Maynard, Sister Washington, Iowa June 23, 1872 Portions of this letter are published in 2SM 302; 2Bio 341. Dear Sister Maynard:
Here we are in our beautiful home in Washington, but we leave today for California. My husband and myself need rest. Our trust is in God, yet we are worn and need freedom from care. We have been invited by recent letters from Brethren Loughborough and Kellogg to come immediately. Next Sabbath we expect, if the Lord prospers us, to be in Santa Rosa.
(2LtMs, Lt 1, 1872, 1)
We would be pleased to hear from you, how you prosper. We shall not see you now for some time, but the Lord is ever present to help you in Montcalm [County] and to help us in California. What should we do without the presence of God. Poor and discouraged we should certainly be, but let us be thankful Jesus lives to help and bless us in our sufferings and helpless need. Pray for us that the Lord would heal and strengthen us for the important work to be accomplished in the great harvest field.
(2LtMs, Lt 1, 1872, 2)
I hope you are prospering and of good courage. We hope your children are seeking to serve God with all their hearts, for this will pay in the end. We hope pride and vanity will not find a place in their hearts. Constant watchfulness is necessary if they would have the strength they need to overcome temptation.
(2LtMs, Lt 1, 1872, 3)
I have a request to make. Will these children please gather me as much clover, or even more than they did last year? If they can do this, they will do me a great favor. I cannot do it here. We have no clover on our ground. The first crop is preferable, but if this comes too late, the second crop had better be secured.
(2LtMs, Lt 1, 1872, 4)
In much love to yourself, Betsey and all the children. Love to Mother Wilson. I would be so glad to visit with her. I did not see her when at Greenville last. I hope she is prospering in health. Love to Brother Maynard.
(2LtMs, Lt 1, 1872, 5)
Your sister in Christian love.
(2LtMs, Lt 1, 1872, 6)
Lt 1a, 1872
Lay, Brother Battle Creek, Michigan January 11, 1872 Portions of this letter are published in OHC 93; CTr 212; 5MR 294-295. Dear Brother Lay:
It becomes my duty to write you at this time. In the last vision given me, which was on December 10, 1871, I was shown the condition of God’s people. They are not awake and showing their faith by their works. I was pointed to ancient Israel. They had great light and exalted privileges, yet they did not live up to the light or appreciate their privileges and their light became darkness, and they walked in the light of their own eyes instead of the counsel of God. The people of God in these last days are following the example of ancient Israel.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 1)
Brother Lay, you were shown me enshrouded in darkness. The love of the world has taken control of your entire being. Every other consideration is secondary to this passionate love of acquiring. The very best of your days are passing and your vitality is exhausted, your power of endurance in physical lines is gone, and now when you should be able to look back upon a life of noble effort, blessing others and glorifying God, you can but have regret. You realize the absence of happiness and peace. You are not living that life which will meet the approval of God. Your spiritual and eternal interest is made secondary. Brain, bone, and muscle are taxed to the utmost.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 2)
Why all this accumulation of care and burdens for your family to bear? What is your reward?—the satisfaction of laying up for yourself a treasure upon the earth, which Christ has enjoined upon you not to do, for it would prove a snare to your soul. Christ says, “Lay not up for yourselves treasure upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and thieves do not break through nor steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”Matthew 6:19-21.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 3)
Your treasure, my brother, is laid up upon the earth. Your interest, your affections, are upon your treasure. You have cultivated a love for money and houses and lands until your earthly goods have absorbed the powers of mind and body, and you love your worldly possessions better, more highly, and more deeply than you love God, better than you love souls for whom Christ died. The god of this world has blinded your eyes so that eternal things are not discerned.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 4)
The great leading temptations wherewith man would be beset, Christ met and overcame in the wilderness. His coming off victor over appetite, presumption, and the world shows how we may overcome. Satan has overcome his millions in tempting the appetite and leading men to give up to presumptuous sins. There are many who profess to be followers of Christ, claiming by their faith to be enlisted in the warfare against all evil in their nature, yet who, with hardly a thought, plunge into scenes of temptation that would require a miracle to bring them forth unsullied. Meditation and prayer would have preserved them and led them to shun the dangerous positions in which they have placed themselves and which give Satan the advantage over them.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 5)
The promises of God are not for us to claim rashly, to protect us while we rush on recklessly into danger, violating the laws of nature, or disregarding prudence and the judgment God has given us to use. This would not be genuine faith but presumption. The thrones and kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them, were presented to Christ. Never will we have temptations as strong as those that assailed Him.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 6)
But Satan comes to us with worldly honor, wealth, and the pleasures of life. These temptations are varied to meet men of every rank and degree, tempting them away from God to serve themselves more than their Creator. “All these things will I give thee,” (Matthew 4:9) said Satan to Christ. “All these things will I give thee,” says Satan to man. “All this money, this land, all this power, and honor, and riches, will I give thee;” and man is charmed, deceived, and treacherously allured on to his ruin. If we give ourselves up to worldliness of heart and of life, Satan is satisfied.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 7)
The Saviour overcame the wily foe, showing us how we may overcome. He has left us His example, to repel Satan with Scripture. He might have had recourse to His own divine power and used His own words, but His example would not then have been as useful to us. Christ used only Scripture. How important that the Word of God be thoroughly studied and followed, that in case of emergency we may be “throughly furnished unto all good works” [2 Timothy 3:17] and especially fortified to meet the wily foe.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 8)
I was shown that had you regarded the light God has given you through testimonies of warning you would not now need this testimony. You would have been advancing in the divine life, and now you would have had your abilities used especially in the work of Christ to the glory of God. But your mind is dwarfed in spiritual things. As you have concentrated your mind and soul upon worldly things, you have power in that direction. You are decidedly a worldly businessman.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 9)
God designed that you should use your ability and influence in a higher calling, but Satan has had more control of your mind than the Lord. You idolize the world. Mammon is your god, and yet you are so dazed and blinded by the god of this world that you really suppose that gain is godliness. You have dwarfed the higher powers of your being to serve the world. You are a slave to mammon. Your family might now have been devoted to the service of God, but with your example before them they had no courage to urge their way and strive to enter in at the strait gate, when you were continually encouraging their minds to love and serve worldly things.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 10)
A responsibility rests upon you, Brother Lay, that you do not realize. In the great day of final accounts, unless you make a decided change in your life, many will charge their ruin upon you, the blood of their souls will be on your garments. You knew your Master’s will but you did it not. You have quieted your conscience in regard to your true condition until the voice of God is but faintly and seldom heard by you.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 11)
Your family are taught that work, work should be the great aim and ambition of their lives. They are too thoroughly weary to have strength left in reserve to devote to the service of God. They have sometimes realized their condition and made efforts to change their course, but you have piled so much worldly care and constant labor upon them that they have been overwhelmed and they sink into discouragement. You have allowed yourself to be a slave of the world. You have also arranged matters so that of necessity your family have been slaves to the world.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 12)
The young ruler asked Christ what good thing he should do that he might inherit the kingdom of Christ. Jesus answered, “Keep the commandments.” He returned [the] answer, “All these have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?”Matthew 19:17, 20. Jesus then points to the defects in his Christian character—he had not kept the commandments of God, he did not love his neighbor as himself—which if not removed would debar him from heaven. “Go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.”Verse 21. Jesus would have him understand that He required nothing of him but that He had Himself experienced and all He asked of him was to follow His own example. He left glory and honor and riches to come to a world of sin to save lost man. He became poor, that man through His poverty might be made rich. Jesus then gave the sure promise, “Thou shalt have treasure in heaven.”
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 13)
How did the young man receive the words of Christ? Was he rejoiced that he could in any way secure the heavenly treasure? He was very sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Riches to him were honor and power. The largeness of his treasure made its disposal seem like an impossibility. This is the danger of earthly treasures. The more men gain the harder it is to break in upon the hoarded treasure. To diminish the principal would be like parting with life. Rather than do this the young man turned from the immortal, heavenly treasure. He decided to keep his earthly treasures that he had gained, and that he loved, rather than to diminish them for Christ’s sake, and have the immortal heavenly treasure. His heart was set upon his earthly treasure, and he sacrificed the heavenly for the earthly. O what a miserable change! Yet many who profess to keep all the commandments are doing this. You are doing this, dear brother. Be not offended because I tell you the truth. God loves you. How poorly have you returned this love!
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 14)
I was pointed back and saw how earnestly the truth had struggled for the supremacy in your heart. And I also saw how earnestly Satan had sought to deceive and mislead you, and place the world before you in its most attractive light to enchain your senses and benumb your sensibilities to God’s claims. Satan has succeeded in a great degree. Now you will have to make a most earnest, persevering effort to dislodge the enemy and assert your liberty, for he has made you his slave through love of this world. Your love of the world has become a ruling passion, increasing with exercise until it has brought into subjection to its control your powers of mind and body. Your example to others has been bad. The grace of God ruling in your heart and bringing your mind and thoughts into subjection to Jesus Christ would make you a powerful man on the side of Christ and the truth. Selfish interest has been first with you. By your profession you say to the world, “My citizenship is above,” while your works say decidedly you are a dweller upon the earth.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 15)
As a snare shall the day of God come upon all those who dwell upon the face of the whole earth. Your faith will only be a hindrance to souls if you have not corresponding works. “I know thy works,” says the True Witness. [Revelation 3:15.] God is sifting His people, sifting their purposes, their motives. Many will be sifted till nothing remains—no wheat, no value in them.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 16)
Christ has committed unto us talents of means and of influence and He bids us occupy till He comes. This includes every one who has reasoning powers who claims to be His servant. All are required to improve according to their capabilities, whatever they may be. After a long time the Master cometh and reckoneth with His servants and all are called to the strictest account. What use have they made of their Master’s trust? The first servant shows that he has gained ten pounds, the second has gained five pounds. The Lord commends them saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.”Matthew 25:23. Every man received his own reward according to his own labor. Each received in exact proportion to the zeal, fidelity, and success he had had in trading with the talents.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 17)
One hid his talent in a napkin and buried it in the earth; therefore he made no profits. This you are doing. God has given you talents of means and influence to be exercised to His glory because they are His, not your own. Yet the sense of your accountability you have not felt. God has made you His steward. What account will you render of your stewardship? You are handling your Lord’s goods, but you call them your own. You have powers of mind that if employed in the right direction would make you a co-worker with Christ and His angels. Had your mind been turned in the direction of doing good and getting the truth before others, you would now be able to be a successful laborer for God, and as your reward you would have many souls as stars in your crown of rejoicing.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 18)
What are your houses and lands in comparison with precious souls for whom such an infinite price was paid? You cannot take any of these to heaven with you, and you know not when your probation will close—how small a space there is between you and eternity. Are you prepared for the reckoning? How many souls have been saved through your instrumentality? How will your means be appropriated when your voice and power shall no longer control? Your means are of no more value than sand, only as they are used to provide for the daily necessities of life and to bless others, to advance the cause and work of God. In your dealing it is your object to do the very best you can to advantage yourself. Your works testify of you that you are not a Christian. To be a Christian is to follow the example of Christ. You should have put your money and influence out to the exchangers, seeking to advance the cause of Christ and save precious souls.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 19)
You have had but little love of the truth in your heart for years; but you had the love of the truth previous to your choosing darkness rather than light. God gave you testimonies showing you your duty, but you turned from the light.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 20)
And again God seeks to reach you, girded about with selfishness as you are, and covered up with the cares of this life. Again God invites you to withdraw your affections from the world and place them upon heaven. In order to do the will of God you must study His will rather than your own will and pleasure. What wilt Thou have me to do? should be the earnest, anxious inquiry of your heart. If you live for the world and for yourself, the world alone you will have, but not heaven. If you live for God and for heaven, pointing the way onward and upward to others, you will enter into the joy of Christ, which joy was that of seeing souls saved in the kingdom of glory.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 21)
God is no respecter of persons. All your efforts to gain the treasures of the world, to use them as you have been doing to separate your affections from God, will be to you a terrible curse. You are depriving yourself of time to pray, of time to meditate, of time to instruct your children and keep before them the highest interest of our lives. You need to be alarmed. You do not see yourself. You are deceived in regard to yourself. You can do good. You can bless others with your influence, and with your means which God has lent you.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 22)
Our lives are to be devoted to God. He requires that we love Him with our whole heart, and soul, and mind, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves. You are daily violating this requirement of the Lord. Don’t flatter yourself that you can love the world and serve the world and your own interest as you have done, and yet be of that number who shall hear the “Well done” from the Master. What is it your well-doing has consisted in?—In serving yourself with all your might, in following the bent of your own natural inclination in direct opposition to the injunctions of Christ. “Well done” will not be heard from the lips of the Master by any but those who have earned the “well done.” May God tear from your poor, world-loving soul the covering of deception that the enemy has thrown about it and lead you to work as for your life. An entire transformation is the only hope in your case.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 23)
You have looked to the case of Dr. Lay and thought that he was not treated as he should be by the Health Institute. But you are not looking at this matter aright. He can inform you if he will, and explain all this matter that you may not have incorrect views of this matter. There was no lack of labor for Dr. Lay by his brethren. But the course of his wife and children disqualified him for the position of such responsibility. His manhood was destroyed, his spirits depressed, and then he would charge his condition of discouragement upon the Health Institute. He had no help at home. His wife was only a terrible burden, yet he was so deceived he would talk before the patients as though she was a superior woman, capable of almost any position. At the same time she was not much more than a machine to eat and breathe. She could have aroused herself, but her set will made it impossible to convince her of her errors. We hope that the doctor will prosper, but we think he remained at the Health Institute too long, considering all things.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 24)
We hope, Brother Lay, that you will take time to ponder and think seriously of how you are coming out in the end. Turn the remnant of your life to some account for God. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness.”Matthew 6:33. I beg of you not to slight this warning. Let not your pride of heart arise and throw back this reproof. Look at these things in the light of eternity and ponder them with an unprejudiced heart, and flee, flee, for your life to the Stronghold, crying, Life, life, eternal life.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 25)
In love.
(2LtMs, Lt 1a, 1872, 26)
Lt 2, 1872
Bates, Brother Grand Rapids, Michigan February 12, 1872 This letter is published in entirety in RY 126-127. Dear Brother Bates:
I have been informed that you have taken but one meal a day for a period of time; but I know it to be wrong in your case, for I have been shown that you needed a nutritious diet, and that you were in danger of being too abstemious. Your strength would not admit of your severe discipline.
(2LtMs, Lt 2, 1872, 1)
You should not carry the burden of leading the church in meetings. Younger hands should do this, and you should not bear the responsibility. You should not feel that you are required to hold meetings yourself, having the charge in different places, for your mind and your physical strength is not equal to the task. You are in danger of heaping responsibilities upon you and feeling that the Lord requires it of you, after He has released you from active, physical taxation. You should gracefully and honorably lay the burden down, and seek for quiet rest, fitting up for your last change. You feel much tried and grieved if your Advent brethren do not look to you to lead, when I have been shown it is wrong for them to let the leading of the church rest on you.
(2LtMs, Lt 2, 1872, 2)
I think that you have erred in fasting two days. God did not require it of you. I beg of you to be cautious and eat freely [of] good wholesome food twice a day. You will surely decrease in strength and your mind become unbalanced unless you change your course of abstemious diet.
(2LtMs, Lt 2, 1872, 3)
I have advised Brother Charles Jones to not encourage or allow you to go into different churches to labor. You are not in a condition of body and mind to labor. You must stop and rest and be happy and not worry your mind about the responsibilities of the work and cause of God. Be peaceful, calm and happy and trust yourself in the work and cause of God, feeling that you are now to soften, sweeten, ripen up for heaven. God loves you. But you will with your advanced age, and your strong peculiarities certainly mar the work of God more than you can help it.
(2LtMs, Lt 2, 1872, 4)
You have simply to rest in the hands of God and feel that your work to preach the truth is done. Have no further responsibility in this direction. You can be free to bear your testimony to comfort yourself; this is your privilege; but to bear any church labor in word or doctrine, or to travel out among other churches to hold public meetings, God has released you.
(2LtMs, Lt 2, 1872, 5)
In love.
(2LtMs, Lt 2, 1872, 6)
Lt 2a, 1872
White, J. E. Battle Creek, Michigan January 14, 1872 Previously unpublished. My dear son Edson:
In the last view given me in Vermont, December 10, I was shown that God had in mercy spared your life, not to serve yourself, not to devote your life to serving the world and thus serving Satan, but that you should devote your life to His service. Had you fulfilled the purpose of God concerning you, you would now be qualified to teach the truth to others. But Satan has been constantly at work to separate you from your parents, that the purposes of God should not be carried out. You have been willing to draw off from your parents, to be suspicious of your father, jealous that he was not working for your best good. When he has given you advice, to restrain your plans and notions which you had laid out, you have become the more set to carry them out.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 1)
You would not heed counsel or advice, and as the result have met many failures. But instead of these failures leading you to feel cautious of your own judgment and thankful for the advice of your father, you are as sanguine as ever that your way is best. Here you are deceived. You are not learning by experience the lessons you should learn, and that you must learn, in order that your life should not prove a failure.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 2)
You have done great injustice to your father in robbing him of the help that was his due until you were twenty-one. You were obligated by the laws of God and the land to serve your father faithfully this period of years, but you have seriously neglected your duty in this respect, while at the same time you have claimed of your father the obligations to you as a son. Mutual obligations you have not felt. God has chosen your father to bear great responsibilities. You, who should have helped stay up his hands and encouraged him in his arduous labor, had no sense of the sacredness of the work of God in which we were engaged, but you have increased our burdens in a very great degree, brought upon us great perplexity and anxiety, and have weighed down our souls with fearful forebodings on your account. You could have saved us this if you had been teachable and submissive as a son should ever be to his parents. Your mistakes and wrongs you have not felt and realized, and you have not reformed.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 3)
You chose your own way, and the Lord let you go on in your own strength and judgment. His prospering hand could not sustain you. His frown has been upon you. You have not had the fear of God before you. You have buried yourself up in the world, calculated and planned for yourself, gathered men about you, and brought care and hard labor upon yourself and realized no profits. You have been anxious to do a large work, to branch out, and it has been to your injury.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 4)
Edson should have been a submissive boy and remained with his father, to be benefited by his experience and judgment. This he was unwilling to do. Nevertheless, this was his duty, although he should have some trials and discouragements—a duty which has been neglected, an experience lost, which at your age can never be regained. You were unwilling to be molded by those who had the deepest interest in you. You submitted to have those mold you that would deform instead of reforming you. You have not confided in your parents, but rather in those who did not know you, and could not help you. You virtually withdrew your affection and your interest from your parents, feeling no responsibility resting upon you to lighten their burdens or to make their interest yours. You have had no further interest in their prosperity or in easing their burdens than that you would be advantaged, and you have not shown that you had the least responsibility or burden resting upon you to fulfill the duties binding upon a son.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 5)
A thorough conversion to God will be the only means to arouse you and open your eyes to discern the deficiencies in your life. Whenever you have been connected with your father you have not felt it your duty to see and feel how you could be the most help, but you have selfishly regarded your interest, how you could manage to advantage yourself. Your life has not been a success or a happy life. How could it be? You have had false views of life, false views of duty. You have been ardent and zealous to serve yourself. A few times in your life, for a short period, you have manifested an interest to help your parents, but all such interest was short-lived.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 6)
The picture of your life as presented before me was a sad mistake, a failure. You have not been making a success in this life or in securing the better life. You have lived for yourself, shut yourself up to serve yourselves and the world. Your parents had claims upon you which you did not respond to. Your Creator had claims upon you to which you were just as indifferent. You chose to follow your will and your way, and what have you gained by it? You have not advanced one step. You have now to gain that experience you disdained years ago. Never can you form a correct and symmetrical character unless you take up your long-neglected duty and see and feel your great mistake. In your life, danger has succeeded danger and you have been repeatedly overcome, yet you have not discerned your danger or the losses you have repeatedly sustained.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 7)
I was shown that you have labored when you felt like it, regardless of prudence or reason. When you felt like doing your pleasure, you have followed your feelings like a boy rather than a matured man. Your life has been spasmodic because you have not felt that a noble, useful life could be attained only by resistance and conquest—resistance of your inclination and victory over temptation. You could have attained a noble character, marked with firmness and stern integrity, and been now a blessing to the cause of God, a stay to your father in the decline of life, and had your name registered among the angels in glory, for your virtuous character, your faithfulness, and noble perseverance in battling for the right.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 8)
Oh, what might you not have attained if the power of godliness and religious faith had characterized your life! You have had light upon the health reform, but you did not conscientiously regard it. Passion and appetite clamored for indulgence, and you indulged yourself to the injury of your physical and moral strength. Here you sinned against light and dishonored God, who gave you these propensities for high and holy purposes. Reason and conscience have been overborne. The moral, the nobler, higher powers of your being have been debased in many ways, but you have done this more effectually in burying your talent in the earth, thinking only of your own temporal interest—regardless of religion, regardless of God, and indifferent to the influence due from you to your fellow beings. You have served the creature rather than your Creator.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 9)
The very strong points of your character were not objectionable in their place. Had you by high moral power held them in control, in obedience to conscience, the very power you were required to call forth to keep these propensities in subjection through exercise of the moral powers would elevate and develop a strength which would make your life highly useful.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 10)
The senses must be servant to the moral powers. Your temper is quick, your independence strong. You feel quick and deep, and instead of letting reason’s voice be heard, you will follow your feelings, when you should curb your hasty, hurried spirit and say to your passions, “Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further; and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.” [Job 38:11.] Then will God be your helper; your Creator who formed you will remember that you are but dust and He will weaken these propensities which have been too long strengthened by exercise. Remember the laws which God has planted in your being are crying, “Restrain; deny the world, its pleasures and vanities,” while the world and those who are in friendship with it and with the god of this world, Satan, cry, “Do not restrict yourself; enjoy pleasure while you may.”“Constant self-denial is no virtue,” say those who are lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. Thus temptation is on your track and lovers of self and of vicious indulgences are on every hand, strengthening the ardent pleasure-loving desires within.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 11)
While pleasures seem so alluring, and it seems such a grand thing to have your own way, to be your own master, Satan contrives to hide the miseries which are sure to follow. High hopes and dazzling prospects and appearances charm and allure from the path of duty and from religion, turning a deaf ear to warnings, remonstrances, and parents’ prayers and a mother’s inward grief, to follow inclination. Conscience says, Beware; the frown of God hangs over you. You are not starting in right. You have left your anchor, and your guiding chart. Religion and the Bible are left behind and you are carried about hither and thither by impulse until you are shipwrecked.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 12)
Oh, how cruel to live for the animal of our nature alone and sink the moral, the spiritual. The moral needs to be strengthened daily by exercise and cultivation, while the animal appetites and passions are curbed by the strong will, enlightened and fortified by the Spirit of God. Your hasty temper or any one passion uncontrolled affects all your senses, perverts the judgment, and affects all the moral powers just as one little wheel out of order in the watch effectually stops all the machinery, destroying the correctness of the watch. One passion unrestrained affects the entire man.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 13)
“Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way?” was the question of the psalmist. The answer is, “By taking heed thereto, according to thy word.” [Psalm 119:9.] The sanctifying influence of the Spirit of God upon the heart will do this work. Without the help of God his own efforts and his own plans, with his own wisdom, will prove foolishness. The strong power of principle will be necessary to restrain passion and will. In the place of independence and defiance, humility will be ever becoming, ever attractive, never repulsive or unlovely.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 14)
Edson, God designed that your character should be elevated, your real enjoyment derived from the right source and increasing as you walk the path of duty, your life useful, your name written in the Lamb’s book of life. You have been seeking worldly prosperity, and have virtually said to the invitations of the Word of God and of the messages of truth, “Go thy way for this time; and when I have convenient season, I will call for thee.”Acts 24:25. But the rod of God hangs over the son of disobedience. You have been faithful to serve yourself, but when you come to your parents where there is work to be done and duties which should be seen and performed by you, you feel no responsibility.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 15)
God marks this selfish unfaithfulness. All these things are registered in heaven. You have a work now to perform which no other can do for you. You have a death to experience which will be the only means of giving you an experience in the new life. You must die to self. You must realize the sinfulness of your long-neglected duty to your parents. You have frequently made confession of your wrongs, but when temptation has come upon you, you had no power to resist. Feelings kindle in your heart in a moment against your father. You will be proved here and tested by God, and your only hope is in the strength of God. He can give you strength to conquer and power to endure. You have not watched. You have not prayed in secret. You have backslidden from God. God has given you warning after warning through your mother, but you have not received them and improved. You are laid under great responsibility. All these warnings will increase your guilt in the day of final retribution. There is not the least hope for you as you are. Only a thorough transformation of character will meet the mind of God, the discerner of the thoughts and intents and purposes of the heart.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 16)
Now, my son, a few words more and my lengthy letter closes. Your only hope is in a thorough conversion, a death to self, which you have never yet experienced. I was shown that God had given you abilities which, if exercised in the right direction, would be a blessing to others. If you had not chosen your own way, but followed the leadings of God’s Spirit, you would have now been connected with His work and might have been laboring in word and doctrine as a minister of righteousness. “To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are.”Romans 6:16. You have not yielded yourself as a servant to Jesus Christ to inquire and know and do His will, but you have been a servant of the adversary of souls.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 17)
If ye gather not with Me, says Christ, ye scatter abroad. [Matthew 12:30.] This you have been doing. Your example and influence have scattered from Christ and you have reproached the cause of Christ and greatly weakened our hands and discouraged our hearts through your wayward course. Your only hope is to face right about and be teachable, control yourself.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 18)
When your father is pressed with care and burdens, you seem to have no sense of this. Your desires and wishes will not be waived. Your will rises like a lion and you press and urge your case upon his attention with such persistence that you are a terrible burden. If he decides and you grasp the decision, and then other circumstances not before considered come in and a different course is thought best, you become impatient, restless, proud, independent, unsubmissive, and unyielding, and are a great burden. This spirit should not find a place in that office. God sees and regards the interest and devotion of your father to the upbuilding of the cause and work. Had you taken a course which a dutiful son should have taken your father’s affections would not have been drawn from you.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 19)
The consequence has succeeded the cause. You gave that cause for alienation of feelings through your terrible unfaithfulness during the years of your life. You are ardent in your temperament and had you been faithful and devoted, as you ought to have been to the interests of your father, you would have loved your duty and found a pleasure therein.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 20)
“Rejoice, O young man, in thy youth; and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart, and in the sight of thine eyes: but know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment. Therefore ... put away evil from thy flesh”Ecclesiastes 11:9, 10. When conscience that has been long stifled shall arouse it cannot be silenced or overborne. I consider this opportunity a turning point in your destiny.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 21)
My fears are that you will fail to discern your defects and the mistakes of your life, fail to repent with all your heart [so] that your misspent life may not arise before you in the judgment to fasten guilt upon you when it is too late for wrongs to be righted. You, my son, must fall upon the Rock and be broken or the Rock will fall upon you and prove your hopeless ruin, for it will grind you to powder. He that seeketh to save his life shall lose it; but he that loseth his life for Christ’s sake shall preserve it unto life eternal. See John 12:25; Luke 17:33.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 22)
Upon faithful obedience to your parents and to your heavenly Father depends your success in this life and your success in the better life. God has honored your parents; you have dishonored them. Redeem the time while you may. Break your proud heart and bring your will into subjection to the will of God. To glorify God and attain His image and bless your fellow beings should be the highest aim and ambition of your life. It is not too late for you now to rise to moral excellence of character. Seize the opportunity earnestly. Allow, even now, your character to be molded, to be disciplined. Aim for a life of usefulness. You are in danger, as was William Gage, of sacrificing duty to pleasure. Inclination leads you, and you need strictly to guard yourself in this direction or you will be a boy among boys and have no strength or elevation of character. God help you, my son.
(2LtMs, Lt 2a, 1872, 23)
Lt 3, 1872
Waggoner, J. H. Battle Creek, Michigan February 1, 1872 Previously unpublished. Dear Brother [J. H.] Waggoner:
I was shown December 10, 1871, that you were not living in the light, and had not been gaining strength in God for some time back.
(2LtMs, Lt 3, 1872, 1)
I was shown that in the work done for the church in 1870 there was a neglect of reliance upon God. Brethren Waggoner, Andrews, and Bell worked too much in their own spirit. They felt too strong in themselves. When Brother Waggoner thinks a person is wrong, he is frequently too severe. He moves from impulse and fails to exercise that tender compassion and consideration he would desire to have shown him should he be tempted. He is also in danger of misjudging and erring in dealing with minds. This is the nicest work that mortals can ever engage in. It is a most critical work, and requires clear discernment and the finest discrimination.
(2LtMs, Lt 3, 1872, 2)
Brother Waggoner’s discernment and discrimination have been perverted through the unsanctified influence of his wife. These defects are serious drawbacks to his engaging alone in church difficulties. He is affected too much by what others tell him, and he is apt to decide according to the impressions made upon his mind in reference to persons, and to deal with severity, when a mild course would be far better. When Brother Waggoner decides that a person is wrong, he is tenacious to press the matter through without compassionately helping them to the light. These things have injured the influence of Brother Waggoner. He should shun being drawn into church trials and deciding cases and settling difficulties, for self is so apt to come in and control matters.
