Women’s History Month, Part 4: Elizabeth Keckley—Great Heart Sorrowing
Introduction: Gospel-Centered, Christ-Focus Women of Faith—Hebrews 12:1-3
In the US, the month of March is designated Women’s History Month. This current blog mini-series celebrates the stories of gospel-centered, Christ-focused women in church history. These women were living examples of Hebrews 12:1-3—that great cloud of spiritual witnesses who fixed their eyes on Jesus. We—women and men—have much to learn from them.
Read Part 1 and Part 2 about Perpetua. Read Part 3 about Elizabeth Keckley.
Spiritual Friend to the President’s Wife
Through a series of sovereign appointments, Elizabeth finds herself in the role of dressmaker for the President’s wife. More than that, she finds herself in the relationship of sacred friend to the President’s wife—Mary Todd Lincoln.
Over time, the emotional, turbulent Mary Lincoln came to love and even need “Lizabeth,” as she called her. The need exploded when Mrs. Lincoln’s son, Willie, became ill.
“He was very sick,” Elizabeth reports, “and I was summoned to his bedside. It was sad to see the poor boy suffer. Always of a delicate constitution, he could not resist the strong inroads of disease.”
According to Elizabeth, “He was his mother’s favorite child, and she doted on him. It grieved her heart sorely to see him suffer.”
Willie worsened, lingering a few days, and then died. “God called the beautiful spirit home, and the house of joy was turned into the house of mourning.”
Elizabeth was there when President Lincoln arrived.
“I never saw a man so bowed down with grief. He came to the bed, lifted the cover from the face of his child, gazed at it long and earnestly, murmuring, ‘My poor boy, he was too good for this earth. God has called him home. I know that he is much better off in heaven, but then we loved him so. It is hard, hard to have him die!’”
The scene continues.
“Great sobs choked his utterance. He buried his head in his hands, and his tall frame was convulsed with emotion. I stood at the foot of the bed, my eyes full of tears, looking at the man in silent, awe-stricken wonder. His grief unnerved him, and made him a weak, passive child. I did not dream that his rugged nature could be so moved. I shall never forget those solemn moments—genius and greatness weeping over love’s idol lost. There is a grandeur as well as a simplicity about the picture that will never fade.”
Mrs. Lincoln’s grief was inconsolable.
“The pale face of her dead boy threw her into convulsions. Around him love’s tendrils had been twined, and now that he was dressed for the tomb, it was like tearing the tendrils out of the heart by their roots. Willie, she often said, if spared by Providence, would be the hope and stay of her old age. But Providence had not spared him. The light faded from his eyes, and the death-dew had gathered on his brow.”
Mrs. Lincoln was so completely overwhelmed with sorrow that she did not attend her son’s funeral.
A Mother’s Grief
Elizabeth could empathize with a grieving mother’s broken heart.
“Previous to this I had lost my son. Leaving Wilberforce, he went to the battle-field with the three months troops, and was killed in Missouri—found his grave on the battlefield where the gallant General Lyon fell. It was a sad blow to me, and the kind womanly letter that Mrs. Lincoln wrote to me when she heard of my bereavement was full of golden words of comfort.”
Clearly, all were given permission to grieve. Speaking of President Lincoln and all the President’s men, Elizabeth describes the funeral scene.
“And there sat the man, with a burden on his brain at which the world marvels—bent now with the load at both heart and brain—staggering under a blow like the taking from him of his child! His men of power sat around him—McClellan, with a moist eye when he bowed to the prayer, as I could see from where I stood; and Chase and Seward, with their austere features at work; and senators, and ambassadors, and soldiers, all struggling with their tears—great hearts sorrowing with the President as a stricken man and a brother.”
The permission to grieve extended over time, as it should.
“For two years after Willie’s death the White House was the scene of no fashionable display. The memory of the dead boy was duly respected. In some things Mrs. Lincoln was an altered woman.”
From Elizabeth’s perspective, President Lincoln grieved as one who had found Christian hope.
“Mr. Lincoln was reading that divine comforter, Job. He read with Christian eagerness, and the courage and hope that he derived from the inspired pages made him a new man.”
Here Elizabeth records a profound Presidential example of scriptural exploration bringing hope to the hurting. In her words:
“What a sublime picture was this! A ruler of a mighty nation going to the pages of the Bible with simple Christian earnestness for comfort and courage, and finding both in the darkest hours of a nation’s calamity. Ponder it, O ye scoffers at God’s Holy Word, and then hang your heads for very shame!”
The Rest of the Story
Elizabeth also ministered to Mrs. Lincoln after the President was assassinated. You can read of her ministry in Part 5: A Tornado of Sorrow.
Join the Conversation
Have you had a spiritual friend in your life like Elizabeth Keckley? Have you been a spiritual friend like Elizabeth Keckley to others?
Note: I’ve developed this blog mini-series from the book I co-authored with Susan Ellis: Sacred Friendships: Celebrating the Legacy of Women Heroes of the Faith. This book shares the amazing narratives of over fifty godly, Christ-centered Christian women. Read a free sample chapter here.
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