Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 2 (1869 - 1875)

Lt 5, 1873

Chittenden, Brother and Sister

Santa Rosa, California

February 5, 1873

Previously unpublished.

Dear Brother and Sister Chittenden:

We received your kind letter last eve. We were very sorry to hear that your George is no better. We do not forget you, no indeed! I do not want you, either of you, to entertain a thought that you did not do your duty to us while we were in San Francisco. You were liberal in your reception and entertainment. 2LtMs, Lt 5, 1873, par. 1

To the Church

I do feel very sad and much discouraged as I review the much labor spent in San Francisco to the neglecting of other churches and see how little our labors have been appreciated. We look upon the time as nearly thrown away. The church has so great a burden to correct the wrongs of their neighbors, and to talk about them, that they have no time to search their own hearts and correct their own wrongs. 2LtMs, Lt 5, 1873, par. 2

Wherever I may go to help souls, the jealous and suspecting think I am being prejudiced against them, that I am not cordial to them. And that which looks the most fearful and the most terribly discouraging is that there is no reception of the testimonies God has given me pointing out individual wrongs. Husbands accuse their wives of telling me long stories, and others accuse their brethren of telling their faults, and I am accounted as a scavenger, gathering up the scraps and bits of news and gossip and palming it off as a vision from God. 2LtMs, Lt 5, 1873, par. 3

If this is not the excuse of unbelief and the rejection of my testimony, I do not know what to call it. I never met with the like before in all my travels among those who profess to believe in the message of truth. If this is not doing insult to the Spirit of God, tell me what it is. I did hope that the last Sabbath when I stood in pain before you, trying to speak the word of truth, entreating you to have a spirit of confession, your hearts would feel. But all my entreaties were in vain. There were wholesale confessions of not serving God as you should have done, but not one definite thing was mentioned to lift the cloud and let the Spirit of God and freedom in. Those who have tried to sustain Mrs. Harris and to withstand our labors had no feelings of remorse, but could pass over their wrong course and justify their course in rejecting the light God has been pleased to give me. I feel that the Spirit of God has been insulted by some, and these persons are going farther from God and into darkness. 2LtMs, Lt 5, 1873, par. 4

I know that those who have been reproved can never be free till they frankly confess their faults, husbands confessing to their wives and wives to their husbands, parents to children and children to parents, and brethren and sisters confessing to each other, and seeking to wipe out the errors and mistakes and defects in their character by reform. Thorough conversion is necessary, thorough searching of heart, and humiliation before God. I have no labor for souls to come into the truth in San Francisco until there is a thorough work done among yourselves who profess to believe the truth. 2LtMs, Lt 5, 1873, par. 5

Sister Rowland has not confessed her feelings of bitterness to Brother Cornell. She has not righted her wrongs by reform and confession. 2LtMs, Lt 5, 1873, par. 6

May God help you, is my prayer. In haste. 2LtMs, Lt 5, 1873, par. 7