What do you think?
Rate this book
Clean Hands
Miss Elsie Burton is looking forward to her vacation in the city. Just think! An entire week of fun, shopping, and seeing old friends. But when her pastor bids her good-bye at the train station with the gift of an odd little book of Bible verses, Elsie embarks upon a journey of self-discovery she never anticipated.
- GenresShort Stories
54 pages, ebook
Published January 1, 2020
2 people are currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Isabella MacDonald Alden
223 books57 followersNote: In her lifetime, Isabella Macdonald Alden was usually published under the pseudonym Pansy, and occasionally under the name Mrs. G.R. Alden.
Aunt to Grace Livingston Hill
The sixth of seven children born to Isaac and Myra Spafford Macdonald, of Rochester, New York, Isabella Macdonald received her early education from her father, who home-schooled her, and gave her a nickname - "Pansy" - that she would use for many of her publications. As a girl, she kept a daily journal, critiqued by her father, and she published her first story - The Old Clock - in a village paper when she was ten years old.
Macdonald's education continued at the Oneida Seminary, the Seneca Collegiate Institute, and the Young Ladies Institute, all in New York. It was at the Oneida Seminary that she met her long-time friend (and eventual co-author), Theodosia Toll, who secretly submitted one of Macdonald's manuscripts in a competition, setting in motion a chain of events that would lead to the publication of her first book, Helen Lester, in 1865.
Macdonald also met her future husband, the Rev. Gustavus Rossenberg Alden, at the Oneida Seminary, and the two were married in 1866. Now Isabella Macdonald Alden, the newly-married minister's wife followed her husband as his postings took them around the country, dividing her time between writing, church duties, and raising her son Raymond (born 1873).
A prolific author, who wrote approximately one hundred novels from 1865 to 1929, and co-authored ten more, Alden was also actively involved in the world of children's and religious periodicals, publishing numerous short stories, editing the Sunday Juvenile Pansy from 1874-1894, producing Sunday School lessons for The Westminster Teacher for twenty years, and working on the editorial staff of various other magazines (Trained Motherhood, The Christian Endeavor).
Highly influenced by her Christian beliefs, much of Alden's work was explicitly moral and didactic, and often found its way into Sunday School libraries. It was also immensely popular, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with an estimated 100,000 copies of Alden's books sold, in 1900.
Information taken from:
readseries.com
isabellamacdonaldalden.com
Aunt to Grace Livingston Hill
The sixth of seven children born to Isaac and Myra Spafford Macdonald, of Rochester, New York, Isabella Macdonald received her early education from her father, who home-schooled her, and gave her a nickname - "Pansy" - that she would use for many of her publications. As a girl, she kept a daily journal, critiqued by her father, and she published her first story - The Old Clock - in a village paper when she was ten years old.
Macdonald's education continued at the Oneida Seminary, the Seneca Collegiate Institute, and the Young Ladies Institute, all in New York. It was at the Oneida Seminary that she met her long-time friend (and eventual co-author), Theodosia Toll, who secretly submitted one of Macdonald's manuscripts in a competition, setting in motion a chain of events that would lead to the publication of her first book, Helen Lester, in 1865.
Macdonald also met her future husband, the Rev. Gustavus Rossenberg Alden, at the Oneida Seminary, and the two were married in 1866. Now Isabella Macdonald Alden, the newly-married minister's wife followed her husband as his postings took them around the country, dividing her time between writing, church duties, and raising her son Raymond (born 1873).
A prolific author, who wrote approximately one hundred novels from 1865 to 1929, and co-authored ten more, Alden was also actively involved in the world of children's and religious periodicals, publishing numerous short stories, editing the Sunday Juvenile Pansy from 1874-1894, producing Sunday School lessons for The Westminster Teacher for twenty years, and working on the editorial staff of various other magazines (Trained Motherhood, The Christian Endeavor).
Highly influenced by her Christian beliefs, much of Alden's work was explicitly moral and didactic, and often found its way into Sunday School libraries. It was also immensely popular, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with an estimated 100,000 copies of Alden's books sold, in 1900.
Information taken from:
readseries.com
isabellamacdonaldalden.com
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
December 27, 2023
5 stars. To be perfectly transparent, I put off this book because I was sure it would convict me. I was right. It made me squirm. It’s so direct, so true.
“With that thought fresh in your mind, as you look at your hand, can you let it take up things, which, to say the least, are not ‘for Jesus’?—Things which evidently cannot be used, as they most certainly are not used, either for him or by Him.”
It’s a simple idea, but it reaches so deeply, into writing and reading and playing and anger… As I read the premise of the idea, I had the same reaction as Elsie.
“It reaches too far,” she told herself, catching her breath. “It would make perfectly awful work of living. Just think! One couldn’t—oh dear! one couldn’t do anything without looking at it to see if it were just exactly the right thing to do. According to that doctrine, I don’t belong to myself at all. Such fanaticism!”
‘Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your bodies and your spirits, which are his.’
Who whispered that verse to her? It was not in the offending little book. Whose fanaticism was this?
That hit hard. And as the book continued, and I watched Elsie striving to keep her hands clean, and what was the consequences thereof… I was reminded how the most difficult things are the most rewarding, and how surrender in obedience brings about the best, most beautiful life.
“With that thought fresh in your mind, as you look at your hand, can you let it take up things, which, to say the least, are not ‘for Jesus’?—Things which evidently cannot be used, as they most certainly are not used, either for him or by Him.”
