Part 11 (1/2)

At another time I made a carpet which required five years to make by working whenever I could find time to do so. After it was finished and before I had cut it, the Spirit said to me, while I was praying one day, ”Send that carpet to Kansas City to help furnish the Missionary Home.”

My heart said amen, and G.o.d made my husband willing, blessed my soul in sending it, and later gave me a carpet larger than the one I had given.

My husband had ceased to allow me to have a way to make money of my own. I was not permitted to have either chickens or eggs. Once I made a hot-bed, as plants found a ready sale, and thought I would make a little money in that way, but he found it just as the plants were coming up and destroyed it. G.o.d never failed to bless me when I said amen.

At one time when I was in need of a pair of shoes, I went in earnest prayer to the Lord like a child and asked him for a pair. Soon afterwards I received a letter from a sister in Kansas City whom I had never seen. She was giving her entire time to the gospel work and had a little money in her possession. In her letter she said, ”My mind was directed to you last Sunday during the services, and I was impressed to send this money to you.” At another time after praying for some money, I received a dollar. I was in need of so many things that I asked the Lord how I should spend it. This answer came: ”Send it to the missionaries in India.” I did so, and in a short time received three pair of shoes for the children, of which they were very much in need. I had many similar experiences.

When our baby girl was about three months old, a dear sister whom I had met and who was living in an isolated place, came to pay me a visit. She remained in that community. After about a year she was eager to grow in grace, and while she was anxiously waiting before the Lord and wis.h.i.+ng that she might grow like Sister ----, the question came to her, ”Are you willing to pa.s.s through what she has had to pa.s.s through?” She had a desire to do whatever was necessary, but did not feel that she could very well pa.s.s through such severe ordeals. In order to be spiritual and grow in grace, it is not always necessary for people to pa.s.s through such severe trials, nevertheless their consecration must be to pa.s.s through anything that would be most to the glory of G.o.d.

About this time I had an attack of sickness, and for sometime it seemed that I might die. My husband went to visit his sister and left me alone with the children. The sister who had been staying in the community, felt that she must come and stay with me, and when my husband returned, the Lord put it into his heart to hire her for a while. The Lord healed me and made my husband willing for my oldest daughter and I to go to a meeting at Kansas City. This was my last opportunity to enjoy a meeting before entering a much darker vale of trial. Our daughter was saved, for which I praised the Lord. My husband refused to hire the sister any longer, but in answer to prayer consented for her to stay as long as she desired without pay for her services.

In December of that year a dear baby boy was born. The Lord gave me this a.s.surance: ”I will be with thee in six troubles, yea, in seven there shall no evil befall thee.” My husband began planning to go to Arkansas.

We had been here three years and were getting our home comfortably furnished, but we learned to take joyfully the spoiling of our goods and to see them sold at a great sacrifice.

One day while I was communing with the Lord, this scripture was vividly impressed upon my mind: ”In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” At that time there was suggested to my mind the name of a town in Kansas near where I lived during my childhood. I did not understand what it meant, as we did not go there, but I understood later. I had always had an aversion to living in the backwoods, for I knew that the welfare and education of the children would be neglected, but I acknowledged G.o.d's way.

The sister who was with us was willing to stay or go with us.

We asked the Lord to open the way if he wanted her to go, and my husband told her that if she wanted to go he would pay her way. There are many experiences through which I pa.s.sed that I should like to relate--experiences showing the mysterious ways in which the Lord helped us in time of need. I learned that obedience and trueness to G.o.d will bring us into a wealthy place.

My husband went about six weeks before we did and secured a location.

Upon our arrival we found that our home for the present was sixteen miles from a railroad, back in the mountains, and that the roads were very rough and rocky. Our house was a very small one built of rough, unhewn logs. There were no windows, only some small shutters which could be opened when the weather was not cold. There were plenty of cracks and the fireplace was a smoky one. Most of the people in that community had lived there from the time of their birth and were poor.

The women used tobacco. Some could not read, and morality was at a low ebb.

Soon after being introduced to our new surroundings, I was asked these three questions in succession:

”Are you willing to stay here and work?”

”Yes,” I answered.

”Unseen and unknown?”

”Yes.”

”Not even an obituary when you die?”

”Yes.”

There were only twenty acres in cultivation, which required more hard work than eighty acres of ordinary farm-land. That fall my husband purchased a hewed log house of three rooms and moved it down between the mountains. It had four whole windows and two half windows, and we never knew before what luxuries they were.

We continued to have Sunday-school, as husband had not yet forbidden us to have it. He succeeded in turning most of the people against us by telling the usual stories, only he changed them to suit the people.

He often used the same whip for the children and me that he used for the horses. His condition grew worse and worse all the time. The second summer three of the children had typhoid fever. After the first one had been ill for nine days, we sent for a doctor according to the law. He said, ”Your little girl has a straight case of typhoid well developed, and it will take twenty-one days for the fever to break, with the best of care, if she lives at all.” I told him that my trust was in G.o.d, but he ignored what I said. My husband told him to leave medicine and ordered me to give it, not because he had no confidence in divine healing, but for fear of the law, and to please the people. She had never taken a dose of medicine in her life and wanted to trust the Lord.

I submitted and gave a few doses. G.o.d had given me witness that he would heal her, and in three days she was sitting up and was soon up.

My husband was very angry because she was healed. About two weeks later she took a relapse and was seemingly worse than ever, but we trusted in the promise, and she was soon all right again. Then two of the others contracted the disease, but they were both healed in answer to prayer.

One day during the summer while I was in the timber praying, a vivid impression came to me that G.o.d was going to deliver us out of that place, and the name of the town where we should live was given me. This was the same town previously mentioned, near where I had lived during my childhood. Oh, such rapture filled my soul! I told my daughter, and she said the Lord had been showing her the same thing. This scripture was given to me: ”I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

And I will be found of you, saith the Lord; and I will turn away your captivity” (Jer. 29:11, 14).

We had never sent the children to school here, as the people were so poor and of such a low grade morally. I taught our children during the winter. At the end of the second summer we began praying for shoes.

One day the children came from the mail-box with a pair for my oldest daughter, and then in a few days a letter came from an unsaved woman whom I had never met. She said: ”I have some money from the Lord and feel impressed to send it to you. Please write and tell me how to send it.” Then we received from a sister a letter containing five dollars.