This is rather an exceptional chapter: for it tells of a very little
life judged by length of days, a very sad life judged by some of
its incidents, a very futile life considered by what it actually
accomplished,--but a very wonderful life regarded in the light of the
results which followed.
Harriet Attwood was born in Massachusetts, America, in the year 1793.
Even in her girlhood she looked forward to assisting in making the
Gospel known in distant lands. Long before any movement sprang up in
America for sending out female missionaries to the heathen, the day
dream of this little girl was to devote herself to the mission cause.
Not that she dreamed away her life in longing, and neglected her
every-day duties. She was remarkable for her intelligence and dutiful
conduct; and from the age of ten felt deep religious convictions, and
was constant in her daily prayers and Bible reading.
Her life was brightened by her belief, and she ever kept in view what
she believed to be her mission in life. "What can I do," she writes,
"that the light of the Gospel may shine upon the heathen? They are
perishing for lack of knowledge, while I enjoy the glorious privileges
of a Christian land."
The means of accomplishing her desire soon came. A young missionary,
named Newell, who was going out to India, asked her to become his
wife.
Her decision was not taken without earnest prayer; and had her parents
opposed her wishes she would have been prepared to give them up, but,
gaining their consent, she accepted Mr. Newell's offer. She was fully
aware that the difficulties in the way would be very great; for up to
that time no female missionary had gone from America to the mission
field.
At first her friends tried in every way to dissuade her from leaving
home, and, as they termed it, "throwing herself away on the heathen".
But her simplicity of belief and earnestness of purpose soon changed
their thoughts on the subject and when, early in the year 1812, Mr.
and Mrs. Newell sailed for Calcutta, many came together to wish them
God-speed on their perilous journey.
On his arrival in Calcutta Mr. Newell, in accordance with the
regulation of the East India Company at that time, reported himself at
the police office; and to his sorrow found that the Company would not
allow any missionaries to work in their dominions!
Here was a disappointing beginning for these earnest young people! At
first it seemed quite probable they would not even be allowed to land;
and though permission was after a time obtained, yet in six weeks they
were told they must go elsewhere, as they would not be permitted to
settle.
A few days later, however, the prospect brightened. "We have obtained
leave," writes Mrs. Newell, "to go to the Isle of France (Mauritius).
We hear that the English Governor there favours missions; that a large
field of usefulness is there opened--18,000 inhabitants ignorant of
Jesus. Is not this the station that Providence has designed for us? A
door is open wide. Shall we not enter and help the glorious work?"
But it was by her influence alone that she was permitted to engage
in the work her heart longed for. On the journey to Mauritius rapid
consumption set in, and day by day she became weaker.
Although she felt at first a natural disappointment that she would not
be allowed to labour in the mission field, she was able to look upward
in her hour of trial and to say: "Tell my friends I never regretted
leaving my native land for the cause of Christ. God has called me away
before we have entered on the work of the mission, but the case of
David affords me comfort. I have it in my heart to do what I can for
the heathen, and I hope God will accept me."
On the 30th November, 1812, at the early age of nineteen, Harriet
Newell passed away.
Might not many a one justly ask, was not her life a failure? And the
answer, based on the experience and results of what her life and death
accomplished, is No--emphatically No!
For her example produced a wave of religious life and missionary
enthusiasm in America, the like of which has hardly ever been known.
The very fact of this whole-hearted girl giving up her life for the
cause of Christ, and the pathos of her untimely end, did more to touch
the hearts of multitudes than perhaps the most apparently successful
accomplishment of her mission would have done.