The following judicious advice was given by the justly celebrated Jonathan Edwards, of America, to a young lady, who had just commenced the life of faith.
My Dear Young Friend,
As you desired me to send you, in writing, some directions how to conduct yourself in your Christian course, I would now answer your request. The sweet remembrance of the great things I have lately seen at S—, inclines me to do any thing in my power, to contribute to the spiritual joy and prosperity of God’s people there.
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I would advise you to keep up as great a strife and earnestness in religion, as if you knew yourself to be in a state of nature, and were seeking conversion. We advise persons under conviction, to be earnest and violent for the kingdom of heaven; but when they have attained to conversion, they ought not to be the less watchful, laborious, and earnest in the whole work of religion; but the more so, for they are under infinitely greater obligations. For want of this, many persons, in a few months after their conversion, have begun to lose their sweet and lively sense of spiritual things, and to grow cold and dark, and have ‘pierced themselves through with many sorrows’; whereas, if they had done as the apostle did, (Philippians iii. 12, 14,) their path would have been as ‘the shining light, that, shineth more and more unto the perfect day.’
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Do not leave off seeking, striving and praying for the very same things that we exhort unconverted persons to strive for, and a degree of which you have had already in conversion. Pray that your eyes may be opened, that you may receive sight, that you may know yourself, and be brought to God’s footstool; and that you may see the glory of God and Christ and may be raised from the dead, and have the love of Christ shed abroad in your heart. Those who have most of these things, have need still to pray for them; for there is so much blindness and hardness, pride and death remaining, that they still need to have that work of God wrought upon them, further to enlighten and to enliven them, that shall be bringing them out of darkness into God’s marvellous light, and be a kind of new conversion and resurrection from the dead. There are very few requests that are proper for an impenitent man, that are not also, in some sense, proper for the godly.
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When you hear a sermon, hear for yourself.—Though what is spoken may be more especially directed to the unconverted, or to those that, in other respects, are in different circumstances from yourself; yet, let the chief intent of your mind be to consider, ‘In what respect is this applicable to me? and what improvement ought I to make of this, for my own soul’s good?’
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Though God has forgiven and forgotten your past sins, yet do not forget them yourself; often remember, what a wretched bond-slave you were in the land of Egypt. Often bring to mind your particular acts of sin before conversion; as the blessed apostle, Paul, is often mentioning his old blaspheming, persecuting spirit, and his injuriousness to the renewed, humbling his heart and acknowledging that he was, the least of the apostles, and not worthy to be called an apostle, and the, ‘ least of all saints,’ and the ‘ chief of sinners’; and be often confessing our old sins to God, and let that text be often in your mind, ‘ that thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth any more, because of thy shame, when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done, saith the Lord God.’
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Remember, that you have more cause, on some accounts, a thousand times to lament and humble yourself for sins that have been committed since conversion, than before, because of the infinitely greater obligations that are upon you to live to God, and to look upon the faithfulness of Christ, in unchangeably continuing His loving kindness, notwithstanding your great unworthiness since your conversion.
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Be always greatly abased for your remaining sin, and never think that you lie low enough for it; but yet be not discouraged or disheartened by it; although we are exceeding sinful, yet we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous; the preciousness of whose blood, the merit of whose righteousness, and the greatness of whose love and faithfulness, infinitely overtop the highest mountain of our sins.
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When you engage in the duty of prayer, or come to the Lord’s Supper, or attend any other duty of divine worship, come to Christ as Mary Magdalene did;—(Luke VII, 37 and 38;) come and cast yourself at His feet and kiss them, and pour forth upon Him the sweet perfumed ointment of divine love, out of a pure and broken heart as she poured the precious ointment out of her pure broken alabaster box.
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Remember, that pride is the worst viper that is in the human heart, the greatest disturber of the soul’s peace, and of sweet communion with Christ: it was the first sin committed, and lies the lowest in the foundation of Satan’s whole building, and is with the greatest difficulty rooted out, and is the most hidden, secret, and deceitful of all lusts, and often creeps insensibly into the midst of religion, even, sometimes, under the disguise of humility itself.
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That you may pass a correct judgment concerning yourself, always look upon those as the best discoveries, and the best comforts, that have most of these two effects: those that make you least and lowest, and most like a child; and those that most engage and fix your heart in a full and firm disposition to deny yourself for God, and to spend and be spent for him.
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If at any time you fall into doubts about the state of your soul, into dark and dull frames of mind, it is proper to review your past experiences; but do not consume too much time and strength in this way: rather apply yourself, with all your might, to an earnest pursuit after renewed experience, new light, and new lively acts of faith and love. One new discovery of the glory of Christ’s face, will do more toward scattering clouds of darkness in one minute, than examining old experience, by the best marks that can be given, through a whole year.
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When the exercise of grace is low, and corruption prevails, and by that means fear prevails; do not desire to have fear cast out any other way, than by the reviving and prevailing of love in the heart; by this, fear will be effectually expelled, as darkness in a room vanishes away, when the pleasant beams of the sun are let into it.
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When you counsel and warn others, do it earnestly, and affectionately, and thoroughly: and when you are speaking to your equals, let your warnings be intermixed with expressions of your sense of your own unworthiness, and of the sovereign grace that makes you to differ.
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If you would set up religious meetings of young women by yourselves, to be attended once in a while, besides the other meetings you attend, I should think it would be very proper and profitable.
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Under special difficulties, or when in great need of, or great longings after, any particular mercy for yourself or others, set apart a day for secret prayer and fasting by yourself alone; and let the day be spent, not only in petitions for the mercies you desire, but in searching your heart, and in looking over your past life, and confessing your sins before God, not as is done in public prayer, but by a very particular rehearsal before God of the sins of your past life, from your childhood hitherto, before and after conversion, with the circumstances and aggravations attending them, and spreading all the abominations of your heart very particularly, and as fully as possible, before Him.
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Do not let the adversaries of the cross have occasion to reproach religion on your account. How holily should the children of God, the redeemed and the beloved of the Son of God, behave themselves. Therefore ‘walk as the children of the light, and of the day,’ and ‘adorn the doctrine of God your Saviour’; and especially abound in what are called the ‘christian virtues,’ and which make you like the lamb of God; be meek and lowly of heart, and full of pure, heavenly, and humble love to all; abound in deeds of love to others, and self-denial for others; and let there be in you a disposition to account others better than yourself.
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In all your course walk with God, and follow Christ, as a little, poor, helpless child, taking hold of Christ’s hand, keeping your eye on the marks of the wounds in His hands and side, whence came the blood that cleanses you from sin, and hiding your nakedness under the skirt of the white shining robes of His righteousness.
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Pray much for the ministers and the church of God; especially that He would carry on His glorious work which He has now begun, till the world shall be full of His glory. J.E.