HANNAH WHITALL SMITH

Miles J. Stanford

HANNAH WHITALL SMITH (1832-1911) is best known for her classic, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, first published in 1875. This perennially popular book has been effective for many as an introduction to the realm of the growth truths--although not from a clear doctrinal standpoint. Another book, The God of All Comfort, has been very helpful to many undergoing trial, etc.

Hannah's husband, J. Pearsall Smith, took what growth truths he had into the holiness realm--"believe it, and you have it," and from there he went into perfectionism. (See Darby's extensive review of Smith's book, Holiness By Faith (circa 1875, op] , in his Collected Writings, Vol. 23).

Smith took his holiness message to London in 1872, and soon gained celebrity status among Christians outside the State (Anglican) Church. He had a part in founding the Keswick Convention in 1874--which subsequently righted itself after its holiness beginnings. Ultimately Smith assimilated some spiritism, then fell into unspecified moral trouble, and was sent back to the States.

On a theological level, the sad climax of Hannah's life and ministry was similar to that of her husband. She was raised in the Society of Friends (Quakerism), and for some time was associated with the Plymouth Brethren. She was probably saved under their influence, and thus came to know something of the growth truths. Her personal account reveals the final tragedy:

Apart from this Quaker teaching of the perceptible guidance of the Spirit, nothing very definite or tangible was ever taught us. As far as I can recall we were never told we had to be "converted" or "born again." My own impression was that these were things which might be necessary for the "world's people," but were entirely unnecessary for us, who were birthright members of the Society of Friends, and were already born into the kingdom of God, and only needed to be exhorted to live up to our high calling.

I believe this was because of one of the fundamental principles of Quakerism, which was a belief that Christ has linked Himself on to humanity, and had embraced the whole world in His divine brotherhood. Hence every soul that was born belonged to Him, and could claim sonship with the same Father. "My Father and your Father," He says, and the early Friends accepted this as true, and would have thought it misleading therefore to urge us to become what we already were.

We were always preached to as "lambs of the flock," and as only needing to be obedient to the voice of the Good Shepherd, to whom we already belonged. The Friends did not shut their children out, but instead, with loving tenderness, shut them inside the heavenly fold.

For a time, in my Plymouth Brethren days, I looked upon this as a dreadful heresy. Later I learned the blessed fact, stated by Paul to the heathen at Athens, that we are all, the heathen included, "God's offspring"; and I realized that, since He is our Creator, He is our Father, and we equally His children. I learned to thank and bless the grand old Quakers who had made this discovery, since their teaching made it easy for me to throw aside the restricting ideas I had adopted from the Brethren, and helped me to comprehend the glorious fact that in God we all "live and move and have our being," hence no one can shut another out (My Spiritual Biography, circa 1902, p. 74, Littlebrook Publishing, Inc., 1987).

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MJStanford

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(Materials by Miles J. Stanford are republished here under exclusive permission from the author.)