234
Welfare Ministry
E. G. White Instructed to Set an Example.—After my marriage
I was instructed that I must show a special interest in motherless and
fatherless children, taking some under my own charge for a time,
and then finding homes for them. Thus I would be giving others an
example of what they could do.
Although called to travel often, and having much writing to do,
I have taken children of three and five years of age, and have cared
for them, educated them, and trained them for responsible positions. I
have taken into my home from time to time boys from ten to sixteen
years of age, giving them motherly care and a training for service.
[
From the pen of two workers who in their youth spent many months
in the White home we have the following comments of what they
personally witnessed.—Compilers
.
“Not only was Mrs. White a strong counselor for her husband, to
guard him against making mistakes that would jeopardize the cause in
any part, but she was most careful to carry out in her own course the
things she taught to others. For instance, she frequently dwelt in her
public talks upon the duty of caring for widows and orphans, citing
her hearers to
Isaiah 58:7-10
; And she exemplified her exhortations
by taking the needy to her own home for shelter, food, and raiment.
I well remember her having at one time, as members of her family, a
boy and girl and a widow and her two daughters. I have, moreover,
known her to distribute to poor people hundreds of dollars’ worth of
new clothes which she bought for that purpose.”—J. O. Corliss,
The
Review and Herald, August 30, 1923
.
“Elder White was himself a very philanthropic man. He always
lived in a large house, but there were no vacant rooms in it. Although
his immediate family was small, his house was always filled with wid-
ows and their children, poor friends, poor brethren in the ministry, and
those who needed a home. His heart and his pocketbook were always
open, and he was ready to help those who needed help. He certainly
set a most noble example to our denomination in his largeheartedness
and liberality of spirit.”—
The Medical Missionary, February, 1894
.]
I have felt it my duty to bring before our people that work for which
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those in every church should feel a responsibility.
While in Australia I carried on this same line of work, taking into
my home orphan children, who were in danger of being exposed to