Yale President Timothy Dwight’s Revival Sermon “The Work of Salvation Arduous” (Draft)

TIMOTHY DWIGHT THE WORK OF SALVATION ARDUOUS (ECCLESIASTES 9:19).

GARY DAVID STRATTON, EDITOR

Dwight Family Papers. Manuscripts and archives. Yale University Library. (The sermon was preached at the Greenfield Academy [4/3/1795] and in the

Yale College Church [12/4/1812 & 6/30/1816]. DFP Group 187, Series II, Box 6, Folder No. 39.)

DRAFT: July 1015 TIMOTHY DWIGHT (1752-1817): THE RETURN OF EDWARDSEAN REVIVALISM

Timothy Dwight was born May 15, 1752 at Northampton, MA. His father Major Timothy Dwight was a loyalist landowner. Born and raised in Northampton, MA in the aftermath of Jonathan Edwards’ ouster as the town pastor, his mother Mary Edwards Dwight—daughter of Jonathan Edwards—raised Timothy to champion his grandfather’s theology and revival spirituality. A brilliant student, Timothy graduated from Yale College (his grandfather’s alma mater) at 17, as the youngest member of his class, but ruined his eyesight in the process. He returned to Yale as a tutor (1771-1777) and married Mary Woolsey in 1977, but was out-maneuvered by the anti-Edwardsean Ezra Stiles for the presidency of Yale shortly thereafter. Forced to resign his tutorship by his rival, Dwight entered the continental army as a chaplain until the death of his father in 1778. He returned home to Northampton to manage family affairs and strengthen Edwardsean influences in the town.

Preacher, Poet, Legislator and Educator

During his exile from Yale, Dwight continued to grow as a leader: preaching regularly in his grandfather’s former church, serving two terms in the Massachusetts legislature, and establishing one of the first co-educational schools in the U.S. In 1783 he accepted a call to preach at Greenfield Hill (CT). There he wrote two of the most influential poems in early American literature—The Conquest of Canaan (1785) and Greenfield Hill (1794)—spoke widely against ‘infidel philosophy,’ and established a second co-educational academy that rivaled Yale as one of the finest in New England. Upon the death of Stiles in 1795, the trustees of the Yale Corporation unanimously elected Dwight as their president, completing a stunning Edwardsean takeover of a school whose faculty had rejected the Great Awakening a generation earlier.

Preaching President of Yale

Under Dwight’s twenty-two-year presidency Yale grew into the largest and most influential colleges in the United States and quickly became the educational center of what came to be known as the Second Great Awakening. Like

Stratton: Dwight’s “The Work of Salvation Arduous” 2

Edwards, Dwight balanced intellectual rigor with revival spirituality; however his outgoing personality and failing eyesight (he required an amanuensis to both write and read) forced him to excel as a preacher and leader rather than a solitary if prolific writer like his grandfather. Dwight‘s twice-weekly sermons in the college church became a four-year systematic theology curriculum designed to denigrate radical Enlightenment philosophy by utilizing Common Sense Realism to portray each doctrine in an “evangelical light.” A revival in 1802 resulted in over a third of the student body professing conversion and the life of the Spirit flowing through the life of the college due in no small part to Dwight’s insistence on the revival empowering rather than interfering with classes. Yale experienced three further ‘revivals’ under Dwight (1808, 1812-1813, 1815) and awakening became a welcomed and promoted aspect of the president’s educational program. (More below.)

Leader of Leaders

One reason Dwight’s leadership of the Yale and the Second Great Awakening was so influential is found in his magnificent ability to recognize and mentor key emerging leaders. His protégés included Benjamin Silliman, Yale’s first science professor; Nathaniel William Taylor, the founder of New England Theology; Lyman Beecher, the chief clergyman of the Second Great Awakening; and Asahel Nettleton, the principal evangelist of the era. Dwight established professorships in History, Chemistry, Law, and Medicine, and was instrumental in founding the nation’s first theological seminary, Andover Newton (1807). At one point 35 of the 150 college presidents in the United States were Yale graduates trained by Dwight so that revival and moral philosophy became a key aspect of nearly all antebellum higher education. Mark A. Noll notes that Dwight and the revival colleges of the era were instrumental in effecting a “surprising intellectual synthesis” of evangelicalism and common-sense moral reasoning that dominated the nation’s thinking and led to the remarkable “Christianization” of American society (p. 9.).

Publications and Influence

Even after his death in 1817, the posthumous publication of Dwight’s four-year theology curriculum, Theology, Explained and Defended, in a Series of Sermons (1819) and Memoir (1819) went through scores of reprints and helped popularize his Edwardsean intellectual and non-sensational approach to revival and social reform.1 Dwight was neither a second Edwards nor the exact replica of his theology. Yet in biographer John R. Fitzmeir’s estimation his ability to maintain a “steady flame” of revival fire in the Second Great Awakening” was an

1 Dwight’s lectures ran through twelve editions in the United States alone. (Fitzmeir, 1998, p. 3).


even more glorious triumph than the “brisk, but brief” First Great Awakening of his grandfather (p. 349-50).

REVIVAL AND CHRISTIAN HIGHER EDUCATION UNDER DWIGHT

It is a matter of considerable historical debate as to whether the Second Great Awakening: 1) originated with Dwight’s apologetic preaching at Yale (Beecher, 1865; Cunningham, 1942; C. R. Keller, 1942; E. S. Mead, 1942; W. Clebesch, 1969; N. A. Wenzke, 1989), 2) was fabricated by the New Divinity in general (Conforti, 1995) and Dwight in particular for theological and/or political purposes (Berk, 1974) or, 3) would have proceeded very nicely without Dwight, but since he was in a key leadership position in New England, the Awakening both influenced Yale and Yale’s president influenced the Awakening (Morgan, 1960; R. Shiels, 1980; Fitzmier, 1998). This third position was taken by Chauncey Goodrich, a key faculty member at Yale, friend of Dwight and eyewitness to all four revivals in his presidential tenure. Goodrich’s account of Yale’s revivals in the Journal of the American Education Society (1838) provides an insightful glimpse into the critical elements in Dwight’s revival leadership.

