Produced by Distributed Proofreaders ELIZABETH THE DISINHERITED DAUGHTER BY E. BEN. EZ-ER PREFACE This booklet is little more than a compilation. The materials were abundant for a much larger book. Elizabeth's divine _experience_ was so striking, so valuable to the cause of truth, that it has not been essentially abridged. But the _results_ in biography, though well known to all who knew her, have been cut down to the smallest dimensions that would allow that brilliant experience to shine out. Elizabeth had a lifelong conviction that God required the publication of His remarkable dealings with her, and in her approach to the river of death solemnly enjoined it upon her youngest son and executor. His own convictions also agree with the requirement. Here are obvious reasons: 1. The early history of Methodism has suffered by the dropping out of many striking illustrations of her power. By neglecting to record them permanently while well authenticated, they are now beyond recovery. As this providential work moves on gloriously, making world-wide history, these few preserved incidents of her early triumph become more and more valuable by the lapse of time. 2. Providentially this experience is too rare and too far back in American Methodism to be lost out. 3. The controversy in which this experience was so strong a factor has not become obsolete. The "horrible decrees" have indeed been very generally driven from the pulpit, but not entirely. Our work as polemics will not be finished until they leave the schools and the books, and cease to be pillows for the multitudes who lull themselves to slumber over the notion of "sovereign grace and waiting God's time," and cease to goad despondent souls to despair, with the charge of being "from eternity passed by" as unredeemed "reprobates." E. ARNOLD. _Thousand Island Park_, 1893. CONTENTS * * * * * PART I. * * * * * CHAPTER I. THAT STRANGE LETTER CHAPTER II. ELIZABETH'S ALIENATION FROM THE ANCESTRAL FAITH CHAPTER III. THAT ALARMING MESSAGE CHAPTER IV. ORDER OBEYED CHAPTER V. THE FIERY FURNACE CHAPTER VI. GREAT VICTORIES * * * * * PART II.--THE GREAT WOBK OF LIFE. * * * * * CHAPTER I. ELIZABETH AS MISTRESS OF THE "COTTAGE CHAPEL". CHAPTER II. RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES AND ENJOYMENTS CHAPTER III. ELIZABETH AS AN EVANGELISTIC LABORER CHAPTER IV. REMOVAL TO A WILDERNESS COUNTRY CHAPTER V. VOLNEY, OSWEGO COUNTY, NEW YORK CHAPTER VI. HARDSHIPS OF THE NEW COLONY CHAPTER VII. THE QUARTERLY MEETINGS CHAPTER VIII. EXTENDS HER LABORS CHAPTER IX. AS A CAMP MEETING WORKER CHAPTER X. "THE CHAMBER ON THE WALL" CHAPTER XI. MRS. ELIZABETH ARNOLD AS A MOTHER CHAPTER XII. DOUBLE DILIGENCE * * * * * PART III.--RETIREMENT * * * * * CHAPTER I. HOMES OP EARLY METHODISTS