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Verse:Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. —Ecclesiastes 4:9, 10, NIV
Wedding ceremonies are special occasions on which brides become princesses wearing the dresses of their dreams.
Some experts suggest that “selecting a wedding dress is more than just a fitting... it’s a process —a memory in the making.” But not every couple can afford an ostentatious ceremony. On Sunday, August 30, 1846, Elder “James Springer White and Miss Ellen Gould Harmon stood before Charles Harding, justice of the peace, in Portland, Maine, and were married.”50 There was no wedding ceremony, and Ellen did not wear a special wedding dress. Choosing not to burden others, James worked for a while hauling stone on the railroad without getting what he deserved for his labor.
Later he began to chop cordwood from early morning until dark to earn about 50 cents a day. In mid-1848, he and two friends took a hundred acres of grass to mow at 87.5 cents per acre. He rejoiced, “Praise the Lord! I hope to get a few dollars here to use in the cause of God.”51 After settling in Rochester, New York, in 1852, Ellen described her new home: “We have rented an old house for one hundred and seventy-five dollars a year. We have the press in the house... You would smile could you look in upon us and see our furniture. We have bought two old bedsteads for twenty-five cents each.
My husband brought me home six old chairs, no two of them alike, for which he paid one dollar, and soon he presented me with four more old chairs without any seating, for which he paid sixty-two cents.
The frames are strong, and I have been seating them with drilling. Butter is so high that we do not purchase it, neither can we afford potatoes.
We use sauce in the place of butter, and turnips for potatoes. Our first meals were taken on a fireboard placed upon two empty flour barrels.
We are willing to endure privations if the work of God can be advanced.” This was the spirit of self-sacrifice and commitment of the Adventist pioneers to spread the three angels’ messages in the early days of our movement.
Times have changed. But what can we do to continue the work and finish it in the same spirit?