Introduction
Introduction he trouble with Hannah Whitall Smith's books is that they are relevant. They would not have been around for a hundred years, more or less, if they weren't. g But why do I call it "trouble"? Isn't it relevance we are always asking for nowadays?
That depends on two things: relevance of what and to what. In her introduction the author says that her aim has been "not so much to get at the doctrinal truths of our religion, as at the everyday, practical commonsense principles." That answers the first question: relevance of what? I found these principles to be as thoroughly practical, as thoroughly commonsense, today as they were when she wrote them.
Next question: relevance to what? The word implies close logical relationship with, and importance to, the matter under consideration. If the matter under consideration is comfort, an easy doing of my "own thing," without too much interference or inhibition, then the last thing most of us want is Christian principles that are relevant. They are very likely to stand in the way of our comfort, our convenience, and our own (badly distorted) notions of how to find fulfillment. They may present obstacles to the living of our lives the way we want to live them.
If, on the other hand, the matter under consideration is an honest living out of the life of Christ, no matter what it may cost, then what we want and need is teaching that will show us clearly how Christian principles work in practical terms, in other words, the relevance of
Introduction the Truth of God to the life of one of His followers in the late twentieth century.
Hannah Whitall Smith is a master of this kind of teaching. The book was first published in 1893, yet no author that I know of speaks more penetratingly and understandably to my own needs than does she. Much contemporary writing and preaching, by aiming at relevance to modern life, revises the truth. Mrs. Smith, by aiming at the Truth, shows how it must revise life.
Practical Christianity is never a matter of religious feeling (much popular teaching today notwithstanding). "The divine order is always first to get your facts," she writes, "then to put faith in those facts; and then, as a natural result, will follow the feelings commensurate with the facts."
My husband and I happened to be in the throes of building a house when this book came into my hands. My mind was full of things like whether to have four-inch tiles or six-inch ones, where to put the electrical outlets and the phone jacks (how can you know until you've placed every stick of furniture in every room?), what color paint we wanted on the soffits. I was trying to bring all of these petty concerns to the Lord and trust Him for help in decisions, and then to go on quietly in what I thought of as the more "important" work committed to me (writing an introduction, composing a talk for a convention, ironing a shirt). The truth, of course, is that there is no more important work than learning to trust God. "The true kingdom of God within us can be set up in the region of our will. It is not a question of splendid talents, nor of great deeds, nor of fervent emotions, nor of wonderful illuminations; it is simply to will what God wills, always and in everything, and without reservation. We have nothing really under control but our own wills
... We are called upon to 'set our faces like a flint' to carry out His will, and must respond with an emphatic 'I will' to every 'Thou shalt' of His."
An illustration from Mrs. Smith's life which was startlingly relevant to mine at the moment had to do with carpets. You can find the story on page 187. The passage in Hebrews (10:34) spoke directly to her in the nineteenth century, and to me in the twentieth, of those
Christians who "took joyfully the spoiling of their goods," knowing that they had in heaven a better and more enduring substance. The lesson for me was unmistakable. I must put my faith to work on
Introduction
seemingly trivial matters first. I must learn to lay them all in God's hands and quit stewing. If I refused to do this, I might as well not bother with what I considered my Jife's work, for, as the author points out in another chapter, all things are God's servants. The lessons of faith come to us often in "coarse brown packages," in the ordinary affairs of every day. Faith sees in them God's messengers, and responds in obedience.
Try it. Read the book with prayer, and with a willingness to apply its teaching to the ordinary affairs of your own life. There is release from anxiety and confusion (so I found) in this Commonsense
Teaching of the Bible. There is also—as always when we trust God and make up our minds to obey Him—real freedom. This is a priceless little handbook of liberation.
ELISABETH ELLIOT
Magnolia, Massachusetts Summer of 1984
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