Results of Faithful Effort
[
Testimonies for the Church 3:173-176
(1872).]
I saw that there was a large amount of surplus means among our
people, a portion of which should be put into the Health Institute. I also
saw that there are many worthy poor among our people, who are sick
and suffering, and who have been looking toward the Institute for help,
but who are not able to pay the regular prices for board, treatment, etc.
The Institute has struggled hard with debts the last three years, and
could not treat patients, to any considerable extent, without full pay.
It would please God for all our people who are able to do so, to take
stock liberally in the Institute, to place it in a condition where it can
help God’s humble, worthy poor. In connection with this, I saw that
Christ identifies Himself with suffering humanity, and that what we
have the privilege of doing for even the least of His children, whom
He calls His brethren, we do to the Son of God....
To raise the Health Institute from its low state in the autumn of 1869
to its present prosperous, hopeful condition has demanded sacrifices
and exertions of which its friends abroad know but little. Then it had
a debt of thirteen thousand dollars, and had but eight paying patients.
And what was worse still, the course of former managers had been such
as to so far discourage its friends that they had no heart to furnish means
to lift the debt, or to recommend the sick to patronize the Institute. It
was at this discouraging point that my husband decided in his mind that
the Institute property must be sold to pay the debts, and the balance,
after the payment of debts, be refunded to stockholders in proportion
to the amount of stock each held. But one morning, in prayer at the
[263]
family altar, the Spirit of God came upon him as he was praying for
divine guidance in matters pertaining to the Institute, and he exclaimed,
while bowed upon his knees, “The Lord will vindicate every word He
has spoken through vision relative to the Health Institute, and it will
be raised from its low estate and prosper gloriously.”
276