A Woman's Life-Work — Labors and Experiences of Laura S. Haviland — John Shaqi
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
Soon after their marriage, they removed to Kitley Township, county of
Leeds, Canada West (now known as Ontario), where I was born, December
20, 1808. I well remember the perplexities and doubts that troubled my
young mind in trying to find the whys and wherefores of existing facts;
yet I was naturally a happy and playful child. Some remarks made by my
parents over a portion of Scripture father was reading, in which was
the sentence, "and they are no more twain, but one flesh"--"that is a
close relationship; twain is two, no more two but one flesh"--struck me
with wonder and amazement. "Yes," replied mother, "that is a oneness
that is not to be separated, a near relation between husband and wife;
'no more twain, but one flesh.' 'What God has joined together let not
man put asunder.'" It seemed as if every word fastened upon my mind a
feeling of awe at the new thought, that father and mother were one
person. "Then they think just alike, and know all about the other, if
true; father and mother believe it, and they found it in the Bible, and
that," I thought, "must be true. Now for the test--If father and mother
are one, they must know each other's thoughts and whereabouts." After
father had been out a few minutes I asked mother where he was. "Not far
off; may be he's gone to the barn." But he was not there. At my report
she said, "Perhaps he's gone to David Coleman's, or some of the
neighbors." This settled the matter in my mind, that they were not one.
But I gave the same test to try father, which also proved a failure.
But not quite satisfied without further investigation, I asked mother
for permission to go to David Coleman's to play an hour with his little
girls. Little did she know that the object of her little five-year-old
skeptic was to present the test to their father and mother, to see
whether they were one, and found the same result each time.
This settled the question in my mind that one thing in the Bible was
untrue. Father and mother were mistaken in that part of the Bible that
said husband and wife were no more two, but one. For a long time after
this, whenever the Bible was referred to as authority, I would think,
"It may be true, and may not, because I tried one thing it said that
was not true."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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