CHAPTER I.

•   JONATHAN   EDWAEDS,

THE FATHEE OF AAEON BUEE'S MOTHEE.

IVa Residence in New Toek in 1722 — Sketch of his Oaeeeb—His Wipe and
Daughters—Esther Edwaeds—The Edwaeds Stock—Influence op Jonathan
Edwaeds.

In the autumn of 1'722, when New York was a town of
eight thousand inhabitants, and possessed some of the charac¬
teristics of a Dutch city, an English sea-port, a new settlement,
a garrisoned town, and a vice-royal residence, there used to
walk about its narrow, winding streets, among the crowd of
Dutch traders, English merchants, Indians, officers and sol¬
diers, a young man whose appearance was in marked contrast
with that of the passers-by. His tall, slender, slightly stoop¬
ing figure, was clad in homespun parson's gray. His face, very
pale, and somewhat wasted, wore an aspect of singular refine¬
ment, and though but nineteen years of age, there was in his
air and manner the dignity of the mature and cultivated man.

This was Jonathan Edwaeds, who had just come from
studying divinity at Yale College, to preach to a small con¬
gregation of Presbyterians in the city. New York had an ill
name at that time among the good people of New England.
"The Dutch of New York and New Jersey," said on« of
them, "are little better than the savages of our American
deserts." Jonathan Edwards was sent by a company of
clergymen to this desperate place much in the spirit of those
who, at the present day, send missionaries to Oregon or to
the mining districts of California.

Every thing was adverse to the spread of his faith at that
time in New York, and the young clergyman, after a residence
of only a few months, went home to resume his studies.   Dearly