Fifteen Years with the Outcast | Page 4

Mrs Florence Roberts
Mr. Rouse from the time he
came, though I was paying no attention to your conversation. How
could I?" I inquired.
"Nevertheless, my dear, it was only a dream," he insisted.

Something (an inner voice hitherto unrecognized) suggested that I ask
what he thought of it, even though it might be but a dream. He admitted
that it was wonderful and beautiful. (Afterwards he told me that he
would not have paid so much attention to my recital had it not been for
the unusual light on my countenance. "You can't think how you
looked," he said. "Your face shone like satin!")
THE AFTERMATH.
Immediately following this God-given experience came the desire to
"search the Scriptures" (John 5:39). I regret having to tell you that my
Bible lay very near the bottom of a trunk and that the blessed volume
had not been opened for a shamefully long time.
It took me, in my spare time, something like three months to read the
book carefully from cover to cover. Not one word escaped me. I found
it to be so interesting--at first as a matter of history--that I began it all
over again. Thus it has been ever since; for to the Spirit-born child
nothing will, nothing can, take the place of the Bible. It is always new,
always refreshing. It is the voice of the tenderest, most loving of
parents, ever ready to answer our questions, comforting when sorrowful,
healing when sick, warning when in danger, ever directing,
admonishing, and encouraging under any and all circumstances. "Oh!"
but you say, "the chastening! You forget that." No, dear one, I do not.
All wise parents chasten their offspring. Would to God they would
lovingly, wisely administer more corrections than they do. The
outcome, I verily believe, would be a wonderful foretaste of heaven on
earth. But I find I am digressing.
Immediately following my conversion came the desire to impart the
knowledge received, to my friends and neighbors. The result was that a
report somewhat like the following was soon circulated: "Poor Mrs.
Roberts! Have you heard the news? Her husband's financial losses have
affected her mind; she is going crazy. Thinks she had a vision!" etc.
Then I began to realize what it means literally to "forsake all to follow
Christ." Heavier troubles followed, but they did not affect me as
heretofore. I had had the vision, and it had come to stay.
Illness presently brought me to the very threshold of eternity. With
animation temporarily suspended, but my soul and brain never more
keenly alive, I mentally implored the dear Lord to spare me for a little
while, because I did not now want to come to him empty-handed. Oh!

the longing to win souls, as I lay there helpless yet realizing what it
might mean to be forever debarred from the things which God had
prepared from the foundation of the world "for him that waiteth for
Him" (Isa. 64:4). How eager I was to tell the news to any one, no
matter to what depths he or she might have fallen! It was the immortal
soul that I was now anxious to reach. Lying there, I made an absolute
consecration, promising my heavenly Father that if he would restore
me to health and strength, I would go to whatever place he thought fit
to send me, and never hesitate to stoop to the lowliest for his sake and
theirs.
RESTORATION.
God takes us at our word. I wonder how many of us realize this?
Returning health and strength found me located with my family in
Redding, Shasta County. Here my husband and I, in the spring of 1897,
followed our Lord's example in baptism.
In Redding came many delightful opportunities to engage in church and
personal work for the Master. While I was visiting in Sacramento in the
fill of 1897 and attending revival meetings conducted in the First
Baptist church, came my first real knowledge of the unfortunate of my
sex.
Previous to this revival the Rev. Mr. Banks, now deceased, anxious for
these special services to be well attended, asked for volunteers from his
flock to distribute in every house in their immediate neighborhoods a
printed invitation. Whoever undertook this work was to pledge
themselves not to pass one house nor miss any opportunity for personal
work. Not two blocks from the place where I was rooming was a
district that I hitherto had never explored--in fact, had purposely
avoided. God now gave me strength to take up this cross, for which
may I be forever humbly grateful. But I shrank at first; for, unable to
persuade any of my acquaintances to accompany me, I had to traverse
this neighborhood alone. Did I say alone? Never did I experience a
greater sense of guardianship, of protection,
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