Rescue the Perishing: Selected Correspondence of Annie W. Armstrong.

Rescue the Perishing: Selected Correspondence of Annie W. Armstrong. Edited by Keith Harper. Macon: Mercer University Press, 2004. 367 pp.

Every Southern Baptist knows the name Annie Armstrong because Baptist churches have for many years placed an emphasis on promoting the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. For most Southern Baptists, this offering is the full extent of their knowledge of this remarkable woman. Fortunately, Keith Harper has offered a remedy for this lack of knowledge about the first Woman's Missionary Union secretary. He has published her letters in Rescue the Perishing.

Harper dearly wanted Armstrong's own words to guide the reader. Thus, he makes only brief introductory statements before the major sections of her correspondence. The majority of the letters contained in this work are written to I. T. Tichenor, secretary of the Home Mission Board; J. M. Frost, secretary of the Sunday School Board; and R. J. Willingham, secretary of the Foreign Mission Board.

Armstrong's letters are an interesting mix of business, personal greetings, and complaints. She often began by stating how she wished she had more time to write and then she moved quickly into the business at hand. After a few paragraphs, she wrote something personal to the receiver and then immediately returned to the purpose of the letter. Her letters reveal a woman with great boldness, drive, and ambition. In an age when women most often did not assume roles of leadership within Baptist life, Armstrong spoke openly and directly to these influential men, fighting to maintain the WMU as a strong and viable auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention.

Harper pointed out that these letters also depict a stubborn and vain woman. Whether dealing with the secretaries of the mission boards or her arch nemesis, Fannie Heck, Armstrong remained firm in her convictions. Harper asserted that Armstrong's reluctance to wear glasses or have her picture taken as she grew older revealed her vanity.

Rather than working in a strictly chronological manner, Harper divided Armstrong's letters into five major chapters, with each chapter depicting an important aspect of her work. Two chapters were the most revealing. Chapter Two dealt with her pioneering work and the development of the WMU as an auxiliary of the SBC. Armstrong's letters revealed her constant development of WMU programs and her skirmishes with the heads of SBC boards as she fought to keep the WMU autonomous. Chapter Three acknowledged Armstrong's constant struggle with WMU president Fannie Heck. Even though many scholars of the WMU know that these two women did not get along, few know the depth and breadth of their differences. Perceiving Heck as a challenger to her leadership, Armstrong rarely missed an opportunity to deride Heck in her letters to the heads of the boards.

Unless one is familiar with those men and women about whom Armstrong wrote and the programs she discussed, the reader could become confused with all the intricacies that are a major part of Armstrong's letters. Yet, Rescue the Perishing is well organized, with a helpful index and appendices. Armstrong occasionally appears to be blunt and caustic, but in order to launch the WMU and to assure its survival as an auxiliary, the organization needed a strong, tenacious leader. Anyone interested in Annie Armstrong and her struggles or the early development of the WMU should read this book.--Reviewed by Joe Early, Jr., assistant professor of religion, Cumberland College, Williamsburg, Kentucky.