(2LtMs, Lt 3, 1872, 3)
Sister Dodge was not dealt with as she should have been. If there was a precious, God-fearing woman in Battle Creek, it was Sister Dodge. If there was one person above another worthy of a position in the church, it was this humble-minded woman. Sister Hewitt was a good woman, beloved of God and faithful. There was nothing worthy of remark or severe censure in her case which would shut her out of the church. I will not, neither can I, now enumerate all the mistakes and errors of that spring. You all had a zeal for the Lord. You all wanted to do His work faithfully; but you were, none of you, in good working order. You were not sufficiently imbued with the Spirit that dwelt in the bosom of Jesus.
(2LtMs, Lt 3, 1872, 4)
Brother Waggoner’s discernment and judgment have been perverted through the influence of his wife. These things in connection with her have made him a weak man and are a serious drawback to his engaging alone in church difficulties. Brother Waggoner is of a peculiar temperament, which has been decidedly and unfavorably affected by his connection with his wife. She has deceived him and drawn upon his sympathies. She is hypocritical, affecting disease and pain when it does not exist, drawing upon Brother Waggoner and others, wherever she is, for care and attention when he and they need it more than she.
(2LtMs, Lt 3, 1872, 5)
Satan has been on the track of Brother Waggoner for years. If he had followed the light given years ago in putting out his children where the example and deceptive, lying influence of the mother would be counteracted by correct discipline, he could now have realized the precious result of such action. These children, who have been so long associated with the mother, who was a medium of darkness, have become imbued with her spirit, thoroughly educated in deception and falsehood and self-sufficiency.
(2LtMs, Lt 3, 1872, 6)
When you have frequently censured your brethren at the instigation of your wife, it has injured you terribly. Her satanic, lying spirit has separated you in the past from your brethren. Finally she was left to pursue her own course, following the promptings of her unconsecrated heart. Then you could have been free from her and God designed that you should be free from her, but Satan was not willing to let loose his hold on you through your wife, and have you situated so that his power could no longer pervert your judgment and cloud your discernment. Your wife affected repentance, but this was not genuine any more than was Esau’s. She had sold herself to work wickedness. Hypocrisy and iniquity were in her heart.
(2LtMs, Lt 3, 1872, 7)
The law of God and the laws of the land freed you from your wife, but this golden opportunity you let pass, and you voluntarily went back to your wife, fastening the chains of bondage upon yourself. When you went back to her bed, you displeased God and weakened your own soul. In this you followed not the light of God, but your own inclinations. Your stay with your wife at the Health Institute, your apparent fondness and demonstration of affection for her were not in accordance with the light of the Spirit of God or in accordance with propriety in review of the past. Her silly talk, her vanity and foolish, childish conversation, hurt your influence.
(2LtMs, Lt 3, 1872, 8)
Your connection with her was displeasing to God and weakened you physically, mentally, and morally. Her whining, groaning, and drawing upon others for sympathy has affected you. You began to look to yourself, talk to yourself—of your weakness, your infirmities, your feebleness, your aches, your pains. In short, your mind was in danger of running in the same channel that your wife had so long been in, and you were nursing and petting your ailments when you should have attempted to do nothing until you could do it with courage and hope and faith, forgetting yourself in your interest for souls.
(2LtMs, Lt 3, 1872, 9)
You were not as careful as you should have been with Addie James. She might have been saved from insanity if greater care and more tender, thoughtful compassion had been exercised. You pressed that case too hard and that, with other things, resulted as it has. You were not merciful and compassionate in the case of Jennie Gayer. You could have comforted her; you could have helped her mind. You were wronged by the course she and others pursued, and she repented, but you did not forgive and take off the burden you had laid upon her.
(2LtMs, Lt 3, 1872, 10)
You are in danger of being too severe. You are in danger of censuring where censure is not deserved. You are naturally overbearing and should guard yourself on these points. The truth, handling the arguments of truth, is your forte. Here you can be successful if you are of a humble spirit and make God your trust.
(2LtMs, Lt 3, 1872, 11)
I saw that you have a valuable gift in laboring in word and doctrine. If you will separate yourself from influences calculated to draw upon your sympathies, and consecrate yourself to God without reserve, He will make you a vessel of honor. You have exercised too little faith, and talked too much of your feelings, your infirmities. You strengthen unbelief by dwelling upon poor feelings. God has wisdom and strength for those who labor in faith.
(2LtMs, Lt 3, 1872, 12)
I saw that God has been leading you closer to Himself. If you will trust wholly in Him and move forward, relying upon His strength, He will be to you a present help in every time of need.
(2LtMs, Lt 3, 1872, 13)
I was shown that the Lord would have His servants free to labor in the field. The minister’s time should not be devoted to the work in the office. There are men who can do the work there that cannot go out to labor in word and doctrine. No minister should confine his labors to that office. Brother Smith should go out and labor occasionally. He has a precious gift and he should not confine himself wholly to the office, but go out and speak as the way opens.
(2LtMs, Lt 3, 1872, 14)
The Lord would have Brethren Andrews, Waggoner, Smith, and White draw in even cords. These should stand together, sustaining one another and sustaining the work. All these four should feel a willingness to bear responsibilities in the cause of God. Each of these men has a particular work for which he is best adapted, which he loves, but his attachment to one particular branch of the work should not lead him to neglect the heaviest and most perplexing part, leaving it for one to bear alone.
(2LtMs, Lt 3, 1872, 15)
My husband has borne too many and too heavy burdens in the cause and work of God. If others would take a share of the burdens and educate themselves to have a more general interest, the burdens need not crush out the life of my husband. There is talent among Seventh-day Adventists if they will use it. The same careful judgment and keen intellect exercised in the upbuilding of the cause of present truth, which is now exercised in doing that which Christ has forbidden them to do—laying up treasures upon earth—would prove a splendid success if exercised in the special work of God.
(2LtMs, Lt 3, 1872, 16)
In haste.
(2LtMs, Lt 3, 1872, 17)
Lt 4, 1872
Ball, Brother Battle Creek, Michigan April 11, 1872 Previously unpublished. Dear Brother Ball:
Last evening your letter was brought to me from the office. I have sketched it through once and will now attempt to answer your letter. You ask if I did not know at the camp meeting, while pledging your word, how you would be situated and how your time would be employed.
(2LtMs, Lt 4, 1872, 1)
I answer, I did not. If we are both in usual health, we can so work in our time as to make it tell, but if one or both of us are worn and sick, we can do but very little. I have watched over my husband night and day for many weeks. I have not had a night’s rest. He has not been able to exercise his brain in the least perplexing matters for some months. He has been threatened with palsy, and we have spent many hours in humiliation and prayer before God. We have had the most sweet and precious evidences of the loving kindness and tender care of our heavenly Father. My husband has been threatened with paralysis of his right arm and limb. He has been a great sufferer. When I wrote you the last letter, it was with trembling nerves and throbbing brain from weariness and anxiety.
(2LtMs, Lt 4, 1872, 2)
We now realize some relief. We followed the directions laid down in James five, called a few of the brethren, anointed my husband with oil and prayed over him. We had sweet victory and the Lord has, by His power, caused healthy action again to take place in his system. His stomach is strengthened to bear very simple food, and we hope for entire recovery by the blessing of God and a period of rest.
(2LtMs, Lt 4, 1872, 3)
I did not anticipate, when I made you the promise at the camp meeting, that every month after my return to Battle Creek more than two weeks of each month I would, in consequence of hemorrhage, be unable to write a line. Then the Reformer has had to be neglected and my articles for two Reformers selected from How to Live. Many things I might mention but will not. My twin sister’s letters requesting immediate answer were received New Year’s Eve, but I have not written her a word. In Maine is another sister, whose husband is just alive with consumption and she about helpless; yet, although I have the deepest interest, I have not written a word to them.
(2LtMs, Lt 4, 1872, 4)
This is what I expect, that anything I may say would be treated as you have treated this excuse. You are on the wrong track. Could I see you face to face I could explain matters to you. The statements you have sent me I would say decidedly are false. You may be deceived by these statements, but I will say I had no visions at Messer’s or Morse’s. When away alone in prayer to God His blessing came upon me and I was shown some things. But again I say I had no vision at either of these places. I fear not to meet the parties face to face.
(2LtMs, Lt 4, 1872, 5)
Lt 5, 1872
White, J. E.; White, Emma Washington, Washington County, Iowa June 19, 1872 Portions of this letter are published in 2Bio 340. My dear children, Edson and Emma:
I have been sick for several days, unable to sit up for two days, and my hand trembles and my head is tired, yet I must write you. I have had much writing pressing me, and could not write if I would to all those I love, but I have left my bed while Father is sleeping to write you. I am still very weak, being unable to bear anything but a little graham cracker upon my stomach for three days.
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 1)
Brother Littlejohn has been with us since Knoxville camp meeting closed. Brother Butler and wife and daughter Annie and Nettie Curtis came Sunday from Mount Pleasant. They all remained till yesterday. Sister Butler and Nettie Curtis and Annie Butler left yesterday afternoon for home.
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 2)
Brethren Butler and Littlejohn left this morning for Minnesota at four o’clock. We have had a houseful of company for several days. Had I been well, I should have enjoyed it. This is a very beautiful place and I prize it highly because it is so retired. There is but little passing-by with teams.
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 3)
We are in the midst of flowers of almost every description, but the most beautiful of all is to be surrounded with roses on every hand, of every color and so fragrant. The prairie queen is just opening, also the Baltimore bell. Peonies have been very lovely and fragrant but now they are fast going to decay. We have had strawberries for several days.
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 4)
Asenath [Smith Kilgore] came here yesterday with her sewing machine and her baby to help us prepare for our journey. Her babe is one of the sweetest and best-natured children I ever saw. It seems like a sunbeam wherever it is. I have fallen in love with the little darling. Asenath acts a noble, self-denying part. She lives alone, some distance from any house, and takes care of her two prairie flowers and gives up Robert, [her husband], a noble fellow, to go out and labor for the salvation of souls. These companions who deny self for the truth and the sake of Christ will not lose their reward. God will tenderly care for them, and when the chief Shepherd shall reward the under-shepherds for their unselfish labor, these self-sacrificing women who yield up their husbands to labor in the vineyard of the Lord will be rewarded with the crown of glory and the blessed commendation, Well done, good and faithful servants, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 5)
How encouraging to know that every good work will be rewarded. Our kind heavenly Father faithfully cherishes every kind act prompted by pure, unselfish motives. Not one deed of goodness and self-denial is forgotten. All is written in the book and will receive its just recompense.
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 6)
But I am not telling you anything about Father. He is very cheerful and like his own self again. I am free indeed and happy when he seems to be improving. God is blessing your dear Father. At Aledo and Knoxville he seemed full of testimony for the people. He talked to the point. He had nothing discouraging to say, and although he labored very hard, yet the Lord sustained him.
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 7)
We came to Washington by private conveyance. We were two days and a half on the way. There were about sixty in our company the first afternoon. At night we pitched two good-sized tents and camped for the night. The people seemed quite curious to see such a cavalcade passing through the country. Wednesday we left a part of our company at Sigourny. About thirty-five were still in our company until within about five miles of Washington. About thirty-five were tented on the road Wednesday night. In the morning some arose early and cooked warm potato soup for us, which went well with our dry bread.
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 8)
Willie likes this place very much indeed. No one could help but like it. Very many visitors come to see the premises and look at the flowers and obtain a bouquet.
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 9)
We have received very urgent letters to go to California and our minds are there. Shall get off next week, if possible, so you will not see us, perhaps, in a year. We urge you both to take good care of your health, for you will have no mother, Edson, to look after you and administer to you when sick. We wish you, Edson and Emma, to get your pictures taken and send us half a dozen and we will pay for the cost of them. I liked the ones you had both sitting together. I would like to have this done immediately, if convenient, so that we can take them with us; if not convenient, you can send them hereafter to California.
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 10)
Father felt more free to go to California after he saw he could do something in the cause of God. We have been very happy here. After Father wrote these pieces for the Reformer, he seemed worse than before; but he has, I think, now recovered from that and is again improving and rests well nights. He cannot endure mental taxation. He must not have trouble of mind, for this he cannot endure. He does not know how to save himself in camp meetings and I fear to have him go to them all, where he will have to see work to be done. We decided the very best thing we could do would be to go at once to California. Lucinda and Willie accompany us.
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 11)
We hope you will prosper in right doing and be blessed with physical, moral, and spiritual health. May the Lord bless you and strengthen you with His grace that you may overcome and be among that number which John saw around the great white throne, who had washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, is the daily prayer of your father and mother.
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 12)
Yours in much love,
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 13)
Your mother.
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 14)
We would be pleased to hear from you both. Please write freely to us, Edson and Emma.
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 15)
Edson, I wish you would write me all about the prospect of school this winter. I want to consider if Willie would be the gainer in not going to California, and attending school in place of accompanying us. You will have to write immediately all about the matter in order to decide the matter at once. Write everything you know about the matter.
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 16)
If you do not use the melodeon much, you had better return it to the house. I told Lillian Abbey it should be brought back. If you use it much and it is really an object to have it a while longer, you can retain it.
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 17)
Your mother.
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 18)
I should dislike to have Willie lose the advantages of school in Battle Creek, and yet we should much rather he would go to California.
(2LtMs, Lt 5, 1872, 19)
Lt 5a, 1872
White, W. C. Battle Creek, Michigan May 15, 1872 Previously unpublished. Dear Son Willie:
We arrived safely at Washington, Iowa, at about eleven o’clock, a.m.
(2LtMs, Lt 5a, 1872, 1)
Father endured the journey well. We conversed with one another cheerfully much of the time. At eight o’clock we were into Chicago. Stepped on board the cars for Rock Island at ten o’clock, p.m. having been taken across the city in an omnibus to the other depot. It was difficult to get berths but we secured upper berths and slept very well. Father did not have an ill turn.
(2LtMs, Lt 5a, 1872, 2)
Since he has been here, he has been trailing over his farm and is quite tired. It rained last night very hard and has rained some this morning. They have had considerable rain West. The land is very wet.
(2LtMs, Lt 5a, 1872, 3)
We met Robert Kilgore at Wilton Junction. We had a very pleasant visit riding into Washington. Brother Kilgore was at the depot for Robert and we were conveyed, trunks and persons to Brother Wheeler’s. We came very unexpected and they were overjoyed to see us. We find them both very well.
(2LtMs, Lt 5a, 1872, 4)
We have been almost over the farm. Nathan had bought the strip of land of Mrs. Marshall for one hundred dollars. I assure you it is a great addition to our garden.
(2LtMs, Lt 5a, 1872, 5)
Father and myself have decided not to attend the meeting at Civel Bend. We fear it will be putting matters through after the old fashion. If Father is disposed to rest, we will favor it all we can. Everything here seems very beautiful. Wish you were here, Willie, if it were all right. Nathan has taken good care of things we think.
(2LtMs, Lt 5a, 1872, 6)
Willie, don’t forget Mrs. Bowly’s plants. If you have any flower seeds, plant at once in the hot bed.
(2LtMs, Lt 5a, 1872, 7)
Tell Mary to put in my thick shoes that Squire’s made and the primnel shoes, with lasting at the side, that we took out of the trunks after they were put in. Send my dark maroon dress loose and pants that we put in the trunk and took out again. (Send with the asparagus.) It is turned in at the skirt a finger. We want to make a loose morning dress.
(2LtMs, Lt 5a, 1872, 8)
In haste and love to Edson, Emma and Willie.
(2LtMs, Lt 5a, 1872, 9)
Lt 6, 1872
White, W. C. Washington, Iowa May 20, 1872 Portions of this letter are published in 2Bio 339. Dear Willie:
We are very pleasantly situated here and I am very well persuaded that this place in Washington should be our headquarters. Father works in the garden much of his time and rests well nights. He has been writing quite a lengthy piece for the Reformer. There are many things to interest and take his mind—the trimming of trees, improvements to be made. We had quite a little diversion in moving the toilet from the front yard to back of the henhouse.
(2LtMs, Lt 6, 1872, 1)
I think this is just the place for Father. We are trying to rest up for camp meetings.
(2LtMs, Lt 6, 1872, 2)
Do you hear anything of Brother Littlejohn? Will he attend the camp meetings? I really hope he will. We want to see you and him very much. Please write us particulars how you get along in your work. Are you happy? How are Edson and Emma?
(2LtMs, Lt 6, 1872, 3)
This is a beautiful place. I shall feel at home here.
(2LtMs, Lt 6, 1872, 4)
My dear son, we do not forget you when we pray. We remember Edson and Emma and you and plead with God to give you strength to walk the self-denying path His own feet have trod. Be watchful and prayerful. This you can do and be cheerful and happy. Do not let sadness cloud your soul. My dear boy, make God your trust. Pray to Him earnestly for strength to endure and to escape the perils of these last days. Be determined never to make the hearts of your parents sad. Sadness and trials needlessly caused us are already bringing us near the grave.
(2LtMs, Lt 6, 1872, 5)
I will write again, I think, tomorrow. Do not, my son, allow other boys to draw you from your duty and from God. We do not wish to make our home in Battle Creek. We are near enough here. We expect to visit California in the fall.
(2LtMs, Lt 6, 1872, 6)
In love from
(2LtMs, Lt 6, 1872, 7)
Your Mother.
(2LtMs, Lt 6, 1872, 8)
May 21
I designed this letter should have gone yesterday but it was overlooked. I will add a few words and send it today. We rested well last night. I think I see evidences of great improvement in Father. He is cheerful and of good courage. I have not been very well. Hope to improve and be ready for camp meeting. I think I must have put up a collar pin in a box somewhere to bring here but cannot find the box. If you find it, please bring it along. I lost mine on the cars and am minus a pin. Robert Kilgore and Asenath and their two children were here yesterday. Do you hear anything of the express bundle sent to me from Lancaster?
(2LtMs, Lt 6, 1872, 9)
We have not heard one word from any of you since we left.
(2LtMs, Lt 6, 1872, 10)
We hope you are all well and happy. We shall live here and have our goods brought to us on the cars, we think. We hope the place in Battle Creek will be sold as soon as possible.
(2LtMs, Lt 6, 1872, 11)
In much love to all,
(2LtMs, Lt 6, 1872, 12)
Your Mother.
(2LtMs, Lt 6, 1872, 13)
Lt 7, 1872
White, W. C. Washington, Iowa May 22, 1872 This letter is published in entirety in 19MR 194. Dear Willie:
It rained all last night, but it is beautiful this morning. We have a perfect concert of birds to greet us every morning with their beautiful, varied notes. Father did not rest well last night; taxed his brain in writing too much through the day.
(2LtMs, Lt 7, 1872, 1)
We have just returned from Robert Kilgore’s. We had an excellent visit with Robert and Asenath. They have a pleasant location and they are a very pleasant family. Their babe is the queen of babies, so good and quiet and pretty.
(2LtMs, Lt 7, 1872, 2)
We drove about a little tonight in Washington to see if there was any place we would prefer to ours, but, Willie, our home is the best, located on high ground and the surroundings and the improvements are the best. We see none that equals it by considerable. This is a good home for the weary pilgrims.
(2LtMs, Lt 7, 1872, 3)
We are expecting the asparagus every day. Why does it not come? We hear not one word from you.
(2LtMs, Lt 7, 1872, 4)
But, Willie, I want to say to you, be careful and hunt up our nice rubber blanket. We could not find it. I thought it might be in the barn.
(2LtMs, Lt 7, 1872, 5)
Bring striped blanket and two bedticks and the woodchuck robe. We want four sheets. (I want the material put in for outside of comfortables. There are two outsides and a pieced quilt. Tell Lillie to put in large plaid like her mother’s morning dress, for the side of one comfortable.)
(2LtMs, Lt 7, 1872, 6)
Lt 8, 1872
Curtis, Mary Aledo, Mercer County, Illinois June 2, 1872 Previously unpublished. Dear Sister Mary [Curtis]:
I feel anxious in regard to you. I am fearful you will cause Sister Abbey anxiety and care by your careless forgetfulness and your reckless, lawless ways. This we cannot have. If you have not at your age respect enough for yourself to try to improve your habits, it is no use for others to have the burden of you, and they be constantly harassed and perplexed with your course.
(2LtMs, Lt 8, 1872, 1)
It is too bad, Mary. You know how to behave if you will only do as well as you know.
(2LtMs, Lt 8, 1872, 2)
I have talked with you much in regard to correcting some of your habits. First you need to improve in regard to talking so much. Your tongue is in motion so much of the time you have no time or room for thoughts. You should know that nearly all that are acquainted with you think you a hopeless case. They do not hesitate to say, You cannot make anything of Mary. You may talk, and she will regard your words only while you are saying them. She will do just the same in two days after you talked with her. I have found this to be entirely correct, to my sorrow.
(2LtMs, Lt 8, 1872, 3)
Second, I have learned by experience that you are lawlessly free and reckless if you dare to be. You take liberties you should not. You do not consult or ask advice, but move forward on your own responsibility, glad of an opportunity of having your own way. This you will have to correct or be homeless.
(2LtMs, Lt 8, 1872, 4)
Third, you talk for the purpose of amusing others; in short, you make a simpleton of yourself because others are silly enough to laugh at your silly remarks that expose your ignorance and lack of sense. You may make a simpleton or a sensible woman. In order to make the latter you must do as others tell you. If you do not, you will be left without a friend.
(2LtMs, Lt 8, 1872, 5)
I noticed you have a habit of being determined to have your own way, and you are in danger of coming to womanhood undisciplined, with all your bad habits confirmed upon you for life.
(2LtMs, Lt 8, 1872, 6)
Now is the time, Mary, for you to act; to be earnest, sincere, and faithful. I am sorry that things have occurred that have led me to greatly distrust you. I am constantly fearful you will take things not your own and appropriate them to yourself. You take liberties that I cannot have, Mary. Your habit of loving to eat the good things, is a temptation for you to indulge your appetite and choose not to come to the table when others eat.
(2LtMs, Lt 8, 1872, 7)
Now, Mary, we love you too well to let you have your own way. We will lay down some rules for you to heed strictly. If you do not, we can no longer provide a home for you or take any interest in your obtaining an education. If you are determined to go to ruin, you must go.
(2LtMs, Lt 8, 1872, 8)
We now want you to go to the Health Institute and there be disciplined. You have strength, and you can employ your strength to good account if you are so disposed, but if you prefer to follow your own inclination rather than duty, we can no longer interest ourselves for you. We mean what we say when we tell you that you must change your course or be left homeless. If you feel under no obligation to do as we feel that it is our duty to have you, we feel under no obligation to have any further care in your case.
(2LtMs, Lt 8, 1872, 9)
Lt 9, 1872
White, J. E.; White, Emma Ottawa, Kansas July 5, 1872 Previously unpublished. Dear Children, Edson and Emma:
We are at your Aunt Caroline’s. They are situated upon a large prairie in a small house that is comfortable for this country. We think now of spending a couple of weeks in Colorado among the mountains. Caroline’s children live there and we think it would be as well for Father to be journeying, enjoying the scenery of the country. They all say it is a very healthy climate at Pike’s Peak.
(2LtMs, Lt 9, 1872, 1)
Father is about the same as usual. No special change. We shall stop at Denver, Colorado, perhaps two weeks. We wish you to write us there, but we will write you more definitely again. Write to us at Denver, for we shall want to hear from you there. Send your pictures, as many as eight or ten, and I will settle the bill.
(2LtMs, Lt 9, 1872, 2)
We stopped over Sabbath and first day at Civil Bend, Missouri. Had good meetings. I spoke Sunday afternoon in the grove, and all seemed interested. We hope the visit will result in good.
(2LtMs, Lt 9, 1872, 3)
In great haste,
(2LtMs, Lt 9, 1872, 4)
Your mother.
(2LtMs, Lt 9, 1872, 5)
Lt 10, 1872
White, J. E.; White, Emma Ottawa, Kansas July 4, 1872 Portions of this letter are published in 9MR 80; 15MR 129. Dear Children, Edson and Emma:
I dropped you a line yesterday in such a hurry I cannot remember a line I wrote. I wished to send it by Willie to Ottawa. He goes again today six miles for the mail.
(2LtMs, Lt 10, 1872, 1)
Will could not wait for me to finish my letter. He brought us a letter from you, and letters from Addie, Miriam, and Adelia Van Horn, which Father is now answering. We are glad you have an enterprising spirit, but we would say, Make haste slowly. Move understandingly and surely. We are satisfied of several things. The most prosperous church will backslide under the most powerful preaching unless the people awake to the necessity of individual effort. The followers of Christ cannot advance and grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus unless they are, individually, workers. If they do nothing themselves and expect to retain life and vitality, they will be disappointed and then fall into temptation and great spiritual weakness. It is the workers who become strong and efficient.
(2LtMs, Lt 10, 1872, 2)
Second, I know that one of the greatest sins that the church is guilty of is that of being cold and indifferent in regard to the spiritual interest of the brethren and sisters. Each should feel a responsibility resting upon him to see that his brethren and sisters prosper in their religious life. The church has had great privileges and her prosperity lies within herself.
(2LtMs, Lt 10, 1872, 3)
Third, every member of the church should feel that it is a sin especially offensive and insulting to God to make profession of following Christ and yet be novices in spiritual and religious matters. They dishonor God when they do not adorn their profession and become intelligent Christians, serving God with increased knowledge from principle.
(2LtMs, Lt 10, 1872, 4)
We are glad to see the Review and Reformer as lively and interesting as they are. We hope that these publications may continue to increase in interest. In order for our papers and pamphlets to be what they should be and what they can be, God’s blessing should attend them. There should be much prayer for wisdom and grace. If God blesses, all the reproaches of our enemies will be turned against themselves. We are engaged in a great work, and this work is of such infinite importance that it must not be done negligently or slothfully. Work, work while the day lasts. All your plans and all your anticipations will be of no account unless you have firm faith and trust in God. May you both take the right position, is our prayer. We pray for you daily that your life that has been preserved by a miracle of God’s mercy, may be devoted to the service of God.
(2LtMs, Lt 10, 1872, 5)
Do not, either of you, my children, be content to live merely for yourselves. Live to bless others; live to shed bright rays of light upon the pathway of others.
(2LtMs, Lt 10, 1872, 6)
You may be anxious to hear in regard to my sister, your aunt. You have never seen her. She is an understanding, intelligent woman, living, I think, up to the best light she has had. She is a powerful singer. This is as much her talent as speaking is mine. I think I never heard a voice that would thrill the soul like hers. We are having a most precious time. They have a very pretty location. The house is small, but convenient for this country. Brother Clough and Caroline are intent upon our remaining over. We have a meeting in the large stone schoolhouse Sunday. The appointment is being circulated. We should have left this place Friday, could we have received the letter from Sister Chamberlain. But as we get no information either from Josey or her mother, we shall not stop to call upon them.
(2LtMs, Lt 10, 1872, 7)
In much love.
(2LtMs, Lt 10, 1872, 8)
Lt 11, 1872
White, J. E.; White, Emma Denver, Colorado July 23, 1872 Previously unpublished. Dear Children, Edson and Emma:
We received your letters sent us at this place. Last Friday we received the pictures. We are pleased with them. We are now stopping with your cousin Louisa Clough Walling. She is glad to entertain us.
(2LtMs, Lt 11, 1872, 1)
We received the account of your improvements in your house. We fear, Edson, that this is not good policy. We think you had plenty of room without expending means to fit up your woodshed. Edson and Emma, you both need to study economy and have but few wants. Save your money. Do not live up to every dollar like William Gage. If you desire to find a place to invest means, you may both see this and that improvement to make and use up every dollar as fast as you earn. I advise you not to expend one dollar on the house unless it is positively necessary. I hope Emma will help you to keep your means. You should not do as William Gage—live up every cent of his wages and then when sick become a church pauper because he had nothing in reserve.
(2LtMs, Lt 11, 1872, 2)
Emma, let your wants be few. Do not make suggestions to Edson to improve here or there, which will require means. You two could get along with the house even if it were much smaller. Neither of you know what inconvenience is. Your cousin Louisa has five children. There are generally eight in the family, and there are but two small rooms and two bedrooms—no chambers at all. Only two beds can be set up in the house and the children and Willie sleep on the floor, with a comfort under them. If you both should have some experience in how little you could get along with, it would help you.
(2LtMs, Lt 11, 1872, 3)
Children, it would be well for you to take up at the office about half of your wages and reserve the other half back to your credit untouched. If you use up your half of the money drawn, don’t run into debt, but just do without some things you think you must have. In this way you can have means at your command to get your education at Trall’s Medical College. You can work your way through if you will. Emma can help you in this matter.
(2LtMs, Lt 11, 1872, 4)
I write to you thus because I have an interest for you, and I hope you will heed your mother’s counsel. Again I say, don’t spend as fast as you go. Economy should be the battle with you both. How much means did it cost you to make the improvements on your house? Assell Smith lived there years and got along very well. He earned greater wages, Edson, than you are earning. You could have done very well with the room you had without fitting up the woodshed for store room. If you remember, Father promised to double all the means you could show you had earned above your expenditures. If you work upon the poor policy of using up as you go in improvements, you will make a loss. Edson, your great fault has been to spend for tools and for this, that, and the other thing—things which you made yourself believe you must have. You might now have had quite a sum to be doubled by your father if you had used your time and means wisely. You are both young and have much experience to gain. We do not want you to gain this experience in the hardest way.
