Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 6 (1889-1890)

Lt 61, 1890

Daniels, Brother and Sister

Oakland, California

April 1890

Previously unpublished.

Dear Brother and Sister Daniels,

Last night I was, in my dreams, with you and talking with you. I said to you, Be not discouraged. The Lord has not forsaken you. His Spirit is striving with you. Satan has woven a net for your feet and he has desired to have you that he might sift you as wheat, but Jesus says, “I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” Luke 22:23. 6LtMs, Lt 61, 1890, par. 1

Satan is loathe to let go. There will be a strife of tongues. This thing will be said and the other thing will be said, but heed them not. Said my guide, the contrite heart is known and accepted of God. Keep the way of the Lord. He alone can bring you forth from your present trial as gold purified from all dross. Let the lessons you now learn be lasting. 6LtMs, Lt 61, 1890, par. 2

I was instructed by the case of David who had through his own course of action forfeited the favor of God, and like a funeral procession the uncrowned and unsandaled king, with head covered and eyes dim with tears, with his little handful of adherents, was pursuing his way along the precipitous road by the Mount of Olives. Yet God had His eye upon him every moment. His own course of action had brought the sure result. He had lost his self-respect and self-control. The man was humbled and mournful, but in his humiliation David, before the whole universe of heaven, was never more tenderly regarded than in this hour of his adversity. Never does he stand greater with God than when wrestling with the storm. He was cut to the quick with the change that had taken place, suspicioned, and not only [had] to bear that of which he was guilty, but much more of the sayings and imputations of those who were ready to say, Report and we will report it. 6LtMs, Lt 61, 1890, par. 3

We can never, when we go astray from God, be judged in every respect correctly. Motives will be implied, reproach freely poured from human lips. This will be so in your case. Unwise counselors you have had, unwise sympathizers have done you no good, because their own hearts are not right with God, their own motives are not pure. They have not served God with a single eye to His glory. These men have not been your best friends. You have accounted some as your enemies, because they did not sustain you. O, how poor and weak is man, how deficient his discernment. Let these unwise counselors stand out of the way. Let God be your Counselor. There will be, in the very time when you need words of encouragement, those who will not consider that you need help, and will, like Shimri, bring a storm of curses upon you, hurling stones and missiles. 6LtMs, Lt 61, 1890, par. 4

What said the humbled man, David? “Let him curse; for the Lord hath bidden him.” 2 Samuel 16:11. “I said, I will take heed to my ways, that I sin not with my tongue; I will keep my mouth with a bridle, while the wicked is before me.” Psalm 39:1. “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth; because thou didst it.” Psalm 39:9. 6LtMs, Lt 61, 1890, par. 5

David was not hardened. He was more, far more, elevated in the sight of God than when in the hours of his prosperity. He was cast down, but not destroyed. “It is the Lord: let him do what seemeth him good.” 1 Samuel 3:18. 6LtMs, Lt 61, 1890, par. 6

You will be tried sorely not only with merited, but unmerited, wrong, but you have only one hope and do not cast that from you. God will be your Friend and Helper. 6LtMs, Lt 61, 1890, par. 7

David’s adversity was not the work of man. If his expulsion from the throne was man’s work, the result of human uncontrolled passion or human caprice, he would have taken entirely a different course. He would have accepted the ark, the symbol of God’s presence. Worldly wisdom in the advice to retain the ark would have met with his full assent, but it was altogether different. “It is of the Lord.” “If I shall find favor in the eyes of the Lord, He will bring me again, and shew me both it (the ark) and His habitation: but if he thus say, I have no delight in thee; behold, here am I, let him do to me as seemeth good unto him.” 2 Samuel 15:25, 26. Nathan’s words, so solemn and condemnatory, were ringing in his ears. 6LtMs, Lt 61, 1890, par. 8

Now, Brother and Sister Daniels, I beg of you to let nothing interpose between your soul and God. There is a work which the Lord has begun for you. Let Him work in you to will and to do of His own good pleasure, and you work out your own salvation with fear and with trembling. You have come to a crisis in your life. Be sure now and take the right course. 6LtMs, Lt 61, 1890, par. 9

You need not calculate that exact justice will be done you in every case, in opinions, and in works, but keep fast hold of the hand that will guide you. Let it not go for an instant; maintain a childlike reliance upon God. In the midst of the furnace trials, seek God, having no wish or will of your own. God is true, “with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.” James 1:17. 6LtMs, Lt 61, 1890, par. 10

Like David, you will meet with those who will rail and accuse, as did Shimri, and will be to one of your nature more cruel than “spears and arrows. Their tongue is a sharp sword.” Psalm 57:4. But look high, faint not, put your trust in the Lord day by day, and like Abraham now command your household after you. The future is in the hands of the Lord. God’s hand is not withdrawn. He has a work for you to do. As a refiner of silver, He is watching until the process of purification is complete. When the Lord sees we require the furnace fires to purify and refine, He leaves us not to be consumed. He will not make a full end. He will watch that the fire will not consume and destroy. 6LtMs, Lt 61, 1890, par. 11

Can you not both trust your covenant-keeping God. The Lord is a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knoweth those who trust in Him. You can but see and know, in things which transpire in your home with your children, that they love not, nor fear not the Lord. They have not kept the way of the Lord, but your own management will be reflected back upon you in that you have not done your duty. When this is the case, do not charge the sure result of your own course to circumstances and to take [the] course of some other one. Above all, do not settle matters by the testimony of your children, for this will not do them any good, and will not leave the correct impression in regard to your brethren and sisters who have had the trial of being connected with your children, who were under the control of the enemy of souls. 6LtMs, Lt 61, 1890, par. 12

Do not treat your brethren and sisters coldly as if they were to be blamed because they did not yield to the perverse wills and wishes and ways of your children. They bear a report to you that is not true and if you take their testimony, God will hold you accountable for wrong feelings and impressions, unless you lay open the matter frankly to those who have been connected with them. If they have misstated, if they have presented matters in a wrong light, then it would be a decided injury to them and to your brethren and sisters to have the true facts perverted. 6LtMs, Lt 61, 1890, par. 13

Will you do all that you can to make these crooked things straight, for your own good, for the good of your children? There needs to be a work done in your family. There needs [to be] firm, decided discipline mingled with prayer, that the curse of Eli shall not rest upon you both. 6LtMs, Lt 61, 1890, par. 14

I wish I could present before you the matter as it is. O, that your eyes may be anointed! O, that you might see and understand that the true state of your children is an offense to God! 6LtMs, Lt 61, 1890, par. 15