Though her life was difficult, Hannah Whitall Smith's message was joyful. In The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, she writes that "Jesus came to save you fully now, in this life, from the power and dominion of sin, and to deliver you altogether." Passionate and practical, Whitall Smith's classic of the Holiness movement focuses not on human effort but on simple, stubborn faith in the Savior and Sanctifier of the soul.
"Our part is the trusting," she writes, "it is His to accomplish the results."
Hannah Whitall Smith was a Quaker born in Philadelphia in 1832. Her life expressed the joy that is found in complete surrender. The secret to a happy life, according to Whitall Smith, is to trust implicitly in the promises of the Bible. Her goal was not to impress the scholar, but to elevate the simple man or woman who longed for a more consecrated way of living. Deeply practical, her writings deal directly with the day-to-day struggles of ordinary people. Hannah Whithall Smith died in 1911.
Pages: 256 (paperback)