Timothy Dwight
Timothy Dwight, the oldest son of Jonathan Edwards’ daughter, became president of Yale in 1795. A precocious child with extraordinary discipline, he had obtained his master’s degree from Yale at age 19, and become a tutor. However, his utter devotion to academic pursuits destroyed his health, and at 22 he found himself facing death. God used this to turn Dwight’s mind towards eternity, and a testimony of personal conversion was the result. He regained his health, married, served as chaplain in the Revolutionary Army, and became a pastor. To supplement his income, he founded an academy that soon earned national renown. When the death of Ezra Stiles necessitated a new president for Yale, Timothy Dwight was the clear choice.
Yale Revival of 1802
Yale College in the 1790s had degenerated into a hotbed of radical ideologies, a place where unruly young men were throwing away “shackles” of every sort—governmental, moral and religious—and openly embracing the ideas of the French Enlightenment. Yet by 1802 it had experienced a reviving work of the Spirit of God so great that an eyewitness could write home to his mother, “Yale College is a little temple: prayer and praise seem to be the delight of the greater part of the students.” The College Church, that in 1799 had only four or five undergraduate members, by August of 1802 had seen sixty-three new members added that year alone; out of a student body of 230, about a third had been converted during that revival; and thirty-five went into the ministry, impacting the nation in a profound way.
What had brought about such a marvelous transformation? Was it that the patient “gardening” of Timothy Dwight, a staunch champion of biblical authority, now in his seventh year as president, had finally borne fruit? If so, what had he done right, and what can we learn from his example? What other forces (including the Baptists), outside or within, may have contributed to this work of God? What biblical principles about revival are illustrated by these events? These are the questions we will seek to answer in this article: Timothy Dwight and the Yale Revival.
