USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > South Windsor > One hundreth anniversary of the Wapping Congregational meeting house; erected 1801 and occupied 1802 in South Windsor, Connecticut > Part 3
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religion. The great man insisted on ones knowing that he was saved, and exclaimed, Oh, ye miserable, whining Presbyterians, you hope and hope and are always hoping you are saved. Now I am just as sure of going to Heaven as I am of eating that piece of meat. In his earnestness he gesticulated so forcibly with his hand that held the fork, that the piece of meat became loosened and fell to the floor and the dog ate it up. This story has been told with variations but Mrs. Howe will vouch for its actual occurrence, as related, in the house now her home.
One hundred years is a long time in the retrospect and we are obliged to pass over many familiar incidents, but the Civil War was a time that touched men's hearts and tried men's souls. From this church and community went many of manhood's fairest promise. Forty years ago on the 25th day of August, 1862, a war meeting was held in the basement of this church. At that time quite a number from this place signed their names to the roll and enlisted for the army. This was one of the most solemn meetings ever held in this house. The music was a drum corps, but it brought tears from a great many of those present, for it was almost certain that some of those boys would never come back to meet with us again in the old meetinghouse. With them went the prayers of those left behind. With the prayers went work and sometimes twice a week did the sewing society meet to lay out and do work for the suffering soldiers. Stockings were knit, bandages made of lint prepared with care- ful hand, and contributions received and forwarded, not only to personal friends but for the common cause in which our boys enlisted.
There was no time or inclination for church dissension. The most important feature in church work is spiritual pros- perity. In union is strength and strength means growth and growth means not only increase in numbers but increase in creature comforts in our place of worship, a sense of home life. We are growing to feel the need of a place of social prayer.
Some of the best prayer meetings that I remember were held in homes of the the people. This audience room is too large for our best social prayer. Unless there is the heat of brotherly love (and he that loveth God loveth his brother also) the prayers freeze in the atmosphere. We should hate to find ourselves in the condition of the church whose roof leaked badly. Patching was of no avail, so they had to tear off the whole roof. There they found accumulated prayers that had ascended no higher than the roof and had mildewed.
When the mid-week service is held there is a dampening influence in the scattered audience and we earnestly desire a cozy, warm prayer meeting home and a place for our best social development. To that end we are working to collect funds for a chapel. In building it we want the foundation laid firm and solid on the Rock Christ Jesus and its structure such as shall contain only the Spirit of the Lord, even the Holy Spirit.
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Then shall we all agree that our church is a part of the new Jerusalem. That in its construction are the elements of strength as of iron, the brilliance of the ruby, the transparence of the sapphire, the lustre of the diamond, and the ductility, softness and malleability of gold. "Instead of our fathers shall be our children."
They began worship in an unfinished building but they did not hold that they had more religion on account of it. They knew that their religion would enable them to carry forward the work. Their steadfastness was such as progressed.
George McDonald says, "Some apparent steadfastness is but sluggishness and comes from incapacity to generate change or contribute toward personal growth."
When Rev. W. S. Hawkes first came among us we felt our weakness, then began our strength.
From paying a salary of $500, we agreed to pay $800. Though applying for aid to the H. M. S. we were persuaded by Mr. Hawkes that we could do the work ourselves and we did it and not only paid his salary with reasonable promptness but built a parsonage and gave more to missionary work than in previous years.
Following this effort which some criticised as unwise and impossible was a sifting of hearts as to whom the gold and silver belonged, also a question as to whom the hearts belonged. The barley loaf overturned the tents and revealed the insecurity of our reliance. Church members were pricked in their hearts and the unconverted said, "We would see Jesus." Friends near and dear to us accepted Christ as their Saviour and estab- lished the family altar, for Mr. Hawkes insisted on a thorough consecration.
Our hearts go out with a bound of joy and thankfulness, first to our Heavenly Father, then to our earthly fathers who gave us this heritage. And we would pass on to our children more than we have received and cement the bond of Christian love and fellowship.
