You have had trials that you would not have had if you had not considered your wife in a position where God has not placed her. You have too implicit confidence in her judgment and wisdom. She has not been consecrated to God, therefore her judgment has not been consecrated. She is not a happy woman, and the unhappy train her mind has taken has greatly injured her physical and mental health. Satan has designed to unsettle you and cause your brethren to lose confidence in your judgment. Satan is seeking to overthrow you. When God specially calls your wife to the work of teaching the truth, then should you lean to her counsel and advice, and confide in her instructions. God may give you both, as possessing an equal interest in and devotion to the work, equal qualifications to act a prominent part in the most solemn work of saving souls. The great work before her is to be diligent in making her calling and election sure, to cease watching others, and now begin the work to be very jealous of herself. She should seek to bless others by her godly example, her cheerfulness, fortitude, courage, faith, hopefulness, joy, in that perfect trust, that confidence in God, which will be the result of sanctification through the truth. An entire conformity to the will of God she must have. Christ says to her: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40. (1T 710.1) MC VC

The above was written at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, October 4, 1867. I could not find time to finish the testimony and copy it, so laid it by, and did not have time to finish it until I returned from the East to Greenville, Michigan, when I took it in hand, January 30, 1868. (1T 710.2) MC VC