HARRIET ABBOTT - MANUSCRIPT LETTER SIGNED 03/10/1894 - HFSID 3703

[LYMAN ABBOTT]; HARRIET FRANCES ABBOTT
Letter written on Reverend Lyman's behalf and signed (only) by his daughter
Manuscript Letter signed: "Harriet F. Abbott", 2 pages (integral), 5x8. Brooklyn, New York, 1894 March 10. To Miss Millie P. Denike, Brooklyn, N. Y. In full: "Your letter of March 8th to my father has been received this morning, and in his name I want to thank you for appreciative words of his article in the Cosmopolitan Magazine. He is glad to tell you that the 'psalm' to which he refers is Mary's song after the Annunciation, and during her visit to Elizabeth, which you in Luke 1:4th-55. This is used under the name of the Magnificat in the Episcopal service certainly and doubtless in others with which I am less familiar. Yours very sincerely". Harriet Frances Abbott (b. 1860) was the daughter of Congregationalist minister Lyman Abbott (1835-1922), who succeeded Henry Ward Beecher as editor of The Christian Union, later renamed The Outlook, heading it for 46 years until his death. Identified with the "social gospel" of liberal Christianity, Abbott championed the progressive reforms of President Theodore Roosevelt. He also saw Darwin's theory of evolution in a Christian context: mankind evolving toward the ideals of Jesus. Abbott was expelled from the American Peace Society in 1913 for advocating military preparedness. Harriet, the second of seven children, born during her father's early ministry in Indiana, acted as his personal secretary during his long tenure as pastor of Plymouth Church, Brooklyn. Text is faint, but signature is bold. Corners creased. Pencil note (unknown hand) at top margin. Otherwise fine condition.