Part 41 (1/2)

Most of my verses are too much my own personal experience to be put in print now After I ae for so thought! that I shall be in heaven one day

Until the fall of 1873 her husband and two or three friends only knew of the existence of these verses, and their publication had not crossed her mind But shortly after her return from Dorset she was persuaded to let Mr Randolph read the letter:

The poems _ at Yonkers--read aloud all the pieces, except those in the book, at one sitting, and would have gone on to the end but that the eyes gave out

Out of the lot three or four pieces were laid aside as not up to the standard of the others The female member of the fir if she withheld the poeive up writing, or trying to write, religious verses

I a The book must be printed We were charmed with the poems Some of them have all the quaintness of Herbert, some the silow of Wesley They are, as Mrs R said, out of the beaten way, _and all true_ So they differ from the conventional poetry If published, there may be here and there some sentimental soul, or some soul without senti and don't understand hih artists, who may snub the book Very well; for compensation you will have the fact that the poe place in the hearts of thousands--in a sanctuary where few are permitted to enter

A day or two later Mr Randolph wrote in reply to her ht that you would , I would say so As I have already said, I a in ten thousand ways, and at the same time add to your reputation as a writer

She could not resist this appeal The assurance that the verses would prove a blessing to many souls disarmed her scruples and she consented to their publication The most of them, unfortunately, bore no date But all, or nearly all of the to the previous twenty years, and they depict so that period; they are her tears of joy or of sorrow, her cries of anguish, and her songs of love and triumph Some of them were hastily written in pencil, upon torn scraps of paper, as if she were on a journey Were they all accompanied with the exact time and circumstances of their composition, they would form, in connection with others unpublished, her spiritual autobiography from the death of Eddy and Bessie, in 1852, to the autumn of 1873 [8]

As she anticipated, the volu but a cordial reception; the criticisms upon it were curt and depreciatory

Its representation of the Christian life was censured as gloomy and false It was even intimated that in her expressions of pain and sorrow, there wasto this in a letter to a friend, she writes:

I have spoken of the deepest, sorest pain; not of trials, but of sorrow, not of disco And all I have spoken of, I have felt Never could I have known Christ, had I not had large experience of Hi story of my life, nor is it necessary that you should; but youmeans, there is not a soul on earth that does It has not been my habit to say much about this; it has been a matter between myself and lorified and that others ht I refer, of course, to the book of verses; I never called them poems You may depend upon it the world is brimful of pain in some shape or other; it is a ”_hurt_ world” But no Christian should go about groaning and weeping; though sorrowing, he should be always rejoicing During twenty years ofme, by many bitter remedies, for the work I was to do; I can never thank or love Hi discipline

Even the favorable notices of the volume, with two or three exceptions, evinced little sympathy with its spirit, or appreciation of its literaryto make any public impression, the little book soon found its way into thousands of closets and sick-roo with it Touching and grateful testimonies to this effect came from the East and the farthest West and fro is an extract from, a letter to Mr

Randolph, written by a lady of New York eminent for her social influence and Christian character:

The book of heart-hymns is wonderful, as I expected from the specimens which you read to me from the little scraps of paper from your desk Do you know that I _lived_ on thereedy to get the book that I ain And behold, the volus I have felt so often, _expressed_ as no one ever expressed them before I am overwhelmed every tihed at ”Mamma's enthusiasm” over a book of poems, as I am considered very prosaic I made C read two or three of them and he _surrenders_

N too, who is full of appreciation of poetry as well as of the _best things_, is equally delighted I carried the volume to a sick friend and read to her out of it I wish you could have seen how she was coet a chance, I would like you to tell her what she has done for hly cultivated Swiss lady wrote from Geneva:

What a precious, precious book! and what mercy in God to enable us to understand, and say Amen from the heart to every line! It was He who caused you to send me a book I so much needed--and I thank Him as much as you

IV

Incidents of the Year 1874 Prayer Starts a Bible-Reading in Dorset

Begins to take Lessons in Painting A Letter from her Teacher

Publication of _Urbane and his Friends_ Design of the Work Her views of the Christian Life The Mystics The Indwelling Christ An Allegory

During the winter and early spring of 1874 Mrs Prentiss found , held by Miss Susan Warner

She was deeply i the Word of God, and in the course of the summer was led to start a similar exercise in Dorset Her letters will shoall the rest of her life

Another incident, that left its erous illness of her husband His life was barely saved by an iical operation He convalesced very slowly and it was many months before she recovered from the shock

_To a Christian Friend, Jan 25, 1874_

I do not perfectly understand what you say about prayer, but it re She said she did not, because Christ was all round her But it is no less a fact that Christ Hie when He did so

That does not prove, however, that He did not hold silent, mystical communion with the Father It see, and intercessory prayer another; my own prayers are chiefly of the latter class; the sweet sense of co; I dare not ask for it; I ives me utterance No doubt your experience is beyond mine; I can conceive of a silence that unites, not separates, as existing between Christ and the soul As to her of e sadly spoke, I aht that I feel as if chart and coone overboard I believe there can be falls frorace, and that so that can happen to one; but it is an appalling thought Hoary all this should reatest respect for Miss ----, I have often wondered why I did not _love_ herto Christ in this perplexity and disappoints ht to be that Shall we ever learn to put no confidence in the flesh? My husband thinks Miss ---- insane