Phillips, Daniel Battle Creek, Michigan January 20, 1862 Previously unpublished. Dear Brother [Daniel] Phillips:
Some things were shown me which I will write you.
(1LtMs, Lt 2, 1862, 1)
I saw that you were not right. You lack spirituality and you do not realize and feel the weight of the truth. The burden of it does not rest upon you. You might be of greater service in this cause if you would engage in it and labor for the spirit of the present message as you used to labor for the spirit of the first and second angels’ messages.
(1LtMs, Lt 2, 1862, 2)
You are not willing to put your shoulder under burdens. You love yourself too well, and do not take the burdens or responsibilities of the cause upon you. If you lived as near to your Saviour as you should, or as you have lived, you could not live in the place you are. The atmosphere would be oppressive. But there is not that wide difference between you and unbelievers that there once was.
(1LtMs, Lt 2, 1862, 3)
You are watched, Brother Phillips, and should be extremely careful of your influence and should give no occasion for any to speak evil. Sister Mary Lyon has not been as prudent in speaking with you and to you as she should. There has been too much familiarity.
(1LtMs, Lt 2, 1862, 4)
Brother Phillips, unless you are fully consecrated to God and take hold of the work of God in earnest, it were better that you were elsewhere. Your influence is not saving and holy as it ought to be. You do not make the cause of God and its interest primary. You look out for your own interest first, and if any self-denial is to be exercised to favor the cause of God, you had rather some other one beside you would do it. You are selfish. It is very hard for you to sacrifice any privilege of your own, even to benefit souls. You do not see yourself. You are walking as a blind man. You know what it is to be fully consecrated and you know you are not there. You lack spirituality and religion.
(1LtMs, Lt 2, 1862, 5)
I was shown that if you were right, if you had any realizing sense of the shortness of time and the work to be accomplished for God’s people, you would not rest. You would agonize with God until the holy unction rested upon you, and then you would appeal to hearts and the testimony would affect [them]. But I was shown you are almost dead—all wrapped up in your own desires and interests, and God and His work are forgotten. You are asleep. You are an unfaithful servant, and are in a dangerous, cold, dead condition. I saw that you must get rid of your self-interest and wake up, and then you can do others good.
(1LtMs, Lt 2, 1862, 6)
Only a few moments of probation remain, and then it closes and nothing can be done for poor sinners. Have you no warnings to give? No cry of danger to sound in their ears? No stirring appeals to make to perishing souls? Will it be said of Daniel Phillips, “Well done, good and faithful servant”? [Matthew 25:23.] No, no; [not] unless you move, unless you act your part well, pray earnestly, fervently, and exhort with the truth burning upon the altar of your heart.
(1LtMs, Lt 2, 1862, 7)
Your mind has not been directed in the right channel. You have let it run upon things that will not profit. Your mind must be directed in another channel and dwell upon eternal things. It is too late now to have the interest divided. It is too late to be wrapped up in self. It is time that every particle of your influence was exerted on the side of God and the truth. Your whole weight must be thrown in the right scale. Engage in the work of God with all your energies. Every one of us has a work to do and it must be well done.
(1LtMs, Lt 2, 1862, 8)
God help you with all humility, all swallowed up in Jesus, to be diligent, to be willing to sacrifice for Christ and deny yourself. Christ’s life was freely sacrificed for you, and you have a work to do to gather with Christ.
(1LtMs, Lt 2, 1862, 9)
In love.
(1LtMs, Lt 2, 1862, 10)
Lt 3, 1862
Friends in Caledonia Refiled as Lt 22, 1861.
Lt 4, 1862
Friends at Home Lodi, Wisconsin March 5, 1862 Previously unpublished. Dear Friends at Home:
I am not really able to write. My head is aching and my eyes trouble me some, but I will try to write a little.
(1LtMs, Lt 4, 1862, 1)
We have been having the most tedious storm I have witnessed since we came from Maine. It commenced to snow last Sabbath and has snowed and blown until today, Wednesday, and it is snowing yet, but the wind has gone down.
(1LtMs, Lt 4, 1862, 2)
There were but few houses to entertain the brethren and sisters and it was a perfect crowd to every house. The babies made so much music, the houses were so small, and we were crowded in so thick, that it was wearisome to the nerves, and I have not obtained much rest in this place, although we are well used here, [and] they do all in their power to make us happy. We have good food, etc.
(1LtMs, Lt 4, 1862, 3)
Monday the snow was so drifted the brethren could not get home. We held a meeting in the school house Monday. Tuesday all started for home. Some lived 10 miles, some 16, 25, 30, 40, 50 and 60 miles [away]. They waded through the drifts three miles and returned. [It was] utterly impossible to proceed.
(1LtMs, Lt 4, 1862, 4)
Some have ventured out today, hoping to plow through the drifts. We start tomorrow to our appointment. We do not know as we can get through.
(1LtMs, Lt 4, 1862, 5)
Our meeting in Avon was good. Rode six miles to and from the meeting, but the roads were good, the weather mild and pleasant. Tuesday we rode 7 miles to Brother Sanborn’s. There I wrote almost every moment. Thursday, we were up before day and Brother Sanborn, James and self rode in a sleigh to Judah to take the cars. It was very cold. The air was piercing, but our buffalo robes did us good service. We rode 40 miles in the cars, and as no train went to Madison until four o’clock, we walked one quarter of a mile from the depot to Brother Louden’s and took dinner with them. They were overjoyed to see us.
(1LtMs, Lt 4, 1862, 6)
Two families are keeping the Sabbath there, and are very lonely. They urge us strongly to send appointments there. We may do so.
(1LtMs, Lt 4, 1862, 7)
We took the cars at four for Madison and arrived there at about eight. We found two brethren waiting for us to take us to Lodi. They had been waiting [since] 7:00 A.M. We decided to ride twenty miles that night. [We] asked the price of their meals in the saloon and found the price 50 cents apiece. We ate a piece of cold bread and an apple, bundled up warm, and packed down on the bottom of the sleigh and rode until half past one o’clock. Then stopped at Brother Chase’s door, aroused them, and found their house well filled. One after another appeared until they numbered five, beside their own family. At two o’clock A.M. we were shown to our bed and rested until morning.
(1LtMs, Lt 4, 1862, 8)
The next day we rode ten miles to the meeting, and in this place we have had sweet seasons in family prayer and freedom in bearing our testimony in meeting. The Lord has imparted unto [us] a degree of His Spirit and we have felt no bondage. My health has been quite good until today. I am weary and almost sick.
(1LtMs, Lt 4, 1862, 9)
We hope you are all well at home. We do not forget to pray for you all, and we believe you will be prospered. God will, I believe, have a care for our children that we have trusted in His hands. I hope that they will watch and not give way to their folly. I would write you more [and] write to them separately, but my head is in such a condition [that] I cannot; but will write again soon.
(1LtMs, Lt 4, 1862, 10)
Please to find hung up in the large clothes press at the head of the stairs a pair of dark-colored pants, with some pieces like them in the pocket. Give them to Father.
(1LtMs, Lt 4, 1862, 11)
Well, William, Lucinda and Delia, you have quite a responsibility upon you. May the Lord counsel and direct you and impart unto you a large measure of His Spirit, is our prayer. I believe the Lord will be with you all, encourage and strengthen you. I feel very grateful that I can feel as easy as I do in regard to home. I am very anxious for the salvation of my children. This is my desire, my earnest prayer. I feel a little anxious for Willie; hope to hear from you all at Marquette.
(1LtMs, Lt 4, 1862, 12)
Much love to you all. Pray for us.
(1LtMs, Lt 4, 1862, 13)
Lt 5, 1862
Banks, Brother Battle Creek, Michigan May 8, 1862 Previously unpublished. Dear Brother Banks:
As I came to the office this morning I find upon my secretary a letter from you.
(1LtMs, Lt 5, 1862, 1)
I am sorry that the church are in difficulty in Greenville. You inquire if I told Sisters Wilson and Maynard that I had seen that Brother Merrill should not hold the least office in the church. It is impossible for me to recollect the exact words I used to these sisters, as I am frequently asked similar questions by many in every place we go. I try to be careful and study the effect of what I saw. If I have not been as careful as I ought to have been in this case, I am sorry.
(1LtMs, Lt 5, 1862, 2)
You ask, Why not tell these things to Brother Merrill? I could have done so, and should have done so had I thought that we should not have visited the church at Greenville on our northern tour, but the bad traveling and sickness of my husband caused us to turn our course homeward. I might have written to Brother Merrill but have not felt it my duty. His case was shown me among many others, and when I go before a people where a vision belongs, the matter is very clear before me. If I had seen the church in immediate danger through any course that I should see or hear Brother Merrill was pursuing, I should then have been prompt to raise the warning. My whole time is taken up in writing for publication or messages for individual cases, and I have been so burdened with care as to be unable to sleep but a very small part of the night, and yet must go on with my writing as usual.
(1LtMs, Lt 5, 1862, 3)
But this is off the question. I was shown some things in a recent vision given within a year in regard to Brother Merrill. I was shown those who have drawn off from the body and he was among them. There was an interesting, powerful meeting at Otsego. God wrought there in a most signal manner, and acknowledgements were made there by Mr. Cranmer which were enough to convince anyone in regard to the spirit and influence of the Cranmer party. But Brother Merrill was in so much darkness he continued to go with that class who were scattering and trying to tear us down and to injure our influence. Brother Merrill attended our meetings. He heard the truth and the strong evidence of truth presented. He knew the spirit of the Cranmer party, yet drew away from God’s people with a company of unruly fanatics. His sympathy and influence were not with us.
(1LtMs, Lt 5, 1862, 4)
I was shown that much responsibility should not rest upon Brother M. until he has fully seen and confessed his past course and comes out clean from it and firmly takes his position understandingly with the believers in present truth. I saw that until he should do this and give evidence that he was wholly with us, the church should not look up to him as an elder or leader or one holding any responsible position, for he was unsafe. Individuals will continue to arise with peculiar views to lead astray into another path, and he will be just as much in danger of mistaking the voice and thinking it is the voice of the True Shepherd when it is the voice of a stranger. Unless his whole heart and soul are in union with the truth and God’s work, he is liable to be led astray, and such seldom go alone. Others sympathize and go with them. I do not think that we can be too careful.
(1LtMs, Lt 5, 1862, 5)
I would say nothing against Bro. M. being treasurer if his course has been such as to gain the confidence of the church. But from what I have seen, he should first make straight paths for his feet.
(1LtMs, Lt 5, 1862, 6)
Brother M. has a work to do if he has found his position and is convinced that he was wrong in uniting with a company opposed to the body. Let him make straight work, and then he can establish himself in the confidence of all God’s people. How has God’s cause been wounded by those who were unsound in the faith! They are blown about hither and thither and always take others with them when they draw off.
(1LtMs, Lt 5, 1862, 7)
Lt 6, 1862
White, J. E.; White, W. C. July 25, 1862 Copied from AY 77-78.
Lt 7, 1862
Steward, Sister Battle Creek, Michigan August 19, 1862 Portions of this letter are published in 2Bio 43-44. Dear Sister Steward,
I commenced a letter to you some time since, but was called away. It was mislaid and I never finished it.
(1LtMs, Lt 7, 1862, 1)
I received yours in due time and should have answered immediately but for the piece my husband wrote in the Review, which expresses my mind, although I am not fully settled in regard to taking up arms; but this looks consistent to me. I think it would please the enemy for us to obstinately refuse to obey the law of our country (when this law is not against our religious faith) and sacrifice our lives. It looks to me that Satan would exult to see us shot down so cheaply, for our influence could not have a salutary influence upon beholders, as the death of the martyrs. No, all would think we were served just right because we would not come to the help of our imperiled country. Were our religious faith at stake, we should cheerfully lay down our lives and suffer with Christ.
(1LtMs, Lt 7, 1862, 2)
Now is the time we are to be tested, and the genuineness of our faith proved. Those who have merely professed the faith, without an experience, will be brought into a trying place. Young and old should now seek for an experience in the things of God. A superficial work will not avail now. We must have the principles of truth wrought deep in the soul, and practice it in our life, and then we shall be girded with strength in the day [of] trouble and conflict before us. We must trust in God now. His arm will sustain us.
(1LtMs, Lt 7, 1862, 3)
Our journey west was so rapid we could obtain but little rest. We traveled much nights and arrived home in the night from Chicago almost worn [out], yet we attended the tent meeting at Newton. It was an excellent meeting. Returned home 14 miles after the Sunday afternoon meeting. I was too weary to rest that night and the next day was very sick. I was in as severe pain as I ever suffered. No remedies within our reach gave me the least relief. We at length called for the brethren to pray for me. My husband anointed me and I was immediately healed, arose and dressed and praised God for His merciful kindness that He was a present help in time of trouble.
(1LtMs, Lt 7, 1862, 4)
I have felt like dedicating myself anew to the work of God. My children have borne with great weight upon my mind and it has been a question with me, Shall I devote my whole interest to them to instruct and lead them to the Saviour? Or shall I, must I, leave them in this evil age, much of the time without our watchful care—as orphans—and trust them with a merciful God?
(1LtMs, Lt 7, 1862, 5)
My mind, after months of burden and severe trial, has decided to go and bear my testimony [and] labor as faithfully as I can for the salvation of my children, believing God will turn the current of their thoughts and lead them to His own cross to accept pardon of their sins from Him. I must, I will, throw off home cares. I cannot suffer my mind to be divided. My whole interest must be in the work of God.
(1LtMs, Lt 7, 1862, 6)
We hope you are all trying to overcome in Mauston and win an immortal crown.
(1LtMs, Lt 7, 1862, 7)
May the Lord grant you grace in this trying time to persevere and at last come off victorious overcomers.
(1LtMs, Lt 7, 1862, 8)
In much love to yourself and husband.
(1LtMs, Lt 7, 1862, 9)
Lt 8, 1862
Davis, Br-Sr. December 7, 1862 Missing.
Lt 9, 1862
Frisbie, Br. December 31, 1862 Missing.
Lt 10, 1862
Kellogg, Br-Sr. [J.P.] Refiled as Lt 17, 1864.
