5. Toflee, with confidence, to God, to act according to His

5. Toflee, with confidence, to God, to act according to His

/ Elizabeth Prentiss 3. Renew one's self in this disposition whenever one is alone, in order to be better prepared to remember it when in company.

4. Whenever one surprises ones selfin too great a wastefulness, or in speaking too freely of his neighbor, let him collect himselfand offer to God all the rest of the conversation.

5. Toflee, with confidence, to God, to act according to His will, when one enters company, or engages in some occupation which may cause one tofall into temptation. The sight of danger ought to warn of the need there is to lift the heart toward Him by one who may be preserved from it!'

We both thanked her as she finished reading, and I begged her to lend me the volume that I might make the above copy.

I hope I have gained some valuable hints from this letter, and that I shall see more plainly than ever that it is a religion of principle that God wants from us, not one of mere feeling.

Helen remarked that she was most struck by the assertion that one cannot forestall the graces that belong to a more advanced period. She said she had assumed that she ought to experience all that the most mature Christian did, and that it comforted her to think of God as doing this work for her, making repentance, for instance, a free gift, not a conquest to be won for ones self.

Miss Clifford said that the whole idea of giving one's self to God in such little daily acts as visiting, shopping, and the like, was entirely new to her.

Stepping Heavenward / 349 "But imagine," she went on, her beautiful face lighted up with enthusiasm, "what a blessed life that must be, when the base things of this world, and things that are despised, are so many links to the invisible world, and to the things God has chosen!"

"In other words," I said, "the top of the ladder that rests on earth reaches to heaven, and we may ascend it as the angels did in Jacobs dream" (Genesis 28:12).

"And descend too, as they did," Helen put in, despondently.

"Now you shall not speak in that tone," cried Miss Clifford. "Let us look at the bright side of life, and believe that God means us to be always ascending, always getting nearer to Himself, always learning something new about Him, always loving Him better and better. To be sure, our souls are sick, and of themselves can't keep ever on the wing,' but I have had some delightful thoughts of late from just hearing the title of a book, *God s method with the maladies of the soul.' It gives one such a conception of the seeming ills of life; to think of Him as our Physician, the ills all remedies the deprivations only a wholesome course for our good, the losses all gains. Why, as I study this individual case, and that, see how patiently and persistently He tries now this remedy, now that, and how infallibly He cures the souls that submit to His remedies, I love Him so!

I love Him so! And I am so astonished that we are restless under His unerring hand! Think how He has dealt with

/ Elizabeth Prentiss me. My soul was sick unto death, sick with worldliness, and self-pleasing and folly. There was only one way of making me listen to reason, and that was just the way He took. He snatched me right out of the world and shut me up in one room, crippled, helpless, and alone, and set me to thinking, thinking, thinking, till I saw the emptiness and shallowness of all in which I had hitherto been involved. And then He sent you and your mother to show me the reality of life, and to reveal to me my invisible, unknown Physician. Can I love Him with halfmy heart? Can I be asking questions as to how much I am to pay towards the debt I owe Him?"

By this time Helen's work had fallen from her hands and tears were in her eyes.

"How I thank you," she said sofdy,"for what you have said. You have interpreted life to me! You have given me a new conception ofmy God and Saviour!"

Miss Clifford seemed quenched and humbled by these words; her enthusiasm faded away and she looked at Helen with a disapproving demeanor as she replied: "Don't say that! I never felt so unfit for anything but to sit at the feet of Christ's disciples and learn of them."

Yet I, so many years one of those disciples, had been sitting at her feet, and had learned of her. Never had I so realized the magnitude of the work to be done in this world, nor the power and goodness of Him who has undertaken to do it all. I was glad to be alone, to walk my

Stepping Heavenward /

room singing praises to Him for every instance in which, as my Physician, He had "disappointed my hope and defeated my joy' and given me to drink of the cup of sorrow and bereavement I read to Ernest the extract from Fenelon which has made such an impression on me.

"Every business man, in fact every man leading an active life, ought to read that," he said. "We would have a new order of things as the result. Instead of fancying that our ordinary daily work was one thing and our religion quite another thing, we would transform our acts ofdrudgery into acts of worship. Instead of going to prayer-meetings to get into a good frame,' we would live in a good frame from morning till night, from night till morning, and prayer and praise would be only another form for expressing the love and faith and obedience we had been exercising amidst all the various pressures of business."

"I only wish I had understood this years ago," I said.

"I have made prayer too much of a luxury, and have often inwardly chafed and fretted when the care ofmy children at times, made it utterly impossible to leave them for private devotion— when they have been sick, for instance, or in other similar emergencies. I reasoned this way: 'Here is a special demand on my patience, and I am naturally impatient. I must have time to go away and entreat the Lord

/ Elizabeth Prentiss to equip me for this conflict.' But I see now that the simple act of cheerful acceptance of the duty imposed and the solace and support withdrawn would have united me more fully to Christ than the highest enjoyment of His presence in prayer could."

"Yes, every act of obedience is an act of worship," he said.

"But why don't we learn that sooner? Why do we waste our lives before we learn how to live?"

"I am not sure," he returned, "that we do not learn as fast as we are willing to learn. God does not force instruction upon us, but when we say, as Luther^^ did, *More light.

Lord, more light,' the light comes."

I questioned myself after he had gone as to whether this could be true of me. Is there not in my heart some secret reluctance to know the truth, lest that knowledge should call to a higher and a holier life than

I have yet lived?

I went to see Mrs. Campbell a few days ago, and found, to my great joy, that Helen had just been there, and that they had had a long and earnest conversation together.

Mrs. Campbell's health has failed a good deal of late, and it is not likely that we shall have her with us much longer.

Her every look and word is precious to me when I think of her as one who is so soon to enter the unseen world, and see our Saviour, and be welcomed home by Him. If it is so

Stepping Heavenward / 353 delightful to be with those who are on the way to heaven, what would it be to have fellowship with one who had come from that glorious place, and could tell us what it is!

She spoke freely about death, and said Ernest had promised to take complete charge ofher fimeral, and to see that she was buried by the side of her husband.

"You see, my dear," she added, with a smile, "though I am expecting to be so soon a saint in heaven, I am a human being still, with human weaknesses. What can it really matter where this weary old body is laid away, when I have done with it, and gone and left it forever? And yet I am leaving directions about its disposal!" I said I was glad that she was still human, but that I did not think it a weakness to take thought for the abode in which her soul had dwelt so long. I saw that she was tired and was just preparing to leave, but she held me and would not let me go.

"Yes, I am tired," she said, "but what of that? It is only a question of days now, and all my tired feelings will be over. Then I shall be as young and as fresh as ever, and shall have strength to praise and to love God as I cannot do now. But before I go I want once more to tell you how good

He is, how blessed it is to suffer with Him, how infinitely happy He has made me in the very hottest heat of the furnace. It will strengthen you in your trials to recall this my dying testimony. There is no wilderness so dreary but that His love can illuminate it; no desolation so desolate but that He can sweeten it. I know what I am saying. It is no delusion. I believe that the highest, purest happiness is known

/ Elizabeth Prentiss only to those who have learned Christ in sick-rooms, in poverty, in painful suspense and anxiety, amid hardships, and at the open grave."

Yes, the radiant face, worn by sickness and suffering, but radiant still, said in language yet more unspeakably impressive, "To learn Christ, this is life!"

I came into the busy and noisy streets as one descending from the mount, and on reaching home found my darling Una very ill in Ernest s arms. She had fallen, and injured her head. How I had prayed that God would temper the wind to this shorn lamb, and now she had had such a fall! We watched over her till far into the night, scarcely speaking to each other, but I know by the way in which Ernest held my hand clasped in his that her precious life was in danger. He consented at last to lie down, but Helen stayed with me. What a night it was! God only knows what the human heart can experience in a space of time that men call hours. I went over all the past history of the child, recalling all her sweet looks and words, and my own secret complaints at the delicate health that has cut her off from so many of the pleasures that belong to her age. And the more I thought, the more I clung to her, on whom, frail as she is, I was beginning to lean, and whose influence in our home I could not think of losing without a shudder. Alas, my faith seemed, for a time, to flee, and I could see just what a poor, weak human being is without it

But before da)dight crept into my room light from on high

Stepping Heavenward / 355 streamed into my heart, and I gave even this, my ewe-lamb, away, as my free-will offering to God. Could I refrise Him my child because she was the very apple of my eye? No indeed, then, but let me give to Him, not what I value least, but what I prize and delight in most. Could I not endure heart-sickness for Him who had given His only Son for me! And just as I got to that sweet consent to suffer. He who had only lifted the rod to test my faith laid it down.

My darling opened her eyes and looked at us intelligently, and with her own loving smile. But I dared not snatch her and press her to my heart; for her sake I must be outwardly calm at least.

I am at home with my precious Una, all the rest having gone to church. She lies peacefully on the bed, sadly disfigured, for the time, but Ernest says he apprehends no danger now, and we are a most happy, a most thankful household. The children have all been greatly moved by the events of the last few days, and hover about their sister with great sympathy and tenderness. Where she fell from, or how she fell, no one knows; she remembers nothing about it herself, and it will always remain a mystery.

This is the second time that this beloved child has been returned to us after we had given her away to God.

And as the giving cost us ten-fold more now than it did when she was a feeble baby, so we receive her now as a fresh gift from our loving Father s hand, with ten-fold

/ Elizabeth Prentiss delight. Ah, we have no excuse for not giving ourselves entirely to Hiin. He has revealed Himself to us in so many sorrows, and in so many joys; revealed Himself as He does not do unto the world!

A£2^^Cc<^L^t^^^ ^^ This has been a Sunday to be held in long remembrance. We were summoned early this morning to Mrs.

Campbell, and have seen her joyful release from the fetters that have bound her so long. Her loss to me is irreparable.

But I can truly thank God that one more "tired traveler" has had a sweet "welcome home." I can minister no longer to her bodily wants, and listen to her counsels no more, but she has entered as an inspiration into my life, and through all eternity I shall bless God that He gave me that faithful, praying friend. How little they know who languish in what seem useless sick-rooms, or amid the restrictions of frail health, w^at work they do for Christ by the power of saintly living, and by even fragmentary prayers.

Before her words fade out of my memory I want to write down, from hasty notes made at the time, her answer to some of the last questions I asked her on earth. She had always enjoyed intervals of comparative ease, and it was in one of these that I asked her what she conceived to be the

/ Elizabeth Prentiss characteristics of an advanced state of grace. She replied,"! think that the mature Christian is always, at all times, and in all circumstances, what he was in his best moments in the progressive stages of his life. There were seasons, all along his journey, when he loved God supremely; when he embraced the cross joyfully and penitently; when he held intimate communion with Christ, and loved his neighbor as himself. But he was always in terror, lest under the force of temptation, all this should give place to deadness and dullness, when he should chafe and rebel in the hour of trial, and judge his fellow-man with a harsh and bitter judgment, and give way to angry, passionate emotions. But these fluctuations cease, after a time, to disturb his peace.

Love to Christ becomes the abiding, inmost principle of his life; he loves Him rather for what He is than for what He has done or will do for him individually, and God's honor becomes so dear to him that he feels personally wounded when that is called in question. And the will of God becomes so dear to him that he loves it best when it 'triumphs at his cost.'

"Once he only prayed at set times and seasons, and idolized good frames and fervent emotions. Now he prays without ceasing, and whether on the mount or down in the depths depends wholly upon his Saviour.

"His old self-confidence has now given place to childlike humility that will not let him take a step alone, and the sweet peace that is now habitual to him, combined with the sense of his own imperfections, fills him with love to

Stepping Heavenward / 359 his fellow-man. He hears and believes and hopes and endures all things and thinks no evil. The tones of his voice, the very expression of his countenance, become changed, love now controlling where human passions held sway. In short, he is not only a new creature in Jesus Christ, but the habitual and blessed consciousness is that this is so."

These words were spoken deliberately and with reflection.

"You have described my mother, just as she was from the moment her only son, the last of six, was taken from her," I said, at last. "I never before quite understood how that final sorrow weaned her, so to say, from herself, and made her life all love to God and all love to man. But I see it now. Dear Mrs. Campbell, pray for me that I may yet wear her mantle!"

She smiled with a significance that said she had already done so, and then we parted— parted that she might end her pilgrimage and go to her rest— parted that I might pursue mine, I know not how long, nor amid how many cares and sorrows, nor with vs^at weariness and heart-sickness— parted to meet again in the presence ofHim we love, with those who have come out of great tribulation, whose robes have been made \Au.te in the blood of the Lamb, and who are before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple, to hunger no more, neither thirst any more, for the Lamb vsdiich is in the midst of the throne shall lead them into living fountains ofwaters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes (Revelation 7:14-17).

/ Elizabeth Prentiss We were talking of Mrs. Campbell, and of her blessed life and blessed death. Helen said it discouraged and troubled her to see and hear such things.

"The last time I saw her when she was able to converse," said she, "I told her that when I reflected on my lack of submission to God s will, I doubted whether I really could be His child. She said, in her gentle, sweet way:

*Would you venture to resist His will, if you could?

Would you really have your dear James back again in this world, if you could?'

" *I would, I certainly would,' I said.

"She returned, *I sometimes find it a help, when dull and cramped in my devotions, to say to myself: Suppose

Christ should now appear before you, and you could see Him as He appeared to His disciples on earth, what would you say to Him? This brings Him near, and I say what I would say ifHe were visibly present. I do the same when a new sorrow threatens me. I imagine my Redeemer as coming personally to say to me, "For your sake I am a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; now for My sake give me this child, bear this burden, submit to this loss," Can I refiise Him? Now, dear. He has really come thus to you, and asked you to show your love to Him, your faith in Him, by giving Him the most precious ofyour treasures. IfHe were here at this moment, and offered to restore it to you, would you dare to say, "Yea, Lord, I know, far better than Thou dost, what is good for him and good for me; I will have

Stepping Heavenward / 361 him return to me, cost what it may; in this world of uncertainties and disappointments I shall be sure ofhappiness in his society, and he wiU enjoy more here on earth with me than he could enjoy in the companionship of saints and angels and of the Lord Himself in heaven," Could you dare to say this?' Oh, Katy, what straits she drove me into! No, I could not dare to say that!"

"Then, my darling little sister!" I cried, "you will give up this struggle? You will let God do what He will with His own?"

"I have to let Him," she replied; "but I submit because I must"

I looked at her gentle, pure face as she uttered these words, and could only marvel at the strong will that had no expression there.

"Tell me," she said, "do you think a real Christian can feel as I do? For my part I doubt it. I doubt everything."

"Doubt everything, but believe in Christ," I said. "Suppose, for argument s sake, you are not a Christian. You can become one now." The color rose in her lovely face; she clasped her hands together in a sort of ecstasy.

"7es"she said,"! can."

At last God had sent her the word she wanted.

Helen came to breakfast this morning in a simple wWte dress. I had no time to tell the children not to allude to it, so they began in chorus: "Why, Aunty Helen! you

/ Elizabeth Prentiss have put on a white dress!"

"Why, Aunty, how strange you look!"

"Hurrah! if she don t look like other folks!"

She bore it all with her usual gentleness; or rather with a positive sweetness that captivated them as her negative patience had never done. I said nothing to her, nor did she to me till late in the day, when she came to me, and said:

"Katy, God taught you what to say. All these years I have been tormenting myself with doubts as to whether I could be His child while so unable to say. Thy will be done.

If you had said, *Why, yes, you must be His child, for you professed yourself one a long time ago, and ever since have lived like one,' I would have remained as wretched as ever.

As it is, a mountain has been rolled off my heart. Yes, if I was not His child yesterday, I can become one today; if I did not love Him then, I can begin now."

I do not doubt that she was His child, yesterday, and last year, and years ago. But let her think what she pleases.

A new life is opening before her; I believe it is to be a life of entire devotion to God, and that out of her sorrow there shall spring up a wondrous joy.

Ernest spent Sunday with us, and I have just driven him to the station, and seen him safely off. Things have prospered with us to such a degree that he has been extravagant enough to give me the use, for the summer, of a beautiful little pony and an antiquated vehicle, and I have

Stepping Heavenward / 363 learned to drive. To be sure I broke one of the shafts of the poor old thing the first time I ventured forth alone, and the other day nearly upset my cargo of children in a pond where I was silly enough to undertake to water my horse.

But Ernest, as usual, had patience with me, and begged me to spend as much time as possible in driving about with the children. It is a new experience, and I enjoy it quite as much as he hoped I would. Helen is not with us; she has spent the whole summer with Martha; for Martha, poor thing, is suffering terribly firom rheumatism and is almost entirely helpless. I am so sorry for her, after so many years of vigorous health, how hard it must be to endure this pain. With this drawback, we have had a delightful summer; not one sick day, nor one sick night. With no baby to keep me awake, I sleep straight through, as Raymond says, and wake in the morning refreshed and cheerful. We shall have to go home soon; how cruel it seems to bring up children in a great city! Yet what can be done about it?

Wherever there are men and women there must be children; what a howling wilderness either city or country would be without them!

The only drawback on my felicity is the separation from Ernest, which become more painful every year to us both. God has blessed our married life; it has had it waves and its billows, but, thanks be unto Him, it has at last settled down into a calm sea of untroubled peace. While I was secretly upbraiding my dear husband for giving so much attention to his profession as to neglect me and my children, he was becoming, every day, more the ideal of a

/ Elizabeth Prentiss physician, cool, calm, thoughtful, studious, ready to sacrifice his life at any moment in the interests of humanity. How often I have mistaken his preoccupied air for indifference; how many times I have inwardly accused him of coldness, when his whole heart and soul were filled with the grave problem of life, aye, and of death likewise.

But we understand each other now, and I am sure that God dealt wisely and kindly with us when He brought together two such opposite natures. No man ofmy vehement nature could have borne with me as Ernest has done, and if he had married a woman as calm, as undemonstrative as himselfwhat a strange home his would have been for the nurture of little children? But the heart was in him, and only wanted to be awakened, and my life has called forth music from his. Ah, there are no partings and meetings now that leave discords in the remembrance, no neglected birthdays, no forgotten courtesies. It is beautiful to see the thoughtfiil brow relax in the presence ofwife and children, and to know that ours is, at last, the happy home I so long sighed for. Is the change all in Ernest? Is it not possible that I have grown more reasonable, less childish and aggravating?

We are at a farmhouse. Everything is plain, but neat and nice. I asked Mrs. Brown, our hostess, the other day, if she did not envy me my four little pets; she smiled, said they were the best children she ever saw, and that it was fine to have a family if you have means to start them in the world; for her part, she lived firom hand to mouth as it was, and was sure she could never stand the worry and care of a house full ofyoung ones.

Stepping Heavenward / 365 "But the worry and care is only half the story' I said.

"The other half is pure joy and delight."

"Perhaps so, to people that are well-to-do," she replied; "but to poor folks, driven to death as we are, its another thing. I was telling him yesterday what a merq^ it was that there weren't any young ones around to get under my feet, and I could take city boarders, and help work off the mortgage on the farm."

