A Letter to a New Christian
Elizabeth Payson Prentiss (1818-1879) was the daughter of well-know American pastor, Edward Payson. From a young age, she was instilled with Scripture, Puritan theology, and evangelical zeal. In 1845, she married George Lewis Prentiss, also a Congregational pastor, and together they had six children. Prentiss is best known for her hymn, “More Love to Thee, O Christ,” and her semi-autobiographical novel, Stepping Heavenward, which depicts a young Katy seeking God and walking the ups and downs of the Christian life with her eyes fixed on Christ.
In Stepping Heavenward, Katy visits with her pastor, Dr. Cabot:
“You would not speak so kindly,” I got out at last, “if you knew what a dreadful creature I am. I am angry with myself and angry with everybody and angry with God. I can’t be good two minutes at a time. I do everything I do not want to do and do nothing I try and pray to do. Everybody plagues and tempts me. And God does not answer any of my prayers, and I am just desperate.”
“Poor child” he said in a low voice, as if to himself “Poor, heartsick, tired child that cannot see what I can see that its Father’s loving arms are all about it!”
I stopped crying to strain my ears to listen. He went on, “Katy, all that you say may be true. I dare say it is. But God loves you. He loves you.”
He loves me, I repeated to myself. He loves me. “Oh, Dr. Cabot, if I could believe that! If I could believe that, after all the promises I have broken, all the foolish, wrong things I have done and shall always be doing, God perhaps still loves me!”
“You may be sure of it,” he said solemnly, “I, His minister, bring the gospel to you today. Go home and say over and over to yourself, ‘I am a wayward, foolish child. But He loves me! I have disobeyed and grieved Him ten thousand times. But He loves me! I have lost faith in some of my dearest friends and am very desolate. But He loves me! I do not love Him; I am even angry with Him! But He loves me!”
I came away; and all the way home I fought this battle with myself, saying, “He loves me!” I knelt down to pray, and all my wasted, childish, wicked life came and stared me in the face. I looked at it and say with tears of joy, “But He loves me!” Never in my life did I feel so rested, so quieted, so sorrowful, and yet so satisfied.
Shortly and after this conversation, her pastor pens these words the newly-converted Katy:
“God does nothing arbitrary. If He takes away your health, for instance, it is because He has some reason for doing so; and this is true of everything you value; and if you have real faith in Him, you will not insist on knowing the reason. If you find, in the course of daily events, that your self-consecration was not perfect—that is, that your will revolts at His will—do no be discouraged, but fly to your Savior and stay in His presence till you obtain the spirit in which He cried in His hour of anguish, ‘Father, if Thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will but Thine be done’ (Luke 22:42). Every time you do this it will be easier to do it; every such consent to suffer will bring you nearer and nearer to Him; and in this nearness to Him you will find such peace, such blessed, sweet peace as will make your life infinitely happy, no matter what may be its mere outside conditions. Just think, my dear Katy, of the honor and the joy of having your will one with the Divine will and so becoming changed into Christ’s image from glory to glory!
“But I cannot say, in a letter, the tithe of what I want to say. Listen to my sermons from week to week, and gleam from them all the instruction you can, remember that they are preached to you.
"In reading the Bible I advise you to choose detached passages, or even one verse a day, rather than whole chapters. Study every word; ponder and pray over it till you have got from it all the truth it contains.“As to the other devotional reading, it is better to settle down on a few favorite authors and read their words over and over and over until you have digested their thoughts and made them your own.
“It has been said ‘that a fixed, inflexible will is a great assistance in a holy life.’
“You can will to choose for your associates those who are most devout and holy.
“You can will to read books that will stimulate you in your Christian life rather than those that merely amuse.
“You can will to use every means of grace appointed by God.
“You can will to spend much time in prayer without regard to your frame at the moment.
“You can will to prefer a religion of principle to one of mere feeling; in other words, to obey the will of God when no comfortable glow of emotion accompanies your obedience.
“You cannot will to possess the spirit of Christ; that must come as His gift; but you can choose to study His life and imitate it. This will infallibly lead to such self-denying work as visiting the poor, nursing the sick, giving of your time and money to the needy, and the like.
“If the thought of such self-denial is repugnant to you, remember that it is enough for the disciple to be as his Lord. And let me assure you that as you penetrate the labyrinth of life in pursuit of Christian duty, you will often be surprised and charmed by meeting your Master Himself amid its windings and turnings and receive His soul-inspiring smile. Or, I should rather say, you will always meet Him, wherever you go.”