Chapter 9—The Work at Battle Creek
In a vision given me at Bordoville, Vermont, December 10, 1871,
I was shown that the position of my husband has been a very difficult
one. A pressure of care and labor has been upon him. His brethren
in the ministry have not had these burdens to bear, and they have not
appreciated his labors. The constant pressure upon him has taxed him
mentally and physically. I was shown that his relation to the people of
God was similar, in some respects, to that of Moses to Israel. There
were murmurers against Moses, when in adverse circumstances, and
there have been murmurers against him.
There has been no one in the ranks of Sabbathkeepers who would
do as my husband has done. He has devoted his interest almost entirely
to the building up of the cause of God, regardless of his own personal
interests and at the sacrifice of social enjoyment with his family. In his
devotion to the cause he has frequently endangered his health and life.
He has been so much pressed with the burden of this work that he has
not had suitable time for study, meditation, and prayer. God has not
required him to be in this position, even for the interest and progress
of the publishing work at Battle Creek. There are other branches of the
work, other interests of the cause, that have been neglected through
his devotion to this one. God has given us both a testimony which will
reach hearts. He has opened before me many channels of light, not
only for my benefit, but for the benefit of His people at large. He has
also given my husband great light upon Bible subjects, not for himself
alone, but for others. I saw that these things should be written and
talked out, and that new light would continue to shine upon the word.
I saw that we could accomplish tenfold more to build up the cause
by laboring among the people of God, bearing a varied testimony to
meet the wants of the cause in different places and under different
circumstances, than we could to remain at Battle Creek. Our gifts
are needed in the same field in writing and in speaking. While my
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husband is overburdened, as he has been, with an accumulation of
cares and financial matters, his mind cannot be as fruitful in the word
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