Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 15 (1900)

Lt 202, 1900

McCullagh, S.

“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

August 25, 1900

Previously unpublished.

Dear Brother McCullagh:

I would write you a few lines. I am instructed to say to you, Be on guard. You are not receiving altogether the best experience for your present and eternal good. You need to be connected in the work with wise men who shall save you from yourself. Your whole life education has not been of a kind to make you a man to be depended on. You need to be constantly on guard else the phases of an imperfect experience will develop uncertain features which will not tend to the healthfulness of the flock of God. 15LtMs, Lt 202, 1900, par. 1

Wherever you may be you will naturally work for sympathy, and as you have done this so largely, it will become a natural phase of your experience in the present, and in the future experience. I warn you to keep off that ground. You will, if not guarded, fasten the people to McCullagh in the place of fastening their hold upon Jesus Christ, their only hope and their only helper. 15LtMs, Lt 202, 1900, par. 2

I greatly desire that you shall have a sound, solid experience as to that which constitutes the pillars of our faith, a well-grounded foundation that storm and tempest cannot move. Your experience has not been calculated to make your understanding of the Scriptures so certain and sure that you are past danger. You need to study the Bible more and understand it more perfectly. Growth in the graces of the Christian attributes means much more than human minds comprehend. You are in a church composed of strange elements, and they need a man with a Christian experience and healthful, sound mind to discern the true voice of the Shepherd from that of a stranger. 15LtMs, Lt 202, 1900, par. 3

The greatest care should be exercised not to give credence to the manifestation of noise, loud shouting, hysterical gesticulations, and call this the Holy Ghost. It is the bodily exercise which profiteth nothing. It is not the loud shouting and the bodily exercise of moving about and throwing up the arms and shouting to the top of the voice that demonstrates pure and true godliness. I am instructed to say to you that you are to carry the work of the truth in clear, elevated dignity, that it shall not have one trace of wild fanaticism in it. You are giving encouragement to a mold and phase of experience that should never be encouraged, and the church suppose it is the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit does not thus demonstrate itself. Should you encourage this wild excitement, calling it the Holy Spirit, you are preparing yourself for one of the greatest deceptions that can come into the church. The Salvation Army’s tactics are not to be taken up by Seventh-day Adventists, and their methods followed out, and the church become molded and fashioned to run in the line of gesticulation and loud, boisterous shouting and bodily exercises. 15LtMs, Lt 202, 1900, par. 4

I am instructed to say you have not discernment in spiritual things to make you feel that you can distinguish the true and the false. Therefore you may well be afraid of your own judgment in managing the church interests. You need to humble your heart before God, for you will be tempted again as you have been, and will be in danger, constant danger, of leading in incorrect lines. The facts of faith and religious growth do not manifest themselves in noisy shouting and contortions of the body. The truth received in the heart never degrades the receiver, never works upon man’s hearts and character to make him get up a sensational something and call that the testimony of the Holy Ghost. A precedent condition of growth is life. The life is in the seed, hidden under a cover to protect it. The whole life is hidden in the germ. Healthful growth is dependent upon a sufficient supply of nourishment. 15LtMs, Lt 202, 1900, par. 5

The truth of God in Bible principles will give life to the soul. Truth, eternal truth, taken from the Word of God and stamped on the soul will develop first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear. Bible truth never makes the receiver uncouth, rough, and disagreeable. The truth of God refines the taste, sanctifies the judgment, and makes the receiver modest, meek, and lowly of heart. The mind will grow pure and elevated and ennobled as it is fed on the pure truth which is carried into the practical life. It is represented in (John 6) as eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. Christ explained that “the flesh profiteth nothing.” “It is the spirit that quickeneth; ... the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” “He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. This is that bread which came down from heaven.” John 6:63, 56-58. The Lord Jesus will indeed abide in the human heart. 15LtMs, Lt 202, 1900, par. 6

I have time to write but a few words, but I would caution you to be guarded on every side and not in any wise by self-confidence give place to the devil. There will be severe trials before you but never, never put confidence in your own judgment as supreme. 15LtMs, Lt 202, 1900, par. 7