Two faith-building devotionals appeared in the last century that have never gone out of print.
Lettie Cowman’s Streams in the Desert first appeared January 1, 1924.
Oswald (or Biddy) Chamber’s My Utmost for His Highest launched into the world January 1, 1927.
Why yes, the two compilers–Lettie and Biddy–knew each other.
Whether Streams influenced the writing of My Utmost doesn’t really matter.
Both devotionals left their mark from the days they appeared until, well, just this morning.
How are they faith building?
Both Lettie and Biddy compiled the devotionals from a Christian world view and desire to affirm God’s goodness and interaction with readers.
Biddy believed in the spiritual wisdom Oswald Chambers spoke (and that she wrote down in shorthand) over their seven-year marriage.
She spent the rest of her life turning those words into 30 books with his name on the cover.
As Dr. Jed Macosko said, “My Utmost for His Highest was the cream of the crop,” from OC’s writing and teaching.
Lettie Cowman spent years visiting churches on “deputation tours.” She’d pick up the church bulletins, read church-related denominational magazines, and even newspapers with an eye keen for spiritual development.
Lettie had been writing a monthly column in God’s Revivalist Magazine she called it “Streams in the Desert.” Whe she began collating her articles and clippings into one devotional, Streams in the Desert seemed the perfect title.
The readings came out of faith building things she’d written or read in the past.
Was faith building the original point?
Both women were part of Bible Colleges. Biddy served as the “Lady Superintendant,” of the Bible Training College in Clapham Common, London (1911-1915). Inspired by the Bible Training Institute the Cowmans set up in Tokyo, Oswald focused his lectures and speaking on evangelism and Biblical training.
Biddy sat in the back “taking down” everything Oswald said at the BTC, as well as in the Zeitoun YMCA camp outside Cairo, Egypt during World War I. Faith building was the point of almost everything Oswald taught.
Biddy’s explanation for producing and publishing My Utmost for His Highest explained:
“Men return again and again to the few who have mastered the spiritual secret, whose life has been hid with Christ in God. These are the old time religion, hung to the nails of the Cross.” (Robert Murray McCheyne).
It is because it is a felt that the author is one to whose teaching men will return, that this book [My Utmost for His Highest] has been prepared, and it is sent out with the prayer that day by day the messages may continue to bring the quickening life and inspiration of the Holy Spirit.”
My Utmost for His Highest foreword
Over seven years, Lettie Cowman desperately sought sayings, teachings, prayers, and encouragement for her dying husband. After penning about ideas she found into affirming articles, she shaped them into the readings for a year-long devotional.
Her “personal word,” explained:
In the pathway of faith we come to learn that the Lord’s thoughts are not our thoughts, nor His ways our ways. . . . Although circumstances may bring us into the place of death, that need not spell disaster–for if we trust in the Lord and wait patiently, that simply provides the occasion for the display of His almighty power.”
Foreword Streams in the Desert
How did they influence readers?
One college speaker likened My Utmost for His Highest to “graduate level Christianity.”
An article on Beliefnet.com summed it up well:
“Utmost” has been updated several times, but it has retained its power to draw people closer to God. Each day the book offers Chambers’ thoughts on complex themes such as redemption, waiting on God, and preaching the Gospel.”
Brother Andrew smuggled copies over European borders.
Streams in the Desert, born out of grief, is not only focused on that subject, but on turning the reader to a fully understanding of God’s love for them.
After Chinese bandits took away missionary Rudolf Bosshardt’s Bible, they left him with a nondescript “battered book,” called Streams in the Desert.
Deprived of human support, Alfred could only depend on God. Though he had no Bible, years of reading and studying the book and memorizing verses had left him with the stored wealth of much of its teaching and stories. . . . Some of these were contained also in the one devotional book which he still had. Living up to its title, Streams in the Desert refreshed him again, and again.”
Bosshardt: A Biography by Jean Watson p. 122
For years, Streams in the Desert opened doors for Lettie Cowman to speak, set up a Bible school, or bless an emperor.
Prisoners of War in World War II wrote to the authors thanking Biddy and Lettie for providing a devotional that encouraged them.
Both devotionals encourage readers into a deeper walk with God
It’s been my honor to write about both Biddy Chambers and Lettie Cowman.
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Mrs. Oswald Chambers: The Woman Behind the World’s Bestselling Devotional
Excellent post. Thanks!