Participants: Jim Nix
Series Code: AOT
Program Code: AOT000145
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00:12 Welcome to Anchors Of Truth,
00:15 live from the 3ABN Worship Center. 00:21 Hello and good afternoon, and we welcome you, 00:23 our audience here at the 3ABN Worship Center, 00:27 and our audience from around the world. 00:29 And sadly, we have come down to the last program in what has 00:33 been a most interesting and inspiring Anchors Of Truth. 00:38 Our guest has been Pastor Jim Nix, 00:41 who is the director of the Ellen G. White Estate, 00:43 and historian, and a collector of many things. 00:48 And I see there's a little pile of artifacts that he has here 00:51 that I guess he'll tell us about in just a little bit. 00:54 But we have learned so very, very much about our church, 00:57 about our doctrinal package, and I think in a very 01:00 special way about those men and women who the Lord 01:03 used to really begin and superintend the work 01:08 of the Lord as pertains to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 01:10 We found that they are not so different than we are. 01:13 They had strengths, they had failures, 01:15 they had likes, they had dislikes. 01:17 And they had a lot to work through as they established 01:19 this church, which has been a tool in the hand of God 01:23 for the salvation of the souls of men and women. 01:25 And we are inheritors of their work, 01:30 and we stand on the shoulders of great men and women. 01:33 We learned a lot about Ellen G. White this morning. 01:36 And this afternoon, we will learn more. 01:40 We find in talking with Jim Nix that he's a really neat guy, 01:45 if we're allowed to use that language for a man of God. 01:48 But he is a neat guy, he is fun to talk to. 01:51 He has a wealth of experience, he has traveled the world. 01:54 He has talked to many people and he is steeped in the history 01:56 of this church. 01:58 It makes one humbly proud to know that this church 02:01 didn't begin as a whim or in the mind of some man, 02:06 but it was birthed in the mind of God. 02:09 It was a prophetically destined church, 02:13 one that the Lord said would come in time. 02:16 And in time it did come. 02:18 And will stay here just as long as the Lord needs it 02:21 to do the work until Jesus comes again. 02:23 That is assured, that the work will be finished 02:26 either in our lifetime or shortly thereafter. 02:29 We can be assured that Jesus is indeed coming soon. 02:32 Amen? 02:33 And every time we look back, we see the way 02:36 that is paved forward. 02:38 Someone said years ago, if you can't see in the windshield, 02:41 look in the rearview mirror. 02:43 Because the same God that's there will be with you 02:45 until Jesus comes again. 02:47 And so our last presentation is, I Had The Privilege, 02:54 as Jim Nix talks about this very, very important subject. 02:59 Before he does so, our music is going to 03:02 come from Celestine Berry. 03:03 And she is going to be singing, Faithful To Me. 03:06 Before she sings, we will have prayer. 03:09 Then the next voice you will hear will be that of 03:10 Celestine Berry, and then our speaker, our friend, 03:13 Pastor Jim Nix, the director of the Ellen G. White Estate. 03:16 Shall we pray. 03:18 Gracious Father, we just praise You and thank You so very much 03:21 for Your Word, which is a lamp unto our feet 03:24 and a light unto our path. 03:26 We can see that path so very clearly as we look back 03:30 at the way that You have led us over these many, many years. 03:35 We know that we serve a faithful God. 03:39 And we ask that we may be faithful followers, 03:45 because we know that You are going to lead us 03:46 safely home if we will just follow You 03:49 wherever You lead us. 03:51 And so bless us this day as we sit, as we hear, 03:55 as we learn, as we grow. 03:57 Help us to remember that God doeth all things well, 04:02 and that Jesus is coming soon. 04:05 Bless the speaker, bless the music, bless our time together. 04:09 We praise You and thank You, dear Father. 04:11 In Jesus' name, amen and amen. 04:33 You have told me, Lord, what pleases You; 04:40 to act justly and love mercy, and walk humbly too. 04:46 I'm reminded of the things 04:49 You've always said were in Your heart; 04:53 I know that I have yet to go that far. 04:59 I want to live my life in glory to You, Lord, 05:07 that each and every day I'll love You more. 05:12 I pray I'll die for You, the One that I adore, 05:19 that someday I may hear the words I hold so dear, 05:26 "Well done, My child, you have believed. 05:33 You've been faithful to Me." 05:43 There are words of truth You long to say, 05:49 there is healing that may never come unless I pray. 05:56 There are works of love and courage 05:59 that, Lord, only You can do. 06:03 I'm willing, oh I yearn to be like You. 06:08 I want to live my life in glory to You, Lord, 06:16 that each and every day I'll love You more. 06:21 I pray I'll die for You, the one that I adore, 06:29 that someday I may hear the words I hold so dear, 06:35 "Well done, My child, you have believed. 06:42 You've been faithful to Me." 06:50 I know that one day I will look at You, 06:57 and I long to see the pleasure in Your eyes. 07:16 I pray I'll die for You, the one that I adore, 07:24 that someday I may hear the words I hold so dear, 07:31 "Well done, My child, you have believed. 07:38 You've been faithful to Me. 07:49 You've been faithful to Me." 08:11 Thank you very, very much. 08:14 Well, we've come to the end of this series 08:16 on Adventist history. 08:18 And of course, you could go on and on and on 08:21 talking about Adventist history. 08:23 And we've tried to look a little bit about the setting, 08:25 we've tried to look a little about where the Adventist 08:28 part of the denomination's name came from historically, 08:31 and the Sabbath part. 08:32 This morning we looked at some stories about Ellen White. 08:36 This afternoon I want to shift gears. 08:38 And I have called the presentation, 08:41 I Had The Privilege. 08:44 What in the world is that all about? 08:45 Well, let me unpack it in a minute. 08:47 Several years ago, I was asked by the stewardship department 08:51 to give a presentation on some of the stories of the sacrifice 08:56 and commitment of the pioneers. 08:59 Well there's lots of stories, that was not a problem 09:00 to find the stories. 09:02 It's a problem to find the glue to tie it all together. 09:06 And then I read the comments that I will be 09:09 reading in a minute to you, and it all came together for me. 09:12 But before we do, I'd like to read a text 09:15 from Philippians 3:13-14 that pretty much summarizes 09:21 the pioneers of this church, as well as, of course, 09:24 the apostle Paul who wrote it. 09:26 "Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, 09:30 but this one thing I do: forgetting those things 09:33 which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things 09:35 which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize 09:39 of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." 09:43 That is a good summary of the pioneers of this church. 09:47 As I said, I was trying to pull this talk together... 09:50 Not this one, but one similar to this several years ago. 09:54 ...and I ran across this account written by Merritt Kellogg, 09:57 Dr. Merritt G. Kellogg. 