Some Personal Experiences- by A. T. Robinson

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 5, 1914

Some Personal Experiences—

By A. T. Robinson

No. 4

A. T. ROBINSON

While laboring in Australia, there came a time when the manager of the Echo Publishing Company was notified by the police department that a complaint had been filed by some people against us for running the factory on Sunday, and that we should have to comply with the city ordinance in the matter.

A meeting of the board of managers was called. The writer, who was a member of the board, took the position that while we have a God-given right to work on Sunday, that right carries with it the Christian principle of compromising certain individual rights, in the interest of peace and for the good of our neighbors; that if we stood out against the authorities in this matter, it would result in raising prejudice against us in the minds of honest persons, and would cut off the ears of the very ones for whom we desired to labor. When the matter came to a test, five of the seven members of the board held to the position that to close the factory on Sunday would compromise the principles of the message touching our views concerning the "mark of the beast."

The board, by majority vote, having decided to meet the issue and abide by the consequences, the factory ran as usual on the following Sunday. The manager was again notified, and another board meeting was called, which resulted as did the one before. This program was repeated, the third and final notice being served on the manager. The officer stated that the persons who first entered complaint were threatening to prosecute him for nonenforcement of the law, and said that if our factory was run again on Sunday, he would be compelled, against his personal wishes, to take action. Our board was again called together, and spent several hours in earnest prayer to God for guidance in this trying time. That meeting lasted till a late hour at night, with the decision of the board still to meet the issue that was being forced upon us.

At that time Sister White and her attendants were staying in our family, in one of the suburbs of Melbourne. The hour being late when I returned home, the family had retired. I shall give in some detail a conversation which took place at the breakfast table the following morning. Sister White remarked to me, "You were out late last night?" "Yes," I replied. Later she asked, "Did you have a meeting last night?" "Yes," I said, " we had a meeting of the Echo board." A little later she asked, "What was your meeting about?" I then related to her, at some length, the situation which we were facing. She replied, "I am not surprised at these things. This matter has been opened to me, and I have written upon it." I then asked her if she would be willing to meet with our board and give us the benefit of her counsel. She expressed her willingness so to do, and I arranged for such a meeting. The matter was again discussed by the members of the board, Sister White sitting and listening in silence. Finally she was asked if she had any counsel for us, and to our distress she replied that she did not. A little later she said, "I feel perplexed in reference to this matter. I have had light upon it, and have written upon it, but my writing is in Cooranbong, New South Wales." Cooranbong is five hundred and fifty miles from where we were. Sister White sent a telegram to Miss Sarah Peck, who had charge of her manuscripts, and in a few days she received a copy of what she had written months before on the question at issue.

This Testimony, which she read to the board, instructed us that we should not compel the authorities to force this issue upon us, and thus prevent the very work that we were commissioned to do for the people. We were counseled to steal a march on the enemy, who was seeking to hinder and destroy our work, by yielding to the demands of the authorities, and to let the office employees give that day to missionary work in scattering our literature among the people. This counsel was followed by the board of managers, with results which brought joy and gladness to all our hearts.

At our morning family worship hour we were then reading by course in the book of Jeremiah, and on the morning following the meeting at which Sister White read the Testimony, the chapter read was the twenty-ninth. As the seventh verse was read, Sister White remarked, "Brother Robinson, do you see it in that verse?" I read the verse again and said, "Yes, Sister White, I see it clearly in that verse." The verse reads as follows: "And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace."