A Sweet Flame

I have finished my reading of A Sweet Flame by Jonathan Edwards. Throughout the book, I was struck with Edwards' struggle with his own human condition, his sin, his feeling of inadequacy to do the Lord's work, the church divisions and controversies that arose and often affected him. Viewed as a giant today, it was clear that was not a universally held belief amonst his contemporaries. That comes not as a surprise, members of the church have always dealt with that, starting with Jesus Himself. WHat comes through is the relevance to the struggles today of struggles written about around 250 years ago.

The last letter to address specifically is the letter he wrote to Lady Mary Pepperell speaking of the loss of her son. It is the letter the term a sweet flame appears in, the letter that gave title to the book.

Edwards writes in length of the suffering and sacrifice of Jesus, of His death. But he also writes of His resurrection and ascension, of the hope that gives us. Edwards makes no apology for the suffering in life, the pain Lady Pepperell bears. Our Lord had pain and suffering in this world, should we expect less?

Edwards speaks of the glory of Christ, of His holiness. How "His love to sinners appeared like a sweet flame, burning with an infinite vehemence against sin". It is because of our sin that the flame of Christ burns hot, to remove that impurity through His sacrifice. Although it burns and may be painful in our lives at points of time, it is sweet to think of the eternal state He has wrought for us.

Jesus. He is our sweet flame, for we are all sinners.

Sound Advice Through the Ages

Another letter from Jonathan Edwards in A Sweet Flame. This one to his daughter Mary. It was written in 1749 while she was away from home. And what was Edwards most concerned about? Not her physical well being but her spiritual. These were times that were harder than we face today, less comforts and conveniences, less available health care, less communication. Bu the concern was for her spiritual life. Edwards notes that news of her death would leave the family melancholy; but if it was coupled with intelligence that she had died in the Lord, it would be a source of great comfort. They do not write letters like this anymore.

Edwards gives some advice to his daughter:

• Earthly friends are a comfort and blessing; but having God as a friend is a great thing
• Meet with God where you are
• Meet with God alone
• Do not forget nor forsake Him

Good advice for today. In a world where we are obsessed with creature comforts, let us nor forget what is reserved for fire and what will pass through.

Measuring Motives

I am continuing to read the letters of Jonathan Edwards in A Sweet Flame. My thoughts in this post come from a letter to Elnathan Whitman, a cousin of Edwards. It is advice to a fellow pastor on how to react to someone who left their church to attend another (now that never happens anymore).

Edwards counsels calmly and wisely, telling Whitman to consider that the person may have been led to such action by God, or at least that they firmly believe to be so led. Edwards counsels Whitman to examine the motives of another without anger before acting. And even in cases whereby the motives do not appear to be of Godly will, but of a more personal selfishness, Edwards counsels wisdom and restraint.

Edwards gives the biblical example of Paul. In his writings to the Corinthians, Paul is dealing with many who were mislead or misguided by false teaching, who were blinding themselves by listening to evils, who were causing strife and division. Yet Paul looks to treat with gentleness and exhortation, not anger and revenge.

What good advice to measure motives, to reflect on the will of God before acting in ways that may well lead to regret; for they may not reflect the glory of God and His kingdom.

Edwards would have us be more concerned with the Creator than with our neighbors. If our lives, our very thoughts are God centered, all else will flow as it should, as God wills.

And let me measure others as I wish my motives to be measured by the Lord.

Opportunity

I have been reading some more of the letters of Jonathan Edwards in A Sweet Flame. It is interesting to read letters form well over 200 years ago, letters written at a time that letter writing was the primary means of communication between people who did not live in the same town. Writing letters when everyone who communicated well wrote well. I think this is the thing that makes me enjoy blogging; it is an opportunity to communicate through writing, something that was becoming more of an art form amongst an ever smaller group of people rather than a primary means of communication. It is an exciting opportunity; combining a skill that has been around for centuries with the turbo charging of the internet, making the medium available to countless writers and readers.

The man had an eloquence to his writing that showed his faith and his humility:

Never was I so sensible in any measure how vain a creature man is, what a leaf driven of the wind, what dry stubble, what poor dust, a bubble, a shadow, a nothing, and more vain than nothing, and what a vain and vile helpless creature I am, and how much I need God's help in everything, as of late.

A Sweet Flame: Jonathan Edwards letter to James Robe, May 12, 1743

People do not write letters like that anymore, what a pity. To be able to pull off that prose in a blog, I would be a happy man. Instead I am more stubble, dust and bubbles.

Edwards had the opportunity to be a driving force behind the First Great Awakening. That was good news. The fact that America had slid into a spiritual decline that made the Great Awakening both possible and necessary was the bad news. There is today the opportunity and necessity for spiritual revival in America. We are blessed with tools that magnify both the scope and sweep of our ability to communicate Gospel truths.

May we be up the task in our time; in some small way modelling the impact a giant like Edwards had in his.