The Life And Testimony Of Harriet Backler

Gospel Standard 1870:

Death. On Aug. 9th, 1870, aged 51, Mrs. Harriet Backler.

I knew the subject of this notice 37 years ago. I was then at Haver-hill, Suffolk. I saw her at chapel as constantly as the doors were opened, in winter’s cold or summer’s sunshine. She was then in her 14th year. She was thinly clad, and her shoes hardly kept her feet from the ground. She had a small handkerchief on her shoulders, and wore a thin cotton frock that could never keep her warm, yet nicely clean and tidy. I often made the remark, “That girl, I believe, is one of God’s thirsty ones. Surely God has opened her heart as he did Lydia’s. I could not get to speak to her at that time. I saw she was an attentive hearer, and sometimes I saw the tear fall. But after that she told me that the first time she heard me preach, the word came with power to her soul. She said, “I had been used to say the Lord’s Prayer, and now you said that none had a right to say those solemn words, ‘Our Father,’ who were not quickened by God the Holy Spirit. You said thousands of poor sin-burdened souls were afraid to say it for fear they should tell lies beforeGod. “Well,” said she, “I thought what shall I do? He says it is committing sin before God. Lord, teach me to pray. O what distress I was in! Then I heard you preach from: ‘Ye must be born again.’ O! what is that? Am I born again? Shall I ever know what it is? I thought while you were describing the evidences of the new birth that there were one or two I could go with, such as feeling their sins and mourning for a sense of pardon; and that God would cleanse my soul. But ah! It was soon gone, and my soul was cast down. I feared I was not one of God’s elect. Then I heard you preach from: ‘Behold, he prayeth;’ and then you described how Saul the Pharisee, when he was a Pharisee, prayed, and how differently he prayed when, by the Holy Spirit, he was quickened into another life. I thought I must have shouted out, ‘That is me!’ I went in that way for some little time. Then darkness, doubts, and fears assailed me, and I dared not open my mind to any one. Then I had a little comfort under the preaching and under reading the word, and sometimes from a hymn.”

So she continued under the word all the time I was at Haverhill, which was about three years; and when I left, the poor girl cried as if her heart would break; and my wife gave her a hymn book. How she valued it is well known. That and her Bible were her companions.

After I left the place and was 52 miles from it, I often inquired about my girl. Some said, “O! there is nothing of grace in her.” Well, I could not give her up. Then I heard she was gone to live in service at a Baptist minister’s at Cambridge; so I still had hope. But she could not stand the place. Poor girl! She was weakly; she had not before she went there food to nourish her and strengthen her. Still she went to the house of God. And now a temptation overtook her. She listened to the voice; she was caught in the snare. She thought of a home and of a little comfort. But sin brings its own misery. She told me she tried to harden her heart to live carelessly; and for awhile she so went on. But God, who is rich in mercy, brought her down by causing her to pass through deep waters of soul-trouble. She was deceived and then forsaken; and God’s awful terrors drank up her spirits. Poverty and affliction overwhelmed her; and thus, for a full year and a half, she said her soul passed under the most deep soul-distress, and she was under the most violent temptations to commit suicide; but God preserved her from that. And after that dreadful night, God graciously appeared to her a God pardoning iniquity and sin. Yea, she told me she had such a glorious view of Christ bearing her hell-merited sins on the cross that it was more than her weak body could bear; and she swooned. Those around her thought she was dead; but after awhile she came to herself again. O the melting of soul she had! She said, “How I hated myself and abhorred myself, while Christ Jesus, my dear Lord, poured into my soul his rich consolations. Promise after promise came so sweetly into my soul that while I confessed my wickedness I blessed his dear and precious name, his love and grace and redemption.”

She walked for some time in a humble, childlike way, and was afterwards proposed to the church at Haverhill, and was accepted and baptized.

After this, she married a farm labourer, and had eight or nine shillings per week to keep house with. He was a good husband as far as temporal things were concerned. But she had not been married long before she was visited with a heavy affliction, which at last brought her to the grave. For 20 years or more she was a cripple in hands and feet with rheumatism in the worst form; so that she could not dress or undress herself. Her husband used to dress her before he went out to his work; then she would lie a little longer; then slide down to her handful of fire and a cup of warm tea, often without sugar, and a morsel of dry bread. Sometimes she would say, “O how kind the dear Lord is to a wretch like me! ‘Christ and this crust,'” she would say, “how very sweet.” There was no complaining only over her wicked and rebellious heart.