(2LtMs, Lt 11, 1872, 5)
Let your wants be few; economize, economize. You two can save means if you will. You have not, like William Gage, house rent to pay, neither have you three children and one or two girls to feed. You have your two selves only. William Gage could have laid up something. You can lay by half of your wages. If you have a will and determination in the matter, you can save means.
(2LtMs, Lt 11, 1872, 6)
I do not write because I feel hard or tried, but because I want you to help yourself and have the satisfaction of knowing you can fully and abundantly sustain yourselves and have a reserve fund for any purpose to advantage yourself.
(2LtMs, Lt 11, 1872, 7)
Lt 12, 1872
White, J. E.; White, Emma Central City, Colorado July 31, 1872 Portions of this letter are published in UL 226; 7MR 214; 8MR 120-121; 11MR 115-117. Dear Children, Edson and Emma:
Here I am at Mr. Fair’s, husband to your cousin, Addie Clough Fair, looking out and upward upon mountains of perpendicular rocks estimated at five hundred feet high. From the foot of these mountains to the top, upon ledges of solid rocks, slight excavations have been made and houses built in every spot that could be made available by stone foundations. Directly in front of me are several tiers of houses, rising one above another. Never did I behold such a scene as this. There is scarcely a sign of vegetation, no trees, but abrupt, barren rocks.
(2LtMs, Lt 12, 1872, 1)
Some of these houses are very nice and expensive. Just before me is a large, fine house, built high on the top of the mountain. A wall of masonry several feet high bears up the front of the house, while the back of the house rests upon the solid ledge drilled and chiseled out for the builders. A very nicely-finished barn is built in the same manner. In stepping out of the house there is not a level place for the feet to stand upon unless built up like a platform.
(2LtMs, Lt 12, 1872, 2)
There are but a very few natural yards and these are lower down the mountain and are only one or two feet in width. They build up a yard several feet high, draw dirt and place upon the top of the stone and then have but a few feet to just step out of the doorway. It is only the most wealthy who can afford this extravagance. The [homes of the] poorer class, and even some very nice houses, have not one foot of level land around them. The banker’s wife’s mother stepped out in one of these high, made yards to hang out clothes. She was sixty years old. She made a misstep, fell from the wall and broke her neck.
(2LtMs, Lt 12, 1872, 3)
The streets are exceedingly dusty. Black Hawk is an incorporated city which runs into Central, another incorporated city. Both have eight thousand inhabitants, including Nevada. The mining enterprise keeps the country alive, but they say business is very dull now in the mining region.
(2LtMs, Lt 12, 1872, 4)
Mr. Walling took us up, up, up the mountains. We feared sometimes that we should never reach the top. We had a commanding view of the country. We could look down upon Black Hawk and Central, and see all there was of both cities. It looked fearful [it was] so high, and below was a fearful precipice of rocks. If the horses had stepped over to one side we should have fallen hundreds of feet. We had a commanding view of the mountains. They were on every side of us. We could distinctly see the high mountains covered with large patches of snow. These banks of snow are estimated to be from fifteen to fifty feet deep. Some of them are perpetual. Frequently the air coming from these snow banks was so chilly, although the sun was shining very warm in the valley, we were obliged to put on extra garments in the mountains.
(2LtMs, Lt 12, 1872, 5)
Black Hawk and Central are a rough, seamed, scarred country. Heaps of rocks and dirt that have been cast out from the mining mills and from which the precious ore has been taken, were lying everywhere. We went into one of these, called stamp mills, in Nevada, and saw the machinery at work to separate the ore from the rubbish. It was quite a tedious process, and it was very interesting to see the workings of the machinery. We obtained some fine specimens of quartz. The view upon the top of the mountain was most interesting, but words cannot present the picture before your mind in its reality. The mountain scenery of Colorado can never be described so that the imagination can gather distinct and correct ideas of this country. It is wonderful! It is marvelous! The scenery of the grand old mountains, some bald and others covered with trees! Instinctively the mind is awed and deep feelings of reverence bow the soul in humiliation as the imagination gathers a sense of the power of the Infinite. I would not be deprived of the privilege of seeing what I have of the mountain scenery of Colorado for considerable.
(2LtMs, Lt 12, 1872, 6)
Willie has been writing some. I cannot write very lengthily because all my moments when I can write are occupied in preparing matter for publication. One matter is in reference to our school. The second is in regard to the Institute.
(2LtMs, Lt 12, 1872, 7)
We are highly gratified to hear that you are prosperous in the Lord, Edson and Emma. We hope you will ever make the kingdom of God and His righteousness your first consideration. Then God will be to you a present help in every time of need. “Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.” [James 4:8.] I hope the backslidings of others will not discourage either of you, but that you will both live up to the light and walk in the light as Christ is in the light, lest darkness come upon you.
(2LtMs, Lt 12, 1872, 8)
I walked miles yesterday up the steep mountains and I did not get to rest until past eleven o’clock. But this morning I am up at five, bright and active. This trip among the mountains is doing much for my health. None of you were aware of my miserable state of health. I knew it would not make home better to complain when I left Battle Creek.
(2LtMs, Lt 12, 1872, 9)
Father is better, we are sure; but he has times of shortness of breath and faintness or giddiness. He is careful of his diet. One drawback here in Colorado is that there is no fruit in this country, only that which is imported. This is seldom fresh, and sells at very high prices. The pure air and freedom from care are advantages we gain.
(2LtMs, Lt 12, 1872, 10)
Mr. Walling is very earnest that we should go with him across the Snowy Mountain Range to what is called the Park, on the other side of the Snowy Range. There are ponds from which trout are taken and these we should enjoy to live upon. We should have to ride on ponies over the mountains. Our provisions for three or four weeks would be taken in a wagon. All of us would have to ride on the ponies over the mountains while two horses would draw the provisions and blankets for lodging. When there, over the mountains, we are away from all settlements and must carry everything along that we need.
(2LtMs, Lt 12, 1872, 11)
Willie is perfectly enchanted with the idea, but we fear some it may be too hard for your Father. Again, would the Lord be pleased for us to spend our time thus? These questions we carefully and prayerfully consider. If we do not go over the mountains tomorrow, we shall go through the mountains to Denver and next week be on our way to California.
(2LtMs, Lt 12, 1872, 12)
Be sure, my children, to keep your souls free in the Lord, and then He will lead you. The meek will He guide in judgment; the meek will He teach His way.
(2LtMs, Lt 12, 1872, 13)
Your father is perfectly cheerful and happy. We had precious seasons of prayer before God in the groves and mountains in behalf of ourselves and you and the cause and work of God at Battle Creek. We are glad to hear from you. Write often. In much love to you, dear children,
(2LtMs, Lt 12, 1872, 14)
Mother.
Lt 13, 1872
White, J. E.; White, Emma Livingston, Colorado August 18, 1872 Previously unpublished. Dear Children, Edson and Emma:
I am sitting in the door of a mountain cottage from which we have a fine view of magnificent scenery of Colorado. Before me are high mountains covered with verdure, scattered here and there with evergreen. Upon the mountainside are patches of cultivated lands where the bright fresh green of tiny fields of wheat and oats adds to the beauty of the scenery. On every side of us are the mining works. Miners’ huts are built upon the tops of the high mountains and piles of rocks and worthless ore of a bluish tinge, copper colored, green and clay colored, lie in heaps about these buildings.
(2LtMs, Lt 13, 1872, 1)
The ore obtained at one of these mines contains a substance used in coloring glass. Mr. Shaw, at whose house I am now visiting, went over to the stamping mills to get a sample of the ore for me. He tells me it is called “pitchblende” and is considered very valuable. It has been sent to Europe for inspection and is estimated to be worth three thousand dollars per ton. I shall bring home or send specimens.
(2LtMs, Lt 13, 1872, 2)
Mr. Shaw’s location is the prettiest I have seen in the vicinity of Central and Black Hawk. We are ten thousand feet above the level of the sea. Soft water comes from the mountains and is nearly as cold as ice water. This is a treasure indeed.
(2LtMs, Lt 13, 1872, 3)
As I look about me it seems homelike, for this is the first cultivated land I have seen since I have been in the mountains. These farms contain but a few acres of land that can be cultivated. The crops are upon the sides of the mountains, a little patch here and there. The climate is too cold for corn. Wheat cannot ripen, but is profitable to cut for hay. Pressed hay is sold at from one and a half to three cents per pound.
(2LtMs, Lt 13, 1872, 4)
We have just taken a good breakfast of green peas, green corn, genuine gems, and pears, which are twenty-five cents a pound. Raspberries grow in abundance upon the mountains, and are just ripening. They are highly prized in this country so destitute of fruit.
(2LtMs, Lt 13, 1872, 5)
Rains here are not frequent and timely. During the spring and summer months but little rain falls and at other seasons the earth is seldom moistened with showers. Something can be done with the lands and crops raised by irrigation.
(2LtMs, Lt 13, 1872, 6)
But I have not yet explained why we are here. Father went to Boulder, which is twenty miles from Walling’s Mills, last week. He visited Sister Dart at the house of her son-in-law, a Congregational minister. He there learned from Sister Dart that there were a number of Sabbathkeepers in Central. We sent our appointments for them to circulate.
(2LtMs, Lt 13, 1872, 7)
Last Friday Mr. Walling brought us to Sister Bental’s. We found that the sisters had shown considerable zeal in obtaining a hall at five dollars a day, and had our appointments published in the Daily. There are several sisters of excellent minds, whole-hearted in the work, who have come out on the Sabbath as the fruits of Sister Dart’s labors. She circulated reading matter among them. She is an aged woman, yet her devotion to the truth and zeal in the work of God have prompted her to do what she could. She is beloved of all who are interested in the truth. There are many whom she has furnished with a reading matter. After they have had the books a sufficient length of time, she gathers them up again to place in other hands. Many are reading and are in the valley of decision, convicted that we have the truth, yet hardly settled that they can lift the cross. May God help them to decide from the weight of evidence and receive the truth in the love of it. As I see the good work Sister Dart has accomplished at her age, by perseverance and untiring zeal, I inquire what might not our youthful sisters do if they would show zeal corresponding to that of their aged sister. They have activity and the vigor of youth in their favor, which gives them a decided advantage. Sister Dart has, by going from house to house, obtained a large list of subscribers for the Reformer in Black Hawk, and Central. May the Lord bless this faithful sister for her zeal in her Master’s cause.
(2LtMs, Lt 13, 1872, 8)
Our appointments were out Friday evening. We had but a few, but the Lord is not confined to the large assemblies. We had a good season together. Sabbath we had meetings in the afternoon and evening. Your father spoke in the afternoon and I spoke in the evening. These meetings seemed as cold water to the thirsty souls of these young believers.
(2LtMs, Lt 13, 1872, 9)
At the invitation of Sister Shaw we rode one mile and a half up the mountain to their home, where I am now writing in their doorway. This sister has kept the Sabbath alone in her father’s family and alone in her own family. But we hope her kind husband will yet see the clearness of the truth and take his position on the Lord’s side and rejoice the heart of his faithful, believing wife. We have an interest in the father and mother of Mr. Shaw, with whom we became acquainted at this visit. We hope to hear that father, mother, and son are united in the service of God with Sister Shaw in keeping all the commandments of God.
(2LtMs, Lt 13, 1872, 10)
Monday morning, August 19
We had three meetings upon the first day. Your father spoke in the forenoon and afternoon, and I spoke in the evening. All three of these meetings were highly prized by the believers in this place. We had good attention and deep interest was manifested by many. Sunday evening the house was well filled and we had good freedom in addressing the people. After the meeting closed your father called for those who desired books to come to the stand. There was never seen greater eagerness to receive the books than in this place. After the close of the meeting we went home with your cousins, Mr. and Mrs. Fair, and had a pleasant visit with them.
(2LtMs, Lt 13, 1872, 11)
Mr. Bental has given us a large number of very nice specimens of ore, which will go far toward forming a cabinet for the Health Institute.
(2LtMs, Lt 13, 1872, 12)
We design to leave this week for Denver, and next Monday start on our journey for California.
(2LtMs, Lt 13, 1872, 13)
There is a German physician here who is keeping the Sabbath. He is a smart, intelligent man above sixty years old. He is active, straight, and gentlemanly. He reminds me of Brother Bates. He talks very imperfect English. None here who are keeping the Sabbath had heard a lecture upon present truth before we came, except Sister Shaw. I think if a course of lectures could be given here, Central and Denver, companies would be raised up to obey the truth.
(2LtMs, Lt 13, 1872, 14)
We design to leave the mountains for Denver this week, and the first of next week we start on our journey for California.
(2LtMs, Lt 13, 1872, 15)
From your Mother.
(2LtMs, Lt 13, 1872, 16)
Lt 13a, 1872
White, J. E.; White, Emma Walling’s Mills, Black Hawk, Colorado August 22, 1872 Portions of this letter are published in 2Bio 349. Dear children, Edson and Emma:
You can see by the first line of my scribbling that I am in a hurry. Willie is having some trouble to find the horse. While he is thus hunting up Sandy, I will write a few lines. We go to Central this morning if the horse can be found.
(2LtMs, Lt 13a, 1872, 1)
Last night Father and I rode six miles on the Indian ponies, that we might get accustomed to riding. We have decided it would be better for Father to go up the mountain, over the Snowy Range and be benefited with the exercise he would obtain in so doing than to go to California just now. We have applied ourselves closely to get off as much matter as we have, and now we both need a period of rest. Father was at first quite feeble. He was troubled about breathing, but this no more affects him. We knew that his difficulties arose from the lightness of the air. We have lived out-of-doors nearly all the time. We go up in the pine forest and sit under the trees and write and read and do not go to the house until sent for to go to dinner. We feel much encouraged in regard to Father, but we dare not yet go to California. We fear if he goes where there is a religious excitement he will labor far too hard, for he only needs the chance to awaken all his interest and zeal, which will be too much for him now.
(2LtMs, Lt 13a, 1872, 2)
If he can spend three weeks in riding over the Snowy Range to the park, on the other side, we hope his health will be much improved. He will have no trouble with writing, for he has much of it off his mind, and he will be at liberty to enjoy the scenery, get tired, camp and rest, and become hardened for California. We are getting used to a hard bed. We lie on a bed about as hard as the floor. We enjoy it too.
(2LtMs, Lt 13a, 1872, 3)
But this is not the subject I wish to write you about. I hope, Edson, you will not move too fast. You know your brain is active and you are a boy of projects, and we hope you will not get too many kettles on the fire at once. If you do, some of them will burn. Guard yourself on these points. Move only as fast as you can move; surely then the confidence of others will be established in your judgment. Make haste slowly.
(2LtMs, Lt 13a, 1872, 4)
In regard to Jennie Trembley, we hope that Jenny, Marian, and Adelia will not hold themselves aloof from Jennie Trembley. We believe her to be a sincere Christian, but not perfect. All of you sit down and together have a friendly talk over matters. Don’t get up an excited feeling. Keep calm and composed, Edson, and you can then have double the influence you would if you should get into an excitement. You are in danger of not always viewing things correctly and of feeling too strong when you think things are not just right. Jennie Trembley pursues a singular course, but keep cool, work on yourself the best you can. And do not build too many aircastles.
(2LtMs, Lt 13a, 1872, 5)
We are glad of your letters. Write freely all your plans and we will advise and counsel you the best we can. We hope you will humbly trust God and move in His fear. Redeem the past, my son, and move cautiously that others can have confidence in your judgment.
(2LtMs, Lt 13a, 1872, 6)
I hope Emma will have an interest in Ella Belden. If she associates with those who will not have a good influence over her, I hope, Emma, you will talk with her. It will do you good, Emma, to have some responsibility in such cases. We are sorry that the family cannot have attention from us; but here we are, where we cannot see to them or help them.
(2LtMs, Lt 13a, 1872, 7)
Edson and Emma, move cautiously in the fear of God and you will come out all right.
(2LtMs, Lt 13a, 1872, 8)
Willie and Lucinda went up on one of the high, rocky mountains. They went as far as the ponies could go. Then they tied them to trees and went on foot. They broke off some nice specimens of the high rocks. Willie and Lucinda are both doing very well. Willie is not as well as I would like to see him. I think if he had remained at Battle Creek he would have had a fever. We have hardly realized it was summer up here in the mountains. While the rest of you have been suffering with heat, we have enjoyed perfect coolness.
(2LtMs, Lt 13a, 1872, 9)
Your mother.
(2LtMs, Lt 13a, 1872, 10)
Lt 14, 1872
White, J. E.; White, Emma NP September 1872 Portions of this letter are published in 3MR 159; 5MR 397-398. Dear children, Edson and Emma:
Here we are, separated from civilization many miles. There is only one family, who have leased the hot springs, living in the Park. We traveled four days, camping three nights on the road, before we arrived at our destination for a few days or weeks.
(2LtMs, Lt 14, 1872, 1)
I endured the horseback riding well, and the second day’s travel could have my pony lope nicely. But alas! As I was in the best of spirits, enjoying the scenery very much, my pack behind me became unloosed and dangled against the horse’s heels. Your father had tarried behind to arrange his pack more securely. I was between two companies—three of our company ahead and five behind me. I saw the situation of things, slipped my feet from the stirrup, and was just ready to slip from the saddle to the ground and in one moment should have been safe. But the pony was frightened and threw me over his back. I struck my back and my head. I knew I was badly hurt, but felt assured no bones were broken. I could scarcely breathe or talk for some time but finally improved a little. I was in great pain through my head, neck, shoulders and back and bowels.
(2LtMs, Lt 14, 1872, 2)
Your father proposed we go no farther, camp, and let Walling return to his business he has charge of at the three mills, and then in a week I might be able to return or go on; or get right down in Boulder Park and pray the Lord to release me, bless and strengthen me to go on and complete the journey. We decided the latter was the best course. We knelt, and your father prayed earnestly to God for His blessing and healing power to come upon me. I then prayed. Oh, how precious it seemed to us at this time to have an unfailing Friend, a present help in every time of need. I felt an assurance that the Lord heard us. Your father was greatly blessed. I was placed upon a bed in the wagon and rode thus a few miles, till we came to the mountain, then mounted my pony. Weak and full of pain, I rode up mountains as steep as the roof of a house, over rocky hills and big boulders that seemed impossible to pass. We camped at night, and bathed. I wore a wet bandage, and although in considerable pain, I rested well on the ground in camp, and the next morning was upon my saddle again. But I cannot now give you any account of our journey. It has been wonderful, wonderful to us.
(2LtMs, Lt 14, 1872, 3)
I wish to say to you, my children, live near to God. Do not follow the example of anyone. Christ is your Pattern. Maintain a life of conscientiousness, of faithfulness, of watchfulness and prayer.
(2LtMs, Lt 14, 1872, 4)
In regard to your going to Trall’s, you must rely upon your own resources as much as possible. We want to do our duty to our children and to our fellow men in general.
(2LtMs, Lt 14, 1872, 5)
I have sent on to Battle Creek a number of batches of manuscript. I have still more to send, and if Mr. Walling does not go this morning, I will, if able to write, send by him. I am still unable to turn or change my position without much pain. It troubles me to write but I must do it until this matter is all cleaned out.
(2LtMs, Lt 14, 1872, 6)
I would be glad to see you, but we may never look upon each other’s faces again, yet we trust that we may in the providence of God meet and each of us be advanced in the divine life. We must not be content to remain stationary. We must make progress. God help us that we may grow in grace and in the knowledge of the truth. Move cautiously, Edson. Cherish a teachable spirit. Walk humbly, and let nothing divert your mind and interest from the work. If you are only faithful in your position, God knows it and His blessing will attend your faithful efforts to discharge your duty. Let the book of records stand all right and clear in your favor in heaven and you are truly blest. You must expect disappointment and that your efforts will not always be appreciated, but Jesus lives and He will ever help you to bear and will give you rest and courage in Him. Go onward and upward. We rejoice to see your efforts to improve and to be of some account. We will help you to advance. In great haste and much love,
(2LtMs, Lt 14, 1872, 7)
Your Mother.
(2LtMs, Lt 14, 1872, 8)
P.S. If my manuscript does not come in time for the Reformer, select some things from the matter written to the office, or that I have sent you, that will be appropriate upon health reform, or bearing upon it.
(2LtMs, Lt 14, 1872, 9)
Lt 15, 1872
White, W. C. Santa Rosa, California September 30, 1872 Previously unpublished. [Fragment] [To W. C. White:]
... We shall visit this family soon. They live between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol. They are seeking to get access to other Catholic families by distribution of publications. Oh, that the good work may go on; this is my comfort and rejoicing, to see the truth advance.
(2LtMs, Lt 15, 1872, 1)
I hope, Clarence, that you are cheerful and happy. May the Lord bless and encourage you to follow the leadings of His Spirit. Give yourself, my dear boy, wholly to your Saviour. Work, work for the Master at all times. We have not a moment to idle away. We must devote our entire strength of body, soul, and spirit to the salvation of souls, and be co-workers with Jesus Christ. Time is short, very short. Let every moment be rightly employed, and may the Lord imbue you, my dear boy, with a large measure of His Holy Spirit. God will work with our efforts when we dedicate all to Him unreservedly. God calls for us and all that we have to lay upon His altar.
(2LtMs, Lt 15, 1872, 2)
We went to the post office last night, but got no overland mail. We found by reading the Chronicle that the roads had been blocked up. We had a storm of rain last Sabbath and snow was seen upon the mountains. We hope that we shall get a letter from you in next mail.
(2LtMs, Lt 15, 1872, 3)
I have not time to write a letter to Brother Lindsey. I hear that Mary Luke wants to come to the office. She writes to Angelica Edmonds that George told her when she left the office he would send for her when he wanted her. She wants a place in the office. She is an excellent girl. Speak to Brother Lindsey about this matter and get her back at once.
(2LtMs, Lt 15, 1872, 4)
Brethren Canright and Loughborough leave this morning and must take this.
(2LtMs, Lt 15, 1872, 5)
Your Mother, in haste.
(2LtMs, Lt 15, 1872, 6)
Excuse this for I have written it in such a hurry, while the brethren were eating.
(2LtMs, Lt 15, 1872, 7)
The children are well and have made wonderful improvements. We love them very much. Your father, Lucinda, and self are as well now as usual.
(2LtMs, Lt 15, 1872, 8)
Love to all dear friends.
(2LtMs, Lt 15, 1872, 9)
Lt 16, 1872
White, J. E.; White, Emma San Francisco, California September 27, 1872 Portions of this letter are published in OHC 242; 2Bio 356-357. Dear children, Edson and Emma:
We are now on the boat on our way to Santa Rosa to meet Elder Loughborough. He expects us tonight. We arrived at San Francisco at ten o’clock. Before getting into the city we crossed the water on a ferry boat.
(2LtMs, Lt 16, 1872, 1)
On the boat we met Brethren Conkrite and Stockton. Our first greeting to California was a present of a most beautiful bouquet of flowers of every variety, and very fragrant. These brethren were overjoyed to meet us. They conducted us through the crowd to the street car. We stepped on the car and were taken two miles to Sister Rowland’s. There we met and were introduced to twenty brethren and sisters who greeted us as cordially as we were ever greeted in our lives. These friends had waited at the house of Sister Rowland until twelve o’clock at night to receive us. We did not get to rest until a still later hour.
(2LtMs, Lt 16, 1872, 2)
In the morning we awoke suffering with severe cold on our lungs. I had taken this cold in Colorado. We rested on the first easy bed we had seen for months. We enjoyed it much. Sister Rowland has welcomed us to her house for one year if we will accept it. She has a good home, well furnished. She is worth forty thousand dollars and has the sole control of her property. Sister Rowland accompanied us to a sister’s in the morning.
(2LtMs, Lt 16, 1872, 3)
Walking the streets of San Francisco, looking at the gardens, we were apparently in midsummer. Flowers of every type and hue grew in luxuriance and abundance everywhere. Fuchsias grow in open grounds, out of doors, summer and winter; roses of every variety were trailing above trees or lattice work in a natural, homelike manner. Many flowers I could not name, having never seen them before.
(2LtMs, Lt 16, 1872, 4)
We are nearing the place where we must leave this pleasant boat for the cars. I am in the ladies’ cabin, where I could be retired and write to you, my children.
(2LtMs, Lt 16, 1872, 5)
Last evening after getting to Santa Rosa, we took three letters from the office from G. W. Amadon, I. D. Van Horn, and J. E. White. I think, Edson, we have received your letters, but in most every case Father has sent you letters just before yours reached him.
(2LtMs, Lt 16, 1872, 6)
I am glad to see you ambitious and not content to settle down satisfied with your attainments. Genuine success will only follow earnest effort and wearisome toil and privation. It is a sin to be always discontented. That unrest and discontent which ends in fretting and complaining is sinful. But the discontent with one’s self, which urges on to more earnest effort for greater improvement of the mind, for a broader field of usefulness, is praiseworthy. This discontent does not end in disappointment but in gathering force for a higher and more extended field of usefulness. Only be ever balanced by firm religious principle and a sensitive conscience, having ever the fear of God before you, and you will certainly prosper in becoming fitted for a life of usefulness. And may the unrest you now manifest in regard to your position of labor in this life be seen in regard to your interest to improve in spiritual attainments. Be just as dissatisfied with yourself in this particular.
(2LtMs, Lt 16, 1872, 7)
Be anxious and earnest to grow in grace, seeking for a more distinct and intelligent understanding of the will of God concerning you, striving earnestly for the mark of the prize before you. Christian perfection alone will win the spotless robes of character which will entitle you to stand before the throne of God among the blood-washed throng, bearing the palm branch of everlasting victory and eternal triumph. I want to see you and dear Emma aspiring, seeking to qualify yourselves not for honor or glory here, but for usefulness and duty that you may bless others with your influence. I want her to get hold of that earnest ambition which shall lead her out and away from herself, and make her strong to endure rebuffs and trials and disappointments, and make her self-sacrificing.
(2LtMs, Lt 16, 1872, 8)
Lt 17, 1872
White, J. E. Santa Rosa, California September 28, 1872 Portions of this letter are published in TDG 280; 2Bio 357.
We have not seen Brother Loughborough. He is expected from Petaluma in about one hour. We came from San Francisco in an elegant boat, thirty-seven miles, then took the cars for this place, fifteen miles. The ride on the boat was very pleasant. This morning we attended the first meeting in California. We met with the brethren and sisters of Santa Rosa and we had a good meeting. The brethren and sisters nearly all came upon the platform and were introduced to us. They greeted us with heartiness and cordiality. Your father spoke with freedom upon the reasons of our faith. I followed, speaking about fifteen minutes.
(2LtMs, Lt 17, 1872, 1)
I think I shall enjoy this country very much. All say we have come at the right time. They say had we come earlier, the heat would have weakened us. January and February, they say, are the very best times in the year to visit California. I think the good providence of God has ordered our course thus far.
(2LtMs, Lt 17, 1872, 2)
Today has been oppressively hot, like July. We found fruit of every variety in the market—fresh figs in abundance, apricots, grapes, pears, peaches and tomatoes. Sweet potatoes are the same price as Irish. They say strawberries are in market, and green peas and string beans. Muskmelons are large as great pumpkins.
(2LtMs, Lt 17, 1872, 3)
We are in Brother Loughborough’s large house. It is very convenient; has large bedrooms and good chambers for a story-and-a-half house. We are heartily welcomed here. Brother Loughborough says the house is ours. We may do what we please with it. These two children are, it appears to me, the best children, the most quiet and peaceable, I ever saw. The mother controls them in a quiet way, without noise, severity, or bluster. The two seem very happy together.
(2LtMs, Lt 17, 1872, 4)
We think we shall enjoy our visit to California, but it is like July here now and the change is so great from the mountain air that we hardly know what to do with ourselves. Your father and Elder Loughborough are upon the campground, ten miles from here, preparing the ground for the meeting. This letter must go to the office tonight. I have some description of the scenery on the journey to write when my eye is better. Have another cold. Inflammation has settled in my eye.
(2LtMs, Lt 17, 1872, 5)
We all have an experience to gain and crosses to lift. If we study our own pleasure and gratify our own desires and taste, we shall be found wanting in the day of retribution and rewards. If we live to do others good and to glorify God, we shall not be considerate of ourselves but shall seek to be of use in the world, blessing humanity, and we shall receive the blessing of “Well done” from the lips of the Master. [Matthew 25:21.]
(2LtMs, Lt 17, 1872, 6)
We should live for the next world. It is so wretched to live a haphazard, aimless life. We want an object in life—to live for a purpose. God help us all to be self-sacrificing, less self-caring, more forgetful of self and selfish interest; and to do good, not for the honor we expect to receive here, but because this is the object of our life and will answer the end of our existence. Let our daily prayer go up to God that He will divest us of selfishness. Poverty is keenly felt by some, but Christ can make it a great blessing. I have seen both rich and poor, and have decided that the poor, with Christ for their portion, have true riches and are happiest.
(2LtMs, Lt 17, 1872, 7)
I have seen that those who live for a purpose, seeking to benefit and bless their fellow men and to honor and glorify their Redeemer, are the truly happy ones on the earth, while the man who is restless, discontented, and seeking this and testing that, hoping to find happiness, is always complaining of disappointment. He is always in want, never satisfied, because he lives for himself alone. Let it be your aim to do good, to act your part in life faithfully.
