Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 5 (1887-1888)

Lt 32, 1888

Butler, G. I.

Lemoore, California

March 8, 1888

Previously unpublished. +^Note

Dear Brother Butler:

Your letter in regard to several important matters has been received. We have now learned who the wealthy man was who offered money to erect an institution in the South. Matters have been developing, and I am now prepared to state that I have far less confidence in the apparent conscientiousness of Brother and Sister Maxson than I have ever had. They went directly with Elder Rice from the [Rural] Health Retreat to Fresno, and all three have had a decided influence on Brother Church, because he is willing and anxious to <put up a large institution and to manage it himself.> He has been disgusted with Elder Rice’s <course,> and could not say anything in his favor. But now <I think there must be a change in his feelings.> Maxson is sent across the plains to see Elder Butler in regard to this <institute> enterprise. 5LtMs, Lt 32, 1888, par. 1

Elder Rice has invested, <I am told,> $10,000 in land in Fresno to speculate upon. He shows unmistakable evidence that he has <no living connection with God.> We actually did not dare to have the man connected with the management of the institution at the health retreat <any longer>. 5LtMs, Lt 32, 1888, par. 2

Dr. Maxson and wife were present at all our meetings at the health retreat. They heard the reading of the cautions and warnings given to Elder Rice and Dr. Gibbs. I was so burdened when on the cars after leaving California en route for Europe that I could not feel at rest. The whole future was mapped out before me, and I wrote the letter on the cars and mailed it to Elder Rice and Dr. Gibbs. In the board meetings I said to Elder Rice, “Will you please state the response you gave to my warnings and cautions and entreaties?” He answered, “I wrote you that we would get along very well if you did not scold us too much.” This is the way the warnings were received. The Lord impressed my mind and urged me by His Holy Spirit to write—and the reception was in accordance with the words uttered. Notwithstanding all the developments that were made to appear in the case of Elder Rice’s unwise movements, notwithstanding the most solemn reproofs and warnings given Him, and the true state of things set before Him, yet Dr. Maxson and his wife excused and vindicated his course from the very first to the last and linked up with Elder Rice, revealing a perfect understanding between them. The spirit of determination to carry things their own way has been steadily preserved from the beginning. Neither [one] of this party has the least pleasure in the prosperity of the institution, and should these elements come into to compose a part of any institution, they would be a curse instead of a blessing unless they could be thoroughly transformed. They would make misstatements, they would misrepresent, they would put a false color on everything to make wrong appear right and right appear wrong. I wonder now that the institution was not demoralized more than it was. 5LtMs, Lt 32, 1888, par. 3

Since these elements have gone out, Dr. Gibbs has taken his position nobly, and I think the change could not have been made in a better time, to make the least stir and the least confusion. There was for a time some little stir among Dr. Maxson’s favorites. One man who had been taking treatment, Mr. Smith, who was hundreds of dollars in debt to the institution, left highly displeased because Dr. Maxson did not remain. Immediately there were 32 lady patients on the board for treatment besides quite a number of men to be treated. I am sure there never was a time when there appeared to be more peace and harmony in the Rural Health Retreat than there is now. 5LtMs, Lt 32, 1888, par. 4

Elder Rice has involved a large expense on his own responsibility and did this in the name of the Board, and the matter never came before the Board at all. There would have been the most singular management in the health institute if Elder Rice and Dr. and Mrs. Maxson had remained connected with it. 5LtMs, Lt 32, 1888, par. 5

I now will state decidedly, I have no confidence in Dr. Maxson’s pretense of conscientiousness in regard to the methods of doctoring. I call it egotism. He feels competent to do many things, and if he fails he has not depth of thoughts enough to know it. If he had more intelligent knowledge, he would feel far less competent than he now does. There has been underhanded work with Dr. Maxson and wife and Elder Rice. They are connected together. 5LtMs, Lt 32, 1888, par. 6

These things made us trouble, and my soul is tired of wading through the difficulties and perplexities brought upon us by those who claim to believe the truth. They work against us rather than in harmony with us. They seem to be doing the enemy’s work to dishearten and to discourage rather than to do the work of God. We make an attempt in the fear of God to set things in order as the Lord has made it our duty to do. Then the one that is corrected becomes a martyr and thinks he is abused, he does not take into consideration how he has abused the cause of God. Then his relatives and friends manifest great sympathy for him because they think he is not treated right. They give the wrongdoer all the sympathy they have to give; they bolster him up in his wrong! And they have hard feeling against those that have tried to set him right. They do not realize they are working on Satan’s side of the question, that they are putting out their own and His spiritual eyesight. They do not discern how greatly the cause of God has been injured by creating unnecessary prejudice against the work of God, both in the minds of believers and unbelievers, all through their own wrong course of action, and through their unchristlike management in connection with this institution. Blind parental affection and the sympathy of those who have been their friends come in to withstand the very work which the Lord made it necessary to have done. 5LtMs, Lt 32, 1888, par. 7

