Feelings of Loneliness

In this letter she bared her own soul, declaring:3BIO 471.2

My brethren have trifled and caviled and criticized and commented and demerited, and picked and chosen a little and refused much until the testimonies mean nothing to them. They put whatever interpretation upon them that they choose in their own finite judgment and are satisfied. I would, if I had dared, [have] given up this field of conflict long ago, but something has held me....3BIO 471.3

But I leave all this in the hands of God. I feel cut loose from many of my brethren; they do not understand me or my mission or my work, for if they did they could never have pursued the course they have done.3BIO 471.4

I love to have the ones who feel they need help—poor, hungry, starving souls. I love to see them enjoy the precious light God has given me for them. Oh, how Jesus rejoiced when a place was found for the truth in the heart of the woman of Samaria.—Ibid.3BIO 471.5

Friday night, January 2, 1891, she spoke to a well-filled Tabernacle, giving an account of the workings of the Spirit of God in the meetings she had attended through the past three months. Sabbath morning she spoke again, taking as her text Matthew 11:16-27 with its emphatic message “Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes” (verse 21). She wrote of the meeting:3BIO 471.6

I made a decided application of this lesson to those who had great light, precious opportunities, and wonderful privileges, and yet their spiritual growth and advancement was not in accordance with the blessings and light and knowledge given of God. There was a solemn impression made upon the congregation, and fully two thousand persons were present. I had great freedom in speaking.—Letter 32, 1891.3BIO 471.7

Sabbath afternoon many of the church members returned to the Tabernacle; soon they divided into four groups for testimony meetings.3BIO 472.1

In her diary report of the work of that Sabbath she noted: “I had not an idea of saying as plain and pointed things as I did say, but the Lord spoke through the human agent. I felt pressed, and could not withhold the message given.”—Manuscript 40, 1891.3BIO 472.2