The Second Great Awakening and Timothy Dwight

Maybe we'll get it. All right.

The end of the 18th century in New England

were times of dismal decline in religion

and have been called the Dark Age of American Christianity.

Gone, if not quite forgotten,

were the glorious days of spiritual harvest

at the preaching of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield in mid-century.

In their place was now cold indifference,

depleted zeal, and worldly preoccupation.

Preachers complained that though they may preach their hearts out,

they only did so to empty pew.

Or heedless slumberers.

As one group of ministers aired the concern, this is 1798.

This is the General Assembly of Presbyterian Church.

We perceive with pain and fearful apprehension

a general dereliction of religious principle and practice.

A visible and prevailing impiety and contempt for the laws and institutions of religion.

And an abandoning infidelity, which in many instances tends to atheism itself.

Well, it was no exaggerated alarmist rhetoric.

For in that early day of our new nation's infancy,

the skies were blackened by the smoke from a bonfire of Bibles.

Can you imagine that in early America?

Bonfires of Bibles.

Bonfires of Bibles.

Mock communions were held by scoffers.

And with the unhinging of religion, morality, indeed common decency, sank to its lowest ebb.

Lawlessness was profuse.

Gambling was rampant.

Drunkenness ubiquitous.

For the first time in our land, women feared the night.

Or even daylight unaccompanied.

Whence this evil...

So we need to be careful as Christians.

A lot of times we talk about the good old days when religion was going well.

We need to revise that historically.

Whence this evil tide which engulfed the young nation at its very birth?

Well, one of the acutest observers, soon to assume the presidency of Yale, had no doubt.

The infectious disease of infidelity had been caught from the midwife, France.

She it was who had assisted America in its birth struggle against England.

But her embrace had been pollution.

For the revolutionary republic had exported its sneering contempt for revealed religion.

Reason...

Here we go.

Thomas Paine.

Reason, it was shamelessly asserted, is the only oracle of man.

The Bible came under mocking assault and was dismissed as, but, quote, a book of stories, fables, invented absurdities and downright lies.

This is from Thomas Paine's The Age of Reason.

And such insidious subversives of faith did their deadly solvent work in workshop, counting room, and parlor and courthouse.

Neither were the colleges exempt from this baneful influence.

Indeed, they were rather a tilled soil for such seeds of infidelity.

And Yale was no exception.

Lyman Beecher, there he is, who entered Yale in 1793, remembered his college years as, quote,

the day of the infidelity of the Tom Paine School.

Here's his further description.

College was in a most ungodly state.

The college church was almost extinct.

Most of the students were skeptical.

And rowdies were plenty.

Wine and liquors were kept in many rooms.

Intemperance, profanity, gambling, and licentiousness were common.

Most of the class before me were infidels and called each other Voltaire, Rousseau, D'Alembert.

These are the names of the French philosophes who were all atheists.

Yale's then president described the dominant beliefs of the students

who had imbibed the heady brew, the heady new teaching from France.

He writes,

Religion, they discovered on the one hand, to be the vision of dotards and nursemaids.

And on the other, a system of fraud and trick imposed by priestcraft for base purposes upon the ignorant multitude.

Revelation was found to be without authority or evidence.

And moral obligation, a cobweb, which might indeed entangle flies, but by which creatures of stronger wing disdained to be confined.

And campus-wide disbelief had an unruly college twin disorder.

Students waxed brazen, even rolling barrels down Tudor's staircases, smashing windows, cutting the rope of the bell to summon students to classes.

I think that still goes on.

It was going on in my undergraduate days, too.

They always tried to get the clapper so they couldn't call for classes.

Even setting off explosives in Commons.

We didn't do that.

As Tudor Moses Stewart,

There he is.

As Tudor Moses Stewart wrote to Benjamin Silliman,

mercifully away on study leave,

There appear to be more devils in Yale College at present than were cast out of Mary Magdalene.

This all proved too much for the aging president, Ezra Stiles, to handle.

There's Ezra Stiles.

Who, they've got that little up there.

That's Haley's Comet.

Because in his day, Haley's Comet came through.

So they're indicating that.

Ezra Stiles.

Yes.

