P.—PRENTISS, ELIZABETH.
IN a volume of nearly six hundred pages, the husband of this gifted woman tells the story of her life, or rather he lets her tell it in extracts from her letters and journal. In the little space allotted me for a sketch of Mrs. Prentiss, I can only give you a few facts of her life. When you are older you must read this volume and learn more about her. She was the daughter of a clergyman, a highly gifted man, and one who was no less remarkable for his piety than for his learning, and after reading a sketch of Edward Payson, one is not surprised that the daughter of such a man should develop into a remarkable woman. Mrs. Prentiss was born at Portland, Maine, October 26, 1818. You would like to know about her as a child? She is described as “a beautiful child, slender, dark-eyed, light-footed, very quiet, evidently observant, saying little, affectionate, yet not demonstrative.”
She was devotedly attached to her father, and the impression which the teachings of his beautiful, godly life made upon her childish mind was never effaced. Though he died when she was only nine years old, her recollections of him are said to have been remarkably vivid.
She could tell how he looked and talked and acted, things he said and did. Once coming upon him suddenly she found him engaged in prayer, and so lost in communion with God that he did not become conscious of her presence; and she afterwards said that she never forgot the scene, neither did its influence upon her cease while she lived. She was never strong, having inherited a nervous temperament along with a feeble constitution. Once when she was grown to womanhood she said, “I never knew what it was to feel well.”
At the age of twelve years she was very ill with a fever, so ill that the family thought the hour had come when they must part with Elizabeth. But she was spared, perhaps in answer to the mother’s prayers, for that mother recorded in her journal the circumstance of her illness and restoration with a comment upon God’s goodness in sparing the child, wondering whether it might be to the end that she would one day devote herself to the Saviour and do something for the honor of religion. And in the spring of the following year, this child of many prayers, publicly confessed her faith in Christ, and was enrolled among his people.
She grew to girlhood developing a lovely Christian character, also showing a marked talent in composition. She contributed when quite young to the Youth’s Companion. As she passed on through her girlhood into womanhood she became her mother’s faithful friend and assistant, thoughtful for her comfort, and also a tender sympathizing friend towards her brothers.
I want to copy for you a little bit of verse which she wrote for the Youth’s Companion, which I think will please some of our little folks.
What are little babies for?
Say! say! say!
Are they good-for-nothing things?
Nay! nay! nay!
Can they speak a single word?
Say! say! say!
Can they help their mother’s sew?
Nay! nay! nay!
Can they walk upon their feet?
Say! say! say!
Can they even hold themselves?
Nay! nay! nay!
What are little babies for?
Say! say! say!
Are they made for us to love?
Yea! yea! YEA!!!
A friend says of her: “Human nature seems to have been her favorite study. There seemed to be no one in whom she could not find something to interest her, none with whom there was not some point of sympathy.”