Hannah Whitall Smith

1832-1911 19th century

The plain trust that lays down the burden and believes God, without proof or feeling.

Who was Hannah Whitall Smith?

A Quaker woman of Philadelphia, a mother tried by the death of several children, she became a leading voice of the Anglo-American spiritual revival. Her book The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life teaches a stripped-down trust: handing worry and burden alike over to God, and taking him at his word.

In their own words

[Faith] is nothing at all tangible: it is simply believing God.

The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, ch. VI 'Difficulties concerning Faith', revised ed., Fleming H. Revell, 1888; pronoun antecedent supplied in square brackets

Earthly cares […] are God's chariots, sent to take the soul to its high places of triumph. They do not look like chariots. They look instead like enemies, sufferings, trials, defeats, misunderstandings, disappointments, unkindnesses. […] But could we see them as they really are, we should recognize them as chariots of triumph in which we may ride to those very heights of victory for which our souls have been longing and praying.

The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, ch. XIX « The Chariots of God », revised edition, Fleming H. Revell, Chicago and New York, 1888, p. 229

Everything that we have believed in or depended upon may seem to be swept away, and only God is left, just God, the bare God, if I may be allowed the expression; simply and only God.

The God of All Comfort and the Secret of His Comforting, ch. XVII « God Is Enough », James Nisbet & Co., London, 1906, p. 247