Educational, Health, and Temperance Work NP October 12, 1875 Drawn from Lt 1, 1875 and Lt 34, 1875. Portions of this manuscript are published in CW 123-126.
Publications upon health reform will reach many who will not see or read anything upon important Bible subjects. The gratification of every perverted appetite is doing its work of death. Intemperance must be met. With united, intelligent effort, make known the evils of beclouding the powers that God has given with wine and strong drinks. The truth must come to the people upon health reform. This is essential in order to arrest the attention in regard to Bible truth.
(2LtMs, Ms 1, 1875, 1)
God requires that His people shall be temperate in all things. Unless they practice temperance, they will not, cannot, be sanctified through the truth. Their very thoughts and minds become depraved.
(2LtMs, Ms 1, 1875, 2)
Many of those looked upon as hopelessly depraved will, if properly instructed in regard to their unhealthful practices, be arrested with the truth. Then they may be elevated, ennobled, sanctified, fit vessels for the Master’s use. Go with your hands full of proper reading matter, and your heart full of the love of Christ for their souls, reaching them where they are. Many are being drawn by the Lord Jesus Christ who will respond. They are disgusted with the dry formalism which exists in the Christian world. Many are becoming infidels because of the absence of true piety in professed Christians. A good work could be done in preparing the way for the introduction of the truth if decided testimony were borne upon this branch of the work (health and temperance).
(2LtMs, Ms 1, 1875, 3)
Many even of those who profess to believe the truth are lamentably ignorant on this subject. They need to be educated line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little, over and over again, in every yearly gathering, for this subject needs to be kept fresh before them.
(2LtMs, Ms 1, 1875, 4)
I have been shown that in giving attention to this branch of the work, you remove a large amount of prejudice from many minds that has barred the way to their receiving the truth and reading the publications setting forth the truth which we believe. This matter must not be passed over as nonessential; for nearly every family needs to be stirred up on this question and their consciences aroused to be doers of the Word of God in practicing self-denial of appetite. When you make the people intelligent on the question of health reform, you have prepared the way for them to give attention to the present truth for these last days. Said my guide, “Educate, educate, educate.” The mind must be enlightened; for the understanding is darkened just as Satan would have it to be, because he can find access through perverted appetite to debase the soul.
(2LtMs, Ms 1, 1875, 5)
One reason that there is not more sincere piety and religious fervor is because the mind is occupied with unimportant things, and there is no time to meditate, search the Scriptures, or pray. If the consciences can be aroused to see the errors in the preparation of the food, and their influence upon the moral tendencies of our nature, there would be in every family decided reforms. Intemperance in desire resulted to our first parents in the loss of Eden. We generally find, even among Seventh-day Adventists, that inclination, habit, delicate, unhealthful preparations in cooking, and unhealthful habits of dress, are weakening physical, mental, and moral efficiency, and making it impossible to overcome temptation. Now what shall we do? This subject is a sadly neglected matter.
(2LtMs, Ms 1, 1875, 6)
I am pained over the existing state of things. I am informed by my guide, “All who believe and proclaim the truth should not only practice health reform, but teach it diligently to others.” This will be a strong agency in calling the attention of the unbelieving to consider. If we are intelligent upon this subject in regard to healthful diet and practices, we would be sound on the subjects of Bible doctrine. If we backslide on this point, we lose much influence with the outside world.
(2LtMs, Ms 1, 1875, 7)
When at our large gatherings, make all the discourses highly reformative. Arouse the intellect. Bring all the talents possible into the efforts made, and then follow up the effort with tracts and pamphlets, with articles written in simple form, to make the subjects brought before them distinctly stated, that the word spoken may be repeated by the silent agent. Short, interesting articles should be arranged in cheap style and scattered everywhere. They should be at hand upon every occasion where the truth is brought before the minds of those to whom it is new and strange.
(2LtMs, Ms 1, 1875, 8)
Here is a branch of work in the Lord’s vineyard that has not received due attention. I have been shown in these very matters, where these things have been neglected, much has been lost. There should be more wise generalship manifested in doing the Lord’s work. Minds must be arrested and held to the point, else Satan will steal away the seed sown. There will be but a small number in comparison with the rejecters of truth, that will receive it; but one soul is of highest value. The value of all the world sinks into insignificance in comparison to the value of one human soul.
(2LtMs, Ms 1, 1875, 9)
One characteristic of Christ was, “He shall not fail nor be discouraged, till he has set judgment in the earth.” [Isaiah 42:4.] Shall we be talking of failure or discouragement when we think of the price the Lord paid to rescue man, that he should not perish, but have everlasting life? The greatest Teacher that ever blessed our world was despised and rejected of men. We are treated better than was our Lord.
(2LtMs, Ms 1, 1875, 10)
Ms 2, 1875
Concerning Families in the San Francisco Church NP January 3, 1875 Previously unpublished.
In the vision given me January 3, 1875, I was shown some things which stand directly in the way of the advancement and healthful prosperity of the church in San Francisco. There were dissensions among them and much independence of spirit. Another serious evil—a spirit of gossiping and vain talking. Individuals feel at liberty to dissect the characters of others, judge their motives, and question anything which does not meet their ideas, when these very ones have so great a work to do for themselves in setting their own hearts in order. It will require their time and the closest attention with tears and prayers and humble repentance before they can draw nigh with pure, sincere desire for the blessing of God upon themselves to prevent them from making shipwreck of faith.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 1)
There are murmurers and complainers which please the enemy and bring evil angels about them. When they should have the love and tender compassion akin to Christ’s love, they are harsh, unfeeling, independent. Envious feelings are cherished, and the truth professed by them has no sanctifying influence upon their lives. Are they then in any better condition for having professed the truth? No, indeed, but worse, for they in professing the truth say, I am the light of the world, I am the salt of the earth, an acting agent to preserve the world from the tainting, polluting corruption which threatens its destruction, when they are neither the light of the world nor the salt of the earth. Their light is darkness, and they are as salt without a savor, thenceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot of men.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 2)
There are several families in San Francisco whom Jesus would address as He did Nicodemus: “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” [John 3:3.] Several families were presented before me. Among these were the families with which you, Brother Stockton, are connected—your wife, her sisters, and your brother-in-law Edwards. These have professedly taken hold of the truth, but the truth has not taken hold of them to work its transforming influence upon the characters to ennoble, elevate, refine, and beautify their characters, assimilating them to the divine image. Were they partakers of the divine nature, you would not be pained with exhibition of temper in the words and actions to grieve and annoy and make each other miserable. These dear, deceived souls are not connected with heaven. The natural mind, the old man with his deeds, has not been crucified, and they have not put on the new man.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 3)
The carnal mind works out, developing enmity, wrath, malice, hatred, strife, and ungovernable temper. Such things can never proceed from a renewed heart. Here is the weakness of the San Francisco church. Self lives, self rules, judgment and reason are overborne. “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, Ms 2, 1875, 4)
The fruit which grows upon the tree determines the character of the tree. By their words ye shall know them; by their profession of faith ye shall know them. Search the church records for the names of Christians. Christ has said, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” [Matthew 7:20.] Words and actions are the fruits determining the right one has to bear the name of Christ. These dear souls God loves, but He sees their faults and would have them see and feel them while mercy lingers and before it shall be forever too late.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 5)
These souls have not been correctly disciplined in their childhood. Their standard of Christian character is very low. They have almost everything in the education wrong. They need now to be learners in the school of Christ, to be taught every one of them, Bro. Stockton not excepted, correct principles. You should all, without reproaching one another, without censuring one another, but individually and in humility, make personal efforts to purify your life and overcome the defects in your characters through watchfulness and prayer. The surest evidence is given that Jesus does not dwell in the heart if disappointment, or to be crossed, arouses the worst passions of the heart. The great lessons these dear souls are to learn if they would be Christlike is how to keep Jesus in the heart and ever seeking earnestly to subdue self and to glorify God in the everyday life.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 6)
This is the secret of success in perfecting Christian character and is the only hope of their final salvation. The self-sufficient, self-confident Bro. Stockton, already to preach Christ, but utterly fails to live Christ, is not acceptable to God and cannot strengthen the church. There is in the families mentioned a great work to be done which they can only do by individual, personal effort for themselves. But what a work! If they could only see, as in the light of eternity, what heart struggles, what soul wrestlings, what bitter repentance, what broken confessions would be heard that needeth not to be repented of. But here is the danger, the hopelessness: the standard of spiritual attainments as well as moral is very low with the entire company named.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 7)
Yet God is pleading in their behalf. Will He plead in vain? Will Christ have died for them in vain?
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 8)
“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: For which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: in the which ye also walked sometime, when ye lived in them. But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with the deeds: and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him.” [Colossians 3:1-10.]
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 9)
Ye are dead to the carnal desires, dead to the fierce, burning passions which consume love and gentleness, kindness and Christian courtesy. It is not enough for the Christian to say, I was once converted. Too many Christians base their faith and hope not on present experience, not on what they now are, but on what they once were when they first professed Christ. Unless conversion brings us into a new state before God, transforming the entire being, what is it good for to us? The man that is born again can say, Old things, the quick and impatient temper, the hate, the envy, revenge, the spirit of retaliation, the pride of heart, all emulation, seeking for supremacy, shall be overcome, shall be emptied out of my heart and not seen in my life.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 10)
Will the converted man and woman have no temptation to speak and act wrong? He will have a tempting devil on his track continually, and he must arm himself with faith and prayer to resist him. There will be a strong undercurrent to work against which is running swiftly to bear him back to his former state of sin, to indulge the natural passions of the unrenewed heart. No heart can be kept pure without being constantly salted with divine grace. No man can remain converted unless he watches unto prayer, keeps his soul firmly united to Christ, trusting in Him every moment, forcing his passage heavenward against the current of sinful indulgences, rowing against wind and tide, using both oars—faith and works. Conversion is putting all our powers to work for the Saviour who has left His majesty, His honor, His riches, and come into the world to save man. He loved him with a love that was infinite. He gave His life for poor, rebellious man. What more could God do for humanity than He has done? What now will man do on his part in his own behalf, and for the salvation of his fellow man, to evidence that he appreciates the sacrifice made and the mercy bestowed upon him? Will he not, in view of this great love and infinite mercy, cling to the Saviour with constant, persevering fidelity?
