INHERITANCE AND TRAINING 27 



tations he would go at once to his study and taking 

 off these bits of paper in the same order in which 

 he had put them on would carefully write out his 

 argument. In nothing did Jonathan Edwards 

 stand out so clearly as boy, youth and man as in 

 his sacrifice of every other feature of his life for 

 the attainment of power as a thinker. 



Mr. Edwards has gone into history as a theolo- 

 gian of the most stalwart character. It is undeni- 

 able that he preached the most terrific doctrine 

 ever uttered by an American leader, but this was 

 only the logical result of the intellectual projection 

 of his effort to make sacrifices in order to benefit 

 humanity. As a child he sacrificed everything for 

 health and virtue that he might have influence, 

 and as a man he knew no other plan or purpose in 

 life. His masterpiece is upon the "will" which he 

 developed to the full in himself. 



The greatest religious awakening that the West- 

 ern world has ever known was started in his church 

 at Northampton, not over ecclesiastical differences, 

 or theological discussion but over a question of 

 morality among the young people of the town. It 

 had to do with the impropriety of the young ladies 

 entertaining their gentlemen friends on Sunday 

 evenings and especially of their allowing them to 

 remain to such unreasonable hours. And the issue 

 which ultimately drove him from his pastorate, 

 after twenty-five years of service, by an almost 

 unanimous vote was not one of ecclesiasticism or 

 theology, but of morals among the young people. 



