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Elizabeth Prentiss

By May 1, 2008July 19th, 2014No Comments

“More Love to Thee”

SHARON JAMES

Banner of Truth Trust, 241 Pages, Hardcover, $24.00

This is the biography of the writer of one of our most-treasured hymns, “More Love to Thee, O Christ.” Most people perhaps have never noticed the name of this hymn’s writer, let alone known the story of Elizabeth Prentiss. She lived an interesting life as a writer of novels. But she was a godly woman who suffered a great deal and had the conviction that suffering is Christ’s “school,” whereby we learn more of God’s love and care. Barbara Hughes, a pastor’s wife and a writer herself, writes in the foreword that she has personally learned much from studying Elizabeth Prentiss’s life, particularly through her book Stepping Heavenward.

Women will enjoy the insights into womanhood of the nineteenth century as well. The book is beautiful, with a painting of Elizabeth Prentiss on the jacket and the song “More Love to Thee” superimposed on two colorful scenic photos on the inside front and back covers. The book has endnotes, a bibliography, and an index. The concluding chapter summarizes Prentiss’s view of her life: “Elizabeth Prentiss did not regard herself as a professional writer. First and foremost, she saw herself as a Christian, then a wife and mother. . . . She intensely disliked any . . . ‘watering down’ of the Christian gospel and was willing to stand up for what she believed.”

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