Actually the word bowels is used in the King James Version of the Bible:
Bowels Phi 1:8; Phi 2:1; Col 3:12), compassionate feelings; R.V., “tender mercies.”
Phi 1:8 For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ.
Phi 2:1 If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies
Col 3:12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering
As Smith was writing quasi-King James, this is really not inappropriate.
The word “bowels” (used in that sense of the term), occurs much more often in the KJV than that:
Genesis 43:
30 And Joseph made haste; for his
bowels did yearn upon his brother: and he sought where to weep; and he entered into his chamber, and wept there.
1 Kings 3:
26 Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her
bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.
Psalms 22:
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my
bowels.
Isaiah 16:
11 Wherefore my
bowels shall sound like an harp for Moab, and mine inward parts for Kir-haresh.
Isaiah 63:
15 Look down from heaven, and behold from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory: where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy
bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained
Jeremiah 4:
19 My
bowels, my
bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.
Jeremiah 31:
20 Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my
bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD.
Lamentations 1:
20 Behold, O LORD; for I am in distress: my
bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.
Lamentations 2:
11 Mine eyes do fail with tears, my
bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.
2 Corinthians 6:
12 Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own
bowels.
Philippians 1:
8 For God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the
bowels of Jesus Christ.
Philippians 2:
1 IF there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any
bowels and mercies,
Colossians 3:
12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved,
bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering
Philemon 1:
7 For we have great joy and consolation in thy love, because the
bowels of the saints are refreshed by thee, brother.
Philemon 1:
12 Whom I have sent again: thou therefore receive him, that is, mine own
bowels
Philemon 1:
20 Yea, brother, let me have joy of thee in the Lord: refresh my
bowels in the Lord.
1 John 3:
17 But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his
bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him
zerinus