Contents
The book is organized into chapters that follow the arc of Smith's religious life. Click each chapter to read it as a separate file.
- Introduction
- My Parents
- My Quaker Childhood
- Quakerism
- Quaker "Truth" and Quaker "Ministry"
- Quaker "Opportunities"
- Quaker Guidance
- Quaker "Queries"
- The "Sugar-Scoop" Bonnet
- The "Hat Testimony"
- "Plainness of Speech"
- Friends' "Testimonies" Against Fiction, Music, and Art
- Quaker Scruples
- The First Epoch in My Religious Life — The Awakening
Three Epochs of Faith
Smith structures her spiritual autobiography around three defining epochs:
- The Awakening — her early stirrings of personal faith within a Quaker upbringing.
- Restoration — a season of renewed conviction and return to foundational truths.
- The Restitution — her culminating discovery of the unselfishness of God, which became the book's central theme.
Key Themes
Throughout the work, Smith explores the assurance of faith and the life of faith as lived realities, not abstract doctrines. She describes her gradual departure from Quaker distinctives and her deepening conviction that God's love is freely given — not earned, not rationed, and not limited to a select few. The book reflects the same practical, warm spirituality that made her earlier work The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life (1875) beloved by millions.