The Call Back Series

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“The Call Back Series” by Edwin and Lillian Harvey and published by Harvey Christian Publishers, has brought blessing to many Christians, who are struggling with an illness, or handicap, or going through some period of depression or loneliness, or perhaps feeling misunderstood by their closest friends. It is not popular, however, with those who feel that a follower of Christ should claim exemption from many of these trials.
There are eight books in this series, covering manly aspects of suffering. Edwin and Lillian researched Christian biography for years and discovered gems from past saints who have left us records of their triumphal albeit often painful journey through pain and suffering to their eternal rest.
This series is now available on Harvey Christian Publishers’ Online Christian Bookstore.

The Call Back Series —Clara Simpson

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Clara Simpson
Very happily married, the poet Clara Simpson was devastated when her husband had an accident which, after much suffering, finally resulted in his death. Her story, recounted in Loneliness, the second book in the “Call Back Series,” and written by Edwin and Lillian Harvey, tells of her anguish and how she eventually found relief. She writes:
“Oh, has He planned it right when darkness falls,
And all one’s world which once looked fair and bright
Had faded out of sight and sorrow reigns?
He’s planned it right.” (Loneliness, page 68)

Loneliness is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

The Call Back Series—Loneliness

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Edith Hickman Divall

The glorious triumph and the song—
The gifts of God to me belong.
The place of honor is my right—
Partaker with the saints in light.
Who would not die for such a life?
Who would not dare the present strife,
For such a victory as this—
For such an end of crowning bliss?

They told me only of the cross
Of shame and sorrow, pain and loss.
They told me —and my eyes were dim—
That I must give up all for Him.

O crowning glory of the cross!
O wondrous gain from all my loss!
I come and lo! all things are mine—
Yea!—all things in the life Divine.

All things are mine—not far away,
Hereafter—here and now—today!
On earth I reign in life by One,
Complete, accepted, in God’s Son.
—Edith Hickman Divall.
Used by permission of Pickering and Inglis.

The writer of these words, Edith Hickman Divall, wrote the above poem out of the depth of her own personal experience. The oldest child in a large family, Edith was sent for a short period, to a farm run by two aunts who knew little about raising children and Edith experienced cold, hunger, and other hardships. She was a delicate girl and throughout her life, experienced violent headaches. Her poems later were distributed widely and brought blessing to many. Her story is found in Loneliness, the second book in the “Call Back Series,” and written by Edwin and Lillian Harvey, It is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

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The Call Back Series—Loneliness

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Florence Allshorn was an Anglican missionary to Uganda. Orphaned at age three, she was brought up in Sheffield England by her mother’s governess. As an orphan, Florence must have experienced much loneliness throughout her life. In Loneliness, the second book in the “Call Back Series,” the authors, Edwin and Lillian Harvey, tell her story. It seems that, on the mission-field and surrounded by fellow-missionaries, Florence found herself under a senior missionary who proved extremely difficult to live with and caused her to feel isolated and very alone.

She discovered that she was the eighth young missionary who had been sent to this station. None of her predecessors had lasted more than two years. She lost weight rapidly and at only 98 lbs, she was a total wreck both spiritually and physically.
One day, an elderly African lady found Florence in tears. “I have been on this station for fifteen years,” she told the weeping missionary, “and I have seen all of you come out saying you have brought to us a Savior, but I have never seen the situation saved yet.” These words brought Florence to her senses and, in the end, after reading 1 Corinthians 13 daily for one year, the situation was saved.
Read more of this brave young woman in Loneliness. It is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

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The Christian’s Daily Challenge

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The Christian’s Daily Challenge.

The Christian’s Daily Challenge is a daily reading book compiled by Edwin and Lillian Harvey and published by Harvey Christian Publishers. It is available in our Online Christian Bookstore and is also able to be downloaded as a free ap. It is now being translated into Romanian. Edwin and Lillian have included many poems in the 365 readings.

