Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 9 (1894)

Lt 2, 1894

Brethren Who Shall Assemble in General Conference

Ashfield, New South Wales, Australia

October 21, 1894

This letter is published in entirety in 17MR 170-176.

To the Brethren Who Shall Assemble in General Conference:

I have a burden upon my mind which I cannot lay off. The home field needs wise men in its councils. “Without Me,” said Christ, “ye can do nothing.” [John 15:5.] We can well spare the work of men who are without the imparted wisdom of God, and the sooner this is done, the better it will be for the president of the General Conference, and for the other members of the conference, who must carry the work in straight lines, making clean, thorough records, and straight lines for the methods and plans of the other conferences. The General Conference needs to consider well whom it places upon its boards as counselors and planners, for the voice and influence of those whom they select will have much to do in the shaping of the work. 9LtMs, Lt 2, 1894, par. 1

Year after year men who are not in touch with the all-wise and unerring Counselor are placed in leading positions. Too long these men have been entrusted with sacred interests. They have not grown with the advance and development of the truth. They have not waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom and the grace of God. They are selfish and opinionated, and have come to look upon their positions in the cause of God as they would upon common business transactions. They have lost a sense of the sacredness of the work. 9LtMs, Lt 2, 1894, par. 2

The General Conference is so arranged as to connect itself with the work in all parts of the world, and in its councils there should not be heard human opinions or selfish thought. Favoritism and moving from impulse should find no place, but they have to a large degree. 9LtMs, Lt 2, 1894, par. 3

I have the tenderest sympathy for your president, Elder Olsen. I know his soul is weighed down with burdens; and unless those connected with him have the Holy Spirit’s guidance, mistakes of a serious character will be made. Plans mingling the human element with sacred matters will be inaugurated, and men’s ideas will be accepted as light when they are detrimental to the progress and success of the cause of God. 9LtMs, Lt 2, 1894, par. 4

I have carried these matters upon my soul until they seem to be eating away my courage and life. Now I can refrain no longer. I have spoken. Had I known of one who would have stood by Elder Olsen and given him that wisdom and counsel and help that he so much needs, I would have sent this matter long ago. But after writing it, I have drawn back from sending it. It has been a mystery to me how Elder Olsen could receive and sanction two men of similar religious character when he has no evidence that they are consecrated to God. They have manifested little of a vital connection with God, and yet he has linked them together and sent them upon distant and important missions, to do important work demanding clear and sanctified wisdom, [agents] who could look to heaven and say, “Speak, Lord; for Thy servant heareth.” [1 Samuel 3:9.] 9LtMs, Lt 2, 1894, par. 5

Elder Olsen’s proposition to have A. R. Henry come to this country, I could not sanction. I was compelled to say that we did not want him. God has presented his case to me. Since the Minneapolis meeting he has never taken his position in reception of the light God has so graciously given for these last days. He has not honored the position he has occupied in the office, because he has carried the spirit of A. R. Henry in full size. In him there has been no diminution of self. God has revealed to me that the influence given to these men whose hearts are not right with God, who are not in harmony with God, will prove in the end a curse instead of a blessing. The confidence of the people cannot sustain these men if they pursue their course of action as they have done. 9LtMs, Lt 2, 1894, par. 6

Those who have subdued, contrite hearts are tenderly regarded by the Lord. “For thus saith the high and lofty One, that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” [Isaiah 57:15.] Thank the Lord! I praise His name that He does not judge unrighteously. “His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation. He hath showed strength with His arm; He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich hath He sent empty away.” [Luke 1:50-53.] Read also every verse of the 32nd and 34th Psalms, for they both contain important lessons. 9LtMs, Lt 2, 1894, par. 7

“Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? But My people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the Lord. For My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” [Jeremiah 2:11-13.] “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord are these. For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; if ye oppress not the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt; then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave unto your fathers, for ever and ever. Behold ye trust in lying words that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods that ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.” [Jeremiah 7:3-11.] “Thus saith the Lord: Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh: but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green: and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” [Jeremiah 17:5-10.] 9LtMs, Lt 2, 1894, par. 8

“Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inahabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you; return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon, which cometh from the rock of the field? or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place, be forsaken? Because My people hath forsaken Me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up.” [Jeremiah 18:11-15.] 9LtMs, Lt 2, 1894, par. 9

These words of the Lord were read in my hearing, and I want that they should be read before the people who need them, especially before the men who have not been walking in the light. I would not urge Elder Olsen personally to take the load upon his shoulders. The men who stay up his hands are weakening them, and I appeal directly to them. God grant that something shall be done; for I know that the Lord cannot prosper His people while such principles as have been practiced are still the rule of action. When the messages sent them are brought before these men, and they make no response, are unaffected, or else too proud to admit their wrong course of action, bracing themselves to resist every appeal, their spirit is similar to that of Nadab and Abihu. They are determined to walk in the way they have chosen, and the Lord gives them up to their perverted imaginations. 9LtMs, Lt 2, 1894, par. 10

The Lord has a controversy with them, and yet Elder Olsen treats them as representative men, sending them hither and thither as men of discernment, endorsing them as trustworthy and reliable men, to whom the people shall listen and show respect as the voice of God in the conference. But when they give unmistakable evidence that they are not taught or led of God, they are not to carry matters as they choose, for they will not work in Christ’s lines. Enterprises in the large field of God need much consideration and wisdom from God; but men’s ideas, mingled with selfishness, will be enough to drown the voice of God, which will not be heard in the uproar of voices. Thus portions of the field are neglected and mismanaged. No arrangements are to be made to fit the fields. We must take them as they are, even though hard and unpromising. 9LtMs, Lt 2, 1894, par. 11

The men who are engaged in the work must have knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ, whom He hath sent. They must be men whose hearts are under the discipline and molding of God, giving evidence that they love and fear God, and are responsible to Him; men who are humble, conscientiously and faithfully performing the work as God would have it done; men who are not arbitrary and self-exalted, anxious to carry out their own ideas, but who feel that they can and will learn from the great Counselor. 9LtMs, Lt 2, 1894, par. 12

There is little of the Holy Spirit in your councils. The men composing them do not feel that they must “be still and learn that I am God.” [Psalm 46:10.] The work has been extended, and the churches need the riches of the grace of God, the sanctification of the Spirit of God, that the members, by a proper division of labor, may develop their capabilities in doing good. A more important matter than this cannot occupy the minds of the members of the General Conference in their deliberations. The same men are not to compose your boards year after year. Changes should have been made long ago. God would have the church roll away her reproach, but as long as men, who have felt fully competent to work without accepting counsel of God, are kept in office year after year, this cannot be done. This state of things is leavening every branch of the work, because men do not feel their need of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. When men feel competent to pronounce judgment and condemn the Holy Spirit, they do a work for themselves which will be difficult to counteract. The whole head becomes sick, and the discernment so weak that it is apt to judge unrighteously. The Spirit still calls, but they do not hear nor heed the call of God. 9LtMs, Lt 2, 1894, par. 13

“He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.” “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.” [1 John 2:9, 10, 15, 16.] God calls; listen to His call. “Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die; for I have not found thy works perfect before God. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white; for they are worthy. He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before His angels.” “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing: and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.” [Revelation 3:2-5, 15-18.] 9LtMs, Lt 2, 1894, par. 14

Those who have resisted light and evidences are in a very sad condition, for they walk as blind men, not knowing at what they stumble. They make crooked paths for their feet, and the lame are turned out of the way. The Holy Spirit has been profferred again and again to the church in Battle Creek. The Holy Spirit has breathed upon the souls there for whom Christ has died. Then was the time to honor God, to praise Him, to respond to His grace by cultivating a love for heavenly things, by beholding Jesus, that His likeness might be reflected in their cheerful, grateful praise for the manifestation of His love and grace. There is but a step from earth to heaven. Why did the heavenly anointing depart? Why did mischief come in? Because the soul was not trained to the exercise of pity; because faith scarcely had an existence; because the men handling sacred things were sharp, critical, and censorious. 9LtMs, Lt 2, 1894, par. 15