10:00 Who was Merritt Kellogg? 10:01 Well, he was the older half brother of some Kelloggs 10:05 that we're more familiar with; John Harvey Kellogg 10:08 and W.K. Kellogg. 10:10 John Harvey, of course, was the one that was the 10:11 medical director for so many years of the 10:13 Battle Creek sanitarium. 10:14 And W.K. Kellogg was the one who made the money 10:17 off of his brother's invention, corn flakes. 10:19 Well, Merritt Kellogg was also a physician. 10:23 He had one of these six month diplomas, 10:26 so I'm not sure what quality of physician he was. 10:29 But he was a committed physician. 10:30 And that's what they had back in the 1860's or so when 10:33 he was taking medicine. 10:35 But in 1908, Merritt Kellogg, now an old man, 10:42 is writing his recollections for building 10:46 the Saint Helena sanitarium in 1877. 10:51 And here's what he said. 10:52 And maybe you'll see, as we then share some other stories, 10:55 why this pulls everything together. 10:58 Kellogg wrote, "I had the privilege of assisting 11:02 to found the St. Helena sanitarium. 11:05 I not only had the privilege of going in there 11:08 and being its first physician and establishing it, 11:12 but I had the privilege of taking hold of the pick 11:15 and shovel with my own hands and grating a road up the 11:19 mountain over which we could haul material to the 11:22 mountain side where we built the institution. 11:25 Then with my own hands, I dug down the side of the rock, 11:29 which was a volcanic ash formation, cutting out and 11:32 making a place for the institution to stand upon. 11:36 Then," as if that wasn't enough, "Then I had the privilege 11:40 of framing the building and putting it up 11:43 and finishing it off. 11:45 I made every window frame, every door frame, 11:48 and then set them up. 11:50 I built the stairs and did the principal part of the work." 11:53 And after all of that privilege, now listen to what he says next. 11:56 "Then I had the pleasure, I had the pleasure also 11:59 after it was open for patients to see it filled within 12:03 two weeks to overflowing. 12:05 And we had to put up tents for our helpers to sleep in. 12:08 We had very little means..." 12:10 In other words, "We had very little money." 12:12 We have very little means, 12:13 and consequently had to work very hard. 12:15 In the morning at daylight, I would take my tools and 12:18 go and work until it was time to give the patients treatment. 12:22 Then without a nurse to assist me, I gave the treatment. 12:27 And when the treatment hour was over, 12:29 I went out to work again. 12:31 And so I worked all summer long." 12:34 "I had the privilege..." 12:36 Well in 1910, the General Conference of 12:39 Seventh-day Adventists set up something they called, 12:41 the sustentation fund for retired ministers. 12:45 And in 1913, Merritt Kellogg, he applied for some sustentation. 12:51 And I found this record in the General Conference archives, 12:55 and I just summarized a few things that he put 12:57 on the record as to why he thought he should be 12:59 eligible for sustentation. 13:02 He said that prior to the second sailing of the mission ship, 13:05 the Pitcairn, he had supported himself doing medical work, 13:10 royalty from a book that he had written, 13:12 The Hygienic Family Physician, and also royalties off of 13:15 the engraving, a picture, The Way Of Life, 13:17 that he had prepared. 13:19 He says on his application form that prior to 1893, 13:23 he had not received all told more than $200 dollars 13:26 from church funds. 13:28 However, during the period of time, he had sold his home 13:31 five times, using every dollar in the work. 13:37 In 1893, he and his wife went to Polynesia 13:40 and the Australasia mission field. 13:42 While they were there, they saved up a thousand dollars, 13:44 which was a fair amount of money in the 1890's. 13:47 Especially for a missionary. 13:48 But when he left that area to come back to the United States, 13:52 he says on his application that he left all, 13:55 there were so many pressing needs that he left all the 13:57 thousand dollars there to help the work 14:00 in the Australian field. 14:02 And he summarized his application by saying, 14:04 "I return to America poor as to this world's goods, 14:10 but rich in faith and Christian experience." 14:15 And though I don't find other pioneers putting it 14:17 quite like that, you can easily see from what they did 14:21 that they had that same mental viewpoint. 14:24 "I had the privilege, whatever it was, 14:27 no matter how difficult it was, I had the privilege, 14:31 I had the privilege to do it for the Lord." 14:34 And, "I may be poor in this world's goods, 14:38 but as a result I am rich in faith." 14:41 Now the first time that I started thinking about 14:44 stories of sacrifice and commitment 14:47 was many years ago when I was a college student. 14:50 And I have continued trying to collect some of these 14:53 stories through the years. 14:54 We're going to share some of them this afternoon. 14:57 But my first introduction, I guess, was I had the privilege, 15:01 I had the privilege, of meeting Elder Ernest Lloyd. 15:06 Elder Ernest Lloyd was in his 80's or early 90's, 15:10 late 80's or early 90's, when I met him. 15:12 He lived at the St. Helena sanitarium 15:15 in one of the cottages there. 15:16 And we were talking, I wanted to talk to him specifically 15:20 about his memories of Ellen White. 15:21 But we talked about a lot of things. 15:23 He lived actually to be about 105, 15:26 104 or 105 years of age. 15:28 So I knew him when he was still a young man, you know, 15:30 when he was in his 80's. 15:31 Anyway, one time when we were talking, 15:34 he said, "There's one thing I remember about the old 15:38 pioneer ministers when they would come to speak 15:42 when I was a boy." 15:43 Now the pioneer ministers, Elder Lloyd was born in 1880, 15:47 so the pioneer ministers, by the time he would remember, 15:50 would still be some of those first generation 15:54 or early second generation Adventist preachers. 15:57 And Elder Lloyd told me, he said, "One of the things 16:00 that I remember about those ministers when they came 16:03 to speak were their suits." 16:07 He said that when the sun would come through the window 16:10 at just the right angle and would hit those black 16:14 wool suits that the ministers wore, he said they would 16:18 shine green in the sunlight because they had been 16:21 pressed and re-pressed so many times. 16:24 There was no way that they would buy more clothes for themselves 16:28 when they could instead contribute money to the cause, 16:31 as they referred to it in those days. 16:33 Something else he mentioned to me has always stuck in my mind. 16:36 He said, "I remember, the part I remember especially besides 16:40 the suites shining green were the knees on the pants, 16:46 the suit pants, of those early ministers." 16:50 He said, "By far, the most worn part of those minister's suits 16:54 were the knees on their pants because of all the time 16:58 they spent praying." 16:59 That impressed that young man. 17:01 And of course, he went on then to be editor of, 17:03 Our Little Friend, for 25 years, and did other 17:05 youth work through the years. 17:07 Another story that I heard early on as I was starting to 17:10 collect some of these kinds of stories, 17:11 was one that was told to me by Elder Arthur White. 17:15 Elder White was the grandson, one of the grandsons, 17:17 of James and Ellen White. 17:19 And he actually followed his father, W.C. White, 17:23 who was the third son of James and Ellen White... 17:25 When Willie White, W.C. White, died in 1937, he had been the 17:29 secretary, as they called it in those days, of the White Estate. 17:32 And Arthur White, his son, was then invited to be the next 17:35 secretary of the White Estate. 17:38 And so, of course, being the secretary of the White Estate, 17:40 even though the White Estate in those days was still located 17:43 at Elms Haven in California, why, Arthur White was expected 17:46 to attend major church meetings. 17:48 So like General Conference sessions, or annual counsels, 17:51 which they called them, falls counsels, in those days. 17:54 And so Arthur White went to the 1938 annual counsel, 17:58 or fall counsel as it was then called, 18:00 in Battle Creek, Michigan. 18:02 Now it was interesting to talk to him about this fall counsel 18:05 because John Harvey Kellogg was still there. 18:08 And they were holding the fall counsel 18:12 in the Battle Creek sanitarium. 18:14 Now this is 1938, and if you know anything about 18:16 world history, you know in 1929 there had been a crash 18:19 and the country had not completely come out of this. 18:22 And so Kellogg was still scrambling trying, 18:24 Dr. Kellogg was scrambling trying to just keep enough 18:27 people in that sanitarium to keep it open. 18:29 So even though he and the church had parted company 18:31 30 years before, I think he was probably very happy 18:34 to have the brethren there to meet and hold their meeting 18:37 in his sanitarium. 18:39 And Elder White said, "Dr. Kellogg 18:41 showed me all around." 18:42 Of course, he knew who he was. 18:44 Kellogg knew who Arthur White was. 18:46 Showed him all around and everything. 18:48 Anyway, but the point that I want to get to in terms of 18:50 this particular story is what Arthur White told me happened 18:54 on the way back after fall counsel was over; 18:58 the overnight train trip back to Tacoma Park, Maryland 19:01 were the General Conference was then housed or located. 19:06 He said, "I was a member of the White family. 19:10 So of course, I know something about sacrifice, 19:12 or thought I did." 19:14 And he said, "So because I was a member of the White family, 19:17 and because I had been raised to know that you should 19:19 sacrifice for the cause, I got an upper birth 19:23 for the overnight train trip." 19:25 An upper birth in a Pullman car was less expensive 19:29 than just a lower birth. 19:31 And so he said, "I was feeling kind of smug about myself, 19:34 feeling pretty good. 19:35 I had saved some money for the cause." 19:37 For his expense report, you know, to turn in. 19:39 "I had an upper birth." 19:41 He said, "Before I put in for the night," 19:45 he said, "I decided to walk back through the train 19:47 to see who else was riding on that overnight train trip 19:51 from Battle Creek back to Tacoma Park, Maryland." 19:55 And he said, "As I walked through the cars, the coaches, 19:58 I came to a coach, and seated there in one of the chairs, 20:03 or in one of the seats, was Elder W.A. Spicer." 20:06 Now at this time, Arthur White would have been probably 20:09 about 31 and W.A. Spicer about 73. 20:13 He had been, Spicer had been secretary of the 20:15 General Conference for 19 years. 20:17 He had been president of the General Conference for 8 years. 20:19 He had served various times as editor of the church paper 20:23 for a couple of years. 20:24 And he had been a missionary. 20:26 I mean, when it comes to the church, Elder Spicer 20:28 had pretty well done it. 20:30 And so here he was, and Arthur White said, "I walked in 20:34 and I saw Elder Spicer there sitting up in this seat." 20:39 And he said, "I never felt so humiliated in all my life." 20:44 He said, "Elder Spicer did not say one word to me," 20:47 but he said, "I knew exactly why Elder Spicer was sitting there 20:51 with a blanket around his shoulders." 20:53 I don't remember if Arthur White said he had a stubby pencil out, 20:56 but I know that W.A. Spicer wrote an awful lot of letters 20:59 and articles for, The Review, and stuff, with pencils 21:01 on train trips and boat trips. 21:03 So he may well have had one that evening 21:05 as they were traveling by train. 21:07 Elder White said, "You know, we exchanged some pleasantries. 21:11 He never said a word to me at all, but," he said, 21:13 "I knew that there was no way that Elder Spicer 21:18 would spend enough money to get an upper birth even 21:21 in a Pullman car because he was saving money for the cause." 21:26 As they use to call it in those days. 21:29 And as I said, Elder White told me, "I never felt so humiliated 21:33 in all my life, realizing I was feeling smug that I had actually 21:37 saved the church some money, saved the Lord some money, 21:40 by getting an upper birth. 21:41 And here was a man more than twice my age 21:44 sitting there, couldn't even bring himself to do that, 21:47 because it was more money that could go into the mission work 21:51 of the church if he didn't spend it." 21:53 And so, let's just look at a few of the stories that 21:55 come down from some of those people. 21:58 We talked the other night about William Miller. 22:00 William Miller was a... he was a... 22:06 Well they didn't have ASI in those days, but if they did, 22:10 he should have been a member for sure. 22:11 Because he was a self supporting ministry. 22:15 He paid his own way. 22:16 All those trips that he made to go everywhere, 22:19 he paid from his farm. 22:21 His children would maintain the farm so that he had money 22:25 to go preach. 22:27 He started preaching, as I mentioned the other night, 22:29 either in 1831 or 1833, depending on 22:31 which source you look at. 22:33 And nobody bothered to think that it cost money 22:36 for stage coaches and boats, canal boats, 22:40 and those kind of things. 22:41 Until 1835. 22:43 He was up in Canada, and some lady came up to him 22:47 and gave him two half dollars. 22:49 It was the first money that anyone had ever thought 22:52 to give him to help pay for his travel. 22:55 The next year he was in New York state. 23:00 And there, someone gave him four dollars. 23:04 So in the first five or six years of his ministry, 23:07 he had been given a sum total of five dollars. 23:12 And yet, the critics were saying he's around making money. 23:15 He's becoming rich off of his preaching. 23:18 Well, he thought that was a strange way to show it. 23:21 Because it certainly wasn't coming to him. 23:23 Wherever the money was going, it was not coming to him. 23:26 But he went, and he preached and he preached and he preached 23:28 his heart out the first angel's message, 23:30 as we discussed the other evening. 23:32 Another one of those that preached a great deal during 23:35 that time was a man by the name of Charles Fitch. 23:38 If you have read, Early Writings, you know that 23:41 Ellen White, in her first vision given to her December of 1844, 23:46 sees in the future, hasn't happened yet obviously, 23:49 but she sees in the future 23:52 the second coming of Christ; that hasn't happened. 