DR. GALE. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, — Hearing of your family 
 re-union, I have hastened home from a long journey 
 to be with you to-day. If any ask by what law I 
 presume to speak, I answer, By the law which Ed- 
 wards taught, — of " love to being in general." Surely 
 such love cannot fail to notice the company before 
 me. Besides, there is an intimate connection between 
 these parishes adjacent on the Housatonic River. 
 Stockbridge people are my next-door neighbors. For • 
 seventeen years I have known them, and sympathized 
 with them as with no other people except my own 
 parish. The relation of the two parishes is shown by 
 a time-honored custom of an annual exchange be- 
 between their pastors the sabbath after Thanksgiv- 
 ing. This custom extends back to the days of Dr. 
 West at least, and is to be continued. Scarcely any 
 thing in the future is more certain than this exchange, 
 whoever may be pastor in either parish. 
 
 Mr. President, I approve your meeting, and con- 
 gratulate you upon its success. Mr. Webster has 
 somewhere said, " They who care nothing for their 
 ancestors will care nothing for their posterity." Is 
 it not so .'' They who are such creatures of the pres- 
 ent, are so engrossed with things seen, that they do 
 
Edwards Memorial. 197 
 
 not call to mind the character and works of worthy 
 ancestors, will have little regard for their descend- 
 ants. But, with a due regard for what others have 
 done for us, we shall feel a proper responsibility for 
 the influence we transmit to posterity. Such a me- 
 morial-day as this cannot fail to be a healthy moral 
 power to you and your children. 
 
 You have spoken, Mr. President, of the former pas- 
 tors of Berkshire, and named Dr. Hyde of Lee, a 
 servant of the Lord held in honor by us all. He, 
 with Hopkins, West, Catlin, Shepard, Field, and 
 others, " whose names are in the book of life," did 
 much to perpetuate and extend the influence of Ed- 
 wards in this beautiful " hill-country." These fathers 
 have left their impress upon our churches and par- 
 ishes. I have traced the moral power of my venera- 
 ble predecessor upon three generations who now sit 
 together at the communion-table. These pioneers in 
 the ministry of Berkshire laid foundations that have 
 remained to this day. Their influence is still seen in 
 the freedom from, religious error which distinguishes 
 this county, and in the order and stability of these 
 churches. By their sound teaching and holy living 
 they are still among us, and will help us to solve the 
 great question of our day, — how to wed the Puritan 
 spirit with the advancing science and culture of the 
 age. Since the fathers fell asleep, a change has come 
 over the community. We cannot ignore this change. 
 But there is an inspiration in the past to help us meet 
 It, so that all good foundations shall remain. Be it 
 ours to keep the truth which the fathers preached, 
 and the Christian life they lived, in these churches, 
 through all the changes incident to society in this age 
 
198 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 of progress. Be assured I am with you in cherishing 
 the memory of the Berkshire fathers in the ministry 
 of Christ. They shall be held among us in " ever- 
 lasting remembrance." So shall they live with the 
 people of these hills and valleys in coming years. 
 
 " And is he dead whose glorious mind 
 Lilts thine on high .■' 
 To live in hearts we leave behind 
 Is not to die." 
 
 The company then listened to the reading of an 
 original poem by Rev. George T. Dole of Stock- 
 bridge. 
 
 POEM 
 
 BY REV. GEORGE T. DOLE Op- SrOCKBRIDGE. 
 
 Hail, loveliest of September's halcyon days, 
 
 Whose sun clear shining with auspicious rays 
 
 Lights to this ancient fane a pilgrim-band 
 
 Convened from every quarter of the land ! 
 
 Hail ye by love and veneration led 
 
 For one long numbered with the silent dead, 
 
 But whose high fame still lives, and, sounding wide, 
 
 May well to all his offspring be a pride ! 
 
 Most happy are we, gathered thus, to see 
 
 This multitude of his posterity, — 
 
 Such ample proofs, both general and specific, 
 
 The Edwards tree still flourishes prolific . 
 
 We welcome you our archives to explore, 
 
 And listen to traditionary lore 
 
 Of the old days, when your progenitor, 
 
 Divine, logician, deep philosopher. 
 
Edzuards Mcmo7'iaL 199 
 
 Pitched 'mid the natives' wigwams here his tent, 
 And seven years' earnest ministration spent, 
 Proclaiming both to white men and to red 
 Him who ahke for all the nations bled ; 
 Still studious searching the deep things of God 
 In paths profound which few so far had trod, 
 Brought up, if some mere dross, much precious ore, 
 To circulate and shine till Time's no more. 
 
