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Testimonies for the Church Volume 1
addressing several brethren in this vicinity, recommending that they
send for Sister More and give her a home till we should return. I say:
We did what we could.
But why should we feel interested in this sister, more than others?
What did we want of this worn-out missionary? She could not do
our housework, and we had but one child at home for her to teach.
And, certainly, much could not be expected of one worn as she was,
who had nearly reached three-score years. We had no use for her, in
particular, only to bring the blessing of God into our house. There
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are many reasons why our brethren should have taken greater interest
in the case of Sister More than we. We had never seen her, and had
no other means of knowing her history, her devotion to the cause of
Christ and humanity, than all the readers of the Review. Our brethren
at Battle Creek had seen this noble woman, and some of them knew
more or less of her wishes and wants. We had no money with which
to help her; they had. We were already overburdened with care and
needed those persons in our house who possessed the strength and
buoyancy of youth. We needed to be helped, instead of helping others.
But most of our brethren in Battle Creek are so situated that Sister
More would not have been the least care and burden. They have time,
strength, and comparative freedom from care.
Yet no one took the interest in her case that we did. I even spoke
to the large congregation before we went East last fall, of their neglect
of Sister More. I spoke of the duty of giving honor to whom it is due;
it appeared to me that wisdom had so far departed from the prudent
that they were not capable of appreciating moral worth. I told that
church that there were many among them who could find time to meet,
and sing, and play their instruments of music; they could give their
money to the artist to multiply their likenesses, or could spend it to
attend public amusements; but they had nothing to give to a worn-
out missionary who had heartily embraced the present truth and had
come to live with those of like precious faith. I advised them to stop
and consider what we were doing, and proposed that they shut up
their instruments of music for three months and take time to humble
themselves before God in self-examination, repentance, and prayer
until they learned the claims which the Lord had upon them as His
professed children. My soul was stirred with a sense of the wrong