Eliza Edmunds Hewitt – death, Apr. 24, 1920

There is sunshine in my soul today,
More glorious and bright
Than glows in any earthly sky,
For Jesus is my Light.

Refrain

O there’s sunshine, blessèd sunshine,
When the peaceful, happy moments roll;
When Jesus shows His smiling face,
There is sunshine in the soul.

There is music in my soul today,
A carol to my King,
And Jesus, listening, can hear
The songs I cannot sing.

There is springtime in my soul today,
For, when the Lord is near,
The dove of peace sings in my heart,
The flowers of grace appear.

There is gladness in my soul today,
And hope and praise and love,
For blessings which He gives me now,
For joys “laid up” above.

Eliza Edmunds Hewitt died this date, 4/24/1920, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  This cousin of writer Edgar Page Stites, authored some 50 songs including “Stepping in the Light,” “Give Me Thy Heart,” “When We All Get to Heaven,” “More About Jesus,” “My Faith Has Found a Resting Place,” “Singing I Go,” “Under the Blood.”

Eliza graduated valedictorian and became teacher and a Sunday School teacher.  This life of teaching was shortened by a spine problem.  She had only a partial recovery.  She was became a regular contributor to Sunday-school Helps.  She was born6/28/1851,Philadelphia,Pennsylvania.

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Eliza Edmunds Hewitt – death, Apr. 24, 1920

Sing the wondrous love of Jesus,
Sing His mercy and His grace.
In the mansions bright and blessèd
He’ll prepare for us a place.

Refrain

When we all get to Heaven,
What a day of rejoicing that will be!
When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory!

While we walk the pilgrim pathway,
Clouds will overspread the sky;
But when traveling days are over,
Not a shadow, not a sigh.

Let us then be true and faithful,
Trusting, serving every day;
Just one glimpse of Him in glory
Will the toils of life repay.

Onward to the prize before us!
Soon His beauty we’ll behold;
Soon the pearly gates will open;
We shall tread the streets of gold.

Eliza Edmunds Hewitt died this date, 4/24/1920, at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  She was a Presbyterian Sunday School teacher who authored at least fifty songs among which are: “There Is Sunshine in My Soul Today,” “Stepping in the Light,” “Give Me Thy Heart,” “More About Jesus,” “My Faith Has Found a Resting Place,” “Singing I Go,” “Under the Blood.”  She was also a regular contributor to Sunday-school Helps.

After graduation from school (valedictorian) Eliza began teaching. However, her career was cut short by a serious spinal problem. She partially recovered, but was an invalid most of her life. She then turned to hymn writing, which ran in the family. Her cousin was hymnist Edgar Page Stites.

Eliza was born 6/28/1851, in Philadelphia and lived all her life in there.

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Hannah Whitall Smith – birth, Feb. 7, 1832

The lump of clay, from the moment it comes under the transforming hand of the potter, is, during each day and each hour of the process, just what the potter wants it to be at that hour or on that day, and therefore pleases him. But it is very far from being matured into the vessel he intends in the future to make it.

            – Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life (Westwood, NJ:                                Fleming Revell Co., 1952), 33.

Hannah Whitall Smith was born this date, 2/7/1832, at Philadelphia, PA.  She was a daughter of well-to-do Quaker parents.  After she married Robert Piersall Smith they converted to the group called Plymouth Brethren.  They were said to have a “new experience” (1867) and began a speaking tour of the United States and Europe. Their “Higher Christian Life” meetings in England were popular.  In 1875 she published, The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life a book which has been printed in several languages.

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William Pitt, Earl of Charham – birth, Nov. 15, 1708

If obliged to differ…do I with all possible candor, and an unprejudiced desire to find and ascertain truth, with an entire indifference to the side on which truth is found.

                – William Pitt, “General Advice to Youthful Student,” in A Compendium of English Literature, ed.                    Charles D. Cleveland (Philadelphia: E.C.& J.Biddle, 1851), 642.

If you are not right towards God, you can never be so towards man.

                – William Pitt, “General Advice to Youthful Student,” in A Compendium of English Literature, ed.                    Charles D. Cleveland (Philadelphia: E.C.& J.Biddle, 1851), 642.

“Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth,” is big with the deepest wisdom: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and an upright heart, that is understanding.  There is eternally true, whether the wits and rakes of Cambridge allow it or not…

                – William Pitt, “General Advice to Youthful Student,” in A Compendium of English Literature, ed.                    Charles D. Cleveland (Philadelphia: E.C.& J.Biddle, 1851), 643.

Cherish true religion.  Remember the essence of religion is, a heart void of offense towards God and man…

                – William Pitt, “General Advice to Youthful Student,” in A Compendium of English Literature, ed.                    Charles D. Cleveland (Philadelphia: E.C.& J.Biddle, 1851), 643.

