At the age of seventeen, when all my friends thought I was an invalid for life on account of a severe accident I had sustained in my girlhood, a heavenly visitant came and spoke to me, saying, “I have a message for you to bear.”“Why,” I thought, “there certainly must be a great mistake somewhere.” Again were spoken the words: “I have a message for you to bear. Write out for the people what I give you.” Up to that time, my trembling hand had not been able to write a line. I replied, “I cannot do it; I cannot do it.”“Write! write!” were the words spoken once again. I took the pen and paper, and I began to write; and how much I have written since, it is impossible to estimate. The strength, the power, was of God.
(1SM 101.1)
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Since that time, the books that I have written have been published in many, many languages, and have gone to all parts of the earth. Just a short time ago I received word that a copy of one of my books had been graciously received by the queen of Germany, and that she had written a kind letter expressing her appreciation of the volume. To the Lord be all the praise.
(1SM 101.2)
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Of ourselves we can do nothing good. But it is our privilege to place ourselves in right relation to God, and to determine that by His help we will do our part in this work, to make it better. In the lives of those who humbly yet unfalteringly carry out this resolution, will be revealed the glory of God. I know this by experience. I have had no power of my own. I have realized that I must hang my helpless soul on Jesus Christ; and as the result of doing this, of praying, and of believing, the salvation of God has gone before me, and the glory of the Lord has followed.
(1SM 101.3)
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I tell you that which I know, for your encouragement and comfort. Let us all place ourselves in right relation to God. What satisfaction is to be found in keeping pace with the fashions of this world? You have a better work to do. Fashion character. Use every ability, every nerve, every muscle, every thought, every action, to the glory of God. Then you will see, as you have never seen before, the salvation of God going before you.
(1SM 101.4)
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Oh, I have nought to complain of. The Lord has never failed me. I laid my husband in the grave twenty-two years ago; and several years afterward, when the decision was made that more missionaries must go to Australia to unite with the few who had been sent, we went there ourselves to strengthen the hands of our brethren, and to establish the work on right lines in this new center. There we did much pioneer work.
(1SM 102.1)
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We saw the great need for a school in which promising young men and young women could be trained for the Master’s service; and we went right into the woods in New South Wales, purchased fifteen hundred acres of land, and there established a training school away from the cities
(1SM 102.2)
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Three years ago we returned to America. Others were sent to Australia to take our places. The work has continued to grow; prosperity has attended every effort. I wish you could read the letters that come to us. Doubtless you have heard of the dreadful drought that has caused famine in so many places in Australia during the past two years. Hundreds of thousands of sheep and cattle and horses have perished. In all the colonies, and especially in Queensland, the suffering and the financial loss have been great.
(1SM 102.3)
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But the spot that was chosen for our training school, has had sufficient rainfall for good pasture land and bountiful crops; in fact, in legislative assemblies and in the newspapers of the great cities it has been specified as “the only green spot in all New South Wales.”
(1SM 102.4)
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Is not this remarkable? Has not the Lord blessed? From one of the reports received, we learn that last year seven thousand pounds of honey of the best quality has been made on the school estate. Large quantities of vegetables have been raised, and the sale of the surplus has been a source of considerable revenue to the school. All this is very encouraging to us; for we took the wild land, and helped to bring it to its present fruitful state. To the Lord we ascribe all the praise.
(1SM 102.5)
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