Triumph In The Face Of Trial

Triumph In The Face Of Trial

Some are overcome by challenges, while others are able to triumph over them.

EDWARD PAYSON was such a person. He was born in 1783 in Rindge, New Hampshire, where his father was pastor. Payson matriculated at Harvard in 1800 and quickly distinguished himself among his peers. He graduated in 1803 and took charge of the newly formed Portland Academy in Portland, Maine.

In his first year at the school, Payson was shaken by the death of a younger brother. He felt that God was somehow chastening him through his brother’s death. He plunged into a yearlong period of conviction of sin, desire for holiness, and grief over his shortcomings. He finally realized that despite his intellectual assent to the doctrine of justification by faith alone, he had been trying to earn merit with God through his own efforts. As a result, his twenty-second birthday was a spiritual milestone in his life as he covenanted with God to give him his total allegiance.

In 1806 he resigned his position at the academy and returned home to study for the ministry. In spite of his new spiritual direction, he still battled his emotions. Today he would be diagnosed as having bipolar disorder. One minute he was supremely happy, and the next moment he was in the depths of despair.

In addition to his mood swings, Payson had physical problems. Throughout his life he was afflicted with migraine headaches that often left him prostrate in pain for days at a time. In later years insomnia afflicted him. A fall from a horse in 1807 dislocated his arm, leading eventually to its paralysis.

In August 1807 Payson was back in Portland preaching at the Second Congregational Church. He accepted the call as assistant pastor and stayed at the church for the rest of his life. In his first year at the church, he married Louisa Shipman. They had eight children, including Elizabeth Payson Prentiss who became a hymn writer, authoring “More Love to Thee, O Christ” and many others.

Soon after Payson began his work at the church, he developed tuberculosis and nearly died. But he recuperated enough to continue his ministry, and almost immediately revival began at the church. His first year twenty-nine came to Christ, then forty-two for two years in a row. In 1811 the senior pastor retired, and Payson, then twenty-eight, became pastor. God richly blessed his ministry, and for the rest of his life the church averaged thirty-five conversions a year, with seventy-nine in the year of his death.

At the age of forty-four Payson’s body gave out. His paralysis spread to other parts of his body, and he was often in acute pain. He and those around him knew he was dying, yet in spite of the discomfort, his joy was intense.

On September 19, 1827, a month before his death, he dictated a letter to his sister:

Dear Sister,

Were I to adopt the figurative language of Bunyan, I might date this letter, “from the land of Beulah” of which I have been for some weeks a happy inhabitant. The celestial city is in full view. Its glories beam upon me, its breezes fan me . . . and its spirit is breathed into my heart. Nothing separates me from it but the river of death, which now appears but an insignificant rill, that may be crossed at a single step, whenever God shall give permission. The Son of Righteousness has been gradually drawing nearer and nearer, appearing larger and brighter as he approached, and now he fills the whole hemisphere; pouring forth a flood of glory. . . .

And now my dear sister, farewell. Hold in your Christian course but a few days longer, and you will meet in heaven

Your happy and affectionate brother,

Edward Payson

Reflection

Do you have physical problems? mental problems? emotional problems? If you haven’t experienced any of them yet, you probably will in the future. God doesn’t grant us exemption from problems any more than he did Edward Payson, but he can enable us to look past them to the glory that lies ahead for the believer.

Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will give us later.

Romans 8:18