God now laid another affliction upon her. Her husband went out to his work, hearty and strong, to felling trees, and before noon was brought home a crushed mass. He lived, but never spoke, and died in 24 hours. Now a poor widow, with only one penny in the house, and yet she told me how the dear Lord raised up friends for her, and how blessedly he did commune with her. “O Harriet!” I said, “what a highly favoured woman!” “So I am!” she replied; “and if I could get rid of my vile heart I would shout ‘Victory’ over the devil and all things here below.” “Well,” said I, “we shall get rid of it when we put off the poor body.” “Glory be to a Triune Jehovah,” said she, 

“‘Then loudest of the crowd I’ll sing, 

While heaven’s resounding mansions ring,

With shouts of sovereign grace.'”

In 1846, a few poor sinners desiring the gospel, the word of God, proclaimed unto them, and hearing I was at liberty, sent me a request to go and see them; and to Keddington I went. And amidst great persecution a cause was raised, and a chapel built and paid for; and in October, 1846, Mrs. Backler and others gave up themselves to each other to walk in all the ordinances of God as God had made known to them. Five were baptized, and nine set down at the Lord’s table on the first Lord’s day in November, 1846. Thus a church was formed on strict communion principles, and it continues to this day. Here our sister found a home; and though she could not at all times be with us at the worship of our God, yet many times, in great weakness of body and lameness, she did attend; that I used to say to the other friends, “There is an example for us.” Here her soul would triumph in the God of her salvations, in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How sweetly would she tell of the love of the Three-One Jehovah, and dwell with rapture on the redemption of the Son of God for all the election of grace, and also of the quickening work of the Holy Spirit. She was deeply led into the vileness of her own heart and her lost state by nature; therefore she loved an experimental ministry.

Thus we went on. When she could not come to us, we went to see her; and many times have we found it a Bethel to our souls. Though she had only a piece of bread, she never brought her poverty before us, nor complained how badly off she was. No. She loved to hear of her precious Christ, and of the way the Lord was leading us, our trials, temptations, and deliverances.

And now let us hear about her last days.

On July 21st, 1870, she sent the following to me:

“Dear Brother and Sister in the everlasting and well-ordered Covenant of Jehovah, Father, Son, and Eternal Spirit, Grace, Mercy, and Peace be manifested. I have a desire once more to write to you, hoping you are well in body, but more so in soul. I am still in the body, but feeling my time here to be very short. Bless his dear name, my precious Christ, I have not lacked anything of a temporal kind, but have had what he hath been pleased to bestow; and have found his promise true, that was thy day thy strength shall be.’ I have always felt a union of soul to Mrs. P.; but a special love to yourself as a father in Christ Jesus, and have never found one to take your place; and I still feel that union is not dissolved. I am very bad and very weak, and feel the poor clay tabernacle breaking up. The days of darkness have been many; but, blessed be the name of the Lord, he has been pleased again and again to manifest himself, and give my poor soul another sweet visit. Last Tuesday, for a few hours, my joy was great, and tears of gratitude flowed fast. I am now waiting to be gone, when it is his dear will to receive me and to give me an abundance of entrance into his everlasting kingdom. I have sent the No. of two hymns, and the text I should like you to speak from when I am gone, hymns 468 and 664, Gadsby’s. The text is 1 Pet. 1:4,5: ‘To an inheritance,’ &c. And may the Lord stand by you and bless the word you preach; and may you feel its preciousness in your own soul. This is my earnest prayer. And may you long be spared to preach a precious Christ, lay the sinner low, and lift high the dear Redeemer as the only hope of poor, lost, ruined sinners. Farewell, till we in bliss shall meet to sing the wonders of redeeming love, and gaze with infinite delight upon that dear face which was foully spit upon, that rebels might live. 

“Yours in Covenant Love,

“HARRIET BACKLER.” 

A friend, Mr. James Sharpe, sent me the following. He says, “This is what we gathered from her own lips after she had been confined to her bed some time.

