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Testimonies for the Church Volume 1
health, so that he could preach three times on the Sabbath and on first
day with ease. This wonderful work in his restoration was of God, and
He should have all the glory.
When my husband became so feeble, before our removal from
Rochester, he desired to free himself from the responsibility of the
publishing work. He proposed that the church take charge of the work,
and that it be managed by a publishing committee whom they should
appoint, and that no one connected with the office derive any financial
benefit therefrom beyond the wages received for his labor.
Though the matter was repeatedly urged upon their attention, our
brethren took no action in regard to it until 1861. Up to this time
my husband had been the legal proprietor of the publishing house,
and sole manager of the work. He enjoyed the confidence of the
active friends of the cause, who trusted to his care the means which
they donated from time to time, as the growing cause demanded, to
build up the publishing enterprise. But although the statement was
frequently repeated through the Review, that the publishing house
was virtually the property of the church, yet as he was the only legal
manager, our enemies took advantage of the situation, and under the
cry of speculation, did all in their power to injure him, and to retard
the progress of the cause. Under these circumstances he introduced
the matter of organization, which resulted in the incorporation of the
Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association, according to the laws
of Michigan, in the spring of 1861.
Although the cares that came upon us in connection with the pub-
lishing work and other branches of the cause involved much perplexity,
the greatest sacrifice I was called to make in connection with the work
was to leave my children to the care of others.
[102]
Henry had been from us five years, and Edson had received but
little of our care. For years our family was very large, and our home
like a hotel, and we from that home much of the time. I had felt the
deepest anxiety that my children should be brought up free from evil
habits, and I was often grieved as I thought of the contrast between
my situation and that of others who would not take burdens and cares,
who could ever be with their children, to counsel and instruct them,
and who spent their time almost exclusively in their own families. And
I have inquired: Does God require so much of us, and leave others
without burdens? Is this equality? Are we to be thus hurried on from