In one attempt to quiet a hall full of convulsive Yalies, chanting and howling jibes,

he beat his cane to shivers on his podium, all unavailingly.

President Stiles' confidence that the evidences of revelation are nearly as demonstrative as Newton's Principia

had not arrested the apostasy of the student body.

Actually, he just, he literally, they dragged him out.

He had this nervous breakdown and they had to drag him away.

It was Ezra Stiles.

Ezra Stiles, yeah.

It would take another champion to do battle with the burgeoning infidelity

and put to flight the philosoph Philistines.

Is that why he's wearing a bib?

Yeah, exactly.

Exactly.

Well, always a cute, always a cute, Raul.

The champion.

Looks like they're related to American history.

That's right.

That's right, Sammy.

They are.

That champion was Timothy Dwight.

There he is.

Who assumed the presidency of Yale in 1795.

What does that have to do with Bible study?

Well, this is a history of the Second Great Awakening at Yale.

So things that God did in extraordinary ways at Yale many years ago.

Wow.

Yeah.

Should be interesting.

We'll see.

We'll see.

So Timothy Dwight.

At that time, not one in ten of the more than a hundred students at Yale even professed Christianity.

What would be the medal of the new president?

The wily students determined to put him immediately to the test.

According to custom, seniors were to submit a list of proposed questions for disputation.

In the list, they pugnaciously included the question, are the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments the word of God?

The old regime would never have permitted such a volatile topic, lest its handling induce doubts in the weak.

And the students naturally assumed that such repression proved Christianity could only be supported by authority and not by argument.

But Timothy Dwight was not of the old order.

And indeed, he had spent much of his adult life preparing to answer questions like that.

And he, to the students' great surprise, selected that very question for senior disputation.

Okay, this is how the president would teach the Yale seniors rhetoric, disputation, and debate.

They would pick a topic, and he would teach them debate on that, and this is the topic that they picked.

So he directed the students to give the question their best critical zeal.

And that he would not assume their arguments reflected their own opinions, lest they be worried about their grade.

The debaters went to work with gleeful exhilaration.

Virtually all came forward as champions of infidelity.

Timothy Dwight allowed them to make their best case, then proceeded, as one observer wrote it,

in a torrent of irresistible argument and animated eloquence,

to decimate the case against the scriptures and to effectually bolster its veracity.

The persuasive performance, quote, left the stoutest infidel utterly confounded.

His bolts had the effect of lightning upon the whole college.

For the next six months, he preached and taught incessantly on the subject.

The cannonade was formidable, but more would be required to turn things around.

These are Dwight's, the nature and danger of infidel philosophy.

So these are sermons that he was preaching to the students at the time.

The seniors had been influenced, but when the next class entered Yale, so the fall of 1796,

only one freshman was a professing Christian.

The sophomore class contained none.

The junior only one.

And the senior, still a mere eight to ten, professed Christians.

The college church, so see, once the revival went through and they graduated, they were all gone.

Nothing in the lower classes.

The college church had dwindled to two members.

The college communion service at Yale at 1799 saw only one student present at an all-college communion service.

Shubel Bartlett, good for him.

Moore participated in a mock communion that they held simultaneously in the dining hall.

It was against this backdrop that a mighty work of God unfolded at Yale.

It seems that some students, hearing of the awakening work of the Spirit of God in other places,

and in some cases having seen it for themselves while on break back home for them in Kentucky and Tennessee,

so there were some revivals down there,

that Yale, they began, they gathered and began weekly prayer

that Yale might be included in God's blessing of awakening.

And this gathering for earnest prayer had gone on faithfully for many, many months

when God came down in, as they said, the plentitude of power.

Widespread conviction of sin swept the college, and quote,

daily, almost hourly, students submitted themselves to God.

Of the 230 students then at Yale College, about one-third were converted,

and 35 went on to become preachers of the gospel.

The candidates for ministry in 1792, 5%.

In 1805, it jumped up to 31% going in to the ministry.

As one student present recalled, this is Porter of Farmington,

quote,

those were truly memorable days, such triumphs of grace,

none whose privilege it was to witness them had ever before seen.

So sudden and so 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 with joy,

and those who knew not what it meant were awestruck and amazed.

