I have long been aware of both Selina, Countess of Huntingdon and Faith Cook, her biographer, but never read anything substantial about the former or anything by the latter. Now I have remedied that and am enormously thankful I have. It is a long time since I have been so drawn into the life of a subject of a biography, but Faith Cook is a hugely gifted writer and her account of this remarkable lady is utterly compelling. I have previously posted some brief extracts from the book here, here and here.
Selina Hastings used her considerable wealth and influence to aid the spread of the gospel and the establishing of churches all over the UK, and even in America, during the period of the 18th century revival. Having come to faith through the preaching of the Wesleyan Methodists, her deepening convictions gradually aligned her more closely with Calvinists like George Whitefield, but she strived earnestly to maintain good relationships with and between both sides of the doctrinal divide for the sake of the gospel, and she largely succeeded.
She had, herself, a great evangelistic zeal and rarely missed an opportunity to share the gospel, not only with the elite in society with whom she freely mixed because of her social status, but also with her servants and other ‘ordinary’ people she encountered. Faith Cooks describes her “zeal for the salvation of her servants, her acquaintances, her family and the nobility”.
I simply can’t commend this book highly enough. It will inform your mind and inflame your heart.
Banner of Truth Trust (1 November 2001) Review written in 2023
(Tim Challies has an excellent article on Selina, Countess of Huntingdon here.)