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Testimonies for the Church Volume 1
In the summer of 1853, we made our first journey to the State
of Michigan. After publishing our appointments, my husband was
prostrated with fever. We united in prayer for him, but though relieved,
he still remained very weak. We were in great perplexity. Must we be
driven from the work by bodily infirmities? Would Satan be permitted
to exercise his power upon us, and contend for our usefulness and lives
as long as we should remain in the world? We knew that God could
limit the power of Satan. He might suffer us to be tried in the furnace,
but would bring us forth purified and better fitted for His work.
Alone I poured out my soul before God in prayer that He would
rebuke the disease and strengthen my husband to endure the journey.
The case was urgent, and my faith firmly grasped the promises of God.
I there obtained the evidence that if we should proceed on our journey
to Michigan, the angel of God would go with us. When I related to my
husband the exercise of my mind, he said that his own mind had been
exercised in a similar manner, and we decided to go, trusting in the
Lord. Every mile we traveled he felt strengthened. The Lord sustained
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him. And while he was preaching the word, I felt assured that angels
of God were standing by his side to sustain him in his labors.
On this journey my husband’s mind was much exercised upon the
subject of spiritualism, and soon after our return he engaged in writing
the book entitled, Signs of the Times. He was still feeble, and could
sleep but little, but the Lord was his support. When his mind was
in a confused, suffering state, we would bow before God, and in our
distress cry unto Him. He heard our earnest prayers, and often blessed
my husband so that with refreshed spirits he went on with the work.
Many times in the day did we thus go before the Lord in earnest prayer.
That book was not written in his own strength.
In the winter and spring I suffered much from heart disease. It
was difficult for me to breathe while lying down, and I could not sleep
unless raised in nearly a sitting posture. My breath often stopped, and
I often fainted. I had upon my left eyelid a swelling which appeared to
be a cancer. It had been increasing gradually for more than a year, until
it had become quite painful, and affected my sight. When reading or
writing, I was forced to bandage the afflicted eye. I feared that it was
to be destroyed by a cancer. I looked back to the days and nights spent
in reading proof sheets, which had strained my eyes, and thought: “If
I lose my eye and my life, they will be sacrificed to the cause of God.”