Phoebe Bartlett

Jonathan Edwards published his first book, A Narrative of the Surprising Work of God, in 1737. It tells the story of the revivals in Northampton, Mass. There is a fascinating story, a mini-narrative within that grand narrative. It's the story of four-year-old Phoebe Bartlett. Edwards tells the story like this: "She was born in March in the year 1731, about the later end of April or beginning of May, 1735. She was greatly affected by the talk of her brother. He had been hopefully converted a little before at about eleven years of age. He then seriously talked to her about the great things of religion."

Phoebe Bartlett was only four years old at this point. In fact, Edwards observes that, while her parents were very much earnest in talking to Phoebe's older brothers and sisters about the gospel, they didn't talk to Phoebe about the gospel as much because of her age. But her mother noticed something: Phoebe would often sneak away and go into a closet. They found out later that she went in there for times of prayer. One time, her mother was walking by the closet. Edwards tells the story:

On Thursday, the last day of July, about the middle of the day the child being in the closet where she used to retire, her mother heard her speaking aloud, which was unusual and never heard of before, and her voiced seemed to be as one of exceedingly engaged, but her mother could distinctly hear only these words spoken in her childish manner, that seemed to be spoken with extraordinary earnestness and out of distress of soul, "Pray blessed Lord," little Phoebe Bartlett prayed, "Pray blessed Lord give me salvation. I pray, beg, pardon all of my sins."

When the child had finished praying, she came out of the closet and came and sat by her mother and cried out loud. Edwards continues: "Earnestly was crying and taking on for some time until at length she suddenly ceased crying. She began to smile and presently said with a smiling countenance, 'Mother, the kingdom of heaven is come to me.'"

Edwards goes on to say something very interesting about young Phoebe. A few months after her conversion, she and her siblings were walking through a neighbor's property and they came across some plum trees. They plucked some plums off and ate them, and later, they recognized that this was in fact a wrong thing to do. So they all confessed, and their mother took them over to the neighbor. They confessed to him as well. He told them it was alright; he probably wouldn't have gotten around to harvesting them and they would've just fallen to the ground.

But Phoebe Bartlett was inconsolable. She kept crying and crying, and when she finally stopped, her mother said to her, "What's the matter? Why are you doing this?" Edwards records her very simple answer: "Because it was sin." He goes on: "She continued a considerable time crying and said that she would not go again if Eunice [her sister] had asked her a hundred times and she retained her aversion to that fruit for a considerable time under the remembrance of her former sin."

Phoebe Bartlett was not only an example of conversion and coming to Christ and pleading the sinners prayer. To Edwards, she was also an example of one whose life is a life of repentance—so much so that young Phoebe Bartlett gave up her plums.