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/* 1730-1740: The Great Awakening */
In the 1730s and 1740s, there was a spiritual revival known as the "Great Awakening." A glorious [[Christian]] fervor spread throughout the colonies, helping to bring them closer together in terms of beliefs, customs and practices. Led Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, this was called "New Light" revivalism to distinguish it from the spiritualism of the 1600s.
Jonathan Edwards was brilliant man who graduated valedictorian at age 17 from [[Yale University]]. (Harvard was founded in 1636; the College of William & Mary in 1693; and Yale in 1701). Edwards developed a sermon entitled "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." It was so powerful that it moved listeners to tearfully repent simply upon hearing it, and remains the most prominently-cited example of "fire-and-brimstone" preaching.
George Whitefield was an even better preacher, perhaps the best ever in the English-speaking world. Known as the "Great Itinerant," he drew enormous crowds for his sermons as he did seven tours on the continent from 1740 to 1770. He would simply arrive at a public place, like the Boston Commons, and many thousands would show to hear his sermon. They did not leave disappointed.
