Power of the Gospel

Dear Husband: This is the last day of our meeting, except the parting meeting tomorrow morning…. I have spoken every evening….

There were a couple of Scotch people who came from Indianapolis, named Cooley. His brother-in-law is Brother Fulton who lives at Hutchinson. Cooley came from Nova Scotia and was a staunch Presbyterian. He was a man of means. His wife embraced the truth, but she met great opposition from her husband, who was set and would not yield an inch of his ideas. For some reason, to please his wife, he came with her to the camp meeting. He told her he would go with her to please her, but [that] he should never, never leave his views….

After I spoke at the commencement of the Sabbath, and asked for sinners to come to the front seats, he was there. All left and he remained. Some forty others also came forward. It was through the blessing of God that the words spoken that evening convicted him so deeply he could not shake it off. He went to his tent and solicited his wife to go out and pray for him. The tall, stern old cedar was falling.

I spoke one hour Sunday morning before breakfast upon the mission of the Pacific Coast. He felt again deeply. Sunday evening I spoke again with great freedom. He left for his tent again under the deepest conviction, trembling under the most terrible burden he had ever carried. He again solicited his wife, whom he had so bitterly opposed, to pray for him. This morning I read some thirty-five pages, a deep, stirring appeal to God’s people upon selfishness and the tithing system. He felt it all. After
I ceased speaking, we had a conference meeting which lasted till twelve o’clock.

Brother Cooley arose and spoke. He repeated what he had told his wife and seemed to feel deeply because he had stood out so hard and been so bitter an opponent. As soon as he ceased speaking, I spoke to him for the first time, encouraging him to go forward…. Finally he … took his seat beside his good wife for baptism…. He seems to think that I am his mother and has all that deep attachment peculiar to the Scotch, because it was my labors that convinced him of his sinful course and led him to decide to be one of our people….

The Lord has indeed worked at this meeting…. Must take the cars in fifteen minutes. Thought you would be anxious to hear and will send this unfinished. (Signed) Your Ellen.—Letter 37, June 29, 1874, to James White, who was founding the Pacific Press Publishing Association.
The Upward Look p. 194
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Prayer Requests
—-Please pray for Karen’s safety from evil persons wanting to hurt her. Rosemary
—-I need prayers for my sons friend who attempted suicide and has other issues. Charlotte
—-Please pray for R who is having job troubles. Buck
—-sammy ma brother inlw has passed on this evening,Please lift us up in prayers during tiz trying moment. EN
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Dear Friends,
Some years ago, as we were coming home from church on a hot summer day, we saw a lady standing beside her car which was pulled alongside of the highway right by our exit. Seeing children in the car, Ron stopped about half-way down the exit ramp, and he and Eileen walked back up to see if they could help. I drove our car back onto the highway and pulled in behind her. During the time that I was driving the mile to the next exit and doubling back, another man also had stopped. When I saw this man, I immediately wondered if he was stopping to help or if he had other ideas. He looked as if he belonged to a motorcycle gang—bandanna tied around his head, tattoos covering his bulging muscles, dirty clothes, very tough looking. A tinge of fear crept, uninvited, up my spine. As I sat there watching them, I was glad that I had a cell phone just in case. Soon, it became apparent that he had only stopped to help, and I relaxed. The contrast between the two “good Samaritans” was rather amusing—Ron in white shirt and tie—the other man in “grubbies.”
Prejudices—so easy to have—so hard to get rid of. So often we categorize someone by the way they are dressed, the color of their skin, their customs, where they live, the roughness of their speech, etc., without getting to know that person\’s heart. Praise God! Our Great Redeemer is not prejudiced! He looks at us differently than we look at one another. He takes into account all of the opportunities that we have had or have not had, the trials we have experienced, the environment in which we have been raised, all of the aspects of our life. He tells us, “the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” 1 Sam 16:7
Our Dear Saviour shows His love to all of His creatures. “He maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” Matt 5:45 It took the disciples a long time to exemplify this same love. They had been raised with many prejudices and wrong ideas. They had been taught from infancy that the Gentiles, the poor, the sick, the injured were under the curse of God. Jesus often went out of His way to correct these views. One time, He took His disciples into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. As the disciples followed Him to this foreign land, they looked upon the inhabitants with disdain. They were about to learn a valuable lesson. “A certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet: The woman was a Greek, a Syro-phenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children\’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children\’s crumbs. And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed. And again, departing from the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, he came unto the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the coasts of Decapolis.” Mark 7:25-31
The disciples felt repulsed that Jesus was even in a heathen area. Now He was conversing with one of “them” and a woman at that! Yet, they could not help but see her faith and persistence even under the unmerited rebuke by the only One Who could help her. After the lesson was learned, our Loving Saviour granted this Syro-phenician lady her request. I am sure every time she looked at her daughter, she was forever grateful to Jesus for His great love and healing power. I am sure that she did not keep this blessing to herself but told those around her. This was one step among many that Jesus used to break down the preconceived ideas of His followers.
Think of it! Our Dear Saviour knew this lady so well, that He was sure that her faith in Him would be strong even though He treated her so coolly. He knew that He would be able to use her as His lesson-book, teaching His followers a lesson while developing her faith at the same time. He could say to her, as he said to the Centurion, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.” Matt 8:10 How careful we must be in our dealings with others. How careful we should be not to judge them by the way that they look or act or talk. How kind and tenderhearted we should be to all we meet. How our Loving Redeemer yearns for us to be a channel through which His love can flow; but how often we wrap our “righteous robes” about us as did the disciples and look upon them with the same disdain that they showed.
Rose