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Edward Payson
Edward Payson (1783 - 1827). American Congregationalist pastor and revivalist born in Rindge, New Hampshire, to a Puritan minister’s family. Graduating from Harvard in 1803, he taught school before studying theology under his father, Seth Payson. Ordained in 1807, he pastored Second Congregational Church in Portland, Maine, for 20 years, growing it from 70 to over 400 members. Known as “Praying Payson,” his intense prayer life fueled the 1816 revival, converting hundreds. He delivered over 2,000 sermons, published posthumously as Sermons for Christian Families (1831), emphasizing God’s sovereignty and personal piety. A leader in Maine’s evangelical awakening, he influenced missions through the American Board. Married to Ann Louisa Shipman in 1811, they had eight children, six surviving. Despite chronic illness, his devotional writings reached thousands, translated into French and German. Payson’s words, “Prayer is the first thing, the second thing, the third thing necessary to a minister,” defined his ministry. His memoirs, edited by Asa Cummings, remain a classic in Reformed circles, inspiring figures like Charles Spurgeon.
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Edward Payson preaches about how even in the darkest moments when the church feels overwhelmed and on the brink of destruction, God's wisdom and divine intervention are at work to bring about deliverance and turn despair into victory. The angels themselves marvel at the ways in which God orchestrates salvation, constantly increasing in their admiration of His inexhaustible resources and ability to achieve His purposes through unexpected and unlikely means.
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Wisdom of God
Often when the church thinks itself in the most imminent danger, when its friends are ready to cry in despair, All these things are against us, our destruction is inevitable; angels are lost in wonder in view of the means which divine wisdom is, even then, employing to effect its deliverance and turn its despondency into triumph. For some thousands of years they have been contemplating this spectacle; their knowledge and their admiration of God's wisdom have been continually increasing, and yet every day they learn something new, every day they see new proofs that Jehovah is indeed the all-wise God; that his resources are inexhaustible; that he can never be at a loss; and that he can effect the same object in numberless different ways, and by the use of the most improbable means.
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Edward Payson (1783 - 1827). American Congregationalist pastor and revivalist born in Rindge, New Hampshire, to a Puritan minister’s family. Graduating from Harvard in 1803, he taught school before studying theology under his father, Seth Payson. Ordained in 1807, he pastored Second Congregational Church in Portland, Maine, for 20 years, growing it from 70 to over 400 members. Known as “Praying Payson,” his intense prayer life fueled the 1816 revival, converting hundreds. He delivered over 2,000 sermons, published posthumously as Sermons for Christian Families (1831), emphasizing God’s sovereignty and personal piety. A leader in Maine’s evangelical awakening, he influenced missions through the American Board. Married to Ann Louisa Shipman in 1811, they had eight children, six surviving. Despite chronic illness, his devotional writings reached thousands, translated into French and German. Payson’s words, “Prayer is the first thing, the second thing, the third thing necessary to a minister,” defined his ministry. His memoirs, edited by Asa Cummings, remain a classic in Reformed circles, inspiring figures like Charles Spurgeon.