"And what did your husband say to that?"

"Well, he said we were young and hearty, and there was not such a great hurry about the mortgage, and that he'd give his right hand to have a couple of boys like yours."

"WeU?"

"Why, I said, supposing we had a couple of boys, they wouldn't be like yours, dressed to look genteel and to have their genteel ways; but a pair of wild colts, into everything, tearing their clothes off their backs, and wasting money faster than we could earn. He said, 'twasn't the clothes, 'twas the flesh and blood he wanted, and 'twasn't no use to argufy about it; a man that hadn't got any children wasn't mor'n half a man. *Well,' says I, ^supposing you had a pack of 'em, what have you got to give 'em?' 'Jest exactly what my father and mother gave me,' says he; *two hands to earn their bread with, and a welcome you could have heard from Dan to Beersheba.^^'

"I like to hear that!" I said. "And I hope many such welcomes will resound in this house. Suppose money does come in while little goes out; suppose you get possession of

/ Elizabeth Prentiss the whole farm; what then? Who will enjoy it with you?

Who will you leave it to when you die? And in your old age who will care for you?"

"You seem awful earnest," she said.

"Yes, I am in earnest. I want to see little children adorning every home, as flowers adorn every meadow and every wayside. I want to see them welcomed to the homes they enter, to see their parents grow less and less selfish, and more and more loving, because they have come.

I want to see God s precious gifts accepted, not frowned upon and refused."

Mr. Brown came in, so I could say no more. But my heart warmed towards him, as I looked at his firank, goodhumored face, and I would have been glad to give him the right hand of fellowship. As it was, I could only say a word or two about the beauty of his farm, and the scenery of this whole region.

"Yes," he said, gratified that I appreciated his fields and groves, "it is an awfully pretty laying farm. Part of it was her father s, and part of it was my father s; there ain't another like it in the country. As to the scenery, I don't know as I ever looked at it; city folks talk a good deal about it, but they ve nothing to do but look around." Walter came trotting in on two bare, white feet, and with his shoes in his hand. He had had his nap, felt as bright and firesh as he looked rosy, and I did not wonder at Mr. Brown's snatching him up and clasping his sunburnt arms about the little fellow, and pressing him against the warm heart that yearned for nestlings of its own.

Stepping Heavenward / 367 Home again, and full of the thousand cares that follow the summer and precede the winter. But let mothers and wives fret as they will, they enjoy these labors of love, and would feel lost without them. For what amount of leisure, ease, and comfort would I exchange husband and children and this busy home?

Martha is better, and Helen has come back to us. I don t know how we have lived without her so long. Her life seems necessary to the completion of every one of ours.

Some others have fancied it necessary to the completion of theirs, but she has not agreed with them. We are glad enough to keep her, and yet I hope the day will come when she, so worthy of it, will taste the sweet joys of wifehood and motherhood.

It is not always so easy to practice, as it is to preach. I can see in my wisdom forty reasons for having four children and no more. The comfort of sleeping in peace, of having a little time to read, and to keep on with my music; strength with which to look after Ernests poor people when they are sick; and, to tell the truth, strength to be bright and fresh and lovable to him— all these little joys have been growing ever precious to me, and now I must give them up. I want to do it cheerfully and without a frown. But I find I love to have my own way, and that at the very moment I was asking God to appoint my work for me, I was secretly marking it out for myself. It is mortifying to find

/ Elizabeth Prentiss my will less in harmony with His than I thought it was, and that I want to prescribe to Him how I shall spend the time, and the health and the strength which are His, not mine. But I will not rest till this struggle is over; till I can say with a smile, "Not my will! Not my will! But Thine!"

We have been, this winter, one of the happiest families on earth. Our love to each other, Ernest s and mine, though not perfect— nothing on earth is— has grown less selfish, more Christ-like; it has been sanctified by prayer and by the sorrows we have borne together. Then the children have been healthy and happy, and the source of almost unmitigated joy and comfort. And Helens presence in this home, her sisterly affection, her patience with the children and her influence over them, is a benediction for which I cannot be thankful enough. How delightful it is to have a sister! I think it is not often the case that true sisters have such perfect Christian sympathy with each other as we have. Ever since the day she ceased to torment herself with the fear that she was not a child of God, and laid aside the somber garments she had worn so long, she has had a peace that has hardly known a cloud. She says, in a note written to me about the time:

''I wantyou to know, my darling sister, that the despondency that made my affliction so hard to hear fled before those words ofyours, which, as I have already toldyou, God taughtyou to speak. I do not know whether I was really His child, at the time, or not. I had certainly had an experience very differentfrom yours; prayer had never been much more to me than a duty; and I had neverfelt the sweetness of that harmony between God and the human soul that I now know

Stepping Heavenward / 369 can take away all the bitterness from the cup of sorrow. I knew— who can help knowing it that reads God's word?— that He required submissionfrom His children and that His children gave it, no matter what it cost. The Bible is full of beautiful expressions of it; so are our hymns; so are the written lives ofall good men and good women; and I have seen it in you, my dear Katy, at the very momentyou were accusing yourself of the lack of it. Entire oneness of the will with the Divine Will seem to me to be the law and the gospel of the Christian life; and this evidence ofa renewed nature Ifound lacking in myself At any moment during the three years following Jamess death I would have snatched him away from God, ifI could; I was miserably lonely and desolate without him, not merely because he had been so much to me, but because his loss revealed to me the distance between Christ and my soul All I could do was to go on praying, year after year, in a dreary, hopeless way, that I might learn to say, as David did, 'I opened not my mouth because Thou didst if (Ps.

39:9). When you suggested that instead of trying to find out whether Ihad loved God I should begin to love Him now, light broke in upon my soul; Igave myselfto Him that instant and as soon as I could get away by myselfIfell upon my knees and gave myself up to the sense of His sovereignty for the first time in my life. Then, too, I looked at my light affliction,' and at the 'weight ofglory (2nd Cor. 4: 1 7) side by side, and thanked

Him that through the one He had revealed to me the other Katy, I know the human heart is deceitful above all things, but I think it would be a dishonor to God to doubt that He then revealed Himself to me as He does not do to the world, and that the sweet peace I then found in yielding to Him will be more or less mine so long as I live. Oh, if all sufferers could learn what I have learned! that every broken heart could be healed as mine has been healed! My precious sister, cannot we make this one part of our mission on earth, to pray for every sorrow-stricken soul, and whenever we have influence

/ Elizabeth Prentiss over such, to lead it to honor God by instant obedience to His willy whatever that may be? I have dishonored Him byyears of rebellious, carefully-nursed sorrow; I want to honor Him now by years of resignation and grateful joy"

Reading this letter over in my present mood has done me good. More beautiful faith in God than Helens I have never seen; let me have it, too. May this prayer, which, under the inspiration ofthe moment, I can offer without a misgiving, become the habitual, deep-seated desire ofmy soul:

"Bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Take what I cannot give— my hearty bodyy thoughts, timCy abilities, moneyy healthy strength, nights, days, youthy age, and spend them in Thy service, O my crucified Master, RedeemeVy God. Oh, let not these he mere words! Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there is no one upon the earth that I desire in comparison to Thee.

My heart is athirstfor Godyfor the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?"

I have just written to Mrs. Brown to knowwhether she will take us for the rest of the summer.A certain little man, not a very old little man, either, has kept us in town till now.

Since he has come, we are all very glad of him, though he came on his own invitation, brought no wardrobe with him, does not pay for his board, never speaks a word, takes no notice of us, and wants more waiting on than any one else in the house. The children are full ofdelicious curiosity about him, and overwhelm him with presents ofthe most heterogeneous character.

We got there this afternoon, bag and baggage. I had not said a word to Mrs. Brown about the addition to our family circle, knowing she had plenty of room, and as we alighted from the carriage, I snatched my baby from his nurse s arms and ran gayly up the walk with him in mine.

"If this splendid fellow doesn't convert her nothing will," I

/ Elizabeth Prentiss said to myself. At that instant what should I see but Mrs.

Brown, running to meet me with a boy in her arms exactly like Mr. Brown, only not quite six feet long, and not yet sun-burnt "There!" I cried, holding up my little old man.

"There!" said she, holding up hers.

We laughed till we cried; she took my baby and I took hers; after looking at him I liked mine better than ever; after looking at mine she was perfectly satisfied with hers.

We got into the house at last; that is to say, we mothers did; the children darted through it and out of the door that led to the fields and woods, and vanished in the twinkling of an eye.

Mrs. Brown had always been a pretty woman, with bright eyes, shining, well-kept hair, and a color in her cheeks like the rose which had given its name to her farm.

But there was now a new beauty in her face; the mysterious and sacred sufferings and joys of maternity had given it thought and feeling.

"I had no idea I would be so fond of a baby' she said, kissing it, whenever she stopped to put in a comma; "but I don't know how I ever got along without one. He s off at work nearly the whole day, and when I had gotten through with mine, and had put on my afternoon dress, and was ready to sit down, you can't think how lonesome it was. But now, by the time I am dressed, baby is ready to go out to get the air; he knows the minute he sees me bring out his little hat that he is going to see his father, and he's

Stepping Heavenward / 373 awful fond of his father. Though that isnt so strange, either, for his father's awful fond of him. All his little ways are so pretty, and he never cries unless hes hungry or tired. Tell mother a pretty story now; yes, mother hears, bless his little heart!"

Then when Mr. Brown came home to his supper, his face was a sight to see, as he caught sight ofme at my open window, and came to it with the child s white arms clinging to his neck, looking as happy and as bashful as a girl.