Wherever students were found in their rooms, in chapel, in the halls, in college yard,

the reigning impression was, surely God is in this place.

The salvation of the soul was the great subject of thought,

of conversation, and of all-absorbing interest.

Among those touched of God in this revival was Benjamin Silliman.

There he is.

This is the revival of 1802.

Tudor Benjamin Silliman, he was a tutor at the time.

In a letter that he writes home to his mother,

so he was a tutor at the time,

he gives us a picture of how dramatically Yale had changed.

And you remember the Lyman Beecher.

Wines and liqueurs and most of it, you know, all of that.

So contrast it with Lyman Beecher's earlier account that I had read.

So this is Yale, June 11, 1802.

Dear Mother, it would delight your heart, my dear mother,

to see how the trophies of the cross are multiplied in this institution.

Yale College is a little temple.

Prayer and praise seem to be the delight of a greater part of the students,

while those who are still unfeeling are awed into respectful silence.

Pray for me, my dear mother, that while I am attempting to forward others

in this journey to heaven, I may not myself be a castaway.

One of the remarkable things about that revival of 1802

is how quickly, again, its effects seem to pass from the college.

Within five years, of course, all who had experienced the revival

had then graduated.

So within five years, the number of professed Christians

in all the classes of Yale did not exceed 15.

So this is one of the peculiar features.

Sorry about that.

This is one of the peculiar features of college ministry

and largely, actually, church ministry in a college town.

You're always starting again, seemingly from scratch.

Any foundations are kind of up and gone at graduation.

There they go.

There they go.

And you have very little remaining to build upon oftentimes.

Well, in such circumstances, one needs to rapidly pass on

in the depth and to multiply disciples.

2 Timothy 2.2.

These things that you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses,

these commit to faithful ones who will be able to teach others also.

That's what needs to be done.

And, of course, we're busying ourselves with doing just that around here.

Somehow this broke down at Yale,

and the blessing was not passed along to succeeding classes of incoming students.

Tutor Chauncey Goodrich, there he is,

he reflected much on this matter,

and he thought that the remarkable supernatural quality of revival

made students so affected,

it made them think that their own systematic effort at evangelism

would be paltry compared with the sudden and sovereign divine blessing from above.

Isn't it interesting?

So they were actually discouraged from putting forth their hands.

In other words, they waited for revival to kind of come down from heaven,

just praying and praying and praying and praying that it would happen,

and praying, great, all these prayers were great,

instead of themselves actually going out and trying to evangelize the incoming classes.

So it's fascinating.

But in God's sovereign mercy, another revival did come in the spring of 1808.

A revival of great power and extent had already been in progress a number of months

in the city of New Haven, so right across the college fence,

but it hadn't jumped the college fence,

and it hadn't stirred the student body,

which kind of looked on unaffected and indifferent.

Well, this broke the fatherly heart of Dwight.

He grieved that the spirit might come so close to his young wards

and yet pass them by.

It was with heavy heart that Dwight took up the Saturday evening service in college

in preparation for the Sabbath.

The melancholy contrast between an awakened New Haven,

right just across the fence,

and a slumbering Yale settled upon him with overwhelming weight.

He could not complete the opening hymn.

His usual loud and sonorous voice became weak and tremulous,

recalled one of the students.

He sang but a single stanza and stopped.

Then came the prayer in which the distraught Dwight poured out his heart.

He acknowledged the sovereignty of God in the dispensations of his grace,

but made that very truth the ground of his appeal before the throne for his sons.

Never did a minister plead more fervently for his people,

recalled one present,

who would soon experience in his own soul the fulfillment to the president's pleas.

Never a father more importunately for his children than he did for his pupils before them.

The next morning, Sabbath,

Dwight preached upon Christ's words to the dead son of the widow of Nain.

Young man, I say to thee, arise.

That was the text.

And it was these words that the spirit spoke in power to many a student's heart that morning.

Conviction of sin was deep and pungent.

It's a phrase that they always use.

Deep and pungent.

Another revival had commenced.

Dwight was overjoyed to see the travail of his soul.

And he addressed the students upon his regular Saturday night meetings and Sunday services.

No preparation.

No notes.

Just spoke straight from his heart.

He also set up weekly meetings,

oftener than when required,

for students under conviction that he might shepherd them to Christ in his grace and forgiveness.

