Appeal for Burden Bearers
19
utmost. But the worst perplexities are now over, and the work is
moving on prosperously.
At the General Conference my husband pleaded to be released from
the burdens upon him; but, notwithstanding his pleading, the burden
of editing the Review and the Reformer was placed upon him, with
encouragement that men who would take burdens and responsibilities
would be encouraged to settle at Battle Creek. But as yet no help has
come to lift from him the burdens of the financial work at the office.
My husband is fast wearing. We have attended the four Western
camp meetings, and our brethren are urging us to attend the Eastern
meetings. But we dare not take additional burdens upon us. When we
came from the labor of the Western camp meetings in July, 1871, we
found a large amount of business that had been left to accumulate in
my husband’s absence. We have seen no opportunity for rest yet. My
husband must be released from the burdens upon him. There are too
many that use his brain instead of using their own. In view of the light
which God has been pleased to give us, we plead for you, my brethren,
to release my husband. I am not willing to venture the consequences
[18]
of his going forward and laboring as he has done. He served you
faithfully and unselfishly for years, and finally fell under the pressure
of the burdens placed upon him. Then his brethren, in whom he had
confided, left him. They let him drop into my hands, and forsook him.
For nearly two years I was his nurse, his attendant, his physician. I do
not wish to pass through the experience a second time. Brethren, will
you lift the burdens from us, and allow us to preserve our strength as
God would have us, that the cause at large may be benefited by the
efforts we may make in His strength? Or will you leave us to become
debilitated so that we will become useless to the cause?
The foregoing portion of this appeal was read at the New Hamp-
shire camp meeting, August, 1871.
When we returned from Kansas in the autumn of 1870, Brother B
was at home sick with fever. Sister Van Horn, at this very time, was
absent from the office in consequence of fever brought upon her by the
sudden death of her mother. Brother Smith was also from the office,
in Rochester, New York, recovering from a fever. There was a great
amount of unfinished work at the office, yet Brother B left his post
of duty to gratify his own pleasure. This fact in his experience is a
sample of the man. Sacred duties rest lightly upon him.