He Followed God’s Call

He Followed God’s Call

Our times are in his hands.

ON SEPTEMBER 24, 1757, Aaron Burr Sr., the second president of Princeton College, died at the age of forty-one. Four days later twenty-two students graduated at the college’s first commencement in its new location in Princeton, New Jersey. The next day the board of trustees met and after a time of earnest prayer, elected Jonathan Edwards, father-in-law of Aaron Burr Sr., as the college’s next president.

Jonathan Edwards’ career had begun brilliantly and early. At sixteen, he received a bachelor of arts degree from Yale College. With a master’s degree at twenty-three as well, he accepted a call to minister in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he served for the next twenty-three years and was loved and respected. During these years he married, his family grew to ten children, and his writing and preaching received growing acclaim.

From Northampton, Edwards went to Stockbridge, Massachusetts, a frontier village, where for seven years he found contentment pastoring a small church made up of colonists and Indians.

John Brainerd, brother of David Brainerd and one of Princeton’s trustees, was one of two men sent to Stockbridge to inform Edwards of his election as president. Edwards was surprised, and though he was considered the greatest American theologian and philosopher of his generation, he questioned whether he was qualified. After a period of prayer and counsel from others, he reluctantly accepted the position.

With his wife and family remaining in Stockbridge until spring, Edwards left for Princeton in January. Two daughters, the recently widowed Esther Burr and Lucy, who was staying with her, were already in Princeton.

After his installation as president, Edwards began preaching every Sunday in the college chapel. He also taught theology to the senior class, and his classes quickly became very popular. Edwards became more convinced that God had called him to Princeton.

In February the smallpox epidemic sweeping the country reached Princeton. Since inoculation for the disease was proving successful, Edwards proposed that he be inoculated if his physician recommended it and the trustees approved. With the approval of both, Edwards was inoculaed on February 13, 1758, one month after he had assumed the presidency.

Unfortunately the inoculation did not produce the intended results, and soon Edwards developed smallpox in his throat, making it difficult to swallow. His condition deteriorated rapidly, and he knew he was dying. Realizing he would not see his wife again, he wrote to his daughter:

Dear Lucy, it seems to me to be the will of God that I must shortly leave you; therefore give my kindest love to my dear wife, and tell her, that the uncommon union which has so long subsisted between us, has been of such a nature as I trust is spiritual and therefore will continue forever; and I hope she will be supported under so great a trial, and submit cheerfully to the will of God. And as to my children, you are now to be left fatherless, which I hope will be an inducement to you all to seek a father who will never fail you.

Jonathan Edwards died on March 22, 1758. His physician had to write the difficult letter informing Sarah Edwards of her husband’s death. Sarah found refuge in the same God her husband had preached. She wrote to her widowed and now fatherless daughter, Esther Burr: “What shall I say? A holy and good God has covered us with a dark cloud. O that we may kiss the rod, and lay our hands on our mouths! The Lord has done it. He has made me adore his goodness, that we had him so long. But my God lives, and he has my heart. O what a legacy my husband, and your father, has left us! We are all given to God, and there I am, and love to be.”

Esther Burr, who had been inoculated at the same time as her father, died sixteen days later.

Reflection

What is your reaction to the letter of Sarah Edwards to her daughter, who, unknown to her, was about to die? What can you learn from it for your own life?

The Lord has comforted his people and will have compassion on them in their sorrow.

Isaiah 49:13