Jerusha Edwards
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Died:
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Jerusha Edwards was the daughter of Rev. Jonathan Edwards, a leading American theologian and pastor, and his wife Sarah (Pierrepont) Edwards. She was also engaged to David Brainerd, a prominent American missionary. She nursed David in his final illness, contracted tuberculosis from him, and died a few months after him. She is buried by his side. |
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=9800958
Did Jerusha know God’s design?
Did Jerusha see God’s plan?
Did Jerusha rest in God’s love?
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/biographies/oh-that-i-may-never-loiter-on-my-heavenly-journey
But Brainerd was alone in his ministry to the end. The last 19 weeks of his life Jerusha Edwards, Jonathan Edwards' 17 year old daughter, was his nurse and many speculate that there was deep love between them. But in the wilderness and in the ministry he was alone, and could only pour out his soul to God. And God bore him and kept him going
She was a person of much the same spirit with David Brainerd. She had contantly taken care of, and tended him in his sickness, for nineteen weeks before his death; devoting herself to it with great delight, because she looked on him as an eminent servant of Jesus Christ. In this time he had much conversation with her on things of religion; and in his dying state, often expressed to us, her parents, his great satisfaction concerning her true piety, and his confidence that he would meet her in heaven; and his high opinion of her, not only as a true Christian, but a very eminent saint; one whose soul was uncommonly fed and entertained with things that appertain to the most spiritual, experimental, and distinguishing parts of religion; and one who by the temper of her mind was fitted to deny herself for God, and to do good, beyond any young woman whatsoever that he knew of. She had manifested a heart uncommonly devoted to God, in the course of her life, many years before her death; and said on her deathbed that she had not seen one minute for several years wherein she desired to live one minute longer for the sake of any other good in life but doing good, living to God, and doing what might be for his glory.“
- David Brainerd: A Flame for God, pp. 308-09, by Vance Christie (emphasis mine)
3 John 1:4
When children are far away from home, parents often experience numerous fears regarding their welfare. Jonathan Edwards, the great pastor, theologian, and father of eleven, was well-acquainted with the temptation to worry over the safety of his children. Having lost his second daughter, Jerusha, to tuberculosis at the age of 18, Edwards was far from ignorant of the potential dangers facing his children. Yet in the summer of 1749, only a few months after the death of Jerusha, Edwards wrote a letter to his daughter Mary, who had traveled away from the family for a time. Of the many concerns he could have expressed in her absence, Edwards knew there was only one which truly mattered:
My Dear Child,
You may well think it is natural for a parent to be concerned for a child at so great a distance, so far out of view, and so far out of the reach of communication; where, if you should be taken with any dangerous sickness, that should end in death, you might probably be in your grave before we could hear of your danger. But yet, my greatest concern is not for your health, or earthly welfare, but for the good of your soul. Though you are at so great a distance from us, yet God is everywhere. You are much out of the reach of our care, but you are every moment in His hands. We have not the comfort of seeing you, but He sees you. His eye is always upon you. And if you may but live sensibly near to God, and have his gracious presence, it is no matter if you are far distant from us. I had rather you should remain hundreds of miles distant from us, and have God near to you by his Spirit, than to have you always with us, and live at a distance from God…
[From Grief to Glory, pp. 106-107]
With his tremendous faith in God’s goodness and power and his heartfelt passion for the souls of his children, Edwards modeled well the eternal foundation upon which godly parents must order their priorities.
http://preciousadornment.wordpress.com/2010/08/31/parenting-for-eternity/
Jerusha displayed knowledge of knowing God’s design by the life she led, by the choices she made at her young age this gave her mature eyes to be able to see the path God had for her to walk, and to be able to share His love with David Brainerd to the end of his earthly life at cost of her own earthly life.
Jerusha at 17 nursed David who had TB