Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 2 (1869 - 1875)

Lt 12, 1873

White, J. E.; White, Emma

Black Hawk, Colorado

August 9, 1873

Portions of this letter are published in TDG 230.

Dear Edson and Emma:

Your letters are read with interest. We have come to the mountain wilds of Colorado to be free from care and perplexities so as to save your father’s life. Letters of a perplexing character, which require taxing thought, should not be sent to him. He must be absolutely free from all these cares and perplexities which have brought him where he is. He must not be loaded with responsibilities. 2LtMs, Lt 12, 1873, par. 1

We hope our sons will become responsible men to bear a share of the burdens their father has so long carried. We should rejoice, Edson, to see you coming up with stability of purpose, with sufficient experience to fill positions of usefulness. We would rejoice to see the work of God prospering in your hands. For this we hope and pray. Do not disappoint our expectations. It rests not with us whether our expectations shall be realized, but with you, my much loved son. If you have to begin at the foot of the ladder, be not discouraged because you do not stand on the topmost round. Begin your climbing at once, one round, then another, up, up higher and higher, climbing heartily, steadily, determinedly, as others have done. The top will be reached only through persevering efforts, not looking down, but up, heavenward. 2LtMs, Lt 12, 1873, par. 2

I am grateful to our kind, heavenly Father that you are enjoying the blessing of good health. Make the most of this precious boon and do not become careless and transgress the laws of health. Live in so simple a manner that health may be retained. 2LtMs, Lt 12, 1873, par. 3

How gratefully should I rejoice if I could write that your father was in health. We hope and pray and believe. In the mountains and in the groves, many times a day we send up our humble requests to God that healing power may come to your afflicted father. Our seasons of prayer are often marked by a subdued power. We weep and pray and rejoice. Our faith claims restoration. “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” [Hebrews 11:1.] Our faith says it shall be done. We shall be like the importunate widow. We shall ask again and again, until we realize the full answer to our prayers. 2LtMs, Lt 12, 1873, par. 4

Go forward, my son, and if you make God your trust, your strength and Counselor, you will be triumphant at last. Walk with lowliness of mind, esteeming others better than yourself, and may God give you wisdom that you may conduct yourself with so much prudence that you can be an instrument in His hands of doing great good in His cause in forwarding the important work for these last days. Do not think your mother is critical and severe. She feels the most intense interest for you that you should make a success of this life and gain the future, immortal life. 2LtMs, Lt 12, 1873, par. 5

God loves you. He inquires, “Can a woman forget her sucking child?” [Isaiah 49:15.] You have probably heard of the sad story of the mother who, with her husband and child, attempted to cross the Green Mountains in midwinter. Their progress was arrested by night and a storm. The husband went for help and lost his way in the darkness and the drifted snow, and was long in returning. The mother felt the chill of death coming upon her, and she bared her bosom to the freezing blast and the falling snow, that she might give all that remained of her own life to save that of her child. When the morning came, the living babe was found wrapped in the mother’s shawl, vainly striving with smiles and with a babe’s pretty art to arrest the attention of the mother’s fixed and frozen eye, and wondering why she did not awaken from her sleep. 2LtMs, Lt 12, 1873, par. 6

Here is seen love stronger than death, that binds the mother’s heart to her child. And yet God says that the mother will sooner forget her child than that He will forget a soul that trusts in Him. That the Lord loves us is enough to call forth deepest gratitude, every hour of our lives. God’s love is speaking to you. Give attention or you will not apply His words to yourself. Only trust the love of Jesus, and you will realize the deepest joy. Look upward to Jesus and you will not fail. 2LtMs, Lt 12, 1873, par. 7

Mother.