Customer Reviews

Christian's Secret of a Happy Life, complete and unabridged, The

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I highly recommend this book. I read it while stationed in Iraq and it encouraged me very much in that situation. It is thoroughly orthodox in its theology and praxis and has nothing to do with modern "psycho-babble" as one other reviewer mistakenly suggested. The book was written over 100 years ago. If it was written today the author most likely would use the term "joyful life" in the title rather than "happy life", but it's clear that her meaning is a happiness that comes from the Lord and is not based on circumstances (which nowadays we would probably call "joy"). Mrs. Smith's secrets to the happy/joyful Christian life are: surrendering all to the Lord, trusting implicitly in the Lord, and immediate obedience to Him. Hard to be more orthodox than that. She gives many anecdotal stories to help the reader understand how much God loves us and how surrender, trust, and obedience result in our abiding more deeply in Christ and consequently having joy in all circumstances.

I read it 22 years ago in my first Sunday School class after becoming a Christian. Now, I am using it to teach an adult Sunday School Class. My son, a Bible student at Criswell in Dallas has also found it to be extremely accurate doctrinally. It is an inspiring book that SHOWS us that the "deeper walk" is simply the walk God intended for His children to have in the first place. The chapters on the WILL and avoiding LEGALISM are wonderful in guiding God's children into the wonderful truth in God's Word. Serving and knowing God as H.W.S. indicates is a liberting experience! Matt 11:28-30

I've read Hannah's book twice and the chapter "Is God in Everything?" several more times. This book is thoroughly biblical, very helpful, and highly recommended for new Christians. She wisely distinguishes between internal temptations and sin (something I remember struggling with as a new Christian - and I didn't have this book, unfortunately) and shares with the greatest of Christian mystics the truth revealed in the chapter "Is God In Everything?" I put this book right up there with "Abandonment to Divine Providence" by Jean-Pierre de Caussade, "Centuries of Meditations" by Thomas Traherne, and "A Testament of Devotion" by Thomas Kelly. The latter book is another Quaker classic. - Brad Clark

My review is in response to a very "sad" review written from an already established position. The reviewer (I think Tim Challies) gives us what he thinks is the thrust of the book, "What must the Christian DO in his quest for VICTORY?," then offers his simplistic review of Hannah Smith's response, "NOTHING." Challies then sums up Smith's work with his critique of "the man-centered and subjective age in which we live," and puts Smith in this category. This is an amazingly simplistic (and ignorant) summation by an educated person - this is why I think it betrays "an already established position."

Hannah Smith lived in the latter half of the 19th century - the terms "happy" and "gay" had different meanings in common use than what we have today. A better title for this book would be "The Christian's Secret to a Joyful Life," but we cannot retitle the work.

Smith is writing to refute the basic practical theology of her strict Quaker background which apparently leaned heavily on the force of a person's determined will and discipline to gain freedom from sin. Many of us have seen how this emphasis, while possibly effective in the life of one generation, can lead to dead works and dry religion in the following generations that lack the intense affections of the initial leaders and have only been given the "right doctrine" to live by.

Let's allow Hannah Smith to speak for herself;

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The most difficult thing we have to manage is self....In laying off your burdens, therefore, the first one you must get rid of is yourself. You must hand yourself and all your inward experiences, your temptations, your temperament...all over into the care and keeping of your God, and leave them there. He made you, and therefore He understands you and knows how to manage you, and you must trust Him to do it. Say to Him, "Here, Lord, I abandon myself to thee. I have tried in every way I could think of to manage myself, and to make myself what I know I ought to be, but have always failed. Now I give it up to thee. Do thou take entire possession of me....And here you must rest, trusting yourself thus to Him continually and absolutely....

Perfect obedience would be perfect happiness....
Consecration is the first thing....In order for a lump of clay to be made into a beautiful vessel, it must be entirely abandoned to the potter, and must lie passive in his hands. And in order for a soul to be made into a vessel unto God's honor, "sanctified and meet for the Master's use, and
prepared unto every good work," it must be entirely abandoned to Him, and must lie passive in His hands....

