Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 4 (1883 - 1886)

Lt 30, 1886

Bourdeau, D. T.

Basel, Switzerland

February 10, 1886

Previously unpublished.

Brother Bourdeau:

I wish I could answer your letters, but I am not able. I have been unable to sit up but a few minutes at a time for five days. Yet I feel anxious to respond in some few words to your letters. Bro. Augustin’s letter I will attempt to answer at some future time. I sit bolstered up in bed to say a few words to you. 4LtMs, Lt 30, 1886, par. 1

Bro. Daniel, I have so wished that I could see in your letters a somewhat different spirit. In some things I am pleased, but not altogether. You write that you want the notices published just as you have written them, without a word of change. Then you have to repeat so often, “I am sore on some points.” I want to tell you in love, it is your pride that is irritated and sore. When you have less of self and more of Jesus you will find rest in Him. But you think you must carry your own self or you will be crowded and hurt, and yet you continually place yourself where you are hurt. I like not your spirit of talk of your own individual independence, a spirit the Lord has been seeking to separate from you for years, and yet you cling to it with a vise-like grasp. Jesus’ words are to you, “Come unto Me all ye that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” [Matthew 11:28, 29.] This lesson of meekness and lowliness you have daily to learn of Christ. 4LtMs, Lt 30, 1886, par. 2

Do you feel it essential to keep lifting up yourself for fear people will not see and appreciate you? You cannot accomplish much in the work and cause of God, even with your many years of experience, unless you are daily learning in the school of Christ. The Lord would make you a channel of light if you will lay your burdens on the Lord and not try to lift yourself up. I am pained when I read sentences in your letters about your independent judgment. After showing as great weakness as you have, after being often under the special, controlling power of Satan, these words are not appropriate, as though you were infallible, your decisions and judgment without a defect. 4LtMs, Lt 30, 1886, par. 3

My brother, I do not want you should hurt yourself. It is just as easy for you to have a high estimate of your powers as it is for you to breathe. Then the Lord withdraws Himself from you. I write these words with much pain. If your case had not been laid open before me so many times, then I should not write as I do. Keep humble, meek, and lowly. Be willing to be counseled, to be entreated. Do not think you know it all and are competent to direct and plan and execute all yourself, for if ever a man needed a balance wheel, it is yourself. Now I tell you this because I feel it my duty to do so. Unless you get rid of this self-sufficient spirit and become humble, I do not know whatever the Lord will do with you. It is the men who walk in the greatest humility whom God honors. When God sees that it is not safe to let prosperity attend you, He will withhold it from you. It does not matter with the Lord how many years you have been in the truth, but what have you learned in these years that has given you advantage over those who have had less number of years in the truth. It matters not with the Lord how much learning you have, but whether you are willing to learn the lessons which He gives you. It is the character of the experience that determines its value. Has the long experience been such that it has made its possessor a wise man after God’s own heart? Has this experience made him less trustful of self and more and more dependent upon God? Has your experience made you weak in self-control? Has it made you impatient of restraint? Has it made you a bold soldier, putting self out of sight? Oh, that God may enlighten your mind, soften and subdue your heart, and make you more like Himself. Oh, that your pen would never trace the words that you must follow your own independent judgment. Come on a level with your brethren, receiving counsel as every one must do. You cannot expect that every thing shall be deferred to your judgment when you have shown so great defects. Will you learn the lessons in the school of Christ that He would have you to learn, to wear His yoke and lift His burdens? 4LtMs, Lt 30, 1886, par. 4