American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Sunday schools -- United States -- Periodicals
Doubtless they sometimes lose money by refusing large orders, but
it is a fact that it sometimes costs something to be consistent.
Nevertheless, let us be consistent—it pays in the long run! Mrs. Smith
is well known to the world of Christians as H. W. S. You may have seen
in your mother’s workbasket, or found slipped between the leaves of her
Bible or other favorite book of devotion, little tracts bearing this
signature.
She has for many years been accustomed to give expositions of
Scriptures, sometimes going to obscure country churches of a Sabbath
evening, then again speaking to thousands gathered in an immense
hall in London. Of her powers as a public speaker, an English paper
says: “Her freshness, her profound insight, are as remarkable as her
surprising fluency.”
I think it was in a little paper called _Times of Refreshing_, that an
article appeared which described the effect of her addresses upon an
audience as something remarkable. Saying that, however old and worn
the topic, she by her vigorous way of presenting the truth seemed to
make it over new, and the secret of her power is given in five words:
“consecrated talent and careful research.”
One of her children says of her: “She seems to me perfectly unselfish,
and this she carries into the smallest details.” Of how many of us can
this be said, I wonder!
Speaking of the sorrows and the bereavements which Mrs. Smith has been
called to bear, Miss Willard says: “To the praise of that dear name
above all others, let it be said, this Christian heart knows, proves,
illustrates, always, in all life’s changeful discipline, the victory
that overcometh even faith. No sentence is so familiar to her friends
from those dear smiling lips that open but to speak brave and tender
words, as ‘I cannot be unhappy, for I always have God.’”
Mrs. Smith is also known to the world as the Superintendent of the
Evangelistic Department of the W. C. T. U. Does that need explanation?
You all know what sort of an organization the W. C. T. U. is. Well, one
of the first questions which came to the noble Christians who banded
themselves together to fight the monster vice of intemperance was this
puzzling one, How shall we reach the masses? Men bound by the chains
of the drink habit were not likely to come voluntarily within their
influence. Then there was but one answer to the question: “Go to them!”
And they went, and it is this work of carrying the Gospel story to the
poor drunkard, that we call evangelistic work. Mrs. Smith tells us how
she became identified with the W. C. T. U. At the time of the Crusade
she was in England, engaged in her work of Bible exposition, but when
she heard through the newspapers of the wonderful outpouring of God’s
spirit upon her countrywomen, her soul was stirred, and she seemed to
hear the voice of her Master calling upon her for a consecration to
the work, and she says, “sitting before an English fire in our London
house, I joined that Crusade.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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