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Welcome back to another episode of 5 Minutes in

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Church History. Last week we

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were talking about the 1827

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New Lebanon Conference, and I mentioned

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Asahel Nettleton. So let's

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take a look at this life of

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a somewhat forgotten figure of early 19th

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century. Nettleton was born in 1783,

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and that was the same year that America was

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born as an independent

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nation. The treaty

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was signed between Great Britain

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and her formerly rebellious colonies,

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and America emerged.

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Nettleton was born in Connecticut,

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into what 90% of

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the American population experienced at that

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time, a farming family.

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One biographer said of Nettleton's early years

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that he learned three things. He

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learned morality and had

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a very upright moral character. He

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learned the catechism, meaning the Westminster

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Shorter Catechism, and he

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learned farming. At the

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turn of the century, he was reading

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the sermons of Jonathan Edwards,

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and he attended revival meetings

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in Killingsworth, Connecticut. The

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result? Well, he was converted in 1801, and

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a few years later, he went to Yale. He

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wanted to be a missionary. This

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is right at the beginnings of

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what we call the Second Great Awakening,

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and Nettleton is living it. When

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he gets to Yale, the president

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at that time is Jonathan Edwards'

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grandson, Timothy Dwight. He was president from

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1795 to 1817. And

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in the years of the 18 zeroes,

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through the preaching of Dwight and

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even debates he had with faculty,

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revival came to the campus there

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at Yale. And again, Nettleton was right

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in the middle of it all. He

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graduated from Yale. from Yale

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in 1809. He had poor

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health which would stay with him throughout

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his life and so he was unable

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to travel overseas to fulfill his desire

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to be a missionary to foreign lands.

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Instead, he became a missionary to

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New England and to New York.

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He was ordained as a Congregationalist

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minister and was set out as

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an evangelist and a revivalist. He

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moved into a town for a long time,

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simply observing and learning.

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And oftentimes there would be an

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empty church in that town. Well,

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after several months, he would then

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start preaching in that empty church

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and revivals would come. This happened

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throughout the 1810s and the 1820s.

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His biographer, Bennett

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Tyler, an associate of

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Nettleton, estimates that 30,000

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people converted to Christ

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through the preaching of Nettleton.

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His preaching was urgent and pleading,

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but certainly not sensationalistic. It

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was doctrinal in content and

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not full of manipulation or

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opinion. One contemporary

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set of his preaching, the chief

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excellence of his preaching seemed to

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consist in great plainness and

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simplicity and discrimination and

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much solemnity and

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affectionate earnestness of manner and

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the application of truth to the heart and

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to the conscience in taking away

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the excuses of sinners and

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leaving them without help and hope except

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in the sovereign mercy of

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God. Well, he was

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a critic of other approaches to

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the revivals and to preaching, notably

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Charles Grandison Finney, whose methods

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stood in sharp contrast to

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those of Nettleton. Nettleton

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also devoted his energies to

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founding the Theological Institute of

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Connecticut. It was located at East

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Windsor Hill. And in

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1865, it moved and became the

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Hartford Theological Seminary. Under

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Nettleton and others, it was designed to

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train ministers to stand against the new

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measures on the one hand and also

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the progressive tendencies that would eventually give

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way to the social gospel movements on

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the other. From 1833 to 1844, he

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devoted his time to the seminary. He

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also completed and edited a hymnal. The

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Village Hymns for Social Worship. And

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he wrote the tune Nettleton. Over

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the years, it has been used for many hymns,

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but you would recognize it when you sing the

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hymn, Come Thou Fount. Nettleton

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suffered poor health much of his life,

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but he preached and soldiered on until

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the age of 61, where he died

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in East Windsor, Connecticut. That's

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Asahel Nettleton and I'm Steve Nichols, and

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thanks for listening to 5 Minutes in

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Church History.