Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 2 (1869 - 1875)

Lt 14, 1874

Salie, Brother

On the boat from Santa Rosa for San Francisco

February 17, 1874

Previously unpublished.

Dear Brother Salie:

Your case has been shown me, and I will now write out the things presented before me. 2LtMs, Lt 14, 1874, par. 1

I was shown that you have incorrect ideas of your ability and your duty. You would not glorify God in your efforts to teach the truth to others. There are serious defects in your character, which you do not discern, which [are] an injury to yourself, to your family and the cause of God. 2LtMs, Lt 14, 1874, par. 2

You are naturally bigoted, severe, and overbearing. You are naturally faultfinding. You have great self-confidence and but little of the grace of God. You place too high an estimate upon your abilities. You neglect duties in your own family. You are exacting in your family and you lack that kindly consideration, tenderness, forbearance that would make a happy family. In short, you are very destitute of the pure, humble religion of Jesus. 2LtMs, Lt 14, 1874, par. 3

The lot of your wife has not been an easy one by any means. Her life has not been happy as it was your privilege to make it. 2LtMs, Lt 14, 1874, par. 4

You are not fitted for a teacher. You have a spirit which would repel from the truth but not attract and win. You have a severe, harsh, proud, unsubdued spirit. You are ready to engage in conversation with men, and you show so much of the spirit of self that you disgust and provoke many of those with whom you converse. Your influence would not be of that character to give others a favorable impression of the truth we esteem sacred. You are a very poor representative of the truth and of Jesus, whose follower you profess to be. You talk too much. If you would pray more and be more kindly considerate, compassionate, and courteous in your family it would be reflected back upon you in the cheerfulness and health of your wife and in the happiness of your children. 2LtMs, Lt 14, 1874, par. 5

You neglect present daily duties lying directly in your path in reference to your own family and are reaching out for a larger work that will pay you better with less anxiety and less taxation on your part. Your aims, your motives and your principles are at fault. You do not know yourself. When you are a truly transformed man, when the softening, refining influence of the grace of God subdues and elevates your soul, then you will be ready to exclaim, “Unworthy! Unworthy!” 2LtMs, Lt 14, 1874, par. 6

The important work for this time calls for unselfish men; men who will toil; men who feel the burden of the truth upon their souls, who will not lay off the burden and take it on as they would a garment; men who would not shun toil, weariness, privation, and hardships; men who will “weep between the porch and the altar,” and cry “Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not Thine heritage to reproach.” Joel 2:17. 2LtMs, Lt 14, 1874, par. 7

All who feel the responsibility devolving upon the servants of Jesus Christ who [are] laboring for the salvation of souls, will from the heart exclaim, “who is sufficient for these things?” [2 Corinthians 2:16.] 2LtMs, Lt 14, 1874, par. 8

You need to be converted. Your conversation, your deportment, your vindictive spirit, your self-esteem and self-confidence would have a transforming influence upon men in the wrong direction but would not convert to the truth and to Jesus Christ. You cannot bear your own burdens, much less go forth to bear the burdens connected with the cause and work of God. 2LtMs, Lt 14, 1874, par. 9

There are quite a number of your stamp of character that are more desirous to teach than to learn. They seem to be never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. They bear in their garments the blood of souls. They stand directly before the wheels of the car of truth and salvation instead of pushing it on. They are, like yourself, murmurers, accusers of the brethren—tempting the enemy to come in and control them by opening a door for his temptations. But God will reward all such according to their works. 2LtMs, Lt 14, 1874, par. 10

Your standard of morality is not elevated or correct. Your mind follows in a low channel. You need to be converted. And it was sad and painful to me to see your great lack of humiliation, lack of integrity and steadfast faithfulness as a disciple of Christ, and yet your conscience is so hardened you have no sense of your true state. Your sense of purity of life and of holiness of heart is clouded, and holiness of thought and conversation is very far from you. 2LtMs, Lt 14, 1874, par. 11

When I heard that you had gone to Brother Healey’s I groaned in spirit, for I knew he had not decided to obey the truth. Your professing to be a Sabbathkeeper, and your life not being in harmony with your faith, you would have an influence to disgust Mr. Healey in the place of converting him. The more he has in his employ of men of your cast of mind, men so void of purity of thought and life, the less inclined will he be to our faith. A godly, consistent life will have far greater influence upon a man like Mr. Healey than one who can talk, and is forever talking out points of our faith while in [his] works and character denying our faith. A few such men as Brother Salie in the employ of Mr. Healey would set him so far off from the truth it would be impossible to free his mind from the impressions received as he marked the deportment of those who professed to believe the truth. 2LtMs, Lt 14, 1874, par. 12

Your mind, Brother Salie, has been cast in an inferior mold. Your opportunities for mental cultivation have been limited and narrow. Your sympathies come in union with those who are murmurers, whose minds and hearts are as destitute of the grace of God as the hills of Gilboa are of dew and rain. 2LtMs, Lt 14, 1874, par. 13

You, Brother Salie, teach the truth. Why, your own heart is corrupt, you have not been sanctified by the truth. You have not a good, cultivated understanding. In more respects than one you would disgrace the cause of present truth in attempting to teach it. You have a faultfinding, complaining, censuring spirit which will be developed when a favorable opportunity presents. The least you have to say to others in convincing them of our faith, the better will the cause of present truth stand in their estimation. All that you say, all that you do, savors strongly of the weakness of Salie. 2LtMs, Lt 14, 1874, par. 14