"You see she must needs go to quartering this bouncing young one on to me," he said, "as if I didn t have to work hard enough before. Well, maybe he'll get his feed off the farm; we'll see what we can do."

"Mamma," Una whispered, as he went off with his facsimile, to kiss it rapturously, behind a woodpile, "do you think Mrs. Brown's baby very pretty?"

Which was so mild a way of suggesting the fact of the case, that I kissed her without trying to hide my amusement After being cooped up in town so large a part of the summer, the children are nearly wild with delight at being in the country once more. Even our timid Una skips about with a buoyancy I have never seen in her; she never has her ill turns when out of the city, and I wish, for her sake, that we could always live here. As to Raymond and Walter, I never pretend to see them except at their meals and their

/ Elizabeth Prentiss bedtime; they just live out of doors, following the men at their work, asking all sorts of absurd questions, which Mr.

Brown reports to me every night, with shouts of delighted laughter. Two gay and gladsome boys they are; really good without being priggish; I don t think I could stand that.

People ask me how it happens that my children are all so promptly obedient and so happy. As if it were by chance that some parents have such children, or chance that some have not! I am afraid it is only too true, as some one has remarked, that *this is the age of obedient parents !'^^ What then will be the future of their children? How can they yield to God who have never been taught to yield to human authority? And how well fitted will they be to rule their own households who have never learned to rule themselves?

This has been one of those cold, dismal, rainy days which are not infrequent during the month of August. So the children have been obliged to give up the open air, of which they are so fond, and fall back upon what entertainment could be found within the house.

I have read to them the little journal I kept during the whole life of the brother I am not willing they should forget. His quaint and perceptive sayings were delicious to them; the history of his first steps, and his first words sounded to them like a fairy tale. And the story of his last steps, his last words on earth, had for them such a tender charm, that there was a cry of disappointment from them all, when I closed the

Stepping Heavenward / 375 litde book, and told them we would have to wait till we got to heaven before we could know anything more about his precious life.

How thankful I am that I kept this journal, and that I have almost as charming ones about most of my other children! What I speedily forgot amid the pressure of cares and of new events is safely written down, and will be the source of endless pleasure to them long after the hand that wrote has ceased from its labors, and lies inactive and at rest. Ah, it is a blessed thing to be a mother!

This baby of mine is certainly the sweetest and best I ever had. I feel an inexpressible tenderness for it which I cannot quite explain to myself, for I have loved them all dearly, most dearly. Perhaps it is so with all mothers; perhaps they all grow more loving, more forbearing, more patient as they grow older, and yearn over these helpless little ones with an ever-increasing, yet chastened delight. One cannot help sheltering their tender infancy, who will so soon pass forth to fight the battle of life, each one waging an invisible warfare against invisible foes. How thankfully we would fight it for them, ifwe might!

The mornings and evenings are very cool now, while in the middle of the day it is quite hot. Ernest comes to see us very often, under the pretense that he can t trust me

/ Elizabeth Prentiss with so young a baby! He is so tender and thoughtful, and spoils me so, that this world is very bright to me;

I am a little jealous of it; I don t want to be so happy in Ernest, or in my children, as to forget for one instant that I am a pilgrim and a stranger on earth.

There is no danger that I shall. Ernest suddenly made his appearance tonight, and in a great burst of distress quite unlike anything I ever saw in him, revealed to me that he had been feeling the greatest anxiety about me ever since the baby came. It is all nonsense. I cough, to be sure; but that it is obviously due to the varying temperature we always have at this season. I shall get over it as soon as we get home, I dare say.

But suppose I should not; what then? Could I leave this precious little flock, uncared for, untended? Have I faith to believe that if God calls me away from them, it will be in love to them? I do not know. The thought of getting away from the sin that still so easily besets me, is very delightftil, and I have enjoyed so many, many such foretastes of the bliss of heaven that I know I should be happy there; but then, my children, all of them under twelve years old!

I will not choose, I dare not.

My married life has been a beautifiil one. It is true that sin and folly, and sickness and sorrow, have marred its perfection, but it has been adorned by a love which has never faltered. My faults have never alienated Ernest; his faults, for like other human beings he has them, have never overcome

Stepping Heavenward / 377 my love to him. This has been the gift ofGod in answer to our constant prayer, that whatever other bereavement we might have to suffer, we might never be bereft of this benediction. It has been the glad secret of a happy marriage, and I wish I could teach it to every human being who enters upon a state that must bring with it the depth of misery, or life's most sacred and mysterious joy.

Ernest has let me stay here to see the autumnal foliage in its ravishing beauty for the first, perhaps for the last, time. The woods and fields and groves are lighting up my very soul! It seems as if autumn had caught the inspiration and the glow of summer, had hidden its floral beauty, its gorgeous sunsets and its bow of promise in its heart of hearts, and was now flashing it forth upon the world with a lavish and opulent hand. I can hardly tear myself away, and return to the prose of city life. But Ernest has come for us, and is eager to get us home before colder weather. I laugh at his anxiety about his old wife. Why need he fancy that this trifling cough is not to give way as it often has done before? Dear Ernest! I never knew that he loved me so.

Ernest s fear that he had let me stay too long in the country does not seem to be justified. We went so late that I wanted to indulge the children by staying late. So we have only just gotten home.

I feel about as healthy as usual; it is true I have a littie soreness around the chest, but

/ Elizabeth Prentiss it does not signify anything.

I never was so happy in my husband and children, in other words, in my home as I am now. Life looks very attractive. I am glad that I am going to get well.

But Ernest watches me carefully, and wants me, as a precautionary measure, to give up music, writing, sewing and painting— the very things that occupy me!— and lead an idle, useless life, for a time. I cannot refuse what he asks so tenderly, and as a personal favor to himself Yet I should like to fill the few remaining pages ofmy Journal; I never like to leave things incomplete.

I wrote that seven years ago, little dreaming how long it would be before I would use a pen. Seven happy years ago!

I suppose that some who have known what my outward life has been during this period would think ofme as a mere object of pity. There has certainly been suffering and deprivation enough to justify the sympathy ofmy dear husband and children, and the large circle of friends who have rallied about us. How little we knew we had so many precious ones!

God has dealt very tenderly with me. I was not stricken down by sudden disease, nor were the things I delighted in all taken away at once. There was a gradual loss of strength and gradual increase of suffering, and it was only by degrees that I was asked to give up the

Stepping Heavenward / 379 employments in which I delighted, my household duties, my visits to the sick and suffering, the society of beloved friends. Perhaps Ernest perceived and felt my deprivations sooner than I did; his sympathy always seemed to out-run my disappointments. When I compare him, as he is now, with what he was w4ien I first knew him, I bless God for all the precious lessons He has taught him at my cost. There is a tenacity and persistence about his love for me that has made these years almost as wearisome to him as they have been to me. As for myself, if I had been told what I was to learn through these lengthy sufferings, I am afraid I would have shrunk back in terror, and so have lost all the sweet lessons God proposed to teach me. As it is. He has led me on, step by step, answering my prayers in His own way; I cannot bear to have a single human being doubt that it has been a perfect way. I love and adore it just as it is.

Perhaps the suspense has been one of the most trying features ofmy case. Just as I have unclasped my hand from my dear Ernest s; just as I have let go of my almost frantic hold ofmy darling children; just as heaven opened before me, and I fancied my weariness over and my wanderings done; just then almost every alarming symptom would disappear, and life recall me from the threshold of heaven itself Thus I have been emptied from vessel to vessel, till I have learned that he only is truly happy who has no longer a choice of his own, and lies passive in God*s hand.

Even now no one can foretell the issue of this sickness.

We live a day at a time, not knowing what shall be on the

/ Elizabeth Prentiss morrow. But whether I live or die, my happiness is secure, and so, I believe, is that ofmy beloved ones. This is a true picture of our home:

A sick-room full of the suffering that ravages the body, but cannot touch the soul. A worn, wasting mother ministered unto by a devoted, saintly husband and by unselfish. Christian children. Some of the peace of God, if not all of it, shines in every face, is heard in every tone. It is a home that typifies and foreshadows the home that is perfect and eternal.

Our dear Helen has been given us for this emergency.

Is it not strange that seeing our domestic life would have awakened in her some yearnings for a home and a heart and children of her own. She has said that there was a weary point in her life when she made up her mind that she was never to know these joys. But she accepted her lot gracefiilly. I do not know any other word that describes so well the beautifiil ofiering she made of her life, first to God, and then to us. He accepted it, and has given her all the cares and responsibilities of domestic life, without the transcendent joys that sustain the wife and the mother. She has been all in all to our children, and God has been all in all to her. And she is happy in His service and in our love.

It took me nearly two weeks to write the above, at intervals, as my strength allowed. Ernest has consented to my finishing this volume, of which so few pages yet remain.

Stepping Heavenward / 381 And he let me see a dear old friend who came all the way from my native town to see me— Dr. Eaton, our family physician as long as I could remember. He is of an advanced age, but frill of vigor, his eye bright, and with a healthfril glow on his cheek. But he says he is waiting and longing for his summons home. About that home we had a delightful talk together that did my very heart good. Then he made me tell him about this long sickness and the years of frail health and some of the sorrows through which I had toiled.

"Ah, these lovely children are explained now^' he said.

"Do you really think," I asked, "that it has been good for my children to have a feeble, aJGElicted mother?"

"Yes, I really think so. A disciplined mother— disciplined children."

This comforting thought is one of the last drops in a cup of contentment already frill.