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 11)
You all need to humble your hearts greatly before God and repent of your sins and be Christians indeed. These unchristian words and acts stand directly in the way of your advancement in spirituality. Brother Stockton, you poorly represent Christ and our faith. Your early training was deficient, and it has left its marks upon you. Your heart is inclined to love the truth. Its theory has been well understood, but you have shown but little of its practical influence upon your life. You have desired to be saved. You want to overcome. You say it again and again, but you love self. Your inclination is followed, and the truth is not practiced. He resolves again and again, but it is like seeking to cleanse the stream coming from a fountain without commencing at the fountain. The heart must be cleansed, then that which proceeds from it will not be so defiling and corrupt.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 12)
You are in constant danger of being exacting and overbearing. You need to encourage gentleness, meekness, forbearance.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 13)
You must make an entire change. Your heart is not right with God. Brother Stockton has not had the grace of patience to endure his trials connected with the peculiar and trying element in his connection with his wife and her sisters.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 14)
Sister Davison will have a conflict with herself if she is finally an overcomer. She has failed to do her duty to her children. Her neglect is seen in their course of conduct. She has not government herself over them, and she is too sensitive if others seek to control them.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 15)
Brother Stockton has not the best way of dealing with children, but his management is far better than that they have had. But he has done a serious wrong in consenting to have in his house children that he was not permitted to correct their wrongs. These children are developing as Satan’s agents. They are forming characters that will certainly be punished with the plagues, that will come upon the earth as virtually as Eli’s sons fell beneath the wrath of God and the Father, also because he neglected his duty. The children knew that the mother did not approve or allow her children to be controlled. This they have taken advantage of to train as they pleased, to lie, deceive and steal, and practice iniquity and think it is smart and cunning. They have no sense of sin.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 16)
These children need strict discipline, but Sister Davison feels no necessity of disciplining herself, of governing herself, and therefore does not feel the importance of bringing up her children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Sister Davison has good impulses and thinks she is a Christian, but she is deceived. She needs converting grace, or she will be weighed in the balance and found wanting. Her combatant spirit which is so easily stirred must be subdued by the grace of God.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 17)
It is of the highest importance that the training of children be right. How essential that that government is correct which lays the foundation to character and principle. The foundation of character for life and for eternity is laid in childhood through parental discipline. Well-instructed, well-ordered, and well-governed families are preparing the way for unity and harmony and well-disciplined churches. No church can be in a prosperous state long at a time composed of members whose training in their childhood was sadly deficient and they have not overcome the evil. If family order and subordination are generally neglected, society feels the neglect, but in a special manner is the religious experience and religious life of these neglected ones molded by their training in childhood. It is in families at the fireside [that] the great and telling work for the church is done. Indulgent parents foster a spirit of self-love, selfishness, and independence by allowing their children to be their equals and to have their own way, which traits of character are carried into the religious experience.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 18)
It is at home by the fireside where parents mold the tempers of their children for good or evil. Here parents should be self-possessed and exercise perfect control over themselves, then may they undertake to control and govern others. Nothing should be done through caprice or passion. Calm and dispassionate, unmoved by revenge or uninfluenced by hatred, parents should rule well their own house, having their children in subjection with all gravity. This cuts off the idea of making children the equal of the parents. The words of Solomon are important. “He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” [Proverbs 16:32.]
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 19)
Parents should be guarded and not change their feelings at every circumstance, sometimes calm, and composed, indulgent, and lenient to their children by petting and praising them, then quick, passionate, and censuring for little misdemeanors.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 20)
Sister _____ was not trained. She was unfortunate enough to be left to come up undisciplined and untrained. She did not learn to bear the yoke in her youth, and now how hard for her to govern her spirit, how hard for her to love care and the taxing of the mind. As the twig is bent, the tree inclines. But there must be earnest, zealous, constant effort to press against the evils which have become natural as her breath. All this spirit is contrary to the Spirit of God. They are like rank weeds which have gained a start and are in danger of overtopping and rooting out the precious plants. The Spirit of God needs to be cherished in order to grow.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 21)
These sisters should be alarmed for themselves. They are poorly fitted to bear the burdens of life and the trials, which they meet in everyday life, and perfect Christian character. How could their spirit harmonize with the spirit of the heavenly angels? Every redeemed saint will have perfected Christian character in the probationary time given them of God. Satan has had to be met by them and vanquished. But the conqueror, what a victory gained, what a crown of glory obtained for the successful conquest they have endured.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 22)
The people of God are stupid and as it were paralyzed. They do not sense sin. They do not see the grievous character of sin and how offensive is sin in the sight of God. Impatience, stubborn independence, working at cross purposes with one another, suffering emulation, discord, and strife to be developed, God sees, God knows. The angels of God mark these defects, and the judgment will reveal what a spotted record [is recorded] in heaven. The pure in heart alone can see God.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 23)
That which is worthless and evil grows spontaneously; whatever is precious and valuable requires labor—constant, diligent work. The symmetrical character does not come naturally; it is of slow growth, the reward of industrious, patient toil, a daily dying to self. Moral culture through Jesus’ merits alone will bring the desired harvest. The knowledge and cultivation of the minds of our children should make parents feel a weight of responsibility that will drive them to God in prayer.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 24)
Could parents see and feel, as I was made to see and feel, the consequence of the neglect of their God-given duty, there would not be such pampering and indulgence of children. My heart yearns for the youth to come to Jesus. And I know the greatest reason why a large number do not come is because of the deficient training they have had in their youth. They have been self-indulged and feel that they have command of themselves, and can do and act as they please and are irresponsible to anyone, even to their Creator, for their time and strength and means.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 25)
Submission [and] obedience are lessons which all youth should be familiar with, but they are not. The noblest work of God upon the earth was man formed in the image of his Creator, but there is nothing of worth in the image of the man. It is the mind that makes the man. The moral excellence of man is attained only as the reward of hard labor. First, the unremitting labor of their parents on them devolves the responsibility of the formation of correct taste, habits, and manners of their children. Their views are to be widened, enlarged; the judgment ripened and the intellect strengthened to understand the battles of life and how to grapple with its problems. The mind is to be improved. The talent (that) the children possess should be understood by the parents and brought into exercise. Mothers have their hands on the cradle that rocks the world. It is a sad fact that the time so very precious in forming the mind and manners of children which shall fit them for the responsibilities of life is frittered away upon unimportant, manufactured cares and burdens in needless display of the outward adornings.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 26)
Beauty is heaven’s gift. It is not to be despised, but the outward grace may be estimated as we read the apostle’s caution, “Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of the wearing of gold, or of the putting on of apparel, but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit.”1 Peter 3:3. How many sacrifice peace of mind, a pleasant temper, health and happiness to the care and anxiety of the externals. The beauty of character, the loveliness of temper, God estimates of higher value, of great price. The development of perfect character should be our aim and nothing short of this.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 27)
The lax government in households God frowns upon. The lax discipline in churches is the cause of the moral declension we see in the Christian world. The religion which now prevails is running in the same channel of the lax, deficient government in households. It is an easy, careless religion, an outward show of conformity to the requirements of God, but without heart consecration, where are the conflicts of soul, the wrestling with God, the self-denial and self-sacrifice. Where is the walking, trembling, and fearing lest we shall come short of the recompense of reward? What do we see in the conversions now that answer to the pangs of the new birth? Where is the deep and pungent conviction that is answerable to death of the old life, death of the old man? Where is that desperate struggle with inclination and desire day by day for a power that can bind the adversary and make them free?
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 28)
The modern conversions of the present time are mostly spurious. There does not come in the new life ... [sentence unfinished]. It was this warfare which led Paul to say, “I die daily.” [1 Corinthians 15:31.] His desires, his selfish nature had to meet with a daily crucifixion. Indwelling sin was constantly striving for the mastery while he was grasping the grace of God by faith and by self-control, subduing the carnal mind. The follower of Christ will be constantly aspiring after holiness, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, being earnest to reflect the image of Christ, to tread in His footsteps and overcome as Christ overcame.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 29)
Paul’s experience in the Christian life should be our experience. Paul trampled under his feet every interest which conflicted with his duty. He laid aside every weight. What things he counted gain to himself he counted loss for Christ.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 30)
My sister, the truth of God has been brought nigh you, and you have been as it were flooded with it. Many receive the truth, but at the same time are not sanctified by it, because they have not the love of the truth in the heart and see not the necessity of carrying it out in the discharge of duty. Indifference to the truths of eternal interest, which relates to the salvation of men, prevails to an alarming extent. Minds seem paralyzed to these things which are of the highest importance. The sacred truths for these last days are awful realities which should be valued above every earthly consideration. For the sanctifying influence of truth the ancients labored and died. Earnest men and women are wanted who feel the truth and who act the truth.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 31)
There is a wilfulness with many, an earnestness to gratify caprice or follow their own wills, a perseverance to accomplish their own selfish interest, but who are quite indifferent in regard to the holy principles of truth.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 32)
Brother Stockton has a very good knowledge of the truth and can explain the truth in a very acceptable manner, but he is sadly deficient in the essential qualifications of a missionary or a preacher. He has not felt the evils resulting from a lack of prompt exactitude in all his business relations, and the same lax, loose way would be carried into his work in connection with the sacred work and cause of God which would bring disgrace upon the cause of truth.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 33)
A recklessness in reference to the work of God is a sin which God will not tolerate. Sterling integrity is essential for all those who engage in God’s work. There is not a nice discrimination with Brother Stockton between his own temporal business and the business which relates to the cause of God. He would bring it all upon a level unless he is a transformed man. He needs the refining, purifying fire to kindle upon him and to consume the dross and tin which compose a large part of his character.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 34)
Brother Stockton has excellent impulses, but he needs very much done for him besides this, or he will be unfaithful in the littles and unfaithful in the weightier responsibilities. He that is unfaithful in that which is least is unfaithful in much. Brother Stockton needs to dig deeper and lay his foundation sure upon the eternal Rock, or his house will surely fall by the floods of temptation and through the specious devices of the enemy. He needs to soften and sweeten his temper. He needs self-control. He should not seek to dictate, but to win. He needs a transformation of the Spirit of God. He needs to fall upon the rock and be broken, or it will fall on him and grind him to powder. Unless Brother Stockton can be lifted up, out, and away from himself, he will surely perish in an evil way. He will have to strive harder than he ever has yet if he overcomes the wily foe.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 35)
Brother Edwards and his wife are not happy, and their difficulties will increase as long as they are unwilling to die to self. If they cherish their own unsanctified tempers and are so far from God, they will be shadows of darkness to each other. Their only hope of happiness in this life and in the life to come is to experience the mysteries of the new birth. Ye must be born again, not only of the water, but of the Spirit. Oh, how little this inexperienced couple knows of the influences of the Spirit of God upon the heart.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 36)
Brother Edwards has had habits of dissipation; dissolute, reckless, intemperance. As he looks upon his child, he may there see the consequence of his own unsanctified life. The parents have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge. These drops of gall in his cup of sinful indulgence should lead to such candid conviction as would cause deep penitence and thorough reform. This young man has not felt like tasking himself to self-control. A most bitter, wretched life is before him in this world and the judgment of God in his condemnation when the judgment shall sit and the books be opened and he shall be judged according to things written in the books. He has a hard battle to overcome self, and he cannot do this in his own strength. He may be a conqueror in the name of Jesus; through His merits he may overcome.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 37)
I saw that Brother Edwards would yield up his faith, dishonor God, bring ruin to himself and to his family, unless he firmly and resolutely adopted habits of strict temperance in his eating and drinking. The heart is the fountain which needs to be cleansed. Out of the heart proceedeth evil thoughts and evil acts. If the heart fountain is pure, the streams issuing from it will be pure, not sour and muddy and tainted.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 38)
The church at San Francisco has too many in its midst who need to be purified as Christ purified the temple. They have made the temple of God a place of general defilement. The grace of God does not sanctify and purify the heart. The words are what, Brother Edwards? What are they? How stands the words written in the books of heaven?
