Labors in Central Europe
233
Visits to Italy
November 26, 1885, Mrs. White left Basel for Torre Pellice, Italy.
She was accompanied by her daughter-in-law, Mary K. White, and
Elder B. L. Whitney. Regarding this trip she wrote:
“It was my fifty-eighth birthday, and surely it was to be celebrated
in a way and place that I had little dreamed of. It seemed hard for
me to realize that I was in Europe; that I had borne my testimony in
England, Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and was on
my way to labor in Italy.
“Our course over the Alps lay through the great St. Gothard pass.
We reached Torre Pellice Friday, about 9 A.M., and were welcomed to
the hospitable home of Elder A. C. Bourdeau. The next day, Sabbath,
[290]
I spoke to the brethren and sisters in the hired hall in which they held
their regular Sabbath meetings.”
Mrs. White remained in Torre Pellice three weeks. She spoke
to the people ten times, and visited some of the noted places where
the Waldenses, fleeing from their persecutors, had been followed and
captured, tortured, and slain. Referring to these experiences, she wrote:
“If their voices could be heard, what a history the everlasting
mountains surrounding these valleys could give of the sufferings of
God’s people because of their faith! What a history of the visits of
angels unrecognized by these Christian fugitives! Again and again
have angels talked with men, as man speaketh with a friend, and led
them to places of security. Again and again have the encouraging
words of angels renewed the drooping spirits of the faithful, and,
carrying their minds above the tops of the highest mountains, caused
them to behold by faith the white robes, the crowns, the palm branches
of victory, which the overcomers will receive when they surround the
great white throne.”
Twice after this, Mrs. White visited the Waldensian valleys,—once
in April, 1886, when, in company with her son and his wife, she
devoted two weeks to speaking to little congregations in many places;
and again, in company with Elder and Mrs. Wm. Ings, in November,
as they were returning to Basel after laboring two weeks at Nimes,
France.
[291]