.^ ^^^ Another Sunday, and all are at church except my darling Una, who keeps watch over her mother. These Sundays, when I have had them each alone in turn, have been blessed days to them and to me. Surely this is some compensation for what they lose in me of health and vigor. I know the state of each soul as far as it can be known, and have every reason to believe that my children all love my

Saviour and are trying to live for Him. I have learned, at last, not to despise the day of small things, to cherish the L

/ Elizabeth Prentiss most tender blossom, and to expect my dear ones to be imperfect before they become perfect Christians.

Una is a sweet, composed young girl, now eighteen years old, and w^at can I say more of the love her brothers bear to her, than this: they never tease her. She has long ceased asking why she must have delicate health when so many others of her age are full of physical life and vigor, but stands in her lot and place, doing -whdX she can, suffering what she must, with a meekness that makes her lovely in my eyes, and that I am sure unites her closely to Christ

It was Raymond s turn to stay with me today. He opened his heart to me more freely than he had ever done before.

"Mamma," he began, "if papa is willing, I have made up my mind— that is to say if I ever get decently good to go on a mission."

I said, playfully: "And mammals consent is not to be asked?"

"No," he said, getting hold of what there is left ofmy hand, "I know you wouldn't say a word. Don t you remember telling me once, when I was a Utde boy, that I might go and be welcome?"

"And don t you remember'' I returned, "that you cried for joy, and then relieved your mind still farther, by walking on your hands, with your feet in the air?"

We both laughed heartily, at this remembrance, and

Stepping Heavenward / 383 then I said: "My dear boy, you know your father s plan for you?"

"Yes, I know he expects me to study with him, and take his place in the world."

"And it is a very important place."

His countenance fell, as he fancied I was not entering heartily into his wishes.

"Dear Raymond," I went on, "I gave you to God long before you gave yourself to Him. IfHe can make you useful in your own, or in other lands,

I bless His name.

Whether I live to see you a man, or not, I hope you will work in the Lord s vineyard wherever He calls. I never asked anything for you but usefulness, in all my prayers for you; never once. His eyes filled with tears; he kissed me, and walked away to the window, to compose himself. My poor, dear, lovable, loving boy! He has all his mother s trials and struggles to contend with; but what does it matter if they bring him the same peace?

Everybody wonders to see me once more interested in my long-closed Journal, and becoming able to see the dear fi-iends fi*om whom I have been, in a measure, cut off. We cannot ask the meaning of this remarkable increase of strength.

I have no wish to choose. But I have come to the last page ofmy Journal, and living or dying, shall write in this volume no more. It closes upon a life of much childishness

/ Elizabeth Prentiss and great sinfulness, whose record makes me blush with shame, but I no longer need to relieve my heart with seeking sympathy in its unconscious pages, nor do I believe it good to go on analyzing it as I have done. I have had large experiences ofboth joy and sorrow; I have seen the nakedness and the emptiness, and I have seen the beauty and sweetness of life. What I have to say now, let me say to Jesus. What time and strength I used to spend in writing here, let me now spend in praying for all men, for all sufferers, for all who are out of the way, for all whom I love.

And their name is Legion, for I love everybody.

Yes, I love everybody! That crowning joy has come to me at last. Christ is in my soul; He is mine; I am as conscious of it as that my husband and children are mine; and His Spirit flows forth from mine in the calm peace of a river, wiiose banks are green with grass, and glad with flowers. If I die it will be to leave a wearied and worn body, and a sinftil soul, to go joyfuUy to be with Christ, to be weary and to sin no more. If I live, I shall find much blessed work to do for Him. So living or dying, I shall be the Lord's.

But I wish, oh, how earnestly, that whether I go or stay, I could inspire some lives with the joy that is now mine. For many years I have been rich in faith; rich in an unfaltering confidence that I was beloved ofmy God and Saviour. But something was missing; I was always groping for a mysterious grace the lack of which made me often sorrowftil in the very midst of my most sacred joy, imperfect when I most longed for perfection. It was that personal

Stepping Heavenward / 385 love to Christ ofwhich my precious mother so often spoke to me, \^Wch she often urged me to seek upon my knees. If I had known then, as I know now, what this priceless treasure could be to a sinftil human soul, I would have sold all that I had to buy the field in which it lay hidden. But not till I was shut up to prayer and to the study of God s word by the loss of earthly joys, sickness destroying the flavor of them all, did I begin to penetrate the mystery that is learned under the cross. And wondrous as it is, how simple is this mystery! To love Christ, and to know that I love

Him— this is all!

And when I entered upon the sacred yet oft-times homely duties of married life, if this love had been mine, how would that life have been transfigured! The petty faults ofmy husband under v^ch I chafed would not have moved me; I would have welcomed Martha and her father to my home and made them happy there; I would have had no conflicts with my servants, shown no irritability to my children. For it would not have been I who spoke and acted, but Christ who lived in me.

Alas!

I have had less than seven years in which to atone for a sinfijl, wasted past, and to live a new and a Christ-like life. If I am to have yet more, thanks be to Him who has given me the victory, that Life will be Love. Not the love that rests merely in the contemplation and adoration of its object; but the love that gladdens, sweetens and comforts other lives. To this end let me close with these words:

/ Elizabeth Prentiss O gift ofgifts! O grace offaith!

My God! how can it be That ThoUy who hast discerning love, Shouldstgive that gift to me?

How many hearts thou mightst have had More innocent than mine!

How many souls more worthyfar Ofthat sweet touch of Thine?

Ahy grace! into unlikeliest hearts It is thy boast to come; The glory of Thy light to find In darkest spots a home.

Oh, happy happy that I am!

If thou canst be, O faith.

The treasure that thou art in life.

What wilt thou be in death?^^ {Dear reader, as you conclude this book, ask yourself if this gift ofgifts is yours. Mayyou be led to step heavenward as the day draws near to the glorious return ofJesus Christ, the Lord ofheaven and earth.}

tSl ^t^^^^Cyi^^ ^>^e,..H^

Thomas a Kempis (13801471), was a German mystic,whose writings were loved by Mrs. Prentiss. In the memoirs ofEdward Payson, the author's beloved father, the following excerpt of a letter to a young pastor describes his deep affection for the devotional writings of Thomas: "The books which I have found most useful to me are (Jonathan) Edwards' Works, (David) Brainerd's Life, (John) Newton's

Letters, (John) Owens' Treatises on Indwelling Sin, Mortification ofSin in Believers, and Psalm 1 30 [ see Volume 6 of Owen's writings by Banner of Truth Trust] and Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ, especially translated by Payne. If you have never read Thomas a Kempis, I beg you to acquire it. Some things you will not like; but, for spirituality and weanedness from the world, I know of nothing equal to it." (The Complete Works ofEdward PaysonyVol. 1 , p. 25 1 , Sprinkle Publications)

Henry Martyn (1781-1812) was an Anglican missionary to India, who translated the New Testament into Hindustani. His Journals remain among the classics of English devotional literature.

Robert PoUok ( 1 7981 827) was a gifted Scottish poet.

Sit Walter Scott (1771-1832) was a Scottish novelist and poet.

To "stanch" is to stop the blood flowing from a wound.

Heaven— A World ofLove, by Jonathan Edwards is a beautiful, biblical discussion ofwhat heaven will be like for its inhabitants.

Available through Calvary Press.

Consumption was the progressive wasting away ofthe body; especially that form accompanying pulmonary phthisis and associated with coughing, spitting up blood, hectic fever, etc. This was very common in that day.

Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667) was an Anglican bishop and writer

/ Elizabeth Prentiss born and educated at Cambridge. His books Holy Living and Holy

Dying are among his most notable works.

Richard Baxter (1615-1691) was one of the greatest of the Puritan divines. His writings continue to touch the hearts of multitudes. Baxter subtitled The Saints Everlasting Rest as A Treatise on the Blessed State of the Saints, in their Enjoyment of God in Heaven, It is intended to help us fix our attention upon heavenly realities in the midst of this perishing world.

An aromatic plant common in the south of Europe. It is related to Lavander, and yields an oil used in medicines and perfumes.

The expression "to be kept in leading strings" means to be placated or treated as a child, as leading strings is a reference to a state of infancy, dependence, or to be under the guidance of others.

William Potts Dewees ( 1 768-184 1 ) was an American physician who wrote, Treatise on the Physical and Medical Treatment of Children in 1825. It became a popular book with parents in the midnineteenth century.

Dorcas is the godly woman described in Acts chapter 9 whom the Apostle Peter raised from the dead. She was known for her good and kind deeds.

Blancmange is a white, sweet, pudding-like dessert made from various ingredients, including cornstarch, gelatine, almond milk, vanilla, and rum and shaped in a mold. It was a very plain and ordinary dessert of the day.

Beeftea is strong beef broth used especially for the sick.

A cudgel is a heavy stick used primarily as a weapon, and "to take up cudgels for" is to engage in a contest on behalfofsomeone or something else.

A fender is a screen used to prevent coals or sparks from escaping a fireplace.

These words accurately express the deepest longing of the author, especially seen in her popular hymn, More Love to Thee,

O Christ.

Stepping Heavenward / 389

To be "a cumberer of the ground" is to be useless and burdensome. This very expression is from the parable of the barren fig tree in Luke 13:7.

The expression "The King of Terrors" is taken from Job 18: 14 where Bildad describes the state of the wicked before the grave.

Death is also personified in Scripture in places such as Isaiah 28:15, Psalm 49:14,15, and Hebrews 2:15.

Caroline Fry (1787-1846) was a godly woman who suffered much. She wrote, among other helpful books, Christ our Example.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), was the greatest philosopher and theologian of Americas history. His deep writings had a profound influence upon Elizabeth Prentiss, and are still gratefully read today by many Christians.

The expression "a pelican in the wilderness" is one of desolation, drawn from Psalm 102:6. Of this imagery Spurgeon says, "a mournful and even hideous object, the very image of desolation."

