Prentiss had great misgiving about its
success--a misgiving that had haunted her while engaged in writing it.
But all doubt on the subject was soon dispelled:

The response to "Stepping Heavenward" was instant and general. Others of
her books were enjoyed, praised, laughed over, but this one was taken by
tired hands into secret places, pored over by eyes dim with tears, and
its lessons prayed out at many a Jabbok. It was one of those books which
sorrowing, Mary-like women read to each other, and which lured many a
bustling Martha from the fretting of her care-cumbered life to ponder
the new lesson of rest in toil. It was one of those books of which
people kept a lending copy, that they might enjoy the uninterrupted
companionship of their own. The circulation of the book was very large.
Not to speak of the thousands which were sold here, it went through
numerous editions in England. From England it passed into Australia. It
fell into the family of an afflicted Swiss pastor, and the comfort which
it brought to that stricken household led to its translation into French
by one of the pastor's daughters. It passed through I know not how many
editions in French. [5] In Germany it came into the hands of an invalid
lady who begged the privilege of translating it. The first word of a
favorite German hymn,

"Heavenward doth our journey tend;
We are strangers here on earth,"

furnished the title for the German translation--"Himmelan." It appeared
just after the French war, and went as a comforter into scores of the
homes which war had desolated, and frequent testimony came back to
her of the deep interest excited by the book, and of the affectionate
gratitude called out toward the author. She seemed to have inspired her
translator, whose letters to her breathe the warmest affection and the
most enthusiastic admiration. It would be easy to fill up the time that
remains with grateful testimonies to the work of this book. From among
a multitude I select only one: A manufacturer in a New England town, a
stranger, wrote to her expressing his high appreciation of the book,
and saying that he had four thousand persons in his employ, and a
circulating library of six thousand volumes for their use, in which were
two copies of "Stepping Heavenward." He adds, "I hear in every direction
of the good it is doing, and a wealthy friend has written to me saying
that she means to put a copy into the hand of every bride of her
acquaintance."