All My Love

All My Love

A Poem for Valentine's Day

She had all of his love.

But what does this really say?

What is “all” and what is loved?

Could it be explained in any possible way? 

Love Letter by Jonathan Edwards

From the 19 year old Jonathan Edwards:

They say there is a young lady in [New Haven] who is beloved of that great Being who made and rules the world, and that there are certain seasons in which this great Being, in some way or other invisible, comes to her and fills her mind with exceeding sweet delight, and that she hardly cares for anything, except to meditate on him—that she expects after a while to be received up where he is, to be raised up out of the world and caught up into heaven; being assured that he loves her too well to let her remain at a distance from him always. There she is to dwell with him, and to be ravished with his love and delight forever…. She has a strange sweetness in her mind, and singular purity in her affections; is most just and conscientious in all her conduct; and you could not persuade her to do anything wrong or sinful, if you would give her all the world, lest she should offend this great Being. She is of a wonderful sweetness, calmness and universal benevolence of mind; especially after this great God has manifested himself to her mind…. She loves to be alone, walking in the fields and groves, and seems to have someone invisible always conversing with her.

Found this on the Desiring God website.  It is also listed on Yale's Jonathan Edwards Library.

My daily companion...

Richard Baxter said of marriage,

"It is a mercy to have a faithful friend, that loveth you entirely, and is as true to you as yourself, to who you may open your mind and communicate your affairs, and who could be ready to strengthen you, and divide the cares of your affairs and family with you, and help you to bear your burdens and comfort you in your sorrows, and be the daily companion of your lives and partaker of your joys and sorrows.  And it is a mercy to have so near a friend to be a helper to your soul; to join with you in prayer and other holy exercises; to watch over you and tell you of your sins and dangers, and to stir up in you the grace of God, and remember to you of the life to come, and cheerfully accompany you in the ways of holiness."

I am glad that I have that in my own sweet wife.

Love Letter by D. Martyn Lloyd Jones

This letter was written by Martyn Lloyd Jones when he was 40 years old.

My dear Bethan,
Thank you for your letter of this morning, though I am very angry that you should have been up till 11:30 PM writing it! I see that you are quite incorrigible! The idea that I shall become used to being without you is really funny. I could speak for a long time on the subject. As I have told you many, many times, the passing of the years does nothing but deepen and intensify my love for you. When I think of those days in London in 1925 and ’26, when I thought that no greater love was possible, I could laugh.
But honestly, during this last year I had come to believe that it was not possible for a man to love his wife more than I loved you. And yet I see that there is no reason to live, and that it is still true that “absence makes the heart grow fonder.” I am quite certain that there is no lover, anywhere, writing to his girl who is quite as mad about her as I am. Indeed I pity those lovers who are not married. Well, I had better put a curb on things or I shall spend the night writing to you . . . .
Ever yours,
—Martyn

(via Desiring God)