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Harriet N. Cook
Harriet Newell Cook (1814 – 1843) was an American religious writer whose ministry through educational writings shared biblical truths with young readers in the early 19th century. Born in Maine to Asa Rand, a reverend, and Grata Payson Rand, she grew up in a devout family steeped in Protestant faith. Little is known of her formal education, but her parents’ influence and access to religious texts shaped her ability to craft instructional works, reflecting a self-taught theological grounding typical of her era’s women writers. Cook’s preaching career took form not through sermons but via her pen, beginning with contributions to religious publications before authoring Scripture Alphabet of Animals (circa 1842), a popular book using nature to illustrate scriptural lessons for children. Her works, aimed at Sunday school audiences, preached moral and spiritual insights, emphasizing God’s creation and providence, though she never held a formal pulpit role due to gender norms of the time. Married status and family details beyond her parents remain unrecorded, as her brief life ended at age 29, likely in Maine, with her legacy tied to her written ministry rather than spoken preaching.
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Harriet N. Cook discusses the characteristics of the roe or gazelle, a small and graceful antelope often mentioned in the Bible for its innocence, beauty, and swiftness. The gazelle's eyes are described as soft and expressive, likened to the beauty of a woman. It is noted for its speed, with references in the Bible comparing individuals to the swift roe. The gazelle is often pursued in the chase, symbolizing the need to deliver oneself from danger. These animals are found in large groups on the hills of Judea, reflecting the abundant life in the land where Jesus lived.
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The Roe or Gazelle
The roe belongs to the class of antelopes-animals very much resembling the deer; they are equally innocent and beautiful, and are often mentioned together in the Bible. The form of the antelope is, if possible, still more graceful than that of the deer, and its limbs still more delicate; but the principal difference between them is in the horns. Those of the deer grow from the bone of the forehead, and are at first small; but they are renewed every spring-the old horns falling off, and being succeeded by larger ones which grow in their place. They are at first covered with a soft, downy substance, called "the velvet;" but this soon comes off in fragments, leaving the horn white and smooth. The antelope never sheds its horns. The roe or gazelle is the smallest animal of the antelope kind; it is only about two feet in height, and not more than half the size of the fallow-deer. Its eyes are remarkably soft and expressive; so that the people of those countries sometimes say of a beautiful woman, "She has the eyes of a gazelle." Like the hart and hind, it is noted for its swiftness: so we read, in 1st Chronicles, 12 : 8, of men who were "as swift as the roes upon the mountains." In 2d Samuel, 2 : 18, it is said, "And Asahel was as light of foot as a wild roe;" and in the Song of Solomon, "The voice of my beloved ! behold he cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping upon the hills: my beloved is like a roe or a young hart." The gazelle is often pursued in the chase; so Solomon says, "Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter." They go in very large companies, sometimes as many as two or three thousand; and they are still found in great numbers on the hills of Judea, the land where our Savior lived and died. "The wild gazelle o'er Judah's hills 'Exulting, still may bound, "And drink from all the living rills "That gush on holy ground."
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Harriet Newell Cook (1814 – 1843) was an American religious writer whose ministry through educational writings shared biblical truths with young readers in the early 19th century. Born in Maine to Asa Rand, a reverend, and Grata Payson Rand, she grew up in a devout family steeped in Protestant faith. Little is known of her formal education, but her parents’ influence and access to religious texts shaped her ability to craft instructional works, reflecting a self-taught theological grounding typical of her era’s women writers. Cook’s preaching career took form not through sermons but via her pen, beginning with contributions to religious publications before authoring Scripture Alphabet of Animals (circa 1842), a popular book using nature to illustrate scriptural lessons for children. Her works, aimed at Sunday school audiences, preached moral and spiritual insights, emphasizing God’s creation and providence, though she never held a formal pulpit role due to gender norms of the time. Married status and family details beyond her parents remain unrecorded, as her brief life ended at age 29, likely in Maine, with her legacy tied to her written ministry rather than spoken preaching.