In the Way (27 page)

             
Joseph looked at her a moment in amazement and alarm, and then it all came over him what she meant, and he saw himself in just the light he was.

             
“I am a fool and a blunderer,” he said, “and I must have been a boor. I ought to go down upon my knees and beg your pardon for that brutal speech I made in that long time ago. But you see, Ellen, I love you, though I don't seem to know how to tell you of it, and it
will
affect both my sister and my promise, for I couldn't possibly live and work unless you will work with me. Ellen, I believe in my heart I loved you then. I remember thinking it was queer I cared to go out of my way for you when I had never done such things before. I believe I loved you then and didn't know it. Can you forgive me? And will you love me just a little? Cannot we go out to some far land together and work for Him? You know we started the promise together, and we can surely work better if we help each other. Will you, Ellen?”

             
And Ellen answered, “Yes, I will.”

             
And the next day was the marriage of David Benedict and Louise Clifton.

DAVID and Louise were married and gone on a year's trip to the
Holy Land. It had been David's deep desire ever since he had been a Christian to wander over the places where the Master had trod, and Louise found that it was her desire as well. Indeed, she wanted nothing apart from what her husband wished.

             
Ruth was glad and sad together to see them depart. She was very happy over David's marriage, for she had come to love Louise dearly, and she saw they were well fitted for one another, but they were gone, and Joseph was still in college and was to go to the seminary, and she was alone in the great farmhouse. They had wanted her to go to Palestine with them, but she would not. She had a feeling that people who were just married needed to be by themselves for a while without any third person there to meddle, so that they might become adjusted to one another's ways of living and thinking. Moreover she loved her work in Summerton and could not be persuaded to leave it. Nevertheless, when she saw them depart she shed a few tears and wondered what the Lord would have of her now that she was again bereft of family and alone in the world.

             
What she did immediately was to ask a dear old lady who had been a mother in Israel to her ever since she came to Summerton, to come and live with her that winter, and so she made a pleasant home for one who was alone in the world and needed beauty and help and comfort, and who in turn was rich in Bible wisdom and good sound advice and a blessing to all who came near her. Her name was Mrs. Brown, just plain Mrs. Brown, but her face was a benediction in itself.

             
The minister closed and locked the parsonage door on the day after the wedding and started out on a walk by himself toward the country. His mother had left earlier in the morning for a visit to her sister near New York, and a rest to her soul after the various labors of persuading to wear this, and have that, and not do this or that fanatical thing. The one servant left to care for the minister was out, telling her most intimate friend about the wedding and all the extra work, and the house seemed usually desolate to the minister. His heart ached. He wanted something and he knew what it was he wanted. Was it any use to try? He had been reading the twenty-fourth chapter of Genesis, preparatory to his next Sunday's sermon. It had seemed to affect him strangely. He had taken a sudden determination. “I will ask the Lord to show me,” he said; “I will ask a sign of the Lord as the men of old did,” and he had knelt beside his study table and prayed long and then had gone out. And ever there came to him as he walked these words: “The Lord will send his angel with thee and will prosper thy way.”

             
Out beside the little wood road not far away from the Benedict place he saw her. She was picking flowers of ferns or some sweet growing thing, and he went to meet her. She smiled and held out her hand to him, and he thought, he was sure, there had been tears in her eyes. He asked her to walk with him and they went on into the woods and there they sat down upon a mossy log. “Is your name Rebecca?” he asked her, and then he told her all that was in his heart; how she had blessed him ever since he had first met her and how he had loved and feared to tell it because he felt sure his love was not returned; and now he had read the chapter and it had led him to seek a sign of the Lord, and he had come feeling that he would be led in some way and helped; and how he would like to take her back home to the parsonage as his wife just as soon as she would let him. And then he waited for an answer.

             
And Ruth looked up with glad tears shining in her sweet eyes and said, “I will go.”

             
As they rose to leave the woods that afternoon Robert Clifton quoted the text which had led him out to find her. “I being in the way, the Lord led me.” “It is strange,” he said, “how true that is. Every time when I have made up my mind to surrender my own way and follow what seemed to be pointed out as his way, I have been led to something great and sweet and beautiful, something that I wanted very much. And now at last it is you.”

