● ● ● more important, the fact to which they pointed was already imbedded in her life. The Bible was always there to keep hope alive, to keep her importunate. She might weary of life, but perpetual renewal was to be found in the Bible promises. “All my springs are in thee,” the Psalmist had cried in a similarly sparse and thirsty land.41
F. B. Eastman recalled a Baptist meeting at which someone asked Patterson why his wife had not come and he replied, “O, she is at home reading her Bible.”42 All her life the Bible seems to have formed another dimension of reality for her.43 At that time it was apparently the dimension of promise rather than of revelation, but her later writings make abundantly clear how directly and concretely the promise spoke to her.
In the 54th chapter of Isaiah, for instance, she found not merely high poetry, comforting and inspiring in a general sort of way, but an intense vision of the means of grace by which the heart is prepared for God’s transfiguring purpose:
Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith the Lord. . . . Fear not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thy Maker is thine husband; the Lord of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. . . . For the mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my ● ● ●
41 [Psalms 87:7.]
42 F. B. Eastman, affidavit, recorded in John H. Thompson, “Report of John H. Thompson, a result of an investigation made in December, 1906,” c. 1907, Subject File, John H. Thompson, p. 11, MBEL. This actually took place during 1860 or 1861 in Rumney, but it throws light equally on the Groton years.
43 This is true of all those brought up in the Puritan tradition who took their spiritual heritage seriously.