RECENTLY an old lady about sixty years of age became interested in the message, and attended our meetings regularly. However, her husband and son opposed her, and she finally quit coming. A few days ago, she called one of our young workers, and related her experience. “For some time,” she said, “I was troubled greatly because my family opposed my attending your meetings. I thought it not good to disturb the peace of the home with my new religion, so decided to study and pray alone; but one night I was shown that I should attend the meetings. I heard a voice say, ‘If you stop going to church, your soul will die.’ Still I had not the courage to go. Very soon I was taken sick, and suffered for several days. I prayed the Lord to heal me, but the answer was, ‘No.’ I was perplexed and disappointed, but last night I saw the sin of neglecting to heed the warning of the messenger, and repented, and prayed to the Lord to heal me. Now the fever has left me, and I have promised to attend the meetings, and also to tell my friends and relatives of this truth.”
Elder R. C. Porter, superintendent of the Asiatic Division of our work, and his recruits for China, taken on the porch of our publishing house, on their arrival, September 9, 1915. Elder Porter is the fourth from the right in the upper row, and his wife is the first at the right in the front row.
In one of my recent reports, I mentioned a young man who began canvassing in the vicinity of his home. One day his uncle wrote him, inviting him to come to his house. He went, and the uncle asked him to work in his bank, promising to pay him fifteen dollars a month. This is a pretty good wage for a young man, but he did not accept. “I do not want money, neither do I want position, but eternal life,” was his reply when his uncle tried to convince him that money is the only thing to help one in this day. The next morning, which was Sabbath, the boy’s mother came, bringing money with her, and tried to persuade him to leave us. She said: “Come home, or buy new clothes with this money, and go to your uncle’s bank. Did he not say he would pay you fifteen dollars a month if you would accept? Are you not happy, my son, to get such a position?” The boy listened to his mother, but said: “This is not the place to come to talk about such things. This is Sabbath, and soon the service will begin.” In about a week the boy’s brother-in-law took him to his home, and tried to persuade him to work in the bank. Failing in his purpose, he asked the boy why he refused to see his father, and urged him to go home. He said he would go home if his parents would allow him to follow his convictions in religious matters, and believe in Jesus Christ; also if they would throw all the idols that were in the house into the fire and burn them, and attend the meetings with him every Sabbath. At this the brother-in-law and other members of his family became angry, but the boy was not at all frightened. He told them that the gods which the Japanese worship are all false gods, and that they have no power to save from sin. “I love Christ more than money,” he said. “He is the true, eternal God; but gods of wood and stone will perish.” The boy came back to us, and is doing well in selling our literature.
