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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 emphasizes the importance of being renewed in the spirit of our minds and putting on the new man, created in righteousness and true holiness after God. She encourages believers to be constant, courageous, and to persevere in their journey towards perfection, offering the most acceptable sacrifice to God. Tileston highlights the need to hear and learn from Christ, becoming His disciple and allowing His nature to replace our own, making life's challenges easier and transgressions harder. Trusting in the Lord and resisting His enemy become natural as His nature grows within us.
Constancy
Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. EPHESIANS 4:23,24 BE constant, O happy soul, be constant, and of good courage; for, however intolerable thou art to thyself, yet thou wilt be protected, enriched, and beloved by that greatest Good, as if He had nothing else to do than to lead thee to perfection by the highest steps of love; and if thou dost not turn away, but perseverest constantly, know that thou offerest to God the most acceptable sacrifice. If, from the chaos of nothing, His omnipotence has produced so many wonders, what will He do in thy soul, created after His own image and likeness, if thou keepest constant, quiet, and resigned. MIGUEL DE MOLINOS Wouldst thou feel thy soul's rest in Christ? Thou must know His voice, hear it, learn daily of Him, become His disciple; take up, from His nature, what is contrary to thy nature. And then, as thy nature is worn out, and His nature comes up in thee, thou wilt find all easy; all that is of life easy, and transgression hard--unbelief hard: yea, thou wilt find it very hard and unnatural, when His nature is grown up in thee, either to distrust the Lord or hearken to His enemy. ISAAC PENINGTON
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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.