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Testimonies for the Church Volume 1
the flock everywhere. If they do this, they will have a great reward.
If they fail to do this, and yet accept such positions, they will have a
fearful account to give.
We did what we could. If we could have had means at our command
last summer and fall, Sister More would now be with us. When we
learned our real circumstances, as set forth in Testimony No. 13, we
both took the matter joyfully and said we did not want the responsibility
of means. This was wrong. God wants that we should have means that
we may, as in time past, help where help is needed. Satan wants to
tie our hands in this respect and lead others to be careless, unfeeling,
and covetous, that such cruel work may go on as in the case of Sister
More.
We see outcasts, widows, orphans, worthy poor, and ministers
in want, and many chances to use means to the glory of God, the
advancement of His cause, and the relief of suffering saints, and I
want means to use for God. The experience of nearly a quarter of
a century in extensive traveling, feeling the condition of those who
need help, qualifies us to make a judicious use of our Lord’s money.
I have bought my own stationery, paid my own postage, and spent
much of my life writing for the good of others, and all I have received
for this work, which has wearied and worn me terribly, would not
pay a tithe of my postage. When means has been pressed upon me,
I have refused it, or appropriated it to such charitable objects as the
Publishing Association. I shall do so no more. I shall do my duty in
labor as ever, but my fears of receiving means to use for the Lord are
gone. This case of Sister More has fully aroused me to see the work
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of Satan in depriving us of means.
Poor Sister More! When we heard that she was dead, my husband
felt terrible. We both felt as though a dear mother, for whose society
our very hearts yearned, was no more. Some may say, If we had stood
in the place of those who knew something of this sister’s wishes and
wants, we would not have done as they did. I hope you will never
have to suffer the stings of conscience which some must feel who
were so interested in their own affairs as to be unwilling to bear any
responsibility in her case. May God pity those who are so afraid of
deception as to neglect a worthy, self-sacrificing servant of Christ. The
remark was made as an excuse for this neglect: We have been bitten
so many times that we are afraid of strangers. Did our Lord and His