Welcome back to another episode of five minutes in church history. On this episode we are continuing our exploration of some of these great figures and

trying to get at them in five sayings and as we begin this month of October and this

first week of October we have to turn to our friend America's greatest

theologian according to the Encyclopedia Britannica Jonathan Edwards this is

very fitting because this week,

October 5 is Jonathan Edwards' birthday.

He would be 321 years old.

Well, let's look at Edwards in five sayings. The first saying comes

from the first thing that Edwards wrote that he intended to be published. He had hoped that this essay on The Flying Spider would get published in London's

Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions. This was sort of a publication of philosophical transactions.

This was sort of a publication of gentlemen scientists

in those early moments of the Enlightenment

and Jonathan Edwards had made these observations of the Flying Spider in New England and he wrote them down and he had hoped to get them published.

Curiously enough, this what we call the Spider letter was written on October 31st, 1723. Edwards is just 20 years old.

He gives a report of his observations of the flying spider and then as a good scientist he speaks of his

chorleries and he begins this sentence with the word hence.

Hence, the exuberant goodness of the Creator, who is not only provided for all the necessities,

but also for the pleasure and recreation of all sorts of creatures,

even the insects.

Now, Edwards noticed that as the flying spider would put out a web and sail through the ear and go from tree to tree to tree,

Edwards wanted to put a little smile on that spider's face as if it were enjoying itself

and its recreation and enjoyment.

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