Other memorials of this great awakening are found in Edwards’ thrilling sermons, such as ’Sinners in the hands of an angry God,’ ‘Wicked men only useful in their destruction,’ etc.  For years after, the grand idea of New England was piety and good morals, and as there were no journals, except here and there a dwarfed weekly, the power of the pulpit was unrivaled.  Religion was a common theme in every house.  As a result, it is stated that during the whole Revolution, there was but one case of wilful murder in Massachusetts, and Dwight informs us that up to his day there had never been a lawsuit in Northampton, nor a loss by fire in which the damage was not mutually shared by the citizens.  He also adds that on a given Sabbath five-sixths of the community were found in meeting.  The minister in each town was supported by tax, and being in some sense a public officer, the ceremony of ordination was sometimes celebrated with procession and band of music.

Jonathan Edwards, the great light of New England, at this time could have been found in a quiet village on the Connecticut, whence his fame had already spread to the mother country.  How Northampton gloried in her matchless preacher!  For sixty years his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard, had labored there.  Let us linger a moment over those scenes which, though fled like a dream, once witnessed the joys and sorrows of a lifetime.  Here in this retired street stands the weather-stained parsonage, graced by a pair of saplings, planted by his own hands, to which Northampton points as ‘the Edwards elms,’ and which now fling giant shadows across the lawn.  This dwelling, though scant of furniture, is passing rich in its domestic treasures.  Here is a wife of lustrous beauty, sweet of disposition, fervent of spirit, and ’mighty in prayer.’  She is a matchless judge of sermons, wise in human nature, and being wiser still in grace, must long rank as a model of the ministerial wife.  Here, too, is her group of daughters, well worthy of such parentage, Esther, Sarah, Mary, and Jerusha, all beautiful and artless as herself.  Here a world of daily interest is found in the studies and duties of a New England home.  But who is he, of tall and attenuated form, whose days are passed in his solitary study, secluded like a hermit from the common experience of life?  Like Moses, he is slow of speech, and might be considered almost severe of countenance.  The lineaments tell their story of childlike simplicity of character, and yet they are inspired by an expression of power, which at first seems repellant.  Those large black eyes seem to pierce and read on every thought.  I have referred to this family in a previous article,[D] but would now speak at more length of its paternal head.  This man has but two pursuits, study and prayer.  Of the outer world he has ever remained in blissful ignorance, and even of his own parish he only knows what he has learned of his wife.  He has no ‘turn’ for visiting, and can not