23:53 She also sees, when we get to heaven, 23:55 there will be Charles Fitch and one other man, Levi Stockman. 23:59 And they are there in heaven. 24:01 Some of the very few people, by the way, that Ellen White 24:04 names as having been shown in vision 24:06 that they will actually be in heaven. 24:08 But Charles Fitch, let me tell you a little bit about 24:11 his commitment to the preaching of the Millerite message. 24:15 Well, first a story with a little sense of humor, 24:16 and then his commitment. 24:19 One time he was preaching, and he had a call 24:22 while he was preaching. 24:24 And the place was packed, the hall or the church 24:27 where he was preaching. 24:28 And there was a man up in the balcony who 24:31 decided to respond to the call. 24:33 Now the old story describes him as being a 24:36 rather lubberly fellow. 24:39 I assume that means overweight. 24:40 I have never looked up, "lubberly," 24:42 but that's the way I picture it. 24:43 Whatever a lubberly fellow was, but anyway. 24:45 This lubberly fellow begins to make his way down the stairs, 24:49 and he stumbles. 24:51 And people start to laugh to see this man kind of falling 24:54 down the stairs as he's trying to respond to Charles Fitch. 24:58 And Fitch cries out when he sees what's happening 25:00 and the laughter going on, he cries out, 25:03 "Never mind, brother, it's better to stumble into heaven 25:06 than to walk straight into hell." 25:08 That was the end of that. 25:09 There was no more laughter going on. 25:12 But now Fitch and his commitment. 25:15 A short time later, after this story that I just related, 25:19 he was preaching in Ohio and it was a cold day. 25:24 It was in the fall and it was cold. 25:26 And when he got through preaching, he made an appeal. 25:30 And a number of people wanted to be baptized. 25:32 So they went down to the lake, the wind was blowing. 25:34 As I say, the temperature was chilly. 25:37 And he baptized several in the lake. 25:39 And as he comes up out of the water to go back 25:42 to where he was staying and to dry off 25:45 and to get warmed up a bit, here came another group. 25:48 They hadn't made up their mind quite so quickly. 25:50 So here they come, and they want to be baptized. 25:52 Well, the Lord is coming quickly. 25:55 We need to baptize them. 25:56 So back to the lake he goes, into the water he goes, 26:00 and he baptizes the second group. 26:03 It's still windy, it's still cold. 26:05 And when he comes up out of the water after baptizing the 26:08 second group, now pretty chilled himself, 26:11 he's now going to go back to where he was lodging 26:15 and try to get dried off and warmed up, 26:17 when guess what. 26:18 Here comes a third group. 26:20 They had not made up their mind earlier, 26:22 now they want to be baptized. 26:23 So back into the water Fitch goes. 26:26 He baptizes this group. 26:28 The next day, even though it's still cold, 26:31 he travels in an open carriage, or wagon, buggy, or whatever, 26:38 and he catches cold. 26:40 Unfortunately, the cold turns into pneumonia. 26:43 Now this does not occur before Fitch hears about 26:50 the October 22 date. 26:52 So factor this in. 26:54 He dies on October 14, eight days before October 22. 26:58 But he has accepted the October 22 date. 27:02 So he's now looking for Jesus to come on October 22. 27:07 But we've talked about his commitment. 27:09 Let's just pause another moment and put into context 27:13 what the great disappointment was like when Jesus didn't come 27:16 on October 22. 27:18 His obituary, the last line in the obituary of Elder Fitch 27:23 says the following, "His widow and fatherless children 27:27 are now at Cleveland confidently expecting the coming of our Lord 27:31 to gather the scattered members of the family. 27:33 Can you picture that mother standing there by the casket 27:36 saying to those children, "Don't cry. 27:40 Next Tuesday when Jesus comes, we'll see papa again." 27:45 And maybe that helps us, a little bit at least, 27:48 to understand why they called it the great disappointment. 27:53 Because not only did Jesus not come, but they were not 27:57 reunited with papas and mamas and brothers 27:59 and sisters and grandparents; 28:01 family members that had passed away. 28:04 We'll do these kind of in chronological order. 28:07 Speaking about some of the others from that period of time, 28:09 when they came up to the October 22, 1844 date, 28:13 there were several Millerites. 28:15 We know some by name and others just by general descriptions. 28:19 But we know of several Millerites who left 28:21 their potatoes or their crops in the field. 28:25 People would come and say to them, 28:27 "Well, if you're not going to use that, 28:29 if you're not going to dig your potatoes, or whatever, 28:32 let us do it." 28:33 Well, Leonard Hastings was one of those. 28:36 And he said, "No. No, Jesus is coming." 28:40 I'm not going to take your money. 28:41 You're not going to need those potatoes. 28:42 And I don't need them, so just leave them there in the field." 28:45 Interestingly, there was a potato rot that got into the 28:49 potatoes for two or three years, at least, in New England 28:51 and rotted practically all the potatoes that had been dug. 28:56 But when later Leonard Hastings goes out into his field, 29:01 he realizes his potatoes have not frozen, 29:03 but some way or other the earth had preserved them. 29:07 And he now was able to sell his potatoes for a lot more money 29:10 because the other farmers were needing seed potatoes 29:12 to try to plant the next year, and most of the 29:14 potatoes had rotted. 29:17 It wasn't just the men who were committed in those days. 29:20 The wife of Hiram Edson, her name was Esther Edson. 29:24 When it came time to print the first article that dealt with 29:29 the Sanctuary truth, as we now call it, 29:31 the Sanctuary doctrine, when it was time to do that, 29:33 they had no money, Hiram Edson and the others that were 29:36 putting out that little issue of, The Day-Star extra. 29:40 They had no money. 29:41 So what did Sister Edson, what did Esther Edson do? 29:45 She sold her silverware. 29:48 Now that wouldn't do most of us much good today, 29:50 because it's just pot metal. 29:52 But back then it was coin silver. 29:53 So it was worth something. 29:54 And she sold all of her solid silver teaspoons 29:58 and half of her large spoons to help pay. 30:01 This was not just the men's endeavor, this was 30:04 men and women, family, committed to getting the message out. 30:09 Other stories from that period of time about 30:12 sacrifice and commitment. 30:14 One has to do with the publishing of the first 30:18 Sabbath tract. 30:19 Here we go, I showed this the other night I think. 30:22 This is a Xerox copy of Joseph Bates first Sabbath tract 30:26 that was published in 1846. 30:28 Now interestingly, Joseph Bates did not have the money 30:32 to print his tracts. 30:34 And so he had arranged with the printer, Benjamin Lindsey, 30:37 who was in New Bedford... 30:39 Bates lived across the river in Fairhaven. 