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 39)
You must face right about, or you are lost. To dally now, to hesitate, is certain ruin. You must plant your feet firmly upon the platform of self-denial and temperance in all things. If you will cringe and blush by the taunts of men; if you will be ashamed and put down by the defiant, reckless, dissolute speeches and influences of those who boast of their shameless life, you may say farewell to heaven. You will be soon lost to virtue, to character, or peace of mind, and to all prospect of heaven. You will stand forth as a revolting spectacle who fell under temptation because you did not arm yourself with watchfulness and prayer.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 40)
You are too much affected by a jeer. You have thought it slavish to be always fearing and trembling lest you shall do something wrong. The very ones whom you may consent to be led by into wrong will laugh at your weakness and despise you for the very thing they led you to do. Your yielding to them to go in an evil way lowered you in their estimation. You have learned ways of life and habits of speech and modes of thought which have been so many lodestones to drag you back to your former life of intemperance and sin, step after step. I saw you taking to darkness and perdition. You were degraded in your own eyes. While the worthless for a time may applaud, the heartless and vulgar and hell-bound will exult, but what have you gained? Freedom, nobleness, manhood? Oh, no, these were sacrificed to become a slave to Satan’s devices. You became an unhappy, disappointed man for the pleasures of sin. You must have fixed resolutions to be firm to principle. Touch not, taste not, handle not. And shun the society of the depraved, the worthless, as you would a viper. When asked to join their evil practices, say, No, no, decidedly no. Answer the tempter’s voice, “I love God, I fear Him. I will not disobey or dishonor Him for any favor man can bestow. I love truth and purity, and I will not soil my conscience and poison my heart by indulgence of sins that embitter the best hours of life and make my family wretched, and which close forever to me the doors of heaven.”
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 41)
You have not any right to be a husband and a father while you have not self-control, but are a slave to appetite and passion.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 42)
Choose ye, young man, this day whom ye will serve, God or mammon.
(2LtMs, Ms 2, 1875, 43)
Ms 3, 1875
Testimony Concerning Brother Littlejohn Battle Creek, Michigan January 15, 1875 Previously unpublished.
I was shown, January 3, that our dear Brother Littlejohn was going into darkness. He has been a great sufferer. Our heavenly Father saw that His servant was [not] as humble and distrustful of himself as was needful for him to be to receive instruction from instrumentalities that he employs to counsel, guide, and reprove that he might perfect Christian character. He permitted in His providence His servant to pass through the furnace to purify him and to save him.
(2LtMs, Ms 3, 1875, 1)
Brother Littlejohn has a very independent mind, which will lead him, unless he is subdued by the Spirit of God, to refuse to receive instruction or counsel which will cross his ideas. He thinks he would sacrifice his right of private judgment if he should yield his ideas and plans to accept the judgment and views of any other man.
(2LtMs, Ms 3, 1875, 2)
We are all subject to error and mistakes. Bro. Littlejohn is an erring, fallible mortal man, needing instruction, correction, and counsel of his brethren as any other man whom God loves. Brother Littlejohn is a man of determined will. He seldom ever gives up that his way is not perfect and right. He takes the position not in words, but [in] actions of infallibility. He will carry out what he has undertaken at any cost, for it is next to an impossibility for Brother Littlejohn to yield or give up his opinion. Plain facts and reason seem alike powerless to convince him he is not right, and he will maintain his opinion against the clearest proof and will stand in opposition to the body. This bears not the marks of God’s hand. The Word of God will not justify this extreme independence. This is one-man power indeed which would claim that everything must bend to this one mind, this one will.
(2LtMs, Ms 3, 1875, 3)
Brother Littlejohn concentrates his mind on one point and keeps it upon one point, giving it the strength of his thoughts until he feels that there can be nothing which will move the arguments which he has prepared to fortify his position. Here is his danger of refusing to be taught, refusing to allow that the light that others see and cherish is of any special weight because it does not coincide with his ideas.
(2LtMs, Ms 3, 1875, 4)
Brother Littlejohn is a man beloved of God, but he is going beyond the reach of God’s ordained means to reach men, to correct them, and keep them from error and apostasy. God saw that there was gold in Brother Littlejohn, but there was also dross that needed to be consumed by the fiery furnace. He has permitted affliction to come upon His loved son, the most severe, the most trying, which He has borne with patience, but yet has failed to see the design of God, that he had a work to do to die to self, to submit to God, to yield his will to search and see what course he was taking that God could not approve.
(2LtMs, Ms 3, 1875, 5)
I was shown that from about the time of the Oneida camp meeting, Elder Littlejohn's mind has been disturbed and perplexed upon some points and exercised in a direction that has not been productive of good to himself or to other souls. Brother Andrews is responsible, too, for the result of sowing seed of doubt, of perplexity and unbelief in a blind man's mind, which has there been taking root until it has sprung up and has been producing its fruit—the [lack of] confidence and certainty and assurance that God was in the work and rise of this cause and in its successful accomplishment. A train of thought was started which has been helped on by others until Elder Littlejohn stands in a perilous position. He is not only in great danger of resisting the means which God has employed to correct the wrongs and errors of His people, but he is endangering other souls who have confidence in him to despise reproof, despise discipline and unity. He has entered upon a work that every step he advances, he gathers about his soul darkness and evil angels. God ever has had a voice of reproof among His people. There will ever be those who will wish to follow the bent of their own unconsecrated hearts and [remainder missing].
(2LtMs, Ms 3, 1875, 6)
Ms 4, 1875
Trials of James White NP 1875 Previously unpublished.
I was shown in 1875, at the time of Elder Littlejohn’s disaffection, some things in regard to the present and the future. While a spirit of jealousy, evil surmisings, and criticism was prevailing in Battle Creek and other places, I saw that if my husband would stand firmly, putting his trust wholly in God, he would not be overcome.
(2LtMs, Ms 4, 1875, 1)
There was a Witness in every assembly for meetings, in every house, in every spot and place, and a register was kept of all the words and actions of the children of men. While some were surely working under temptation to discourage my husband and weaken his influence, he had in Battle Creek many strong friends who would not be influenced against him, and the Lord God of hosts would not suffer his feet to be moved, his spirits to be broken. If he would put his entire confidence in God, He would not allow the actions of the tempted ones who were being employed by the enemy to do his work, to weaken his influence in reality. Their words were unjust, their feelings strong and unreasonable. An infatuation was upon them.
(2LtMs, Ms 4, 1875, 2)
They could not see that they were murmurers, slanderers, helping the enemy to weaken the faith and courage and hope of the servant of God; but just as certainly as he looked to Jesus and trusted in Him, he would have moral power. And more, the Lord would give him physical strength to do a good and great work in connection with the publishing house and His cause in general.
(2LtMs, Ms 4, 1875, 3)
It is the Lord who has chosen him and made him a man of wisdom and experience among a thousand. He has schooled him in adversity. He has given him clear foresight, penetrating insight into matters and things connected with His cause. The Lord had, in His providence, made him one of God’s men, a man of opportunity, a man for the place, possessing executive ability in a large degree.
(2LtMs, Ms 4, 1875, 4)
But the Lord alone can sanctify and make his talents wholly efficient by His indwelling Spirit. It is his strength to take everything to God in prayer, and He will hear him when he prays. God lays no burdens upon any one so heavy that he cannot find time to pray, for prayer is drawing in the vital breath of heaven. Then while looking in holy faith and perfect trust to the Author and Finisher of his faith, he must feel that his prayers are heard; he must take God at His word. He must not ponder over the defections of his brethren; he must not be discouraged as he sees apparent defects in their characters, for if he does this he unconsciously loses the elevating, upholding power that carries him above all that would discourage.
(2LtMs, Ms 4, 1875, 5)
The unfaithfulness of some who claim to believe the truth seems to him strangely inconsistent with their profession of faith and their course of unconsecrated action. He deals with these decidedly and sharply, for he cannot tolerate them. The ones reproved and unconsecrated turn from him and regard him as their enemy. The men who ought to have helped him did not do their duty and stand in their lot and place and give their support to that which was wholly right. The unjust murmurings and complaints of those who knew better than to do as they did, have been to him like drops of bitterness and gall. He has felt wounded and bruised. He has pondered these things, grieved over them, poured out his soul in prayer, and has nearly fretted his life away, while some looked upon his hurt soul and were not grieved, but exultant. Again and again has the Lord raised him up and spared his life to help forward the work, to lead onward and upward as the providence of God opened the way.
(2LtMs, Ms 4, 1875, 6)
Said my accompanying angel, God is leading out a people onward and upward to holiness and heaven. Satan, the leader of all disaffection, of all rebellion, tempted Eve in Eden and through her tempted Adam from his holy innocency and purity to believe a lie in the place of believing the truth. He is doing the same work with double earnestness and zeal today, for he knows that his time is short, and he will increase his efforts in the place of diminishing them.
(2LtMs, Ms 4, 1875, 7)
Oh, how Satan has used every agent he could employ to cause disaffection and break up the confidence of our people in the testimonies. If he could strike my husband away from the work, if he could silence his voice, if he could palsy the power of the hand that traced the burning words of truth in the papers, books, and pamphlets, what a triumph he would have! And some who have been warned and reproved would also triumph with the great adversary of souls.
(2LtMs, Ms 4, 1875, 8)
Satan has worked through his various channels to accomplish this evil work. God will permit men of limited experience in every way to come in, men who do not know how to walk by faith, men who do not have the spirit of self-denial and sacrifice. Satan could insinuate himself and a mold be given to the work and workers contrary to that which the Lord has been constantly setting before His people in His Word and through the testimonies of His Spirit.
(2LtMs, Ms 4, 1875, 9)
The Lord has hitherto exercised a special supervision over His servant, because he looked to Him constantly for counsel, holding in check the devices of Satan and that his enemies shall not triumph. There is a necessity for some one of experience, whom the Lord has been leading and directing by His voice, to have a leading, holding influence among His people. There are occasions when it would be sin to withhold reproof, to withhold rebukes. There is a need of men who have excellent judgment in the ways and works of God, who will, in the Spirit of Christ, set in order things that Satan is constantly at work to derange and confuse. He would put his own mold and superscription upon the work and have it pass for the mold and superscription of God.
(2LtMs, Ms 4, 1875, 10)
There will be those among us who will never submit to be reproved or to be counseled any more than did Satan in heaven or Judas upon earth. The first intimation of questioning their course drives them to retaliation, murmuring, and a spirit of self-justification and revenge by separating themselves from the work. Thus it was with ancient Israel; thus will it be with modern Israel. Some will not submit to be disciplined. They are not in the habit of being thwarted or opposed in any of their plans. Nevertheless this is no evidence that reproof is not needed and that strict discipline should not be exercised. This is not an agreeable work, but a work that is essential to the prosperity and health of all our institutions and for the salvation of the soul. But there are men who are full of defects, who when reproved are stubborn, self-righteous. These will never see heaven if they are not converted.
(2LtMs, Ms 4, 1875, 11)
Many have placed my husband in a false position and have done all that they could do to hurt and bruise his soul and destroy his influence; and when he becomes discouraged and grieves over the mistakes and sins of his brethren, those who have done him wrong rejoice to see him feeble in physical and spiritual power and say, There, you see what a spirit he manifests? In the days of Christ, He—the Majesty of heaven—was watched to find occasion against Him. The most was made of any words He might utter, to array them against Him, misinterpreting not only His words, but His motives. So it has been in our experience.
