Chapter 63—Jealousy and Faultfinding VC

Brother G (1T 311) MC VC

At ----- you asked me some questions of which I have been thinking much. From my conversation with you, I am convinced that you do not realize the part you have acted and the wound you have brought upon the cause of God. That which had been shown me in regard to you, came vividly before me, and I have compared that which has been recently shown me with the testimony published in regard to you in Testimony No. 6, and I cannot see the least apology for your course. Before you were a partaker in, and lent your influence to, the late fanaticism in Wisconsin, you were not right in the sight of God. (1T 311.1) MC VC

Brother G, if you had honestly followed the light, you would never have pursued the course you have taken. You have willfully, stubbornly followed your own course, and relied on your own judgment, refusing to be led. The Lord sent you help, but you refused to accept it. What more could heaven have done for you than has been done? When you have thought that others were more highly esteemed than yourself, you have felt dissatisfied and irritated, and have been pettish and distant like a spoiled child. You have wished to be highly esteemed, but have taken a course to greatly lower yourself in the estimation of those whose approbation you desire. (1T 311.2) MC VC

Before your fanatical course you were jealous of those at Battle Creek, and have thrown out hints which would excite suspicion. You have been jealous of my husband and myself, and have surmised evil. Envy and suspicion have been united. Under an appearance of conscientiousness you have suggested doubts in regard to the movements of those who are bearing the burden of the work at Battle Creek, and have thrown out hints in regard to matters of which you were wholly ignorant, and utterly incapable of judging rightly. The burden of matters there was not laid upon you. I was shown that God would not select a person with a mind constituted like yours, and lay heavy burdens upon him, and call him to fill the most responsible positions; for self-esteem would be so prominent that it would be ruinous to himself and to God’s people. Had you esteemed yourself less, you would have had less jealousy and suspicion. (1T 311.3) MC VC

Brother G, had you fully united with the body, and stood in union and sympathy with those whom God has seen fit to place at the head of the work; had you accepted the gifts which God has placed in the church, and committed yourself fully in regard to them; had you established yourself decidedly upon all points of present truth, and drawn in even cords with those of experience in the cause, you and yours would have been perfectly free and safe from this delusion. You would have had an anchor which would have held you. But you have taken an indefinite position, fearing that you would gratify those whose whole soul was in the work and cause of God. God requires you to stand firmly, decidedly, upon the platform with your brethren. God and holy angels were displeased with your course, and would bear with your folly no longer. You were left to follow your own judgment which you had so highly esteemed, until you should wish to be taught, and without jealous, stubborn feelings, without complaining or censuring others, learn of those who have felt the burden and weight of the cause of God. You have been reaching out for an original position of your own, seeking to lead out independent of the body, where you would be approved and exalted, until I saw that God had given you up to manage and manifest that wisdom you thought superior to others, and you were left to your blind judgment to figure in the most unreasonable, foolish, wild fanaticism that ever cursed Wisconsin. (1T 312.1) MC VC

And yet I was shown that you did not realize the influence of your past course upon the cause, and your present position and duty in regard to that fanaticism. Instead of working with all your energy to free yourself and counteract the influence you exerted, you came up out of all this excusing yourself and censuring those whom God sent to you, and ready to dictate, and even to suggest a plan whereby the Lord might have arrested you by His servants pursuing some different course from that which they did pursue. Your judgment was perverted by Satan’s power, and while enshrouded in darkness you were an incompetent judge of the best course to be pursued toward you. If you knew just what course the servants of God ought to pursue in order to help you, you knew enough to come out yourself. God gave you your choice, to be taught, to be instructed through His servants in His own appointed way, or to go on, maintain your willful course, and fall into bewildering fanaticism. (1T 312.2) MC VC

You chose to have your way. And now you have only yourself to blame. You profess to be a watchman on the walls of Zion, a shepherd to the flock, yet you saw the poor sheep torn and scattered and gave no warning. “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at My mouth, and give them warning from Me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.” “Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.” Ezekiel 3:17-19, 21. (1T 313.1) MC VC

The sin of those in Wisconsin who went into fanaticism rests more heavily upon you, Brother G, than upon any other one. You were an unfaithful watchman. You discerned not the evil, because you were unfaithful. God sent His faithful watchmen who stood in the light and could discern the evil to warn you and the erring flock. Had you then listened to the warning, a great amount of evil would have been saved. Your influence would have been preserved. You would have stood out of the way, that the testimony of the servants of God might reach the distracted flock. The erring would not hear the voice of God through His chosen servants. They made their spirit strong against the warning of the watchmen sent to them, and strengthened themselves in their unreasonable, self-deceived course. The shepherd would not hear. He was offended because this fanaticism was handled so decidedly. He perceived not the danger. He saw no haste in the matter. He had sufficient light to decide, but was too willful and too suspicious of God’s servants to yield to their testimony. (1T 313.2) MC VC

Brother G wished to wait until the fanaticism should develop, and it went on just as Satan would have it, until it did develop with terrible results. There were not reasonable, sensible manifestations to characterize that work as being of God. The Lord’s servants executed their mission, freed their garments from the blood of souls, and kept themselves clear of the cursed influence, while you bear the fearful weight of the sin of this woeful fanaticism. You have deeply regretted it, yet do not see your own wrongs in relation to it. You censure and blame the weak, erring sheep for leading you out of the way. What is a watchman for, unless it be to watch for evil and give the warning? What is a shepherd for, unless it be to watch for every danger lest the sheep be harmed and destroyed by wolves? What excuse could a shepherd plead for suffering the flock to stray from the true pasture, and be torn and scattered and devoured by wolves? How would an excuse stand made by the shepherd that the sheep led him astray? They left the true pasture, and led him out of the way? Such a plea would tell with force against that shepherd’s ability to watch over the sheep. No more confidence could be placed in him as a faithful shepherd to care for the sheep, and bring them back as they might stray from the right path. (1T 314.1) MC VC