He Won't Let You Sink

Forever With the Lord

Mrs. Prentiss went to be forever with the Lord on the evening of August 13, 1878. It was a Tuesday, same as today. Her family was gathered around her:

"Although the chamber of death, it was the chamber of peace, and a light not of earth shone down upon us all. He who was seen walking, unhurt, in the midst of the fire and whose form was like the Son of God, seemed to overshadow us with His presence." ~ From More Love to Thee, The Life & Letters of Elizabeth Prentiss, by G.L. Prentiss.

Religion and Love Both

"We women are exacting creatures; and you can not please us unless we have the whole of you. Oh, if you knew the sacredness, the beauty, the sweetness of married life, as I do, you would as soon think of entering heaven without a wedding garment, as of venturing on its outskirts even, save by the force of a passionate, overwhelming power that is stronger than death itself!" ~ written to a young friend whom she feared was marrying for reasons other than love.

[Said of Mrs. P in More Love to Thee, the Life & Letters of Mrs. Prentiss: "She placed religion and love alike at the foundation of a true home; the one to connect it with heaven above, the other to make it a heaven upon earth." I think that's so nice to know. ~ mr]

Afraid of Love

I was interrupted last night by the arrival of G.L.P., after his four months' absence in Mississippi, improved in health, and in looks, and in spirits, and quite as glad to see me, I believe, as even you, in your goodness of heart, say my lover ought to be. But I will tell you the truth, my dear cousin, I am afraid of love. There is no other medium, save that of the happiness of loving and being loved, by which my affections could be effectually turned from divine to earthly things. Am I not then on dangerous ground? Yet God mercifully shows me that it is so, and when I think how He has saved me hitherto through sharp temptations, it seems wicked distrust of Him, not to feel that He will save me through those to come. ~ from a letter to her cousin, March 22, 1844

[It's actually good to know that she had such a love for her future husband. Surely this was a good thing, even though she worried it might turn her heart away from the heavenly. By God's grace, it's obvious that it didn't.  ~ mr

Seen by God

A woman should not live for, or even desire, fame. This is yet more true of a Christian woman. If I had not steadily suppressed all such ambition, I might have become a sour, disappointed woman, seeing my best work unrecognized. But it has been my wish to

 

"Dare to be little and unknown,

Seen and loved by God alone."

~ From letter to Mr. Cady, written in 1878. Mrs. Prentiss died later that year.

Full Possession of Christ

For you I desire but one thing--a full possession of Christ. Let us turn away our eyes from everything that does not directly exalt Him in our affections; we are poor without Him, no matter what our worldly advantages are; rich with Him when stripped of all besides. ~ Letter to Mrs. Leonard, April 5, 1869

[Love that--"full possession of Christ."]

A Pastor's Wife

You can't think how sweet it is to be a pastor's wife; to feel the right to sympathise with those who mourn, to fly to them at once, and join them in their prayers and tears. It would be pleasant to spend one's whole time among sufferers, and to keep testifying to them what Christ can and will become to them, if they will only let Him. ~ From a letter to Miss E.A. Warner, January 7, 1870.

[Wonderful reasons to enjoy one's lot in life, wouldn't you say? ~ mr]

Baptized With Suffering

It is just as much as I can do to keep my head above water . . . .Sometimes I think that the dreadful experience I have been passing through is God's way of baptizing me; some have to be baptized with suffering. Certainly He has been sitting as the Refiner, bringing down my pride, emptying me of this and that, and not leaving me a foot to stand on. If it all ends in sanctification I don't care what I suffer. Though cast down, I am not in despair. ~ From a letter to Mrs. Condict, February 3, 1873.

[ Oh my. Could I say that? "If it all ends in sanctification I don't care what I suffer." - mr]

Six Little Feet

Do you miss the hearing little feet pattering round the house? It seems to me that the sound of my six little feet is the very pleasantest sound in the world. Often when I lie in bed racked with pain and exhausted from want of food--for my digestive organs seem paralysed when I have neuralgia--hearing these little darlings about the house compensates for everything, and I am inexpressibly happy in the the mere sense of possession. ~ from a letter written to sister-in-law on Jan. 15, 1864.

[It was good she recognized and appreciated it while they were there. So many of us don't really appreciate it until they have grown and gone away. ~ mr]

Rock of Ages

I wonder if you realise what a very happy creature I am? and how too good God is to me? I don't see how He can heap such mercies on a poor sinner; but that only shows how little I know Him. But then, I am learning to know Him, and shall go on doing it forever and ever; and so will you. I am not sure that it is best for us, once safe and secure on the Rock of Ages, to ask ourselves too closely what this and that experience may signify. Is it not better to be thinking of the Rock, not the feet that stand upon it? It seems to me that we ought to be unconscious of ourselves, and the nearer we get to Christ, the more we shall be taken up with Him. We shall be like a sick man who, after he gets well, forgets all the old symptoms he used to think so much of, and stops taking his pulse, and just enjoys his health, only pointing out his physician to all who are diseased. ~ excerpt from letter to Mrs. Condict, dated March 6, 1870.

A Place to Deny Myself

If I tell you that I am going to take under my especial care and protection one of the family--a little girl of eleven years whom nobody can manage at all, you may wonder why. I found on my plate at dinner a note from Mrs. Persico saying that if I wanted an opportunity of doing good, here was one, that if Nannie could sleep in my room, etc., it might be of great benefit to her. The only reason why I hesitated was the fear that she might be in the way of our best hours. But I have thought all along that I was living too much at my ease, and wanted a place in which to deny myself for the sake of the One who yielded up every comfort for my sake. Nannie has a fine character but has been mismanaged at home, and since coming here. She often comes and puts her arms around me and says, "There is one in this house who loves me, I do know." I receive her as a trust from God, with earnest prayer to Him that we may be enabled to be of use to her. . .
~ From a letter to her cousin, dated January 3, 1841.



[Mrs. Prentiss' attitude could be applied by us in many situations. I'm sure we each can think of some place where we can deny self. ~ mr]

Self-Forgetting Spirit

I am ashamed of myself, of late, that these subjects of love and matrimony find a place in my thoughts which I never have been in the habit of giving them, but people here talk of little else and I am borne on with the current. I think that to give happiness in married life a woman should possess oceans of self-sacrificing love and I, for one, haven't half of that self-forgetting spirit which I think essential. ~ excerpt from letter to Anna S. Prentiss, April 24, 1843


[ How many of us would attest to a lack in this area? A need for prayer, yes?]

Why We Are Here

Much of my experience of life has cost me a great price and I wish to use it for strengthening and comforting other souls.

~ From one of her last letters (date unknown)



[So you see, folks, that is what we want to let her do. ~ mr]