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That Little Black Book
The Sanderson and Walsh evangelistic team moved from city to city. Working with
very small budgets, they nevertheless produced many baptisms. When they were sent to
evange-lize New York City with a total budget of 1,000 dollars, they felt that amount
was not adequate to enable them to reach the nation’s largest city. Miss Walsh and her
co-laborers held days of fasting, calling on the Lord to do something. And He did.
Miss Walsh gave Bible studies to two prosperous elderly women. They accepted the
Bible message, joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and then gave generously to
the cause of God. On one occasion they handed Mary, to put into the bank for the
Lord’s work, $15,000. Others gave also, while Mary fasted, prayed, and worked. She saw
how God in heaven accomplished His purposes as she depended on Him.
Miss Walsh moved to Boston, where she became part of an evangelistic team headed
by Elder Robert S. Fries. As she grew in experience, her responsibilities increased and
diversified considerably. For one thing, before the main lecture of the evening by Elder
Fries, Miss Walsh always delivered a short presentation on a selected topic. This
occurred early in the evening format but to a full house, for the people arrived promptly
to hear her. One evening when she was descending from the platform as Elder Fries was
coming on, the elder whispered, “My, my, you’ve stolen my thunder!”
She quietly retorted, “Well, I’m thankful that I did! You used to steal my thunder.” It
was an affirmation that she has never forgotten. The evangelist and his assistant shared
a comfortable, complementary working relationship.
Mary Walsh respected Elder Fries, whom she considered to be a mighty evangelist.
He had studied medicine at the University of Denver, (From Robert S. Fries, obituary,
Review and Herald (October 24, 1946): 20.) and Miss Walsh appreciated the way he
skillfully included health evangelism as part of their public efforts.
Miss Walsh’s responsibilities included handling the question box. People were invited
to drop their questions about Bible topics into a box before the meeting. Then at the
close of the service, all those who had questions were asked to meet in another room
where the box was opened for puzzling texts and problems to be addressed. It was a
tremendous test of a minister’s Bible knowledge, faith, and presence of mind to answer
such inquiries “cold.” Yet Mary Walsh was asked to take that risk.
Shortly before she became the “question answerer,” Mary was actually terrified. She
asked the Lord how she was ever going to be able to answer questions right on the spot
without passing out. The night before her first question-and-answer sessi on, she
tumbled about sleeplessly in her bed. Finally she got down on her knees to seek help
from the God who had called her into evangelistic work in the first place. Beside her bed
she prayed for some kind of reassurance, a promise. Her prayer was that the God of
heaven would stand by her side. Without His help, she couldn’t do it.
On her knees she leafed through her Bible, and this promise came to her eyes: “Settle
it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: for I will give
you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor
resist.” (Luke 21:14, 15). Believing that the Lord had given her the promise she had
requested, Mary slid back into bed and slept.
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