Preaching the Whole Counsel of God for Evangelical Repentance

As noted above, preaching was central to Dwight’s approach to preparing the way for spiritual awakening at Yale—relevant, intellectually rigorous and soul-stirring presidential addresses were the core of the college curriculum. Similar to Edwards, Dwight believed that “God rules by motives addressed to the understanding and affections of rational subjects, and operating on their minds, as inducements toward voluntary obedience” (cited in Noll, 1992, p. 159). This meant that persuasion, both intellectual and supernatural, was key to student spiritual formation if it was to go beyond “force and coercion” (p.160) and it was in persuasive intellectual preaching that Dwight excelled. Dwight preached twice each Sunday in mandatory college church services: a morning sermon addressed to a doctrinal topic, and an afternoon discourse on more practical and experiential applications of faith (Goodrich, 296).

Dwight’s intellectual persuasion efforts were put to test almost from the moment he ascended to Yale’s presidency in 1795. Goodrich notes that the skepticism of David Hume and the French radical skeptics permeated the student body. Students “thought it a mark of spirit to call into question… the gospel, if not the truth of Christianity (so that) the religious state of the college was extremely low” (p. 294). Not one to duck a fight, Dwight directly took on this skepticism both in the college chapel and in his rhetoric classroom. Utilizing the common-sense realism of Thomas Reid, Hume’s most successful critic, Dwight was able to use moderate Enlightenment philosophy to make headway against the more radical thought of Hume and Voltaire. In doing so he, “gave dignity to the cause of spiritual religion” (p. 294; see also Noll, 1992, p. 156).


Combined with his doctrinal preaching series first instituted at Greenfield Academy, Dwight developed these sermons into a four-year systematic theology curriculum for students that became the backbone of spiritual formation efforts (Marsden, 2003, p. 79; Noll, 1992, p. 168). Through these chapel messages and their publication, Dwight became a key figure in modifying Puritan doctrine for use in the Nineteenth Century (Noll, 1992, p. 23). Over the four years students were at Yale, Dwight endeavored to preach the “whole council of God”, in order to “portray each doctrine in an evangelical light” (Berk, 1974 p.100-101) for the purpose of repentance. Under Dwight’s preaching the spiritual tide began to turn in the Yale student body until the number of students formally admitted as members of the college church (students whose conversions appeared genuine) grew from eight to twenty (out of 200).

Fervent and United Prayer

Despite his success as a preacher, Dwight’s ministry was not marked by “revival” either as headmaster of Greenfield Academy, nor during his first seven years at Yale (Shiels, 1980, p. 426). It was not until Dwight’s preaching was combined with Edwards’ other key leadership practice “prayer for the Spirit” that Yale experienced its first revival under Dwight. In fact, it was not Dwight, but his students who led the way in this practice.

Between 1797 and 1801, revival began to flourish in the mostly rural churches of the Connecticut River Valley for the first time since First Great Awakening. No less than 18 clergymen published narratives of spiritual awakenings in their churches in the brief span of time (Shiels, 1980, p. 406-411). However, for the first seven years of Dwight’s presidency the fruit of these revivals was felt less through Dwight’s preaching so much as through the students who joined the freshman class each year “under these influences of the Holy Spirit” (Goodrich, p. 294). In fact, it was the strength of the revivals in their home churches that led a group of professing Christian students to begin a weekly meeting “of united and fervent prayer” that “God might pour out his Spirit” upon the college (p. 295). According to Dwight’s own account it was not until early in the spring of 1802, that “a gracious answer to their prayers, began to appear”. Students came under conviction, and grew “deeply interested in their salvation” (p. 4) and began to earnestly seek God (p. 4).

Goodrich notes that so “sudden and great was the change in individuals, and in the general aspect of the college, that those who had been waiting for it were filled with wonder as well as joy” (p.25). Wherever students were found: in their rooms, in the chapel, in the classroom, and in the college yard “the salvation of the soul was the one great subject of thought” and the presence of God so palpable that “the reigning impression was, ‘Surely God is in this place’” (p. 295). By the end of the summer term, no less than eighty (out of 230) students had


been “hopefully converted to God” and admitted to the college church, thirty-five of whom became preachers of the gospel (Goodrich, 296).

Dwight took note of the connection between the prayer meetings initiated by his students and the revival. When the first “revival generation” of students graduated and Yale “was reduced to a lower state than before” it was Dwight who led the college faculty and students in weekly prayer for the next “outpouring” (p. 297). In April of 1808, Dwight broke off his leading the congregation in a hymn after a single verse. Moved by the Spirit, he led the meeting in an overpowering prayer for revival. “Never did a minister plead more fervently for his people” (p. 298). The next day, Dwight preached on the young man at Nain, “Young man, I say to thee arise” (Luke 7:11-15), urging students to seek the Lord that they too might live (p. 298). From that day forward revival began to “spread slowly and without confusion or excitement from room to room, and from heart to heart” (p. 298).

Similar revivals followed in the winter of 1812-1813 and again in April of 1815. Each revival was marked by college leaders: 1) leading the college in fervent, united prayer for the outpouring of the Spirit (p. 300-302), and, 2) calling students to seek salvation through bold and persuasive preaching of the word of God. The 1812 sermon, The work of salvation arduous, was very much a part of this tradition.

