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Testimonies for the Church Volume 1
Having become fully satisfied that my husband would not recover
from his protracted sickness while remaining inactive, and that the time
had fully come for me to go forth and bear my testimony to the people,
I decided to make a tour in northern Michigan, with my husband in his
extremely feeble condition, in the severest cold of winter. It required
no small degree of moral courage and faith in God to bring my mind
to the decision to risk so much; but I knew that I had a work to do,
and it seemed to me that Satan was determined to keep me from it. I
had waited long for our captivity to be turned, and feared that precious
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souls would be lost by the delay. To remain longer from the field
seemed to me worse than death, and should we move out we could but
perish. So, on the 19th of December, 1866, we left Battle Creek in a
snowstorm for Wright, Michigan. My husband stood the journey of
ninety miles much better than I feared, and seemed quite as well when
we reached our destination as when we left Battle Creek.
Here commenced our first effective labors since his sickness. Here
he began labor as in former years, though in much weakness. He
would speak thirty or forty minutes in the forenoon of the Sabbath
and on first day, while I would occupy the rest of the time, and then
speak in the afternoon of each day, about an hour and a half each
time. We were listened to with the greatest attention. I saw that
my husband was growing stronger, clearer, and more connected in
his subjects. And when on one occasion he spoke one hour with
clearness and power, with the burden of the work upon him as before
his sickness, my feelings of gratitude were beyond expression. I arose
in the congregation, and for nearly half an hour tried with weeping to
give utterance to them. The congregation was deeply moved. I felt
assured that this was the dawn of better days for us.
The hand of God in his restoration was most apparent. Probably
no other one upon whom such a blow has fallen ever recovered. Yet
a severe shock of paralysis, seriously affecting the brain, was by the
good hand of God removed from His servant, and new strength granted
him both in body and mind.
During the years that followed the recovery of my husband, the
Lord opened before us a vast field of labor. Though I took the stand as
a speaker timidly at first, yet as the providence of God opened the way
before me, I had confidence to stand before large audiences. Together