(2LtMs, Lt 17, 1872, 8)
There is hurry and excitement. Men feverishly invest their capital of money in bonds and stocks, become wealthy in a day, and yet are unsatisfied. They continue to invest with insane expectancy. The bank stock goes down, the millionaire in the morning is a beggar at night and the way they think best to end the matter is with pistol, rope, or the waters of the bay. Money is a blessing when those who use it consider that they are the Lord’s stewards, that they are handling the Lord’s capital, and must one day give account of their stewardship. It is the love of money which the Bible condemns as the root of all evil—such love that when a man loses money the precious life God has given him is made of no account because money is gone. Money is a precious gift of God, to be received gratefully and used discreetly with all fidelity. It will prove a snare to all who overreach, who get it dishonestly, who hoard it while the poor suffer. The saved in God’s kingdom will be rich, as well as honored and glorified.
(2LtMs, Lt 17, 1872, 9)
Lt 18, 1872
White, J. E.; White, Emma San Francisco, California October 10, 1872 Portions of this letter are published in 2Bio 359-361. Dear Children, Edson and Emma:
We received letters from you both which were truly a comfort to us. We love to hear from you, especially from Emma. Emma, please remember we have no daughter except yourself. You have been grafted into our family and we love you and we should be highly gratified to have this love returned.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 1)
Our camp meeting was a success. We have not a doubt but that the Lord has directed our course to this coast, and we believe the cause of God will be advanced by our labors, which seem to be very necessary. Your father labored very hard during the meeting. He seemed to be full of matter and he could not restrain his labors. The people hung upon his words with intense interest.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 2)
I think I never saw a company together all so intelligent, so sincere, so unexceptionable every way, as the company we meet upon the campground. Twenty homes have been offered us already and such urgent, hearty invitations that we desire to gratify them all.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 3)
Last Monday while upon the campground a committee of five waited upon us with this proposition, to make our headquarters with them in San Francisco. In order to make it pleasant for us they would hire a house of five rooms and furnish it for us, and we could feel that we had a home of our own. They would provide us with all that we needed to live on and we might labor with them as we felt duty demanded. They would provide for us a domestic. This we declined. We should not be prescribed in our liberty at all. We should go among the brethren just when we choose and stay one, two, or three weeks. But they would consider it one of the greatest blessings for our headquarters to be in San Francisco.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 4)
We told them we would consult the brethren and then give them an answer. They greatly desired that the tent should be pitched immediately in this city. We had a consultation with our Brethren Loughborough and [M. G.] Kellogg and they decided that Woodland, one hundred miles from Santa Rosa, was the most important field now for labor, as the whole community was stirred and they thought many more would decide could there be an interest raised there anew by our fresh gifts.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 5)
We have sent our appointments to Woodland for one week from next Sabbath. We designed this week to visit the geysers. But again we thought it might be we could do some good to souls should we come to this city the intervening Sabbath and speak to the people Sabbath and first day. We reached here this noon; rode on the cars fifteen miles to Petaluma and there took a fine steamer and rode about thirty-five miles.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 6)
San Francisco is not the best place to live in the summer because of trade winds. The interior is hot and the winds rush from the coast to fill the vacuum. This causes a strong breeze to blow from the coast nearly all the summer. In fall and winter, as the interior is cooler, it is very mild and pleasant upon the coast. We think a share of our winter will be passed here.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 7)
I wish you could have looked upon our dear friends in the truth assembled in camp meeting. It would have done your heart good. There were a large number of women about my age and older, whose countenances looked to me very beautiful. They were women of thought, of judgment, and of unusual refinement. They were cordial and generous. Our meetings were deeply interesting. Every testimony borne by your father and mother told upon the people and they did not neglect to show their appreciation of our earnest efforts. They have responded to our efforts here fully and earnestly. This is all we ask of them. If God gives us a testimony, we wish that it shall have its effect upon the people, for it is not pleasant to labor in vain, and spend our strength for naught. Our expectations have been more than realized.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 8)
Brother Loughborough has done nobly in bearing the burdens he has had to bear and in keeping things together. God has worked with him and sustained him. Brother [M. G.] Kellogg has done what he could but he has been crippled by his own peculiar temperament. He has an excellent spirit. No one has a word of fault to find with him. He is very cautious, very timid, unselfish, conscientious and devoted to the work, but becomes discouraged if the labors he puts forth do not seem to result in immediate good. He was ordained at the camp meeting and this will be a courage and strength to him. His wife is a thoroughly converted woman. She has upon her countenance an expression of contentment and peace. A great change has taken place with her.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 9)
Charlie was wrought upon by the Spirit of God and came forward for prayers and went forward in baptism. Quite a number were converted to the truth. Some were baptized and several are designing to be baptized and unite with the church here at San Francisco. They have requested your father to baptize them.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 10)
We see so much to do, we do not know what to do first. Fields are open before us and laborers are called for everywhere. Oh, that young men who have ability, who have long known the truth, would be so thoroughly consecrated to God that they could labor in the vineyard of the Lord. Many, I know, will have to render a fearful account in the day of final rewards and punishments because they have neglected to work for the Master, but selfishly pleased themselves and souls have perished because of this neglect. Oh, how many could, if they would, teach others the truth so well understood.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 11)
There were three sisters from San Francisco who came forward for prayers. One, a school teacher, remarked, “If Sister White could be divided into ten pieces and they could each have a little piece of her, they would feel greatly blessed.” I remarked, “Sisters, there is none too much of Sister White to keep her together, but I have wished I could be in several places at the same time. I see so great a work to be done.”
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 12)
God has truly blessed your father. He had great freedom of speech and labored far beyond anything I expected. Brother Cornell had the ague and could speak only twice. Brother Loughborough spoke only once. He had the care of the meeting on him. Besides the three discourses I have mentioned, your father and mother did all the preaching.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 13)
We are now at Sister Rowland’s. She is a woman worth forty thousand dollars, a Scotch lady, is free to entertain us and wishes us to live with her one year. She has not yet united with the church, but has requested baptism at your father’s hands. We love this sister. She is plain-spoken, but her heart is in the work and cause of God. We feel at home here.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 14)
We learn that Elder Fassit, First Adventist minister, is in Sacramento. His wife is with him. She preaches but is now in ill health. She has been bleeding at the lungs.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 15)
The coast seems to be clear for us next Sabbath and first day. We think it in the order of God that we are here in San Francisco at this time. I have been sick with cold on the lungs for two weeks. Have raised some blood. I have coughed very hard, yet when I have attempted to speak, have not coughed at all. Acute inflammation of lungs and eyes come suddenly upon me. I am still afflicted, but there is so much to do I have not excused myself from the work. I have faith in God that He will raise me above my infirmities and give me victory over disease. I greatly desire health, that I may glorify God. Your father is in very good health for him. Oh, how thankful I feel to see him able to clearly present the interesting points of our faith.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 16)
San Francisco appears like June and July. Flower gardens look very beautiful. Fuchsias are growing in open ground, trailed above trees and flowers in rich profusion. Roses of all varieties are in bloom. There are the most beautiful evergreens I ever looked upon.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 17)
We have fruit here of every kind. Pears as large as a pint bowl, very delicious to the taste; figs in their natural state; large white and pink grapes—one is all you wish to put in your mouth at once. Our friends brought us clusters of grapes at camp meeting weighing from one to two pounds. At Woodland we shall have free access to grape and fig gardens. All we have to do is simply dry them, then box them and we have figs such as we see in market and buy. No sugar is required in the drying. There are apples in abundance, sweet potatoes in great plenty. We do not eat much but fruit.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 18)
I should have written particulars of our journey, but I have been so very much afflicted. We think this climate will agree with us. My cold was taken before leaving Colorado.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 19)
Father has bought him an excellent horse, similar to Jim, for travel.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 20)
We shall get Willie into school this winter and have him improving his mind. He seems cheerful and happy.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 21)
It is now very dusty here, having had no rain this summer. The rainy season, many say, is the pleasantest part of the year.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 22)
We shall not neglect the work of God to view the wonderful things of nature, but we shall make these things all secondary. Let them come along in the course of events. We must make the work of God our first and primary business. The salvation of souls is of the highest importance. Everything else is inferior to this.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 23)
My dear children, do not consider any self-denial or sacrifice of time, strength, or means too great to make to benefit your fellow men. Look at the sacrifice made by the Son of God and shrink at nothing that it is possible for you to do by your influence, example, and patient, earnest effort.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 24)
Lay up, my dear children, for yourselves a treasure in the heavens. Crowd all the good works you can into your short lifetime. Let not a vestige of selfishness cling to your soul. Remember the life of Christ was free from every selfish act. He is our Pattern in all things. Don’t live for self; live to bless others, that finally when the Master shall appear He shall give you the gracious benediction, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” [Matthew 25:21.] Children, it pays to live for God and heaven. The wages are ample. “The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life.” [Romans 6:23.]
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 25)
I have written you a long letter. Let us hear again from you. Will you see that my breakfast shawl is put in the box of books?
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 26)
In haste and love. Your mother.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 27)
October 13
We received yesterday letters from Edson and George. You complain of not hearing from us. We have been prompt to answer your letters. Your father has written you recently in regard to going to Trall’s. No doubt you have received letters ere this.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 28)
Mother. October 14
Yesterday we had two interesting meetings. The prejudice that Grant has raised is fast being removed. Brother Diggins, at whose house John Howell died, has embraced the Sabbath. We had been abused in his mind so much that he has not united with the church. But since we have come and he has heard for himself he is perfectly satisfied. Yesterday he invited us to go directly from the place of meeting to his house two miles out of the heart of the city. We went upon the horse cars. We found a spacious residence, and a most splendid garden laid out in a careful, tasteful manner. Roses of every kind were in bloom, and Fuchsias of every variety were growing out of doors. One was a tree with two trunks, large as my arm, and the foliage was very bushy; it was in full bloom. They say it remains in bloom the year round. They have flowers in bloom the entire year. This was a charming place. Brother Diggins owns a very nice block of houses which he rents to tenants.
(2LtMs, Lt 18, 1872, 29)
Mother.
Lt 19, 1872
White, J. E.; White, Emma Woodland, California October 25, 1872 Portions of this letter are published in 5MR 398. Dear children, Edson and Emma:
Your letter, Edson, Willie has just brought us from the post office. Father, in his directions, got the start of your letters about five days. He wrote to Sister Van Horn that if Emma desired it, he thought she had better go into the counting room. If she drops everything else and puts her mind on the business there, we believe she will succeed.
(2LtMs, Lt 19, 1872, 1)
Edson, don't be in great haste to leave for Trall's. Make the most of your time. Elder [M. G.] Kellogg will start for Trall's November 8, and will get to Battle Creek November 15, and will leave for Trall's November 20. He is writing to Trall that he is coming from California with one more to accompany him, and in Battle Creek will be joined by several, and to hold on and not commence his lectures till he gets there with his company. Brother Kellogg has a library of the textbooks and other books that you need. He says you can have the use of these books. One can read to the company and all be benefited. He will be a great help to you all, as he is one term in advance of you. He will be a father to you, an excellent counselor; he is humble and has the cause of God at heart. We hope that you will take Brother Kellogg's counsel.
(2LtMs, Lt 19, 1872, 2)
We have been at Woodland since one week ago last Friday. We have held meetings under the tent every evening and over two Sabbaths and first days. I spoke Sunday afternoon and evening to a most attentive audience. Professor Martin handed me a notice Sabbath eve at the commencement of the Sabbath that he would preach Sunday evening showing the law done away. Your father had great freedom in preaching at the close of the Sabbath. I spoke Sunday afternoon. Father was sick with dysentery, and in order to draw a congregation I consented to speak Sunday evening. Notwithstanding Brother Martin’s meeting, and a circus in another tent a few rods off, we had a good congregation of the first class. Judge Johnson and wife were among the hearers Sunday afternoon. I had great freedom.
(2LtMs, Lt 19, 1872, 3)
Our testimony is received and appreciated here in California. There is a great work to be done here. I have labored right through, although I have had a hard cough for five weeks. Have kept awake hours of nights coughing. I have raised a great deal; yet I have attended meetings nights and days and spoken my turn every time. I am now improving.
(2LtMs, Lt 19, 1872, 4)
Today we all got together—Loughborough, Cornell, Kellogg, Willie, your father and myself—and prayed earnestly to God for health and His blessing to labor in this new field. We have faith that God will grant us His strength to bear our testimony. We want so much to work to save souls. We feel that we have no time to be sick. Oh, that God would raise up laborers to sound the last note of warning to the world!
(2LtMs, Lt 19, 1872, 5)
Edson and Emma, seek God with all your hearts. Be established, strengthened, settled in the truth. Don’t represent, in character and principle, the reed trembling in the wind. Be of sound moral principle, unmoved by the influence of the vain, proud and worldly. We are seeking to live for the better world. May God help you to see your failings, your defects, and prepare you for His heavenly kingdom.
(2LtMs, Lt 19, 1872, 6)
In much love,
(2LtMs, Lt 19, 1872, 7)
From your Mother.
(2LtMs, Lt 19, 1872, 8)
If Willie’s pants are not sent to California, do not send them.
(2LtMs, Lt 19, 1872, 9)
Your Mother.
(2LtMs, Lt 19, 1872, 10)
Lt 20, 1872
White, J. E.; White, W. C. San Francisco, California December 7, 1872 This letter is published in entirety in 21MR 239-240. Dear Children, Edson and Willie:
We have received two letters of length from Brother [M. G.] Kellogg—one written from Battle Creek and one from Dr. Trall’s. We received a good letter from Edson, which was a relief to us and caused us to be thankful to God that Edson was having clearer views of his mistakes and dangers. Our prayer is that God will help him to shun his past mistakes. We received two letters from Willie, one written from Battle Creek; one on galley paper written from Dr. Trall’s. Dear children, write your letters on good note paper and carefully, for I wish to preserve them. I wish you also to preserve all my letters that I do not tell you to burn.
(2LtMs, Lt 20, 1872, 1)
We came to Santa Rosa last evening. Your father has been very feeble for two weeks. His labors in San Francisco were too much for his strength. Then the burdens of the cause of God in connection with Battle Creek, and the uncertainty whether we should go back to Michigan or remain here in California, have worn upon him. For one week he has been alarmingly feeble. He could not walk without dizziness and great weakness. We had appointments in Santa Rosa Sabbath and Sunday. Your father thought he could not go, but at almost the last moment we had a season of prayer and he decided he would go, trusting in God. He was very feeble after we arrived at Elder Loughborough’s. In the evening we had a season of prayer. Here is the substance of a letter written to Brother Stipp after ten o’clock p.m.
(2LtMs, Lt 20, 1872, 2)
We have been engaged in earnest prayer before God about two hours, that the cloud of discouragement that has been settling upon our souls might be broken and the light of God’s Spirit come upon us. We have had a severe struggle. We have felt as did Jacob of old when he wrestled with the angel—we will not let Thee go except Thou bless us. The presence of God seemed to be in our midst. Our trembling faith grasped the promise of God: “What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.”Mark 11:24.
(2LtMs, Lt 20, 1872, 3)
We made the case of your father a special subject of our prayers, and to the glory of God we would say, The darkness hath passed away, and the true light now shineth. The blessing and power of God rested upon your father and mother. We both fell to the floor. Your father, as he rose upon his feet to praise God, could not stand, the blessing of God rested upon him with such remarkable power. The angels of God seemed all around us. The awful, glorious presence of God was in our midst. Elder Loughborough felt the power of God all through his body. The room seemed holy. The healing power of God came upon your father and we believe that he will be qualified by spiritual and physical strength for the great work before us. The praise of God was in our hearts and upon our lips. We shouted the high praises of God. Whoso offereth praise glorifieth God. This is the work and power of God.
(2LtMs, Lt 20, 1872, 4)
Our souls do magnify the Lord for all His wonderful works to the children of men.
(2LtMs, Lt 20, 1872, 5)
God has delivered us from discouragement and bondage of darkness. In Him is no darkness at all. God will place our feet in a large place. We shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. Streams of light seemed to come upon us from our heavenly Father and the room seemed to be illuminated with the presence of the Lord.
(2LtMs, Lt 20, 1872, 6)
Living, active faith will penetrate the clouds of darkness and let the gleamings of glory through.
(2LtMs, Lt 20, 1872, 7)
I hope that you will all have faith for yourselves. Have an object before you and a high purpose to glorify God. Resist inclination and ever be true to duty, true to the pure principles of right. Seek earnestly for communion with God. Pray, my children. Pray earnestly and watch thereunto constantly. I hope this Sabbath will be precious to you, my dear children. Let not your love for the truth wane for one hour; cling to God by living faith. Seek to bring yourselves nearer and closer to His divine presence. May God preserve your lives and keep you pure from the pollution of the world is the prayer of your father and mother.
(2LtMs, Lt 20, 1872, 8)
Lt 21, 1872
White, J. E.; White, W. C. San Francisco, California December 13, 1872 Previously unpublished. Dear Children, Edson and Willie:
Elder Loughborough and I came to this place last Tuesday to prepare copy for Reformer and pack our trunks to be taken to Santa Rosa. We had an appointment over the Sabbath and first day. We have had one evening meeting at Brother Stockton’s. There seemed to be the best union of any meeting we have attended.
(2LtMs, Lt 21, 1872, 1)
Your father thought of going to Michigan this month but he has been so feeble, he gave it up. He is riding out and trying to rest. The carrier has just brought me a letter from him. He writes that he is better and is free and happy.
(2LtMs, Lt 21, 1872, 2)
He has had so great an interest in Battle Creek that it has told fearfully upon his strength. We shall spend one week from next Sabbath at Bloomfield. Brother Judson has urged us to come and stay with him this winter.
(2LtMs, Lt 21, 1872, 3)
We have sad news for you, Willie. Brother Crayson, while lifting a heavy machine, let it drop, through the negligence of the man he called to help him. It crushed one of his feet. He is laid up and suffers much. It was thought he would lose his foot, but now there is hope that it will not be necessary to take it off. I feel deeply to sympathize with this afflicted family. Do not neglect to write to him, Willie.
(2LtMs, Lt 21, 1872, 4)
I hope, my children, you will not neglect secret prayer, for this is the life of the Christian. We expect you to study hard, but make the kingdom of heaven your first consideration. If you only live up to the light you have, you will make progress every day in the divine life. Be true to your own souls and to God. Let nothing you may see or hear of infidel sentiments lodge in your heart for a moment. Your only safety is watchfulness and prayer. I had not time to finish this at San Francisco. I send more now from Santa Rosa.
(2LtMs, Lt 21, 1872, 5)
Lt 22, 1872
Diggins, Brother San Francisco, California December 18, 1872 Portions of this letter are published in 2Bio 369-370. Much respected Brother Diggins:
I have felt that it was my duty to write to you in regard to some things.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 1)
When we arrived at Santa Rosa we found my husband much improved in health and very free in the Lord. From time to time the manifestation of the Spirit of God rests upon him in answer to prayer in a most wonderful manner. He is now writing, and Bible subjects open before him and he is really storing away the grain. The Lord has let him into the storehouse of His truth and he is refreshed and elevated by the pure and glorious truths opened to his mind from God’s Word. He is cheerful and happy in the Lord and in His truth of heavenly origin. This house, in some of our seasons of prayer, seems indeed like the gate of heaven and the gleamings of glory are beaming upon us from the throne of God.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 2)
We shall make our home this winter at Elder Loughborough’s. We should have remained at San Francisco, but in truth no way opened before us, and the position of yourself and Sister James and Mrs. Piercy united on one hand and Sister Rowland’s hard, unforgiving spirit on the other hand, made our work doubly hard.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 3)
We feel that our testimony was not received and had no weight with you. This disheartened my husband and he left in great discouragement. But God has met him here and lifted him above his depression and is giving him great freedom in prayer and in writing. Last Sabbath he spoke to the church at Healdsburg and had a very precious season with them. The last Sunday meeting he attended at San Francisco was most disheartening to him. If you, Brother Diggins, had stood by the servants of God He had sent among you to do His work, we should have felt that we could have remained in San Francisco.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 4)
My husband cannot bear discouragement now. He started in the ardor of youth and devoted the tireless energy of his manhood to the service of Christ, seeking to warn sinners and to proclaim the last note of warning to the world. As a Christian soldier he enlisted during the war under the blood-stained banner of Prince Immanuel. It has been his special work to storm the strongholds of sin. God united us that he might be a helper to me to bear the reproach I should suffer for the truth’s sake. He has had unabated zeal in the great work in which he has been engaged. He has sought to inspire others with the earnestness and energy which has characterized his own life. But he has seen the forces of the enemy so strong against the advancement of the truth and the progress of God’s people in the divine life, that he has been disheartened frequently, for he has been left to bear the hardest conflict alone. When his earnest efforts have been put forth and he has been leading out in new enterprises, those who ought to have stood by his side have not helped, but censured. After a while he lost his ardor and hope and courage under disease. He became cautious, distrustful, suspicious. Had his health remained firm, his courage would not be so easily dampened. His soul has been fired with zeal and earnestness, with courage that knew nothing of failure. But at last he cannot bear up under discouragements and a lack of his brethren appreciating his efforts. He can labor untiringly in feebleness if he sees that he is accomplishing good. When his efforts seem to be in vain he has no heart to bear up and hope as he once did.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 5)
The word of the Lord has come to the people of San Francisco in messages of light and salvation. If they neglect to improve the present opportunity and wait for louder calls or greater light, the light which has been given may be withdrawn and the path be left in darkness. The light which shines today upon the people and upon the church, if not cherished, will have less force tomorrow. To have better opportunities and greater light in the future we must improve the blessings of the present with willing hearts. Those who defer their obedience till every shadow of uncertainty and every possibility of mistake is removed will never believe and obey. A belief that demands perfect knowledge will never yield. Faith and demonstration are two things. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith rests not upon probability.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 6)
It has been our work to obey the voice of duty even when many voices may be raised in opposition against it. It requires discernment to distinguish the voice which speaks for God. The messengers of God must obey the divine voice which sends them with a disagreeable message, even at the peril of life and if there is not one to sustain them.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 7)
Dear Brother Diggins: Since our meeting at Brother Stockton’s I have felt not only distressed but alarmed for you. Could I have believed that the Spirit of God was leading you to take the positions that you did in that meeting, I should not feel as I do.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 8)
The position you stood in at that meeting was so singular, considering the evidences adduced against Mrs. Harris. The facts were not wanting. One-half would have been of sufficient weight to make it a positive duty for the church to act in her case. And if they did not act they would have been guilty of her sin. This action was not a freak of impulse, but a solemn necessity on the part of the church. Your position and apparent blindness in this case was painful.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 9)
If you had only the testimonies which the Spirit of God had given you alone, without the facts, or the testimony of the church alone, I should not have been surprised and grieved, but you had both, and you showed you had more confidence in the word of that one woman than in the testimony of the Spirit of God and the testimony of the church harmonizing together.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 10)
You had opportunities to hear how highly she regarded the mission and labor of God’s servants. You know she showed no reverence or respect for our calling and labors because we did not exalt her; we were not smitten or beguiled with her charms as many had been. God had presented the case of this woman before me and, as I have said, I was shown that she was a dangerous woman to associate with. She has no little sense of the purity and holiness which God requires of His followers that she could not shed a ray of heavenly light upon the pathway of anyone. Then her disposition in her married life had been such that she brought not peace into the family, but rather, discord. She provoked her husband and irritated him needlessly. She exasperated him by her determined will and unyielding spirit, the very same she manifested in the meetings where her case was investigated.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 11)
Again, I was afraid of her tongue and did not mean to come where its power could affect me. Her tongue, I saw, was not truthful. She would not hesitate to say anything to make out her case. I would not dare trust myself in conversation with her any length of time, even in the presence of others, for, if disposed, she would make me say that which I never had said, and misconstrue my statements and distort my ideas to others. If I should undertake to relate the facts and words I uttered, she would have not the least hesitancy in facing me and bluntly laying me in the lie. If I should bring witnesses to prove my words, she would dare to confirm her statements by calling upon God as her witness. These things I had seen acted over as the circumstances were presented to me. I did not mean to have any intercourse with the woman more than I could possibly help.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 12)
She has chosen to charge me, as well as all the church, as being unchristian and acting like a heathen. Let God be judge between Mrs. Harris and me. Mrs. Harris accuses me of “reading my opinion of Mrs. Rowland and Stipp’s domestic affairs under the name of a testimony from God,” thus accusing me, while doing the very work I have been engaged in twenty-six years, of being a hypocrite and designing. As you did not feel called upon to reprove her, but stood in vindication of her course, perhaps you see as she sees.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 13)
Mrs. Harris states: “She (referring to me) will have to get a weaker-minded subject than I to cower like a whipped dog to her imaginations. (I underscore it as she did.) They have but few and weak-minded friends here.”
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 14)
Could you not see, my brother, the spirit of these expressions did not call forth a remonstrance on your part? You felt not called upon to vindicate the work of God’s Spirit. Perhaps you looked upon these things as Mrs. Harris did. Mrs. Harris and the people of San Francisco have had an opportunity to test the spirits. If God is with Mrs. Harris, sustain her, sympathize with her, and have confidence in her Christian life and character. If we have spoken to you the words of eternal life, if we have brought you light and messages from heaven, receive us as the servants of God and confide in our judgment and in our being led by the Spirit of God in our manner of labor.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 15)
With the prophet Elijah we would say, “How long halt ye between two opinions? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him.”1 Kings 18:21. When God bids me speak I shall not hold my peace.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 16)
The providence of God is wiser and more powerful than the philosophy of men. All our wisest counsels may come to naught, yet God ever remains true. So far as our mission and labor is concerned, we feel a sacred responsibility to God to do faithfully the work He has committed to us. God has given us light and a commission for the faithful performance of which He holds us answerable. If we are true to our calling, we are warranted in looking upon ourselves as colaborers with Jesus Christ. This fact will make us earnest, ardent, cheerful, and firm under all the burdens, discouragements, trials and difficulties we meet. We are strong under the consciousness that we are doing God’s work; that God will accept our efforts and approve our work if we do it faithfully.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 17)
I wish to make a statement that you can let have weight upon your mind if you desire. Mrs. Harris says slanderous reports were whispered in my ears against her. Who could have whispered slander in my ears while in Vermont? The Lord there presented the cases of many before me in vision. I was especially shown the sacred work of a gospel minister. Brother Cornell was shown to me, with the defects in his character which crippled his labors, and his imprudences were disqualifying him for the labor in the great harvest field to save souls. His dangers and sins were pointed out to me. When I returned to Battle Creek, we made our home at the Health Institute during the General Conference. I was writing out testimony for the conference when the case of Brother Cornell pressed with such weight upon my mind I could not sleep after I had retired to rest. When all were asleep in the building, I arose and commenced writing at three o’clock in the morning and continued to write while my husband attended the morning meeting. I did not even wait for him to read the testimony but sent it immediately to California.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 18)
I will state, not one word had been written to us from California of the state of things, and not a thought had been suggested in relation to there being any disappointment or trial on Brother Cornell’s account. When we came through San Francisco we only tarried overnight and had, of course, no hints then of matters. After the camp meeting the question was to be settled in regard to Brother Cornell’s field of labor. He wished to go into new fields. I told my husband I wished to see Brother Cornell before him and Elder Loughborough and Brother Kellogg. I then told Brother Cornell what had been shown me of his peculiar traits of character and of his wrongs previous to this vision. I had not been shown that Brother Cornell was in danger of thinking too much of women, previous to this case. No one had accused him, to my knowledge, of imprudence in these things before.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 19)
Brother Cornell acknowledged the truth of the testimony and said he had not seen himself as the testimony represented, but that he could plainly see now where the enemy had deceived him. He wished me to write out definitely every point which related to his case. The week we spent in San Francisco I was not able to write much. Sister Rowland wished me to visit Sister Stipp, saying that she would talk with me in reference to Brother Cornell and Mrs. Harris. I told her I did not wish to hear anything in reference to the matter. God has presented the case before me and I was then writing it. I had partly copied the testimony at Woodland and finished it after I returned to Sister Rowland’s, and read her the testimony. Then she talked with me and told me some facts. Brother and Sister Stipp had told me nothing up to the time of the reading of the testimony at Mrs. Piercy’s. I had no talk with anyone except what was said at your house in response to my stating to you some points in the testimony for Elder Cornell and Mrs. Harris.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 20)
After I related the vision to Brother Cornell he wept much, and we all bowed before God and mingled our tears and prayers together. We entreated the Lord to give us heavenly wisdom that we might know how to manage this particularly trying case.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 21)
Mrs. Harris has but a faint sense of the sinfulness of sin. She calls light darkness and darkness light. She has not a high and elevated sense of purity and virtue. Her words and conduct are just in accordance with the light in which she has viewed these things.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 22)
Said the Saviour, “The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, the whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, they whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!”Matthew 6:22, 23.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 23)
Mrs. Harris views sins as little trifles, unworthy of notice. You have not viewed this woman in her true light. You have become confused and bewildered by her fair words and smooth speeches. If God has by His Spirit been moving us to action in this case, He has not been moving you in an opposite direction to withstand our efforts to relieve the church of a burden which has been heavy upon them. This woman was a body of darkness, and she brought with her to meeting evil angels and the darkness was apparent. A cloud has attended her presence. In the character and life of Christ there is given to the world an example or pattern for us to imitate. The perfection of the professed follower of Christ consists in the oneness of his own will with the will of God. The happiness and glory of the inhabitants of heaven are perfect, because the will of God is their joy and supreme delight. Those who adore and love the will of God are united in harmony with His work and the cause of all good upon the earth.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 24)
I have not written nor told all I know of Mrs. Harris, neither shall I at present. I have felt that she should never say that she was condemned and disfellowshipped upon the testimonies alone. But facts have been brought forth that would be of sufficient weight to separate her from the fellowship of the church if not half as strong. God seeth not as man seeth; He judgeth not by appearance. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways,” saith God, “higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”Isaiah 55:8. “Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him? saith the Lord.”Jeremiah 23:24.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 25)
As certainly as the bloodless hand traced the writing upon the wall in the palace of Belshazzar in the hour of his mad revelry, God has written “Wanting, fearfully wanting,” by the testimonies He has given me in reference to Mrs. Harris. Some have, by their position of pleading in her behalf, been covering the writing upon the wall which reveals her true condition.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 26)
Dear brother, Mrs. Harris has a fascination about her when brought in contact with individuals. I am sorry that your kind and sympathizing nature should be imposed upon by this designing woman. You are in danger of incurring the displeasure of God by standing in defense of this woman. You deceive yourself in thinking that you can help her case. Has God removed His Spirit from His servants that they are entirely deceived in their work? If God has been moving upon us, He has not been moving upon you to hinder us. We cannot both be actuated by the same Spirit. We have the utmost confidence in your integrity, but the deceptive influence of Mrs. Harris has perverted your otherwise good and sound judgment.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 27)
Dear brother, if I had not had presented before me by the angels of God the dangerous influence of this woman, I should not see and feel in regard to her case as I do. The spirit she has manifested, the character she has developed which has been open to all, is enough to suspend her from the fellowship of the church. But the depth of the matter is not yet seen and understood. She has told you of her husband’s evil course and of his abuse of her, a woman and his wife. This story she tells to everyone whose ears she can obtain. Sympathy is created for her, and they all look upon her husband as a demon.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 28)
But Mrs. Harris has not told that when she received provocation or when her will was crossed, the demon has awakened in her. She has not told that her course has been without principle and conscience. When everything in her house has been favorable to the flattery of her pride, and with money enough to spend to support her pleasure, and I might say pride, she was apparently an attractive and splendid woman. But when everything did not please her, and her vanity was not flattered and her caprices were not studied and humored, she was violent in temper, stubborn, and unyielding.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 29)
When you told me her pitiful story which she had related to you, which you said would melt the heart of a stone, I was unmoved, for I had been shown her manner of deceiving and blinding the eyes of those who were unsuspecting of her designs, and who could not read her past life. She has glorified herself. She has been given to pleasure, was fond of amusement and afraid of work. She has been excited and passionate at trifles, and spiritless about the nobler demands of effort and duty.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 30)
She says she has not a friend in the church or out of it. If she has been so consistent a Christian from her childhood as she maintains, would she be thus friendless? A Christian indeed will not be in this position. Mrs. Harris has herself to blame for the principal difficulties of her life. The spirit she has manifested at her home she has carried into the church. A Christian life is consistent, although it may be a constant battle and a march. For the Christian there is no period of repose, no time in which he can lay off his armor and rest from duty.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 31)
I hesitate not to say in the most positive terms, Mrs. Harris is not a Christian; she is a battle axe and a storm, but has never been a subdued, humble, meek follower of Christ. May God pity this woman.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 32)
Humility Mrs. Harris has never brought into her life. “Why,” says this proud and perverse spirit, “need I be troubled and humbled? Why must I be pierced through with the sorrows of self-abasement and penitence? Why should the Christian path be so uneven and self-sacrificing?”