Channeling Revival Toward Educational Mission

One further characteristic of a Dwight led college revival is worth noting—his holistic connection of the work of the Holy Spirit in revival to the educational mission of the college. While Dwight was willing to change practices and add programming during a season of spiritual awakening, he was not willing to abandon the normal college schedule. Like Edwards, he warned students that great spiritual experiences or even great fervor in religious activities might only lead to giving students “false hope.” For Dwight the evidence of being genuinely converted is found in students fulfilling their “duty” as Christians. We are “to judge our character from our principles and actions, and not from excited emotion” (p. 298). He urged his students to “seek the evidence of your piety on the pathway to duty” (p. 298). Not the least of these duties was their duty to study.

Even during seasons of intense spiritual awakening, Dwight was careful not to allow revival to distract students from the spiritual discipline of study. He was wholeheartedly committed to both revival and the educational mission of the college. In the unusually powerful revival of 1815, “nearly every student in the college became anxious for the salvation of his soul.” A formal petition was presented to the faculty “from the whole student body, requesting a suspension of college exercises, that they might give themselves entirely to the pursuit of


eternal life” (p. 301). Dwight “decidedly refused.” Instead, he instructed his students “one duty must not be sacrificed to the performance of another” (p. 301). While Dwight acknowledged that classes and studies might take on a different light in a season of spiritual awakening, this new light on education was certainly a good thing if the college was to “secure the end at which they aimed” (p. 302). “Religion if genuine will possess and animate the entire man” (p. 298). Little wonder that Dwight was able to lead Yale into an integration of faith, learning and life that produced some of the greatest Christian intellectuals of his day (Noll, 1992, p. 233).

Some faculty, like Goodrich (1838), thought that perhaps Dwight might at times have gone too far in his insistence that revival should never interfere with the discipline of study. “(T)here are many who feel, that in cases of deep conviction, it is desirable, if it can be done to propriety, to lay aside all ordinary employments, and direct the whole attention to the concerns of the soul’s salvation” (p. 302). Yet while students were not allowed to “lay aside their studies,” Dwight was careful to initiate “extraordinary measures” to gratify students’ increases desire for religious instruction. Faculty and key student leaders conducted meetings every afternoon, so that “the general topic of conversation throughout college” (p. 302).

THE WORK OF SALVATION ARDUOUS

Dwight’s previously unpublished sermon, The Work of Salvation Arduous, was preached antecedent to Yale revival of 1812-1813 and to some degree was causal in nature. It is in many ways representative of Dwight’s approach to integrating revivalism into the mission of Christian higher education. The sermon adopts Edwards’ practice of calling students to a seek salvation through the means of grace, but Dwight expresses a more positive vision of human learning and spirituality as well as a interdisciplinary approach in its illustrations.

The sermon has proven to be one of the more popular manuscripts in the Dwight Family Papers collection. It is quoted by Cunningham (1942, p. 181), Mead (1942, p. 119), Hardman (1987, p. 20) and Fitzmier (1998, p, 99), who cites this sermon as the “quintessential Dwight homily” (p. 81-2). The manuscript is highly legible, presumably due to the amanuensis provided him by the college trustees to accommodate his failing eyesight. According to the notes on the front cover of the manuscript, the sermon was preached on 4/3/1795 (presumably at in the Greenfield Academy), and in Yale’s College Church on 12/4/1812 and 6/30/1816. With permission for the Yale University archives, Arduous was published for the first time in the author’s dissertation, “Jonathan Edwards’ Theology of Spiritual Awakening and Spiritual Formation Leadership in American Higher Education,” and reproduced her to allow more ready availability.


THE WORLD OF SALVATION ARDUOUS, ECCLESIASTES 9:10 -TIMOTHY DWIGHT, PRESIDENT OF YALE COLLEGE PREACHED AT GREENFIELD ACADEMY APRIL 3, 1795

AND YALE COLLEGE, DECEMBER 4, 1812; AND JUNE 30, 1816

Ecclesiastes 9:10

Therefore, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou

goest.’”

The work mentioned in this passage of Scripture, is undoubtedly the work, which God has required us to do: the sum of those duties, which are prescribed as our business in the present world. As all these duties respect our attainment of salvation, either as means, or parts of that attainment; the work itself may with the strictest propriety be styled the work of Salvation.” (All underlining is that found in the original manuscript.)

“This work, it is said, does not exist in the grave, whither we go; nor any knowledge, device, or wisdom, by means of which it might be successfully performed.

The word, here translated the grave, is the Hebrew Scheol; and it signifies the world of the departed spirits. In that world there is no work of salvation: this great business being done, if it is ever done, on this side of the grave.

In the text we are required to do this work, and all that pertains to it, with our might. One obvious reason for this requisition is the importance of the work of salvation. Whatever is of high importance demands, from its intrinsic value, great efforts. Another reason not less obvious, nor in the present case less interesting is, that all our might is necessary to accomplish it. Bu t any business which requires all our faculties and all our labor, for its accomplishment, is of course great to us.

(DOCTRINE)

With this explanation of the text I derive from it the following doctrine:


The work of Salvation is a great and arduous work.

This doctrine I propose to illustrate with several observations.

1.st The Object is great.

It seems to be a law in the Providence of God, that no great object is ever accomplished without exertions, proportionally great. (Illustrations)

(1) The well-being of children, for example, is an object of vast importance to mankind; and accordingly demands many, very great, long steadily pursued, and long-continued, efforts.It must be done in the morning of life. It must be renewed every day. It must be watched every moment; and, when all this has been done, how often are the sighs, and tears, and labours of parents ineffectual in the end?

(2) The attainment of learning is another object of great importance. This also must be begun with the first dawn of reason. What a course of labor must be pursued? How many days and years must behold the toil of the student repeated? How many nights must see the lamp trimmed? Even after all this, what multitudes fall short of the envied acquisition?