30:41 He had arranged with Benjamin Lindsey that when money became 30:44 available, he would pay it until eventually 30:46 he would pay off the printing bill. 30:49 Well he had a friend, Heman Gurney, Bates had a friend, 30:53 Heman Gurney, who was a blacksmith. 30:55 He liked to sing. 30:56 He's known in Adventist history as a singing blacksmith. 30:59 Apparently as he'd pound away at the anvil, 31:01 he would sing hymns. 31:02 So he's known as the singing blacksmith. 31:04 In 1844, the spring of 1844, Bates decided he wanted to go 31:09 down into Maryland, to Kent Island in Maryland, 31:12 and he wanted to try to find a family that had befriended him 31:16 30 or so years before when the whole Chesapeake Bay 31:20 froze over and Bates almost died of frost bite 31:25 or freezing to death. 31:26 And this family had helped rescue him. 31:28 And now he felt very obligated to go down, 31:31 try to find if any of them still lived there, 31:33 and to tell them that Jesus was about to come. 31:37 So he went to Gurney and he said, "Would you come along? 31:39 I'll do the preaching if you'll do the singing." 31:42 And Gurney said, "Thank you, but no thank you. 31:44 I'm not very interested in going down there with you." 31:46 Maryland was a slave owning state in pre-civil war years. 31:51 And the slave owners did not like Millerite preachers, 31:54 most of whom were abolitionists. 31:56 And so they would always give them a rough time. 31:57 And Gurney knew that, so he said to Bates, "No, no, no, no. 32:00 I'm not too interested in going down there." 32:02 Well anyway, long story short was, Bates finally convinced 32:06 Gurney to go with him. 32:07 And so the two men went down there. 32:09 Now when Gurney left, Heman Gurney, 32:12 left Fairhaven, Massachusetts, his employer owed him 32:16 some back wages, and said to him, "If you're so crazy 32:21 that you're going to go preach with that Bates guy 32:24 about the second coming of Christ, I'm not going to 32:26 pay you the money." 32:28 He probably said, "You're not going to need it anyway 32:29 if you're right, because the Lord is going to come." 32:31 But that's not part of the story. 32:33 That's just my imagination. 32:34 But whatever, he said, "I'm not going to pay you." 32:36 And so Gurney said, "Never mind, that's fine." 32:39 And he went anyway. 32:40 Two years later... 32:42 Probably closer to... Well at least two. 32:45 A little over two years later, one day Gurney is there in town, 32:49 either Fairhaven or New Bedford, he sees his former employer. 32:53 His former employer says to him, "I'm feeling bad. 32:58 I still owe you that money. I owe you 100 dollars. 33:02 And I really should pay up what I owe you 33:05 when you took off to go preach a couple of years ago." 33:08 And so he handed Gurney the money. 33:11 Now Gurney has given up on the bill. 33:13 He doesn't think he's ever going to get the money. 33:14 So what does he do at this point with 100 dollars 33:18 that he had not expected to ever see? 33:21 Does he go spend it on himself? No. 33:22 He knows his friend, Bates, is still trying to pay off 33:26 the bill on that first Sabbath tract. 33:29 And so now Heman Gurney walks down Water Street there 33:33 in New Bedford, goes into Benjamin Lindsey's print shop, 33:37 and he says to Mr. Lindsey, "I understand that Joseph Bates 33:42 still owes you 100 dollars on his account." 33:45 "Yes, that's correct." 33:46 Well he said, "I'll tell you what. 33:48 I will pay off that account on one condition. 33:52 That you never tell Joseph Bates who paid the bill." 33:57 Now Benjamin Lindsey, I don't know if he was religious or not, 34:00 but he certainly was not a Millerite or 34:02 an early Sabbath keeper. 34:03 But he was a good businessman. 34:05 And he knew that if he agreed to keep his mouth shut, 34:08 he could get paid today. 34:09 If he wasn't willing to keep his mouth shut 34:12 he didn't know when he'd get paid, because whenever 34:14 Bates had a little more money, he'd come pay 34:15 some more on the account. 34:17 So Benjamin Lindsey agreed. 34:20 And the bill was paid. 34:22 A short time later Joseph Bates comes in 34:25 to Mr. Lindsey's print shop again, 34:26 and he's ready to pay a little bit more money. 34:30 And Mr. Lindsey said, "It's all paid. 34:32 You don't owe me any money." 34:34 Now the story tells us that Bates wasn't even curious 34:39 to know who paid the bill. 34:41 Bates' whole life, the way he lived his life was, 34:45 "The Lord will provide." 34:47 The Lord had provided. 34:48 He didn't need to know where the money came from. 34:50 Didn't make him any difference. 34:51 The Lord had taken care of it. 34:53 But Gurney liked to tell the story to his dying day 34:56 how he'd had the privilege of paying off the final amount 35:01 that was owed on the printing of the first Sabbath tract. 35:05 Another time, just to talk about Bates, another time 35:08 he decided he needed to go somewhere. 35:09 He felt impressed he should go preach. 35:11 He didn't have any money. 35:12 But he got on the train anyway and sat down, 35:16 having no idea what he was going to do, 35:18 because pretty soon the ticket agent was going to be by 35:21 and he didn't have a cent in his pocket. 35:23 But never mind, the Lord had impressed him 35:26 he should go, so the Lord will provide. 35:28 And sure enough, a gentleman that he did not even know, 35:31 a total stranger walked up and said, "Here's five dollars." 35:34 That covered the ticket, and away Bates went. 35:39 Bates lived his life that way. 35:41 There's another story that probably most of you have heard, 35:43 but it shows the commitment of Joseph Bates. 35:46 It has to do with the second edition, probably it was the 35:49 second edition of the Sabbath tract that came out in 1847. 35:53 First tract, 1846. 35:55 Then he enlarged it and brought out a second tract in 1847. 36:00 Now the story that goes with that printing of that tract 36:03 goes like this: 36:05 Joseph Bates' wife, Prudy Bates, needed to do some baking. 36:10 And so she came to her husband and she said, 36:12 "I need to do some baking, and I need some flour. 36:16 Would you go and buy some flour. I'm all out of flour." 36:18 "Well sure, of course I will. 36:20 How much flour do you need, by the way?" 36:23 "Well, I need four pounds of flour." 36:25 "Oh, okay." 36:26 And so he gets up and he goes to the general store, 36:30 and there he buys four pounds of flour. 36:33 And he comes home and he gives the four pounds of flour 36:36 to his wife, who is very startled. 36:39 And she said, "What? What in the world? 36:41 You only brought me four pounds of flour. 36:44 I mean, usually when you go to the store, 36:47 you buy a whole barrel of flour. 36:49 And now you're just buying one little container of flour?" 36:55 And then he said to her, "Well," he said, "you know, 36:59 I haven't told you this, but," he said, "I spent the last 37:03 money that we had to get you that four pounds of flour." 37:08 And what it was, was one of these little things; 37:10 a York shilling. 37:11 They're called, York shillings, they were really Mexican coins, 37:14 but up there in New England they called them, York shillings. 37:16 And he had spent the last money. 37:18 She said, "Well, what in the world are we going to do? 37:20 How are we going to..." 37:21 I think that's woman talk for, "Are you going to get a job?" 37:24 I think that's what she meant, but the story says 37:26 she just asked him, "What are we going to do?" 37:29 Anyway, he said, "Well, I'm going to write a tract." 