(2LtMs, Ms 4, 1875, 12)
These things were weakening my husband’s courage, and therefore his heart’s action was enfeebled and his hold of life weakening. These temptations to a worn mind, to a man who had been in active warfare so many years and bore the scars of the conflicts through which he had passed, were exceedingly painful for him to endure. He kept speaking of the injustice of these things. They were among the furnace trials to purify and refine us and should not rob us of hope.
(2LtMs, Ms 4, 1875, 13)
I was shown that Satan’s power has its limits. The Lord permits him to go so far in tempting, and no further. He puts His boundaries beyond which Satan cannot pass.
(2LtMs, Ms 4, 1875, 14)
My husband sinks down into a discouraged state of mind, dwells upon the dark side, and is strongly tempted to murmur and complain of his brethren. They really give him occasion to be tried and tempted and to think he is nearly friendless. I have been shown at such times for his encouragement that he has an unfailing Friend in Jesus Christ, who was full of tender pity, sympathy, and love. The iron of indifference, the coldness and unsympathetic spirit were never seen in the words or in the deportment of Jesus Christ. His heart was ever touched with human woe. He was not a Friend merely to a select few, but to the ones who needed a friend. The ones who needed help and lifting up received it. His heart was open to receive all the burdens, all the woes and griefs of poor, wounded, bruised souls. His arm was not shortened that it could not save. His ear was not heavy that it could not hear. He never turned impatiently away from those who asked His counsel, He never repelled a repenting soul. His arm was mighty to save, strong to deliver, and He has given His pledged word never to turn from or to treat indifferently and unfeelingly any who solicit His attention and His help.
(2LtMs, Ms 4, 1875, 15)
The clouds and darkness that sometimes enshrouded the pathway of my husband were not to evidence the displeasure of God. He must look up through the dark shadow that Satan casts before his pathway to eclipse the view of Jesus, that he shall not look upon His precious, gracious, forgiving image and see His glory. The words of Jesus to him are: “Look and live.” [Numbers 21:8.] “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” [Matthew 28:20.] “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”Hebrews 13:5. I heard His voice, saying, “Fear not, neither be dismayed.”Deuteronomy 31:8. “I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee (by My free Spirit); yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My righteousness.”Isaiah 41:10. “I pledge My word, I will be to thee a present help in every time of need, if My servant will only trust in Me and cleave to Me and resign himself into My hands. Let him leave in My hands his brethren who have not clear discernment, who had not the tenderness and love of Jesus, for I judge righteously. Be strong in the strength of the Mighty One. The eye of faith must be uplifted from the annoying, aggravating things which Satan instigates unconsecrated men to do. Trust ye in My love. Look, ever look, and the bright beams of the Sun of righteousness will shine upon you.
(2LtMs, Ms 4, 1875, 16)
“Since the world was cursed by sin, it is no longer a paradise of virtue and innocence and holiness. The fragrance and beauty has departed, and its inhabitants defile the earth, and the curse is continually multiplying upon it because of the sins of the inhabitants thereof. The people who claim to know Me and to have a knowledge of My ways are asleep. They do not see, they do not consider the dangers, and discern not the workings of the adversary of souls.
(2LtMs, Ms 4, 1875, 17)
“The neglect of prayer, the neglect of being God’s witnesses, will weaken moral power for exercise in spiritual things, in spiritual strength, in spiritual growth. Neglect of religious duties as God’s witnesses must not be seen in any men who bear responsible positions in connection with the work of God. This neglect imperils the soul, weakens faith, separates the soul from the Source of its strength and its power. This is the very thing Satan desires—that the working, living agents shall cease to watch, cease to pray, cease to take an active part in religious meetings—and Satan has the door all open to find ready access, to impress mind, and to lead to doing many things that displease God; and they become an offense to Him.”
(2LtMs, Ms 4, 1875, 18)
Ms 5, 1875
Parents as Reformers NP 1875 Formerly Undated Ms 132. Portions of this manuscript are published in 3T 560-570; 2MCP 394.
God has permitted the light of health reform to shine upon us in these last days, that by walking in the light we may escape many of the dangers to which we shall be exposed. Satan is working with great power to lead men to indulge appetite, gratify inclination, and spend their days in heedless folly. He presents attractions in a life of selfish enjoyment, and in the indulgence of the sensual passions. Licentiousness prevails to an alarming extent, not only ruining the physical constitution, but debasing the moral powers. Intemperate indulgence saps the energies of both mind and body. He who is thus overcome has placed himself upon Satan’s ground, where he will be tempted and annoyed, and finally controlled at pleasure by the enemy of all righteousness.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 1)
Satan comes to man, as he came to Christ, with the temptation to indulge appetite. He well knows his power to overcome man on this point. It was here that he overcame Adam and Eve in Eden. And what misery and crime have filled the world in consequence of their transgression! Thousands have prematurely gone down to the grave, mental and moral wrecks, because they sacrificed all their powers to the indulgence of appetite.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 2)
Notwithstanding the earnest efforts to stay its progress, intemperance is increasing everywhere. The means that have been used are insufficient to control its giant power. The work of temperance must begin in the family, at the table. Mothers need to be impressed with their obligation to give to the world children having well-developed character—children who will have moral power to resist temptation and whose life will be an honor to God and a blessing to their fellow men. Those who enter upon active life with firm principles will be prepared to stand unsullied amid the moral pollutions of this corrupt age. Let mothers improve every opportunity to educate their children for usefulness.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 3)
The work of the mother is sacred and important. She should teach her children, from the cradle up, habits of self-denial and self-control. Her time in a special sense belongs to her children. But if it is mostly occupied with the follies of this degenerate age, if society, dress, and amusements absorb her attention, her children will fail to be suitably educated.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 4)
Many mothers who deplore the intemperance that exists everywhere do not look deep enough to see the cause. Too often it may be traced to the home table. Many a mother is daily setting before her household rich and highly seasoned food, which tempts the appetite and encourages overeating. Even some who profess to be Christians provide food which irritates the stomach and produces a feverish condition of the blood. Our bodies are formed from what we eat. The diet of children should be unstimulating. Give them plenty of fruit and wholesome grains nicely prepared. In some families, flesh meats constitute the principle article of diet, and in consequence the blood is filled with cancerous and scrofulous humors. Then when suffering and disease come, Providence is charged with that which is the effect of a wrong course. I repeat: intemperance begins at the table, and with the majority appetite is indulged until indulgence becomes second nature.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 5)
Whoever eats too much, or of food which is not healthful, is weakening his power to resist the clamors of other appetites and passions. Many parents, to avoid the task of patiently educating their children to habits of self-denial, indulge them in eating and drinking whenever they please. The tendency to excessive indulgence, unless positively restrained, will grow with the growth and strengthen with the strength. The desire to please the taste and to gratify inclination does not lessen with the increase of years, and these indulged youth, as they grow up, are governed by impulse, slaves to appetite. When they take their place in society, and begin life for themselves, they are powerless to resist temptation. In the glutton, the tobacco-devotee, the winebibber, and the inebriate, we see the evil results of erroneous education and self-indulgence.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 6)
When we hear the sad lamentation of Christian men and women over the terrible evils of intemperance, the questions at once arise: Who have educated the youth? Who have fostered in them these unruly appetites? Who have neglected the solemn responsibility of forming their characters for usefulness in this life and for the society of heavenly angels in the next?
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 7)
When parents and children meet at the final reckoning, what a scene will be presented! Thousands of children who have been slaves to appetite and debasing vice, whose lives are moral wrecks, will stand face to face with the parents who made them what they are. Who but the parents must bear this fearful responsibility? Did the Lord make these youth corrupt? Oh, no! He made them in His own image, a little lower than the angels. Who, then, has done this fearful work? Who changed their character, so that they do not bear the impress of God, and must be separated from His presence? Were not the sins of the parents transmitted to the children in perverted appetites and passions? and was not the work completed by those [who] neglected to train them according to the pattern which God has given? Just as surely as they exist, all these parents will pass in review before God.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 8)
Satan is ready to do his work; he will not neglect to present allurements which the children have no will or moral power to resist. I saw that, through his temptations, he is instituting everchanging fashions, and attractive parties and amusements, that mothers may be led to devote their time to frivolous matters instead of to the education and training of their children. Our youth need mothers who will teach them from the cradle to control passion, to deny appetite, and to overcome selfishness. They need line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 9)
The Hebrews were taught how to train their children so that they might avoid the idolatry and wickedness of the heathen nations: “Therefore shall ye lay up these My words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” [Deuteronomy 11:18, 19.]
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 10)
Woman should fill the position which God originally designed for her as her husband's equal. The world needs mothers who are mothers not merely in name, but in every sense that the word implies.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 11)
We may safely say that the distinctive duties of woman are more sacred, more holy, than those of man.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 12)
There are speculations as to woman’s rights, and her duty in regard to voting; but many women have had no discipline which would qualify them to understand the bearing of important questions. They have lived a life of fashion and self-gratification. Women who might develop a good intellect, who might perfect a noble character, are mere slaves to custom. They lack breadth of thought and intellectual culture. They can talk understandingly of the latest styles of dress, or of the next party or ball. But they are not prepared to act wisely in political matters; they are mere creatures of circumstance. This order of things should be changed. Let woman realize the sacredness of her work, and in the strength and fear of God take up her life mission. Let her educate her children for usefulness in this world, and for a home in the better world.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 13)
The position of a woman in her family is more sacred than that of the king upon his throne. Her great work is to make her life an example such as she would wish her children to copy. And by precept as well as example, she is to store their minds with useful knowledge and lead them to self-sacrificing labor for the good of others. The great stimulus to the toiling, burdened mother should be that every child who is trained aright, and who has the inward adorning, the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, will shine in the courts of the Lord.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 14)
I entreat Christian mothers to realize their responsibility and to live, not to please themselves, but to glorify God. Christ pleased not Himself, but took upon Him the form of a servant. He left the royal courts, and clothed His divinity with humanity, that by His own example He might teach us how we may be exalted to the position of sons and daughters in the royal family, children of the heavenly King. But what are the conditions upon which we may obtain this great blessing?—“Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean; and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters.” [2 Corinthians 6:17, 18.]