MRS. E. S. BISSELL.
Exodus 22:12 .- "Honor thy father and thy mother; that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee."
Genesis 17:16 .- "I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations."
Judges 5:7 .- "Deborah arose a mother in Israel "
The Bible gives great prominence to the family; every reader must have noticed it; almost at the beginning we have the institution of the ideal family ; one man and one woman, united for life, thenceforward one, so far as aims, interests and re- wards are concerned. At the two beginnings of the race, Adam and Noah, it was "father and mother," two, not three or more, father and mother; not a hint of more than one wife. All nature exhibits the male as physically stronger, and the
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leader, which is also assumed in the Bible regarding man; and often when the man is spoken of he stands for the whole family. But while this is constantly so, there are not wanting records of women of such individuality that they are accorded special notice; and wifehood and motherhood are constantly honored in the history of God's people. Sarah, Abraham's wife, is particularly named and promised blessings. It is one pecul- iarity of our Holy Book, the Bible, that it makes prominent mention of women and children; no such records are found in the holy books of any other religion. Although in most of the Bible history it is assumed that women exerted their due in- fluence and performed their tasks, yet a multitude are named; we readily recall Eve, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Jocobed, the mother of Moses, Zipporah his wife and Miriam his sister, Deborah, "a mother in Israel," who was one of the Judges or Rulers, the mother of Jabez, whose name is not given, but whose prayer shows that she was a notable woman; Ruth the Moab- itess, Hannah the mother of Samuel, Abigail the wife of Nabal and afterwards of David, the woman of Shunem of Elisha's day, and others. The stories of Ruth, Naomi, Abigail and the Shune- mite show us a glimpse of the rural home life of those days, and that in some cases, if not in many, it was sweet and godly; from which we may gather that all through those troubled days there were some who kept the traditions of the Fathers and feared God; and it was just so in Europe preceding the Reformation; through those Dark Ages there were among the people pure hearts and homes where the fire of Pentecost was kept burning. During the later years of the Hebrew kings, preceding the Cap- tivity, we hear little of the women; but we may be sure there were good mothers to have produced Daniel, Shadrach, Meshack and Abed-Nego. At a later period the story of Zacharias and Elizabeth and Mary the mother of our Lord, show us that good women were not wanting in Canaan at that time. The Hebrews had always honored women as other nations, as a rule, did not; and the coming of the Savior put special honor on them; and from Mary of Nazareth down through the Christian Ages woman has been receiving her right. And it is along this particular line of thought I am to speak today. From the sermons of Stephen, Peter and Paul we see how much the early Christian preachers dwelt on the story of the Fathers of the Hebrew peo- ple; the Fathers of the Christian church are just as worthy of mention, and were as truly called of God as were the Patri- archs; and the leaders of the Reformation were their rightful successors; and the Fathers and Mothers of America, those who first came to these shores, and their immediate children, who were the pioneers of these towns where Christian institutions were planted and have flourished, are as worthy of mention on the Lord's Day in Church service as those whose names are written in the Bible. These are later Worthies of Faith, some of whose names would undoubtedly have been included in the
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XIth of Hebrews had that narrative been written one hundred years ago instead of eighteen hundred years ago. In that re- markable chapter women are named and others referred to. On such occasions as this it is more common that the Fathers receive mention; although often the term is used generically, and the Mothers are just as much meant as the Fathers. I love and honor the Fathers; none more than I; but today I am to speak particularly of the Mothers-the women of our early his- tory; to emphasize what we of America owe to them.
