33. Paysons Unparalleled Sufferings and Unbounded joy.

Paysons Unparalleled Sufferings and Unbounded joy. A friend said to him, " I presume it is no longer incredible to you that martyrs should rejoice and praise God in the flames and on the rack ?"

"No," said he; "I can easily believe it. I have suffered twenty times as much as I could in being burned at the stake, while my joy in God so abounded as to render my sufferings not only tolerable but welcome." At another time he said: " God is literally now my all in all. While he is present with me no event can in the least diminish my happiness ; and were the whole world at my feet trying to minister to my comfort they could not add one drop to my cup." To Mrs. Payson, who observed to him, " Your head feels hot and seems to be distended," he replied : " It seems as if the soul disdained such a narrow prison, and was determined to break through with an angel’s energy, and I trust with no small portion of an angel’s feeling, until it mounts on high.

" It seems as if my soul had found a new pair of wings, and was so eager to try them that in her fluttering she would rend the fine network of the body in pieces."