Indeed, Dwight allowed none of the numerous duties as president and instructor

to keep him from distressed souls in need of gospel comfort,

but laid himself open at all times to the calls of those who sought his spiritual aid,

recalled one student.

And many there were who closed with Christ upon their knees in his study with Dwight tenderly beside them.

Isn't that a wonderful image?

The president of Yale leading these men to Christ on their knees in his own study.

Had those who sought his instructions been his own children, writes one of his charges,

he could hardly have treated them with more kindness or shown greater solicitude

to see them in the arc of safety.

Well, not only was Dwight's study hallowed by the conversion of students,

some students were in such distress under the weight of their conviction

that they were confined to their rooms in spiritual agony.

And Dr. Dwight had to make house calls to the dorms to work the gospel physic.

In this task, he had the able assistance of a young Elisha,

not young in that picture when they painted it,

but his name was Asahel Nettleton, Asahel Nettleton, and there he is.

So he would go on to be one of the foremost evangelists of the awakening,

which spanned about the first three decades of the 19th century.

And it was at Yale as a student under Dwight that he received his first training.

He was much in prayer for the work of the Spirit in his fellow Yalies

and didn't miss any indications that God was answering his prayer.

He always has his antennae up to see which of his fellow students

was experiencing conviction of the Spirit.

Often did I see him, recalled one of his classmates,

interestingly called with the name Jonathan Lee, which I know him well.

Often did I see him with one or two heart-burdened youth of his youngest class,

walking arm in arm in the college yard before evening prayers,

conversing upon the great interest of their souls.

His conversation with such individuals, his silent and unostentatious labors,

his meeting for prayer and conference,

held a very prominent and important place in that memorable and joyful season.

Young Asahel and President Dwight made a good team.

It seems the president was even willing to be awakened in the middle of the night

to come to a stricken student's side.

Neither was Nettleton reluctant to call on the president at that hour

under urgent circumstances.

On one occasion there was such a desperate case of despairing agony of conviction.

The balm of Gilead was needed now for the wounded soul.

Nettleton found the sufferer and went immediately for the president,

stirring him from his slumbers.

Dwight came at once there in his robe, his nightgown.

As one president described the scene,

for a short time the president seemed overwhelmed.

So deeply did he share in the agony of the agonized.

At length, however, taking a seat by his bedside,

he gradually directed the anxious inquirer unto the divine sufficiency

and the infinite fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He recited the invitations of the gospel before the student

and then followed his paternal counsel by prayer to God.

That prayer was heard and the words which he spoke

were a healing balm from on high.

A sweet serenity seemed to steal over the agitated sinner's mind.

A serenity which was the harbinger of a joy that came

in a short time after

and was unspeakable and full of glory.

What a wonderful picture.

The president of Yale College making little room calls

to those stricken.

Well, that stricken soul which found grace

in the early hours of the morning

went on to become a missionary.

He would always remember that young Elisha,

Nettleton,

at the president's side.

As he wrote later,

he remained with me all night.

Yeah, President Dwight went back and resumed his sleep,

but Nettleton stayed with the young convert all night.

He remained with me all night.

He was besieging the throne of grace.

His whole soul seemed bent on my deliverance.

Man never pleaded with more fervency

and I cannot doubt

that I was more indebted to him

for my relief

than to any other person.

Some 30 others

had a similar testimony

of God's converting work upon their souls

and three quarters of those

went on into ministry

upon graduation.

Such was some of the fruit

of the revival of 1808.

And yet,

in the passing of a mere four years,

the college was again

a place of spiritual decline.

It seems that this sad state

prompted several seniors,

unknown to each other,

to devote the last hour of the day

to prayer that God would again come in power.

It seems further,

again unknown to each other,

that the focused prayer

was devoted to one student in particular

who was a figure of wide influence on campus,

baneful influence, alas,

and no friend of vital godliness.

Elias Cornelius.

There he is.

I couldn't find another picture,

so I just took it from one of my volumes.

Elias Cornelius

was the subject

of these several independent intercessions.

And these pleadings,

God suddenly and dramatically answered.