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 33)
There is no rest for the sinning soul, save that which comes through penitence and genuine sorrow for sin. Then will the deepest joy and the sweetest rest and the most perfect assurance of the heart spring from the deepest penitence and humiliation. The most enduring strength and elevation of character are built upon the foundation of submission, humiliation, patience, and unwavering trust in God. Tears are not always the evidence of penitence or of weakness. But when one has sinned against a holy God and wronged his best Friend, his heavenly Father, there is need of tears, not shed to create sympathy but for sorrow of sins.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 34)
The least that she [Mrs. Harris] can do is to confess and deplore her sin in bitterness of soul and not add to guilt by making it appear a very “little thing, unworthy of notice, simply a mistake.” Mrs. Harris will say anything that comes into her mind without regard to truth. She can never gain self-respect or be entitled to the confidence of the wise—whom she calls “weak-minded”—until her confessions and repentance are as broad, thorough, and deep as the sin. The only way possible for her to build up a good and symmetrical character is to begin at the foundation and meet the demands of truth and duty as God requires. Then can she have confidence toward God and be beloved of her brethren and need never say she is without a friend.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 35)
A true Christian sees very much in his own heart to make him weep. It is the gross darkness and corrupt life of Mrs. Harris that makes her so insensible to the aggravating character of her past life and her sins. Should she see herself as God sees her, she would say, “Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night.”Jeremiah 9:1. She would, like the Ninevites, clothe herself in sackcloth. The sins she has committed against God have had the influence to turn souls from the truth of God. It is no credit to her feelings or susceptibility of heart or tenderness of conscience to talk of her wrongs and her misstatements as if they were trifles. Bitter trifles indeed! Penitence and sorrow for sin, which God requires, is the beginning of nobleness of character and true exaltation. Penitence and humility which lead one to deplore wrong and sin are infinitely nobler and better than pride and scorn upon the lip, asserting proud superiority.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 36)
Nobleness of character will be seen in humbleness of mind, sorrow and repentance for sin and wrong. Meekness and lowliness of heart are not the evidence of weakness of mind, but are evidences of a tender heart and are the qualifications for strength and victory. Christ, the Majesty of heaven, says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit (not the haughty and the defiant): for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn (not those who have a vindictive spirit): for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”Matthew 6:3-5.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 37)
Brother Diggins, Do not, I entreat of you, allow this woman to deceive you. I know her, and as God’s servant engaged in saving souls, I warn you to break yourself from the company of this woman. She has no knowledge of the will of God, but is at too great a distance from God and is in complete darkness.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 38)
Walk in the light while ye have the light, lest darkness shall come upon you. I have written in great haste.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 39)
In much love.
(2LtMs, Lt 22, 1872, 40)
Lt 23, 1872
White, J. E.; White, W. C. Bloomfield, California December 23, 1872 Previously unpublished. Dear Children, Edson and Willie:
Elder Loughborough and his wife and myself came to this place last Friday. We make Brother Judson’s house our home. Brother Judson has a large, convenient house. There are two rooms he gives to your father and myself—his large parlor below with a fireplace and the parlor chamber with a stove. I think in about one week we shall come here to stay awhile. Your father did not feel well enough to ride fifteen miles to attend quarterly meeting. He is better than he was one while, but as soon as he improves, he engages in writing. His whole being is in the work and the advancement of the cause of God. Your father has been very signally blessed of God for a few weeks past. He is cheerful and happy. He has decided that it cannot be his duty to leave California before spring. We shall try to write and get out my second volume of Spirit of Prophecy.
(2LtMs, Lt 23, 1872, 1)
We had a very good meeting yesterday. I spoke to the people and then we had the ordinances and the Lord’s Supper. It was a solemn, profitable season.
(2LtMs, Lt 23, 1872, 2)
One sister by the name of Peoples came six miles to the meeting with Sister Wallace. She had not attended meeting for above one year. Her husband is a violent opposer to the truth. She enjoyed the meeting very much. She bore a good testimony and the Lord blessed her with His Spirit.
(2LtMs, Lt 23, 1872, 3)
Brother Wood came up to the meeting in company with a brother by the name of Pulse. This man is a German. A man employed by one of our brethren bought about three dollars’ worth of books. He was asked why he bought them, as he had no intention of keeping the Sabbath himself. He said he wanted them to distribute. He let this German, Pulse, have a book upon the sanctuary. He became interested and went to his German friend to inquire if he had any more books like the one he lent him. He said he had. He bought all the man had and read the tracts carefully and prayerfully, saw the truth upon the Sabbath, and started keeping it. He sent to Battle Creek for more publications; sent one hundred dollars and wished all but twenty to go where most needed in the cause. He ordered twenty dollars’ worth of books and the Review sent to him. He and his wife and hired girl have been keeping the Sabbath a short time. He came up to Santa Rosa to find some Sabbathkeepers. When he heard of our quarterly meeting, Brother Wood and he came to Bloomfield, and my discourse yesterday was the first preaching he has heard on the truth. He was a Southerner; seems to be a well-informed man. He bought six dollars’ worth of books of Loughborough. We learned he lives near Sister Healy at Red Bluff, but he had never seen a Sabbathkeeper till he came out here to Santa Rosa.
(2LtMs, Lt 23, 1872, 4)
You see the work of God is moving forward and you can also see the work the silent messengers are doing in bringing souls to the knowledge of the truth. How important all are in working order now. We are surely nearing the close of time and we have no time to spend purposelessly. We should have an aim and object before us to do something in this great work. The cause of God will advance. If we have no part in it, God will choose those who will be consecrated and holy, who will devote their interest to the great work of gathering in souls to the ark.
(2LtMs, Lt 23, 1872, 5)
Dear children, I long to see you consecrated wholly to God where He can use you as instruments of righteousness. Do not trust in your own strength but rely upon God. He will be your stay and your everlasting friend, if you will trust in Him. Take hold by living faith of the promises of God.
(2LtMs, Lt 23, 1872, 6)
My son Edson, let not selfishness dwell in your heart, and be very guarded in your desire to follow the promptings of hasty decisions and your own inclinations. Be determined to make your stay at Florence Heights profitable. Be thorough. Don’t be superficial. God will help you in your purposes if you commit your ways to Him and have His fear before you. God will help all who will help themselves.
(2LtMs, Lt 23, 1872, 7)
We labored very hard at Santa Rosa. Mrs. Harris was excluded from the fellowship of the church. It was a stormy time. Six came into the church—Brother Diggins, Sister Rowland, Sister Chittendon, Sister Davis, Sister Ball, and a brother from the First-day Adventists, a young man named Champion. Several more will unite with the church soon.
(2LtMs, Lt 23, 1872, 8)
We had the sweetest and best meetings the last time we were there [that] we had ever had at Santa Rosa. I visited Sister Roper. Her husband is a banker. We had a very precious interview, Sister Ball and myself, with Brother and Sister Roper. I hope they will follow the light. I have my fears that their attachment to Dr. Scott is so strong it will be hard to break away from the Presbyterian Church.
(2LtMs, Lt 23, 1872, 9)
I visited Sister Billet. She attended meetings under the tent. She is a superior English lady. She is keeping the Sabbath and attends the meetings with us. I had a very precious season of prayer with her.
(2LtMs, Lt 23, 1872, 10)
There are, we find, many interested, but whether they will have the courage to come out and embrace the truth we cannot say. Sister Roper is a very intelligent, influential woman. I fear that she will not follow the convictions of her conscience. She says that we have no idea the influence and effect of the tent meetings in San Francisco. She says the impressions are strong upon the people that we are living in the last days.
(2LtMs, Lt 23, 1872, 11)
I see a great work to be done and we see the necessity of somebody to do it. Young men are needed who will devote their entire interest to this work at any sacrifice. We feel that God is raising up the sons of Brother and Sister Young to enter the ministry. Next week we go to Healdsburg to hold a meeting and have an interview with the son, who is a school teacher there, the one who was affected with spiritualism.
(2LtMs, Lt 23, 1872, 12)
Children, I entreat of you to keep humble. Don’t get puffed up but keep lowly. It is those who realize their weakness that God uses. Those who are self-sufficient He can do nothing for. Be lowly, be meek, be pure in thought and you will be successful.
(2LtMs, Lt 23, 1872, 13)
Your mother.
(2LtMs, Lt 23, 1872, 14)
Lt 24, 1872
Orphan Children Refiled as Ms 3, 1872.
Lt 25, 1872
White, J. E.; White, Emma Walling’s Mills, Black Hawk August 5, 1872 Portions of this letter are published in 2Bio 342. Dear Children, Edson and Emma:
We received your letter a few hours since. We have a tent pitched in among the pine trees of the mountains. We slept under the tent last night. We think camp life is good for us. Father had a very hard time night before last. He did not rest or sleep at all, all night. He was very sick, pressed for breath. We think it was on account of writing through the day. This has discouraged him considerably because he flattered himself that he was better.
(2LtMs, Lt 25, 1872, 1)
I am glad, Edson, you have been to no more expense than you have in regard to the house. It was better than I feared. We are glad to see you are making God your trust. You will succeed if you do this.
(2LtMs, Lt 25, 1872, 2)
Father is quite feeble, but very cheerful most of the time. We have some precious seasons of prayer on the mountains and in the valleys. We long for strength that we may be more useful in the cause of God. Next Monday we expect to start for the mountains. I am practicing riding on a pony that I may be able to ride horseback over the mountains.
(2LtMs, Lt 25, 1872, 3)
Last night we had a meeting at this place. We called in the mill hands and I spoke to them about one hour. Your father spoke about fifteen minutes. All seemed to be interested. There is a spirit of inquiry arising and we scattered books.
(2LtMs, Lt 25, 1872, 4)
They are reading. There is more searching of Bibles among this company since we came than for years before. We hope the good seed sown will bear fruit to the glory of God.
(2LtMs, Lt 25, 1872, 5)
Emma, write us, child. We want to have something from your pen. We are glad to hear from Edson, but we would be gratified with a few lines from you.
(2LtMs, Lt 25, 1872, 6)
Mr. Walling, who married your cousin Louise, is very free and kind. He is engaged in a large, profitable lumbering business. He has a handsome property. He will do anything for us and spares no expense that he can please and entertain us.
(2LtMs, Lt 25, 1872, 7)
I must say good-by. Willie is now ready to go with his pony to Black Hawk. In much love,
(2LtMs, Lt 25, 1872, 8)
Your Mother.
(2LtMs, Lt 25, 1872, 9)
Lt 26, 1872
White, J. E.; White, Emma On the cars from Denver to California September 23, 1872 This letter is published in entirety in 11MR 117-119. Dear Children, Edson and Emma:
We have been slowly climbing the ascent with two engines drawing the train. We are upon the summit. One engine has been run off. We are now descending. We are eight thousand feet above the level of the sea. We are one hundred and thirty-some miles from Denver. The scenery is not charming. No farms or cultivated lands from Denver to Cheyenne. It was plains with nothing to relieve the monotony but large herds of cattle, two thousand or more in a herd.
(2LtMs, Lt 26, 1872, 1)
Since we left Cheyenne the land is undulating at first, becoming more uneven and the land broken. There are scattering evergreens, scraggy and stunted, apparently growing out of the crevices of the rock. There are large boulders; they seem as regular as if they had been laid by the hand of a mason workman. We have passed five deep cuts covered with a roof [so] that travelers shall not become snowbound. The soil is gravelly sand. Rocks seem to be congealed sand and gravel of a red cast. We have just passed a small house down among the rocks. Among the rocks are little patches of cultivated land.
(2LtMs, Lt 26, 1872, 2)
Rocks, rocks everywhere, bearing the appearance of great age. Rocks cast up like fortifications seem as though placed by a workman. I see at this moment immense rocks of singular shape composed of sand and coarse gravel. We are just viewing a shanty. The chimney is topped with a barrel. The door is open and the white heads of four small children are brought to view. No sign of cultivations anywhere in this view.
(2LtMs, Lt 26, 1872, 3)
We now leave the rocks and hills behind. The land is more like a plain. In some places four rows of fences are built to protect the roads from drifting snows.
(2LtMs, Lt 26, 1872, 4)
Half past four. It is now snowing slowly. It has been quite pleasant all day, not uncomfortably warm or cold. We are now at Red Buttes; elevation 7,336 feet. Castles of rocks and pyramids of rocks of every conceivable shape.
(2LtMs, Lt 26, 1872, 5)
A train just passed with two engines, one with six drive wheels, the other with eight.
(2LtMs, Lt 26, 1872, 6)
Tuesday morning, September 24, 1872
On the cars. We all were accommodated with berths on the sleeping cars and we rested very well. Took our breakfast this morning with good appetites. A lady named Hafenway spoke to me in the sleeping cars. I think she had heard me, also your father, speak at the Health Institute. She was there when Mrs. Baker left for her home. We had an interesting interview. She is going to California for her health. Her sister is in a precarious condition. She has had hemorrhage of the lungs. Mrs. Hafenway is a banker’s wife in Nebraska. She says she was benefited at the Health Institute, but home cares, the charge of three children, keep her debilitated. She says she shall live out of doors the most of the time this winter when not too cold. The climate of Nebraska is varying and changeable.
(2LtMs, Lt 26, 1872, 7)
We have just passed a mud village, houses made of mud smoothes so nicely they really looked nice, so nice. We thought them now in process of building, but we learned it was an old settlement left to decay. The village was moved to another section of this barren waste country. We have now passed a village of houses composed of mud, wood, and cloth. Many roofs are covered with cloth and mud placed on the top of cloth. No trees are to be seen anywhere. No cultivated lands. In these villages the railroad men reside. Nothing can be raised here.
(2LtMs, Lt 26, 1872, 8)
P.S. We have been on the cars since eight o’clock a.m. It is now four o’clock. Sherman Station: This summit is the highest in the world.
(2LtMs, Lt 26, 1872, 9)
Lt 27, 1872
Burton, Brother San Francisco, California November 22, 1872 Portions of this letter are published in 1MCP 157-158, 275; 2MCP 381, 394; HP 193; TDG 335. Dear Brother Burton:
I have a few things to say to you this morning. Your case was presented before me in vision in connection with others of this church. I was shown your dangers, which you do not see and realize yourself.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 1)
The prospect of a church in San Francisco being organized and coming into working order is rather discouraging unless there are efforts made by each to so far overcome his peculiarities that he may come into harmony with other minds and all unite their interest for the prosperity of the church and the upbuilding of the cause of present truth. If one has peculiarities, and retains them, he becomes the subject of remarks and trials and is a hindrance to the successful spread of the truth. Unbelievers mark the errors and defects of those who profess the truth, and they charge all these failings to the peculiar doctrines we hold. All are judged to be of the same stamp of character. This is why Brother Cornell has done so great injury to the cause of God. Other ministers of our faith are looked upon with suspicion because of his errors and the defects in his character.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 2)
Brother Burton, you are in danger of losing eternal life unless you see your errors and correct them. You have had a very good estimate of yourself.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 3)
Your past life before you embraced present truth was corrupt. You have had a checkered experience. Your estimation of yourself has led you to depreciate your wife. And even now the sanctifying influence of the truth has not cleansed and refined and elevated your thoughts as they should be. You need to cultivate self-control. You are very impulsive. You have made but feeble efforts to overcome. Your efforts should be earnest and thorough and persevering in order for you to succeed. You must learn as a follower of Christ to control every expression of fretfulness and passion. Your mind is too much centered upon yourself. You talk too much of yourself, of your infirmities of body. Your own course is daily bringing upon you disease, through your own wrong habits. The apostle entreats his brethren to consecrate their bodies to God. “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”Romans 12:1, 2.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 4)
When we pursue a course to lessen mental and physical vigor—in eating, drinking, or in any of our habits—we dishonor God, for we rob Him of the service He claims of us. When we indulge appetite at the expense of health, or when we indulge habits which lessen our vitality and mental vigor, we cannot have a high appreciation of the atonement and a right estimate of eternal things. When our minds are beclouded and partially paralyzed by disease we are easily overcome by the temptations of Satan. Eating of unhealthful food to gratify the appetite has a direct tendency to unbalance the circulation of the blood, cause nervous debility, and as the result there is great lack of patience and true, elevated affection.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 5)
Constitutional strength, as well as the tone of the morals and the mental faculties, is enfeebled through the indulgence of perverted appetite.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 6)
God does not propose to work a miracle to preserve our health and strength which we daily are injuring by pet habits and indulgences.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 7)
Brother Burton, you should cultivate a high respect for your wife. She is a much better woman than you deserve. You have not appreciated her. You have been in danger of thinking more highly of other ladies than of your faithful, toiling wife. You are courteous to them, attentive in minor matters, in little courtesies, but neglect these things in your own family. It is these little attentions and courtesies which make up the sum of life’s happiness. To appreciate and commend your wife, giving her words of praise for her faithfulness and her attention, showing you appreciate these things, would not detract from your dignity or place you in a humiliating position. It would be an honor to you and a blessing to your wife.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 8)
Many women pine for words of love and kindness and the common attentions and courtesies due them from their husbands who have selected them as their life companions. How much trouble and what a tide of woe and unhappiness would be saved if men, and women also, would continue to cultivate the regard, attention, and kind words of appreciation and little courtesies of life which kept love alive and which they felt were necessary in gaining the companions of their choice. If the husband and wife would only continue to cultivate these attentions which nourish love, they would be happy in each other’s society and would have a sanctifying influence upon their families. They would have in themselves a little world of happiness and would not desire to go outside this world for new attractions and new objects of love. Many a wife has sickened and died prematurely for the want of encouraging words of sympathy and love manifested in kindly attentions and in words.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 9)
Brother Burton, you are exacting. If the hearts were kept tender in our families, if there were a noble, generous deference to each other’s tastes and opinions, if the wife were seeking opportunities to express her love by actions in her courtesies to her husband, and the husband manifesting the same consideration and kindly regard for the wife, the children would partake of the same spirit. The influence would pervade the household, and what a tide of misery would be saved in families! Men would not go from home to find happiness, and women would not pine for love and lose courage and self-respect and become lifelong invalids. Only one life lease is granted us, and with care, painstaking, and self-control it can be made endurable, pleasant, and even happy.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 10)
Every couple who unite their life interest should seek to make the life of each as happy as possible. That which we prize we seek to preserve and make more valuable, if we can. In the marriage contract men and women have made a trade, an investment for life, and they should do their utmost to control their words of impatience and fretfulness even more carefully than they did before their marriage, for now their destinies are united for life as husband and wife, and each is valued in exact proportion to the amount of painstaking and effort put forth to retain and keep fresh the love so eagerly sought for and prized before marriage.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 11)
Brother Burton, you dwell upon yourself. You view many things in a perverted light. You have suspicion of men, great distrust and jealousy, and you surmise evil. You think everybody is determined to ruin you. Many of these trials originate with yourself. Many things are construed by you to be premeditated to injure you, when this is farthest from the real truth. You do yourself the greatest injury by your wrong course. You are your greatest enemy. Your wrong habits unbalance the circulation of the blood and determine the blood to the brain, and then you view everything in a perverted light. You are quick and high-tempered and you have not cultivated self-control. Your will and your way seem right to you. But unless you see the defects in your character and wash your robe and make it white in the blood of the Lamb, you will surely fail of everlasting life. You love the theory of the truth, but you do not let it sanctify your life. You do not carry out in your daily deportment the principles of the truth you profess.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 12)
Much of your God-given probationary time is spent in useless chit-chat, making yourself the theme of conversation. You will be called to give an account for your time. What have you done to bless others? Many who feel no responsibilities resting upon them to take up burdens where they can, in a quiet manner every day as they pass along, are constantly thinking they can do some more exalted work for which they are better fitted, which they are in no wise qualified to perform. These persons who have not gained an experience in doing the little duties, in performing well the little things that somebody must do, can never lay hold of the heavier burdens and assume the greater responsibilities. You neglect to perform the little duties of life which lie directly in your pathway. Your wife bears too heavy burdens and you do not help her as is your duty. This neglect on your part is a sin.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 13)
The time you needlessly spend in pleasing yourself and glorifying yourself should be employed in doing good and being of use somewhere. You are rusting with inaction. Useful employment would be the best remedy for you that you can have. You dwell upon your little ailments, and think of them, and they increase upon you. This injures you more than physical labor. If you practice temperance in eating and in all your habits, your health will be much better. You need something to engage the mind and take it from yourself. Do good somewhere and to somebody if you die in the attempt. To overcome your faults and control your hasty temper, to get the victory over your dictatorial, overbearing and exacting spirit, and esteem others better than yourself, will improve your excellence and benefit your fellow men more effectually than anything you can do to them or for them. We glorify our heavenly Father in proportion as we purify and perfect our own selves.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 14)
Your faults have been of the same character as Brother Cornell’s. In addition to this, you indulge your appetite to your injury. A dyspeptic stomach always leads to irritability. A sour stomach leads to a sour temper. Your body must be kept in subjection if you make it a meet temple for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Your spiritual service is to present to God your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to Him. You have a work to do to purify your own life. Cease humoring and petting yourself. Take up your life burdens daily. Eat sparingly of even wholesome food. Exercise moderately, and you will feel that your life is of some account. Love your wife as you should. Take your share of the burden of life and seek to do others good, and you will be blessed yourself.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 15)
God marks all our works, all our acts. There is an angel on our track taking cognizance of all our works. Every act of our life, however secret we may think it is, is recorded, and we are rewarded as our works have been. May God help you to work as you have never done before to overcome your hasty, passionate temper. God will work with your efforts if you will set about the work earnestly. You have no time to lose. Heaven is worth making an effort for.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 16)
Brother Burton, your condition of health now is because your own wrong habits have brought upon you suffering and disease. Your brain would not have been affected as it is if all your habits had been in accordance with the laws of your being. Nature’s laws cannot be violated without suffering the penalty.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 17)
You increase the difficulty of your head by indulgence of appetite. How much would you agree to receive to allow your memory to be clouded from henceforth while you live? No sum of money offered you would induce you to part with your mental capacity, yet you and thousands of others will sell your mental vigor for a dinner. Each mental capacity cannot be estimated by dollars and cents. By the powers of these faculties we serve the law of God and place our affections upon Him in whom all our hopes of eternal life are centered. Therefore, with these powers of mind God has given us we appreciate His claims, and move understandingly, in compliance with the conditions laid down in His Word, that we may have eternal riches and an immortal mind that will expand and increase in capabilities and power through the ceaseless ages of eternity.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 18)
What, then, is the value of diamonds, of gold, of silver, in comparison with the mental faculties? All the treasures of the world sink into insignificance when compared to the value of the mental and moral powers. And the healthful action of these faculties is dependent upon the physical health. Then how important that we know how to preserve health, that our duty to God and man may be performed according to His commandments. The laws of God are plain and distinct. No uncertainty beclouds any of them. None of them need ever be misunderstood. Those who cannot discern them are benumbed by their own wrong habits enfeebling their intellect.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 19)
God designs to teach us the importance of temperance in all things. As intemperance caused the fall of our first parents from their holy and happy estate, by their transgressing the law of God, so temperance in all things will keep our faculties in as healthy a condition as possible, that no mist or uncertainty may becloud any of them, that intellect may guide to right actions in keeping His law, whatever may be the consequence. God has made public His laws, commanding all His children to obey them. If we remain ignorant of the laws of our being, and through perverted habits lessen our mental and physical vigor, we are transgressors of the ten precepts of Jehovah. We cannot serve the law of God in rendering perfect service to our Creator, and in performing our duty to our fellow men, unless we practice temperance in all things. We must work in harmony with natural laws if we would discern the binding claims of the law of God spoken from Sinai.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 20)
We all need knowledge upon the subject of health reform, and it is not safe to neglect the opportunities to read and learn and become acquainted with the light shining upon health reform. We want every move to be made understandingly and intelligently. We need the assistance of knowledge in our efforts to practice temperance, then we shall not move blindly or in the dark. As we practice these reforms, their benefits and truths will be established by experience.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 21)
If you would engage in physical labor your health would be far better. Physical inaction induces mental sluggishness, while exercise of all the muscles gives mental vigor, quickens intellectual action, overcomes depression and despondency, and promotes happiness. When we by any indulgence or wrong habits, by eating to excess, clog the system, we cannot be spiritually-minded; neither can we bring the intellectual powers into energetic and efficient action. A sound constitution is necessary for a sound mind. No part of the body can be abused or diseased in any way without affecting the moral and intellectual.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 22)
My brother, if you are saved at last it must be by strong efforts on your own part. Any amount of talk will not be acceptable to God. God calls for works, for deeds. Talk is cheap, but deeds cost us an effort. “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.”Matthew 7:21. “Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.”James 2:17. We shall show all the faith we have by our works.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 23)
You, my brother, need to humble your heart and cherish meekness and lowliness of mind, die to self, and have Jesus live in you. Talk of Jesus. Talk of the Christian’s hope and the Christian’s heaven, and you will have greater spiritual strength. You must be a transformed man. You do not see yourself. God will help you if you see your need of help and come to Him all broken, just as helpless as you are.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 24)
God will not be trifled with. We must not be fitful in His service and act like pettish children. We must have a high sense of the sacredness and exalted character of the work and move not by impulse, but from principle—steady, sure, with calm consideration and sound judgment—for we are dealing with eternal realities. Our course of conduct in this world is determining our fitness for the heavenly world. We must manifest earnestness and zeal proportionate to the value of the object we are in pursuit of. You must lay aside your childishness, your impatience, and your fretfulness, and make an entire surrender to God.