(The Treasury of David, Vol. 2)

This German phrase— "den Jammer und das Elend der Welt" is drawn from a popular German story, it means "the misery and the distress of the world."

This is a direct quote from John Bunyans classic work The Pilgrims Progress. These are the very words which Hopeful spoke to Christian as they were both crossing The River of Death. Our author was a great lover of this masterpiece of the Christian life, and allusions to it are found scattered throughout this book. In a letter to a friend she once said,"You ask if I revel in The Pilgrims Progress— Yes,

I do.

I think it is an amazing book." One of her greatest pleasures during her only trip to England was her visit to the grave of "The Tinker of Bedford", as Bunyan was affectionately known. To obtain a copy of The Pilgrim's Progress, contact Calvary Press.

The phrase "on sufferance" means to merely tolerate something.

The phrase "to take fire" meant to begin to burn with emotion; i.e. to fly into a passion.

/ Elizabeth Prentiss

Robert Leighton (1611-1 684) was a graduate of Edinburgh University, and the Archbishop of Glasgow, Scotland. Among his many devotional writings is the classic commentary on 1st Peter, of which Spurgeon declared— "We scarcely need to commend this truly heavenly work... it is a favorite with all spiritual men." Mrs. Prentiss, in a letter to a dear friend, once wrote: "I am re-reading Archbishop

Leighton on 1st Peter; I wonder if you like it as much as my husband and I do!" {An Obedient and Patient Faith, available through Calvary

Press Publishing)

The Slough of Despond was a pit into which Christian fell after first setting out for the celestial city in The Pilgrims Progress. It represents a place of deep discouragement for a weary pilgrim.

Providence has been defined as— God s most holy, wise and powerful preserving and governing all His creatures and all their actions. One of the finest works on this grand theme is The Mystery of Providence, by John Flavel.

7781 858) was an Anglican Bishop in India.

Daniel Wilson (

This very expression was used by our author describing the circumstances surrounding her writing of this book. Upon the tragic death of her dear sister-in-law, she sacrificially cared for her nephew,

Francis. "Many a page of Stepping Heavenward was written with this child in her arms; and perhaps that is one secret of its power." {More

Love To Thee, p. 237, available through Calvary Press Publishing)

John Wesley (1703-1791) was the founder of Methodism, whose tireless evangelistic labors were centered mainly in Great Britain and America. Although used by God, some of his methods and theology were found wanting.

Francis Fenelon (1651-1715) was a French mystic. Mrs.

Prentiss found much helpful counsel in his writings, as seen in these words of her husband: "Her delight in his writings dated back more than a quarter of a century, and continued, unabated, to the end of her days. She regarded him with a sort of personal affection and reverence... What attracted her to Fenelon was not his doctrine of salvation— she found it better taught by Bunyan and Leighton— it

Stepping Heavenward /

was (rather) his marvelous knowledge of the human heart, his keen insight into the proper workings of nature and grace, his deep spiritual wisdom, and the sweet mystic tone of his piety." (More Love To Thee, pp. 319f, available through Calvary Press Publishing)

Martin Luther (1483-1546), the great German Reformer, was raised up by the Lord to bring God s people back to a commitment to the Bible alone as their source of authority, the doctrine known as Sola Scriptura. The little prayer being quoted sums up his child-like faith and dependence upon his Heavenly Father for heavenly wisdom, in the right interpretation of His all-sufficient Word.

It is the same attitude expressed in Scripture itself in Psalm 119: 18.

The phrase "from Dan to Bersheeba" became a proverbial expression meaning— from one end of a territory to its farthest extremity. Dan was the northern-most tribe in the land of Israel, and Beersheba was its southern-most city (see Judges 20:1; 2nd Samuel

24:2; 1st Kings 4:25).

The expression "obedient parents" refers to the common evil of children being in complete control of their parents, as if parents are to be obedient to their children's desires. Contact Calvary

Press to obtain outstanding books on biblical parenting.

Fittingly, the words of the hymn which Mrs. Prentiss selected to close this glorious book, were sung at her funeral in August of 1878 in Dorset, Vermont. The words were written by the English hymn writer Frederick Faber (1814-1863) whose poems were often used to comfort and encourage her heart.

By the time Stepping Heavenward first appeared, Mrs. Prentiss had become known already by her Little

Susys Six Birthdays and other books for children, as also by The Flower of the Family, and a succession of volumes for youth ofboth sexes; but in Stepping Heavenward she struck a higher and stronger note. In this work she aimed to help and to cheer all her readers, whether old or young, in the hard struggle of life. She composed the larger part of it in the winter and spring of 1867-8 while absorbed in caring for a little motherless nephew who died shortly after. Referring especially to this part, she once said to a friend, "Every word of that book was a prayer, and seemed to come of itself. I never knew how it was written, for my heart and hands were full of something else." On going to Dorset for the summer she carried the manuscript with her, but in no mood to finish it. In a letter dated August 3, she said: "I feel now as if I should never write any more. Book-making

/ Elizabeth Prentiss looks formidable." I begged her to take the story up again, and two gifted Christian ladies, then sojourning in Dorset, joined their persuasion to mine. Several years later, one of them. Miss E. A. Warner, wrote to me:

Do you remember coming into the parlor one morning where Miss Hannah Lyman and I were sitting by ourselves, and telling us that your wife was writing a story but had become so discouraged she threatened to throw it aside as not worth finishing? "I like it myself!'you added, "it really seems to me one of the best things she has ever written, and I am trying to get her to read it to you and see what you think of it. The next morning she came to our room with a little green box in her hand, saying, with her merry laugh,

"Now youve got to do penance for your sins, you wicked women!'* and, sitting down by the window, while we took our sewing, she began to read to us in manuscript the work which was destined to touch and strengthen so many hearts—

"which," to use the words of another, "has become a part of the soul-history of many thousands of Christian women, young and old, at home and abroad!' It was a rare treat to listen to it, with comments from her interspersed, some of them droll and witty, others full ofprofound religious feeling. Now and then, as we queried ifsomething was not improbable or unnatural, she would give us bits of historyfrom her own experience or that ofherfriends, going to show that stranger things had occurred in real life. I need not say we insisted on its beingfinished, feeling sure it would do great good; though I must confess that I do not think either of us, much as we enjoyed it, was fully aware of its great merits.

She went on with her work, occasionally reading to us what she had added. In those days she always spoke of it as her

"Katy book," no other title having been given to it. But one morning she came to the breakfast table with her face all

Stepping Heavenward / 395 lighted up. Tve got a name for my hook!* she exclaimed, "it came to me while I was lying awake last night. You know

Wordsworth's Stepping Westward? I am going to call it "Stepping Heavenward;" don't you like it? I do." We all felt it was exactly the right name, and she added, "I think I will put in WordwortHs poem as a preface"

The work was first printed as a serial in "The Advance" of Chicago. As it drew to a close Mr. J.B.T. Marsh, one of the editors, wrote to her:

You will notice that the story is completed this week. I wish it could have continued six months longer I have several times been on the point of writing you to express my own personal satisfaction and to acquaintyou with the great unanimity and volume ofpraise of it, which has reached us from our readers. I do not think anything since the time of The National Era and Uncle Tom's Cabin has been more heartily received. We have had hundreds of letters of which the expression has been: "We quarrel to see who shall have the first reading of the story"! think ifyou should ever come

West my wife would overturn almost any stone for the sake of welcoming you to the hospitality of our cottage on the Lake Michigan shore.

When issued in book form its reception surpassed all expectation. Notwithstanding the favor it met with in "The Advance," Mrs. Prentiss had still great misgiving about its success— a misgiving that constantly haunted her while engaged in writing it. But all doubt on the subject was soon dispelled. Stepping Heavenward seemed to meet so many real, deep, inarticulate cravings in such a multitude of hearts, that the response to it was instant and general.

/ Elizabeth Prentiss Others of Mrs. Prentiss' books were enjoyed, praised, laughed over; but this one was taken by timid hands into secret places, pored over by eyes dim with tears, and its lesson prayed out at many a Jabbok. It was one of those books which sorrowing women read to each other, and which lured many a bustling Martha from the fretting ofher carecumbered life to ponder the new lesson of rest in toil. It was one of those books of which people kept a lending copy, that they might enjoy the uninterrupted companionship of their own.

The circulation of Stepping Heavenward was very large. In this country not less, probably, than a hundred and fifty thousand copies have been sold; while abroad, where it was not copyrighted, the sale is estimated to have reached a much larger number of copies perhaps half a million. Four leading houses in Great Britain republished the work. It was translated into German, French, Norwegian, Swedish, Italian, and I know not what other languages.

The German version long ago passed into the sixth edition.

Baron Tauchnitz, the celebrated Leipsic publisher, inserted it also in his noted Collection ofBritish Authors. In a letter asking my permission to do so, he praised the work in very high terms. Indeed, the testimonials to its power and beauty from beyond the sea were even more striking than those at home. Men and women known the world over as scholars and authors or for their high culture, social position and leadership in the service of God and humanity, e^ressed their admiration without stint. One of them, said to have been an eminent German theologian, used this

Stepping Heavenward / 397 language respecting it: "Already many a good, noble gift, rich in blessing, is come to us from North America; but we do not hesitate to designate Stepping Heavenward as the best among all from there which we have ever seen."

