Testimonies for the Church Vol 1 - Lansing SDA Church

548 Testimonies for the Church Volume 1[594][595]the brother with me urged me to wait to have a chair made, whichwould cost only three dollars less. The chair offered for seventeendollars possessed the real value in itself; but I yielded to the judgmentof another, waited to see the cheaper chair put together, paid for itmyself, and had it carried to my husband. The report concerning ourextravagance in purchasing this chair I met in Wisconsin and Iowa.But who can condemn me? Had I the same to do over again, I woulddo as I did, with this exception: I would rely upon my own judgment,and purchase a chair costing a few dollars more, and worth doublethe one I got. Satan sometimes so influences minds as to destroy allfeelings of mercy or compassion. The iron seems to enter the heart,and both the human and the divine disappear.Reports also reached me that a sister had stated in Memphis andLapeer that the Battle Creek church had not the slightest confidencein Sister White’s testimony. The question was asked if this referredto the written testimony. The answer was, No, not to her publishedvisions, but to the testimonies borne in meeting to the church, becauseher life contradicts them. I again requested an interview with a fewselect, experienced brethren and sisters, including the persons who hadcirculated these things. I there requested that they would now show mewherein my life had not been in accordance with my teachings. If mylife had been so inconsistent as to warrant the statement that the churchat Battle Creek had not the slightest confidence in my testimony, itcould not be a difficult matter to present the proofs of my unchristiancourse. They could produce nothing to justify the statements made, andthey confessed that they were all wrong in the reports circulated, andthat their suspicions and jealousies were unfounded. I freely forgavethose who had injured us, and told them that all I would ask on theirpart was to counteract the influence they had exerted against us, and Iwould be satisfied. They promised to do this, but have not done it.Many other reports against us, all either utterly false or greatlyexaggerated, were freely talked over in different families at the timeof the Conference, and most looked upon us, especially my husband,with suspicion. Some persons of influence manifested a dispositionto crush us. We were in want, and my husband had tried to sell looseproperty, and he was thought to be wrong for this. He had stated hiswillingness to have his brethren make up the loss of our cow, and thiswas looked upon as a grievous sin. Supposing that our property at