37:33 I'm sure that's not what she wanted to hear from him. 37:35 "I'm writing a tract on the Sabbath." 37:36 "Well, how are we going to survive?" 37:38 "Well, the Lord will provide." 37:41 And the story says she went off to have a 37:43 nice little cry about it all. 37:45 He's sitting there feeling impressed that there is some 37:49 mail for him if he would go to the general store 37:52 to the postmaster and to call for mail. 37:55 And so he got up and he walked to the post office, 37:58 or wherever the mail was delivered or was held. 38:02 Because they didn't deliver it in those days. 38:04 You just went to the post office. 38:05 And there, he asked if there was any mail for him. 38:08 Now this is not the letter that was written to Joseph Bates, 38:12 obviously, but this is the kind of letter that, 38:14 when the postmaster looked in all the little cubicles 38:16 and pulled out the B's, and flipped down through, 38:18 and found one for Bates, it was like this with a 38:20 little "5" up here, meaning that the postage had not been paid. 38:24 There was five cents postage due. 38:26 Now how much money does Bates have in his pocket? 38:29 None. 38:30 So the postmaster said, "Look, I've known you for years. 38:34 No problem, just take it. 38:35 When you have the money, why, bring me to postage that's due." 38:38 "No, no, no. I won't do that," he said. 38:41 But he says, "I feel impressed that if you open the envelope, 38:45 there is money in that envelope." 38:47 And sure enough, when the postmaster opened the envelope, 38:52 why, there was something that would have 38:53 looked maybe like this. 38:54 This is a ten dollar bill from that era there in New Bedford. 38:57 I don't know exactly which bank it was on, but it would have 38:59 looked something like this, printed on one side. 39:02 And now Bates has ten dollars. 39:05 So guess what he does. 39:07 Well he pays off the postage due. 39:08 Now he has nine dollars and 95 cents in his pocket. 39:12 So where do you think he goes? Back to the general store. 39:15 And guess what he buys. A whole barrel of flour. 39:18 And he buys some other things. 39:20 And he says to the drayman, which we would today 39:23 say probably the delivery boy, but he says to the drayman, 39:26 "Take this to my house." 39:28 And he knows his wife very well, he says, "The woman of the house 39:31 will come out and tell you it doesn't belong there. 39:33 But you don't pay any attention. 39:35 You just deliver it anyway." 39:37 And now he's got to give a little chance, a little time, 39:41 for this scenario to play itself out that he has set in motion. 39:46 So he now walks, he's in Fairhaven, he walks across 39:49 the bridge over to New Bedford, over the Acushnet River, 39:52 turns left, goes down Water Street half a block or so 39:56 to Benjamin Lindsey's print shop, walks in 39:58 and says, "I want to print another book. 40:02 And I would like to do it on time payments like before." 40:05 Well that's fine, he'd gotten paid before. 40:08 No problem, we'll do that. 40:09 "And of course, I need some ink and pens 40:11 and paper, and all that." 40:12 And by this time Bates figures that the drayman, 40:16 the delivery boy, has delivered the stuff. 40:19 And so he goes back home, across the Acushnet River, 40:23 he turns left on Main Street, walks down four or five blocks 40:27 to where he was living then, and slips in a side door, 40:30 and sits down. 40:31 And his wife does not know he's back. 40:34 Pretty soon she walks by and she sees her husband 40:35 sitting there, and she is all worked up, 40:38 "Oh guess what happened while you were away, 40:41 while you were out." 40:43 Well, Joseph plays like he knows nothing at all of what happened. 40:47 I mean, you know, "Well, what happened, my dear?" 40:50 "Well, the drayman came and he delivered this stuff. 40:53 And I told him it doesn't belong here." 40:54 And she just goes on and on and on. 40:56 Finally Bates says, when she winds down a little bit, 41:00 "Didn't I tell you the Lord will provide?" 41:03 "Well yes, but..." 41:05 And he hands her the letter from someone who said, 41:08 "I'm sending this money to help you with your ministry." 41:11 And the old story tells us she went off to have another cry. 41:16 This time is a little different than the first cry, 41:18 but she had another cry anyway. 41:20 But it gives you some idea, again, about the commitment 41:22 of these people and how they lived. 41:24 Then there's J.N. Loughborough. 41:26 He was a young man, J.N. Loughborough. 41:28 He had been a Sunday keeping minister, 41:31 and he started preaching just before he turned seventeen. 41:35 So he was still sixteen when he started preaching 41:37 Sunday keeping Adventism. 41:39 And for three and a half years he preached Sunday keeping 41:42 Adventism until in 1852 someone came to him and said, 41:47 "You know, some of your converts are kind of skipping out on 41:52 this Sunday business and they're becoming 41:55 Sabbath keeping Adventists. 41:57 You need to do something about it." 41:59 "Well," John Loughborough thought to himself, 42:02 "I can take care of that." 42:03 So he wrote out a list of text that he was going to prove 42:06 to this Sabbath keeping Adventist preacher, 42:09 proof from Loughborough's viewpoint, that Sunday 42:13 was the day we should be worshipping. 42:14 Now what he didn't know was, he was coming up against 42:17 another young preacher about his same age, just three years 42:20 older, named J.N. Andrews. 42:23 And Andrews, Andrews was ready for this young 42:27 John Loughborough, this young preacher. 42:29 And Loughborough himself said, "You know, 42:32 I sat there listening. 42:33 And I had my list of text that I thought proved Sunday keeping. 42:36 And as John Andrews would preach, I'd have to 42:40 cross one off, 'Well no, that doesn't teach it.' 42:42 Pretty soon I'd cross another one off, 'Nope.'" 42:43 He said, "By the time he sat down, I'd crossed off 42:45 every single text. 42:47 I realized none of them preached Sunday keeping Adventism. 42:51 They all were seventh day Sabbath keeping." 42:53 So he said, "I decided I better be a Sabbath keeper." 42:55 And that's what he became. 42:56 Now he felt that he should go preach. 42:58 You know, he had been a preacher as a Sunday keeping Adventist. 43:01 Now he felt he should go preach, and he had this conviction. 43:05 When he became a Sabbath keeper, he had in his pocket, 43:10 or in his bank, or whatever, thirty-five dollars. 43:13 And now for whatever reason, he could not make any money at all. 43:16 Now remember, in those days we didn't pay our pastors. 43:19 So they had to support themselves. 43:20 He was just... He could not make anything... 43:24 I mean, nothing was working for him. 43:25 He had a wife. And, "What do I do?" 43:28 And finally, he is down to one of these things. 43:31 I don't know if you've ever seen one of these, 43:32 but they were issuing these. 43:34 This is a three cent silver piece. 43:36 These were started issuing in 1851. 43:38 This story is 1852. 43:40 So it was a little coin about like this. 43:41 His wife comes to him one day and said, 43:44 "I want to go to town and I want to buy some matches 43:47 and I want to buy some thread." 