Cornelius was soundly converted,

seemingly out of the blue,

to the amazement of the intercessors

and to the alarm of his previous companions,

with whose company Cornelius immediately broke.

Cornelius foreswore swearing,

bought a Bible,

and began to evangelize.

And in this,

God granted remarkable fruitfulness.

As one astonished observer wrote,

with his characteristic ardor,

he now sought,

in conjunction with his new Christian friends,

to bring others to a knowledge of the Savior,

whom he found so precious to his own soul.

Their labors were attended,

he continues to write,

their labors were attended

with the happiest results.

Nearly 20 principally members of the senior class

gave evidence of a genuine change of heart.

And thus,

the college awakening of 1812

has come to be called,

in history,

the Elias Cornelius revival.

Thankfully,

Cornelius' influence was not lost to Yale

with his graduation,

for he remained to study theology

in preparation for a hoped missionary career,

hopeful missionary career.

And it was Cornelius,

who was at the center

of a small group of burning souls,

who had an ardent desire for God

to repeat again

his mighty dealings at Yale College.

Every Sunday morning,

well before church,

these stalwarts,

brave the snow,

they began in December,

and for a,

brave the snow

for about a half a mile distance,

at the early hour of 3 a.m.

to gather in a secluded place

for earnest supplication,

that God would again pour out his spirit.

It was quite a commitment,

but it seemed the warmth of their hearts

more than compensated

from the chill of the winter.

As one who braved the hour

and frost remembered,

quote,

I will recollect

one very cold night

in which we walked

nearly half a mile from college

at the early hour

of 3 of the clock

to a private room to pray.

And I have always remembered

that morning

as one of the happiest

I ever enjoyed.

It was truly a season

in which heaven seemed

to be let down

to earth.

Well,

the prayer warriors,

happily,

happily,

this pattern,

then having bombarded

the strongholds

with intercession,

got up from their knees

and actually went forth.

They went through the college

room to room

heralding the good news.

As one Yale student

who went on

to be a Baptist minister

described the adventure,

scarcely a room

did they enter

in which there was not found

at least one awakened sinner,

some infidels

bolted their doors

determined to shut out

the visitors

and to shut out conviction.

But the Spirit of the Lord

reached them too

and compelled them

not only to open their doors

but also their hearts

to receive the truth.

So universal

was the excitement

that there were not

more than three

or four students

in the college

who were not impressed

with a concern

for their souls.

About 80

were considered

as fruits of the revival.

And many will forever

bless God

that Cornelius

was there

and labored

for their salvation.

Well the numbers

seem staggering

but Cornelius' recollection

corroborate

the testimonies

that we have

from several students.

So,

so universal

was the Spirit's conviction

that rooms

were designated

in every Yale

entryway

for those

gathering

seeking salvation.

Oh,

what things

do we witness?

Writes Cornelius

from the Ramparts.

Let heaven and earth

rejoice.

The Prince of Peace

and Glory

is riding

through the world.

The angel

is flying

in the midst

of heaven

with the everlasting

gospel.

Oh,

what a time

to live in.

Rejoice,

ye heavens and earth,

for the day

of his power

and glory

and grace

has come

and who will not

bow before him?

Well,

one remarkable story

connected with

these events

is that of

Henry Obukaya.

Oh,

there he is.

Wow.

Yeah.

Now,

there's a look.

So,

a Hawaiian

refugee

from tribal wars

on his island,

the Sandwich Islands,

they called them

at the time,

in which he had lost

both of his parents.

Apparently,

this young guy,

he just,

everybody was just

so sanguinary.

Everybody was being killed

and he saw,

he saw this

large canoe.

It was actually

a western ship

out in the bay

and he just

swam out

and hid himself

in it

as a stowaway

and then it

sailed around,

sailed around

and when it

finally came to port,

it was New Haven

and he found his way

onto the Yale campus.

So,

there he is,

Obukaya,

wandering around

the college yard

in a rather

ill-fitting

sailor suit

that he had located

on board

and he's

discovered

and taken in

by a Yale student

and eventually

ends up

living with

President Dwight

where he

was taught

to read

and to write

along with

a daily dose

of gospel.

As he wrote

in his memoir,

I heard of God

as often as I lived

with this family.

He's talking about Dwight.

