EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE
As to our reading circle, we are getting along very well with our studies. We have our meetings on Sabbath after the Sabbath-school. I am still trusting God to open up ways of usefulness for me. I ask Him to give me the Spirit of Christ in every detail of every-day life. I believe we should be faithful in paying our tithe, however it may be used. When it goes out of our hands, the responsibility goes with it, and if it is not economically used for the giving of the message, God will take care of that. I wish to express my appreciation of our good paper, the REVIEW AND HERALD. I am especially interested in the Woman’s Gospel Work department, and while reading the many requests for prayer, I have wondered if there are not those who have had blessed experiences, a brief narration of which would be a blessing to others. There are many sisters who are deprived of social meetings, and these would be benefited in this way. A praise service is often as beneficial as one full of petitions. If the dear sisters who have so much to bear from members of their own family that it seems as if they can bear it no longer, will, at the time the abuse is being heaped upon them, look to Jesus, and remember that in His severest trial, He could say, “Father forgive them; for they know not what they do,” the love of such a Saviour, without which we are nothing, will make the trials seem much lighter. I know this from experience, and I thank God for it. Two little ones have come to brighten our home, but at present six are warmed and fed, and call us papa and mama. For fifteen months at a time our family has not been less than fourteen, three of the number being homeless women, seventy or eighty years of age. God always provides help when He sends the helpless. He knows all about it, and always does all things well. He has given strength to one pair of faithful hands to furnish supplies to this great family, and while not one dollar of pecuniary aid has ever been asked for, or received beyond some half-worn clothing, yet God has signally blessed us, and we have always had plenty. I truly believe we have just as much to-day as if we had shut ourselves up to our own family. It is God who does all, and I believe that if we put ourselves in harmony with His will, we may expect great things of Him. I pray for seeing eyes and listening ears, that I may read God’s message of love in the faces of fallen humanity as well as in bird, leaf, and flower. I have been again to see the poor lepers. We had a good meeting yesterday. For the past few weeks I had been sending them REVIEWS and tracts through the post-office, so I felt free to talk with them about the truths these contained. There are only four Protestants here, and two of them are nearly blind from the effects of the disease. The English woman of whom I spoke before, reads to them. They were all able to come to a large, airy room on the third floor, where we had a good talk about the soon coming of Christ. Then I sang two hymns, read slowly the fourteenth chapter of John, dwelling especially on the first three verses, after which we had a season of prayer. I believe that two of the four Protestants are Christians, and one of the others, a young man, is under conviction. I could not understand the speech of the other, as he is an Icelander, but I noticed his poor disfigured face light up as I talked to him of Jesus’ love. Dear sisters, I can not describe to you my feelings as I sat there and talked with those persons. I felt the presence of Jesus by my side, and talked to them with great freedom. I have been wishing to write for a long time, but I hardly know how to state my needs—they are so many. I fear I am slipping back, and sometimes I am perfectly frightened at my lack of zeal for souls. I ask the dear sisters to pray for me. I am the only Adventist in this town, so far as I know, and I fear that I am yielding little by little, and almost unconsciously, to the influences of those about me. I know I need more faith, more love for my husband and neighbors, and a great sense of their danger, and more willingness to work and pray for them.