(3) To acquire reputation is also an object of no small moment to the mind of man. What a train of wise and good actions, what an avoidance of foolish and bad ones, are indispensable to this design? With how much caution must life, and even conversation, be watched: how much care taken, that none shall have ground to censure, and that many shall have the best reasons to approve and commend? All this too must be done to the end of our days: for a single action, flowing either from depravity, or folly, will soil a character, which has been whitening through life.

(4) “The establishment and preservation of Freedom is an object of high national importance; and accordingly has ever demanded great national importance; and accordingly has ever demanded great national exertions. Councils fraught with wisdom, must be formed: numerous wise and energetic measures must be adopted: a powerful influence must be laboriously exerted: many and vigorous efforts must be made. Battles must be fought: victories must be won: a government must be founded. Legislative, Executive and Judicial functionaries must be constituted; laws enanted; and the Administration in all its movements watched with an eagle eye. How often is all this. And all which this


brings in its train, insufficient to secure inestimable boon. In these cases men are the immediate agents. The analogy is complete, where the agency is immediately and professedly, in the hands of God.

(5) “The establishment and preservation of the Worship of Jehovah was an object of this nature, and of incalculable importance. Accordingly the labours of Providence for its accomplishment were wonderfully great. For this end Abraham was called: the wonders of Egypt, the Wilderness, and Canaan, were wrought: the millions of Israel were conducted into the land of promise: a code of laws was given to them from heaven: national mercies were wonderfully bestowed, and national punishments severely inflicted: God himself dwelt in their temple, and before in their tabernacle, in an open manner for a long series of ages. Yet, with all these wonderful exertions, they were never finally cured of their tendency to idolatry, until after the Babylonish [sic] captivity.

(6) Another object of similar nature was the creation of the Christian Church. Think how many, and how wonderful, were the labours and sufferings, of the Redeemer for this end. Think how numerous and how great, were those of the Apostles and their companions. God inspired them with supernatural knowledge; and endued them with supernatural powers. They spoke with tongues; they prophesied; they wrought miracle; they wandered through the world: they preached the Gospel every where: they suffered an immense train of persecutions, and in great numbers finally yielded their lives, as martyrs, to a violent death.

These were in the appropriate sense works of God: yet they were not accomplished in either case without the mighty train of efforts, which I have recited. When, therefore, we add them to those which were mentioned above, we may, I think, conclude without hesitation, that no object of great importance is in the providence of God accomplished without efforts, proportionately great.

But the Soul of man is an object, inestimably important. The material universe, weighed against it, is the small dust of the balance. Its existence is endless: its faculties are capable of eternal improvement: its virtue and happiness, if it is destined to be virtuous and happy, will one day transcend all comprehension which exists in finite minds. On the other hand its sins and miseries, if it should be sinful and miserable hereafter, will out run every


estimate. What is not such a soul worth: and how shall the value of its salvation be measured?

According to the analogy, which has been exhibited, then, it must be concluded, of course, that the efforts, necessary to be made for the accomplishment of this momentous object, must be very great. On the part of God they have been, already, wonderfully great. On the part of man it demands, that he should do whatever his hands finds to do; & that he should do it with his might. It is to be remembered, that all this is useful to the end in view. It is necessary, particularly, to show to the individual, who is to be saved, the immense value of his salvation. Nor is it less useful to exhibit the same thing to the universe at large. All, also, is not improbably necessary in the nature of things: for we are ever to remember that God does nothing in vain.

2.dly The things actually done for this end are very great and arduous. Concerning these I observe

(1) In the First place, That Sin is to be renounced and overcome.

Sin is a powerful and dangerous enemy by whom we have all been long since vanquished, and taken captives. Like other conquerors, it has reduced us to a state of bondage: but unlike other conquerors, it does not only compel us only to drudge in its service: it draws us, entices, and persuades us, us also, by an endless variety of temptations and allurements. It entangles us in doubts. It benumbs us with stupidity. It bewilders us with passion. It delights us with pleasures. It fascinates us with wealth. It dazzles us with fame, power, and splendour. All the temptations set before us, have their peculiar efficacy; and come to us, frought with peculiar danger. Whenever they have overcome us habitually; the danger becomes extreme, and the efficacy fatal.

Cast your eyes upon the world around you; and see how rarely men renounce their sins, and overcome temptations. Ask a Christian, and the very best among Christians, whether what success he finds in this warfare. He will exclaim, “O wretched man, that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death? [Romans 7:24] 2 Ask the convinced sinner. He will reply, “My sins are grown over my head, as a heavy burden too grievous to be born.”3 Look at men

2 Romans 7:24 3 Ezra 9:6


of other characters, and mark diligently the manner, in which they proceed: those, I mean, who acknowledge it to be absolutely necessary for them to overcome their sins. Some you will find struggling like sick men with a fever, with now and then a languid effort scarcely made, and then sinking under the pressure of the disease. Others you will see yielding themselves an easy prey for want of resolution to contend. Others you will find intending only to begin the conflict, and from time to time postponing the design to a future, and as they believe, a happier, season. Others, still, have only viewed the painful attempt at a distance, and are so much discouraged by the difficulties which surround it, that they have not, hitherto, been able to resolve upon commencement of the work.

Sin, it is always to be remembered, is a persevering enemy. Often it is defeated, it will as often return to the combat; attack the soul with renewed strength, and fresh wiles, and, even if vanquished n the end, will make a slow, reluctant, sullen retreat. It is also an enemy, distinguished above all others for its subtlety; assaulting us at times, and from quarters, where it is least expected; lying in ambush; drawing over to its side even our friends; assailing us where we are least prepared for defense; and seducing us to surrender by a thousand false pretences, addressed alternately to our love and hatred, our hope and fear. Against such an enemy, therefore, it becomes indispensable that we should be always on the watch, always apprehensive, always in a state of vigorous assertion. But to such frail beings as we are, so short-sighted, so indolent, so easily discouraged, this course of life soon becomes inexpressibly wearisome and disheartening. We enter upon the conflict without resolution; proceed without hope; and after a little period, but too frequently end it in despair.

