Sealed Orders

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Summary: The Timeless Gospel
Review: Classic feminists (not of the NOW variety) will love this book, for they can identify with its author in many ways. Women who are not interested in worldly careers but are content to fulfil the time-honored role of nurturing will be inspired to imitate her. Of course, since she is a Christian, it is a given that a woman who follows her discipline is also a believer in Jesus Christ.

Rating:
Summary: Especially for women
Review: Classic feminists (not of the NOW variety) will love this book, for they can identify with its author in many ways. Women who are not interested in worldly careers but are content to fulfil the time-honored role of nurturing will be inspired to imitate her. Of course, since she is a Christian, it is a given that a woman who follows her discipline is also a believer in Jesus Christ.

Rating:
Summary: Sealed Orders is astounding.
Review: If you want to read a great autobiography, especially if you are interested in the spiritual, this is one of the best you'll find. Agnes shares her upbringing in China, and move to the United States, all the while being perfectly candid about depression and other personal issues. Through truth seeking, study and work, Agnes blossoms into a spiritual leader of great stature. She is especially interesting in healing, and becomes incredibly successful to this end. Inspiring!

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Summary: A look at the life of a remarkable spiritual mystic.
Review: The spiritual autobiography, "Sealed Orders" by Agnes Sanford takes the reader on a journey from China to California. Sanford's parents were missionaries yet Agnes reveals that in the midst of religious activity, "I did not know Him yet," She certainly did come to know God, eventually, and became a pastor's wife. Her creative spirituality manifests during this phase with the dramatic church productions with which she took part: "The whole church was filled with an emanation, a radiation, of a spiritual power. No wonder people were moved to tears." Mrs. Sanford's travelling ministry flourished upon her move, with her husband, to a church in New England. She was on a "mission" to proclaim to the world that Jesus is alive, and his power is available for physical and inner healing. Agnes Sanford's story is certainly not a saccharine rendering of her life. Instead, one description summarizes the book this way, "A spiritual giant of this century finally tells her own story--unvarnished and transparent, exactly as the Lord would have it." Of course, for those reading the book because of interest in the "literary" Agnes Sanford, there is much to please you. Sealed Orders is a wonderful account of a fascinating woman who just set out to do a specialized work of God (healing), a work that she felt had been neglected. I find the closing words of the book to be mystically compelling: "And yesterday morning for the first time, as I looked out to the misty hills (for though I am too high for smog, there is often a fog from the ocean), I could see the light around the trees. I do not know what this light is. But I cannot imagine it or dream it into reality...for it testifies to my spirit of the Spirit of God permeating all the universe. So may the light shine until the very creature--the earth itself--its ugliness turned into beauty, becomes indeed the kingdom of our God and of His Christ."