Lt 11, 1862
Andrews, J. N. Monterey, Michigan November 9, 1862 Portions of this letter are published in 2Bio 55-58; 6MR 98-100; 7MR 113; 9MR 315. Dear Brother John [Andrews]:
It becomes my duty to write to you. Last Wednesday evening a few were assembled together to have a praying season. I was shown some things in vision. From what was shown me, the Lord would not have us visit New York as the brethren and sisters desired. The responsibility must rest elsewhere, and I saw that there was a work for us to do in Michigan.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 1)
We have found some of that work to do since we came to Monterey. I never heard James bear so powerful a testimony. I thought that he would fall in the desk, he was so powerfully exercised. His testimony has been for the children especially, and we have seen a reformation among the young here. Yesterday four grown persons were baptized. Two had not professed religion before. The root of the matter is in them. This forenoon James led down ten more, from the ages of ten to sixteen, into the water. Five young men were baptized. Quite a number will be immersed tomorrow. The work is spreading and bears good marks of being genuine.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 2)
I saw that God has accepted your efforts. Your testimony in New York has been acceptable to Him. I saw that the Lord pities you and is willing to make you free. He has wrought for your wife, and she has been learning to submit her will and way to God that He might direct her paths. There has been a work, a good work, with some in Waukon, but there is yet to be a work done, a great change with some, before the cloud can pass away.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 3)
I was shown that Brother Wheeler has done a most dark, mischievous work among some of the churches in New York. He has sown the seeds of unbelief which have sprung up and borne fruit. He cannot now so readily see this and root it out. He has never yet seen that the influence of his wife has been a great detriment to him. She has a strong spirit and she has swayed his judgment and influenced his course, and he has been killing himself. He has never realized the truthfulness of the vision given for him months ago, but his greatest anxiety has been that it should not be made public lest it would affect the liberalities of his brethren towards him. I was shown that his labors for the year past have been lost. He might just as well have labored with his hands as to have made a show of laboring in the cause. God’s power has not attended his labors, and never will until he makes thorough efforts to undo the evil he has done. He does not stand in the light. He has chosen a course of his own and he and his family must suffer the consequences.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 4)
I was shown that God did not require us to go to New York and labor to build up what others have been tearing down, and suffer depression of spirits and to be held in doubt. But He would send us where there are willing hearts to receive our testimony and to go to work for themselves. Those who wish to have help in New York can help themselves if they will follow the abundance of light the Lord has heretofore given them. When they take hold of the work with energy and zeal then may they expect help.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 5)
I was shown the dark and deadly influence of Elmore Waters. Some have hung on to him. He throws around him a very religious garb, appears very mild and devoted, but corruption and rebellion are within, and yet some will cling to him, although his influence will draw them in the dark every time. His heart is at war with the work of the third angel. His heart is at war with the visions. He despises them. Yet he has many sympathizers. He is working constantly against the truth. Yet souls are deceived. They will not shake him off and Satan uses him as his agent to transmit his fiery darts to those who are weak and undecided. God requires His people to take a stand which shall cut off such injurious influences.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 6)
There are quite a number in New York who have taken a rebellious course like Dathan and Abiram. They rise up and step in between the plain testimony and the people and virtually say, “Ye take too much upon yourself, seeing the congregation is holy, every one of them.” [Numbers 16:3.] The plain testimony must be given. Sins must be rebuked and wrongs corrected, and the worthless and corrupt be separated from the pure. Some half-hearted ones are not in sympathy with such a work and think that there is too much straight testimony, too much zeal; that the people of God will do well enough and come out well enough without all this, and there are not wrongs about them which others need to be burdened about so much. They give a quieting, soothing testimony calculated to quell their fears. Such are the ones who are crying, “Peace, peace,” when the Lord hath not spoken peace. [Jeremiah 6:14.]
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 7)
Brother Poole is not in the work. He has lost sense of the greatness, the solemnity, and close separating work for this time. His influence is not calculated to lead on God’s people to advance but rather to retard their progress and destroy the marks of peculiarity God has placed upon them, and unite them with professors who have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof. God and His angels are at work to bring up to the standard, to elevate. Brother Poole must step carefully and move with more energy and decision or his labors will be accepted of the rebel host and will not be approved of God. There is to be a close and testing work among God’s people. The shaking time is upon us and those who are valiant and whole-hearted will endure the trying process. Those who endure unto the end shall receive the crown of life.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 8)
This is all I can write at present. I have some other things, but we are in the midst of meetings and can only snatch a few moments at a time to write. The good work is being carried on here at Wright. Twelve or fourteen came forward to be prayed for yesterday, which was Monday. They express a desire to be Christians, and we hold another meeting today for the brethren and sisters and for the young. Meetings will continue here for a day or two, then we shall go to Greenville.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 9)
Brother Hull is quite free again, for which we feel very thankful. He will accompany us to Greenville and then will return to Wright to give a course of lectures.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 10)
If I could get time I would copy this but I cannot get time.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 11)
*****
Brother John: In the last vision given in Battle Creek, November 5, I was shown that you had not realized the extent of your influence to darken and throw minds into doubt while you were separated in your sympathies and feelings from us, and those who influenced you and held you from us have never realized the deadly work that Satan was doing through them.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 12)
I saw that while you were in the unsettled state you were subject to the most harassing temptations and doubts, and while traveling with your preaching brethren and some private members you would, in a most wise manner, throw more doubt into the minds than an open opponent could ever do. Your words possessed a hidden power because they seemed involved in a profound mystery. Things that you could not solve in your own mind you would throw out to others and pass on your way, not dreaming of the influence of the words or hints you had thrown out, all wrapped up in mystery. The seed you have so unwittingly sown has in some instances borne fruit immediately, but in some cases the seed has lain quite a length of time, then the individual falls into some temptation and the words you spoke had a hidden power and have sprung up and borne fruit. The mind has started upon a train of infidel thought from the words you unwisely uttered with an appearance of much wisdom, and none but God can then tear out the poisonous root. In this way has Satan used you to transmit his darts to others. Had he suggested these thoughts directly to the individual, he well knew they would find no lodgment in the mind, but let these hints come from a messenger—one in whom the person has confidence—and they have a powerful influence.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 13)
We have recently been much burdened on Brother Hull’s account. We about gave him up as lost. He has no help at home and Satan has been determined to overthrow him. He needed all the strength and help from his brethren he could get, but Brethren Frisbie and Waggoner told some of their difficulties and perplexities to him. It seemed they had no particular object, only to talk out what was in their minds—unbelief and darkness. They passed on but Brother Hull was just in that weak condition where the words of his brethren whom he had confidence in could take root and spring up and bear fruit. Some few difficult passages of scripture were thrown into his mind. He came to meeting and honestly told his feelings. Unbelievers were present. One was a minister. He did not know it. He gravely told James and the brethren he could not preach, for he did not believe the Bible any more. They thought him merely under the influence of temptation and tried to turn his mind, but it was of no avail. In this state Brother Hull went some miles distant to discuss with a spiritualist. He came back charmed with the man and as much fascinated as ever a bird was fascinated by a rattlesnake. He was a changed man. He looked so strange, talked so strange. He had got far ahead of us all—far beyond us, almost out of sight of us. We could not help him. Oh, no.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 14)
The object of our meeting Wednesday night was to pray for Brother Hull, he being present. I had been very sick for above a week, threatened with fever, but I went to the meeting. In that meeting I was taken off in vision and shown many things. And the case of Brother Hull was shown me—that he had been mesmerized, charmed by a special agent of Satan. Already had Satan, I saw, claimed him as his prey. Already had evil angels telegraphed to Satan’s agents upon earth that Brother Hull would soon leave the Seventh-day Adventists and join their ranks, and the spiritualist medium with whom he discussed must be all gentleness, and charm him and fascinate him. He was almost continually in the company of this spiritualist medium, and Satan exulted at the conquest he had made.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 15)
Then I saw how cruel, how dishonoring to God to have ministers or private members talk out or lisp their unbelief and infidel feelings to other minds, and by so doing have Satan use them as agents to transmit his fiery darts through them to theirs. I saw that there was much of this done, and Satan exults that he works unperceived in this way. Much more I saw which I cannot write; it would take so much time.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 16)
I related the vision to Brother Hull. He remained unmoved. I wrote it next day and read it to him. He manifested some feeling while I was writing the testimony. All the females who had faith met to pray for Brother Hull. All worked with energy. The spiritualists flocked around him and wanted to visit and talk with him. We tried to prevent an interview and did. Wednesday evening I took George Amadon, Martha, and Brother and Sister Myron Cornell, and I read distinctly and emphatically the testimony the Lord had given me. He [Hull] there promised me he would try to arouse and make an effort again. He had so given up to the powers of darkness that there was no collision of spirits. He was at perfect rest and peace.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 17)
After I read the vision we told him he must go with us to Monterey. He promised to go and I left him. Then Brother George and wife, Myron and wife, had a long and most powerful prayer meeting for him. He left that night for Monterey. He took the cars for Kalamazoo and then the stage for Allegan. Early the next morn we started for Monterey. Sabbath morn at family prayers the Lord led me out to pray for Brother Hull. I felt that I had got hold of the arm of God and I would not let go until the power of Satan was broken and His servant delivered. Prayer was heard and Brother Hull was set free and he labored with us through the conference at Monterey.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 18)
We dare not leave him yet. He will stay with us until he is free, and rooted and grounded in the truth. I saw that when ministers talked unbelief and doubts they attracted evil angels in crowds around them while the angels of God stood back in sorrow, and everywhere these ministers go they carry that darkness until they with fortitude resist the devil and he flees from them.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 19)
Brother Frisbie says that he has been troubled with doubts and unbelief ever since he rode to Convis with you. You then talked to him your perplexities and difficulties and unbelief, and a train of thought was opened to his mind that he could not resist. He dwelt on a few difficult passages and has said he doubted the Bible. He communicated these to Brethren Waggoner and Hull, and the fruit I have written to you. I was shown that in this very manner were doubts and difficulties thrown into Henry Nichols’ mind, which have destroyed his interest and faith in the visions and in us, and which have been strengthening with years until his case is nearly hopeless. Many others have had the seeds of unbelief planted in their hearts by your words clothed in mystery, which had a hidden power, and you passed on wholly ignorant of the effect of those words spoken.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 20)
Brother Frisbie also said that when he brought forth evidences of the truthfulness of the visions you would in answer tell of someone—an astrologer or soothsayer—who had foretold events which had been fulfilled in every particular. He said that his mind was thrown into a train of doubt which had proved a great hindrance to him. All this I learned after the vision had been given.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 21)
Brother Hull has told me recently what the spiritualist medium told him (also a lady medium), that the spirits had informed them that Brother Hull would soon leave the Adventists and become a spiritualist, confirming what had been shown me in vision, as I have written you.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 22)
I was shown the cruel work and influence of those who have sought to separate you from us. They must answer for the consequences. Your usefulness has been nearly destroyed for years. Your testimony has been tame, without edge or power. Your mind has been thrown into doubt, perplexity, and despair until the brain has been overtaxed and injured. Satan has wrought in every conceivable manner to get you down from the work of God and to drive you to unite with the rebel host to oppose those who are obeying the truth. He has worked through your own friends and relatives to accomplish this and has partially succeeded. You might have been a pillar in this cause, a giant in the work, a skillful workman, rightfully dividing the word of truth, and could have swayed a powerful influence. But it has been otherwise. Satan has used rebellious ones to turn aside the purposes of God. Your strong attachment for your friends Satan has taken advantage of to overthrow you.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 23)
Your friends are beginning to see the work they have done and would repair the evil. They can repent, but never undo the evil that they have done. They have caused worse than a blank to be recorded in heaven against you. God has pitied you. He has witnessed your sufferings and is willing to make peace with you if you take hold of His strength. You have been torn, but God in mercy will bind you up. And you must rely upon Him as a child in a parent. You must not dwell upon the dark side. You must forget everything that would bring gloom upon the mind. Keep your mind in peace, in rest. Cease studying and exercising the mind and trust fully in God, who can and will help you if you trust in Him.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 24)
I saw that you were striving with all your might to remove wrongs and get to the light. God accepts your efforts and will let His Holy Spirit rest upon you. Satan, I saw, would roll a tide of unbelief and darkness upon you, but you must not dwell upon the darkness or talk upon it. You must press against it and talk faith. Encourage in yourself a hopeful state of mind. God’s hand is reached down to bring you up. Don’t let go of that arm, for it will prove your salvation.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 25)
In much love.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 26)
Dear Brother Uriah: We would like to have Harriet copy this and send it to Waukon. The things in regard to Brother Poole need not be copied. Please send Brother John Andrews a copy of the whole when you learn where he is, and retain the original.
(1LtMs, Lt 11, 1862, 27)
Lt 12, 1862
Munsel, Jarvis Refiled as Lt 34, 1868.
Lt 13, 1862
Wheeler, Brother Battle Creek, Michigan January 13, 1862 Previously unpublished. Dear Brother Wheeler,
January 4 I was shown some things in vision in regard to you and the state of things in New York. I saw that you had no real sense of the influence which you have exerted on the wrong side. You have, Brother Wheeler, freely made your remarks in regard to my visions, suggested difficulties and doubts; and although you have made some acknowledgement in the paper, yet you have failed to undo what you have done. You do not now see, neither does your wife, that you were working directly contrary to the Spirit of God. You do not begin to see the influence you have exerted. You cannot see that your course was so very much out of way. It looks to you very nearly right, and you stand in just that position where Satan can take advantage of you any time and lead you to call right wrong and wrong right.
(1LtMs, Lt 13, 1862, 1)
Unless you can see and realize where you have failed you will certainly be liable to fail again. You have caused souls who were weak and who had great confidence in you to stumble. It is much easier to exert a wrong influence, to encourage unbelief and doubts and set the mind to running in a wrong channel, than it is to turn that mind after you have directed it wrongly. It is not an easy matter for you to inspire faith in the visions after you have shaken confidence in them, and poisoned minds with unbelief.
(1LtMs, Lt 13, 1862, 2)
This is the very course the wily skeptic has taken. He has taken God’s Word, selected some seeming difficulties in Scripture, or some contradiction, and then in the easiest, quietest manner possible presented it before minds in a wrong light, giving the wrong understanding and making impressions upon naturally unbelieving minds that it would take years to efface. There is a chance for those who wish to do so, to doubt God’s Word. Unbelief can find a handle almost anywhere. There is an opportunity for all who wish to, to doubt and disbelieve the visions and you have given individuals aid in this matter. This is not against me. You must answer to God for this influence.
(1LtMs, Lt 13, 1862, 3)
If God has been working to correct, to bring up, and to unite His people through the instrumentality of the visions, you have been working in an entirely opposite direction. Souls are fainting and faltering through the influence you exerted. Neither your wife nor yourself have seen or realized that you have strengthened the hands of those who were in opposition to God’s work and the influence of truth. You have a work to do in order to wrench yourself from Satan’s snare, to counteract the influence you have exerted as far as you can, and make energetic efforts to get into the light. You are not there yet. God is not pleased with your course, for you have not been gathering, but scattering.
(1LtMs, Lt 13, 1862, 4)
The vision sent you, which was given at Roosevelt, you have not seen. You have not felt its force. You would sooner think that there was some mistake in the matter than to receive it as from Heaven and make diligent work to redeem the past. I was cited to this scripture: “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.”1 Samuel 15:22, 23.
(1LtMs, Lt 13, 1862, 5)
In regard to your acknowledgements in the paper, enough has been said, but you have not carried that confession to the very times and places in your labors, and earnestly sought to do away what you have done in laying stumbling-blocks in the way of others. But you can never do this until you regard the visions in a different light than that in which you now regard them. You are in a perfect snare of Satan, held fast in regard to the gifts. You do not see it. That is the reason I tremble for you. Your labors will do more hurt than good as you now stand.
(1LtMs, Lt 13, 1862, 6)
Those who labor in God’s cause in these perilous times must be clear, must be right on every point. Satan is working every device to make a jar in the body. It is sound, wholehearted, decided, thorough workmen whom God now will sanction and bless, and use as instruments to bring up His people to an holy, elevated position. One inefficient workman will do more injury than half a dozen thorough workmen can follow after and undo.
(1LtMs, Lt 13, 1862, 7)
Please copy and return the original as soon as you can.
(1LtMs, Lt 13, 1862, 8)
In much love.
(1LtMs, Lt 13, 1862, 9)
Lt 14, 1862
Lyon, Mary Battle Creek, Michigan January 13, 1862 Previously unpublished. Dear Sister Mary [Lyon],
Some things were shown me in regard to you. You were shown me as looking upon the world as though it were a blank to you. I saw a cloud arise, so dark that to you it seemed to cover the world, and you stood looking on, perplexed, distressed, and nearly insane. I was then shown a man standing a little distance from you, watching you narrowly. You seemed to be repulsing him with an expression of great dislike. He looked sad and then perplexed and angry. Then you seemed so unhappy, so wretched.
(1LtMs, Lt 14, 1862, 1)
Your mother loved you, but she did not try to make you happy. Her temperament and yours were so unlike there was a constant jar. If you differed with her she fretted, censured, and blamed, which encouraged in you a stubborn and unyielding spirit. It was your natural disposition to be independent and this trait of character has become confirmed under the influence of continued opposition. Your track has been crossed too much for your good. Opposition from your home has led you, when opposed, to argue and justify yourself. It has soured your disposition, and caused you to be impatient under censure or reproof, even if it was deserved.
(1LtMs, Lt 14, 1862, 2)
Then I was shown you listening to the presentation of the truth. You saw the light and beauty of the message, and joy and wonder filled your heart. You feasted upon the truth, you delighted in it, and eagerly sought to satisfy the longing of your soul with drinking in its refreshing influence. Then an expression of peace and joy rested upon your countenance.
(1LtMs, Lt 14, 1862, 3)
Again I saw you troubled; anxiety marked your countenance, and you were conversing with the same man I had noticed before. He seemed to have suffered; marks of anxiety were visible upon his countenance. I looked to see if there were any elements of union existing between you, any union of spirit, but there seemed to be none. His temperament was ardent; he could love ardently and hate just as strongly. He was impulsive, overbearing, determined.
(1LtMs, Lt 14, 1862, 4)
Again I saw you in much distress, and the man mentioned was pointing and beckoning you to a path which led you from the society of God’s people and from their watchcare. The path looked dark, so very dark. You seemed to make an effort to follow in the way he directed, then an angel stepped in between you and him, and you turned your course and seemed relieved. It seemed to me to be utter darkness to follow in the course the man was pointing out, and that if you followed it your happiness and peace were gone forever. After your way was intercepted, you turned from the man with a shivering, shrinking gesture.
(1LtMs, Lt 14, 1862, 5)
Again, I saw him beckoning you, and you advanced a step or two towards him. Then I saw his brow grow clouded and dark; he stamped his foot upon the ground, and his face grew dark with passion. Again you shrank away and lifted your voice in praise to God. Then I was carried back and shown this man was untrue; he has broken the seventh commandment more than once; he has ventured on forbidden ground more than once, yet professed to be a man of principle with much zeal toward God. He felt no condemnation for his sin, and might venture again under similar circumstances.
(1LtMs, Lt 14, 1862, 6)
His connection with you—the result, your separation—has placed him in a very trying, suffering, tempted position. For years he has been tortured in mind, yet your temperament and his can never agree.
(1LtMs, Lt 14, 1862, 7)
January 4th I was shown how dearly you prized the truth, yet Satan was at work to destroy your confidence in your brethren and sisters. Mary, I saw you could not be right, be protected, or overcome without their reproof and counsel. You must be willing to be admonished as well as comforted and encouraged. I saw that you, Mary, had much to learn. Your trials at home have had a tendency to cause you to maintain an independence which many times ought to be yielded. The opposition from your parents, their course to compel you to do as they wished you to do, has not given you a favorable opportunity to form an even character and disposition. You have had to argue and be unyielding at home, and it has caused you to manifest self-will and decision in your religious experience among your brethren, which, unless you are diligent to overcome, will finally separate you from them.
(1LtMs, Lt 14, 1862, 8)
Dear Mary, I saw that there was with you a lack of that sobriety which is so becoming in a follower of Jesus, especially those who believe that the end of all things is at hand. You are often thrown on Satan’s battleground by giving way to your own feelings, and often when you feel bad you lose control of yourself and give yourself up to a strain of folly and fun which grieves the Spirit of God and leaves your own soul in barrenness. You must encourage an even frame of mind. You need to discipline yourself to effect this. Joking and jesting will not tend to your advancement in the divine life, or make you a better Christian. The nearer you live to God, the greater will be your disrelish of these things. Indulging in this light and trifling strain causes you to lose your self-control, your self-respect, and as God is displeased with all such hilarity and glee, you are left weak in faith and shorn of your strength.
(1LtMs, Lt 14, 1862, 9)
You can obtain the victory, but you must not be so weak and so easily swayed by the enemy. You often suffer him to pervert your judgment when a firm purpose to direct your mind in another channel would thwart his devices and prevent Satan from coming in like a flood. It is in your power, by God’s assistance, to lift up a standard against him, and obtain victories over him.
(1LtMs, Lt 14, 1862, 10)
I was directed to this scripture: “Ye are made a spectacle unto the world, to angels, and to men.” [1 Corinthians 4:9.] The concentrated gaze of many eyes is upon you. Some would exult in your downfall; others rejoice in your advancement. Your influence should be holy. A cloud of witnesses are watching us. What testimony do our acts and lives bear to them? Do we honor the cause we have espoused? Are we faithful representatives of the truth? I was shown, Mary, that many idle words have fallen from your lips. If the recording angel should place them before you, it would astonish, distress, and alarm you.
(1LtMs, Lt 14, 1862, 11)
Mary, I was shown there was danger ahead for you unless you manifest more caution and exercise more wisdom in regard to Brother Phillips. Many words have been spoken to him, possibly in a jesting strain, which have been no benefit to him or to you. There is more familiarity in your conversation with Brother Phillips than there ought to be, or that is proper. Mary, this familiarity has no saving influence upon you, upon Brother Phillips, or Eliza. If Brother Phillips is not careful of his moves, reproach will follow him. If he wishes to marry, then his course is more justifiable; if not, he must change his course and be more guarded, for his course is censurable. He is losing his vitality, his spirituality.
(1LtMs, Lt 14, 1862, 12)
Guard yourself, dear Mary, from a messing spirit, selecting one or two and lavishing your affection upon them to the exclusion of others, and making them your confidantes. You are in danger here of going to extremes. It is time that we were right, that we moved from reason instead of impulse. Our speech should be sound, our words well chosen, and a holy solemnity resting upon us that our influence may tell.
(1LtMs, Lt 14, 1862, 13)
Mary, I was shown that the enemy places the words and doings of your brethren and sisters before you in a wrong light. You mistake the nature of your feelings. You think it is quick perception and discernment when it is jealousy.
(1LtMs, Lt 14, 1862, 14)
You have received views and ideas in regard to the influence of one mind upon another, which, if you carry them out, will lead you to make shipwreck of your faith. The instruction which you have readily received in regard to these things will lead you, if it has not already, to undervalue the Word of God and the power and works of Christ. You are advancing on dangerous ground. Your imagination is active and you are suffering your mind to dwell upon the wrong theme.
(1LtMs, Lt 14, 1862, 15)
Satan’s insinuations in regard to this science of the mind are tremendous. Here, serpent-like, he imperceptibly steals in to corrupt and adulterate the pure and genuine faith in the miracles and works of Christ, and makes it all human. If Satan should come direct, if he should make a powerful, bold attack, it would bring you in distress and agony on your face at the feet of your Redeemer, and the strong and mighty Deliverer would affright the bold adversary away. But Satan transformed into an angel of light works upon the mind and imagination to allure from the only safe and right path. You have lent a ready ear to instruction upon the power of one mind upon another and the power of the human will, which has led thousands to infidelity; and it is poisoning your mind and adulterating your faith.
(1LtMs, Lt 14, 1862, 16)
Satan is well pleased to have this science of the human mind spread wide. It is an open door for him to enter and have access to minds. While this knowledge is considered a benefaction to mankind, and it is believed one person so wonderfully affects and relieves the other, Satan is ready at hand to insinuate himself and has worked on the right hand and left.
(1LtMs, Lt 14, 1862, 17)
Lt 15, 1862
Ingraham, William S. Lodi, Wisconsin February 28, 1862 See variant Lt 15a, 1862. Previously unpublished. Dear Brother Ingraham,
Our meeting closed at Avon last Monday. We hope that good has been effected. We were very sorry that you were absent. You should have been present if it was among the possibles.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 1)
I had a testimony to bear and freedom in bearing it. I told them what had been shown me in regard to them, that the leaven of envy, jealousy, and malice was fast leavening the lump. I tried to impress upon them what had been shown me in regard to Satan’s power and his devices, that he had come in like the wide breaking in of waters. Evil angels have had room given them to work, to tear in pieces and divide the church. They have been growing more and more befogged, darker and darker. And unless they now earnestly, zealously resist the devil that he may flee from them, souls will be taken in the net Satan has prepared for them, and unbelievers will become disgusted with their course and steel their hearts against the truth. Satan has led minds to attend to the business of others and watch others when they should attend to their own souls, and search their own hearts and be very jealous of themselves.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 2)
I was shown many watching Brother Wood with jealousy. They thought he was wrong; they inferred and judged, and were suspicious and envious without a cause. Satan has taken the greatest advantage of a misunderstanding. I was shown that Brother Wood had been wronged; he had felt aggrieved, injured. He suffered much in his mind and could not sleep or rest much of the time. He was willing to do anything for the church, but when he realized the true feelings in regard to him he folded his arms and stepped back, and felt that he would let them alone. He was too stiff. He did not possess all that patience that would lead him to suffer long; and as all his moves were watched, advantage was taken of every move or act he or his wife might make. He felt like standing back until they had enough of it.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 3)
Brother Pease’s countenance I remembered as one who has attended to every one’s business but his own, had interested himself and suggested suspicion and felt envious of Brother Wood. Some looked upon Brother Pease as the one whom they should prefer to lead them. I saw that the man was not capable or qualified to bear responsibilities in the church; that it was as much as he could do to attend to his own soul. I was directed to different ones in the church and could not see one as well qualified to fill the position as elder in the church as Brother Wood. It was the work of Satan to destroy the confidence of the church in him. He has been made an offender for a word; and while souls have been watching him, Satan has directed their minds. We are not perfect; all are liable to failures; and if Brother Wood had been wrong, their feelings were not justifiable. I saw that the church should draw nigh to God that He may draw nigh to them, and when the enemy should come in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord may lift up a standard against him.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 4)
The Spirit of the Lord was in the meeting and heartfelt confessions were made. All was moving on aright until Brother Smith arose and introduced matters between him and Brother Wood which were settled, and this was after Brother Wood had made a confession satisfactory to all reasonable minds. Brother Smith brought up that Brother Wood had cautioned him in regard to your children, for which they had held Brother Wood to a confession.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 5)
Previous to this I had not brought in your name, but matters took such a turn that I was obliged to speak and not let the innocent suffer. I told them I could not see where or how Brother Wood could be censured in the remarks made to Brother Smith, for he had made these remarks for the good of the church and his motives had been misjudged; that had I been acquainted with the church at Avon, and you were about to move among them, I should caution them to move carefully lest they might afterwards regret it. I should have told them your family were not well disciplined and would cause them trial. I spoke out a few things that I had been shown—that Brother Ingraham sometimes erred in judgment; he was a powerful laborer when God was with him in the pulpit, and successful in new fields, but failed in judgment when he engaged in church difficulties. He is sympathetic and receives impressions from individuals who are wrong, censuring those who do not deserve censure, and coming to wrong conclusions in regard to difficulties and trials. When these impressions are made upon Brother Ingraham’s mind they are not easily effaced. He settles strong, and moves upon these impressions, and he has not judged aright. He has not helped matters in Avon but, through his interference, brought things into a more perplexed condition than before. He does not judge trials correctly.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 6)
As the meeting progressed Brother Wood’s spirit waxed warmer and warmer. He manifested a wrong spirit and great distress came upon the meeting. We cried earnestly to God, with some freedom. Brother Smith requested his name to be left out and for them to go on with organization. We were dreadfully distressed. We knew not what to do, and after laboring till near sundown to effect a reconciliation between Brethren Smith and Wood we were obliged to leave Brother Wood’s [Smith’s?, see Lt 15a, 1862] name. This was a sad feature in the meeting. I had a straight and yet encouraging testimony for Brother Grimes, that his mind has been directed in the wrong channel. Satan had caught off his mind from present truth upon uncertain questions; here was his danger. He must guard his mind and dwell upon the present truth, which was to fit up and prepare God’s people for translation. He humbly acknowledged the testimony with a broken spirit and many tears. He confessed with an excellent spirit and united with the church. But Brother Smith, poor Brother Smith, has been reluctantly left behind.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 7)
I have tried to write you a little in regard to the meeting. I said just as little in regard to you as I could. I have written I think, nearly, if not quite, every word. I was obliged to say something.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 8)
I had a little conversation in the sleigh with you. Questions which you asked I have been thinking upon, and the scenes of the meeting at Avon brought vividly to my mind particular things which may enlighten your mind, if I should write out all the matter as presented before me and which lays with weight upon my mind. I was shown that you did not understand matters at Avon and lacked judgment. Your feelings and your opinions, instead of the Spirit of the Lord, led you in the trials at Avon. There was no need of your acting in this small difficulty which arose. Publicity should not have been given to the matter. Even in the commencement you misjudged; and then your influence excited and fanned to a flame the spark kindled. You excited jealousy and suspicion in the minds of many who would otherwise have stood clear. You led the church into difficulty but could not so readily lead them out.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 9)
I wish to present some things before you that you may not thoroughly understand. Testimony Number Six is before me. Please read particularly the last paragraph on the eighth page and the first on the ninth page. In the first paragraph referred to, I will quote: “You have not been in harmony with the straight testimony. You have shunned to lay your hand decidedly upon wrong, and have been tried with those who have felt compelled to do so. Disaffected ones have had your sympathy which has had a tendency to make you a weak man.”