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 15)
Christ humbled Himself from the position of one equal with God to that of a servant. His home was in Nazareth, a place proverbial for its wickedness. His parents were among the lowly poor. His trade was that of a carpenter, and He labored with His hands to do His part in sustaining the family. For thirty years He was subject to His parents. The life of Christ points out our duty to be diligent in labor and to provide for those entrusted to our care.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 16)
In His lessons of instruction to His disciples, Jesus taught them that His kingdom is not a worldly kingdom, where all are striving for the highest position; He gave them lessons in humility and self-sacrifice for the good of others. His humility did not consist in a low estimate of His own character and qualifications, but in adapting Himself to fallen humanity in order to raise them up with Him to a higher life. Yet how few see anything attractive in the humility of Christ! Worldlings are constantly striving to exalt themselves one above another; but Jesus, the Son of God, humbled Himself in order to uplift man. The true disciple of Christ will follow His example.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 17)
Would that the mothers of this generation might feel the sacredness of their mission, not trying to vie with their wealthy neighbors in appearance, but seeking to honor God by the faithful performance of duty. If right principles in regard to temperance were implanted in the youth who are to form and mold society, there would be little necessity for temperance crusades. Firmness of character, moral control would prevail, and in the strength of Jesus the pollutions of these last days would be resisted.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 18)
It is a most difficult matter to unlearn the habits which have been indulged through life. The demon of intemperance is of giant strength and is not easily conquered. But let parents begin the crusade against it at their own firesides, in their own families, in the principles they teach their children from their very infancy, and then they may hope for success. It will pay you, mothers, to use the precious hours which are given you by God in forming the character of your children and in teaching them to adhere strictly to the principles of temperance in eating and drinking.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 19)
A sacred trust is committed to parents, to guard the physical and moral constitution of their children, so that the nervous system may be well balanced and the soul not endangered. Fathers and mothers should understand the laws of life, that they may not, through ignorance, allow wrong tendencies to develop in their children. The diet affects both physical and moral health. How carefully, then, should mothers study to supply the table with the most simple, healthful food, in order that the digestive organs may not be weakened, the nerve forces unbalanced, or the instruction which they give their children counteracted.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 20)
In health reform our people have been retrograding. Satan sees that he cannot have so great power over minds when the appetite is kept under control as when it is indulged, and he is constantly at work to lead men to indulgence. Under the influence of unhealthful food, the conscience becomes stupefied, the mind is darkened, and its susceptibility to impressions is impaired. But the guilt of the transgressor is not lessened because the conscience has been violated till it has become insensible. Satan is corrupting minds and destroying souls through his subtle temptations. Will our people see and feel the sin of perverting the appetite? Will they discard all hurtful indulgences, and let the means thus saved be devoted to spreading the truth?
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 21)
Since a healthy state of mind depends upon the normal condition of the vital forces, what care should be exercised that neither stimulants nor narcotics be used! Yet we see that a large number of those who profess to be Christians are using tobacco. They deplore the evils of intemperance, yet while speaking against the use of liquors these very men will eject the juice of tobacco.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 22)
There must be a change of sentiment with reference to tobacco using before the ax will be laid at the root of the tree. We press the subject still closer. Tea and coffee are fostering the appetite for stronger stimulants. And we come still closer home, to the daily meals, the tables spread in Christian households, and ask, Is temperance practiced in all things? Are the reforms which are essential to health and happiness carried out there?
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 23)
Every true Christian will have control of his appetites and passions. Unless he is free from the bondage of appetite, he cannot be a true, obedient servant of Christ. The indulgence of appetite and passion blunts the effect of truth upon the heart. It is impossible for the spirit and power of the truth to sanctify a man, soul, body, and spirit, when he is controlled by sensual desires.
(2LtMs, Ms 5, 1875, 24)
Ms 6, 1875
Testimony Regarding Brother Ings NP Circa 1875 Previously unpublished.
There have been some things shown me that I feel it my duty to write for the benefit of Br. Ings and those connected with him. While my husband and myself were to be in Battle Creek, I did not feel much burden of the matter because Br. Ings would respect our advice and our testimony. But since we are to be absent from Battle Creek, we know not how long, I feel it to be duty to write out what has been shown me in regard to his case.
(2LtMs, Ms 6, 1875, 1)
The Lord loves Br. Ings. He is a strictly conscientous man, and has the fear of God before him. His soul responds to the truth, and he desires to carry out its principles in his life. He has a true heart. But there are strong points in his character which need to be softened and refined. He makes too much of the jots and tittles in life. He is exacting upon many things. In point of dress he is frequently too exacting. There are matters essential and profitable to dwell upon in the theory of truth, which he may bring to bear upon his own heart and life, and the hearts and lives of others, with good account. But when he makes small points of dress and peculiarities of dress a personal matter, he hurts his influence and injures the effect of the good he might do were he less observant and watchful of others’ conscience in these little things. He is in danger of overstraining in these things and making his conscience a criterion for others. Br. Ings must allow others to have a conscience as well as himself, and he must guard himself lest his suspicion and jealousy of his brethren lead him to give place to the enemy, and he mar the very work of God he wishes earnestly to build up.
(2LtMs, Ms 6, 1875, 2)
Sr. Ings has had trials in regard to these strong traits of character in her husband. While she has had the utmost confidence in his motives, she has feared the influence of his exacting traits upon others. Sr. Ings is more evenly balanced in this respect than her husband.
(2LtMs, Ms 6, 1875, 3)
Br. Ings, unless constantly balanced by minds that are more evenly organized, will be in danger of carrying things too far, and being an extremist. He is in danger of judging other mens’ consciences and binding upon others exacting burdens that God does not bind. As a people we have an unpopular faith which separates us from the world. We should be exceedingly cautious that we do not place ourselves, in our sympathies and views, so far from the world that we cannot reach them. Christ’s example is our pattern. His sympathies were identified with suffering humanity. He reached the sinful, helpless, and needy where they were, and He makes their necessities His own. There is danger of closing the door of access to souls by some exacting traits of character, which have an influence upon them of burdening restraint which they cannot for a moment think of enduring.
(2LtMs, Ms 6, 1875, 4)
The great principles of truth should be our subject; the worth of souls our burden. When souls are converted to the truth it commences to guide the conscience, gradually molding it, purifying, refining, and ennobling the life. But there is danger of wanting to gauge other mens’ opinions and views to our standard, when that standard may be very defective. Let the principles of truth suitably affect the heart and life and it will do the work of purifying and separating from the world. Br. Ings, I know, needed an experience in his religious life that he had not yet gained. He was severe in his criticism upon others, distrustful and jealous of the course of others unless they came in the channel of his ideas. If these defects could be seen and corrected, the influence of Br. Ings would be a greater blessing than it could be if he continued to view matters as he has done.
(2LtMs, Ms 6, 1875, 5)
Straight testimonies are needed, but God must choose His instruments who can judiciously and wisely reprove wrongs and correct the erring. It is not everyone who has the judgment and discretion to reprove and counsel. They will be so apt to make their own views and feelings paramount when their neighbors’ consciences may be even more correct than the one who would set himself up as a reprover.
(2LtMs, Ms 6, 1875, 6)
Never should we make items of dress a test of faith if the Christian character is in other respects consistent. These things will come in order without being crowded. The Lord would not have us crowd and press anyone. “My sheep,” says Christ, “hear My voice and they follow Me.” [John 10:27.] The voice of Christ woos and charms but does not command. You are too ready to bear down upon others to censure. You do not cultivate that winning manner, that loving spirit, that Jesus manifested. You must seek to win souls, for you can never compel them. Said the apostle who died for his faith, “I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some.” [1 Corinthians 9:22.] The salvation of the soul is precious. You must not repulse; you must not make yourself objectionable by your stern manners and by being so very set in your own way. Come just as near others as you can and yet preserve your integrity.
(2LtMs, Ms 6, 1875, 7)
Br. Ings, you need to cherish a kindly spirit. You should have words of encouragement for others. You should seek to bless and brighten their pathway. You should not cast a shadow of gloom. You should be cautious that you do not make the question of diet and dress essential to salvation. You may exalt the truth; you may exalt the law of God and exalt faith in Jesus Christ. These are vital points of truth. Diet and dress have their place, but they are not by any means to be made foremost and the prominent features of our religious faith. These are lesser duties. They must be handled with the greatest caution and must not be made a testing question.
(2LtMs, Ms 6, 1875, 8)
You abominate pride and a superficial character, but you must hide your strong feelings and not be ready to express your peculiar views and your strong feelings of disgust. You have a right to your opinion, but you have no right to force this opinion upon others. Your strong position has been a great hindrance to your wife. She might have been driven away from the truth where she could not be reached, had not God in His great mercy reached down His arm in love and pitying tenderness to draw her to Himself. You need both to be guarded and not be too ready to see the errors and failings of others.
(2LtMs, Ms 6, 1875, 9)
God will make you a blessing to others if you seek to be right with Him, and do not try to fix others over too much to meet your ideas. May God help you to leave others to God unless He gives you a word of encouragement to brighten their pathway. You may be a comfort and live in the hearts of your brethren. But Br. Ings must not take too much upon himself in seeking to set others right. This is not the work God has for him to do. He should look well to his own case, lay aside his suspicion and his jealousy, and see that he has the precious love and pitying tenderness that dwelt in the bosom of Jesus. This he needs to cultivate. All the rough edges and harsh surface must be removed by the planing knife of God. He must be right with God in seeking to be imbued with the gentleness of Christ. He is not in the way of duty in reproving, in making cutting remarks, in reining up others to his standard, and in making man an offender for a word. This is not the work God has given him to do.
(2LtMs, Ms 6, 1875, 10)
Br. Ings, you should soften your spirit and be less stern, and be less severe and less exacting or you will be a burden to the church instead of a help. You do not do justice to yourself, my brother. There are but few men who, beneath the surface, have a more tender, pitiful heart than yourself. You have received false ideas of duty, and stern duty you have thought demanded of you what God has not really required. Your manners must soften. You do not deserve the name of a stern, hard man, for you are not so at heart. Your words and your sternness belie the truly soft and tender love of your heart. This sternness and exacting in your intercourse with others is not required of you. Lay it off, Br. Ings. Love itself is the element to be mingled in all your duties from God.
(2LtMs, Ms 6, 1875, 11)
Do not feel compelled to rein yourself up to appear to others what you are not in reality. Cultivate a kindly expression of voice. You should throw into it a little more smoothness, make it a little more musical, and not so dictatorial, not overbearing. Let the music of love tone and moderate your voice to reach the heart rather than to repel and close the avenues of the soul against your influence. There are many men and women who have few enough kindly, loving words spoken to them. Few words of sympathy have ever fallen upon their ears. Speak sympathizingly to others and you will find your words cherished. Kind, loving words will subdue and break the hardest hearts and secure to you friends lasting and true. You must not rein up souls to your ideas. You peck at little things in point of dress and controvert the dress of your wife. You weary her patience needlessly and make points and raise issues that are not essential. You press and wound and grieve needlessly. God would have you reform upon these points, and allow others to a have a conscience in regard to their diet and dress as well as yourself.
(2LtMs, Ms 6, 1875, 12)
You are cultivating a spirit of watching and judging others which makes your labors very objectionable. You have not erred intentionally. God’s love is toward you. But all defects in your character must be remedied and your life be faultless before God. (I read this testimony for it correctly describes the case of others.)
(2LtMs, Ms 6, 1875, 13)
Ms 7, 1875
Separation From the World NP Circa 1875 Previously unpublished.
The angel repeated with solemnity these words: “He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after Me is not worthy of Me. He that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life for My sake shall find it.” [Matthew 10:37-39.]
(2LtMs, Ms 7, 1875, 1)
Those who are continually seeking to save their good name in the world, who dress, talk, and act like the world, and unite with the mass of professed Christians in order to have influence among them and to be approved of them, are seeking to save their lives.
(2LtMs, Ms 7, 1875, 2)
Every case passes in review before Christ in the heavenly sanctuary before He ceases to plead for man. Every name is repeated by the recording angel. Their moral worth is estimated, their acts and deeds are weighed in an even balance and they are rewarded according to their works. Those who served the world and who were ashamed of the cross of Christ, who studied their own convenience rather than the will of God, their names are read by the recording angel and they are pronounced unworthy of Christ’s protection and love, and their life is lost beyond redemption. The Prince of Life is ashamed of them and disowns them before His Father and His holy angels.
