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With these and other deities, such as 'Sun' and 'Dawn,' which afterward disappeared from Mazdeism,' the early Aryans entered the valley of the Kabul and pushed on into the Pañjāb. Somewhere in this region a division seems to have taken place. The Sarasvati (Iranian Harahvaiti), whose headwaters were near those of the Kabul is certainly known to the Avesta as well as to the Rik; and it appears probable that the Sindhu (Indus, Iranian Hindu) was also known to the Iranians, although the name is of such a nature-it means 'Stream'-that certainty is impossible. The word does not seem to occur in the Avesta except in the expression 'Seven Rivers,' which is supposed by some to mean the Pañjāb. It is also possible that the Vitastā, which was the first branch of the Indus to the east, is to be identified with the Iranian Vitañuhaiti; and it may be that some of the tribes, discouraged by the severe heat of the Pañjāb and the hostility of their neighbors, both Aryan and native, at length turned back, and, retracing their steps, sought a new home to the west.2 In some such way the Iranians parted from the Hindus, who, discouraged neither by the climate nor the hostile natives, pushed steadily on to the east."

Even this is doubtful, however.

chief source of certain others. MM2., pp. 117, 127, 128, and 285. J., pp. 13, 55, 187-199, 225, 301-302, and 323-324.

They probably belonged among the deities of the Daeva-party which was finally overthrown by the adherents of Ahura Mazdah.

* There can be little doubt but that the Indo-Iranian period extended into the early Vedic one: it did not end abruptly. When Varuna had reached the summit of his glory, Mazdeism seems to have branched off from Vedism (cf. EH., pp. 30-33, 126, and 171-172); but, lofty as its conceptions were,-they improved upon the highest ideals of Vedism,it too was hopelessly crippled by a load of superstition.

[It was found best to divide the paper at this point.-EDS.]

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ARTICLE V.

JONATHAN EDWARDS, AND THE GREAT
AWAKENING.1

BY THE REV. EZRA HOYT BYINGTON, D.D.

THE publication of a new book on the religious life of New England, by Dr. George Leon Walker of Hartford,2 will lead to a fresh study of that section of our history. The third part of this rich and stimulating book is entitled "The Great Awakening and its Sequels." The materials for this period in the history of New England were already abundant, but Dr. Walker has incorporated in his volume some papers never before published, and has presented some of the facts in a new light.

A high standard of piety was maintained in the Pilgrim and Puritan churches for thirty or forty years. The second generation fell below the standard of the fathers. We have the well-known statement of Thomas Prince, that a little after 1660 there began to appear a decay in the spiritual life of the people; that this decay attracted more attention among devout people during the next ten years, and that it was much more evident in 1680, when but few of the first generation of colonists remained. This state of things led to the calling of the Reforming Synod, which met in 1679. This Synod, after a careful examination of the. religious condition of the people, set forth a statement,

The right is reserved to republish this article by the author.

Some Aspects of the Religious Life of New England, with special reference to Congregationalists. Lectures delivered on the Carew Foundation before Hartford Theological Seminary in 1896, by George Leon Walker, D.D., Hartford, Conn.

which, as we read it now, in the pages of Cotton Mather, is simply appalling. They lamented the neglect of public worship, the desecration of the Sabbath, the lack of family government, the alarming increase of worldliness among the people, accompanied by dishonesty in trade, lying, intemperance, profanity, extravagance, and a general decay of godliness in the land.

The plain dealing of the Synod led to an earnest attempt, under the lead of the General Court, to secure a return to the better way. The decline of religion was checked for a time, and yet there was no radical and thorough change during the next half-century. There were occasional revivals of religion in the churches. We have an account of a remarkable religious work in Taunton in 1704, and of a number of revivals in Northampton during the ministry of Rev. Solomon Stoddard. The list might easily be extended. But, on the whole, the ministers and churches of New England had departed very far from the ways of the fathers, during the second half of the first century of our history. The Half-way Covenant had brought into the churches large numbers of people who were not, even in their own judgment, converted persons. The doctrine of regeneration was not made prominent in the preaching of that time. The ministers were preaching morality, and the people were becoming more immoral every year. Men were trusting to their good works to save them, but they were not careful to do such works as God had required. "And yet," says one of the old writers, "never had the expectation of reaching heaven at last been more general, or more confident." Universalism was in the air, even then. The Protestant churches of Great Britain were no better off at that time. Bishop Butler remarks, in the preface to the "Analogy" (1736), that "it had come to be taken for granted that Christianity is now at length discovered to be fictitious." Addison declared that there was "less appear

ance of religion in England than in any neighboring state or kingdom." "In the higher circles of society," said Montesquieu, on his visit to England, "every one laughs if one talks of religion."1

It was time for a Great Awakening. He, to whom the church is dearer than the apple of his eye, was preparing a group of men of remarkable gifts, as his agents in promoting the great revival which gave an impulse to the church which it has not yet lost. Some of these great evangelists had been trained in Great Britain; such as, Whitefield and the Wesleys. Others had been trained in this country; as, Edwards, the Tenants, Parsons, and Wheelock. The Church of England needed the awakening, quite as much as the Dissenters, or the Puritan churches of New England.

Jonathan Edwards was the son of Timothy Edwards, the pastor for sixty years at East Windsor, Connecticut. His mother was the daughter of Solomon Stoddard, whose pastorate at Northampton lasted from 1672 to 1729. He was born October 5, 1703. He was a precocious boy. He has been compared to Pascal in respect to the early manifestation of intellectual power. His early writings and the books that he read even before he entered college show a decided bent toward the study of nature and of mind. He entered Yale College at thirteen, and was graduated at seventeen. Afterwards he spent two years in the study of theology, in connection with the college. He was licensed to preach at nineteen. His first preaching was in New York, where he was very much liked. After eight months he declined to remain longer, and having received the degree of A.M., he went back to the college, where he served for two years as tutor, continuing his studies in divinity and in psychology. He was ordained at Northampton, 1 Green's Short History of the English People, p. 736; Fisher's History of Doctrines, pp. 389-391.

1

February 15, 1827, in his twenty-third year, as the colleague pastor with his grandfather, then in his eightyfourth year.

Eight years later, the Great Awakening began in that parish, in connection with the preaching of that remarkable man. He is spoken of most frequently as a hard logician, a metaphysician, a Calvinistic theologian. If that had been all, the revival would not have begun in his parish. He was, undoubtedly, a man of the highest order of genius. He was a brilliant scholar. He was a man of deep piety. He was accustomed as a child to go by himself to secret places in the woods for the purpose of prayer. He passed through very deep religious experiences during his college life. The diary which he kept in his early years shows how deep his religious experiences were, and how entire his consecration. He recorded his solemn engagement, "always to do whatever he thought to be most for the glory of God, and his own good, without consideration of the time, whether now, or never so many myriads of ages hence; no matter how great or how many the difficulties he might meet; to do his duty and what is most for the good of mankind in general." He resolved never to lose a moment of time, to live while he lived with all his might. An instructive parallel might be drawn between the early religious exercises of John and Charles Wesley, and those of Jonathan Edwards. The revival had its spring in the deep searchings of heart, and in the complete consecration of these men.

President Edwards was a man of tender feeling, and of very strong affections. He had the imagination of a poet. "He had a rare combination," says a recent writer, "of power of feeling, of almost oriental power of imagination, and intellectual acumen which clothed all that he said with glowing force, while beneath his words flowed the stream of a most carefully elaborated theological system."

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