An interesting chapter might be written about the different translations of Stepping Heavenward. I will refer to one of them, the German version. It was made by an invalid lady of Gottingen, and led to a correspondence, which has not yet ceased. Her letters, overflowing with grateful affection and giving details respecting the successive editions of the work, the welcome it received into thousands of German homes and it great usefrilness, have been running on now for nearly thirty years. f The Secret of Its Influence Stepping Heavenward, while deeply religious, is wholly free from formulas. Every page bears the stamp of earnest conviction. The tone throughout is honest, sympathetic and ftiU of good cheer. No false or jarring notes are struck. All is natural and true to life. The "one human heart" beating in the bosom of the race and, more or less feebly, in its humblest members, is depicted with a skill, fidelity, and gentleness and soothing touch, which could come only ofdeep personal experience and the keenest observation. If the lessons taught by the story are at times painful, they are yet sweet, inspiring and fresh as a summer breeze. No discouraging, still less gloomy or pessimistic sentence can be found in the entire volume. Stepping

/ Elizabeth Prentiss Heavenward is its dominant, animating, ever-recurring thought as well as its aim and name. And this is largely the secret of its influence. This, too, explains the fact, attested by innumerable witnesses, that the book is almost equally adapted and dear to all classes and conditions of readers who aspire to a life in harmony with the holy will of God.

I say "almost equally adapted and dear;" for I cannot forget that it was written expressly to give aid and comfort to women, both young and old— more especially to suffering wives and mothers— hard-pressed by the terrible cares and battles of life. If I may judge by the letters in which they poured out to the author their feelings of grateful love and admiration Stepping Heavenward was better adapted and dearer to them than it could possibly be to men. Mrs.

Prentiss used to say, laughingly, that she did not understand men and could not write for them.

The letters referred to came from all parts of this country, from Europe and even from the ends of the earth; and they were written by persons belonging to every class in society. Among them was one which Mrs. Prentiss specially prized. It was written on coarse, brown grocery paper by a poor crippled boy in the interior of Pennsylvania and led to a correspondence that continued for years. The book was read with equal delight by persons not only of all classes from a queen to a poor negro woman, but of all nationalities and creed; by Protestants and Roman Catholics, by Calvinists, Arminians, High Churchmen, Evangelicals,

Quakers and Unitarians. It had that touch of nature which makes the whole world akin. Thousands of its readers

Stepping Heavenward / 399 appeared to think their own case was described, so plainly did they see themselves mirrored in its pages. The number of Katys, Katy s mothers, Marthas, Mrs. Campbells, Dr.

Cabots, Dr. Elliots, both son and father, who were positively identified as originals of these characters, was a marvel. The questions put to her on this point in letters and conversation greatly amused Mrs. Prentiss, especially the questions relating to Katy. She ridiculed the suggestion that she herself had sat as the model for Katy. "Everybody is asking

(she wrote to her daughter, then in Germany) if I meant in Katy to describe myself. The next book I write Til make my heroine black and everybody will say, 'Oh, there you are again, black to the life!'

Nevertheless, she and Katy were astonishingly alike. Who that knew her well could fail to see it at every turn. In depicting Katy she was, unconsciously no doubt, drawing a most life-like picture of herself As for example in such passages as this: "Why need I throw my whole soul into whatever I do? Why can 1 1 make so much as an apron for little Ernest without the ardor and eagerness of a soldier marching to battle? I wonder if people ofmy temperament ever get toned down and learn to take life coolly?"

At all events, if there had been no Elizabeth Prentiss I feel quite sure the Katy oi Stepping Heavenward would have been impossible.

In planning and writing Stepping Heavenward, she seemed to have no thought whatever of pecuniary profit or of reputation. "Even Satan never ventured to suggest that I write for money' she once said. Nor had literary ambition,

/ Elizabeth Prentiss so far as I could perceive, anything to do with her books.

Once written and published she rarely alluded to them, or cared to hear them mentioned. "Mr. R. (she wrote to her daughter in Germany) has sent me a letter from a man in Nice, whose wife wants to translate Katy into French. I sent word they might translate it into Hottentot for all me." But if the message was to the effect that some poor, bed-ridden old woman, or a sorrow-stricken young mother, had found comfort in one of her books, it would send a thrill ofjoy through her whole frame. "Much of my experience of life

(she wrote to a friend, not long before her death) has cost me a great price and I wish to use it for strengthening and comforting other souls."

If the whole secret of the charm of Stepping Heavenward were told, it would be needftil to point out the literary, as well as the practical and religious sources of its power. All through the volume, from the poem of Wordsworth at its beginning to the hymn of Faber at its close, one sees constant indications of familiarity with the best literature. Mrs. Prentiss was not only a great reader, but, like her father, she possessed a wonderful faculty for absorbing and assimilating what she read, whether in English, French or German. Her taste was very broad; and she could pass from Bunyan, Baxter, Leighton, Fenelon, Tauler and Tholuck, George Herbert, Keble and Manning, to Sir

Walter Scott, Goethe, Victor Hugo, Dickens, Irving, Longfellow, Hawthorne and Mrs. Stowe, without the slightest jar or sense of incongruity. Everything genuine and truthful; everything that taught her a new lesson in the

Stepping Heavenward / 401 study ofhuman nature, interested her deeply and passed readily into her own style and thought.

The letters Mrs. Prentiss received thanking her for Stepping Heavenward, along with those that have reached me since her death, form a very beautiful tribute to her memory. One, addressed to her, arrived from London a few days before her last illness. It was written by a young wife and mother closely related to two of the most honored families in England, and sought counsel in regard to a certain question of duty that had grown out of special domestic trials. Stepping Heavenward, the writer said, had formed an era in her religious life; she had read it through ^rom fifty to sixty times; it had its place by the side of her Bible; and no words could express the good it had done her, or the comfort she had derived from its pages.

Here is an extract from a letter to me written by a distinguished Methodist divine of the Northwest:

In a letterfrom my daughter, who is the wife of a missionary in China, she speaks of sending a part of Sunday afternoon in reading Stepping Heavenward, and adds, "This must be at least the twelfth time I have read it through." She is a cultivated and devout Christian, fully occupied in studying, teaching, translating and a hundred other things; and yet finds time to read and re-read again and again her favorite hook.

Here is an extract from a recent letter ofMrs. John R.

Mott, describing a visit to a girls' school in Shanghai:

The school is the only attempt I know of to reach the daughters ofthe highest classes. The principal is Miss Laura

/ Elizabeth Prentiss Haygood, a sister ofBishop Haygood of the Southern Methodist Church. The school is Anglo-Chinese, English being a great attraction in a port. The principal is a very strong, womanly and Christian character and the conduct of the school is thoroughly Christian. There were, I think, about thirty girls in the school when I was there, but it has been growing rapidly since. They were naturally the most attractive girls I saw in China. Some of them were beautiful in person, dress, manners, and, best of all. Christian character

It was such a satisfaction to be able to talk to them in English. A smile went round when I asked the question as to their favorite book, aside from the Bible, and the answer,

''Stepping Heavenward" left no doubt on the subject. The teachers also told me that Stepping Heavenward had a remarkable influence among them and that they talked and wrote of it as of no other book.

Testimonies like these have been so numerous that if printed they would form a large volume. Here is an extract from a letter from Old England that comes even while I am writing:

My mother, who has been staying with me, says that among the last books she read aloud to myfather was Stepping Heavenward, and that they both enjoyed it exceedingly

Your mother wrote it, did she not?"

The father who had just passed away was that admirable Christian man and eminent theologian, Professor A.B.

Bruce of Scotland.

The interest of the Chinese girls in Stepping Heavenward surprised me at first not a little, notwithstanding that, "More Love to Thee, O Christ," as I had been told, was a special favorite in the native churches. The hymn is so

Stepping Heavenward / 403 simple and so spiritual that is equally adapted to the expression of religious feeling and aspiration everywhere and among all races; but the story is occidental, modern and even American in style of thought, in manners, and in local coloring. The reason why these bright Chinese girls were so delighted with it can be found only in the Christ-like spirit and the deep knowledge of human nature which mark the book. The inspiration of gospel faith and hope and love is no more a thing of place and race than is sunshine, or the air we breath. That is why the New Testament and the story of the Cross may become as precious, and to all intents and purposes as intelligible also, to a poor

Hottentot as to the greatest scholar, scientist, philosopher or theologian in Christendom. The foolishness of God is wiser than men. Ifwe understood better what penitence, prayer and saving grace really mean, according to the Scriptures, we should, perhaps, cease being puzzled to find such spiritual unity amid the most grotesque and repulsive diversities ofhuman condition.

It has been to me a solace and joy, ever since the departure of its author, to give away copies of Stepping Heavenward far and near, and then to note the happy influence of the book. Of course every book, even the Bible itself, is powerless to bring light and strength into an unwilling soul; but where there is any real interest in religious things, any sincere desire for spiritual counsel and help, Stepping

Heavenwardy I have found, always brings with it a benediction, especially where relief is most sorely needed. What

Dr. Vincent said in his memorial address more than a score

/ Elizabeth Prentiss of years ago, may be said with equal truth today:

/ am sure that hers is, in an eminent degree, the blessing of them that were ready to perish. Weary, overtaxed mother, misunderstood and unappreciated wives, servants, pale seamstresses, delicate women forced to live in an atmosphere of drunkenness and coarse brutality, widows and orphans in the bitterness oftheir bereavement, mothers with their tears dropping over empty cradles— to thousands of such she was a messengerfrom heaven.

And not only, I may add, to thousands of such was she a messenger from heaven, but to thousands also wdiose path in life was full of sunshine and flowers, did she bring the same message, teaching them that in prosperity as well as in adversity our supreme felicity is in loving God and doing his blessed will as He has made it known to us in Jesus Christ. This lesson of lessons runs, like a golden thread, through Stepping Heavenward^ and all the rest of Mrs. Prentiss' writings. It is, indeed, only another version, varied in form and by story, of the sublime answer given to the first question in the old Catechism: What is the Chief

End ofMan? Man's ChiefEnd is TO GLORIFY GOD AND

TO ENJOYHIM FOREVER,

Recommended Other Reading Available Through Calvary Press...

