White, J. E.; White, Emma
Sunnyside, Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
July 30, 1899
Previously unpublished.
Dear Children, Edson and Emma White:
We are just now parting with Brother and Sister Haskell, whom we are now willing should go to America to do a work that we know he can do, and his wife will help him. We are sorry, very sorry, to have them leave us, but Brother Irwin is very anxious for them to go. At first I said, No, no, we cannot consent to have him leave the work here, for new fields are to be opening all around us and the fields are all ripe for the harvest. But the Lord has presented before me the work that needs to be done in America, and there are few who are voicing the third angel’s message. Things are swinging into wrong channels. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 1
The work called truly medical missionary work we have been engaged in ever since we came to this missionary field, and we have seen the marked working of the Holy Spirit of God in the restoring of the sick. We have seen the wonderful work of God upon the human hearts of men who were using tobacco and drinking liquor. We have seen the work of God accomplishing transformation of character. They have been tested and proved and brought out of the bondage of the law into the liberty of the gospel, and they are converted men and women. They find in Christ Jesus all that is satisfying. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 2
We see such great things accomplished and humble our hearts before God and say, The work is not ours but that of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lifegiver. The redemption and restoration of the soul is not our work, but the Lord’s work. Edson and Emma, the cause that we knew not we have searched out. Here are whole families we have been instrumental in saving. This is medical missionary work. We had no hospital, but we used our own home as a place to take the sick and suffering to restore and try to save. We have used everything of our own and advanced the money to help them to get homes and a piece of land. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 3
A family of twelve—father, mother, and children—are now rejoicing in a home of their own. They have a house on the land, composed of tent and bark of trees, with corrugated iron for roofing, and they will soon be able to build a humble cottage of their own. The father is a carpenter. The two eldest sons work with him. The mother, discouraged and overworked, gave up trying to be a Christian, but her heart has broken before God, because we have taken right hold of the whole family. We have taken a crippled son who had a knee swelling. Sara worked for him and with compresses and pulverized charcoal killed the inflammation. Five years ago this injury came to the knee. He is a fine, bright boy with keen perception. For eleven months he was confined to his bed, and the doctor said it would be six weeks more before he could get off the bed. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 4
Well, the father came to work on the meetinghouse and school buildings, bringing his three eldest boys. The wife and mother was taking care of six children in Parramatta or Prospect until a place could be made for her. We let them occupy a small house of mine. We furnished them with everything to keep house themselves. The crippled boy, came on crutches, was the cook. He was so much better he laid aside his crutches and washed and baked and cared for the father and his two elder brothers. But it was too much. The knee troubled him again. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 5
We had the lad dine at our table, and yet we must do more. We took him outright and we kept up the treatment. Oh, what power there is in water! There formed under the knee a bunch which he called his egg. We dared not leave him, and Sara had the charge of him through the camp meeting at Newcastle. She opened this large swelling and it discharged dark-colored blood and matter and pieces of bone, which had come out several times. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 6
We placed the lad—he is, I think, thirteen years old—under Sister Peck, my worker in preparing and classifying matters for books. I have an office room where she works. She has given him charge of printing the letters in letterbooks. He is learning to write on typewriter, and she is teaching him many things. Now we send him to school. We clothe him and board him and his father pays his tuition. We keep him for the benefit we may do the boy. He is good material to work upon. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 7
The mother is so thankful she cannot express her gratitude. The father also is rejoiced that we can care for the boy who was pronounced by all physicians who examined him a cripple for life. They look upon the boy, active and healthy, and you can judge how they feel. This is our field for missionary work. This is the third case of terribly injured limbs, which cases had been pronounced by physicians incurable. These cases had been maltreated, and it was thought blood poisoning had set in, after ten days in one case and five days in another case. Sara took these cases and treated them with great, painstaking effort continuously for weeks. In one case we made a hospital of our own home, taking care of the boy and his aunt who came with him. We boarded them nearly two weeks, and Sara treated the case. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 8
She receives nothing for her labor, for I want all to know we do this for the love of God. In case after case, where physicians have failed to give any relief after charging an enormous sum for their services—five and ten pounds for a visit—the poor souls have sent for Sara. She has gone days and nights, five and six miles on horseback into the bush where no carriage could go, and attended the calls. She had been without rest and watching the sick patients days and nights, until one night she slept sixteen hours and could not be awakened. Everything was done that could be done but she could not be aroused. But the Lord did not permit this to be unto death. She revived, but felt the influence for some time, utterly exhausted. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 9
I might tell you of reformations in families, the history of the breaking off tobacco and tea and coffee, and standing out as health reformers. These are truly converted. One, a fisherman and boatmaker, smoked his pipe even after he went to bed. And he drank tea; he was a tea inebriate. He was converted. It took time. Bible readings were given in certain houses and companies came to learn the truth from the Bible. Then health reform was taught, and they were led along step by step. This man carries with him the unmistakable evidence that the Lord has wrought in his behalf. And still three more families have cast away tobacco and tea and coffee and liquor. The ministry of the Word has been brought home to their hearts and convicted them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 10