(2) Secondly; A life of self-denial is to be adopted.

Self-denial, as the word sufficiently indicates, is, in every form and degree, painful in its very nature. Still, it is absolutely necessary to the attainment of salvation. “If any man,” saith our Savior, “will come to me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross.” 4 But to take up the cross is to become crucified to the world and to all its gratifications, so far as they are inconsistent with our salvation and our duty. Even our innocent enjoyments, innocent I mean in their

4 Matthew 16:24


nature, must be renounced, when they draw our hearts from God, or our hands from his service.

It can hardly be necessary for me to tell you how intensely the soul is attached to the world. Look into your own hearts; and you will easily perceive, that they are attached to nothing else; that. Like the daughters of the horse-leech, they continually cry concerning worldly pleasure, “Give, Give;” and, like the fire, never say, “It is enough.” 5 Turn your eyes to those around you, and see how entirely they are absorbed in the cares of this world, and how effectually beguiled by the deceitfulness of its riches, 6 honours, and pleasures. How few attempt to renounce their attachment to these objects; to give over, or even to check, their inordinate their and fatal pursuit of them; to chasten their thoughts into sober enquiries concerning the end of this career, nay even to stop long enough to think at all. But that, which men generally find it very difficult to do, is certainly hard to be done by such minds as ours. Peculiarly is this evident, when the inducements to do it are so numerous and so great.

(3) Thirdly, A Course of Religious duties is to assumed: and that this is difficult to begin, and difficult to be continued.

(a) Among these duties Prayer holds a primary place. It may well seem strange that prayer should be thought a difficult employment to be undertaken, or continued. Still, it is true, How and evidently true. How many persons find it a hard task to be present even at public prayer! How many more, to unite in the prayers, which are then offered up, or, in other words, to pray with their fellowmen at all? A far greater number, even of those who acknowledge it to be their duty, neglect, absolutely, family prayer; alleging for their excuse a variety of reasons, which, however, remote from soundness, are yet of sufficient strength to prevent them from performing this duty. A far greater number still, neglect secret prayer: and these find such reasons, as persuade themselves, that they may safely disobey the command of God repeated in a multitude of forms throughout the Scriptures. In whatever form the duty is enjoined; the precepts are all summed up in this one, Pray always with all prayer[s]: so short, that it cannot be forgotten: so plain, that it cannot be misunderstood; and so comprehensive, as to enjoin prayer of every kind and on every occasion, when men have sins to be

5 Proverbs 30:15-16 6 Matthew 13:22; Mark 4:19


forgiven, blessings to be acknowledged, or wants to be supplied. Every man, therefore, who admits the revelations of the Scriptures, is compelled to admit also, that prayer is his duty on every occasion; and in every form. Still, great multitudes find it very difficult, not to say impossible, to pray. Let every one of these remember, that the work of salvation absolutely requires of him to pray in this manner; and that asking is the only condition of receiving.

(b) Another of these duties of high importance is Repentance. The difficulty of commencing a life of repentance is felt by every sinner. Nor is this object ever even looked at by him without pain, and dread. In truth, it can scarcely seem strange, that any man should be reluctant to believe, that he is guilty, vile, and worthless; to acknowledge, that such is his character; and to feel the whole weight of it resting up on his head. As self-approbation is an imminently delightful source of enjoyment; so self-condemnation is a peculiarly painful source of distress. Were there no good mingled with repentance, or flowing from it, that even the Christian himself could hardly be persuaded to exercise it: nor could God easily be supposed to require it at his hands. But to the Christian, though it is painful, it is never the less pleasing; at times exquisitely pleasing, and always incalculably profitable. This it is easy to prove to a sinner. Yet with what vast reluctance will sinners, even when they admit the proof, adopt the practice; how few are found willing to become penitents?

(c) Another duty of the same nature is Reliance on Christ for justification, and for all its glorious consequences. The person, who exercises this reliance, acknowledges with the whole heart, that he is guilty, and ruined, so absolutely, as to be entirely unpossessed of any qualifca-

tions, or means, as by which he may recommend himself to the favour of God; even in such a degree, as merely to be pardoned. He acknowledges, that he has done nothing,, and in his own view can do nothing, for which he can be accepted by his Maker. How hard must such an acknowledgement seem to a proud heart, like that of man? How humiliating is the character confessed, and how lowly the station assumed? Yet without such a reliance there is no hope for the sinner.

All these are mere beginnings of the new creation7 in the soul, the commencement of character, formed in the Christian at his regeneration. To

7 2Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15


complete this character, it is also indispensable, that we should walk in newness of life.8

This involves all of the duties of the Christian profession, the duties of piety, benevolence, and self-denial; repeated, and extended throughout all our days. In the performance of these duties it is evident, that our sinful propensities must be resisted, and overcome; our passions and appetites subdued; the love of the world mortified; and our time, talents and services, consecrated without reserve to God. All this is at once seen to be laborious. It is also felt to be only a succession of acts of self-denial. At the very mention of such a life, what sinner would not exclaim, nay what Christian would not feelingly ask, “Who is sufficient for these things [?]”9 How few, unhappily, are there even among those, who put their hand to the plough that do not look back; and thus declare themselves unfit for the kingdom of God.10

