Bright Legacy

Title: Bright Legacy: Portraits of Ten Outstanding Christian Women
Author: Various Authors; Edited by Ann Spangler
Publisher: Servant Books,1983
Pages: 196
Begun: December 20, 2008 (??)
Finished: January 30, 2009
Rating: 1/2 *

I would certainly not recommend this book for reading. However, it had a couple of small redeeming factors, and one major redeeming factor. This book was compiled by Ann Spangler, whose true understanding of the Gospel I must question based on some of the outstanding "Christian" women included in the book.

The book is a compilation of short articles written by 10 different authors. The women included in the book are: Mother Theresa of Calcutta, Amy Carmichael of India, Catherine Marshall, Adrienne de Lafayette, Johanna Mathilda Lind Hult, Elizabeth Rooney, Evelyn Harris Brand, Wilma Burton, Mary McKennna O'Connell, and Ethel Renwick.

Obviously, I was disappointed in the choice of a couple of these women. Two are "saints" from the Catholic church, one a dedicated Catholic. Not only are some of the women obviously not true believers, but the literary quality of some of the articles is sadly lacking! I did enjoy reading about all, well most, of the ladies.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Elizabeth Elliot's article on Amy Carmichael. I was provoked to good works in reading about her complete selflessness. She truly did not live unto self. She despised earthly attention because she feared how it would affect her and God's work. She truly was a remarkable woman.

The best, most touching, thought-provoking, and rebuking article was on Evelyn Harris Brand written by Gladys Hunt.

Evelyn was born in England to fairly wealthy Christian parents in 1879. Evelyn was the "belle of the ball" in her circles in England, and yet a gnawing in her spirit convinced her that there was more to life than participation in the "teas and gossip" of English society. This desire drew her more and more to her Lord and eventually to foreign missions. She married co-missionary Jesse Mann Brand in India in 1913 just about a year after arriving in India.

Together, Jesse and Evelyn established ministries in several malaria-ridden hill villages. Villages that the Indians themselves refused to visit for fear of sickness, wild animals, and witch doctors.
For many years the Brands saw no converts. The hill people were too afraid to break caste and confess Christ. Their first convert was a witch doctor who professed Christ in his dying breath. He had, before his death, asked them to take in his 9-mo old baby girl. This proved to be the breakthrough. Following this event, God seemed to open the floodgates and many children were brought to the Brands to be cared for. Little by little outcasts came, and a small compound of Indian believers began to form.

In 1928 Jesse and Evelyn stood looking out over the other 4 mountain ranges--none of which had a gospel witness, and committed to each other that "before we die we must go to all five ranges and take the saving message of Jesus Christ." However, in June of 1929, Jesse contracted blackwater fever and died just 4 days later at the age of 44. Heart broken and bereft, Evelyn went through the motions of a funeral, focused on the promise of Christian hope, yet felt dead inside. The Mission encouraged her to return to England but she refused. When she did return for a furlough, her children barely recognized her--in just a few short years she seemed to have gone from a tall beautiful woman, to a short old lady.

Evelyn returned to India, only to suffer disappointments as she returned to the hills under the management of young missionaries who didn't know the way of the mountain people. When Evelyn was nearly 60 the Mission refused to let her return to her beloved hills. They stationed her in the valley; she was getting old and besides the hill ministry didn't seem to be effective enough. She was known to stand and look out at her "beloved hills" and pray that someone would take them the gospel. She wrote to her daughter, "I feel like a mother with a baby, [watching] a crowd of people seize it, feel its pulse, shake it a bit ... and discuss whether it should live or die!"

In her early 60's Evelyn was forced to retire from the Mission. She begged them to let her return to India for one more year. They reluctantly gave in. But Evelyn had a plan. She would return with the Mission for one more year, and then she would retire--in India. Between the ages of 65 to 95 Evelyn Brand took the gospel to the remaining 4 mountain ranges. None of which had ever heard the gospel.

When Evelyn returned to India for the first time without her beloved husband, she wrote the following poem:

And must I now go on alone with You,
And is there no one near to hold my hand?
And no one who can really understand?
"I'll do it all for you."
But there'll be silence round me all the time,
Silence which even You with all your infinite resource
Cannot break through.

"Silence to hear My voice, that's all,
And I have planned it all for you.
You have been speaking all the time,
You would not listen, now no other choice
But to sit still and hear My voice."

Speak, Lord, thy servant waits to hear
Thy gentle whisper, strong and clear.

When I was just nine months old, December 18, 1974, Evelyn Harris Brand was laid to rest beside her husband. The funeral was held in the chapel that her husband had built 60 years before. On her tombstone were written the words that she and her husband had shared as their motto: Trust and Triumph.

So, while I give the book a very low rating, this chapter truly redeemed it. The next book I would like to have is Granny Brand by Dorothy Clarke Wilson which is a full length biography on Evelyn, and another is her own short auto-biography entitled: Trust and Triumph.

I know this is long, and I'm sorry, but the story of Evelyn, which was completely unknown to me before, was a huge blessing that I really can't even begin to describe.