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 10)
This lack which was shown me does not refer to your laboring in the desk, your public labors. You are quite pointed in the pulpit. Your lack is in your labors out of the desk, to reprove individual wrong. Prejudice affects you and influences your labors out of the desk. You do not understand circumstances and character, and receive reports of some and censure those you should not—those whom you should be in union with, who could help you, often where you lack, [and] upon whose judgment you could rely—and you build up those who need to be torn down and who deserve severe censure. You are not aware that you lack judgment, and are very set and willful in your own opinions. You think that you know best, that your preaching brethren are not right and that they lack judgment, when the wrong and lack of judgment are in yourself.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 11)
In the last vision I was shown that you feel chafed because perfect confidence is not placed in your judgment by your ministering brethren. You have destroyed that confidence yourself. You have not felt right toward Brother and Sister Sanborn and Brother Loughborough. You have felt wrong toward your preaching brethren. The very ones you should have confidence in—Brethren Sanborn and Loughborough—you have pulled apart from, [and] you have been jealous of them and have injured their influence and felt free to differ with them before brethren and sisters. These brethren have the faculty to manage better than yourself. You have no true sense of the injury of your course, and the good you might have done if you had been right and stood in the counsel of God. Your influence has scattered and torn down. You should pull with all your might with your fellow laborers.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 12)
I wrote you some time ago the vision given me in regard to your wife and children. There has not been a restraining influence in your family, and you are both so constituted that if you are advised in regard to your children, or they are corrected or censured, feelings arise in both your hearts against those who have done this, and you receive strong prejudice against them. In whatever church you should settle your family you would have trials and the church would be deeply tried. Your wife is easily irritated, has a hasty temper, and is extremely sensitive upon the point of her children being censured or corrected. They are indulged and not restrained, and Sister Ingraham becomes jealous and speaks impatiently towards those who have suffered through your unruly children and under a sense of duty speak to her upon the point. She cuts loose in her feelings, becomes irritated. The churches expect better things of your family. Their influence, with your lack of judgment, would tear down any young church. I advise you to stay where you are and not move your family into a new place. Your influence will do more to have your family in one place and you labor elsewhere. A young church should never have the example of your family to tear them down.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 13)
Brother Ingraham, you will not, cannot, reform until you see where you have erred and the influence you have exerted. You should plant your feet upon the right ground and stand there, and not let Satan gain the victory by your following your own feelings in regard to individuals. Search first your own heart. It is time you were right, just right.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 14)
It was very difficult for us to feel reconciled to be placed in such a trying position in Avon. I knew from what had been shown me that if you had not interfered, but stood in the counsel of God, that difficulty might have been saved. You lifted a burden from the shoulders of one who deserved to bear the burden and placed it upon another who did not deserve it, and if the soul of the erring is saved it will be but a hair’s breadth escape.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 15)
Satan works on the right hand and on the left, unperceived. The most deplorable thing, and that which has caused us from the first the most heart-rending trials, is that Satan uses ministers as his agents and accomplishes a work through them which he would fail to accomplish in any other way. He deceives ministers, those who minister in word and doctrine. He insinuates himself, takes advantage of different organizations, leads one to differ from another, to be very sanguine of their own opinion and judgment, to think their course is right, their judgment the best. And Satan exults when a party feeling is raised. Then he introduces his jealousy, evil-surmising, and fault-finding, excites sympathy for those who are wrong, and confusion and distraction are in the body. For years past I have been shown that the unwise course of the ministers has been the foundation of most all the difficulties in the church. This grieves God and angels. It should not be. It need not be. It is the work of Satan, and souls are lost in consequence.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 16)
Brother Ingraham, you do not feel as you ought to feel in regard to your preaching brethren, and you have showed out these feelings. You will show out these feelings in some way; by a hint or insinuation you show that you disagree with them. You find fault with things that they have done, with their management, suggest improvements that you could make, and you have thrown doubts and exerted an influence among some of the brethren and sisters which you could not so easily do away. You must search carefully. Evil surmising and jealousy have lived in your heart, which have manifested themselves in side hints, and God cannot prosper you until you see things as they are.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 17)
You should take your position to yield anything rather than that the flock should perceive the least difference of opinion between you and your ministering brethren. It is very easy and natural for you to dissent from your preaching brethren and speak in a way to hurt their influence. You have carried out your feelings in the matter and persisted in some cases to differ and bring them in fault, and at the same time have upheld the guilty. This displeases God. Sometimes you have moved blindly in this matter by receiving the testimonies of interested individuals, listening to their complaints, and acting upon their testimony when they were greatly at fault. And sometimes you have persisted in your own opinions and decisions, which have been formed by your own feelings and jealousies.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 18)
As different things which I have seen from time to time come vividly before me I hope that I shall by the help of the Spirit of God present them to you as they were presented to me. In regard to your labors in and about Monroe, I was shown that at one time after the series of meetings held in Monroe all that section of country was aroused. A discreet and wise laborer there then could have built up a large church; but Satan did not mean to have it so.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 19)
God’s Spirit attended your first labors in Monroe. You took a little glory to yourself and thought your abilities were greater than it was wise for you to think they were. You placed all confidence in your own judgment. You thought you understood perfectly how to manage, but you failed.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 20)
Your first labors in Monroe were approved of God. Then if you had continued small in your own eyes and glorified God alone, a living church would have been existing in Monroe. Had you stood humble, willing to advise and counsel with your brethren, especially those who labor in word and doctrine, you would have been saved from your now present perplexities, and would have been the means of doing much good. You lacked ability to manage. Your preaching brethren, many of them, are better qualified in this respect than yourself.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 21)
You thought you knew just how things should be managed at Crane’s Grove. This led you to censure my husband, whom you should have helped, who has borne burdens to which you are a stranger. You helped to cast a burden upon him to save the feelings of unconsecrated, unconverted, professed Sabbathkeepers, most of whom knew not the first principles of religion or the truth. God frowned upon you. Your influence told there, and in the train of circumstances which have occurred you have placed matters at Crane’s Grove in a position which cost us hard and wearing labor and great discouragements when we were last there, and we have not been able to exert that influence which God designed we should have exerted there. They have not seen everything clearly and been entirely free from the impressions they received from you, and in your efforts to build up Brother Ferrin they do not see these things and have not yet straightened themselves. They mean to be right.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 22)
It is easier to make a wrong impression than to efface it after it is once made. Satan stands ready to impress upon minds with force wrong ideas that one minister has unwisely given, that all the messengers in the field could not efface, and which could never be wiped out except by the power of God’s Spirit. After that meeting at Crane’s Grove, God did not prosper you and you followed your own selfish, blind judgment, and all the counsel and caution of your brethren and sisters, including your preaching brethren, had no more influence upon you to arrest your blind course than the blowing of the wind. You stretched out your hand to shield those whom God required His servants to reprove. You sought to build up an ungodly man living in adultery every day, and your course tore things to pieces faster than twelve could have built [it] up.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 23)
I was shown that taking all your labors together, since that time and at that time, the injury overbalances the good. You have not seen your errors as God looks upon them. You think that you have been unfortunate in a few instances, that upon the whole, you have been about right, and that many are prejudiced against you. Unless you can be convinced of your lack of judgment and see your mismoves and the influence of such moves, and see that your sympathy has been perverted, you will not reform and your labors will be of but little use.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 24)
When you last labored with the tent, you planned and chose its location and there was not accomplished by the tent that which might have been accomplished if you had been right and yielded your judgment to others. I have been shown that ministers must be right. I was shown that when you or any other laborer enter a new field thorough work must be made. If a company is brought out into the truth they should not be left until the work is finished. You fail to bring the people up and plant them where they should be. You dread to bring them up to the point of acting, to enforce upon them systematic benevolence, and urge upon them the necessity of pursuing their investigation, of taking the Review and studying the truths it publishes. They should be brought up on every point. Clear testimony should be borne upon laying aside their idols, and they should be instructed in regard to the gifts.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 25)
If the ministers who have been the instruments of bringing souls into the truth go away and leave them before their work is thoroughly done, and another comes in and draws the line a little closer than their favorite minister did, and reins them up upon points which the former preacher has neglected, Satan takes advantage and some will almost surely make shipwreck of faith, become offended, and walk no more with us. It is very important that a thorough blow be struck while the Spirit of the Lord is convicting of sin and transgression of the law. Thorough work done before leaving a company who has embraced the truth will be a strong fortification for them to remain separate from the spirit of the world and will fortify them against the coming in of Satan. Another cannot do this work half as well as the one who first presented the truth to them.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 26)
Brother Ingraham, you had rather another would finish up the work you begin. You do not like the disagreeable responsibility and burden of laboring with individuals in private in regard to these important duties. You should carry a system with you and show all the necessity of systematic benevolence and of their acting a part, and have matters arranged and established before leaving a company. God will not reward and approbate any one who only half does his work and leaves the disagreeable work for some other one to do. God will have thoroughgoing, decided, straightforward men. Satan must be shut out every time. He must not have place for a moment. Ministers must be thoroughgoing and shun not to lay their hand on individual wrongs. You must stand out of the way of your own light and stand in the light and counsel of God.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 27)
Brother Ingraham, you must not engage in church trials. You cannot with discretion and wisdom decide matters in church trials. You fail to rule well your own house. How then can you rule the church? You are blind as to the condition of your family. You see not the evil in the hearts and course of your children and the strong power Satan has over their minds. You count those your enemies who from a sense of duty, for the good of your children and for your own interest, reprove and caution them and you in regard to your duty to them. You let such a reproof cut you from them and let their words fester in your heart and often retaliate in some way. You must subdue, restrain, and correct your children, and you must get rid of every particle of that spirit that cannot bear a careful reference to the course of your children. You must call things by their right names—call good good and evil evil, and not call good evil and evil good.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 28)
(Signed) Ellen G. White.
My husband says since I have read this to him that at present he wishes to be excused from holding any meetings in Illinois where you have labored for the past three years. He says that you can make things all right when you see things in their true light. Until you do he does not want to meet the influence which you have exerted. He expects to go from Little Prairie to Battle Creek. He says, Let Brother Ingraham finish his own work.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 29)
(Signed) Ellen G. White
Please copy and send me the original at Battle Creek. I reserve a copy of all I send out.
(1LtMs, Lt 15, 1862, 30)
Lt 15a, 1862
Ingraham, William S. Lodi, Wisconsin February 28, 1862 See variant Lt 15, 1862. Previously unpublished. Dear Brother Ingraham,
Our meeting at Avon closed last Monday. We hope that good has been effected. We were very sorry you were absent. You should have been present if it was among the possibles. I bore my testimony; told them what had been shown me in regard to them and their condition—that the leaven of envy, jealousy, and malice was fast leavening the lump. I presented before them that Satan and his evil angels were at work with them to tear each other down; that Satan had controlled their minds and they had been growing more and more befogged, darker and darker; and unless they should now resist the devil, souls would be taken in the net Satan had prepared and the heathen around would say, Where is thy God?
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 1)
I had many things to say to them: that Satan had led them to attend every other’s business but their own; that their feelings in regard to Brother Wood were wrong; that they have been jealous, suspicious, and envious, and without a cause. Brother Wood felt aggrieved and injured. He was represented to me as standing with his arms folded, alone. He was then too stiff. He felt that he had been misused. He had suffered much in his mind, and had lost sleep and rest from these causeless trials which arose from a mere atom. He was made an offender for a word.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 2)
The Spirit of the Lord was in the meeting and humble, heartfelt confessions were made. All was moving on aright until Brother Smith arose and brought up matters which had been settled between him and Brother Wood. Then the spirit of the meeting changed. Before Brother Smith arose, Brother Wood had made satisfactory confession to all. And then was brought in the caution Brother Wood had given to Brother Smith in regard to your family and they had held Brother Wood to a confession.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 3)
I had not brought in your name but the matters took such a turn that I was obliged to speak and not let the innocent suffer. I spoke out a few things of what had been shown me in regard to you; that I had been shown that Brother Ingraham erred in judgment. He was a powerful man and when laboring in new fields exerted a powerful influence; but Brother Ingraham failed in judgment when he engaged in church difficulties. He is sympathetic, and has received impressions by persons relating difficulties and trials to him, and has wrongfully judged; and when these impressions are once made upon Brother Ingraham’s mind they are not easily effaced. He settles strong and then moves upon these impressions. He has not helped matters in Avon, but left the difficulties in a more perplexed state than before. He does not judge trials correctly. (This I kept back, that you excuse those who deserve censure and censure those who are innocent.)
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 4)
Brother Smith grew quite warm against Brother Wood, and warmed up and manifested a wrong spirit and brought great distress upon the meeting. We cried earnestly to God with freedom. Brother Smith begged them to leave his name out and go on with the organization. After laboring till near sundown without effecting anything, Brother Smith’s name was left. This was the only sad feature of the meeting.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 5)
I had a straight and yet encouraging message for Brother Grimes, that his mind was directed in the wrong channel. He must bring it back to dwell upon present truth, etc. He humbled himself and confessed with an excellent spirit. He fully received the testimony and united with the church. Brother Smith has been reluctantly left behind.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 6)
Now, Brother Ingraham, I have tried to write you a little in regard to the meeting. I mentioned just as little in regard to you as I could, but had to say something and fear I have not said all that I should.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 7)
I had a little conversation with you in the sleigh. Should have been glad to have talked more fully. From what was shown me, Brother Ingraham, you lacked judgment in acting in the trials at Avon. As the matter was shown me there was not any need of your engaging in those trials. You excited jealousy and suspicion in the minds of many who would otherwise have stood clear if you had let those trials alone. Brother Ingraham, you have moved in the dark. Your own spirit has guided you. You have followed your mind, instead of the counsel of God.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 8)
Dear Brother Ingraham, I wish to present some points before you that I have not mentioned definitely and separately. Testimony Number Six is before me. Please notice particularly the last paragraph on page 8 and the first on page 9. You may not understand these two paragraphs. In the first paragraph referred to I will quote: “You have not been in harmony with the straight testimony. You have shunned to lay your hand decidedly upon wrong, and you have been tried with those who have felt compelled to do so. Disaffected ones have had your sympathy, which has had a tendency to make you a weak man.” This lack which was shown me does not refer to your preaching but to your duty to individuals. You do not shun pointed testimony in the desk, but when out of the desk you censure those whom you should unite with and upon whose judgment you could rely.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 9)
I was shown that your failure has been a lack of judgment and yet you are not aware of that lack. You are quite set and willful in your opinion and think that you know best and that your preaching brethren are not right and lack judgment, when the wrong and lack of judgment are in yourself.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 10)
In the last vision I was shown that you feel chafed because perfect confidence is not placed in your judgment by your ministering brethren. But, Brother Ingraham, your course has destroyed that confidence. You have not felt right toward your preaching brethren—the very ones you should harness up with, and counsel with, and whose advice and judgment you should receive, [who have wisdom] where you lack. You have pulled apart from Brother Sanborn and Brother Loughborough, and have felt jealous of them, and have injured their influence. You, Brother Ingraham, have no true sense of the injury of your course. The influence has been sad. It has scattered and torn down and yet you are not pulling strong with your fellow laborers.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 11)
I wrote you some things in regard to your wife and children. Brother Ingraham, there has been, and still is, a great lack in your family. You and your wife are so constituted that if your children are censured you receive strong prejudice against the one who blames them. In whatever church you should settle your family you would have trials, because your children are unruly and you are both extremely sensitive upon the point of their faults being spoken of and reproved. Your wife becomes jealous if her children are reproved, speaks impatiently towards others, and cuts loose from them in her feelings when they are only doing their duty. This causes irritated feelings and such an influence will tear down any young church. There is lack of patience and ruling her own spirit. I should advise you to stay where you now are instead of settling among any other church, for your influence will be better and it will be better for the cause of God. Move in the counsel of God. Don’t let your own blind judgment lead you.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 12)
Brother Ingraham, you have oppressed those who deserved your sympathy, and encouraged those who were wrong and deserved your censure. A great work must be accomplished for you both. And you, Brother Ingraham, must not keep looking at your wrongs and grieve over them, but be sure and see them, for you will not reform unless you see where you have erred. Plant your feet upon the right ground and stand there. Don’t let Satan gain the victory by your following your own feelings in regard to this one and that. Lose sight of what you think wrong in them but first search your own heart. Sister Ingraham must reform and put away this easily irritated spirit and possess the qualifications of a Christian. It is time we were right, and we must take hold earnestly to be right, and just right.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 13)
It was very difficult for us to feel reconciled to be placed in such a trying position in Avon. I knew from what had been shown me that if you had stood in the counsel of God all that trouble and difficulty might have been saved. You lifted a burden from the shoulders of one who deserved to bear the burden and placed it upon another who did not deserve it, and if the soul of the erring is saved, it will be but a hair’s breadth escape.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 14)
Satan works on the right hand and on the left unperceived, and the most deplorable thing is that he uses ministers as his agents and accomplishes a work through them that he can not accomplish in any other way. He deceives ministers who minister in word and doctrine. He insinuates himself, takes advantage of their different organizations, leads them to differ in opinion, to be very sanguine of their own opinions and judgment, and to think their ways, course, and judgment the best. Then he introduces his jealousy, evil surmising, and faultfinding, that the church may become affected and sympathize with one minister, while another sympathizes with another. Confusion is in the body. For years past I have been shown that the unwise course of the ministers was the foundation of most all the difficulties in the church. Nearly all the troubles can be traced back to the preachers. This need not be. It is the work of Satan.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 15)
Brother Ingraham, if you feel disaffected toward your preaching brethren you will show it out in some way by disagreeing with them, by finding fault with things that they have done to the brethren and sisters, and suggesting amendments in their course. All this has a tremendous influence and raises doubts in the minds of the brethren and sisters which you could not easily do away again. You have not searched carefully enough to know that evil surmising and jealousy leads you to throw out hints, insinuations, etc. God can not prosper you till you see these things as they are, and [you would] rather yield anything than that the brethren and sisters should perceive the least difference of opinion between you and your ministering brethren.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 16)
It is very easy and natural, Brother Ingraham, for you to dissent from your preaching brethren and you have carried out your feeling in the matter and persisted in some cases to differ with your preaching brethren and bring them in fault while you have excused the guilty. Sometimes you have moved blindly in this matter by receiving the testimonies of interested individuals and acting upon their testimonies when they were greatly at fault; and then you have sometimes persisted in your own opinions and in decisions you have come to when your own feelings and jealousies urged you to it. As the different things I have seen from time to time come vividly to my mind, I pray the Lord to help me to present them to you as they were presented to me.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 17)
In regard to your labors in Monroe, I was shown that in sections of country around, minds were inquiring if these things were so, and that wise management and a thorough laborer would have preserved a large church there. But you placed all confidence in your own judgment. You thought that you understood perfectly how to manage. God gave you victory in preaching the truth in your first labors in Monroe. Then if you had continued in the right course, there would be a living church in the vicinity of Monroe. But Satan came in, and because your influence had been powerful in your public labors in Monroe you began to depend much upon your own weak judgment to manage when your ability to manage is weaker than your brethren’s generally.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 18)
This led you to move wrongly at Crane’s Grove, to censure my husband, whom you should have helped, and to cast a burden upon him to save the feelings of an unconsecrated, unconverted few whom God frowned upon. Your influence in the train of circumstances which have occurred has placed things at Craves Grove in a position where today we cannot have that influence there [that] we should have. They have not seen things clearly and been entirely free from the impression they then received. They do not see it, and from the light given me in the last vision we have no work to do there. I know that they mean to do right, but it is easier to make a wrong impression than to efface it after it is made, for Satan impresses upon minds wrong ideas that one minister has unwisely given, that all the messengers in the field would not efface, and which can be wiped out only by the power of God. After that meeting at Crane’s Grove God did not prosper you. You followed your selfish, blind judgment, and all the cautions of your brethren and sisters and your preaching brethren had no more effect upon you to arrest your blind course than the blowing of the wind. Satan controlled your labors and your course. And since that time I was shown that upon the whole, taking your labors all together, the injury you have done overbalances the good.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 19)
You have not seen your error as God looks upon it. You think that you have been unfortunate, made a few mistakes, but upon the whole you have been about right. Now, Brother Ingraham, unless you can be convinced of your lack of judgment and management and can see where your sympathy has been perverted and led you to take an entirely wrong course, your labors cannot effect much. You have sought to bring the labor to you in the vicinity of your home, instead of accommodating yourself to the field of your labor. You managed and planned for the tent to be placed in the localities you selected and there was not half accomplished by the tent that might have been.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 20)
I have been shown, Brother Ingraham, that when through your labors a company is brought out into the truth you must make thorough work before you leave them for a new field. You must visit them and labor to thoroughly finish the work you have begun. You dread to bring them up and plant them where they should be, enforce upon them the necessity of systematic benevolence, and urging upon them the necessity of pursuing their investigation, of taking the Review and studying the truths it publishes. They should be brought up on every point—to lay aside their idols, upon the gifts, etc. If the minister who has been the instrument of bringing souls into the truth goes and leaves them for another to come in and rein them up upon points that their favorite minister neglected, some will be almost sure to make shipwreck. It is very important that a thorough blow be struck, thorough work done before leaving a company who has embraced the truth. Another cannot do this half as well as the one who presented the truth to them.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 21)
But, Brother Ingraham, you had rather not take this disagreeable responsibility and burden upon yourself of talking in private and public and to individuals in regard to their duty on these important things. You do not love to impress upon minds their individual duty, to walk right up to systematic benevolence, and have it all arranged and established before leaving a company. But God will not own and approbate as efficient laborers those who do half the work and leave all the disagreeable part for some other one to do. God will have thoroughgoing, decided, straightforward men. Now Satan must be shut out every time. He must not have place for a moment. Ministers must be thoroughgoing and shrink not to lay their hand on individual wrong. You must stand out of the way of your own light and stand in the light and counsel of God.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 22)
Brother Ingraham, do not take upon yourself or suffer the brethren to engage in church trials. You cannot with discretion and wisdom decide matters in church trials. You fail to rule well your own house, and how then can you rule the church? You are blind as to the condition of your family. You see not the depths of evil in the hearts of your children, and the strong power Satan has over their minds. You count those [as] your enemies, who out of a sense of duty, for your interest and the children’s good, strive in the most careful manner to suggest the necessity of your restraining children. You cut yourself loose very quickly from such. Every particle of that spirit has yet to be torn from you and you call things by their right name; call good good, and evil evil; do not call good evil and evil good.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 23)
*****
Since reading the above my husband does not feel it his duty to go to McConnell’s Grove, Princeton [Princeville ?], or Crane’s Grove.