(2LtMs, Lt 27, 1872, 25)
Lt 28, 1872
Ball, W. H. Battle Creek, Michigan February 27, 1872 Previously unpublished. Dear Brother [W. H.] Ball:
We received letters from you while in Rhode Island, and laid them with other letters to be answered when I returned home, but I cannot find the package, and fear they might have been left East. But where? We cannot have any idea.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 1)
Your letter sent to me at Battle Creek I received and commenced to answer but was obliged to leave it without completing. Much of my time I have been utterly unable to write a simple letter. It is the change of life with me, and for three weeks at a time I am frequently unable to tax the brain. This was my condition when I received your letter, and before I had recovered I was afflicted with my cancer, making it impossible to write at all. My husband and myself then united our prayers for four days for help from God. Our prayers were answered. I awoke one morning free from pain and my cancer bunch all gone. I felt grateful to God for this token of His mercy and tender love.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 2)
We then decided to go East, and I thought we should meet you if we came East and I could converse with you much better than to write. When we did not meet you at Lancaster, we decided to have a meeting in New Hampshire, almost wholly for your benefit. About this time they wrote us from Battle Creek that the Reformer was waiting for our articles.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 3)
We both wrote on the cars, while the cars were in motion.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 4)
Riding up from the depot I told my husband we would go directly to your house and remain through the meetings. Said he, “We will first ascertain of Brother Farnsworth if they are in a condition to receive us”—if your wife was well enough to have company, etc. We attended meetings Sabbath and first day. My husband took a severe cold going to New Hampshire, which has remained upon him ever since. While attending the meetings we decided that if you invited us we would come to your house. You did not. Your wife asked me to come, and I thought I surely should do so. But letters had been received demanding immediate attention. Copy we had sent had not been received by them at the office. We feared it was lost. While my husband was talking in meeting Sabbath, I was writing. While he spoke Sabbath evening at the meetinghouse, I was writing in a room alone at Brother Farnsworth’s. I could not visit.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 5)
Sunday my husband did not feel able to attend meeting at all. He tried to write, and slept some at Brother Farnsworth’s. We were urged by Brother Farnsworth to visit you. My husband said if he did it would be utterly impossible to get his article for the paper and Reformer. We decided that I should come immediately back to New Hampshire and spend a portion of the winter there, and then I told my husband I would, if convenient, write a part of the time at your house, if I could do so and feel free. We returned to Boston and wrote some on the cars and at the depot at Lawrence, where we waited for the cars from Boston to bring Sister Hall. We had a large package of matter prepared and mailed for the paper and Reformer. This is my apology for the course we have pursued until our visit to Westerly, Rhode Island.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 6)
While in Rhode Island a letter was received from you but it was impossible to answer it. My eyes were so bad with inflammation I could not write or read. I took a violent cold from sleeping in damp, moldy beds, which settled all over me, but affected my eyes badly. I thought it impossible for me to go before the public at all, but my husband persuaded me to go, and after speaking a few minutes the pain and heat left my eye. I talked twice to a large congregation in Westerly. My eyes have not yet recovered fully, but they are much better.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 7)
After we came to Battle Creek we found so much to do we could not write letters. There were meetings days and evenings and very great interest manifested. Quite a number have been converted and backsliders have been reclaimed. The very sick have been raised up. One sister named Davis from Fairhaven, Massachusetts, has been hopelessly insane for years, sometimes violent, tearing everything about her. If the truth or religious subjects were mentioned she would begin to rave. In answer to prayer she has been healed and is now in her right mind, sitting at the feet of Jesus. She now attends our meetings. The gloom of despair no longer leaves its dark shadow upon her, and her face is all aglow with hope and faith and the love of God. She is a very intelligent, excellent woman when in her right mind. Her testimonies in meeting are so cheering and intelligent. The Lord has done wonderful things, whereof we are glad.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 8)
While writing the above I have been called away several times, but I will try to finish.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 9)
We received your last letter containing your threats. All we have to say in regard to this is, God lives and reigns, and if He suffers you to carry out the purposes of your natural heart, He will take care of the consequences. You will meet the work you are doing. You may be a savor of life unto life or of death unto death. If the latter, may God pity you, for you will need His pity. I am not moved by your threats at all. I expect just such things. Of all the trials that afflicted the life of Paul, none were equal to those he endured through false brethren.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 10)
Jesus, the Saviour of the world, was made perfect through suffering. He was followed by men who sought in every way to catch Him in His words that they might find wherewith to accuse Him. These emissaries of Satan were upon His track and notwithstanding the evidences daily witnessed of His power, they were determined that He should not live; and many were eager to bear a part in destroying Him. Why were they left to do this? Why such bitterness against Him who had never done them harm? They had rejected light, and when they had set their hearts to reject Christ it was too much for their pride afterwards to recognize Him as the Saviour of the world. Can I expect, and should I desire, any better portion in this life than that which was given our Lord? In the last testimony given me in Vermont I was shown something of your condition of mind and was warned; therefore I am the more cautious in regard to what I write, for if you continue in your present state of mind, there is no statement that I could make but you would twist it, if you choose to do so, to make me appear as you should choose.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 11)
God has given you light and evidence. His power has melted your heart and His Spirit has subdued your pride. You have seen the workings of God’s Spirit. You have seen souls converted to Christ through our labors and you have acknowledged His power. And when you turn from the light and evidence given of God, and again gather to your soul dark unbelief, jealousy, and pride, we may expect anything of you—that you would even go as far as did the enemies of Christ. Jesus was sinless. We are imperfect. If Jesus was not in His innocency and goodness, safe from reproach and from suffering and trial, what can we poor mortals expect who are only of His household?
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 12)
Men can do a power of wrong when they set themselves to work on the wrong side. Satan and all his angels will help them. We are looking for the worst unless your proud, unbelieving heart shall be subdued and broken before God. But we fear you not. Christ is at the helm. We love our Captain, and we trust Him in the darkness as well as in the light. But have a care that in seeking to wound us you do not wound yourself more. The cause is God’s, not ours. The work is the Lord’s, not ours. You may for a time hinder the work of God in some hearts; you may even influence some souls to turn from the truth; you may cause them to despise the work and message God has given me to bear. If men could have this influence upon the minds of men against Christ, what better can I expect of you? Those who incited the people against Him made profession of great righteousness. Yet they were among the first to raise their voices, “Crucify him, crucify him.” [John 19:6.] And even when hanging upon the cross their hearts were so hard that the chief priest and elders mocked Him and taunted Him. You are capable of doing a similar work if you cherish unbelief as they did, and reject light.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 13)
Reports come to me daily, the most ridiculous and shameful, but I am not in the least disturbed. I do not even take the trouble to contradict them. I have been told that Mrs. Mansfield, who is a First-day Adventist speaker, has reported I traveled with my husband five years before I was married as his wife, which would make me thirteen years old when I started out to travel. The people believed this story because it was a lady speaker professing to be a Christian who reported it, and because she said she was well acquainted with my husband and myself. I have never to my knowledge seen the woman in my life, neither has she seen me. But we expect war. Falsehoods, lying reports, will follow us and every evil thing will be said of us if we are indeed doing the work of God.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 14)
If God has given me a testimony to bear to His people, I do not expect Satan will be at rest. Everyone who has given himself to the work of reform has been obliged to endure many trials and suffer persecution. I am in good company. I expect to feel the dragon’s wrath because I am of the remnant who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus. My peace of mind no man can take from me. I love my Saviour, I love the truth, and I love to suffer reproach with Christ.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 15)
One consolation I have. Jesus knows I am not afraid to meet the record above, for I know that not one blot rests upon my moral character in all my past life. This the day of God will reveal to all. If in the heavenly courts no stain, no blot rests upon my Christian character, if my name stands pure and clear in the sight of angels, my heavenly Father, and my precious Redeemer, my Friend and Advocate, [so] what if poor deceived, blinded mortals circulate their lies and seek to tarnish my Christian character? Shall I be troubled? Jesus says, “Rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.” [Matthew 5:12.]
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 16)
I feel such a blessed satisfaction in leaving my reputation, my character, and my experience in the hands of my Advocate. I fear not your threats nor what man can do unto me. Only a short period and we shall see as we are seen, and know as we are known. Only a moment of time, and we must pass the grand review, and meet our life record just as it is. My daily anxious care and earnest prayer to God is for strength to stand at my post faithfully day by day. I trouble not my soul for the future. If I fulfil my duties for today, and thus each day as it comes, God will take care of me and His precious work, which is dearer to me than my home, my children, my husband, or even my own life.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 17)
I deeply regret the change that has come over you. I feel sad for you. I know that your mind and will are controlled by another, a cruel power. It need not have been so. By yielding to temptation you have offered yourself as a prey to the powers of darkness, and your pride and stubborn will have made you captive and hold you in bondage. And yet my heart yearns toward you. I know that He who is able to gain victory over the powerful foe is able to do for us and you exceeding abundantly, above all that we can ask or think. We shall continue to pray for you that you may be rescued from the peril which now threatens to destroy you. You may yet realize a deeper peace, a more blessed victory than you have ever yet experienced, if you will die to self.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 18)
Oh, may God impress your heart and awaken your moral powers, faith, hope, and love, which now lie paralyzed. Faith is the living hand by which the soul lays hold on infinite help. Faith is what you need, for it will lift the veil from the unseen world, and reveal the glories of heaven above. Faith supported by hope lightens every burden, and relieves the weariness of life by anticipating the future glorious rest in heaven. Faith rejoices in the darkness as well as the light.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 19)
In the depths of affliction there is a serenity, a cheerfulness that bears the spirits up, and which conquers in the fight with manifold temptations and amid the trial develops a strength which can alone come from the throne of the Most High. Your restless spirit is chafed with conflicts that in your own strength you can never overcome. Oh, that your soul might be subdued and find rest in Jesus and that peace which passeth understanding.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 20)
I must say farewell. Again I would say, Beware that you do not take steps which you can never retrace. I fear nothing you can say or do. I have no fear of your pen. God lives and reigns. You are only a weak, erring mortal man. I have only sorrow for yourself. That God who has led and shielded me for thirty years I can trust implicitly. In haste and love to you and yours, I remain,
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 21)
Your true friend.
(2LtMs, Lt 28, 1872, 22)
Lt 29, 1872
Cornell, M. E. NP October 1872 See variant Lt 29a, 1872. Portions of this letter are published in 3T 227-243. Brother Cornell:
You have not been circumspect in your deportment. You have not been careful in your life to copy the Pattern. Your influence has not been of that character which would do honor to the cause of present truth. Had you been sanctified by the truth you preach to others, you would have been of ten times more advantage to the cause of God than you have been. You have relied so much upon creating a sensation that without this you have but little courage. These great excitements and sensational interests are your strength and glory and your success as a laborer; but these are not pleasing to God. Your labors in this direction are seldom what you flatter yourself that they are.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 1)
Close investigation reveals that after these exciting meetings there are but very few sheaves to be gathered. Yet from all the experience of the past you have not learned to change your manner of labor. You have been slow to learn from the past and shape your future labors in such a manner as to shun the errors of the past. The reason of this has been that, like the inebriate, you love the stimulus of these sensational meetings, and you long for them as the drunkard longs for the glass of liquor to arouse the flagging energies. These debates, which create an excitement, are mistaken for zeal for God and love for the truth. You have been almost destitute of the Spirit of God to work with your efforts. If you had God with you in all your moves, and if you felt the burden for souls, and had you wisdom to skillfully manage these exciting seasons to press souls into the kingdom of Christ, you could see fruits of your labors, and God would be glorified.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 2)
Your soul should be all aglow with the spirit of the truth you present to others. Then after you have labored to convict souls of the claims the law of God has upon them, teaching them repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ, your work is but just begun. Your too frequently excuse yourself from completing the work, and leave a heavy burden for others to take up and finish the work you ought to have done. You say you are not qualified to finish up the work. Then the sooner you qualify yourself to bear the burdens of a shepherd or pastor of the flock, the better.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 3)
As a true shepherd you should discipline yourself to deal with minds, and give to the flock of God each their portion of meat in due season. You should be careful and study to have a store of practical subjects that you have investigated and can enter into the spirit of, and can present in a plain, forcible manner to the people, at the right time and place as they need. You have not been thoroughly furnished from the Word of inspiration unto all good works. When the flock has needed spiritual food you have frequently presented some argumentative subject no more appropriate for the occasion than an oration upon national affairs. If you would task your soul, and educate your mind to a knowledge of subjects which the Word of God has amply furnished you, you could build up the cause by feeding the flock with proper food, which would give spiritual strength and health as their wants required.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 4)
You have yet to learn the work of a true shepherd. When you understand this, you will have sufficient weight upon you of the cause and work of God that you will not be inclined to jest and joke, and engage in light and frivolous conversation. A minister of Christ, with a proper burden of the work and a high sense of the exalted character and sacredness of his mission, will not be inclined to lightness and trifling with the lambs of the flock.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 5)
A true shepherd will have an interest in all which relates to the welfare of the flock, feeding them, guiding them, and defending them. He will carry himself with great wisdom, manifesting a tender consideration for all, being courteous and compassionate to all, especially the tempted and afflicted and desponding. Instead of giving this class the sympathy as their particular cases have demanded, and as their infirmities have required, you have shunned this class, while you have drawn largely upon others for sympathy. “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”Matthew 20:28. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.”John 13:16. “But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.”Philippians 2:7. “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.”Romans 15:1-3.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 6)
It is not your place to lord it over God’s heritage, but in lowliness of mind, with gentleness and long forbearance, exhorting, reproving, rebuking, with all longsuffering and doctrine. How will the foregoing scripture compare with your past life? You have been cultivating a selfish temperament nearly all your life. You married a woman of a strong set will. Her natural disposition was supremely selfish. You were both lovers of self, uniting your interest did not help the case of either, but increased the peril of both. You were neither of you conscientious. You neither of you had the fear of God before you in a high sense. Selfish love and selfish gratification has been the ruling principle. You have both had so little consecration to God that you could not benefit each other. You have each wanted your own way. You each wanted to be petted, and praised, and waited upon.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 7)
The Lord saw your dangers and sent you warnings through testimony time and again, that your eternal interest was endangered unless you overcame your love of self and conformed your will to the will of God. Had you heeded the admonitions and warnings from the Lord, had you turned square about and made an entire change, your wife would not now be in the snare of the enemy, left of God to believe the strong delusions of Satan. You, Brother Cornell, would now be a strong and efficient laborer in the cause of God, qualified to accomplish tenfold more than you are now competent to do. You have become weak because you have failed to cherish the light. You have not been able to discern but a small part of the time the voice of the True Shepherd from that of a stranger. Your neglect to walk in the light has brought darkness upon you, and your conscience by being often violated has become benumbed.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 8)
Your wife did not believe and follow the light the Lord in mercy sent her. She despised reproof, and herself closed the only door through which the voice of the Lord could be heard to counsel and warn her. Satan was pleased, and there was nothing to hinder him from insinuating himself into her confidence, and by his pleasing, flattering deceptions lead her captive at his will.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 9)
The Lord gave you a testimony that your wife was a hindrance to you in your labors, and that you should not have her accompany you unless you had the most positive evidence that she was a converted woman, transformed by the renewing of her mind. You then felt that you had an excuse to plead for a home, and you made this testimony your excuse and worked accordingly, although you had no need of a house of your own. Your wife had duties to do to her parents, which she had neglected all her life. If she, with a cheerful spirit, had taken up this long-neglected duty, she would not now be left captive to Satan to do his will, and corrupt her heart and soul in his service.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 10)
Your want of a home was imaginary, like many of your supposed wants. You obtained the home your selfishness desired, and you could leave your wife comfortably situated. But God was preparing a final test for Angeline. The affliction of her mother was of that nature to arouse the sympathy in the heart if it was not thoroughly seared and calloused by selfishness. But this providence of God failed to arouse the filial love of the daughter for her suffering mother. She had no home cares to stand in her way, no children to share her love and care, and her attention was devoted to her poor self.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 11)
The burden of care Brother Lyon had to bear was too much for his aged strength, and he was prostrated with keen suffering. Surely then, if the daughter had a sensitive spot in her heart, she could not help feeling and arousing to a sense of her duty to share the burdens of her sister Cornelia and her sister’s husband. But she revealed by her indifference and by her shunning all the care and burdens that she well could, that her heart was well nigh as unimpressible as a stone.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 12)
To be close by her parents and yet be so indifferent would tell against her. She communicated the state of things to her husband and invited him to urge her presence in Maine to aid him. Brother Cornell was as selfish as his wife, and he sent the urgent request for her to come to him. How did angels of God, the tender, pitying, loving, ministering angels, look upon this act?—the daughter leaving for stranger hands to do those tender offices that she should have cheerfully shared with her burdened sister? Angels looked with astonishment and grief upon the scene, and turned from selfish Angeline. Evil angels took their place, and she was led captive by Satan at his will. She proved to be a great hindrance to her husband, for she was a medium of Satan, and his labors were of but little account.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 13)
I saw that the cause of God would have stood higher in Maine if that last effort had not been made, for the work was not completed. An interest was raised but left to sink where it could never be raised again. I ask you, Brother Cornell, to compare these Scriptures relative to the work and ministry of Jesus with your course of conduct through your labors as a gospel minister, but more especially in the instance I have mentioned where duty was too plain for any mistake, if the conscience and affections had not become paralyzed by a long course of continual selfishness and idolatry of self.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 14)
In the act of leaving your parents in their sufferings and necessity for help, the church was obliged to take this burden and watch with the suffering members of Christ’s body. You both, in this heartless neglect, disgraced yourselves. God does not pass such things lightly by. They are recorded by the angel. God cannot prosper those who go directly contrary to the plainest duty specified in His Word, showing the duty of children to their parents. Children who feel under no more obligation to their earthly parents than you have done, but can so easily step out from all their responsibilities relative to them, will not have due respect for their heavenly Father. They will not reverence or respect the claims that God has upon them. If they disrespect and dishonor their earthly parents they will not respect and love their Creator.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 15)
Your wife transgressed the fifth precept of the decalogue in neglecting her parents. “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” [Exodus 20:12.] This is the first commandment with promise. Those who dishonor or disrespect their parents need not expect that the blessing of God will attend them. Our parents have claims upon us that we cannot throw off or lightly regard. But children who have not been trained and controlled in childhood and have made themselves the objects of their care, who have selfishly sought their ease and avoided burdens, become heartless and disrespect the claims of their parents who watched over their earliest infancy.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 16)
Brother Cornell, you have been selfish in these things yourself, and greatly deficient in duty. You have required attention and care, but you have not given the same in return. You have been childish and exacting and have frequently been unreasonable and have given your wife occasion for trial. You have been unconsecrated and astonishingly selfish. You have made but little sacrifice for the truth’s sake. You have avoided burdens as well as your wife, and have occupied a position to be waited upon, rather than to try to be as little burden as possible.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 17)
Ministers of Christ should feel it a duty binding upon them, if they receive the hospitalities of their brethren or friends, to leave a blessing with the family by seeking to encourage and strengthen the members of the family. They should not neglect the duties of a pastor as they visit from house to house. They should become familiar with every member of the family, that they may understand the spiritual condition of all, and vary their manner of labor to meet the case of each member of the family. When ministers bearing the solemn message of warning to the world receive the courtesy of friends and brethren, and neglect the duties of a shepherd of the flock, but are careless in their example and deportment, and engage with the young in trifling conversation, jesting, joking, and relating humorous anecdotes to create a laugh, they are unworthy of being a gospel minister, and need to be converted before they should be entrusted with the care of the sheep and lambs. Ministers who are neglectful of the duties devolving on a faithful pastor give evidence that they are not sanctified by the truths they present to others, and should not be sustained as laborers in the vineyard of the Lord until they have a high sense of the sacredness of the work of a minister of Jesus Christ.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 18)
When there are only evening meetings to attend, there is much time that can be used to great advantage in visiting from house to house, meeting the people where they are. And if the ministers of Christ have the graces of the Spirit, if they imitate the great Example, they will find access to hearts and will win souls to Christ. Some ministers bearing the last message of mercy are too distant. They do not improve the opportunities they have of gaining the confidence of men and women who are unbelievers, by their exemplary deportment, their unselfish interest for the good of others, their kindness, forbearance, humbleness of mind, and their respectful courtesy. These fruits of the Spirit will exert a far greater influence than the preaching in the desk without individual effort in families. But the preaching of pointed, testing truths to the people, and corresponding individual effort from house to house to back up pulpit effort, will greatly extend the influence for good, and souls will be converted to the truth.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 19)
Some of our ministers carry too light responsibilities and shun individual care and burdens. For this reason they do not feel the need of help from God as [they would] if they lifted the burdens [that] the work of God, and our faith, requires them to lift. When burdens in this cause have to be lifted, when brought into strait places, they will feel the need of living near to God that they may have confidence to commit their way to Him and in faith claim that help which God alone can give. They will then be obtaining an experience every day in faith and trust which is of the highest value to a gospel minister. The work of a gospel minister is more solemn and sacred than they generally realize. They should carry a sanctified influence with them. God requires that those who minister in sacred things should be men who feel jealous for His cause. The burden of their work should be the salvation of souls. You have not felt as the prophet describes, “Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach.”Joel 2:17. “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”Psalm 126:5, 6.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 20)
I was shown in what marked contrast, Brother Cornell, your course has been in your labors with the requirements of God’s Word. You have been careless in your words and in your deportment. The sheep have had the burden to care for the shepherd—to warn, reprove, exhort, and weep over the reckless course of their shepherd, who, by accepting his office, acknowledges he is a mouthpiece of God, yet he cares far more for himself than he does for the poor sheep.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 21)
You have not felt a burden for souls. You have not gone forth to your labor weeping and praying that souls might be converted. Had you done this you would be sowing seed which would spring up after many days and bear fruit to the glory of God. When there is no work you can do by the fireside in conversation and prayer with families, you should then show industry and economy of time and train yourself to bear responsibilities by useful employment.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 22)
You and your wife might have saved yourselves many ill turns, and been more cheerful and happy, had you sought your ease less and combined physical labor with your study. Your muscles were made for use, not to be inactive. God gave Adam and Eve in Eden all that their wants required, yet their heavenly Father knew that they needed employment in order to retain their happiness. If you would exercise the muscles in laboring with your hands some portion of each day, combining labor with your study, your mind would be better balanced, your thoughts would be of a more pure, elevated character, your sleep would be more natural and healthful. Your head would be less confused and stupified because of congested brain. Your thoughts upon sacred truth would be clearer, and your moral powers more vigorous. You do not love labor, but it is for your good to have more physical exercise daily, which will quicken the sluggish blood to healthful activity and will carry you above discontent and infirmities.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 23)
You should not neglect diligent study. You should pray for light from God that He would open to your understanding the treasures of His Word that you may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. You will never be in a position where it is not necessary for you to watch and pray earnestly in order to overcome your besetments.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 24)
Brother Cornell, you will need to guard yourself continually to keep self out of sight. You have encouraged a habit of making yourself very prominent. You have frequently spoken of your family difficulties, of your wife, and of your poor health. This has been the theme of conversation. In short, yourself has come in between you and your Saviour. You should forget self and hide behind Jesus. Let the dear Saviour be magnified, but lose sight of yourself. When you see and feel your weakness you will not feel that there is anything in yourself worthy of notice or remark. The people have not only been wearied but disgusted with your preliminaries before you present your subject when you speak to the people. In every case where you mention the name of your wife in public, and your trials, you lower yourself in the estimation of the people and suggest suspicions that you are not all right. Then when you pursue the course you have done in San Francisco, you confirm their suspicions. Your reputation does not stand very high with the worst enemies we have, the First Day Adventists. They have carried your imprudent, reckless course to the eastern states, making the most of your blind folly.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 25)
You have the example of ministers who have exalted themselves and who have coveted praise from the people. They were petted and flattered by the indiscreet until they became puffed up, and trusted to their own wisdom and made shipwreck of faith. They thought that they were so popular that they could take almost any course and yet retain their popularity. Here has been your presumption. When your deportment gives gossiping tongues facts as subject matter to discuss, and your morality is seriously questioned, you cannot call this jealousy or slander on their part. The facts in the case are [that] you were so completely infatuated and bewitched that you were foolhardy, and you cared not to break the spell of this bewitching influence. You are following close in the track of these poor deluded souls who have sacrificed manhood, honor, and purity for a momentary pleasure which leaves the sting of death behind. Mark those whose course you should abhor and then forbear to take the first step in the direction they have traveled.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 26)
You have been so self-sufficient, blinded, and deluded by the devil that you could not discern your weakness and many errors. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.”Galatians 5:22-26.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 27)
[Four pages missing here.] ... God. He knoweth the thoughts and the imagination and devices of the heart. You have followed your judgment and made a sad failure when you might have had success. There is, Brother Cornell, too much at stake in these efforts to do the work negligently or recklessly. Souls are being tested upon important, eternal truth, and what you may say or do will have influence to balance the decisions they make either for or against the truth. When you should be in humility before God, pleading for Him to work with your efforts, feeling the weight of the cause and the value of souls, you have been in the society of young ladies, and regardless of the sacred work of God and your office as a minister of the gospel of Christ, you were standing between the living and the dead. Yet you have engaged in light and frivolous conversation, jesting and joking.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 28)
How can ministering angels be around about you and shed light upon you and impart strength to you? When you should be seeking to find ways and means to enlighten the minds of those in error and darkness, you are pleasing yourself and are selfish to engage in a work you have no inclination or love for. If our position is criticized by those who are investigating, you have but little patience with them. You frequently give them a short, severe reply as though they had no business to search closely for themselves, but to take all that is presented as truth without closely criticizing for themselves. In your ministerial labors you have turned many souls away from the truth by your manner of treating them. You have not always been impatient and unapproachable. When you feel like it you will take time to answer questions candidly, but frequently you are uncourteous and exacting. You are pettish and irritable, like a child.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 29)
You do not consider your position as a shepherd of the flock, or the consequence of your actions. You act out just as you feel. When in the company of young ladies you are gallant, affable, wide-awake, and accommodating. All these freaks are marked by witnesses and tell tremendously against you. When engaged in following your inclination you are like a boy. You act as childish as a boy. You do great injury to the cause of God in this way.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 30)
Satan sees that you are a man who has strong passions. Through the lower passions he designs to work your ruin. The enemy of souls has destroyed many through their animal passions. Moses Hull was overcome because he was a slave to the lower passions. You are acquainted with the warnings given to him. You can see the track he followed to his ruin. You are in the same danger, and your shipwreck of faith will be as certain as his unless you see your danger and make a decided change before you go on any farther in your self-sufficiency and spiritual blindness.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 31)
You have deeply injured the cause of God by your blind folly. You have been infatuated. You have tempted the devil to tempt you. You have walked into temptation. You have not abstained from the appearance of evil but have given the enemies of truth occasion to reproach our faith and have brought great perplexity and discouragement upon those who had but just commenced to see the light upon the fourth precept of the decalogue. And while you are advocating the binding claims of God’s holy law, Satan spread his net for you, and a bewitching influence fastened upon you and you walked straight into the snare prepared for you, like a fool to the correction of stocks.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 32)
The blot you have brought upon the cause of God in San Francisco will never be fully effaced, so that you can stand in the estimation of the people as you might have stood. Your course of conduct is highly censurable in preferring and planning for the society of ladies. These things have been marked by the friends of present truth as well as by the enemies of our faith.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 33)
We are living in a fearfully corrupt time. Moral power with many is exceeding weak. Iniquity abounds. You are acquainted with the prevailing sins which are fast piling up the cup of iniquity of those who practice them. The wrath of a pure and holy God is to fall in judgment upon the sinners who have polluted the earth by their transgressions. And when a watchman upon the walls of Zion gives evidence by his deportment that the prevailing sins which pollute the world have attractions for him, and his morals are weakened and his deportment is even questionable, his crime in the sight of God is very aggravating. A fearful record stands against him in heaven, and a fearful retribution awaits him unless he shall humble his heart and sincerely repent before God, and the rest of his life be a life of repentance.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 34)
Your danger is permitting your thoughts to run upon forbidden subjects. Satan is permitted to control your thoughts. Even the thoughts of your heart must be brought into obedience to Christ. “Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”2 Corinthians 10:5. If the fountain is pure the streams issuing therefrom will be pure. From the same fountain cannot proceed sweet water and bitter. Your fruits testify of you. “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”Matthew 7:20. Your words and actions are the fruit you bear. You have not moved from principle but from impulse. Your lower passions have taken the lead. You have been fascinated with young ladies, and your conversation with them has been highly censurable and not in accordance with your high calling as a minister of Christ. You talk with them in reference to marriage when you should be talking upon the truth.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 35)
Your mind takes a low turn. You have strong friends, but if they knew one half that has been opened before of your course they would be astonished and confounded. I have not told you all the particulars that have been presented to me. I have felt that it was my duty to wait and see if the work on your heart would lead you to go any further in confession than that which was brought out. The things brought out plainly you admit, but is this confession? I think not. You have not taken the lead in anything in confessing. You wait till you know that others know your imprudence and wrongs, and then you admit them. You feel remorse and regret, but repentance is not deep enough to prevent you, were you again tempted, from being overcome.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 36)
There was one women presented before me in connection with yourself. This woman has a strong power and her influence deceives. She has natural vivacity and vanity, and her appearance is deceptive. She feels at liberty to indulge in what she regards as innocent diversion, which sullies her reputation and weakens all the superior faculties of her mind. You have been charmed and infatuated, and have fallen in love with this charmer. She puts on an appearance of great innocency, and yet she is a most dangerous woman. Her manners and conversation lead gentlemen on to be fascinated with her, and they feel that they can take great liberties with her and then she coolly repulses them. You have been charmed and placed yourself where you would be under the power of temptation. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Your words and actions are the fruits you bear.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 37)
God reads the secrets of the heart; the intents and purposes of the soul are open before Him and the heavenly angels. What a thought! Nothing is concealed from the notice of the Great I AM, and every secret act will be opened to the view of the pure angels.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 38)
Brother Cornell, I was shown that you need the transforming power of God in order to have wisdom and experience to become skillful in winning souls to Christ. You have about lost the best part of your life in that you have failed to obtain that experience in the knowledge of godliness so essential for a minister of righteousness. Your weak moral powers have not been growing stronger by discipline, but weaker. You have now with your weak strength to redeem the past mistakes of your life.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 39)
The principles of religion do not regulate the conduct of this charmer. The modesty which is essential to our sex is wanting with Mrs. Harris. She has a boldness, a familiar confidence and unabashed countenance which seems to set the company she is with at defiance.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 40)
She converses with gentlemen with about the same unreserved freedom she does with ladies. It is proper that woman should have a native dignity which is becoming in every true lady. She should have a modesty which will be to her a safeguard from the familiarities of men. She may have personal charms, a gentleness of spirit and manners.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 41)
She may be ever courteous, yet at the same time free from affectation. The sentiment of this age that a woman may allow innocent freedom, provided she preserves her virtue, is the same spirit which prevailed in the days of Noah, which led to every species of corruption. It is just as indelicate, dangerous, and as fatal now in corrupting the heart as in the days of Noah.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 42)
Mrs. Harris has neglected her duty as a wife and mother. Had she unselfishly in the fear of God taken up her life duties lying directly in her path, and been satisfied to perform her work, taken care of her children and training them for God, she would have saved herself and others many trials.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 43)
[One page is missing here.] ... In this case the sinner is a minister of the gospel, and a professed follower of Jesus Christ, the woman bearing the name of a Christian sister. Notwithstanding the apostle’s warning was before them, “Abstain from all appearance of evil” [1 Thessalonians 5:22], yet they persisted in pursuing a course unbecoming Christians. Your familiarities with one another have been abominable—an abomination in the sight of a holy God. Said the angel, pointing to Elder Cornell, “Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou God!”Romans 2:21-23.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 44)
I cannot portray to you in language the injury you have done to the cause of God. The Lord could not work through you or bless your efforts. How could He do this when your thoughts and affections were upon a woman, while you have a lawful wife? While preaching in the desk, with Mrs. Harris before you, you have been like a man thrown off his balance. Mrs. Harris invites the society of gentlemen and seeks to attract them. And she has gloried in her power, not because she really loved you—for she is not capable of possessing the article of genuine love.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 45)
She has not principle. Every dishonest act God frowns upon. Mrs. Harris has not a high and elevated sense of Christian character, of purity and holiness. Her conscience is not tender. God requires His people to be holy and to keep themselves separate from the works of darkness, and to be pure in heart and life and unspotted from the world. The children of God, by faith in Christ, are His chosen people; and when they stand upon the holy ground of Bible truth they will be saved from the lust of the flesh and from fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 46)
Your ill health has been in consequence of your own course. You have had a fevered imagination, and when your body and mind should have been at rest you have been wide awake giving loose rein to your thoughts. You have been like a man bewitched, a slave to the charms of a woman, professing to believe all the commandments of God, yet transgressing them every day.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 47)
Elder Cornell, you have stood directly in the way of the work of God. You have brought great darkness and discouragement upon the cause of God. Elder Cornell, you have been blinded by the devil. You have worked for sympathy and obtained it. Had you stood in the light you could have discerned the power of Satan at work to deceive and destroy you like Samson’s Delilah. Could you not discern the difference between the love of Christ and the lust of the flesh?