One man was a livery stable keeper in prosperous times, well-to-do in the things of this world. He became sick and poor and the whole family, numbering eight, were sick at once with influenza. Again Sara went, with a young man who had learned lessons in the Health Home. He nursed the father of the family, and Sara the mother and children, and all recovered. The father and mother came to our meetings, were convicted, and both were converted. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 11
He threw his pipe in the fire, and when his wife saw this she cried most heartily. Said he, “Are you feeling bad because I broke my pipe?” She said, “Oh no, but I thought, when my family was supported by the washings I was doing from place to place, I had to give of my little for you to buy tobacco. Why did you not do this before?” Said he, “Wife, I did not understand before the sinfulness of tobacco using, beer drinking, and tea drinking, but I will not grieve you any more. If Brother White and Sister White will give me work to do, I will earn money now to support my wife and my children.” He has worked steadily for one year and he says, “I look at myself and say, Is this Hungerford? I really scarcely know myself, eating proper food and employing my physical strength. I am coming up from being sick and discouraged to work like a strong man.” 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 12
There is a family on our ground who are all God-loving and God-fearing. He was a conductor of Sabbath schools. He embraced the truth, lost his position as coach and cabinetmaker, and found a little piece of land among the rocks where no wagon could go. He carried material for his house down a steep hill and up a steep hill on his back. Every stick of lumber composing his home was thus brought onto the spot, and he built his house; but his poverty was great. I was solicited to give him work when building my home. I did so and found him a gentleman to be honored and respected. He is a man of noble traits of character. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 13
He looked, just before he left me, as if he had something to say, and finally in a most respectful manner asked if I would give him a few books. I found he possessed none of our books. I gave him books and papers with which he has worked and imparted to others, until three families living from three to six miles away have been converted and baptized by Brother Starr. He asked me if I had old clothing we would not use. We made up a box for him and for three years have continued to send him one or two boxes, which have kept his family [so] that he had not had to buy anything. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 14
We prevailed on him to move to Cooranbong where we could supply him with work. His child became sick just before he left home and in one week he died. Sara did everything for the boy she could do, but he had not strength to rally from the being poisoned by eating a parakeet given him by his grandmother. It poisoned the child to death. They are now using my camp meeting family tent. They have been furnished money by Sara to purchase iron to roof the tent and bags are put outside the tent to keep out the cold. I let them have a stove to cook their food and warm the tent, and there they will stay until there is a time when he will not have work and can build him a house. He has selected fifteen acres of land, and he can raise things on the land to support himself and his family. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 15
This man had not money to pay his fare on the cars. We paid the bill and wait for him to help us in work when he cannot get work to do on the school ground. He is a first class painter. His children, the two eldest, attend school, and this is about as happy a family as you would wish to see. There were five children. Now there are four children. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 16
This is the medical missionary work we are doing for Christ’s sake. We see very much to do, and we have given only a few instances of our work. I have given away one hundred pounds of books and I am endeavoring, through reading matter and through active, earnest, practical doing, to relieve the pressing necessities that come to our knowledge. We believe with heart and soul and voice in missionary work that will not ravel out. We see whole families can be saved to Jesus Christ by laying right hold of them, bringing them into our homes and relieving their necessities. This is the work that should be done in every church. It is the blessing the church needs to receive by imparting and getting out of their selfish, covetous ways. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 17
Men would not have been happy in Paradise without employment. The curse does not consist in labor, but in the sin of disobedience which has made man a convicted rebel. Man is not made for contemplation only, or for idleness, but for action. Activity is an essential for happiness and for health. Our faculties are precious, God-given talents to be exercised. Everything in relation to man in the human machinery means action. The wheels of nature and of Providence are not made to roll backward or to stand motionless. An idle man is never happy. Indolence is sin. The Lord created man to be a laborer. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 18
Adam and Eve were earnest and happy in their employment appointed them of God. Working was full of thanksgiving and praise. The Lord God walked and talked with the holy pair in their innocence, instructing them how to do the work. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 19
Sin made the work very much harder, but work was a safeguard for man. We work here, that we may do the very thing to keep us from sin, therefore there is no degradation in work. We may ask God for help and grace and rich blessings, and the Lord God will give in answer to our requests. But men are not imitating Christ’s example. It is sad to see men and women pursue such a course that it is a severe humiliation to ask a favor. They just act as if they would lock the doors of their hearts, lest they should be induced to grant a simple favor which would cost them very little but [would] confer a great favor. There is a great hesitancy to request, for fear of being refused. Not so with heaven’s gifts. You may ask, you may receive, and you may be bound up close with the great Heart of goodness and compassion and love. When the hearts of the human agents are converted they will be like Christ, to whom it is a joy to bless men and women. God help His people to have hearts to bless. 14LtMs, Lt 241, 1899, par. 20
Mother.