artle Enfield out of its smugness” (Cady4). Every New Englander was intimate with his community’s use of water power at the mill, ifnowhere else. The dramatic peril of floods as well as the daily power of the falling waters werefamiliar and exciting. “Edwards strikes blow after blow to the conscience-stricken hearts of hiscongregation. He draws graphic images from the Bible, all designed to warn sinners of their peril.He tells them that they are walking on slippery places with the danger of falling from their ownweight” (Sproul “God In The Hands Of Angry Sinners”). Edwards took the essence of hishearer’s own minds, raised it to the plane of his own intensity, and made his vision live in thosememories.Equally important is the spirituality of Edwards and the Puritans being far more complexthan Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God portrays. The fear in the sermon is about having aholy respect for God's power. Because of the18th century popular culture, unconverted audiencemembers probably remained more God-conscious in their daily living than most people of the pastfew centuries. “Edwards understood the nature of God's holiness. He perceived that unholy menhave much to fear from such a God” (Cady “The Artistry of Jonathan Edwards”). He did notevangelize “...out of a sadistic delight in frightening people, but out of compassion. He loved hiscongregation enough to warn them of the dreadful consequences of facing the wrath of God”(Sproul “God In The Hands Of Angry Sinners”). He was not concerned with laying a guilt trip onhis people but with awakening them to the jeopardy they faced if they remained unchanged. Finally, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God is not directly concerned to create Hellimaginatively. Hell is in its picture, but only at the surface. The focus is on the predicament of thesinner, how dreadfully he dangles just before he plung...
