The
subject is now on trial at the bar of a civilized world--a Christian
world! and I feel sure that God has not ordered this without a design.
Yours for the cause,
HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.
In December the Earl of Shaftesbury wrote to Mrs. Stowe:--
MADAM,-It is very possible that the writer of this letter may be
wholly unknown to you. But whether my name be familiar to your ears,
or whether you now read it for the first time, I cannot refrain from
expressing to you the deep gratitude that I feel to Almighty God who
has inspired both your heart and your head in the composition of
"Uncle Tom's Cabin." None but a Christian believer could have produced
such a book as yours, which has absolutely startled the whole world,
and impressed many thousands by revelations of cruelty and sin that
give us an idea of what would be the uncontrolled dominion of Satan on
this fallen earth.
To this letter Mrs. Stowe replied as follows:--
ANDOVER, _January_ 6, 1853.
To THE EARL OF SHAFTESBURY:
_My Lord_,-The few lines I have received from you are a comfort
and an encouragement to me, feeble as I now am in health, and pressed
oftentimes with sorrowful thoughts.
It is a comfort to know that in other lands there are those who feel
as we feel, and who are looking with simplicity to the gospel of
Jesus, and prayerfully hoping his final coming.
My lord, before you wrote me I read with deep emotion your letter to
the ladies of England, and subsequently the noble address of the
Duchess of Sutherland, and I could not but feel that such movements,
originating in such a quarter, prompted by a spirit so devout and
benevolent, were truly of God, and must result in a blessing to the
world.
Pages:
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201