(2LtMs, Ms 7, 1875, 3)
Those who have left all to follow Christ in this world, denied themselves and endured reproach for His sake, choosing Christ before the world and every earthly friend, and esteem the cross of Christ greater riches than any worldly treasure, will save their lives. Their names are read by the recording angel and Jesus repeats their names with His own dear voice. He acknowledges them as His jewels before His Father and the heavenly host. They are counted worthy of everlasting life. Their every error and past sin is blotted out. Every transgression is covered, and He bids the angel with the writer’s inkhorn to place a mark or sign upon their foreheads that the destroying angel may pass them over and not hurt them. Then He gives another angel, clad in warlike garments, directions to go forth and follow the angel with the writer’s inkhorn and slay utterly old and young, both men, women, and little children. Those who were ashamed of Christ are appointed among the number to be cut down by the destroying angel. That name they cherished too highly to be given to Christ, that they wished to preserve to be honored by the world, they lose. It finds no place in the book of life. It lives not among the holy angels. It finds its place in the book of death to be lost among those appointed unto death.
(2LtMs, Ms 7, 1875, 4)
Ms 8, 1875
Testimony to E. H. Gaskill and Wife NP July 1875 Portions of this manuscript are published in 7MR 3.
I have been shown that Battle Creek was very deficient in men and women who possess the right stamp of character to make the various enterprises connected with the cause of God a success. Men are wanted who are not stereotyped, who do not feel that there is no need of expanding and advancing with the open providence of God. Men may connect with God’s sacred work who will be teachable, who will feel that they can and must learn.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 1)
God brings those whom He will accept in His service to the light, where their darkness and errors may be discovered and put away. He will bring them into a position where He can teach and prune and discipline them, that they may be fitted as men and women of trust. Although they have been deficient, yet God accepted them on condition that they would die daily to self and sanctify the Lord God in their hearts. He would have these persons regenerated, which is their only hope of working successfully in the cause of God and of reaching heaven at last.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 2)
Those who were called from other states and other places were not fitted for the work, but God brought them under different circumstances and amid different surroundings to prove and test them and reveal what was in their hearts and to develop character. If these were self-conceited and self-deceived, God would let light shine upon them that they might see; and if they were teachable and would be pruned by God to bear much fruit, He could make them persons of trust and use them to His glory. But some, who are self-deceived, blinded to their own defects of character, will resist the pruning knife of God because it hurts and wounds self. These are not the ones to connect with the sacred, important work of God in these days of peril. Self is too prominent. Self will not consent to be sacrificed. The very same traits of character which disconnect them from the work of God here—unless seen, unless felt—will unfit them to connect with heaven.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 3)
God wants men at Battle Creek who will be learners, and who will see the necessity of closely examining their own hearts, to see if they have a true understanding of themselves. Those who merely skim the surface of things are apt to be talkative, boastful, self-confident, although after they take a few steps they go beyond their depth. Men of the clearest minds and of the most solid worth, who have made great attainments, are men who generally will admit the weakness of their own understanding. Humility is the constant attendant of true virtue. Oh, how many professed followers of Christ pursue a course more because it is pleasing than because it is right! Their own feelings are consulted, rather than the glory of God. How hard for them to see in the light of reason and heaven, when duty leads one way and inclination another!
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 4)
God wants to connect with His cause in Battle Creek men who will be students, not men who have graduated; men whom God can teach, because they feel the need of being taught; men and women whom God can fit for usefulness and duty for the growing work of this great cause. Diligent students are needed, who are constantly acquiring knowledge themselves, learning how to do and how to work to the very best profit to their own souls and for the prosperity of the sacred cause of God; feeling its demands, realizing it is not standing still, but ever progressing onward, and that they must grow with its growth, strengthen with its strength. The responsibilities in connection with the cause and work of God are increasing with the advancement of the cause. Therefore workers in this cause must not stand still, but progress and develop and expand and have breadth as the work widens and deepens. Men and women may be and can be burden-bearers in this cause if they will. They may be filling their crown with stars that will never dim.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 5)
I was shown in my last testimony that Brother Gaskill in some respects may be fitted for superintendent at the Health Institute, in other respects he is not. He has neglected to educate and train his mind, because the task was not felt to be essential. He has a very defective memory, and time is wasted and very disagreeable things grow out of the lack of real thought and proper training of his mind. These qualities are very essential in a director of a Health Institute. It is important that the thoughts and mind be taxed with all that concerns the working of the Health Institute. To have memory play antics with a man in a responsible position will disqualify the man for that post of trust if there is no other lack.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 6)
Brother Gaskill can educate and train the mind. A man who is deficient in memory, and this defect cannot be remedied, is not more than half a man at best. Brother Gaskill is in danger of saying one thing to please and gain favor, and then take an entirely different view of the case when the person is not present. This is a species of dissembling, and very displeasing to God. He should never dissemble in the slightest degree in order to gain friendship and favor. He should cultivate moral courage and speak his true feelings frankly, in humbleness of mind, even if they do not harmonize with the sentiments of others. Frankness in a time of peril is true nobility of soul. Brother Gaskill has gained some victories in this respect, and yet he has a great work before him.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 7)
In some things Brother Gaskill will have to be constantly guarded, and discipline his mind, or he will make great failures. He is somewhat crafty, yet gives the appearance all the time of the utmost candor. He is too penurious in little deals. This shows a littleness of spirit. Brother Gaskill is not naturally devotional and spiritually minded. There is with all the Gaskill family too much of a surface work. They need to dig deep beneath the surface and have principles underlying the springs of action. They need to cultivate thoroughness. They cannot afford to make a mistake where eternal interests are involved. They all need to seek for a deep religious experience in the things of God. They want and must have a religion which changes the principles of the inner life. They need to cultivate humbleness of mind and have even the thoughts brought into subjection to the will of Christ. Cultivating humility and reverence of heart is the only successful way of controlling the life.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 8)
Brother Gaskill may do well at the Health Institute if he connects with God and makes earnest efforts to maintain spirituality and true-heart holiness. He should guard his life, keeping faithful sentinel over the avenues of the soul, against the temptations of Satan.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 9)
Brother Gaskill is not a caretaker, not a lover of real, stern labor. This he will shun if he can. He does not love taxation, and he has shunned responsibilities. He has let others bear burdens and take the brunt and has not trained his mind to thought. Brother Gaskill should not roll upon others the responsibility of keeping a lively religious interest in the Health Institute. This depends as much upon him as any one. If he lifts the burdens just when they should be lifted, much good will be seen as the result. Brother Gaskill has too great self-esteem. He must remember the strength and power of men lie not in the favorable external, but in the heavenly adornment of mind and spirit which will be exemplified externally. Self and pride must die, and Christ take the entire control of the citadel of heart and mind, if he is what God would have him to be. He must watch and pray and connect firmly with heaven, and then he can let his light shine. It costs too much for us to imperil the cause of God by our deficiencies. Connection with the world of light and of heaven will make him light and intelligent in reference to eternal interests.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 10)
Brother Gaskill, you have a self-pride which must be put away. I was pointed back to last summer. You then were guilty of double-dealing. You made statements to us which were not the real feeling of your heart. We believed you sincere and accordingly, as your true friends, worked, as we thought, to help you, when you took it the other way. You let self control you; you let feelings govern; you settled back. You were proved lacking very much in real interest and principle. In regard to religious duties, you did not come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty. You acted over Meroz, and yet you were the very one whom God would have made useful in His cause and in His work, had you surrendered your soul to Him and faithfully helped forward the cause and work as God has repeatedly shown those should who come to Battle Creek.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 11)
You followed the example of others before you. You were not a helper, but a burden. You and Sister Mary charged your own lack upon the church at Battle Creek. You were disposed to charge your lack of freedom upon Battle Creek. You did not feel liberty. This lack of liberty was in yourselves. Were there obstacles here to surmount, you would have been blessed in climbing the hill. God was not pleased with your course. Self lay at the foundation of it all. Was this the reliability of the picked men? This course pursued makes it worse for Battle Creek than before you came.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 12)
Brother Abbey’s deficiencies are before you. If you fail you are without excuse. You should make every effort to correct where Brother Abbey made grave mistakes. Brother Gaskill has not that inflammable quality of character some have, which would lead to getting angry and into a strife of words, to become impatient and harsh and unkind. He will seek to preserve peace at any sacrifice, even of truth itself. Here he carries the matter too far. He acts out the character of Aaron in many respects. If he connects with heaven, he must cultivate faithfulness, devotion, earnest piety, and stern integrity, being truthful if it costs him his life. This will qualify him to bear responsibilities. God can help him to overcome his deficiencies if he will unite his ignorance to Christ’s wisdom, his weakness to His strength, his inefficiency to His enduring might.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 13)
Brother Gaskill is in danger of overestimating himself and making it necessary for God to humble him if he is saved at last. He can make a success in the Christian warfare if he will cling to God so that God’s wisdom may be his. If God is his teacher, he will do well. If he disconnects from God, he will certainly fail. He has a character to form for himself. He has religious duties to do which another cannot do for him. No one but himself can gain victories for him in the battles of life.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 14)
You have, Brother Gaskill, a more perfect character to form. You are not square to escape an issue. You will prevaricate. You have not been frank. In the case of Lillie Abbey, you were not frank. You did give lenity to her so that she thought you sustained her. She was surprised when she found your true position. You are not a square-faced man. You do not preserve strict truth at all times, because you want to be in favor with all. You have two faces. You will express your mind to one, he thinking you are in union with him; then you will express your mind to others just opposite. God cannot endure this cowardly spirit for the sake of friendship. You have a work to do for yourself which you do not see. You have a reformation to make.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 15)
You mentioned that the care of your father’s farm was left to you boys, and you bore responsibilities. If the light which God has given me in reference to this matter is correct, your lack of taking proper care and of proper judicious labor sacrificed much property which might have been saved. You were not alone in this. Others helped you in it; but you do not love labor. You are too ease-loving, too self-sufficient, and spread yourself too much like a green bay tree.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 16)
Sister Mary Gaskill might unite with her husband if qualified for the position, but she is not. Her mother neglected to train and properly discipline Mary and educate her in the mysteries of domestic life. Her mother bore the burdens she should have shared with her daughters. She allowed them to follow too much their own inclination, and let them come up without thorough system and order, having hours for labor and close application to that labor, and hours for recreation. How hard now for Mary to feel her lack and how difficult to correct it! The too indulgent mother failed to perceive that the future usefulness of her children must be determined by her training and molding and disciplining them in childhood and youth.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 17)
Just as the twig is bent, the tree inclines. When children are young is the time to make the most abiding impressions and to educate their impressible minds. Childhood and youth is the time to discipline and train to habits of order. This will call forth the patient, persevering efforts of the mother. That which is learned in youth will not soon be forgotten. Sister Gaskill was not disciplined, but left to enjoy leisure or do when and what she pleased to do and let it alone at pleasure. She does not now love domestic duties because she was not educated to love them, and to be instructed that this was a part of her education that, should the parent neglect, would be neglecting a duty for which God holds her responsible.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 18)
Sister Gaskill is making the same failure with the education of her children as did her mother. She does not take time, patiently, calmly, in love, and with the future good of her children in view, to discipline them to obedience and self-denial. This work will take time and patience. She is neglecting the greatest and most responsible labor ever committed to mortals, to deal with minds and mold the character. Had this been attended to years ago, commenced even from the cradle and with great caution and with watchfulness and prayer continued daily, giving them line upon line and precept upon precept, educating, disciplining, and training, she would have only done the very work God would have her to do and which He requires every mother to do.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 19)