(d) With all these things, also, is continually woven another, not less, and perhaps even more, discouraging to multitudes: to wit, Opposition to the world. He, who wishes to be religious, must consent to be separated from the world. I do not mean that he is to lead a monastic, or even a solitary, life. But I mean, that he must separate himself for the opinions, and the practices of the world. “Be not conformed to this world,” says the Apostle Paul, “but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, that ye may prove,” that is know by experience, “what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God.”11 This experimental knowledge of the will of God, therefore, can never be attained by him who is conformed to the world. To multitudes, particularly to the young, few declarations can be more distressing. To relinquish their union with this mighty means of influence and authority, is, in their view, to relinquish most of that which makes life desirable. But this is not all, which they are required to do. He who [strives]12 to be religious, must not only separate himself from these sinful practices; he must also oppose them, Among those, who hold them, he will continually see a great majority of his fellow-men; a great majority of the gay and fashionable, the powerful and splendid; and not improbably a great majority of 8 Romans 6:4 9 2Cor. 2:16 10 Luke 9:62 11 Romans 12:2 12 The word is not clear in the manuscript


his own beloved friends. These, united, are in a sense his all: and the rest of the universe will seem to hi as nothing. How few, particularly of those who are young, are sufficiently stout-hearted to commence so gigantic and undertaking; and to resolve, finally, to take up their destiny with the little flock, who, such is the Father’s good pleasure, heirs of the kingdom.13 Yet it is better to enter the ark with Noah & his family, than to perish with the world.14

REMARKS.

With these observations in view, it cannot be thought strange,

(1) 1.st, That multitudes fail of success in this arduous undertaking.

Consider how many, and how great, the difficulties are, already specified in this summary account of the subject, all of which oppose the attempts, the wishes, and the hopes of men at the very outset of this enterprise. Yet, in order to be successful, every one of these must be encountered and overcome. It is in vain to say, that these difficulties are either fewer, or less, than they have been represented. It is in vain to say, that they have been overcome, or that they are always overcome by him, who arms himself in earnest for the conflict. It is in vain to say, that every such person is warranted firmly to rely on that unchangeable declaration of God, “My grace is sufficient for thee.”15 All these things are certainly true; and are readily acknowledged by me. Still, all that has been said is not the less just, true or applicable to the real case of mankind. These difficulties have in fact prevailed over human resolution in the manner, which has been stated. In the same manner they now prevail. Nay in the same manner they have prevailed, and do at this moment prevail, over the great body of this audience. Every one of you wishes to be saved. Most, perhaps all, of you intend to be saved. Why are you not saved? Why have you not at least begun the work of your salvation? There are certainly reasons for this fact, and as certainly they are powerful reasons: for they are the reasons, which have hither to prevented your attainment of salvation.

Suppose then, there were no difficulties to be encountered, and no labours to be undergone. Suppose no enjoyment was to be given up, and no self-denial to

13 Luke 12:32 14 See the conclusion of Edwards’ “Seeking Salvation” for a parallel analogy to Noah, 15 2Cor. 12:9


be exercised. Can you doubt, that in this case your salvation would soon become secure?

It is idle here, to talk of difficulties in the abstract. Those are difficulties, which are such to beings, like ourselves; those, which are felt; those which daunt; those, which discourage; those, which overcome. If the human race were required, in their way towards heaven, to climb a mountain; if almost all stopped at the bottom; and of the few who attempted the ascent, most returned before they had reached the middle point: it would be idle to say, that a person who had wings might easily fly to the top, so long as none of those who are to ascend have wings; or, that persons endued with superior strength or resolution might undoubtedly succeed, and that with no great difficulty, so long as such strength and resolution were not possessed by those who were to make the experiment; or that with a proper disposition the ascent might be easily gained, so long as this disposition was not possessed by the real adventurers. The question here, is concerning these adventurers only; concerning their disposition, their resolution, their strength, for the undertaking. It is a question of fact. Do not men actually succeed? You are obliged to answer in the negative. I ask, then, why do they not succeed [?] The only answer which you can give, is, they are disheartened and broken down by the difficulties, which they find in their way; by the toil, without which success cannot exist; by the sacrifice here demanded of their beloved enjoyments; by the dismissal aspect of repentance; by the melancholy progress of self-denial; by the discouraging appearance of a long course of piety; by the hard condition of renouncing sin; by an invincible reluctance to pray; by the humiliating necessity of giving up self-righteousness; and trusting in Christ for justification; and by gloomy mortification of separating oneself from this sinful world, and opposing its principles and practices. These are the hard obstacles, the sad discouragements, the overwhelming consideration, which prevent mankind from obtaining salvation.

(2) 2.dly From these observations we learn not to wonder, that there is no more Religion in countries which are called Christian.

After mention of all the difficulties, it will be easily believed, that, if Religion is be gained at all, if its is attainable at all, there must be something done; something, more than is usually done; something, which involves exertions of a serious, and vigorous nature. Nothing is more certain, than that this blessing does not come of course, and reach us, like the Spring and the


Autumn, with a return, which may be regularly expected, that it does not light upon us by accident; and that it does not spring from ordinary labours, and pursuits, of men. Plainly, it does not spring from the ordinary labours and pursuits of this congregation:

for this congregation, as a body, is not religious. But w Where any train of causes have long operated, and have failed to produce a given effect, it is perfectly idle to hope for this effect from these causes. But the effect, in question, has for a long period failed, uniformly to flow from these causes; and therefore, can never be expected from them.

