Christine’s Visionary Impression from Her Mother’s Diary

While being pressured by Mrs. Kirkwood to give up her brother Teddy in exchange for financial security for her home, Christine struggled to find the right course of action. While praying for guidance, she had a vision-like impression of a page from her deceased mother's old diary which provided a clear answer to her dilemma, confirming her decision to stay with her siblings.

Fuller account of this event (as retold in The Young Woman's Journal, vol. 38 no. 9 (September 1927), p. 515):

She closed her eyes and tried to pray: “Dear Heavenly Father, show me; show me.” The silence in the room was heavy, oppressive. Mrs. Kirkwood sat waiting, her eyes fixed on the girl, her lips pressed into a thin, hard line. She was offering a home, luxury, travel, education—everything that the girl had longed for, and in return she asked only for the boy, Teddy. It was a simple exchange, a business proposition. But to Christine it meant the breaking of a sacred trust. Suddenly her confused senses seemed to clear and before her closed eyes she seemed to see an open page of her mother’s old diary. At first the words were blurred, but gradually as she waited, and while the rich would-be philanthropist waited, curiously wondering at the girl’s queer hesitation, one paragraph of the yellowed page stood out with vivid clearness, and Christine’s inner spirit recorded the message: “The Gospel is so precious that one can bear to give up every thing for its sacred teachings.” The vision faded, but the strength it brought remained. Christine opened her eyes. The indecision had vanished. She looked at Mrs. Kirkwood steadily. “I cannot do it,” she said quietly. “I cannot give up Teddy.”