Stepping Heavenward

Elizabeth Payson Prentiss (Portland, Maine, October 26, 1818 - August 13, 1878) was an American author, well known for her hymn "More Love to Thee, O Christ" and the religious novel Stepping Heavenward (1869).

Stepping Heavenward is the journal of a girl named Katherine Mortimer. She struggles with very ordinary things like you and me. Katy meets a young man who she loves & wants to marry but her mother is very much against their plans. Then Katy gets sick and she finds out just how much her fianc e really loved her Then, there is pain and heartache over the broken engagement; sorrow that she had not listened to her mother.

But Katy's life goes on through her marriage to a Godly man & motherhood and many tragedies. Her life is a constant struggle to "step heavenward," and poor Katherine, like so many of us, takes one step forward - two steps backward. - Excellent