Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 5 (1887-1888)

Ms 28, 1888

Diary, May to June 1888

Nevada and California

May 24 - June 10, 1888

Previously unpublished.

May 24, 1888

[Reno, Nevada]

Reno camp meeting commenced May 24. I spoke to the people assembled in tent meeting eleven times. This was a meeting requiring hard labor with some excellent, good results. My tent was pitched close by an irrigating ditch. It was a beautiful location for me. The tent was made very comfortable with stove, carpet on floor, and furniture. But there were leaders [drain pipes] from the ditch which kept it damp and wet under and in front of my tent. The result on me was loss of appetite and general debility and high fever. The cause of this I could not at first understand, but some of my brethren moved my tent up on dry ground and the disagreeable illness was in a great measure removed. 5LtMs, Ms 28, 1888, par. 1

June 3, 4, 1888

[Enroute to St. Helena, California]

We left the campground Sunday night, June 3. We had [a] snowstorm coming through [the] Sierra Nevadas. We tarried in Oakland one night and then went to St. Helena [on the] 4th. Fare was two dollars and five cents. We found Brother and Sister Lockwood doing well. Charlie and Byron Jones were working under the direction of Brother Lookwood. We were pleased to see Mary White’s baby real well. Rheba Kelsey has charge of her and manifests much wisdom in caring for and managing her. 5LtMs, Ms 28, 1888, par. 2

About six o’clock the same evening Brother Lockwood, Brother and Sister Donaldson, and myself journeyed to Calistoga. We tarried overnight with Brother Church and early next morning I felt urged by the Spirit of the Lord to write several pages of letter to Doctors Caldwell and Gibbs, speaking to them some very plain things in reference to the institution, trying to impress upon them the importance of keeping up their dignity as Christian gentlemen and physicians of that institution. They must never become common in their conversation or their manners and attitude and never approach to anything of the kind of breaking down the reserve and modesty which should ever be encouraged to exist between men and women. God is not well pleased with any low, cheap ideas of commonness expressed either in words or in attitude toward females, men with women. There is a commonness in conversation that should be decidedly changed. 5LtMs, Ms 28, 1888, par. 3

Ministers and physicians, above all men, should be reserved and delicate upon the secret diseases of women. Nine-tenths of these afflictions are caused by the abuse of the husbands of women in the bedrooms—the coarse, animal treatment. It is a shame to speak of the things done in secret to gratify the animal nature of the man. It is simply a dreadful thing. And to have ladies treated by men physicians is not right when the secret parts are to be opened to the sight of men. [It] is a science that never should be encouraged. Let men treat men, and women treat women in this line. God is displeased with all such familiar work, as it is terrible what women endure by men of base minds. The whole human structure is ruined, and the result [is] suffering and terrible disorders. 5LtMs, Ms 28, 1888, par. 4

June 5-7, 1888

[To Healdsburg, Oakland, and Fresno, California]

June 5. We made an early start for Healdsburg, which we reached about half past eleven o’clock. We employed the time to good advantage, rested one night in our home, then, early in the morning, June 6, took the train to Oakland. A lady kindly took my basket from my hand as we were changing from boat to cars. Said she had heard Mrs. White speak and was pleased to have an opportunity to become better acquainted with her. I was pleased with the company of this lady. Her son-in-law had been employed in the work of building the meetinghouse in Oakland. 5LtMs, Ms 28, 1888, par. 5

Brother Saunders met me at Oakland depot and carried my hand baggage to the boat. I found no one prepared to meet me at Market Street station. Left my hand baggage and walked up to the boardinghouse. I was quite sick; had a fever. Sara McEnterfer gave me [a] treatment. Felt some better. Sister Sawyer and I left the same night, June 6. We paid for one ticket each, $5.80; for sleeping cars, $1.50. We rested comfortably in the night and early next morning at five o’clock a.m. were at Fresno. We paid $1.00 hack fare to be taken to Brother Bell’s where we were made at home. 5LtMs, Ms 28, 1888, par. 6

June 9

[Fresno, California]

Sabbath, June 9, I spoke to the people in the church hall to a house crowded with people. I felt very solemn for I was burdened with the dangers that I knew our brethren and sisters were in of becoming cold, spiritless, and worldly through engaging in horse and land speculation. I could not forbear weeping as I spoke to them the warnings the Lord had given me for them, for it would prove the ruin of the souls of teachers of the gospel to mix up in this fraudulent speculation. Let it alone. There were a number of confessions borne. With some there was deep feeling manifested. 5LtMs, Ms 28, 1888, par. 7

This was to me a very solemn meeting. I had great fears that the truth would leak out of hearts that were so mixed up with the world, as water out of a leaky vessel. Oh, how my heart longed to see their consciences aroused and their turning to the Lord as the Way, the Truth, and the Life! How earnestly I prayed that none of these should loose their crowns and because of their unfaithfulness others should come in to take their places and receive the reward which they might have had if they would only preserve their purity and integrity before God in holiness! This is a very special, solemn work that is entrusted all to do. Will we take hold of this work and do it to the glory of God? Will the Lord’s professed people be a representation of Jesus Christ to the world? What can I say that will make an impression on human minds? 5LtMs, Ms 28, 1888, par. 8

June 10, 1888

[Fresno, California]

Sunday morning, June 10. Sister Loveland was kind and to accommodate us took Sister Sawyer and myself in a good easy carriage to [the] academy, halfway to Burr Valley, eighteen miles. We here stopped to eat a lunch, our breakfast. We tried to get a little milk, but I suppose the family knew we were Sabbathkeepers and utterly refused to sell us any milk, for it was Sunday. The sisters told her that I was not well, and they gave me about half a pint of milk, which was very acceptable. 5LtMs, Ms 28, 1888, par. 9

We had waited only one half hour when Charlie from Burr Valley came on his way expecting to meet us in Fresno. Now we exchanged carriages. Paul Daniels stepped into the carriage with Sister Loveland, and Sister Sawyer and I into the carriage Charlie was driving. We reached Burrough Valley about noon. We found Mary White much improved and of good courage. We were sorry to find that Sister Hutchens had taken into her home a sick man who proved to have settled typhoid fever. They are [following] the very work of instruction given them in the treatment of the sick. This is true medical missionary work, and the water treatment is fully carried out. I thank the Lord for this part of subject, but the family will be exposed. 5LtMs, Ms 28, 1888, par. 10

I had many communications to send to different ones of counsel, of reproof, and warnings. Sabbath I spoke to the church in Burr Valley. There was indeed a little flock that was assembled, but they needed the Bread of life just as if there were one thousand present. 5LtMs, Ms 28, 1888, par. 11

[Material apparently added at a later time, circa 1910:] 5LtMs, Ms 28, 1888, par. 12

The Lord would have us all wide-awake to receive and sense the importance of the time in which we live and become the Lord’s faithful witnesses. We are to never become cheap in our talk in conversations men with women, and women with men. I am charged to rebuke every such commonness—men who invite unmarried women and girls to where there are privacies to be strictly preserved. I have seen and heard the familiarity [of] men with young girls. I have rebuked them and told them that the Lord condemned all such familiarity and commonness, and I have little confidence in men who do not seem to know any better. 5LtMs, Ms 28, 1888, par. 13

*****

Fresno

The church, if it has life, will grow and have active, working Christian members. The great lesson Christ would teach by the [parable of the] ten virgins, which precedes the parable of the talents, is [that] there is to be no relaxation of effort to secure the object—eternal life. The lesson all must learn is vigilant watching and sanctified waiting. 5LtMs, Ms 28, 1888, par. 14