Most of you must be aware that many of the first attempts of Europeans to colonize America were made by "men only." The Spanish colonies around the Gulf of Mexico were thus started and only succeeded after many failures. The ever recurring story makes it almost seem as though Spaniards thought men, monks and the Inquisition were enough, without good women to be honorable wives and mothers. And what was true of the Catholic Spaniards at the south was also true of the Protestant English in Virginia, and at several places on the coast of Massa- chusetts, New Hampshire and Maine. And in Canada Louis XIV followed the Catholic Spanish method. When the term of service of his soldiers expired, which he had sent to Canada, he used his influence to induce both officers and men to settle in that land; but after a time that astute monarch was quite sur- prised and pained to learn that the French population was not increasing, although half-breeds were multiplying from Indian mothers; Louis at once set about correcting his mistake, and proceeded to provide French wives and mothers by Govern- ment aid; the prospect of a husband, a home, and a dower of money was held out as an inducement to women and girls to cross the ocean to Canada; and many ship-loads were thus sent over; while much the larger number were respectable, yet among so many thus secured, of necessity, there would be some of in- different physical, mental and moral quality, which accounts for the complaint of one of the prominent Nuns who had charge of these immigrant women, who wrote of one ship's company as a "cargo of mixed goods." The historian Parkman says of this movement of Louis XIV, "It is a pecularity of Canadian im- migration, at its most flourishing epoch, that it was mainly an immigration of single men and single women. The cases in which entire families came over were comparatively few."
The Protestant English settlements which were attempted on the same plan, with "men only" were failures, all except Jamestown which almost failed, and was only saved by the com- ing of virtuous women, the story of which is told in the popular novel "To Have and to Hold."
The first English settlement which had a healthful and un- faltering growth from the start was that at Plymouth; and the women of the Pilgrim band, as wives, mothers, sisters and daughters, had been in consultation with the men before they left England for Holland, and while in the Low Countries they
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were in all the consultations about coming to the New World; and the social unit that came in the Mayflower was not the in- dividual, a man, and he perhaps, a poor debtor, a rake, or a "ne'er do well," but the social unit of the Pilgrims was the family, the Christian family of father, mother and children; and while there were some young men and women of marriageable age in that company, they were not sent because of that fact, but because they were members of some family. And it is sig- nificant of the character of the Pilgrim band that a woman was in the first boat-load sent ashore for final location at Plymouth, and a woman, Mary Chilton, was the first to step on historic Plymouth Rock.
Thomas Weston, a London merchant, who posed as a good Puritan, advanced money for the outfit and vessels of the Pil- grims; but soon became disgusted with the small and slow prof- its; it was his belief that the Plymouth party was hindered by having their families with them; and he determined to try for quicker returns, and sent over a colony of men without family incumbrance, who located on the shores of Massachusetts Bay,; but they soon so rioted among themselves and so abused the Indians that they came near causing their own destruction and that of the Pilgrims also, who saved them from the Indians and then from starvation, and I imagine it was the tender-hearted Pilgrim women who prompted the men to their rescue.
As the years went on the large and rich party in England known as Puritans, found their lot under James I growing harder and harder to bear; he seemed determined to keep the promise he had once made that he would "harry them out of the land." And when he died in 1625 it was soon seen that their lot would be no easier under his son Charles I; they were now hearing much about the success of the Plymouth colony, and in 1627 and 1628 there were many deliberations among them whether considerable numbers should not emigrate to this new land; the historian Green says these matters "were talked over in every Puritan household; it is certain that the women of these house- holds knew all about the plans and purposes, and when all was ready to begin, John Endicott was sent ahead to prepare the way, and Bancroft significantly says that Endicott's "wife and family were the companions of his voyage, the hostages of his fixed attachment to the New World." So woman was at the first permanent settlement of Massachusetts Bay as she had been at Plymouth; and when the Connecticut Colony was about to begin, the advance party was sent by sea and the Connecticut River, and, as at Plymouth, it was a woman, Rachel Stiles, who first stepped ashore at Old Windsor. And it was the same at New Haven, the godly and refining English woman was there.
Virginia, with its contract women for wives and mothers, had a dubious growth for many years; what afterwards gave that Colony its distinguished character was the fact that during the Commonwealth times in England many of the Cavaliers took
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their families, wives and children, to that Colony, and their women were among the very best of Old England; and in this we see again the distinctive English Christian social unit-the family.
