August 1751

What was happening in Jonathan Edwards’ life in the summer of 1751? Today, Stephen Nichols describes how Edwards was a missionary to the English and Native American people in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in Church History. It is the month of August in the year 2024, and I thought for our episode this week, I would take us to another August, and that is the August of 1751. In fact, we’ll spend this weekend and next in Augusts. First, 1751 and then in 1752, and we are talking about the life of Jonathan Edwards. At this moment in the 1750s. Edwards is at Stockbridge. Back in June of 1750, Jonathan Edwards, clearly the most popular preacher, the most well-known preacher, not only in the Colonies, but probably across the Atlantic in Old England, was dismissed from his church. He was voted out of his church at Northampton. We’ve dealt with that before, and of course there were politics involved. But alas, Edwards finds himself needing employment, and so, he had offers to actually start a church right there in Northampton of folks who did not agree with the vote. He was invited to go to Scotland and pastor a church there, but Edwards moved his family to the west, to the town of Stockbridge.

Edwards arrives in Stockbridge in the winter of 1751, and after a few months, he began to realize that not all was well in terms of the relations between the English who were settled there at Stockbridge and the Native Americans. And the Native American population in that area of western Mass. consisted of the Mohawks and also the Mohicans, and also a tribe of Indians known as the Brotherton. And sometimes all of these were just called the Stockbridge Indians. Well, there was intended to be mission work among these Native Americans. There were schools that were established, funded by missionary societies there in London. And as Edwards gets to Stockbridge and gets deeply involved in the church there and also in the school there, again he begins to realize that all is not well.

And he’s seeing that the English were not really exercising their duties to promote the gospel and see the Native Americans grow in their knowledge of God and his Word. But instead as Edwards is going to come to say in letters and actually in a very public sermon, that they were cheating the Indians through their trade with them. Well, in August of 1751, Edwards gets invited to deliver a sermon at the signing of a treaty with Mohawks. This was between Mohawks and the provincial representatives of Massachusetts. The treaty would grant space and land for the Native Americans and also would allow them to attend the school there at Stockbridge. And for the Mohawks’ part, they would then be a political and military alliance. And of course, this is in the era of the Seven Years’ War, and France and England battling it out for empire. And so, it is in the interests of the English to secure these tribes and to secure these Native Americans on their side.

But Edwards cuts through all of this in his sermon. He begins talking about how at the very beginning of creation, a man was created with a principle of holiness in his heart. But then came the fall and the fall brought a darkness. And then as he looks at Romans one, not only was there the fall, but a continued fall, and eventually human beings began to worship creatures and the creation rather than the Creator. But then Edward says, “God in his mercy and graciousness gave us his Word and gave us the light of his Word in the gospel, and it is every Christian’s obligation to preach this gospel.” And so, Edwards said, “This was our obligation to preach for you the gospel.” But then he says, “But instead, we tried to deal with you to advance our own interests rather than promoting the light of the gospel among you.” And Edwards ends his sermon by saying, “However, here we are, and I invite you to come and enjoy the light of the Word of God, which is 10,000 times brighter than the light of the sun.” So that’s Edwards being a missionary in August of 1751. And I’m Steve Nichols, and thanks for joining us for 5 Minutes in Church History.