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Mary Wilder Tileston
Mary Wilder Tileston was born on August 20, 1843, in Salem, Massachusetts, to Caleb Foote, owner and editor of the Salem Gazette, and Mary Wilder White Foote. Raised in a family with strong intellectual and religious ties—her brother Henry Wilder Foote became a Harvard-educated minister, and her brother Arthur Foote a noted composer—she attended private schools in Salem. On September 25, 1865, she married John Boies Tileston, a publisher’s son, and they had seven children: Mary, Margaret, Roger, Amelia, Wilder, Edith, and Eleanor. The family lived in Concord, Massachusetts, on a 200-acre farm from around 1874 to 1882, then moved to Salem and later Brookline, Massachusetts, where she died on July 3, 1934. Tileston’s career was centered on her literary contributions rather than preaching. Her most notable work, Daily Strength for Daily Needs, a collection of prose, verse, and scripture for daily reading, sold over 250,000 copies by 1910 and was highly regarded. She compiled other devotionals, including Prayers Ancient and Modern (1897) and children’s works like The Child’s Harvest of Verse (1910), reflecting her love for spiritual literature. While not a preacher by occupation, her anthologies served a preaching-like function, offering spiritual guidance to readers. Her legacy lies in these writings, which continue to inspire, rather than in a formal ministerial role.
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Mary Wilder Tileston, in her sermon, emphasizes the importance of self-surrender to God, inspired by the sacrificial love of Jesus Christ. She highlights the need for Christians to be willing to make sacrifices, whether big or small, in response to all that Christ has done for them. Tileston points out that true strength and nobility in life come from this self-surrender, as exemplified by the life of St. Stephen, and that death, when faced with this surrender, is akin to peacefully falling asleep in Christ.
Doing What Christ Demands
They loved not their lives unto the death. REVELATION 12:11 Our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. 1 THESSALONIANS 5:9,10 Be ours the faith that sees Thee stand Beside the throne of God on high, To succor with Thy strong right hand Thy soldiers when to Thee they cry. Be ours the love, divine and free, Which asks forgiveness for our foes; Which draws, in life, its life from Thee, And, dying, finds in Thee repose. J. F. THRUPP "IF He has done so much for me, what can I do for Him?" is the question which a Christian life should answer. He may ask little or much. He may demand heroic sacrifices, or He may require only punctual attention to daily and prosaic duty. But He has a right to make any demands He will, and it should be a point of honor with every Christian to satisfy Him. It is this simple self-surrender, in a spirit of love for God and for the souls of men, which makes life strong and noble, as was the life of St. Stephen. It is this self-surrender which makes death, whenever or wherever it may come, a "falling asleep in Christ." HENRY PARRY LIDDON
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Mary Wilder Tileston was born on August 20, 1843, in Salem, Massachusetts, to Caleb Foote, owner and editor of the Salem Gazette, and Mary Wilder White Foote. Raised in a family with strong intellectual and religious ties—her brother Henry Wilder Foote became a Harvard-educated minister, and her brother Arthur Foote a noted composer—she attended private schools in Salem. On September 25, 1865, she married John Boies Tileston, a publisher’s son, and they had seven children: Mary, Margaret, Roger, Amelia, Wilder, Edith, and Eleanor. The family lived in Concord, Massachusetts, on a 200-acre farm from around 1874 to 1882, then moved to Salem and later Brookline, Massachusetts, where she died on July 3, 1934. Tileston’s career was centered on her literary contributions rather than preaching. Her most notable work, Daily Strength for Daily Needs, a collection of prose, verse, and scripture for daily reading, sold over 250,000 copies by 1910 and was highly regarded. She compiled other devotionals, including Prayers Ancient and Modern (1897) and children’s works like The Child’s Harvest of Verse (1910), reflecting her love for spiritual literature. While not a preacher by occupation, her anthologies served a preaching-like function, offering spiritual guidance to readers. Her legacy lies in these writings, which continue to inspire, rather than in a formal ministerial role.