Testimonies for the Church Vol 1 - Lansing SDA Church

76 Testimonies for the Church Volume 1[78]they were so much scattered, it was necessary for us to be on the roadmuch of the time. For want of means we took the cheapest privateconveyance, second-class cars, and lower-deck passage on steamers.In my feeble condition I found traveling by private conveyance mostcomfortable. When on second-class cars, we were usually envelopedin tobacco smoke, from the effects of which I often fainted. Whenon steamers, on lower deck, we suffered the same from the smokeof tobacco, besides the swearing and vulgar conversation of the shiphands and the baser portion of the traveling public. At night we laydown to sleep on the hard floor, dry goods boxes, or sacks of grain,with carpetbags for pillows, and overcoats and shawls for covering.If suffering from the winter’s cold, we would walk the deck to keepwarm. When oppressed by the heat of summer, we would go uponthe upper deck to secure the cool night air. This was fatiguing to me,especially when traveling with an infant in my arms. This mannerof life was by no means one of our choosing. God called us in ourpoverty, and led us through the furnace of affliction, to give us anexperience which should be of great worth to us, and an example toothers who should afterward join us in labor.Our Master was a man of sorrows; He was acquainted with grief;and those who suffer with Him will reign with Him. When the Lordappeared to Saul in his conversion, He did not purpose to show himhow much good he should enjoy, but what great things he should sufferfor His name. Suffering has been the portion of the people of Godfrom the days of the martyr Abel. The patriarchs suffered for beingtrue to God and obedient to His commandments. The great Head of thechurch suffered for our sake; His first apostles and the primitive churchsuffered; the millions of martyrs suffered, and the Reformers suffered.And why should we, who have the blessed hope of immortality, tobe consummated at the soon appearing of Christ, shrink from a lifeof suffering? Were it possible to reach the tree of life in the midst ofthe Paradise of God without suffering, we would not enjoy so rich areward for which we had not suffered. We would shrink back from theglory; shame would seize us in the presence of those who had foughtthe good fight, had run the race with patience, and had laid hold oneternal life. But none will be there who have not, like Moses, chosento suffer affliction with the people of God. The prophet John saw themultitude of the redeemed, and inquired who they were. The prompt