Elizabeth: the Disinherited Daughter: By E. Ben Ez-er — John Shaqi
Elizabeth: the Disinherited Daughter: By E. Ben Ez-erArnold, Ebenezer
Religion
Elizabeth: the Disinherited Daughter: By E. Ben Ez-er
Arnold, Ebenezer
Arnold, Elizabeth Ward, 1778-1865; Methodist women -- United States -- Biography
Elizabeth was now between fifty and sixty years of age, was no longer the
nimble rider, but somewhat heavy and clumsy; she preferred the carriage
seat to the saddle, but still in her numerous visits to the sick and such
as she could bless by religious calls she continued her old method, as
being more independent. Many wondered at the ease and skill with which a
woman of her age and size would spring on and off and manage her horse.
She would modestly reply, "My dear father taught me how, and I have always
liked it."
She early became a skillful nurse, and was for many years a diligent
visitor of the sick, especially among the poor and the ignorant. Her saddle
horns were hung with budgets of medicinal herbs and little comforts, and
she would find out the sick and suffering, and administer both to their
physical and spiritual wants, and return to her household duties almost
before her family knew she had been gone.
About this time a new field of labor was providentially opened to this
Christian worker. The Presbyterian and Baptist churches in that town began
to employ "evangelists" to hold "revival meetings" of a new order; but when
the people appeared to be thoughtful, and they got them into the "anxious
meetings," they found it almost impossible to get them to praying or
the church to praying for them directly and earnestly, especially the
sisterhood of the Presbyterian church; so the deacons and elders, in their
strait, begged Mrs. Arnold to "come over into Macedonia and help." Much as
she had suffered in her early religious life from predestinarianism, she
never was a bigot, and so she, like Paul, "gathered assuredly" that the
call was of the Lord, and "without gainsaying" went and helped them
publicly and from house to house as best she could. The result was that
during the balance of her active life she was urged into and did much of
this inter-church work in their periodical revivals, and obviously with
good effect.
But, grateful as were these churches for such help, and encouraging to
her heart as the fruit appeared, she ever labored in these Calvinistic
associations under more or less embarrassment. To be at once true to her
principles and true to interdenominational courtesy left her rather a
narrow platform to work upon; but, limited as it was, she would not
transcend it in either direction. When, however, she could find revival
work within reach among her own people she ever gave such calls the
preference; and from their arrival in the new country down to the
retirement of infirm old age, more than a quarter of a century, "Sister
Arnold" was known for many miles around as "an excellent revival laborer."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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