             
And Ruth, looking into the eyes of the man she loved said, “That text is true of me also. I certainly have been led into brighter and better things than I ever dreamed. Let us take it for our life motto, '
I being in the way
, the Lord led me.' ”

             
As they came near to the house they heard through the open window the quavering voice of Mrs. Brown as she sang to herself a hymn that was dear to her and to them:

             
“His wisdom ever waketh,

             
              His sight is never dim,

             
He knows the way He taketh,

             
              And I will walk with him.”

Every once in awhile, a writer comes along who not only speaks to her own generation and to generations to come, but who also inspires and motivates her audience to become better, enhanced, more complete people. Grace Livingston Hill is one of those writers.

A pioneer in the inspirational literature movement, Grace Livingston Hill was born to a family of writers and arrived on earth already primed to take her place in the literary world. A Wellsville,
New York native, she was born in 1865 to Charles Montgomery Livingston, a Presbyterian minister, and his wife, Marcia Macdonald Livingston. Born the day after Abraham Lincoln died, Grace grew up in an unstable world, making her writings about redemption, strong young Christian women, and the triumph of good over evil even more inspiring, relevant, and heartening.

The America Grace Livingston Hill was born into was a volatile place, one that had just undergone a fierce and soul-shattering war and had witnessed the violent death of a beloved president. While Grace was raised far from the aftermath of the war and the action of Reconstruction,
Wellsville, New York, like everywhere in the country, could still feel the aftereffects of the war that had almost ruptured a nation. Thankfully, Grace grew up in a stable, loving Christian family, who was able to insulate her from the instability of postwar America. The family spent time in upstate New York and Florida, giving Grace a wide worldview in which to develop her eventual novels and short stories.

Grace was encouraged in her writing from the time she was very young. Her father and mother were both writers and both often published in Grace’s aunt’s publication, The Pansy. Grace’s mother, Marcia Macdonald Livingston, even wrote a few of her own books. Grace’s aunt, Isabella Macdonald Alden, was even more prolific. Besides The Pansy, Alden wrote many works of Christian literature, eventually publishing almost twice as many books as her famous young niece! Assorted other family members, from Grace’s cousins and uncles to her own children, also dabbled in the literary world. The Hill household was a very fruitful place for a young writer to nurture her talent, and her extended family cooperated and help Grace foster her burgeoning gift. When she was still a child, Grace was surprised by one of her aunts with a beautifully illustrated and bound copy of one of Grace’s stories, and it is said that this experience inspired Grace to continue with her writing and hone her skills.

Grace began publishing her works and receiving compensation in her early 20s. Some of her books were published under her nom de plume Marcia Macdonald, her mother’s maiden name. Grace’s novels frequently focused on young Christian female heroines, who related strong moral messages and helped to give order to a world that seemed more confusing and irreverent by the day. These writings were important in the late twentieth century, as this seemed to many to be a time in which old standbys and lifestyles were no longer guaranteed. Grace adored writing, but even her early works were not solely labors of love. Her first novel, A Chautauqua Idyll, was written to get money for a vacation for her family. Grace’s life and writing continued along this pattern; while she continued to write about subjects dear to her heart, writing became more and more of a financial necessity, especially as both she and her parents progressed in age.

In 1892, Grace married a young minister named Franklin Hill, with whom she had two daughters. The family relocated to
Pennsylvania, further widening Grace’s horizons, and her marriage allowed Grace to continually explore the message of God’s salvation through Jesus Christ and helped her to develop her own spirituality in an even deeper way. As she built a family of her own and raised her children, Grace continued to use her talents to evangelize and spread the message of Christianity through her ever-more popular writings. Her novels, short stories, and magazine articles were gobbled up by a spiritually hungry public longing for a message of stability and of good winning out over evil. The romantic element of her writing certainly didn’t hurt sales, either!

