(1852-1922)
A leading figure in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Bennett served as president of the denomination’s women’s missionary societies, helped establish Scarritt College for Christian Workers and Sue Bennett College, and worked tirelessly in the cause of laity rights for women. The following quotations are found in Mrs. R. W. Macdonell, Belle Harris Bennett: Her Life Work (Nashville: Board of Missions, Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 1928).
“There must be a great new conception of our stewardship to God if we would have fellowship with him in service. Money is one of his all-powerful agencies, but without ourselves, our love, our time, it may be made a curse.” From an address to the Woman’s Missionary Council, c1924 (p.158)
“Dear friend, don’t fail to remember when you come to hard places or feel that you have not measured up to your own standard that you are simply treading the same path that every other conscientious woman who has gone that way had trod before you. Bless your dear heart, you are trying to obey the Master, and he was a man of ‘sorrows and acquainted with grief.'” From a letter to a friend, no date given (p.161)
“The greatest need of the Church of God today – our greatest need – is an absorbing spirit of prayer.”From an address to Woman’s Missionary Council, 1911 (p.162)
“A Christian civilization which does not generate and develop a spirit of individual, civil, and religious liberty is impossible.”From a speech on laity rights, c1906 (p.247)
“Let the future bring what it may. ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble.’ The field is wide, the need is great, God loves us. Let us do the work he has committed to our hands, and let us be much in prayer for wisdom and guidance.”From an address to the Woman’s Missionary Council, c1920 (p.272)