The Secret Place of Maria Woodworth Etter

Maria Beulah Woodworth was born on July 22, 1844 near New Lisbon in Ohio in a family that knew hard work and the fear of God but little of public notice. Her childhood was marked by loss and by the long shadow of poverty. She married young to Philo H Woodworth and bore several children, many of whom died in infancy or childhood in a time when sickness often stalked American homes. These sorrows did not embitter her. They bent her toward God. Through years of hidden prayer she sensed a growing summons to preach Christ. She waited, questioned, and wrestled, believing that such a call belonged to men and that her weakness disqualified her. In her own testimonies she wrote that the Lord's command grew unmistakable. Go and I will be with you. In 1879 and 1880 she began to hold meetings in small schoolhouses and church halls in rural Ohio. The power of God fell upon ordinary gatherings and the name Woodworth began to spread through counties and then across states.

From the beginning the meetings were prayer saturated, Scripture rich, and marked by unusual conviction. People wept openly, confessed sins, and reconciled with neighbors. Many fell to the floor under a sense of the presence of God and lay still for hours, later rising with testimonies of repentance or healing or a renewed love for Christ. Newspapers dubbed her the trance evangelist and reporters followed her campaigns with a mix of curiosity and hostility. She faced hecklers, legal challenges, and slander. She answered with quiet persistence, careful order in her meetings, and a public life guarded by prayer and Scripture. Her diary like accounts in later years record nights of wrestling with God for towns and afternoons given to visiting the sick and the poor. When opposition mounted she withdrew to fast and to pray, asking not for vindication but for the fear of the Lord to rest upon the city.

Her first marriage collapsed under strain and desertion and ended in a legal divorce in 1891, a grief she acknowledged without excuse. The wound did not end the work. It deepened her dependence on the Lord. In 1902 she married Samuel Etter, a steady Christian worker who became her companion in travel and prayer. Henceforth she signed her name Maria Woodworth Etter. Together they pressed on through the Midwest and beyond, conducting protracted meetings in tents and tabernacles. Her preaching was plain and Christ centered. She exalted the cross, the necessity of repentance, and the promise of the Holy Spirit. She did not present herself as a wonder worker. She presented Jesus as a merciful Savior and healer. When healings occurred she insisted on thanksgiving to God, on medical verification when possible, and on connection to local churches so that converts would be discipled and families restored.

In the first decade of the new century she drew near to Pentecostal believers who spoke of the baptism in the Holy Spirit with scriptural evidence and who treated prayer meetings as the engine of all ministry. She welcomed the fresh emphasis on the Spirit's power while keeping her lifelong habits of fasting, reverent worship, and careful counsel. In cities such as Dallas and Indianapolis she labored with pastors to establish strong prayer centered congregations. During extended campaigns she held morning Bible teaching for workers, afternoon instruction for counselors and ushers, and evening evangelistic services that often ran late into the night under a sense of holy awe. Choirs were trained not only in music but also in prayer. Ushers were taught to deal gently with the broken. Inquiry rooms were staffed by workers with open Bibles. The secret of the order lay in the secret place. Before she ever stepped to a platform she waited quietly before the Lord with Scripture in hand until her heart was tender and her will was obedient.

In 1918 supporters in Indianapolis helped erect a large tabernacle to serve as a home base for gospel work and as a gathering point for prayer. From there she traveled to cities and rural districts across the nation, returning to seasons of local ministry where families were restored, debts repaid, and churches revived. Physicians and editors investigated healings and published cases they judged noteworthy. Not all accounts could be verified to modern standards and she refused to make statistics the badge of faith. She insisted that the truest sign of the Spirit's work is a holy life and a praying church. When fame pressed upon her she asked friends to tell her the truth and to keep her low before God. She never tired of speaking of the love of Jesus and of the gentleness of the Holy Spirit. In the last years she preached from a chair when strength failed and asked co laborers to carry the burden of prayer when her own voice grew thin.

On September 16, 1924 she went to be with the Lord in Indianapolis. The tabernacle filled with people who had learned to pray under her ministry and with families who had found hope in Christ in meetings that began as little more than a rented tent on a patch of ground. She left no empire, only altars where fire had fallen and a pattern of ministry that began and ended in the secret place.