William Pitt, Earl of Charham, was born this date, 11/15/1708, Westminster, England.  He is said to have placated no magnates and to have refused all bribes yet under his influence England became the most powerful country on the globe.  The source mentioned above states about Pitt “He never hesitated to rebuke, in severest terms, his own country, when he saw she was in the way of wrong doing.”

The quotes above are from a letter to his nephew penned at Bath, January 14, 1754.  Pitt died May 11, 1778, at Hayes, Kent.

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William Penn – arrived in America, Oct. 27, 1682

…He that covets can no more be a moral man than he that steals; since he does so in this mind.  Nor can he be one that robs his neighbor of his credit, or that craftily undermines him of his trade, or office.

                – William Penn, Fruits of Solitude in Reflections and Maxims (Philadelphia: Benjamin Johnson, 1792), 107. 

 William Penn on this date, 10/27/1682, arrived in America.  He was an English Quaker, a colonist, and the founder of Pennsylvania (which he named after his father).  He wrote “No Cross, no Crown; a Discourse showing the Nature & Discipline of the Holy Cross of Christ” (1688).

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Johann Lorenz von Mosheim – birth, Oct. 9, 1693

…Vigilantius…denied that the tombs and the bones of the martyrs were to be honored…maintained that prayers addressed to departed saints were void of all efficacy; and treated with contempt fasting and mortifications, the celibacy of clergy…

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 49.

 

…imperfect mortals…are much more disposed to worship with the eye than with the heart…

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 53.

 

The doctrine of Augustine, who was of opinion that, in the work of conversion and sanctification, all was to be attributed to a divine energy, and nothing to human agency, had many followers in all ages of the church; though his disciples have never been entirely agreed about the manner of explaining what he taught upon that head.

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 89.

 

The terror of Mahomet’s arms…persuaded such multitudes to embrace his religion…his law was artfully and marvelously adapted to the corrupt nature of man.

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 157.

 

It is highly probable that the Valdenses, or Vaudois [Waldenses] had already, in this century [Cent. VII] retired into the vallies [sic] of Piedmont, that they might be more at liberty to oppose the tyranny of those imperious prelates.

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 167.

 

The clergy…were distinguished by their luxury, their gluttony, and their lust; they gave themselves up to dissipation of various kinds, to the pleasures of hunting and what was still more remote from their sacred character, to military studies and enterprises.

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 214.

 

This horrid opinion [that excommunication included loosing the “claims and privileges of humanity”] which was a fatal source of wars, massacres, and rebellions…was borrowed by…the clergy, from the pagan superstitions.

                – Mosheim, John Lawrence, Ecclesiastical History, vol. II (Philadelphia: Stephen Ustick, 1798), 221.

 

Johann (John) Lorenz von Mosheim was born this date, 10/9/1693 (or 1694), at Lubeck, Germany.  He was a highly esteemed Lutheran, Church historian. In 1747 he was made chancellor of the University of Göttingen.  He wrote An Ecclesiastical History.  Johann Mosheim died 9/9/1755.

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William Penn – imprisoned, Sep. 3, 1667

The truest end of life is to know that life never ends.

                – William Penn, Reflections and Maxims (Philadelphia: Benjamin Johnson, 1792), 94.

 

If I am even with my enemy, the debt is paid; but if I forgive it I oblige him forever. 

                – William Penn, Reflections and Maxims (Philadelphia: Benjamin Johnson, 1792), 103.

 

Truth has never lost ground by inquiry.

                – William Penn, Reflections and Maxims (Philadelphia: Benjamin Johnson, 1792), 137.

 

William Penn on this date, 9/3/1667, was imprisoned for faith 1667.  His principal and perhaps most popular theological work was No Cross, no Crown; a Discourse showing the Nature & Discipline of the Holy Cross of Christ

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Joseph John Gurney – birth, Aug. 2, 1788

…Beloved friends, the professing church of Christ stands in need of greater purification than it has yet attained to…there are many spots on her garments; she is defiled by the dust of the earth; and her garments are very much tattered. But when the professing church of Christ under every name, comes under the baptizing influence of the Holy Ghost, and comes to be led and guided in all things, by the uncompromising principle of life and light, then she will arise and shake her garments from the dust, then she will appear in her beauty, and there shall no more pass through her borders, the uncircumcised and the unclean.

            – From Sermon by Joseph John Gurney, North Meeting-house, New Street (Philadelphia) First-day                Afternoon, Second Month, Eighteenth, 1838.    Hopper, Edward. Sermons and Prayers Delivered in the      City of Philadelphia by Joseph John Gurney. Philadelphia: Kay & Brother, 1938.

…The guidance of the Spirit of truth, which leads into all truth and into all virtue, will never lead any man, either in opinion or practice to any thing which is Contrary to Holy Scripture.

            – From Sermon by Joseph John Gurney, North Meeting-house, New Street (Philadelphia) First-day                Afternoon, Second Month, Eighteenth, 1838.    Hopper, Edward. Sermons and Prayers Delivered in the      City of Philadelphia by Joseph John Gurney. Philadelphia: Kay & Brother, 1938.

