Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1903-10-09
A Communications.

Editors Kennebec Journal:
In your issue of this morning | find
the following expression, Somehow
the bicentenary of the birth of Jona-
than Edwards doesn't awaken so much
Of an echo as the centenary of Emer-
son did. Is it simply because of the
hundred years difference or what
Boston Herald.
'Probably it is because he was not
born i'm Boston Edwards was q power
full personality, and one Of the greatest
men America has ever produced. His
influence on the life and thought OF TIE
generations that have followed him is
far more than Emerson has had or Will
have"
1t seems to me that the writer of the
above take a decided contracted view
Of the history of American literature,
and its influence upon the thought of
the world, when he compares the work
Of dogmatist like Jonathan Edwards,
with that of Ralph Waldo Emerson
whose works are recognized classics to-
days throughout the civilized world.
Edwards was undoubtedly a man of
power in his day; but he was a re-
igous biSot who exerted comparatively
little influence outside of his own
country, and whose sermon. that had
such a mysterious sway over his listen
ers in his own day and generation, no
man would dare preach today in mod
ern church to a modern congregation
The following quotation from one of
Jonathan Edwards sermons gives us a
fair idea of his theology. his breadth of
vision, and his conception of our Heav
emily Father.
"The God that holds you over the pit
of hell, much as one holds Il spider or
some loathsome insect over the fire,
abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked
he looks upon you as
worthy of nothing else but to be cast
into the fire You are ten thou
sand times more abominable in his eyes
than the most hateful, venomous ser
pent is in ours"
This was Edwards conception of his
Creator the Heavenly Father, the God
of infinite love and compa ssion-and
the influence of 4 man who had such
a revolving theology as this is declared
to be greater and more enduring than
that Of Ralph Waldo Emerson! Perish
the thought!
OF the sage OF Concord Col. Thomas
Wentworth Higginson, one of the
ahlest and most discriminating of
American authors, declares in his
Readers History Of American Litera-
ture," that In coming to Emerson we
arrive at the controlling influence if
not the creator, of modern American
thought This is true. 1t was Emer-
son who turned the thought of his day
from tradition and dogma, into chan
nels of original research and indepen-
dent judgments. He called attention
to the fact that the people of his day
, were living in retrospective age
hat others have "beheld God and ma
ture face to face; we only through
their eyes. Why should not We" he
declared also enjoy an original re-
lation to the universe? Why should
not we have philosophy of insight
and not of traditon?" There is quite
q difference between the philosophy
here enunciated, and that of Jonathan
Edwards, and yet the writer above
quoted appears 20 think that the latter
-, is eXerting and will continue to exert
a greater influence in the world.
cannot agree with him. TO me Ed
wards is o "reminiscences sincere, but
mistaken man, gone to his reward,
while Emerson is still a living
breathing force, an ever-present power
for the spiritual and intellectual re-
demption of the world.
CITIZEN