My reason for sending out another Testimony to my dear brethren and sisters at this time is that the Lord has graciously manifested Himself to me and has again revealed matters of very great importance to those who profess to be keeping the commandments of God and waiting for the coming of the Son of man. More than three years elapsed between the vision given me January 3, 1875, and the recent manifestation of God’s love and power. But before entering upon the views recently shown me, I will give a brief sketch of my experience for a year or two past.
(4T 271.1)
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VC
May 11, 1877, we left Oakland, California, for Battle Creek, Michigan. I had been afflicted with pain in my heart for several months and suffered much with oppressed breathing on my journey across the plains. The difficulty did not leave me when we reached Michigan. Others occupied our home at Battle Creek, and we had no relatives there to care for us, our children all being in California. However, kind friends did what they could for me; but I did not feel free to burden them when they had all the care they should have with their own families.
(4T 271.2)
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VC
A telegram had been sent to my husband, requesting his presence at Battle Creek to give attention to important business relative to the cause, but more especially to take the supervision of planning the large sanitarium building. In answer to this summons he came and engaged earnestly in preaching, writing, and holding board meetings at the Review office, the college, and the sanitarium, nearly always working into the night. This wore him fearfully. He felt the importance of these institutions, but especially of the sanitarium building, in which more than fifty thousand dollars was being invested. His constant mental anxiety was preparing the way for a sudden breakdown. We both felt our danger and decided to go to Colorado to enjoy retirement and rest. While planning for the journey, a voice seemed to say to me: “Put the armor on. I have work for you to do in Battle Creek.” The voice seemed so plain that I involuntarily turned to see who was speaking. I saw no one, and at the sense of the presence of God my heart was broken in tenderness before Him. When my husband entered the room, I told him the exercises of my mind. We wept and prayed together. Our arrangements had been made to leave in three days, but now all our plans were changed.
(4T 271.3)
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May 30, the patients and faculty of the sanitarium having planned to spend the day two miles from Battle Creek in a beautiful grove that bordered Goguac Lake, I was urged to be present and speak to the patients. Had I consulted my feelings I should not have ventured, but I thought perhaps this might be a part of the work I was to do in Battle Creek. At the usual hour, tables were spread with hygienic food, which was partaken of with a keen relish. At three o’clock the exercises were opened with prayer and singing. I had great freedom in speaking to the people. All listened with the deepest interest. After I had ceased speaking, Judge Graham of Wisconsin, a patient at the sanitarium, arose and proposed that the lecture be printed and circulated among the patients and others for their moral and physical benefit, that the words spoken that day might never be forgotten or disregarded. The proposition was approved by a unanimous vote, and the address was published in a small pamphlet entitled: The Sanitarium Patients at Goguac Lake.
(4T 272.1)
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VC
The close of the school year of the Battle Creek College was now at hand. I had felt very anxious for the students, many of whom were either unconverted or backslidden from God. I had desired to speak to them and make an effort for their salvation before they should scatter to their homes, but I had been too feeble to engage in labor for them. After the experience I have related I had all the evidence I could ask that God would sustain me in laboring for the salvation of the students.
(4T 272.2)
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VC