…The Spirit of truth can never by any possibility contradict itself.

            – From Sermon by Joseph John Gurney, North Meeting-house, New Street (Philadelphia) First-day                Afternoon, Second Month, Eighteenth, 1838.    Hopper, Edward. Sermons and Prayers Delivered in the      City of Philadelphia by Joseph John Gurney. Philadelphia: Kay & Brother, 1938.

…The true reason, I believe, why so many who profess the name of Christ, are unwilling to be guided by the unflattering and uncompromising voice of the Spirit of God, which dictates a straight-forward course of unbending holiness, without turning to the right hand or to the left; they are displeased at the cross; they cannot bear the mortification of their heart’s lusts; the world, the world is their God; self is their idol; and they will not renounce the world; they will not renounce self, and walk in the narrow way.

            – From Sermon by Joseph John Gurney, North Meeting-house, New Street (Philadelphia) First-day                Afternoon, Second Month, Eighteenth, 1838.    Hopper, Edward. Sermons and Prayers Delivered in the      City of Philadelphia by Joseph John Gurney. Philadelphia: Kay & Brother, 1938.

 

…Though it is a narrow way, it is a way of peace.

            – From Sermon by Joseph John Gurney, North Meeting-house, New Street (Philadelphia) First-day                Afternoon, Second Month, Eighteenth, 1838.    Hopper, Edward. Sermons and Prayers Delivered in the      City of Philadelphia by Joseph John Gurney. Philadelphia: Kay & Brother, 1938.

 

We must follow him in the path of self-denial; we must follow him in his walk of holiness; we must follow him in his course of ever -abounding charity; we must, though at an immeasurable distance, imitate his patience, his meekness, his forbearance, his subjection to his Father’s will, his love for his enemies…if we would follow him and partake of his glory in the world of spirits.

            – From Sermon by Joseph John Gurney, North Meeting-house, New Street (Philadelphia) First-day                Afternoon, Second Month, Eighteenth, 1838.    Hopper, Edward. Sermons and Prayers Delivered in the      City of Philadelphia by Joseph John Gurney. Philadelphia: Kay & Brother, 1938. 

Joseph John Gurney was born 8/2/1788.

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Charles Albert Tindley – birth, Jul 7, 1851

When the storms of life are raging,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When the storms of life are raging,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When the world is tossing me
Like a ship upon the sea
Thou Who rulest wind and water,
Stand by me (stand by me).

In the midst of tribulation,
Stand by me (stand by me);
In the midst of tribulation,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When the hosts of hell assail,
And my strength begins to fail,
Thou Who never lost a battle,
Stand by me (stand by me).

In the midst of faults and failures,
Stand by me (stand by me);
In the midst of faults and failures,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When I do the best I can,
And my friends misunderstand,
Thou Who knowest all about me,
Stand by me (stand by me).

In the midst of persecution,
Stand by me (stand by me);
In the midst of persecution,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When my foes in battle array
Undertake to stop my way,
Thou Who savèd Paul and Silas,
Stand by me (stand by me).

When I’m growing old and feeble,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When I’m growing old and feeble,
Stand by me (stand by me);
When my life becomes a burden,
And I’m nearing chilly Jordan,
O Thou “Lily of the Valley,”
Stand by me (stand by me).

Charles Albert Tindley was born this date, 7/7/1851 at Berlin, Maryland.  He was born into slavery but rose above it to pastor a large Methodist church in Philadelphia.  He also wrote “Nothing Between” “Leave It There” and “By and By.”  Tindlay died 7/26/1933.

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Rosalind Goforth – birth, May 6, 1864

Does…unanswered prayer shake my faith in God’s willingness and power to answer prayer?  No, no!  My own child might just as reasonably decide to never again come to me with a request because I have, in my superior wisdom, denied a petition.

  – Rosalind Goforth, How I Know God Answers Prayer (Philadelphia: Sunday School Times Co.,1921), 40.

 

We found that these people – the whole village – were Mohammedans, and had taken no part in the attack.

                – Rosalind Goforth, How I Know God Answers Prayer (Philadelphia: Sunday School Times Co.,1921), 56.

 

I came to seek very definitely for the fullness of the Holy Spirit…I learned then what “paying the price” meant.

                – Rosalind Goforth, How I Know God Answers Prayer (Philadelphia: Sunday School Times Co.,1921), 134.

 

I quietly but definitely accepted Christ as my Saviour from the power of sin as I had so long before accepted him as my Saviour fom the penalty of sin.

                – Rosalind Goforth, How I Know God Answers Prayer (Philadelphia: Sunday School Times Co.,1921), 136.

 

Florence Rosalind Bellsmith Goforth was born this date (5/6/1864) at  Kensington Gardens, London.  When she was three she moved with her parents to Canada. She was converted to Christ at twelve.  On Oct. 27, 1887 she became Mrs. Jonathan Goforth.  The two served China for many years.

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