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Chautauqua Girls #4
Judge Burnham's Daughters
Ruth Burnham is a devoted wife and mother--and yet life is far from peaceful.When God healed her infant son of a terrible illness, Ruth determined to live the resolved of faith born from that wondrous event. Sadly, her husband and his two socialite daughters had no sympathy with the desires that filled her soul.
Soon the problem with which her married life had begun--"How shall two walk together except they be agreed?"--leads to ever increasing conflicts in her family. Weary and disheartened, Ruth feels caught in a struggle she does not understand.
Then God opens her eyes, and Ruth sees with awful clarity that she hasn't been an effective or faithful Christian witness to her family. In response, she surrenders to God to be used as he wills . . . and life at the Burnham house will never be the same
Heartwarming stories of faith and love by Grace Livingston Hill's aunt--Isabella Alden. Each book is similar in style and tone to Hill's and is set in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Soon the problem with which her married life had begun--"How shall two walk together except they be agreed?"--leads to ever increasing conflicts in her family. Weary and disheartened, Ruth feels caught in a struggle she does not understand.
Then God opens her eyes, and Ruth sees with awful clarity that she hasn't been an effective or faithful Christian witness to her family. In response, she surrenders to God to be used as he wills . . . and life at the Burnham house will never be the same
Heartwarming stories of faith and love by Grace Livingston Hill's aunt--Isabella Alden. Each book is similar in style and tone to Hill's and is set in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
- GenresChristian FictionFiction
277 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1888
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About the author
Pansy
338 books31 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
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June 27, 2019Ebook here https://archive.org/details/judgeburn...
January 27, 2018
Family Relationships Still Relevant Today
This book is probably my favourite Isabella Alden book and one I have read several times. Although written in 1889, it deals with issues so relevant today, the main one being relationship between stepmother and stepdaughters. Those who know Mrs Alden’s books will remember Ruth Erskine from the Chautauqua books and ‘Ruth Erskine’s Crosses’. She married Judge Burnham and acquired two neglected teenage stepdaughters. This book picks up six years later when the two girls, Seraphina (Seraph) and Arminta (Minta) are now of age and run with a fashionable crowd. They value fashion over faith (as the blurb says), but that is hardly their fault as we remember that Mamma (as Ruth is) was more concerned with their outward neglect than their hearts and spirits.
This story also relates to the dangers of a Christian marrying a non-Christian, being “unequally yoked” as the Bible puts it, and we can see just how far Judge Burnham has weaned Ruth from her Chautauqua days over the years of their marriage. They also have a son, Erskine, who is about four or five, although he is still called a baby, and for the most part Ruth has more or less full control over him for now. The Burnham house is not a happy one and is about to be plunged into turmoil.
That makes it sound as if this is a depressing story, but it is far from that. It is certainly emotional and very sad in parts (where I always shed tears) but it is also inspiring and uplifting in others, and throughout it all runs the constant thread of Alden’s books, to bring non-Christians to Christ, and to renew and challenge Christians to live the gospel daily. This story is a marvellous study in familial relationships and blended families and how one mistake can be compounded over the years and cause so much trouble. But it also shows the power of forgiveness, love, and redemption. Bearing in mind that the language and some societal mores have changed over the intervening 130-odd years, the central family issues haven’t, and I recommend this book.
This book is probably my favourite Isabella Alden book and one I have read several times. Although written in 1889, it deals with issues so relevant today, the main one being relationship between stepmother and stepdaughters. Those who know Mrs Alden’s books will remember Ruth Erskine from the Chautauqua books and ‘Ruth Erskine’s Crosses’. She married Judge Burnham and acquired two neglected teenage stepdaughters. This book picks up six years later when the two girls, Seraphina (Seraph) and Arminta (Minta) are now of age and run with a fashionable crowd. They value fashion over faith (as the blurb says), but that is hardly their fault as we remember that Mamma (as Ruth is) was more concerned with their outward neglect than their hearts and spirits.
This story also relates to the dangers of a Christian marrying a non-Christian, being “unequally yoked” as the Bible puts it, and we can see just how far Judge Burnham has weaned Ruth from her Chautauqua days over the years of their marriage. They also have a son, Erskine, who is about four or five, although he is still called a baby, and for the most part Ruth has more or less full control over him for now. The Burnham house is not a happy one and is about to be plunged into turmoil.
That makes it sound as if this is a depressing story, but it is far from that. It is certainly emotional and very sad in parts (where I always shed tears) but it is also inspiring and uplifting in others, and throughout it all runs the constant thread of Alden’s books, to bring non-Christians to Christ, and to renew and challenge Christians to live the gospel daily. This story is a marvellous study in familial relationships and blended families and how one mistake can be compounded over the years and cause so much trouble. But it also shows the power of forgiveness, love, and redemption. Bearing in mind that the language and some societal mores have changed over the intervening 130-odd years, the central family issues haven’t, and I recommend this book.
April 8, 2018
Never saw a book so similar to my marriage. I never read anything that captured my experience so well.
November 1, 2018
Judge Burnham had kept his two uncultured daughters hidden from the world where he lived and worked, until he married Ruth, who insisted he become a good father to the young teenagers. With her lovely sense of fashion she helped them to become sought after in society, but she neglected to train them in the care of their souls, demurring to her non-Christian husband's priorities. Many heartaches ensue, and painful lessons learned. First published in 1888. I listened to this as a free download from LibriVox.org by an superb reader.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews