Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 6 (1889-1890)

Lt 59, 1890

Smith, Uriah

Battle Creek, Michigan

March 8, 1890

This letter is published in entirety in 1888 599-605.

Brother Smith:

Although my letter sent to you seemed to have not the influence I hoped it would have, still I do not, I will not let you go. 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 1

Night before last, the Lord opened many things to my mind. It was plainly revealed what your influence has been, what it was in Minneapolis. I knew, for day by day the Lord revealed this to me, and ever since that meeting I have known that you were deceived and deceiving others, that you will not only have, in the day of final accounts, to meet your own course of action, but the result of your influence upon other minds. You have refused my testimonies given me for you from the Lord. Just as much have you labored to make them of none effect as did Korah, Dathan and Abiram. You have done this, and thus it is charged against you in the books of heaven. 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 2

You have strengthened the hands and minds of such men as Larson, Porter, Dan Jones, Eldridge and Morrison and Nicola, and a vast number through them. All quote you, and the enemy of righteousness looks on pleased. 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 3

I was warned of this state of things in 1882. I was shown that which would be if you did not make thorough work out of the difficulty you were in. Have you ever made confession to Prof. Bell in regard to the position and work done at that time? Have you let this sin go beforehand to judgment that [it] may be blotted out when the time of refreshing shall come and He shall send Jesus? 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 4

I have had some things clearly opened to me night before last. How much better position would you be in today had you believed the words that God gave me for you at Minneapolis, and how much you might have done to stop the tide of unbelief that was flowing so swiftly at that meeting. I presented before you the things which the Lord had presented before me while in Switzerland, as well as in 1882. 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 5

You strengthened the hands of evildoers. Consider how many joined Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Two hundred and fifty princes, men of renown in the tribes of Israel. They made as firm a stand as you have made. They worked as you have worked. The people believed in Korah, Dathan and Abiram because they set things before them in a perverted light. They honestly thought these men were right. They had heard so many false representations and that Moses and Aaron were all wrong, but the result testified who were right and who were wrong. Korah, Dathan and Abiram had done a similar work as you have been doing. 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 6

I have had a plain testimony to bear to Elder Rogers to Elder Larson, to Dan Jones, but these add to impressions already that bewilder and entangle your mind, for they are all sharp pickers—especially Larson and Porter. Larson is an educated debater. His training, the mold upon him, must be obliterated and Christ’s image take its place, or his soul is lost. 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 7

Now your position has given strength to elements that exist in this meeting that has compelled me to bear a testimony that I fainly would be excused from bearing, but I dare not hold my peace. But the inexperienced ones, Larson, Porter and Dan Jones, and others who have had no experience with me and with my work, will be comparatively guiltless while you, who have known it from your youth up, will bear the weight of responsibility. You have made no account of the light which God has given me. You have in your attitude and the course you have pursued made of none effect that testimony and influence which should live and be strengthened by you, by your voice, your pen and adherence to them. But this you have not done and the result of this you must bear. 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 8

I have testimonies that I have borne to different ones and still shall bear, notwithstanding your course is directly of a character to say the testimonies cannot be relied upon, and you set such men as Larson, who has studied infidel books as has Elder Morrison, to meet opponents in arguments. Your influence, I have been shown, will be received, their unbelief confirmed, and when God speaks to them in reproof, they will do as you have done—thrown in my face something somebody has said or done—or some [will] inconsistently think they can see in my course [that] which authorizes them to turn from the testimonies, to walk as you have done, away from all the influence God would bring to bear upon them, and plead you as their excuse for so doing. Next you will find the ones whose eyesight, spiritually, you have acted your part to pervert will accept Satan’s sophistry, rather than the pure unadulterated truth, and they are ensnared and taken. At whose door will their sin be charged? You set their minds against the testimony of the Spirit of God. You led their feet in a path where God was not leading you. The spiritually blind has been leading those whom he might have led in a path of faith and confidence and peace. 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 9