He was then

taken into the home

of Samuel Mills,

Samuel Mills,

the son

of the famous

Haystacker

who,

like his dad,

also had a passion

for missions.

Mills

was the bosom

companion

of Elias Cornelius

and with such

companionships,

it surprises us

little

that Henry Obukaya

eventually came

to Christ.

And it was

Cornelius,

Elias Cornelius,

who had the idea

of starting

a foreign mission

school

to equip

Obukaya

and others

like him

to carry

the gospel

back to their

people.

And this was

the great desire

of Obukaya.

He said,

I've got to get

the gospel

back to any

who survived

my home

in the Sandwich Islands.

Well,

the Yale senior

who first found

Obukaya,

Edwin Dwight

was his name,

wandering around

New Haven,

he became

the first

principal

of this

foreign missions

college

that they

established

in Cornwall,

Connecticut.

It was founded

in 1817.

Sadly,

as so often

happens

in these

circumstances,

Obukaya

never made

it back

to his people

with the gospel.

He died

of typhus

in 1818.

So often,

they just

wouldn't have

the same immunities

and would be

so vulnerable

to a lot

of these diseases

and would die

in training

before they could

get from their

mission college

back to their

mission fields.

So he dies

of typhus

in 1818.

But his story

was written up

and published

as a tract

which stirred up

a heart for missions

among many.

And in fact,

his classmates

at Yale

decided,

we're going

to take up

the torch

and we're

going to get

the gospel

to the

Sandwich Islands

for Obukaya.

And it was

not long

before another

son of Eli,

Hiram Bingham.

There he is.

Hiram.

Yeah,

that was kind

of the fashion

of photography

in those days.

They didn't want

you to crack

a smile.

Very hard

to find

a smile

in the days

of Deragatite

or whatever.

So,

yes,

Hiram Bingham,

he actually

would bring

the gospel

to the land

of Obukaya.

Interestingly,

Hiram Bingham,

missionary,

first missionary

to the Sandwich Islands,

had a son,

Hiram Bingham II,

who's actually

a friend of Raul.

No,

that's the great

grandson.

Hiram Bingham II,

who came back

to teach at Yale,

grew up as a missionary

kid,

came back to teach

at Yale,

and was in

archaeology and

anthropology.

Hiram Bingham II,

he's the one

that went down

to Machu Picchu

and got all

his stuff

and brought it

back,

and was such

a picaresque

character,

really a fascinating

fellow,

that the movies,

oh,

it was Harrison Ford.

Yeah,

yeah.

Indiana Jones,

yes,

is based upon

that character.

We vacation

with his son

before you've met him.

That's right,

that's right,

yeah,

yeah,

Raul is corroborating

all of these things,

so it's clearly true.

So,

yes,

but that fellow

was actually the son,

so the Indiana Jones

stories are based

on the son

of this man right here

that's not smiling.

So,

yes,

ah,

the thick web

of history,

how fascinating.

Oh,

he's not here.

Well,

no sooner

had the great revival

of 1815

begun to wane

than Cornelius

and his band

were praying

for another visitation.

This time,

the circle

of intercessors

was to be wider.

A plan is on foot

for establishing

a concert of prayer

in all the colleges

in the United States.

at nine of the clock

every Sabbath morning,

wrote Cornelius

to a friend.

Our concert

was held

last Sabbath morning

and will be continued

till another revival

of religion

and from that period,

I hope,

till the millennium.

And so,

they continued

praying

and proclaiming.

See,

there's the combination.

Praying

and proclaiming.

Interceding

and entreating

and rejoicing

in the harvest

that God

granted their labors.

And what a joy

was theirs

in that great day

of God's power.

As Cornelius wrote

to a co-laborer,

and may this be

our final charge

here,

or our charge,

not final.

Oh,

my brother,

how rich

a reward

in this world

do those enjoy

who have any reason

to hope

they have been

instrumental

of saving souls.

No matter

how much toil

has been sustained,

one soul

is enough

to pay

for toil

infinitely greater.

Blessed Jesus,

strengthen our weak faith.

Fill our hearts

with the Spirit

of Heaven

and make us

burn as flaming fires

in Thy service.

Does not your soul

respond,

Amen.

Even so,

Lord Jesus.