Sister Gaskill has overcome in a measure some defects, but there is yet a decided lack. The care of her children is irksome. Had she been convinced of the real evils of her training in her youth and with earnest effort in the strength of God sought to correct and overcome her great deficiency, she would have improved greatly. She may do a good work even now, if she will in humility cling to God and work to the point, taking up her life duties which lie directly in her pathway. She has overlooked home responsibilities and duties which no other could do for her. She has not loved this kind of labor, which required close, patient labor, disciplining and controlling and educating herself for perfection in her lifework. When this responsibility is thoroughly and well borne, then God will trust her with more extended work in connection with her family duties.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 20)
Sister Gaskill would not be a competent matron at the Health Institute for several reasons:
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 21)
First, she has not shown an aptness and fitness properly to educate and train up her own children. In order to do her duty to her own family, she needs to have perfect self-control. If there is a deficiency marked in the training of her own children, her deficiency would be more decidedly apparent in a more public institution, where there is a greater variety of minds that will require great calmness, wise forethought, and self-training to meet and manage.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 22)
Second. Sister Gaskill has not a retentive memory. She forgets. She has not trained the organs of memory. She could not take the time and feel the need of thoroughness in thinking or in doing.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 23)
Third. Sister Gaskill is naturally impulsive, excitable. This element should not be brought in where there are girls or patients to be affected. It would be deleterious to all around. Little circumstances excite the imagination and stir up the feelings, and Sister Mary frequently acts upon impulse and would, unless she were transformed, cause friction and start trouble and difficulties that she could not heal if she would. Everything like bluster and stir must be kept under control at the Health Institute, or great injury will be done to the patients. Do not feel indignant at the suggestion. I know what I am writing about.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 24)
Fourth. Sister Gaskill has in her the element to love to be first and second to none. She does not love domestic labor herself, but loves to see order and to tell others what to do. Too much dictating is bad. Too much directing in an ordering manner is injurious to the soul of the one who does the ordering and the one who has been ordered.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 25)
All love to feel that they have an individuality of their own, ways and manners just as precious to them as the ways and manners of Sister Gaskill are to her. To learn to accord to all their rights is a splendid lesson for us all to learn. We must not want our precise style followed, when those of others may be far better than our own. In that case our judgment must be yielded, even to helpers. If helpers have been educated to labor in household duties, their knowledge is just as valuable to them as the knowledge of other things may be to those who are not compelled by circumstances to do household labor. One who directs others, who stands naturally by right in this position, should be too noble in spirit to dictate, to order. She should not show a superiority to those who are in every way equal to herself in intelligence and aptness.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 26)
Sister Gaskill, there is a disposition with you to dictate and order too much. This plays the mischief with helpers who will not submit to be ordered, especially if they are fully satisfied they understand the proper way of doing the work much better than the one who is disposed to direct. All these things would be difficulties Sister Mary would meet in the position as matron of the Health Institute. I should never have brought these particulars home to Sister Mary, only as I have been shown that her mind would be directed to that position at the Health Institute. To undertake to manage and direct a labor which others are better fitted for and have been trained to do would be simply looking upon by them as out of place. It has been in the domestic life of Sister Mary that those who have been her helpers have a better knowledge of how to do many things than herself, and yet she has felt that her dignity is infringed upon if matters are not deferred to her, as head and director, and that which is done must first bear her sanction. All this unfits Mary to stand at the head to direct and counsel at the Health Institute.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 27)
Fifth. The most weighty objection of all is, God has placed a work in Sister Mary’s hands to be thoroughly done for Him. He has said, “Take these children and train them for Me. They are the younger members of the Lord’s family; they are My little ones. Their angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in heaven. Bring out the fine traits in their characters and repress the evil. Teach them to be useful, to be pure, to be gentle, and have beautiful characters, for I want them to shine in My courts by and by.”
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 28)
Sister Mary cannot properly shift this responsibility upon another because it is a difficult, perplexing task. Avenues leading off from the narrow path of rectitude open on every side. Whose eye should discern the danger as readily as a mother’s? Much prayer and watchfulness are here needed. No duty is equal with this, or can bear any comparison with it. The domestic circle should be made attractive. Who can do this as well as a mother? Mary has felt too much that her children were a galling yoke to her neck. This is the result of deficient training. Home influence should be soothing, elevating, and refining. Oh, how many children have parents, yet are in complete orphanage as far as right training is concerned! Unless God interposes they must perish.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 29)
Sister Mary, here is missionary work for you which you will be held accountable for. This work comes first. If this can be rightly done and still further labor be performed with an eye single to the glory of God, strength according to the day will be given for the performance of unselfish labor.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 30)
Had Sister Mary been a well-developed, thoroughly educated woman in practical life, she might have been a general to command; but with the very essential qualities of order and system, patience and self-control lacking, she cannot fill the place as it should be filled.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 31)
Sister Mary will not from choice bear the responsibilities she could bear, united with the help of her daughter, educating her to do a certain amount apportioned as her labor each day, having times for labor and times for recreation. The time unemployed in useful labor will be spent in a wrong way. Satan can give thoughts and prompt idle hands and minds to activity which is ruinous to mind and morals.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 32)
The cause of God suffers terribly today in every department because of the neglect of mothers properly to train and educate their children to do the common, plain, practical duties of life. This very busy, useful employment is teaching them how to labor with aptness and is also shutting off from them the temptations of Satan which are so strong upon the minds of the young. Mothers who are now bringing up children have no excuse for their neglect of duty. God has laid out the mother’s work and duty to her children in repeated testimonies so plain, so clear, there is no need of making a mistake if they desire to know the way and to take up their neglected duties. But the light God has given has not been followed. The day of judgment will reveal that abundant light has been given if there were in the heart of His people a disposition to follow the light. But the heart, the natural heart, does not incline to obedience and to faithful duty because a course of duty calls forth effort, perseverance, and constant watchfulness and prayer. It is thought to be too laborious to be followed out.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 33)
The greatest number of souls who fail of perfecting Christian character, and therefore fail of heaven, has been ruined through the neglect of parents properly to educate and discipline their children. The greatest number of church trials is the result of the inefficient and grossly neglected work of parents in training and properly educating their children to self-control and correct principles. Many children are not taught how to yield their wills. They only know how to storm it through at any cost. This spirit will ruin any church. And it is a deplorable fact that too many profess to be Christians who have not been converted. Said Christ, “Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” [Matthew 18:3.] He then gives lessons in regard to His church.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 34)
The prosperity of many bodies in church relation has been sacrificed by the insubordinate, untamable spirit of one man who had never met with that change which Christ told Nicodemus he must realize. “Ye must be born again” [John 3:7]—made all over new, transformed, putting off the old man with his deeds. The neglect of parents is in not teaching their children from the cradle to submit their wills and their ways. Children are left to grow up self-willed, stubborn, irritable, self-sufficient, and really independently ugly. Bring these spirits together in church capacity, and how can there be peace and unity and the love and patience necessary to the prosperity of the church? Nine tenths of all the church difficulties are attributable to the neglect of parents in disciplining and molding the minds of their children in their childhood. What an account will parents be called to render to God for their sinful neglect? The Elis are numerous in this age of the world. But the sin of which they are guilty is no less aggravating to God than in the days of Eli when the curse of God came not only upon the children of Eli for their wrong doings, but upon the father who was guilty in not restraining his sons from their sinful course.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 35)
Indulgence and petting and gratification of children have ruined them not only for this world, but for the better world. Children should be educated to become staunch men of nerve, of self-control, of patience, of self-denial. These qualities of character are highly essential for those who fill important positions in the church and in society as men who can be depended upon, who have mental and moral power. May God roll this burden upon mothers and fathers who are neglecting their work in their families at home. We need working men and working women, burden-bearers who have the cause of God at heart. Each must give an account of himself to God. He is doing this by his daily actions. His everyday words and works are passing into eternity with the burden of record. Everyone will receive according to the things he has done, whether good or evil.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 36)
Very many things are neglected for want of taxing the mind. Memory is no less necessary on the part of man than is rectitude on the part of God. The life and actions of men are deciding their eternal destiny. All will be acquitted or condemned by their words and their works.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 37)
Brother and Sister Gaskill, I have been shown that there must be a willingness with us all to respect the opinions and the rights of others and not to feel a burden to force them into a groove with ourselves. Others have a degree of independence which they prize, as well as we. And in order to obey the law of God in loving our neighbor as ourselves, there must be a great work done.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 38)
Brother and Sister Gaskill, you have much to learn. Do not, for your souls’ sake, feel you have not much to learn. In regard to yourselves, you would never have been brought into a condition to know yourselves had you not come to Battle Creek. Your heavenly Father brought you under discipline to teach you the defects existing in yourselves.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 39)
Probation now lingers for you and for me. Then let us thank God and move on to correct every wrong. We may be as critical as we please with ourselves, but leave this work for God as far as your brethren and sisters are concerned.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 40)
A mother’s work is a most solemn and important one. She may not lay it down for any other work, but she may engage in other work if she takes along her home duties, teaching and training her children also. A mother’s duties are not half felt or understood. Were the responsible position of mothers felt, how careful would mothers be in the training of their children! Her duty to her children is above the minister’s. The mother’s work is second only to the work of God. Mothers may do a very great work for this world and the next in properly training their children that they may grow up strong, pure men and women. In order for a mother to be fitted for this great work, she must look well to her own mind and deportment. She needs to be fully developed herself, evenly balanced, calm, not easily excited to give way to feeling. The more perfect the development of the mother, the more even and well balanced her mind, the more calm and unexcited her deportment, the better is she fitted for her motherly duties and the more surely will her labors bring forth the same mold of mind as her own. If the mother is illy developed, if she is hurried and excitable, peevish, dictatorial, and exacting, her children will reflect the same character.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 41)
Some mothers dislike the discipline it gives them patiently to teach their children how to do little duties and cultivate in them a love for these duties, which love shall grow up with them. Some think children of seven and eight years old are too young to have their tasks assigned them in sewing, in washing dishes, in mending neatly their own garments, in making beds, and sweeping and dusting. But to let the children grow up unused to these important habits of useful labor, with the thought that they will take to it by and by, is a sad mistake. These duties neglected in childhood will be found in youth and womanhood an irksome task, and the child that with proper training might mature into a pleasant, useful woman will, by occupation, be turned into a drudge.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 42)
Any child is happier to be employed. Her well-earned play will be all the sweeter after her task is ended. What can the mother be thinking of to neglect the training of her children? For the mother to do the disagreeable work while the daughter takes a bit of work of no real need makes the daughter selfish, or confirms her in her selfishness. If children are allowed to come up to think that work must be shirked, they will despise industry as a specie of slavery; but the mistaken mother, who in her tenderness has suffered this, will be despised for her neglect when the daughter feels her real need of knowledge in practical life.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 43)
