Hannah Whitall Smith Books: A Guide to All 6 and Where to Start

Holiness Biography

Hannah Whitall Smith (1832–1911) wrote one of the best-loved Christian books of the nineteenth century, The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life. She wrote more than that one book, though, and some readers like her later books even better. TheWay Library lists seven of them, all free to read: two classics on the life of faith, a set of Bible readings, her own life story, a memoir of her father, a memorial of her son Frank, and a memoir of a young Whitall cousin. For her life, see who was Hannah Whitall Smith.

Where to start

Start with The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life. Everything else she wrote grows out of it.

After that, choose by what you need:

If you're anxious, discouraged or afraid of God: The God of All Comfort.
For short Bible readings on daily faith, alone or in a group: Every-Day Religion.
For her own story: The Unselfishness of God.
For a Christian businessman's life: John M. Whitall.
For young people, or parents who have lost a child: The Record of a Happy Life.
For the story of a young woman's quiet faith: On the Rock.

Every quotation below is checked against the book it comes from. For many more, see our collection of Hannah Whitall Smith quotes.

The life of faith

The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life

Her classic on the "life hid with Christ in God." She starts by admitting that many Christians have a religion that makes them miserable, and asks whether the Bible promises something better. Her answer is that the believer's part is to surrender and trust, and God's part is to do the work of deliverance and keeping. Seven chapters then deal patiently with the difficulties people meet: fear of surrender, feeling you have no faith, a will that seems unchanged, guidance, doubts, temptations mistaken for sin, and what to do after failure. Later chapters see God in everything, contrast bondage with liberty, and end with trials as "the chariots of God" and "the life on wings."

Our sin is no reason for ceasing to trust, but only an unanswerable argument why we must trust more fully than ever.
The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, Difficulties Concerning Failures

If you've ever felt that the Christian life was all effort and no rest, this book was written for you. Read The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life.

The God of All Comfort

Written in 1906, when she was in her seventies. An agnostic once told her that Christians carry their religion like a man with a headache, and the remark set her writing. Her answer is that discomfort comes from wrong ideas about God. She works through what His names reveal: the God of all comfort, the Shepherd, the Father Jesus spoke of, Jehovah who fights for His people, the Lord who is good, our dwelling place. Then she takes up the things that rob Christians of comfort: morbid self-examination, wavering, discouragement and complaining. The last chapter sums it all up: God is enough.

The soul that gives thanks can find comfort in everything; the soul that complains can find comfort in nothing.
The God of All Comfort, Thanksgiving Versus Complaining

Many readers find this her most helpful book. It's warm, personal and full of stories. The text came from a scan and has a few misread letters. Read The God of All Comfort.

Bible readings

Every-Day Religion

Nineteen Bible readings from 1893, each built on a "foundation text." In her introduction she says she wants to bring out the Bible's common-sense teaching on daily religion, without mystery or jargon. She begins with knowing that we have eternal life (1 John 5), then feeding on Christ, "Yield, Trust, Obey," the place of the will, rejoicing in the Lord, the meaning of trouble and the hidden God. A middle group treats the cross and four "laws" of the spiritual life: faith, life, love and righteousness. She ends with sitting still, doubt and temptation.

God's chastenings, therefore, are for purifying, not for vengeance.
Every-Day Religion, The Meaning of Trouble

The lessons are short and well suited to a small group. Read Every-Day Religion.

Life stories

The Unselfishness of God and How I Discovered It

Her spiritual autobiography, written at seventy and published in 1903. The first half is a funny, loving picture of a Philadelphia Quaker childhood: the plain bonnet, the "hat testimony," plain speech, and the Friends' testimonies against novels and music. The second half follows four "epochs" in her religious life: her awakening, her restoration to assurance through simple belief in God's word, her discovery that God is utterly unselfish and loving, and the life of faith that produced The Christian's Secret. She ends with holiness camp meetings, "the lovely will of God," and a calm look at old age and death.

In the past I had looked upon God's will as being against me, now I had found out that it was for me.
The Unselfishness of God, The Lovely Will of God

Readers should know that the third epoch also describes her belief that God's love will finally restore all things. This edition came from an uncorrected scan, and some chapters lose their first letter. Read The Unselfishness of God.

John M. Whitall: The Story of His Life

Her memoir of her father, written in 1879 for the family from his journals and letters. John Whitall was a Quaker boy from Woodbury, New Jersey, who went to sea, became captain of an East India ship, then left the sea, married and built a glass business in Philadelphia. Hannah shows his religious life, his happy home, a mission among the poor of Bedford Street, and his last years. Three short papers by Whitall on waiting upon God close the book.

…he made the Lord literally his partner, and did nothing without consulting Him, and seeking to discover His will.
John M. Whitall, Business Life

It's a quiet book, and a good one for anyone who wants to see faith worked out in business and family life. Read John M. Whitall.

The Record of a Happy Life: Memorials of Franklin Whitall Smith

Her memorial of her son Frank, who died of typhoid fever at eighteen in 1872. She calls it "essentially a boy's book" and wrote it for his brother and sisters, cousins and friends, so they might learn the secret of the happy life they remembered. It begins at his sickbed, then goes back to a lively Quaker boyhood: hunting, sailing, summers at Grandpa Whitall's. Built largely from Frank's letters and diary, it follows his conversion, his growing faith, the Bible class and prayer meetings he led at Haverford, and his bold witness among the students at Princeton. Many letters pass between Frank and his parents, who counsel him about failures, popularity and joy.

It was a happy faith that our boy was taught, and the results were to be seen in a life, even then almost blameless, and a confiding trust in His Saviour that shed a brightness over all his pursuits and pleasures.
The Record of a Happy Life, chapter III

Read it beside The Christian's Secret. It's the same teaching, lived out by a teenager and written down by his grieving mother. Read The Record of a Happy Life.

One more from the Whitall family

On the Rock: A Memoir of Alice B. Whitall is not by Hannah, but it comes from her family. It is a memoir of Alice Whitall of Philadelphia, born in 1839, told mostly through her letters. Her conversion letter tells a friend they had been "building up for ourselves a religion of works" until she saw that the atonement is a finished work. Later letters show her witness to friends, her visits to the poor, years of illness, a deepening sense of Christ's nearness, and a peaceful death. The book closes with hymns she loved.

It was written anonymously, it seems by one of Alice's sisters, for "Aunt Alice's" little nephews and nieces. Read On the Rock.

How the books fit together

The Christian's Secret tells you how to trust God. The God of All Comfort tells you why you can: because of who God is. Every-Day Religion puts both into short lessons for daily life. The Unselfishness of God shows how she learned it herself, John M. Whitall shows the faith of the father who first taught her, and The Record of a Happy Life shows it in the short life of her son.

Why read Hannah Whitall Smith today

She's a friend to tired believers. Begin with The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, then read The God of All Comfort. All seven books are on the Hannah Whitall Smith author page.