Or,

in the words

of Timothy Dwight,

I love Thy kingdom,

Lord,

the house

of Thine abode,

the church

our blessed

Redeemer saved

with His own

precious blood.

For her,

my tears

shall fall.

For her,

my prayers

ascend.

To her,

my cares

and toils

be given

till toils

and cares

shall end.

Just a final

thought here,

and then I'm

determined to leave

some room

for questions.

Do you recall

how quickly

dismal days

of spiritual

decline

plagued New

England

with Yale

as a microcosm

of such speedy

declension?

Remember the pattern

here.

One class

would be revived

and Yale

would be described

as a Bethel,

the very house

of God.

Then,

in a few

short years,

scarcely any

sign

of spiritual

vitality.

Surely,

this should

supply

a special

urgency

to the need

to relay

spiritual blessings

to the next

generation.

Our faith

does not pass

automatically

from one

generation

to the next.

No.

the relay

of faith

must be

deliberate.

Again,

2 Timothy 2,

2,

what you have

heard from me

in the presence

of many witnesses,

commit to

faithful ones

who will be

able to

teach others

also.

That unbroken

relay

across

generations.

We can ask

ourselves,

what are we

doing to

relay the

full wealth

of gospel

conviction

and

experience

to the

next

generation?

What might

we do?

For this

needs to be

all hands

on deck.

So,

as you reflect,

think about

what has been

relayed to me?

What are some

of the blessings

of godliness

that I have

received

relayed to me

by faithful

people?

And how

might I be

able to

relay some

of that

to the

next generation?

So,

prayers

and

proclamations.

So,

reflect on

that.

Well,

let me

stop there

in case

there are

any

questions

or

comments.

Yeah.

Okay.

I found

this on

the web

for questions

or comments.

I think

colleges

today

usually

require

a statement

of faith

before

acceptance.

But I

take it

that was

not the

case

at Yale

or

did they

change

because

they were

founded to be

a college.

Did they

have or have

a policy

like I

were?

Is it not?

Well,

yes.

They did.

Every

student

would be

required

to place

themselves

under the

means of

grace.

But there

was an

acknowledgement

at the

founding of

Yale that

there would

be many

who came

that even

though they

were in

a Christian

culture

and a

Christian

society

who attended

churches

faithfully.

They

were not

yet

regenerate.

So

they

were not

required to

give an

account of

their

conversion

because many

of them

had not

been

regenerated.

They didn't

give an

account of

their

regeneration

because many

of them

had not.

But what

they did

need to

do was

they needed

to place

themselves

under the

tutelage of

the gospel

and all

would do

that.

So it

was among

the college

laws originally

that every

student must

give themselves

to daily

Bible reading

because that

would be one

of the means

of grace

that God

might use

to regenerate

them.

Then they

also would

have to

place themselves

regularly under

the preaching

of the gospel

in college

chapel or to

attend church

so they

would have

to do

these things

and then they

would also

be instructed

so they

would all

have to

memorize

catechisms.

All the

students would

memorize the

Westminster

Catechism.

Though some

wily students

realized that

if they

acknowledged

themselves as

congregational

or Presbyterians

they'd have to

memorize the

Westminster

Catechism

and if they

could just

suggest that

they were

Anglicans

then the

catechism

that they

had learned

was a little

bit shorter

a few pages

shorter.

