Prayers Ancient and Modern 10/24

“My soul remained in a kind of heavenly elysium. So far as I am capable of making a comparison, I think that what I felt each minute, during the continuance of the whole time, was worth more than all the outward comfort and pleasure, which I had enjoyed in my whole life put together. It was a pure delight, which fed and satisfied the soul. It was peasure, without the least sting, or any interruption. It was a sweetness, which my soul was lost in. It seemed to be all that my feeble frame could sustain, of that fulness of joy, which is felt by those, who behold the face of Christ, and share his love in the heavenly world.” – Sarah Edwards, wife of Jonathan Edwards

Published October 24, 2016 |

O My God, possess my soul with such an ardent love of Thee, so buoyant above all other affections, that no one may ever come in competition with it; such a love as may not only subdue all other affections, but purify and make them innocent; such a love as may create in my soul a perpetual pleasure in the contemplation of Thee, and a continual thirst after Thee; a love which may transport soul with Thy divine perfections, and paint there such bright ideas of Thy glorious majesty, that none of the trifling pleasures and temptations of this world may be able to make on it the least impression. And as, my gracious lord, Thou hast given me much, and forgiven me much, so raise my love to a degree proportionable to Thy bounty and mercy—Amen.

Charles How (1661–1745).