(1LtMs, Lt 15a, 1862, 24)
I have been much burdened since I have from time to time written out to different ones connected with the Avon Church. As I have written out what has been shown me, some things have come before me more particularly in regard to you, which it is very important that you should have.
(1LtMs, Lt 16, 1862, 1)
I was shown that in the trials at Avon that you have been more or less connected with, you have been too stiff, stood with your arms folded, separate in your feelings from the church. You felt that they had misjudged you, injured you, and you were not as yielding as you should have been. At times you are impatient and manifested a wrong spirit, and it was natural for you to find it hard to confess, to make a frank acknowledgement of errors or wrongs. You mean to be just right, to take a straightforward course, and wish others to do so.
(1LtMs, Lt 16, 1862, 2)
I saw that in your position your only safe course is to cultivate humility, that the church may have no occasion to stumble over you or to be tried with your course. I was pointed back and saw you in connection with the trials at Avon. If you had yielded in some things, and admitted or confessed some things, and not stood off so stiff and with such a set will, the difficulties would have been in a better shape. The church felt wrong toward you and toward each other, and they were jealous, as I related at the meeting.
(1LtMs, Lt 16, 1862, 3)
Now Brother Wood, I write this because I fear that you will not take all the care and pains you should to heal, to remedy difficulties. Even if you were wrong it would be difficult for you to see it or confess it right out for fear it might hurt your influence or lower you in the esteem of your brethren. Brother Wood, don’t let the enemy deceive you in this. Your position is such that you cannot be of the least use unless you are in the confidence of, and hearts of, your brethren; and the most sure way for you to be there is to be humble, childlike, yielding, and suffer anything rather than the church should be injured or thrown upon the devil’s battleground.
(1LtMs, Lt 16, 1862, 4)
I was shown some few things I have not named to any one, which have come vividly before me. I was shown you praying in meeting and some seemed to be wearied and uneasy; then I saw that your position would be more acceptable if your prayers were short, right to the point, and then stop. Also your exhortations short, right to the point, and the influence in the meeting would be much better. Others would feel rebuked for their tedious prayers and the meetings would be far more interesting. God is not pleased with the plan of lengthy prayers and exhortations in meeting. After the people’s or brethren’s interest ceases in a prayer, it is a dry thing and every word wearies and brings darkness. Here, dear brother, I was shown [there] has been a little self-exaltation, and not that humility that God approbates.
(1LtMs, Lt 16, 1862, 5)
There is danger, dear brother, of your feeling that your judgment is superior to that of your brethren, and not consulting them and advising with them. These things will separate the feelings of your brethren from you. Your judgment may be better than that of your brethren in many respects, yet you are in danger of erring. In some things the brethren’s judgment may be superior to yours.
(1LtMs, Lt 16, 1862, 6)
Now, Brother Wood, in some things you are too straight, too stiff, are too hopeless in regard to souls embracing the truth, and do not encourage in yourself and others all that winning spirit that you should to win souls unto the truth. You are so fearful of yielding the truth that you stand off from souls and do not come as close to them as you should and manifest all the courteous spirit that the disciples of Christ manifested to save souls. And if your brethren err, you are in danger of manifesting the same standing-off spirit. If you would more often yield, bend your will, and make admissions just as far as you can and not injure your conscience, it would be better for you. But, Brother Wood, you do mistake sometimes, and are fearful of injuring your self-dignity. Come right up to your brethren, press to them, ever stand decided for the right. You need not sacrifice one principle of truth. But if you sacrifice self-dignity, it will only serve to exalt you in the sight of God and in the opinion of your brethren.
(1LtMs, Lt 16, 1862, 7)
Lt 17, 1862
Russell, Sister Battle Creek, Michigan December 7, 1862 Portions of this letter are published in HP 119. Dear Sister Russell,
I have been meaning to write to you for some time, but will delay no longer.
(1LtMs, Lt 17, 1862, 1)
While in Dartmouth I was shown some things in regard to the desponding, despairing ones. I saw that you felt miserable and forsaken. Satan had led you to cast away your confidence. I saw that God had not forsaken you. You were suffering under disease, but God’s loving kindness changeth not. He pitied you and wished to save you, but Satan was holding up before you your unworthiness and whispering in your ears to torment you, “You are lost, lost. It is no use for you to hope. You must perish.” And it has seemed to you that you could read the wrath of God written upon everything around you.
(1LtMs, Lt 17, 1862, 2)
I saw that a soul whom God had forsaken would never feel as you have felt, and would never love the truth and salvation as you have loved it. Oh, if God’s Spirit ceases to strive with a soul it is left in an indifferent state, and all the time thinks that it is well enough off. I saw that God loved you and that He wished to save you and your family.
(1LtMs, Lt 17, 1862, 3)
Last November 5th I was taken off in vision and shown how powerfully Satan was working to lead trembling souls to cast away their confidence in God. I saw that we should meet with souls who thought that God had left them, when they were precious in His sight. Among these feeble, desponding ones I saw you—sad and dejected, mourning over yourself. I saw that God’s love was still toward you and that He would receive you in His loving, sheltering arms if you would only come to Him believing. I saw that God pitied your dear family. They need your care. Your husband needs your help to bring up his children. I saw you must not gratify the enemy in the least by doubting and casting away your confidence. Said the angel, “God leaves not His people, even if they err. He turns not from them in wrath for any light thing. If they sin they have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
(1LtMs, Lt 17, 1862, 4)
Yes, I saw that this Advocate pleads for sinners and the Father accepts His prayer. He turns not away the request of His beloved Son. I saw that He who so loved you as to give His own life for you will not turn you off and forsake you unless you willfully, determinedly forsake Him to serve the world and Satan. Jesus loves to have you come to Him just as you are, hopeless and helpless, and cast yourself upon His all-abundant mercy, and believe that He will receive you just as you are. You dwell upon the dark side. You must turn your mind away, and instead of thinking all the time upon the wrath of God think of His abundant mercy, His willingness to save poor sinners, and then believe He saves you. You must in the name of God break this spell that is upon you. You must cry out, “I will, I do believe!” I saw that Jesus retained your name upon His breastplate and pleaded for you before His Father, and that if your eyes could be opened you would see heavenly angels ministering unto you, hovering about and driving back the evil angels that they should not utterly destroy.
(1LtMs, Lt 17, 1862, 5)
Brother Russell, trust in God. Believe on Him by living faith. Present your afflicted wife to the Great Physician. Jesus will pity and send a soothing balm from glory to heal her torn and wounded spirit. Sister Russell, God calls upon you to believe. Heed His voice. Cease talking of the wrath of God and talk of His compassion and His abundant mercy. Jesus sits as a refiner and purifier of silver. The furnace in which you may be placed may be very hot, yet you will come forth as gold seven times purified, reflecting the image of Jesus. Have courage. Look up, believe, and you shall see of the salvation of God.
(1LtMs, Lt 17, 1862, 6)
Lt 18, 1862
Steward, T. M. NP 1862 This letter is published in entirety in 1T 311-325. Brother [T. M.] Steward:
You asked me some questions at Lodi [Wisconsin] which I have been thinking much of since, and from my conversation with you I know that you have no true sense of the part you have acted and the injury you have done to the cause of God. That which had been shown me in regard to you came vividly before me, and I have compared that which I have recently seen with the testimony published in regard to you, and I cannot see the least apology for your course.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 1)
Before running into the fanaticism you did you were wrong. Your heart was not right in the sight of God. I told you I believe that you had been honest. I went too far. I had no right to say that you had been honest after having the testimony for you I did in No. 6. No, Brother Steward, if you had honestly followed the light you would never have pursued the course you have. You have willfully, stubbornly followed your own way, relied on your own judgment. God sent you help but you would not be helped. What more could Heaven have done for you than was done? If you thought others were esteemed higher than you, you were dissatisfied and acted pettish, sideways like a spoiled child. You have wished to be highly esteemed but have taken a course to greatly lower yourself in the esteem of those whom you would wish should esteem you, even before your wild, fanatical course.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 2)
You were jealous of those at Battle Creek, jealous of my husband and myself. You were constantly ready to surmise evil. Envy and suspicion were mixed together, and under a supposed pretense of being very conscientious, you have suggested doubts in regard to matters at Battle Creek, throwing out sideways hints in regard to matters concerning [which] you were wholly ignorant of and utterly incapable of judging rightly, because the burdens of such matters there were not laid at all upon you.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 3)
I was shown that God would never select an individual with a mind constituted as yours and lay heavy burdens upon that individual and call him to fill responsible positions, for self-esteem would be so prominent in all that it would be ruinous to God’s people. Had you esteemed yourself less you would have had less jealousy and suspicion. Had you been led by the Spirit of God you would have united wholly, fully with the body, and been in union with those whom God has seen fit to place at the head of the work. You would have committed yourself fully upon the gifts of the church, and in every particular in regard to points of faith you would have been established and drawn in even cords with those of experience. But you took an uncertain position, fearing you would gratify those whose whole soul was in the work if you stood firmly, decidedly, with them and planted yourself on the platform with your brethren.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 4)
God was displeased with you. He would bear with your folly no longer but left you to follow your own judgment, which you had so highly esteemed until you should wish to be led, wish to be taught, and without any pettish, stubborn feelings, without any complaining or faultfinding, learn of those who have felt the burden and weight of the cause. You have despised instruction and been left to take a glaring, inconsistent course. You have ever been reaching out to lead out independent of the body, to get an original position of your own where T. M. Steward would figure a little larger and be approbated and exalted, until I saw that God gave you up to manage and manifest that wisdom you have thought you had superior to others, and He let you figure in the most foolish, senseless, wild fanaticism which ever cursed Wisconsin. And yet I saw you were not reformed; yet you came up out of all this excusing yourself and ready again to dictate and even suggest a plan whereby the Lord might have arrested you through a course His servants could have pursued.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 5)
God gave you your choice: to be taught, to be instructed by His servants in His own way; or to go on, maintain your willful, unyielding disposition, and take a course to ruin your own influence. You chose to have your own way, and you should now blame yourself. You professed to be a watchman on the walls of Zion, a shepherd to the flock, yet witnessed them torn and scattered, confused and destroyed, and gave no warning. Read Ezekiel 3:17-19, 21:
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 6)
“Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.”“Nevertheless, if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned: also thou hast delivered thy soul.”
