Michigan by Elsie A. Brown

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 22, 1902

Michigan

By Elsie A. Brown

CARO.—In my canvass for “Christ’s Object Lessons” and The Life Boat, in the short space of a little more than two weeks, in which I have been given free access to homes, I have been caused to realize as never before the fearful progress being made by Spiritualism. In the form of Christian Science (falsely so-called, it being neither Christian nor science) it is making fearful inroads into society. And it appears here in its most modern dress, Reformed Christian Science, as set forth by Sabin instead of by Mrs. Eddy. The mind given over to this deception seems to have entirely lost all disposition and power for reasoning. May the Lord help us while we have light to believe in the light, and to cherish it faithfully!

In one of the homes entered here, a daughter, thirty-six years of age, has been an invalid from rheumatism for twenty-two years, unable to walk a step. In the same home, the father, from an injury to the brain, received through a fall six years ago, is mentally unbalanced, and is a great care. The mother, upon whom the maintenance of the family largely depends, has varicose veins, which sometimes burst, and endanger her life through hemorrhage, and upon one limb is a running ulcer. Still the anchor holds, and she has not lost faith in that word which reads, “In all their affliction He was afflicted.”

In another home a fine old gentleman who was formerly a Baptist minister, has patiently nursed an invalid wife for fifteen years. Through age and disease she has become mentally weak, but is still rational enough to prefer his ministry to that of any other. He remarked, in the course of our conversation, that if, instead of murmuring because roses have thorns, we were to thank God that even amid thorns there are roses, it would be a happy change both for ourselves and for others.

I now have “Steps to Christ” loaned in both these homes, and both are to have The Life Boat. I am also reading “Christ’s Object Lessons” in the first-mentioned one.

Still another home has two daughters, one of whom, though but twelve years of age, is a mental wreck from epileptic fits, from which she has suffered for eight years. The other, a very pretty child of fourteen, is also inclined toward fits. The father is in a bad state of health, from diabetes mellitus, and their circumstances are very limited. The poor, weary mother, with earthly hopes shattered, has not yet learned where to anchor hope. She, too, will have The Life Boat.

While giving another mother some idea of our visiting nurses’ work, the daughter, a girl of perhaps sixteen years, exclaimed, with glowing face, “I should just love that work!” “Well,” I said, “you are one of the many young women whom we wish to find. We are anxious to find those who, from love of the work, will fit themselves for it.” “I want that book, and The Life Boat, too,” she said; “but as I have no work now, I cannot have either, unless I can persuade my brother to take them for me.” Her brother decided that they would have both the book and The Life Boat.

At the next door I was met by a sweet-faced woman, the mother of five daughters, who, though not wishing to refuse me entrance, frankly told me that she feared my coming in there would be in vain. Not being so certain about it, I went in, and sold her the book, after which, in speaking of our rescue service in Chicago, she said, “Do you know that if there is one thing above another that I despise, it is a fallen woman. I would forgive my children any sin before that one.” During the earnest talk that followed, in which I read to her Sister Smith’s experience in this work, as given in the March number of The Life Boat, her tears freely flowed; and as I left her, she said, “This has certainly done me good. Come again.”

Still another lowly home has a family of six children, all just recovering from measles. They are bright, active children, and the mother, formerly a teacher in the Detroit schools, amid all her care and straitened circumstances still gives evidence of culture and true refinement. The firm yet gentle discipline shown in the management of her children, bespoke for her more than common capabilities. Here, I thought, is a home where The Life Boat must come free, but to my surprise she produced the required amount.

These are but few of the many experiences crowded into this short space of time; and believing it to be most helpful to consider the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves, I have written this, with the hope that a desire to enter this work may inspire the heart of some other.

ELSIE A. BROWN.