Someone once asked Margaret Mitchell why she hadn't published a book after "Gone With the Wind."
"Because," she said, "being the author of 'Gone With the Wind' is a full-time job."
I suspect Hannah Whitall Smith knew the feeling.
In 1875, Smith published "The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life," a little volume that burned with conviction and sold like wildfire. When Smith died in 1911, her book had sold millions and almost as many pilgrims made their way to her door.
I first heard about Smith's book several years ago.
Last week, I took some time to read it.
I know now why the pilgrims came.
For a believer, "The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life" feels round, real, right and true. And so does the woman who wrote it. Hannah Whitall Smith knew the pathway to Christian happiness. The sad part is, during much of her life she was pushed from it.
Hannah Smith saw four of her children die in their youth. A fifth, a daughter, ran away and married the most famous atheist of the era, Bertrand Russell. Her husband, Robert Pearsall Smith, became internationally known as a minister and toured Europe. There, he became embroiled in several tawdry sexual scandals and returned to America in disgrace.
Illness often followed Hannah Whitall Smith.
So did ridicule.
And yet, throughout, she held firmly to her convictions. Like Moses, she always led others to the "promised land" but always seemed to be left outside herself. She helped millions taste the living water of Christian happiness but often went thirsty.
Toward the end of her life, after decades of heartache, she wrote a piece called "The Unselfishness of God." There, she said, "A great many things in God's dealings have been and still are mysteries to me, but I am sure they could all be explained on the basis of love and justice, if only I could look deep enough; and that someday I shall see, what now I firmly believe, that His loving kindness is really and truly over all His works."
It is easy to love Hannah Whitall Smith.
It is easier still to love the things she had to say.
While going through "The Christian's Secret" I found a gold mine, including this nugget:
"In all the ordinary forms of Christian life, service is apt to have more or less of bondage in it; that is, it is done purely as a matter of duty, and often as a trial and a cross. Certain things, which at first may have been a joy and a delight, become after awhile weary tasks, performed faithfully perhaps, but with much secret disinclination and many confessed or unconfessed wishes that they need not be done at all. The soul finds itself saying, instead of the 'May I?' of love, the 'Must I?' of duty."
The solution, she goes on to say, lies in surrender. The soul fully surrendered to God takes joy in doing everything for God.
In other words, those who have finally relinquished their own will no longer "do chores for Sister Larson" but do Sister Larson's chores for God. And that will always trigger joy.
In fact, that — in a nutshell — is the Christian's secret to a happy life. Hannah Whitall Smith understood that secret very well. She even shouted the secret from the rooftops.
But like the rest of us, she spent her life learning how to live it.
E-mail: jerjohn@desnews.com