History of Northampton, Massachusetts, from its settlement in 1654;

CHAPTER XVI.
CONTROVERSY WITH REV. JONATHAN EDWARDS.
Young People Ac- As might liave been expected, the reaction
cused of Read- following such excitement left vital religion
Books.
at a low ebb, and a season of unusual lax-
ness prevailed. During this condition of
affairs occurred the first radical difference between Mr.
Edwards and his people. It originated in 1744, among the
younger and more recently admitted members of the
church, some of whom laid themselves open to censure by
reading immoral books. ^ Mr. Edwards at once took meas-
ures to suppress the evil and punish the offenders. He de-
livered a sermon touching upon the matter in a general
way, called the church together, made his charges and produced
his evidence. Unanimously the church voted to investigate,
and a committee of inquiry was chosen. Without
due consideration, and certainly with questionable
judgment, Mr. Edwards then proceeded to read from the
pulpit the names of the young people implicated, requesting
their appearance at a certain date before the investigating
committee. In the list were the names of many
persons, members of the oldest and most influential families
in the town, as well as of others nearly allied to them.
No discrimination was made between the accused and those
who were merely cited as witnesses. When this revelation
burst like a bomb upon them, church and people were
astounded, "and the town was suddenly all in a blaze."'
1 " Possibly they preferred ' Pamela,' which had then just revealed a new source
of aiDusement to the world, to awakening sermons '"—Leslie Stephen, Hours in a
Library, Series 2, p. «3. The most harmless work of modern fiction would then
doubtless have been denounced by the clergy of New England as an emanation from
the devil, and there may be a grain of truth in the above suggestion.
2 Dwight's Life of Edwards, p. 300.
303
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