God would have evil repressed. Unsanctified affection blinds the spiritual discernment that they have not wisdom either to detect wrong or to correct it. They set light for darkness, and darkness for light. Unholy practices are passed over as a very light matter. Their human selfish love prompts them to pet, to praise, and indulge, which is an injury to the soul, and which stands directly in the way of the reformation necessary for the salvation of the soul. The hearts of parents are turned toward their children in this age with an unsanctified affection which the Lord in no way approves. It is like the tender mercies of the wicked, only cruelty in disguise. It is a hopeless task to try to present matters in such a way before these minds that they shall discern the true state of the case and the necessity of plain, thorough work as the only means to meet the mind of the Spirit of God. We will present an incident in the life and experience of Christ. Will anyone charge our Lord with partiality, with want of love, sympathy, and affection? He loved us and gave Himself for us that we might have eternal life. The feet of Christ were already bending in the path which led to Calvary. The hour of the great temptation was upon Him. His enemies were plotting for His life. They were determined to stop the lips of the Son of God from uttering the reproofs and warnings condemning their sins and hypocrisy. They were determined to pursue Him, and not rest until His life should pay the penalty of His plain teachings and sharp reproofs. 5LtMs, Lt 32, 1888, par. 8

Jesus told His disciples that were about Him what would be done to Him. “Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished, for he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and he shall be mocked and spitefully entreated and spitted on; and they shall scourge him and put him to death, and the third day he shall rise again. And they understood none of these things; this saying was hid from them, neither knew they the things which were spoken.” [Luke 18:31-34.] “Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee Lord, this shall not be unto you. But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me Satan, thou are an offense unto me, for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” [Matthew 16:22, 23.] The words spoken by Peter were prompted by affection. How did Jesus regard them? Did He welcome them as a solace to His troubles? No, He rebuked the disciple because all this affection expressed was opposed to the mind and will of God and as such was offensive to the world’s Redeemer. Without giving the least excuse for Peter’s love that prompted him to speak as he did, the rebuke, most severe, came from the lips of Christ to Peter that he should, through his own human wishes, turn aside the purposes of God. Jesus addressed Peter as He had on a certain occasion addressed Satan when he asked Jesus to fall down and worship him. He then said, “Get thee behind me, Satan.” 5LtMs, Lt 32, 1888, par. 9

Now, as the disciple was suggesting a part contrary to the will of the Lord, the rebuke of the Lord was upon him. Human affection that would come in to break off the point of the arrows of God that they shall not wound and pierce the fleshly desires and inclinations of the soul, is not an angel of light, but of darkness. It would <not> lead the one whose salvation is at stake to repentance, who needed to confess heartily that his sins might be forgiven, to think that his sins were a very light matter to be passed over without true humiliation and reformation. Those loving sympathizers with those who are wrong are standing directly in the way of God’s purposes and leading the reproved to consider that a mistake had been made in his case, and he shows contempt for the corrections God has given him. They counsel the erring by precept and by the Spirit with which they regard the reproof, that it matters not if they walk according to their own desire, their own human counsel, and do after the sight of their own eyes, they are doing the will of God. Many, many times, relatives and friends have balanced a soul in a wrong direction <by their unwise sympathy>. They have indulged their own feelings in opposition to the principles of God’s holy law. They concede that which God has forbidden and withhold that reproof and correction which, if heeded, will save a soul from death and hide a multitude of sins. 5LtMs, Lt 32, 1888, par. 10

The one who would be very exacting with others should, by precept and example, teach others how to be circumspect, and they should not appear to be Christians today and tomorrow weakly comply with the enticement of their own natural, unsanctified hearts and give occasion for the cause of God to be reproached. Everything which bears the least resemblance to evil in their deportment, in all imprudent association and familiarity, men with women, and women with men, should be strictly guarded against <as a sin offensive to God>. The truth of God is designed to sanctify the soul, and it is important for our own salvation, as well as for the salvation of those connected with us, that no one shall become self-inflated and so blinded by their own impulse that they think themselves favorites of heaven, and the things which they condemn in another they may practice themselves with impunity. Because of their former unblemished reputation and standing before the people, acts which they would condemn in another must not be regarded as sin or condemned in themselves because they have held high positions of trust and have the confidence of the people. This is the very policy of Satan in the heavenly courts. His position as covering cherub he claimed, placed him above suspicion and the possibility of doing wrong. 5LtMs, Lt 32, 1888, par. 11

With every follower of Christ, “Thou God seest me” [Genesis 16:13], may be inscribed upon tablets [on] every side where the eye may rest. There may be quotations of Scriptures on cards on every side of the room, but if these are not inscribed upon the soul and woven into the very daily life experience, it is not of the least value to them. “I am a Christian” should ever be borne in mind, and then demonstrated by revealing Christ in the character. 5LtMs, Lt 32, 1888, par. 12

When connected with institutions where so much may be done for the Master in rightly representing Christian character, what deep searching of heart there should be, what earnest prayer to God for strength to be a partaker of the divine nature, that there may be a correct example to others, to give wise counsel, and to reflect light upon the pathway of others. I must love my neighbor as myself. I must do to others as I wish them to do to me, were I in their place. I must study and understand the will of God in regard to myself; my words, my decisions, and my actions must be measured by God’s standard, not by my own finite standard, that no wrong impression shall go forth from me to lead the feet of any soul into strange paths. 5LtMs, Lt 32, 1888, par. 13