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Phoebe Palmer
Phoebe Palmer (1807–1874) was an American preacher, evangelist, and writer whose dynamic ministry was instrumental in shaping the 19th-century Holiness movement within Methodism. Born Phoebe Worrall on December 18, 1807, in New York City, she was the fourth of sixteen children of Henry Worrall, a Methodist convert from England’s Wesleyan Revival, and Dorothea Wade Worrall. Raised in a devout household with twice-daily family worship, she married Walter Clarke Palmer, a homeopathic physician and fellow Methodist, in 1827. The couple endured profound personal tragedy, losing three of their four children in infancy—Alexander at nine months, Samuel at seven weeks, and Eliza in a crib fire at eleven months—events that deepened Phoebe’s spiritual quest. On July 26, 1837, she experienced what she called “entire sanctification,” a pivotal moment that fueled her ministry. Palmer’s preaching career took off as she became a leading voice in the Holiness movement, promoting a simplified path to Christian perfection based on John Wesley’s teachings. In 1837, she assumed leadership of the Tuesday Meeting for the Promotion of Holiness, a women’s prayer group started by her sister Sarah Lankford in 1835, which she later opened to men, including Methodist bishops and theologians, growing it into a significant revivalist platform. Alongside Walter, she preached at over 300 camp meetings, churches, and conferences across the United States, Canada (1857), and the United Kingdom (1859–1863), converting an estimated 25,000 people. She authored influential works like The Way of Holiness (1843) and The Promise of the Father (1859), the latter defending women’s right to preach, and edited The Guide to Holiness magazine from 1864 until her death. Palmer died on November 2, 1874, in New York City, leaving a legacy as a trailblazing female evangelist whose altar theology and social activism—including founding the Five Points Mission in 1850—reshaped evangelical faith and women’s roles in ministry. She was survived by her husband and daughter Phoebe Knapp, a hymn composer.
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Phoebe Palmer simplifies the concept of sanctification for a child, emphasizing the seriousness of sin and the need to constantly rely on Jesus to be saved from sin. Through a conversation between a pious mother and her daughter, the child learns about the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the consequences of sin, and the importance of seeking continuous deliverance from sin through faith in Christ.
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Sanctification Simplified to a Child Said a pious mother to a little daughter, who was on the eve of attending a special means of grace, "Daughter, you have been a professor of religion for some time, and you ought to expect to get much good in attending this meeting. Yes, you ought to expect to get much more religion. I do not see why you ought not to expect to be wholly sanctified." The child listened attentively, and then rather earnestly exclaimed, "Why, Ma, I hardly know what you mean by that. If you mean to be so saved as never to sin again, that is what I never could do!" The latter was said with so much warmth, that the pious mother saw that her daughter had, like many other professors, imbibed the idea that sin is not so exceedingly sinful as set forth in the Scriptures of truth. And though the mother imagined her daughter might not fully understand the meaning of the term "sanctification, "if merely spoken of as a doctrine, yet she was not prepared to see her shrink so instinctively from a state which she imagined might imply Salvation from all sin. Said the mother in reply: "Daughter, God hates sin now just as much as He hated it in the days of Adam. God is unchangeable in His nature. With Him 'there is neither variableness nor shadow of turning,' 'the same yesterday, today, and for ever.' Think of the effect of one sin in the days of Adam -- how it has been felt along down through time, even till the present hour! We are feeling it today, and its effect will be felt down to the end of time! Only think, all this the effect of one sin! And now think of Moses, what a good man he was, how God loved him; but he committed one sin, he spake unadvisedly with his lips. But, Oh, the displeasure of God! How greatly did Moses desire to go into the promised land! how he entreated the Lord to let him go over! But Moses had sinned, and the Lord would not be entreated. Now, my daughter, if you knew that with the very next sin which you commit you would be ushered into the eternal world with the guilt, the stain of that sin, upon your garments, would you not be very careful how you sinned? You know you could not be saved with the least stain upon your garments. You will remember the man that was found speechless!" That little daughter stood mute with astonishment. Probably she had never before had such perceptions of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the certainty with which it banishes the soul endlessly from God. And still she stood gazing upon the face of that earnest mother, while that mother still waited and repeated her importunate inquiry, "What would my daughter do if she knew that, while in the act of committing the next sin, she would be ushered into eternity?" At length that mother relieved her anxious daughter, by saying, "I can tell you, my daughter, what I think you would do. You would be every moment looking to Jesus. Oh, how carefully you would be every moment watching against sin! and how truly you would this and every coming moment (just as you breathe) be casting yourself on Christ, and trusting in Christ to save you from sin! and while you are trusting in Him thus carefully to save you from sin, He would save you -- would He not?" The child's eyes brightened, for her spirit was relieved. She saw that there was a way in which she might be saved from sin every moment. And the simplicity of the process relieved and delighted her. Will the reader, however young or old, begin to try the simple process now?
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Phoebe Palmer (1807–1874) was an American preacher, evangelist, and writer whose dynamic ministry was instrumental in shaping the 19th-century Holiness movement within Methodism. Born Phoebe Worrall on December 18, 1807, in New York City, she was the fourth of sixteen children of Henry Worrall, a Methodist convert from England’s Wesleyan Revival, and Dorothea Wade Worrall. Raised in a devout household with twice-daily family worship, she married Walter Clarke Palmer, a homeopathic physician and fellow Methodist, in 1827. The couple endured profound personal tragedy, losing three of their four children in infancy—Alexander at nine months, Samuel at seven weeks, and Eliza in a crib fire at eleven months—events that deepened Phoebe’s spiritual quest. On July 26, 1837, she experienced what she called “entire sanctification,” a pivotal moment that fueled her ministry. Palmer’s preaching career took off as she became a leading voice in the Holiness movement, promoting a simplified path to Christian perfection based on John Wesley’s teachings. In 1837, she assumed leadership of the Tuesday Meeting for the Promotion of Holiness, a women’s prayer group started by her sister Sarah Lankford in 1835, which she later opened to men, including Methodist bishops and theologians, growing it into a significant revivalist platform. Alongside Walter, she preached at over 300 camp meetings, churches, and conferences across the United States, Canada (1857), and the United Kingdom (1859–1863), converting an estimated 25,000 people. She authored influential works like The Way of Holiness (1843) and The Promise of the Father (1859), the latter defending women’s right to preach, and edited The Guide to Holiness magazine from 1864 until her death. Palmer died on November 2, 1874, in New York City, leaving a legacy as a trailblazing female evangelist whose altar theology and social activism—including founding the Five Points Mission in 1850—reshaped evangelical faith and women’s roles in ministry. She was survived by her husband and daughter Phoebe Knapp, a hymn composer.