The following excerpt was extracted with permission from Michael Haykin’s book of Fé 8 Mulheres, Faithful Editor.
Then, one of the most important things Esther appreciated to keep her close to God was a spiritual conversation with close friends, as was the case with Sarah Prince:
- Should I appreciate (like you.
- My dear) lovely friends like you?Friends with which you can also reveal your soul?I understand religious conversation as one of the best ways to keep religion in the soul.
- Except for secret devotion.
- I do.
- Don’t I know what’s best?So how pitiful it is that this is overlooked by God’s own children.
Realize the link between friendship and what Ester calls “religious conversation. “For the Christian, true friends are those with whom it is possible to share as deep as life. They are people with who can be transparent and open. In Esr’s words, these are people with which it is possible to “reveal the whole soul”. And, speaking of spiritual things, the believer can find the strength and encouragement to lead a Christian life. Referring to spiritual conversation with friends as “one of the best aids to keep religion in the soul,” Ester clearly sees it as a means of grace, one of the ways in which the Holy Spirit of God keeps Christians in communion with the Savior. As another New England Christian, Nathanael Emmons (1745–1840), a theologian who was led by close followers of Jonathan Edwards, stated in one of his greatest favorites: “A man is made by his friends. “
Thus, Ester verbalized the same thought on another occasion, while emphasized the importance of Christian friendship as a means of walking with God:
Nothing more refreshing to the soul (except communication with God Himself) than companionship and association with a friend, someone who has the spirit of true friendship and likes him, makes the soul rational?
And Sara was that friend, as Esther’s archives of October 11, 1754 and June 4, 1755 reveal:
It is a great comfort to me, when my friends are absent, to have them somewhere in the world, and you, my dear, are part of them, and you are not among the little ones, because I consider you one of the best. and, in a way, closer than any sister she has. I have no sister for whom I can write as freely as for you, the sister of my heart.
Think, my friend, how rare it is to find a friend like me in my Fidelia, who would not value and appreciate a friend like that above gold, honor or anything else the world can bring?
Esther was convinced that this friendship was a gift from heaven, as stated in two recordings of his diary, the first of October 5, 1754 and the second of February 15, 1755:
Mrs. Smith and I were talking (?) And we came to the conclusion that everything that was said confidentially while we were there should be a matter of friendship, keep it a secret, even though the friendship was over, the bond remained as strong as ever, and Mrs. Smith thinks even more intensely (?) I see the bonds of friendship as sacred, and I believe it must be a matter of solemn prayer to God (where there is a friendship contracted) so that it can be preserved.
You’ll think I’m not that indifferent to everything in this world, but to tell you the truth, when I talk about the world and the things that are in the world, I’m not talking about friends, because friendship is nobody’s. True friendship is first ignited by a spark from heaven, and heaven will never regret that it is gone, but it will burn for all eternity.
A year later, on 23 January 1756, Ester reaffirmed his conviction of the vital need of Christian friends:
Is it, my dear, a great mercy that we have friends? What would this world be without them? Should a person who considers himself without a friend, among most creatures, be miserable in this life? It is the life of life.
See how Ester appreciates Christian friends. To her, they are one of the greatest sources of happiness in the world. Why did Esther value friendship so much? Well, certainly because I realized that Christian friends and conversation with them are vital to spiritual growth.
Esther’s beliefs about friendship as a means of grace were challenged on April 12, 1757, when one of the university’s tutors, John Ewing (1732–1802), who would later become professor of ethics at the University of Philadelphia and pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, challenged his understanding of friendship:
I had a smart fight with Mr. Ewing about our sex?Is he a talented and capable man, but who has inferior thoughts about women?The dispute began that way. Speaking of Miss Boudanot, I said she was a friendly and sociable creature (?). But mr. Ewing said, “Are she and the Stocktons full of discussions about friendship and society and things like that?”I asked him what I’d like them to talk about?things they understood. She doesn’t think women know what friendship is.
They would hardly be able to do something as pleasant and rational as friendship. (My tongue, you know, was very relaxed there and the thoughts piled up?So I spoke stuttering and very carefully. Can you imagine the great field of this speech?Did it open for me? I responded with a lot of difficult things about him before I had time to talk again. He blushed and looked confused (?) We held the debate for an hour more. I silenced him with my words. He stood up and said, “Your servant?He’s gone (?). One of the last things he said was that he had never, in his life, ever met or heard of a woman who had a little more to know about [normally]]. And that she wasn’t so proud that she became disgusting [for] everyone who knew her.
Ewing probably never forgot that encounter with Edwards’ wonderful daughter. Esther knew from experience, because of his rich friendship with Sarah Prince, what true friendship is and that Ewing had no idea what he was talking about.
Esther’s final commentary on Ewing’s contempt for educated women shows us a lot about who he was and also Esther he he himself. Jonathan Edwards, his father, as well as his father, Timothy Edwards (1669?1758), they believed in the value of educating girls. Was Edwards the fifth of eleven siblings?ten girls and Jonathan!Edwards’ sisters became tall women, each more than six feet tall, and those who knew them spoke of Timothy Edwards’ fifty-foot daughters Very unusual for a 17th-century man, Timothy Edwards encouraged them to develop both intellectually and spiritually. In addition to giving his daughters an education similar to Jonathan’s, Timothy sent at least one to a school of manners in Boston. Faced with all this, this education produced spiritually focused women who were not afraid to say what they thought. As Esther’s encounter with Ewing shows, the way Jonathan raised his daughters produced equally strong women, as did his own sisters.
Discover the lives of eight remarkable women in the history of the Church!Throughout history, God has used women of faith for the growth of the Church. Historian Michael Haykin sheds light on the lives of eight of these women who lived between the 16th and 19th centuries. centuries and played a crucial role in the history of the Church, despite challenges and oppositions, inspiring us to emulate our divine examples today.
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