Delighting in Her Heavenly Bridegroom: The Memoirs of Harriet Newell, Teenage Missionary Wife

by Jennifer Adams (Editor), Harriet Atwood Newell

When missionary Samuel Newell asked for Harriet Atwood's hand in marriage, Harriet wrote, “Providence now gives me an opportunity to go myself to the heathen. Shall I refuse the offer? Shall I love the glittering toys of this dying world so well that I cannot relinquish them for God? Forbid it heaven! Yes, I will go. However weak and unqualified I am, there is an all-sufficient Savior ready to support me. In God alone is my hope. I will trust His promises and consider it one of the highest privileges that could be conferred upon me to be permitted to engage in His glorious service among the wretched inhabitants of India. . . . I go . . . to assist one of Christ's dear ministers in carrying the glad tidings of salvation to the perishing heathen of Asia.” Harriet left the shores of America with the certain expectation of death. Yet for Harriet, death was not loss, but gain. What makes death “gain” to a Christian teenager? The same thing that makes it gain to every believer—the full, unveiled presence of Christ. Harriet recognized death as the passageway to receiving the fullness of what she had longed for all her life—Christ. It was a price to pay that truly cost her nothing—it was gain! When Christ called, she was enabled to look death in the face with joy, and like a radiant bride, she hastened it, eager to be embraced by her Heavenly Bridegroom to “behold the light of His countenance.” Some of her dying words “Tell my dear brothers and sisters how much I love them. Tell them from the dying lips of their affectionate sister that the world is vain and worthless, and that there is nothing but religion worth living for. The eldest of them will be anxious to know my views of missions at this time. Tell them—assure them, that I approve on my dying bed the course I have taken. I have never repented leaving all for Christ.”

Genres: Biography

280 pages, Paperback

First published December 6, 2011

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Corner Pillar Press exists to serve the body of Christ through the publishing of Christian books. Jennifer Adams is wife to Scott and homeschooling mother to four lovely daughters. She has a Master of Arts in Religion from Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary with a concentration in New Testament Greek and lives with her family near the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.

Reviews

[Rachel Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

While Harriet Newell lived such a short life, she left an indelible impact on behalf of the kingdom of God. She is an example of one who is truly given over to her heavenly bridegroom, to eternal glory. I enjoyed reading the her growth of faith. I liked the glimpses of life on a ship and in India.

I will say that there are some poor editing choices that can potentially distract the reader but I believe the richness of the subject matter helps to overcome this.

I recommend this book to those who are interested in early missions, the lives of devout Christians, and daily life in the 19th century.

Favorite quotes:
"I feel that piety is as important here (America) as it would be in India. It requires just as much self-denial to live above the world and wholly to God here as it would to leave country, friends, all that is dear to me, and go to a heathen country."

"Times of persecution and distress have a favourable influence upon Christian character."

[Nan Clarke · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book needs some professional editing. Or at the very least, Jennifer Adams, the editor, should have followed the recommendations of a decent style guide such as the Chicago Manual of Style. For example, on page 46 she writes:
Arrayed in her “heavenly dress”, she was … table.
The comma should go before the closing quotation mark. This may seem like a minor error, but these kinds of punctuation mistakes tend to distract the reader.
I also feel that the book would benefit from a bit more scholarly research. On page 47 Adams states that prior to Samuel Newell’s time at Andover Theological Seminary “the American church had no … interest in overseas missionary work.” But in fact, Protestant evangelical Americans had spawned and fostered this movement some years earlier, around the time that the Second Great Awakening began. And if Adams had taken the story back to the Great Awakening and the formation of the mite societies, she could have added depth to her narrative.
All that said, the book contributes to a much-neglected niche, and would be of interest to Christians and non-Christians alike.