Conflicts and Victory
549
Battle Creek was as good as sold, we bought and began to build in
Greenville. But we could not sell the Battle Creek property, and in
our cramped position my husband wrote to different brethren to hire
money. For this they condemned him and charged him with the sin of
grasping for money. And the brother minister most active in this work
was heard to say: “We do not want Brother E to buy Brother White’s
place, for we want his money for the Health Institute.” What could we
do? No way could we turn but we were blamed.
Only sixty-five hours before my husband was stricken down, he
stood until midnight in a house of worship calling for three hundred
dollars to finish paying for that house; and to give his call force he
headed the subscription with ten dollars for himself and the same for
me. Before midnight the sum was nearly raised. The elder of that
church was an old friend, and in our extreme want and friendless
condition my husband wrote to him, stating that we were in want,
and if that church now wished to return the twenty dollars we would
receive it. At the time of the Conference this brother called on us and
made the matter a serious wrong. But before he came to our house he
had taken some stock at least in the general infection. We felt these
things most keenly, and if we had not been especially sustained by the
Lord we could not have borne our testimony at the Conference with
any degree of freedom.
[596]
Before we returned from the Conference, Brethren Andrews,
Pierce, and Bourdeau had a special season of prayer at our house,
in which we were all greatly blessed, especially my husband. This
gave him courage to return to our new home. And then commenced his
keen sufferings from his teeth, also our labors reported in the Review.
He stopped preaching only one week in his toothless condition, but
labored at Orange and Wright, with the church at home, at Greenbush
and Bushnell, preaching and baptizing as before.
After returning from the Conference, a great uncertainty came upon
me in relation to the prosperity of the cause of God. Doubts existed
in my mind where none had been six months before. I viewed God’s
people as partaking of the spirit of the world, imitating its fashions,
and getting above the simplicity of our faith. It seemed that the church
at Battle Creek were backsliding from God, and it was impossible
to arouse their sensibilities. The testimonies given me of God had
the least influence and were the least heeded in Battle Creek of any