 Wide open be our every heart and home 
 
 To all of Edwards lineage who come 
 
 A cordial hospitality to share, 
 
 Bestowed a,s freely as this mountain-air. 
 
 For if we neither bear that honored name, 
 
 Nor least infusion of his blood can claim, 
 
 Yet know we of his mind, his saintly heart. 
 
 And in his glory feel we share a part. 
 
 And long as one descendant here shall dwell 
 
 Of those who knew, and, knowing, loved him well ; 
 
 Long as repose beneath yon locusts' shade, 
 
 In graves by Christian rites aye hallowed made. 
 
 His much-beloved Indian converts' bones, 
 
 (Alas ! unmarked those graves by simplest stones ;) 
 
 Nay, long as Housatonic's silver sheen 
 
 Inlaces these fair meadows' velvet green, 
 
 Or circling mountains lift their ramparts bold 
 
 As "round about Jerusalem" of old, — 
 
 So long may your illustrious ancestor 
 
 Here never lack a niche, an orator ; 
 
 His name and fame, so well, so meekly won. 
 
 Go down, transmitted bright from sire to son. 
 
 And may we venture a few words to say 
 Of Edwardses in person here to-day ? 
 
200 
 
 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 Or is the eulogy the dead we give 
 Sole compliment we have for sons that live ? 
 No : we will say you rank with noblest races : 
 That fact is clearly written on your faces. 
 In many a one most patent 'tis to see 
 High mental joined with moral dignity. 
 We even fancy, looking round, we trace 
 In the assembly here and there a face 
 In which the blended lineaments benign 
 Of yonathan and his rare Sarah shine. 
 
 But peradventure (pardon us) of puff 
 
 Your ears, your hearts, already have enough. 
 
 Remember then, your glory bright to blur, 
 
 In your emblazoned 'scutcheon sticks one Burr. 
 
 In earthly waters, purest and most clear. 
 
 Some turbid spots will now and then appear ; 
 
 And every stream from nioJintaiii-\-\^\^\. that flows 
 
 Sinks far below the level whence it rose : 
 
 So, tracing forward your proud pedigree, 
 
 'Tis a descent, indeed, we plainly see ! 
 
 Tall, doubtless, you may be in Church and State, 
 
 But not the peers of Jonathan the Great. 
 
 Ask you the proofs of this degeneracy } 
 
 Suffice it now to mention only three. 
 
 First, with the moral aspect to begin, 
 
 Behold the striking contrast as to sin ! 
 
 To sin " original " he gave speculation ; 
 
 To " actual,'' you a larger illustration : 
 
 Of Adam's you perhaps acknowledge less ; 
 
 More of your own, no doubt, you will confess. 
 
Edivards Memorial. 
 
 20I 
 
 Then, as to depth and power. of intellect, 
 . Some simple " straws will show," as we suspect, 
 If only rightly seen and apprehended, 
 How very fast and far you have descended ! 
 This fact then, surely, little doubt allows : 
 Those of you who keep cattle knoiv your cows ; 
 And, if some neighbor's boy perchance should come 
 And help to fetch the kine at evening home, 
 You'd hardly ask, unless in mirth to quiz. 
 Twice the same fifteen minutes who he is : 
 All which shows plainly to your mental cost 
 Your patriarch's wonderful abstraction lost. 
 Lastly, 'tis probable, to say the least. 
 If called by chance to saddle your own beast, 
 There's not a man among you all would fail 
 To put the appended crupper toward the tail : 
 •Not so when he once to that task did stoop ; 
 He found perplexed a most mysterious loop, 
 And vainly sought its systematic place, 
 Or " end of its creation," there to trace : 
 He saw 'twas all unfit for girt or tether. 
 Styled " a piece of quite superfluous leather," 
 i\nd o'er the neck proceeded it to throw, 
 Dangling from what he took for saddle-bow ! 
 "Therefore," 'tis clear, we called you, not at rantlom, 
 Degenerate sons, — qicod erat demonstniiuiujn. 
 
 The chair, in conclusion, gave, " Berkshire Count}', 
 — distinguished alike for the magnificence of her 
 scenery, the culture of her sons, the loveliness of her 
 daughters, and the hospitality of her people." To 
 which David Dudley Field, LL.D., responded as fol- 
 lows : — 
 
202 Edzvarcis Memorial. 
 
 ADDRESS 
 
 OF DAVID DUDLEY FIELD. 
 
