Mr. Radley Makes His Decision

While many families suffered severely during the financial panic, not all were in the same circumstances. In early May, Ellen White, with another worker or two, visited the Radley family living near Castle Hill. They were just taking their stand for the message. The Radleys owned a large, well-established orchard of orange, lemon, and other fruit trees. At the time of the visit the wife was keeping the Sabbath, and from all appearances the husband and children would soon follow. But Ellen White was told that Mr. Radley, not fully having taken his stand, slipped back. As she recounted the experience at the General Conference session in 1901, she described him as a reading man. “In the night season,” she said, “the angel of the Lord seemed to stand by me, saying, ‘Go to Brother Radley, place your books before him, and this will save his soul.’”4BIO 142.3

I visited with him, taking with me a few of my large books. I talked with him just as though he were with us. I talked of his responsibilities. I said, “You have great responsibilities, my brother. Here are your neighbors all around you. You are accountable for every one of them. You have a knowledge of the truth, and if you love the truth, and stand in your integrity, you will win souls for Christ.”4BIO 142.4

He looked at me in a queer way, as much as to say, “I do not think you know that I have given up the truth, that I have allowed my girls to go to dances, and the Sunday School, that we do not keep the Sabbath.” But I did know it. However, I talked to him just as though he were with us.4BIO 143.1

“Now,” I said, “we are going to help you to begin to work for your neighbors. I want to make you a present of some books.”4BIO 143.2

He said, “We have a library, from which we draw books.”4BIO 143.3

I said, “I do not see any books here. Perhaps you feel delicate about drawing from the library. I have come to give you these books, so that your children can read them, and this will be a strength to you.”4BIO 143.4

I knelt down and prayed with him, and when we rose, the tears were rolling down his face as he said, “I am glad you came to see me. I thank you for the books.”4BIO 143.5

As she recounted the experience, she spoke of the fruitage of the work:4BIO 143.6

The next time I visited him, he told me that he had read part of Patriarchs and Prophets. He said, “There is not one syllable I could change. Every paragraph speaks right to my soul.”

I asked Brother Radley which of my large books he considered the most important. He said, “I lend them all to my neighbors, and the hotelkeeper thinks that Great Controversy is the best. But,” he said, while his lips quivered, “I think that Patriarchs and Prophets is best. It is that which pulled me out of the mire.”—The General Conference Bulletin, 1901, 84, 85 (Evangelism, 451, 452).4BIO 143.7

Mr. Radley soon took his position firmly, and his whole family united with him. Several of the children later gave their lives to the work of the church.4BIO 143.8