I tell you in the name of the Lord God of Israel, both you and they will fall into the ditch. You know not what work is coming forth from your hands, but it will appear to you one day as it really is. You have evidence of the work God has given me which these men have not. I cannot harmonize with you or with the spirit Elder Butler has manifested. I tell you, it is not of God, it is another spirit. And again, I beseech of you to fall on the Rock and be broken, if God has ever spoken by you. You are in the greatest danger; and others, who believe they must see as you see, believe as you believe, are imperiling their souls. They have light but will not see it. They have evidence, but will not acknowledge it. 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 10

I cannot endure the thought of you being left as were Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Whoever may join themselves with you and walk not in the light of the Lord, but in the sparks of their own kindling, will lie down in darkness. 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 11

I feel the tenderest compassion for you. I would give my life to the torture and death if it would save your soul. But you have the experience of others who have walked in the same pathway where you have set your feet. You have traced their history who have despised counsel and made of none effect the testimonies. Why not change this order of things before it is too late, everlasting too late. You cannot make right wrong or truth error, neither can you make error truth and wrong right. 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 12

You are, by your influence, doing what other men have done before you, closing the door to your own soul where, if God should send light from heaven, not one ray would penetrate to your soul because you closed the door so it should not find access there. 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 13

The perils of the last days [are] upon us, and at a time when we are to look for light and power and grace and glory, at a time when we need to be more closely connected with heaven that beams of light shall be sent from the throne of God, when heavenly angels who minister unto those who shall be heirs of salvation [are needed] more than at any other time to compass our path, they are driven away because of unbelief, want of spiritual discernment to distinguish them to be the messengers of God. And amid the perils which thicken about our pathway, when we need to depend less and less on human wisdom and human sophistry and cleave more closely to the only power which can be to us a refuge, which can give to us the victory, we separate from and close the door that the power of Christ will not reach us any more than it reached the Jews. 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 14

Will you be one who will strengthen [the] gainsayer? Will you be found among the Korahs, Dathans and Abirams at such a time as this? Christ asks, “When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:8. 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 15

After your course of action has unsettled the minds and faith in the testimonies, what have you gained? If you should recover your faith how can you remove the impressions of unbelief you have sown in other minds? 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 16

Do not labor so hard to do the very work Satan is doing. This work was done in Minneapolis. Satan triumphed. This work has been done here. 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 17

Night before last I was shown that evidences in regard to the covenants were clear and convincing. Yourself, Brother Dan Jones, Brother Porter, and others are spending your investigative power for naught to produce a position on the covenants to vary from the position that Brother Waggoner has presented, when, had you received the true light which shineth, you would not have imitated or gone over the same manner of interpretation and misconstruing the Scriptures [as] did the Jews. What made them so zealous? Why did they hang on the words of Christ? Why did spies follow Him to mark His words that they could repeat and misinterpret and twist in a way to mean that which their own unsanctified minds would make them to mean? In this way, they deceived the people. They made false issues. They handled those things that they could make a means of clouding and misleading minds. 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 18

The covenant question is a clear question and would be received by every candid, unprejudiced mind, but I was brought where the Lord gave me an insight into this matter. You have turned from plain light because you were afraid that the law question in Galatians would have to be accepted. As to the law in Galatians, I have no burden and never have had, and [I] know Brother Smith, Porter, Jones, or any one, will never be prepared to receive light, either to establish or refute their position, until every one of you are men truly converted before God. 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 19

I would not now, after the manner you have, all of you, treated the light God has given you, depend upon your knowledge or interpretation of the Scriptures, believing you to be under the control of the Spirit of God, unless you should fall upon the Rock and be broken. If you turn from one ray of light fearing it will necessitate an acceptance of positions you do not wish to receive, that light becomes to you darkness that if you were in error, you would honestly assert it to be truth. I speak the things I know. 6LtMs, Lt 59, 1890, par. 20