In The Southern Review, January 23, 1902, Mrs. White recounts an experience while speaking in Launceston, Tasmania.
At the end of the meeting a tall, fine-looking woman came to Mrs. White and threw her arms about her shoulders and wept and wept. She was unable to speak for a little while. Mrs. White’s son tried to disentangle the woman from his mother, but she would not let go.
She told Mrs. White of her son who was very sick. He had been visited by many ministers and had read many books, but he could not understand them and none of them impressed him or spoke directly to his heart. He had asked her if there was some other book in all their library that he could read. She said there was one book that canvassers had brought to them. She had not read it, but she would get it for him.
He read the book and then re-read it. And then he read it a third time. His joyous response was, “I’ve got it, I know my Saviour and I am His child.” He was happy every moment after, as long as he lived.
But he made a request of his mother before he died: “Now, mother, promise me one thing, if ever Mrs. White shall come into our country and you see her, will you tell her that that book was the means of saving my soul? Will you lend this book to all our neighbors?”
The woman said, “I have done it and it’s about worn out and I will have to replace it. There are several that know now what faith is and what dependence upon God is.”
The book? The Great Controversy.
Never doubt it, “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please. And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11