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 7)
The sin of those who ran into fanaticism rests heavier upon you, Brother Steward, than any other, and you are accountable for the injury done to the cause of God. You were an unfaithful watchman. You discerned not the evil because you were unfaithful. Then when God sent His faithful watchman who stood in the light and could discern the evil to arrest or warn the erring flock and the stupid shepherd, they would not hear the voice of the true Shepherd through His chosen servants but made their spirit strong against the warning and strengthened themselves in their vain and foolish course. And the shepherd would not hear; he was affronted; he saw no haste in the matter. He thought this fanaticism would develop itself, and so it has, with terrible results. There were not reasonable, sensible manifestations to characterize it as being of God.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 8)
The servants of God freed their souls and their garments from the blood of souls and from the cursed influence which followed, while T. M. Steward bears the fearful weight of the sin of this woeful fanaticism. And yet he is so childish as to blame the weak, erring sheep who strayed as leading him out of the true pasture. What is a watchman for unless it be to watch for evil and give the warning? What is a shepherd for unless to watch lest the sheep shall stray from the fold or true pasture and be torn by wolves? What excuse could a shepherd plead for suffering the flock to be torn? How would an excuse stand made by the shepherd that the sheep led him astray, the sheep ran out of the true and right path and led him out of the path? How would such a plea be received? Why, no more confidence could be placed in his ability to care for the sheep and protect them from evil. He would be counted as unfit to guide and shield the flock, and they would be taken out of his hands.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 9)
The reproach resting upon the cause in regard to Brother Billings’ wife rests heavily upon Brother and Sister Steward. It was through their influence that she left her family. They made much of her exercises and experience. She was weak, and after she had been from her home a short time she was no longer a sane woman. I was shown that if Brother Steward had been standing in the counsel of God, acknowledging the gifts as of God, and occupying their place in the church; had he been heart and mind wholly with the Review, being led by the strong truths of God’s Word, his influence in Mauston would have been far different than it was. The church would have been in an entirely different position and would, had his labors been right among them, been walking right up to all God required of them, as churches in other States. But the gifts have not been believed and considered of any weight, and Brother Steward has not impressed upon them the necessity of sacrificing, the necessity of systematic benevolence. Brother Steward’s sideways position in regard to the Review and in regard to important truths being practically carried out, led the people in and about Mauston to not think as highly of the Review as they should, and they held very lightly the truths taught in it. Therefore the Review failed to have that influence upon them God designed it should have, and they were on the background in and about Mauston.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 10)
The state of things in Mauston led T. M. Steward and his wife to influence Brother Billings’ wife to leave her family to secure her influence in Mauston, and he can bear the responsibility for her mind being overtaxed and diseased and the awful strain brought upon God’s cause. Brother Steward, I was shown that you try to throw these things off upon others, but as a watchman God holds you responsible. You have most humble confessions to make in Marquette and Portage and Lodi and other places.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 11)
Brother and Sister Kelley have been greatly injured and embarrassed by the fanaticism, and almost ruined by this satanic spirit manifested through your wife in the form of visions. The same spirit, I have seen, has affected your body and you have run a great length in this fanaticism, and now seek to shoulder it on others. You have not begun to see yet. You are free to confess that which you did not do, but do not confess that which you did do.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 12)
Your influence in Marquette has been wretched. You were opposed to organization. You preached against it in an uncertain manner in Marquette, not in so blunt a manner as some might have done, but you went just as far as you dared to and in a sort of underhanded, covering-up way drove directly against it. In this covering-up, sideways manner you have many times gratified your envious, jealous feelings and created distrust in the minds of man, when if you had come out boldly, openly, you would have been plainly understood and done but little mischief.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 13)
When you have been charged with advocating sentiments contrary to the body, and are brought into a close place, you slip around it and try to make it appear that it is not so, that they misunderstood you, when you know it is so. This I call no more nor less than dishonesty. As you are, the church cannot depend on you. When you manifest the fruits of an entire reform, that you are converted, that you have overcome your jealousy and stubbornness and rebellion, then God will again trust His flock to your care; but He will not do this until you make thorough restitution.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 14)
The best influence you can exert until you do this is by staying at home and being not slothful in business. You have done more injury to the cause by your noncommittal position and by your wretched fanaticism than you have done good in all your life. Our faith has been made disgusting to unbelievers. A wound, an incurable wound, has been given to the cause of God. And yet, many in Wisconsin, with yourself, seem astonished that so much is said and made of this fanaticism.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 15)
We met it here in Marquette. I was shown that the division which took place here would never have been had you been right, or even if you had had wisdom enough to have remained away from Marquette. But the plain dealing God’s servants had to give you, and then your blind course taken among them, created sympathy and raised opposition against James and Brethren Sanborn and Ingraham. You thought yourself slighted. You talked it, you acted it, and the force of the testimony borne by His servants was destroyed. There was a division in the body and you can take all responsibility of this. And here we have had to labor in anguish and distress for the church [in order] to do away the wrong influence you have cast. And yet you have made scarcely an effort to do away the evil. You have not made clean work.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 16)
I was shown some have been very jealous for Brother Steward, fearing that Brother Steward would not have justice done him by his brethren. Such had better stand out of the way and let all that censure and weight of Brother Steward’s wrongs rest upon him, which God designs should come upon him. They cannot help his case by a false and perverted sympathy. They had better manifest a zeal to repent of their wrongs and let Brother Steward stand for himself. He has been altogether out of the way and unless he makes thorough, clean work in this matter, confesses with the utmost humility, and is willing to be instructed, he can have no part with God’s people, no part in the City of God.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 17)
He has stood on one side from those upon whom God has laid the heavy burden of His work. He has injured them by remarks and hints. He has helped to lay burdens upon my husband, who had the labor of three men upon him. Brother Steward has had no special burdens laid upon him. He has had a chance for reflection and study and rest and sleep, while my husband has been obliged to labor day after day and often long into the night. He has had upon him not only the care of the paper and office, but the care and burden of the cause of God, east and west, north and south. And Brother Steward and many others have looked upon Brother White as one who does not enjoy religion. They know nothing of his burdens and care nothing about them, but by their own unwise course add to his cares, perplexity, and burdens.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 18)
Men who have no weight or burdens upon them, men who can have hours of ease, and spend hours in idleness or in reflection and study, who have nothing to urge them forward with zeal, can manifest great moderation. They never feel in a hurry. They can spend hours in private conversation, and are looked upon by some as being the best and holiest men on earth. But God does not look upon it thus.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 19)
Those who have such an easy position will be rewarded according to their works. God has placed my husband in a position which requires the closest care and mental study, and the exercise of sound judgment and wisdom. He has no time to visit, no time to study and reflect; it is active business. And then the weight of responsibility leads to such carefulness, such trembling. He spends many sleepless nights, and wrestles in earnest, fervent prayer to God. The Lord leads him on to take one responsible position after the other, while these easy, these godly, holy-appearing, fellow laborers oppose every advance God leads him to make. And then his precious time must be occupied traveling from place to place, laboring with distress of mind to undo what these easy, good, Christian-appearing brethren have been doing.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 20)
Poor mortals look at things in the wrong light. They mistake matters; they misjudge; they have not a true sense of what religion is. They mistake idleness for religion, and those whom God thrusts out to bear a plain, pointed testimony, to reprove wrong, to labor with all their energies to bring up God’s people upon important points of present truth, have too often received censure instead of sympathy and help. And those who would take the course Brother Steward and many in Wisconsin have taken, are too often thought to be very devoted. But God does not thus regard them, and their strange, fanatical course should be sufficient to lead minds to investigate more closely before deciding in regard to appearance being positive evidence of Christian character.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 21)
Brother Steward and some others who were in the fanaticism in Mauston are very fearful that they shall receive a little more [censure] than they think is due them. They look with great earnestness upon a seeming deviation or a seeming wrong in others; and [if there is] a seeming neglect of them by others then they take a position as though greatly injured, and are very exacting, expecting them to make confessions. You are bitterly deceived yourself, and others have no confessions to make to you. If they misjudged in some little particulars, it is no more than can be expected. You should, with the deepest humility, mourn your sad departure from the right, which has given occasion for a variety of feelings and views in regard to you, which in every particular may not be exactly correct. First confess your own faults; make thorough work; and then leave others to judge of you by your fruits. Your continual murmuring and complaining of the neglect of your brethren must cease. They have given you more attention than you were worthy of already, and if you could see yourself as you are you would forever cease these complaints and would humble yourself under the hand of God.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 22)
“Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.”1 Samuel 15:22, 23.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 23)
Professed believers in and about Mauston do not come up to the work and practice the truths which they profess. A blighting influence is upon the cause of present truth in Northern Wisconsin. If all had felt that attachment for the Review which God designed they should feel, they would be benefited by the truths it advocates and would be far in advance of what they now are. But their sensibilities are blunted, false excitement has destroyed their discernment and spiritual eyesight. It is very important for them to move understandingly and not let the false exercises that they have witnessed and experienced destroy their faith in vital godliness and in the effort they are required to make to overcome that they may have everlasting life. They must feel for the pillars of our faith, plant their feet upon the platform of truth, see and understand the third angel’s message, and be not worldly-minded but prize the truth, walk in the love of the truth, and yield their various opinions to come in union with the body.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 24)
God is leading out a people. They must be one, and their interest must be one. There is not that effort made to advance the cause of God that there should be, because there is a lack of interest in the cause. God requires of those who have health and strength of body to use it to His glory, for they are not their own. It is not the wealthy alone who are required to sacrifice. Those who have been slothful in business have a work to do to arouse and understand the wants of their families, to clothe themselves and their children neatly and comfortably, and have something to give to the cause as God’s stewards. He holds them accountable for their strength.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 25)
Many of the young in Wisconsin have not felt the weight of the cause or the necessity of their making any sacrifice or denying themselves to advance the cause of present truth. They can never advance and gain strength until they change their course and make the cause of God a part of them and make special efforts to aid it. Some deny themselves and have double labor, and great weariness through their incessant labors to advance the cause. They feel that it is a part of them, and when the cause suffers they suffer with it; when it prospers they are happy.
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 26)
Others, who do not make effort, who feel that nothing is required of them, and excuse themselves from doing anything because they have not earthly possessions, are wrong. If they have strength, that is the Lord’s. Their time is the Lord’s, and they should labor diligently with their hands, and then, after their families are comfortable, or if they have no family, after their wants are supplied, they should manifest an interest for the cause, aid that, and lay up treasure in heaven. Those who have earthly possessions should feel responsible to do something for the advancement of the cause. They should realize the great sacrifice Jesus has made for them, and then should willingly, gladly impart of their substance to aid in the work of bringing salvation to their fellow men. Proverbs 3:9, 10: “Honor the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase: so shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.”
(1LtMs, Lt 18, 1862, 27)
Lt 19, 1862
Marks, Allen NP 1862 Previously unpublished. [Allen Marks:]
I was shown the case of Allen Marks. I saw that God’s frown was upon him. He has not understood himself. He has a very bad disposition and many have been deceived in him; thought he was better than he was. I saw that God knows, He understands Allen Marks’ every act, every word. Nothing is hid from Him. Every secret of the heart is open before His searching gaze.
(1LtMs, Lt 19, 1862, 1)
I was shown, Allen, that had the church in Burlington viewed you as you are they never would have placed you in the position they did in the church. You had no right there. You never could fill the position. You are not a godly man. You are not a patient and kind man. You are not a prompt, energetic man. You are a man who leaves things at loose ends, a man who has things all in disorder; and of what benefit can such a man be to the church? If he should succeed in anything it would be in bringing them all down on a level with himself. God, I saw, will deliver His people from such influences. God wants His people to come up.
(1LtMs, Lt 19, 1862, 2)
I saw, Allen, that you are very exacting. You tyrannize in your family. Your wife fears you. You have a bitter, oppressive spirit which is eating her heart like a canker. She trusted you, confided in you, and gave you her confidence, her heart. You have abused that confidence. You have a revengeful disposition. Fault-finding and censure you can freely deal in and then you throw around you a self-righteous garb, put on a very pious air which deceives many but which Heaven abhors. I saw that your spirit agrees no more with the Spirit of God than Heaven agrees with hell. Your wife has loved you much better than you deserved. You were unworthy of her. She has not exposed your faults, but has put the best side out. But the time has come when there must be a thorough and lasting change in you. You must listen to the voice of the church, be instructed by them, and not set up your judgment. You have not sought counsel as you should, but followed your own blind judgment.
(1LtMs, Lt 19, 1862, 3)
I was shown that your reformation must begin at home. Your wife lacks in some things. She does not observe habits of cleanliness and order as she ought, but she means to be right and she needs help in her efforts. You, Allen, are making the married life of your wife miserable. It would have been far better if she had never married you, for you are very willful and set, whether you are right or wrong. At times you manifest fondness and affection for your wife which is carried to extremes, and then again you are very harsh and tyrannical, which destroys all her pleasure of life. If you would take an even course, not manifest a sickening fondness nor an abusive severity, your life would be more pleasing to God, and your wife would be happy. You are now killing her by inches.
(1LtMs, Lt 19, 1862, 4)
Oh, if you have any regard for your eternal interest, any regard for your wife’s happiness, reform! Don’t exalt yourself and crush your wife lest God’s hand be laid heavily upon you. She has sacred privileges, as well as you. The marriage covenant lays sacred vows upon both husband and wife. God never ordained that the wife should be the slave of the husband. Your wife has an intellect superior to yours, but you are crushing out her ambition and cheerfulness, and making her prematurely old. You lack humility and must take your proper place and listen to the judgment of the church or you will be separated from this people. The time has come for you to work in earnest, to think less of self and more of your wife. Think less of self and more of your brethren. Perfect overcomers will enter in through the gates into the city and have right unto the tree of life.
(1LtMs, Lt 19, 1862, 5)
I would exhort your wife to trust in God. I have seen, Mary, that you should not sink down under the censure of your husband. You have liberties and privileges. God will strengthen you in doing right, whether your husband is pleased or not.
(1LtMs, Lt 19, 1862, 6)
May God help Allen to take hold of this work of reform as he never has worked before until he makes clean work and can perform the part he vowed to perform at the marriage altar.
(1LtMs, Lt 19, 1862, 7)
Lt 20, 1862
Hull, Sister NP 1862 Portions of this letter are published in 6MR 100-101. [Sister Hull:]
Sister Hull, your case was shown me as being very critical. You may overcome. You can redeem the time. God pities you. I saw that you have grown up with the habit of exaggerating. You have talked much and are not careful to relate matters just as they are told you or just as they exist. You talk too much. You should reflect more and talk less.
(1LtMs, Lt 20, 1862, 1)
I saw that you had not been in fault alone. Sister Pierce has not done as she should. She has questioned you and you have answered her and she has reported your answers, and things have come under her observation which she has repeated, and it has caused others to look upon you in a worse light than they otherwise would have done. Sister Bacheller has also been unwise in taking notice of remarks and acts in you and then mentioning them. I saw that Sister Nichols was no benefit to you. She talks much in quite an exalted, elevated strain, but it does not benefit you. She is not aware what spirit she is of. She possesses hard, bitter feelings against Sister Warren. Both have shown great weakness, but Sister Warren means to be a Christian. Sister Nichols means to be a Christian, but she is too much exalted and has many feelings and impressions she supposes are from the Lord which originate in her own brain. She imagines a great deal that God has nothing to do with. She thinks she is especially taught of God when it is a deception, a fanatical deception.
(1LtMs, Lt 20, 1862, 2)
I saw that God pities you. Your teachings in your youth were not what they should have been, and you have therefore the stronger effort to make now to overcome that which has grown with your growth and strengthened with your strength. But by watchfulness and prayer and the patient, persevering help of your brethren you can overcome. I saw that Brother Hull has had but little help at home to bear him up and he has been sinking for some time under discouragement. God help you to arise together and make powerful efforts for everlasting life.
(1LtMs, Lt 20, 1862, 3)
It becomes my duty to write you. I have been sick in body and depressed in mind for about two weeks, up to last Wednesday evening. Then the brethren and sisters who had faith met together and we had a praying season. In answer to the prayers of God’s people victory came, and I was taken off in vision. Among other things which were shown me, I was shown the state of things at Marshall. I saw that things were in a dark, perplexed condition. Satan has controlled matters there and wrought in a manner to make the truth and its advocates disgusting to unbelievers.
(1LtMs, Lt 21, 1862, 1)
First I was shown the case of Brother Booth and wife. He was converted to the truth and meant to be a wholehearted Christian. He saw himself, his weakness and failings, and earnestly desired and longed for a reformation in himself, but the influence of his wife was detrimental to him. Her strong, fractious spirit controlled matters to a great extent. Her tongue has often kindled a fire and has been set on fire of hell. Her talk has stirred up the mind of Brother Booth, confused and irritated him, and wholly unfitted him to occupy any responsible place in the church. With such an influence at home, his judgment has been swayed from the right, has been perverted, and he has taken a wrong, inconsistent course. He has been overbearing, exacting, and has been very provoking to Sister Smith.
(1LtMs, Lt 21, 1862, 2)
I was shown that Brother Booth has been exalted and deceived in himself, and has not known what spirit he has been of. I was shown that many have been much deceived in his wife. She has felt the powerful influence of the truth, and has felt deep conviction of her wrongs and has at times felt humbled in view of these things, but there has not been wrought a thorough reformation. Pride has swayed almost her every action. She has never separated from the world in spirit or practice. Brother Booth is a poor man and it is his duty to live within his means, notwithstanding the wants and extravagant desires of his wife. It is sin for Brother Booth to gratify her propensity to dress and appear as she is not able.