“March 25th. I and my dear wife were sent for to see Mrs. Backler, who to all appearance could not live long. When we got by her bed, she looked like death. Her mouth moved now and then a little. She lay in this state for some time. “When she came to herself, she, with a very low voice, said, ‘No, never! No, never!’ over and over again, till her voice was quite loud. She shouted quite loud, ‘Precious Jesus! No, never forsake!’ One said, ‘Jesus is precious to you now. You feel him so, don’t you?’ She said, ‘He is precious! I am not deceived after, after all. I am well now. There is nothing the matter with me now. One glimpse of Jesus’s precious face makes me quite well. I can get up now, Emily’ (meaning her daughter). We told her she had better keep in bed a little while, as she was very weak. It would not be wise to get up. ‘O!’ she said, ‘I can get up. There is nothing the matter with me now.’ She lay quietly a little while, and then said, ‘Sing his precious praises! O praise him!’ I said, ‘What shall we sing?’ She said, ‘Rock of Ages, 143, Gadsby’s.’ I read the hymn. She said, ‘Sing it, will you?’ I said, ‘You must start the tune, as you are the best singer.’ She started the tune, and sang the loudest of us all. When it was sung, then she began to talk. She said, ‘O! I have been impatient in waiting; but we cannot wait too long. He will surely come. Not one of his children will ever be lost. His blood will never be shed in vain. He will bring all his dear children home; and they shall be like him for ever. O that doctrine! No one will be higher in glory than another. They will be all alike, like Christ himself! O! Sing his dear praise!’ I said, again, ‘What shall we sing?’ She said, ‘Sing, “‘Death is no more a frightful foe.’ If ever she did sing from her heart, it was on the 25th of March, 1870. She sang, and clapped her hands as though she did heartily enjoy that precious hymn, and especially the last lines of each verse. Then she began to talk of the love of Christ to her and all his dear children. I said, ‘Last night, when I came to see you, you said you were all black; but I told you then you were all fair. Now you are brought to see it so.’ ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘There is nothing between my precious Jesus and me now. All is right.’ I said, ‘You have that garment on that Christ wrought out for his people.’ She said, ‘O! So white; and it covers me all over; not one spot of sin is to be seen. They are all put away.’ Then she sang his dear praises. Again I said, ‘What shall we sing?’ She said, ‘Sing, “‘Jesus my all to heaven is gone.’ She sang it; and when she came to the 8th verse, she said, ‘That is my grief. My burden has been because I could not cease from sin.’ When asked if she would like to see any friends, she said, ‘No. I have my precious Jesus. He is all I want.’

“We sent for Mrs. Phillips. She was glad to see her, as she felt she was a Christian, a sister in Christ. When Mrs. P. asked her how she was, she said, ‘I am all right. All is well. Jesus is here, and he has made me well. He is the Physician of body and soul. One glimpse of his dear face makes me well.’ When asked if the enemy did not trouble her, she said, ‘No; he has gone, sneaking off just like a coward. He cannot come here where Jesus is.’ She said, ‘I see everything is sinking but Jesus Christ.’ One said, ‘Your case is enviable, to be favoured with such a manifestation of the Saviour’s presence.’ ‘O!’ she said, ‘He will surely appear to every one of his dear children. You cannot wait too long. I have been impatient in waiting; but he has come, and so he will to you in his own time. When we were singing as before, some shed tears to hear her sing and talk. ‘My dears,’ she said, ‘there is no cause to shed tears and fret; but rejoice and praise him for my sake. You must all sing. There is no cause to fret.’

“The above are her own words as near as possible that dropped from her lips on the evening of March 25th. The following I gathered at different times.

“After this she suffered in body for some hours most distressingly. After the pain ceased, she had another blessed visit from the Lord and Saviour. She lay for two hours blessing and praising the dear Lord. Only her daughter was a witness to this. She lay calm all Lord’s day, begging that it might be a blessed day to his dear people and to her own soul. Prayer seemed to be pressed very much upon her mind.

“At another time she was harassed by the enemy. ‘0! I shall be lost after all!’ She tore herself, and cried out, ‘I shall be lost after all!’ Then she was blessed with these words:

“’O! Tell it unto sinners, tell; 

I am, I am out of hell.’

Also hymn 802 was very sweet to her.

“She broke out after this manner in short sentences, as she was so weak she could not say more than two or three words at a time: ‘I shall wear a crown—My soul stands trembling while she sings—See the danger over­ past—For ever with the Lord—O! Make no tarrying—O for patience—O paradise of God—Jesus bids me come—O crowns of victory—O! When home I am brought, I will praise him as I ought—And lest we should mistake the way, He lines it out with blood—O! Tell the sweet wonders of redeeming love—Fulness of joy—Fain would, O Lord, I sound—Jesus is precious—He will keep the meanest of his sheep—None shall pluck them out of his hands—O shall I presume?—I shall come off more than a conqueror—I shan’t presume, shall I?—O! What, gone again!—Don’t leave me!—O the cloud is overshadowing again—Do not leave me—O my body, what pain!’ &c. &c.

“These are broken sentences. She could only whisper them out, she was so weak.

“Now I must come to the close of her life. About three weeks before her death, the Lord was pleased to come again to give her a sweet manifestation of his dear self as her Saviour; and he told her he would never leave her; which she proved to be true. She said, ‘Heaven is my home, die when I may.’ She spoke it with all confidence. She said, ‘My text will do well. (1 Pet. 1:4, 5.) Farewell!’

“I and my wife were acquainted with her for the last five years, and visited her almost daily in this affliction. We feel quite sure she walked, lived, and talked, and died a sinner saved by free and sovereign grace.

“She was buried on Aug. 14th, and we sang that hymn at the grave which she named, 468th.”

I have nothing to add to the above.

R. Powell

Heywood