[In]16 most periods, however, the inhabitants of Christian countries seem to have supposed, that the ordinary course of things would bring Religion, and its glorious consequence, eternal life. Like the Gentiles, they go from year to year, and from age to age, taking unceasing, and anxious, thought concerning what they shall eat, and what they shall drink, and wherewithal they shall be clothed; but never seeking either first or last, the kingdom of God, or his righteousness. The consequences are just such, as ought rationally to be expected. They obtain food, and drink, and clothing; the things, for which they seek; but they do not obtain the kingdom of God, and his righteousness: for these things they have never sought!! What I have applied to the Christian world at large may with peculiar advantage be applied to families. Parents with vast patience, toil, and anxiety, educate their children for business, in learning and in manners. They labor abundantly to feed, and clothe them. They take great pains to establish their reputation, and to make them pleasing, graceful, and accomplished. Still more earnestly do they, strive to raise them to wealth, and distinction. But they forget, that their children have souls; that they will be heirs of endless life, or endless ruin, that is saved, their salvation must be secured on this side of the grave; and that this mighty work is originally committed not to the children, but to themselves. For this object little or nothing is done. If instructions are given to them at all; they are usually formal, and dull; springing only from the lips, and reaching only the ear. The parents’ hearts do not teach; the hearts of the children do not listen. In many cases, they do not receive even these instructions: and, in these and many other cases, they behold not a single example of piety within the domestic circle. No prayers, at the same time, are

16 Word is unclear in manuscript.


offered up for them; no sighs are breathed; no tears are shed. For every earthly object the child sees all around him anxiously engaged; and neither pains, nor expense, spared for the attainment. But for this he sees not thought employed, and no measure taken. In such a case, what consequences ought to be expected? Certainly those, which follow. The child grows up a stranger to Religion here, and prepares himself to be a stranger in heaven hereafter.

Nor are these observations less applicable with utmost force, to this Seminary. Ask those before me, successfully, whether Religion prospers in this seminary: and they will answer in the negative. If you further ask for the cause of the deplorable fact, announced in this melancholy answer; the true reply will be, that those, in whom it ought to prevail, do nothing to promote it. This audience have to a great extent forgotten, that they have souls: or, if they remember this, that their souls are of any value. In many other cases they shew [in]sufficient17 zeal, energy, and activity. To the world, and its pleasures, they are alive: to religion they are dead. Of their approaching, immortal existence they have no remembrance: of hell they have no fear: of Heaven they have no desire. For the Bible they have no relish: and for God they have neither prayers nor praises, neither hands nor hearts. Accordingly. their life passes on, if we are to judge from appearances which rarely deceive, without an effort, and without even a wish, for their salvation. Who can wonder, that in such circumstances Religion does not prevail here?

(3) 3.dly These observations teach us, that if Salvation is to be attained, or Religion to prevail, very different measures must be pursued for this end. As there is but one scheme of actions for all men in this case; I shall address my remarks under this head directly to this my audience.18

If the observations, already made in this discourse, are just; you must be satisfied, that a single law of Providence governs all the concerns of intelligent beings. It is this: that nothing, which is great, and good, is ever accomplished without great efforts. To redeem us from sin, God was pleased to send his own

17 The manuscript is smudged here, but “shew” and “sufficient” are clear enough to assume “in-“ 18 The “direct” remarks and the manuscript change from “this audience” to “my audience” (italics mine) are unusual and notable. They appear to be a sign of Dwight’s concern for the spiritual destiny of his students (over his theological concerns and publishing ambitions). They may also help explain why this sermon was never published. It may simply have been far too occasional to the needs of his students for revival at this time.


Son, to become incarnate; to live a life of humilation, and toil; to die a death of shame, and agony; to rise again from the dead; to ascend to heaven; to sit down on the throne of infinite dominion; and to intercede forever for all his followers. For the great purpose of sanctifying them for himself, also, he has sent his own Spirit into the world, with a solemn and glorious commission to form the soul anew; and thus perform a work, which he has pronounced more honourable to himself than the creation of the heavens and the earth. His providence also , and all the vast labours which involves, he has directed in such a manner, that all things, as he declares, labour, or work, together for good to them, that love him.19 His holy Word, also, he has revealed through the progress of Eighteen hundred years, as a light shining in this dark and benighted world, to shew us the way to Heaven. Such, summarily, have for this purpose been the exertions of our Creator. All this does not, however; complete the scheme. Much still remains for man to do; who for this reason is in various respects styled by the Scriptures a fellow-worker with God.20 Ministers must preach; sinners must hear; and Christians must pray. Faith, so he has been pleased to determine, must come by hearing; and hearing by the word of God:21 and all blessings descend only in the condition of asking. According to the present scheme of Providence, there would, without these, be no religion in the world. But there is more, still, for the sinner to do. On this subject, you well know, there has been, and is now, not a little controversy among Christians. Instead of entering into this dispute, a thing for which I have at present neither the time not inclination, I will briefly give you my own view of the subject.

There is, antecedently to the conversion of man, a state of mind, in which it becomes eminently serious, solemn, awakened to a sense of it dangers; thoroughly convinced of its sin, and greatly solicitous concerning its escape. In the degree, the mode, and the continuance, of these affections there is an almost endless difference in the different cases; but in substance, and nature, every each case may be justly considered as essentially the same with every other. In this situation the mind labours with great earnestness to obtain eternal life, and the repentance, faith, and holiness, without which it cannot be obtained. He searches with deep anxiety its own conduct, and character. With the same anxiety it reads

19 Romans 8:28 20 Mark 16:20 21 Romans 10:17


the Scriptures; hastens to the house of God; listens with profound attention to what it hears in that sacred place; watches against temptations, and sin; converses earnestly with Ministers, and other Christians, concerning its condition, fears, and hopes; cries mightily to God for pardon and acceptance. All that is done, in thousands and millions of instances, while the man is yet a sinner.

Of those, by whom this is done, almost every Convert is made, who is ever made: and almost all, by whom it is done, become converts. Nor am I warranted to say, that even one of those, by whom it is done strenuously, and perseveringly, is finally cast off. That they are generally saved will not be questioned. Hence, then, you see, that something, is in fact done by sinners; and that something laborious, and manifold, towards the attainment of salvation. Let me add, what ought never to be forgotten, and what certainly cannot be denied, that, where this is not done, Salvation in the usual course of God’s providence is never obtained.