(1LtMs, Lt 21, 1862, 3)
God is displeased with you both, and can never prosper and bless you until you pursue an honest, honorable course to all the world with whom you deal. Neither of you have a right to put things upon your back or in your house that you can possibly do without until you are free from debt and can say you owe no man anything. Your wife’s desire to keep up appearances has led you both wrong, and to be virtually dishonest. God’s truth, the precious cause, has been made disgusting by your course. It is your duty before God to live very plain, and even to suffer some for clothing and food rather than to withhold from others what is justly due them. You are accountable to God for the influence you have exerted and the reproach you have brought upon the cause of God. If you should in humility occupy that humble place or move in that sphere where you could consistently, without depriving others of their just rights, it would be more pleasing to God and more in keeping with your faith, and would have a far better influence. Had you stood right there would not have been the difficulty in Marshall there is now existing.
(1LtMs, Lt 21, 1862, 4)
Brother Booth’s wife’s desire to visit and talk and unite with the world has injured you both. She has the sad habit of exaggerating and talks so much she hardly knows what she says half the time, and to screen herself she readily denies or contradicts at one time what she says at another. Her word cannot be relied upon. She has not scrupled to lay conscientious souls in a falsehood who would sooner cut off their hand than deprive others of their just dues or do a dishonest act. It is her misrepresentations and talking from one to the other which has caused the mischief there. Pride of dress, self-esteem, and a strong, set will, have ruled her and unless she can see herself and there is an entire reform, there is no remedy for her; she must perish.
(1LtMs, Lt 21, 1862, 5)
I was shown in regard to her son. She has excused his wrongs and equivocated in regard to his faults and acted deception for him until he is aware of it and has grown hard and bold in sin. He is a reproach to Sabbathkeepers. The exceeding sinfulness of sin has not been impressed upon his mind as it should have been. Brother Booth’s wife has felt earnest to reach out, to go in company, and has talked, laughed, and acted like the careless world. I was referred to Titus 3:2, 3.
(1LtMs, Lt 21, 1862, 6)
In regard to matters of the church, I was shown that Brother Booth and wife have cruelly wronged Sister Smith and their behavior toward her has been aggravating. Also Sister Crouch and her husband have not been treated right. Brother Crouch was shown me as an ignorant, passionate man. Yet he has seen the force and harmony of the truth and loved it, and was seeking to overcome, but he has had but little encouragement. There is hope for him. His life has been rough, but truthful, and he has dealt honorably with his fellow men, has not been deceitful, and has not pretended to be what he was not. His brethren should have remembered the great sacrifice made for man’s redemption and should feel the worth of souls for whom Christ died.
(1LtMs, Lt 21, 1862, 7)
Brother Crouch is not a sinner above all others. No, no. God pities him. Said the angel, “Whosoever will, let him come and partake of the waters of life freely.” [Revelation 22:17.] He has been pushed back, discouraged, because he was uncouth and rough. Yet God can polish and refine him and fit him for the heavenly casket. He must strive hard to be an overcomer and lay aside every idol [so] that he may be accepted of God. His words have not been choice. He has lacked wisdom and has done wrong. But I saw that those who had experience and knowledge have the greater sin in the sight of Heaven. They have come far short of the mark. Their course of conduct has not been circumspect and faultless. They are worthy of blame. They gave Brother Crouch occasion. They have laid stumblingblocks in his way. They have not tried to help him who most needed help, as did our blessed Pattern, but they crowded and despised him whom God has pitied, loved, and wished to save.
(1LtMs, Lt 21, 1862, 8)
Sister Crouch has loved the truth and she has been determined to live and practice it, and be a consistent Christian. Yet amid the perplexing homemade trials manufactured by those who should be ensamples to the flock, she has lost her whereabouts, and has lost her courage and fortitude. Yet, amid all, she has loved the truth. She has felt impatient and manifested it; she has felt disgusted and grieved and has not in patience possessed her soul. She has spoken unguardedly but has loved and honored truthfulness and honesty and has not departed from it.
(1LtMs, Lt 21, 1862, 9)
I was shown the case of Sister Smith. She has difficulties and discouragements at home and has not always manifested that independence in her family that it was her privilege and duty to do. Yet she has sought to maintain her faith and live in peace and union with her family. This was right, but she should not suffer herself to be bound. She has not been free from errors and failings. Yet her course has been far more pleasing to God than those who have pressed her and falsified her, and sought to crush her. She has had trials that some others have not had, yet she has had but little sympathy and help from those who have not had so many causes for trial as she has had. Those who have sought to crush her have a work to do to take it all back.
(1LtMs, Lt 21, 1862, 10)
I was shown the case of Brother and Sister Wright. They have moved very blindly, very much in the dark. They could have seen and understood the spirit of Sister Booth, from observation, and if they had stood free in God could have discerned the spirit, acts, and words, and the character developed. But they failed to see. I could not understand this at first. Then I was shown that there was a cause. Neither Brother Wright nor his wife deny themselves as they should. They are poor and will ever remain so if they pursue the course they have. They must practice self-denial and economy. Sister Wright has a strong love for visiting and this leads to much expense and is detrimental to her spiritual enjoyment. This undue or extravagant love for visiting often leads to expense and is a snare. I was referred to Titus, where Paul gives him instruction to instruct the aged women that they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the Word of God be not blasphemed. [Titus 2:3-5.]
(1LtMs, Lt 21, 1862, 11)
It is your duty, both of you, to find the very sweetest, happiest, and best enjoyment at home amid your own family. A true and loving Christian is seldom lonesome. He will derive elevated joy and sweet consolation from Jesus, and common visiting, common conversation upon commonplace, worldly things will be disgusting and offensive to a true and living Christian. It is not always duty to be to the expense of hiring a team to attend distant meetings and spend time and money, but it is wrong and an evil to leave home and visit so much. Sister Wright must plan to save and economize in expense and the time of her husband. Here is an opportunity for self-denial on her part. She should not seek her own pleasure but study the united interest of both. It is not their duty to deprive themselves altogether of the privileges of assembling with the people of God, but they must not carry the matter too far, but study whether it is duty.
(1LtMs, Lt 21, 1862, 12)
I was shown the case of a sister in Marshall—I cannot name her—who has been no honor to the truth or the cause of God. Yet Sister Wright’s love of visiting has led to an intercourse which has not been beneficial to either party. There must be a change of the course of action and also a change of views with the sister shown me or she will only prove an injury to the cause of truth. She has given occasion for the unbelievers to blaspheme. She has not abstained from the very appearance of evil, but has laid stumblingblocks in the way of others. She must see this and make an entire change, shape her course so that it will be in keeping with the truth, or she had better leave the ranks of Sabbathkeepers and go where she can get along without discipline or reproof. God’s people must take an elevated course and leave the world, its folly, its vice, and those who love it, to themselves. Brother and Sister Wright have a work to do. Brother Wright has been exalted and he must see himself and then he can reform.
(1LtMs, Lt 21, 1862, 13)
I was shown that Brother Waggoner did not stand in the light when he went to Marshall and he saw matters through Brother Wright’s eyes, viewed everything as Brother Wright viewed it, and decided just as Brother Wright would have decided it. Yet he knew nothing of the true state of things in Marshall, and was exceedingly oppressive without investigating matters. He jumped at conclusions without knowledge and left souls bound who should have been encouraged and made free; and he released and caused to triumph those who should have been left heavily burdened. I saw that Brother Waggoner’s judgment is so often perverted through the influences he is brought under at home that he should be excused from engaging in important decisions in church trials.
(1LtMs, Lt 21, 1862, 14)
(Signed) E. G. White
Sister Smith, please read this yourself; also read it to Brother and Sister Crouch, Brother and Sister Wright, and then send it to Brother and Sister Booth for them to read and return again to me.
(1LtMs, Lt 21, 1862, 15)
Lt 22, 1862
Church in Central New York Refiled as Ms 2, 1857.
Lt 23, 1862
King, S. H., and Family NP 1862 Previously unpublished. S. H. King and Family:
While in Battle Creek, Nov. 5, I was shown some things in vision.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 1)
I was shown the family of Brother King. I saw that all was not right, that there was a lack in understanding and comprehending the minds of their children, and understanding their wants. These children are affectionate above a great many children. They are confiding, and love society. They have excellent traits of character, which, if directed in the right channel, will be useful and a great blessing; but if directed in the wrong channel and placed upon improper objects, they would prove ruinous, for Satan would use these traits of character to destroy them. If this affectionate and confiding disposition [is] controlled by the Spirit of God, it will take an elevated turn [and] will be placed upon noble objects. Their thoughts will be upon God and heaven, and they will derive sweet satisfaction from the company of those who love the truth and are followers of Christ.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 2)
Brother and Sister King have failed to come down and enter into the feelings of their children and study their characters, dispositions, and temperaments and then seek to meet their wants. Were they sick, Sister King has nursed them, and kindly attended to the wants of the body, and has felt that she did her duty. But I saw that she had come far short of doing a mother’s duty or filling a mother’s place. She has failed to understand the wants of the mind, and has not applied the proper remedies to cure a wounded and sick mind.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 3)
Children have trials just as hard to bear, just as grievous in character, as those of older people. Parents do not always control themselves. They do not always feel the same. Their minds are often perplexed, Satan buffets them, and they yield to his temptations. They speak irritably and in a manner to excite wrath in their children. They are exacting and fretful, and the children partake of the same spirit. Everything seems to go wrong and the children are fretted at, and the parents deceive themselves and lay all the wrong to their children—think them careless, disobedient, and unruly—when the whole foundation and cause of all the disturbance was in themselves.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 4)
This has been your case, Sister King. You have made many a storm by your lack of self-control. Instead of kindly asking the children to do this or that, you order them in a scolding tone, and at the same time a censure or reproof is on your lips, which they in no way deserve. By pursuing this course you take away the ambition and cheerfulness of the children. They go to do your bidding, not from love, but because they know they must. Their heart is not in it. It is drudgery to them, not a pleasure. You have again noticed their manners in doing your bidding and repeated your fretting and fault-finding, charging them with bad conduct, and laying your complaints before their father, which has stirred him up to correct them severely, when all the time they were more sinned against than sinning.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 5)
Had you taken that course toward the children that a mother should, had you manifested love and affection for them, and with love and kindness told them to do thus and so, you would have touched an answering chord in their hearts, and their willing feet, hands, and hearts would have readily, cheerfully gone to do your bidding. By controlling yourself, speaking kindly, and praising the children, you may make them very happy, and throw a charm into the family which will chase out every dark shadow, and bring cheerful sunlight into the home.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 6)
Sister King, you often suffer from nervousness and feel that you cannot be patient and calm, and manifest nothing like impatience and faultfinding. When you think thus you deceive yourself and please Satan. You can and must at all times control yourself. God requires it of you. You do not realize that when you give way to fretfulness and impatience you cause others to suffer, and you beget the same spirit in others around you. And if they manifest the same spirit you do, it increases your nervousness because all goes wrong.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 7)
When you feel weak and nervous and fretful, you should not commit so great a sin as to poison the whole family with this dangerous irritability. At such times set a double watch over yourself and say, I will not offend with my lips. Nothing but pleasant, loving, cheerful words shall escape my lips. I will not mar the happiness of these children whom I voluntarily and understandingly have taken charge of, to act the part to them and fill the place of their own dear mother whom they have lost. By thus controlling yourself, you will grow stronger, your nervous system will not be so sensitive, you will be strengthened with the principles of right. The consciousness that you have in your own heart that you are, in every sense of the word, discharging your duty to these motherless children, will strengthen you, and you will feel that angels smile upon you and help you to nobly discharge the high and sacred duty you have taken upon yourself. The grace of God is sufficient for you. Lay hold upon it, for through it you can overcome.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 8)
When you feel impatient, you too often think it is all in the children, and you find fault with them when they do not deserve it. The evil is in yourself. At another time they might do the very same thing and all they do be acceptable and right. Children know, they mark, they feel these irregularities, and they are not always alike. Sometimes they are better prepared to meet these changeable moods, and sometimes the children are nervous and fretful and cannot bear the least censure. You want all due allowance made for your state of mind and are ready to excuse yourself, but are not willing and do not see the necessity of making the same allowance for these poor children.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 9)
You, Sister King, excuse in yourself that which you would highly censure in the children, who lack your years of experience, discretion, and discipline. You are of a nervous temperament, and when fatigued with labor, or oppressed with care, you manifest fretfulness and lack of forbearance to those who should be dearest to you of all others. This displeases God, and brings a cloud upon the family.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 10)
The children in their troubles should be often soothed with tender sympathy. Mutual kindness and forbearance will make a home a paradise and attract holy angels into the family circle. Parents, if you have any regard for the salvation and happiness of your children, never meet them with a frown, and never let them see you with a clouded brow, for you will spread gloom through the family circle, and will drive holy angels from you, leaving you subject to Satan’s temptations, and often to his fiery darts.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 11)
The mother can and should do much toward controlling her nerves and her mind when it is depressed. Even when she is sick she can, if she only schools herself, be pleasant and cheerful, and can bear more of the children’s noise than she would once have thought possible. If infirmities or depression affect the mother, she should not make the children feel her infirmities, cloud their young, sensitive minds, and cause them to feel that the house is a tomb and the mother’s room the most dismal place in the world. The mind and nerves can gain tone and strength by exercising the will. The power of the will in many cases will prove a mighty soother of the nerves.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 12)
I was shown that the most critical period for Brother King’s children has arrived. Now extra care must be bestowed, extra teaching given, all mixed and sweetened with love, kindly forbearance and cheerfulness. Do not let them see you with a clouded brow, or hear a single censure from your lips unless you know that they richly deserve it. If they err, if they yield to Satan’s temptations, and afterward see their error, do not censure; kindly instruct them, forgive them, and by so doing bind them closer to your hearts.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 13)
Teach your children to make their parents their confidants. By so doing you will save them from many a snare Satan has prepared for their inexperienced feet. But if you treat your children sternly, if you forget your own childhood, and forget that they are but children, and you desire and try to make them perfect, to make them men in acts and doings at once, you will close the door of access which you might have to your children, and open a door for others whose influence may be corrupting, to gain access to their young minds. And before you are aware of the evil, your children’s minds are poisoned.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 14)
Brother and Sister King, remember that Satan and his host are making most powerful efforts to sway the minds of your children, and you must both treat them with that candor and Christian tenderness and love which will give you a strong influence over them, that they may feel that they can repose unlimited confidence in you, and can rely upon your judgment. You should both labor with a united interest to throw around your children charms for home and your society. A little longer and your children will be beyond your influence unless you bind them to you by the tenderest cords of affection and love. Your children are extremely sensitive. They do not always manifest it. They are wounded by thoughtless words, which you soon forget, but which cause them keen pain and suffering of mind and leave a wound which proves dangerous before you are made sensible of the danger, for Satan comes in to make the wound more grievous. He suggests his temptations, and hurries them on to a course of action, which, if not prevented, might prove their eternal ruin.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 15)
I was shown that Satan took advantage of the eldest son of Brother King. He became impatient of restraint and he had been wounded so often by the impatient faultfinding of Sister King that home lost its charms for him. He became restless, uneasy, and was not contented at home; neither was he at rest or contented away from home. He began to despise authority, and through the influence of others, looked upon his situation as worse than it was. He had no love for his mother, for her fretful words had dried up all the love he would have had. He felt that he was not used right as a young man, and Satan stood ready, and magnified everything before him. A soldier’s life seemed to possess charms for him, and he enlisted. But he would never have left his home if things at home had been as they should have been. And then, in addition to this, the Sabbath stood in his way. He felt unreconciled to the law of God, yet for this alone he would not have left home. Cheerful and encouraging words will cost you nothing, but what an amount of good they may do! They will part the dark clouds around the soul, and will let sunlight in.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 16)
