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MAJOR SPIRITUAL AWAKENINGS
only those revivals that have attracted wide attention, and only those evangelists who have stood out in popular thinking can be considered. I am aware that tens of thousands of effective revivals, in small churches and limited areas, have been conducted throughout our land and Whose total impact upon our life cannot be fully measured. I am, also, aware that a host of lesser evangelists have revived dead churches, and won multiplied thousands to Christ. These useful evangelists may not have received popular acclaim, but we may feel assured that their names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. A THE GREAT AWAKENING,
1733-1744.
The two human agents of the Great Awakening were Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. It began in a quiet congregational rural parish, in Northampton, Massachusetts, where the scholarly Doctor Edwards was minister. A small group of young people called upon their minister and talked with him about their need, and the community's need, of God, after which the minister began to preach dynamic gospel sermons that stirred the hearts and conscience of all who heard him. He at once gained a reputation as a preacher of commanding influence, and tJhe whole community was spiritually quickened. Within six months three hundred persons were converted and added to the church. There was scarcely a person in the community, old or young, who was left unconcerned about the things of eternity. Sinners repented and turned from darkness to the light, and from their life of sin unto God. Songs of