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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 preaches about the importance of taking on the mind of Christ, embracing toil, hindrance, and suffering with His virtue, and recognizing the short time we have to labor for His sake. She emphasizes the need to love, be silent, suffer, and sacrifice our inclinations to fulfill God's will by aligning ourselves with others, finding happiness in bearing the cross laid on us by God. Tileston encourages surrendering to God's daily discipline, trusting Him like a loving mother who carries us in His arms, and offering all, including disappointments, to God to grow in generosity of spirit.
Give Ourselves Up
Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind. --1 PETER 4:1 TAKE thy whole portion with thy Master's mind-- Toil, hindrance, hardness, with His virtue take-- And think how short a time thy heart may find To labor or to suffer for His sake. --ANNA L. WARING YOUR portion is to love, to be silent, to suffer, to sacrifice your inclinations, in order to fulfil the will of God, by moulding yourself to that of others. Happy indeed you are thus to bear a cross laid on you by God's own hands, in the order of His Providence. The discipline which we choose for ourselves does not de.stroy our self-love like that which God assigns us Him.self each day. All we have to do is to give ourselves up to God day by day, without looking further. He car.ries us in His arms as a loving mother carries her child. In every need let us look with love and trust to our Heavenly Father. --FRANCOIS DE LA MOTHE FÉNELON The loving heart which seeks to offer all, even dis.appointments and vexations which touch the tender.est places, to God, will be more likely to grow in generosity of spirit than one who bears grudgingly what cannot be averted. --H. L. SIDNEY LEAR
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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.