There was the underlying feeling of love also. John H. Gerstner claimed that Edwards was convinced of the need for a fear approach as much from love for humanity as from obedience to God. The preacher, like the Old Testament prophet, was on the one hand concerned for his people and on the other anxious to be faithful to his calling. It was necessary to warn of the consequences of evil. "His reasoning (on preaching hellfire) appears to be: hell is all of spiritual reality that can affect an unconverted man. Self-interest, his motivating principle, would concern him to avoid such a doom."6

Edwards argued that though "Some talk of it as an unreasonable thing to fright persons to heaven ... I think it is a reasonable thing to endeavor to fright persons away from hell ... Is it not a reasonable thing to fright a person out of a house on fire?"7

Edwards felt that it was his duty to tell sinners their true condition. Said Edwards, "Does a surgeon stay his hand because the patient flinches when he is probing for the core of the wound?" Yet the knife of terror was prelude to the healing plaster. Indeed, Edwards said "something else besides terror is to be preached to them whose consciences are awakened; the Gospel is to be preached to them."

If Edwards sought to master the imagery of dread, he was equally conscientious in seeking to image forth the comforts of the Gospel. One of his foremost concerns was to portray the "beauties and excellencies" of the Christ in such a way that they would seem sweet to the taste." In his farewell sermon, Edwards said: "I have not only endeavored to awaken you, that you might be moved with fear, but I have used my utmost endeavour to win you."

As William Barclay noted: "The preaching which is all threat and no love may terrify, but it will not save."8

Unfortunately, Jonathan Edwards' fame as a pastor-preacher rests upon one imprecatory sermon: "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." Too few people know the greatness of his preaching ability aside from this sermon. Leslie Conrad has said:

"Most of the nonsense that has been penned, typed and printed about Edwards has stemmed from the knowledge of this sermon, and the lack of the knowledge of much else about him. It is unfair to judge this pulpit great by one 'landscape of hell' sermon. For out of the more than 1000 sermons and outlines that he left to posterity, he very well covered the whole gamut of Scripture, theology, and practical Christian living."9

The Great Awakening reached its peak in the summer of 1741 and it was on July 8 of that year, at Enfield, when Edwards preached his famous sermon, "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." As a last-minute substitute, he decided to preach on a theme which he had used three times before. It was the last sermon in a series of four. The first two sermons are undated and the third had been preached to his congregation at Northampton. An atmosphere of apocalypticism prevailed over New England as a result of the Awakening. The day of judgment and the millennium seemed imminent.