Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 4 (1883 - 1886)

Lt 100, 1886

White, J. E.; White, Emma

Orebro, Sweden

June 28, 1886

Previously unpublished.

Dear Children:

I will write you a little day by day as things transpire. We have received a letter from Edson. I was glad to hear from you. I sent you a letter from Basel about two or three weeks since and another from this place last Friday, so I will not try to answer directly your last letter which was most gratefully received. 4LtMs, Lt 100, 1886, par. 1

Our ten days’ meeting is in the past; and although everything was not done we would be pleased to have seen accomplished in future plans, a decided advancement has been made, and still we urge them, “Go forward.” [Exodus 14:15.] There have been young men preparing for to go out as colporteurs, canvassers, and to engage in the ministry, and the Lord has blessed in the meetings. 4LtMs, Lt 100, 1886, par. 2

I spoke last—yesterday—at 6 P.M. to a hall full to overflowing. I spoke from Revelation 20:11-15. We had a very solemn meeting, and there seemed to be much feeling—some weeping. It was my last discourse. I have now done what I could, and the Lord will do that which I cannot possibly do—water the seed that has been sown. But speaking through a translator loses—taxes me; but when you read the reports—they come to you about as they are spoken—good is done, and many testimonies are borne, stating the impressions that have been made so that I know my labor has not been in vain in the Lord. 4LtMs, Lt 100, 1886, par. 3

I have spoken now eleven times, given five discourses since June 18, spoken six times one half an hour in each occasion in morning meetings and in conference meetings, and I have written seventy pages of important matter in letters and articles to revise book on Sanctification. So you see I have done considerable work in ten days. 4LtMs, Lt 100, 1886, par. 4

I thank the Lord that He has given me physical strength and mental clearness that I could do this. It requires double tax of the mind to speak through an interpreter to keep the subject matter connected, and I do want so much to labor in England where I can speak in my own language. But there is important work to be done here, and the effect will not appear so clearly now as in the future of the work. As my writings come to the people in their own language, then they know they have seen the writer and heard her speak and know for themselves what manner of spirit she is of. 4LtMs, Lt 100, 1886, par. 5

All seem to have the greatest confidence in me, if I am allowed to be any judge, and I seek in every way to help them what I can and get near hearts. Sweden is a good field of labor, but O so much is to be done and scarcely any one to do the work. It seems as though I could scarcely contain myself when I think of the many honest souls in this kingdom who have never so much as heard that there was a third angel’s message or a second and first angels’ messages. When I get wrought up quite beyond endurance, then I take it all to the Lord. I say, “Lord, this is Thy work. This is the people for which Thou hast died. We want [to] act the part Thou hast given us to do in seeking to save these souls. Open the way before us. Raise up laborers to work in the fields already white to harvest,” and I feel that I can only drop the burden upon the great Burden Bearer and wait to hear His voice, What to do next. If some were brought into the truth who had means to help—but there are as yet only those who are poor; but as we made an advance move to organize a tract society and establish systematic giving even in their poverty, they entered into the work heartily, cheerfully, and hopefully. 4LtMs, Lt 100, 1886, par. 6

There is a brother C. G. Hedin who resides at Grythyttehed where we visited last fall. He was an intemperate man when the truth found him. He had two children by his first wife who was a wealthy woman, but he squandered all her property and was worth nothing and in debt. He married again; has four children by his second wife. This family number ten. His wife’s sister lives with them. After he embraced the truth, his God-given manhood came back to him, and he saw that he had so very limited room he could not entertain the ministers and hold meetings in his house. He went zealously at work, built him a good, convenient, nice house—nearly all their houses in Sweden are built of logs—then after a year or two they side them up and make very nice-looking houses. The wealthiest build in this fashion. Well, he built his house on borrowed capital, and when we visited them he took us up one flight of stairs. There was a large, square room where the stairs entered—at the left; he showed Bro. Matteson and W. C. White in a nice, well-furnished, small room with two beds in it and a large porcelain stove reaching to the ceiling, table, chairs, and every convenience, plain but serviceable. He told them to make themselves at home. He conducted us through the square room where the stairs enter, and there was a room precisely like the one given to Matteson and W. C. White furnished the same. Then at the head of the stairs opened a door into another room—large, square room, seated—[a] meeting room when only this one church assembled. They have a union free meeting hall where large congregations are called out. They have the same rooms below as above which were the living rooms for the family. He has a very nice barn, an excellent cow, and everything is nice, orderly, and in the best of order. 4LtMs, Lt 100, 1886, par. 7

Now all this he has accomplished since he embraced the truth about six years since. The property is almost free from debt. He is an excellent workman, a first-class painter. Now he tells the story with tears, although he does not mention his dissipation. He feels much pained about it, but rejoices in the Lord. He pointed me to a small spool of thread. Said when he received the truth he was not worth that spool of cotton, and now with prosperity, one year more he thought would make him all clear from debt. The truth has done much in every way for others, and all [that] is needed is to get at the hearts of the people. The clergy of old state church hold them as in a vice and visit them with all kinds of persecution, if they see any prospect of their receiving the truth. They seem so hopelessly bound as in slavery to the state church that they do not see how it is possible for to leave them and endure what the consequence will be. It is wonderful, hardly to be credited, unless one is on the ground and can see and understand by the relation of past experience that it is not overdrawn. 4LtMs, Lt 100, 1886, par. 8