Testimonies for the Church Vol 1 - Lansing SDA Church

96 Testimonies for the Church Volume 1[102]health, so that he could preach three times on the Sabbath and on firstday with ease. This wonderful work in his restoration was of God, andHe should have all the glory.When my husband became so feeble, before our removal fromRochester, he desired to free himself from the responsibility of thepublishing work. He proposed that the church take charge of the work,and that it be managed by a publishing committee whom they shouldappoint, and that no one connected with the office derive any financialbenefit therefrom beyond the wages received for his labor.Though the matter was repeatedly urged upon their attention, ourbrethren took no action in regard to it until 1861. Up to this timemy husband had been the legal proprietor of the publishing house,and sole manager of the work. He enjoyed the confidence of theactive friends of the cause, who trusted to his care the means whichthey donated from time to time, as the growing cause demanded, tobuild up the publishing enterprise. But although the statement wasfrequently repeated through the Review, that the publishing housewas virtually the property of the church, yet as he was the only legalmanager, our enemies took advantage of the situation, and under thecry of speculation, did all in their power to injure him, and to retardthe progress of the cause. Under these circumstances he introducedthe matter of organization, which resulted in the incorporation of theSeventh-day Adventist Publishing Association, according to the lawsof Michigan, in the spring of 1861.Although the cares that came upon us in connection with the publishingwork and other branches of the cause involved much perplexity,the greatest sacrifice I was called to make in connection with the workwas to leave my children to the care of others.Henry had been from us five years, and Edson had received butlittle of our care. For years our family was very large, and our homelike a hotel, and we from that home much of the time. I had felt thedeepest anxiety that my children should be brought up free from evilhabits, and I was often grieved as I thought of the contrast betweenmy situation and that of others who would not take burdens and cares,who could ever be with their children, to counsel and instruct them,and who spent their time almost exclusively in their own families. AndI have inquired: Does God require so much of us, and leave otherswithout burdens? Is this equality? Are we to be thus hurried on from