From the archives of the Association of Bad Friends. All rights reserved.
May 27, 1875 I do not care what the title my publisher put on my new book says, sometimes the Christian life is just not that happy. And that's no secret. Especially when some Christians send me letters telling me what I got wrong. "Dear Mrs. Smith -- I read the heresy you published. You will burn in Hell for all eternity for what you wrote. Please turn from your vile ways. In Christian Love, Miss Prudence Pureblood." "In Christian Love", indeed. Well, let me tell you. Miss Pureblood can take her Christian Love and stick it[editor's note: the rest of this sentence is illegible]. -- Journal of Hannah Whitall Smith
Hannah Whitall Smith’s book The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, first published in 1875, is still in print and is an extremely popular book among Evangelical and conservative Christians. Less popular is her spiritual autobiography, The Unselfishness of God And How I Discovered It. Published in 1903, it has three chapters which explain how she became a Christian universalist. She was also the mother-in-law of Betrand Russell.
4 comments:
"The Unselfishness of God" did have the three chapters about Universalism when it was published. But in most reprint editions, those chapters have been taken out, to protect "good Christian" readers from her "heresy."
Has the copyright on "The Unselfishness of God" expired? One could wish HWS had named a liberal literary executrix to prevent such bowdlerization as Friend Chuck posits.
here are the chapters in question -- http://www.tentmaker.org/books/unselfishness-of-god.htm
The unabridged edition. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/115041068X/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER
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