Testimony for the Church — No. 17

Epistle Number Thirteen

Dear Sister ——: In the vision given me June 12, I was shown your case. You are in a sad state. Not so much because of actual disease, although you are not well, but of imaginary inability to perform. Several years ago I was shown you suffered your mind to dwell too much upon the boys. You frequently made them the theme of conversation, and your mind ran in a channel not profitable to your spiritual advancement. You have fallen into a train of thinking which has led to evil results. You have injured and abused your own body, and brought upon yourself an imbecile state of mind. You have indulged in a love-sick train of thought and feeling until you are almost ruined, soul and body. Your indisposition to exercise and exert yourself is very bad for you. Useful employment in bearing home burdens, and engaging in useful labor, would overcome this sickly, sentimental state of feeling sooner than any other means. You have been sympathized with too much. To relieve you from all responsibility has been a very great mistake. You have come to that state where nearly all your thoughts are upon yourself. You are fretting yourself, and dwelling upon sad things, and contemplating your state as very bad, and even settling in your mind that you can never get well unless you are married. In your present state of mind, you are not fit to marry. There is no one who would wish you in your present helpless, useless condition. If one should fancy they loved you, they would be worthless, for no sensible man could think for a moment of placing his affections upon so useless an object. T17 157.1

The sad, gloomy state of your mind which leads you to weep, and feel that life is not desirable, is the result of your thoughts running in an impure channel, upon forbidden subjects, while you have habits that have been steadily and surely undermining your constitution, and preparing you for premature decay. T17 158.1

Had you never gone to ——, you would have been far better. Your stay there injured you. You dwelt upon your infirmities, while you had society which was corrupting in its influence. Miss —— was a corrupt, evil-minded woman. Her association with yourself increased the evil which was already upon you. Evil communications corrupt good manners. T17 158.2

At the present time you are not in an acceptable state with God; yet you imagine that you have no desire to live. But should you be taken at your expressed wishes, and your life cease, your case would be hopeless indeed. You are neither prepared for this world nor the next. T17 158.3

You imagine you cannot walk, you cannot ride, you cannot exercise, and you settle into a cold, dead apathy. You are no comfort to yourself, and a sad grief and anxiety to your indulgent parents. You can rally, you can do, you can shake off this terrible state. Your mother needs your aid; your father needs the comfort you can give him; your brothers need a kindly care from their elder sister; your sisters need your instruction; but here you sit upon the stool of indolence, dreaming of unrequited love. For your own soul's sake, have done with this folly. Read your Bible as you have never read it before. Engage in home duties, and lighten the cares of your over-burdened, over-worked parents. You may not be able to do a great amount at first, but increase the task you set yourself every day. This is the most sure remedy for a diseased mind and an abused body. T17 159.1

If you possess earnestness and steadiness of purpose, your mind will come back, in a degree, to dwelling upon more healthful, pure subjects. Self-indulgence has degenerated by degrees into such a wantonness of will as knows not how to please itself. Instead of regulating your actions by reason and principle, you suffer yourself to be guided by every slight and momentary impulse of inclination, which makes you appear variable, and inconstant. It is in vain for others to seek to please you, for you cannot please yourself, even if all your wishes were indulged. You are a capricious child, and have become sick of yourself through very selfishness. T17 159.2

This wretched state is the result of unwise sympathy and flattery. You have had a very good mind, but it has become unbalanced by being directed in a wrong channel. You now amount to little else than a blank in society. This need not be. You can do for yourself that which no other can do for you. You have duties to perform. You have yielded to a helpless condition, and imagine you cannot do. The will is at fault; you have the power, but not the will. T17 159.3

You are pining for love. Jesus calls for your affections, which if you devote to him, will rid you of all this sickly, sentimental, impure, love, found in the pages of a novel. In Jesus you may love with fervor, with earnestness. This love may increase in depth, and it may expand without limit, and will not endanger health of body or strength of mind. You need love to God and to your neighbor. You must awake, you must shake off this deception which is upon you, and seek pure love. T17 160.1

Your only hope of this life and the better life is to seek earnestly for the true religion of Jesus. You have not a religious experience. You need to be converted. Your listless, indolent, selfish sadness will then give place to cheerfulness which will be beneficial to body and mind. Love to God would ensure love to your neighbor, and you would engage in the duties of life with a deep, unselfish interest. You want pure principles underlying your actions. Inward peace will bring even your thoughts into a healthy channel. T17 160.2

Devote yourself to God, or you will never have the better life. You have duties to perform to your parents. You should not be discouraged if you at first become weary. It will not prove a lasting injury. Your parents frequently become exceedingly weary. It will not be half so injurious to you to become very weary in useful labor, as for your mind to be dwelling upon yourself, fostering ailments, and yielding to despondency. T17 160.3

A faithful accomplishment of home duties, filling the position you can occupy to the best advantage, be it ever so simple and humble, is truly elevating. The divine influence is needed. In this, there is peace and sacred joy. It possesses healing power. It will secretly and insensibly soothe the wounds of the soul and even the sufferings of the body. Peace of mind, which comes from pure and holy motives and actions, will give free and vigorous spring to all the organs of the body. Inward peace and a conscience void of offense toward God will invigorate, like dew distilling upon the tender plants. The intellect is strengthened and quickened. T17 161.1

The will is rightly directed and controlled, and is more decided, and yet free from perverseness. The meditations are pleasing because they are sanctified. The serenity of mind you may possess, will bless all with whom you associate. This calmness and peace will, in time, become natural, and will reflect its precious rays upon all around you, to be reflected back upon you again. The more you taste this peace and heavenly quietude of mind, the more it will increase. It is an animated, living pleasure which does not throw into a stupor, but awakens all the moral energies to increased activity. Perfect peace is an attribute of Heaven, which angels possess. May God help you to become a possessor of this peace. T17 161.2

E. G. W.