The Pilgrim and Puritan women who helped make these New England settlements a success from the start were some of the very best of women-kind of any race or age. One has but to read their record to admire them, and to discover the secret of the dominance of their descendants in the making of this Nation.
In the Puritan party of England were many representatives of the nobility, and some of them were planning to come to America with their wealth, retainers and titles; but the major part of the would-be settlers would not agree that the titles and special privileges of the nobility should be recognized and con- tinued in the new settlements; and so most of them held back from coming; but quite a number of relatives and some of their daughters came, and among them Lady Arabella, daughter of the Earl of Lincoln, and wife of Isaac Johnson, an excellent man and a great helper of the colony with money and service; in letters of the time we read much of Lady Arabella's gentle Christian graces; she and her husband were not rugged enough to endure the hardships and were among the first to die. Bancroft says of those early Puritans and their efforts, "Woman was there to struggle against unforeseen hardships, unwonted sorrows." As half the Pilgrim band died that first awful winter at Plymouth, so about 200 of the Puritans at Salem, Charlestown and Boston during that first summer. After describing their sufferings, Bancroft says, "Their enthusiasm was softened by the mildest sympathy with suffering humanity, while sincere faith kept guard against despondency and weakness. Not a hurried line, not a trace of repining appears in their records.
For that placid resignation which diffuses grace round the bed of sickness, and makes death too serene for sorrow and too beautiful for fear, no one was more remarkable than the daughter of Thomas Sharp, whose youth and sex, and, as it seemed, unqualified virtues, won warmest eulogies.
. Even little children caught the spirit of the place; and in their last hours, awoke to the awful mystery of the impending change, awaited its approach in the tranquil con- fidence of faith, and went to the grave full of immortality." It is easy to see that such men were made what they were, not only by their faith, but by that faith shared and sustained by their sweet, intelligent and godly women. If any of you are curi- ous to know more of just what those women were, read the story of Margaret Tyndall, third wife of Governor John Winthrop. Her letters show the strong and beautiful character which sustained and encouraged her husband during the planning for the Puritan colony. He was a prominent lawyer of good estate and social standing, and she from a family of still higher social grade; she not only intelligently counselled him in advance, but cordially
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assented to his going at first alone when she must remain behind for motherhood, and afterwards when he had not hidden one of the trials from her, she was anxious to join him that she might share them with her beloved husband and so help and cheer him and advance the great cause. It is clearly evident that Ply- mouth Rock, Massachusetts Bay and the Connecticut Colonies would never have been embalmed in song and story if it had not been for the quality of our foremothers, who possessed "un- feigned faith" like that of Lois and Eunice, the grandmother and mother of Timothy. And with their assured faith was their placid devotion, their quiet but deep enthusiasm, their unrepin- ing endurance, their gentle ministrations, and their fervid love, all of which made the men what they were-good men nobler. The story of some of those women has been written and given the world; the story of many more ought to be carefully gathered together and published to the world before the records are lost. A concrete case often impresses us more than general facts; and for my purpose today I have one at hand that is peculiarly ap- propriate for this place and occasion; for the "mother in Israel" of whom I am about to speak was born in the town of which Wapping and South Windsor was a part, and many of her de- scendents have lived in this town; and some, I think, in this parish, and some of them are, I think, here present today. She was not one of the first settlers of Plymouth or Massachusetts Bay, but the daughter of one of them, who soon left the seaboard settlements and came to this Valley and helped to make this town and surrounding region; so this woman and her descend- ants are a part of your history, and her story peculiarly appro- priate to this occasion. I refer to
ESTHER WARHAM.
