Testimonies for the Church Vol 1 - Lansing SDA Church

Further Labors 607had come to the meeting bringing their children with them to receivethe blessing. Brother Ball arose and made humble confession thathe had not lived as he should before his family. He confessed to hischildren and to his wife that he had been in a backslidden state, andhad been no help to them, but rather a hindrance. Tears flowed freely;his strong frame shook, and sobs choked his utterance.“Brother James Farnsworth had been influenced by Brother Ball,and had not been in full union with the Sabbathkeeping Adventists. [661]He confessed with tears. Then we pleaded earnestly with the children,until thirteen arose and expressed a desire to be Christians. BrotherBall’s children were among the number. One or two had left themeeting, being obliged to return home. One young man, about twentyyears old, walked forty miles to see us and hear the truth. He had neverprofessed religion, but took his stand on the Lord’s side before he left.This was one of the very best of meetings. At its close, Brother Ballcame to your father and confessed with tears that he had wronged him,and entreated his forgiveness. He next came to me and confessed thathe had done me a great injury. ‘Can you forgive me and pray God toforgive me?’ We assured him we would forgive him as freely as wehoped to be forgiven. We parted with all with many tears, feeling theblessing of heaven resting upon us. We had no meeting in the evening.“Thursday we arose at 4 a.m. It had rained in the night and wasstill raining, yet we ventured to start to ride to Bellows Falls, a distanceof twenty-five miles. The first four miles was exceedingly rough, aswe took a private track through the fields to escape steep hills. We rodeover stones and plowed ground, nearly throwing us out of the sleigh.About sunrise the storm cleared away, and we had very good sleighingwhen we reached the public road. The weather was very mild; wenever had a more beautiful day to travel. On arriving at Bellows Falls,we found that we were one hour too late for the express train, and onehour too early for the accommodation train. We could not get to St.Albans until nine in the evening. We took seats in a nice car, then tookour dinner, and enjoyed our simple fare. We then prepared to sleep ifwe could.“While I was sleeping, someone shook my shoulder quite vigorously.I looked up, and saw a pleasant-looking lady bending over me.Said she: ‘Don’t you know me? I am Sister Chase. The cars are atWhite River. Stop only a few moments. I live just by here, and have [662]