 Ladies and Gentlemen, — Your chairman asks 
 me to respond to the toast in honor of Berkshire, its 
 scenery, its hospitality, its men and women. This is 
 a summons which I cannot disobey, however unwor- 
 thily I may fulfil the duty. Here is Berkshire ; and 
 the least that any one can say of it is, that you may 
 go farther, and fare worse. You may go to the far- 
 thest east or to the farthest west without finding any 
 thing fairer; nay, I am tempted to add, without finding 
 any thing so fair. We have not indeed the grand scene- 
 ry of the Alps, nor the broad features of our Pacific 
 dominion ; but \vc have scenery soft, and yet wild, of 
 mountain and valley in infinite variety, and so bathed 
 in sunlight and shadow as to give us from morning to 
 night an ever-shifting landscape. You may come with 
 the apple-blossoms, when the trees are white as if sprin- 
 kled with perfumed snow ; you may come in June, when 
 the dawn is musical with birds, and in the long reced- 
 ing twilight there falls upon the earth a peace like 
 the peace of God ; you may come in the summer 
 noon, when the sun's heat, tempered by mountain- 
 air, falls softly upon meadow and river ; you may 
 come in mid-October, when the woods are green and 
 red and gold ; you may come in winter, when the 
 whole earth is dazzling white, and the branches of the 
 trees are silvered with ice, and when a purple light 
 foreruns the sun at morning, and pursues him at 
 evening ; you may come and abide at any of these 
 seasons, and you will say with me, that, of all the 
 beautiful places you have known, this is the most 
 
Edwards Memorial. 203 
 
 perfect in beauty. Along the east lies the Hoosac 
 chain, separating us from the Valley of the Connecti- 
 cut ; on the west the Taconic ridge, dividing us 
 from New York ; north and south arc the two giants, 
 Graylock and the Dome, the highest mountains of 
 Massachusetts, standing like sentinels at either end 
 of the valley ; while two rivers, the Housatonic and the 
 Hoosac, springing from the same green hillside, flow, 
 one of them southward and the other northward, now 
 lingering and winding in the meadows as if loath to 
 leave them, and then, as if remembering that they 
 had work to do, dashing on over stone and pebble 
 and shining sand ; while the intervening hills stand as 
 Bryant described them when he said, 
 
 " I stand upon my native hills again. 
 
 Broad, round, and green, that in the summer sky, 
 With garniture of waving grass and grain. 
 Orchards and beechen forests, basking lie." 
 
 Of the hospitality of Berkshire, though you have 
 asked me to speak, I ought, perhaps, to say no more 
 than that we are ever glad to see our friends : we 
 bid them a hearty welcome, and we give them the 
 best wc hav^e. Here are our homes ; they are as 
 open as our hearts : come and occupy the one as you 
 fill the other. 
 
 Of the women of Berkshire, what can I say worthy 
 of them .'' From the time when Sergeant, the first 
 missionary, came here with his accomplished wife, and 
 Edwards followed with Sarah Pierrepont, whose sweet 
 face, shining from her portrait, has smiled upon your 
 festival, down to the present hour, these hills and 
 valleys have been graced by cultivated, truc-hcarlctl, 
 
204 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 and self-sacrificing women. Our lips ever utter their 
 praises, our hearts ever bow down before them. God 
 bless them every one ! 
 
 Of the men of Berkshire, I will confine myself to the 
 past generations. The present must answer by their 
 works. Two incidents, one connected with civil and 
 the other with military life, will illustrate the charac- 
 ters of the men who lived here before us. When the 
 Declaration of Independence was made public, it was 
 read in the churches. At the reading in Sheffield, a 
 poor negro girl, a slave, was present. She heard it, 
 and said, " It stands to reason that I am free." She 
 sought Mr. Sedgwick, afterwards Judge Sedgwick, 
 then a young lawyer ; and he brought a suit to estab- 
 lish her freedom. The court adjudged her to be 
 free. Here was an instance, and the first, where that 
 famous declaration was held to mean what it said. 
 The other incident relates to the fighting parson 
 of Pittsfield, who, when Burgoyne was coming down 
 upon New York and Vermont, marched with the 
 militia of his congregation, and, arriving at Benning- 
 ton just in time to join in the battle, leaped upon a 
 rock, saying to the man behind him, " You load, 
 and I'll fire ! " Seeing a flash from a bush in the ene- 
 my's lines followed by the fall of one of our men, he 
 aimed at the bush, and, according to his own expres- 
 sion, " put out the flash." 
 
