170 Historical Sketches of the Foreign Missions of the Seventh-day Adventists
On the morning of November 26, I left Basle for Torre Pellice, Italy,
accompanied by my daughter, Mary K. White, and Eld. B. L. Whitney.
It was my fifty-eighth birthday, and surely it was to be celebrated in a
way and place that I had little dreamed of. It seemed hard for me to
realize that I was in Europe; that I had borne my testimony in England,
Switzerland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, and was on my way to
labor in Italy. In my youth I felt a strong desire to be a child of God,
and as his Spirit began to impress my heart, and I tried in feebleness
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to obey its promptings, I received increased strength, and my desire to
do good also increased. I have ever found plenty of work to do, and I
have also learned that in Christ alone there is rest, peace, or happiness.
In God is our only help. I have tried all these years not to build my
hopes on this world, but to lay up a treasure above.
For several days before we started on our journey the weather had
been foggy and rainy, and we feared that the clouds would hang as a
vail over the scenery through which we were to pass. But the mist and
fog soon disappeared, and the sun came out bright and pleasant.