Toward the end of the twentieth century, tragedy struck; Grace’s husband, Frank, died in 1899, and her father passed away soon after in 1900. Suddenly, Grace’s writing became even more necessary to maintain the finances of she and those she held dear. Luckily, the public was ready and willing to consume the literature she was offering. Grace became increasingly prolific around the turn of the century, publishing nine books in the first decade of the twentieth century and three books in 1903 alone! Her immense popularity allowed her to keep publishing, and she was able to continually guide her readers towards her ultimate message: the importance of salvation through Jesus Christ. While she was winning the hearts and minds of readers, her books had a tremendous impact on the more economic side of the equation as well. Grace Livingston Hill almost single-handedly invented the modern Christian romance novel, fusing elements of real-world practicality and romance with a larger message of Christian spirituality, in the process creating an entirely new literary marketing genre.

Most of Grace Livingston Hill’s novels consist of a mixture of both spiritual and practical advice. Although her writings all contain either a Gospel subtext or an overt Christian message, most also feature young women striking out on their own and becoming independent. Grace’s novels not only provide religious guidance, but also offer counseling on more practical, down to earth activities like cooking, housekeeping, interior decorating, and even fashion! This blend of practicality and morality is what many believe led to her popularity; although for awhile, her publishers suggested she tone down the spiritual aspect of her writings, many readers were drawn in by the seeming realism and common sense of her more practical suggestions, only to be transformed by the underlying Gospel message of her novels.

Grace overcame the deaths of her husband and her father by marrying, in 1904, a church organist named Flavius Josephus Lutz, who was more than a decade her junior. This would be marked as a poor decision that marred her life. It soon became clear that F.J. Lutz was not exactly marriage material, and although they never divorced, Grace stopped using his name and they parted ways. Lutz left and never returned, leaving Grace free to pursue her original love of writing.

Grace used the unhappy marriage as fodder for another novel, Blue Ruin, and she continued on producing novels and short stories at a breathtaking clip. She outpaced herself in the second decade of the twentieth century, publishing an astounding 16 novels in the years between 1911 and 1919. This publishing rate reflected Grace’s colossal fame and popularity, among readers of both secular and Christian bents. In the 1920s, she set a new record for herself by publishing 20 books – an average of nearly two per year! Readers made their love for her stories clear, and Grace Livingston Hill continued to use events from her own life, from current events, and from her personal faith in Jesus Christ to inspire her to write more beloved stories and novels.

The 1930s were a time of great literary output for Grace. She used the backdrop of the Great Depression to construct stories of characters who were materially poor but spiritually rich, churning out over 40 books in that decade. Especially in such a time of great despair, people were in need of soothing words, of comfort, of reassurance in higher things, and Grace filled that gap with her depictions of noble, moral, upstanding Christian heroes and heroines. Following a tradition of providing timely and encouraging narratives in times of crisis, Grace soldiered on, making the Great Depression a little less bleak to her readers by imparting words of wisdom and offering stories of moral and spiritual uplift.

Her publishing rate did not slack as she reached the twilight of her life, for in the 1940s, the last decade of her life, Grace turned out nearly 20 new novels and books of short stories. She died in 1947, and two of her books were published posthumously – Mary Arden, a novel which her daughter, Ruth, finished, and Miss Lavinia’s Call, a short story collection. Grace’s memory lives on not only through her literature, but through her descendants. All four of her grandchildren followed a godly path and pursued careers in missionary work and pastoral leadership. 

Though she is no longer with us, Grace Livingston Hill continues to inspire a new generation of readers through the printed page and her immortal words. It is a rare writer indeed who can attract an entirely new readership over half a century after her death, but Grace Livingston Hill falls into that class of writers. Today, her works continue to be read, not only as beloved old favorites by those who grew up with her, but as new discoveries by readers young and old today. Her books remain in circulation for a new century to read her tales of good and evil, of sin and redemption, of the power and love of Jesus Christ. This trailblazer in Christian literature would probably prefer to be remembered as God’s instrument, rather than as a successful writer who received worldly fame. In the words of her youngest grandson, Munce, Grace Livingston Hill would probably want her life to be summed up with one simple phrase: “Thank you, God, for using me.”