Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 2 (1869 - 1875)

Lt 33, 1870

Hall, Lucinda

Battle Creek, Michigan

April 7, 1870

Previously unpublished.

Dear Sister Lucinda [Hall],

We received a letter from you yesterday. Glad to find your father’s family as well as they are. We received a letter directed to you. Evening after Sabbath we opened it and found relief in regard to anxiety for your sister Lillie. 2LtMs, Lt 33, 1870, par. 1

We have regretted [that] you moved in so great haste. We do not censure you. Do not think thus. But we do fear that you all have too little faith and trust in God in regard to your friends. If afflicted, the dark side only appears, and there is great distrust and fear where there is no need to be. I have seen this all along and have thought to speak with you in regard to the matter. 2LtMs, Lt 33, 1870, par. 2

I fear that there is rather an idolatrous affection with your parents for their children, especially Lillie. I look upon matters perhaps in a very different light than many do. I do not, I cannot, look upon death as the greatest evil that can come. There are worse, far worse, things than death which every parent and youth are exposed to, and which faith and firm religious principle will need to be possessed, in order to avoid the danger. 2LtMs, Lt 33, 1870, par. 3

It is not safe to work and plan too much, thinking to avoid or lessen evils. The Lord has His own ways and purposes to carry out, and however much we may plan, fear, or seek to avoid, His providences will be carried out. Thus I have regarded matters which have led me to entrust home and children to God and His angels, and whether present or absent feel a calm reliance upon God that He knows what is for our best good and will not willingly grieve or afflict the children of men. 2LtMs, Lt 33, 1870, par. 4

I think, Lucinda, you let feeling control you in regard to the letter you received from home. You kept reading over and over the letter which presented your sister in an almost dying condition until your feelings, your sympathies, were all awake—painfully, vividly awake. You wept a great deal and were wholly unfitted to view matters calmly and rationally. You dwelt upon the matter, suffering your imagination to present before you a sad picture, and you lost your faith, your reason, and your judgment. All were overborne by your strong, deep, sympathetic feelings. 2LtMs, Lt 33, 1870, par. 5

It was the same that led you to mourn and weep and refuse to be comforted after the death of William. You did not feel it a duty resting upon you to cease to talk and think of this affliction and place your mind upon the pleasant view of the case, regarding and magnifying the Lord for His deep mercy in fitting up the precious jewel for the heavenly casket. You nourished grief until your health was being sacrificed to this unreasonable mourning. I too have lost loved ones—a noble son [and] a sweet babe under the most aggravating disease and suffering. I have lost a brother, a sister, a father, a mother, and a Sister Anna and Nathaniel, as dear as my own brother and sister; [also] Sister Clara, dear as it is possible for a sister to be. I know what affliction and death are. I have therefore an experience in these things. I can speak understandingly. 2LtMs, Lt 33, 1870, par. 6

Lucinda, you are a person of very sensitive nature, quick to feel, and therefore you need to be guarded upon this point lest your powers are swayed in a wrong direction through feeling. 2LtMs, Lt 33, 1870, par. 7

By over anxiety your Mother, especially, may lose many precious blessings she might see and prize if it were not for her fears and seeing evils magnified. I think there is danger of seeking to avert sickness and the very means used through anxiety to prevent sickness weakens the efforts of nature, [so] she has not power to stand up against even [worse] ailments. When difficulty and danger is apparent then is the time to face the difficulty with resolution. But this constant terror and fear of calamity and sickness and danger is a worse evil than the distressing reality, for it prevents God from doing anything for us, for [when] we do so much ourselves He has no opportunity to work in our behalf. He leaves us to work out that [which] we were afraid to trust in His hands but chose to do ourselves. 2LtMs, Lt 33, 1870, par. 8

I believe that God will have a special care for us all if we will only trust Him. Walk by faith, not by sight. The affections, we must not think it our privilege to be guided or controlled by. We must have a control of the affections and feelings and sympathies. Practical duties will lead to a proper direction of the affections. 2LtMs, Lt 33, 1870, par. 9

But I will stop. It is difficult to get my idea upon paper. I have a few things more to say. I fear, Lucinda, too heavy a burden has rested upon you. Your heart has borne the burdens of two families. Our position in connection with the work has brought upon you great and varied burdens. When we were oppressed, you have been also. When we were free, you have rejoiced with us. At the same time your tender, deep feeling heart has felt the same for your father's family at home. Nearly every pulsation at home has affected you and caused either joy or sadness, just as the pulse might beat. I think we have not realized that you were getting over-burdened. Things which we ought to do and could do very well ourselves, we have looked to you to do for us. It is the duty of all and each to bear their share of the burden and responsibility and let you free for a while, leaving you to bear only the burdens you ought to bear. I feel thus in regard to the members of our house. I think it should be thus with the members of your father's family. You have been a great blessing to us and I know you have to your father's family, but I hope we shall none of us lose our share of the blessing by not bearing our share of our own and others' burdens. 2LtMs, Lt 33, 1870, par. 10

I will now close. I am today able to write a little for the first time since you left. We expected to leave for Iowa ere this but we thought it might not be in the providence of God for us to go now. Nathan is an invalid; also Venelia. Ira is as good a boy as can be expected at his age, yet he is so active and nervous he is a tax. We do not think [that] now [that] you are at home it is our duty to spend much time in our home at Iowa. We do not wish to be where our minds, worn out as they are, shall have to be anxious and troubled for others. We need those who can hold us up instead of us them. We thought if you were with us, of course we should immediately go to Iowa. Our force in Emma, if we thought best to have her go or Laura [?], is not that which we can depend on to plan and arrange and get things together for the camp meetings. They have no experience in the work. We shall calculate to spend two or perhaps three weeks before the camp meeting in our Iowa home. We shall leave here for Greenville in a few days [and] remain there till we are ready to go to Iowa. 2LtMs, Lt 33, 1870, par. 11

We miss you but we have no desire to call you back. Stay just as long as you feel it to be your duty. We have no duties to make for you. We all have a place, a fitting place, where God would have us somewhere. Seek counsel of God, and move as He would have you, and we shall not have one murmuring thought. If your duty is with your parents and sisters and brother, may the Lord bless and prosper you is our sincere prayer. If it is the will of God for you to be with us and share our perplexing lot, may you have strength to cheerfully bear this cross. The Lord has appointed us all and each our work. Each has a work to do for the Master. In this work we shall be sustained, cheered, and strengthened that we may do our work faithfully so that when the Master comes He may say, “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” [Matthew 25:23.] 2LtMs, Lt 33, 1870, par. 12

I shall not trouble you with any account of sickness and trials. You have enough where you are without bearing the burdens and sorrows of two families. We get along very well. Addie will go to father’s today. Edson has left for Wright. He left with good feelings. His father and he parted cheerfully, and with mutual good feelings and love. 2LtMs, Lt 33, 1870, par. 13

Much love to your entire family. I have with Emma’s help finished Edson’s vest. We have made Willie pants. I cut him out a coat. It is now being made by Sister Strong [?]. We take hold of Willie’s coat and vest today. All is as cheerful as could be expected considering the sad condition of things. May the Lord encourage and bless you, my dear sister, is my prayer. 2LtMs, Lt 33, 1870, par. 14

Ellen G. White

If no one was in the house at Iowa, I should not hesitate to go at once. As it is, it looks forbidding. I will send you the letters Venelia has written to you enclosed in letters to us. 2LtMs, Lt 33, 1870, par. 15