To illustrate this doctrine by facts, which have passed under the eye of at least some persons who are present, let me observe, that the time has not long elapsed, since Religion began to prosper greatly in various parts of this land. At that time, Ministers were eminently alive, and awake; preached in season, and out of season; warned, exhorted, and rebuked, with all longsuffering, and doctrine. Christians united in prayer; conversed often with one another; and in a new manner yielded their property, freely for the purpose of spreading the gospel. The house of God was crowded: Religion was gloriously revived: and the Church beheld a multitude of sons, and daughters, nursed at her side.

At that period laborious efforts were made in this Seminary for this great end. Multitudes prayed; read the Scriptures, and other religious books, with great earnestness and deep solicitude; sought for the instruction of Ministers, and other Christians; crowded to the house of God; listened to his Word; pondered, and felt, the threatenings and warnings, the invitations and promises, of the Gospel. On these efforts God was pleased to smile. This church was suddenly and wonderfully enlarged. Sinners flew into it as a cloud, and as doves to their windows. The congregation was frequently declared by strangers to be the most interesting and beautiful object, which their eyes had ever seen: and even loose men were struck with astonishment and conviction. Every eye and ear


was open. Not one slept. Not one trifled. The house was silent as the grave; and appeared as indeed the gate of Heaven.

But, as soon as these efforts ceased, the progress of Religion ceased also. Such has been the fact elsewhere. Wherever the efforts still continue as they do in various parts of this land, the blessing continues. Thus God has shewn that he will bless, if men will labour.

With these things in view, let me exhort you no longer to distract yourselves with such questions, as these: Shall I commit more sin in labouring to be saved, than if I let the work alone? Is it lawful to use the means of grace? Shall I become more, or less, sinful in a state of conviction? Ask only what you shall do to be saved; and what has been the usual way, in which salvation, has been obtained by mankind. How have men become penitents heretofore? In what circumstances, and to what persons, has God given his blessing heretofore? To these questions there can only be but one answer: and that answer has been already given in this discourse; given by an appeal to the facts, of which there can be no denial. Where then does your interest and duty lie? The answer to this question I need not give.

Turn now your eyes to the other side of this subject. See, where no efforts are made, there is no Religion. The world, in a moral sense, is a solitude of desolation and death; a place of graves, a valley of dry bones, washed out from their sepulchers. Such is emphatically the state of this Seminary. Almost all of its members, even to the eye of charity itself, are spiritually dead. Prophecy to them ever so long: call to them ever so loudly: there is no voice, no answer. The moral world is silent around you. You speak, not to those, in whom is the breathe of life, but to tenants of the tomb: and he, who hears your address, & sees the fruit of it, will irresistibly exclaim, ‘Can these dry bones live?’”

To this most interesting question let me return the answer. There is not, unless, I am wholly deceived, a single hope that you will live, without a radical change in your measures. You must awake out of this deathlike sleep. You must remember, that you have souls to be saved; that they are immortal; that you are hastening to eternity; that the day of salvation is the present time, and that, if lost, it is lost forever. Take up the mighty work in earnest. Begin it today. Pursue it tomorrow. Feel your danger. Search your hearts. Apply yourselves with all diligence & earnestness to the efforts, urged in this discourse: and remember,


that your present stupidity is only preparation for your ruin, that your sleep is the sleep of death.”

References and Resources

Beecher, Lyman. 1865. B. M. Cross, (Ed.). The Autobiography of Lyman Beecher. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1961.

Cunningham, Charles E. 1969. Timothy Dwight, 1752-1817: A biography. New York: Macmillan.

Berk, S. E. 1974. Calvinism versus democracy; Timothy Dwight and the origins of American evangelical orthodoxy. Hamden, CT: Archon Books.

Conforti, Jospeph A. 1977. “Samuel Hopkins and the New Divinity: Theology, Ethics, and Social Reform in Eighteenth-Century New England.” The William and Mary Quarterly, 34, (4), 572-589.

Clebesch, W. 1969. From sacred to profane: The role of religion in American history. San Francisco: Harper & Row.

Edwards, Jonathan. (1733). Persons ought to do what they can for their salvation (Ecclesiastes 9:10). In W. C. Nichols (Ed.). Knowing the heart: Jonathan Edwards on true and false conversion.Ames, Iowa: International Outreach, 2003. (Originally preached December 9, 1733. Privately published in Boston 1734.)

Fitzmier, John R. 1998. New England's Moral Legislator: Timothy Dwight, 1752-1817. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Goodrich, Chauncey A. 1838. “Narrative of revivals of religion at Yale College from its commencement to the present time.” Journal of the American Education Society, 10, 389-310.

Hardman, Keith (1987). Charles Grandison Finney, 1792-1875. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

Keller, C. R. 1942. The Second Great Awakening in Connecticut. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Mead, S. E. 1942. Nathaniel William Taylor, 1786-1858: A Connecticut liberal. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Marsden, G. M. 2003. Jonathan Edwards: A life. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.


Morgan, E. S. 1960. "Ezra Stiles and Timothy Dwight.” Massachusetts Historical Society, 72, 100-117.

Noll, Mark A. (1992) A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada. Grand Rapids, Mich: W.B. Eerdmans.

Noll, Mark A. 2002. America's God: From Jonathan Edwards to Abraham Lincoln. New York: Oxford University Press.

Shiels, R. 1980. The Second Great Awakening in Connecticut: Critique of the Traditional Interpretation. Church History, 49, 401-15.

Wenzke, Annabelle S. 1989. Timothy Dwight (1752-1817). Lewiston, NY: E. Mellen Press.

Yale President Timothy Dwight’s Revival Sermon “The Work of Salvation Arduous” (Draft)

Documents