Sister King, you love your children, but you have never felt that deep fountain of love stirred within you which lives in a mother’s heart. The children long many times for love and sympathy, and that appreciation of their feelings which a mother alone can give. The thought that you are not the mother that bore these children should be enough to lead you to double watchfulness lest there should be a lack on your part. You should treat them with the greatest tenderness and make them love you. Others are watching you, others are marking your words and acts. And this is nothing strange. Had you given the children’s relatives no occasion to find fault, they might have had some prejudice which a careful, judicious course of your own towards the dear ones committed to your care would have removed like wax before the sun. But you have felt aggravated at the remarks that have been made. They have been unjust. They have felt unreconciled to your union with Brother King. They have acted out their prejudice, have been unreasonable. Instead of your taking a Christian course, and winning the affections of the children, you have done no such thing. You gave occasion for remarks and faultfinding, you gave them chances to complain, and then felt that they were the only ones to blame, that you were abused.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 17)
You chose to take the burden of the family upon you. You knew that you had children to deal with, not men and women. Children are not perfect; they are wayward, subject to Satan’s temptations, and you should have sought to gain their love and respect. The task many times was heavy and you thought that you had a hard time, and often lost sight of your duty, and what you owed to the children in consenting to become their mother. You have dwelt upon the difficulties of your position, the unpleasant and laborious part of your lot, and it has made you selfish, close, and exacting. You have thought few had such trials as you, and you have made it hard for yourself, hard for the children.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 18)
You should have cheerfully walked in the path you chose for your own feet, and ceased your murmuring. You should have cheerfully submitted your own selfish interest for the interest of the dear children whom you chose to care for. You should have known yourself well before you consented to become the mother of that stricken flock. You should have known your own disposition, whether you could bear care, bear with the waywardness of childhood, and whether you could, with a noble, disinterested benevolence act a mother’s part, and if they erred or grieved you, with firmness and yet with gentleness and love, exercise the authority your position granted you over them, and taught them to do right and obey you.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 19)
I was shown that you had your own way too much in your childhood. You were not taught the power of endurance. You were shielded too much from crosses and hardship. You were permitted to have habits which were injurious to go uncorrected, and you have not been disciplined so that you could exercise that self-control that a mother should. Instead of dwelling upon your hardship and trials with the children, and the burden that you feel is too heavy to bear, if you would look upon the matter as you should, you would feel like this: A weighty responsibility rests upon me. I am in a trying place, the most trying place that a woman can occupy. Other eyes are upon me, others will seek to influence these children against me. I will now guard myself. I will do my duty as a Christian and as a mother. I will give those who are prejudiced against me no occasion to retain that prejudice. I will ever be kind to these children in word and act, and discharge my obligations here, and bring these children up in such a way that they will love me, and those who would find occasion against me shall be disappointed.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 20)
All the way through you have mourned the hardness of your lot, and all the time you were, by your lack of self-control, making it extremely hard for the motherless children. Now I saw, Sister King, that God calls upon you to reform. You must cease to justify yourself, and set about the work of reformation. Watch that hasty faultfinding. Stop that censure. Be forbearing, and praise your children whenever you can. Let your heart be young again. And remember your childhood trials, and then bear with their errors and waywardness because they are children. You would have others even now excuse your wrongs and errors. You would wish them to be forbearing and patient with you. Well, exercise the same forbearance and patience with your children that you wish others to have for you. Bring these children closer and closer to your heart, enter into their sympathies. God will help you; angels will hover about and smile on your efforts. Your children have trials just as severe for them to bear as your trials are for you.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 21)
Your children, Brother King, have sometimes felt that they were held in too much, too much restrained. They have felt impatient of restraint, and have felt that they were deprived of privileges that other children have. They do not realize that these deprivations are for their good, and that God holds the parents accountable to a great degree for the salvation of their children, that Eli was cursed because he merely expostulated with his sons, but did not restrain them. Children are unacquainted with the evils of the world. They realize not the deadly influences surrounding them. They see not Satan and his angels pouring in upon them, and all around them a corrupting influence. He cannot so well work directly with the children, but he comes through other young friends and through them seeks to poison the minds of the youth. Some evil communication will be breathed into the ear, which, if not decidedly resisted, finds a lodgment in the heart, takes root, and springs up to bear fruit and corrupt the good manners of the children. Parents cannot be too careful to keep their children from the society of the young. The air we breathe is polluted, and the parents by living faith must roll back the tide of darkness Satan is pressing upon and around their children.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 22)
And because of the evil in the world and the restrictions placed upon the children, parents should have double care to bind these children to their hearts. They should speak to them in the tenderest manner. Let them see that you do not wish to make them unhappy, but that you are laboring for their present good and their future eternal happiness. Angels of God are watching over these children with the deepest interest to see what character they are developing, and they record their acts and doings. These heavenly ministering angels are seeking to win them to Jesus, to lead them to seriousness and sobriety, and to give their hearts to God, that they may write their names in the Lamb’s book of life.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 23)
Brother King, I saw that it was your duty to bind your children to your heart. Let nothing come between you and your children. Their mother’s dying prayer was for you and them, that God would care for and save her husband and children. God has registered in heaven that dying mother’s prayer. She felt some little time before her last sickness that she should die, and many and fervent were her prayers that her husband might become a Christian and train up his children to love God. She felt that she could not be denied this, and before she died she had the sweet assurance that her request would be granted, and yet she felt that she must have a double assurance if she could. She had the most unbounded confidence in her husband, and she knew if he once promised, he would surely fulfill. If she could only hear from the lips of her husband that he would become a Christian, she could die content. This she failed to get, yet God’s eye was upon the father and children, to care for and lead them in a way that they knew not.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 24)
God, I saw, through His servants sent the truth to Brother King, and as the clear rays of truth began to penetrate the darkness around him, he was interested, and began to be charmed. Yet God saw that while providing a habitation he was in danger of the cares of the work occupying the mind, and choking the good seed that it should not spring up and bear fruit. He commanded His angels to darken his outer vision, to remove his eyesight that his spiritual vision might become more clear. And then I saw that angels of God were all around him, presenting to his mind the harmonious chain of truth, link after link uniting in a great whole. The mist and darkness which had covered and obscured the Christian religion and the Word of God, disappeared, and his mind labored and studied until the truth in its clearness and beauty eclipsed everything else and overbalanced all his skepticism, and he rejoiced in the truth.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 25)
These same angels who attended Brother King in his blindness, led him right along to believe in the manifestations of the Spirit of God, to believe the visions, that he might have the strength he would derive from them, to encourage him, for God had a great work to do for the family through them.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 26)
I was shown that God had committed your children to your trust, Brother King, to fit them for heaven. Their eternal interest should be greater to you than your house, farm, or anything else upon earth. Shut away from them every influence you can which would lead them to lightly regard the truth. By mildness, and yet with firmness of purpose, and by living faith, roll back the powerful tide of darkness Satan is pressing upon them. The Lord pities and loves them, and His arms are extended to receive them when they shall leave sin and folly and turn unto Him. He wants to prepare them as precious jewels to shine in the heavenly casket. He wants to welcome them to His sheltering arms, that He may protect them from Satan’s power.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 27)
Your daughter is convinced that we have the truth, but she has a love of the world and pride of heart. Her worldly friends and relatives stand in her way. She fears she will have to cut loose from them, and the way to heaven seems too strait for her to follow. But I saw that she must make any sacrifice for heaven. The eternal reward is rich and glorious enough to repay her a thousand times for any sacrifice she may make. Satan is seeking to harden her heart, and lead her to carelessness. She must resist the devil. Jesus, the dear Saviour, is waiting to adopt her into His family. If she will yield her heart’s best affections to Him who above all others is worthy of her love, He will purify and refine her and fit her for immortality. But she must have decision, and not suffer Satan to use her relatives and professed friends to lead her from God in the downward road to folly and worldly pleasure. Through these professed friends who manifest a regard for her, Satan will strew the way to hell with tempting flowers to lure her on to harden her heart and stiffen her neck against the truth. If she does this she will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. Said the angel in a solemn voice: “Turn ye, turn ye; why will ye die?” [Ezekiel 33:11.] Break the fetters of pride and folly which would confine you, and keep you in bondage, and turn to God.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 28)
I saw that those boys of Brother King’s wished and tried to do right. God invites them to seek Him early and they shall find Him.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 29)
Lucia, I saw that your state of indecision is having an influence to keep others back. They are looking to you, and you stand directly in their way. Said Jesus, They that gather not with Me, scatter abroad. Your influence tells either for good or evil. You will be a benefit or a hindrance to others. Remember, Jesus died to save you. He paid a dear price to save you from death and hell, and will you make no effort to save yourself? Will you foolishly spend these golden moments granted you to prepare for heaven? Will you not cheerfully make some sacrifice? Will you not make an entire sacrifice, that Christ may accept you, and record your name in the Book of Life to be remembered by Him when He makes up His jewels? Make your mark high from henceforth, for everlasting life. It will require moral courage to tell your friends (who would have you be satisfied with pleasures derived from their gatherings, their parties which they may get up, their balls, and scenes of amusement) that you have decided to love God and keep His commandments, that your daily life may be peaceful, your joys and pleasures elevated, and you be fitted and refined for His heavenly kingdom.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 30)
It will be greater, far greater honor than the world can bestow upon you, for Jesus, when He rides forth a mighty Conqueror, attended with a retinue of holy angels, to acknowledge you as His, and in the presence of His angels, to acknowledge you an heir of God and joint heir with Jesus Christ. O, what honor is like this? To be owned and honored of Him who takes the kingdom under the whole heaven to possess it for ever and ever, and His kingdom to know no end! He reigns in majesty and splendor, and yet elevates those He has redeemed to be equal heirs with Him to His Father’s estates. Yes, He will receive you, if faithful, Lucia, to His heavenly mansion He has prepared for you, which is beautiful and adorned as no earthly mansion. And your companions will be the heavenly angels, and the redeemed host who have come up through great tribulation and washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Close by the side of that dear mother who bore you, you can range the earth made new, and with her cry, “Worthy, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and lives again.” Together can you bow in adoration at the feet of that dear Saviour, and cast your glittering crowns at His feet, because He won them for you by His own blood. Which will you choose, heaven with the self-denial and the cross, or earthly pleasures, banishment from the presence of the Lord, and death? Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 31)
You have had unreconciled feelings at being shut away so much from young society. You have felt that your feelings were not understood or appreciated. You have felt willing to do all you could if you could receive kind, encouraging words at all times. Lucia, you have not always felt as you should. You must seek to be forbearing and ever strive to imitate Christ, and follow His example, that you may be an overcomer, and sit down with Jesus in His throne.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 32)
Brother King, I saw that you must not suffer your children to be overtaxed. Lucia has been overtaxed and has labored much when she should have had rest. She has inherited disease, and when overtaxed, disease gains the ascendency, and she must be a sufferer.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 33)
Sister King, you have not always appreciated Lucia’s labor. You have not prized her help as you ought to have done and felt that deep interest in her welfare that you should. She cannot bear censure, and in most cases does not deserve it any more, or as much, as yourself. And when she is blamed unjustly her spirit rises against it, and she has no courage to do anything.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 34)
Brother King, as a father it is your duty to be lord in your own house. You take good care of the cattle and horses. You watch them closely that they are not fed at improper times lest they be injured. You watch carefully lest they be spoiled by overworking and thereby ruined. But you have not felt the necessity of having the same care for your children, to select for them at all times the most healthful food and clothing, and then watched with great interest lest in their growing years they overdo and bring disease upon themselves. When you see a lack on the part of Sister King in this respect, it must lead you to have a double care, a double watch, and your word should be law in the house. You have not meant to be unmindful of the wants and interests of your children, but you have not considered and looked on every side, and studied their interests as you should. You alone should be the judge in regard to the wants of your children, and in regard to what they can bear. Follow your own judgment in regard to them.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 35)
Brother and Sister King, take hold with a united interest for the welfare of your children. Labor earnestly for their salvation. Sister King, God will strengthen you if you take hold of His strength, but you must take hold of the work and make a business of it, until you have perfect self-control, or you will fail of everlasting life.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 36)
In love.
(1LtMs, Lt 23, 1862, 37)
Lt 24, 1862
Ross, Alexander NP 1862 Portions of this letter are published in 1T 359-360.
I will here give a copy of a letter written to Bro. A. R., Oswego, New York:
(1LtMs, Lt 24, 1862, 1)
Dear Bro. R.,
I was shown some things in regard to you. I saw that you were deceived in regard to yourself. You have given occasion for the enemies of our faith to blaspheme, and to reproach Sabbathkeepers. By your indiscreet course, you have closed the ears of some who would have listened to the truth. I saw that we should be as wise as serpents and harmless as doves. You have manifested neither the wisdom of the serpent nor the harmlessness of the dove.
(1LtMs, Lt 24, 1862, 2)
Satan was the first great leader in rebellion, and God is punishing the North, that they have so long suffered to exist the accursed sin of slavery; for in the sight of heaven it is a sin of the darkest dye. God is not with the South, and He will punish them dreadfully in the end. Satan is at the bottom of all rebellion. You, I saw, Brother R, have permitted your political feelings to destroy your judgment and love for the truth. It is eating out true godliness from your heart. You never have looked upon slavery in the right light, and your views of this matter have thrown you on the side of the Rebellion, which Satan and his host have stirred up. Your views of slavery, and the sacred, important truths for this time, cannot harmonize. You must yield your views or the truth. Both cannot be cherished in the same heart, for they are at war with each other.
(1LtMs, Lt 24, 1862, 3)
Satan has been stirring you up. He would not let you rest until you should express your views and sentiments upon the side of the powers of darkness, strengthening the hands of the wicked, whom God has cursed, throwing your weight upon the wrong side, with those who have a corrupting influence, whose course of life is to sow thorns and plant misery for others. I saw you with a degraded company, a Godforsaken company; and angels of God fled from you in disgust. I saw you were utterly deceived. Had you followed the light God has given you, had you heeded the instructions of your brethren, had you listened to their advice, you would have saved yourself, [and] saved the precious cause of truth from reproach. But as you have given publicity to your sentiments, notwithstanding all the light given, it will be the duty of God’s people—unless you undo what you have done—to publicly withdraw their sympathy and fellowship from you, in order to save the impression which must go out in regard to us as a people, [to] let them know that we have no such ones in our fellowship, and will not walk with such an one in church capacity.
(1LtMs, Lt 24, 1862, 4)
You have lost the sanctifying influence of the truth. You have lost your connection with the heavenly host. You have allied yourself with the first great rebel, and God’s wrath is upon you; for His sacred cause is reproached, and the truth is made disgusting to unbelievers. You have grieved God’s people, despised the counsel and advice of His ambassadors upon earth, who labor together with God, and are in Christ’s stead beseeching souls to be reconciled to God.
(1LtMs, Lt 24, 1862, 5)
As a people, I was shown we cannot be too careful what influence we exert, and we should watch every word. When we by word or act place ourselves upon the enemy’s battle ground, we drive holy angels from us, and encourage and attract evil angels in crowds around us. This you have done, Brother R, and by your unguarded, willful course have caused unbelievers to look upon Sabbathkeepers all around you with suspicion. These words were presented before me as referring to the servants of God: “He that heareth you heareth Me; and he that despiseth you despiseth Me; and he that despiseth Me despiseth Him that sent Me.” [Luke 10:16.] May God help you, my dear, deceived brother, to see yourself as you are, and to have your sympathies with the body.
(1LtMs, Lt 24, 1862, 6)