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"Charity and Its Fruits" is a collection of sermons by Jonathan Edwards, one of America's most important religious leaders and theologians. Edwards was a significant force in the rise of religious devotion in the United States in the 1730s known as the First Great Awakening and became a popular American revivalist preacher. His "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" is one of the most famous sermons ever given and remains a widely read classic of American literature. "Charity and Its Fruits" is one of Edwards' earlier collections of sermons and the works are concerned with the topics of charity, Christian love, and devotion to God. These inspiring and comforting sermons show what is possible when the faithful act with a charitable spirit rather than with an envious or selfish one. Edwards preached a life of humility, good deeds, and quiet devotion. His discussion of 1 Corinthians 13 remains one of the most powerful ever written. "Charity and Its Fruits" is a reassuring and accessible introduction to one of America's most famous religious figures.… (more)
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The first lecture seeks to prove that "all the virtue that is saving, and that distinguishes true Christians from others, is summed up in Christian love." In this sermon, Edwards' familiarity with the breadth of Scripture is plainly evident. The second and third sermons seek to more fully expound the first three verses of I Corinthians 13 in which Edwards explains how love is more excellent than the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit and that anything which is suffered in the way of duty is vain if not permeated with love.
Lectures four through fourteen focus on the fifteen characteristics of love as described in verses four through seven of I Corinthians 13. Edwards' pastoral concerns are most evident here as he labors to show how love will be longsuffering, kind, unselfish, etc. Edwards' penetrating application lays bare the human heart in ways that I have rarely seen in other sermons.
The final two sermons deal with the last paragraph of I Corinthians 13 and are more theological in nature as Edwards contends that the Holy Spirit will forever be given to the saints in love and that Heaven will be a world full of love. Edwards' view of heaven and hell are described with poignant detail in this last sermon, which is one of the most beautiful and insightful treatises on heaven that I have ever read. Like all of Edwards' writings, Charity and Its Fruits is full of theological acumen, philosophical insight, and pastoral concern.
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