Hannah Whitall Smith
Hannah Whitall Smith | |
---|---|
Born | Hannah Tatum Whitall February 7, 1832 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Died | May 1, 1911 England | (aged 79)
Spouse | |
Children | 7 (including Mary, Logan and Alys) |
Hannah Tatum Whitall Smith (February 7, 1832 – May 1, 1911) was a lay speaker and author in the Holiness movement in the United States and the Higher Life movement in the United Kingdom. She was also active in the women's suffrage movement and the temperance movement.
Early years
Born in
Career
On November 5, 1851 Hannah married
From 1864 to 1868, Robert and Hannah Smith lived in Millville, New Jersey. Robert managed Hannah’s father’s business, the Whitall, Tatum & Company glass factories.[3]
William Boardman apparently groomed Robert and Hannah Smith to join the Holiness movement as speakers. From 1873–1874 they spoke at various places in England, including Oxford, teaching on the subjects of the "higher life" and "holiness," after a foundational meeting at the Broadlands Conference sponsored by the spiritualists Lord and Lady Mount Temple.[2] A painting was commissioned of Broadlands Conference and she was the central figure of the painting by Edward Clifford. Her husband is not in the painting as he had been unfaithful. The text she is reading notes that you can put your trust in God but not in men. The tiny white figures behind her are thought to represent souls contacted by spiritialism.[4]
In 1874 Hannah helped found the
In 1888, the Smith family moved to England because their daughter Mary married an English barrister, Frank Costelloe. They eventually divorced, and Mary then married the critic Bernard Berenson. It was in England that their younger daughter Alys Pearsall Smith met and married the philosopher Bertrand Russell. Logan Pearsall Smith became an essayist and critic.
Hannah Whitall Smith had seven children in all, but only three—Mary, Alys Pearsall, and Logan Pearsall—survived to adulthood. Her niece, Martha Carey Thomas was the first female dean of any college in America and an active suffragist.
Hannah Whitall Smith died in England in 1911.
Writings and legacy
Hannah Whitall Smith’s book The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life (1875) is an extremely popular book of Christian mysticism and practical Holiness theology.[7] It is still widely read today. She wrote her spiritual autobiography, The Unselfishness of God And How I Discovered It, in 1903. Many publications of that book omit the three chapters which explain how she became a Christian universalist.[8] Hannah Whitall Smith wrote "The God of All Comfort" in 1906, five years before her death in 1911.
Notes
1. "In 1870 Hannah Whitall Smith wrote what has become a classic of joyous Christianity, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life. The title barely hints at the depths of that perceptive book. It is no shallow "four easy steps to successful living." Studiously, the writer defines the shape of a full and abundant life hid in God. Then she carefully reveals the difficulties to this way and finally charts the results of a life abandoned to God. What is the Christian's secret to a happy life? It is best summed up by her chapter entitled "The Joy of Obedience." Joy comes through obedience to Christ, and joy results from obedience to Christ. Without obedience joy is hollow and artificial." Foster, Richard J. Celebration Of Discipline, p. 192. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988. Print.
References
- ^ "Wesleyan/Holiness Women Clergy: Our Mission". Archived from the original on 29 September 2017. Retrieved 12 February 2017.
- ^ a b c d "Hannah Whitall Smith, Higher Life Writer," in The Doctrine of Sanctification, Thomas Ross, Ph. D. Diss, Great Plains Baptist Divinity School
- ^ Hannah Whitall Smith 1832 - 1911: Author, Evangelist, Tentmaker.org. Accessed March 29, 2011. "From 1864 to 1868 Robert and Hannah Smith lived in Millville, New Jersey. Robert managed Hannah’s father’s business, the Whitall, Tatum, & Company glass factories."
- ^ "Edward Clifford (British 1844-1907), A group portrait of The Broadlands Conference: The Sitters | Dreweatts". www.dreweatts.com. Retrieved 2023-02-18.
- ^ Willard, Frances (1883). Woman and Temperance: or, The work and workers of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union. Hartford, CT: Park Publishing Company. p. 272.
- ^ Leavitt, Mary Clement (13 August 1885). "Mary Clement Leavitt to Hannah Whitall Smith, 13 August 1885". Letters. Asbury Theological Seminary, Wilmore, KY. Retrieved 24 October 2022.
- ^ Aiken, Mercy. "Hannah Whitall Smith". Retrieved 12 February 2017.
- ^ The Unselfishness of God and How I Discovered It (the missing chapters) at www.tentmaker.org
External links
- Media related to Hannah Whitall Smith at Wikimedia Commons
- Works by or about Hannah Whitall Smith at Internet Archive
- Works by Hannah Whitall Smith at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life
- "Hannah Whitall Smith, Higher Life Writer," in The Doctrine of Sanctification, Thomas Ross, Ph. D. Diss, Great Plains Baptist Divinity School