24 September 1757 A.D. Jonathan Edwards Affirmatively Accepts Invitation to Presidency of Princeton College
24 September 1757
A.D. Jonathan Edwards Affirmatively Accepts
Invitation to Presidency of Princeton College
Myers, David T. “September 24:
Jonathan Edwards.” This Day in
Presbyterian History. 24 Sept 2015. http://www.thisday.pcahistory.org/2015/09/september-24-2/. Accessed 24 Sept 2015.
September 24: Jonathan Edwards
A New
Scientific Procedure Takes a Spiritual Giant Away
Our
focus is not on a Presbyterian per se, but rather a theological giant who accepted
an invitation to become the third president of the College of New Jersey, later
Princeton University, which was a Presbyterian institution.
His
name was Jonathan Edwards. And at this time, this
Congregational minister was easily the greatest Biblical theologian and
philosopher which the American colonies had produced.
He
had been a pastor. He had experienced the challenge of missionary work
among the native Indian tribes. He had an exemplary family
life, from which would come, such following generations, many great men of
God who served in both church and state. His theological works were
famous even then. But best of all, he was the chief architect of the First
Great Awakening in the American colonies. In short, there was
nothing to dislike in Jonathan Edwards, and everything to rejoice in with this
choice by the College trustees.
Now
the College of New Jersey had its share of presidents and
professors. Jonathan Dickinson and Aaron Burr, Sr., both Presbyterian
pastors in colonial America, had taken on the extra burden of being
educators of the handful of students who enrolled at the College of New
Jersey. Rev. Dickinson lasted all of four plus months in that dual
role. And Rev. Burr lasted longer but not more than four years in
teaching the small student body. He was the one used of the Lord to make
the strategic move to Princeton, New Jersey. Now the invitation went out
to Jonathan Edwards, in the fall of 1757, just five days after the death
of the school’s second president, Aaron Burr, Sr.
John
Brainerd, the brother of missionary David Brainerd, was one of two
commissioners who was appointed to press the invitation to Edwards. The
latter was most reluctant to receive it. Edwards felt that
the book which needed to be written next by his pen was that of one on
Arminianism. So it took several days of approaching Edwards until finally,
the New England minister, upon consultation with valued friends, replied in the
affirmative on September
24, 1757.
He
would take several months to prepare himself for the new ministry, so it
wasn’t until February 16, 1758 that he was installed as President of the
College of New Jersey. He began to speak in chapel and meet with the
student body, to the delight of those privileged to sit at his feet.
With
small pox prevalent in the area, it was decided to follow a new scientific
method and inoculate President Edwards with a small portion of small pox, with
the idea that he could then fight off the advances of the disease.
However a fever came upon him, and after serving just thirty-four days,
Jonathan Edwards died from small pox on March 22, 1758. It was a loss to
the College, a loss to the American colonies, and a loss to the kingdom of
Christ on earth.
Words to live by:
With a firm dependence on God’s sovereignty, one might be tempted to affirm that God had made a mistake in providence. But there are no mistakes with the holy and wise God. There is only the will of God, exercised sometimes in permissive providence before His people. And this was certainly one example of it. We may not know the reason why our God acts this or that way. But we know the God of the past, present, and future, and so can say, “Thy will be done.”
With a firm dependence on God’s sovereignty, one might be tempted to affirm that God had made a mistake in providence. But there are no mistakes with the holy and wise God. There is only the will of God, exercised sometimes in permissive providence before His people. And this was certainly one example of it. We may not know the reason why our God acts this or that way. But we know the God of the past, present, and future, and so can say, “Thy will be done.”
For further reading :
There are those who contend the President Edwards was, at least in principle
and heart-affection, a Presbyterian. See, for instance, the account here : President Edwards
a Presbyterian.
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