Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) began his education at Yale College when he was thirteen years old. He served as pastor of the Congregational Church in Northampton, Massachusetts, for over twenty years, and his published sermons were widely circulated throughout America and England. He also served as a missionary to native Americans, and he was called to be president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton) just prior to his untimely death.

In honor of Edwards’ 313th Birthday, here is an excerpt from Day by Day with Jonathan Edwards:

Pray for Others

“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” –James 5:16 KJV

Christians aught to be earnest in their prayers and endeavors for the salvation of others. Christians are the followers of Christ, and they should follow him in this. We see… how great the labor and travail of Christ’s soul was for others’ salvation, and what earnest and strong cries to God accompanied his labors. Here he hath set us an example. Herein he hath set an example for minsters, who should as co-workers with Christ travail in birth with them till Christ be found in them; “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). They should be willing to spend and be spent for them. They should not only labor for them, and pray earnestly for them, but should, if occasion required, be ready to suffer for them, and to spend not only their strength, but their blood for them; “And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved” (2 Corinthians 12:15). Here is an example for parents, showing how they ought to labor and cry to God for the spiritual good of their children. You see how Christ labored and strove and cried to God for the salvation of his spiritual children; and will not you earnestly seek and cry to God for your natural children?

For more information about Jonathan Edwards’ books, visit our website. In March 2017, Revival Sermons of Jonathan Edwards will be published. Click here for more information about this book and to preorder.