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| I saw that now we should take special care of the health God has given us, for our work was not yet done. Our testimony must yet be borne and would have influence. I saw that I had spent too much time and strength in sewing and waiting upon and entertaining company. I saw that home cares should be thrown off. The preparing of garments is a snare; others can do that. God has not given me strength for such labor. We should preserve our strength to labor in His cause, and bear our testimony when it is needed. I saw that we should be careful of our strength and not take upon ourselves burdens that others can and should bear. {3SM 279.2} |
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| "I saw that now God required us to take special care of the health he has given us; for our work was not yet done. Our testimony must still be borne, and would have influence. I saw we should both preserve our strength to labor in the cause of God when it is needed. We should be careful of our strength, and not take upon ourselves burdens that others can, and should, bear. We should encourage a cheerful, hopeful, peaceful frame of mind; for our health depends upon our doing this. work God requires of us will not prevent our caring for our health that we may recover the effect of overtaxing labor. The more perfect our health, the more perfect will be our labor. When we overtax our strength, and overlabor, and become exhausted, then we are liable to take colds, and are at such times in danger of disease assuming a dangerous form. We must not leave the care of ourselves with God, when he has left the responsibility upon us." {PH159 16.1} {5MR 105.1} |
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| From the stand-point of human judgment, Paul's condemnation before such a judge was certain. But the apostle felt that he had nothing to fear, so long as he preserved his loyalty and his love to God. His life was not in the hands of Nero, and if his work was not yet done, the Roman emperor would be powerless to destroy him. He who had hitherto been his protector could shield him still from the malice of the Jews, and from the power of Caesar. {LP 302.2} |
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| My work was not yet done |
| Sept. 7, 1888. I was completely prostrated with sickness. The time had arrived for our California camp-meeting which was to be held in Oakland, but there seemed little probability that I should be able to attend the meeting. While the workers meeting was in session, it was a question with me and my friends who attended me, whether I should ever rise from my severe attack of sickness. I felt no desire to recover. I had no power even to pray, and no desire to live. Rest, only rest, was my desire, quiet and rest. As I lay for two weeks in nervous prostration, I had hope that no one would beseech the throne of grace in my behalf. When the crises came, it was the impression that I would die, and this was my thought. But it was not the will of my heavenly Father. My work was not yet done. Word came from Oakland that a special season of prayer was held in my behalf in order to plead that the Lord would raise me up and give me strength to attend the meeting. I had been confined to my bed for two weeks. The members of the household could not see any decided improvement, and they said there was no hope of my recovery unless the Lord would work in my behalf. But they decided that if I would consent to go to Oakland from my sick bed, the Lord would renew my strength. In answer to their solicitations, I was taken to the cars Sept. 21, and a bed was made upon the seats, and I was strengthened to endure the journey. To walk out by faith against all appearances, was the very thing that the Lord required me to do. {1888 47.1} |
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| Overwhelmed with discouragement, she was overtaken by sickness at her home in Healdsburg. "I felt no desire to recover," she later wrote. "I had no power even to pray, and no desire to live. Rest, only rest, was my desire, quiet and rest. As I lay for two weeks in nervous prostration, I had hope that no one would beseech the throne of grace in my behalf. When the crisis came, it was the impression that I would die. This was my thought. But it was not the will of my heavenly Father. My work was not yet done." --Ibid. Then word came that those assembled in a week-long workers' meeting just preceding the camp meeting in Oakland were earnestly pleading with God that she might be spared and that she might bear her testimony before those who would soon assemble there. "I tried to walk out by faith as I had done in the past," she wrote (MS 21, 1888). Her mind turned back seven years to that day when she sat by the bedside of her dying husband. {3BIO 386.1} |
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