Also by Elisabeth Elliot Through Gates of Splendor Shadow of the Almighty Let Me Be a Woman Discipline: The Glad Surrender God’s Guidance On Asking God Why The Shaping of a Christian Family Keep a Quiet Heart The Mark of a Man Faith That Does Not Falter Passion and Purity Quest for Love Be Still My Soul The Journals of Jim Elliot The Music of His Promises No Graven Image The Path of Loneliness Secure in the Everlasting Arms To all who loved Amma © 1987 by Elisabeth Elliot Published by Revell a division of Baker Publishing Group P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287 www.revellbooks.com Paperback edition published 2005 Ebook edition created 2021 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC. ISBN 978-1-4934-3445-9 Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the King James Version of the Bible. Scripture marked NEB is taken from The New English Bible. Copyright © 1961,1970 by The Delegates of Oxford University Press and The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press. Reprinted by permission. Scripture marked PHILLIPS is taken from Th e New Testament in Modern English, revised edition J. B. Phillips, translator. © J. B. Phillips 1958, 1960, 1972. Used by permission of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc. Scripture marked TLB is taken from The Living Bible, copyright © 1971. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved. Scripture verses identified AV are from the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible. Copyright material from Gold Cord and Toward Jerusalem by Amy Carmichael used by permission of Christian Literature Crusade, Ft. Washington, PA. Excerpts from Freedom at Midnight by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre, copyright © 1975 by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre. Reprinted by permission of Simon 8c Schuster, Inc. Contents Cover Half Title Page Title Page Copyright Page Illustrations Acknowledgments Preface 1. Tide Pools, Pink Powder, and Prayers 2. The Hope of Holiness 3. Mutton Chops Don’t Matter 4. The Tin Tabernacle 5. The Inescapable Calling 6. Small Shall Seem All Sacrifice 7. The Rending 8. The Romance of Missions 9. The Unrepealed Commission 10. The School of Prayer 11. Japanese Head 12. Not Much of a Halo in Ceylon 13. To the India of the Raj 14. Fashionable Christianity 15. Company, Church, Crown, and Hindu 16. Straight Against the Dead Wall 17. Blissful Work 18. The Cost of Obedience 19. The Uninteresting, Unromantic Truth 20. A Small and Desolate Mite 21. Children Tie the Mother’s Feet 22. The Vault Beneath the Meadow 23. The Impress of the Signet Ring 24. Strife of Tongues 25. Place of Dragons 26. Love Is Not a Sentiment 27. The Lesson of the Weaned Child 28. Across the Will of Nature 29. Grey Jungle, Crystal Pool 30. A Life Without Fences 31. Where Are the Men? 32. Damascus Blades 33. Rendezvous With Robin Hood 34. The Sword Smites Sharp 35. The DF Is Born 36. A Secret Discipline 37. Place of Healing and House of Prayer 38. The Road Less Traveled 39. No Milk Biscuits 40. Scrub-Land 41. The Toad Beneath the Harrow 42. The Servant as Writer 43. Saint, Fishwife, Vegetable Marrow 44. Broken by the Waves 45. I Hold Me Fast by Thee 46. The Voice From the Sanctum 47. The Razor Edge 48. Maintain a Constant Victory 49. The River Breaks Out 50. Fettered and Yet Free 51. One Thing Have I Desired Epilogue The Dohnavur Fellowship About the author Back Cover Illustrations The Carmichael house in Millisle Amy, about five, with mother, Eva, Norman, and Ernest Flyleaf of Amy’s Bible Amy at Broughton Grange, about twenty-four Portion of a letter from Japan written on rice paper Misaki San and Amy The Band and the bandy Camp scene with the Walkers Amy, age forty-two, with Lola and Leela The Cottage Nursery Scenery near the compound Amy with Lullitha, one of her “Lotus Buds” Ponnammal, with Preetha and Tara. At Madras Beach Amy, at fifty-seven, in 1925 The House of Prayer The Room of Peace Bird table marking Amy’s grave Acknowledgments Members of the large Dohnavur Family in India, England, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada have made it possible for me to write this book. They “don’t go in much for credit lines,” they told me, so I do not give their names. I have tried in personal letters to tell them how grateful I am. I say it again here—thank you, from my heart, for: Your prayers, first of all. I have been upheld. Your hospitality; Your generous sharing of all extant data, including your own private correspondence from Amy Carmichael. Your time—for patient answering of sometimes rude questions, both in interviews and by letter; for your willingness to read the manuscript, make corrections, offer suggestions. Some of your suggestions I have not followed. You bear no responsibility for the final result. A special thank you to Dr. Eric Frykenberg of the University of Wisconsin for information on the early history of Christianity in South India for chapters 14 and 20. Be earnest, earnest, earnest— Mad if thou wilt; Do what thou dost as if the stake were Heaven, And that thy last deed before the Judgment Day. Charles Kingsley “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” How often I think of that ought. No sugary sentiment there. Just the stern, glorious trumpet call, OUGHT. But can words tell the joy buried deep within? Mine cannot. It laughs at words. Amy Carmichael, letter written in the Old Forest House, 1922 Every day we experience something of the death of Jesus, so that we may also know the power of the life of Jesus in these bodies of ours. 2 Corinthians 4:10 (PHILLIPS) Preface To Amy Carmichael I owe what C. S. Lewis said he owed to George MacDonald: as great a debt as one can owe another. I cannot pay it. But it is my hope that this biography will introduce its subject to a generation which has not had the privilege that was mine. I “met” her when I was fourteen. Mrs. P. W. DuBose, headmistress of a small boarding school in Florida, used to quote often in school vespers from Carmichael books. I was captivated, and told her so. She lent me the