Esther, or as sometimes written in the old records, Hester Warham, was born in Windsor, where her remarkable father was the first pastor. It would be highly interesting to speak of that Forefather, but I am to tell of his daughter, a Foremother. Before her father came to this town he lived a short time in Dor- chester, Mass., whose first minister was Richard Mather, another remarkable man. His son Eleazar was called to be the first pastor of the Northampton, Mass., church, and needing a wife, sought her in the family of his father's friend, John Warham; and having wooed and won the young and attractive girl, the impatient lover hastened the marriage, and Esther became a bride when a month or two less than 15 years of age. This need not surprise us, for the character, mission and environments of those first settlers hastened development of body and mind, and the Puritans in a corrupt age looked on early marriage as a safe- guard of the purity of the home. Some time before this Gov- ernor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, was
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not yet 18 years old when first married in England, and his second bride was but 17 years old at marriage, and both unions were looked upon with approval by all concerned at the time; and 70 years after the time of Esther's marriage Sarah Pierrepont, was only 17 years of age when she married Jonathan Edwards, the grandson of our Esther. Another common practice in those early New England days was the intermarriage between ministers' families; Esther, a minister's daughter was married to a minister, the son of a minister, and afterwards six of her seven daughters married ministers, and some of her sons took ministers' daughters to wife. This girl wife lived happily with Mr. Mather almost ten years, and after a widowhood of five years married her husband's successor in the pastoral office, Solomon Stoddard, with whom she lived in happiness 55 years. He was no common man; the grandson of Governor Winthrop's sister, he possessed great ability.
The President Timothy Dwight of Yale College, one hundred years ago, said that he "possessed, probably, more influence than any other clergyman in the Province during a period of 30 years. He was regarded with a reverence which will scarcely be rendered to any other man."
Another said of him, "His look and behavior was such as gave those who conversed with him, occasion to say of him, as the woman of the prophet, 'I perceive that this is a man of God.'" The Indians called him "The Englishman's God," and his grandson, Edwards, said he was a "very great man." Yet it was he, more than anyone else, who introduced into the New England churches what was called the " Half-way Covenant," which was accepting church membership before conversion, whence it was called "a half-way covenant."
Stoddard was a man of intellect and faith, and came to his belief in the "Half-way Covenant" in a singular manner, in which his remarkable wife, without intending to lead to that result, played a leading part. It is said that, in the common ac- ceptation of the term, he was not a converted man when he began his Northampton pastorate, and that when that change did come to him the human agent that led to it was Mrs. Stoddard. The way in which the story has come down to us shows how near we really are to those days.
My great-grandfather was born in 1715, and it is as though he, having known some of the parties, told the story to his son, my grandfather, and he to my father, and my father to me. We are only three lives, if long ones, away from it. Dr. In- crease N. Tarbox, who was born in East Windsor, so a son of Windsor town, had the story from Dr. Thomas Williams of Providence, who had it from Dr. Joseph Lathrop of West Springfield, who was ordained about the time Edwards left Northampton, when some must have been still living who readily recalled Stoddard and his wife Esther. The nub of the story is that as time went on Mrs. Stoddard feared that her able husband
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had not an experimental knowledge of Christ as a Savior, which opinion was shared by some of her intimate friends, a company or godly women; and Mrs. Stoddard began praying with these women for her husband's conversion; after a while he noticed that his wife was keeping an appointment a certain day of the week, and asked her about it. Mrs. Stoddard frankly told him the burden of her heart which deeply affected him. Not long afterwards, when officiating at the communion table, he had a new view of Christ as his personal Savior, which produced a radical change in his thinking and preaching. And it is a curious and interesting fact, showing how personal experiences are apt to color and shape our thinking and conduct, that that experience having come to Mr. Stoddard at the communion table he ever after at- tached a new and deeper meaning to that rite, thinking it al- most, if not quite, a saving ordinance. There is much reason to accept this story; and it shows both the strong individuality and the deep spiritual piety of Esther Warham.
Mr. Stoddard was an advocate of the Half-way Covenant, and practiced it; but through the influence of his wife he was so spiritual minded, and his preaching so pungent, that it undoubt- edly saved his congregation from the spiritual deadness which prevailed in most of the churches where the Half-way Covenant was practiced; and there was a spiritual atmosphere in that town which was ready to be affected by the searching preaching of Edwards, who succeeded Mr. Stoddard, and whose grandson he was.
