A Love Like This

I've recently started reading the biography of Elizabeth Prentiss, author of the well-known fiction novel Stepping Heavenward, and the much loved hymn "More Love to Thee."

I'm not far into the biography, however I have been very blessed thus far. I wanted to share an excerpt from a letter written by Elizabeth's father, Edward Payson, that has touched my heart:

I have sometimes heard of spells and charms to excite love and have wished for them, as a boy, that I might cause others to love me, but how much more do I now wish for some charm which would lead men to love the Saviour. Could I paint a true likeness of him methinks I should rejoice to hold it up to the view and admiration of all creation, and be hid behind it forever. It would be heaven enough to hear him praised and adored. But I cannot paint him, I cannot describe him, I cannot make others love him. Nay I cannot love him a thousandth part so much as I ought myself. O, for an angel's tongue, O for the tongues of ten thousand angels to sound his praises.

To hear of the love that this man had for Christ, excited my heart and stirred up a deep longing for a love of this depth. To desire the exaltation of Christ above all things, more than what others think of me, more than my physical comforts, more than material possessions, more than anything! This would be glory for me.

On his deathbed, not long before he passed on to be with his Saviour, Payson writes the following:

Oh what a blessed thing it is to lose one's will. Since I have lost my will I have found happiness. There can be no such thing as disappointment to me, for I have no desires but that God's will might be accomplished. Christians might avoid much trouble if they would only believe what they profess, that God is able to make them happy without anything but Himself. They imagine that if such a dear friend were to die, or such and such a blessing removed, they should be miserable, whereas God can make them a thousand times happier without them. To mention my own case, God has been depriving me of one blessing after another, but as every one was removed He has come in and filled up its place, and now, when I am a cripple and unable to move, I am happier than ever I was in my life before or expected to be, and if I had believed this twenty years ago I might have been spared much anxiety.

I pray this love and this faith for my own heart and I pray this for yours, Christian.