Ties That Unite - Salome Lincoln Mowry

1807–41

Salome Lincoln Mowry wrestled with her desires. She was bright. She was eager to learn and to read everything she was able to, including her Bible. Salome had even been baptized as a Free Will Baptist when she was about sixteen. What troubled her was that she believed she was supposed to be doing something for God, but what? She desired to speak publicly about her faith but wasn’t sure it was acceptable for a woman to do that. She wanted to be faithful to her calling but also obedient to God’s restrictions.

An opportunity came when she was twenty, and she took it. At a religious meeting, the preacher who was supposed to speak never arrived, so Salome chose to deliver a sermon. It must have been nerve racking for her, but God put the desire in her to preach, and after a while she couldn’t deny it.

She continued to preach after that first experience, and of course she faced opposition. A woman preaching during that time was bound to come up against people who thought her actions weren’t theologically sound. She had come to believe, however, that she would be disobeying God if she didn’t embrace her desire to speak about him.

Still, Salome never went to seminary and didn’t seek ordination. Although she was Baptist, she spoke to any denomination. Minor differences in theology didn’t bother her. She embraced all Christians. In compiling Salome’s memoir, Almond Davis said, “Whenever, or wherever she found the image of Christ, soul mingled with soul, and to such a one, she felt that she was bound by a cord stronger than earthly, and by ties dearer than those which unite parties, sects and denominations.”

Not all Christians will agree on theological matters. Your Christian brothers and sisters may belong to different denominations and hold different views on things they read in the Bible. Are you able to remember, as Salome did, that as Christians we’re bound by a cord, Christ, who ties us together? He is certainly stronger than theological differences that threaten to divide us.

There is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future.

Ephesians 4:4