Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 1 (1844 - 1868)

Lt 34, 1868

Munsell, Jarvis

c. 1868

Previously unpublished.

Jarvis Munsell:

It becomes my duty to write you. I have been shown some things concerning you. In the last vision given me I was shown that you, Jarvis Munsell, have not a ray of light from Jesus. You are a complete agent for Satan to work through. You have ever been an injury to God’s cause. You do not keep yourself straight but a few hours at a time. You have been puffed up by the enemy. You have been so large in your own estimation that God could impart to you no strength. You have lacked religion and have imitated the hateful disposition of Satan. You are one of his faithful servants. God disowns you. You are a curse to His cause. 1LtMs, Lt 34, 1868, par. 1

I was shown that you have fretted, scolded, and acted so mean a part in your family that it is impossible for your wife to have any affection for you. She is united with you only in form but her heart despises you. She has listened so long to fretting and to your falsehoods, and been so long under your satanic influence, that she has imbibed your spirit and is fast imitating your peevish, fretful, mean course. God pities her. Jarvis, you irritate and provoke her and taunt her with not being a Christian. Says the True Witness, “I know thy works.” [Revelation 3:15.] 1LtMs, Lt 34, 1868, par. 2

God will never take such as you to heaven. You would mar and disturb the whole heavenly host and your spirit would contaminate the place. I was shown that if your wife had been separate from you she would now have been a faithful child of God. When you married her, her disposition was sweet and pure; she had self-respect, self-control; was peaceable, kind, and lovely. But oh, how changed now! Her living with you has destroyed noble feelings, her self-respect, her self-confidence, and her confidence in God. Faithfully have you acted the part Satan wished you to act—fretted, scolded, told falsehoods—and your degrading influence has brought her down from the exalted position she ought to occupy. She has lost much of her fine feelings and has been on the point of yielding everything. You are determined to be lost yourself and to drag her with you. 1LtMs, Lt 34, 1868, par. 3

I saw that God’s eye is still over her for good. She should not condescend to utter one word when you fret and complain. She should keep her lips as though sealed. Then she will not sin against God with her lips. 1LtMs, Lt 34, 1868, par. 4

Matilda, I saw that God’s mercy was still extended to you. You have thought the church cared nothing for you. It is not so. The course of Jarvis has led them to shun your house; his course is so mean, he is such a son of Belial that everyone that has anything to do with him regrets it afterwards. He leaves a stain on everything he touches and the brethren’s safest course is to leave him to his own meanness, which is so despicable in the sight of God. Then they will escape being wounded. 1LtMs, Lt 34, 1868, par. 5

I saw, Matilda, you should exert every energy to overcome the evil which has been taking root in your heart, and root out the poisonous weeds as quickly as possible. Save your own soul by your own righteousness. Let not the bitter, hateful, overbearing talk of your husband ruin you. If you have to, leave the house, do not hear it. Go from it when you can. Do not retaliate or answer back, for he has not a particle of reason and you cannot help him but will only stain your own soul with blackness. 1LtMs, Lt 34, 1868, par. 6

Satan has studied well to work your ruin. He works through Jarvis to irritate and provoke you, that you may lose your self-command and lose the fear of God and stain your life with retaliation. Do not come down to such meanness. Maintain your dignity; take a decided stand, a straightforward course. Save your own soul. You can do it. God will help you. Angels will watch over you. Regain what you have lost. Redeem your self-respect. Make a thorough, decided effort. The church will help you. Your eternal interest depends upon the course you now pursue. God would be pleased to have you shun the bitter, degrading talk of your husband. Flee from it. Seek to God for strength. Plead with Him, agonize, groan in spirit before God for His salvation. Yearn in spirit for pure, elevated feelings; hold fast the promise of God. Believe, pray, and weep before the Lord. 1LtMs, Lt 34, 1868, par. 7

You have possessed fine, elevated feelings, but you have been fast losing these sacred qualities and imbibing a spirit which is as opposed to the Spirit of God as Satan was opposed to Jesus Christ. Shake yourself from this unhallowed, ruinous [course]. Make sure work for eternity. God is purifying His people and dead weights must be shaken off from them. The church must clear themselves. 1LtMs, Lt 34, 1868, par. 8

Your children, I saw, could not be brought under a worse influence than they are now. They are forming characters to be cut down with the seven last plagues and their father will bear this burden, this fearful burden. Oh, what lessons for your children! What a shameful example! And the neighborhood are not in ignorance of your shameful course. You publish your own disgrace and yet you pretend to be Sabbathkeepers. Says the True Witness, “I know thy works.” God will spue you out of His mouth. [Verses 15, 16.] 1LtMs, Lt 34, 1868, par. 9