Brother Gaskill, I do not want you should make a failure as did Brother Abbey. You would, if you thought it would do, assume responsibilities you have not experience or the best judgment to carry through. It is not yours to plan, but to execute. You would be disposed to question the judgment of those who have borne responsibility in this work and cause, and in the place of it put your own. I saw and knew your deficiencies, and knew that in some respects you were not the man for the place, but with full warning and counsel you may escape the evils you would cause if left to yourself. You are not a thorough man; you are too superficial.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 44)
If in making a bargain you can get a man to take less than he offered the article for, you feel that you are a wise financier; but more business tact than this is necessary. You need to tax your mind and your memory and frequently place yourself in unpleasant positions. You need to be a caretaker, to get deep at the bottom of things and not skim over the surface. And above all, give up being a policy man. Be frank, true, and sincere. And you must not rely upon your own judgment, but you must counsel and move cautiously in the fear of God. You do not naturally love devotion or religious duties. If you cling to God, He will cling to you. If you trust in yourself, God will forsake you.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 45)
You will be inclined to engage in trade, and save a few pence and think yourself an economist, while you will fail to see and properly supply the stores necessary for the institute, not taking care upon you as one in your position should. You need to look after the little matters, to have your memory taxed with the cares of the premises. You overlook the essential duties and reach over these to be planning to make some show, some large improvement, to do some big trading. This will be your danger unless you are guarded. You must show your generalship in superintending, having an oversight and care of all. This is not an easy position, but a caretaking, burden-bearing position. If you skim over the surface and do not go deep and thorough, you will gather responsibilities upon you that will please your fancy, but neglect the very duty you ought to do, which must be done by a faithful superintendent. Guard yourself that you do not feel that you have the generalship of the whole thing.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 46)
There is great indolence manifested by some of the physicians and those who are in important positions. There is not an interest manifested there that should be. There must be prayerful vigilance manifested. Brother Harmon Lindsay is a far better financier than yourself.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 47)
Dear Sister Mary, I have the fullest reason to say you do not know yourself. Were it not that we had promised to be true to the cause of God, I should not now write to you as plainly and faithfully as I do.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 48)
Your case has been fully set before me, and now will come your test and proving whether you accept the light given you. I have been shown you lacked discipline in your family. You do not govern your children. You do not give them, and have not given them, the attention they should have from a mother. You can prepare a good meal for the table, but there are great lacks in regard to system and order in your family. It was a duty devolving on you to educate your eldest daughter to a practical knowledge of life. You have but little control over your little one. Do you ask why? Because you have not from the first made this your main and principle business in life, and made this your study and disciplined yourself to your task. You have felt that this was too much a yoke of bondage, and have shifted the responsibility upon others when you could. You have not self-control. You have not been trained and disciplined yourself.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 49)
You are spoiling your eldest daughter because you do not patiently, kindly, lovingly teach her to do and have her know she must do. You have feared to task her, but you are neglecting a most solemn, responsible work. She is coming up disinclined to labor, loving indolence, loving her own way, and Satan is filling her mind with vanity and folly. She now has a feeling of pride in doing nothing. Would you educate your daughter to be a drone in society? This you are doing. It seems next to an impossibility for you to see where you have failed or how you can amend. Just as long as your daughter is clothed and fed by her parents, she should be taught that with these gifts obligations are mutual. Every day of her life she should have her day’s work, not excepting when she attends school. Then, above all other days, should the physical labor be combined with the mental.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 50)
God gave you and other parents light upon this subject. What heed have you paid to it? May God forgive your sin of neglect. Were I your daughter, coming up as Jessie is, I should feel that it would be hard for me to forgive the neglect of my mother in training me to bear my part of life’s burdens and cares, and be disciplined to habits of order, caretaking, and thoroughness. Your girl does not love work. Who is censurable for this? Her mother.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 51)
Mothers, mothers! Our world is in crying need of mothers!
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 52)
I inquired of the angel of God why the youth of the present age were generally so destitute of moral force and true virtue. The answer came, For want of mothers to educate and bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. At what age shall children learn the duties of practical life? At six years? The answer was given, The education of the child must commence from its birth. Neglect this instruction six years, and six years are lost. The best impression may be made upon a child during the first seven years of its life.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 53)
I was pointed to the various shifts and excuses parents make for not disciplining their children to system in labor, and having them learn to do their part in bearing the burdens of life when young. A thousand needless things take the time and the attention, and their children are sadly neglected for work that is in every way inferior to that which devolves on the mother for the proper training of her children. Oh, that mothers would open their eyes to see, and their hearts to understand! The seed for good or evil the mother first plants in the soul. The home and the nursery are the first school for children, and the mother is the teacher. Here it is the mother’s first duty to teach her children the dignity of work. This will not degrade them, but fit them for any position in life. Our girls need to become thoroughly educated to understand that labor gives dignity and nobility to woman and makes her a queen. Mothers, I saw, were responsible for the inefficient, dawdling women in society, whose daily lives are marked with emptiness.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 54)
Sister Gaskill, I saw that your lifework was very deficient. You neglect a little here and a little there and all will at last prove a failure. You have had your lifework—character to develop. How have you done your work? What characters are you developing and have you developed in your children? They may look to you but trifles, but the imperfection of character is made up of trifles and the perfection of character is made up of trifles. No one can see the hidden labor, the carefulness with which a faithful mother must and will toil to educate and discipline herself and strengthen some weak point in her character, to bring out some faculty more strongly and perfectly, and cultivate some power that she may do her great duty in the proper training and education of her children in this life for the eternal life. No woman has a right to become a mother who has not self-control, and who does not feel the great and solemn responsibility devolving upon her to educate and discipline her children that they shall bring forth the fine traits in their character and repress the evil. A harmonious character is like choice gold.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 55)
The mother should not depend upon hired help unless it is positively necessary, and this might in many cases be avoided if she would do her duty in teaching her children to be helpers with her. She should take her daughters with her into the kitchen, and then put into their hands work which they can and should do. No excuse or lack of inclination on the part of the daughter justifies the mother in excusing her and taking the burden on herself. It will not hurt the daughter to get weary, if she is not overtaxed, any more or as soon as it will hurt the mother. A work has been neglected by mothers which will result in thousands upon thousands of lives being worthless in this life and useless in the higher life.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 56)
How many children are allowed to go to school and study and yet come from these schools educated simpletons! They love to read novels and story books, talk of the young men, tattle bits of news heard in the family. When they marry they ruin their husbands, and bring up children to inherit the imperfections of their characters and the deficiencies of their training. Oh, what solemn work are mothers doing, leading their children by their example, by their education, either in the bright path to heaven or in the broad road to hell. Mothers are forming characters, making history for this world and for the next, in the training of their children.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 57)
Sister Gaskill, what claims does your daughter feel that there are resting upon her? The time, if it had been employed in useful labor, would now be of value. You have not employed the hands and mind of your daughter. Your daughter and Brother Harmon’s eldest daughter will, unless transformed by the renewing graces of God, prove a curse to the parents who have neglected their early training. Both your own, Sister Gaskill, and your brother Harmon’s children have been indulged. You are both blind to your neglect and to their true condition. Neither are genuinely truthful. Both are undisciplined and unprincipled, without honoring their parents by obedience. Both of these children have been unrestrained, and their influence has been blamed upon other children. Yet their parents have been blinded to their faults and have excused their neglects and their wrongs. These girls, as well as all others, should have been patiently instructed from their infancy, trained to habits of diligence and useful labor.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 58)
God holds these parents, as well as all parents who follow in the same path of neglect, accountable. These mothers should understand that the most important education for their children, that which is far superior to book knowledge, is useful employment. If the children can have but one, let it be the education to industrious habits. But if both study and labor can be combined, much will be gained. I feel to the very depths the great mistake these parents are making in regard to properly training their children. Satan is gaining full control of these minds that are inactive. Satan leads them into wrong habits that weary more than all the labors they may do.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 59)
There is another point I have been shown, that now Sister Mary can do no greater work than to seek to redeem the time she has lost. Let her humbly, prayerfully take up her neglected lifework. I am fearful that she makes an entire mistake to be in the position she is now in. She is not where she can give that attention to the education of her children which she should give. There is Jessie, who should be initiated at once into her round of life’s duties, without neglecting the matter another day. The Health Institute is no place for these children. Lillie Abbey’s being in the Health Institute was all wrong. She was a curse there. Jessie would do no good, but only harm, and it would have a bad influence upon the child. I have said from the very first, since her case was fully opened before me, that in many respects Sister Gaskill is not a woman for the place.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 60)
Brother Gaskill is not, in many respects, the man qualified for the position. He talks too much. I saw that Brother Abbey would become acquainted with the examination of patients, and in his coarse, rough ways he made these poor sinful, pitiful subjects matters of jest and sport. He was vulgar. Lillie would gain information that should be kept from the knowledge of all and would communicate the same to others. Brother Gaskill is not as careful as he should be. He carries matters too much to his wife, and there is danger of Jessie’s curiosity being aroused and her reporting things she should not know and should not understand. The patients’ coming to the house on the corner for examination, and children’s being connected with the house, is not as it should be. Again, the way matters are now arranged, instead of Jessie’s being brought into labor, she is relieved of all responsibility.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 61)
I look at the matter thus: either let Sister Gaskill take the entire charge of matters at Health Institute No. 2, and do with her daughter’s assistance what there is to be done, or let them give place to someone without children who can do all to be done much easier than the work can now be done with these children. The indolence of the eldest and the destructive habits of the youngest, who is not under control, are serious drawbacks. Remove these, and one person could take the entire charge easier than it is now done. The mother who cannot properly control two children should be very careful how she assumes responsibilities of a large class of patients. She is simply entirely unfitted for any such position. No woman is qualified for such a place who has not the qualities to educate to obedience two children of her own.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 62)
This may seem hard, but I can work only as God has pressed me to it. I must work in faithfulness to all concerned. Sister Gaskill is blinded in regard to herself. She allows her temper to control her, and at such times she permits feelings akin to insanity. She cannot reason.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 63)
Unless children are educated to usefulness, to love duty, and to have a principle to do duty before pleasure, they will be exposed to great temptations. Parents who neglect to do their duty in training their children in youth to useful labor have not true love for them. The happiest people are the most industrious, and great dangers may be escaped in youth as well as in afterlife by educating our children to useful labor. The father and mother must be united in this work of disciplining and training. Causes and results of present training should be candidly considered. The children need not be overtaxed in anxiety to teach them. The overtaxation and drain upon the system is far greater, and productive of worse results, in listless indolence. The muscles were made for use, not inaction. The muscles strengthen by use. Aptness and ability to do things come by repeated efforts. Children will have a hard enough time at best, if parents do their utmost to help them with their influence and support them with their greater experience.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 64)
You feel annoyed if the case of your children is touched. You bring up other children that you think are just as bad. Your children are of age to know and do very much better than they do, but you do not feel and realize their true condition. These two girls have had a leading influence. Others are far from right, but these are greatly lacking in proper restraint. They talk much, not always truthfully, but as they happen to think or feel.
(2LtMs, Ms 8, 1875, 65)