Oh, be generous in your self-surrender! Meet His measureless devotion for you, with a measureless devotion to Him. Be glad and eager to throw yourself headlong into His dear arms, and to hand over the reins of
government to Him. Whatever there is of you, let Him have it all. Give up forever everything that is separate from Him. Consent to resign from
this time forward all liberty of choice...
(I cannot find my copy and have used the online version)
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This is far from doing NOTHING. Smith's focus is on the most difficult aspect of living for God - the abandonment of YOUR will. She maintains
that IF you can truly abandon yourself (I do not think this can be done 100% of the time anyway) God will do His work in you. In the past, some
20 years ago when I first read this book, I wondered if Watchman Nee had read Hannah Smith. In his little powerful book, "Sit, Walk, Stand" he
says this,

"If at the outset we try to do anything, we get nothing...For Christianity begins not with a big DO, but with a big DONE." p.14 (Tyndale, 1977)

Maybe Challies believes that Nee also distorted scripture here (I should confess that I am not a fan of everything Nee writes).

Again, Challies: "God calls Christians, not to happiness, but to holiness." Smith's comments on "perfect obedience would be perfect happiness" directly address this accusation. Did Challies really even read Smith's book? It is difficult for me to think so. "The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life" is far from the "self-help psychobabel" label Challies gives to it.

It is true that Hannah Smith did not have a "happy" life. She had some marital issues and an unfaithful husband; she seems to have suffered some
depression; and her theology was not always orthodox - she apparently struggled with the concept of eternal punishment (like Origen!).
Nonetheless, this book by Hannah Smith has remained a Christian classic for a reason - it is challenging and good.

And by the way, Hannah Smith did die in great misery - she suffered from arthritis during the final years of her life.

R.A. Baker
Ph.D. Ecclesiastical History

Smith has written a classic that will continue to bless long after her passing. The book is divided into three main parts:

1. The Life (how to enter into the Christ life).
2. Difficulties concerning: faith, the will, guidance, doubts, temptation, failures).
3. Results of the Christ-life (growth, service, joy of obedience, practical results in everyday life, etc.).

Written by a Quaker, the book will encourage Christians of all denominations. Read, enjoy, and be encouraged in the Lord.

Highly recommended!

This book has been blessing people for 130 years - there is a reason for that. The reason this book is so great is that it focuses upon the only 2 essential practices for Christian growth and strength: Surrender and Faith. Everything in the book teaches us how to maintain absolute surrender to and total trust in God, how to overcome difficulties so that faith and trust remain steadfast, all mingled with many words of encouragement telling of the peace and joy such a life produces.

The one negative review in this list claims the book is terrible because we should seek holiness, not happiness. Clearly 100% surrender to God's will and 100% faith in God are holiness defined - and that expresses the entire thrust of the book. It is very unlikely that reviewer even read the book beyond the title - ignore them. Jesus wants our joy to be full, He tells us steps to take "so that your joy may be full"....but we better not tell this lone reviewer that Jesus recommends we seek joy - they might give HIM a bad review!

Do what this book says to do and find God waiting there to bless you abundantly with Christ-likeness.....with the natural result being great happiness! I agree with what one review said, if I had to choose only 2 books, they would be the Bible and The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life.

Just as the bible is alive, so is this book. It is a must read for anyone who seeks peace - peace that is alive, lasting and supported by a body of believers today. Please give time for this masterpiece. For a person who is starting a relationship with God, this book grounds readers on key concepts of christianity. It saves- potentially- much time and confusion especially if one was to do it on their own.

I have an original copy of this book and it is amazing how over 100 yrs ago, Christians were having problems in the same area we as Christians are having today. This book puts things so simply that anyone could understand and put into practice these steps to a happier life. HIGHLY RECCOMENDED!

Being a middle aged man but a new Christian, this book focused my attention where it needed to be. Not on what I needed to do to achieve salvation and happiness, but what God has all ready done. He sent his Son into the world that I might have life and have it more abundantly. At every turn of the page, the author describes, simply and plainly, how each reader can surrender to the loving will of God, which is the Christian's secret to a happy life.

This book is one of the best in Christian literature. The main point the author brings across is that we can put all our trust in God and live in perfect peace knowing all is within God's abounding providence. I found it to be a blessing to read and I will probably read it over again and again in the future. It is full of spiritual insights and appeals to the mind as well as the heart. Hannah W. Smith maintains a victorious and glorious Christian life is not only attainable but God's purpose for us. Do yourself a big favour and read this book through. You will thank God afterwards.

Another great book is Brother Lawrence's "The Practice of the Presece of God". Both of them are life changing.