Here is the story of two men. Two men with very different beliefs. Two men who followed very different paths and the effect their lives had on subsequent generations.
The first man was Jonathan Edwards. He was born in Connecticut but spent most of his life in Massachusetts in the 1700’s.
He was a devout Christian and married a Christian woman named Sarah Pierrepont. Jonathan became a Pastor and though study and seeking truth in the Bible, Jonathan helped stir what became known as “The Great Awakening”. The Edwards had 11 children and raised them with Christian beliefs. Of the 1394 descendants of Jonathan Edwards studied came 13 college presidents, and hundred and more professors, sixty physicians, 100 clergymen, missionaries, and theological professors, 80 elected to public office, including 3 mayors, 3 governors, several members of congress, 3 senators, and 1 vice president (Aaron Burr), 60 have attained prominance in authorship or editorial life, with 135 books of merit and 75 army or navy officers.
Now meet Max Juke. Max lived in New York in about the same time period. If Max believed in God, it wasn’t evident in his life. He was uneducated, an alcoholic, didn’t accept authority, was prone to fighting and petty crime. Max married a girl of questionable reputation. From this union men have studied 1,026 descendants. Max’s only well known relative is “Margaret, the Mother of Criminals". Three hundred of Max’s descendants died prematurely. One hundred were sent to the penitentiary for an average of 13 years each. Of the 20 who actually learned a trade, 10 gained it through prison reform. One hundred ninety were public prostitutes. There were more then 100 alcoholic’s in the family. The Juke family and descendants cost the state $1,308,000 a value of $68,000,000 today. Most of that cost was in medical bills from hard living.
I reviewed several articles on these two men and although I may not have all the facts correct, the conclusion is the same. Without God in our life, we really don’t have a life. I myself don’t want to consider where I would be without Jesus Christ and His redeeming grace and power.
Deuteronomy 6:6“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. NKJV
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