Esther survived her husband seven years, and thus as wife or widow of pastors she was identified with that church for 77 years. She was the mother of 13 children, some records say 15; but 13 grew up, married and had families.
Hers was a remarkable experience and hers a remarkable family. Of some of the daughters a few words should be said: The oldest was Eunice Mather, who married Rev. John Williams, first pastor of the Deerfield Church; when that town was cap- tured by the French and Indians in 1704, the whole family were made captives and started for Canada ; Mrs. Williams had a babe but a few days old, and could not endure the hardship; knowing that she would soon fall out and probably be at once killed by the Indians she took a tender and affectionate farewell of her husband, in which the same strong faith of her mother Esther was prominent, and calmly waited for her fate which for her and her babe soon came from the merciless Indian. Mr. Williams and the other children were carried to Canada. All but one daughter were afterward ransomed; that daughter would not be given up by the Indians, afterwards married among them, and many of her descendants are today numbered among the Canada Indians. Stephen, one of the boys was afterwards the first pastor of the Longmeadow Church. Esther Warham's eldest daughter by Mr. Stoddard was named Esther
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after herself, and became the wife of Rev. Timothy Edwards, first pastor of the first Church of this town; she is spoken of as having been stately, handsome, of polished manners, thoroughly educated, having a "business head," being an earnest Christian, and altogether a strong character; she and Mr. Edwards lived together 64 years and she was the mother of 11 children, of whom the fifth, and the only boy, was the distinguished Jon- athan Edwards; one boy among ten sisters! and perhaps that was a reason of his sweetness and gentleness of character, for although as bold as a lion, he was a man of exceeding gentle spirit and breeding. Those ten sisters were thorough scholars and assisted their father in teaching the boys he fitted for Yale College; like their mother they were tall, all six feet or more in height! and Mr. Edwards used to facetiously say he "had sixty feet of daughters!" Seven of the ten married in Connect- icut, and from them are descended some of the most prominent families of this town and State.
The youngest of them was Martha, who was the erratic wife of Rev. Moses Tuthill, the second pastor of this parish, who, I understand preached here some time before the church was organized. Two of their daughters inherited some of their mother's erratic ways, and lived in this part of the town, the last of the two not dying till 1837. During my pastorate the aged people used to tell me anecdotes of the family, one of Martha Edwards Tuthill who was a "thorn in the flesh" to her husband; and perchance, a "means of grace" to him.
Passing over others mention should be made of another granddaughter, Jonathan Edwards' daughter Esther, who mar- ried Rev. Aaron Burr, President of Princeton, N. J., College, who was the father of Aaron Burr, Vice-President of the United States; a man of whom many strange things not to his credit are told. It has often excited wonder that Aaron Burr should have been the unprincipled man he was with such a godly ances- try behind him. But during my studies the past year I have discovered that Jonathan Edwards' grandmother, mother of Rev. Timothy Edwards of our First Church, was a woman of deranged mind, as well as other members of her family; and if we accept the teaching of heredity we need not be surprised that some strange and dark individuals appeared among her de- scendants, as three notable ones did; one each in three succes- sive generations, of whom her granddaughter, Martha Edwards Tuthill of this town was one; her great-grandson, youngest son of Jonathan Edwards, was another; and Aaron Burr, her great-great-grandson was a third.
However we view her, Esther Warham was a remarkable woman; of her mother we know little; but history says her father was an uncommon man; being sometimes called "the gentle Warham," but a noted preacher, who left his impress on Old Windsor.
It is of local interest to us today that John Warham's daugh-
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ter next older than Esther was Sarah. Her granddaughter was Elizabeth Moore Foster, whose body was one of the first buried in the yard directly back of this meetinghouse. not far from where I stand. I understand that all the Fosters of this part of the town, and all the descendants of Edward Chapman Grant, are descendants of this woman, granddaughter of Sarah Warham, sister of our Esther.