It’s a simple idea, but it reaches so deeply, into writing and reading and playing and anger… As I read the premise of the idea, I had the same reaction as Elsie.
“It reaches too far,” she told herself, catching her breath. “It would make perfectly awful work of living. Just think! One couldn’t—oh dear! one couldn’t do anything without looking at it to see if it were just exactly the right thing to do. According to that doctrine, I don’t belong to myself at all. Such fanaticism!”
‘Ye are not your own; ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your bodies and your spirits, which are his.’
Who whispered that verse to her? It was not in the offending little book. Whose fanaticism was this?
That hit hard. And as the book continued, and I watched Elsie striving to keep her hands clean, and what was the consequences thereof… I was reminded how the most difficult things are the most rewarding, and how surrender in obedience brings about the best, most beautiful life.
December 28, 2021
Wow, I loved this beautiful little story so, so much!! Although short, it was filled with so many good lessons, and I loved every minute. And I was so glad with the way everything turned out. I think this is my favourite of all Pansy's short stories so far! Highly recommended.
February 2, 2024
I have mixed feelings on this one. The underlying message of remembering to Whom we belong and acting like it was good...my only hesitation comes from some of the examples that were given and the way that things were structured to make a few things seem black and white which maybe shouldn't be. I should probably explain that I naturally fall on the stricter side with issues of conscience, and in the past at least, just the suggestion that something might not be pleasing to God has made me give up--and more importantly, start disapproving in others--things that were very clearly matters of conscience. I'm coming out of that, I think, but it makes me evaluate some of these stories more carefully, and what they can suggest to younger people who are impressionable in the same way I was.
I especially didn't like the fact that one of Elsie's first hard stands was against the idea of even carrying a box of cigars that her cousin was picking up for someone else, and which he had a hard time carrying because his arms were full of her things. Look, I'm not saying I approve of tobacco. I don't. And if someone had asked her to go to the store and buy a box of cigars, I would have sympathized more. But somehow it felt like "I want to keep my own actions pure" became "how dare you soil me by making me touch this without knowing what was in it"--which just struck me the wrong way. And the next scene I couldn't quite figure out what the point was supposed to be--is it just that wanting to spend money she didn't need to was supposed to be a special temptation, or are the readers supposed to come away thinking that any purchase of something fun or pretty, if you don't strictly need it, is outright wrong? I don't know, and I know I'm more on edge because I've had issues with over-applying stories like this in the past, but I think this one would have influenced me in the wrong way when I was younger. (And now saying that makes me sound like one of the bad/lukewarm ones, which...also bothers me a lot.)
So, anyway, yeah, that was a lot. And probably more to do with my own past experience than with this story specifically. But those are my thoughts. It's a good message, but some of the specifics were a little clumsily handled, at least for an overly sensitive reader like I used to be. (:
I especially didn't like the fact that one of Elsie's first hard stands was against the idea of even carrying a box of cigars that her cousin was picking up for someone else, and which he had a hard time carrying because his arms were full of her things. Look, I'm not saying I approve of tobacco. I don't. And if someone had asked her to go to the store and buy a box of cigars, I would have sympathized more. But somehow it felt like "I want to keep my own actions pure" became "how dare you soil me by making me touch this without knowing what was in it"--which just struck me the wrong way. And the next scene I couldn't quite figure out what the point was supposed to be--is it just that wanting to spend money she didn't need to was supposed to be a special temptation, or are the readers supposed to come away thinking that any purchase of something fun or pretty, if you don't strictly need it, is outright wrong? I don't know, and I know I'm more on edge because I've had issues with over-applying stories like this in the past, but I think this one would have influenced me in the wrong way when I was younger. (And now saying that makes me sound like one of the bad/lukewarm ones, which...also bothers me a lot.)
So, anyway, yeah, that was a lot. And probably more to do with my own past experience than with this story specifically. But those are my thoughts. It's a good message, but some of the specifics were a little clumsily handled, at least for an overly sensitive reader like I used to be. (:
March 30, 2025
Isabella Alden's (Pansy) "Clean Hands" is a religious centered short story about a young woman's thoughts on "her clean hands" and how it all comes back to God.
This was very thoughtful and truly inspiring story. The world so worldly and everything around seeming so ungodly, Pansy brings the focus back on what "clean hands" truly mean in living for God.
Story in short- Elise is off to visit her cousins for a week to attend a wedding but before she goes her pastor Doctor Falconer talks about her "clean hands".
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert
I had not expected this ending where a year after her visit and her words to the worldly Freeman Vance that he and her cousin Ben would be Christians, especially the marriage proposal and his commitment to no longer gamble. I had read Pansy before where the the lady was not forgiving of past wrongs, so this was a pleasant ending.
This was very thoughtful and truly inspiring story. The world so worldly and everything around seeming so ungodly, Pansy brings the focus back on what "clean hands" truly mean in living for God.
Story in short- Elise is off to visit her cousins for a week to attend a wedding but before she goes her pastor Doctor Falconer talks about her "clean hands".
❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌❌spoiler alert
I had not expected this ending where a year after her visit and her words to the worldly Freeman Vance that he and her cousin Ben would be Christians, especially the marriage proposal and his commitment to no longer gamble. I had read Pansy before where the the lady was not forgiving of past wrongs, so this was a pleasant ending.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews