Forgotten Voices: Recovering the Voices of Nineteenth-Century Canadian Women Interpreters of the Old Testament

Kathleen Christie Buligan

A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of Wycliffe College and the Graduate Centre for Theological Studies of the Toronto School of Theology. In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Theology awarded by Wycliffe College and the University of Toronto

Kathleen Christie Buligan

Doctor of Theology

Wycliffe College and the University of Toronto

2019

Abstract

This dissertation adds to the work of recovering the voices of pre-twentieth-century women interpreters of Scripture. It lists forty-four nineteenth-century Canadian women interpreters of the

Old Testament, and then introduces and analyzes selected works by nine of these women.

Chapter one describes the ongoing work of recovering forgotten women interpreters of

Scripture, and states my purpose of adding the missing voices of nineteenth-century Canadian women. It also includes a brief analysis of factors that impacted where, how, and for whom

Canadian women wrote and published their interpretations: the influence of predecessors and contemporaries from the British Isles and America; nineteenth-century Canadian demographics; educational barriers and opportunities; publishing challenges; and the cult of domesticity.

The heart of the thesis introduces nine nineteenth-century Canadian women interpreters of the Old

Testament: dramatist Eliza Lanesford Cushing; poets Isabella Whiteford Rogerson, Harriet Annie

Wilkins, and Helen Mar Johnson; historical interpreters Mary L.T. Witter and A Lady of New

Brunswick; Sunday school teachers Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Leonard; and temperance advocate

Letitia Youmans.

It shows that these educated women of deep biblical knowledge used a variety of genres to teach their varied audiences about the Bible and its relevance in their lives. They highlighted themes of God’s transcendence, immanence, and provision, and the necessity of living a godly life. They incorporated a variety of extra-biblical resources such as Bible commentaries, atlases, and dictionaries, and archeological research to enhance their interpretations.

This examination of the lives and writings of select nineteenth-century Canadian women interpreters of the Old Testament represents a valuable chapter in the ongoing recovery of women’s interpretive voices and suggests the need for further research into this understudied subject.

iii

Table of Contents

List of Abbreviations ...... v List of Tables ...... vii List of Appendices ...... viii Introduction ...... 1 Chapter 1: Setting the Stage for an Analysis of Select Writings by Nineteenth-Century Canadian Women Interpreters of the Bible ...... 1:1 The State of the Question ...... 5 1:2 Women Interpreters from the British Isles and America ...... 13 1:3 Nineteenth-Century Canadian Demographics ...... 21 1:4 Educational Barriers and Opportunities ...... 25 1:5 Publishing Challenges ...... 33 1:6 The Cult of Domesticity ...... 43 Chapter 2: Nineteenth-Century Sacred Drama ...... 2:1 Eliza Lanesford Cushing (E.L.C.) ...... 55 Chapter 3: Nineteenth-Century Sacred Poetry ...... 80 3:1 Isabella Whiteford Rogerson ...... 80 3:2 Harriet Annie Wilkins ...... 95 3:3 Helen Mar Johnson ...... 111 Chapter 4: Nineteenth-Century Sacred Prose: Archaeology, Geography, and History ...... 129 4:1 Mary L. T. Witter ...... 126 4:2 A Lady of New Brunswick (A.L.O.N.B.) ...... 142 Chapter 5: Nineteenth-Century Sunday School Lessons ...... 154 5:1 Mrs. James C. Thompson ...... 154 5:2 Mrs. Leonard ...... 165 Chapter 6: The Bible and the Temperance Movement ...... 6:1 Mrs. Letitia Youmans ...... 176 Chapter 7: Summary and Implications ...... 190 Tables ...... 195 Bibliography ...... 199 Appendix A Canadian Women Interpreters of the Old Testament ...... 221 iv

Abbreviations

Old Testament

Full Name Traditional Abbreviation

1 Chronicles 1 Chron. 2 Chronicles 2 Chron. Daniel Dan. Deuteronomy Deut. Ecclesiastes Eccles. Esther Esther Exodus Exod. Ezekiel Ezek. Genesis Gen. Habakkuk Hab. Haggai Hag. Hosea Hosea Isaiah Isa. Jeremiah Jer. Job Job Jonah Jon. Joshua Josh. Judges Judg. 1 Kings 1 Kings 2 Kings 2 Kings Leviticus Lev. Malachi Mal. Nehemiah Neh. Numbers Num. Obadiah Obad. Proverbs Prov. Psalms Ps. or Pss. Ruth Ruth 1 Samuel 1 Sam. 2 Samuel 2 Sam. Zechariah Zech.

Apocrypha

Full Name Traditional Abbreviation Judith Judith

New Testament

Full Name Traditional Abbreviation John John Mark Mark Matthew Matt.

A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations, 9th ed., 2018, sections 24.6. 1- 4

List of Tables

Table A: Population Statistics for Nineteenth-Century Canada …………………………………..195

Table B: Population Density in Nineteenth-Century Canada …………………………………….196

Table C:The Spread of Newspapers from East to West …………………………………………..197

Table D:The Growth of Publication Infrastructure ……………………………………………….198

vii

List of Appendices

Appendix A: Nineteenth-Century Canadian Women Old Testament Interpreters ………………..205

viii

Introduction

In the introduction to the Handbook of Women Biblical Interpreters (2012), Marion Taylor asks the question “Are There Women Interpreters?”1 She explains how standard histories of the interpretation of the Bible provide little help in trying to find women interpreters of Scripture because they focus “on the history of biblical scholarship, highlighting the lives and work of the most significant and authoritative voices of the academy, church, and synagogue.”2 However, a number of scholars involved in the arduous task of recovering the forgotten interpretive work of women have unearthed the writings of hundreds of pre-twentieth-century women. Although there is now a clear ‘yes’ in answer to the question of whether there are women interpreters of the Bible, it is also clear that the recovery work is not yet complete. Missing from the recovered collection of the voices of nineteenth-century women who published their interpretations of the Bible are the voices of Canadian women.

This thesis attempts to fill in this lacuna. It will provide the first list of nineteenth-century

Canadian women interpreters of the Bible that, while not comprehensive, is nevertheless impressive in size given the population numbers and the constraints faced by Canadian women in the nineteenth century. It will analyze the writings of representative women who published their interpretations of the Old Testament using varied genres. It will show that Canadian women like their British and American counterparts most often wrote to teach others.3

1 Marion Ann Taylor, “Introduction,” Handbook of Women Biblical Interpreters, ed. Marion Ann Taylor and Agnes Choi (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2012), 1. 2 Ibid., 2. 3 Three factors account for my focus on Canadian women interpreters of the Old Testament: my major in Old Testament studies; my interest in recovering the voices of Canadian women; my background as an educator.

It will demonstrate that Canadian women like their British and American counterparts pushed boundaries as they faced the gender limitations associated with prevailing conceptions of womanhood. They wrote and published, teaching with their pens. They were confident in their biblical knowledge and confident in their right to make that knowledge known. In the words of

Páraic Finnerty these women were “fulfilling their civic duties and roles as society’s guardians, educators and arbitrators of social and moral improvement.”4

I have chosen a hybrid style to introduce these Canadian women. Some material, notably population and publication data, and the list of women and their Old Testament publications in

Appendix A, is quantitative. Other material is qualitative, in that it examines the qualities or factors that impacted the ability of nineteenth-century Canadian women to publish and to have their Old

Testament interpretations recognized. In the heart of the thesis, chapters two through six, I will examine the writings of nine Canadian women who published on subjects related to the Old

Testament.

Chapter one will set the context for the recovery of the interpretive voices of Canadian women. Section 1:1 will set out the state of the question by providing a brief overview of the history of scholarship on women interpreters of the Bible before the twentieth century, highlighting the recovery of nineteenth-century interpreters in Britain and America, and noting the gradual development in the recovery of the literary and interpretive voices of Canadian women. Section 1:2 will give representative examples of the biblical interpretations of British and American women to provide a backdrop for the writing of Canadian women.

4 Páraic Finnerty, “The Poetics of Sisterly Celebrity: Sarah Hale, British Women Poets and the Gift of Transatlantic Fame,” Journal of Comparative American Studies, Vol. 14, No.1 (Sept.9, 2016):14.

Section 1:3 will consider the issue of Canada’s sparse and spread-out population and its impact on the availability of higher education and publishing infrastructure. Section 1:4 will focus specifically on the challenge Canadian women experienced in accessing higher education, while section 1:5 will deal with publishing challenges, particularly the challenge of finding and identifying women interpreters. Section 1:6 will deal with nineteenth-century views of women’s nature and women’s roles, especially the “cult of domesticity,”5 as prevailing conceptions of womanhood impacted women’s lives at every turn, including their access to higher education, their approaches to interpreting Scripture, and their challenges in getting their work published.

Chapters two through six will focus on nine of the nineteenth-century Canadian women interpreters of the Old Testament listed in Appendix A. These popular and prolific authors, using the genres of drama, poetry, or prose sought to teach and inform a wide variety of readers–children, youth, women, and mixed audiences– about the Old Testament as a whole and its value in their lives. While some biographical information will be included on each woman, greater attention will be given to analyzing their biblical interpretations, and their hermeneutics. Attention will also be given to their use of the popular voice and their purpose in writing. The question of gendered exegesis will be raised.6

Two other considerations will be important in the analysis of the interpretations of nineteenth-century Canadian women. Like almost all other English speaking Christians before the publication of the Revised Version (1885), the authors featured in this thesis read and interpreted the received King James Version of the Bible, which they regarded as the authoritative,

5 Barbara Welter, “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860,” American Quarterly, Volume 18, Issue 2, Part 1 (Summer, 1966): 151-174. 6 The term gendered exegesis relates to whether and how nineteenth-century Canadian women interpreted the Bible with “a women-sensitive alternative to rational biblical criticism.” Marion Ann Taylor, “Introduction,” Women in the Story of Jesus, ed. Marion Ann Taylor and Heather E. Weir (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016), 11.

4 inspired word of God.7 Secondly, it is important to keep in mind that while these women pushed nineteenth-century boundaries by writing and publishing their interpretations of Scripture, they read, interpreted, and wrote within the context of their nineteenth-century situation.8

Chapter two will deal with biblical dramas written by Eliza Lanesford Cushing. Chapter three will focus on the biblical poetry of Isabella Whiteford Rogerson, Harriet Annie Wilkins, and

Helen Mar Johnson. Chapter four will feature prose by Mary L.T. Witter and A Lady of New

Brunswick (A.L.O.N.B.) that focussed on Old Testament history, geography, and archaeology.

Chapter five will feature the prose Sunday school lessons of Mrs. James C. Thompson and Mrs.

Leonard. Chapter six will focus on Old Testament interpretations embedded in prose writings as showcased in the autobiography of temperance advocate Mrs. Letitia Youmans.

Chapter seven will draw together the preceding sections and explore the implications of the findings. It will confirm that there are Canadian women of the nineteenth century who published their interpretations of the Old Testament to teach others, and that their work should not only be included in the history of Canadian biblical studies in the nineteenth- century, but also be given a place in the history of women interpreters of the Bible.

7 All of the biblical references and quotations used in this thesis will be from the King James Version. 8 Mary L.T. Witter, one of the nine women whose interpretations will be analyzed in Section Two, offered this reading perspective. In her introduction to her history of the kings of Judah and Israel she reminded readers “that political and social institutions were, too, very different then from what they are now.” Mary L.T. Witter, A Book for the Young: Being A History Of The Kings Who Ruled Over God’s Ancient People, From The Death Of Solomon Till The Babylonish Captivity (Halifax, N.S.: A & W. Mackinley, 1870), viii.

Chapter 1

Setting the Stage for an Analysis of Select Writings by Nineteenth-Century Canadian Women Interpreters of the Bible

1:1 The State of the Question

Much work has already been done to recover the voices of pre-twentieth century women interpreters of the Bible, voices that have often “disappeared from historical memory.”9 This section will provide a brief overview of the history of scholarship on women’s interpretation of

Scripture.

In her ground-breaking work, The Origins of Patriarchy (1986), Gerda Lerner goes back to the very roots of recorded history to recover the names and accomplishments of women. She celebrates such women as the Princess and High Priestess Enkhaduanna (2285-2250 BCE), the

“first known woman poet in history,” who wrote psalms of praise to the goddess Inanna.10

Historian Norman Cantor included a few outstanding women such as Mechthild of Magdeborg in his 1994 anthology of medieval scholars, theologians, and interpreters.11 In her 2001 book

Forgotten Desert Mothers, Laura Swan, noting that “early church histories frequently made brief mention of women,”12 recovers the identities and contributions of over eighty outstanding early church women theologians and interpreters such as Marcella, who was remembered as a woman “known for her detailed biblical exegesis” and as one who

9 Catherine A. Brekus, Female Preaching in Early Nineteenth-Century America (Waco, Texas: The Center for Christian Ethics Baylor University, 2009), 21. 10 Gerda Lerner, The Origins of Patriarchy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 60. 11 Cantor cites Mechthild’s reflection “On The Tenfold Value of the Prayer of a Good Person” and acknowledges the importance of “well-meaning and pious” women like Mechthild who sought avenues of expression for their faith. Norman Cantor, The Medieval Reader (New York: Harper Perennial, 1994), 241. 12 Laura Swan, The Forgotten Desert Mothers (New York: Paulist Press, 2001), 3.

“debated significant points of Scripture with Jerome.”13 Elizabeth Dreyer, in her 2014 book,

Accidental Theologians, celebrates the contributions of four outstanding women interpreters:

Hildegard of Bingen, Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Avila and Thérèse of Lisieux, all of whom were declared doctors of the Roman Catholic Church. At the same time she acknowledges that there is

“much work left to be done to learn about, experience, and absorb the experience of God from women’s perspectives.”14

Biblical scholars were late in joining their colleagues in other disciplines in recovering and analyzing the forgotten writings of women. In 1992, English scholar Patricia Demers published

Women as Interpreters of the Bible, the first book that focussed on women interpreters of the Bible.

Demers highlights the rich variety of interpretations of Scripture by Western European and

American women from the tenth to the twentieth century.15 Marion Taylor spearheaded a research project that focussed particularly on recovering the forgotten voices of nineteenth-century women that led to the publication of three anthologies: the first, Let Her Speak For Herself (2006), featured fifty women who published on the women of Genesis; the second, Women of War Women of Woe

(2016), focussed on thirty-four women who published on the women in Joshua and Judges; the third, Women in the Story of Jesus (2016), excerpted the writings of thirty-one women who published their interpretations of women in Jesus’ life.

13 Ibid., 136. 14 This recovery of women’s voices, as Dreyer notes, must be searched for in light of the “marginalization” of their work which has “impoverished the theological tradition as a whole.” Elizabeth A. Dreyer, Accidental Theologians (Cincinnati, Ohio: Franciscan Media, 2014), 4, 5. 15 Demers writes that “women’s interpretive usage has produced dramas, hymns, prophetic treatises, meditations, diatribes, polemics, alphabets, allegories, verses, and tales along with essays, and studies exposing the centuries-old devaluation and suspicion of the female in patriarchal society.” Patricia Demers, Women as Interpreters of the Bible (New York/Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 1992), 3.

Examples from these three anthologies highlight the interpretations of nineteenth-century

British and American interpreters. In Women of War Women of Woe, for example, Taylor and

DeGroot include the writings of known interpreters such as prominent American activist and

feminist Elizabeth Cady Stanton16 who felt that women were intelligent and able but were

“suffering from inherited ideas of their inferiority.”17 Stanton believed that while the Bible granted

women blessings and freedom it was also used to circumscribe them. Taylor and DeGroot also

include the interpretations of forgotten biblical interpreters such as American Leigh Norval18 and

the anonymous Englishwoman M.G.19

Several volumes of collected essays on forgotten women interpreters have also been

published. A case in point is Christiana De Groot20 and Marion Ann Taylor’s21 edited volume,

Recovering Nineteenth-Century Women Interpreters of the Bible (2007). This collection features

thirteen essays about English and American women “who were significant interpreters of Scripture

in their own time, yet whose work was forgotten.”22 By bringing the interpretive writings of

16 Taylor and De Groot include Stanton’s commentaries on Rahab, Achsah, Jael, Jephthah’s daughter and Samson’s mother. Marion Ann Taylor and Christina De Groot, eds., Women of War Women of Woe (Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016), 51-54, 68-69, 152-153, 198-200, 228-229. 17 Elizabeth Cady Stanton, The Women’s Bible (New York: European Publishing Company, 1895), 11. 18 Taylor and DeGroot, 44. Taylor and De Groot describe Norval as a “virtually unknown author.” 19 Ibid., 149. Taylor and De Groot note that the anonymous M.G. had the gift of approaching “biblical characters as real people.” 20 De Groot contributed two of the essays in the book, highlighting Florence Nightingale’s response to Scripture in an annotated Bible and Annie Besant’s challenging essays about women and the Bible. Christiana De Groot, “Florence Nightingale: A Mother to Many,” and “Annie Besant: An Adversarial Interpreter of Scripture,” Recovering Nineteenth- Century Women Interpreters Of The Bible ed. Christiana De Groot and Marion Ann Taylor (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007), 117-133, 201-215. 21 Taylor contributed two of the essays in the book, highlighting the four-volume biblical commentary by Mary Cornwallis, and Harriet Beecher Stowe’s combination of scholarly and faith based biblical interpretation. Marion Ann Taylor, “Mary Cornwallis: Voice of a Mother,” and Harriet Beecher Stowe and the Mingling of Two Worlds: The Kitchen and the Study,” Recovering Nineteenth-Century Women Interpreters Of The Bible ed. Christiana De Groot and Marion Ann Taylor (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007), 31-44, 99-115. 22 Ibid., 1.

8 these forgotten authors to light, the editors hope that others will study them and reference forgotten women’s writings in their writings, teaching, and preaching.

Moreover, a number of articles have been published on the writings of individual interpreters and on groups of interpreters. A case in point is Marion Taylor’s article

“Women and Biblical Criticism in Nineteenth-Century England” in which she highlights the sophisticated biblical interpretations and commentaries written by a number of well-educated

Englishwomen including Sarah Trimmer (17411810),23 who wrote A Help to the Unlearned (1805), a commentary on the whole Bible, and Christina Rossetti (18301894), who authored many works of interpretation, including a devotional book about the Commandments and a commentary on the

Book of Revelation.24

At the same time, scholars such as Timothy Larson are including women’s popular interpretations of Scripture as important witnesses to how the Bible is received in culture. In A

People of One Book (2011), which discusses the role of the Bible in Victorian culture in England,

Larsen presents case studies of both female and male interpreters of Scripture. He chooses Grace

Aguilar as a representative of Judaism, noting, for example, the high value she places on the importance of acquiring biblical knowledge.25 In her commentary on the women of Israel Aguilar states that “the Bible must become indeed the book of life” for Jewish women.26

Larsen chooses social activist Josephine Butler as a representative of evangelical

23 Marion Ann Taylor, “Sarah Trimmer,” Women and Biblical Criticism in Nineteenth-Century England,” The Bible and Women: An Encyclopedia of Exegesis and Cultural History (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, forthcoming) (Dec. 7 Microsoft Word 97-2003 [cid:[email protected]]

Anglicans, describing her as “a leading advocate for women’s rights” whose activism was grounded in the Bible.27 Butler’s knowledge of the Bible and her interpretive skills are especially evident in

The Lady Of Shunem, her commentary on 2 Kings 4 and other Old Testament texts.28

The scope of Taylor’s recovery project also extended backwards from the nineteenth century and forwards in time and place and led to the publication, in 2012, of Taylor’s Handbook of Women

Biblical Interpreters, a compendium of 180 women interpreters throughout history. Carol Newsom, who had been asked to review the Handbook, was excited by the new data on women interpreters and included an essay in the third edition of the Women’s Bible Commentary (2012) on women as biblical interpreters before the twentieth century. She pays tribute to women commentators, referencing a number of nineteenth-century interpreters including noted American “preacher, author, and social reformer” Phoebe Palmer (18071874). Palmer countered arguments against the involvement of women in preaching and interpretation with an “exhaustive set of examples of women who exercised prophetic and evangelistic roles in both Old and New Testaments.29

The work of recovery continues and grows. For example, at the annual conference of the

Society of Biblical Literature in Denver, Colorado from November 1720, 2018, scholars will be presenting papers in a two-part session on “Recovering Female Interpreters of the Bible.” Session

One will feature papers on individual or groups of pre-twentieth- century women interpreters or on biblical texts or themes as interpreted by these women. Session Two will examine the international context and networks associated with feminism and women’s interpretation of Scripture.

27 Larsen, A People of One Book, 319. 28 Josephine E. Butler, The Lady Of Shunem (London: Horace Marshall & Son, 1894), 9. 29 Carol A. Newsom, “Women as Biblical Interpreters Before the Twentieth Century,” Women’s Bible Commentary 3rd ed., ed. Carol A Newsom, Sharon H. Ringe, and Jacqueline E. Lapsley (Louisville: Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2012), 19.

While the recovery of Pan Mediterranean, European, and American women’s interpretive voices continues to expand, only a few Canadian names have emerged in the discussion. Canadian

Mary L.T. Witter, whose work will be discussed at length in Chapter 4:1, was included in the

Handbook of Women Biblical Interpreters.30 Taylor names Canadian A.L.O.N.B., known only as a

Lady of New Brunswick, as an example of a lost voice in the 2012 Presidential Address at the

Canadian Society of Biblical Literature: “Hidden Voices: Toward a More Inclusive History of the

Interpretation of the Bible.”31 A.L.O.N.B’s work will be discussed in Chapter 4:2.

The task of finding forgotten Canadian women who published their interpretations of the

Bible is challenging. My own work built on such pioneering work as that of Lorraine McMullin and

Sandra Campbell, who published Pioneering Women: Short Stories by Canadian Women,

Beginnings to 1880 in 1993. While their anthology focusses on secular writing, some of the women such as Eliza Lanesford Cushing, Mrs. Leprohon, and Susanna

Moodie, all listed in Appendix A, also authored works of biblical interpretation.

Similarly, Sharon Anne Cook’s account of the women’s temperance movement in Canada in

Through Sunshine and Shadow (1995) identifies Letitia (Chreighton) Youmans and Bertha (Wright)

Carr-Harris, both listed in Appendix A, as leading lights in the temperance movement. Both women included Old Testament interpretation in the context of their temperance lessons and speeches. After the publication of her memoir of the temperance movement in 1892, Bertha Carr-Harris went on to expand her biblical interpretation and write Love’s Immensity Or The Progressive Revelation Of

30 Beth Robertson, “Witter, Mary L.T.,” Handbook of Women Biblical Interpreters, eds. Marion Ann Taylor and Agnes Choi (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2012), 537-538. 31 Marion Ann Taylor, Hidden Voices: Toward a More Inclusive History of the Interpretation of the Bible (CSBS Bulletin 72, 2012), 1-22.

God Through His Hebrew Names32, likely published in the early years of the twentieth century.

Rebecca G.S. Idestrom published on Canadian scholar and author Elizabeth Mary Macdonald

(18471954), who authored The Position of Women as Reflected in Semitic Codes of Law (1928), in the collection of essays on women interpreters included in Boundaries Broken: Voices Heard.33

Although a number of Canadian women published books on the Bible, many others published poems, speeches, essays, and plays in the popular media of the day, particularly in nineteenth-century periodicals.34 Eliza Lanesford Cushing published Esther A Sacred Drama With

Judith A Poem (1840) as a book, and a search through archived issues of the mid nineteenth-century periodical The Literary Garland revealed two additional works of her biblical interpretation, a short dramatic scene between Naomi and Ruth,35 and a longer play based on the last days of Queen Athaliah.36 Similarly, it was a search of the May 1850 issue of The Literary

Garland that revealed Susanna Moodie’s interpretive poem, “The Call of Gideon,” based on the story in Judges 6.37

Although many European and American nineteenth-century voices have been recovered and acknowledged, very few Canadian women’s voices have been retrieved and fewer still examined.

The task of this thesis, recovering forgotten Canadian women interpreters of the Old Testament, fits

32 I have adhered to the all-capitals spelling often used in the titles of many of the nineteenth-century works cited in this thesis. 33 Rebecca G.S. Idestrom, “Elizabeth Mary Macdonald: An Early Canadian Contribution to the Study of Women in the Ancient Near East,” Boundaries Broken: Voices Heard, eds. Nancy Calvert-Koyzis and Heather E. Weir (New York: T & T Clark, 2010), 169-189. 34 Lorraine McMullen and Sandra Campbell note that even though women were published it was often in “obscure and/or short-lived periodicals not always widely available today.” Lorraine McMullen and Sandra Campbell, Pioneering Women: Short Stories by Canadian Women, Beginnings to 1880 (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1993), 1. 35 Eliza Lanesford Cushing, “Dramatic Scene,” The Literary Garland Vol. II, No. 4 (March, 1840): 145-146. 36 Eliza Lanesford Cushing, “Dramatic Sketch,” The Literary Garland Vol.2, No. 4 (April, 1844): 177-188. 37 Susanna Moodie, “The Call of Gideon,” The Literary Garland Vol. 8, No.5 (May, 1850): 201-202.

12 within and represents a next step in the larger picture of recovering the voices of women throughout history.

1:2 Women Interpreters from the British Isles and America

In Golden Cables of Sympathy: The Transatlantic Sources of Nineteenth-Century Feminism

(1999), Margaret McFadden uses the technological achievement of the submarine telegraph cables38 linking North America and Europe as a metaphor to describe the growing connections and networking among educated, middle, and upper class women on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.39

Her map of the network of submarine and land connections, for example, illustrates the growing networks of travel, writing, arts, and social justice connections among women.40 McFadden speaks of connections realized with the International Council of Women Conference held in March 1888 in

Washington, D.C. She tells the story of Finnish teacher and delegate Alli Trygg-Helenias (1852-

1926) who met American temperance crusader Frances Willard and went on to become a temperance activist in Finland. Trygg-Helenias’ inspired conference speech, “Golden Cable of

Sympathy,” emphasizing “the commonalities binding women even across language and culture borders,”41 inspired McFadden’s book title.

Although direct influence is often difficult to trace, the family resemblances between the writings of Canadian, American, and British male42 and female authors on the Bible are clear.

38 McFadden notes that “the first dependable transatlantic telegraph cable link” was completed in 1866 and stretched “from Heart’s Content, Newfoundland, to Valentia Island and Queenstown in Ireland.” Margaret McFadden, Golden Cables of Sympathy: The Transatlantic Sources of Nineteenth-Century Feminism (Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky,1999),1. 39 Ibid., 10. 40 Ibid., 8-9. 41 Ibid., 177. 42 The Rev. Richard Newton, for example, authored several interpretive and explanatory works about the Bible in which he included contemporary stories to help his readers make connections between the lessons of the Bible and their own lives. One such example is his Bible Jewels (London: S.W. Partridge & Co., 1867).

Mrs. James C. Thompson, for example, author of Sunday school lessons published in

Toronto in 1876, acknowledged her debt to Englishwoman Mrs. Sherwood’s (17751851) The Lady of the Manor, a series of lessons for girls being confirmed.43 Canadian proto –feminist Agnes Maule

Machar, who argued for higher education for women and for social justice issues, is remembered as the daughter of clergyman John Machar who “possessed an excellent library,”44 and who frequently hosted “prominent social reformers and Christian thinkers” in the family home.45 Later in life,

Agnes Machar is known to have hosted international guests with common interests in literature, religion, and science, such as American Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier, at Ferncliff, her summer home in Gananoque, Ontario.46

Imported and local periodicals that published and reviewed a wide variety of literary works, including biblical interpretation by women, also connected Canadian authors to the wider world of biblical scholarship and commentary and provided them with examples of genres of interpretation deemed suitable for female interpreters. The nineteenth-century Canadian journals Amaranth, published in St. John, New Brunswick, and The Literary Garland, published in Montreal, are examples of such influential publications. Both periodicals introduced many readers to a variety of writing and opinion such as that of noted Irish novelist Lady Sydney Morgan (17831859).

43 Mrs. Thompson, whose work will be discussed in Section Two, followed Mrs. Sherwood’s style: involving her students; explicating, in Mrs. Sherwood’s case, each part of the catechism; telling a related story; offering homiletic comments notably on the difference between those who followed and those who did not follow the teaching. Mrs. Sherwood, The Lady Of The Manor: A Series Of Conversations On The Subject Of Confirmation Intended for the use of the Middle and Higher Ranks of Young Females: Volume II (Wellington, Salop: Houlston And Son, 1825). 44 Ruth Compton Brouwer, “Machar, Agnes Maule,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. 15, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003, (http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/machar_agnes_maule_15E.html), accessed May 9, 2016. n.p. 45 Zeller, Christa, “Agnes Maule Machar,” Poets’ Pathway: Women Poets of the Confederation (http://www.poetspathway.ca/bio_machar.htm.),accessed 09/05/2016. n.p. 46 Brouwer, “Machar, Agnes Maule,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. 15 (1921-1930). University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2002, accessed April 9, 2016. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/machar_agnes_maule_15E.html

The February 1841 issue of Amaranth, for example, included praise for Lady Sydney Morgan’s proto-feminist two-volume survey of women’s accomplishments through the ages, noting Morgan’s assessment of the “brilliant qualities” of Cleopatra’s mind.47 Morgan’s Woman And Her Master

(1840) included a 203-page section on women of the Hebrew Bible and modelled reading Scripture through the lens of women’s experiences and concerns. Morgan chooses examples of Hebrew women from various periods in Israel’s history, extoling, for example, the intelligence and accomplishments of women such as Judith,48 Esther49 and Athaliah.50

Morgan also modelled male scholarship in her interpretive works, using detailed footnotes such as her information on the provenance of the book of Judith, to highlight and corroborate her own commentary.51 Morgan read the biblical texts carefully, noting textual ambiguities. Thus, when she comments sympathetically on Deborah she states: “Deborah seems to have been supreme, both in civil and religious affairs; and if Lapidoth were her husband, and not her birthplace, as some suppose, he is not mentioned as being any thing either in the government, or in the victorious army raised by his inspired wife.”52 Similarly when she praises Deborah’s leadership she notes that while the Bible speaks of the failings of leaders such as Samson, David and Solomon, it has “left the pure and active life of Deborah of Lapidoth without spot or reproach.”53

47 Lady Sydney Morgan, “Cleopatra,” Amaranth Vol.1, No. 12 (Dec. 1841): 41. 48 Morgan describes Judith as a “brave and impetuous” woman who believed “the motive hallowed the deed,” as “testified in every inspired stanza of her own beautiful canticle.” Lady Sydney Morgan, “The Women of the Hebrews,” Woman And Her Master Volume 1 (London: Henry Colburn, Publisher Great Marlborough Street, 1840), 204. 49 Ibid., 209. Morgan describes Esther as a woman of “finesse and ability.” 50 Ibid., 193-194. Morgan holds a sympathetic view of Athaliah, stating that she was an example “of the intellectual powers and lofty aspirations of women” even though she was misdirected. She also says that “anathematized” and “bold and bad as Athaliah and Jezebel were,” they “still rose superior to the weaker and wicked men who surrounded and opposed them.” 51 Ibid., 204. Morgan’s footnote includes reference to St. Jerome’s opinion, the existence of alternate versions in Greek and Syriac with variant details, and varied opinions on authorship and historicity of this biblical book. 52 Ibid., 106. Morgan notes the discussion over place or lamp with regard to the meaning of Lappidoth, adding a rabbinical allusion to support Lappidoth as a light by commenting on Deborah’s “intellectual illumination.” 53 Ibid., 113.

British and American published female authors who lived in Canada for a time were also possible exemplars for Canadian women. Scotswoman Mrs. M.S. Peace, who lived for a brief time in St. John’s Newfoundland,54 wrote a series of eight proto-feminist poems on women heroes of the

Old Testament.55 In her six-page poem “Jael and Sisera,” for example, she gives the figure of Jael a very sympathetic reading. She boldly contrasts Jael’s “sterling soul – calm in the hour of wildest woe” with the “haughty arrogance” of Sisera, the “stern oppressor,”56 whom Jael scornfully castigates for his “coward heart” in leaving his troops and running away.57

Renowned authors such as American Hannah Whitall Smith (18321911) exercised great influence through both her writings and the role she played in the Holiness Movement in the United

States and The Higher Life Movement in the United Kingdom. Her devotional discourse on the joys and challenges of the Christian life, The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life, first published in 1875 and still in publication, was read by women and men. Smith’s solid biblical foundation is evident in the many quotes and tie-ins from both the Old and New Testament that are consistent with the guiding principle she advocates: “Is it Scriptural.”58

Similarly, the influence of the learned Englishwoman Mary Carpenter (18071877) was far- reaching. Carpenter modelled women’s involvement not only in biblical interpretation but also in

54 Mrs. Peace may have been part of a Scottish mercantile family, as Scottish merchants were involved in the fishing industry, with regular trade trips between Newfoundland and Labrador and Greenock and Glasgow. “Scottish Involvement in the Fishery in NL,” www. Heritage.nf.ca/articles/society/Scottish-fishery.php.,accessed July 24, 2017. Further evidence of this comes from one of Mrs. Peace’s poems: “Lines Written On Board The “Ann Johnston.” Mrs. M.A. Peace, “Lines Written On Board The Ann Johnston,” The Convict Ship And Other Poems (Greenock: Robert A. Baird, MDCCCL), 140-42. David Dobson, author of Ships from Scotland to North America, 1830-1860, notes a record of this ship sailing from Greenock to Newfoundland on July 31, 1834 with two unnamed passengers on board. David Dobson, Ships From Scotland to North America, 1830-1860 https://books.google.ca/books?isbn0806351519, accessed July 24, 2017. 55 Mrs. Peace wrote poems about Jael and Sisera, Rachel, Hagar, Rizpah, Jephtha’s daughter, Jochebed, Ruth and Naomi. M.A. Peace, “Scripture Heroines,” The Convict Ship And Other Poems, 44-70. 56 Ibid., 44. 57 Ibid., 50. 58 Hannah Whitall Smith, The Christian’s Secret Of A Happy Life (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1888), 11- 21.

17 social justice advocacy.59 Her efforts in prison reform involved publishing papers such as the 1864

“Our Convicts,”60 and corresponding with like-minded people in the British colonies, the United

States, and India. She actively supported missions, visiting India four times, where she worked to promote education for girls, and writing of her experiences in her 1867 Six Months In India.61

Carpenter’s collection of poetry, Voices Of The Spirit And Spirit Pictures (1877), helped establish a pattern for others to follow. Like other women poets she wrote poems about the death of friends, children, and well-known people, and the beauties of nature, and importantly, in terms of biblical interpretation, she reflected on personal faith and relationship with God. This is evident in her interpretation of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer.22:10) where she highlights the theme of mourning for those estranged from God and their homeland but not for those who have died in faith.62

Englishwoman Josephine Elizabeth Butler (1828-1906) published a number of works and modelled the use of Scripture to advocate for the marginalized, including prostitutes. The title of one of her books, The Lady of Shunem, is derived from her essay featuring the story of the prophet

Elisha and the woman of Shunem in 2 Kings 4. This work also unpacked the stories of other Old

Testament families, notably the story of Abraham’s family, enabling her to draw lessons on the theme of God’s care for families and for marginalized outcasts.

59 Carpenter’s brother notes this role modelling aspect, acknowledging her influence on changing societal opinions on woman’s capabilities and place in society. He said that she did this “not so much by advocacy of Women’s rights as by practical demonstration of Women’s capabilities.” She led, along with her mother and sisters, a school for young ladies, started a visitation society for the women in her father’s church, and organized and supervised a Red Lodge school for girls as part of a system of schools that rescued neglected and underprivileged children not yet convicted of crimes. William B. Carpenter, “Memoir,” Voices of the Spirit and Spirit Pictures (Memphis, U.S.A.: General Books LLC, 2012), 8. 60 Ibid., 7. 61 Ibid., 8. 62 Ibid., 10.

Butler’s exposition is well researched, evidenced by her references to Gesenius and to the

Targums.63 In her essay on Abraham’s family, Butler criticizes traditional commentaries for losing sight of Abraham as a father. She expresses disgust at Sarai and Abram’s treatment of Hagar, saying that “to abstain from condemnation of their action would be to seem to charge God with approval of heartlessness and cruelty.”64 She sees Hagar as a type or representative of all the outcasts of society, especially women who are preyed upon in the sex trade. Butler says of Hagar’s treatment: “It is the earliest recorded embodiment in practice of a humanly decreed injustice which has prevailed ever since in society.”65 She models a thematic approach to biblical interpretation over what she called

“didactic”66 theological and academic analysis. She actually names this hermeneutic a “motherly” approach which anticipates later feminist hermeneutics.67

American author and editor Sarah Josepha Hale (17881874) provides a further example of transatlantic influence in that she includes continental writers in her edited volumes and periodicals.

Hale, who supported herself and others through her writing, compiled a gift book68 of poetry that included biblical interpretation by English and American women.69 One of the poems she included,

63 Josephine Butler, The Lady of Shunem (London: Horace Marshall & Son, 1894), 44. 64 Ibid., 73. 65 Ibid., 71. 66 Ibid., 2. 67 For a fuller discussion of Butler’s approach to interpreting Scripture see Marion Ann Taylor “’Cold Dead Hands Upon Our Threshold’: Josephine Butler’s Reading of the Story of the Levite’s Concubine. Judges19-21,” in Randall Heskett and Brian P. Irwin, ed., The Bible as a Human Witness to Divine Revelation: Hearing the Word of God Through Historically Dissimilar Traditions (Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 469. London: T & T Clark, 2010), 259 73. 68 Páraic Finnerty writes that the gift book “illuminates a cultural milieu powerfully shaped by women’s moral, social and literary influence,” evident in Hale’s inclusion of the biblical interpretations of Englishwomen Hemans and More. Páraic Finnerty, “The Poetics of Sisterly Celebrity: Sarah Hale, British Women Poets and the Gift of Transatlantic Fame,” https:researchportal.port.ac.uk/portal/files/…Hale_and_Poetics_of_celebrity.pdf. 05/03/18. 69 Mrs. Hale, The Ladies’ Wreath: A Selection From The Female Poetic Writers Of England And America With Original Notices And Notes Prepared Especially For Young Ladies, A Gift Book For all Seasons (Boston: Marsh, Capen & Lyon and New York: D. Appleton& Co., 1837).

19 by Englishwoman Felicia Dorothea Hemans (1793-1835), is “The Hebrew Mother”70 based on the story of Hannah in (1 Sam. 1). Hemans models reading Scripture through a motherly lens as she fills in gaps in the narrative by telling the story of Hannah’s giving of her son Samuel into God’s service from Hannah’s viewpoint. Hale’s work also includes excerpts from the poetry of

Englishwoman Hannah More (17451833), including “Sketches From The Sacred Dramas.” More also commented on the wisdom texts in Proverbs 1 and 2.

Wisdom, whose fruits are purity and peace! Wisdom! That bright intelligence, which sat Supreme, when with his golden compasses The eternal plann’d the fabric of the World...71

Canadian women also found models of women interpreting Scripture in the ministries of preaching and teaching at the revivals and camp meetings that flourished, particularly in the first half of the century. While male evangelists such as Irishman James Caughey72 were prominent in

Canada, women evangelists such as American Phoebe Palmer (18071874) were also present.

Palmer was involved in Canadian missions from 1853 to 1857/8 and visited such Upper Canada locales such as Napanee, Barrie, Cobourg, London and Acton. Her publications on Scripture, the

Way of Holiness (1843), Faith and its Effects (1849), Devotion to God (1853), Israel’s Speedy

Restoration (1854),The Promise of the Father (1859), which presented a cogent defence of women’s preaching, and Pioneer Experiences (1868) modelled a woman publishing on Scripture and theology for Canadian women. Her spoken and written theology is that of a Bible Christian.

Like many female authors, she claims to be a popularizer rather than an innovator in her work.

70 Felicia Dorothea Hemans, “The Hebrew Mother,” The Ladies’ Wreath: A Selection From The Female Poetic Writers Of England and America With Original Notices And Notes (Boston: Marsh, Capen & Lyon, 1837), 57-59. 71 Hannah More, “Sketches From The Sacred Dramas,” The Ladies’ Wreath, 89-90. 72 Neil Semple, “The Quest for the Kingdom: Aspects of Protestant Revivalism in Nineteenth-Century Ontario,” Old Ontario: Essays in Honour of J.M.S. Careless. ed. David Keane & Colin Read (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1990), 104, 113.

Palmer states this clearly in the preface to Devotion to God where she says that her purpose is “not to set forth any new phrases in piety, or to develop new and unauthorized views that have not been clearly presented in the scriptures of truth to the aspiring gaze of the Christian.”73 Palmer is also remembered for her influential articulation of what is called altar theology. She recounts her own experience of dedicating all her faculties and resources to God’s service on his altar. In her own words, she states: “Bring the offering of all your redeemed powers; not only to the altar, but through

Almighty grace, lay the sacrifice upon the altar.”74

British and American female interpreters thus provided Canadian women with a panoply of exemplars. Many of their writings were referenced in periodicals and denominational magazines and women of means were able to purchase their books. Moreover, their British and American counterparts modelled interpreting Scripture using a wide variety of literary genres and writing for a variety of audiences. Early Canadian novelist Julia Catherine Beckwith Hart (17961867) spoke of her hope for the literary future of Canada. “Our country is gradually rising into notice. Our physical resources are great. Our population is increasing; and the time may come, when British America will be as noted in ‘song’ or ‘deeds,’ as any kingdom of Europe: but, to attain that eminence, she must cherish native genius in its humblest beginnings.”75

73 Phoebe Palmer, “Author’s Preface,” To My Christian Friend On Entire Devotion To God, (new edition, revised) (London: Alexander Heylin, 28 Paternoster Row, 1857). 74 Phoebe Palmer, “To Rev. Mr. U ______,” Faith And Its Effects Or Fragments From My Portfolio (New York: Joseph Longking Printer, 1849), 349. 75 Julia Catherine Beckwith Hart, St. Ursula’s Convent or The Nun of Canada Containing Scenes From Real Life (Kingston, Upper Canada: Printed By Hugh C. Thompson, 1824), vi.

21 1:3 Nineteenth-Century Canadian Demographics

While nineteenth-century Canadian women interpreters of the Bible share many characteristics with their British and American contemporaries they also faced a unique challenge related to their context. More specifically, they suffered the effects of being part of colonies with small, dispersed populations that offered few opportunities for publishing and for higher education, especially in the first half of the nineteenth-century.

Appendix A, which identifies many nineteenth-century Canadian women interpreters of the

Old Testament, reveals an interesting pattern in terms of where the authors lived, and, relatedly, where they published their works. Notably, all the women listed in Appendix A lived at least part of their lives and published in the eastern part of Canada. This is not surprising, given nineteenth- century population numbers and distribution as shown in Tables A and B on pages 195 and 196.

The gradual growth of population clusters in towns and cities along with a corresponding growth in publication infrastructure had a positive impact on the ability of Canadian women interpreters to publish their works of biblical interpretation.

Ontario historian E. A. Owen’s Pioneer Sketches Of Long Point Settlement (1898) gives an interesting perspective on this growth of settlement into southwestern Ontario.76 He acknowledges, even at the time he was writing, that many old records had already been lost and that he had relied a great deal on interviews and family stories to fill in gaps in the record of the settlement and development of the Norfolk area of south central Ontario. He comments that at the time of writing people were already referring to the time of the first settlements as

76 E.A. Owen, Pioneer Sketches Of Long Point Settlement Or Norfolk’s Foundation Builders And Their Family Genealogies (Toronto: William Briggs, 1898).

“the old pioneer days.”77 He touches first on pre-settlement when the area from Toronto to the west78 was more of a “trade thoroughfare.”79 He contrasts the early years of settlement from the late eighteenth century into the early years of the nineteenth century with the region as he knew it in the late nineteenth century. He speaks of the “wonderful changes” over 100 years: the transition from log cabins, crops planted among tree stumps, and the five mile ride by ox-cart over mud and corduroy roads to go to church, to the comfortable homes in towns and established farms with their

“fertile, productive fields” of his day.80 His late nineteenth-century perspective provides a portrait of westward population growth in Upper Canada/Ontario and of the development of communities that could support literary growth.81

An anonymous biographer included in Mrs. Leprohon’s volume of poetry (1881) similarly speaks of growing prosperity in Canada, noting that when immediate material needs are met there is growth of leisure time which translates into time for women to write and time for others to read. As part of her endorsement of Leprohon’s book, the biographer opines: “The author who has something to say will find an audience, prepared by culture and not too busy to listen to it.”82

77 Ibid., vi. 78 Ibid., 20-21. Owen notes that at the time of the 1763 Treaty of Paris this part of Ontario was known as Western Canada and that by 1791, after the influx of United Empire Loyalists, the area was called the Province of Upper Canada. 79 Ibid., 20. 80 Ibid., 54-56. 81 Carol Gerson speaks to this demographic issue in the first part of the nineteenth century, suggesting that the expense of publishing in and for a small market was a limiting factor in the ability of women to publish. Carol Gerson, Canadian Women in Print 1750-1918 (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2010), 8. 82 “Introduction,” The Poetical Works Of Mrs. Leprohon (Montreal: J. Lovell, 1881), 3.

Canadian demographics, the lack of good roads between the Eastern Townships and the St.

Lawrence River in the early part of the nineteenth century,83 and proximity to the larger, more established market of the United States may help to explain why a number of Canadian women published in the United States.84 Three of the women listed in Appendix A lived in close proximity to the eastern United States and published with Boston publishers. Mrs. Mary Bradley of Saint

John, New Brunswick published with Strong and Brodhead in 1849. Eliza Lanesford Cushing of

Montreal published with Joseph Dowe in 1840. Helen Mar Johnson of Magog, Quebec published with J.V. Hines in 1855 and 1884. American publishers may also have offered, as Rawlyk suggests, more openness to “individual self-expression,”85 thus providing Canadian women interpreters with expanded opportunities to publish their work.

As the nineteenth century progressed, the number of Canadian cities with the population to support newspapers and publishing companies grew. As Tables C and D on pages 197 and 198 show, by the middle of the century newspapers, periodicals, and publishers developed in growing centres such as Brantford and Woodstock. Women in these smaller but growing centres wrote and published their biblical interpretations, in a variety of genres, and for a variety of audiences, just as their counterparts in larger cities like St. John, Montreal, and Toronto were doing. 86

83 Fortin, in The Eastern Townships in the Early Nineteenth Century, notes that there were more connections and economic ties between eastern Canada and New England until the Grand Trunk Railway in the early 1850s. https://www.andrews.edu/universitypress/.../Fortin%20chapter%201%20Excerpt.pdf, page 3, accessed 01/20/2017. 84 Reverse cross-border connections also existed. The poem “Earth’s Angels” by Miss Julia Wallace of Waterbury, Vermont, was published in the November 1857 issue of Quebec’s The Stanstead Journal. 85 George A. Rawlyk, The Canadian Protestant Experience 1760-1990 (Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Welch Publishing Company, Inc., 1990), 11. 86 Susanna Moodie, “The Calling of Gideon,” The Literary Garland, Vol. VIII, No. 5 (May 1850): 200-202. Moodie was a regular contributor to The Literary Garland. An example is her serialized moral tale “Noah Cotton: A Tale Of Conscience,” published in The Literary Garland from September through December 1851.

Toronto were doing. Thus, Canadian women interpreters, building on the shoulders of centuries of biblical interpretation by women, began to join their British and American counterparts, particularly in the second half of the nineteenth century, in publishing their interpretations of Scripture.87

87 Appendix A reveals that forty-one of the forty-four women listed published in the second half of the nineteenth century.

25 1:4 Educational Barriers and Opportunities

The challenges posed by a sparse and dispersed population, especially in the first half of the nineteenth century, impacted Canadian women’s opportunities for higher education. The anonymous author of the biography of Mary Jane Katzman in the introduction to her book of poetry

Frankincense and Myrrh, speaks of her learning despite the “remoteness of the country district in which she lived” and the “limited number of books,” 88 adding that Katzman was largely self-taught, with help from her family, and had learned to read by the age of three. Author Letitia Youmans, on the other hand, completed the local country school curriculum though she was unable to attend the newly opened (18361837) Upper Canada Academy “for the education of young men and women” in Cobourg because it was too far for her to walk and her family could not afford the expense of boarding. 89

Books were limited in many early Canadian households so children at home and at school often learned to read from the Bible, supplemented, where possible, by readings from a religious catechism. Timothy Larsen comments that the “Scriptures were the foundational textbook in school and the main volume through which people gained literacy skills.”90 Letitia Youmans writes in her autobiography that the New Testament was the main school reading book, supplemented by lessons from the Church of England catechism. This was, as she says,

88 “Introduction,” Frankincense and Myrrh: Selections From The Poems of the Late Mrs. William Lawson (M.J.K.L.), ed. Harry Piers and Constance Fairbanks (Halifax, N.S.: Morton’s Co. 1893), x. 89 Letitia Youmans, Campaign Echoes (Toronto: William Briggs, 1893), 43. 90 Although Larsen writes about Britain in the nineteenth century, his comments are relevant to the Canadian context. Larsen, A People Of One Book, 2.

26 her first theological training.91 Canadian teacher Annie Leake Tuttle (1839-1934) spoke of the importance of “giving the Bible to the children” she taught because this allowed her to “participate in the spiritual and moral development of her pupils” in addition to teaching them to read.92

As population numbers and density increased, so did opportunities for higher education for women. These opportunities included admission to universities, normal schools, and access to education outside of Canada. Gerson notes that these factors increased women’s literacy and consequently their opportunities for publishing.93 Mount Allison College in New Brunswick, established in 1843, for example, was the first Canadian college, in 1862, to admit women. Grace

Anne Lockhart, the first woman to graduate from a Canadian college, received her BSc from

Mount Allison in 1875.94

From the mid nineteenth-century onwards more and more schools, especially teacher training and liberal arts schools catered to and accepted female students. Women took advantage of these opportunities. Marilyn Färdig Whitely writes that “pioneering women,” like Tuttle, took advantage of “the new opportunity for professional training in recently opened Normal Schools, and they pursued long careers as teachers.”95

The Toronto Normal School, inaugurated by Egerton Ryerson and his supporters for the purpose of training teachers, opened its doors to female students in 1848. Alison Prentice,

91 Youmans, Campaign Echoes, 32-34. 92 Marilyn Färdig Whitely, The Life and Letters of Annie Leake Tuttle: Working for the Best (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1999), 8. 93 Gerson, Canadian Women in Print 17501918, 105. 94 “Timeline of Canadian Women’s History,” (people:stfx.ca/nforests/308website/women’shistorytimeline.html), accessed 30/01/18. 95 Marilyn Färdig Whitely, The Life and Letters of Annie Leake Tuttle: Working for the Best, 7.

27 in her essay on nineteenth-century Ontario normal schools, comments that by “the mid and late

1860s, women were consistently entering the school in larger numbers than the men.”96

She explains that young women came to the Normal School not only from Toronto and its immediate surroundings but also from cities such as Hamilton, London, Kingston, and Ottawa.

Before pursuing her medical degree, Canadian Emily Howard Stowe Jennings (18311903) attended

Ryerson Normal School, graduated in 1854, and became the first woman principal of a public school in Brantford from 1854 to 1856.97 Other schools such as St. Joseph’s Academy For Young

Ladies in Toronto, the Wesleyan Academy in Sackville, which provided opportunities to study

Latin and French and gain a teaching certificate, and the Canadian Literary Institute in Woodstock,

Ontario, where both men and women were faculty, provided more advanced schooling for men and women.

A few Canadian women were able to take advantage of opportunities for advanced education in the United States until more opportunities opened up in Canada. The above-mentioned

Emily Howard Stowe Jennings graduated from the New York Medical College For Women in 1867, and began to practice medicine in Canada in 1868, but it was not until 1880 that the Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons granted her a medical license.98

Although a number of the Canadian women listed in Appendix A lacked access to university and particularly to formal theological education, they were, however, well educated. Pamelia Sarah Vining Yule, for example, attended Albion College in Michigan in

96 Alison Prentice, “Friendly Atoms in Chemistry: Women and Men at Normal School in Mid-Nineteenth Century Toronto,” Old Ontario, ed. David Keane & Colin Read (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1990), 293. 97 Gina Feldberg, “Jennings, Emily Howard,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 13 (University of Toronto/Université Laval, 1994), accessed August 7, 2018. www.biographi.ca/en/bio/jennings_emily_howard_13E.html. 98 Ibid., n.p.

1855 and went on to teach there for three years. Then, at the invitation of Principal Reverend Robert

Alexander, she became a highly regarded teacher of art, literature, and English at the Canadian

Literary Institute.99 Letitia Youmans studied at the Burlington Academy in Hamilton where she

went on to teach.100 Anna Louisa Walker Coghill also had enough education to teach. Her

biographer writes that when the Walker family moved to Sarnia in 1858, Anna and her sisters

Isabella and Frances started a private school for girls where they taught history and English

literature.101 Yule, Youmans, and Coghill are examples of well-read, educated women, many of

whom were teachers,102 particularly in the second half of the nineteenth century. They exercised

their talents for writing and found opportunities for publishing that were not as available in the

earlier part of the century.103

As noted, however, from the names of the Canadian schools listed above and the subjects

taught to and by women, these early opportunities for higher education did not include university

with its opportunities for formal theological training or post-graduate levels of university

99 A biographical tribute to Mrs. Yule spoke highly of her influence. “It has gone quietly and surely into the multitude of Canadian Baptist homes wherever the daughters received the impress of her gentle spirit, or the sons were led to reverence the strength and power of her quiet personality.” “Mrs. J.C. Yule,” The Canadian Missionary Link Vol. 19, No. 9, (May, 1897): 132-134. 100 Letitia Youmans, Campaign Echoes (Toronto: William Briggs, 1893), 58. Her comment shows that women like herself were not only attending academies but, like her mathematics teacher Miss Van Norman, holding positions as respected teachers. 101 Lorraine McMullen, “Walker, Anna Louisa,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 13, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003 , accessed March 29, 2016. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/walker_anna_louisa_13Ehtml. 102 Several of the interpreters listed in Appendix A were teachers: Lydia Ann Appleton, Anna Louisa Walker Coghill, Margaret Gill Currie, Helen Mar Johnson, Kate Seymour McLean, and Pamelia Vining Yule. 103 Neil Semple, “The Quest for the Kingdom,” Old Ontario, 96. Semple notes another aspect of growth that may well have influenced women’s publishing. “As the pattern of towns and cities became fixed and integrated through improved transportation and communication networks, new ideas and a new openness to ideas reshaped the entire cultural fabric of Ontario.” In the second half of the nineteenth century publishers such as John Lovell in Montreal and William Briggs in Toronto published works by women. Indeed, William Briggs was the publisher for Letitia Youman’s autobiography Campaign Echoes.

29 education. Generally, the higher education that was available to women in Canada prepared them to teach subjects such as literature, history, and the arts.

In his biography of his mother Ida Emma Fitch Baker, one of the interpreters listed in

Appendix A, Ray Palmer Baker speaks to the discrepancy in opportunities for higher education for nineteenth-century women as compared to the opportunities available for men. Ida studied at the

Canadian Literary Institute, also known as Woodstock College, and took courses in music, drawing, painting, English literature, and a little French. Her education was considered complete at the age of eighteen. Baker compares this to Ida’s husband, whom she met at Woodstock College, and who graduated from the University of Toronto. Another comment by Baker provides evidence that many nineteenth-century women found their lack of advanced academic opportunities restrictive and sought to exercise their talents outside of the home. Baker “devoted herself to the duties of her household, which it must be confessed, never weighed heavily upon her, and to the demands of church and school, in which she found a more congenial field for the display of her talents.”104

The scarcity of opportunities for Canadian women, compared to their American sisters,105 to access theological education at Canadian universities and Bible colleges106 meant, as

De Groot and Taylor note, that women consequently lacked the opportunity to “engage as

104 Ray Palmer Baker, “Introduction,” Selected Poems (Toronto: The Ryerson Press, 1951), xii. 105 American Antoinette Louisa Brown Blackwell, for example, received her theology degree from Oberlin College in Ohio in 1850, qualifying her to be a pastor. Beverley Zinck-Sawyer, “Blackwell, Antoinette Louisa Brown,” Handbook Of Women Biblical Interpreters ed. Marion Ann Taylor and Agnes Choi (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2012), 79. 106 The first Bible colleges were established in America: Nyack College, New York, in 1882 and Moody Bible Institute, Illinois, in 1887. It was not until 1894 that the Toronto Bible Training School, later Tyndale, became the first permanent Canadian Bible School. This inaugural date is after the seven women in Appendix A, who lived in or close to Toronto and published their interpretations of Scripture from 1840 to 1893. “Bible Colleges,” www.the canadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/bible-schools, accessed 03/03/18.

30 equals in learned conversations about biblical studies” and “did not write the commentaries or monographs that were typical of their male peers.”107 Gerda Lerner has noted that “women’s theological study did not receive institutional support, either from the church or the academy.”108 In like manner, Elizabeth Dreyer notes that society’s understanding and acceptance of woman’s domestic role and its understanding that theological writing was formal and academic “resulted in excluding women from the theological conversation, marginalizing their theological ideas, and impoverishing the theological tradition as a whole.”109 This lack of access to higher education and the consequent lack of access to academic publishing presented significant challenges for Canadian women who wished to publish their biblical interpretations.

However, this does not mean that nineteenth-century Canadian women had no access to theological discussion, writing, thinking, or informal theological education. Several of the women interpreters listed in Appendix A: Ida Emma Fitch Baker, Augusta Baldwyn, Eliza Lanesford

Cushing, Mrs. Higgins, Mrs. Leonard, Agnes Maule Machar, Annie Mountain, and Jane B. Read were daughters, wives, or mothers of clergymen. While they did not have access to formal academic theological training, they may have accessed theological education informally as they were part of households where regular Bible reading, opportunities to observe sermon and

Bible study preparation, opportunities to listen to theological conversations, and access biblical commentaries and histories offered impressive theological training.110

107 Christiana De Groot and Marion Ann Taylor, Recovering Nineteenth-Century Women Interpreters of the Bible, 10. 108 Gerda Lerner, The Creation of Patriarchy, 2. 109 Elizabeth A Dreyer, Accidental Theologians (Concordia, Ohio: Franciscan Media, 2014), 4. 110 In the preface to her history of the Edomites, Mary L. T. Witter acknowledges “special indebtedness to Josephus, Smith’s Bible Dictionary, Bush’s Notes on Genesis, and Barne’s Notes on the Acts of the Apostles” among the works she consulted. Mary L. T. Witter, The Edomites: Their History As Gathered From The Holy Scriptures (Halifax: S. Seldon, 1888), 3.

Female authors took advantage of those opportunities and incorporated what they learned into their interpretations of the Bible. In her 2015 More House Lecture, “Why Theology Needs Women’s

Voices: Female Doctors of the Church,” Elizabeth Dreyer suggests an upside to women’s lack of formal theological education. She notes that while women lacked the university experience that teaches students how to talk about their subject but limits conversation to those on the university theological “grid,” nineteenth-century women knew their Bible and their theology, and developed a

“grassroots theology” in which they talked and wrote creatively for a wider audience.111

Opinion pieces in newspapers and periodicals helped open up dialogue and awareness about the possibility and the need for increased access to higher education for women. The anonymous author of “Female Education” in The Watchman argues for women’s education, asking why and to what extent women should be educated, positing that “woman should be educated because she is an intelligent and accountable being, endowed with reason and judgment and sustains the same relation to her Creator, to time, and eternity, as man. She should be educated because she herself is an instructor – the first teacher of mankind.”112 The author anticipates progress towards further education for women when she concludes that “there are many prejudices yet to be overcome but we have reason to hope that the day is not too far distant, when the intelligence of the daughters of

Canada shall not be so greatly disproportional to that of her sons.”113

To conclude, although opportunities for higher education for Canadian women in the second half of the nineteenth-century grew, university level education and theological training that would give them access to and cachet in the world of academic publishing were not easily accessed.

111 Elizabeth Dreyer, “Why Theology Needs Women’s Voices: Female Doctors of the Church,” (More House Lecture, Feb. 19/2015), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31AxjlNzwoo, accessed June 19, 2018. 112 “Female Education,” The Watchman (Monday, April 22, 1850): 106. 113 Ibid., 106.

Increasingly though, women took advantage of their opportunities and many became teachers outside the home. As confident teachers, whether in the home, schools, or Sunday schools, nineteenth-century Canadian women found a voice. They used the popular genres of poetry, drama and prose to write and publish their interpretations of Scripture.

1:5: Publishing Challenges

As population centres and publishing infrastructure grew, so did opportunities for Canadian women to publish their secular and sacred writing. While they still lacked access to academic publishing they did publish in a variety of popular genres and in popular media such as books of poetry, newspapers, and periodicals. However, they still faced challenges in terms of the acknowledgement and retention of their biblical interpretations. Consequently researchers today often face the challenge of finding their works and identifying the authors.

This challenge exists even when women published in the popular and highly regarded genre of poetry. Many Canadian women Old Testament interpreters, such as Agnes Maule Machar and

Mary Ann McIver, chose this genre to express their faith and their understanding of the Bible.114

Mary Ann McIver spoke of “the divine art of poetry”, and expressed the hope that her publication would measure up to “that standard to which every poetical work should aspire.”115 Poetry had a prominent place in faith and literary periodicals and in newspapers and was considered “the highest literary calling” according to Carol Gerson.116 Indeed, Gerson’s comment echoes nineteenth-century

Englishwoman Mary Carpenter (18071877), who wrote that “poetry is the revealing of the unseen and infinite, as shadowed forth in the seen and finite.”117

Canadian women did publish poetry, but it is often difficult to find their poems based on

Scripture as they were often included in their books of secular poetry extolling nature,

114 Twenty-eight of the forty-four women listed in Appendix A interpreted the Bible using the genre of poetry. 115 McIver, Mary Ann, “Preface,” Poems (Ottawa: L.B.Taylor, 1869), n.p. 116 Carol Gerson, Canadian Women in Print 1750-1918, 50. 117 Mary Carpenter, Voices of the Spirit and Spirit Pictures, 131.

34 patriotism, family, and friends. Agnes Maule Machar’s Lays of the True North and Other Canadian

Poems, for example, features the poem “The Spring in the Wilderness,” an interpretation of Genesis

21, the story of the outcasts Hagar and Ishmael.118 Likewise Mrs. Yule’s Poems Of The Heart And

Home included two works inspired by Old Testament texts: “God’s Witnesses,” based on Daniel 3, and “Crossing The Red Sea,” a reflection on Moses’ faith, God’s provision, and the humbling of

Pharaoh and his army.119 (Exod. 4) Mrs. M.S. Peace included a twenty-six page series on eight women heroes of the Old Testament in her volume of poetry titled The Convict Ship And Other

Poems.120

A detailed look at Augusta Baldwyn’s poems of Old Testament interpretation highlights this issue and also reveals her skill in interpreting Scripture. Baldwyn included two outstanding poems of Old Testament interpretation in Poems (1859). In “The Death of the First-Born of Egypt” she presents a vivid word picture of grief as she interprets the last plague of Egypt (Exod. 12:29-32) from the Egyptian point of view. Before describing the anticipated devastation she used phrases such as “the land is desolate…the midnight darkly spreads…now o’er the city broods the fearful pall: it comes in silence.”121 Her interpretation draws the reader into the devastation in Egypt and underscores the theme of God’s ultimate power overcoming the temporal power of Egypt. She ends with the theme of God’s provision in sparing the Israelites and in promising them their own land. Baldwyn uses the words “stranger’s land” as a reminder that Egypt is no

118 Agnes Maule Machar, Lays of the True North and Other Canadian Poems (Toronto: The Copp Clarke Co., Limited, 1899), 157-161. 119 Mrs. J.C. Yule (Pamelia S. Vining), Poems Of The Hearth and Home (Toronto: Bengough, Moore & Co., Printers And Publishers, Adelaide Street, MDCCCLXXXI), 11-16, 23-25. 120 Mrs. M.S. Peace, “Scripture Heroines,” The Convict Ship And Other Poems, 44-70. 121 Augusta Baldwyn, “The Death Of The First-Born In Egypt,” Poems (Montreal: John Lovell, 1859), 85.

35 longer the land of refuge it was in Jacob’s time.

Swift they prepare to leave the stranger’s land, To seek a home provided by God’s hand.122

In “The Creation,” Baldwyn admirably sets the scene for her interpretation of Genesis 1.

She highlights the theme of the creator God who alone brings all into being.

Silence and darkness through the aerial space Reign’d in their grandeur. No moon or stars, With beam inspiring hope of brighter hours, Mov’d through the clouds; but through the awful gloom, Above the waters of immensity, God mov’d; and from his presence, at his word, The curtains of deep darkness from the deep Were lifted…123

In the many times she speaks of “the waters of immensity…the deep…the wide expanse…the great waters…the dark waters…the gather’d waters,” Baldwyn explores the meaning of the Hebrew tehôm.124 Her imagery and her stress on the deep may be an indication that as the daughter of

Reverend William Baldwyn,125 she may have had access to biblical commentaries and linguistic resources. Through repetition, she reinforces the interpretive theme of God’s power speaking forth all of creation and controlling its natural powers. Her account culminates in the creation of humans.

In his Creator’s image, man appear’d; and all to him was giv’n, - a rich inheritance!

122 Ibid., 88. 123 Augusta Baldwyn, “The Creation,” Poems, 39. 124 Strong’s explains: “an abyss (as a surging mass of water), especially the deep (the main sea or the subterranean water supply): - deep (place), depth. James Strong, “Hebrew and Chaldee Dictionary,” The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance Of The Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990),123. 125 “Baldwyn, Augusta, Canada’s Early Women Writers (SFU Library Digital Collection: http://content.lib.sfu.ca’cdm’ref’collection/ceww/id/162, accessed 05/04/2016). Possible access to such resources did not ensure academic recognition, hence, the inclusion of her biblical interpretations in Poems.

36 given through God’s love,…126

She calls for a response of care and love for this legacy.

An additional challenge to finding women’s interpretations of Scripture is the difficulty of identifying authors. Some of the poems and essays found in nineteenth-century religious periodicals highlight this publishing challenge. It is often impossible to determine the gender identity of authors, who could be male or female, who wrote anonymously, used pseudonyms, or, in the case of married women, published as Mrs. X, X being their husband’s initials and surname.127 Archived issues of The Young Churchman (18511852), a Toronto Anglican youth periodical, illustrate this challenge. The May 1851 issue, for example, identifies Rev. R.J. MacGeorge as the author of the poem “Christ Mourning Over Jerusalem.”128 The same issue also contains “A Song In The Night,” an interpretation of Luke 1:78, attributed only to G.M.129 Neither the biblical subject nor the initials can answer the question of male or female authorship of the latter work of biblical interpretation.

Even when the content of the works published with initials suggests female authorship, the identities of those women are lost to us. For example, C.M. writes “Keep Your House In Order,” a poem that draws an analogy between the upkeep of a physical house and a spiritual house. 130

126 Augusta Baldwyn, “The Creation,” Poems, 41. 127 Anne Innis Dagg comments that it would be a mistake to assume that nineteenth-century women were not publishing. The difficulty is that publication venues were often short-lived and forgotten periodicals, meaning that women “have been, by and large, edited out of the public history of our culture.” The Feminine Gaze: A Canadian Compendium of Non-Fiction Women Authors and Their Books, 1836-1945 (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2001), viii. 128 R.J. MacGeorge, “Christ Mourning Over Jerusalem,” The Young Churchman No. 6 (May 1, 1851): 62. 129 G.M., “Song In The Night,” The Young Churchman No. 6 (May 1, 1851): 61. 130 C.M. “Keep Your House In Order,” The Canadian Baptist And Missionary Magazine Vol. 1, No. 3 (Montreal: W. Greig, August, 1837): 53-54.

The topic of comparison, a home, provides the only hint that C.M. may be a woman interpreter.

“The Types,” a series of articles by W.H.C. in The Canada Baptist

Magazine And Missionary, by contrast does not hint at the gender of the author of these learned articles. In “The Passover” W.H.C. gives a brief history of the Passover, including biblical references, and then draws parallels between all aspects of the Old Testament Passover and Christ as the Paschal Lamb.131 “W. ______,” whose identity is also lost to us, submitted “Thoughts On

Prayer,” a commentary on aspects of prayer. (Ps. 5:3; 88:13 and Dan.9:21)132

E.M.H.’s 1879 publication, Scripture Catechism Intended For The Instruction Of

Children, is a further case in point. There are, in this case, clues that E.M.H. is a woman. First, male authors, as noted above, are often acknowledged by name, often with titles and degrees added to the acknowledgement. Secondly, named women such as Mrs. James C. Thompson, Mrs.

Leonard, and Mary L.T. Witter, all listed in Appendix A, taught Sunday school and/or wrote Bible and biblical history lessons for children and young people. A third and fourth clue comes from the title page and in the preface of Scripture Catechism Intended for The Instruction Of Children. On the title page, E.M.H. states that the catechism has been “revised by the author” and in the preface

E.M.H. refers to herself as “The Compiler.”133 In the preface, E.M.H. says “the sincere milk of the Word has been arranged for the nourishment of the tender babes…,”134 a choice of words that

131 W.H.C. “The Passover,” The Canadian Baptist And Missionary Magazine Vol. 4, No. 6 (Montreal: W. Greig, December, 1840), 159-164. 132 W. ______, “Thoughts On Prayer,” The Canada Baptist Magazine And Missionary Register Vol. 1, No. 12, (Montreal: W. Greig ,May, 1838): 278-280. 133 E.M.H. Scripture Catechism Intended For The Instruction Of Children (Montreal: Printed At The W.G. Association 73 Bleury Street, 1879), 1, 2. 134 Ibid., 1.

38 echo the expected nineteenth-century domestic, nurturing role of women. Still, the female identity of this reviser/compiler must remain tentative. Anonymous is not always a woman.

Secular periodicals also published women’s writing. Even when periodicals such as The

Literary Garland sought contributions from women, some authors chose to remain anonymous, either as a matter of choice or to ensure a better chance at publication. Sadly, their identities continue to be lost to us. “The Variations Of The Rose,” an interpretation of Genesis chapters two and three, is an example of this type of loss. In this poem, the author, identified only as “A Lady,” comments on the change from the original idyllic state of Eden, using the allegory of a white rose in

Eden turning red with shame when Eve sinned and took fruit from the tree, thus portending the blood of Christ shed for the sin of the world.135

The challenge of identifying women’s voices is also made more difficult since many women published using a pseudonym, though the identity of some, but certainly not all authors is known.136 The September and October 1879 issues of Rose-Belford’s Canadian Monthly And

National Review illustrate this problem well, featuring a two- part article of twenty pages,

“Eckermann And Goethe,”137 by Fidelis of Kingston. Subsequent research has

135 A Lady, “The Variations Of The Rose,” The Literary And British North America Magazine Vol. 7, No. 1 (Jan. 1849): 32. 136 In her introduction to her Poems Of The Heart And Home, for example, Mrs. Yule says that she wrote anonymously or under the pseudonyms Emilia and Xenette before she began submitting works under her own name. Mrs. J.C. Yule (Pamelia S. Vining), Poems Of The Heart and Home, iii. 137 Fidelis, “Eckerman and Goethe,” Rose-Belford’s Canadian Monthly And National Review Vol. 14, No. 9-10 (Sept. – Oct. 1879): 230-241, 386-395.

39 revealed that Fidelis is Agnes Maule Machar, 138 listed in Appendix A, and author of “The Spring in the Wilderness,” her commentary on Hagar’s story. (Gen. 16 and 21)

Nineteenth-century women writers often followed the longstanding practice of dedicating their work to someone important or acknowledging sponsorship or tributes by an important person, or including tributes and letters of support from important people to achieve a better reception and better sales of their work. Anne Innis Dagg suggests that women adopted this tradition of dedicating a work to a known and important person to add cachet to their writing and to counter possible censure. She notes that this was one way women tried to “soften” the impact of female authorship and soften the challenge of having their work published. 139 Canadian Mrs. Mary Bradley dedicated her autobiography to the “Wesleyan Ministers, Trustees, Stewards and leaders, Superintendents and

Teachers of Sabbath Schools.”140 Similarly, Canadian author Letitia Youmans included an endorsement by the British philanthropist and temperance leader Lady Henry Somerset on the title page of her 1893 autobiography Campaign Echoes. Youmans recognized the value of such endorsements and had Frances Willard, the national president of the Women’s Christian

Temperance Union in the United States, write the introduction to her book, in which she expressed the hope that it would have “a large sale” that would benefit Youmans who could no longer “be self-supporting by any other means.”141

138 “Pen names of Canadian Poets,” A Bibliography of Canadian Poetry. (https://archive.org/stream/bibliographyofca00james), 70. Accessed 24/03/2016. 139 Ann Innis Dagg, The Feminine Gaze, 15. 140 Mrs. Mary Bradley, “Introduction,” A Narrative Of The Life And Christian Experience Of Mrs. Mary Bradley Of Saint John, New Brunswick (Boston: Strong & Brodhead, 1849), n.p. 141 Frances Willard, “Introduction,” Campaign Echoes, xi.

Dagg also draws attention to other strategies women used to justify and promote

publication of their writings. One way was for a woman to say that her interpretive poetry, prose or drama was published at the request of friends.142 A second strategy was to “undercut the importance of their own work” by using deprecating phrases such as their “little book.”143 Lydia

Ann Appleton does this when she used the phrase “this little volume” twice in the introduction to her book of poetry.144 Similarly, Mrs. Jane B. Read adopted this topos of humility to promote her temperance and patriotism themed publication, Poems For Young People: Embracing Temperance

And Religion (1870).

An humble offering true mine is, And very small you see; But not too small to do some good, I trust ‘twill prove to be. Through the most feeble instruments, God oft’ doth blessings send. The writer hopes these lines may prove To many – a true friend.145

In publications with a mission orientation, women’s biblical interpretations were more common. Indeed, fifteen of the forty-four women listed in Appendix A published, some by name and some anonymously, in the Baptist The Canadian Missionary Link. This journal’s female editors, Mrs. H.J. Rose and Mrs. M. Freeland, featured many articles, speeches and poems on

Scripture by women.146 They published, for example, Mrs. Laidlaw’s speech about

142 Mary A. McIver, in her preface, said that she published “at the request of a number of friends.” Mary A. McIver, Poems By Mary A. McIver, n.p. 143 Ann Innis Dagg, The Feminine Gaze, 15. 144 Lydia Ann Appleton, “Introduction,” Miscellaneous Poems Moral And Religious (Toronto: The Watchman Office, 1850), 3. 145 Jane B. Read, Poems For Young People Embracing Temperance And Religion (Brantford: Printed at Expositor Office, 1870), 2. 146 Mrs. H.J. Rose and Mrs. M. Freeland are listed as editors in the 1878 editions, for example, Vol.1,No.1, July 1, 1878, of The Canadian Missionary Link (eco.canadian.ca/view/oocihm.8_04082)

Christian stewardship to her Elgin, Ontario, mission association. The speech is a prime example of devotional writing by nineteenth-century women, in that it weaves the Old Testament narratives and teaching into direction for Christian living. Mrs. Laidlaw cites a variety of Old Testament references. (Ps. 24:1, Hag. 2:8, and Eccles.5:18), to emphasize that everything belongs to God and that what readers need to recognize is that what they have is a gift from God. She then develops the theme of human responsibility to consecrate “not only of what we are but of what we have” to

God’s service.147 She cites examples of stewardship, including Abel, who, in Genesis 4: 4, offered

God “the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof,” and Noah whose “first impulse” after the flood, noted in Genesis 8:20, was “to make offerings unto the Lord.”148 Women such as Mrs.

Laidlaw, however, published under their married names, and their full identities and biographies are, to this point, still lost to us.

Even in publications like The Missionary Link that encouraged women’s contributions, many women still published pseudonymously. A case in point is S.R.G.’s proto-feminist poem

“Spinning,” which gives voice to an anonymous Israelite woman during the exodus from Egypt.

The unknown woman speaks not only about the instructions given for the making and adornment of the tabernacle and priestly vestments (Ex. 35:30-35; 39:1) but the value of the women’s work in spinning all the threads, the backbone, of the huge project. SRG provides a theological reflection on God’s provision as she takes on the persona of this Israelite woman spinning thread for skilled artisans like Bezeleel, the “wondrous wise,” who wove fabric for the wilderness

tabernacle and the priestly vestments.149 She elevates this forgotten woman’s importance

147 Mrs. Laidlaw, “Christian Stewardship,” The Canadian Missionary Link: Vol. 17, No. 2 (Oct. 1894): 19. 148 Ibid., 19. 149 S.R.G., “Spinning,” The Canadian Missionary Link Vol. 9, No.8 (April 1887): 91.

42 as she speaks of her role within the grand framework of the biblical exodus narrative.

Not for daily bread I spin; Daily is the manna sent;… Not my sins my work demand; Sacrifice the Lord provides; Even now my husband’s hand Through the wilds the scapegoat guides On that guiltless victim laid, All my sins were borne away… I have toiled in days gone by For my children’s raiment poor; E’en that need he doth supply. For their clothes wear out no more.”150

Carrie MacMillan comments on the ongoing challenge faced by those trying to recover the voices of women writers, pointing out that women did not “belong to the same formal and informal clubs and associations (intellectual, literary, and social) as men. Hence, the kinds of records, subscriptions, minutes, and letters that might help to define the character, influence, and milieu of the male writer are less often available for the female.”151 This was the kind of public knowledge and support that would have been an asset when it came to the publication and retention of women’s theological writings. In spite of the varied challenges women faced in getting their writings published and that researchers now face in finding those writings and identifying female writers, we now know that many nineteenth-century Canadian women did publish their interpretations of

Scripture.

150 Ibid., 90-91. 151 Carrie MacMillan, “Research - Problems and Solutions: Research in Nineteenth-Century Canadian Women Writers, an Exercise in Literary Detection,” Rediscovering Our Foremothers: Nineteenth-Century Canadian Women Writers. ed. Lorraine McMullen (Ottawa: University of Ottawa Press, 1990), 50.

1:6: The Cult of Domesticity

Many middle-class and upper-class Canadian women in the nineteenth century, like their

British and American counterparts, were influenced by the cult of domesticity. Barbara Welter defines the cult of domesticity as the societal viewpoint that limited the “true woman’s place” to

“her own fireside–as daughter, sister, but most of all as wife and mother.”152 The most praised attributes that women were urged to adopt were the virtues of “piety, purity, submissiveness and domesticity.”153 Women were encouraged to “work in silence, unseen.”154 Similarly, Lorraine

McMullen, and Sandra Campbell, in Pioneering Women: Short Stories by Canadian Women,

Beginnings to 1880, write that the “pre-1880 expectation for women was confined to the domestic sphere.”155 Sharon Anne Cook confirms this mindset when she says that “the popular image of the

Victorian woman” was in the domestic sphere where women were regarded as the “guardians of the home” who would indirectly influence the public sphere as they established the moral tone in the home.156

The ideal of a woman’s role as teacher in the home was reinforced by male and female writers in books and easily accessible journals such as The British Mother’s Magazine, The

152 Barbara Welter, “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860,” American Quarterly, Volume 18, Issue 2, Part 1 (Summer, 1966): 151-174, 162. 153 Ibid., 152. 154 Ibid., 160. 155 Lorraine McMullen and Sandra Campbell, Pioneering Women: Short Stories by Canadian Women, Beginnings to 1880, 1. 156 Sharon Anne Cook, Through Sunshine and Shadow (Montreal & Kingston: McGillQueen’s University Press, 1995), 88.

American Mother’s Magazine and The Watchman.157 In her book Mothers of England: Their

Influence and Responsibility (1834), renowned English author Mrs. Ellis acknowledged the importance of educating girls. She argued that education was not to further a woman’s personal development, however, but rather to further her ability to educate her children, “because it is to women that we still must look for the training of future generations, and the formation of characters whose names may be surrounded by a glory, or stamped with a blot, in the history of ages yet to come.”158 Similarly, in “The Mother,” one of many journal articles about the role of mothers in the home and their responsibilities for training children, Mrs. Ellis reinforced the cult of domesticity, extolling the role of mothers in forming the character of the next generation, and praising the

“ardent” hope and “noble ambition” that a “fond mother” cherishes in her “heart of hearts,” that her children will grow up to be productive and wise members of society who would swell “the ranks of the church-militant on earth.”159

The books and periodicals of the day, however, also took note of the debate over women’s roles and nature. Each issue of The Son Of Temperance, for example, featured a ladies department which included domestic submissions such as the poems “Betrothal”160 and “The Seasons Of A

Females Life”161 that upheld the cult of domesticity. Another article in the same periodical, though, advocated “opening up new avenues of employment” for women, particularly in the

157 An anonymous writer in Amaranth, a New Brunswick periodical, argues for tradition in an editorial about what to look for in a wife. A wife should not be just “a creature who can play piano and paint” but should be the comfort of the home and husband, where she “can assist him in his affairs, lighten his sorrows, purify his joys, strengthen his principles, and educate his children.” “A Wife,” Amaranth, Vol. 1, No. 1 (January, 1841): 27. 158 Mrs. Ellis, Mothers of England: Their Influence & Responsibility (London: Fisher, Son, & Co., 1843): 24. 159 Mrs. Ellis, “The Mother,” The Watchman, Vol. 1, No. 8 (Bristol: Nathaniel Biggs, March 11, 1850): 59. 160 “Betrothal,” Son of Temperance and Literary Gem Vol. 4, No. 6 (February 11, 1854): 34. 161 W.F. Bennett, “The Seasons Of A Females Life,” Son Of Temperance Vol. 4, No. 7 (February 18, 1852): 40.

45 publishing field,162 thus reflecting changing attitudes towards the restriction of women’s roles to the private sphere and women’s search for avenues of public expression. In another issue of this same journal, conflicting views about marriage and family held by two female writers were placed back to back. Lucy Stowe wrote that marriage “is a state of slavery” because it took from women

“the right to her own property, and makes her submissive in all things to her husband.”163 Ella

Wentworth, by contrast, extolled woman’s high domestic vocation in instructing “the infant mind in thoughts of purity” and in soothing the “turbid torrent of man’s passions by a word – a look – a smile.”164

On this same subject Canadian Annie Louisa Walker Coghill wrote a poem with the deceptive title “Women’s Rights.” Her poem, however, proclaims a woman’s right to the humble, unobtrusive domestic role, and demonstrates how deeply engrained the cult of domesticity was in the nineteenth century. Her poem also demonstrates that women like Coghill were aware of the arguments for women’s rights, publicly aired in the media of the day, and chose instead to advocate for the cult of domesticity.

You cannot rob us of the rights we cherish, Nor turn our thoughts away From the bright picture of a woman’s mission Our hearts pourtray. We claim to dwell, in quiet and seclusion, Beneath the household roof, - From the great world’s harsh strife, and jarring voices To stand aloof; - Not in a dreamy and inane abstraction To sleep our life away, But, gathering up the brightness of home sunshine, To deck our way.

162 “A Chapter On Lady Editors,” Son Of Temperance, Vol. 4, No. 1 (January 7, 18540: 2. 163 Lucy Stowe, “Marriage,” Son Of Temperance, Vol. 4, No. 9 (Mar. 4, 1854): 52. 164 Ella Wentworth, “Marriage,” Son Of Temperance, Vol. 4, No. 9 (Mar. 4, 1854): 52.

46 As humble plants by country hedgerows growing, That treasure up the rain, And yield in odours, ere the day’s declining, The gift again; So let us, unobtrusive and unnoticed, But happy none the less, Be privileged to fill the air around us With happiness; To live, unknown beyond the cherished circle – Which we can bless and aid; To die, and not a heart that does not love us Know where we’re laid.165

Christian moral stories, such as those written for children, often promoted the cult of domesticity.166 In Fred Kenney’s Adventures, author Sidney Grey’s father figure is a poor character, yet the weight of responsibility for the character formation of the couple’s children is placed solely on the mother who is described as a “thriftless body”167 who had never taught her children proper

Christian attitudes and behaviour. Grey contrasts Fred’s mother with a poor but kindly Christian,

Mrs. Evans, who tried to help Fred and “sowed some good seed in the boy’s neglected heart.”168

Such characterizations of women reinforced nineteenth-century expectations about roles for men and women.

While women’s primary focus was the home, activities in the church and in missions related to the church were viewed as an extension of the home. When the new Anglican Church in Waterford, Ontario, was dedicated, for example, “Mrs. W. Matthews happily rendered her service in laying the cornerstone” while the gathered reverends, identified by name and

165 Annie Louisa Walker Coghill, “Women’s Rights,” Leaves From The Backwoods (Montreal: Printed by John Lovell, St. Nicholas Street, 1861), 106-107. 166 There are 233 titles in various series for children and young people listed in the back of Fred Kenny’s Adventures, given to a female ancestor as a Sunday school prize. While printed in Britain it was readily available in southern Ontario. Sidney Grey, Fred Kenney’s Adventures (London: The Religious Tract Society, n.d.), 65-79. 167 Ibid., 5. 168 Ibid., 29.

47 degrees, “took the service.”169 In the 1860s the memorial window in Waterford Baptist Church was dedicated to a certain Mrs. McMichael who was remembered as “a mother in Israel” and who was “Elder Slaght’s greatest aid in the formative period of the church.”170 The aid she provided was home-related pastoral ministry as “whenever sickness, sorrow or death entered, there her hands and heart were busy in loving ministrations.”171 This example accords with Barbara Welter’s comment that “one of the most important functions of woman as comforter was her role as nurse.”172 The musical gifts of another woman of this church were noted as was her ‘outside’ work as “an instructor in music at Woodstock College.”173 In like manner, in a memorial of a Mrs. M.A.

Lyle, written by her admiring sons-in-law, Lyle is likened to the biblical judge and prophetess

Deborah, as she was, like Deborah, “eminently endowed with sound judgment and practical wisdom.”174 At the same time they note that the “domestic shoe” shone brightly in their mother-in- law. She “exemplified family religion.”175

As the nineteenth century progressed, an increasing number of women purposefully extended their influence beyond the home through publishing, teaching, and involvement in faith-based and/or social justice endeavours. Mrs. Thompson, one of the interpreters listed in

Appendix A, while extoling the role of her mother in instilling Christian precepts and norms

169 David G. Rees, A History of Trinity Church Waterford (Waterford, Ontario: Trinity Anglican Church, 1960), 11. 170 Mrs. P.G. Pearce and Mrs. H.B. Cunningham, The First One Hundred Years 1846-1946 (no publisher),10. 171 Ibid., 10. 172 Welter, “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860,” 163. 173 Mrs. P.G. Pearce and Mrs. H.B. Cunningham, The First One Hundred Years 1846-1946, 7. 174 Wm. F. Clarke and R.L. Tucker, A Mother In Israel: or Some Memorials of the Late Mrs. M.A. Lyle (Toronto: W.C. Chewett, 1862), 2. https:/catalog.hathitrust.org/Mrs.Lyle(1797-1862)Record/100312171. accessed 5/11/17. 175 Ibid., 5.

48 of behaviour176 in the family with words such as “we had all been taught by our dear mother…” – followed by the particular rule or behaviour,177 valued her own education and ability and expanded her own teaching role to the more public world of teaching Sunday school and of writing interpretations of Scripture for her Sunday school class.

Sometimes women’s efforts to extend their boundaries and influence by writing and publishing were viewed critically. More specifically, traditional roles were valued more highly than their abilities as writers and as biblical interpreters. Harry Piers and Constance Fairbanks, who contributed a biography of Mary Jane Katzman in Frankincense And Myrrh, a selection of her poetry containing interpretations of texts in Genesis and Exodus, praised her literary skills but were also quick to point out that after she married “her time was largely given to work among the poor, and to social and benevolent schemes, particularly those connected with The Church of

England.” 178 In the same manner, the anonymous author of the introduction to Mrs. Leprohon’s

1881 volume of poetry, which included an interpretation of Genesis 21, wanted it to be understand that not all of Leprohon’s “time was passed in the writing of either poems or tales. Far from it! They constituted but one phase in a life nobly, yet unostentatiously, consecrated to the duties of home, of society, of charity and of religion.”179

176 Mrs. Thompson’s mother fits Gillian Muir’s assessment of middle and upper class Canadian women who were encouraged to fit the model of the educated, leisure class Victorian lady whose proper sphere was as a teacher in the home. Gillian Muir, Petticoats in the Pulpit, 182. 177 Mrs. James C. Thompson, Sketches From Life Being Tales On The Ten Commandments And Various Texts Of Scripture (Toronto: Hunter, Rose & Co., 1876), 31, 33, 99, 155. 178 Harry Piers And Constance Fairbanks “Introductory Note,” Selections From The Poems Of The Late Mrs. William Lawson (M.J.K.) Selected And Edited By Harry Piers And Constance Fairbanks (Halifax, N.S.: Morton & Co., 1893), vi. 179 “Introduction,” The Poetical Works Of Mrs. Leprohon (Montreal: J. Lovell, 1881), 8.

The ideology of the cult of domesticity also shaped how women’s lives were remembered.

Eulogies and biographies of women often obscured aspects of their identities and vocations, including teaching, preaching, and writing about Scripture. Carol Gerson speaks to this issue of the loss of many women’s identities and therefore their interpretive voices. She notes that sometimes at funerals for women, eulogies, when reported, often said more about the presiding clergy than the woman being remembered.180 Elizabeth Gillian Muir writes that biographies, obituaries, and memorials about women sometimes left out women’s full names or used phrases such as “useful

in the work” or “housewife, mother and spiritual guardian in the home” to describe their lifework instead of acknowledging their work as writers and interpreters of the Bible. 181 Muir notes this lack of acknowledgement of the interpretive talents of women preachers, especially the courageous itinerant preachers in the first half of the nineteenth century. She writes about Elizabeth Dart Eynon

(1792-1857), a well-known preacher whose tombstone says only “devoted wife, zealous

Christian,”182 and Ann Vickery Robins (1800-1853), described as a “class leader,” but not as a preacher.183 Unfortunately, the sermons of these and other early women preachers are lost. All that remains of the sermons of preacher Eliza Barnes (17961887) for example, is reference to a sermon text based on Ezekiel’s vision of the waters.184 These examples suggest that recognition of women’s skills in biblical interpretation, which often grew out of their skills as the teachers in the

180 Gerson cites examples of this neglect re Mrs. Abigail Belcher in 1771 Nova Scotia and Mrs. Jane Chipman from 1775 Nova Scotia. Carole Gerson, Canadian Women In Print 1750-1918 (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2010), 26. 181 Elizabeth Gillian Muir, Petticoats in the Pulpit, 6, 98. 182 Ibid., 66. 183 Ibid., 112. 184 Ibid., 112.

50 home, were not valued as highly as their domestic skills in the home where they “reigned with considerable power.”185

The Canadian women interpreters listed in Appendix A, like their British and American counterparts, did not always agree on women’s roles. Many expressed traditional views. Others pushed boundaries. Some, for example, countered or pre-empted criticism by adopting the commonplace topos of humility. Augusta Baldwyn writes that she hoped that “the kind and generous people of my native land” would not see “unwomanly pretension in so unstudied a work.”186 Helen Mar Johnson also expressed humility, saying that while the encouragement of friends prompted her to publish her work, she realizes her “folly for thus intruding myself into the sacred grove of Poesy” and hoping that her poems might comfort “some humble believer” or give direction to “some wretched wanderer.”187 Eliza Lanesford Cushing, who wrote boldly about challenging biblical women such as Queen Athaliah and Judith, also expressed humility, saying that she submitted her work to the public “with much timidity, and many fears lest it should be found unable to abide that fiery trial” of public opinion.188

Mrs. J.J. Baker expressed support for the prevailing social norm of woman’s exalted place in the home with her comment on the sacred role of mothers, urging mothers to consecrate their children to God’s service as Hannah did in Samuel 1.189 Margaret Preston urges Christian women to employ their womanly skills. (Exod. 36:37) She imagines She imagines the women of

185 Taylor and Degroot, Women of War Women of Woe, 7. 186 Baldwyn, Augusta, “Address To Readers,” Poems by Augusta Baldwyn,7. 187 Helen Mar Johnson, “Preface,” Poems By Helen Johnson (Boston: J.V. Himes, 1855), III-IV. 188 Eliza Lanesford Cushing, Esther A Sacred Drama With Judith A Poem (Boston: Published By Joseph Dowe, 22 Court Street, 1840), 2. 189 Mrs. J.J. Baker, “Mothers And Missions,” The Canadian Missionary Link, Vol. 13, No. 4 (Dec.1890): 50. Mrs. Baker stated that mothers alone hold “the key to the child’s heart.”

Israel, with their veils modestly drawn, saying “we are but women! What can woman do?” She leaves it to a man, Bezalel, to direct the task and praise the women for their womanly skills.190

Other women listed in Appendix A, like Teresa Burnaby, were bolder, pushing boundaries regarding women’s expected roles and advocating for change. Burnaby comments on women’s abilities in her article, “Women As Helpers In God’s Kingdom,” in which she names and comments on Old Testament women such as Pharaoh’s daughter, Miriam, the widow of Zarephath, and the daughters of Shallum, extolling them as model helpers.191 When she discusses Deborah however, she redefines traditional interpretations of women’s helping roles, moving to a very active interpretation of woman’s role, and declaring that “In Deborah we find a leader – a lesson to those who like to be first, who like to lead. Use your gift of leadership.”192

In her poem “The Wife Of Heber,” Harriet Annie Wilkins also pushes boundaries, first by adding Jael to her list of women heroes of the Bible, then by daring to wonder if women can pattern themselves after “Heber’s fearless wife.”193 She urges women to bold action in living the Christian life, using the biblical imagery of the hammer and nail wielded by Jael.

And crowns of warriors yet shall rest On many clustering curls. Fingers that clasped the nail of Truth, Our Prince will not disown; Hands that the workman’s hammer held Shall rest within His own.194

Miss H. H. Wright, writing for The Canadian Missionary Link, also takes a bold approach.

She begins a speech about the ministry of women by raising the question of whether a woman had a

190 Bezalel’s words, “though small your gifts may seem, the Lord hath need of all” reinforce the stereotype. Margaret Preston, “Broidery-Work,” The Canadian Missionary Link, Vol. 3, No. 12 (Aug. 1881): 73. 191 Teresa Burnaby, “Women As Helpers In God’s Kingdom,” The Canadian Missionary Link, Vol. 16, No. 9 (May 1894): 140. 192 Ibid., 142. 193 Harriet Annie Wilkins, “The Wife Of Heber,” Autumn Leaves (Hamilton, Ont.: Spectator Printing House, 1869), 18. 194 Ibid., 20.

52 role outside the home and in her faith community, or whether her hands were tied and “she is not wanted; and has no place to fill.” She answers her own question with an “emphatic, no” and goes on to say women have a place and work to accomplish in God’s plan.195

Canadian poet Kate Douglas Ramage (18551883) boldly gives beautiful Queen Vashti in the

Book of Esther a very spirited and sympathetic reading. She closes out her poem with a declaration of defiance from Vashti who, though now uncrowned, is still a queen.

Calmly she spoke: “I will not go,” The crown Ahaseurus placed upon My head is his, he can remove it, The crown of pure fair womanhood Is mine, and I will keep it, although I lose the world and life beside. Round her, her women clustered, She waved them off, and stood alone,- Vashti the beautiful, uncrowned, But still a queen.” 196

Letitia Youmans (1827-1896), very much aware of the conservative character of some of the towns where she spoke publically about temperance, cautioned audiences that she had not come to speak about women’s rights, but rather to speak out “against women’s and children’s wrongs”197 caused by the evils of strong drink. While she upheld woman’s role as a helpmeet, though, she also advocated that women should not marry just for the sake of a home but should have the courage “if necessary, to walk through life the path of single blessedness.”198 She also raised the question of why married women were denied the vote when widows and single women could vote as of

1885.199

195 Miss H.H. Wright, “The Ministry Of Women,” The Canadian Missionary Link Vol. 10, No. 8, (April, 1888): 91-92. 196 Kate Douglas Ramage, “Vashti,” Vashti And Other Poems (Montreal: John Lovell & Son, 1884), 12-13. 197 Letitia Youmans, Campaign Echoes, 128. 198 Ibid., 69. 199 Ibid., 142.

The nineteenth century was a time of great change for women as debates about woman’s nature, woman’s place, and women’s rights, particularly the right to opportunities for advanced education and the right to take on leadership roles in their faith communities, were widely debated.

Mrs. Willoughby Cummings, who authored a history of the Anglican Women’s Auxiliary (1929), gives an example of women’s desire for a greater public role. She writes that in 1885 Roberta

Elizabeth Odell Tilton attended a meeting of the Women’s Auxiliary of the Protestant Episcopal

Church in New York. When Mrs. Tilton returned to Canada she spearheaded the inauguration of a similar organization in Canada. Cummings records Mrs. Tilton’s stirring words as she led a delegation to church elders to advocate for the formation of a Woman’s Auxiliary in Canada. She said:

There are in the Church today Marys who have chosen the better part; there are the restless serving Marthas, who only want the opportunity to do something for Jesus; the Magdalenes, who tell the story of our blessed Lord’s resurrection; the Phoebes, who convey messages of love and Christian greeting; the Tryphenas, and Tryphosas, Dorcases, who are never weary in well-doing; Priscillas, who are occupied in showing the way of the Lord more perfectly; yes, in the Church of Canada – from Victoria to Sydney – there are women longing to labour more abundantly, to consecrate all their talents to the Lord’s work. And, knowing this, we ask that as the Apostles of old recognized the women of their day as labourers with them, you, our beloved Fathers in Christ, may recognize the women of the Church of Canada, and give your hearty and earnest consent that there should be established in connection with your Board, a Woman’s Auxiliary.200

Mrs. Tilton’s speech was indeed an early, inspired call for the increased inclusion and recognition of women’s voices.

Thus, some Canadian women interpreters subscribed to the cult of domesticity while others challenged it. All pushed boundaries simply by writing and publishing their biblical interpretations.

They all fulfilled society’s expectation of them as teachers, but with their poems, dramas, and prose, written in the popular voice, they moved beyond the home to teach the wider public audience about

200 Mrs. Willoughby Cummings, Our Story: Some Pages from the History of the Women’s Auxiliary to the Missionary Society of the Church of England in Canada 1885-1928 (Toronto: Garden City Press, 1929), 10.

54 the Bible. Lydia Ann Appleton speaks to the daughters of Canada in the preface to her volume of miscellaneous poems on moral and religious subjects and to the move into the public sphere of publishing. She looks to the future and expresses the hope “that the time may not be very far distant, when Canada shall be distinguished by the elevated genius, the high literary attainments, the pure morality and the sound religious principles both of her Sons and Daughters.” 201

201 Appleton, “Preface,” Miscellaneous Poems Moral & Religious, n.p.

Chapter 2

Nineteenth-Century Sacred Drama

2:1 Eliza Lanesford Cushing (E.L.C.)

Eliza Lanesford Cushing (1794-1886) is the only writer of sacred drama among the women listed in Appendix A. She was born in Brighton, Massachusetts and moved to Montreal in 1843 with her husband Dr. Frederick Cushing. Her family background shaped her theologically and predisposed her to the literary and editing career she took up in Montreal. Her father, Reverend

John Foster, was a Congregationalist Unitarian minister and her mother, Hannah Webster Foster, was a noted novelist and the author of The Coquette (1797).202 Cushing was already an author when she moved to Montreal.

Between the years 1838 to 1851 Cushing wrote for The Literary Garland,203 a popular journal published in Montreal, which she also edited for two years (18511852). In her role as editor she actively solicited works by Canadian women writers such as Susanna Moodie. When she was widowed in 1846 she remained in Montreal and started and edited, along with her author sister Harriett Vaughan Cheney, Snowdrop (18471853), a magazine founded for middle and upper class young people.204 Cushing supported herself, at least in part, through her successful writing and editing. She was financially independent and had the money to travel even though she “did not move in the circles of the well-to-do”205 or have servants.

202 “Cushing, Eliza Foster,” Canada’s Early Women Writers. SFU Library Digital Collections. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada. 1980-2014. accessed 02/09/2016, 2. 203 Cushing contributed “some seventy short stories, poems and historical romances for The Literary Garland alone.” Susan Mann Trofimenkoff, “Foster, Eliza Lanesford,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol.11, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003-, accessed February 19, 2016, 1. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/foster_eliza_lanesford_11E.html 204 Ibid. 205 Ibid. 55

Among Cushing’s many publications were works that interpreted Scripture. Her dramas and dramatic poetry about Old Testament women were her forte. She creatively used travel even though she “did not move in the circles of the well-to-do” or have servants.206dramatic narration and dialogue to teach and to encourage others to enter into the biblical text. Like many other women interpreters, including those listed in Appendix A, she published on the well-known figures of Ruth,

Naomi, and Esther but she also took the bold step of publishing about lesser known but strong and controversial women such as the apocryphal heroine Judith and the wicked Queen Athaliah. In terms of a gendered exegesis as referred to in the introduction, Cushing did not offer a “women- sensitive alternative to rational biblical criticism.”207 While she wrote only about biblical women, reading their stories through the lens of her own experience as a strong, independent nineteenth- century woman, noting their strengths and bold actions, and beginning to push boundaries as she explored questions of women’s nature and roles she held to many nineteenth-century ideals of womanhood.

Cushing’s drama based on the Book of Esther was published together with her epic poem based on the apocryphal book of Judith, thus inviting comparisons between them. Her dramatic retellings of these biblical books were easily accessible and suitable for the readers of popular journals such The Literary Garland which she often contributed to. She retells these two biblical stories, writing to promote interest in the Bible, and arguably to address issues related to theology and ideology. Since Esther was a stage production and Judith could be read as a shared dramatic reading, both invited participation by church youth or Bible study groups. Her drama about

206 Ibid. 207 Taylor, Women in the Story of Jesus, 11.

Esther, for example, called for sixteen actors as well as many ‘extras’ to portray the courtiers and attendants in King Ahaseurus’ court.208

Given that the biblical accounts of Esther and Judith are similar in many ways, sharing, for example, female heroes who rise to life’s challenges and use exceptional means to do so, including reliance on God to deliver the Jews, it is not surprising Cushing uses similar interpretive techniques and highlights similar theological themes in these two works. She takes time, for example, to establish the setting and mood of each story and sees in both stories examples of God’s direction and providence. Cushing’s substantial drama about Esther will be analyzed first and then her work on Judith and her shorter dramatic works will be commented on more briefly.

Esther A Sacred Drama (1840)

Cushing follows the footprints of the biblical narrative closely and begins her play by describing the opulence of Ahaseurus’ exotic palace in Susa, including descriptions of the fine linens, marble, gold, and silver found in the palace courtyard. Her vivid description enables readers to not only visualize the lavishness of Ahaseurus’ court but also to understand the vast trading networks that provided Ahaseurus with such riches.

The boast of Shushan, - with its marble courts, Its purple hangings, wove in Tyrian looms And looped with cords of gold, that sweep their folds… And every colourful gem of beauty rare, Gathered from distant Ind, and hither brought To shed their radiance o’er our regal courts!209

208 Eliza Lanesford Cushing, Esther A Sacred Drama With Judith A Poem (Boston: Published By Joseph Dowe, 22 Court Street, 1840), 6. 209 Ibid., 8.

Cushing continues to follow the flow of the biblical narrative as she transitions from her description of Ahaseurus’ wealth and possessions to the story of beautiful Queen Vashti who defied

Ahaseurus’ command to appear before the men gathered at his banquet. Cushing begins her interpretation of Vashti by drawing attention to the view of women as possessions. In other words,

Vashti is one of Ahaseurus’ possessions, one whom he can command to appear unveiled:

…you shall behold her charms, Shall gaze with wonder on that priceless gem, That lends its glory to my kingly crown.210

Like many other female readers and interpreters, such as Canadian Kate Douglas Ramage,

Cushing gives Vashti a very sympathetic reading.211 Cushing fleshes out the brief biblical portrait212 suggesting that Vashti is an intelligent woman who has grown up in the centres of power. Cushing thus embellishes the story, giving Vashti a royally imperious, self-confident character as a daughter of Cyrus, who is every bit the social equal of Ahaseurus.213

A queen, said I? Ay; yes by right of birth, Of high, unmixed descent,-for the same tide, The rich and crimson tide of royal blood, Which warmed the heart of Cyrus, my great sire, Flows also through my veins…214

210 Ibid., 9. 211 Kate Douglas Ramage vividly describes Vashti’s dignity, pride and strength in refusing Ahaseurus’ command and in accepting the consequences of refusal. Kate Douglas Ramage, “Vashti,” Vashti And Other Poems, 11-13. 212 In chapter one of Esther, Vashti is described as “fair to look on.” The biblical narrator gives the additional information that Vashti gave a “feast for the women in the royal house” and that “she refused to come at the king’s commandment.” (Esther 1: 9, 11, 12) 213 The imagined royal birth is unattested in chapter one of the biblical text and in the Septuagint text, and also unattested in Josephus where he describes the feast, the king’s order, and the outcome. Josephus, “The Antiquities of the Jews,” Josephus The Complete Works, trans. William Whiston, A.M. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998), 357-8. 214 Cushing, Esther A Sacred Drama With Judith A Poem, 11.

Cushing gives Vashti a first -person voice and thus brings her more fully into the story. Vashti is no longer spoken of in the third person, as one to whom events happen (Esther 1:12) when the biblical narrator says that Vashti refused to obey the king’s command. The first person voice not only express Vashti’s perception of her own value as “the partner of his throne” who was also “formed for rule,” but also her scorn at the king’s insulting command.215

Preposterous request! No, Persia’s queen stoops not to such disgrace! Go tell your king that Vashti did not wed To swell the pomp and triumph of her lord; She has a spirit that will not be chain’d.216

Cushing follows the lead of the biblical narrative, contrasting a strong Vashti with a weak Ahaseurus who allows himself to be manipulated by the clever advisor Memucan who flatters the absolute monarch Ahaseurus with words of praise: “most wise are thou, and ever just,”217 when Ahaseurus agrees with Memucan’s suggestion of banishment for Vashti. Cushing also follows the biblical narrative (Esther 1:16-17) which identifies Memucan’s manipulative strategy of suggesting that Vashti’s disobedience will inspire all women to imitate her bold action. He insinuates that Vashti’s refusal will “rouse up idle women, weak and vain to grasp at rule, to spurn the wedded laws.”218 Cushing makes use of irony as she further highlights Ahaseurus’ weakness when he admits: “weak that I was,”219 illuminating the reality of his own weakness compared to the power Memucan subtly wields with his suggestion of the influence Vashti’s refusal might have on other women (Esther 1:17). Cushing also portrays Ahaseurus as self-aware enough to acknowledge that he is “prone to err, a humbling thought” for Ahaseurus

215 Cushing, Esther A Drama With Judith A Poem, 13. 216 Ibid., 13. 217 Ibid., 15. 218 Ibid., 19. 219 Ibid., 16.

60 as he acknowledges that he has forgotten Mordecai’s role in uncovering a plot against him.220Cushing continues to highlight Memucan’s character as manipulative when she later introduces Haman, who, competing for court influence with Memucan, reflects that Memucan

“sways the king with artful wiles.”221

Cushing does not allow Vashti to disappear from her drama as Vashti disappears in the Bible story. (Esther 2:17) She fills in that narrative gap for readers and brings a sense of closure to

Vashti’s story by describing Vashti’s departure on Vashti’s terms. Ironically Cushing has Memucan describe Vashti’s pride and strength of purpose, thus imparting a sense of right action to Vashti.

She has departed, whither none can tell. Soon as she learned thy will, with fierce disdain, And brow of angry pride, she called her slaves, And bid them quick prepare to follow her.222

Cushing creates dramatic dialogue to convey not only sympathy for Vashti but also to highlight the plight of women who lack choice and power when under the power of men. She subtly reinforces this issue of women as a commodity when she chooses the word “cull” for Ahaseurus’ command to search for a new queen.

…Quick, send thou forth Most trusty ministers, as thou hast said; And bid them cull forthwith the fairest maids, Where’er they may be found.223

Cushing’s use of this word emphasizes the power of the royal emissaries and aptly conveys the power of the king who commissions them, and the lack of power and choice for any

220 Ibid., 84. 221 Ibid., 39. 222 Ibid., 16. 223 Ibid., 19.

61 woman in the kingdom. Cushing adds to the reality of the vast reach of Ahaseurus’ power to “cull” when she names far-flung parts of the empire that the selected women are taken from: regions such as Cashmere, Georgia, and the more immediate Tigris area;224 and peoples such as the

Circassians.225

Cushing establishes a pattern of describing woman’s high calling and duty combined with the nineteenth-century ideal of womanly attributes when she describes Queen Esther. She extols

Esther as a champion of her people and as “God’s chosen instrument,”226 while describing her as

“sweetly feminine,” a heroine of “chastened dignity,” and “enchanting grace.”227 Although Cushing portrays Esther as a hero she also invokes an image of womanly timidity that nevertheless follows the text in Esther 1 and 4 when Esther keeps silent about her identity and when she uses her beauty and her beautiful, royal robes to gain Ahaseurus’ favour (Esther 5:1-2). Esther is content to be “a captive Jewish maid”228 who must be exhorted by Mordecai to accept the high destiny that God has chosen for her and to be the “weak instrument” of God towards “a mighty end.”229 At this point

Cushing stresses the theme of God’s sovereignty and of God’s provision through history as she interprets Mordecai’s exhortation to Esther as an example of God choosing weak and humble

224 Ibid., 28-30. 225 Geographical names are not part of the biblical text. However Bibles and Bible dictionaries of the day contained maps of the Ancient Near East. Dr. Edward Robinson speaks of the availability and suitability of such resources in the preface to the 1833 edition of A Dictionary of the Holy Bible. He states that his purpose is to present material in a form that would be interesting to young people and others “who may be supposed to take an interest in this species of knowledge, without being in a situation to make a satisfactory use of the larger work. There are doubtless thousands of such persons, especially of the female sex, to whom the information contained in this small volume would be in a high degree interesting and instructive; but who, nevertheless, would never think of seeking for it in the larger and more learned volumes, in which it is usually contained.” Edward Robinson, “Preface,” A Dictionary of the Holy Bible (Boston: Crocker and Brewster, 1833), n.p. 226 Cushing, Esther A Sacred Drama, 43. 227 Ibid., 38. 228 Ibid., 21. 229 Ibid., 115.

62 instruments to do his will and then likens Esther to Moses, at first reluctant to step up (Exod. 14:

16), but whose hand became the “human hand - used by God to work his high behests” and move

“back the waters of the rushing sea.”230

An important and ongoing aspect of Cushing’s interpretative strategy is to fill in gaps in women’s stories in the biblical narrative, giving them voices_ as she does for Vashti_ when they are spoken of in the third person, when they have disappeared from the narrative, or when, like Esther’s servants, they have no names and therefore little identity. She rounds out these characters and makes them participants in her retelling. She does so, however, within the framework of the biblical and apocryphal narratives. Cushing reads Esther as an intelligent woman who reflects, speaks, and acts, and who ponders a difficult, potentially dangerous life-changing decision “to dare extreme peril.”231 She realistically portrays Esther`s very human soul searching as she expresses Esther’s feelings of her own sense of powerlessness “to avert the blow”232 of Haman`s plot. Cushing expands the biblical version of Esther’s hesitation to act in terms of Ahaseurus’ power and will affecting her decision to avoid risk and wait for a time of greater need to test her influence over

Ahaseurus. (Esther 4:11)

And shall I brave his wrath, And yet, thus daring, hope to escape with life But `tis not death I fear, that thus I shrink From Mordecai`s behest. It is the dread Lest, by a fatal risk, I forfeit power To aid him in worse need at future time, Should need again arise.233

230 Ibid., 25. 231 Ibid., 112. 232 Ibid., 57. 233 Ibid., 58.

When Esther decides to approach the king, the biblical narrator uses the third person to briefly note her daring approach to Ahaseurus (Esth. 5:1). Cushing, however, gives her Esther character a first person voice to express her sense of overwhelming relief, the relief felt by a woman whose only power is her beauty and determination in the face of overwhelming temporal power, and as one who knows that Vashti’s beauty and position as queen had been of little avail when she challenged

Ahaseurus’ power and refused his command to appear. (Esther 1:12)

I can scarce believe What I have boldly dared. Alone, uncalled To tread that crowded court, and meet the gazes Of Persia’s sovereign lord, in power arrayed…234

In like manner, Cushing rounds out anonymous supporting characters in the biblical narrative. She gives culturally realistic names, Fatima and Zobeida,235 to two of Esther’s nameless

“seven chosen maids” (Esther 2:9), thus bringing them out of their nameless anonymity in the compressed biblical narrative, and giving them a role in the story. She includes them in a realistic way, placing them in scenes where they would have been present with Esther. Zobeida speaks of and thus reinforces the great risk to Esther in approaching a king with ‘an uncertain temper. In an intertextual allusion that recalls the biblical Ruth`s promise to leave everything behind and follow

Naomi (Ruth 1:16-17), Zobeida speaks of her devotion to Esther, confirming that Esther was liked and admired. (Esther 2:9, 15, 17)

Beloved mistress, if thou art resolved To cast thy life, thy precious life away, Then I will follow thee, though `tis to death, Into that fearful presence – if thou goest, I too will go, -and if thou diest there, There will I lay me down die with thee.236

234 Ibid., 74. 235 Ibid., 64. 236 Ibid., 66.

Cushing thus develops the biblical characters of Esther and her maids through dialogue and description, revealing emotions, words and actions to enhance the drama of the biblical narratives.

The dialogue she creates fills in blanks in the biblical and apocryphal stories, answering questions about the women’s thoughts and actions left unanswered in the biblical text. In so doing she draws readers into the biblical narrative and influences their understanding and appreciation of the Bible story.

Cushing embellishes the received biblical story, which does not overtly speak of God or prayer, when she emphasizes Esther and Mordecai’s reliance on God. Cushing’s Esther, challenged with risking her life to save her people, resolves to “commune with my God” and “seek his aid, his grace implore.”237 Her Mordecai blesses Esther with words that evoke Israel’s relationship with

God from the time of the patriarchs. “Bless thee, my child!238 And may our fathers’ God shed on thy youthful head his richest dews and guide thy steps.”239 Her interpretation demonstrates that she relies on the additions to Esther in the Apocrypha. Chapters thirteen and fourteen in Addition C of the apocryphal narrative, for example, stress Mordecai and Esther’s reliance on God. “Then

Mardocheus thought upon all the works of the Lord, and made his prayer unto him” (13:8). “Queen

Esther also, being in fear of death, resorted unto the Lord…”(14:1)

In addition to supplementing the Hebrew version of Esther’s story found in the Protestant

Bible with her additions inspired by the longer version in the Apocrypha, Cushing mitigates the force of the biblical narrative. The biblical Esther asks that the Jews in Susa be allowed to defend themselves according to the decree signed by Ahaseurus and asks also that the ten sons of Haman

237 Ibid., 28. 238 Ibid. 239 The words Cushing chooses echo the patriarch Isaac’s blessing to Jacob in Genesis 27:28. “Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven …”

65 be hanged (Esther 9:13). Cushing’s retelling removes the violence of the wording of the decree and of Esther’s request.240 Instead, Cushing leaves it to Ahaseurus to command “all the Jews through our realm to rise and arm, not unresisting stand.”241

Cushing continues her God-centric interpretive theme in the conclusion to her Esther drama, giving Esther and Mordecai voices of triumph, victory, and vindication, solely in terms of God’s provision. Cushing creates a triumphant God-centric dialogue between Esther and Mordecai at the end of the play, when Esther dedicates to God “alone this glad victorious day,” calling for a yearly celebration when Jews would “tell the dark tale of wicked Haman” and “teach” their children “to adore that God who overthrew our foe.” 242 Mordecai then reviews God’s power and God’s provision throughout Israel’s history, describing God as one “who rideth on the winds and makes the clouds his ministers of wrath.”243 (Ps. 104: 3-4)

Cushing’s dramatic retelling of the story of Esther is remarkable in many ways. Cushing demonstrates knowledge of sources beyond the King James Bible such as Bible atlases and the

Apocrypha. She folds details from these sources into her descriptions and dialogues with particular attention to giving female characters a voice and to highlighting God’s provision, reliance on God, and the important role of prayer.

240 “Wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together, and to stand for their life, to destroy, to slay, and to cause to perish, all the power of the people, and provinces that would assault them, both little ones and women, and to take spoil of them for a prey.” (Esther 8:11) 241 Cushing, Esther A Drama, 100. 242 Ibid., 101. 243 Ibid., 102. Cushing seems to echo Psalm 18:10. “And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.” Her words also echo Psalm 104:3-4. “Who layeth the beams of his chambers in the waters: who maketh the clouds his chariot: who walketh upon the wings of the wind. Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire.”

Judith A Poem (1840)

Cushing follows the footprints of the apocryphal Judith narrative closely, beginning with setting the scene for her interpretation of the story of Judith. She evokes an image of the stark contrast between peace and siege, first describing a deceptively peaceful Jerusalem in the light of dawn, then following with the reality of a “beleaguered city” under siege. Her words vividly portray the plight the Israelites faced with Assyria’s invading army and draw attention to the sense of despair of the besieged people who were “greatly troubled” when they saw “the multitude of” of the enemy and the destruction around them. (Judith. 7:4)

How sad the view! how changed the lovely scene! Chariots and horsemen trampled down the field, Where golden harvests waved, the falchion flashed, Where the bright sickle should have reaped the grain, The war-horse crushed the grape, dying his fetlocks In the purple juice of the ripe vintage.244

Cushing weaves theological comment into her description of the people’s despairing state of mind as they realize that “they had profaned” God’s altars “with dark idolatry and rites impure” and cry out “in vain for aid.”245 She also introduces words of hope: “not so! Not so!” for God has

“raised a champion, to save them in this hour of peril sore, and utter hopelessness.”246

At this point Cushing departs from the apocryphal narrative, omitting mention of the roles

of the high priest Joakim (Judith. 4:8) and the Ammonite Achior (Judith. 5:5-22). She chooses to identify and focus on the hero of the story, “a champion fair,”247 the beautiful widow Judith whose

“desponding” heart turns to resolute determination to “dare a desperate deed” to save her people,248

244 Cushing, Esther A Sacred Drama With Judith A Poem, 107. 245 Ibid., 108. 246 Ibid., 109. 247 Ibid., 109. 248 Ibid., 110.

67 and to be an articulate champion raised up249 by God. Judith’s “love of country, that undying flame, which to the perils that her land beset aroused her soul”250 moved her to selfless action on behalf of her people.

Lorraine McMullen identifies this quality of selfless action as a theme in Cushing’s Esther and Judith. McMullen states further that Cushing highlights the ideal of “self-sacrifice, modesty, self-control, stoicism, and positive maternal feeling – all qualities exalted in the nineteenth-century image of the maiden, wife, and mother.” 251 Alice Ogden Bellis also speaks of this theme of self- sacrifice in Judith’s story, albeit not in terms of nineteenth-century womanhood, but in terms of the biblical theme of bold action resulting “in better lives” for those Judith cares about.252

In the apocryphal narrative Judith prays in warlike terms,253 and boldly summons

Jerusalem’s elders to her (8:25-26). Cushing however, tempers the force of Judith’s prayer with a milder exhortation that calls them back to a sense of history and God’s work on their behalf,

Bidding them trust in that almighty arm, Which oft, in sorer straits, their fathers saved, And them had led, an exiled, captive band, Back to Judea’s soil…254

In doing so, Cushing recasts Judith into a woman who reflects the Victorian ideal of gentle womanhood when she says that Judith “in her feebleness”255 speaks to her people, influencing them

249 Here, Cushing’s description of Judith, “…she arose Merari’s daughter…” to save her people, calls to mind Deborah who “arose a mother in Israel” to save her people. (Judg. 5:7) 250 Cushing, Esther A Sacred Drama With Judith A Poem, 109. 251 Lorraine McMullen, Pioneering Women: Short Stories by Canadian Women, Beginnings to 1880, 16. 252 Alice Ogden Bellis, “Subversive Women in Subversive Books,” Helpmates, Harlots, and Heroes (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/John Knox Press, 1994), 221. 253 In the apocryphal Book of Judith, Judith refers to an ancestral story of vengeance. “O Lord God of my father Simeon, to whom thou gavest a sword to take vengeance of the strangers, who loosened the girdle of a maid to defile her…” (9:2) and follows with a prayer of imprecation: “Throw down their strength in thy power, and bring down their face in thy wrath: for they have purposed to defile thy sanctuary…” (9:8) 254 Cushing, Esther A Sacred Drama With Judith A Poem, 110. 255 Ibid., 110.

68 with her wisdom and her beauty, yet with her “woman’s softness” concealing a “stern purpose.”256

At the same time, Judith is hardly a model Victorian woman in that this stern purpose involves planning and carrying out the murder of Holofernes. In like manner, Cushing tempers Judith’s forceful, vengeful prayer to “make my speech and deceit to be their wound and stripe.” (Judith

9:13). Instead, she extols Judith for artfully lying to Holofernes and his army:

With wary word She artfully replied, - feigning she fled Forth from the Hebrew, to the safer charge Of their great captain, Holofernes brave, To whom she craved quick conduct, having that Which nearly touched his safety to reveal.257

As Cushing speaks of Judith’s courage and wit in daring all to save her people she also recasts Judith as a virtuous but daring Victorian hero:

She, who had periled life, - aye, more than life, - Her chaste unspotted name, that priceless gem, - Renounced the gentle bearing of her sex… And issued forth from her lone widowed bower To strike for God and her insulted land A deadly blow.258

She imagines the Assyrian army treating Judith without insult and with the “reverence due her sex.”259 Cushing partially defers to the text which speaks of the enemy troops wondering and marvelling at Judith’s beauty (Jth. 10:10, 23). The text however, speaks of safe passage to

Holofernes on the grounds that Judith has valuable information for him, not on the grounds of any reverence due her sex. (Jth. 11:4)

Cushing recasts Holofernes, the dominant and powerful male character in the Judith narrative, in the same way she recast the dominant and powerful Ahaseurus in the Esther narrative.

256 Ibid., 112. 257 Ibid. 258 Ibid., 116. 259 Ibid., 112.

She acknowledges their vast temporal power but reads both as prone to manipulation. Thus, she describes the great general Holofernes as a “valiant warrior, terrible in arms,”260 paralleling the description of Holofernes in the apocryphal text as “the chief captain” who was “next unto”

Nebuchadnezzar himself (Judith 2:4). Yet under the influence of too much to drink,261 Holofernes lost his sense of perspective and of danger. He was “subdued by wine, and by a woman`s smile.”262

As she did in her Esther drama, Cushing stresses the theological theme of faith in God and trust in God’s direction and provision as Judith exhorts her people to have faith in their God and guide.

Still, in the hollow of his mighty hand,263 Safe would he hold the people of his love.264

Cushing continues to highlight this God-centric theme when she describes Judith’s resolution to carry out her plan, even if it meant dying for the cause of her people. She describes Judith as

“nerved” by “deep prayer,”265 and, when her deed is done, giving all credit to God whose “hand hath wrought by a weak instrument a mighty end!”266 Cushing’s description of Judith’s victorious song as she “led with graceful feet the sacred dance”267 echoes Miriam’s song when Miriam led the

Israelite women in song and dance to celebrate God’s triumph over the Egyptians (Exod. 15: 20-

21), and Deborah and Barak’s victory song extolling God’s provision for the Israelites against

Sisera and his army. (Judg. 5:1)

260 Ibid. 261 “And Holofernes took great delight in her and drank more wine than he had drunk at any time in one day since he was born.” (Judith. 12:20). 262 Cushing, Esther A Drama With Judith A Poem, 114. 263 This is perhaps a reference to Isaiah 40:12 when the prophet speaks of God’s power just after the promise that God himself shall care for his people. Verse twelve then expresses God’s power to do this. “Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance.” 264 Cushing, Esther A Drama With Judith A Poem, 110. 265 Ibid., 111. 266 Ibid., 115. 267 Ibid., 117.

Finally, Cushing parallels the triumphant praise for the hero Judith in the apocryphal text.

Cushing extols Judith as “she their deliverer named, their crown of joy, the glory and rejoicing of their land,”268 much as the text extols her, namely: “Thou art the exultation of Jerusalem, thou art the great glory of Israel, thou art the rejoicing of our nation.”269

A Dramatic Scene (1840)

Cushing also published a short two-page dramatic dialogue based on Ruth 1: 15-21, an extended dialogue between Ruth and Naomi as the women return to Bethlehem and Ruth vows to stay with Naomi and her God (Ruth 1:16). The focus of Cushing’s interpretive dialogue, however, is not the same as the biblical narrative which extols Ruth’s devotion and faith and presents Naomi as a self-absorbed, grieving widow. Instead, she focusses on

Naomi’s grief, her gratitude for Ruth’s devotion, and her acceptance of God’s will. The latter themes are not present in chapter one of the book of Ruth. Only in chapter four does Naomi seem to recognize God’s goodness and Ruth’s devotion and only when the women of Bethlehem remind her of Ruth’s devotion. (Ruth 4:14-15)

In this dramatic scene Cushing sets the mood well. She focusses not on place, as she did in her dramatic retelling of the stories of Esther and Judith, but on human emotion. She sets a sombre mood for much of the dialogue, using descriptors and images such as “withered,” and “frosty winter of thy life,”270 before she shifts, at the end of the scene, to a mood of hope for the future and of trust in God. As she leads up to hope she alternates between lack of hope and hope, a strategy that builds anticipation toward that final outcome. Cushing thus shifts from “pleasant memories” to the

268 Ibid. 269 Jth. 15:9 https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org 270 Eliza Lanesford Cushing, “Dramatic Dialogue,” The Literary Garland, Vol. II, No. 4 (March, 1840): 145.

71 question “why cleave to her, who is like a barren tree…a blasted oak,” and moves from “the withering touch of grief” to affirmation that even grief “cannot dampen” the “pure and gushing love” in Ruth’s heart.271 The shift back and forth from lack of hope to hope culminates in Naomi’s decision to carry on with life trusting in God. “

So let us forth, - the eye that never sleeps Will guard our steps. In God be all our trust.272

Her inclusion of the words “the eye that never sleeps” would recall for readers the hymn, “There is an Eye that Never Sleeps,” available in hymn books since about 1839, and help them connect the

Bible story with their nineteenth century faith. 273

Cushing uses similes to describe the value of Ruth’s character and love. Cushing’s Naomi describes Ruth’s love as “soothing as Gilead’s balm e’en to deep wounds like mine,”274 and describes Ruth as “a pearl of great price,” a reference to Matthew 13:46, the parable of the merchant who sold all he had to acquire a pearl of great price. Cushing departs from the biblical text of Ruth chapter one when she describes Ruth in such glowing terms. Moreover, Cushing does not refer to

Ruth as an outsider or mention Moab or Ruth’s identity as a Moabitess. This also departs from the biblical text which stresses Moab six times in the first six verses of chapter one. Instead, Cushing avoids mention of Moab and chooses to focus on Naomi, clinging to her grief, “lonely and sad I’ll tread my lonely way,”275 and on Ruth who is willing to give up unnamed “friends, country, gods” to journey with Naomi and become part of her people and worship her God.276

271 Ibid. 272 Cushing, “Dramatic Dialogue,” 146. 273 Glaser, Carl Gottfried and J.A. Wallace, “There is an Eye that Never Sleeps,” The Canadian Hymnal (Toronto: William Briggs; Montreal: C.W. Coates: Halifax: S.F. Huestis, 1900), 440. 274 Ibid., 146. Cushing likely bases this imagery on three texts in Jeremiah: 8:22, 46:11 and 51:8 which speak of healing for the people of Israel, daughter Egypt, and Babylon respectively. 275 Ibid. 276 Ibid.

Cushing uses the story of Ruth and Naomi to stress three aspects of faith for her readers.

Instead of Naomi’s stated bitterness (Ruth 1:21), Cushing speaks of submission to God’s will, and interprets a humble Naomi submitting to God’s will and saying:

God has chastened us, and to his will, In meekness let us bow.277

Secondly, Cushing adapts the sacred nature of Old Testament vows of conditional self- imprecation278 to Ruth’s declaration of loyalty: “May God so deal with me” if she does not follow through on her vow to stay with Naomi.279 In doing so, Cushing uses the sacred import of these vows to highlight the value and importance of Ruth’s statement of fidelity over Naomi’s statement of despair. Thirdly, Cushing reinforces her repeated theme of trust in God. She embellishes the biblical narrative to assume that Naomi, even with her life challenges, expresses absolute trust in God and faith that God will watch over them. “In God be all our trust.”280

A Dramatic Sketch Featuring the Wicked Athaliah (1844)

While Cushing’s interpretation of the story of Queen Athaliah is also a drama it differs from her other interpretations in one respect. It features a queen who is a more minor character among the many royals of Judah and Israel described in the books of Kings and Chronicles. Unlike Jean

Racine (1639-1699), who openly titled his 1691 play Athalie Tragédie tirée de l’écriture sainte,281

Cushing chose the title, Dramatic Sketch From Scripture, which, by itself, gives no indication that her sketch is about a queen who embraced ruthless power politics and who is given an

277 Ibid., 145. 278 There are several references, made by Kings Saul, David, and Solomon: in the nature of ‘May God do so and so to me if…’ a vow is not accomplished. (1 Sam.14:44, 2 Sam.3:35, 19:13; 1 Kings 2:23; 2 Kings 6:31) 279 Cushing, “Dramatic Dialogue,” 146. 280 Ibid. 281 Racine’s play, long available in French, was also available in translation, one example being: Thomas Fry, trans. Athaliah, A Sacred Drama Translated From Racine And Original Poems By The Late Thomas Fry (London: J.C.F. & J. Rivington, St. Paul’s Church And T. Fry, Tunbridge Wells), MDCCCXLI.

73 unsympathetic reading in the Bible. Cushing bases her interpretation of Athaliah on 2 Kings 8:26 and 11:1-20 and on the more detailed but judgmental narrative of Athaliah’s deeds and influence described in 2 Chronicles 22:2-12, 23:1-21 and 24:7.282 Cushing remains true to the outline of the biblical narrative but develops character and actions through description and dialogue that focus on

God’s power and provision throughout history.

As she has done in her other biblical dramas Cushing sets the introductory scenes with artful descriptions. Like Racine, she locates her first scene in the royal palace in Jerusalem, but differs from Racine283 by beginning with dialogue between Athaliah, her main character, and her advisor and lover Imlah. Cushing, as she did in her interpretations of Esther, adds and develops minor characters, which may only be hinted at or referenced without names, to flesh out the biblical narrative. In this case she assumes a devoted supporter for Athaliah and names him Imlah, a biblical name Cushing chooses from 1 Kings 22:8-9.The ensuing dramatic dialogues Cushing creates between Athaliah and Imlah not only allows her to develop Athaliah’s character but also to address a lacuna in the biblical text. That is, Athaliah reigned for six years (2 Kings 11:3). Cushing fleshes out the story, filling in the blanks of those years by imagining a strong supporter for Athaliah.

Cushing develops a dialogue between Athaliah and Imlah that establishes a mood of

Foreboding, anticipating Athaliah’s ultimate fate while simultaneously acknowledging her decision to retain her power as queen.

But ah! I walk as in a fearful dream Which fancy peoples with most horrid shapes.

282 One example of the chronicler’s view is thus: “For the sons of Athaliah, that wicked woman, had broken up the house of God; and also all the dedicated things of the house of the Lord did they bestow upon Baalim.” (2 Chron. 24:7) 283 Racine begins with two key male characters, Joad, “le grand-prête,” and Abner, “l’un des principaux officiers,” who condemn “l’audace d’une femme,” as they begin to plan for the overthrow of Athaliah and the restoration of the Davidic king. Jean Racine, “Les noms des personnages,” et “ligne 13,” Athalie: Tragédie tirée de l’écriture sainte, Publié par Paul Fièvre © Théâtre classique-Version du texte du 30/11/2017 a 23:16:25. www.thetre- classique.fr/.../edition.php?t=./.../RACINE_ATHALIE...accessed 06/07/18.

The past, how terrible! What human life can show a page so dark with crimes, as mine?284

Athaliah acknowledges where her quest for power has led her but says “I will press fearless on in my career.”285 Cushing develops Athaliah’s character as she blends descriptions of strength and purpose in women with the prevailing nineteenth-century concept of women’s weakness. Her dramatic comments present Athaliah as tormented by past actions while acknowledging “the power I loved.”286 The dialogue she writes shows the power and strength of women, yet judges that women, like men, can use power inappropriately. After Athaliah expresses her dark feelings, her lover Imlah gives voice to the struggle many women face in the acquisition of power:

The voice I hear is that of Judah`s queen, _but not the words. They are a feeble woman’s timorous plaint; My royal mistress hath a heroes soul, And speaks in trumpet-tones, that stir the heart.287

When Cushing comments that Imlah sees no problem with an ethic of the ends justifying the means, she recalls the actions of Athaliah’s mother Queen Jezebel in plotting the murder of Naboth.

(1 Kings 21:8-10) Thus, her comments about Athaliah`s thoughts and actions are in character for a royal princess raised in the centre of power in the Kingdom of Israel with the family background of power and entitlement in Tyre, in Samaria, and now in Judah.

Cushing moves from the opening scene of defiance and foreboding to a final scene that contrasts dramatically with the start of her drama. She imagines a mood of celebration through the final dialogue as the priest Jehoida confronts Athaliah and her idol worship, orders her execution, and reveals the rightful king.

284 E.L.C., “Dramatic Sketch From Scripture History,” The Literary Garland Vol. 2, No. 4 (April, 1844): 178. 285 Ibid., 177. 286 Ibid. 287 Ibid., 178.

75 Now to the palace, where his fathers dwelt, Let us conduct our king…. This restoration to their ancient throne, Of that high race, ordained by God to reign, O’er Judah’s realm.288

Cushing’s own stage instructions for the conclusion of her drama further highlight the contrast she develops between the gloom of the start and the celebration of the end of the drama. “They move forward. Jehoash is borne on a magnificent litter, surrounded by his guard, the princes, and high officers of the kingdom, with Jehoida in his pontifical robes at their head. The people follow with shouts and acclamations of joy. The whole procession presents an appearance of great pomp and splendour.”289 Cushing’s words here highlight not only a theme of triumph but also of recognition of God’s role in achieving that triumph.

Cushing also enhances her interpretation by including a vivid description of the powerful city of Tyre, birthplace of Queen Jezebel, Athaliah’s mother. Cushing’s description offers a realistic snapshot of the kind of wealth and power that Jezebel came from, brought to the northern kingdom of Israel when she married Ahab, and transmitted to her daughter. Indeed Cushing’s description of

Jezebel’s homeland helps to illuminate Athaliah’s power-seeking character and actions.

…those azure heavens Which canopy fair Tyre, the queenliest City of the orient, within whose walls, Beauty and wealth abide, which from afar, Kings haste to seek. Its cloths of purple dye, Its gems and gold, furnished rich trappings For the mightiest king, Israel e’er saw.290

Cushing continues to embellish her account of Athaliah’s story by weaving in references to scenes and characters from other biblical texts that round out and illuminate her

288 Ibid., 188. 289 Ibid. 290 Ibid., 177.

76 dramatic scene. For example, she brings in a reference to Israel`s Queen Jezebel that evokes the problem of idolatry and the struggle of the prophet Elijah.

O’erthrow the shrines where Baal is adored, Uncrown the daughter of that Jezebel, Who slew by scores the prophets of the Lord.291

True to biblical narrative, she names, in one scene, the great pillars of bronze “Boaz and

Jachin”292 in the porch of Solomon`s temple. She follows up this theme of strong pillars with the words “cloudy pillar and the fiery flame,”293 an intertextual reference highlighting God’s provision of the pillars of cloud and of flame that symbolized God’s presence and guided the Israelites in the exodus and into hope for the future (Exod. 13:21). Cushing carries the theme further as Jehoida expresses the hope that young King Jehoash will also be a guiding pillar of light for his people.

Cushing uses a variety of interpretive comments, from prophecy to protection to exhortation, to illustrate her theme of God`s guiding protection through history. Loyalty to “the one God”294 is stressed over loyalty to Baal with the reminder that the young King Jehoash, saved by God`s grace, is “born of that house, of which Jehovah said, its princes through all times should oèr us reign.”295

Cushing further comments on God`s protective care, going back in Israel’s history to see Moses

(Exod. 1, 2) as a type of the young King Jehoash, both of them protected by God who guarded the steps of the Israelites.

Our fathers’ wandering steps, or Moses snatched From the engulfing Nile, when lone he floated, In his bulrush ark, on its broad breast, Hath God his hand outstretched, to pluck from death, This helpless child, to be to us, we trust,

291 Ibid., 182. 292 Ibid., 186. 293 Ibid. 294 Ibid., 182. 295 Ibid., 182.

As Moses was to the oppressed tribes. 296

Cushing’s choice of words evokes Israel’s long history with a protecting God. The words

“wandering steps” as noted above evoke memories of the exodus as do the words “hand outstretched.”297 Cushing continues with her theological theme of God`s guidance when she gives Jehoida words of instruction for Jehoash.

Fear God! My child; walk in his holy ways; Fulfil his will, preserve his worship pure, Guard thine own soul from sin, and rule thy people With a righteous rod. This is true wisdom; And the noblest aim of a good king.298

She interweaves multiple Old Testament texts, ranging from Joseph`s words in Genesis 42:18

“for I fear God,” to the injunction in Leviticus 26:3 to “walk in my statutes,” to the injunction for the proper worship of bringing first fruits in Deuteronomy 26:10, to Solomon’s God-given wisdom, chronicled in 1 Kings 3:28, to the requirements for a good king listed in Deuteronomy 17:14-20, to reinforce her God-centric focus.

Cushing’s interpretations of Esther, Judith, Ruth and Naomi, and Athaliah demonstrate solid biblical knowledge, which, paired with the popular voice of drama and dramatic poetry opens up the stories of these strong biblical women to a wide audience. She retells the biblical and apocryphal stories, following the textual narratives and embellishing them with created characters and dialogue to round out the biblical stories, always with an emphasis on God’s guidance and provision. Her descriptions of womanly characteristics, at times in nineteenth-century terms, and at times in terms that celebrate the daring actions of these biblical women, give

296 Ibid., 183. 297 These words call to mind the words of the deuteronomist. “And the Lord brought us forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm…”(Deut. 26:8). 298 Cushing, Dramatic Sketch, 185.

79 readers today a glimpse into the evolving ideas of women’s nature, place and voice in nineteenth- century society. Her readers would see a nineteenth-century woman author and biblical interpreter celebrating a variety of strong biblical women.

Chapter 3

Nineteenth-Century Sacred Poetry

Poetry was a favoured genre for nineteenth-century Canadian women interpreters of the

Bible. Indeed, twenty-eight of the forty-four women listed in Appendix A chose this genre of expression. This chapter will feature three of these women. Isabella Whiteford Rogerson and

Harriett Annie Wilkins were prolific poets who wrote about a variety of Old Testament characters and events. Each poem was devoted to a particular biblical character or event. Helen Mar Johnson, on the other hand, wrote just two poems about the Old Testament, a shorter poem following the pattern of Rogerson and Wilkins, and a longer, epic poem taking a pan-biblical thematic approach.

All three women interpreted the received text for a wide audience in terms of themes such as human characteristics, human need, faith, and God’s guidance, power, and provision, rather than exploring and analyzing the text with a view to a gendered exegetical approach.

3:1 Isabella Whiteford Rogerson

In 1850 Isabella Whiteford (18351905) and her family immigrated to St. John’s

Newfoundland, from Fair Head, Antrim County, in Northern Ireland. Isabella was fifteen at the time and already a poet. Little is known about her formal education but she was raised in a

Methodist home, her father being a lay circuit steward for the Methodist Church.299 The religious and biblical training she received at home benefitted her greatly in terms of grounding her in

Scripture and theology and forming her as a biblical interpreter. In 1879 Rogerson

299 G. M. Storey, “Whiteford, Isabella,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 13, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003-, accessed April 23, 2016, http://www.biograhpi.ca/en/bio/whiteford_isabella_13E.html. 80

81 became the second wife of politician the Honourable James Johnstone Rogerson and shared in his philanthropic and temperance work. They were “foremost in every good work,”300 work that for

Isabella included leading a women’s missionary society, Methodist classes, and raising the children from Rogerson’s first marriage.

Rogerson’s love for writing poetry continued into adulthood in Newfoundland. She published her first volume of poetry, Poems, a collection of Irish and Newfoundland scenes, in

Belfast in 1860. Her second volume of poetry, The Victorian Triumph And Other Poems, was published in Toronto in 1898. Both books contain poems about characters and events from the

Old Testament. These biblical poems attest to her poetic talent, her faith, and her knowledge of the

Bible. D.W. Prouse, who wrote a short biography of Rogerson for her second volume of poems, praises the “golden thread of deep religious feeling” in her poetry and commends her “devotion to religion and family.”301 In his short biography of Rogerson in the Dictionary of Canadian

Biography, Story comments that Rogerson’s chosen genre of poetry “lies somewhat untidily between the highest of academic studies, the oral literature of the folklorist, and (occasionally) the popular verse of regional newspapers and magazines.”302

Interestingly, Rogerson’s poems of Old Testament interpretation do not reflect the social justice work she shared with her husband or her engagement with debates over questions related to woman’s nature and woman’s role in society. These concerns are evidenced only in her dedication of The Victorian Triumph And Other Poems to “The Ladies Of The Newfoundland

Methodist College Aid Society At Whose Request And For Whose Benefit It Is Now

300 D.W Prouse, “Introductory Note,” The Victorian Triumph And Other Poems (Toronto: William Briggs, 1898), vii. 301 Ibid. 302 G. M. Storey, “Whiteford, Isabella,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 13.

Published,”303 her poem celebrating noted Methodist hero “Barbara Heck,”304 and in her dedication to the Newfoundland Women’s Christian Temperance Union.305 Her poem on Naaman is the exception in this regard, as Rogerson notes the influence of the Israelite slave girl who offers advice for Naaman (2 Kings 5:3) and ponders her future. Instead, Rogerson focussed her published interpretive work almost exclusively on events in the lives of Old Testament men who were leaders and who were renowned for their relationship with God. The only exceptions are her references to

Naaman’s unnamed wife and the unnamed slave girl, and her references to Rebecca and Hagar in her short poem about the importance of biblical wells. Rogerson interprets each biblical character and event from a hermeneutic of faith. She teaches/preaches to encourage her readers to reflect on the themes of salvation, godly living and its rewards, and God’s provision. Her published interpretations of Scripture show that she felt authorized as a woman to interpret, teach, and arguably preach the Bible.

Enoch

Rogerson is the only one of the nineteenth-century Canadian women interpreters listed in

Appendix A to have commented on the minor primordial figure of Enoch, who was remembered for his close relationship with God. Rogerson bases this poem of sixty-eight lines on the four verses about Enoch in Genesis 5 that are part of the list of generations. There is no Enoch story as such in

Scripture. There are, however, two brief but important details that Rogerson highlights from the genealogical list: “Enoch walked with God,” (Gen. 5:22) “and he was not, for God

303 Isabella Whiteford Rogerson, The Victorian Triumph And Other Poems (Toronto: William Briggs, 1898), n.p. 304 Ibid., 16-22. 305 Ibid., 16-22, 42-43.

83 took him.” (Gen. 5:24) Rogerson focuses on these brief but important details, and draws a lesson from them about a lifestyle based on walking with God and aspiring to godliness just as Enoch did.

She emphasizes this theme as she repeats, three times, the biblical phrase “he was not, for God took him” because “he had walked with God.”306

Rogerson transitions to commenting on where Enoch went when God took him, and on eternal life, using phrases and words such as “that body that knew no grave,” and “raised to life,” and “immortal,” and “deathless,” to focus on God’s power over all, even death.307 She explains that God’s children have nothing to fear. There is only joy in “glad triumphant songs” in the “glory- land” where all the saints go to “the wished-for home in heaven,” where they will meet Enoch and hear his story. She invites readers to prepare to meet Enoch and hear his story from his “saintly lips.”308 In this poem Rogerson successfully personalizes Enoch, fleshing out his story by using key information ensconced in the Genesis genealogy. Using the theme of walking with God and its heavenly reward, she connects Enoch’s behaviour with expected Christian behaviour in her nineteenth-century contemporaries. Her voice as a Methodist teacher/preacher is clear in her concluding lines.

To enjoy is to obey; And walking with our Father God, Rely upon Him still. And let Him take us home to Heaven Whatever way He will.309

306 Rogerson, “Enoch,” The Victorian Triumph And Other Poems (Toronto: William Briggs, 1898), 181. 307 Ibid., 181-182. 308 Ibid., 183. 309 Ibid.

84 David’s Life as a Fugitive

Rogerson wrote two poems that interpret two scenes in David’s life as a fugitive. In the

first, “A Scripture Scene,” a poem of 127 lines, Rogerson highlights David’s noble character when he spares Saul’s life. (1 Sam. 26) Her second poem, a shorter work of sixty-eight lines, entitled

“David and The Well of Bethlehem,” also refers to a specific incident. In this case, it features the time when David’s companions risk their lives to get him water from the well at Bethlehem. This second poem is a more introspective and prophetic musing as Rogerson’s David figure reflects on his past, present, and future.

In “A Scripture Scene,” Rogerson comments on the theme of God’s providence and protection and on the praiseworthy character of those who, like David, do what is right in God’s sight. She retells the story in 1 Samuel 26, filling in the gaps and drawing attention to the gulf between Saul’s kingly power and David’s fugitive status. Rogerson begins by setting the nighttime scene of tranquility with David and his men in hiding. She introduces an ominous and anticipatory note with the words “poor, hunted David,”310 implying that this peaceful scene may be disturbed by violence. She further contrasts the gulf between the two opposing sides as she compares David’s fugitive state with “no silken tent”311 for shelter and Saul, whose “warrior-monarch’s silken tent” is surrounded by protectors such as the “brave, faithful” Abner.312

Rogerson gives a very sympathetic reading to David, referring to him as the “brave stripling warrior, Israel’s singer sweet.”313 In contrast, she has nothing to say about Saul other

310 Rogerson, “A Scripture Scene,” The Victorian Triumph And Other Poems (Toronto: William Briggs, 1898), 118. 311 Ibid., 118. 312 Ibid., 117. 313 Ibid., 118.

85 than noting his power and entourage. Her comments segue from Saul’s earthly power to a greater power than Saul’s that she suggests is at work as Saul’s troops go to sleep, a sleep she compares to the deep sleep God places on Adam in Genesis 2:21.314

A mightier form of sleep has fallen on all – The same that fell on Adam ere the fall.315

Following the biblical narrative Rogerson notes that David’s companion Abishai looks on this providential sleep of Saul’s troops as the perfect opportunity to kill Saul and remove the threat to David.

Give this right hand of mine the power to slay: Hast thou not proved me oft before, and know My skilful aim requires no second blow?316

At this point Rogerson introduces the theme of moral testing resulting in righteous action. She illuminates this theme through a back and forth dialogue between David and Abishai, a conversation in which David presents the righteous way and elects to leave the “chastening” of Saul to God.317

Using creative dialogue and commentary, Rogerson continues to retell the Bible story.

After she describes David’s bold challenge to Abner for not keeping the king safe, and highlights the dialogue between David and Saul, she makes the moral and historical observation that “the guiltless ne’er can feel the guilty’s fears.”318 She accentuates the link David has with Saul’s family, placing the guilt on Saul for the damaged relationship that has led to this scripture scene.

What evil have I done? My life hath been Devotedly thine own: through every scene Of peace or war; thy daughter’s love I gained:

314 “And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept…” (Gen. 2:21). 315 Rogerson, “A Scripture Scene,” 117. 316 Ibid., 118. 317 Ibid., 119. 318 Ibid., 120.

86 Ask her if it was worthlessly retained. My very soul is knit up in thy line, In bonds of tenderness almost divine; And thou, O king! hast severed all from me – Exiled from friends, from home, and sanctuary.319

Rogerson’s words, “severed all from me,” are ironic in the sense that David, who is now holding

Saul’s spear, has the power to literally “sever” Saul’s life from him.

Rogerson reemphasizes the theme of God’s power and provision as she concludes the meeting between David and Saul with David’s challenge. “What are thou, Saul, to fight against my God?”320 These words effectively send the message that David fights on God’s side, that God is with David, and that God is no longer with Saul.321 Rogerson has drawn her homiletic point subtly though unmistakably. It is David who is Saul’s moral superior. It is David whom God has chosen to succeed Saul. It is this David who is now our moral exemplar.

Rogerson’s second poem about the fugitive David, “David and The Well Of Bethlehem,” is based on the text of 2 Samuel 23:14-16 where David expresses his longing for a drink “of the water of the well of Beth-lehem which is by the gate,” after which “three mighty men” from his loyal followers “broke through the host of the Philistines” and drew water for him. In this poem she develops the theme of life-giving, sustaining water as a way of tying together aspects of David’s past, present, and future. She incorporates the water theme in several ways, beginning with the young shepherd’s physical need “for a draught of water from Bethlehem’s crystal well.”322 This restful refreshment prompts David to reminisce on his early days as shepherd and musician.

Rogerson has David look ahead to times when his music calmed an enraged King Saul (1 Sam.

319 Ibid., 121. 320 Ibid. 321 Rogerson alludes to 1 Samuel 13: 14 when the prophet Samuel tells Saul “But now thy kingdom shall not continue: the Lord hath sought him a man after his own heart. 322 Rogerson, “David And The Well Of Bethlehem,” The Victorian Triumph And Other Poems (Toronto: William Briggs, 1898), 114.

16:23, 18:10), when later, as king he organized musicians to praise God (1 Chron. 25:1), and when he exercised his royal role as “the shepherd prince.” 323

Rogerson’s comments on this latter part of David’s life are notable as she develops the theme of the well and water using the word ‘spring’ in a prophetic sense to link David and

Bethlehem with a future ruler and saviour. She reads the Hebrew word Shiloh figuratively. When she says “our Shiloh spring from thee,”324 she alludes to Genesis 49:10, “the sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come,” to point to a Davidic

Messiah. She speaks of life’s river rolling on both in the prophetic sense and in the more immediate sense, referring to David’s time as a shepherd as well as his time of exile. In this poem, Rogerson presents a close poetic reading of David’s story that includes names and places from the biblical texts.325 Her comments highlight the actual dangers David faced that in many ways prepared him for his future kingship. She writes with confidence and lets the message of the text speak without excessive commentary.

Wayside Wells

“Wayside Wells – Palestine” is a brief forty- line reflection recalling the long biblical history of important events and encounters at wells. The theme of God’s provision begins and ends the poem, forming a thematic inclusio. Rogerson begins with God’s provision given through the

323 Ibid., 116. Biblical references attest to the concept of a king as shepherd of his people: a Davidic king who will shepherd his people (Ezek. 34:23); King Cyrus a shepherd (Isa. 44:28); leadership/kingly roles in terms of shepherding, of leading out and in, and feeding the flock. (2 Sam. 5:2, 7:7) 324 According to Strong’s the word Shiloh is a symbolic name for the Ruler to come from Judah’s line as in Genesis 49:10. James Strong, The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990), 955. 325 She has taken careful note of the biblical text, referring to the cave of Adullam (1 Sam. 22:1 , 2 Sam. 23:13, and 1 Chron. 11:150), noting the valley of Rephaim where the Philistines camped when David and his army later drove them out. (2 Sam. 5:18, 22; 23:13 and 1 Chron. 11:15; 14:9; noting the names of three brave companions, the Tachmonite , Eleazer and Shammah. (2 Sam. 23:8, 9, 11)

88 living word of Jesus at the well in Samaria (John 4: 14),326 and concludes with God’s provision of

“springs” for all people experiencing times of personal or spiritual deserts.

O Father God, have we not had Springs in the desert too? When all around seemed dry and dead Oases came in view. 327

Between these brackets Rogerson highlights key Old Testament encounters at wells: the covenant established between Abraham and Abimelech (Gen. 21: 25-27), and the story of Jacob rolling the heavy stone from the well so Rachel and the other shepherds could water their flock

(Gen. 29: 1-10). She then reverses poetic time to speak of Abraham’s servant meeting Rebekah,

Rachel’s aunt, at a well (Gen. 24: 15-21), and then moves further back in time to Hagar, Abraham’s concubine, and the well that revives her and Ishmael (Gen. 21:19). Her brief but deft word pictures of each encounter accentuate her theme of God’s life-changing provision of rest and restoration.

This poem in particular features Rogerson’s christotelic reading of Scripture, as she frames the well stories to stress Christ. She begins with “our blessed Lord…Himself Creation’s Word”328 at the

well in Samaria and ends with words of ultimate restoration for humanity with Jesus’

“resurrection” which “came with morn, after the death and night.”329 Rogerson clearly reads

all Scripture in the light of Christ.

326 “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:14). 327 Rogerson, “Wayside Wells – Palestine,” The Victorian Triumph And Other Poems (Toronto: William Briggs, 1898), 209. 328 Ibid., 209. 329 Ibid., 210.

Moses On The Mount

In her short poem of thirty-six lines, “Moses On The Mount,” Rogerson retells the story of

Moses’ awesome encounter and communion with God in which God shields Moses in a cleft in the rock (Exod. 33:13-23) to protect him from “the glory that would crush” him.330 Rogerson combines scripture references and an extra-biblical source to highlight the themes of God’s power and provision throughout history and God’s attributes of glory, light and love. For example, in the first verse she names God “Shekinah.”331 This is an English transliteration of a Hebrew word, the verb

škn, meaning “to settle”, “to dwell,” or “to rest,” and often refers to God’s glory.332 Gerald H.

Wilson explains the settling of God’s glory this way. It “maintains God’s freedom and transcendence while simultaneously allowing for his immanent, gracious presence among his people,” an explanation that fits admirably with Rogerson’s stress on the theme of God’s glorious presence on Mount Sinai compared with Moses’ humility.333

How meekly he stands by the cleft of the rock, Where he knows the Shekinah will rest,334

Rogerson establishes Moses as a man called by God: “Levite and leader and law-Giver!”335

Although she acknowledges Moses’ greatness, she emphasizes God’s power over all, recalling the biblical “I am”336 in God’s declaration to Moses. She personifies God’s power by capitalizing the

330 Rogerson, “Moses On The Mount – The Great Request,” The Victorian Triumph And Other Poems (Toronto: William Briggs, 1898), 212. 331 Ibid., 212. 332 The verb is used In Exodus 24:16, for example, and can be translated literally as “he settled glory of Yahweh on Mount of Sinai.” Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1997), 126. 333 Gerald H Wilson, “#8905,” New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis Volume 4, ed. Willem A. Van Gemeren (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 1997), 110. 334 Rogerson, “Moses On The Mount,” 212. 335 Ibid., 211. 336 “Moreover he said, I am the God thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face for he was afraid to look upon God.” (Exod. 3:6)

“Power and the Presence” that “shall go with thee still…”337 To reinforce the theme of God’s power she twice speaks of Moses’ meekness before God. 338 She incorporates biblical references to illuminate Moses’ God-directed leadership: Moses interceding and praying for Israel339 and his leading Israel’s exodus journey.340

Rogerson moves from this story of God’s power and his care for Moses to apply the theme of God’s ongoing “goodness revealed”341 to her readers who might encounter “rugged and tough” life passages as Moses did. She reminds them that they are “part of” God’s “care” just as Moses was. 342Using typology and an exemplary hermeneutic, Rogerson draws parallels between Moses’ life and her readers’ lives as she acknowledges life’s challenges and God’s continued care for his own.

Elijah and Elisha

In this interpretive poem of 104 lines, Rogerson first comments on the dramatic encounter between the prophet Elijah and the priests of Baal, featured in the Elijah-King Ahab narrative (1

Kings 18:20-40), then highlights the transition of the prophetic role from Elijah to Elisha (2 Kings

2:1-14). Rogerson begins by retelling the dramatic encounter between Elijah and the priests of Baal.

Like Canadian poet Helen Mar Johnson (see below) who describes Elijah as a “lonely prophet” with

337 Rogerson, “Moses On The Mount,” 211. 338 Rogerson describes Moses standing “meekly” by the cleft in the rock and describes Moses’ “meek soul.” “Moses On The Mount, 212. Her reference to Moses’ meekness is also a reference to Numbers 12:3. “Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.” 339 “And Moses made haste, and bowed his head toward the earth, and worshipped. And he said, If now I have found grace in thy sight, O Lord, let my Lord, I pray thee, go among us, for it is a stiff-necked people; and pardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for thine inheritance.” (Exod. 34:8-9) 340 She references the twelve springs of water at Elim (Exod. 15:27; 16:1) where the Israelites camped. 341 Rogerson, “Moses on the Mount,” 213. 342 Ibid., 213.

91 few protectors and many enemies,343 Rogerson also gives readers a sense of Elijah’s aloneness and of his peril as he faces the 450 prophets of Baal.344

(O)f all God’s prophets last. By fire and sword in every place God’s standard bearers fell, And Baal’s priests and Baal ruled supreme in Israel. 345

She underscores Elijah’s prophetic calling with phrases such as “the mighty Tishbite” who

“seemed an echo of God’s word.” 346 She takes note of Elijah’s defiant courage in prophesying no rain in the land and in facing a powerful king and a powerful group of Baal priests who were supported by powerful Queen Jezebel and who thus seemed to be in an unassailable position. She contrasts Elijah and King Ahab when she likens God’s prophet Elijah, not the king, to a brave warrior who is “like a mighty tidal wave.”347 Ahab, who may have thought of himself as a warrior king because God gave his army victories over the Syrians (1 Kings. 20:20, 29), is given a very unsympathetic reading as a “monster monarch” who has “all baser men surpassed.”348

Rogerson then moves to the election of Elisha as Elijah’s successor (2 Kings 2:13). She describes Elisha as loyal, firm, gentle, and persevering compared to Elijah the “whirlwind o’er the land.”349 She emphasizes the strong, steadfast faith that allows Elisha to witness the matchless glory with which God takes Elijah to himself.350 The theme of God’s power versus earthly power, evident in her interpretation of the conflict between Elijah, Ahab and Jezebel, and the priests of

343 Helen Mar Johnson, “Elijah,” Canadian Wild Flowers: Selections From The Writings of Miss Helen M. Johnson of Magog, P.Q., Canada With A Sketch Of Her Life By Rev. J.M. Orrock (Boston: J.M. Orrock, 1884), 169. 344 “Then Elijah said unto the people, I even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord, but Baal’s prophets are four hundred and fifty men.” (1 Kings 18:22) 345 Rogerson, “Elijah and Elisha,” The Victorian Triumph And Other Poems (Toronto: William Briggs, 1898), 145. 346 Ibid., 145. 347 Ibid., 146. 348 Ibid., 145. 349 Ibid., 146. 350 Ibid., 147.

Baal, continues in the Elisha-Elijah section of the poem. She intensifies the theme, personifying both God’s powerful attributes and faith in God, when she capitalizes the words Faith and Love.

It is not only faith in God’s power that has parted the waters of the Jordan for Elijah and Elisha (2

Kings 2:8, 14) but “Faith’s keen eye” that allows Elisha to see Elijah’s departure which is gifted by

God’s “blessed Love.”351 In this way Rogerson encourages her readers to love God’s word, to have faith in God as revealed in Old Testament stories like that of Elijah and Elisha, and to be encouraged by Elisha’s example of sustaining faith in the midst of grief so that they too will reach the “heavenly home above.”352

Naaman the Syrian

Rogerson is the only one of the nineteenth-century Canadian women interpreters listed in

Appendix A to write an interpretive poem about Naaman, an enemy of Israel, who nevertheless came to know God (2 Kings 5). In her eighty-three line poem, Rogerson follows the biblical storyline of Naaman’s healing but departs from the biblical text when it comes to naming key individuals. She does not name Elisha. He is simply called the prophet. Instead, Rogerson chooses to name Naaman and King Benhadad of Syria, men of great temporal power. This helps her to contrast this earthly power which could not overcome or heal the debilitating power of disease, and

God’s great power, transmitted first through the faith and the advice of the unnamed Hebrew servant girl, then in the words of the unnamed prophet who counselled “poor Israel’s king,” the first to receive the king of Syria’s command to heal Naaman,“ to be assured that Israel’s prophet was at work and “still the mighty power of God had he.”353 Her poem preaches/teaches that great power

351 Ibid., 148. 352 Ibid. 353 Rogerson, “Naaman, The Syrian,” The Victorian Triumph And Other Poems (Toronto: William Briggs, 1898), 120.

93 and wealth do not guarantee health and happiness, and that great earthly power is humbled before

God’s power to heal through the words of “but an humble messenger.”354

Rogerson introduces the theme of power in her opening description of an idyllic scene.

Naaman is a successful man, second only to the king in power, living in great luxury in a harmonious household, and expecting a future to look forward to. She brings that luxurious scene to life describing, for example, a home decorated with the costliest Damascus draperies.355 She juxtaposes the image of luxury, however, with the image of a young Hebrew girl, “a little captive whom a Syrian band” under Naaman’s leadership “had led away from her beloved land.”356

Rogerson fills in a gap in the biblical narrative of a captive slave by painting a word picture of a mistress, Naaman’s wife, who treats the Israelite servant girl well and before whom the girl is not afraid to offer a suggestion for Naaman’s healing. “The Syrian matron loved her well.”357

Rogerson intensifies the contrast between power and powerlessness when she speaks of

Naaman’s affliction with a disease which all his wealth and power could not defeat. She aptly conveys to readers Naaman’s sense of entitlement as he at first reacts negatively and indignantly when the prophet’s servant, not the prophet himself, meets him and conveys the instruction to bath in the inferior Jordan River rather than the rivers Pharpar and Abana of his homeland. Rogerson returns to the theme of God’s healing power as she transfers the word “humble” from Elisha to the servant to Naaman, who abandoned his sense of entitlement and “humbly turned to Israel’s God his soul.”358

354 Ibid., 120. 355 Ibid., 119. 356 Ibid. 357 Ibid. 358 Ibid., 120.

As she comments on Naaman’s humbling experience and return home, Rogerson fills in another narrative gap in the biblical text. She deals with a question that this story would have raised for many nineteenth-century readers wrestling with questions about the legitimacy of slavery. What happens to the Israelite slave girl? Was she rewarded or set free? Rogerson voices the hope that her reward would have been restoration to her people. As she speaks of reward she returns to and concludes with the theme she incorporated into her poems “Enoch” and “Elijah and Elisha,” that a better reward for service is to be welcomed to an eternal home, to a “Better Land.” 359

In this poem, as in her others, Rogerson featured a male character, but this story also included female characters who had key roles in directing Naaman’s future: the important nurturing role of Naaman’s wise wife, and the unnamed slave girl whose compassion and faith in God prompted her to speak up, and whose inclusion subtly addresses the issue of slavery.

Rogerson is clearly a poet who uses her pen to teach and preach about the themes of salvation and the afterlife and of godly living and of faith in God’s provision. She does not hesitate to interpret

Scripture with confidence and authority.

3:2 Harriett Annie Wilkins

Harriett Annie Wilkins was born in Bath, England in 1829, immigrated with her family to

Hamilton, Ontario in about 1846, and died in Hamilton in 1888.360 When her father, Reverend John

Wilkins, a Congregationalist pastor, died shortly after the family immigrated, Harriett had to support the family financially. Biographer Katherine Greenfield writes that Harriett used her

359 Ibid., 121. 360 Katherine Greenfield, “Wilkins, Harriett Annie,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 11, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003-, accessed April 6, 2016, http://biographi.ca/bio/wilkins_harriett_annie_www.html,n.p.

95 classical and musical knowledge to lead and teach in a private educational institution for young women and also to teach music from her home.361 She also wrote and published poetry. The biblical knowledge and informal theological training she received growing up in a clergy household enabled

Wilkins to read and interpret Scripture with confidence. Her poems of Old Testament interpretation demonstrate this confidence.362 Like her father she preached the scriptures but her preaching was couched in poetry.

A short biography of Wilkins, written by Reverend William Stephenson for Wayside

Flowers, one of her volumes of poetry, highlights, however, the challenge this nineteenth-century poet and interpreter faced in having her biblical interpretations acknowledged.

Stephenson recognizes Wilkins career as a teacher, but then speaks about her using a common nineteenth-century phrase, “useful Christian labour,”363 so often applied to women’s contributions to society. He highlights the nurturing, caregiving role expected of women, saying that Wilkins was the caregiver for her sick mother and two younger siblings and eked “out a precarious subsistence”364 with her teaching and writing. Stephenson extols Wilkin’s poetry, saying that he finds in it “a delicacy, a beauty, a tenderness, together with a rich hue of thoughts.”365 However he cites examples from her secular poems and not from her poems of biblical interpretation.

Wilkins was a prolific poet, and she used her poems on subjects related to the Old Testament to draw her readers into the biblical texts to help them recognize the relevance of Scripture in their lives. Her Old Testament poetry falls into two categories. The first comprises the stories of Old

361 Ibid., n.p. 362 While her poems of Old Testament interpretation are the concern of this thesis, it must be noted that Wilkins also wrote many poems about New Testament texts and many poems of spiritual reflection. The Holly Branch, one of her books of poetry, features six poems of Old Testament interpretation and three poems of spiritual reflection, while Autumn Leaves contains two poems of Old Testament interpretation, four of New Testament interpretation, and six poems of spiritual reflection. 363 William Stephenson, “Preface,” Wayside Flowers (Toronto: Hunter, Rose & Company, 1876), v. 364 Ibid., v. 365 Ibid., vi.

Testament women and men and the second focusses on key biblical events. Wilkin’s purposes are didactic and theological as she points her readers to God and to the story of salvation. She comments on a wide variety of women and men of the Bible, the good and the bad, writing, for example, about the deliverer Moses, and about the murderer Cain; about admired Ruth, Naomi, and

Miriam, and about the more challenging Jael. She also wrote about major events in the biblical narrative such as creation, the flood, and the last plague of Egypt. Wilkins was adept at setting an anticipatory mood, particularly in her introductory scenes, and after retelling each story with imagination, she concludes by drawing reader’s thoughts to God’s promises and provision.

The Bow In The Cloud

Wilkins begins her forty-eight line poetic account of the flood story by first describing the devastation and death caused by the flood (Gen. 7:17-24; 9:1-17). She uses rhyming couplets or alternating rhyming lines to move the action along, effectively conveying the scope of the devastation, but then moves quickly to the aftermath, a focus on God’s promise for the future. She begins by describing the devastation: “The rising waters drenched the earth,” and living things “died at the waves high flow.”366 A description of survival and gratitude to God, emphasizing human gratitude for God’s saving provision, follows the description of death.

But when the storm had ceased its wrath, And vanished from the sod, The dwellers of the ark came forth, To offer to their God;367

Wilkins then introduces God’s promise of a rainbow after the flood (Gen. 9:13) as a sign of God’s ongoing mercy and his eternal covenant with the earth. Interestingly, she does not name either Noah

366 Wilkins, “The Bow In The Cloud,” The Holly Branch (Hamilton, C.W.: Printed At the Spectator Office, James Street, 1851), 12. 367Ibid.

97 or his sons. Instead, she focuses entirely on God’s provision of “the bow of promise”368 as a sign of his covenant that neither the earth nor its creatures would ever again be destroyed by a flood (Gen.

9: 10-17). Speaking of the rainbow, she says:

‘Tis set to say while earth remains, The Summer sun shall shine, Autumn’s rich fruit shall clothe the boughs, And rich shall be the vine.369

Preaching with her pen, Wilkins then applies the theme of God’s promise to her reader’s lives.

Addressing those who are “suffering loss” or experiencing a time “when storms beat high and proud,” or when they reflect on a fallen world where “Eden’s beauties vanished soon,” she declares that they can take courage and comfort at the sight of a rainbow, the symbol of God’s eternal covenant which Wilkins sees fulfilled at Calvary.370 For Wilkins, the rainbow represents God’s faithfulness through the generations.

Look up each weak and weary form, On to the upper sky; Love and eternal mercy blent, Their colours in that bow, The arch which spans the worlds above, And earth’s mean realm below… 371

Light

Wilkins poem “Light,” based on the opening verses of Genesis (Gen. 1), is forty lines long and is written in the same rhyming couplet style as “The Bow in the Clouds.” This poem, like her earlier poem, is also God-centred. Wilkins celebrates the God of creation using a complex interweaving of scientific processes and terms such “matter,” “compounds,” “evolved the vital

368 Ibid. 369 Ibid. 370 Ibid., 13. 371 Ibid.

98 atmosphere,” and “the worlds of space,” 372 to convey the scope and complexity of God’s creation and God’s power. Wilkins focuses specifically on God’s first spoken command: “Let there be light”

(Gen. 1:3).373 She reflects theologically, wondering if light is “purest spirit,” and then names God as the “purest source of light.” 374 She calls the reader’s attention to the continuity of God’s creative, guiding, and saving presence made known through Scripture, as she interprets the light of creation

Christologically by alluding to the Gospel of John. “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:4) Wilkins asks:

we ask, oh! When Shall these poor eyes of ours behold e’en thee? In whom is light, that light the life of men375

She concludes this poem about creation with a theologically rich reflection that calls readers to contemplate their place in creation and their ultimate goal of being with God.

And what is matter, what strange compounds make Our aerial sphere? Mountain and rock and deep, Jewels and clay, bright sand, where billows break Firm land and ocean waves, where dark storms sweep; All that in one grand hour shall pass away, Like clouds upon the bosom of the day. And what are we? To turn to crumbling dust The grave and dark corruption doth refine, And these material forms shall rest in trust, Till at God’s call each its own soul shall join.376

372 Wilkins, “Light,” The Holly Branch (Hamilton, C.W.: Printed At the Spectator Office, James Street, 1851), 122-123. 373 Ibid. 374 Ibid. 375 Ibid. 376 Ibid., 123.

The Last Plague of Egypt

In her short but dramatic thirty-six line poem, written in rhyming couplets, Wilkins retells the story of the death of the firstborn of Egypt. (Exod. 12:29-32) She boldly tackles the themes of death, destruction, and God’s power to initiate and control them. She begins by painting a word picture of the peace and tranquility in an unsuspecting land where the Egyptians are gathered in their homes to relax at the end of the day.

‘Twas sunset, and many had gathered to see, The gold and the purple that pencilled each tree, And sweet was the sound of the timbrel and song, As night threw its shade o’er the reveling throng.377

Thus, she sets the tone for what is to come with the phrase “but at midnight,”378 followed by a description that speaks of the devastation of the last plague. The pride of Egypt, right up to the ruling family, falls before the power of God.

Chill in his cradle the baby slept now… The first-born of Egypt lay helpless and dead… And the daughters of Mizraim are sad for that train, And the dwellers in Rahab weep over the slain. And sorrow reigned then from the dungeon alone, To the gleaming of turrets, and pride of the throne.379

Wilkin’s use of the Hebrew name for Egypt, mitsrahyim,380 and the name Rahab for Egypt,381 in the lines cited above suggests that she is reading and interpreting Scripture with the help of Bible commentaries and dictionaries.

377 Wilkins, “The Last Plague Of Egypt,” The Holly Branch (Hamilton, C.W.: Printed At the Spectator Office, James Street, 1851), 16. 378 Ibid., 17. 379 Ibid. 380 In the King James translation there are only four references to Mizraim: Genesis 10: 6, 13 and 1 Chronicles 1:8, 11. All four refer to genealogies and not to the country, whereas the Hebrew Bible consistently names Egypt Mizraim, for example in Exodus 1:1. Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1997), 86. 381 “Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain.” (Ps. 89: 8-10)The arm of the Lord: “hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of

100

After describing the devastation and sorrow visited on the Egyptians, Wilkins draws the reader’s attention to God’ power. She argues that the power of Egypt is nothing compared to God’s power in the “strength of his deed” and in the breaking of “the chains of the Hebrews.”382

The Wife Of Heber

Wilkins begins this poem of sixty-four lines about the wife of Heber (Judg. 4:17) by introducing four remarkable biblical women: Rizpah, Rahab, Ruth, and Mary.

Rizpah, among her stricken sons, Rahab, within the gate, The dark-eyed gleaner in the fields Of Bethlehem’s magistrate, Mary, who trod at break of day Arithmathea’s grove, - All these, and more of record blest, We may admire and love.383

In this way Wilkins artfully sets readers up to expect the addition of another admired biblical woman to this list. She implies that others she will add to the list are also heroes. This introduction does not prepare us for her adding the controversial figure of Jael, the woman who “took an hammer in her hand…and smote the nail into” Sisera’s “temples” (Judg. 4: 21), to the list. It also does not prepare us for her figural lesson in which she develops the idea that Christian women can be as courageous in fighting evil as Jael was in fighting Israel’s enemy.

Wilkins is very aware that her nineteenth-century readers have expectations about women’s nature and roles that counter the portrait of Jael in Judges. She describes such women using the

the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?” (Is. 51:) Moreover, the nominative rahab is used to denote pride and also as an epithet for the mythological chaos monster. “By extension, the latter meaning is also used to denote Egypt.” Mark Anthony Phelps, “8104 rhb,” New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology & Exegesis. Volume 3 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervans, 1997), 1064. 382 Wilkins, “The Last Plague of Egypt,”17. 383 Wilkins, “The Wife Of Heber,” Autumn Leaves (Hamilton, Ont.: Spectator Printing House, Cor. Main And James, 1869), 18.

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Victorian ideals of “gentle women” with “delicate fingers” and “soft hands,”384 and she wonders if these women will “dare a pattern take from scenes with murder rife?”385 She wonders if Jael’s bold and decisive actions are characteristics that her female contemporaries can adapt to their own

Christian lives, particularly in their fight against dangers disrupting their spiritual lives. Like British author Etty Woosnam, Wilkins allegorizes the story, and makes Jael the type or model for women fighting the spiritual fight and slaying evils such as jealousy and pride.386 She draws her interpretation back to the biblical text comparing the danger lurking within Jael’s tent to the vices lurking “within the curtained door”387 of their nineteenth-century lives. She encourages women to pray that God will “teach us how, hammer and nail to use” to overcome spiritual dangers just as Jael overcame physical danger, so that they too may be called “Blessed among women.”388

Rahab

In this longer poem of eighty-one lines, Wilkins brings to life the story of the prostitute

Rahab and the Israelite spies (Josh. 2). Wilkins chooses a different non-rhyming style that bookends the all-important dialogue between Rahab and the spies. She is faithful to the biblical narrative in her inclusion of the exchange of vows of mutual support and the promise of protection between

Rahab and the spies (Josh. 2: 12-14, 18-20). However, Wilkins also fills in gaps in the biblical narrative. She rounds out characters, adding to their identities. For example, she gives names,

384 Ibid., 18. 385 Ibid. 386 Etty Woosnan, “Jael-The Spiritual Campaign,” The Women of the Bible Old Testament (London: S.W. Partridge & Co., 1887), 103. Like Wilkins, Woosnan also urges her readers: “In the conflict against sin in our heart, let us take a hint from Jael’s example.” 387 Wilkins, “The Wife Of Heber,” 20. 388 Ibid., 20.

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Asaph and Heber, to the Israelite spies and speaks of their courage. Wilkin’s Asaph is a brave captain of thousands and her Heber is a “valourous soldier.”389 She draws attention to the potential danger of their situation and explains why secrecy was necessary for both the spies and for Rahab:

“and in a low whisper lest any should hear, spoke Rahab.”390 Wilkins also adds descriptions of the members of Rahab’s family. She creates dialogue that cleverly draws attention to the vulnerability of ordinary families in times of siege and war, especially when she writes of the chaos and potential danger for people caught in the rush of panic-stricken citizens. Wilkins then embellishes the story with Rahab’s appeal to the feelings of the Israelite spies.

Soldiers, my father Gray hairs are gathering on his temple now, He may not risk the wild crowd’s trampling feet; My gentle mother, years are on her brow; You have had mothers, soldiers, I entreat For her, and for my fair Young sisters sleeping there, And for an only brother’s life I dare to ask.391

Again, Wilkins concludes her poem by focussing on God, first as Rahab prays, then, by alluding to the story of salvation through Christ. Like many other interpreters through history, Wilkins sees the scarlet cord that Rahab hung out of her window as the token and symbol of her family’s safety during the destruction of Jericho,392 but also as a symbol of the blood of Christ, given for the redemption of all families.

And praising His name for the courage which He had her granted; She earnestly prayed for His mighty help for the future. Ah! Little she dreamt in that hour, how she would become Princess of Moab, she saw in that red cord no token,

389 Wilkins, “Rahab,” Autumn Leaves, 53. 390 Ibid.,53. 391 Ibid.,55-56. 392 “Behold, when we come into the land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window which thou didst let us down by: and thou shalt bring thy father, and thy mother, and they brethren, and all thy father’s household, home unto thee.” (Josh. 2: 18)

103 That through a long line one of her glorious descendants, Should give His red blood for creation’s mighty salvation, Nor could she know that her name for a lasting memorial, Should be carved on God’s pillar, with prophets, apostles, and martyrs.393

Here again we see Wilkins preaching with her pen as she transitions from the red cord to the red blood of Christ in the story of salvation.

Ruth and Naomi

In “Ruth and Naomi,” Wilkins again uses a non-rhyming mixture of description and dialogue as she retells the story of the relationship between Ruth and Naomi. She also brings Ruth’s child Obed394 into her retelling. Wilkins begins this seventy-seven line poem by describing a gentle, domestic scene featuring Ruth, Naomi, and Obed, the child of Ruth and Boaz. Her description of the beautiful, lively child anticipates King David and King Solomon, Obed’s descendants.

Beautiful eyes, spoke love and majesty; the Same fond glance that ever shone through The glittering orbs of David and King Solomon.395

However, Wilkins departs from the biblical narrative where Ruth vows to stay with Naomi and promises that Naomi’s people and God will be her people and God (Ruth 1:16). Instead,

Wilkin’s Naomi character says three times, “my people have been thine”396 as she reflects on the past and praises Ruth. Like Cushing, as previously noted, Wilkins gives a more sympathetic presentation of Naomi than the bitter Naomi of the biblical narrative (Ruth1:20),

393 Wilkins, “Rahab,” Autumn Leaves, 56. 394 It is not until the end of the Book of Ruth that the women of Bethlehem name Obed. (Ruth 4: 17) Wilkins makes Obed a character in her retelling. 395 Wilkins, “Ruth And Naomi,” The Holly Branch, 126. 396 Ibid., 126-127.

104 who must be reminded, near the end of the story, that her daughter-in-law loves her and is worth more than seven sons. (Ruth 4:15)

At the end of the poem Wilkins returns to the peaceful, domestic scene of a family grateful to God for the gift of the child Obed. She anticipates God’s plan of salvation as it would be realized through the future of this family, commenting that if the family could have seen into that future and the birth of the Davidic Messiah, their thanksgiving would have been even more fervent:

Oh! Had they looked upon The lowly stable and the manger bed, and seen The glorious infant that was there to be – He The blessed son of David of the root of Jesse…397

Moses in the Bulrushes

Wilkins focusses on a mother’s faith in this fifty-two line poem which retells the story of Moses’ mother’s experience of trusting her son to the Nile to circumvent Pharaoh’s order to kill

Hebrew baby boys (Exod.2:1-4). Wilkins follows the biblical birth narrative of Moses in that she does not name Moses’ mother Jochebed.398 She departs from the biblical birth narrative however, in that she gives Jochebed a first person voice and retells the story from the mother’s point of view.

Wilkins fills in a gap in the biblical narrative imagining Jochebed’s maternal joy in her “fair child,” her “lovely one,”399 while expressing her fear that in her attempt to preserve his life she will be giving her child a grave, “not the calm rest of Macpelah’s cave,” 400 the ancestral grave

397 Ibid.,128. 398 The author of Exodus does not name Jochebed until the genealogical listing in Exodus 6:20. “And Amram took him Jochebed his father’s sister to wife…” Jochebed is also named in Numbers 26:59: “and the name of Amram’s wife was Jochebed, the daughter of Levi…” 399 Wilkins, “Moses In The Bulrushes,” The Holly Branch, 31. 400 Ibid., 31.

105 site,401 and “not with our Father Abraham’s sleeping daughters,” but instead in the waters of the

Nile.402 Wilkins brings her interpretation to a close with Jochebed’s prophetic whisper of hope: “A something whispers to me, thou wilt come ere long back to thy father’s home”403 as she extolls

Jochebed’s faith and trust in God.

Strong was that Mother’s faith; firm in the God of Israel. Day wore away, and ere the sun was blushing in The waters, God gave her back her boy.404

Moses’ mother is thus presented as an ideal nineteenth-century mother.

The Prayer of David “Oh! spare me, that I may recover strength.” Psalm 39:13

Wilkin’s eight -verse, fifty–line poem, “The Prayer of David” interprets an intense, reflective, intercessory prayer to the Lord uttered near the end of David’s life. She conveys this intensity in verse one by setting a solitary, plaintive tone, and then uses each subsequent verse to fill in details about the people and events David prays so intensely about.

It was night upon Jerusalem; Through the palace of the king There came no sound of armed men, No songs the minstrels sing; The incense lamps burnt faintly, And the moon’s soft light was laid Upon the tessellated floor, As the suffering monarch prayed.405

401 Jacob speaks to his sons just before his death. He wishes to be buried in the cave of Machpelah that Abraham bought and where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, and Leah are buried. (Gen. 49:30-31) 402 Wilkins, “Moses In The Bulrushes,” 31. 403 Ibid., 31. 404 Ibid. 405 Wilkins, “The Prayer Of David,” Wayside Flowers (Toronto: Hunter, Rose & Company, 1876), 130.

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She intensifies the mood of prayer as she uses the beginning words of Psalm 39:13, “Oh! spare me…” to begin each of the following seven verses. In each of these verses King David, speaking in the first person, recalls events and people from his life, beginning with “the earth is lovely, for all green things are smiling,”406 as he expresses appreciation of and joy in God’s creation.

Wilkins designs each subsequent verse to mark a stage in David’s life as he expresses the joys, sorrows, and challenges he has experienced as God’s servant, warrior, husband, parent, and musician. David recalls his strength as a warrior in his prime: “this form that never sank in weakness.”407 He then speaks of weakness and approaching death: “Nathan the prophet weeps and Hiram of Tyre waiteth my coming.”408 David recalls the sorrows of his family life as he remembers Absalom, and remembers his joy when he thinks of his “loved Bathsheba’s heir, my thoughtful Solomon.”409 In the last verse of this poem, Wilkins focuses again on God, imagining

David’s spiritual conflict as he acknowledges that his impending death will bring him to a place of final rest in God’s presence: “well I know that in thy presence dwells unbroken peace, and I shall rest by thy right hand at length.” 410 Still, David asks for an extension of his life and prays that he

“may recover strength ere the grave claims me.”411 Unlike many of her poems which are

Christotelic in focus, this poem remains focussed on David’s life and experience. It shows

Wilkin’s sophisticated understanding of the history of David and the Psalms. She creates a new psalm/poem that is historical and reflective in its focus as it draws from David’s long, eventful life.

406 Ibid., 130. 407 Ibid. 408 Ibid., 131. 409 Ibid. 410 Ibid., 132. 411 Ibid.

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Two Altars and the Doom of Cain

Wilkins wrote two poems that retell the story of Cain’s murder of his brother Abel (Gen. 4), focusing on Cain’s complex character and on the life-altering consequences of his deed. In the first poem of just twenty-four lines, “Two Altars,” she comments on Cain’s character and motivation in terms of the proper worship of God. She artfully sets the scene by describing a beautiful pastoral environment foreshadowing the disaster that is to come by speaking of past sin (Gen. 3:6), and hinting at sin to come. (Gen. 4: 3-8)

The sun was rising on earth, sin-tainted, yet beautiful, Delicate gold-coloured cloudlets in all their primeval beauty, Ushered the bright orb of day to his task well appointed,…412

Wilkins fills in gaps in the biblical narrative, realistically expanding on Cain’s character using descriptors such as “defiant” and “scornfully.”413 By so doing, she illuminates the character hinted at in Genesis 4:6 when “the Lord said unto Cain, why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen?” Wilkins continues to round out Cain’s character by describing how Cain draws attention to the exceptional quality of his sacrifice with words such as “nothing on earth or in heaven could make fairer oblation,”414 and then belittles Abel’s sacrifice. Wilkins uses irony here as

Cain’s words of disparagement serve to confirm Abel’s faith and God’s abiding presence.

Abel, what have you carved on your altar, in that wild devotion A circle, to show that your God is all near, is filling The seen and unseen with His incomprehensible presence.415

Wilkins follows up Two Altars with a second, longer poem of fifty-six lines, “The Doom of

Cain.” In this second poem, she highlights the long-term effects of sin. Wilkins immediately

412 Harriett Annie Wilkins, “Two Altars,” http://all poetry.com/Two-Altars, accessed 01/04/2016, 2. 413 Ibid., 3. 414 Ibid. 415 Ibid.

108 establishes this theme with her choice of adjectives: “blighted…melancholy…mournfully.”416 She intensifies this imagery by introducing the first three verses with woe oracle417 statements: “Oh, erring Cain” in the first two verses and “Unhappy Cain”418 in the third verse. Subsequent verses detail what is to come. Wilkins comments that Cain’s sin blights what he touches, that the sight of his own children will bring back memories of his childhood with Abel, and that Cain could not recognize or acknowledge true sacrifice. She finishes with a dramatic Nathan-like419 exhortation that once again points to Wilkin’s sense of her own authority as an interpreter and of her facility to unpack a biblical story for homiletic effect. “Go, till thine heart.”420

Miriam

Wilkin’s short eight-verse poem about Miriam provides an interesting interpretation of

Miriam leading the celebration of the Israelite’s victory over the Egyptians (Exod. 15:20-21).

Wilkins follows the biblical storyline (Exod. 14, 15) in two ways. First, she bookends the poem with the word “host.” She begins with the “host” of Israelites looking out over the Red Sea where the Egyptian “host” has perished and concludes with the saving power of the “Lord of Hosts.”421 In this way, she emphasizes the theme of God’s power over the Egyptian host (Exod. 15:6) and his provision for and direction of the Israelite host. (Exod. 15:13-14)

416 Harriett Annie Wilkins, “The Doom of Cain,” http://all poetry.com/The-Doom-Of-Cain, accessed 01/04/2016, 3. is an announcement of distress or doom and the reason for it. It is usually made by a ( הוֹי) ,A biblical woe oracle, hoy 417 prophet and can be directed against people or places. The prophet Micah’s woe oracle against oppressors in 2:1-5 and the prophet Jeremiah’s woe oracle against Jerusalem in 13:27 are two examples. Wilkin’s woe oracle statements contain a “touch of sympathy or pity.” F. Brown, S. Driver and C. Briggs, The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (Peabody, Massachusetts: Hendrickson Publishers, 2006), 222-223. 418 Harriett Annie Wilkins, “The Doom of Cain,” 1. 419 The prophet Nathan condemns David for having Uriah murdered and prophesies the consequences for one who does such evil. (2 Sam. 12: 7, 9-10) 420 Harriett Annie Wilkins, “The Doom of Cain,” 2. 421 Wilkins, “Miriam,” The Holly Branch (Hamilton, C.W.: Printed At the Spectator Office, James Street, 1851), 115.

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Secondly, when Wilkins describes the celebration by the Israelite women she follows the received text of Exodus 15:1 which begins with “then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord,” and places Miriam and other Israelite women in a supporting role at the end of the triumphal song (Exod. 15:20). It is after Miriam watches and listens to the men that she leads the women in celebration. Wilkin’s use of the word “re-echo” emphasizes her agreement with the received text’s presentation of Miriam’s role.

And Miriam then summoned a beautiful train, To re-echo the sound of the cherished strain.422

Wilkins goes on to describe the women in terms of the nineteenth-century ideal of gentle beauty gifted in womanly arts.

And delicate creatures went softly by, As the brilliant stars of a summer’s sky; And the glowing light lit the waving curls Of Israel’s beautiful dark-eyed girls.423

Wilkins poem is quite sophisticated as it shows again that she has access to commentaries

and other scholarly sources, and that she knows Scripture well enough to do inner biblical exegesis.

First, while she refers to the Red Sea at the start of the poem she also speaks of “Yamsuph’s bank,”424 the name of a body of water that is based on a transcription of the Hebrew name for the

Sea.425

The question also arises: why did she refer to Hur twice, implying some kind of relationship of leadership, trust and perhaps family?426

422 Ibid., 115. 423 Ibid. 424 Ibid.,115. 425 The name for the sea is yām sûp in Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1997), 110. 426 Wilkins includes Hur as a celebrant and then pictures him standing with Moses, Aaron and Miriam. “Miriam,” 115.

110 The sound of that song was enchanting to her From the grandson of Hezron, the powerful Hur.427

This inclusion is curious as Hur is not named until, with Aaron, (Exod. 17: 10, 12) he supports Moses during the battle with Amalek and when he is named as a co-advisor with Aaron while Moses is on the mountain. (Exod. 24:14)Wilkin’s inclusion of Hur in a familial and leadership role may indicate that she was familiar with the writings of Josephus who felt that Hur was Miriam’s husband.428 Alternatively, Wilkins may be referring to the chronicler’s history.“And when Azubah was dead, Caleb took unto him Ephrath, which bare him Hur,” a verse that stands behind the rabbinic thought that Ephrath was a name for Miriam.429 (1 Chron. 2:19)The biblical and extra-biblical information about Hur explains the sources of Wilkin’s embellishment of the biblical narrative when she includes Hur’s name as part of the Moses, Aaron, and Miriam family group at the celebration. It also shows that she used secondary sources as she studied the biblical texts before she wrote her poem.

To conclude, in each short poem Wilkins demonstrates knowledge of the Bible and of extra- biblical resources as she retells, interprets, and sometimes preaches the stories of key biblical events and of notable biblical men and women. Overall, she gives a sympathetic and reflective interpretation of the men and women she comments on. For example, she recasts Naomi as a less bitter woman, analyzes Cain’s character and speaks of his children, and interprets David’s last days in terms of prayerful reflection. In terms of her nineteenth-century context, Wilkins spiritualizes the text so that Jael becomes a more appropriate role model for nineteenth-century women. At the same time, she stresses the subordinate role played by Miriam and her musicians in the victory

427 Ibid., 115. 428 Josephus, Book 3, Chapter 2:4, Josephus The Complete Works, 97. 429 The Jewish Encyclopedia cites the Targum to 1 Chronicles2:19, saying that Ephrath was another name for Miriam. Emil G. Hirsch, M. Seligsohn, Joseph Jacobs, Louis Ginzberg, “Hur,” The Jewish Encyclopedia, www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/7942-hur, accessed 22/11/16.

111 celebration of the Israelites over Egypt. In each poem Wilkins interprets from a hermeneutic of faith, stressing God’s power and provision as she makes connections between the lessons of the

Bible and her readers’ lives. In many ways Wilkins is continuing her father’s teaching and preaching ministry through her poetry. She is a thoughtful, learned and authoritative interpreter of the Old Testament which she most often reads in light of the gospel story.

3:3 Helen Mar Johnson

Helen Mar Johnson (1834-1863) was born into a farming family in Magog, Quebec. She began to write poetry in her early teens before she completed her education in Derby

Centre, Vermont, where she studied French, Latin, English and drawing.430 She graduated at the age of eighteen and then taught there for a short time. Sadly, this gifted, articulate interpreter died from tuberculosis at the age of twenty-nine. Perhaps her severe illness prompted her interest in exploring themes of faith, spiritual searching, and the afterlife in her poetry.431 In her poem “Passing Away,” for example, God’s command that Moses stand on Mount Pisgah and look over the land he will not enter (Deut. 3:27)432 inspires Johnson to put herself in the scene as she imagines that she, not Moses anticipates death. Her death will cut short her experience of earthly life but she looks to heaven as the Promised Land she will enter:

On Pisgah’s top she takes her stand And there surveys “the promised land,” Where heavenly zephyrs stray; And in a firm and cheerful tone

430 Johnson was awarded a medal by the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec for her poem “The Surrender of Quebec.” Canada’s Early Woman Writers. SFU Library Digital Collections. Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.1980-2014. accessed 06/04/2016. 431 In her book Poems, nineteen of Johnson’s thirty-nine poems are poems of spiritual reflection focussed on Christ’s saving grace. 432 “Get thee up into the top of Pisgah, and lift up thine eyes westward, and northward, and southward, and eastward, and behold it with thine eyes: for thou shalt not go over this Jordan.” (Deut. 3:27)

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She calls that blissful land her home.433

Johnson’s poems also expressed her awe for God’s transcendence and provision for frail, sinful humanity. She not only reveals her own spiritual journey but also encourages readers to expand their biblical knowledge and to develop their own spiritual insights.

Like other nineteenth-century Canadian women interpreters, Johnson published her poetry in popular journals, and, as in the case of her poems “Elijah,” and the substantive “The Promises in

XVI Parts,” in her volume of poetry: Poems (1855). Rev. Orrock of Boston, who introduces

Johnson to later readers in a twenty-five page sketch of her life in a posthumously published collection of her poems, Canadian Wildflowers (1884), acknowledges her intelligence, poetic ability, and her influence on readers. He quotes extensively from her diary to illustrate her journey of faith, but does not call special attention to her poems that interpret Scripture.434

Elijah

Johnson’s short poem of fifty-four lines retells the dramatic story of the Prophet Elijah’s encounter with the priests of Baal (1 Kings18). The poem’s rhyming couplets work well to set a quick pace that suits the dramatic action in the story. Johnson fills out the biblical characterizations of Elijah’s antagonists whom she paints as privileged, entitled priests of Baal, sponsored and protected by the powerful Queen Jezebel.435

The prophets of Baal are many and great, And they move along in princely state; With a scornful eye and a haughty air, They have proudly taken their station there; While the blood of thy comrades stains the sod,

433 Helen Mar Johnson, “Passing Away,” The Stanstead Journal, Vol. 9, No. 12 (February 2, 1854): n. p. 434 J.M. Orrock, “Life Sketch,” Canadian Wildflowers: Selections From The Writings of Miss Helen M. Johnson of Magog, P.Q., Canada With A Sketch of Her Life By Rev. J.M. Orrock (Boston: J.M. Orrock, 1884), 9-34. 435 1 Kings 18:19 mentions the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of the groves who ate at Jezebel’s table.

113 And thou only art left a prophet of God.436

Johnson fleshes out the story, inviting readers to empathize with Elijah’s personal experience of solitude: “I, even I only, remain a prophet of the Lord” (1 Kings 18:22).

God shield thee, thou lonely prophet, now! For thy friends are few, and thy foes are strong… And each heart beats high in that mocking throng; And every eye is fixed upon thee, As thou standest alone in thy majesty.437

Her words emphasize Elijah’s peril in the face of the initial entitlement exhibited by the 450 priests of Baal (1 Kings 18:22). Following the lead of the biblical narrator, Johnson changes the tone of her poem as she describes the priests’ increasing desperation when their petitions to Baal fail (1 Kings

18:26) and their sense of entitlement erodes as the hours pass. But no matter how “madly” the prophets of Baal cry, or become “frantic with rage,” their cause is doomed.438 Throughout her retelling of this dramatic biblical story, Johnson highlights the theme of God’s power and might.

Her Elijah is not alone, and what he accomplishes is not through his own might but through God’s might. “The Lord God of hosts” is with Elijah and “on the name of the Lord his God he calls.”439

Before the “rod” of Elijah’s omnipotent God Baal’s prophets “bend” and God’s people acknowledge that the “Lord, he is God.”440

436 Helen Mar Johnson, “Elijah,” Canadian Wild Flowers: Selections From The Writings of Miss Helen M. Johnson of Magog, P.Q., Canada With A Sketch Of Her Life By Rev. J.M. Orrock (Boston: J.M. Orrock,1884), 169. 437 Johnson, Helen Mar, “Elijah,” Poems By Helen Johnson (Boston: J.V. Hines 461/2 Kneeland Street, 1855),169. 438 Johnson, “Elijah,” 170. 439 Ibid., 170. 440 Ibid.

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The Promises In XVI Parts

Johnson’s epic work, “The Promises In XVI Parts,” is a much more fulsome 109 page pan- biblical interpretation of God’s promises and provision that culminate in salvation through Christ.

Parts one through four focus on the promises in the Old Testament, and New Testament promises follow in parts five to sixteen. In parts one through four, she specifically highlights promises made to or spoken through patriarchs, kings, and prophets, and revealed in key events in salvation history.

Interestingly, Johnson rarely names these key biblical characters, preferring instead to focus on the development of God’s promises through biblical history.

“The Promises” can be described as a documentary poem, a unique Canadian style that

Dorothy Livesay describes as a blend of “objective facts” _in this case the biblical narrative, and

“the subjective feelings of the poet.”441 Johnson also uses a canonical approach which examines

“the entire canonical witness on any given theological or ethical question,”442 in this case God’s power and provision. Her work can thus be described as a biblical theology as she traces the theme of God’s power and promise to save through both Testaments.

This epic poem is a testament to Johnson’s biblical knowledge, her ability to trace the theme of God’s promises through time, and to invite readers to engage with the subject matter, particularly in the light of salvation history. When Johnson speaks of God’s promises she stresses God’s power and transcendence and human frailty and sin. She writes of God’s “voice of thunder” in contrast to the “trembling crowd,”443 and on human need and sin, including her own:

441 Dorothy Livesay coined the phrase to describe a Canadian poetic genre saying that such poems are not epic or narrative as much as a journey through place and time. Renée Hulan, “From Romance to Revision: Historical Writing in Canada,” Canadian Historical Writing: Reading the Remains (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2014), 5-17. 442 J.J. Johnson-Leese and David M. Scholer, “The Inspiration and Interpretation of Scripture,” The IVP Women’s Bible Commentary, ed. Catherine Clark Kroeger and Mary J. Evans (Downer’s Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2002), xxxv. 443 Johnson, “The Promises in XVI Parts,” 8.

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But O! consume me not in thy displeasure, though I dare A worm of dust, to lift my voice to thee; in mercy spare. “For I have sinned, and ‘neath my feet have trampled all thy laws; Yet my Redeemer pleads for me before thy mighty throne.444

As preacher/evangelist/theologian, Johnson demonstrates how God’s promises given through biblical history lead to Christ, the one who intercedes for sinful humans before God, and bridges that gulf between God and humanity.

Johnson develops an interesting interpretive style of focusing on God’s promises to his people while rarely using the names of the human characters the promises were made to. In other words, it is God’s empowering activity, not human actions, that is important for Johnson. For example she retells the Abraham story, stressing his faith, but only mentions Abraham’s name in the context of the “the God of Abraham” 445 who renews the promise to Jacob. Likewise, she tells the story of Jacob without naming him. She refers instead to stones for pillows (Gen. 28:11) to help readers identify which biblical character she is referring to in connection with God’s promise.

Part I

Johnson bookends this longest section of her Old Testament interpretation, at just over seven pages, with God’s promises. She begins with the “soothing promise” 446 that Eve’s descendants

“shall bruise” the serpent’s head (Gen.3: 15). She concludes the section with the “bright Promise”447 in a future when Christ, God’s promised redeemer, would crush the Serpent and death itself.

444 Ibid., 7-8.

445 Ibid., 15-16. 446 Ibid., 13. 447 Ibid., 14.

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Between these bookends, she unpacks the significance of God’s promises as she writes “the promise beamed” and “the promise radiant shone”448 in the context of the tragedy of Abel’s murder, and of Eve and Adam grieving, while knowing that the tragedy was the reward “of their own sin and guilt.”449

At the same time, Johnson emphasizes the power and grace of the promise-initiating God throughout history. She begins by describing God’s power: “Thou mighty God! who fill’st existence with thyself alone.”450 She concludes by returning to the theme of God’s grace as it relates to Adam and Eve’s fall and to the promise of redemption for sinners.

(A)nd well they knew that when Death’s power was o’er The grave could hold their slumb’ring clay no more, That then their bodies, freed from earthly stain, Would roam the fields of paradise again.451

Johnson devotes the body of Part I to the creation stories in Genesis chapters one and two.

She begins with a hymn to the “uncreated” omnipotent God:

Thou uncreated One! who wast from everlasting God, Who makest time, space and eternity, thine own abode; Thou all-creating One! who out of Chaos’ deepest night Called suns, and worlds on worlds, and from the blackest darkness, light. Who uttereth thine awful voice, and all creation quakes; Who stretched forth thy mighty arm, and every atom shakes That forms the universe, while planets are on planets hurled At thy omnipotent command.452

Not surprisingly, Johnson’s retelling of the creation story in Genesis 1 and 2 focuses on God’s power and transcendence as God’s will and God’s voice spoke creation into being: “A voice is

448 Ibid., 13. 449 Ibid., 14. 450 Ibid., 7. 451 Ibid., 14. 452 Ibid., 7.

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heard, and glory springs to light.”453 She also describes God’s gift of an abundant and beautiful creation. She emphasizes the goodness, peace, and purity of creation which is extolled in song by

“the morning stars” that join all nature in “mingling the fair, the beautiful, the wild in pleasing contrast.”454

Johnson interlaces her account of creation with other Old Testament references that highlight the themes of God’s omnipotence and human weakness and sin in relation to God’s majesty and power. She alludes, for example, to the scene at Sinai, where thunder, lightning and smoke signify God’s presence, and God stands in glory “on Sinai’s mount of fire” and “in a voice of thunder” orders the Israelites not to come too close to the mountain455 (Exod. 19: 16-19). By contrast, she describes her own sinful being “as a thing of clay.”456

Johnson begins her interpretation of the creation story (Gen. 2, 3) by describing an initial idyllic Eden and the relationship between a sinless Adam and Eve. She says of Adam that “he had never felt the curse of sin” and describes Eve as having “heaven itself within her sinless heart.”457

Like many nineteenth-century female interpreters, Johnson focuses on Eve, not with overt words of blame for the fall, but nevertheless, with words of warning about the result of choices made. In her view, Eve’s choice influenced Adam. For Johnson the “happiness or woe”458 of Adam and Eve depended on Eve. Despite this implied blame, she speaks of the “guilty pair” who merit divine judgment.459 Congruent with her theme of human sinfulness Johnson stresses that the sin of Adam

453 Ibid., 9. 454 Ibid., 10. 455 Ibid., 8. 456 Ibid. 457 Ibid., 11. 458 Ibid., 12 459 Nineteenth-century American interpreter Hannah Mather Crocker (1752-847) also views the sin of the fall as a “joint transgression,” and Englishwoman Esther Hewlett Copley (1786-1851), while identifying Eve as the first offender, says

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and Eve and the consequent judgment will affect all humanity. Like most of her peers, Johnson reads the story literally and assumes that humanity springs from Adam and Eve who pass on sin to

“a race as yet unsprung to birth.”460 With her comments about the judgment on Adam and Eve

Johnson creates a sharp dividing line between the promise inherent in God’s good creation and the tragic results of disobedience to God. She mitigates this chasm by writing of the hope inherent in the promise of future redemption.

Part II

Part II, the next longest section as just over six pages, is Johnson’s interpretation of the patriarchal histories. She bookends Part II, as she did Part I, with the theme of God’s power and provision. She first extolls the eternal God: “Age never dims God’s everlasting brow,”461 and concludes with Balaam’s prophetic words that also emphasize both God’s promise and God’s eternal nature.

Not surprisingly, Johnson highlights key biblical characters and events associated with promise and covenant. She refers briefly to the flood narrative, noting that in spite of human sin,

God “had still a plan of love and mercy for degraded man,”462 thus focussing on God’s covenant promise to Noah after the flood (Gen. 9:9). Johnson alludes to the promise theme continued throughout Genesis, and repeatedly speaks of God’s promises of land, a multitude of descendants, and future kingship made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Gen. 17:6-8; 15-16; 21). She draws reader

that “Adam and Eve transgressed against God.” Let her Speak For Herself, ed. Marion Ann Taylor and Heather E. Weir (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2006), 28, 36. 460 Johnson, “The Promises in XVI Parts,” 12. 461 Ibid., 14. 462 Ibid., 15.

119 attention to Jacob’s end-of-life prophecy that the sceptre of the ruler “shall ne’er depart” from the

House of Judah, his fourth son. (Gen. 49:10)463

She speaks of God’s promise to be with Moses and the Israelites in the exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land (Exod. 6:4-6). As she moves into the story of the exodus, she alludes to the cry of the oppressed Israelites that God hears (Exod. 1: 11, 3:9). Johnson then conveys a sense of the speed and power of God’s redemptive response to Israel by compressing the litany of the plagues of Egypt, described in Exodus chapters seven through eleven, into ten lines. This compression of detail, along with her graphic language describing the horrors of the plagues and then the destruction of Pharaoh’s army at the Red Sea, vividly highlights her interpretive theme of

God’s power and control over history:

The rivers turned to streams of stagnant gore, And loathsome vermin covered all the shore; Locusts and storms of hail destroyed the land; Disease and famine stalked forth hand in hand; Thick darkness reigned, and day became as night, The sun refused to shed his genial light; Men with their flocks in death lay side by side; The first-born son in ev’ry dwelling dies Throughout the land, from Pharaoh’s regal heir Unto the child of poverty and care.464

Johnson effectively juxtaposes this scene of God’s judgment on Egypt with compressed scenes of God’s provision, protection, and promise to the Israelites. She alludes to the guiding pillars of cloud and fire (Exod. 13:21), God’s provision of water at Meribah (Exod. 15:22; 17: 1-7), and the dramatic scene at Sinai where God’s glory appeared “and Sinai’s mount was wrapt in

463 “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” (Gen. 49:10) 464 Ibid, 18.

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dazzling flame.”465 However as she develops her comments on God’s promise she slows the action down, taking the time for example, to describes Moses as the type of the future redeemer.

To Moses, Israel’s mediator now; And in each great command for holy rites, Plainly foretold, by shadows and by types, Of the long-promised seed, who yet should rise, And give himself a perfect sacrifice. And Moses from that time, as God decreed, Proclaimed the coming of the promised Seed: ‘O Israel! A Prophet shall appear, Raised by the Lord thy God.466

Johnson highlights another example of promise in the face of peril during the long exodus journey. When King Balak of Moab, fearing that the Israelites would conquer Moab, paid the oracle

Balaam to curse the Israelites (Num. 22:1-6), God turned the projected curse into a promise for

Israel. The promise of “a brilliant Star” that “shall out of Jacob rise,”467 is a reference to Balaam’s prophecy (Num. 24:17).468 Johnson capitalizes key words such as “Prophet,” and “future Seed,”469 and “Star,”470 to reinforce the connection between Old Testament promise and the future as manifested in Christ:

And his dominion and his powerful seat, And his firm throne, shall never pass away.471

465 Ibid., 19. 466 Ibid., 19-20. 467 Ibid., 18. 468 “I shall see him, but not now; I shall behold him, but not night: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth.” 469 Johnson, “The Promises in XVI Parts,” 20. 470 Ibid., 21. 471 Ibid.

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Part III

Johnson begins her five-page Part III interpretation of the historical books of the Bible by commenting on “how strange and wondrous are the ways of God.”472 She concludes by looking ahead to God’s promise of a future when “death has lost his power” and a risen Christ

“beholds the ransomed ones for whom he died.”473 In this section, Johnson focuses specifically on the promises God made directly to King David which she consistently notes point to a greater David who would “evermore endure.”474

Johnson deftly summarizes, in a compressed page and one half, information about David’s early life as a shepherd. As is her pattern, she does not name David. Instead she identifies him as the son of Jesse and focusses on his God-given destiny. She speaks first of that shepherd boy then quickly moves to shepherding of a different kind when

The shepherd’s staff recedes before thy face, The golden sceptre takes the vacant place; soon the shepherd’s gentle hand shall lead Another flock, a nobler flock shall feed when David is Israel’s king.475

It is not until she speaks of God’s promise to David: “thine house and thy kingdom shall be established forever before thee; thy throne shall be established forever,” that she names David and speaks of him in relation to a future throne (2 Sam. 7:16). She devotes the remaining three and one half pages to thoughts of him in relation to that future time when a redeemer will come from

David’s line. She capitalizes epithets such as “King, Priest, Anointed One, Intercessor, Leader,

Witness, Saviour, Redeemer, Sufferer, and Victim,”476 indicating that her comments refer to that

472 Ibid. 473 Ibid., 26. 474 Ibid., 22. 475 Ibid., 22. 476 Ibid., 25-26.

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future time of Christ’s ministry, death and resurrection. Johnson uses each capitalized epithet, accompanied by the action verb “comes,”477 to speak of God’s redeeming grace for all people.

Her final epithet “Victim” 478 references the prophetic words of Isaiah 53 that prophesy a victim to come who will be “oppressed” and “afflicted” for “us all.” (Isa. 53: 6-7)

A Victim comes, to cruel slaughter led; The curse of God is resting on his head; Silent he stands before the judgement-seat, No eye to pity, and no friend to meet; Oppressed and tortured, while the world despises, Behold, behold, the guiltless victim dies! He suffers with the wicked and the slave, And with the rich he finds a quiet grave. But Death has lost his power.479

Part IV

As Johnson transitions to the prophetic voices in Part IV, a short four-page section, she stops using the word promise but continues to speak about God’s promises and their significance.

Johnson again begins and ends with the theme of human sin and of redemption. She commences by commanding “fallen man” to “raise a joyful song” because “Almighty God descends to die that thou mayst live,”480 and concludes with a reminder to “guilty souls” that they will “find free salvation in a Saviour’s blood.”481

477 Ibid. 478 Ibid., 26. 479 Ibid. 480 Ibid. 481 Ibid., 31.

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She interweaves God’s promise that he will raise up a righteous branch from the House of

David (Jer. 23:5) with the prophetic words that a ruler shall come from Bethlehem. (Mic. 5:2) She then explains what this promise means.

The gentle Shepherd, who would kindly lead His scattered flock, and bring them back once more To verdant pastures by the river’s shore, To heal their wounds, to bid their griefs be still, And feed them all on Zion’s holy hill.482

Johnson focusses on the promises found in the prophets and on their future fulfillment, and not on the messengers themselves. This strategy fits with her thematic emphasis on God’s promises and God’s power and provision over and above human identities. Thus, she opens this section by describing Jeremiah as “the lonely mourner, who had wept and sighed”483 over the burden of his prophetic role, but she does not name him. Her words recall Jeremiah’s message about the intransigence of God’s people and of their fate484 as he called Judah to account, yet who also spoke

God’s promise of a “righteous branch” that God will raise up from the House of David (Jer.23:5).

Similarly, she cites promises found in Micah and Zechariah but does not mention their names. She notes, for instance, the promise (Mic 5:2) that Bethlehem, though small, would be honoured, “For out of thee a Ruler shall arise, ”485 then describes this messianic ruler as the prophet Zechariah does:

“For lo! He comes, thy meek and lowly king.”486 (Zech. 9:9).

482 In this section of her poetry Johnson alludes to the biblical text with the words “he shall feed his flock like a shepherd,” (Isa. 40:11) and God’s promise to “seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick.” (Ezek. 34:16) 483 Johnson, “The Promises In XVI Parts,” 26. Johnson’s words recall Jeremiah’s (Jer. 13:17) when Jeremiah says “my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears” or when Jeremiah says “Let mine eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease.” (Jer. 14:17) 484 Johnson describes the prophet. “But if ye will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride; and mine eye shall weep sore, and run down with tears, because the Lord’s flock is carried away captive.” (Jer. 13:17) 485 Johnson, “The Promises In XVI Parts,” 29. 486 Ibid.

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As Johnson speaks of the succession of prophetic voices, she highlights their message of

God’s promises. She highlights shepherd imagery, calling to mind metaphors used by

Isaiah487 and Ezekiel.488 Similarly, she weaves the images depicting the attributes of God in the prophetic writings into her words:

The Prophet ceased, his accents died away; Another caught the burden of his lay; Foretold the coming of the promised Seed, The gentle Shepherd, who should kindly lead His scattered flock, and bring them back once more To verdant pastures by the river’s shore, To heal their wounds, to bid their griefs be still, And feed them all on Zion’s holy hill.489

Throughout the first four sections of her epic work that argues for promise as the central theme of

Scripture, Johnson presents God’s promises as pointing forward to God’s provision of a saviour, a

Messiah, who will redeem sinful humanity which will “find free salvation in a Saviour’s blood.”490

Finally, Johnson’s published interpretations of the Old Testament demonstrate her sophisticated understanding of the biblical text that she is able to effectively communicate through poetry. She is an erudite interpreter, who assumes considerable authority as she presents readings of particular characters such as Elijah on the one hand and an entire biblical theology of salvation history as it is revealed through the promises of God that culminates in Christ, on the other. In the latter instance she presents a profoundly Christotelic interpretation of God’s promises and provision throughout the biblical corpus.

487 “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young.” (Isa. 40:11) 488 “I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they live in a good fold, and in fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel. I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord God. I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and I will strengthen that which was sick.” (Ezek. 34:14-16) 489 Johnson, “The Promise In XVI Parts,” 27. 490 Ibid., 31.

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To conclude, this chapter has featured three nineteenth-century Canadian women who used the genre of poetry to effectively interpret Scripture for their varied audiences. With the exception of Johnson’s epic poem focusing on human need, and God’s pre-eminence and promises throughout

Scripture, the poems featured in this chapter are shorter reflections about Old Testament characters and events that tend to focus on God’s power and provision and to demonstrate how to apply the lessons of the Bible to daily life.

All three poets are educated women with deep biblical knowledge and the ability to draw on intra and extra-biblical resources to illuminate Scripture. These women combine faith, knowledge, and poetic ability into interpretations in the popular voice that encourage readers to deepen their knowledge and appreciation of the stories and lessons of Scripture.

Chapter 4

Nineteenth-Century Sacred Prose: Archeology, Geography, and History

This chapter will feature two Canadian women who wrote prose historical interpretations of

Scripture. Mary Witter wrote three impressive, scholarly books that show deep engagement with

Scripture and with scholarship, her particular purpose to engage the interest of young people in knowing the Bible. A.L.O.N.B., a Lady of New Brunswick, contributed to one scholarly book and wrote another. She also demonstrates a deep knowledge of Scripture combined with knowledge of nineteenth-century archeological discoveries, her particular purpose to demonstrate the historical veracity of the biblical narrative.

4:1 Mary L.T. Witter

Currently, there is little biographical or autobiographical information about Mary Witter

(1818-1895).491 We do know, from her dedication in her book Angels, that her husband was James

Samuel Witter,492 a Baptist businessman according to biographer Beth Robertson.493 He and Mary had one daughter, also named Mary.494 We also know, from Witter’s own words, that as a “wife and mother” she had “scanty leisure” to write.495

491 Rachel McNally, “Mary Witter Information,” ([email protected], June 12, 2018). 492 Mary L. T. Witter, “Dedication Page,” Angels (Glasgow: William Asher, 1900), n.p. 493 The Baptist connection seems to be confirmed by information in a local Nova Scotia history which speaks of a Samuel Witter, possibly James Samuel’s father, who was known as “Deacon Witter.” Marie Bishop, “The Witter Family,” The Pioneers of Canaan, King’s County, Nova Scotia (Kentville, NS: The Kings Historical Society Community History, 1994), 183. 494 Beth Robertson, “Witter, Mary L.T.,” Handbook of Women Biblical Interpreters, eds. Marion Ann Taylor and Agnes Choi (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2012), 537. 495 Mary L.T. Witter, “Preface,” A Book for the Young; Being A History Of The Kings Who Ruled Over God’s Ancient People, From The Death Of Solomon Till The Babylonish Captivity (Halifax, N.S.: A. & W. Mackinlay, 1870), vi. 126

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Readers today might assume from Witter’s literary talent, her biblical knowledge, and her use of extra-biblical sources such as Josephus, Smith’s Bible Dictionary, Bush’s Notes on Genesis, and Barnes’ Notes on the Acts of the Apostles,496 that she was well-educated, well-read, and had access to theological resources.497 Readers today might also assume, given that she wrote her histories of the Edomites and of the kings of Judah and Israel for young people, that she may have been a Sunday school teacher. Witter’s three books of Old Testament interpretation, The Edomites,

A Book For The Young, and Angels, reveal her deep biblical knowledge, her access to extra-biblical resources, and her confidence in her ability to weave historical and geographical details and her consistent theme of right behaviour before God into coherent, informative, and didactic pan-biblical interpretations. Witter has, in effect, written three books of biblical interpretation that showcase her talent as a scholar of the popular voice.

Interestingly, Witter often chose to write about lesser known biblical peoples and topics, with the stated purpose in two of her books, her histories of the Edomites and the kings of Judah and Israel after David and Solomon, of engaging the interest of young people and teaching them about parts of the Bible they were “unlikely to research for themselves.”498 Witter’s two books for young people would have been available to their families and to their Sunday school teachers, thus opening up these Bible stories and her interpretations of them to a large potential audience with

496 Mary L.T. Witter, “Preface,” The Edomites (Halifax, N.S.: S. Seldon, 1888), 3. 497 Witter, like the other nineteenth-century Canadian women interpreters listed in Appendix A wrote for the young and for the popular audience. However, as De Groot and Taylor comment, “the fact that most women were not addressing the academy does not mean that they were not following the developments in the field of theology and biblical studies.” Christiana De Groot and Marion Ann Taylor, Recovering Nineteenth-Century Women Interpreters Of The Bible (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2007), 10. 498 Witter, The Edomites, 3.

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a view to encourage more Bible reading. 499

Witter honours the received King James Version of the Bible, retelling its stories, adding her

own homiletic comments, and filling in gaps where, as Ruth Tucker notes, “the text is silent.”500 As

part of this process of filling in the gaps Witter asks questions of the biblical text, and adds

historical and geographical detail to help illuminate stories.501 She creates dialogue between

characters, dialogue which nevertheless accords with the biblical narrative. As she retells stories

about Old Testament characters and events, she focuses on the theme of God’s sovereignty, on God

as “Lord over all,”502 and on godly and ungodly behaviour as modelled by biblical characters. She

reads the biblical characters as “either His agents or His instruments, who “forward His designs.”503

She uses her observations and her high value of Scripture504 as guides and lessons for the lives of

her readers of all ages with the hope that her interpretations of Old Testament stories will be of just

as much benefit to her readers “as if it were critical and elaborate.”505

499 Interpreters like Mary Witter, also Mrs. Thompson and Mrs. Leonard, both of whom will be discussed in subsequent sections, interpreted and wrote for the young, “in the fervent conviction that such introductions to literacy also laid the foundation for upright living and eternal happiness.” Patricia Demers, Women as Interpreters of the Bible, 94. 500 Ruth Tucker, Dynamic Women of the Bible (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 2014),32. 501 In one such example Witter begins her retelling of the stories of the kings of Judah and Israel with a brief description of Canaan or Palestine, “the theatre of events.” She includes a size comparison of Canaan with Nova Scotia to bring the biblical locale into perspective for her readers. Mary L.T. Witter, A Book For The Young, vii. 502 Ibid., v. 503 Ibid., v. 504 Witter, like the other nineteenth-century Canadian women interpreters listed in Appendix A viewed the Bible as “the inspired word of God” and hence was “not willing to explicitly criticize the contents of Scripture.” Rather, like Witter, they interpreted Bible stories, often filling in gaps in the biblical narratives to develop in their readers a deeper understanding of the Bible. De Groot and Taylor, Recovering Nineteenth-Century Women Interpreters of the Bible, 11. 505 Ibid., VI. Witter’s comment indicates that she was aware of the impact of German and British biblical scholarship in Canadian churches, universities, and seminaries from the 1880s on, but as part of “a deeply religious, conservative community,” chose to interpret the received text. John S. Moir, “A Sane and Tactful Course,” A History Of Biblical Studies In Canada: A Sense of Proportion (Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1982), 5.

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The Edomites

When Witter retells the story of the Edomites, she draws from the “twenty-four”506 books of the Bible which refer to this people to create a continuous narrative of their place and role in biblical history. She incorporates the important stories of Edomite ancestors, and references their descendants and key events and locations in their stories, all of which work together to give her youthful readers a complete picture of this biblical people.

Witter pays particular attention to Edomite ancestry, particularly to the key Rebecca-Isaac narrative in Genesis chapter twenty-four, seeing this narrative as foundational to the birth of the

Edomite people. As she retells the story, she asks probing questions of the text, wondering for example, why Abraham did not want Isaac to go to Haran, and why he sent his trusted servant instead.507 She draws attention to the lack of a parting scene, apart from Laban’s blessing, when

Rebecca leaves her family and journeys with that trusted servant to marry Isaac (Gen. 24: 57-

61).Witter encourages readers to think about Rebecca’s father Bethuel’s absence from the Eliezar-

Laban-Rebecca narrative apart from a brief mention in Genesis 24:50. Otherwise, it is Rebecca’s brother Laban who takes the lead (Gen. 24:29-32). She does this by drawing attention to family custom, speculating that Bethuel, who should have given a father’s goodbye and blessing, must have been incapacitated in some way from taking up “the proper performance of his duties as head of the family.”508 When Witter asks questions of the text and adds her comments, she encourages her readers to do the same and to think more deeply about gaps in the Bible story.

506 Witter, The Edomites, 3. 507 Ibid., 10. 508 Ibid., 21.

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Witter embellishes the long, masterful description by Abraham’s trusted servant of his journey to Bethuel’s family to find a wife for Isaac (Gen.24) with an imagined account of the journey home with Rebecca, the prospective wife. Witter gives her master story teller a fuller voice as he recounts for Rebecca the family history associated with points along the journey to meet Isaac.

Witter includes geographic details such as distances and possible routes, noting that a journey that might take two to three days in the nineteenth century would have been a “long, weary” journey in biblical times.509 When she names places and writes about what “travellers have described” of the region she not only reveals her own interest in and knowledge of biblical lands but also her deep interest in incorporating that knowledge into a retelling that would engage readers in the biblical narrative.

As she continues to imagine the journey story, Witter creates an on-going dialogue between the trusted servant and Rebecca during the long journey. The servant narrates the Sodom and

Gomorrah story (Gen. 14), thus personalizing this family narrative for Rebecca with such words as

“when your cousin Lot was living in Sodom.”510 Witter comments that the servant’s retelling of the command for Abraham to sacrifice Isaac (Gen. 21) was “probably followed by a number of questions by Rebekah as to how Isaac was affected” by the almost sacrifice. Did Isaac believe God had ordered his sacrifice? “Was he willing that his life should be thus cut short, or did he determine to resist?”511 Witter consistently includes probing questions and comments that provide readers with new insights and encourage a deeper engagement with the text.

509 Ibid., 25. 510 Ibid., 27. 511 Ibid., 31.

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Not surprisingly, Witter’s assumptions about women’s roles shape her interpretation of

Scripture. She conforms to the societal expectation of women’s subservience to men, for example, when she writes that Rebecca dismounts from her camel on meeting Isaac (Gen. 24:64) so that she would not be higher than Isaac, thus showing that she defers to him as her husband. Continuing in this vein, she wonders, through Isaac’s voice, if Rebecca is to be “a true help-meet.”512

While Witter extols Rebecca’s courageous decision to leave home, she gives Rebecca a

less sympathetic reading when she notes that the Bible, which does not often name women, names

Rebecca’s nurse. Witter implies that the nurse was likely an important person in Rebecca’s upbringing, and follows up with a comment that reflects the Victorian ideal that a wife and mother was responsible for teaching her children. She seems to take the unusual mention of the nurse’s name later in the biblical text (Gen.35:8) to assume the importance of nurses in Rebecca’s life and jumps to the assumption that a lack of maternal attention explains the rivalry between Esau and

Jacob (Gen. 25:23). She posits that “those mothers sustain heavy losses who entrust their children to the care of others. Among the losses may be numbered a lessening of their children’s love toward themselves, and of their love toward children.”513 She goes on to add that Rebecca’s plot to deceive

Isaac on behalf of Jacob, her favoured son (Gen. 27: 5-17), was “an indelible stain on her otherwise blameless character.”514

Witter also expresses strong opinions about the actions of biblical men. As she continues the family history of the Edomites, she does not hesitate to criticize Esau’s character. She suggests that

Esau’s inner guilt at selling his birthright to Jacob turned into anger and blame toward Jacob,

512 Ibid., 40-41. 513 Ibid. 514 Ibid., 56.

132 writing that “like most angry men Esau exceeded the bounds of truth” since “in his own opinion” he was “unfortunate rather than criminal, worthy of pity rather than blame.”515 Her comments are likely influenced by the later scene in which Esau gives a pitiful and bitter cry for a blessing, but then plans to kill Jacob, never acknowledging that his own action contributed to his loss (Gen. 27:

34-41). Witter draws a lesson for her contemporaries from the Esau story, suggesting that Esau’s neglect of his heritage is like those “in this land of Bibles” who neglect the Bible.516

Witter continues to develop her interpretive strategies and themes as she fills in a gap in the biblical Esau narrative and offers plausible reasons for Esau’s relocation to Mount Seir (Gen. 32:3).

She suggests that Esau was uncomfortable with Isaac’s piety because it caused “his own impiety to appear in an unfavourable light as to lessen his self-esteem, and thus render him unhappy. He did evil and did not wish that evil should be reproved.”517 Witter also suggests that Esau moved to an area with an abundance of game, accurately reflecting the biblical narrative which describes Esau as a “cunning hunter” (Gen. 25:17). In addition, she comments that Esau’s wife Aholibamah, “the daughter of Anah, a Hosite chief,”518 may have persuaded him to move to the region and live among her people (Gen. 36:2), a comment that reflects another nineteenth-century commonplace regarding the power of women to influence their husbands and families for good or evil.

In chapter five Witter supplements the biblical narrative with historical and geographical details, drawn from a variety of reference books that would enlighten readers about the region around Mount Seir. She names the ancient capital city of Bozrah and refers to “Sela,

515 Ibid., 63. 516 Ibid., 53. 517 Ibid., 72. 518 Ibid., 72. It is possible that the name “Hosite” is misspelled in The Edomites The biblical name is Horite. (Gen. 36:2)

133 better known by its Greek name Petra.”519 She brings in intertextual biblical references to further illuminate the story of Edom. She gives, for example, the alternate name of Mount Esau,520 and refers to the “terrible prophecy”521 of Edom’s dire fate throughout the Book of Obadiah.

Witter is very good at making intertextual connections that help to illuminate the biblical narrative. This is evident when she links Teman, a grandson of Esau, to a reference in Jeremiah

49:7, 20 where prophecies against Edom link Teman and Edom. She has high expectations of her readers’ biblical literacy as she expects that “the reader will readily call to mind Eliphaz, the

Temanite,” who converses with Job about God’s providence.522 Similarly, Witter identifies Mount

Hor as the highest peak in the mountains of Edom and reminds readers of the text in Numbers 33:38 that Mount Hor was the place “of the death and burial of the first Levitical high priest,” Aaron.523

A Book For The Young

Witter’s interpretation of the kings of Judah and Israel, written “with the hope, that they may be the means of awakening in the minds of the young a deeper interest” in the historical books of the Bible, focuses on the kings of Judah and Israel after David and Solomon.524 She includes

helpful background information as well as personal and homiletic comments as she gives capsule histories of each king.

519 Ibid., 75. 520 Obadiah names “the mount of Esau” in the prophecy of destruction and slaughter. (Obad. 8,9) 521 Witter, The Edomites, 75. 522 Ibid., 97. 523 Ibid., 76. 524 Witter, A Book for the Young, v.

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Witter is very well read and also cognizant of the differences in time, place, and customs between Bible times and nineteenth-century Canada. Before she begins her retelling of the stories of the kings, therefore, she reminds readers that “political and social institutions were too, very different then from what they are now.”525 She illustrates this using the example of the polygamy practised by Israel’s kings. She then moralizes that polygamy was a “natural out-growth of the supposed inferiority of woman,”526 adding that it wasn’t until Mary bore Jesus that women attained a better position, still as help-meets, but with dignity and not inferiority.527 Witter’s comment reflects the attitude that Catherine Brekus speaks of in Female Preaching in Early Nineteenth-

Century America when she says: “Although” women preachers and interpreters “used the Bible to defend their essential dignity and humanity they did not challenge the fundamental sexual inequalities” of their society.528

Interestingly, although Witter recounts the stories of Old Testament kings, she inserts a

Christological focus, in that she grounds the start of each reign in terms of years from Christ’s birth and not in terms of the span of each king’s reign.529 Her consistency in this respect, however, still provides a chronology of reigns. In addition to giving details of each king’s reign, as outlined in

Scripture, she continues her pattern of inserting homiletic comments, and of drawing reader’s attention to difficulties and gaps in the stories. When she rehearses the history of King Asa, for example, she notes the difficulty with his mother’s name which also seems to be that of his grandmother. She offers an explanation to account for this textual difficulty (1 Kings 15:2), noting

525 Ibid., VIII. 526 Ibid. 527 Catherine A. Brekus, Female Preaching in Early Nineteenth-Century America, 24. 528 Ibid. 529 Witter, A Book for the Young, 1-189 passim.

135 that “the most probable” of the “various conjectures” 530 made about this anomaly was that Asa’s mother died early and that he was raised by his grandmother Maacah and was therefore known as her son.

Witter’s propensity for judging characters in terms of godly or ungodly behaviour comes to the fore in her comments on King Ahab and Queen Jezebel. To begin, she acknowledges that since a person may exhibit a combination of characteristics, she will both praise and censure these characters. She describes Ahab’s character as “made up of contrarieties.”531 She feels that Ahab was wicked, but brave in terms of defending his kingdom. She confesses that “one is at a loss whether to abhor his wickedness, or despise his weakness”532 as he allows Jezebel to manipulate domestic affairs. (1 Kings 21: 7-14)

Similarly, Witter describes Jezebel as a complex character who, although more wicked than

Ahab, is also “inventive and energetic.” 533 As a careful reader of the biblical story, she concludes that when Jezebel threatened the prophet Elijah (1 Kings 19:2) she actually “allowed him ample opportunity to escape,” saying that “hardened though” Jezebel was, she “scarcely wished to imbrue her hands in his blood.”534 Her surprisingly positive reading of Jezebel seems to ignore Jezebel’s willingness to have Naboth killed, as it was Jezebel who sent letters, sealed with King Ahab’s ring, to order the death of Naboth. (1 Kings 21:8)

530 Witter, A Book for the Young, 23. 531 Ibid., 141. 532 Ibid., 149. 533 Ibid., 140. 534 In one such example Witter begins her retelling of the stories of the kings of Judah and Israel with a brief description of Canaan or Palestine, “the theatre of events.” She includes a size comparison of Canaan with Nova Scotia to bring the biblical locale into perspective for her readers. Mary L.T. Witter A Book For The Young, vii.

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Witter was also critical of King Jehoiachin and King Pekahiah of Israel. She describes

Jehoiachin as “a very wicked man,” italicizing the words for greater emphasis.535 She comments that King Pekahiah was “the wicked son of a wicked father.”536 Her frequent use of the word

‘wicked’ emphasizes her theme of righteous and unrighteous behaviour before God.

Witter’s acceptance of the nineteenth- century expectation regarding women as the teachers and moral guardians of the home comes through in her comments on the character of King Ahaz who “walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of

Israel” (2 Kings 16:3). She speculates that Ahaz’s father, good King Jotham, must have “married an idolatress. It is scarcely possible that Ahaz could so early have become adept in wickedness had his mother been a believer in the true God.”537 So too, Witter stresses women’s power to use their position and intelligence for good or evil when she uses the same phrase “one of the worst women who ever lived” to characterize both Queen Jezebel and Queen Athaliah.538

Witter draws attention to the physical inequalities between men and women and then, in terms of the nineteenth-century concepts of women’s nature and roles, adds that “to me it seems absurd to claim for women intellectual equality with men.”539 Instead, she sees equality only in terms of morality and spirituality, and claims female superiority only in terms of emotional nature.

Ironically, she makes this particular observation about women’s roles in her comments on Queen

Athaliah who had the intelligence, strength, and support to reign for seven years. Her

535 Ibid., 105. 536 Ibid., 182. 537 Ibid., 61. 538 Ibid., 40, 150. 539 Ibid., 40.

137 negative comments about women’s intellectual capacity is also discordant with her own intellectual achievement in writing and publishing three significant books that demonstrate her capacity for intellectual equality with men.

Angels

Witter’s third, and the last of her three books, was inspired by her own interest and by questions from others who looked to her for answers to their questions. In this book she writes for a wider audience that she calls the “intelligent public.”540 She affirms her own belief in angels as

God’s helpers, his “ministering spirits.”541 While she briefly notes angelic visitations throughout the

Bible and in her own time, she is primarily interested in unpacking the impact of the angelic visits on biblical characters.

An important section of her Old Testament comments about angels deals with the story of

Moses. She briefly notes Moses’ encounter with God’s angel (Exod. 3:2), stating that the angel’s purpose was to awaken a “spirit of enquiry” 542 in Moses as preparation for his commissioning as leader. Not surprisingly, Witter, who writes both as teacher/preacher, adds informative and homiletic comments that illuminate the theme of preparation for God’s service and direction. She notes, for example, that Moses’ years as a shepherd for his father-in-law (Exod. 3:1) made him familiar with the Sinai area, thus preparing him to lead the Israelites in their years of wandering through that territory.

As Witter fills in lacunae in the biblical story, she also imagines that Moses must have thought about the Israelites in Egypt and may even have encountered Israelite exiles,

540 Witter, Angels (Glasgow: William Asher, 1900), n.p. 541 Ibid., 33. 542 Ibid., 11.

138 considering that “the wilderness of Sinai was Egypt’s penal settlement.”543 She speculates that while Moses was alone in the wilderness he may have experienced a spiritual awakening that together with his education in the Egyptian court, prepared him for leadership. Reflecting both theologically and devotionally on the wilderness experience she writes:

The seen would be to him the shadow; the unseen, the substance. The seen, the transitory; the unseen, the permanent. The seen, the unreal; the unseen, the real. Moses in the wilderness of Sinai was a better, nobler, greater, deeper, grander man than he could have been in the court of Pharaoh. Solitude tests men. It makes the little man less, and the great man greater. None can enjoy solitude who has not internal resources, and especially who has not a consciousness of God’s presence.544

Witter’s comments about the women associated with biblical men who received angelic visitations or who received them themselves reflect typical nineteenth-century attitudes toward women. She states that in her own time women are respected for their “womanhood” and expresses her gratitude “for the honour and support conceded by the nobler sex.”545 However, unlike many women interpreters of her day who published specifically on women characters in Scripture, she downplays the role of women and focuses on the men. Witter treats Moses as nobler than the women in his life. She pays scant and sometimes unsympathetic attention, for example, to Moses’ wife Zipporah546 as she interprets the angel’s visit to Moses. She says only that Moses became

Jethro’s son-in-law. It is not until she later refers to the Israelite’s delivery from the Midianites in the time of the judges that she briefly states that Abraham was the ancestor of the Midianites from whom Moses chose his wife (Judg. 6, 7). It is at this point that she gives a brief and unsympathetic reading to Zipporah, stating that the marriage “seems to have been unfortunate,” and that Zipporah

543 Ibid., 10. 544 Ibid., 10-11. 545 Ibid., 84. 546 Witter does not comment on the brief story in Exodus 4:26-28 when Zipporah proactively saves Moses’ life.

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“was one of the few women who are encumbrances rather than helpmeets to their husbands.” 547

Contrariwise, following Josephus’ lead, she gives Pharaoh’s daughter, Moses’ adoptive mother, the name Thermuthis,548 and brings her more fully into the narrative.

Witter reads Hagar, Abraham’s concubine’s two encounters with the angel of God sympathetically (Gen. 16:7; 21:17). She fills in gaps in the biblical narrative, imagining, in a realistic way, Hagar’s thoughts and feelings when she runs away from Sarah. She draws attention to

Hagar’s lack of status when she describes Hagar’s feelings, noting that “as far she is known at all”549 Hagar would still be considered Sarah’s servant and would be obliged to go back to Sarah.

Here, Witter follows a typical English reading in terms of station in life rather than a typical

American reading of Hagar as a black slave abused by her master.550 Witter highlights Hagar’s honesty and her obedience to the command to go back even though the command was “most unwelcome.”551 Witter’s interest in finding a moral and spiritual lesson in each text means that she is particularly interested in a character’s faith in God.

Interestingly, Witter does not follow chronological biblical order in her interpretation of angelic visitations. She groups them by topic, that is, by the faith exhibited by those visited, and follows her pattern of briefly mentioning the angelic visit, focusing instead on the actions and the probable thoughts of the characters so visited. In this vein, she comments on Hagar, the unnamed wife of Manoah (Judg. 13:3), and Deborah (Judg. 4:4). After the single mention, for example,

547 Witter, Angels, 18. 548 Witter refers to Josephus who wrote that “Thermuthis was the king’s daughter.” Josephus, Josephus The Complete Works, 79. 549 Witter, Angels, 2. 550 Two examples illustrate this distinction. Englishwoman Harriet Morton comments that Hagar had no right to leave as she was Abram’s wife and Sarah’s slave, while American Sarah Town Martyn saw Hagar as a “poor bondswoman.” Marion Ann Taylor and Heather E. Weir, eds. Let her Speak For Herself (Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2006), 208, 226. 551 Witter, Angels, 3.

140 of angelic influence in Deborah’s victory song (Judg. 5:23) when the Israelites defeat Sisera and his army, Witter focusses on a sympathetic reading of the judge and warrior Deborah. It is Deborah’s piety and leadership that Witter highlights. She speaks of Deborah as a woman of faith who steps up to lead her people during troubled and anarchic times. She justifies Deborah’s helpful leadership role in a time of crisis when she explains that “women, as is usual, were more hopeful than the men, for they possess more of the never-give-up principle than the stronger sex.”552 She describes

Deborah as “hopeful, resolute, and energetic,”553 a leader in this time of adversity.

Subscribing to the nineteenth-century view of women as dependent on men, however,

Witter comments that if Deborah had “lived in peaceful, prosperous times she would have clung to her husband for support, as clings the delicate ivy to the sturdy oak; but in this time of calamity her husband leaned on her as on a solid rock.”554 Words like “delicate” and “clung” do not, however, accord with the biblical image of Deborah as a strong and gifted leader. (Judg. 4)

When Witter comments on the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen. 19) and the angels’ connection with Lot’s family, she censures Lot and gives readers a brief but sympathetic reading of Lot’s wife, albeit with a nineteenth-century focus on women’s need of support and direction. She thus attributes the need of Lot’s wife to look back to womanly characteristics such as being “more worldly minded than her husband, or more anxious about those who were left behind, or perchance prompted by feminine curiosity.”555 She also alludes to the nineteenth-century norm that viewed men as the heads and guides of their household as she comments that when the angels let go the hands of Lot and his family after bringing them out of Sodom, Lot should have taken up the duty of guiding his wife (Gen. 19: 16-17). Lot’s wife “might have been saved from a horrible

552 Ibid., 17. 553 Ibid. 554 Ibid. 555 Ibid., 31.

141 death had Lot taken her hand when the angel loosened his hold. He evidently strode on before his wife, leaving her to follow as best she could.”556

To conclude, in all three of her books Witter demonstrates her literary talent and her deep knowledge of Scripture. She confidently interprets Old Testament stories, secure in her ability and right to do so. She makes use of scholarly resources such as atlases, concordances, commentaries, and Josephus’ Antiquities, makes inter-biblical connections, asks questions of the biblical text, creates dialogue, and adds relevant geographical and historical detail and her own homiletic reflections. She moralizes stories, stressing godly and ungodly behaviour, acknowledges generational gaps as she explains differences in time between the world of the text and her own context. However, in terms of a gendered exegesis, she struggles when characters’ actions differ from those expected in the nineteenth-century. Her nineteenth-century assumptions about the nature and roles of men and women clearly affect her interpretations of Scripture and even blind her to her own exceptional abilities as an educated reader, teacher, pastor, and preacher. Given her accomplishments, Witter deserves to be remembered as an exceptional Canadian woman who published her sophisticated popular interpretations of Scripture for both young people and adults.

Her work not only illuminates Scripture, but also provides a fascinating lens into her own life as a woman who held to traditional views of women’s nature and roles and yet who challenged them through her own work as a researcher, teacher, writer and pastor/preacher.

556 Ibid.

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4:2 A Lady Of New Brunswick (A.L.O.N.B.)

The identities of many nineteenth-century Canadian women interpreters are currently lost to us because some chose to publish using a pseudonym,557 personal initials only,558 or initials designating a locale.559 The precedent established by other women writers, the initials themselves, and the publishing location of St. John, New Brunswick indicate that A.L.O.N.B., a lady living in

New Brunswick, contributed to Rays Of Light In Bible Lands and wrote The Bible Vindicated By

Marvellous Discoveries.

The Harvest Home In Palestine

A.L.O.N.B.’s contribution to a collection of three essays entitled Rays Of Light From Bible

Lands also suggests that she was a woman interpreter of the Bible. Three authors, two men and

A.L.O.N.B., contributed to this book. The publisher introduces Rev. Dr. Robert Wilson as one of the authors, specifically acknowledging his academic qualifications, as he briefly describes Wilson’s contribution. He also names Rev. Dr. Talmage, who toured the Holy

Land, identifying him as a noted theologian and preacher. When he introduces A.L.O.N.B’s contribution, “The Harvest Home In Palestine,” however, he does not specify the author’s name or call attention to her academic or theological qualifications. He identifies A.L.O.N.B. only as “the

557 Agnes Maule Machar, for example, used the pseudonym Fidelis. Christa Zeller, “Agnes Maul Machar (1837-1927),” Poets’ Pathway Women Poets of the Confederation, n.p. 558 The anonymous E.M.H., the author of Scripture Catechism Intended For The Instruction Of Children, wrote for younger Sunday School children. E.M.H., Scripture Catechism Intended For The Instruction Of Children, 2. 559 Charlotte Maria Tucker, poet and writer for adults and children, wrote under the initials A.L.O.E., A Lady of England. Heather Weir, “Tucker, Charlotte Maria (A.L.O.E.),” Handbook of Women Biblical Interpreters, 511. Mrs. M.J. Frank, author of The Brock Family, was known as A.L.O.M., A Lady of Manitoba. Peel’s Bibliography of the Prairie Provinces to 1953, Based upon the work of Bruce Braden Peel, ed. Ernie B. Ingles and N. Merrill Distad (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003), 767.

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writer of Israel’s National Thanksgiving Festival,” noting that the author “sheds much light on

many obscure portions of the Old and New Testament Scriptures.”560 This anonymity, in

comparison to the more detailed acknowledgment of the two male authors, supports our supposition

that A.L.O.N.B. is a woman interpreter of the Bible.

The preface contains yet further confirmation that A.L.O.N.B. was a woman interpreter.

Reverend Dr. Talmage is known to have advocated that girls receive a good education. In one of

his published sermons, he advises parents and daughters to embrace education. He recognized that

young women needed to “learn to do some kind of work that the world must have.”561 Talmage felt,

for example, that if a woman wanted to teach, her own education should include subjects such as

trigonometry, Greek and Latin. Based on Dr. Talmage’s support of women’s education and on the

knowledge A.L.O.N.B. exhibits in her writing, it seems likely that he would have encouraged and

supported A.L.O.N.B.’s contribution to Rays Of Light From Bible Lands.562

Although writing style may not constitute definitive proof of an author’s gender,

A.L.O.N.B’s essay stands apart in style and content from the two more academic papers in the

book. Dr. Wilson adopts a textbook style that includes religious commentary. When writing about

Egypt, for example, he gives compartmentalized sections of information such as “agricultural

560 R.A.H. Morrow, Rays Of Light From Bible Lands: Embracing Historical Sketches Of The Five Great Empires Of Antiquity (St. John, N.B.: R.A.H. Morrow, 1896), 5. 561 Austen, A.M. “Open Doors For The Women Of Today,” Woman Her Character, Culture, And Calling: A Full Discussion of Women’s Work in the Home, the School, the Church and the Social Circle with an Account of her Successful Labors in Moral and Social Reform. Austen, A.M. ed. (Brantford, Ont.: The Book and Bible House, 1890), 34. Reverend Austen was the principal of Alma Ladies College in St. Thomas, Ontario. This book contains a wide variety of articles, written by both men and women, on a wide variety of topics such as women in medicine, women in higher education, and women and the Bible that endorsed women’s participation in these fields. 562 A.L.O.N.B. certainly demonstrates a high level of education in both Rays Of Light From Bible Lands and The Bible Vindicated. For example, in The Bible Vindicated A.L.O.N.B. uses extra-biblical sources such as a Hebrew-English dictionary to explain the meaning of “Kiriath-sepher” as “Booktown.” She also uses Josephus and the work of noted contemporary scholars such as “Prof. A.H. Sayce, D.D., LL.D, Professors of Oriental Languages, Oxford University, England, who is “one of the leading scholars in the decipherment and translation of these ancient records.” A.L.O.N.B. The Bible Vindicated by Marvellous Discoveries In Scripture Lands Disclosing A World of Ancient Buried Treasure Bearing Direct Testimony to the Truthfulness of Sacred History (St. John, N.B.: R.A.H. Morrow, 1899), 23-27.

144 resources” and “mineral kingdom.”563 When briefly describing the cities and ancient monuments, he comments on the ultimate decay564 of empires as foretold by Hebrew prophets, whom he does not identify or from which he draws no examples. Apart from a short introduction by Dr. Talmage, his portion of the book is a trip itinerary and journal written by his private secretary, who, with his wife, accompanied Dr. Talmage and his family. The secretary writes about what Dr. Talmage did, experienced, and said at each stopping place on the trip.

A.L.O.N.B’s style in The Harvest Home In Palestine section of the book stands apart.

While the biblical and historical knowledge aspects and further examples of her commentary will be discussed later, a brief example here illuminates her way of describing, in an accessible and appealing fashion, the sites named in the biblical text. When she describes the landscape around Jerusalem, for example, she weaves Old Testament texts into what seems to be an eyewitness description that supports the biblical text and her interpretive theme of the truth of biblical history. She imagines the scene in Jerusalem as people long ago prepared for the festival.

She describes the palm trees around Jerusalem “gracefully waving in majestic grandeur with heads aloft like plumed knights,” part of a “scene of enchanting beauty.565 She continues:

As we view it thus, while the slanting rays of the setting sun are casting their golden reflections on the Temple buildings and other lofty structures in various parts of the city, with the distant hills for a background, a picture is completed that time shall never be able to erase from the mind’s eye.566

563 Robert Wilson, “The Five Great Empires Of Antiquity,” Rays Of Light From Bible Lands: Embracing Historical Sketches Of The Five Great Empires Of Antiquity ( St. John, N.B.: R.A.H. Morrow, 1896), 10. 564 Ibid, 17. 565 A.L.O.N.B., “The Harvest Home in Palestine,” Rays Of Light From Bible Lands: Embracing Historical Sketches Of The Five Great Empires Of Antiquity ( St. John, N.B.: R.A.H. Morrow, 1896), 55. 566 Ibid., 55.

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After viewing this wonderful scene, A.L.O.N.B. imagines King David, “the sweet singer of

Israel,”567 tuning his harp and composing/singing: “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion” (Ps. 48:2). Her readers could well imagine that they too were there, perhaps along with A.L.O.N.B., immersed in the history of biblical locations as they viewed them.

The question then becomes, what can The Harvest Home In Palestine tell us about this anonymous woman interpreter? First, phrases such as “after viewing,” as noted above, suggest the possibility that A.L.O.N.B. had visited the Holy Land. The latter half of the nineteenth century was a time of travel, particularly after Thomas Cook opened up tourism in Egypt with his Nile cruises in 1869, then went on to open tourist offices in Jaffa (1874) and Jerusalem (1881). This time of travel discovery is described as a “turning point in travel for trades, exploration, adventure, and religious inspiration.”568 The publisher of Rays of Light also notes the last years of the nineteenth century were “indeed an age of travel and discovery,”569 which, for travellers of faith, meant visiting sites in the Holy Land and throughout the Ancient Near East that seemed to verify the biblical narrative. Interest in such travel was spurred by archeological discoveries in the Ancient Near East throughout the nineteenth century.

The media570 of the day, including Canadian periodicals and newspapers, reported, for example, on the work of Henry Rawlinson in deciphering the Behistun cuneiform inscriptions571

567 David is “the sweet psalmist of Israel. (2 Sam. 23:1) 568 F. Robert Hunter, “The Thomas Cook Archive For The Study Of Tourism In North Africa And The Middle East,” Middle East Studies Bulletin Vol. 36, No.2 (Winter 2003): 157. 569 R.A.H. Morrow, Rays Of Light From Bible Lands: Embracing Historical Sketches Of The Five Great Empires Of Antiquity, 7. 570 The January 7, 1854 issue of The Son Of Temperance The Canadian Literary Gem reported the discovery of the palace of Shushan “mentioned in the books of Esther and Daniel the prophet”. The locality attests to the received tradition of its position; and the internal evidence, proving its correspondence with the descriptions of the place in sacred history.” “Discovery of the Palace of Shushan,” The Son Of Temperance The Canadian Literary Gem Vol. IV, No. 1 (January 7, 1854): 1. The February 4, 1854 edition of The Son Of Temperance The Canadian Literary Gem published an article on the Assyrian Empire, reporting on a talk by Colonel Rawlinson at a meeting of the Royal Asiatic Society. The article noted

146 and on Austen Henry Layard’s excavations at Ninevah.572 In addition, many travellers wrote and published accounts of their travels. Englishwoman Elizabeth Rundle Charles (1828-1896), for example, travelled to the Holy Land and published her travel journal: Wanderings Over Bible

Lands and Seas (1862).573 Later, Englishwoman Elizabeth Harcourt Mitchell published her travel journal, Forty Days in the Holy Land Before and After (1890).574 Christians like A.L.O.N.B., with an interest in archeology as a tool with which to prove the historicity of the Bible, would read, with avid interest, travel journals as well as newspaper articles such as one in The Canada Christian

Monthly which reported on Captain Warren’s discovery of Hezekiah’s tunnel.575 With such interest in the archeology of biblical sites and the vivid descriptions in A.L.O.N.B.s’ writing, readers might rightly conclude that A.L.O.N.B. may have visited at least some of these sites.

A.L.O.N.B. says, for example, that looking down from the Temple Mount “into the deep valleys of the Kidron and Tyrpeon, a distance of four hundred and fifty feet, the depth appears stupendous. The eye becomes dazed, the head giddy, the heart thrilled.”576 This first-hand experience suggests that A.L.O.N.B. was a person with the financial resources to travel. Moreover, her biblical knowledge and her ability to integrate it into a coherent commentary on the harvest festival, and her interest in and knowledge of ancient cultures, points to an educated woman, possibly a member of a clerical family.

his work collecting and interpreting Assyrian inscriptions such as a tablet listing Assyrian and Babylonian gods and their centres of worship. “The Assyrian Empire,” The Son Of Temperance The Canadian Literary Gem Vol., No. 5 (February 4, 1854): 27. 571 Brian M. Fagan, The Adventure Of Archeology (Washington, D.C.: The National Geographic Society,1985), 62. 572 Ibid., 66. 573 Krista M. Dowdeswell, “Charles, Elizabeth Rundle,” Handbook Of Women Biblical Interpreters eds. Marion Ann Taylor and Agnes Choi (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2012), 121. 574 Elizabeth Harcourt Mitchell, Forty Days in the Holy Land Before And After (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1890). 575 “Recent Researches In Palestine,” The Canada Christian Monthly Vol. 1, No. 2 (August 1873): 52. 576 A.L.O.N.B., “The Harvest Home In Palestine,” 59.

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In addition to her descriptive language, which paints interpretive word pictures of biblical scenes designed to engage readers and evoke a spiritual response, A.L.O.N.B. demonstrates a consistent pattern of integrating Old Testament references with secular scholarship and with theological reflection. She informs readers, for example, about geographic details such as the elevation, the strategic importance, and the defensive advantage of Jerusalem, integrating scripture references when assembled kings “hasted away”(Ps 48:5) from Jerusalem, an event that she links to the invading forces of Ammon and Syria which fled before Joab .(2 Sam.10:6-14).

She notes that the harvest festival, “the last of the three great annual feasts,”577 had not been observed since Joshua’s time. She incorporates corroborating biblical references specifying

God’s command to keep the harvest festival (Lev. 23: 41-43) and specifying that the festival be a time of rejoicing (Deut. 16:13-16), to highlight the importance of the feast. She includes visual supplements such as a ground plan of the temple578 and a representation of a high priest attending the altar579 to help her readers visualize the majesty and solemnity of the feast. She incorporates details of how the Israelites were required to prepare themselves for worship “when they go the tabernacle of the congregation” (Exod. 30:18-21), and of the unblemished quality demanded for sacrificial animals (Deut. 15:21). By using multiple Old Testament references, she emphasizes the long tradition of the festival and its importance for God’s people, and establishes a connection with her nineteenth-century readers, stressing their need to prepare for worship, to be thankful, and rejoice just as the Israelite celebrants did so long ago. She displays further biblical knowledge when she identifies festival details such as the service of song known as the “Egyptian Hallel,” (Ps.113-

577 Ibid., 50. 578 Ibid., 62. 579 Ibid., 67.

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118),580 describing the exodus, or the fifteen “Songs of Degrees” of the “Great Hallel.” (Ps. 120-

136)581

As A.L.O.N.B. interprets the story of the festival, supplemented by citations from the Old

Testament, she draws life lessons from the Bible for her nineteenth-century readers. She continues to emphasize the care mandated for the poor, the fatherless, the stranger, and the widow, by referring to Old Testament statutes mandating care for the vulnerable (Exod. 22:22; Deut. 27:19).

She comments that the Old Testament lessons of the festival are applicable to contemporary lives.

Thus, in reference to care for the vulnerable (Deut. 15:11) she says “so are we to imitate their example in this respect,”582 for there are many poor and needy always with us. She also notes that

“as the Jews at this feast presented free-will offerings on God’s altar, besides those legally required, so should we cheerfully contribute to the Lord’s cause of that which he has given us.”583 She interprets the Bible as a resource for daily living for her generation, seeing the Festival as a type representing the last days and the great ingathering when Christ said “the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels” (Matt. 13:39). The true harvest shall be brought into God’s presence with joy and thanksgiving so she urges her readers to “join in that eternal feast of thanksgiving.”584 A.L.O.N.B’s contribution to Rays Of Light not only confirms her gender but also strongly suggests that she was a highly educated Canadian woman of means who was one of the many nineteenth-century female travellers to the Holy land who published accounts related to their travels.

580 Ibid., 69-71. 581 Ibid., 73. 582 Ibid., 85. 583 Ibid. 584 Ibid., 86.

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The Bible Vindicated By Marvellous Discoveries

A.L.O.N.B.’s solo book, The Bible Vindicated, also gives readers direct and indirect information about A.L.O.N.B., notably her education, and reinforces her commitment to the importance of archeological discoveries in proving the historicity of the Bible. In her preface,

A.L.O.N.B. acknowledges her debt to other sources, especially “the most important discoveries of modern research in Bible lands.”585 Her statement reveals her passion for scholarship: for biblical history and for the archeological discoveries which she sees as verifying it. It also highlights her interest in staying current with the latest discoveries as described in popular journals and scholarly works, and her probable access to both theological and archeological writings. She speaks knowledgably about historical records found in world renowned museums such as the

Boulaq Museum in Cairo, the discovery of ancient Near East parallels to the biblical narrative, and about scholarly conventions such as that of the Victoria Institute in July 1894 held in London,

England.586 A.L.O.N.B.’s multiple references to archeological discoveries, which she deems a

“more profitable occupation than to spin theories” about the “origin and composition” 587 of biblical books like Genesis, and to the historical record, and to scholarly conferences, reflect Moir’s view that the last twenty years of the nineteenth century, when A.L.O.N.B. presumably travelled, studied, and wrote, were a time when academic scholars and scholars of the popular voice reflected

“contemporary European scientific, philosophical, and biblical research.”588

A.L.O.N.B. was also interested in ancient languages and may have studied Greek. She includes for example, the Greek meaning of the word hieroglyphics when she discusses the

585 A.L.O.N.B. The Bible Vindicated By Marvellous Discoveries, (St. John, N.B.: R. A.H. Morrow, 1899), 3. 586 Ibid., 18. 587 Ibid., 77. 588 John S. Moir, “A Sane And Tactful Course,” A History Of biblical Studies In Canada: A Sense of Proportion (Chico, California: Scholars Press, 1982), 7.

150 importance of the Rosetta Stone in deciphering hieroglyphics.589 She also claims that the biblical time of the exodus and the settlement in Canaan was a time of literary accomplishment, that “the

Israelites and their leaders lived in the midst of educated and literary populations.” 590 A.L.O.N.B.’s work highlights her education, her high view of archeology, and her strong belief that ongoing archeological discoveries vindicate the biblical narrative. Indeed, at the outset she expresses her apologetic concern that Christians may have no doubt “in the genuineness of God’s word.”591 She states that the veracity of the Bible has been “assailed, as never before, by secular scientists under the guise of Higher Criticism, Modern Science, New Theology, Liberalism, and other phrases which characterize the Bible as fable and unworthy of rational belief.”592 Like Witter, A.L.O.N.B. is aware of the “impact of German and British biblical scholarship”593 and has determined that such

“disturbingly new ideas”594 are antithetical to her high view of Scripture as the inspired word of

God, her high view of archeological discoveries as proof of the veracity of Scripture, and her stated purpose to “encourage all classes of readers to a more diligent study of the Holy Scriptures.”595

A.L.O.N.B. addresses issues related to historical criticism and concomitant doubts as to the veracity of the Bible’s history throughout her book. She addresses, for example, the issue of scholarly doubts about the reality of a dry path made for the Israelites through the Red Sea

(Exod.14:21) by telling the story of Major-General Tulloch’s eyewitness account of a violent storm

589 A.L.O.N.B., The Bible Vindicated By Marvellous Discoveries, 21. 590 Ibid., 24. A.L.O.N.B. names Kirjath–sepher, town of the book, mentioned in Joshua 15:15, as an example of a community that supported archives and libraries. “And he went up thence to the inhabitants of Debir; and the name of Debir before was Kirjath-sepher.” 591 Ibid., 3. 592 Ibid., 9. 593 John S. Moir, A History Of Biblical Studies In Canada: A Sense of Proportion, 1. 594 A.L.O.N.B., The Bible Vindicated By Marvellous Discoveries, 5. 595 Ibid., 3.

151 which did push the waters back.596 She reflects theologically about God’s power and provision in controlling the laws of nature: “which are always under His absolute control and guidance so that the groaning captives might be released from bondage” in Egypt. 597She also tells the story of the important discovery of the Moabite Stele which named King Omri of Israel.598 She includes information on recent and reliable editions of that text,599 including a translation, so readers can see where Israel and King Omri are named. She connects the archeological discovery to the biblical text which tells the story of the northern kingdom’s ongoing war with Moab. (2 Kings 3:4-27)

When she describes Jerusalem for her readers she not only tells them of archeological discoveries, but again describes the sites in a way that indicates she has visited them as well as read of their history. As is her interpretive pattern throughout her writing, she integrates these varied descriptions and experiences with the Bible. For example she refers to King Hezekiah’s tunnel (2

Kings 20:20), and incorporates the exciting story of Captain Warren’s 1880 discovery of the Siloam inscription which she believes verifies Hezekiah’s work.600 She includes the translation of the inscription which describes the final moments of that long ago construction. She notes the translator’s comment that even though there was no name or date in the inscription it is stylistically related to eighth century BCE writings.601 After including relevant geographic details she concludes that this find was yet another archeological discovery that attests to the accuracy of biblical history.

596 Ibid., 65. 597 Ibid., 66. 598 Ibid., 68-75. 599 Ibid.,71. A.L.O.N.B. credits the 1886 edition by German professors Smend and Sein for being the best edition. 600 Ibid 95. 601 Ibid., 96.

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A.L.O.N.B. also writes about the “remarkable” discovery of the royal quarries of Jerusalem that bring to light “an obscure portion of Bible history,”602 a description of the building of the house for the Lord. (1 Kings 7:7)603 Her description of the quarries, seemingly at first-hand, brings this single Bible verse to light in a way that would help her readers visualize that long-ago construction project and gain a greater appreciation for the biblical narrative as a record of real people and real places:

In exploring the underground excavations, by the aid of a lighted taper, you are confounded at the depth and extent of the numerous vaults, which run in all directions. On every hand you see chisellings and other mason’s marks on the surface stones which profusely strew the floor. On the walls of the chambers are also visible the stains of the smoke of the lamps which were evidently placed in niches cut in the rock to give light to the workers.604

In this and other descriptions, A.L.O.N.B. successfully gives readers an exciting sense of being on location as fellow travellers and as witnesses to and participants in moments and places in biblical history. Her interpretations, which weave together descriptions of archeological discoveries, biblical texts, personal reminiscences, and homiletic comments, illuminate Bible stories and give a sense of the reality of those stories. Indeed, her concluding comment reiterates her purpose in writing this book: “And if a perusal of these pages will lead to a more diligent search and study of the Holy Scriptures, and strengthen the faith of the weak believer, and remove the doubt of the sceptic, the writer shall be amply repaid.”605

602 Ibid., 103. 603 “And the house, when it was in building, was built of stone made ready before it was brought thither: so that there was neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron heard in the house, while it was in building.” (1 Kings 7:7). 604 A.L.O.N.B., The Bible Vindicated, 103-104. 605 Ibid., 128.

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A.L.O.N.B.’s education, knowledge of the Bible and of research into biblical history, and her confidence in presenting academic, non-gendered knowledge to the public speaks to a comment about the changing landscape of women’s roles and influence made by Rev. B.F. Austin, Principal of Alma Ladies College in St. Thomas, Ontario. He praises “the marvellous march of women to the front in almost every field of human activity” and stating that “the century will pass into history particularly distinguished by the enlargement of woman’s sphere and the multiplication of her advantages.”606 A.L.O.N.B. stands out as an educated woman with sophisticated knowledge of the

Bible, of continental criticism, and of archeological discoveries, confident in her ability to combine these resources into a book in the popular voice that would encourage her readers to believe in the historical veracity of biblical history.

