Jonathan Edwards' Walk to Remember

Don't mistake Edwards' genius for a cold, calculating heart. Not at all! He reveals a very personal and vibrant relationship with Jesus Christ in his Personal Narrative. It is a sort of journal of his heart-warming desires after Christ. The following is lifted right out of his narrative and unveils the true yearning of his heart. I wonder if we had more of this exhibited in our leadership in churches if it might not ring more true in the hearts of some of our religious "skeptics" even within the congregation? They hear the truth, but seem unable to "connect the dots" when it comes to seeing it actually lived out. Listen to Edwards:

I felt then great satisfaction, as to my good state; but that did not content me. I had vehement longings of soul after God and Christ, and after more holiness, wherewith my heart seemed to be full, and ready to break; which often brought to my mind the words of the Psalmist, Psal. 119:28. My soul breaketh for the longing it hath. I often felt a mourning and lamenting in my heart, that I had not turned to God sooner, that I might have had more time to grow in grace. My mind was greatly fixed on divine things; almost perpetually in the contemplation of them. I spent most of my time in thinking of divine things, year after year; often walking alone in the woods, and solitary places, for meditation, soliloquy, and prayer, and converse with God; and it was always my manner, at such times, to sing forth my contemplations. I was almost constantly in ejaculatory prayer, wherever I was. Prayer seemed to be natural to me, as the breath by which the inward burnings of my heart had vent. The delights which I now felt in the things of religion, were of an exceeding different kind from those before mentioned, that I had when a boy; and what I then had no more notion of, than one born blind has of pleasant and beautiful colors. They were of a more inward, pure, soul animating and refreshing nature. Those former delights never reached the heart; and did not arise from any sight of the divine excellency of the things of God; or any taste of the soul satisfying and life­giving good there is in them.

Is this not a wonderful account of the holy breathings of a heart after God? Oh, how blessed it would be to find ourselves in a similar vein. God help us.