Suffering and the Sweetness of Christ

by Jonathan Edwards 

In the last several months, I have been on an incredible reading journey.  The most recent book is "Signs of the Spirit, " an interpretation of "Religious Affections," by Sam Storms. 

Through this book, I am invited and escorted into a deeper, deeper walk into experiencing the pleasure of the glory of God. Here, Edwards tells about his delight of soul amidst a crippling illness.

In September, 1725, I was taken ill at New Haven, and while endeavoring to go home to Windsor, was so ill at the North Village, that I could go no farther, where I lay sick, for about a quarter of a year. 

In this sickness, God was pleased to visit me again, with the sweet influences of his Spirit. My mind was greatly engaged there, on divine and pleasant contemplations, and longings of soul. 

I observed that those who watched with me would often be looking out wishfully for the morning; which brought to my mind those words of the Psalmist, and which my soul with delight made its own language, "My soul waits for the Lord, more than they that watch for the morning; I say, more than they that watch for the morning;" and when the light of the day came in at the window, it refreshed my soul, from one morning to another. It seemed to be some image of the light of God’s glory.