692 same year my wife died. I then broke up home. The two older girls began to care for themselves. The oldest was teaching school. She began teaching when she was sixteen years old. In the fall of 1878 she contracted for a school, and while making arrangements for her board, she remained all night and slept in a bed that had not been aired for some time and took cold, and it affected her so she had to quit her school, and she died in June, 1879.
Our children are all now dead but Charles H., now living at Somerville, Boston, Massachusetts.
Mid all these scenes of confusion, I have kept up my gospel warfare, serving the Lord and his church.
On the 10th of April, 1887, I was married to Mrs. Martha G. Woods, of Pittsburg [Pittsburgh], Pennsylvania, at the General Conference, by Apostle William H. Kelley, in the presence of the conference.
I did not keep the dates so I can not write as well as I would like. It has been a life through the sea of sadness; but as I look back over my life I am led to say as the poet said,
"God moves in a mysterious way,
His wonders to perform."
But as Professor Fowler said to me in 1882, "Sir, if your religion is known, you never found a human creed that ever suited you, nor you never will. You have been so secular in your religious views, you have been considered an odd sheep among your fellow mortals, and you always will be."
I am in the hands of Him that judges the heart, not from the sight of the eyes, but in righteousness.
Note by the Historian.-Since the above was written, two or three years ago, Elder Lake was constantly in the field as a missionary, having charge of Michigan and Indiana, until the annual conference of 1902, when he was removed from the Quorum of Twelve and ordained an evangelical minister. In this capacity he has since been operating in Canada, which is his present appointment.
He is just now (May, 1903,) recovering from a severe attack of pneumonia, at his home in Kirtland, Ohio.
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