This story about the county treasurer and the missing money shows how God helped the people to know that the message of the pioneers was the truth and that He spoke to His people through the Spirit of Prophecy.CFJS 43.1

In the winter of 1849-1850, Elder and Mrs. White lived at Oswego, New York, right near Lake Ontario. While there, Elder White published several numbers of our first little paper, The Present Truth. He also held meetings and presented our message, particularly the Sabbath truth. Our pioneers called it the third angel’s message, and we call it that today.CFJS 43.2

The Methodists were especially disturbed, and with a very earnest business man leading out, they held revival meetings. This man, whom we know only as Mr. M. was the county treasurer. The people were very much impressed and some found it hard to decide as to who was right, this man who upheld Sunday or Elder White, the young minister who had just moved to Oswego and who lived in a rented house with borrowed furniture, who was teaching the Sabbath truth. Mr. M., well-known in the town and the county treasurer conducting a religious revival, told the people that the Sabbath was not important. All that they had to do was to turn from sin and give their hearts to God.CFJS 43.3

Mr. Hiram Patch and the fine young lady he was about to marry were especially troubled. How could they know what was the truth in this matter? They were deeply impressed with the earnestness of the Methodist county treasurer and the meetings he held. They could also see clearly the Bible proofs for the Sabbath truth and the third angel’s message.CFJS 43.4

About this time, Sister White was given a vision in which she was shown the true character of Mr. M., and that he was not honest. And she was instructed to tell Mr. Patch, “Wait a month, and you will know for yourself the character of the persons who are engaged in this revival, and who profess to have such a great burden for sinners.”CFJS 43.5

When Mrs. White told this to Mr. Patch, he said, “I will wait.”CFJS 43.6

About two weeks later, as Mr. M., the county treasurer, in one of the revival meetings, was praying in agony for sinners, a blood vessel in his stomach broke, and he was carried home in great pain. As others took over his treasurer’s work at the county court house, they discovered a shortage in the county funds of one thousand dollars. The sheriff and his assistant were sent to the treasurer’s home to ask about the missing money. The sheriff went to the front door and the assistant stayed out in the yard. The sheriff found Mr. M. in bed. Mr. M. told the sheriff that he did not know anything about the missing money.CFJS 43.7

Just then the sheriff’s assistant came in the back door with Mrs. M. and he had in his hand a bag of money. He got there just in time to hear the treasurer call on God to witness that he had not taken the money.CFJS 43.8

The sheriff’s assistant then held up the bag of money and asked, “What is this?” As he stood outside while the sheriff went into the house, he had seen Mrs. M. go out the back door carrying a bag and this she quickly hid in a pile of snow. Then as she returned to the house, she met the man who had been watching her, and he took her back with him to get the bag. Just as he had suspected, it contained the missing money. The treasurer was put under arrest. The revival meetings collapsed, The people of the town were shocked.CFJS 43.9

Now Mr. Patch knew who had the truth and he, with the young lady he soon married accepted fully the third angel’s message, joined the Sabbathkeeping Adventists and were very faithful members. When they saw the fulfillment of the predictions of Sister White, they knew that God was guiding this people and that they had the truth.CFJS 44.1

[Story based on the account given by J. N. Loughborough in Great Second Advent Movement, pp. 230-232, and Mrs. White’s reference to the experience in Spiritual Gifts 2:123, 124.]

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