Over My Shoulder

Chapter 5—We Went to Church

Mabel and I attended Sabbath school and church services with Aunt Mary in the big “Dime Tabernacle” a building so named because the cost of its construction had been met by individual contributions of a dime each month from the members of the church (or at least that was the plan). It was a beautiful, commodious building capable of comfortably seating more than three thousand persons. On special occasions, such as General Conference sessions, it often held four thousand or more, with people standing in the aisles and sitting on the gallery steps. OMS 40.1

The Sabbath school was conducted then much as it is now, with senior, youth, intermediate, primary, and kindergarten divisions, but no cradle roll or nursery. The senior division met in the main auditorium, the young people in the balcony, and the children’s groups in three large wings of the church, which were separated from one another and from the main auditorium by partitions that could be rolled back, making one large room of the entire lower floor. Mabel was in the kindergarten, and I in the primary. Mary taught a kindergarten class. OMS 40.2

At this time Grandma White’s nephew “Uncle Frank” Belden was introducing kindergarten methods into the Sabbath schools and was using the beginners’ division of the Tabernacle school as his demonstration ground. With the help of Lillian Afalter, an expert kindergarten teacher, Uncle Frank had prepared a well-illustrated teachers’ guidebook that gave the lesson story in simple words, ready to be told to the little ones. It also showed how to demonstrate the story using stick figures for people, small wooden blocks for houses, tiny woolly sheep, and various objects representing hills and lakes, tents and cottages, forests and gardens. OMS 40.3

This guidebook, Bible Object Lessons, contained many beautiful pictures copied from famous paintings of scenes from the life of Christ. It also had new songs composed by Uncle Frank, which he taught us from Sabbath to Sabbath. In the primary division each teacher illustrated the lesson on a small blackboard set on a low, round table around which the class members were seated. OMS 40.4

On Sabbath mornings the partition between the primary and kindergarten divisions was rolled back, and we often enjoyed a half-hour’s “sing” together under the leadership of the composer himself. Uncle Frank taught us those songs so well that now, many years later, many of them come readily to my mind. OMS 41.1

One morning Uncle Frank told us that he had composed the first stanza of a new song on his way to Sabbath school, and now he would teach it to us. Soon we were all singing the words: OMS 41.2

‘Tis love that makes us happy,
‘Tis love that smooths the way;
It helps us mind, it makes us kind
To others every day. OMS 41.3

That song has circled the world and become a favorite with children everywhere. OMS 41.4

Another favorite song of mine was “Angels Are Building Fair Mansions Above.” It could be sung in relays, the leader asking the question: “Shall we be there? Shall we be there?” Then we children would respond with the chorus: OMS 41.5

“We must be there, We must be there,
Safe in the beautiful city of gold.
We must be there, We must be there,
When the bright gates unfold.” OMS 41.6

Teachers’ meetings were conducted on Wednesday evenings an hour before prayer meeting and were well attended. For a time, a record was kept of attendance and punctuality just as in the Sabbath school itself. Teachers rehearsed the lesson in turn until they became experts in telling the story and demonstrating it with miniature objects, much as is done today. OMS 41.7

I can remember only one of my teachers clearly. He was a college student who taught the class of little girls to which I belonged. One Sabbath afternoon he took us for a long walk into the country. At Christmas time he presented each of us with a copy of Grandma’s new book, Steps to Christ, in which gilt-edged and gilt-lettered he had underlined his favorite passages in gold ink. I thought it very beautiful, and I read those marked passages over and over until I knew them by heart. OMS 41.8

I also remember a certain guest speaker who gave the lesson review one Sabbath. He caused considerable merriment by drawing on the blackboard a spider with only six legs. OMS 42.1

At the close of Sabbath school, Mary, Mabel, and I would climb the steps to our favorite seat by the balcony railing. From this vantage point we children could look down on the people below and amuse ourselves counting heads when the “firstly, secondly, thirdly, fourthly, ... tenthly” of certain long-winded preachers became too protracted. OMS 42.2

When Mary discovered how we were occupying our time, she inaugurated a plan that she hoped would direct our thoughts into more profitable channels. She provided Mabel with pencil and paper and asked her to make a mark every time the preacher spoke the word God, or Jesus, or the name of some Bible character who might be the subject of his discourse. I was expected to remember at least one story he told and to repeat it at the dinner table after church. I thought my assignment a difficult one, because, as I complained to Mary, “hardly any of the preachers ever tell any stories at all!” OMS 42.3

Sometimes on Sabbath afternoons Mary would take us to attend the callboys’ meeting at the Sanitarium church. I was awed as I listened to Dr. David Paulson tell of his boyhood struggles with tormenting fears because of his lost, sinful condition, and of the great joy he experienced when he learned to trust Jesus. Usually there would be a testimony meeting in which the callboys themselves would stand up and speak of the victories they had gained over temptations and evil habits, and of their desire to witness for Jesus before the patients. OMS 42.4

Mary’s youngest sister, Tillie, came to live with us so she could attend church school. I enjoyed going with her to student meetings in the college chapel. I remember one testimony meeting that lasted until nearly midnight. The leader could not close it, because so many of the students wanted to testify, praising God for blessings they had received at the school. Our Christian teachers were much in earnest, and many godless youths who came to the college were converted before the school term closed and later became gospel workers. OMS 42.5

In the Tabernacle church there were also stirring revivals, during which time the Holy Spirit’s presence was especially manifest. At one Week of Prayer meeting, members of the congregation came forward voluntarily and took off such jewelry as bracelets, necklaces, and gold watch chains and laid them on the platform at the feet of the ministers, saying as they did so that they wished to have these needless ornaments sold and the money put into the Lord’s treasury. OMS 43.1

Occasionally we went to hear Dr. Kellogg’s lectures to his patients in the Sanitarium parlor. At the close of his talk, if we didn’t get away before he caught sight of us, he would call us into his office, where busy man though he was, he took time to talk with us. We would share with him the latest news from Australia, for he and Papa were great friends. He would inquire about our health and ask whether we needed anything. Whatever our wants might be—an inhaler, a bottle of nasal spray, or a jar of medicated ointment—he would have his office nurse wrap up and give to us. Then he would send us on our way after advising us to spend much time in the sunshine and to exercise in the open air. OMS 43.2

The Sanitarium was an interesting place to visit on weekday evenings. The nursing students frequently put on demonstrations, showing how to administer fomentations, salt glows, sweating packs, sitz baths, and other hot- and cold-water treatments. OMS 43.3

During the spring of 1894 two young women, Georgia Burrus, a house-to-house Bible instructor in the California Conference, and Myrtle Griffis, from the Oakland City Mission, were appointed to go to India and begin pioneer work among the women. While arrangements were being made for their departure, Myrtle stayed at our home and visited with her friend Mary Mortensen. OMS 43.4

It soon appeared that Myrtle was not well. As she rapidly grew worse, all thought of her going to India was abandoned, and the Sanitarium physicians expressed the fear that she had only a short time to live. But Myrtle felt strongly impressed that the Lord had work for her to do and that He would heal her. She requested that special prayer be offered, and it was arranged for three of the leading Battle Creek ministers to come to our house and have a prayer and anointing season. The appointment was set for Sunday forenoon. On Friday evening, at the commencement of the Sabbath, our little family gathered as usual around the heater in the front room. As we studied our Sabbath school lesson the presence of holy angels seemed very real to us, and we spoke of it to one another. Myrtle was lying on the couch breathing heavily and suffering great pain. OMS 43.5

“Children,” said Mary gently, “let us pray for Myrtle. God loves to answer the prayers of children.” So we all knelt and had a short season of prayer, in which each took part. To us it seemed almost as if we could reach out and touch the healing robe. OMS 44.1

When we rose from our knees Myrtle was sitting up, her blanket thrown back. There was not a tremor of weakness in her voice as she said, “Children, the Lord has heard your prayers and answered them. He has healed me! I feel a new surge of life in my body. All the pain is gone!” OMS 44.2

When the ministers arrived Sunday morning, Myrtle said to them: OMS 44.3

“I have no objection to your praying for me, but healing has already been accomplished. God has answered the children’s prayers.” After that, Myrtle rapidly regained her strength. Though entirely free from the disease that had threatened her life, she was advised by her physicians against going to India, and Georgia courageously proceeded alone. OMS 44.4

Myrtle said, “I think the Lord must have other plans for me,” and so He had. Not long after this she married Calvin Parker, an oldtime sweetheart, and together they devoted their lives to gospel work in Fiji and other Pacific islands and also in Australia. In the New Hebrides they bravely faced savage cannibals. On his initial visit to one of the islands, Calvin was made to sit down on a rock while the village cook felt him over to see whether he would make a good pot roast. Just at that tense moment, a man with a badly ulcerated sore on his leg appeared. Calvin seized his medicine case and went to work. The Lord blessed the treatment applied, and the natives agreed that they would wait and give this new medicine man time to treat all their ailments before they stewed him! OMS 44.5

Before the end of that school year, a great revival occurred in Battle Creek. Beginning with the students at college level, it reached all the way down to the primary grades. Elder McCoy came into our schoolroom and talked to us children, explaining what it meant to be a true Christian. Very quickly each roomful of children became a baptismal class. OMS 44.6

One Sabbath afternoon, in the Tabernacle, there was a baptism of more than one hundred candidates, and I was one of them. Two ministers officiated, and we entered the baptistry in groups of four or five. As my companions and I came up out of the water, the congregation was singing, “I will follow Thee, my Saviour, whereso’er my lot may be.” OMS 45.1

Never have I regretted taking that step early in life. The companionship of my Saviour has been sweet, although at times not as close as I might desire. He has become more and more precious to me through the years. OMS 45.2