. New France and New England. ^27 brought people in crowds into the Bostonchurches. But in 1734 there began at Northampton, whereEdwards, who had succeeded his grandfather, had beenpreaching for eight years, a revival of a much higher wave of religious excitement spread through the wholeConnecticut valley and lasted for six months. It attractedsome notice in England, and presently George Whitefieldaccepted an invitation from Dr. Benjamin Colman to comeGeorge ^^ Ncw England and preach. Whitefield was invitecftcf twcuty-six ycars of age, and had just been ordainedNew Eng- as a minister
. New France and New England. ^27 brought people in crowds into the Bostonchurches. But in 1734 there began at Northampton, whereEdwards, who had succeeded his grandfather, had beenpreaching for eight years, a revival of a much higher wave of religious excitement spread through the wholeConnecticut valley and lasted for six months. It attractedsome notice in England, and presently George Whitefieldaccepted an invitation from Dr. Benjamin Colman to comeGeorge ^^ Ncw England and preach. Whitefield was invitecftcf twcuty-six ycars of age, and had just been ordainedNew Eng- as a minister of the Church of England. He was a land ^ man of mediocre intelligence, without distinctioneither as a scholar or as a thinker, but his gifts as an oratorwere very extraordinary. In 1740 Whitefield preached invarious parts of New England, sometimes in churches, some-times in the open air, to audiences which on occasion reached15,000 in number. He made a pilgrimage to Northampton THE GREAT AWAKENINGI i|nmii|nninrmi||||ii| 20!. GEORGE WHITEFIELD in order to visit the preacher of the late revival there, andthought he had never seen such a man as Edwards, while onthe other hand, under the influence of Whitefields musicalvoice, Edwards sat weeping during the entire sermon. The example set by Whitefield was followed after his de-parture by a Presbyterian minister from New Jersey namedGilbert Tennent. This preacher came to Boston and spentsome three months in the neighborhood, preaching to enor- 2o6 NEW FRANCE AND NEW ENGLAND nious audiences with most startling effect. Tennent wasfollowed by James Davenport of Southold, Long Island, „ . ffreat-s-randson of the famous Davenport of the old Gilbert t> o Tennent jyfg^y Haven colony. This James Davenport washighly esteemed by Whitefield and other revivalist preach-ers, but his ill-balanced enthusiasm led him to very strangelengths. On one occasion he is said to have preached a ser-mon nearly twenty-four hours in length, with such
Size: 1448px × 1726px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectnewenglandhistorycol
