A Woman's Life-Work — Labors and Experiences of Laura S. HavilandHaviland, Laura S. (Laura Smith)
Religion
A Woman's Life-Work — Labors and Experiences of Laura S. Haviland
Haviland, Laura S. (Laura Smith)
Freed persons; Haviland, Laura S. (Laura Smith), 1808-1898; Underground Railroad
September, 1829, we removed to Michigan Territory, and settled in
Raisin, Lenawee County, within three miles of my parents, brothers, and
sister, with our two little sons, to share with others the privations
of a new country, as well as advantages of cheap land. As there were a
number of our Society in this vicinity, a Friends' Meeting was
organized, in which we all had an interest, and endeavored to maintain
it in the usual order of our Society. But no true peace was mine, I was
still a wanderer from the true Church militant. I once knew the good
Shepherd's voice, but was now too far away to recognize it. In these
sad remembrances I sought a subterfuge behind which to hide in a false
rest. Eagerly I read a book on that subject, and drank its plausible
arguments without stint. It was a panacea, a temporary opiate to quiet
the vacillating condition of a restless mind; yet my Bible was not laid
aside, and many portions of Scripture were vigilantly brought to prove
this specious error to be a radical truth; and two years in this dead
faith I lived a dying life. But I found my investigations were not for
the whole truth, but was dwelling upon the love and benevolence of God
to the exclusion of justice as an attribute of the Lord, as well as
mercy, and decided to accept the whole truth, and abide its searchings;
and sought for it in the written Word diligently, as for hidden
treasures In reading Paul's epistle to the Hebrews, chapter vi, I
found, "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have
tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost,
and have tasted of the good Word of God, and the powers of the world to
come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again to repentance,
seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to
an open shame." Oh, how these words thrilled my whole being! Again and
again they were reviewed. No Hope! no hope for a lost soul like mine!
were like burning coals upon my poor heart. I was once enlightened and
tasted of the heavenly gift; but how dark have been these years. Oh!
how soon did the lamp of life become dim through disobedience. I can
never again drink of that fountain of love that once filled my soul to
overflowing. But I had fallen away, and could never again be renewed,
having crucified to myself the Son of God afresh, and put him to an
open shame, by not honoring such a glorious Redeemer, as was my own
personal Savior. O, what delusion to have indulged in the vain hope
that I was serving him in a silent, quiet life, and then cover over all
this unrest with the idea that God was too abundant in mercy to cast
off any for whom he died to save. Day and night this terrible thought
followed me for months, "I am a lost soul! irretrievably lost. No hope!
Eternally lost!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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