Model Of Christian Charity

For the early Americans, Christianity was a major influence on their everyday lifestyle. They used the Bible as their guide for living, worshiping and working. They believed that their deep devotion to God and acts of faith would keep them on good terms with God. In A Model of Christian Charity we see some of the ways to stay on good terms; Winthrop states, “to provide for our posterity, is to follow the counsel of Micah: to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with our God.” In contrast when looking at Of Plymouth Plantation we see that there “was a proud and very profane young man” on board the Mayflower who “would always be contemning the poor people in their sickness and cursing them daily with grievous execrations.” Bradford wrote,

This was an important factor in building homes, creating towns, learning how to hunt and fish, and learning basic survival skills. It took a great deal of courage for the settlers to leave their homes and all that was familiar, and go to a strange new land full of unknown obstacles. In the pilgrims eyes, courage wasn’t just an admirable trait, but a crucial difference between life and death. This was important for the trials and hardships that were to come. In Upon the Burning of Our House the tragedy that Bradstreet went through and though she still grieved, she found the courage to move on, and used her piety to help recover. To show how she felt about losing her material belongings, Bradstreet uses an allusion from the book of Ecclesiastes, “Adieu, Adieu, all’s vanity” this suggests that it’s foolish and selfish to fret over the loss of earthly possessions. The pilgrims frequently relied on their piety to help them through hardships. It was important to the settlers that they have a deep respect for God so that they can have His protection to survive the threatening new world. A branch of piety was a sense of community, which was strongly shown by writers such as Edwards and

In the 1730s and 1740s a revival called the Great Awakening took place. In a sermon called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, Edwards incorporates his concern by reminding everyone of God’s wrath in the face of their worldliness and wealth. Edwards explains, “O sinner! Consider the fearful danger you are in: ‘tis a great furnace of wrath, a wide and bottomless pit, full of the fire of wrath, that you are held over in the hand of that God, whose wrath is provoked and incensed as much against you as against many of the damned in hell.” After this more churches popped up along with new colleges and universities, and over time these values and beliefs became as prominent as when they were first established. In conclusion, I believe a major theme was and still is "influence." An example would be the early American writings which influenced today’s modern authors. And though I don’t think in today’s society good morals are as important as they were then, I do believe that there are those who do have them and they will influence others, who will then go on to influence