More Love To Thee The Life and Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss George Lewis Prentiss Preface by Elisabeth Elliot So many ofour readers have sought to find this book, that Calvary Press felt a need to bring it back into print. In this biography and collection ofletters, you are not only introduced to Elizabeth Prentiss, but through her husband's sweet recollections and her own words you begin to feel as if you know her personally If Stepping

Heavenward tugged on your heart, then get to know the dear Christianwomanwho penned it using aspects ofher own life s experiences as the basis for much of the story

Elisabeth Elliot writes in her Preface... "Reading Christian biographies has had an immeasurable influence in my life and spiritual growth. More Love To Thee reveals the character ofa woman who loved God and earnestly sought to help others to love Him."

Ask about other titles in The Prentiss Series by Calvary Press!

The Heart of Anger Lou Priolo Do you have an angry child? Do you know someone who does? Did you know that parents often unknowingly provoke their children to the point of anger? This is a manual for parents seeking to correct or prevent the development of those angry responses which characterize what the Bible calls "an angry man." Children can easily habituate themselves to think, act, and be motivated with anger— especially if parents do not have the biblical knowledge and wisdom to prevent or intervene to correct such problems of the heart. These pages contain the practical help and real hope for all those facing these vital concerns. Says Jay Adams, "The Church in general will be in Lous debt for writing it. It is a book whose time has come."

Shepherding A Child s Heart Tedd Tripp Pastor John MacArthur writes: "With the plethora of material on parenting and the family, it is distressing to see how few are genuinely biblical. Here is a refreshing exception. Tedd

Tripp offers solid, trustworthy, biblical help for parents. If you're looking for the right perspective and practical help on the divine plan for parenting, you won't find a more excellent guide." In an age when the subject of child-rearing is often intertwined with notions of pop-psychology this book will become your definitive guide to a bible based understanding of the parent's role and responsibilities. A landmar book on this subject. If you are a parent or anticipate being one or are involved with children as an educator or caretaker let this be the one book you own if none else.

Heaven— A World of Love Jonathan Edwards John Piper, author of Delighting God writes: "I beUeve with all my heart that in order to be useful in this world we must fall in love with another world. In order to transform this world for the glory of Christ we must be saturated with the glory and wisdom of another world. In order to be changed from one degree of glory to another now we must hope fully in the grace that is about to be revealed to us soon. In order to be the light of the world we must put our torch in the flame of heaven. In all of this, Jonathan Edwards is our great helper and Heaven—

A World ofLove is one of his greatest feasts."

"Edwards gives us a taste of heaven that is savoring to the soul."

—Dr. R.C. Sproul, author, Chairman of Ligonier Ministries.

A History of the Work of Redemption Jonathan Edwards This monumental work is a fascinating, scholarly analysis of the history of God*s work of redeeming His people. Edwards lays out for us a grand overview of how God has crafted the events of this world, as seen in scripture, for the sole purpose of preparing the world for Christ's appearance. His accomplishment of redemption, and the glorious spread of the Gospel thereafter. Your understanding of scripture and the sovereignty of God will forever be changed, you will look at the Old Testament with new eyes as you appreciate it's redemptive history.

If you wish to know the Bible in some depth you must become familiar with this work, certainly no pastor or Bible teacher should be without it in their library. Available now for the first time in many years as a stand-alone book.

From Forgiven to Forgiving Jay Adams Without a doubt, this is the best book on bibUcal forgiveness available today. An attractive and affordable soft-cover edition, it is destined to become a classic work on this subject.

A must for the library of the pastor, professional counselor and lay person alike. We've grown up learning many popular misconceptions about forgiveness from our parents, society and even our churches. The mission of Dr. Jay Adams is to challenge us through the scriptures to understand the issues of forgiveness and to experience the power of forgiveness— as God intended. This book has been gready used by God and will continue to be instrumental in the saving ofmarriages, friendships, church memberships, and any relationship where issues of forgiveness have not been dealt with properly. An excellent book to use for group study or a church Sunday school study.

The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit Benjamin B. Warfield In our present day the person and the work of the Holy

Spirit is too often misunderstood. Whole denominations hold to and promote unscriptural doctrines concerning God s Spirit and His operation in the lives of Christians today. So how can one know with certainty the character and the ways and means by which the Holy Spirit works in the Church of God? Would it not be by seeking our answer from God Himself? In this volume, are assembled for the first time anywhere the completeworks of Benjamin B. Warfield regarding the Holy

Spirit. The sermons, articles and book reviews contained in this book will instruct you and challenge you to know the Holy

Spirit as He has revealed Himself— through the scriptures.

An Obedient & Patient Faith An Exposition of 1st Peter by Robert Leighton This classic commentary has been considered by many to be the most valuable single commentary on scripture ever written. Spurgeon considered it a "heavenly work... a favorite with all spiritual men." The depth of First Peter is glorious and the depth and thoroughness by which Leighton exposits and explains it is fantastic. In an age when the study of Theology was the universal and highest pursuit, Leighton was preeminent.

Within these pages lies a banquet of precious and delightful truths to be savored, every page is full of the flavor and aroma of deep piety and judicious instruction. No student of the scriptures should be without this invaluable commentary.

From Religion to Christ Peter Jeffery Under the cover of a dark night, a gray-haired Jewish Rabbi approached a much younger man to inquire about matters which were deeply troubling him. That conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus of Nazareth has intrigued God's people for the past two millennia. In this book, we are taken back to that night's conversation and are shown how the words Jesus spoke to Nicodemus on a Jerusalem hillside some two thousand years past are essential to our salvation today. The author is deeply concerned that millions of people are just like

Nicodemus was that night— religious, but not redeemed by God. A careful and prayerful reading of this book can be used ofGod to open the eyes ofmany to see clearly that their religion is empty and vain, but salvation can and will be found in Jesus

Christ alone.

The Duties of Church Members to their Pastors John Angell James together in one volume with— A Plea to Pray for Pastors Gardner Spring In The Duties of Church Members to their PastorSy J.A. James sets forth nine specific duties which the members of the church owe their pastors. If they are carefully followed, the church of Christ will be greatly enriched and will stand ready for divine blessing.

Pastor John MacArthur writes, "A Plea to Pray for Pastors is excerpted from Gardiner Spring s excellent book, The Power of the Pulpit. It is nearly 200 years old, but its message is as fresh and relevant as the day it was written. My own heart echoes this plea. for a complete catalog of all our offerings, please be sure to call us at 1-800-789-8175 or visit our new website: www.calvarypress.com

The Mission of Calvary Press The ministry ofCalvary Press isfirmly committed to printing quality Christian literature relevant to the dire needs of the church and the world at the close of the 20th century We unashamedly stand upon the foundation stones ofthe Reformation ofthe 16th century— Scripture alone. Faith alone, Grace alone,

Christ alone, and God's Glory alone!

Our prayer for this new ministry is found in two portions taken from the Psalms:

''And let the beauty of the LORD our God be upon us, And establish the work of our hands for us; Yes, establish the work of our hands.'' (Psalm 90:17) Calvary Press is thankful to anyone who has a burden forsound doctrine and literature such as thatpublished by this ministry. Ifyou would like to help our efforts by making a donation to this ministry we would greatly appreciate it Calvary Press is a not-for-profit ministry ofGraceReformedBaptist Church ofLonglsland, N. Y,, all donations will be recognized with a tax-deductible receipt. Thank You in advancefor any assistanceyou would seek to give us in our labors.

For more information about the ministry of Calvary Press please call us toll-free at 1 (800) 789-8175

A nineteenth century Christian woman speaks Elizabeth Prentiss, born in 1818, was the youngest to you through the ages in this timeless classic daughter of one of the great written in journal-style. Follow her as she takes revival preachers of the early you on a journey to spiritual maturity, from the age ofsixteen—until just before her death. Now

1800's, the Reverend Edward Payson, of Portland, Maine.

The kev note of her relieioi this new, attractively bound edition will influence a whole new generation ofreaders. Buy a copy for a friend and share the experience! mous hymn More Love To Thee, O Christ.

She is best This book is a treasury ofboth godly and womanly wisdom told with disarming candor and humility, wdoushook SteppingHeavenyet revealing a deep heart's desire to know God. We r4^c?/'c/which has touched the desperately need such intimate accounts when the hearts of hundreds of thouword commitment'is so little understood and so'seldom practiced. I recommend it to anywoman who sands of women all over the world for more than a centur)'.

The aim of her writing, wants to walk with God, and to men also, who need to better understand the wives they live with. whether addressing young or old, was to incite to patience,, —Elisabeth Elliot fidelity, hope, and all goodness by showing how trust in God and loving obedience to This is the record ofone woman's spiritual journey deep into the heart of Christ.

It will serve as a guide His blessed will, can brighten for the Christian woman who desires to leave the darkest paths and make a heaven upon earth.

She behind the dull, dry indifference of spiritual mediocrity to discover the rich, deep joy ofknowing Jesus more fully. Her spiritual journey is so inspiring that departed this world to be everlastingly with her Savior I know God will use it in a dramatic way in the lives in 1878. ofso many.

—JoniEareckson Tada This title is a part of The I highly recommend this heart-warming account

Prentiss Series by Calvary of a woman struggling to spiritual maturity!

—KayArthur Press. Other titles by Elizabeth Prentiss are available.

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