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The Retirement Years
restoration to health? Shall I interpret these long months of sickness
as evidences of the displeasure of God because I came to Australia?
I answer decidedly, No, I dare not do this. At times before leaving
America I thought that the Lord did not require me to go to a country
so far away, at my age and when I was prostrated by overwork. But I
followed the voice of the [General] Conference, as I have ever tried to
do at times when I had no clear light myself. I came to Australia, and
found the believers here in a condition where they must have help. For
weeks after reaching here I labored as earnestly as I have ever labored
in my life. Words were given me to speak in regard to the necessity of
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personal piety....
I am in Australia, and I believe that I am just where the Lord wants
me to be. Because suffering is my portion, I have no thought of beating
a retreat. The blessed assurance is given me that Jesus is mine and
that I am His child. The darkness is dispelled by the bright beams of
the Sun of Righteousness. Who can understand the pain I suffer but
the One who is afflicted in all our afflictions? To whom can I speak
but to Him who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and who
knows how to succor those who are tempted?
When I pray earnestly for restoration, and it seems that the Lord
does not answer, my spirit almost faints within me. Then it is that
the dear Saviour makes me mindful of His presence. He says to me,
Cannot you trust Him who has purchased you with His own blood? I
have graven thee on the palms of My hands. Then my soul is nourished
with the divine Presence. I am lifted out of myself, as it were, into the
presence of God.—
Manuscript 19, 1892
.
God Knows What Is Best
July 14, 1892. When the affliction under which I have been suffer-
ing for several months came upon me, I was surprised that it was not
removed at once in answer to prayer. But the promise, “My grace is
sufficient” (
2 Corinthians 12:9
), has been fulfilled in my case. There
can be no doubt on my part. My hours of pain have been hours of
prayer, for I have known to whom to take my sorrows. I have the
privilege of reinforcing my feeble strength by laying hold upon infinite
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power. By day and night I stand on the solid rock of God’s promises.