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.
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.
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.
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,
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,
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
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
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