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 48)
“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lust.”Galatians 5:24. The children of God do not eat and drink to please the appetite but to preserve life and strength to do their Master’s will. They clothe themselves for health, not for display or to keep pace with changing fashion. The desire of the eye and pride of life are banished from their wardrobes and from their houses, from principle. They will move from godly sincerity and their conversation will be elevated and heavenly. The above is in marked contrast to the life of Mrs. Harris. Her life is in marked contrast to the life of Christ. Strict equity and justice should mark the course of every true follower of Christ. You have not carried out the principle of loving your neighbor as yourself.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 49)
But, Brother Cornell, God is very pitiful, for He understands our weaknesses and our temptations, and when we come to Him with broken hearts and a contrite spirit He accepts our repentance. As we take hold of His strength to make peace with Him, He promises we shall make peace with Him. Oh, what gratitude, what joy should we feel that God is merciful!
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 50)
Brother Cornell, since you came to California you have failed to rely upon the strength of God. You have dwelt upon yourself and made yourself the theme of conversation and of your thoughts. Your trials have been magnified to yourself and others, and your mind and theirs have been diverted from the truth, from the Pattern which we are required to copy, to weak Brother Cornell.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 51)
When out of the desk you should have been feeling the worth of souls and seeking opportunities to present the truth to individuals. You have not felt the responsibility devolving upon a gospel minister. Jesus and righteousness were not your themes, and many opportunities were lost that might, if improved, have decided more than a score of souls in California to give all for Christ and the truth. But the burden you would not lift. There was pastoral labor involving a cross which you would not engage in.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 52)
I saw angels of God watching the impressions you make and the fruits you bear out of meeting, and your general influence upon believers and unbelievers. I saw these angels veil their faces in sadness and turn from you reluctantly in sorrow. Frequently you were engaged in matters of minor consequence, and when you had efforts to make which required the vigor of all your energies, clear thought and earnest prayer, you followed your pleasure and inclination and trusted to your own strength and wisdom to meet, not men alone, but principalities and powers, Satan and his angels. This was doing the work of God negligently, placing the truth and cause of God in jeopardy, and periling the salvation of souls.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 53)
An entire change must take place with you before you can be entrusted with the work of God. You should consider your life a solemn reality, and that it is no idle dream. As a watchman upon the walls of Zion you are answerable for the souls of the people. You should settle into God. You move without due consideration, more from impulse rather than from principle. You have not felt the positive necessity of training your mind. You have not felt the necessity in your own case of crucifying the old man with the affections and lusts. You need to be balanced by the weight of God’s Spirit that all your movements may be regulated by His Spirit. You are now uncertain in all you undertake. You do, and undo; you build up and then you tear down. You kindle an interest and then from lack of consecration and divine wisdom you quench it. You have not been strengthened, stablished, and settled. You have had but little faith. You have not lived a life of prayer. You have needed so much to link your life with God, and then you will not sow to the flesh and reap corruption in the end.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 54)
Jesting, joking, and trifling conversation belong to the world. Christians who have the peace of God in their hearts will be cheerful and happy without indulging in levity or frivolous talk. While watching unto prayer they will have a serenity and peace which will elevate them above all superfluities. The mystery of godliness opened to the mind of the minister of Christ will raise him above earthly and sensual enjoyments. He will be a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. The communication open between God and his soul will make him fruitful in the knowledge of His will, and open before him treasures of practical subjects that he can present to the people, which will not cause levity or the semblance of a smile, but will rather solemnize the minds and touch the heart and arouse the moral sensibilities to the sacred claims God has upon the heart, affections, and life. Those who labor in word and doctrine should be men of God, pure in heart and life.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 55)
You are in the greatest danger of bringing a reproach upon the cause of God. Satan knows your weakness. His angels communicate the facts of your weakness to those who are deceived by his lying wonders, and they are already counting you as one of their numbers. Satan exults to have you pursue an unwise course because you place yourself upon his ground and give him advantage over you. Satan well knows that the indiscretions of men who advocate the law of God will turn souls from the truth. You have not taken upon your soul the burden of the work, and labored carefully and earnestly in private to favorably impress minds in regard to the truth. You frequently make yourself enemies by your abrupt manners. You too frequently become impatient, irritable, and childish. Unless you are on your guard you prejudice souls against the truth. Unless you are a transformed man, and will carry out in your life the principles of the sacred truths you present in the desk, your labors will amount to but little.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 56)
You have a weight of responsibility resting upon you. It is the watchman’s duty to ever be at his post, watching for souls as they that must give an account. If your mind is diverted from the great work, if unholy thoughts fill the mind, if selfish plans and projects rob of sleep and in consequence the mental and physical strength is lessened, you sin against your own soul. Your discernment is blunted, and sacred things are placed upon a level with common, God is dishonored, and His cause reproached. The good work you might have done had you made God your trust is marred. Had you preserved the vigor of your powers to put the strength of your brain and entire being in the important work of God without reserve, you would have realized a much greater work and it would have been more perfectly done.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 57)
Your labors have been defective. A master workman engages his men to do for him a very nice and valuable job which requires study and much careful thought. They know, as they agree to do the work, that in order to accomplish the task aright, all their faculties need to be aroused and in the very best condition to put forth their best efforts. But one man of the company is ruled by perverse appetite. He loves strong drink, and day after day gratifies his desire for stimulus. While under the influence of this stimulus the brain is clouded, the nerves are weakened, and his hands are unsteady. He continues his labor day after day and nearly ruins the job entrusted to him. That man forfeited his wages and did almost irreparable injury to his employer. He has, through his unfaithfulness, lost the confidence of his master as well as his fellow workmen. He was entrusted with a great responsibility, and in accepting this trust acknowledged that he was competent to do the work according to the directions given by his employer. But through his own love of self, the appetite was indulged and the consequence risked.
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 58)
Your case, Brother Cornell, has been similar to this. The accountability of a minister of Christ warning the world of the coming judgment is as much more important as eternal things. [The remainder is missing.]
(2LtMs, Lt 29, 1872, 59)
Lt 29a, 1872
Cornell, M. E. NP October 1872 Variant of Lt 29, 1872. See 3T 227-243. Brother Cornell:
You have not been circumspect in your deportment. You have not been careful in your life to copy the Pattern. Your influence has not been of that character which would do honor to the cause of present truth. Had you been sanctified by the truth you preach to others, you would have been of ten times more advantage to the cause of God than you have been. You have relied so much upon creating a sensation that without this you have but little courage. These great excitements and sensational interests are your strength and glory and success as a laborer; but this is not pleasing to God. Your labors in this direction are seldom what you flatter yourself that they are.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 1)
Close investigation reveals that after these specially exciting meetings there are but very few sheaves to be gathered. Yet from all the experience of the past you have not learned to change your manner of labor. You have been slow to learn from the past, and shape your future labors in such a manner as to shun the errors of the past. The reason of this has been, like the inebriate, you love the stimulus of these sensational meetings, and you long for them as the drunkard longs for the glass of liquor to arouse the flagging energies. These debates, which create an excitement, are mistaken for zeal for God and love for the truth. You have been almost destitute of the Spirit of God to work with your efforts. If you had God with you in all your moves, and if you felt the burden for souls, and had you wisdom to skillfully manage these exciting seasons to press souls into the kingdom of Christ, you could see fruits of your labors, and God would be glorified.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 2)
Your soul should be all aglow with the spirit of the truth you present to others. Then after you have labored to convict souls of the claims the law of God has upon them, teaching them repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ, your work is but just begun. You too frequently excuse yourself from completing the work, and leave a heavy burden for others to take up and finish the work you ought to have done. You say you are not qualified to finish up the work. Then the sooner you qualify yourself to bear the burdens of a shepherd or pastor of the flock the better.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 3)
As a true shepherd you should discipline yourself to deal with minds, and give to the flock of God each their portion of meat in due season. You should be careful and study to have a store of practical subjects that you have investigated and can enter into the spirit of, and can present in a plain, forcible manner to the people, at the right time and place as they need. You have not been thoroughly furnished from the Word of inspiration unto all good works. When the flock has needed spiritual food you have frequently presented some argumentative subject no more appropriate for the occasion than an oration upon national affairs. If you would task your soul, and educate your mind to a knowledge of subjects which the Word of God has amply furnished you, you could build up the cause by feeding the flock with proper food, which would give spiritual strength and health as their wants required.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 4)
You have yet to learn the work of a true shepherd. When you understand this, you will have sufficient weight upon you of the cause and work of God that you will not be inclined to jest and joke, and engage in light and frivolous conversation. A minister of Christ with a proper burden of the work and a high sense of the exalted character and sacredness of his mission, will not be inclined to lightness and trifling with the lambs of the flock.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 5)
A true shepherd will have an interest in all which relates to the welfare of the flock, feeding them, guiding them, and defending them. He will carry himself with great wisdom, manifesting a tender consideration for all, being courteous and compassionate to all, especially the tempted and afflicted and desponding.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 6)
Instead of giving this class the sympathy as their particular cases have demanded and as their infirmities have required, you have shunned this class, while you have drawn large upon others for sympathy. “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”Matthew 20:28. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.”John 13:16. “But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.”Philippians 2:7. “We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let every one of us please his neighbor for his good to edification. For even Christ pleased not himself; but, as it is written, The reproaches of them that reproached thee fell on me.”Romans 15:1-3.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 7)
It is not the work of a gospel minister to lord it over God’s heritage, but in lowliness of mind, with gentleness and long forbearance, to exhort, reprove, rebuke with all longsuffering and doctrine. How will the foregoing Scripture compare with your past life? You have been cultivating a selfish temperament nearly all your life. You married a woman of a strong, set will. Her natural disposition was supremely selfish. You were both lovers of self, uniting your interest did not help the case of either, but increased the peril of both. You were neither of you conscientious.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 8)
You neither of you had the fear of God before you in a high sense. Selfish love and selfish gratification have been the ruling principle. You have both had so little consecration to God that you could not benefit each other. You have each wanted your own way. You each wanted to be petted and praised and waited upon.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 9)
The Lord saw your dangers and sent you warnings through testimony time and again, that your eternal interest was endangered unless you overcame your love of self and conformed your will to the will of God. Had you heeded the admonitions and warnings from the Lord, had you turned square about and made an entire change, your wife would not now be in the snare of the enemy, left of God to believe the strong delusions of Satan. Had you followed the light God has given, you, Brother Cornell, would now be a strong and efficient laborer in the cause of God, qualified to accomplish tenfold more than you are now competent to do. You have become weak because you have failed to cherish the light. You have been able but a small part of the time to discern the voice of the True Shepherd from that of a stranger. Your neglect to walk in the light has brought darkness upon you, and your conscience by being often violated, has become benumbed.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 10)
Your wife did not believe and follow the light the Lord in mercy sent her. She despised reproof, and herself closed the only door through which the voice of the Lord was heard to counsel and warn her. Satan was pleased, and there was nothing to hinder him from insinuating himself into her confidence, and by his pleasing, flattering deceptions, leading her captive at his will.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 11)
The Lord gave you a testimony that your wife was a hindrance to you in your labors, and that you should not have her accompany you unless you had the most positive evidence that she was a converted woman, transformed by the renewing of her mind. You then felt that you had an excuse to plead for a home, and you made this testimony your excuse and worked accordingly, although you had no need of a house of your own. Your wife had duties to do to her parents, which she had neglected all her life. If she had taken up this long-neglected duty with a cheerful spirit, she would not now be left captive to Satan to do his will, and corrupt her heart and soul in his service.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 12)
Your want of a home was imaginary, like many of your supposed wants. You obtained the home your selfishness desired and you could leave your wife comfortably situated. But God was preparing a final test for Angeline. The affliction of her mother was of that nature to arouse the sympathy in the heart if it was not thoroughly seared and calloused by selfishness. But this providence of God failed to arouse the filial love of the daughter for her suffering mother. She had no home cares to stand in her way, no children to share her love and care, and her attention was devoted to her poor self.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 13)
The burden of care Brother Lyon had to bear was too much for his aged strength, and he was prostrated with keen sufferings. Surely then, if the daughter had a sensitive spot in her heart, she could not help feeling and arousing to a sense of her duty to share the burdens of her sister Cornelia and her sister’s husband. But she revealed by her indifference and by her shunning all the care and burden that she well could, that her heart was well-nigh as unimpressible as a stone.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 14)
To be close by her parents, and yet be so indifferent, would tell against her. She communicated the state of things to her husband and invited him to urge her presence in Maine to aid him. Brother Cornell was as selfish as his wife, and he sent the urgent request for her to come to him. How did angels of God, the tender, pitying, loving, ministering angels, look upon this act? The daughter leaving for stranger’s hands to do those tender offices that she should have cheerfully shared with her burdened sister? Angels looked with astonishment and grief upon the scene, and turned from this selfish woman. Evil angels took their place, and she was led captive by Satan at his will. She proved to be a great hindrance to her husband, for she was a medium of Satan, and his labors were of but little account.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 15)
I saw that the cause of God would have stood higher in Maine if that last effort had not been made, for the work was not completed. An interest was raised but left to sink where it could never be raised again. I ask you, Brother Cornell, to compare these Scriptures relative to the work and ministry of Jesus Christ with your course of conduct through your labors as a gospel minister, but more especially in the instance I have mentioned where duty was too plain for any mistake, if the conscience and affections had not become paralyzed by a long course of continual selfishness and idolatry of self.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 16)
In the act of leaving your parents in their sufferings and necessity for help, the church was obliged to take this burden, and watch with the suffering members of Christ’s body. You both in this heartless neglect brought the frown of God upon yourselves. God does not pass such things lightly by. They are recorded by the angel. God cannot prosper those who go directly contrary to the plainest duty specified in His Word, showing the duty of children to their parents. Children who feel under no more obligation to their earthly parents than you have done, but can so easily step out from all their responsibilities relative to them, will not have due respect for their heavenly Father. They will not reverence or respect the claims that God has upon them. If they disrespect and dishonor their earthly parents, they will not respect and love their Creator.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 17)
Your wife transgressed the fifth precept of the decalogue in neglecting her parents. “Honor thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” [Exodus 20:12.] This is the first commandment with promise. Those who dishonor or disrespect their parents need not expect that the blessing of God will attend them. Our parents have claims upon us that we cannot throw off or lightly regard. But children who have not been trained and controlled in childhood, and have been permitted to make themselves the objects of their care, who have selfishly sought their ease and avoided burdens, become heartless and disrespect the claims of their parents who watched over their earliest infancy.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 18)
Brother Cornell, you have been selfish in these things yourself, and greatly deficient in duty. You have required attention and care, but you have not given the same in return. You have been selfish and exacting and have frequently been unreasonable and given your wife occasion for trial. You have both been unconsecrated and astonishingly selfish. You have made but little sacrifice for the truth’s sake. You have avoided burdens as well as your wife, and have occupied a position to be waited upon, rather than to try to be as little burden as possible.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 19)
Ministers of Christ should feel it a duty binding upon them, if they receive the hospitalities of their brethren or friends, to leave a blessing with the family by seeking to encourage and strengthen the members of the family. They should not neglect the duties of a pastor as they visit from house to house. They should become familiar with every member of the family that they may understand the spiritual condition of all, and vary their manner of labor to meet the case of each member of the family. When a minister bearing the solemn message of warning to the world receives the hospitable courtesies of friends and brethren, and neglect the duties of a shepherd of the flock, but is careless in his example and deportment, and engages with the young in trifling conversation, jesting, joking, and relating humorous anecdotes to create a laugh, he is unworthy of being a gospel minister, and needs to be converted before he should be entrusted with the care of the sheep and lambs. Ministers who are neglectful of the duties devolving on a faithful pastor give evidence that they are not sanctified by the truths they present to others, and should not be sustained as laborers in the vineyard of the Lord till they have a high sense of the sacredness of the work of a minister of Jesus Christ.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 20)
When there are only evening meetings to attend, there is much time that can be used to great advantage in visiting from house to house, meeting the people where they are. And if the ministers of Christ have the graces of the Spirit, if they imitate the great Exemplar, they will find access to hearts and will win souls to Christ. Some ministers bearing the last message of mercy are too distant.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 21)
They do not improve the opportunities they have of gaining the confidence of men and women who are unbelievers, by their exemplary deportment and their unselfish interest for the good of others, their kindness, forbearance, humbleness of mind, and their respectful courtesy. These fruits of the Spirit will exert a far greater influence than the preaching in the desk without individual effort in families. But the preaching of pointed, testing truths to the people and corresponding individual effort from house to house to back up pulpit effort will greatly extend the influence for good and souls will be converted to the truth.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 22)
Some of our ministers carry too light responsibilities and shun individual care and burdens, and for this reason they do not feel the need of help from God as if they lifted the burdens the work of God and our faith requires them to lift. When burdens in this cause have to be lifted, when brought into strait places, they will feel the need of living near to God, that they may have confidence to commit their way to Him and in faith claim that help which God alone can give. They will then be obtaining an experience every day in faith and trust which is of the highest value to a gospel minister. His work is more solemn and sacred than ministers generally realize. They should carry a sanctified influence with them. God requires that those who minister in sacred things should be men who feel jealous for His cause. The burden of their work should be the salvation of souls. Brother [Cornell], you have not felt as the prophet describes, “Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine heritage to reproach.”Joel 2:17. “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”Psalm 126:5, 6.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 23)
I was shown, Brother Cornell, in what marked contrast with the requirements of God’s Word your course of labor has been. You have been careless in your words, and in your deportment. The sheep have had the burden to care for the shepherd—to warn, reprove, exhort, and weep over the reckless course of their shepherd, who, by accepting his office acknowledges he is a mouthpiece of God. Yet he cares far more for himself than he does for the poor sheep.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 24)
You have not felt a burden for souls. You have not gone forth to your labors weeping and praying for souls, that sinners might be converted. Had you done this, you would be sowing seed which would spring up after many days and bear fruit to the glory of God. When there is no work you can do by the fireside in conversation and prayer with families, you should then show industry and economy of time and train yourself to bear responsibilities by useful employment.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 25)
You and your wife might have saved yourselves many ill turns, and been more cheerful and happy, had you sought your ease less and combined physical labor with your study. Your muscles were made for use, not to be inactive. God gave Adam and Eve in Eden all that their wants required, yet their heavenly Father knew that they needed employment in order to retain their happiness. If you would exercise the muscles in laboring with your hands some portion of each day, combining labor with your study, your mind would be better balanced, your thought would be of a more pure and elevated character, and your sleep would be more natural and healthful. Your head would be less confused and stupid because of a congested brain. Your thoughts upon sacred truth would be clearer, and your moral powers more vigorous. You do not love labor, but it is for your good to have more physical exercise daily, which will quicken the sluggish blood to healthful activity and will carry you above discontent and infirmities.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 26)
You should not neglect diligent study. You should pray for light from God, that He would open to your understanding the treasures of His Word that you may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works. You will never be in a position where it is not necessary for you to watch and pray earnestly in order to overcome your besetments.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 27)
Brother Cornell, you will need to guard yourself continually to keep self out of sight. You have encouraged a habit of making yourself very prominent. You have frequently spoken of your family difficulties, of your wife, and of your poor health. In short, yourself has been the theme of your conversation and has come in between you and your Saviour. You should forget self and hide behind Jesus. Let the dear Saviour be magnified, but lose sight of yourself. When you see and feel your weakness you will not see that there is anything in yourself worthy of notice or remark. The people have not only been wearied but disgusted with your preliminaries before you present your subject. In every case when you speak to the people, where you mention the name of your wife in public and your trials, you lower yourself in the estimation of the people and suggest suspicions that you are not all right.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 28)
Then when you pursue the course you have done in San Francisco, you confirm their suspicions. Your reputation does not stand very high with the worst enemies we have, the First Day Adventists. They have carried your imprudent, reckless course to the eastern states, making the most of your blind folly. You have the example of ministers who have exalted themselves and who have coveted praise from the people. They were petted and flattered by the indiscreet until they became puffed up, and trusted to their own wisdom and made shipwreck of faith. They thought that they were so popular that they could take almost any course and yet retain their popularity. Here has been your presumption. When your deportment gives gossiping tongues facts as subject matter to discuss, and your morality is seriously questioned, you cannot call this jealousy or slander on their part. The facts in the case are, you were so completely infatuated and bewitched that you were foolhardy.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 29)
[Four pages missing here.] ... many times, if you could be left to yourself in your labors, where there was an effort to be made you could general through the matter in a much more successful manner than to have your brethren to consult and advise, caution, and hold you in check. I saw that in California you would have the opportunity you craved; you could move in your own judgment, and with your own wisdom, and then could look back upon the efforts of M. E. Cornell and the result of his management of a religious interest.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 30)
As I look over the congregation in Woodland, I see this is one of the places that you had the most to do with the religious interest. I saw that you had shown in this effort that you needed to become a convert to the truth you preach to others. You should feel the sanctification of the truth first upon your own heart and in your own life, then your pulpit efforts would be enforced by your example out of the desk. You need to be softened, sanctified, before God can in a special manner work with your efforts.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 31)
You have let slip the golden opportunity to gather a harvest of souls because it was impossible for God to work with your efforts, for your heart was not right with Him. Your spirit was not pure before Him, who is the embodiment of purity and holiness. If you regard iniquity in your heart, the Lord will not hear your prayer. Our God is a jealous God. He knoweth the thoughts and the imaginations and devices of the heart. You have followed your judgment and made a sad failure when you might have had success. There is, Brother Cornell, too much at stake in these efforts to do the work negligently or recklessly. Souls are being tested upon important, eternal truth, and what you may say or do will have influence to balance the decisions they make either for or against the truth. When you should have been in humility before God, pleading for Him to work with your efforts, feeling the weight of the cause and the value of souls, you have chosen the society of young ladies, regardless of the sacred work of God and your office as a minister of the gospel of Christ. You were standing between the living and the dead, yet you have engaged in light and frivolous conversation, and jesting and joking.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 32)
How can ministering angels be around about you and shed light upon you and impart strength to you? When you should be seeking to find ways and means to enlighten the minds of those in error and darkness, you are pleasing yourself and are selfish to engage in a work you have no inclination or love for. If our position is criticized by those who are investigating, you have but little patience with them. You give them frequently a short, severe reply, as though they had no business to search closely for themselves but to take all that is presented as truth without investigating for themselves. In your ministerial labors you have turned many souls away from the truth by your manner of treating them. You have not always been impatient and unapproachable; when you feel like it, you will take time to answer questions candidly; but frequently you are uncourteous and exacting. You are pettish and irritable, like a child.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 33)
You do not consider your position as a shepherd of the flock or the consequence of your actions. You act out just as you feel. When in the company of young ladies you are gallant, you are affable, wide-awake, and accommodating. All these freaks are marked by witnesses and tell tremendously against you. When engaged in following your inclinations, you are like a boy. You act as childish as a boy and do great injury to the cause of God in this way.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 34)
Satan sees that you are a man who has strong passions. Through the lower passions he designs to work your ruin. The enemy of souls has destroyed many through the animal passions. Moses Hull was overcome because he was a slave to the lower passions. You are acquainted with the warnings given to him. You can see the track he followed to his ruin. You are in the same danger, and your shipwreck of faith will be as certain as his unless you see your danger and make a decided change before you go on any further in your self-sufficiency and spiritual blindness.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 35)
You have deeply injured the cause of God by your blind folly. You have been infatuated. You have tempted the devil to tempt you. You have walked into temptation. You have not abstained from the appearance of evil, but have given the enemies of truth occasion to reproach our faith, and have brought great perplexity and discouragement upon those who had but just commenced to see the light upon the fourth precept of the decalogue. And while you are advocating the binding claims of God’s holy law, Satan spread his net for you and a bewitching influence fastened upon you, and you walked straight into the snare prepared for you, like a fool to the correction of stocks. The blot you have brought upon the cause of God in San Francisco will never be fully effaced so that you can stand in the estimation of the people as you might have stood. Your course of conduct is highly censurable in preferring and planning for the society of ladies. These things have been marked by the friends of present truth as well as by the enemies of our faith.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 36)
We are living in a fearfully corrupt time. Moral power with many is exceeding weak. Iniquity abounds. You are acquainted with the prevailing sins which are fast filling up the cup of iniquity of those who practice them. The wrath of a pure and holy God is to fall in judgment upon the sinners who have polluted the earth by their transgressions. When a watchman upon the walls of Zion gives evidence by his deportment that the prevailing sins which pollute the world have attraction for him, and his morals are weakened and his deportment is even questionable, his crime in the sight of God is very aggravating. A fearful record stands against him in heaven, and a fearful retribution awaits him, unless he shall humble his heart and sincerely repent before God, and the rest of his life be a life of repentance.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 37)
Your danger is permitting your thought to run upon forbidden subjects. Satan is permitted to control your thoughts. “Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”2 Corinthians 10:5. If the fountain be pure, the streams issuing therefrom will be pure. From the same fountain cannot proceed sweet water and bitter. Your fruits testify of you. “Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.”Matthew 7:20. Your words and actions are the fruit you bear. You have not moved from principle, but from impulse. Your lower passions have taken the lead. You have been fascinated with young ladies, and your conversation with them has been highly censurable, and not in accordance with your high calling as a minister of Christ. You talk with them in reference to marriage when you should be talking upon the truth, and your mind takes a low turn.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 38)
You have strong friends, but if they knew one-half that has been opened before me of your course they would be astonished and confounded. I have not told you all the particulars that have been presented to me. I have felt that it was my duty to wait and see if the work on your heart would lead you to go any further in confession than that which was brought out. The things brought out plainly, you admit; but is this confession? I think not. You have not taken the lead in anything in confessing. You wait till you know that others know your imprudence and wrongs, and then you admit them. You feel remorse and regret, but repentance is not deep enough to prevent you, were you again tempted, from being overcome.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 39)
There was one woman presented before me in connection with yourself. This woman has a strong power and her influence deceives. She has natural vivacity and vanity and her appearance is deceptive. She feels at liberty to indulge in what she regards as innocent diversion, which sullies her reputation and weakens all the superior faculties of her mind. You have been charmed and placed yourself where you would be under the power of temptation.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 40)
God reads the secrets of the heart; the intents and purposes of the soul are open before Him and the heavenly angels. What a thought! Nothing [is] covered from the notice of the great I AM, and every secret act will be opened to the view of the pure angels.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 41)
Brother Cornell, I was shown that you needed the transforming power of God in order to have wisdom and experience to become skillful in winning souls to Christ. You have about lost the best part of your life in that you have failed to obtain that experience in the knowledge of godliness so essential for a minister of righteousness. Your weak moral powers have not been growing stronger by discipline, but weaker. You have now with your weak strength to redeem the past mistakes of your life.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 42)
The principles of religion do not regulate the conduct of this pleasing siren. The modesty which is essential to our sex is wanting with Mrs. Harris. She has a boldness, a familiar confidence and unabashed countenance which seems to set the company she is with at defiance. She converses with gentlemen with about the same unreserved freedom she does with ladies. It is proper that woman should have a native dignity which is becoming in every true lady. She should have a modesty which will be to her a safeguard from the familiarities of men. She may have personal charms, a gentleness of spirit and manners; she may be ever courteous, yet at the same time free from affectation and softness. The sentiment of this age, that a woman may allow innocent freedom provided she preserves her virtue, is the same spirit which prevailed in the days of Noah, which led to every species of corruption. It is just as indelicate, dangerous, and as fatal now in corrupting the heart as in the days of Noah.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 43)
Mrs. Harris is not a woman that possesses the genuine article of love. She is [of] a passionate temperament, but passion and love are two different qualities. True love elevates the soul. It is warm, sincere, and steady, while passion is fickle and insincere, seeking gratification at whatever cost. This article passes for love, but it is of too base a quality to bear the sacred name of love. It would imperil the reputation of friends in courting attention. The love of Mrs. Harris is of that variety as to be not only undesirable but dangerous. A woman who can encourage the attachment of a minister of Christ, a married man, because his attention is highly gratifying to her vanity, and allow him to imperil his reputation, his name, and his soul, is unprincipled, and would stoop to almost any subterfuge to compass her purpose, and then would glory in her power.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 44)
I must speak plainly. Your conduct, Brother Cornell and Mrs. Harris, has been highly censurable. You have taken liberties with each other which should never be between even natural brothers and sisters. You have sinned against God, but this is not all. You have brought a deep wound upon His precious cause and greatly burdened the work of God in San Francisco and in Woodland. A concealed golden wedge and a Babylonish garment troubled the entire camp of Israel in bringing the frown of God upon the people because of the sin of one man. Thousands were slain upon the battlefield because God would not bless and prosper a people where there was even one sinner among them who transgressed His word. This sinner was not in holy office, yet a jealous God could not go forth with the armies of Israel to battle with these concealed sins in their midst.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 45)
In this case the sinner is a minister of the gospel and a professed follower of Jesus Christ, the woman bearing the name of a Christian sister. Notwithstanding the apostle’s warning was before them, “Abstain from all appearance of evil” [1 Thessalonians 5:22], yet they persisted in pursuing a course unbecoming Christians. Your familiarities with one another have been an abomination in the sight of God. Said the angel, pointing to Elder Cornell, “Thou therefore which teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? Thou that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? Thou that sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery? Thou that abhorest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? Thou that makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou God?”Romans 2:21-23.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 46)
I cannot portray in language to you the injury you have done to the cause of God. The Lord could not work through you or bless your efforts. How could He do this when your thoughts and affections were upon a woman, while you have a lawful wife? While preaching in the desk with Mrs. Harris before you, you have been like a man thrown off his balance. And she has gloried in her power, not because she really loved you, for she is not capable of possessing the article of genuine love.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 47)
She has not principle. Every dishonest act God frowns upon. Mrs. Harris has not a high and elevated sense of purity and holiness. Her conscience is not tender. God requires His people to be holy, and to keep themselves separate from the works of darkness and to be pure in heart and life, and unspotted from the world. The children of God by faith in Christ are His chosen people; and when they stand upon the holy ground of Bible truth they will be saved from fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 48)
Your ill health has been in consequence of your own course. You have had a fevered imagination, and when your body and mind should have been at rest you have been wide awake, giving loose rein to your thoughts. You have been like a man bewitched, a slave to the charms of a woman professing to believe all the commandments of God, yet transgressing them.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 49)
Elder Cornell, you have stood directly in the way of the work of God. You have brought great darkness and discouragement upon the cause of God. Elder Cornell, you have been blinded by the devil. You have worked for sympathy and have obtained it. Had you stood in the light, you could have discerned the power of Satan at work to deceive and destroy you like Samson’s Delilah. Could you not discern the difference between the love of Christ and the lust of the flesh?