In the reading for February 3rd entitled “Heaven’s Bank” is the following poem by an unknown author:

“I have a never-failing bank,
A more than golden store,
No earthly bank is half so rich,
How can I then be poor?

“Sometimes my Banker smiling says:
‘Why don’t you often come?
And when you draw a little note,
Why not a larger sum?

‘Why live so niggardly and poor?
Your bank contains a-plenty;
Why come and take a one-pound note
When you might have a twenty?’

“Because my Banker is so rich,
I have no cause to borrow;
I’ll live upon my cash today,
And draw again tomorrow.”
(The Christian’s Daily Challenge, p. 44)

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Eva Von Winkler—Sister Eva

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Eva Von Winkler, often known as “Sister Eva,” or “Mother Eva,” is among the women included in the They Knew Their God Series. In Volume One, Edwin and Lillian Harvey tell how this remarkable woman, brought up in an ancestral castle in South Eastern Germany, eventually established a sisterhood in Friedenshort. Here, Sister Eva and her fellow sisters, ministered to anyone in need—the elderly no longer cared for by their own family, children without a home, and the sick in need of loving attention.

In the ” The Call Back Series” written and compiled by Edwin and Lillian Harvey, there is a chapter in Loneliness, the first volume of the series, entitled “Eva Von Winkler Calls Back.” When nervous exhaustion overtook Sister Eva in the midst of her work, she was set aside for seven long years. This “detour” she later remarked, “was necessary to prepare me for His service.” She had realized that she was “sinking into the rut of duties in a so-called Christian work, and missing the highest.” (Illness, p. 26.)
“Side-tracked, my Lord, amid some pain and loss,
Unfit to strive amid the lab’ring throng,
Weakened and spent—yet whatso’er the cross,
Resting in Thee, Who art forever strong.”
—Fred Brooks. (ibid)

You may read more about this remarkable woman in They Knew Their God Volume One and Illness. Both these books are published by Harvey Christian Publishers and are available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

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They Knew Their God—Frances Ridley Havergal

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Frances Ridley Havergal
Most of us are acquainted with Frances Ridley Havergal, poet and hymn-writer. The words “Take my life and let it be, consecrated, Lord to Thee” are from one of her most well known hymns. Edwin and Lillian Harvey have quoted her in several of their compilations and they have written about her in Volume Two of the They Knew Their God Series.

She is also included in the first volume of The Call Back Series, Illness. Frances knew well what it was to suffer pain and she “calls back” to us to remind us that pain often brings us nearer our Lord if we use it rightly. The following poem sums it up for us:

“I take this pain, Lord Jesus
From Thine own hand,
The strength to bear it bravely
Thou wilt command.
I am too weak for effort
So let me rest,
In hush of sweet submission,
On Thine own breast.

“I take this pain, Lord Jesus,
As proof indeed
That Thou art watching closely
My truest need:
That Thou, my Good Physician,
Art watching still;
That all Thine own good pleasure
Thou wilt fulfill.

“‘Tis Thy dear hand, O Savior
That presseth sore,
The hand that bears the nail-prints
Forevermore.
And now beneath its shadow,
Hidden by Thee,
The pressure only tells me
Thou lovest me.”
—Frances Ridley Havergal.
Written in severe pain, Sunday afternoon, October 8th, 1876, at the Pension Wengen, The Alps, Switzerland.

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The Call Back Series—Illness, Martha Snell Nicholson

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Martha Snell Nicholson.
Martha Snell Nicholson has blessed many by her devotional poems.She was in invalid for three and a half decades and wrote many of her poems from her bed. In Illness, the first book in the “Call Back Series,” Martha calls back to us through her pain, encouraging us that we are never alone in our sufferings, no matter how severe they may be.