43:49 And so John reaches into his pocket and pulls out a 43:52 silver three cent piece, and said, "Well, take this. 43:55 It's all the money we have. 43:58 But buy just one penny's worth of matches 44:03 and one penny's worth of thread, and bring me back the other 44:06 penny so we're not totally broke." 44:09 And so she goes off to do her shopping. 44:12 Well, he's convinced that the Lord's going to help him, 44:14 but he doesn't know how. 44:16 And while she is away, a man knocks on the door. 44:21 He says, "I would like to get an assortment 44:24 of Arnold's patent sash locks." 44:25 Now Loughborough had been selling window sash locks, 44:29 you know, cupboards, and those kind of things, sash locks, 44:32 locks for doors and things. 44:33 But he was making no progress at all. 44:35 Here this man comes, and all Loughborough had to do 44:41 for this eighty dollar sale for this man wanting to take some 44:44 on a commission so that he could go to Ohio 44:46 and resell them there, was, he just had to walk half a block 44:50 and he would make twenty-six dollars from the sale. 44:53 Needless to say, when he got back home, guess what. 44:57 He was not looking down anymore. 44:59 He was singing. 45:01 And his wife wondered what in the word had happened. 45:03 And he told her about the sale and how God had honored them 45:07 once he had made his commitment to go preach, 45:11 though he didn't know how he could afford to do it. 45:13 And from then on through the rest of his life, 45:15 Loughborough was a Sabbath keeping Adventist minister 45:20 for about 72 years until he died in 1924. 45:24 Those early years in Rochester where Loughborough decided 45:28 to become a Sabbath keeper were not at all easy. 45:31 Uriah Smith, many yearly later wrote, thinking back about those 45:35 early years when those young people in their teens and 20's, 45:38 on the Washington hand press that they had purchased 45:41 for 652 dollars, blistering their hands trying to get 45:47 the truths out that they had studied from the Bible 45:50 about the Sabbath and Sanctuary, and other things, and here's 45:53 what Uriah Smith many years later wrote, 45:55 "I often think of the time," this is in Rochester, New York, 45:58 1852, 53, 54, "I often think of the time when 46:02 Brother J.N. Loughborough and a few others in Rochester, 46:04 New York, under the direction of Brother James White, 46:07 were preparing the first tracts to be sent out to the people. 46:10 The instruments we had were a bradawl, 46:13 a straightedge, and a penknife. 46:15 Brother Loughborough, with the awl, would perforate 46:18 the backs for stitching; the sisters would trim 46:21 the rough edges on the top, front, and bottom. 46:24 We blistered our hands in the operation, and often the tracts 46:28 in form were not half so true and square 46:31 as the doctrines they taught." 46:34 And I want to show you something printed on that hand press. 46:36 And for those up in front, you can actually see 46:39 how uneven it was, as it was described by Elder Smith. 46:43 And here is a tract that was printed 46:46 on that first little press. 46:47 And I brought this particular one because 46:49 it's about to fall apart. 46:50 That means the last few pages are not there, 46:52 and you can see where it has been just stitched together. 46:55 And these were young people in their teens and 20's 46:58 committed to the proclamation of the soon return of Jesus. 47:01 And this is kind of evidence that substantiates 47:05 what he said. 47:07 Well there's so many stories I've got here that I could tell. 47:10 I should say that Uriah Smith, also because they didn't have 47:14 any money and they really were hard pressed for furniture, 47:18 the press was in the living room of the house for a while. 47:21 I don't know how you ladies would like to have that. 47:23 But anyway, that's where it was. 47:25 And Uriah Smith once said that though he had no objection 47:28 to eating beans 365 times in succession, 47:32 yet when it came to making them a regular diet, 47:35 he should protest. 47:37 So you had to have a sense of humor back then also. 47:42 Well let's look at a young black girl. 47:45 No, I better go to my final story. 47:47 I've got to close with this story that I want to 47:50 share with you, and I think it will take most of 47:53 the rest of our time. 47:54 It has to do with our first overseas foreign missionary, 47:58 J.N. Andrews. 48:01 Elder Andrews, in 1874, was living in north 48:05 Lancaster, Massachusetts. 48:07 He had two children alive, two had already died, 48:09 as had his wife, his beloved wife Angeline, 48:12 had died in 1872. 48:15 And now he is a widower, as they called them in those days. 48:18 We'd probably today say, a single parent, 48:19 but he was a widower. 48:21 And he gets the official call to go to Europe 48:25 to become the churches first overseas missionary. 48:30 With him went to Europe was his teenage daughter, Mary, 48:35 and her older brother, Charles. 48:37 So there were three of them, plus a few others that went, 48:40 but there were three in the Andrews family. 48:43 They sailed September 15, 1874. 48:48 Sailed from Boston, went first to England. 48:50 While they were in England, young Mary, she had her 48:54 thirteenth birthday, so she's no longer 12, she's now a teenager. 48:58 Sometimes we forget, when we talk about these pioneers, 49:00 that it was a family project. 49:04 It was not just J.N. Andrews. 49:06 Of course, he was the official missionary. 49:08 But the children were just as involved as was the father. 49:12 So they'd go first to Neuchatel in Switzerland. 49:16 And there, they were trying to get the work started. 49:20 It wasn't going too well. 49:22 Charles, the brother, would go down to the market. 49:26 He would buy stuff, trying to... 49:28 That was in the French speaking part of Switzerland, 49:30 so he's trying to negotiate in a language he doesn't yet know. 49:34 He's buying stuff that doesn't always look quite like 49:38 what he was use to buying in the States, the United States. 49:41 And then he would bring it home to his sister, who is now 13. 49:44 And because they have no mother, guess who's 49:46 the cook in the family. 49:47 So she's trying to cook, and she is also trying to learn French. 49:52 Now her father, J.N. Andrews, was a scholar. 49:56 As a teenager, he had asked his father to buy him some books. 50:00 This is in the 1840's, and John Andrews asked his father 50:04 to buy him books so he could teach himself to read the Bible 50:07 in Greek, Hebrew, and Latin. 50:10 And eventually, Elder Andrews could read the Bible 50:14 in seven different languages. 50:16 And he also acknowledged that if all copies of the New Testament 50:21 were lost, he could reproduce the New Testament. 50:25 And we know he had also great sections of 50:26 the Old Testament memorized. 50:27 So he was no slouch. 50:29 And Mary apparently had the mind kind of like her father, 50:33 and a facility for languages. 50:35 The family decided to sign a contract. 50:39 So they did, they wrote out a formal contract, 50:41 Mary and her father and Charles. 50:43 And what they said in this contract was that, 50:46 "We will only speak French for 23 hours out of the day. 50:51 One hour of each day we can speak English. 