20. Paysons Intense Earnestness,

Paysons Intense Earnestness

Payson’s experience, prayers, hopes and fears, joys and sorrows, indeed his whole ministerial life and labors, were marked with an intensity seldom known. "My disposition," said he, "is naturally so ardent that I can enjoy nothing with moderation ; so that I must either be totally indifferent to worldly objects, or else love them to such a degree as to render them idols."

He was very jealous for the Lord of Hosts, and was a living witness of the power of divine grace, and a living reproof to cold and formal professors. The indifference of men to their salvation, and the prevalence of wickedness, made " his heart ache, and his eyes weep." He expostulated, warned, and entreated ; he mourned in secret places, and interceded with God to save the people. In keeping with this spirit of zeal that burned within him and blazed around him, he highly appreciated revivals—prayed, and fasted, and worked for them, and was never satisfied without a revival state in his Church. He ardently loved the work of the ministry. If he had sufficient strength for the duty, he considered it no favor for a visitor to supply his pulpit. It was like a man proposing to eat up a good dinner prepared for himself when half starved. " Since the failure of my health/’ he writes, " I preach but three sermons a week !" On being urged by his people to visit Europe for his health, with the offer of a free passage, he replied, " It would be gratifying to see Old England, but I cannot spare the time."