h of the town. As this involved
some prominent families he had to retire from the pastorate.

The views of Mr. Edwards on pastoral work reveal the singleness of
purpose of the man as a student and thinker. He never made pastoral
calls. He had no criticism to make of those pastors who had talent for
entertaining people by occasional calls, but as he had no gifts in that
direction he regarded it advisable to use his time in cultivating such
talents as he had. Whoever wished to talk with him about personal, moral
or religious conditions found in him a profitable counsellor. In his
preaching, which was equal to anything America has ever known, he made
no attempt to win his hearers by tricks of oratory or by emotional
appeals, though he had a most fascinating personality. He was six feet
in height, slender in form, with a high, broad forehead, eyes piercing
and luminous and a serene countenance. In the pulpit he was graceful,
easy, natural and earnest, though he had little action. He rested his
left elbow on the pulpit and held his manuscript in his left hand while
with his right he turned the leaves. In him were combined the
intellectual and moral vigor which are calculated to make the progenitor
of a great family.

CHAPTER IV

THE CHILDREN'S START IN LIFE

The eleven children of Jonathan Edwards had an unenviable start in life
so far as their environment was concerned. The oldest was still in her
teens when serious trouble arose in the parish at Northampton. Mr.
Edwards was pastor at Northampton for twenty-five years, and a more
fruitful pastorate or a more glorious ministerial career for a quarter
of a century no man could ask. He made that church on the frontier the
largest Protestant church in the world, and it was the most influential
as well as the best known. There began the greatest religious awakening
of modern times. In his church, resulting from his preaching, began a
revival which stirred into activity every church in Massachusetts, every
church in the colonies, and most of the Protestant churches of Great
Britain and Europe.

After this long and eminently successful pastorate, Mr. Edwards
preached a sermon about the reading and conversation of young people
upon subjects of questionable propriety, which led to such local
excitement that upon the recommendation of an ecclesiastical council
he was dismissed by a vote of 200 to 20, and the town voted that he
be not permitted on any occasion to preach