(May 14, 1752-January 11, 1817)
TIMOTHY DWIGHT, American Congregationalist preacher and Christian educator, was born in Northampton, Mass., on May 14, 1752. Dwight was a grandson of Jonathan Edwards, but is known widely for his own service. From his youth he was a quick learner and voracious reader. His mother "began to instruct him almost as soon as he was able to speak; and such was his eagerness as well as his capacity for improvement, that he learned the alphabet at a single lesson; and, before he was four years old, was able to read the Bible with ease and correctness" ("Memoir of the Life of President Dwight" in Theology: Explained and Defended in a Series of Sermons by Timothy Dwight. Twelfth edition. New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1867, p. 4).
At the age of thirteen he began his studies at Yale College, and at the age of seventeen, although having been hindered by various illnesses, he graduated at the head of his class. After graduation he served as the Headmaster at Hopkins Grammar School and as a tutor at Yale. Having been licensed to preach, he served for more than a year as a chaplain in the Continental Army.
He shepherded the Congregational Church at Greenfield from 1783 to 1795, when he was appointed as President of Yale College. His biographer recounts that "The people of his parish...heard of his appointment with extreme regret. They loved their pastor, and they were proud of him, and they could not consent to give him up. Never have we known a parish part with their minister with more reluctance" (p. 20). He labored with great success as the President of Yale until his death in 1817.
Other than the hymns he left the church (the most well-known being I Love Thy Kingdom Lord) his chapel sermons were posthumously printed in five (now four) volumes under the title, Theology: Explained and Defended in a Series of Sermons. The sermons contained in these volumes, being a system of theology, were meant to be preached and made effective in convincing men and converting them to the service of God. The design was to preach each of these sermons within the four years of the college curriculum, so that every graduate should have heard the whole of it.
For comments on these sermons see my previous post here.
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