Crippling arthritis, threatened cancer, TB, Parkinson’s disease, seven major surgeries and many minor ones—Martha experienced all this and more and yet she could write:
“Each day must be lived as though it were to be my last, and there is so much to be done, to purify myself, and to set my house in order. I am on tiptoe with expectancy. There are no more gray days for they are all touched with color. No more dark days for the radiance of His coming is on the horizon—no more dull days with glory just around the corner—and no more lonely days, with His footsteps ever coming nearer, and the thought that soon, soon I shall see His blessed face, and be forever through with pain and tears!”
—Used by permission of Wesleyan Advocate.

The Hand which flung the stars through space
Holds fast my hand.
My life is molded by the One
Who shaped the land.
The Mind which planned the march of suns
Can understand
The petty trials of my day;
And surely He
Who hollowed out the cup that holds
The mighty sea,
And keeps the waves in check, can give
Tranquility
In my small storms. Shall not the One
Who holds in place
The Milky Way, keep me each day
And by His grace
Present me perfect, faultless there
Before His face.
—Martha Snell Nicholson. (Illness, p. 32)

Illness from which these quotations are taken is written by Edwin and Lillian Harvey and published by Harvey Christian Publishers. It is now available in their Online Christian Bookstore.

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The Call Back series—Illness

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Emma Booth Tucker
Emma Booth Tucker was the fourth child and second daughter of Catherine and William Booth. Emma married Frederick Booth Tucker,whose first wife had died in a cholera epidemic while laboring with her husband in India. Emma also went to India with her husband but also became ill while there. And so the couple was transferred to the USA and given charge of the Salvation Army in that country. Emma died in a train accident at the age of forty-three.


On pages 10-12 of Illness, the first of the Call Back Series, written by Edwin and Lillian Harvey and published by Harvey Christian Publishers, Emma “calls back” to us to keep on going when things get tough and life scarcely seems worth the living. She is on board a ship en route to England from India and is not only very ill, but also discouraged by the difficulties she has encountered. Even her devoted husband’s presence does little to relieve her depression. Finally, wishing only to die, her mother appears to her in what can only be described as a vision, and encourages her not to give up. “Life’s moments,” her mother tells her, “its very moments I see to be worth countless millions now. . . Fight the fight darling, the sympathy of Christ is always with you and every effort you make is heaping up treasures for you in Heaven.” These words and many others Catherine spoke to her daughter that night gave Emma the strength to go on.
It seems that before her own death, Catherine had expressed this desire in Emma’s hearing: “Oh! I wish there was some way of getting a letter to you when I am gone, but perhaps I shall be able to in dreams and visions of the night.” (Illness, pp. 10-12).

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Love Me and Let Me Go

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Love Me and Let Me Go
Why do we often smother those we love? Why do we cling onto them far past the time when they deserve to be their own independent selves? What are we afraid of? And why cannot we allow them to follow God in a path which perhaps we may not tread with them? We have taught them about God; we have tried to set them an example, albeit in our own flawed way. Then why can’t we trust them into the hands of the Almighty?

Love Me and Let Me Go presents some of the problems when a parent is not willing to face up to these questions. The father in the story is a very good man. No, more than that; he is a very devout man, whose religion is genuine, practical, and contagious. He hears from God and is sure of what He says to him. And, because of his certainty, he is also sure of what God wants for his daughter, so sure that he will not entertain the idea that perhaps she might not have heard the same message. In fact, there is a distinct possibility that she may have heard a totally different message. Now it is true that this daughter is still immature in many ways and very capable of making a fatal mistake as she seeks to run her life her own way. It is equally true, however, that she loves God sincerely and wants to please Him but she wishes to find her own feet spiritually.
How she does this and how her father learns, almost too late, that it is best to “love and let go” is related in this novel, Love Me and Let Me Go, written by Trudy Harvey Tait which, though not biographical in historical detail, is certainly biographical in sentiment. The lessons she has learned, often the hard way, both as a daughter and as a parent, are the lessons the heroine and her parents must also learn. It is published by Harvey Christian Publishers and is available in their online Christian Bookstore.

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