Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 16 (1901)

Lt 176, 1901

Daniells, A. G.

“Elmshaven,” St. Helena, California

September 22, 1901

Previously unpublished. +^Note

Dear brother Daniells,—

We have a large territory to work in our cities. When a mission is established in a city, calls for laborers will come from the surrounding country. According to the light given me, during the last thirty years not a thousandth part has been done of what ought to have been done. Plans for aggressive work should have been set in operation. 16LtMs, Lt 176, 1901, par. 1

We need consecrated men and women who will enter the various lines of the work of God. Many could now give themselves unreservedly to the work if they desired to do so. But so many young men and young women are misdirecting and misusing their God-given talents. Make-believe Christians, they do very little for God. 16LtMs, Lt 176, 1901, par. 2

The apostle Peter pointedly reproves those who do not, with heart and soul and strength, enter into the work that God has appointed them to do: “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ; Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last day.” [1 Peter 1:1-5.] 16LtMs, Lt 176, 1901, par. 3

If those who name the name of Christ would depart from all iniquity, hating every species of meanness and dishonesty and selfishness, and keeping free from covetousness, which is idolatry, they would find so large a work on their hands that they would have no inclination to criticize the transgressions of other men. They would see so much to abhor in themselves that they would not excuse their own faults because others do wrong. They would faithfully confess and forsake their own sins. 16LtMs, Lt 176, 1901, par. 4

There is only one Sin-bearer. The Lord has not made any human being a confessor for the sins that others have committed. No man can be a sin-bearer. Let those who have sinned confess their faults to God. Let them repent and make restitution to Him. If they do this, they may then be of some help to those who they suppose are in error. No longer will they be scavengers, feeding on the faults of others. As newborn babes, they will desire the sincere milk of the Word, that they may grow thereby, no longer remaining spiritual dwarfs. 16LtMs, Lt 176, 1901, par. 5

For years a question of great importance, one that has caused much perplexity, has been before us. It is, How can we raise funds adequate for the support of the missions which the Lord has gone before us to open? These missions, both in foreign and in home fields, present these necessities to us, and the commands and the indications of the gospel—yea, more, the positive revelations of providence—unite in urging us to do the work that should be done. 16LtMs, Lt 176, 1901, par. 6

The high and noble dignity of the truth is emphasized by the establishment of sanitariums, schools, and publishing houses in new fields. In the home field the places that have not been worked are a continual rebuke to our institutions that have long been established. These older institutions should have annexed new territory, establishing in various centers plants that would have strengthened the work in new places, resulting in the raising up of churches and the addition of many souls to the number of believers. 16LtMs, Lt 176, 1901, par. 7

But in America and Europe, where today there should be firmly established memorials to the truth of God, scarcely anything has been done in comparison with what ought to have been done in genuine medical missionary work. Many have failed of understanding what the work comprehends. They have not realized that we have a testing message to bear to the world. 16LtMs, Lt 176, 1901, par. 8

We have felt more anxious to secure laborers than to get money to pay them. If the work is done; if every energy is put forth, every God-given talent used; if the facts concerning the work that has been done and the work that yet remains to be done are modestly and faithfully reported, money will come to carry forward the work. This has been our faith. We have never doubted that if the good hand of our God is leading us and opening the way before us, enabling us to reach the people, we could do the work, and that the believers in Christ would support our missions where laborers were thus walking in faith. If we should fold our hands and remain idle, how could we expect to be helped? Without seed-sowing there is no harvest. 16LtMs, Lt 176, 1901, par. 9

Yet within a comparatively short time we have seen our schools weighed down with a burden of debt so great that it has been hard to maintain courage; we have heard the cries of our missionaries for assistance, and have noticed that these cries have been disregarded; we have been informed that our missionary boards have dreaded bankruptcy at home at a time when the loud summons of Providence was calling them to enter the widening, whitening fields; and we have seen them meet these calls with the complaint that an exhausted treasury left them scarcely any means for sustaining the established missions, much less for opening up new territory. 16LtMs, Lt 176, 1901, par. 10

The Lord laid out before me a plan whereby I could be His helping hand in relieving the situation. I was instructed to donate Christ’s Object Lessons for the relief of our schools. I was instructed to call upon our printing establishments to act a benevolent part in the publication of the book, thus co-operating with me in relieving the situation. And the Lord has wrought in this line. I have not been informed in regard to the number of books sold, but I understand that up to the present time, one hundred thousand dollars have been realized from the sale of the book. We know that the heavenly angels have cleared the difficulties from the path, so that the work may not be hindered, but continue to move forward uninterruptedly. I am so thankful to God that all have had a desire to co-operate in this enterprise. Thus we have all united in an act of benevolence. 16LtMs, Lt 176, 1901, par. 11