Untitled article by John Norton Loughborough

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 24, 1908

Experiences in the Publishing Work—No. 10

By John Norton Loughborough

“If the workers who have seen God’s dealing with his people during the rise and progress of the cause will strengthen the faith of the people of God by reviewing past blessings and mercies, they themselves will be blessed, and their work will prove a blessing to those who have not had the experience they have had. As they recount the sacrifices made by those who led out in the work, and tell of the power of God manifested to keep his work free from error and extravagance, they will have a molding influence for good.

“Those who enter the work at the present time know comparatively little of the self-denial and self-sacrifice of those upon whom the Lord laid the burden of his work at its beginning. The experience of the past should be told them again and again; for they are to carry forward the work with the same humility and self-sacrifice that characterized the true workers in the past.”—Mrs. E. G. White, in REVIEW of June 3, 1902.

We have called attention to the commencement of the publication of the little paper called Present Truth. As the typesetting and printing was secured from the secular press, the paper could be moved from place to place, as the interest in the labors of Brother and Sister White demanded, and as the brethren provided a home for them. From July to September, 1849, four numbers were printed at Middletown, Conn. The next six numbers were published at Oswego, N. Y., from December, 1849, to May, 1850. During that time Brother and Sister White had meetings in Oswego and that vicinity. They were set up in housekeeping in a room in the home of Brother Elias Goodwin, with furniture loaned to them by the few Sabbath-keepers in Oswego.

There was a peculiar and striking experience in the conversion of Brother Goodwin, who entertained these pioneer laborers. This I will relate, as he told it to me when I first became acquainted with him, in the winter of 1854-’55. He said that in 1843, and for many years previous, he was an expert gambler, and, in fact, made his living by gambling. He said that his nights were spent at gaming-tables, and his sleep was made up in the daytime. There came a night when he expected to stay at the table with the games, but somehow he lost all interest in the game, and made up his mind early in the evening to go home. As he was walking along the street, he passed an open stairway that led up into a hall. Some one was preaching very earnestly in the hall, and he began to ascend the steps to see what was going on there. His interest led him into the hall, and he took a seat, and listened to a stirring discourse on the prophecy of Daniel. He said that, as he sat and listened, he was impressed that the speaker was in need of money. When the meeting closed, he walked up to him, and gave him a five-dollar bill; but before he got down the stairs, he was cursing himself for giving the man the money. He went home to sleep, but the image and beasts of Daniel were constantly before him, and the solemn impression on his mind that the end of all things was right at hand. His conviction was such that he left his gambling, and sought the hall where he first heard this message. He listened to other speakers, and was soundly converted to God, and united with the Advent believers in the city.

Then his anxiety was to find out who the man was that he first heard speak on the subject of the second advent. After a few months the same man came again, and said to the audience that there was a wonderful experience connected with his first visit to that place. He said, “When I started out to preach the near coming of the Lord, I told him I would go as long as he opened the way. As I came on the steamer to this city, an entire stranger, I had only fifty cents left. I prayed most earnestly in my cabin. I said, ‘Lord, if my work is done I can as well stop in Oswego as anywhere else; but if there is more for me to do, open the way.’ At the close of my sermon, a man handed me five dollars, and I have not lacked since. None of the brethren could tell who the man was; I would like to meet him.”

At the close of that service Brother Goodwin stepped up and said: “I am the man who gave you the five dollars, I want you to go home with me.” What a glorious time they had in praise to God as they related their experiences!

Such was one of the providences of the Lord in preparing a home for his servants, and especially for Brother and Sister White in their second move in the publishing work. Many a pleasant hour have I also spent in that pilgrim’s home, which was ever after open for the care of the Lord’s ministers.

J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.