The old meetinghouse of the
First Church, Northampton, was packed with worshipers on Sunday morning, March
13, 1737. Edwards had just "laid down his doctrines" for the text, "Behold, ye
despisers, and wonder, and perish"-and then a terrifying thing happened. This
sensational letter, to the Rev. Benjamin Colman in Boston, was published in the
local newspaper and then in the preface to the London edition of A Faithful
Narrative. In
an eery foreshadowing of the metaphorical language of falling and sinking in Sinners, Edwards recounts here a
very literal collapse. (Source: Boston Gazette, Mar. 28-Apr. 4, 1737; WJE
16:65-66.)
Northampton,
March 19, 1737
We in this town were, the last Lord's
day (March 13th), the spectators, and many of us the subjects, of one of the
most amazing instances of divine preservation, that perhaps was ever known in
the land. Our meeting house is old and decayed, so that we have been for some
time building a new one, which is yet unfinished. It has been observed of late,
that the house that we have hitherto met in, has gradually spread at the
bottom; the sills and walls giving way, especially in the foreside, by reason
of the weight of timber at top pressing on the braces that are inserted into
the posts and beams of the house. It has so done more than ordinarily this
spring, which seems to have been occasioned by the heaving of the ground by the
extreme frosts of the winter past, and its now settling again on that side
which is next the sun, by the spring thaws. By this means, the underpinning has
been considerably disordered, which people were not sensible of, till the ends
of the joists, which bore up the front gallery, were drawn off from the girts
on which they rested, by the walls giving way. So that in the midst of the
public exercise in the forenoon, soon after the beginning of sermon, the whole
gallery--full of people, with all the seats and timbers, suddenly and without
any warning--sunk, and fell down, with the most amazing noise, upon the heads
of those that sat under, to the astonishment of the congregation. The house was
filled with dolorous shrieking and crying; and nothing else was expected than
to find many people dead, or dashed to pieces.
The gallery, in falling, seemed to
break and sink first in the middle; so that those that were upon it were thrown
together in heaps before the front door. But the whole was so sudden, that many
of those who fell, knew nothing what it was, at the time, that had befallen
them. Others in the congregation thought it had been an amazing clap of
thunder. The falling gallery seemed to be broken all to pieces before it got
down; so that some who fell with it, as well as those that were under, were
buried in the ruins; and were found pressed under heavy loads of timber, and
could do nothing to help themselves.
But so mysteriously and wonderfully did
it come to pass, that every life was preserved; and though many were greatly
bruised, and their flesh torn, yet there is not, as I can understand, one bone
broken, or so much as put out of joint, among them all. Some, who were thought
to be almost dead at first, are greatly recovered; and but one young woman
seems yet to remain in dangerous circumstances, by an inward hurt in her
breast: but of late there appears more hope of her recovery.
None can give an account, or conceive,
by what means people's lives and limbs should be thus preserved, when so great
a multitude were thus eminently exposed. It looked as though it was impossible
but that great numbers must instantly be crushed to death or dashed in pieces.
It seems unreasonable to ascribe it to any thing else but the care of
providence, in disposing the motions of every piece of timber, and the precise
place of safety where every one should sit and fall, when none were in any
capacity to care for their own preservation. The preservation seems to be most
wonderful with respect to the women and children in the middle alley, under the
gallery, where it came down first and with greatest force, and where there was
nothing to break the force of the falling weight.
Such an event, may be a sufficient
argument of a divine providence over the lives of men. We thought ourselves
called on to set apart a day to be spent in the solemn worship of God, to
humble ourselves under such a rebuke of God upon us, in the time of public
service in his house, by so dangerous and surprising an accident; and to praise
his name for so wonderful, and as it were miraculous, a preservation. The last
Wednesday was kept by us to that end; and a mercy, in which the hand of God is
so remarkably evident, may be well worthy to affect the hearts of all who hear
it.
[Jonathan Edwards.]
