N.—NEWELL, HARRIET ATWOOD.
UPON the platform in Tremont Temple, Boston, at the meeting of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions, last October, there was placed a little mahogany table, old-fashioned in form and dark with age. It was an object of great interest from the fact that around that small table, three feet by two—or, when the leaves were spread, three by five—there sat, seventy-five years ago, the five men who formed the American Board at that date. The first meeting held in the parlor of the little parsonage in Farmington, Ct., was a small beginning, and who could have guessed that Tremont Temple, Music Hall, and one or two churches would have been filled to overflowing by the crowds that would come to the seventy-fifth anniversary! We who live in this missionary age cannot realize the weight of that undertaking, nor can we who are saying farewell to friends and acquaintances who go out in fast-sailing steam ships with many a comfort and convenience unknown in those days, and in comparative safety, realize what it meant to those five young men and their wives who were the first sent out by the newly-formed board, to bid adieu to home and friends with scarce a hope of ever returning to their native land. Rev. Samuel J. Newell was one of the five, and the subject of this sketch was his devoted young wife. Harriet Newell was the first woman who went out to India as a missionary. She was scarcely beyond girlhood, only eighteen years old when she said good-by to her widowed mother and went out to tell the people of India about the Friend who waited to receive them.
Mrs. Newell's early home was at Haverhill, Mass. She was educated at Bradford Academy. It was while she was at school that she determined to consecrate her life to the service of Christ, though I do not gather from any account of her life that she had at that time any thoughts of becoming a missionary. Her letters written at that early period evince a rare thoughtfulness and uncommon maturity of mind. Indeed, it would seem that she early put away childish things. Neither have we any account of her having any of the good times of girlhood; yet I suppose she was not altogether unlike other girls, but we have only the story of her inner life. She has told us in her journal of her conflicts with sin and of her victories; we can see the rapid development of her Christian character, from the time she first engaged in the service of God to the hour when she "consecrated herself to the establishment of the kingdom of Christ in Pagan lands. To this great and glorious object all her thoughts and studies, her desires and prayers tended. It was only with a view to this that she considered her talents and acquirements of any special importance."
Mrs. Newell exhibited in her short life great force and decision of character. When, after earnest deliberation, mingled with prayer for wisdom, the question of duty had been settled, she moved forward without hesitation. Let me give you the words of one who knew her well:
"The character of Mrs. Newell had an excellence above the reach of mere human nature; behold her, united to friends and country by a thousand ties, a woman of refined education, with delightful prospects in her own country, resigning all for a distant Pagan land; all these sacrifices she made calmly, with a sober deliberation, with steady, unyielding firmness, and this not for wealth, or fame, or any earthly object, but to make known among the heathen the unsearchable riches of Christ."
And now what will you say when I tell you that this remarkable woman, remarkable for her talents, her personal gifts, remarkable for her Christian development, was to meet with disappointment at the outset and was to be denied the privilege of engaging in the work for which she had left home and friends. They were ordered away from India by the government and decided to attempt to establish a mission upon the Isle of France. Nearly a year from the time of leaving America they reached this place, having spent nearly all that time on ship-board. It would seem that now their troubles might be at an end; and so Mrs. Newell's were. For in about three weeks after they landed she was called to go to her mansion above. At nineteen her work was finished—finished, as it seemed, before it was fairly begun! Yet her example of devotion, of fortitude, of love for the cause, her submission and patience under trial may have accomplished far more than she living could have done. When the news of her triumphant death came to America, other noble-hearted, earnest women were found ready to take the place of this first woman of our land who was ready to give her life to the people of India. To-day, after seventy-five years, scores are in the field, more waiting to be sent, and I know not how many among the Pansy readers getting ready for the Master's work in foreign lands. God grant that there may be many such!
F. H.