50:54 Now during the other 23, if we can't think of the French word, 50:58 and we're trying to learn German too," they were, 51:00 "why, we can speak German." 51:02 Well the story is, of course, that for the first little while 51:05 when that clock struck and they had one hour, 51:07 everybody was talking, because then they knew they couldn't 51:09 speak English anymore. 51:10 They're going to have to go back to French. 51:12 But the point is that Mary becomes extremely 51:15 fluent in French. 51:17 Eventually, Elder Andrews realized that the printers 51:22 in Neuchatel were not as good as the printers, 51:25 at least in reputation, of the printers in Basel, Switzerland. 51:28 And in addition, the printers in Basel, Switzerland 51:31 would print religious materials much more easily, apparently, 51:36 than the ones in Neuchatel. 51:37 And so Elder Andrews wanted to start a paper. 51:41 So the family moved from Neuchatel to Basel. 51:45 And there, they set about preparing a paper that they 51:48 could publish the French, Signs of the Times. 51:51 The first issue came out in July of 1876. 51:56 Well, of course, those first issues, because we didn't have 51:59 many workers from Europe, just a few converts, 52:02 those first issues were basically translations 52:05 of papers that were printed in Battle Creek, Michigan. 52:09 So the issues of, The Review, would come and they would 52:12 select which articles they wanted to translate into French, 52:15 and they would translate them into French. 52:17 And then a French proofreader would 52:20 proofread the translation. 52:22 Well, after it had been set in type and printed, 52:24 then it would be proofread. 52:25 And then we're told, to give you some idea of Mary, 52:28 the daughter's fluency in French by this time, 52:31 it would be given to Mary to find the mistakes 52:34 that the French proofreader had missed. 52:37 So, I mean, she has a real ability for languages. 52:44 Tragically, one day Mary began to cough. 52:50 Of course, at first they just thought it was a cold 52:52 and it would go away. 52:53 And they didn't think much about it. 52:55 But the cough didn't go away. 52:58 It persisted. 53:00 Elder Andrews, who as I mentioned already had lost 53:03 two children and a wife, now is very concerned. 53:06 He takes Mary to the doctor. 53:09 And the doctor examines the young girl and says, 53:12 "Well, Mr. Andrews, I'm sorry to tell you, 53:16 but your daughter has consumption. 53:19 Quick consumption." 53:20 We would today call it tuberculosis. 53:23 "And I have nothing to suggest for your daughter." 53:27 Well you could imagine, Elder Andrews is beside himself 53:30 to think that his daughter has now been diagnosed 53:32 with an incurable disease. 53:33 And as I say, he's already lost three other members 53:36 of his immediate family. 53:38 And about this same time, James White in Battle Creek, Michigan 53:41 sends a letter over to the mission there 53:44 in Basel, Switzerland and invites Elder Andrews 53:47 to come home to the General Conference session 53:50 that was to be held late in 1878 53:53 and just give a report. 53:54 The first live report from an actual missionary that would be 53:59 given at a General Conference session. 54:01 I realize it doesn't sound like much to us today, 54:04 but back then, this was exciting. 54:05 The work was advancing. 54:07 Well Elder Andrews, I don't think he was thinking about 54:10 how historic he was going to be when he gave this report. 54:12 What he's thinking about is, "If I could just get Mary 54:16 to Battle Creek, there is that young brilliant doctor 54:19 by the name of John Harvey Kellogg who has just 54:21 graduated from medical school..." 54:23 And a bona fide medical school, not a six month diploma. 54:26 "...maybe he, maybe he knows something about tuberculosis 54:31 that the physicians here in Switzerland don't know." 54:33 They made their way... So he wrote and said, 54:34 "Can I bring her at my expense." 54:39 His daughter is dying, and Elder Andrews cannot 54:43 bring himself to ask the church to pay to bring her 54:48 to Battle Creek. 54:49 They make their way all the way to Battle Creek 54:51 in about two weeks or so. 54:54 A very quick turn on time. 54:55 And of course you can imagine where they first go. 54:58 They go right straight to the Battle Creek sanitarium. 55:00 Elder Andrews wants Dr. Kellogg to examine Mary. 55:04 Dr. Kellogg comes in, he gives the examination, 55:06 and the diagnosis is the same as what the doctors 55:10 in Switzerland had given. 55:11 "She has consumption, and I have nothing to offer." 55:15 Elder Andrews now is really beside himself. 55:18 Day by day, he sits by his dying daughter's bedside 55:21 there in the sanitarium. 55:22 Dr. Kellogg says, "You must come out. 55:24 You cannot stay." 55:25 But he's felt he had to stay. 55:27 And so she died at the age of seventeen on November 27, 1878. 55:34 Elder Andrews writes... 55:37 Well, he's beside himself with grief. 55:39 He tells a friend, I guess he didn't write it, 55:41 he told a friend that, he said, "I seem to be having 55:44 hold upon God with a numb hand." 55:47 He cannot understand why he has been called upon 55:50 to make such a sacrifice. 55:52 Ellen White hears the news, she writes him a very 55:55 consoling letter from Texas where she was at the time. 55:58 And she said, "I've been shown in vision your wife and children 56:01 coming forth in the resurrection." 56:03 So there's three more that we know by name. 56:05 Elder Andrews stays in the United States through April, 56:08 preaches a dedicator sermon of the Dime Tabernacle 56:11 in April of 1879. 56:13 The next month he returns to Europe, and if possible, 56:15 throws himself into the work even more than he had before. 56:18 Why? Because there's one fresh grave, one more reason, 56:21 personal reason, why he wants Jesus to come. 56:23 But before long, well a few years later, he begins to cough. 56:27 At first they think it's a cold. 56:28 It's not a cold, it doesn't go away. 56:31 He also has contracted tuberculosis. 56:33 In the weeks and months that followed, 56:36 Elder Andrews was becoming weaker and weaker and weaker. 56:39 He knows, and everybody knows, that if he doesn't finish 56:42 the articles that he's working on for the French, 56:44 Signs of the Times, nobody will do it. 56:45 Because he's the only one that has the mind that can do it. 56:49 Finally, we come to the weekend of October 19, 20, 21, 1883. 56:53 Sunday morning October 21, Elder Andrews is bedridden, 56:56 hasn't been up for some period of time. 56:58 There in his delirium, he says to someone standing by his bed, 57:02 "Please, go get me a piece of paper and a pencil." 57:04 They think, "What does he want? 57:05 He hasn't written anything for ages." 57:07 But across that piece of paper, he scrawls, 57:09 "I leave to the European mission, 500 dollars." 57:12 He had made provision for everything else. 57:14 And there on his deathbed, he's thinking, 57:17 "Is there anything more that I can do 57:20 for the cause of God? 57:21 Yes, there's that money." 57:22 And that is the kind of sacrifice and commitment 57:28 of the pioneers that started our church. |
Revised 2015-06-02