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 50)
“And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.”Galatians 5:24. The children of God do not eat and drink to please the appetite but to preserve life and strength to do their Master’s will. They clothe themselves for health, not for display or to keep pace with changing fashion. The desire of the eye and pride of life are banished from their wardrobes and from their houses from principle. They will move from godly sincerity, and their conversation will be elevated and heavenly. The above is in marked contrast to the life of Mrs. Harris. Her life is in marked contrast to the life of Christ.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 51)
But Brother Cornell, God is very pitiful, for He understands our weakness and our temptations; and when we come to Him with broken hearts and a contrite spirit, He accepts our repentance. As we take hold of His strength to make peace with Him, He promises that we shall make peace with Him. Oh, what gratitude, what joy should we feel that God is merciful!
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 52)
Brother Cornell, since you came to California you have failed to rely upon the strength of God. You have dwelt upon yourself, and made yourself the theme of conversation and of your thoughts. Your trials have been magnified to yourself and others, and your mind and theirs have been diverted from the truth, from the Pattern which we are required to copy, to weak Brother Cornell.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 53)
When out of the desk you should have been feeling the worth of souls and seeking opportunities to present the truth to individuals. You have not felt the responsibility devolving upon a gospel minister. Jesus and righteousness were not your themes and many opportunities were lost that might, if improved, have decided more than a score of souls in California to give all for Christ and the truth. But the burden you would not lift. There was pastoral labor involving a cross which you would not engage in. I saw angels of God watching the impressions you make and the fruits you bear out of meeting, and your general influence upon believers and unbelievers. I saw these angels veil their faces in sadness and turn from you reluctantly, in sorrow. Frequently you were engaged in matters of minor consequence, and when you had efforts to make which required the vigor of all your energies, clear thought and earnest prayer, you followed your pleasure, your inclination, and trusted to your own strength and wisdom to meet, not men alone, but principalities and powers, Satan and his angels. This was doing the work of God negligently, placing the truth and cause of God in jeopardy, and periling the salvation of souls.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 54)
An entire change must take place with you before you can be entrusted with the work of God. You should consider your life a solemn reality, and that it is no idle dream. As a watchman upon the walls of Zion, you are answerable for the souls of the people. You should settle into God. You move without due consideration, more from impulse rather than from principle. You have not felt the positive necessity of training your mind. You have not felt the necessity in your own case of crucifying the old man with the affections and lusts. You need to be balanced by the weight of God’s Spirit, that all your movements may be regulated by His Spirit. You are now uncertain in all you undertake. You do, and undo. You build up, and then you tear down. You kindle an interest, and then from lack of consecration and divine wisdom you quench it. You have not been strengthened, stablished, and settled. You have had but little faith. You have not lived a life of prayer. You have needed so much to link your life with God, and then you will not sow to the flesh and reap corruption in the end.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 55)
Jesting, joking, and trifling conversation belong to the world. Christians who have the peace of God in their hearts will be cheerful and happy without indulging in levity or frivolous talk. While watching unto prayer they will have a serenity and peace which will elevate them above all superfluities. The mystery of godliness opened to the mind of the minister of Christ will raise him above earthly and sensual enjoyments. He will be a partaker of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. The communication open between God and his soul will make him fruitful in the knowledge of His will, and open before him the treasures of practical subjects that he can present to the people which will not cause levity or the semblance of a smile, but will solemnize the minds and touch the heart, and arouse the moral sensibilities to the sacred claims God has upon the affections and life. Those who labor in word and doctrine should be men of God, pure in heart and life.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 56)
You are in the greatest danger of bringing a reproach upon the cause of God. Satan knows your weakness. His angels communicate the facts of your weakness to those who are deceived by his lying wonders, and they are already counting you as one of their numbers. Satan exults to have you pursue an unwise course because you place yourself upon his ground and give him advantage over you. Satan well knows that the indiscretion of men who advocate the law of God will turn souls from the truth. You have not taken upon your soul the burden of the work, and labored carefully and earnestly in private to favorably impress minds in regard to the truth. You frequently make yourself enemies by your abrupt manners. You too frequently become impatient, irritable, and childish. Unless you are on your guard, you prejudice souls against the truth. Unless you are a transformed man and will carry out in your life the principles of the sacred truths you present in the desk, your labors will amount to but little.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 57)
You have a weight of responsibility resting upon you. It is the watchman’s duty to ever be at his post, watching for souls as they that must give an account. If your mind is diverted from the great work, if unholy thoughts fill the mind, if selfish plans and projects rob of sleep, and in consequence the mental and physical strength is lessened, you sin against your own soul and against God. Your discernment is blunted, and sacred things are placed upon a level with common. God is dishonored, His cause reproached. The good work you might have done had you made God your trust, is marred. Had you preserved the vigor of your powers to put the strength of your brain and entire being in the important work of God without reserve, you would have realized a much greater work, and it would have been more perfectly done.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 58)
Your labors have been defective. A master workman engages his men to do for him a very nice and valuable job, which requires study and much careful thought. They know, as they agree to do the work, that in order to accomplish the task aright all their faculties need to be aroused and in the very best condition to put forth their best efforts. But one man of the company is ruled by perverse appetite. He loves strong drink, and day after day he gratifies his desire for stimulus. While under the influence of this stimulus the brain is clouded, the nerves weakened, and his hands are unsteady. He continues his labor day after day and nearly ruins the job entrusted to him. That man forfeited his wages, and did almost irreparable injury to his employer. He has, through his unfaithfulness, lost the confidence of his master, as well as his fellow workmen. He was entrusted with a great responsibility, and in accepting this trust he acknowledged that he was competent to do the work according to the directions given by his employer. But through his own love of self the appetite was indulged and the consequences risked.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 59)
Your case, Brother Cornell, has been similar to this. The accountability of a minister of Christ warning the world of a coming judgment is as much more important as eternal things are of more consequence than temporal. If the minister of the gospel yields to his inclination rather than to be guided by duty, if he indulges self at the expense of spiritual strength, and as the result moves indiscreetly, souls will rise up in the judgment to condemn him for his unfaithfulness. The blood of souls is found on his garments. It may seem to the unconsecrated minister a small thing to be fitful, impulsive, and unconsecrated, to build up and then to tear down, to dishearten, distress, and discourage the very souls that the truth you have presented has converted.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 60)
It is a sad thing to lose the confidence of the very ones you have been laboring to save. The result of an unwise course pursued by the minister will never be fully understood until the minister sees as God seeth.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 61)
I was shown that, although Brother [M. G.] Kellogg has not the experience in addressing the people, or the tact in discussion as Brother Cornell, yet his labors taken as a whole are more valuable than the labors of Brother Cornell, for his spirit is kind and tender, he is benevolent and self-denying, and his exemplary deportment wins the hearts of all. His influence is constantly to build up, while Brother Cornell will build up, and then tear down. Brother Kellogg stumbled over the question of the round world, yet God would not leave him in confusion because he was honest of heart. His hand upheld him, and swept back the cloud of unbelief which had confused his mind. The whole transaction was the work of the enemy to destroy Brother Kellogg. But the Lord overruled the matter to disappoint the enemy and get glory to His own name.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 62)
Brethren Loughborough and [M. G.] Kellogg have labored untiringly and unselfishly with the deepest interest, feeling that the cause of God was a part of them. These men have worked. Brother Loughborough has economized. Brother Kellogg and his wife have in times past lacked economy. He has earned means quite readily and spent it just as readily. They had a lesson to learn in this direction. Brother Kellogg has been willing to do anything which would advance the cause of God. In some cases Brother Loughborough and Brother Kellogg have deprived themselves of things which they needed for health and comfort that they might advance the work of God and give no occasion to those who were weak in the faith to reproach them because they had an avaricious spirit.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 63)
Brother Loughborough has deeply sorrowed for his mistakes in the past. In his efforts to shun everything which had brought the displeasure of God in the past he has narrowed down himself and family to a very small sum to sustain them. He has carried his economy too far. He has not allowed his brethren to do for him what they could easily have done and what they should have done for their own good. His labors in California have richly earned for himself and family a comfortable support without care and embarrassment on his part.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 64)
Brother Loughborough has been in earnest and determined to wipe out the mistakes and errors of the past by a repentance which needeth not to be repented of. He has felt that the records of his deeds in heaven should be in the future such that he would not blush to review them. In the point of dollars and cents, he has felt very anxious that no record should appear in the day of accounts against him of his appropriating anything to himself that should rob the Lord’s treasury.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 65)
Your course, Brother Cornell, was presented to me in marked contrast to the course of these brethren. You have been selfish and grasping. You have sought to benefit yourself from the treasury of God. You have not, during your ministerial labors, been conscientious in regard to receiving presents and means. Had you done as Elder Loughborough has done to correct his past errors you would not now be in so great weakness and danger. You have never seen yourself; you have never gone to the bottom.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 66)
You have felt ready to confess when reproved by the Lord, but at the same time your feelings had no depth. You would do the same things when you were placed under similar circumstances. You repented in your spirit and strength but did not become converted, transformed by the renewing of your mind.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 67)
Brethren Loughborough and [M. G.] Kellogg had families. They had home cares and anxiety. They had burdens to bear in the cause and work of God. Yet they zealously toiled on and did not become weary in well doing.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 68)
Your life has been to enlist the sympathies of the people. You have your strong friends and your strong enemies. Your friends are so unwise as to praise you, to wait on you, and glorify you, which has greatly injured you.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 69)
You were sent to this coast not so much because the cause needed you here but because we wanted to save you from the delusive, bewitching influence of Spiritualism, which we felt you were too weak to resist. Our pity and love for you led us to advise you to come to California. Had you, like a man of faith, fortitude, and courage arisen above your home troubles, and had you put your trust in God, you would have realized His promise verified to you, “I will never leave nor forsake thee.” [Hebrews 13:5.] You have been so very weak and childish; you have not come before the people with a deep sense of the sacredness of the work. Had you trusted in God and put self out of sight you could have done tenfold the good you have done. You petted your poor feelings and made but little effort to rise above them.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 70)
But I have been shown, had you had pure and elevated thoughts, and had your lower passions been under the control of reason and intellect, your health would have been far better. But few could pursue the course you have done and not be sick. All this arises from your selfish indulgence during your life. God would test and prove you on this point, and you have signally failed to bear the test of God.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 71)
Oh, how soon would you wipe out the sorrows of your married life, because your wife has yielded to a satanic delusion, by severing the ties that bind you to her by your marriage vow, and while she yet lives uniting yourself in marriage to another. Oh, inconsistent, fickle man, your course has made you a reproach, a derision, but what do you care for this if you could only succeed and your desires be gratified? May God pity you, for you need His pity.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 72)
I was shown that take your labors as a whole, you have been a greater injury to California than benefit. The cause in California does not stand as high as it would had you remained away. In view of the above [I am amazed] when I hear the statement of my brethren in regard to Brother Cornell’s accepting more means than Brethren Loughborough and [M. G.] Kellogg, while your heart and soul has not been in the work, but you have had your mind and time occupied with your specimens and bewitched with your love for a woman. How inefficient have been your labors; you have not born burdens. You have not felt the weight of the cause of God upon you.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 73)
And your avaricious, selfish disposition would lead you to take means you have not earned. You have manifested that you are as unprincipled as the woman you have so much desired to marry. You nor Angeline would take burdens upon you, yet you have felt free to take nearly all the means you could get, while you had a surplus. Some of our brethren who had helped you to means have not had the comforts of life.
(2LtMs, Lt 29a, 1872, 74)
Lt 30, 1872
White, J. E.; White, Emma Black Hawk, [Denver (?),] Colorado August 1872 Portions of this letter are published in 2Bio 342-344. Edson and Emma:
We do not have home conveniences, we assure you. We get along almost any way. We have no fruit. Everything is exceedingly high. Apples are sold by the pound. Tomatoes, peaches, twenty-five cents per pound. Yet we stay here, hoping the bracing air will be an improvement to your father’s health. We expect to leave Denver for the mountains tomorrow. We shall range about amongst the mountains and try the mountain air.
(2LtMs, Lt 30, 1872, 1)
Father does not improve as we would be glad to see. One day he is feeling well, the next not as well. When he tries to write he is all used up. Still he is hopeful and of good courage, cheerful and free in the Lord. When we get into the mountains, will write to you in regard to the scenery.
(2LtMs, Lt 30, 1872, 2)
Yesterday I wrote all day trying to get off the matter in reference to schools. I am going to write in regard to the Health Institute as soon as I can have clearness of head to write. I think the Lord has directed our course this way, and we shall wait and trust and pray for the Lord to direct us still, and His hand to guide us. We pray for you children; every day you may know that you are thought of and remembered by us.
(2LtMs, Lt 30, 1872, 3)
Charge to our account the expense of the pictures. Let those in the counting room see this and they will make it all right. Say to Addie Merriam I am very grateful for her letters of particulars. I will write her soon. Tell her to give my thanks to her sister for the nice collar she sent me. I shall prize it.
(2LtMs, Lt 30, 1872, 4)
We are glad to hear excellent reports from you, Edson, and you cannot tell how glad. May you ever make God your trust and fill in where you can to do your duty and learn to bear responsibilities. If God’s blessing attends you, you can indeed have courage and hope and strength.
(2LtMs, Lt 30, 1872, 5)
Dear children, we want you to prosper and be hopeful in God.
(2LtMs, Lt 30, 1872, 6)
Is Sister Abbey really dangerously sick? Let me know particularly. Write to our address, Black Hawk, Colorado, care of W. B. Walling. In much love and great haste,
(2LtMs, Lt 30, 1872, 7)
Your affectionate mother.
(2LtMs, Lt 30, 1872, 8)
Lt 31, 1872
Andrews, J. N. NP 1872 This letter is published in entirety in 13MR 341-347. Elder J. N. Andrews:
God has committed to us each sacred trusts, for which He holds us accountable. It is His purpose that we so educate the mind as to enable us to bring into exercise the talents He has given us, in such a manner as will accomplish the greatest good and reflect back the glory to the Giver. We are indebted to God for all the qualities of the mind. These powers can be cultivated, and so discreetly directed and controlled as to accomplish the purpose for which God gave them.
(2LtMs, Lt 31, 1872, 1)
Brother Andrews, you can so educate your mind as to bring out the energies of the soul and develop every faculty, that they may accomplish the purpose for which they were given. The intellect may be strengthened by every faculty being exercised. You, my brother, are not doing the greatest amount of good, because you exercise the intellect in one direction but neglect to give careful attention to these things for which you think you are not adapted. Therefore, some faculties that are weak are lying dormant for want of exercise, because the work that should call them into exercise, and consequently give them strength, is not pleasant to you.
(2LtMs, Lt 31, 1872, 2)
All the faculties should be cultivated, all the powers of the mind exercised. Perception, judgement, memory, and all the reasoning powers should have equal strength in order to have a well-balanced mind. In that case you would be a whole man. Otherwise you are in danger of being but a part of a man. If certain faculties are used to the neglect of others, the design of God is not fully carried out in us, for all the faculties have a bearing and are dependent in a great measure upon each other, and one cannot be effectually used without the operation of all the faculties, that the balance may be carefully preserved. If all the attention and strength is given to one while others lie dormant, the development is strong in that one and will lead to extremes, because all the powers have not been cultivated. Some are dwarfed and the intellect is not properly balanced.
(2LtMs, Lt 31, 1872, 3)
All minds are not naturally constituted alike. We have varied minds and strong points of character, and great weakness upon some points. These deficiencies, so apparent, need not, and should not, exist. If those who possess them would strengthen the weak points in their characters, by cultivation and exercise they would become strong.
(2LtMs, Lt 31, 1872, 4)
It is agreeable, but not to the greatest profit, to put into exercise the faculties which are naturally the strongest while we neglect those that are weak, that need to be strengthened. The feeblest faculties should have careful attention that all the powers of the intellect may be nicely balanced, all doing their part like well-regulated machinery. Brother Andrews, you fail to turn your powers to the best account. Your power to concentrate your mind upon one subject to the exclusion of all others is well in a degree, but this faculty is constantly cultivated, which wears upon certain organs that are called into exercise to do this work, which will tax them too much and you will fail to accomplish the greatest good, and will shorten life. All the faculties should bear a part of the labor, working harmoniously, each balancing the other. You put your whole soul into the subject you are now upon; you go deeper and deeper into the matter. You see knowledge and light as you become interested and absorbed.
(2LtMs, Lt 31, 1872, 5)
But there are very few minds that can follow you, unless they give the subject the depth of thought you have done. There is danger of your ploughing and planting the seed of truth so deep that the tender, precious blade will never find the surface. Your labor will be appreciated by only a few.
(2LtMs, Lt 31, 1872, 6)
If you had taken hold of your Sabbath History and made that your principal but not exclusive business, but labored a portion of the time to keep up other branches of the work, it would have been better for you and better for the interests of the cause of God. You love just the kind of work you are now doing. But while you are going so thorough and covering so much ground, you are not getting out a work calculated to do the greatest amount of good by awakening a general interest. Minds become weary in reading and following you. When you get engaged in matter that you are now at work upon, you scarcely know where to stop.
(2LtMs, Lt 31, 1872, 7)
In this age, when pleasing fables are dropping upon the surface and attracting the mind, truth presented in an easy style, backed up with a few strong proofs, is better than to search and bring forth an overwhelming array of evidences. The point does not stand as distinct in many minds as before the objections and the evidences were brought so definitely before them. In very many minds, assertions will go farther than long arguments in proof. Many things may be taken as granted. Proof does not help the case in some minds. You, my brother, are in danger of carrying minds beyond their depth.
(2LtMs, Lt 31, 1872, 8)
Preble is an unprincipled, dishonest man. Those who are best acquainted with him have not confidence in him. They will take what he will say, however untrue and unjust and even ridiculous, and make it to bear against the truth if possible. But minds that will receive and be pleased with the productions of his pen are not the ones to be convinced of the truth or that would honor the cause of God, if they should accept the Sabbath. And you are in danger of presenting objections to thousands of minds that they never thought of, and which many will use if they become disaffected.
(2LtMs, Lt 31, 1872, 9)
If you and other men take a position to investigate and show the fallacy and inconsistency of men who dishonestly turn the truth of God into a lie, Satan will stir up men enough to keep your pen and the pens of several others constantly employed, while other branches of the work are left to suffer. We must have more the spirit of those men who were engaged in building the walls of Jerusalem: “We are doing a great work and we cannot come down.” [Nehemiah 6:3.] If Satan sees he can keep men’s voices silenced from the most important work for the present time in answering objections of opponents, his object is accomplished.
(2LtMs, Lt 31, 1872, 10)
The History of the Sabbath should have been out long ago. You should not wait to have everything so exactly as strong as you can possibly make it before you give it to the people. This is a busy world; men and women, as they engage in the business of life, have not time to meditate and read even the Word of God enough to understand it. And long, labored arguments will interest but a few for as the people run they have to read. You can no more remove the objections to the Sabbath commandment in the minds of the First Day Adventists who oppose the law than the Saviour of the world could by His great power and miracles convince the Jews that He was the Messiah, after they had once set themselves to reject Him. Like the obstinate, unbelieving Jews they have chosen darkness rather than light, and should an angel direct from the courts of heaven speak to them they would say it was Satan.
(2LtMs, Lt 31, 1872, 11)
Your Sabbath work should be given to the public, [even] if not in all that perfection you could desire. Souls need the work now. Plain, pointed arguments standing out as mileposts will do more in convincing minds generally, than a large array of arguments covering a good deal of ground that none but investigating minds will have the interest to follow. After one edition is circulating and the people have the benefits, then if greater improvements are to be made, you can do it, until you are satisfied you have done all in your power. Our success will be in reaching common minds. Those who have talent and position are so exalted above the simplicity of the work, and so well satisfied with themselves, that they feel no need of the truth. They are exactly where the Jews were—self-righteous, self-sufficient that they are whole and have not need of the physician.
(2LtMs, Lt 31, 1872, 12)
While you are following Preble so fully, you anticipate that which you will never realize. Your time can be better employed in having a more general interest and giving to the people food, meat that will feed them now. While your time is employed in following the crooks and turns of Preble you are not wise. You are bringing to their notice a work which has but limited circulation, and interesting minds in objections that they would never have been troubled with. You manufacture a train of quibbles and doubts for thousands of people, and present his work to those who would never have seen it. This is just what they want to have done, to be brought to notice and we publish for them. This is what Carver wants. This is their main object in writing out their falsehoods and misrepresentations of the truth and the characters of those who love and advocate the truth.
(2LtMs, Lt 31, 1872, 13)
They will die out the soonest if left unnoticed, treating their falsehoods and their errors with silent contempt. They do not want to be let alone. Opposition is the element that they love. If it were not for this they would have but little influence. The First Day Adventists are a class that are the most difficult to reach. They will generally reject the truth as did the Jews. We should, as far as possible, go forward as though there was not such a people in existence. They are the elements of confusion. Immoralities exist among them to a fearful extent. It would be the greatest calamity to have many of their members embrace the truth. They would have to unlearn everything and learn anew, or they would cause us great trouble. There are occasions when their glaring misrepresentations will have to be met. When this is the case, it should be done promptly and briefly and then pass on to our work.
(2LtMs, Lt 31, 1872, 14)
The plan of Christ’s teachings should be ours. He was plain and simple, striking directly at the root of the matter, and the minds of all were met. It is not the best policy to be so very explicit and say all upon a point that can be said, when a few arguments will cover the ground and be sufficient for all practical purposes in convincing or silencing opponents. You may remove every prop today and close the mouths of objectors so they can say nothing and tomorrow they will go over the very same ground again. Thus it will be over and over, because they do not love the light and will not come to the light lest their darkness and error should be removed from them. It is a better plan to keep a reserve of arguments and reasons than to pour out a depth of knowledge upon a subject which would be taken for granted without labored arguments.
(2LtMs, Lt 31, 1872, 15)
Christ’s ministry lasted only three years and a great work was done in that short period. In these last days there is a great work to be done in a short time. While you are getting ready to do something, souls will perish for the [lack of] light and knowledge.
(2LtMs, Lt 31, 1872, 16)
In haste.
(2LtMs, Lt 31, 1872, 17)
Lt 32, 1872
White, J. E. Woodland, California October 23, 1872 Previously unpublished. Dear Son Edson:
I have written quite definitely a number of times as to your going to Trall’s College. But I will now state that I will do as much toward your expenses to and from, and while at the college, as you will do for yourself.
(2LtMs, Lt 32, 1872, 1)
What you actually need you should draw in sums only as you need them from the hygienic book fund. And when you make a payment on that debt, I will make a payment on that debt. I will make one as large as you make, until it shall be paid.
(2LtMs, Lt 32, 1872, 2)
I will also see what can be allowed you on the trial trip when you definitely answer these questions: Did you get up the plan? Has anyone helped you? If so, who, and how much did they help you? How many names are there on the trial trip at the time you answer this letter?
(2LtMs, Lt 32, 1872, 3)
Sister Van Horn inquires about Emma’s coming into the counting room. If she can do so from choice, and can put her whole soul into the work, I think it would be good both for Emma and for the office. But she must bear in mind that it is a responsible position, requiring great care.
(2LtMs, Lt 32, 1872, 4)
[Added in James White's handwriting:] I hope to hear from you very soon, and I will reply more definitely. Ask Delia to see how Trall’s account stands, and if anything is due. Now is a good time to secure it. (Signed) James White.
(2LtMs, Lt 32, 1872, 5)
P.S. Edson, Bro. Abby is the best friend you have in Battle Creek. Make straight work and never get on the wrong side again. (Signed) J.W.
(2LtMs, Lt 32, 1872, 6)