Mrs. Phoebe Palmer – History's Women

Mrs. Phoebe Palmer
Evangelist and Writer
1807 – 1874 A.D.

Mrs. Phoebe Palmer and here husband, Dr. Palmer, were revered in the memory of many as pioneer teachers in the modern Holiness Movement in this country. For years their home in New York city was the assembly place of the Tuesday Holiness Meeting, where many from that city and all over the country inquired more perfectly of the way of full salvation. It is reported by living witnesses that the power of God was very manifest, and to a degree seldom realized in modern holiness services. That old-time, high-class anointing of the Holy Ghost, giving marked unction in testimony, and burden of soul in travail for others, may still be had by those who pay the price of radical separation from the world, and unbroken, prayer communion with the Lord.

For a long time after her conversion, Mrs. Palmer found her heart hungering for deeper work of grace. Searching the Scriptures for light, she became convinced that “This is the will of God, even your sanctification” (1 Thess. 4:3), and that “God hath not called us unto holiness (1 Thess. 4:7). She began to seek earnestly for the experience. When she finally saw that it was obtainable not by struggling, but by simply putting herself into the hands of the Lord, and believing His promises, she entered into that second rest which remains for the people of God.

It became clear to her mind that, in thus putting her all upon Jesus Christ, her altar of sacrifice and atonement, the gift was accepted. A hallowed sense of acceptance and purity of heart took possession of her, and thereafter she was marvelously used of God in teaching others the way to the holiest.

Her dependence upon the the Scriptures, and confidence in their safe guidance, are seen in these words: “Were I to live to be as old as Methuselah, and to be brought into the most perplexing circumstances anyone could be brought into, I should ever find the light and guidance I need in the Bible.”

~*~