So it was

really odd

it's so funny

because the

president was

sitting

why are we

having all

these

why is

everybody

becoming

an Anglican

and they

couldn't

figure it

out and

finally it

occurred to

them

the poor

Presbyterians

have to

students

identify

Presbyterians

or

Congregationalists

they have to

memorize a

longer

catechism

so as soon

as they

equalize the

thing

it reverts

back

as soon

as there

wasn't

a memory

advantage

so

stuff

but

this

begins

to

fall away

after the

Civil War

you begin

to have

some

trends

and again

the dynamic

is

once you

see in the

early

Connecticut

and early

Yale

you have

largely

a religiously

homogenous

society

so if we were

to take

the model

that you've

seen

for God

for country

and for Yale

early on

there seemed

to be

no conflict

it was

utter harmony

by being

for the

whole

country

at least

as they

experienced

it

and for

God

because

everybody

in their

country

in their

immediate

surroundings

who would

come to

Yale

was for

God

in the

same

way

largely

largely

I mean

if you

were a Jew

you're in

Rhode Island

if you're a

Baptist

you're in

Rhode Island

like Maryland

yeah

exactly

but when

America

became

much more

diverse

and even

religiously

diverse

then

you have

a challenging

situation

you begin

for country

and for

their perception

of for God

began to not

be perfectly

overlapping

now first

much of the

immigration

was from

northern Europe

and western

Europe

and that was

all Protestant

but then it

began to

shift

Roman Catholics

coming in

it's shift

to southern

and even

eastern

Eastern Europe

a lot of

Jewish immigrants

Irish potato

famine

a lot of

Catholics

coming through

so now

we have a

pretty diverse

culture

and the

trustees

began to

think

okay

are we

going to

be a

college

just for

our

congregationalists

here

our Protestant

congregationalists

or do we

want to be

a national

college

for everyone

here

so then we

need to

loosen up

the strictures

and let

people come

in who

might not

identify

in the

same way

with

Christianity

as we

understand it

so those

were some

of the

chief

dynamics

yeah

yeah

I'm curious

about the

mission school

so I know

another class

you had

mentioned

that

the early

Puritans

when they

were reaching

out to the

Native Americans

they thought

they had to

take away

their culture

and make

them into

their culture

yes

and then

one of the

guys from

Yale

who got

I think

he was one

of the first

ones to go

to the Native

Americans

and let

them

just be

their own

culture

I don't

remember

their name

yeah

so you're

talking about

Brainerd

yeah

so then the

mission school

that was

sort of

at this

point

what was

kind of

their

philosophy

on that

right

yeah

so the

thing is

the

Cornwall

school

yes

and the

shift

was

David

Brainerd

because

David

Brainerd

when he

had experienced

some of the

revival

at Yale

then he

becomes a

missionary

and he's

so he's

among the

Native Americans

and then at

the forks

of the

Delaware

across

Weeksville

he has

an experience

where he

is preaching

and these

Native Americans

respond

indistinguishably

from the

things that he

had seen

in these

staid old

New England

churches

among

you know

the English

settlers

and he

realized

oh my

goodness

they don't

have to be

civilized

as they put

it

before they

can be

gospelized

they

clearly

they clearly

have become

regenerated

and you know

what they

don't have to

live in a

house they

can live in

a teepee

in a

wigwam

and still

be vital

dynamic

godly

Christians

so

this

the Puritans

picked up on

this and

they were

convinced

that this

was so

so they

abandoned

they basically

abandoned that

and said

no no

we can

preach the

gospel

we don't

have to

and yeah

maybe things

are a little

bit strange

we're not

quite sure

if you're

nomadic

how that

works in

with church

membership

there are a lot

of confusing

questions but

we know it's

got to be

possible

but I mean

those are real

questions you

know how do

you do this

off the back

of a horse

how do you

do church

off the back

of a horse

it's challenging

for missionaries

still as we go

different places

but

there's the

indigenizing

principle

the gospel

can find

its home

in any

culture

in any

culture

but then

there's the

pilgrimizing

principle also

the gospel

is never

perfectly

at home

in any

culture

and it

calls us

to repentance

and to

pilgrimage

because we're

citizens

of heaven

so it can

come into

any culture

when the

early Christians

tried to

understand this

do the

Gentiles

need to

become

culturally

Jewish

before they

can become

Christians

circumcision

all that

stuff

in the

Jerusalem

council

no

you don't

have to

become

a Jew

to become

a Christian

you don't

no no

the gospel

can fit

into

any

can find

its home

in any

culture

and this

is pretty

distinctive

Islam

is not

this way

so

vitally

important

we should

probably

conclude

thank you

team

Lord willing

next week

we will

be

jumping

to

the next

century

and we'll

be looking

at

William

Borden

and the

student

volunteer

movement

and

so forth

so

thank you

very much

so this

is called

it all

happened

here

six

generations

of faithful

Christian

witness

in New

Haven

yeah

I'm not

going to

touch this

band

because I

might do

something

terrible

so

I'll

let you

do it

to

PG

to

G

to

the

music