Hannah Whitall Smith was an American author, religious interpreter, and reformer.
Background
She was born on February 7, 1832 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States, the daughter of John Mickle and Mary (Tatum) Whitall. Her first known American ancestor was James Whitall, who in 1688 was living near Philadelphia. Both branches of her family had for many generations been members of the Society of Friends (Quakers).
Her home was characterized by a blending of broad culture with spiritual piety of an unusual depth, the double effect of which was apparent in her throughout her life; her biography is in large degree the story of the development of an interior life. In 1848 at the age of sixteen she had a mystical awakening which she described in her "spiritual autobiography" as the "first epoch" in her religious life, and which she later came to regard as a period of "morbid self-introspection. "
Career
The death of her son Franklin Whitall in 1872 was the occasion of her writing The Record of a Happy Life: Being Memorials of Franklin Whitall Smith (1873).
She produced somewhat later the book that was always associated with her name, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life (1875). A few years later she published John M. Whitall, the Story of His Life (1879).
She and her husband had both begun to preach. They now had remarkable non-sectarian meetings "for the deepening of the spiritual life" in America, in England, and on the continent of Europe, their work in Europe reaching its highest point during the years of 1873 and 1874. She left an interesting collection of papers in which she recorded her observations, published in 1928 as Religious Fanaticism: Extracts from the Papers of Hannah Whitall Smith.
In 1886 the family settled permanently in England, and there she continued to live after the death of her husband in 1898. In 1903 she published her book on The Unselfishness of God and How I Discovered It, her "spiritual autobiography. " The later years of peace and tranquillity were marked by an influence not less impressive than in the period of prominent public service at home and abroad. She died at Iffley, where she had lived since 1905.
Achievements
Her work The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life (1875) was translated into every language of Europe and into a number of Oriental languages, had an almost fabulous circulation, and made the writer known around the world. Hannah Whitall Smith also was the author of her famous spiritual autobiography, The Unselfishness of God And How I Discovered It (1903). Hannah helped found the Women’s Christian Temperance Union.
In 1858, after a period of scepticism, she passed through the epoch of her religious life. Coming under the influence of the Plymouth Brethren she entered into an "assurance of faith, " which at the time gave her peace and serenity, and freedom from self-examination. In her "next epoch, " not many years later, she made a momentous discovery, which she described as the discovery of "the unselfishness of God. " It carried with it for her a belief in a final restitution of all things and every person, and gave her a temporary reputation of being a heretic.
In 1865 a small New Jersey town, Millville brought her to the final "epoch, " a religious stage which she called the "higher life" or the "life of faith, " a life of "absolute consecration, entire obedience, and simple trust".
Growing in breadth and wisdom with the years, she came to see that it was a mistake to expect all persons to pass through any one path of religious experience.
Views
She was an ardent reformer, working zealously for peace, for temperance, and for the widening of the sphere and scope of the influence of women.
Personality
As a preacher she was practical, explicit, and simple. Throughout her life she had a marked capacity, based largely on the practical character of her own nature, for recognizing what was insincere, fanatical, perverted, or misguided in religious enthusiasm.
Connections
In June 25, 1851, ahe married Robert Pearsall Smith of Philadelphia, son of John Jay Smith. He was a glass manufacturer who also had a deep interest in religion and in later life became a noted religious leader and widely read author. Their children, in addition to a daughter who died young, were Franklin Whitall, Logan Pearsall, Alys, who married Bertrand Russell, and Mary Logan, who married Bernhard Berenson.
