The Key Teachings of Hannah Whitall Smith

This is not a book by Hannah Whitall Smith. It is a companion to her — an independent work of exposition and appreciation, written by Ochorus, that gathers the heart of her teaching into fourteen short chapters for the ordinary reader, with an account of her life, a conclusion, and a guide to her books.

Her teaching has a single thread. The Christian life, she insisted, is not a struggle to manage ourselves into holiness but a handing over of ourselves to God, who alone can do the work; and that handing over is only as sound as the God we hand ourselves to. So her early writing on consecration, faith and the will leads, in her later books, to the character of God Himself: the Shepherd, the Father with a mother’s heart, the God of all comfort, the God who is enough. This volume follows that thread, weighs honestly the places where she must be read with care, and ends each chapter with a few questions and a prayer.

Hannah Whitall Smith’s own writings are in the public domain and freely available, and every chapter here names the book it draws on so that the reader can go to the source. This companion is offered only to open the door to her. Scripture is quoted from the Authorised (King James) Version, and nothing here claims to stand in for her own plain, cheerful and searching pages.