The excerpt below was taken courtesy of the book by Noel Piper Mulheres Faithful and his Wonderful God, Faithful Editor.
Jonathan Edwards and Sarah Pierrepont finally married on July 28, 1727, she was seventeen and he was twenty-four. Jonathan wore a wig and a new office dress, which his sister Mary gave him. Sarah wore an embroidered green satin dress.
- We have only a glimpse of the great love between them.
- Jonathan once used the example of love between a man and a woman to illustrate love for God.
- “When do we have an idea of someone’s love for a certain thing.
- If it is a man’s love for a woman? We do not know his love completely.
- We only have an idea of his actions that are the effects of love? We have a slight sense and vague of his affections.
Jonathan became a pastor in Northampton, following in the footsteps of his grandfather, Solomon Stoddard. He began this ministry in February 1757, just five months before his marriage in New Haven.
Sarah did not go unnoticed in Northampton. According to the customs of the time, a biographer imagines Sarah’s arrival at the church in Northampton:
Any beautiful person who comes to a village generates curiosity, however, when that person is also the wife of the new shepherd, there is an intense interest, since the way the church benches were organized at that time enhances the pastor’s family as a wavy flag ?So the eyes of everyone in town were on Sarah as she moved in her wedding dress.
It was customary for a bride, on her first Sunday in church, to put on her wedding dress and walk slowly, so that everyone could observe her, and the brides had the privilege of choosing the text to preach on the first Sunday after their marriage. . There is no record of the text Sara chose, but her favorite verse was: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?”(Romans 8. 35). You may have chosen this verse as a preaching text.
Did you take your place in the designated seat to symbolize your role?A large bank in front of the congregation, where everyone could see the slightest sign of expression. Sarah had been prepared for this test post every Sunday of her childhood in the New Haven community. But she was different from being the pastor’s wife. Another woman could yawn or slide her foot on a cold January morning inside an uncathed church. She never.
Marsden said: “In the fall of 1727 [about three months after marriage], Jonathan had regained his spiritual attitude, especially his ability to deepen the spiritual intensity he had lost for three years.
What made the difference? Perhaps it was more suitable for a position in the church than in the academic setting at Yale, where he taught, before accepting the position of pastor. Apparently, his recovery was also related to marriage. For about three years before marrying, in addition to his rigorous academic work, Jonathan had sexually repressed himself, anxiously waiting for the day when he and Sarah were one flesh. When they started life together, he was a new man. your home and your paradise on earth.
When Sarah began her role as a wife, she gave Jonathan the freedom to pursue the philosophical, scientific, and theological struggles that made him the man we honor. Edward was a man to whom people responded. It was different, intense. His moral strength was a threat to people prone to routine. After entering into his thoughts.
For example, he understood that only believers should take the Lord’s Supper in the church. The Church of Northampton was not happy when Edwards went against his grandfather’s lower standards, which even allowed the disbelievers to have dinner, as long as they had no part of the manifest sin. This kind of controversy meant that Sara, deep down, was also affected by the opposition her husband faced.
Edwards was a thinker who kept ideas in his mind, meditating, separating them, joining them with other ideals, and creating them against other parts of God’s truth. Such a man reaches his peak when separate ideas come together in a greater truth. also the kind of man who can find himself in deep ditches, the way of truth.
It’s not easy living with a man like that, but Sarah found a way to build him a happy home, assured him of his constant love, and created an atmosphere and a routine in which he enjoyed the freedom to think. He was engrossed in a thought, he didn’t want to be interrupted for dinner. He understood that his feelings of joy or sadness were intense. Edward wrote in his diary: “Do I often have very moving visions of my own sin and my wickedness, to the point of making me shout loud?always forces me to be alone?.
The city saw a serene man. Sarah knew the storms that existed in her; I knew Jonathan for the privacy of the house.
Samuel Hopkins says
While treating her husband with respect and full respect, she spared no effort to adjust to her inclinations and make everything in the family pleasant and pleasurable, making him his greatest glory and the best way to serve God and his generation [and ours, we can add]; and has become the way to promote her husband’s benefits and happiness.
Therefore, life at Edwards House was largely determined by Jonathan’s call. One of the notes in his diary said, “I think when he got up at dawn, Christ recommended that we get up very early in the morning. “Jonathan had a habit of getting up early. For years, the routine of the family was to get up early, with it, to read a chapter of the Bible by candlelight and to pray, asking for God’s blessing for this new day.
Jonathan was used to doing physical work part of the time, every day, to exercise, for example, cutting wood, repairing fences or working in the garden, but Sarah had most of the responsibility to take care of the property.
Jonathan often studied thirteen hours a day. This included much preparation for Sunday, with biblical teaching, but also included times when Sarah spoke or when church members paused to pray or counsel.
At night, the two ride through the woods to exercise, breathe fresh air and converse, and then prayed together again.
Are these stories of five ordinary women? Sarah Edwards, Lilias Trotter, Gladys Aylward, Esther Ahn Kim and Helen Roseveare, who believed in their wonderful God, as he led them to do great things for their kingdom. Noel Piper presents his lives and achievements as examples of what it means to be truly faithful. Meeting these women will challenge the reader to make a difference for Christ at home, in the church, and in the world.
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