“The Sister of my heart”: Esther Edwards Burr on Faithful Friendship

On October 11, 1754, Esther Edwards Burr (1732-58), the third of Jonathan and Sarah Pierpont Edwards’s eleven children, writing in her diary, called her best friend Sarah Prince (1728-71): “the Sister of my heart.” The special spiritual friendship between these two godly young women is largely recorded in Esther’s Journal written between 1754 and 1757. According to Roger Lundin and Mark Noll, this Journal “shows us a very busy young mother who yet took time, amid her pressing duties, to reflect on her relationship with God. The life that shines forth in the diary is one of sincere religion, hard work, family joys and sorrows, nearly overwhelming domestic responsibility, and faithful friendship.”[1] This faithful friendship is the focus of this brief article.