 Such was the past. The future of Berkshire it is 
 not difficult to predict. These broad meadows, these 
 green hillsides, will yet be covered with the abodes 
 of wealth and luxury ; but there will never be, in 
 all the ages, happier homes or sturdier freemen than 
 are now here, nor a gathering of men and women 
 
Edwards Memorial. 205 
 
 more enjoyed, and longer to be remembered, than that 
 the close of which we now celebrate. 
 
 The doxology was then sung, and a benediction 
 was pronounced by Prof. Edwards A. Park. Thus 
 were concluded the interesting exercises of the Ed- 
 wards Rc-union. 
 
20t) 
 
 Edwards Memorial. 
 
 EDWARDS FAMILY. 
 
 William Edwards, son of Mrs. Ann Edwards (whose first husband is believed to 
 have been Rev Richard Edwards, D.D., of London), was born 
 in London, Eng. She married James Cole after tlie death of her 
 first husband, who, togetlier witli her son William, then a young 
 man, came to this country, and settled in Hartford, Conn. He 
 married Agnes Spencer about 1645. Their only child was Rich- 
 ard, born May, 1.647. 
 
 Richard, son of William and Agnes, married Elizabeth Tuttle of New 
 
 Haven, and afterwards Mary Talcott of Hartford. He died 
 April 20, 1718, in his 7 1st year. Had eight children by Elizabeth 
 Tuttle, and six by Mary Talcott. 
 
 Timothy, son of Richard and Elizabeth Tuttle, married Esther Stoddard 
 
 of Northampton, Mass., Nov. 6, 1694. Graduated at Harvard 
 in 1691 ; and was settled as pastor in East Windsor, Conn., 1694. 
 They had ten daughters and one son. He died Jan. 27, 1758, at 
 the age of 89 years. His wife died Jan. 19, 1770, aged gS. 
 
 JONATHAN, son of Timothy and Esther Stoddard, was born Oct. 5, 1703. 
 Graduated at Yale College in 1720. Was colleague-pastor with 
 his grandfather, Rev. Solomon Stoddard, at Northampton. 
 Married Sarah Pjerrepont of New Haven, July 28, 1727. 
 Died at Princeton, N. J., of small-pox, March 22, 175S, in his 
 55th year. His widow died at Philadelphia, Oct. 2, 1758, aged 49. 
 
 Their children were, — 
 
 Sarah, born Aug. 25, 1728. Married Elihu Parsons of Northampton. 
 
 Died May 15, 1805, aged 76. 
 
 Jerusha, born April 26, 1730. Was betrothed to David Brainerd, the 
 
 missionary; and died soon after him, — Feb. 14, 1747. 
 
 Esther, born Feb. 13, 1732. Married Rev. Aaron Burr, President of 
 
 New -Jersey College. Was mother of Aaron Burr, Vice-Presi- 
 dent of the United States. Died Feb. 7, 1758, aged 26. 
 
 Makv, born April 4, 1734 Married Timothy Dwight of Northampton ; 
 
 and their son Timothy was President of Yale College. Died 
 Feb. 7, 1807, aged 72. 
 
 Lucy, born Aug. 31, 1736. Married Jahleel Woodbridge of Stock- 
 
 bridge. Died October, 17S6, aged 50. 
 
 ^I^lOTH^, born July 25, 173S. Married Rhoda Ogden of New Jersey. 
 
 Died at Stockbridge, 1813, aged 75. 
 
 Susannah, born June 20, 1740 Married Eleazar Porter of Hadley. Died 
 
 1802, aged 61. 
 
 Eunice, born May 9, 1743. Married Hunt of New Jersey, and 
 
 Thomas Po'lock of North Carolina. Died in 1822, aged 79. 
 
 Jonathan, born May 26, 1745. Married Mary Porter of Hadley, and Mercy 
 
 Sabin of New Haven. Died Aug. i, 1801, aged 56. 
 
 Elizabeth, born May 6, 1747. Died Jan i, 1762, aged 14 
 
 Pierrepont, born April 8, 1750. Married Frances Ogden. Was Judge of 
 
 United-States District Court for Connecticut. Died April 14, 
 1S26, aged 76.