EXTRACTS FROM CORRESPONDENCE.
I AM the mother of eight living children, all grown to manhood and womanhood, and only my husband and I are left. God has given us a small, comfortable home. My husband is sixty-four years of age, and I am sixty, but we have good health. We have lived on grains, fruit, and vegetables for forty years. My husband is able to work every day, and I do my own work, and have strength to care for some of the sick in our neighborhood. We are isolated, but have no time to be lonely. I wish to work for my dear Saviour, but I am sometimes at a loss to know what to do. I am trying to improve every opportunity, and faithfully to perform all the small duties that come in my pathway. I am trying to let my life tell that I have Christ formed within, and to be a living witness in my home to the power of Jesus to save from sin. Dear sisters, it is possible for us to make our homes a mission for good to every member of the family. May the Lord help us to be faithful there, and to suffer long and be kind for Jesus' sake. Early last spring your letter came with healing in its leaves. My name was sent in with the request that I be prayed for. God has heard the prayers of the mothers in Israel, and it is to thank God in your hearing for the prayer of faith that I now write. I took the letter referred to, and after reading, knelt before God; and although not experiencing any particular feeling, thanked him for his goodness, and asked to be led by his gentle Spirit. He has done it. Now I have a brother, yes, two of them, who are without the fold. Will you all pray for them, as you have for me? Why doesn't somebody make linen picture books for the little ones on the life of the Good Shepherd and the creation week? In our family, Mother Goose, Cock Robin, Puss in Boots, and their kind, are quickly shelved; while Bible stories, birds, flowers, animals, strange countries and peoples, and missionaries and missions, never grow stale. Bread is better than froth; and little ones must have books of their very own. There is a gap here that really ought to be filled. The linen-book brigade is receiving lasting impressions from trash,—Mother Goose and newspaper cartoons. I have spoken with other mothers, and they have felt the same lack. We hold our woman's meetings every Wednesday afternoon at two o'clock, at which time one of the sisters reads a lesson, while the others sew. We have made several comforts, and sent them to missions. We have also collected a barrel of clothes, which we sent to the Chicago Mission, and are now making comforts and children's clothes for the Sunshine Home in Omaha. We held a meeting with one of our neighbors a short time ago, and she said that she was glad to be with the people of God, and invited us to come again. The Lord has blessed us in our work. We can surely see that the Lord has a work for the women which no one else can do; and we wish to do our part. My whole heart is in this work. Last night when I reached home and saw the notice of Sister Henry's death, I thought, “Some one must take up the work. Some one must labor on till the Master comes.” I will write a little of my experience, thinking it may be a help to others. We live on a small farm, but I try to canvass when I can get a day or two away from home. Since January I have canvassed seven days, and have taken eighteen orders for “Bible Readings,” ten for “Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing,” twelve for “Gospel Primer,” and have sold six Bibles. God blesses every effort. When I find any sick, I ask the privilege of praying for them; and I have seen them get well so quick that they have declared, “I know it is the Lord's work.” I was once a nervous wreck, but six years ago the Lord healed me. I have been spared by a miracle, and this gives me faith to ask the same blessing for others. I have walked over sixty miles in securing the orders mentioned above. I am very much interested in Woman's Gospel work, and read with interest everything in that department of our precious paper. I live in the country, and my work is now mostly at home, caring for the aged and afflicted, but I find some time to talk with my neighbors. At present I am especially interested in one woman who lives near me. She is a good woman, a church-member, but seems to be much discouraged. She says she can not live a Christian life because her husband is a wicked man, and if she tries to influence her children for good, his evil influence will counteract it all. I talk with her, and pray for her, and I desire your prayers and the prayers of the other sisters for her, that God will guide her mind and heart into a full knowledge of his goodness, love, and mercy, and that she may fully trust in his saving power. She says she believes that the Lord is soon coming, and that the seventh day is the Sabbath. . . . Our family is the only one to hold up the light of present truth in this neighborhood. Pray for us. I have great confidence in God and prayer. I have so many to pray and work for that I need the help of my brethren and sisters. I will tell you about our family. In the first place, none are Adventists but myself. My sister died three years ago this month, leaving the care of a little boy four years old. Over a year ago my oldest sister, through sickness, lost her mind. She had four children, and all four of them came to me. One of these children, a girl fifteen years old, is now losing her sight. My mother died long ago, leaving five little ones, and I have tried, by the help of the Lord, to raise my brothers and sisters. I felt that I could hardly take the care of so many more, but it seemed to be the will of God, and I am sure I wish to do his will. My brother-in-law, the father of the little boy, has lately taken to following bad habits. Do pray, and ask others to pray, that God will change his way. Also ask all who have faith to pray that the little girl's eyes may receive their sight, and my sister's mind be given back to her. Oh, God will surely help! He knows I am trying to do his will. I am not complaining of the work or of the hardness of the way, nor asking to be given another place; but only that you will help me by your prayers. In a recent issue of the REVIEW I read a request for prayer for two sisters who desired to be healed. The request keeps forcing itself into my mind, and I feel impressed to say a few words to them, and can do it only through your kindness. Over five months ago I was taken violently sick, and felt that there was no help for me if I remained in my home. I went to one of our sanitariums, thinking that a little surgical work was all I needed; but the doctor told me that I was completely worn out. In less than two weeks from that time the fact was made plain to me that, humanly speaking, there was no hope for me. When I became aware of this, and realized that I was even then by the gate of death, I shrank from death as from an enemy,—a foe that would rob my husband and my growing boys and my aged mother of one whom they all needed. I felt their need so intensely, and had such a desire to be a light for the truth until the Lord should come, that I was bold to claim Christ's promise in Mark 11:24. I had no doubt as to his power to stay my disease and give me new life. I may have talked with the Lord three hours, and then, claiming by faith the desire of my heart, I told the doctors that all pain had left me. From that day onward I was as a little child resting in the arms of parent love. I came steadily out of my extreme weakness, kept by the power of God through the long days and nights, so that what would have been a wearisome convalescence was a bethel of rest and joy in the Lord. And when I was taken to the surgical ward nearly three months afterward, at my request, as the doctors thought I was not strong enough, I went in the strength of the Lord, telling my nurse that I had given all the pain of the operations to the Lord, and that he would bear it all for me. This he did in such a wonderful way that I had no sense of the severe work that had been done. I had the blessed assurance that the Lord was my shield. I rested by faith, and in six weeks from the time of the operation I was brought to my dear home almost without weariness, although too weak to walk alone. It is now about six weeks since I came home, and I am gaining rapidly. I still hold on to the arm of the Lord, and shall till he comes for me. In all my experiences I can say, Praise the Lord. Dear sister, urge the people of God to believe—to take God at his word, and rest in him by faith.