Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 1 (1844 - 1868)

Lt 33, 1868

Green, Deloss B.

Battle Creek, Michigan

Circa January 5, 1868

Previously unpublished.

Dear Brother Deloss [B. Green]:

I have your case presented before me in vision. I saw that the heavenly angels were inviting you to accept the whole truth and to take your stand firmly upon it, but you were hesitating, undecided. Years ago when the effort with the tent was made at Adam’s Center, you were almost persuaded then to come out and take your position with the people of God. You felt the weight of evidence. The Spirit of God strove with you to identify yourself with Sabbath-keeping Adventists. Your dallying grieved the Spirit of God in not yielding to your convictions of duty and the impressions of the Spirit of God wore away since that time. You have had feeling, you have felt the Spirit of God calling you to give all for Christ’s sake, but you have been so slow, so unbelieving, so hesitating. The impressions have passed away. 1LtMs, Lt 33, 1868, par. 1

I saw that the Spirit of God has not taken its departure. Angels of God are still waiting to bear your decision upward that “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” [Joshua 24:15.] It is dangerous to delay. Every ray of light that has shone upon your pathway which you have neglected to cherish has left you bound by Satan in chains of darkness and unbelief until to yourself it seemed impossible to put forth an effort. But the Lord’s will is to save you if you will consent to be saved in His own appointed way. Mark out no plan of your own, but come out from among them with God and be separate and touch not the unclean, and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you. Submission is required on your part, a humbling of yourself before God, making a decided, determined effort, come what may, that you will be a follower of Christ, a soldier of the cross. You are powerless in saving yourself, and it is impossible for you to dwell in heaven with your nature unrenewed. You are now conformed to the world. You are required to be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove, experience for yourself, [that] which is [the] good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 1LtMs, Lt 33, 1868, par. 2

Christ died for you that through faith in His merits and power to save you might be partakers of His grace, a receiver of the heavenly benefit provided for you, and that you might be strengthened by all might in the inner man. Your heart must be subdued by grace. You openly acknowledge that you receive Christ as your Saviour. Submit your will and your wisdom and your ways to God and receive that wisdom which is from above. The heart is deceitful and easily drawn from God. 1LtMs, Lt 33, 1868, par. 3

I was shown that you should erect a family altar, give to God the wealth of your affections. It belongs to Him. Your danger is in being too slow, of hesitating until the convictions of the Spirit of God wear away, and every time this occurs you become less susceptible of divine impressions. Such will generally have to move without special feelings, decide from the weight of evidence. You should not trifle with the Spirit of God. He requires the whole heart, your entire affection. He bids you lift the cross; inconvenient though it be, He requires you to raise it. You feel no strength to do this. The cross seems exceedingly heavy, yet in the act of obeying God and of receiving the cross, you will be astonished to find the cross lifts you. It raises you. It imparts to you a strength you have never before possessed. 1LtMs, Lt 33, 1868, par. 4

God is very merciful. He invites you and your wife to His sheltering arms. Let your heart repose in God. Trust in Him as a child would trust in its earthly parents. Believe that Jesus saves you now. It is a present Saviour you need, a salvation you must have. Die to self, die to the world. Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. 1LtMs, Lt 33, 1868, par. 5

Unloose your grasp from the world and fasten it upon the better world than this. Submit to God’s obedience. Obedience God requires of you; obedience is better than sacrifice. 1LtMs, Lt 33, 1868, par. 6

I commit these few ideas to you as given to me. May they be blessed to your good. 1LtMs, Lt 33, 1868, par. 7

In love. 1LtMs, Lt 33, 1868, par. 8