We have seen that Esther was wife of the first and second pastors of the Northampton Church and that the third was her grandson, Jonathan Edwards; the fifth was her great-great- grandson, who was the pastor 56 years, and a grandson of his was, in our day, pastor 14 years; which shows that the husbands or descendants of Esther Warham have been pastors of that one church for 158 years of its history; or 160 if we count the two vears when another was associate pastor with one of the others. A vast host of her descendants have been Congregational minis- ters; a half dozen have been College Presidents, some United States Senators, some Governors, others representatives, judges, lawyers, physicians, and many others prominent men and wo- men of this country.
Among the families descended from her who have furnished many noted ministers have been two lines of the Williams family, the Edwards, Dwight, Mather, Stoddard, Hooker, Strong, Por- ter, Parsons, Baccus, Hopkins, Woodbridge, Park, Hawley, Sheldon, and Storrs families, and others I have not recalled; and General W. T. and Hon. John Sherman, outside the pulpit, and who can tell how many others?
As we read her story it not hard to trace her influence; we see it through her uncommon daughters in the parsonages to which they went in different parts of New England; her spirit- uality was felt in many parishes beyond Northampton. It reached the parsonage in South Windsor Street in a letter which she sent her daughter Esther after the birth of Jonathan Ed- wards, congratulating her on the birth of her son, and referring to the death of her own daughter Eunice by the Indians, which breathes a spirit of strong faith and implicit trust in the divine wisdom. But, womanlike, there is a postcript to the letter, in the thoughtful mother appears. She says, "P. S. I would have sent you a half a thousand pins and a porringer of marma- lat if I had an opportunity." Her influence is clearly seen in Jonathan Edwards; many of her traits reappear in him, and it is interesting to know that he was her pastor some years and that she lived to see the first great revival that came under his preaching at Northampton. How that must have rejoiced her devotedly pious soul? When we become acquainted with Ed- wards' grandmother and wonderful wife we are not much sur- prised that he was the man he was. Of him Whittier wrote:
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"In the church of the wilderness Edwards wrought, Shaping his creed at the forge of thought; And with Thor's own hammer welded and bent The iron links of his argument,
Which strove to grasp in its mighty span The purpose of God and the fate of man! Yet faithful still, in his daily round.
To the weak, and the poor, and sin-sick found, The schoolman's lore and the casuist's art Drew warmth and life from his fervent heart.
Had he not seen in the solitudes Of his deep and dark Northampton woods
A vision about him fall?
Not the blinding splendor that fell on Saul, But the tenderer glory that rests on them Who walk in the New Jerusalem,
Where never the sun nor moon are known,
But the Lord and His love are the light alone! And watching the sweet, still countenance
Of the wife of his bosom rapt in trance, Had he not treasured each broken word Of the mystical wonder seen and heard; And loved the beautiful dreamer more
That thus to the desert of earth she bore Clusters of Eschol from Canaan's shore?"
This "wife of his bosom," "the beautiful dreamer," was Sarah, daughter of Rev. John Pierrepont of New Haven, who, when but 13 years of age, had such remarkable religious expe- riences; "trances" Whittier calls them, but wholly unlike those of so-called "mediums;" but such religious exercises that the repute of them went far and wide; and Edwards, before he ever saw her wrote about them and her in his diary, and she became his wife when but seventeen years of age, and seemed from the first a matured character; and when the mother of six children George Whitefield wrote, after a visit to her home, that she was the most beautiful woman he had ever known; and who, from abundant testimony, was as practical and winsome, as beauti- ful. She was a woman after the own heart of Esther Warham, her grandmother-in-law. And while the great men, the Fa- thers of New England, were departing into cold formality in preaching and life, it was such women as this foremother and her daughters and others like them, who prayed, saw by intu- ition, and held by mighty but intelligent faith, the great center of the gospel; and through Esther Warham, her daughter Esther Stoddard Edwards, and her daughter-in-law, Sarah Pierrepont Edwards, an influence was exerted on Jonathan Edwards, by grandmother, mother and wife, by whom more than by any other man, the church of New England was brought back.
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