This chapter has featured two prose biblical interpreters of exceptional ability. Although

Witter wrote The Edomites and her history of the royals of Judah and Israel for young people, she also wrote Angels to engage adult readers. Each book is a pan-biblical survey, linking biblical people and events with a view to encouraging godly behaviour. A.L.O.N.B. wrote primarily for adult audiences. Her essay, “The Harvest Home in Palestine,” and her book The Bible Vindicated, showcase her education, her experiences travelling in the Holy Land, and her apologetic concern to vindicate biblical history. Both Witter and A.L.O.N.B. were aware of the rise of criticism and historical referentiality. Both strove to encourage their readers to read their Bibles and to educate their readers about the veracity of the Bible and its meaning and value for daily life.

606 B.F. Austin, Woman Her Character, Culture And Calling (Brantford, Ontario: The Book & Bible House, 1890), 23.

Chapter 5

Nineteenth-Century Sunday School Lessons

Chapter five will feature two Canadian women who chose the genre of prose to write catechetical interpretations of Scripture. Mrs. James C. Thompson and Mrs. Leonard both published the lessons they wrote for their own Sunday school classes, with the view of offering them as lesson templates for other Sunday school teachers to use. Both wrote to teach young people about the Bible and about the importance of applying the lessons of Scripture in their own lives.

5:1 Mrs. James C. Thompson

Although no biography of Thompson is currently available, information about her life can be derived from the autobiographical comments she includes in Sketches From Life, her interpretation of the Ten Commandments and other Scripture.607 This information includes her philosophy regarding the duties and sense of social and Christian responsibility associated with her family background, her faith, her social attitudes arising from an upper- class background, and her views of women’s role. This philosophy provides the foundation for her interpretations of Scripture and for her teaching interest in deriving moral lessons from the Bible and applying them to everyday nineteenth-century life.

Thompson’s work reveals details from her childhood and from her early years of married life. She had a privileged upbringing in a “luxurious home,” and in one story relates

607 Unfortunately her identity, apart from her married name, is lost to us. Thompson does not reveal her given name or family surname in her stories. 154

155 that her father, “blest with abundance,” had enough income to advance ₤12,000 on the estate of someone in trouble.608 Further indications of a privileged upbringing are evident in her descriptions of her large home which featured a breakfast room opening onto lawns and included the luxuries of riding horses and a governess to teach the children.609 In one of her stories Thompson speaks of a children’s birthday party she attended where “wealth contributed its means to our full enjoyment: every luxury was at our disposal.”610 When she married and had children, her privileged lifestyle allowed for a nurse and under-nurse for her children as well as extended holiday times at the seashore.611

The autobiographical details she includes also offer glimpses of nineteenth-century life, including the issue of life expectancy. She speaks of the devastating effects of epidemics such as scarlet fever and the debilitating and life-threatening effects of untreatable injuries. Indeed, this is something that social class and wealth could not insulate her from. Woven into her stories of others, she reveals the overwhelming grief she experienced at losing three of her children within twenty- four hours to scarlet fever. Thompson shares her sorrow, her rebellion against cruel fate, and her empathy for other “homes as empty as mine,” expressing her sorrow in terms of the prophet

Jeremiah’s lamentation. (Jer. 31: 15)612 Then, after immigrating to London, Ontario, she lost her surviving child, a boy of fifteen, to a violent death. In spite of her “anguish and

608 Mrs. James C. Thompson, Sketches From Life: Being Tales on the Ten Commandments and Various Texts of Scripture, 138. 609 Ibid., 28. 610 Ibid., 154. 611 Ibid., 73, 89. 612 Ibid., 78.

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bitterness” Thompson courageously tells of this tragedy to illustrate the commandment against murder. 613

She seems, based on her involvement with people around her parents’ estate in England,

in the nearby town, and later as a Sunday school teacher in London, Ontario, to have been a take- charge person. The combination of her family upbringing, social class, education, Christian values, and personality produced a woman who expected to have influence on those around her, and who took the initiative in doing so. She speaks, for example, of her doctor brother-in-law who often asked her to go with him to minister to people in need.614 Local people, where there was injury, illness, or other needs, would call on her,615 and she did not hesitate to step in and take charge of a situation and offer pastoral care to the individuals involved, often with direct action as when she took on the care of a neglected baby.616

Even before she begins her moral formal teaching of Scripture for the girls, likely young teens, in her Sunday school class, Thompson writes a nine-page apology for the Anglican form of worship. She uses her knowledge and appreciation of Anglican liturgy, her faith, her knowledge of

Scripture, and her teaching skills to clearly articulate the meaning of each part of the service for her pupils. She wants them to understand the service and to see it as an important and formative part of their lives. She speaks, for example, about the “beautiful Collects (which are short comprehensive prayers) and their adaptation to all our wants.”617 As she points out the value of Psalms being included in each service, she asks: “Who can read the Psalms without the heart being uplifted to the

613 Ibid., 47 614 Ibid., 115. 615 Ibid., 41. 616 Ibid., 54. 617 Ibid., 10.

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God whose attributes of power, goodness and mercy, they portray so forcibly?”618

When Thompson begins her interpretations of selected Bible verses, she demonstrates a different interpretive style from women like E.M.H. and Mrs. Leonard, who also wrote specifically for Sunday school classes. E.M.H, for example, wrote a more traditional-style catechism619 in which she posed questions, then chose Bible verses, which she expected students to learn, that spoke to those questions. She did not reflect theologically on the selected verses. Mrs. Thompson also begins with Bible verses, but chooses stories from life to illustrate the moral point of each scripture verse rather than reflecting theologically on those verses. Unlike Mrs. Leonard, who also begins with

Bible verses and reflects theologically on them, Mrs. Thompson uses Scripture to develop what

Elizabeth Dreyer calls a moral theology in which Thompson tells stories that speak to a “lived daily faith experience.”620 Thompson tells stories that showcase Christian character and behaviour or its opposite, with the view of teaching her pupils the moral relevance of Scripture in their lives.

Thompson’s description of a well-loved teacher in one of her stories speaks to her pedagogic interest: “Her Christian character was the fruit of her own good training.”621

Thompson is a story-teller and a teacher. She weaves stories from her own and others’ life experiences into her lessons, describing events and people in ways that would engage her students’ interest, encourage them to feel part of and empathize with her stories, and appreciate the moral principles in the Bible verses, which, supplemented by her stories, are to be a moral blueprint for life.

618 Ibid., 8. 619 E.M.H., Scripture Catechism Intended For The Instruction Of Children (Montreal: Printed At The W.G. Association 73 Bleury St., 1879). 620 Elizabeth Dreyer, “Why Theology Needs Women’s Voices; Female Doctors of the Church,” (More House Lecture, Feb. 19/2015), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31AxjlNzwoo, accessed June 19, 2018. 621 Thompson, Sketches From Life, 216.

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Her descriptions of and comments on these Bible verses are vivid. She elaborates, for example, on the eighth commandment, the prohibition against stealing (Exod. 20:15), stressing that it is wrong to take even a trifle. “The effect of sin is powerful – it is as mischievous as a small spark, which, when falling upon tinder, is not only sufficient to kindle fires in every chamber of a house, but even to consume the entire building.”622 She moralizes that the taking of that first small trifle is the tinder of covetousness, ready to flare up and consume a person, and that there is greater happiness with “honest gains” than with gains that come at the expense of others.623

Her knowledge of the Bible is deep, allowing her to make many intra textual connections

by quoting or paraphrasing texts from the Old and New Testament. She weaves these connections into her interpretations of each Bible verse, her stories, and her exhortations. She exemplifies

Dekai’s comment that “religion was evident in the ebb and flow of everyday life” and that people of the nineteenth century “read their Bibles daily” and saw the Bible with its characters, situations and teachings as an integral part of their daily lives.624

Thompson’s story telling throughout her lesson series is a mixture of exhortation to follow the moral teaching of the Bible and of pious sentimentalism. This latter aspect of her commentary is evident when she describes for example, a child’s deathbed comments which range from helping his dear mother, to being “resigned to God’s will,” to praying for a change in his father’s heart, and to asking his Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Thompson’s sister, to let her little boys visit his grave, and to teach them “the priceless value of the religion which takes from me all fear of death.”625

Thompson’s comments and reflections also feature dutiful and uncomplaining Christian suffering exhibited by good and pious people that is contrasted with a strong theology of just

622 Ibid., 59. 623 Ibid. 624 Dekai, Old Ontario, 109. 625 Thompson, Sketches From Life, 42.

159 desserts when things go wrong for impious and unjust people. In the latter instance, Thompson illustrates the second commandment prohibiting any graven image (Exod. 20:4) with the story of a local miser who made gold his idol and did nothing to help those in need. She tells her class that

Mr. Tillett was fawned on even as he foreclosed on debts and cast out his only sister who had dared to marry a poor man,626 adding the moral comment that often oppressive conduct associated with an obsession with riches is “overlooked or leniently censured” for the wealthy.627 She reinforces her story of the insidious danger of such idolatry with intertextual references, speaking of the idols made by Aaron (Exod. 32:5) and by Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 3:1). When the miser died alone and mad, Thompson moralizes that he was “reaping the fruit of the seed he had sown.”628 In the same vein, she tells the story of Mrs. Villiers, who, ignored and disrespected by her two spoiled and selfish daughters, “was indeed reaping the fruit of that folly which had caused her to overlook the spiritual in the temporal welfare of her children.”629 In this latter example, Thompson not only moralizes about the actions of the characters but also reflects the nineteenth-century ideal of women as the moral teachers in the home.

Thompson continues to cite Scripture to emphasize the moral points of her stories. She expertly weaves in the story of Cain’s murder of his brother Abel (Gen. 4:11) and the commandment to be “slow to anger”(Prov. 14:29) to add biblical emphasis to her poignant stories illustrating the sixth commandment, the prohibition against murder. She acknowledges that her pupils might wonder how she could have real life stories to illustrate this commandment and then explains that her beloved son was killed in a moment of anger and that in another instance she and

626 Ibid., 25. 627 Ibid., 21. 628 Ibid., 24. 629 Ibid., 73.

160 her companions had witnessed a murder and had to give testimony.630 As she describes how her beloved son was killed and speaks of the horror of witnessing a murder she speaks from the heart and warns how violent passions can lead to murder. She says: “I have seen so much evil from its effects; I have suffered so deeply, that it makes me so much more urgent with you, my dear girls, to shun its direful consequences.”631 Her feelings and her personal involvement in these situations add to and enhance her sense of the importance of obeying the Ten Commandments.

Thompson continues this same interpretive strategy of story-telling, use of supportive biblical texts, and moral exhortation as she develops lessons around verses, some from the Old

Testament, and some from the New Testament, chosen by her pupils. One girl, perhaps challenging her teacher as students will do, or perhaps having seen or experienced social inequity in her own life, chose the proverb “the poor is hated even of his own neighbour: but the rich hath many friends.” (Prov. 14:20)Thompson first moralizes about the “ridiculous”632 worldly homage often paid to wealth and those who accumulate it and on the mindset that thinks wealth guarantees happiness and then tells the perfect story to interpret the moral point of the verse for her pupils.

Thompson tells the story of a kindly but poor woman who was shunned by wealthy women in the neighbourhood until she came into an unexpected, large inheritance. Suddenly, “the poor, despised old maid rose twelve thousand pounds in the estimation of her aristocratic neighbours.”633

Thompson highlights the moral of the story, saying that this astute woman recognized their hypocrisy and continued to use what she had to help others. Thompson then ties in her story, contrasting the values of the rich neighbours with the newly rich woman, with that of the rich young man (Matt. 19), moralizing that it is not so much the “actual possession of riches, but the undue

630 Ibid., 46. 631 Ibid., 47. 632 Ibid., 122. 633 Ibid., 126.

161 value which the young man set on them that was the issue.”634 She illustrates the proverb of the lesson intertextually. “A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.”(Ps. 37:16)

While Thompson’s strong sense of moral Christian duty and her compassion comes through in her stories, those stories also reveal that she is a product of her social class, which, according to Demers, is a “mirror” of “the culture of the interpreter.”635 This social attitude comes through in the way Thompson speaks of others, who, in the nineteenth-century, would have been considered her social inferiors. She reflects on how people should treat each other,636speaking of the need to be kind, and then praises the good character of a young woman who was kind to another woman in need and who subsequently married out of her social class. Despite the high regard she had for this charitable young woman Thompson still spoke of her as being “sensible to her deficiencies and knew that something more was wanting to make her a gentlewoman than fine clothes.”637

When Thompson comments on the third commandment, the prohibition against taking “the

Lord’s name in vain” (Exod. 20:7), she incorporates the story of Harry, a bright and engaging boy who spent his vacations at their home. However Harry regularly broke the third commandment with phrases such as “I will, by God.”638 To Thompson, no gentleman would break the third commandment because to do so would reveal a vulgar mind. “No one, whatever his talents or education, can lay claim to the title of gentleman who thus deviates from the rule which should

634 Ibid., 122. 635 Demers, Women Interpreters of The Bible, 6. 636 “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.” (Eccles. 11:1). 637 Thompson, Sketches From Life, 120. 638 Ibid., 26.

162 distinguish him as one and as a Christian.”639 Despite her seeming emphasis on social class in these two stories, kernels of her moral theology can be detected. Leaving aside the words “gentleman” and “gentlewoman,” Thompson highlights the moral and biblical prohibition against using God’s name in vain and the moral precept that fine clothing is not a determinant of moral, Christian character.

Thompson’s interpretive stories and comments on the Ten Commandments and on other

Bible verses also reinforce the nineteenth-century view of the nurturing, domestic role of women.

She speaks often of the kindly, loving, and watchful eye of her mother, especially when she contrasts her mother’s devoted care with the prevailing fashion of turning child rearing over to teams of nurses and governesses.640 In accord with the expected role of women as teachers in the home, she lauds her “dear mother” for instilling Christian values in her children.641 She comments further that stress in marriage and consequently in the home, was caused by not submitting to a husband and not believing that men and not women were created in God’s image. She says: “Is it not God’s command that a wife submit herself unto her husband as the head of the house, and created in His own image.”642

Although Thompson exemplifies the role Muir describes as “the proper sphere” of a nineteenth-century woman whose influence was in the home, or, when venturing into the wider community, in a “limited nurturing role such as that of Sunday school teacher,”643 she takes this role a step further, and pushes boundaries by publishing the lessons she prepared for her Sunday school class. Confident in her biblical and life knowledge, in her ability and education, and in her social

639 Ibid. 640 Ibid., 99. Thompson laments a system where mothers had cause to regret leaving their children in the care of governesses who emphasized strict discipline over a caring attitude and who ground knowledge into children. 641 Ibid. 31, 33. 642 Ibid., 53. 643 Muir, Petticoats in the Pulpit, 182.

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and Christian obligation to help others, she boldly disagreed with the teaching methods prevalent

in her day as “either too dry, or they did not interest students.644 She was distressed at their “listless

manner of repeating Sunday after Sunday the lesson appointed for their instruction.”645 Inspired by

her admiration for the writing of Mrs. Sherwood, particularly Sherwood’s seven volume series The

Lady of the Manor,646 Thompson modelled her own Sunday school lessons on the confirmation

lessons of Mrs. Sherwood. Interestingly, when Thompson mentions the influence of Mrs. Sherwood

she does not explain who Mrs. Sherwood is. She assumes that others know that Mrs. Sherwood is a

known and respected author.647

Thompson thus took on the challenge of making her lessons interesting so that her pupils

would be engaged with Scripture and its moral lessons and see the application in their own lives.

Thompson chose the Ten Commandments to begin with but then sought the girls’ involvement and

input when she asked them to choose the verses for another series of lessons, assuring them that she

would tell stories to complement each verse.

Moreover she showed that she recognized the value of positive encouragement for young

people. When she told the story of Harry and the third commandment, for example, Thompson says

that their governess would have had more influence on Harry if she had spoken of God’s kindness

644 Thompson, “Preface,” Sketches From Life, n.p. 645 Ibid., 1 646 Mrs. Sherwood created the character of the anonymous lady of the manor preparing girls for confirmation. In each lesson on an aspect of the catechism the lady incorporates theological reflection, quotes from relevant Scripture and a story whose characters and situations illustrate the lesson. For example, in chapter nine, dealing with belief in the articles of the Christian faith, she quotes from the books of James, Matthew, Romans, and Hebrews, reflects on belief in the articles and tells the story of Jenetta Mannering. Mrs. Sherwood, “Chapter IX,’ The Lady of the Manor Being A Series Of Conversations On The Subject Of Confirmation Intended for the Use of the Middle and Higher Ranks Of Young Females. Volume II (Wellington, Salop: Printed By And For F. Houlston And Son, 1825), 37-115. 647 The title page of an 1825 edition of Volume II of The Lady Of The Manor attests to Mrs. Sherwood’s fame as an author. The publisher, F. Houlston And Son name only one of her other books, saying she is the author of Little Henry And His Bearer. Instead of listing multiple additional titles the publisher adds “&c. &c.” to denote that she has written many other works. The Lady of the Manor, Volume II (Wellington Salop: Printed By And For F. Houlston And Son, 1825), title page. The same company published the twenty-third edition of Mrs. Sherwood, Little Henry And His Bearer (Wellington, Salop: Printed By And For F. Houlston And Son, 1826), title page.

164 rather than God’s “fearful judgment.”648 The harsh words prompted Harry to think of God “rather as an angry Judge than a kind and compassionate Father”649 and had no effect on curbing his impulse to swear.

Mrs. Thompson, on the other hand, addresses her pupils as her “dear girls”650 or her “dear young friends,”651 and tells them engaging stories to illuminate each Bible verse and to draw a moral for life from verse and story. She also acknowledges the strengths and knowledge of the girls in her class, telling them that “you are all reasonable beings.” She compliments their good choices of Bible verses for the class to study.652 She applies the kindness and attention she grew up with to her pupils, keeping to her conviction that more is accomplished by kindness than by severity.

In conclusion, Thompson follows a consistent pattern in her lessons. She chooses an attention-getting, real-life story to illustrate a Bible verse and emphasize its moral application in the lives of her students. She chooses additional Bible verses that to help illuminate the moral theology of the chosen verse. She follows a consistent pattern of pious and moral reflection on each verse and story with a view to exhorting her pupils to Christian behaviour and forbearance. Her interpretive approach of teaching the faith through storytelling based on Scripture opens up the Bible to the understanding of her students who learn the value of applying the moral teaching of the Bible to everyday life.

648 Thompson, Sketches From Life, 27. 649 Ibid., 27. 650 Ibid., 3. 651 Ibid., 168. 652 Ibid., 14, 88.

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5:2: Mrs. Leonard

There is no biographical or autobiographical information about Sunday school teacher Mrs.

Leonard at this point in time. Unlike Sunday school teacher Mrs. Thompson, whose many stories incorporated details of her life and opinions, the little we know about Mrs. Leonard must be gleaned from brief comments in twelve extant issues of her publication The Child’s Bible Expositor, a weekly template of a Sunday School lesson, published serially from 1840 to 1842, when funds were available. The available information allows us to posit her identity, her teaching philosophy, its applicability for other Sunday school teachers, and her commitment to the importance of Scripture knowledge and its application for the Christian life.

Mrs. Leonard’s knowledge of Scripture and her confidence in her ability and her right to not only teach young people but to offer her lessons to others indicates that she was an educated woman. It is possible that Mrs. Leonard adopted the persona of Mrs. Arnold, the Sunday school teacher featured in The Child’s Bible Commentary. There is also the possibility, based on her extensive biblical knowledge and other clues within her work, that she was the wife of an Anglican clergyman. In one of the third person narrative sections of the January 15, 1841, issue, for instance,

Mrs. Arnold is identified as the wife of Rector Arnold.653 She may indeed have been the wife or widow of a clergyman as there is evidence that Mrs. Leonard was not well-to-do. The January 12,

1841, issue, for example, is one of many to notify readers that the “Expositor” will be published every week if enough subscriptions are obtained to cover publishing costs. Moreover, in the August

23rd, 1841, issue Mrs. Leonard apologizes for the irregularity of the issues and comments on the challenge of covering her publishing expenses given her limited means. She does not want to incur

653 The third person narrator speaks of Mr. Arnold, the rector, and his lady. Mrs. Leonard, “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, Vol. 1, No. 25 (Saturday, January 15, 1842): 296.

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“pecuniary difficulty”654 and states that when the subscription list is large enough to cover expenses she will continue publishing.

As her personal story in the April 24, 1841, issue intimates, Mrs. Leonard likely lived in south central or south west Ontario. In a personal anecdote in that issue, Mrs. Leonard says that when she was a child she lived in a “part of Canada which was, at some seasons, quite inaccessible, from the badness of the roads, and as we depended upon distant places for our supplies of many kinds, we were often kept waiting for them for a very long time.”655 She recounts for her pupils the story of how a Lake Erie schooner with a cargo of salt foundered, thus bringing hardship to her community which relied on the salt for livestock and for preserving and cooking. She turns this real life situation into a teachable moment for them as she segues from her story into comments on Jesus’ teaching about discipleship and salt (Matt. 5:13-18), remarking that wherever faithful people are, they are “the salt of the earth” as they bring a “purifying and healthy” influence to their communities.656

If Mrs. Arnold, the wise teacher figure in her work, was really the voice of Mrs. Leonard, then a third person story narrated by one of Mrs. Arnold’s older pupils reveals something of her character. In one instance the narrator talks about Mrs. Arnold’s dedication and perseverance, saying that Mrs. Arnold, “who seldom allowed the weather to interfere with her duties,” 657was there to open the school, even in inclement weather.

Another third person story illustrates Mrs. Leonard’s passion for social justice. The narrator says that “a great many pupils had lately been added to the school from the very poor families in the

654 Leonard, Mrs., “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, Vol. 1, No. 23 (Saturday, August 23, 1841): 270. 655 Leonard, “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, Vol. 1, No. 15 (Saturday, April 24, 1841): 177-179. 656 Ibid., 179. 657 Leonard, “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, Vol. 1, No. 16 (Saturday, May 1, 1841): 189.

167 neighbourhood.”658 This positive situation came about because several of the older girls, inspired by Mrs. Arnold’s teaching and encouragement, set up a sewing group to make clothing for the children of these poor families, thus enabling the children to attend the school. Mrs. Arnold took the time to escort the girls as they delivered the clothing. The narrator says that “Mrs. Arnold was always gratified when she saw any practical proof that her lessons had not been lost upon us.”659

It seems that Mrs. Leonard/Mrs. Arnold also had an interest in mission work, particularly that of women missionaries. In one issue she writes that her pupils had been doing extra reading about the lives of women missionaries. She links the real-life stories of these missionary women to the Bible by asking her pupils to find a verse that supports missionary endeavors. One of her pupils,

Harriet reads: “Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” (Ps. 2:8) Mrs. Leonard then links the psalm with Christ’s teaching when she quotes Matthew. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” (Matt. 28:19) She artfully links the missionary biographies and the Bible to the lives of her pupils, recognizing that they are not in a position to go out into the world, but even in their own environment they can be missionaries through the influence of their “characters and example.”660

Testimonials praise Mrs. Leonard’s teaching of the principles of Christian living as revealed in the Bible, and also praise her teaching strategies. In the April 10, 1841, issue, a testimonial from

The Canada Inquirer praises her lessons, saying that “a spirit of Christian piety breathes through the work, which is distinguished by purity of style and an ingenious method of interesting

658 Ibid. 659 Ibid., 189. 660 Leonard, “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Saturday, January 2, 1841): 19.

168 children in the truths of Scripture.”661 In the May 1, 1841, issue, an American writer from the

Utica Gospel Messenger, a magazine that was published from 1839 to 1871, described her popular publications: “The instruction is imparted in the way of familiar conversation, and from the specimens before us, is aimed as well at the heart as the understanding.”662

Although her lessons in the extant issues use the New Testament, principally the Gospel of

Matthew, as a starting point, Leonard values the Old Testament and incorporates it into her lessons.

This is evident beginning with her choice of a guiding verse, her mission statement for each issue:

“When thy word goeth forth, it giveth light and understanding unto the simple” (Ps. 119:130). This verse reveals her purpose in developing Sunday school lessons, her ongoing interest in helping her students apply the lessons of the Old Testament to their lives, and her desire to make her lessons available to other Sunday school teachers.

In the January 9, 1841, issue she continues to reveal her approach to Scripture. She writes that after pupils have read the Bible story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel chapter three, her model teacher Mrs. Arnold comments that “as all Scriptures were written for our improvement,663 we must not read these narratives of the Old Testament merely as matters of history but as also instructive.”664 After Mrs. Arnold retells this story she links Scripture to daily life by commenting that her pupils have “just heard many lessons of faith and obedience and

661 Leonard, “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, Vol. 1, No. 13 (Saturday, April 10, 1841): 152. 662 Leonard, “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, Vol. 1, No. 16 (Saturday, May 1, 1841): 188. 663 Mrs. Leonard may be paraphrasing 2 Timothy 3:16: “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, or reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” 664 Leonard, “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Saturday, January 9, 1841): 35.

169 trust in the power and providence of our Heavenly Father.”665 She goes on to explain that whatever life trials they may undergo, they should not “sacrifice a principle to escape any consequences that may seem to threaten us in this world.”666 Her pupils should, like those Old Testament heroes, hold true to their faith and trust in God.

Mrs. Leonard confirms the value she places on the Old Testament in the May 29, 1841, issue. Her penchant for connecting Old Testament teaching with the New Testament reveals her theology of the unity of Scripture and is admirably illustrated in the following lesson template. She reflects christologically, relating Mosaic Law to Matthew 5, saying that Mosaic Law “shadowed forth”667 the Gospel. She comments on the provision evident in God’s laws saying: “We will spend a few moments in tracing the similarity of this spirit of universal benevolence in the Old and New

Testaments, for I am anxious that you should in all cases be very careful to compare them together, and understand that they are all to be held as the Word of God, and are the Scriptures which were written for our learning.” 668

Mrs. Leonard begins with Matthew (Matt. 5: 46) and states categorically that no such words as love your neighbour and hate your enemy ever appeared in Mosaic law, “which in its spirit shadowed forth” Christ’s teaching and ministry of care for the marginalized. She goes on to say that

Mosaic law with “its provision of the poor and helpless, the stranger, the widow, and the fatherless is infinitely superior to any human code of laws that has ever been framed.”669

665 Ibid., 35. 666 Ibid. 667 Leonard, “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, Vol. 1, No. 20 (Saturday, May 29, 1841): 237. 668 Ibid., 238. 669 Leonard, “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, Vol. 1, No. 26 (Saturday, May 1, 1854): 237.

170 is infinitely superior to any mere human code of laws that has ever been framed.”

Then Mrs. Leonard comments on the Old Testament roots of God’s provision, beginning with Leviticus19. She comments eloquently and forcefully, foreshadowing the work of animal protection groups, on the duty of care for all animals “which are placed within our power” to

“protect them from ill-usage.”670 She expands on the extent of this duty of care noting the prohibition against taking advantage of hired servants. (Deut. 24:14-15) She then moves on to the command to love enemies (Exod. 23:4-5) about the return of a lost domestic animal to its owner, even if that owner was an enemy. Likewise she notes the provision for the needy, commenting on the seven year debt forgiveness cycle, (Deut. 24:19) the command to not harden one’s heart against the needy (Deut. 15:7-11), and the command to respect the rights of the poor. (Deut. 24:10-11) She comments that the poor person’s home “must be sacred as a holy asylum,” and even a person who is there to do good “must not enter abruptly and unbidden.”671 This lesson again reveals her concerns for social justice, including care for animals, as mandated in Scripture.

Leonard’s teaching methodology and interpretive style is very consistent. Her readers would see an example of a consistent lesson template and class, perhaps Mrs. Leonard’s/Mrs. Arnold’s actual co-educational class, carried on over a period of time. The same names appear in every issue, thus connecting readers with an ongoing, consecutive series of lessons, just as they would experience in their own Sunday school classes. For example, her main texts in the extant issues of January through March, 1841, are from Matthew. In each issue Mrs. Leonard/Mrs.

Arnold links the Old Testament to the Matthew texts.

670 Ibid., 238. 671 Ibid., 243.

171

Taking the Saturday, January 2 issue as an example of this approach, she reflects on the chosen passage from Matthew (Matt. 2:1315), commenting that there were many who sought to harm Jesus, but there were also people like the shepherds and the magi who wholeheartedly supported Jesus. As she tells the story she fills in gaps in the biblical narrative, noting, for example, that Mary and Joseph were poor, but they had “the providential “672 gifts of the wise men to defray the expenses of the flight to and sojourn in Egypt. She suggests intertextual connections that illuminate her lesson. As is her pattern she first asks one of her pupils to find and read the chosen intertextual link. She asks Hannah, for example, to find and read from Hosea. (Hos. 11:1)673 which

Mrs. Leonard takes as prophesy of Jesus returning to Israel from Egypt.

Notably, Mrs. Leonard expects her pupils to know where to find any requested text. For example, in the lesson of the May 1, 1841, issue, she directs Mary to “find the forty-first Psalm”674 and in the May 29, 1841, lesson, she asks Mary to “look for the twenty-fourth chapter of

Deuteronomy.”675 Her instructions reveal her expectation that her pupils know their Bibles and highlight the nineteenth-century expectation of and emphasis on biblical knowledge. Mrs. Arnold reinforces this concept when she says that “when you are at home and have leisure to study your

Bibles, you must find as many texts and passages as you can that support what you learn in the school.”676

When Mrs. Leonard retells, reflects on, and emphasizes Old Testament verses and stories and the moral and ethical aspects of their teaching, she often interprets these Old Testament texts christologically, foretelling Christ’s life and teaching. She identifies types that look ahead to

672 Leonard, “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Saturday, January 9): 26. 673 “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.” (Hos. 11:10) 674 Leonard, “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, Vol. 1, No. 16 (Saturday, May 1): 194. 675 Leonard, “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, Vol. 1, No. 20 (Saturday, May 29, 1841): 239. 676 Leonard, “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, Vol .1, No. 3 (Saturday, January 2, 1841): 23.

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Christ’s teaching and mission. Mrs. Leonard moves, for example, from the escape of Joseph, Mary and Jesus to Egypt (Matt.2), to the prophetic words: “called my son out of Egypt” (Hosea 11:1) to start her commentary on deliverance from Egypt. She states that the deliverance of Israel from bondage in Egypt and from Pharaoh’s power “is always considered as a type of the deliverance of the world” by Christ “from the bondage of sin.” 677 She goes on to comment on the deliverance narrative in Exodus thirteen and fourteen, connecting God’s provision throughout history to God’s provision of salvation through Christ. She retells the exodus deliverance narrative and reconnects it to the birth narrative of Christ, noting that if Herod had paid attention to this story of God’s provision as the Israelites fled from Egypt, he would have realized that his effort to destroy Jesus was futile.678

Mrs. Leonard moves back and forth from the Old Testament to the New Testament as she connects the lament “a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping: Rachel weeping for her children” (Jer. 31:15) with Herod’s order to kill children. She illuminates the connection between the Testaments by reminding her pupils that descendants of Rachel would have been among the victims,679 adding the information that as Rachel was “buried between Rama and

Bethlehem she might well be represented as weeping inconsolably for their slaughter.”680

Mrs. Leonard continues to fill in gaps in the biblical narrative by incorporating historical details from Josephus681 to help her pupils understand Herod’s character and the political machinations and power struggles of that time. She continues her hermeneutical approach of

677 Leonard, “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, Vol .1, No. 3 (Saturday, January 9, 1841): 27. 678 Ibid., 29. 679 Ibid., 31. 680 Ibid. 681 To help her pupils understand Herod’s nature she quotes details, without citation, from Josephus’ history of Herod’s plot to kill prominent Jews. Josephus The Complete Works, trans. William Whiston (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1998), 555.

173 relating the Old and New Testament, in this case as it relates to rulers such as Herod, as she asks her pupils to find and read about the wicked ruler in Proverbs 28:15. She interprets the text through the lens of another Old Testament narrative by retelling the story of the fiery furnace in the Book of

Daniel chapter three, adding the moralizing comment that through every age there are “ill-disposed people” ready “to carry reports against their neighbours, and especially against those who are, for any reason, objects of envy and jealousy.” 682 She concludes her comments on this Old Testament narrative and on the value of the Old Testament, explaining that God’s word is a lamp and a light.

(Ps. 119: 105) She focuses on the word light, speaking of the light of God’s word in the Old

Testament and concluding that if Herod and the King of Babylon had “made use of such light as the scriptures of the Old Testament” they would not have “fallen into such depths of sin as we find recorded of them.”683

Mrs. Leonard also makes Old Testament teaching a substantial part of the review questions she designs for preceding lessons. In her April 10, 1841 issue she includes a test to review her lessons in issues one to twelve. Her teaching and testing strategy is flexible, allowing the younger pupils to focus on simpler questions, and expecting older pupils to write more detailed responses.

She asks younger pupils a simple question such as “who came from the east to worship our

Saviour?”684 She expects more advanced pupils to find corresponding passages of Scripture to illustrate a past lesson,685 to tell the ending of a Bible story such as Job’s story,686 and to reflect on how a young child “who is capable of distinguishing between good and evil “could assist in

682 Leonard, “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Saturday, January 9): 34. 683 Ibid., 36. 684 Leonard, “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, Vol. 1, No. 13 (Saturday, April 10, 1854): 154. 685 Ibid., 163. 686 Ibid., 162.

174 establishing God’s kingdom on earth.”687 In addition to her flexible testing strategy she also foreshadows contemporary teaching and presentation methods by asking for feedback on her lessons and reviews from other Sunday school teachers.

Mrs. Leonard demonstrates a deep knowledge of Scripture and confidence in her ability and in her right to share that knowledge with others, whether it is with a Sunday school class or with other teachers. Not only does Mrs. Leonard illuminate Old Testament texts on their own but she also draws attention to scriptural parallels between Old Testament teaching and Christ’s ministry. Her lessons promote knowledge and understanding of Scripture. She involves her pupils in searching out and reading relevant Bible verses and narratives. She consistently reinforces her pastoral/pedagogical concern that the Bible should be relevant to life and to the Christian lifestyle by exploring Scripture texts and developing applications relevant to the lives of her pupils. 688

To conclude, Mrs. Leonard was one of many nineteenth-century Canadian women who published Sunday school material. She perceived a need for such educational resources and set about to ably fulfill that need. Her efforts in this regard were recognized by testimonials from various denominational publications such as the Wesleyan Methodist Christian Guardian and the

Anglican Diocese of Toronto,689 and through a listing of distributing agents, not only in various south western Ontario locales, but also in the Maritimes and beyond Canada’s borders, in Utica,

New York, and in London, England.690 In each issue of The Child’s Bible Expositor, Leonard provided a model lesson that assumed the importance of Bible literacy. Each lesson could be used

687 Ibid., 155. 688 Marion Ann Taylor notes that the biblical interpretations by nineteenth-century women often “contained pastoral insights for their readers.” Marion Ann Taylor, “Introduction,” Handbook of Women Biblical Interpreters, 19. 689 Leonard, “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, Vol. 1, No. 13 (Saturday, April 10, 1851): 152. 690 Leonard, “Mrs. Arnold And Her Pupils,” The Child’s Bible Expositor, No. 15, Vol. 1 (Saturday, April 24, 1851): 175.

175 as is or adapted by Sunday school teachers of any denomination. Mrs. Leonard deserves to be remembered, not only for her biblical knowledge and her ability to express that knowledge in a way that would benefit others, but also for her perseverance in seeking agents and subscribers so she could continue publishing her informative and helpful interpretations of Scripture. Her approach to interpreting the Old Testament in light of the New and the New as illuminating the Old follows the standard approach articulated in the Thirty-nine articles of the Anglican Church (1571) and similar doctrinal statements of the denominations using her materials.

This chapter has featured two Sunday school teachers from very different backgrounds.

Nevertheless, each saw a need to teach young people about the Bible and its meaning for their lives.

Each was confident in her ability and calling to do so. Each woman followed traditional roles in teaching their own children and the children in their parishes. Mrs. Thompson openly upheld traditional gender roles in her stories, but her guiding exegetical purpose, like that of Mrs. Leonard was to provide biblically based moral and life instruction for young people. Both women moved confidently outside of that traditional role, seeing value in their knowledge and teachings, confident that their writings would be of value to others.

Chapter 6

The Bible and the Temperance Movement

6:1 Mrs. Letitia Youmans

Letitia Youmans also interpreted Scripture in the genre of prose. Nevertheless, she occupies a different interpretive niche from the four prose interpreters discussed in chapters four and five, or indeed, the dramatist and poets discussed in chapter two and three. Like the other interpreters, she published for the public. As an advocate for the temperance movement, however, Youmans was also on the public stage, locally, nationally, and internationally, preaching and teaching about temperance. Her two major Old Testament interpretations of the books of Esther and Nehemiah were ideologically driven in that she selected specific biblical narratives that would support her temperance advocacy.

Unlike the incomplete picture of the life of Mrs. Thompson, and the scanty information about Mrs. Leonard, details of whose lives must be gleaned from their interpretations of Scripture,

Letitia Creighton Youmans gives us a complete picture of her life in her autobiography Campaign

Echoes (1893).691 Letitia Creighton Youmans (18271896) was a gifted, articulate teacher and speaker, a noted temperance advocate, and a biblical interpreter. She was born in 1827 on a farm near Cobourg, Ontario, into a family that encouraged education for girls. Indeed, her father hoped that Letitia would someday be an from his early years in the United Kingdom. Youmans did go

on to higher education, graduating from the Burlington Academy For Ladies in Hamilton. The academy was founded by Dr. Van Norman who believed wholeheartedly in education for girls.

691 Letitia Youmans, Campaign Echoes (Toronto: William Briggs, 1893). 176

177

Youmans was an author like Maria Edgeworth692 and Mrs. S.C. Hall,693 authors he remembered and admired excellent and involved student, initiating and directing, for example, a literary periodical for the Burlington Academy. After graduating at the age of twenty, she taught at the academy for two years before her marriage to widower Arthur Youmans in 1850.694

Youman’s accomplishments are many. After her marriage, she taught Sunday school, and recalling her own early education in which the New Testament was the principal reading material, she used the Bible as her textbook. She advocated progressive teaching strategies, noting, for example, that while the moral and spiritual welfare of students was a special care of teachers, “the social and intellectual part” of a young person’s nature “is not to be ignored.”695 She believed in being thoroughly prepared for any lesson, believed that variety was important, and said that her pupils are “co-workers with me in every plan proposed.”696 In line with her passionate support for the temperance movement she started a Band of Hope, a youth temperance club, which a local

Picton paper called “the finest Band of Hope in the Dominion.”697 Later, as President of the

Ontario Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) she travelled throughout Canada and the

United States. The leading American temperance advocate, Frances Willard,698 author of

692 Maria Edgeworth (1768-1849) was a noted Anglo-Irish author whose books such as Practical Education, published in 1798, and co-authored with her parents, and Moral Tales for Young People, published in London (1806) and in New York (1818), were widely available. “Edgeworth, Maria,” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (www.oxford.dnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/...001.../odnb-9780198614128-e-8476,accessed 5/5/170. 693 Mrs. S.C. Hall, Anne Maria Fielding (1800-1881) was an Anglo-Irish author whose accomplishments were lauded in The Dublin University Magazine, Volume 16, Number 92, January 1840. Her influential book, Boons and Blessings: Stories and Sketches To Illustrate The Advantages Of Temperance, was published in 1875. (www.libraryireland.com/articles/HallDUM16-92/,accessed 5/5/17). 694 T.A. Crowley, “Creighton, Letitia,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 12 (University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003, accessed May 23, 2017), n.p. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/creighton_letitia_12E.html. 695 Youmans, Campaign Echoes, 85. 696 Ibid., 86. 697 Ibid., 116. 698 Ibid. xi. Frances Willard was President of the World’s Woman’s Christian Temperance Union when she wrote the introduction to Mrs. Youmans autobiography.

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Youman’s brief biography, says Youmans was known as a gifted speaker who founded her speeches biblically.699

In addition to the value of her teaching experience and expertise, three other life events had a profound effect on Youman’s temperance work and consequently on how she selected and used

Scripture in her temperance work. In 1837, at the age of ten, and inspired by the temperance advocacy of a respected teacher, Youmans signed a temperance pledge from which she never deviated. She wrote later in life that this event had “much to do with shaping my future destiny.”700

Then, in the summer of 1874 while attending a Sabbath-school assembly in Chautauqua, New York, with her husband, she was profoundly affected by the testimony, prayers, and the high quality of leadership at the daily woman’s temperance meetings. For Youmans, this event was “memorable in shaping my future life work.”701 It seems to have been in the same year, after Youmans had attended temperance gatherings in Picton, Montreal, Cobourg, and Toronto, that she wrote to

Frances Willard,702 then the secretary of the American Women’s Christian Temperance Union, asking if a “foreigner would be admitted” to the WCTU convention in Cincinnati, Ohio. Youmans was enthusiastically welcomed and had the opportunity to address the convention. She learned much from the organization and from the quality of the convention itself, reflecting that she was astonished at the “business-like ability” and “parliamentary skill” of the American women. 703 She later applied this learning to her work organizing WCTU chapters in Canada and speaking publicly about temperance.

699 Ibid., x. 700 Ibid., 38. 701 Ibid., 96. 702 Ibid., 141. Willard was later the president of the American WCTU and a long-long friend of Youmans. Youmans writes, in testament to the level of education and ability of the women of the WCTU, that Willard” had resigned a lucrative position in the North=Western University” to take up temperance work. 703 Ibid., 142.

179

Youmans was a gifted story teller. Her lively descriptions of all aspects of her life and work make her autobiography Campaign Echoes a delight to read. One such delight is her humorous description of taking her knitting to the hen house and conversing with the “matronly hen.”704 She also offers insights into the changing face of Canadian society, noting on the one hand the introduction of technology such as daguerreotype pictures and the telegraph, and on the other hand describing more traditional skills such as making her own soap and candles, and churning her own butter.705

Youmans was a woman of faith and of deep biblical knowledge. Her biblical knowledge found its way not only into her insightful, temperance-themed interpretations of the biblical characters Haman and Nehemiah, but also shaped her enjoyment of everyday life. She echoes, for example, the poetic imagery of the Song Of Solomon706 as she describes spring: “The time of the singing of birds has come, and spring bursts upon them in all its beauty.”707 As she began to be called upon to speak at temperance meetings such as the Montreal WCTU Convention of 1875, she likened her initial feeling of apprehension to that of Jonah (Jon. 1:12), and reflected: “I felt I would rather, like Jonah, have been cast overboard into the deep.”708

The Book of Esther

In addition to including biblical allusions in her descriptions of everyday life, Youmans sought biblical examples that she could incorporate into her temperance work. Her search for a

704 Ibid., 77. 705 Ibid., 62, 71. 706 “The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.” (Song Sol. 2:12) 707 Youmans, Campaign Echoes, 22. 708 Ibid., 125. Youmans refers to Jonah. “So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea; and the sea ceased from her raging.” (Jon. 1:15(

180 biblical example that would speak to the legalized wrong of the liquor trade “loomed up” for her.709

She knew from her experiences preaching about temperance that “Bible argument is by far the most effective in sustaining temperance truth.”710 She found her example in the Book of Esther and the figure of Haman who influenced King Ahaseurus into legalizing Haman’s murderous plot against the exiled Jewish community.711 She begins her twenty-one page interpretation with a reflection that links the biblical story with the nineteenth-century temperance mission. Reading the story figuratively, Youmans saw Haman as “the prototype of the liquor-sellers” of her day, and the admirable Queen Esther “as the first woman that ever went to a government to ask to have a wicked license law repealed, or to claim home protection.”712 Youman’s Esther was the prototype of nineteenth-century female temperance crusaders.

Indeed, Youmans sees Esther’s action as inspiration for both the women and men of her own time who sought to overthrow the licensing of liquor sales. She continues with this vein of interpretation by likening Haman’s obsequious behaviour to the king to those whose influential liquor lobby helped legitimate the liquor trade. Her unique figural reading of the Esther story opened up the Bible story as well as the temperance movement story to a wide audience that included those who attended temperance meetings and conferences where she presented her biblically-grounded temperance message, those who read the media’s accounts of her speeches, and those who later read her autobiography.713

709 Ibid., 185. 710 Ibid. 711 Haman’s plot is described this way. “And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that wee throughout the whole kingdom of Ahaseurus, even the people of Mordecai.” (Esth. 3: 6-10) 712 Youmans, Campaign Echoes, 186. 713 Ibid., 184. An asterisked editor’s note at the bottom of page 184 says that her commentary on Haman, given in many speeches, “has been delivered by Mrs. Youmans in almost every part of Canada, as well as in the United States.”

181

As Youmans interweaves her comments about the liquor trade and about the Esther narrative, her hermeneutical approach becomes clear. She reads Scripture characters and events in light of people and events in the nineteenth century, specifically the temperance crusade. She uses this approach to biblical interpretation when she fills in gaps in the Esther narrative, illuminating the biblical characters and situations for readers and listeners, and emphasizing the parallels between the biblical narrative and the nineteenth-century temperance movement.

She expands, for example, on the biblical statement about Haman’s anger when Mordecai refuses to bow to Haman (Esther 3:5). She speaks of Haman’s “tremendous capacity for rage”714 when Mordecai thwarts his sense of entitlement, and draws attention to and helps her audience and readers of the biblical narrative to better grasp the secretive and sustained nature of Haman’s plot for revenge, not only against Mordecai but all Jews. She retells the story using contemporary language, drawing an analogy between Haman’s determination and the liquor trade’s determination to “get government authority to do it” so that “it would be a legitimate branch of business,” thus making the government “partners in the business.”715 Her comments also underscore Haman’s subversive cleverness in hiding the identity of his target group, as only a “certain people scattered around,” (Esther 3:8) “as though there was only one here and another there, when they were really a nation in exile.”716

Youman’s suggestion that “perhaps” Haman “was the minister of finance” 717 also fills in a gap in the biblical narrative, offering a plausible explanation for Haman’s offer to pay the specific amount of “ten thousand talents of silver” to cover the lost revenues from the Jewish community

(Esther 3:9). Youmans suggests, in other words, that Haman knew exactly how much money would

714 Ibid., 187. 715 Ibid., 188. 716 Ibid., 188. 717 Ibid., 189.

182 be lost to the king’s treasury if the Jews were killed. She then draws reader attention to the absolute power to enact the plot, given through use of the king’s ring, and adds drama to the biblical story with the realization of the finality and the scope of a decree, sealed by the king’s ring, and affecting

127 provinces “from Ethiopia to India.”718 She uses the legal language of her day to draw readers’ attention to the biblical king being “accessory before the fact”719 for granting the use of his royal seal. She likens this use of power to enact a law to a “blank indulgence”720 that grants the license to do damage. She segues into the nineteenth-century parallel of the effects of the liquor trade, explaining that Haman’s law, like the legalization of the liquor trade, and the consequences of alcoholism, would affect everyone in the family of an alcoholic: women, children, seniors. She states that Haman’s law is a “fac simile of the liquor licenses of the present day.”721 For Youmans this potential damage to families “is a heart and home question.”722

To highlight the dangerous precedent of legalizing a wrong, Youmans retells the biblical story, with its threat to the life of the exiled Jewish community, as an allegory of the threat to contemporary life posed by the liquor trade. She tells, for example, the story of Ryan whose alcoholism led him to murder his wife. Youmans weaves other Scripture into her comments as she describes the effects of the tragedy on Ryan’s father, quoting from Genesis 44:29 when Jacob says

“ye shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave,” when his sons say they must take beloved Benjamin to Egypt with them. To emphasize the connection of this family tragedy with the hotel, a “licensed, well-regulated place.”723

718 Ibid. 719 Ibid., 190. 720 Ibid. 721 Ibid. 722 Ibid., 193. 723 Ibid., 193.

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Youmans brings attention back to the biblical text, noting that the king and Haman sat down to eat and drink after the letters of license for the destruction of the Jews were sent out (Esther

3:15). She first draws attention to the image of self-satisfaction and power, noting that celebrating together would remove the possibility of “troublesome questions”724 from such a scene of collusion. Again she draws parallels between the biblical narrative and the nineteenth century as she comments that “the King and Haman too often sit down to drink, at Ottawa, as well as at

Washington.”725

Youmans exemplary reading of Esther also reveals her stance on women stepping up to public roles. In her view: “Queen Esther saw her responsibility, and assumed it with no doubt as much fear and trembling as any modest, retiring woman ever went into the Crusade.”726 Her comment acknowledges that nineteenth-century women, just like Esther, were being called to take on new roles, and that women could move out of the domestic sphere and assume leadership roles, particularly in the temperance movement, without sacrificing their womanly, modest nature.727

Youmans also recognized that society was divided on this issue. Noting that advocating for women’s rights was frowned upon in conservative circles she anticipated and circumvented any possible negative push back to her temperance speeches by lobbying instead against the wrongs done to the home and to women and children by the liquor trade.

Youmans continues her retelling of Esther’s story by focussing on Esther’s careful preparation for her encounter with the king and the king’s positive reaction and generous offer of up

724 Ibid., 194. 725 Ibid., 193. 726 Ibid., 196. Youmans uses the term “crusaders” to describe the WCTU women and their fight against the liquor trade. 727 Ibid., 198. While Youmans speaks of the gracious hospitality of women she expresses surprise that the women organizing the women’s temperance sessions at Chautauqua “were evidently women of mental culture, good social position and deep piety.” Youmans had not anticipated that women of education and social status would be the organizers.

184 to half his kingdom (Esther 5:3), suggesting that “if Esther had been an ambitious woman she might have secured half of the 127 provinces.”728 She draws attention to Esther’s noble character in taking the high road of working for her people over personal ambition and contrasts this mind-set with

Haman’s wife Zeresh, who, along with others, agitated to have Mordecai hanged for the perceived slight to Haman’s authority. Youmans comments, with regard to this suggestion about the gallows for Mordecai (Esther 5:14), that Zeresh must be a fallen angel, contrasting her with what many believed to be the nineteenth century ideal of women as angels of the home. Youmans is very aware of this commonplace metaphor and uses it further to make her point that women as angels of the home should be involved in the temperance movement, as their very purpose is to protect families from the evil influence of liquor. Thus, she shames the evil Zeresh with her comment:

“what a suggestion to come from a woman!”729

Youmans continues to fill in gaps in the biblical story. She notes, for example, that the narrator of Esther says that Jews fasted but says nothing about prayer, and reasons: “yet we know that when they fasted they did pray.”730 She also notes “another strong omission” in that the text does not name God. She concludes nevertheless that “God is as legibly written in every chapter as in any other book in the Bible.”731

Youmans gap-filling also reveals her education and familiarity with biblical and historical scholarship. She supplements the biblical account of the king reading the palace records that

728 Ibid., 197. 729 Ibid., 198. 730 Ibid., 196. Youmans assumes that her listeners and readers knew their Bibles and would know that it contains many references to prayer and fasting as a way to discern God’s will. The following are three representative examples. When Nehemiah hears about the situation of Jews left behind in Jerusalem he says: “And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven.” (Neh. 1:4) Daniel says “and I set my face unto the Lord God, to seek by prayer and supplications, and with fasting, and sackcloth, and ashes.” (Dan. 9:3) The widow Anna is described in this way. “And she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.”(Luke 2:37) 731 Ibid., 196.

185 chronicled Mordecai’s role in saving the king (Esther 6:1-2) with the Josephus account and the king’s query about whether “Mordecai had a reward given him.”732 She highlights Haman’s response to the king’s question about what to do for one who has served the king (Esther 6:6) as a seemingly premeditated response from Haman which results in the irony of that reward going to

Mordecai.

Youmans also explicates the meaning of a short phrase that might well be forgotten in a general reading of the biblical text: “they covered Haman’s face” (Esther 6:8). She notes that this was the cultural “signal that he has to die.”733 She notes the irony of the biblical situation in that the gallows Haman had erected for Mordecai would be Haman’s doom. She amplifies “this saddest point in the whole analogy,” by quoting a proverb. “He that diggeth a pit shall fall therein himself.”

(Prov. 26:27) These few examples show Youman’s clear understanding of the biblical narrative as well as her ability to illuminate the narrative for her audience and apply it to the temperance movement. She cleverly fills in gaps in the biblical story with information gleaned from other

Scripture texts, and historical sources such as Josephus that make the story even more relevant to her end goal of reading the Esther story as an allegory of the threat of death by alcohol posed by the

Hamans of the nineteenth century who controlled a blinded government.

The Book of Nehemiah

Similarly, Youmans selected the Book of Nehemiah, particularly its reference to rebuilding the damaged walls of Jerusalem (Neh. 2:13), as a vehicle to connect the Bible with building the walls of temperance. She wrote an eighteen-page interpretation of this book, in which she parallels

732 Josephus, Josephus The Complete Works. trans. William Whiston, A.M. (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers,1998), 362. 733 Ibid., 202.

186 the rebuilding of the wall of Jerusalem, including getting rid of the rubble, planning, praying, and organizing for the rebuilding process, with the need for a similar process to build temperance walls in nineteenth-century communities.

As she begins her interpretation of Nehemiah she describes her hermeneutical approach.

The Bible is a book of models; it furnishes one for every department of life. If we would have a model of piety in childhood, we have it in Samuel; of devotion in youth, we have it in Timothy; if the evangelist seeks for a model, where is there one to equal the Apostle Paul? For any work of moral reform, and especially for our temperance work, I know of nothing to compare with the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem.734

She sees the character of Nehemiah as a “model leader,” noting that since the “Bible is truthful in its delineation of character,” it does not hesitate to speak of character faults and misdeeds, and does not do such for Nehemiah who “stands without reproach.”735 Nehemiah can reliably be considered a good role model.

Youmans again uses her insight and biblical knowledge to fill in gaps in the Nehemiah narrative just as she did with the Haman narrative, thus helping her audience to a fuller understanding of the biblical narrative and its implications for life in the nineteenth century. She assumes, for example, a young age736 for Nehemiah since the office he held, cup bearer to the king at court, was not often given to the elderly.737 As she retells the story of Nehemiah’s prayer (Neh. 1:

5-11) she draws attention to the context of the narrative to illuminate the ongoing nature of his prayers on behalf of his people, even during his duty as cupbearer to the king. She links Nehemiah’s ongoing prayer in the biblical narrative to her readers as she comments that “this is one of the most beautiful features of our holy Christianity that the discharge of necessary duties does not hinder

734 Youmans, “Building the Walls,” Campaign Echoes, 260. 735 Ibid., 261. 736 There is biblical precedent for her assumption. “Children of Israel, and of the king’s seed, and of the princes” with the ability and presence “to stand in the king’s palace” were trained to do so. (Dan. 1:3-4) 737 Ibid., 262.

187 communion with God.”738 She uses nineteenth-century idioms in her retelling of the biblical narrative as she describes the intensity of Nehemiah’s prayer and the answer to that prayer which, for her, confirms God’s provision for a righteous cause. “Swifter than the lightning along the telegraphic wire, the message goes up to heaven and the answer comes down.”739

Youmans continues to address issues related to the temperance movement as she segues from Nehemiah’s prayer: “we have dealt very corruptly with Thee, and have not kept thy commandments” (Neh. 1:7) into a discussion of issues of corruption related to the alcohol trade. She illuminates her interpretation of the text with references to biblical warnings about alcohol, specifically the prohibition to “look not upon the wine when it is red’ for “it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder” (Prov. 23:31-32) and the warning of “woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink.” (Hab. 2:15)

Youmans also draws attention to brief textual details that help the audience to understand and appreciate the narrative. She comments, for example, upon the size of the escort King

Artaxerxes sends with Nehemiah (Neh. 1:9) as an indicator of how greatly Nehemiah was esteemed.

She further notes Nehemiah’s astuteness when he dismisses a very noticeable entourage in order to quietly scout out what needed to be done in the rebuilding process. (Neh. 1:12-16)

Youmans again draws analogies between the biblical narrative and issues related to the temperance movement when she comments on the rebuilding of the walls to protect homes (Neh.3).

She stresses that the rebuilding was a necessary starting point for Nehemiah as it ensured the kind of safe and happy homes the temperance movement seeks.

738 Ibid., 263. She notes the months named in the biblical text to support her conclusion about Nehemiah’s faithful, ongoing prayers. (Neh. 1:1; 2:1) 739 Ibid., 264.

188

She draws attention to another necessary starting point when the high priest and other priests are named first as rising up to the rebuilding challenge. (Neh. 3:1) Youmans uses this example of biblical leadership to express her desire that Canadian leaders, including Church leaders, would rise up first in the temperance movement. She makes the temperance/biblical link inclusive in terms of women’s participation when she draws readers’ attention to the daughters of Shallum

(Neh.3:12) who helped with the rebuilding, and then expressed the wish that every modern young woman would be as “helpful working hard for temperance.”740 Finally, Youmans outlines four stages to reform that she derives from the Nehemiah narrative and applies them to the experiences of the temperance movement: indifference, ridicule, bitter opposition, triumph.741 She draws attention, for example, to how Sanballet and Idriah ridiculed and opposed rebuilding of the wall

(Neh. 4:2-3) and parallels that to the ridicule and opposition temperance advocates experienced in getting a temperance law, the Maine Law passed.742

Youmans stands apart from other nineteenth-century Canadian women interpreters in many ways. First, she was a public figure who used Scripture to authorize her message of temperance. She studied Scripture looking for texts that she could use to promote the message that abstinence from alcohol would improve the lives of individuals and families. Her distinctive interpretive lens enabled her to read and preach texts in unique ways. Youman’s exegesis and applications of

Scripture are found in her autobiography where readers hear again or for the first time her powerful preaching. Youman’s knowledge of Scripture is impressive as is her careful reading of texts.

740 Ibid., 271. 741 Ibid., 274. 742 Passed in 1851, in Maine this was one of the first statutory implementations of the growing temperance movement in the United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine_law, accessed 5/6/17.

189

Her hermeneutical approach, which she names as one of looking at Scripture for models, is classic and effective in an era where the Bible was invoked to provide “metaphors and symbols” for living.743 Unfortunately, Youman’s extant interpretations of the Old Testament are limited to stories and verses that she used as part of her temperance platform. What we do have, though, shows us that she uses her biblical knowledge to teach/preach to her varied audiences that the Bible speaks to one of the pressing social justice issues of the nineteenth-century, namely temperance.

743 Timothy Larsen, A People Of One Book, 4.

Chapter 7

Summary and Implications

The nine women selected from Appendix A, writing in the genres of drama, poetry and prose, are representative of a group of talented nineteenth-century Canadian women who interpreted the Old Testament. While the life of each woman was unique, they were all, as Esther Barnes suggests, women “of faith, women with strong convictions, and women who determined to make a difference in their world.” Barnes adds that theirs is “the story of cultured, confident women. It is the story of humble, hesitant women.”744

The women highlighted in this thesis were from different geographic, educational, denominational, cultural, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Some were immigrants from the British

Isles and the United States. Some were born in Canada. Some were single, others married. Some were from well-to-do backgrounds. Others struggled economically. Some were part of clergy households. Some were teachers. Some interpreted Scripture in the context of the private sphere for private devotional use by others. Some included their interpretations of Scripture in their published books of poetry. Others, such as Sunday school teachers and temperance workers, served in the public sphere and expected their work to be used by others. They shared basic Christian beliefs and love for and deep knowledge of the Bible. Indeed the Bible functioned as an integral part of their lives, their work, and their communities.

744 Esther Barnes, “Fathers and Mothers,” Our Heritage Becomes Our Challenge: A Scrapbook of History of the Baptist Women’s Movement in Ontario and Quebec (Etobicoke, ON: Canadian Baptist Women of Ontario and Quebec, 2013), 5. 190

191

The women described in this thesis were also “literate and energetic,”745 gifted and articulate explicators of the Old Testament. Like their British and American predecessors and contemporaries these Canadian interpreters were confident in their own knowledge of Scripture, of their “right to investigate it for themselves,”746 and of their right to interpret it and publish their works.

They often read and interpreted Scripture through the lens of their personal experiences as women living in the nineteenth century. Nevertheless, they were confident that their experiences, as in the case of Maggie P. Anderson’s Sick Room Thoughts And Gleanings, and of Mrs. Thompson’s wealth of stories from life, would inspire and teach others. Some, like Annie Walker Coghill and

Mrs. Thompson, upheld the cult of domesticity, while others, such as Harriett Annie Wilkins and

Letitia Youmans urged nineteenth-century women to action beyond the home for their faith communities and for social justice issues.

Limited by the social mindset that emphasized women’s domestic role, by the challenges in accessing university and formal theological training, and the consequent challenge of being recognized in the field of academic publishing, they wrote in the popular voice. Their genres of choice were poetry and drama, especially in the first half of the nineteenth century. Some, in the latter half of the century, especially those with the means to travel and/or with connections to scholarly clergy, such as Dr. Talmage and Dr. Wilson, co-authors with A.L.O.N.B. of Rays of Light, turned to prose and infused their stories of biblical history or their Sunday school lessons with their interpretations of the Old Testament.

Women, such as poets Augusta Baldwyn and Harriett Annie Wilkins, and historian Mary

Witter, had access to historical resources, Bible dictionaries, atlases, and biblical commentaries, and

745 Sharon Ann Cook, Through Sunshine and Shadow (Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1995), 9. 746 Marla J. Selvidge, Notorious Voices: Feminist Biblical Interpretation 1500-1920 (New York: Continuum, 1996, 15.

192 incorporated historical, geographical, and linguistic details, as well as scholarly and homiletic comments into their interpretations. Canadian women interpreters such as A.L.O.N.B, particularly in the second half of the nineteenth-century, were aware of archeological research in the Holy Land, had likely toured the Holy Land, and incorporated news of archeological discoveries into biblical interpretation. Authors A.L.O.N.B. and Witter were aware of historical criticism and the shifting sands of biblical scholarship that challenged belief in the authority and reliability of Scripture and chose to accept and interpret Scripture in the received King James Version. Each woman listed in

Appendix A, with her varied experiences and philosophies, pushed nineteenth-century boundaries by writing and publishing their interpretations of Scripture.

These Canadian women also shared common interpretive strategies and themes, extolling, for example, a transcendent, omnipotent God, and the necessity of walking in God’s ways. They retold Bible stories, drawing attention to gaps in the biblical narrative, to places, as Ruth A. Tucker notes, where “the text is silent.”747 Like Cushing and Witter they filled in those gaps with “a questioning imagination.”748 They asked probing questions of the received text. They imagined and then wrote thoughts and dialogue for biblical characters that nevertheless accorded with the biblical narrative. Like Youmans and Witter they made homiletic comments about biblical characters and their actions, and about biblical events. Some, like Thompson and Youmans, searched Scripture for verses and stories that led to a moral theology or to support for a social justice cause.

Their interpretations of Scripture focussed on God’s transcendence, immanence, and provision, and encouraged godly human behaviour. Their interpretations, whether in poetry, drama, or prose, appealed to and were accessible to a wide audience that crossed age, social, and educational divides. They wrote for and taught their audiences about a wide variety of biblical

747 Ruth A. Tucker, 32. 748 Ibid., 3.

193 characters and events from thirty-four of the thirty-nine Old Testament books, encompassing the biblical narratives, prophetic texts, and the psalms and proverbs, all with the purpose of sharing their love for and knowledge of the Bible and its life lessons. They taught and preached with their pens. They were scholars of the popular voice.

The implications of this thesis are clear and point the way forward. The recovery of women’s interpretive voices is a journey that has already begun. Recovery of and study of the interpretive genres, strategies, and themes of nineteenth-century Canadian women is part of that ongoing recovery process. More research is needed in this ongoing task of recovering the voices of nineteenth-century Canadian women who published their interpretations of the Bible. There are many avenues that invite further exploration. There is the need to add to the list of interpreters and their works begun in Appendix A. There is the need to move beyond the geographic boundaries featured in this thesis to research interpretive developments in central and western Canada in the nineteenth century. The work of recovery must expand to introduce the voices of nineteenth-century

Canadian women, including the women already listed as Old Testament interpreters, who wrote about the New Testament. It will be important to compare their genres, and their interpretive methods and themes with those of nineteenth-century Canadian women who interpreted the Old

Testament, and with those of the British and American predecessors and contemporaries. Further research is needed in the recovery of the history of women’s preaching and teaching. To accomplish this, additional primary resources such as stand-alone publications, periodicals, newspapers, letters, and diaries must be sought. The work of recovery must also include further research to identify and celebrate the women who published their biblical interpretations anonymously, using pseudonyms, initials or terms such as a lady of ‘x,’ x being the location.

194

In conclusion, nineteenth century Canadian women did indeed interpret the Old Testament.

Their voices can be recovered and celebrated. These Canadian women are to be taken seriously as knowledgeable interpreters of the Old Testament. Their voices should be included as examples of the popular voice in nineteenth-century Canadian biblical studies and as an important chapter in the long history of women of faith, who, through the centuries, read, understood, commented on, and published their interpretations of the Bible.

Tables

Table A: Population Statistics for Nineteenth Century Canada

Date Region/Province Population Less Settled Areas 1811 Upper Canada 77,000 (estimated) Lower Canada 335,000 (estimated) New Brunswick (1806) 35,000 (estimated) Nova Scotia (1807) 65,000 (estimated) 1824 Upper Canada 150,066 Lower Canada (1825) 479,288 New Brunswick 74,176 Nova Scotia (1827) 123,630 1831 Upper Canada 236,702 Lower Canada 553,134 New Brunswick (1834) 119,457 Nova Scotia n/a 1841 Upper Canada 455,688 Assiniboia Lower Canada (1844) 697,084 1840: 4,704 New Brunswick 156,162 1846: 4,871 Nova Scotia n/a 1851 Upper Canada 952,004 Assiniboia Lower Canada 890,261 1849: 5,391 New Brunswick 193,800 1856: 6,691 Nova Scotia 276,854 1861 Upper Canada 1,396,091 Vancouver Island Lower Canada 1,111,566 3,024 New Brunswick 252,047 Nova Scotia 330,857 1871 Ontario 1,620,851 Manitoba Quebec 1,191,516 12,228 New Brunswick 285,594 British Columbia Nova Scotia 387,800 10,586 1881 Ontario 1,926,922 British Columbia Quebec 1,359,027 49,459 New Brunswick 440,572 Nova Scotia 321,233 1891 Ontario 2,114,321 British Columbia Quebec 1,488,535 98,173 New Brunswick 321,263 Nova Scotia 450,396 749

749 “Population Statistics in Nineteenth-Century Canada,” Statistics Canada (statcan.gc.ca.), accessed 23/02/16. 195

196

Table B: Population Density in Nineteenth Century Canada

Year Anecdotal Analysis 1825 Population was distributed along the coast and rivers (St. John) of the Maritime Provinces and in Lower and Upper Canada (St. Lawrence). Major centres of 10,000 – 24,999 were Halifax, Montreal, Quebec City. Other important centres, of 2,500 – 9,999 were Kingston, St. John and Charlottetown. Toronto is listed at 1,000 – 2,400. At this time, present-day British Columbia was the Oregon Territory which stretched half way up the present province. 1851 Coastal areas and rivers valleys, as noted above, supported the densest populations. Quebec City, Montreal and Toronto were major centres of 25,000 – 75,000. Halifax, St. John, Kingston and Hamilton were developing centres of 10,000 – 24,999. London, Charlottetown and Ottawa were centres of 2500 – 9,999. Population continued to spread: up the Ottawa Valley, over to Windsor, Sarnia and Georgian Bay. The population density maps did not reveal any population clusters in the vast territory of Rupert’s Land. The Oregon Territory, now New Caledonia, with Vancouver Island, were beginning to show growth. 1871 In Eastern Canada, population continued to spread and grow in border areas with the United States and along river valleys and the north shores of Lakes Ontario and Erie. Cities such as Cornwall and Belleville expanded along the St. Lawrence/Great Lakes route. Small population centres developed at Winnipeg, Vancouver and Victoria. 1891 Population was still heavily concentrated in eastern Canada along coastal, river, and border locales. Population was extending into southern Manitoba and into the District of Assiniboia as well as into the Calgary area. A greater density shows up in southern British Columbia.

750

750 “Population Densities in Nineteenth-Century Canada,” http://www.historicalatlas.ca/website/hardp/national_perspectives/population/UNIT_20/., accessed 23/02/16.

197

Table C: The Spread of Newspapers from East to West

Newspaper Year of Publication City/Town Royal Gazette 1752 Halifax Gazette 1778 Montreal The Nova Scotia 1789 Halifax Magazine The News 1810 Kingston The Recorder 1820 Brockville The Ontario 1830 Belleville The Citizen 1844 Ottawa The Globe 1844 Toronto The Herald 1847 Guelph The Expositor 1851 Brantford The Sentinel Review 1854 Woodstock The Examiner 1855 Peterborough The Times 1858 Hamilton The Norfolk Reformer 1858 Simcoe The Star 1866 Goderich The Free Press 1872 Winnipeg The Tribune 1886 Calgary 751

751 J. Castell Hopkins, A Review of Canadian Journalism: An Historical Sketch of Canadian Literature and Journalism (Toronto: Linscott, 1898), 222-223.

198

Table D: The Growth of Publisher Infrastructure

City Publisher Time Period Halifax Elbridge Gerry Fuller 1850s A & W MacKinlay 1870s S. Seldon 1880s Morton & Co. 1890s Fredericton H.A. Cropley 1860s Saint John Daily Telegraph 1890s R.A.H. Morrow (2x) 1890s Montreal The Literary Garland 1838 John Lovell (4x) 1850s1880s The W.G. Association 1870s Canadiana 1889 Ottawa Ottawa Citizen 1860s Free Press 1890s Toronto Canadian Literary Magazine (York) 1833 Rowsell & Hutchison 1840s1870s The Watchman Office 1850s Hunter, Rossi Co. 1870s1880s Canadian Missionary Link 1880s1890s Wm. Briggs 1890s Copp, Clark Co. 1890s Hamilton Hamilton Spectator 1850s1860s Brantford Expositor 1870s Daily Courier 1870s

752

752 Ibid., 233.

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Stockdale, J.C., “Mullins, Rosanna Eleanora,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 10, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003-,accessed March 18, 2016, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/mullins_roasanna_eleanora_10E.html.

Story, G.M. “Whiteford, Isabella.” Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. 13(1901-1910). University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003-,accessed April 23, 2016. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/walker_anna_louis_13E.html

Stowe, H.B. Women In Sacred History. New York: Portland House, 1990.

Strong, James. The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1990.

219 Swan, Laura. The Forgotten Desert Mothers. New York: Paulist Press, 2001.

Taylor, Marion Ann and Agnes Choi, eds. Handbook of Women Biblical Interpreters. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Academic, 2012.

Taylor, Marion Ann and Heather E. Weir, eds. Let her Speak For Herself. Waco, Texas: Baylor University Press, 2006.

Taylor, Marion Ann and Christiana De Groot, eds. Women of War Women of Woe: Joshua and Judges Through the Eyes of Nineteenth-Century Female Biblical Interpreters. Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2016.

Taylor, Marion Ann. “Cold Dead Hands Upon Our Threshold’: Josephine Butler’s Reading of the Story of the Levite’s Concubine: Judges19-21,” The Bible as a Human Witness to Divine Revelation: Hearing the Word of God Through Historically Dissimilar Traditions. eds. Randall Heskett and Brian P. Irwin. Library of Hebrew Bible/Old Testament Studies 469. London: T & T Clark, 2010, 259-73.

Taylor, Marion Ann. “Hidden Voices: Toward a More Inclusive History of the Interpretation of the Bible,” CSBS Bulletin 72. (2012): 1-22.

______. “Women And Biblical Criticism In Nineteenth-Century England.” Women and Criticism. Dec. 7 Microsoft Word 97-2003. [cid:[email protected]]

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220 Whiteley, Marilyn Färdig. The Life and Letters of Annie Leake Tuttle: Working for the Best. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 1999.

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Appendix A

Nineteenth-Century Canadian Women Old Testament Interpreters

For each woman, dates of birth and death, location, and religious denomination are included when information was available. Titles of their Old Testament writings and the location and names of their publishers are included.

The women listed in Appendix A interpreted single verses and stories from thirty-four of thirty-nine Old Testament books, including Judith in the Apocrypha and excluding Ezra, Joel, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah.

Anderson, Maggie P. (1870 – 1931), * St. John, New Brunswick. * Congregationalist * Her prose Old Testament interpretations include “Unto Still Waters” (Ps. 23),“Cup Bearers To Our King” (Book of Nehemiah), “Keeping Holy The Sabbath” (Exod. 16), and “It is Well” (2 Kings 4:8-10), published in Sick-Room Thoughts and Gleanings in Saint John, New Brunswick by the Daily Telegraph Book And Job Press in 1892.

A.L.O.N.B. * St. John, New Brunswick. * Her prose Old Testament interpretations include “The Harvest Home in Palestine; Or, Israel’s National Thanksgiving Festival and its Significance” published in Rays Of Light From Bible Lands in St. John, New Brunswick by R.A.H. Morrow in 1896, and The Bible Vindicated by Discoveries In Scripture Lands, Disclosing A World of Ancient Buried Treasure Bearing Direct Testimony to the Truthfulness of Sacred History published in St. John, New Brunswick by R.A.H. Morrow in 1899.

Appleton, Lydia Ann (1824-1903), * St. John, New Brunswick. * Her Old Testament poetry includes “The Rainbow” (Gen.9); “The Sword Of The Lord And Of Gideon” (Judg 7-8) and her pan-biblical “Universal Spread Of The Gospel published in Miscellaneous Poems Moral & Religious in Toronto at The Watchman Office, 1850.

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Baker, Ida Emma Fitch (1859-1948) * Simcoe, Ontario * Baptist * Her poetry includes “A Promise” (Exod. 33:14); “God’s Jewels” (Mal. 3:16-17) “Beside Still Waters” (Isa. 32:20), published by The Canadian Missionary Link Vol. IV, No. 2, Oct. 1881 and Vol. 9, No. 2, Oct. 1886; Oct. 1884. Baker, Mrs. J.J. * Elgin County, Ontario, * Baptist * She published a pan-Old Testament “The Promise And The Word, and “Mothers and Missions” (1 Sam. 1) in The Canadian Missionary Link Vol. 8, No. 4, Dec. 1885 and Vol.13, No. 4, Dec. 1890 respectively . Baldwyn, Augusta (1822-1884) * St. Jean Sur Richelieu, Quebec. * Anglican * Her poetry includes “The Creation” (Gen. 1), “The Death Of The First-Born In Egypt” (Exod. 12:29),“God Is Here” (Ps. 145:10),“The Law And The Gospel” (Exod. 19:18) published in Poems By Augusta Baldwyn in Montreal by John Lovell in 1859.

Bradley, Mrs. Mary (1771-1817) * Gagetown and Saint John, New Brunswick. * Wesleyan Methodist * In her prose Narrative of the Life and Christian Experience of Mrs. Mary Bradley published by Strong & Brodhead of Boston in 1849, she included references from the Books of exodus and Isaiah in “Chapter VII.”

Brown, Mrs. * Tuskett, Nova Scotia * Baptist * She wrote a prose discourse titled “Mite Boxes” (2 Kings 12:9 and 2 Chron. 24), published in The Canadian Missionary Link Vol. III, No. 3, Nov. 1889.

Burnaby, Teresa * Baptist * She wrote the prose “Women As Helpers in God’s Kingdom,” (Ps. 68:11, Exod. 2:5, and 1 Kings 17: 8-24), published in The Canadian Missionary Link in Vol. XVI, No. 9, May 1894.

Carr-Harris, Bertha (1863-1949) * Ottawa, Ontario, * Anglican * She included various Old Testament texts in “The Master’s Call,” in her Lights And Shades Of Mission Work Or Leaves From A Worker’s Note Book Being Reminiscences

223 Of Seven Years Service At The Capital, 1885-1892 published by the Ottawa: Free Press Printing and Publishing House in1892.

Coghill, Annie Louisa Walker (1836-1907) * born in Staffordshire, England and immigrated to Canada, living in Pointe-Levy, Quebec and Sarnia, Ontario before moving back to England. * In her Leaves From The Backwoods published in Montreal by John Lovell in 1861 and her Oak And Maple published in London by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. in 1890 she included the poems “Guidance” (Exod. 13:17-22 and Num. 14:13-14) and the poem “The Sixteenth Psalm.”

Currie, Margaret Gill (1843-1906) * Springhill and Fredericton, New Brunswick * Baptist * She published the poems “Saul” (1 Sam. 18, 28), “The Glorious City” (Ps. 87:3), “The Vine” (Jer. 2:21), and “I Have Sinned” (Job 33:27) in Gabriel West And Other Poems published in Fredericton, New Brunswick by H.A.Cropley in 1866.

Cushing, Eliza Lanesford Foster (1794-1886) * a Congregational Unitarian, * moved from Brighton, Massachusetts to Montreal, Quebec. * She wrote Esther: A Sacred Drama With Judith A Poem published in Boston by Joseph Dowe in M DCCC XI, a “Dramatic Scene Verse Dialogue Between Naomi and Ruth,” published in The Literary Garland Vol. II, No. 4, March, 1840, and a “Dramatic Sketch From Scripture History.” published in The Literary Garland Vol. 2 April 1844.

SRG * She contributed the poem “Spinning,” (Exod. 35: 25-2), to the Baptist Literary Garland, Vol. 9, No. 8, in 1887.

E.M.H. * Montreal * She wrote a Scripture Catechism intended For The Instruction Of Children which included multiple Old and New Testament selections. Her work was published in Montreal by The W.G. Association in1879.

Higgins, Mrs. * Nova Scotia * Baptist * She contributed a discourse titled “In The Spirit And Power Of Elias” (1 Kings 18) to The Canadian Missionary Link, Vol. 14, No. 9 in May 1892.

Jennings, Clothilde also known as Maude Alma, and Miletus * Halifax, Nova Scotia and Montreal, Quebec

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* She included the poem “Song of the Nile,” based on various Pentateuchal references in her Linden Rhymes published in Halifax, Nova Scotia by Elbridge Gerry Fuller in 1854

Johnson, Helen Mar (1834-1863) * Magog, Quebec * evangelical Adventist * She wrote the poem “Elijah” (1 Kings 18) and the pan-biblical poem “The Promises In XVI Parts,” both published in Poems by Helen M. Johnson in Boston by J.V. Hines in 1855and al in Canadian Wild Flowers: Selections From The Writings Of Miss Helen M. Johnson published in Boston by J.M. Orrock in 1884

Kennedy, Mrs. G. * She contributed a drama titled “Idols and Their Worshippers” (Ps. 115:2-8; Is. 44:12-20) to the Baptist The Canadian Missionary Link ,Vol. 10, No. 5, Jan. 1888.

Laidlaw, Mrs. * Elgin County, Ontario * She wrote a speech called “Christian Stewardship” based on multiple Old and New Testament texts. Her speech was reproduced in The Canadian Missionary Link Vol. 17, No. 2, Oct. 1894.

Lawson, Mrs. William Katzman, also known as M.J.K.L. (1828-1890) * Halifax, Nova Scotia *Anglican * She wrote the poems “Abel” (Gen. 4), “The Rainbow” (Gen. 9) and “Water In The Wilderness” (Exod. 15:24-25), all included in Frankincense and Myrrh; Selections From The Poems of the Late Mrs. William Lawson (M.J.K.L.) published in Halifax, Nova Scotia by Morton & Co., 1893.

Leonard, Mrs. * Anglican * likely south central Ontario * She published several issues of a periodical called The Child’s Bible Expositor Or Lessons and Records of the Sunday School, containing multiple Old Testament references. The journal was published in Toronto during 1840-42.

Leprohon, Mrs. Rosanna Eleanor (1829-1879) * Roman Catholic * Montreal, Quebec *She wrote the poem “Abraham’s Sacrifice” (Gen. 21) found in her volume of poetry titled The Poetical Works Of Mrs. Leprohon published in Montreal by J. Lovell in1881.

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Lightbody, Isabelle, also known as Sister Belle * Baptist * She wrote a regular missionary column for young people, “Sister Belle’s Corner,” for The Canadian Missionary Link and also contributed poems such as “The Passover” (Exod. 12:12; 1 Cor.5: 7; Mark. 16: 15) in the Vol. 9, No. 4, Dec. 1886 issue.

Machar, Agnes Maule (1837-1927) * Kingston, Ontario * Presbyterian *She wrote the poem “The Spring in the Wilderness” (Gen. 21:19) included in her Lays of the True North and Other Canadian Poems published in Toronto: by The Copp, Clark Co., Limited in 1899.

Markham, Rose Etheridge (1836-1911) * Methodist * born in Greenwich, England and immigrated to Quebec. * She included her poem “I Shall Be Satisfied When I Awake With Thy Likeness,” (Ps. 17:15) in her Fallen Leaves Gathered And Pressed, Readings, Recitations, Dialogues And Songs, published in Toronto by William Briggs in1890.

Maclean, Kate Seymour (1829-1916) * Anglican * born in New York and lived in Ingersoll and in Toronto, Ontario * She included a poem, “Isaiah: The Coming Of The King,” (Is.9:6-7) in her The Coming Of The Princess And Other Poems published in Toronto by Hunter, Rose & Company in 1881.

McIver, Mary Carroll (1839-1919) * Ottawa, Ontario * She included her poem “Jephthah’s Daughter,” (Judg. 11:34-40), in her Poems By Mary A. McIver published in Ottawa by I.E. Taylor at the Ottawa Citizen in 1869.

Moodie, Susanna (1803-1885) * Anglican * Cobourg, Ontario * She wrote the poem “The Calling Of Gideon” (Judg. 6:11-27) for The Literary Garland, published in V.8, No. 5, May 1850.

Mountain, Annie Gilpin (1823-1882) * Anglican * Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Quebec * She included several poems based on the Old Testament: “Esau – The Repentance Of Regret” (Gen. 27:34); “Saul – The Repentance Of Policy”; “David – The Repentance Of Hope” (Books of Kings and Chronicles), and “Ninevah – The

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Repentance Of Fear” (Book of Jonah) in her A Wreath of Rue For Lent And The Sacred Lake published in Toronto by Rowsell and Hutchison in 1873.

Peace, Mrs. M.S. * She lived for a short time in St. John’s, Newfoundland. * She included a major section on women of the Old Testament, titled “Scripture Heroines,” (including Jael, Rachel, Hagar, Rizpah, Jephtha’s daughter ,Moses’ mother, Ruth and Naomi in her volume of poetry titled The Convict Ship And Other Poems: Newfoundland published in Greenock, Scotland by Robert A, Baird in MDCCCL.

Preston, Marianne J. * contributed the poem “Broidery Work” (Exod. 36:37) to The Canadian Missionary Link, Vol. 3, No. 12 , 1881.

Ramage, Kate Douglas (1855-1883) * Lac Megantic, Quebec * Presbyterian * She included three Old Testament poems: “Vashti,” “Ruth,” and “Psalm XLVI” in her Vashti And Other Poems, published in Montreal by John Lovell in 1884.

Read, Mrs. Jane B. * Baptist * Brantford, Ontario * She wrote Poems For Young People: Embracing Temperance and Religion published in Brantford at The Expositor Office in 1870, and Poems on Moral and Religious Subjects, published in Brantford by The Daily Courier Office in 1872. Both writings contain multiple Old Testament references, particularly from Proverbs.

Rogerson, Isabella Whiteford (1835-1905) * Methodist * born in Ireland and immigrated to St. John’s, Newfoundland * She wrote several Old Testament-themed poems: “A Scripture Scene” (1 Sam. 26); “Moses On The Mount” (Exod. 19); “Wayside Wells-Palestine” (Gen.24:11); “Elijah and Elisha” (2 Kings 2); “Naaman, The Syrian” (2 Kings 5:1-14); Enoch (Gen. 5:21-24). These poems were included in her The Victorian Triumph And Other Poems by Isabella Whiteford Rogerson published in Toronto by William Briggs in 1898.

Temple, Anna * She contributed the poem “What Can A Woman Do?” (Esther 4:14-17) to the Baptist publication The Canadian Missionary Link, Vol. 8, No. 8, April, 1886.

Thompson, Mrs. James C. * Anglican

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* likely born in Devonshire, England and immigrated to London, Ontario * She wrote Sketches From Life Being Tales On The Ten Commandments And Various Texts Of Scripture, published in Toronto by Hunter, Rose & Co. in 1876.

JHW * She contributed the poem “Stay Firm” (Ps. 27: 14) to the Baptist publication The Canadian Missionary Link, Vol. 17, No. 5, Jan. 1895.

Watson, T. * Colborne, Ontario * contributed the poem “The Tithe” (Gen. 28:22; Mal. 3: 10) to the Baptist publication The Canadian Missionary Link, Vol. 17, No. 8, Apr. 1895.

Wilkins, Harriett Annie (1829-1888) * Anglican * emigrated from Bath, England to Hamilton, Ontario * She wrote many poems about characters and events in the Old Testament: “The Bow In The Cloud” (Gen. 9); “Miriam” (Exod.15:20-21); “Rahab” (Josh. 2); “ The Wife Of Heber “ (Judg. 4:17-21; 5:24-27); “Moses In The Bulrushes” (Exod. 2:3); “Ruth And Naomi “(Book of Ruth); “The Last Plague Of Egypt” (Exod. 12:29-32); “Two Altars, The Doom Of Cain” (Gen.4:3-16); “The Prayer Of David” (Ps. 39:13; “The King’s Lament For His Infant” (2 Sam. 12: 15b-19); “The Cities Of Old” (pan-biblical). These poems were included in her published books of poetry: Autumn Leaves published in Hamilton, Ontario by the Spectator Printing House in 1869; The Holly Branch published in Hamilton, Ontario by The Spectator Office in 1851; Wayside Flowers published in Toronto by Hunter, Rose & Company in 1876.

Witter, Mary L.T. (1818-1900) * Baptist * Berwick, Nova Scotia * She wrote three books: A Book For The Young: Being A History Of The Kings Who Ruled Over God’s Ancient People, From The Death Of Solomon till The Babylonian Captivity, based on the histories in the Books of Kings and Chronicles and published in Halifax, Nova Scotia by A & W MacKinlay in 1870; The Edomites, with multiple Old Testament references, published in Halifax, Nova Scotia by S. Seldon in 1888; the pan-biblical Angels, published in Glasgow, Scotland by William Asher in1900.

Wright, Miss H.H. * Port Hope, Ontario * She published a prose discourse titled “The Ministry Of Women” with multiple Old Testament references in the Baptist publication The Canadian Missionary Link, Vol. 10, No. 8, April 1888.

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Youmans, Mrs. Letitia (1827-1896) * Methodist * Coburg, Ontario * She included two old Testament interpretations, “Haman’s License,” based on the Book of Esther, and “Building the Walls,” based on the Book of Nehemiah in her autobiography Campaign Echoes published in Toronto by William Briggs in 1893.

Yule, Mrs. Pamelia Vining, also known as Xenette and P.S.V. (1826-1897) * born in Orleans County, New York and lived in Ingersoll and Woodstock, Ontario. * Baptist * Her poetry included: “Crossing The Red Sea” (Exod. 14), “Fount Of Bliss” (Jer. 31:3), “God’s Blessings” (Ps. 5:12), “No Solitude” (Ps. 139:7), and “Moses” (Exod.), published in Poems Of The Heart And Mind in Toronto by Bengough, Moore & Co. in1881.