Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 6 (1889-1890)

Lt 84, 1890

White, W. C.; White, Mary

Battle Creek, Michigan

March 19, 1890

This letter is published in entirety in 1888 642-644.

Dear Children Willie and Mary White:

Attended morning meeting and listened to what others had to say, but did not talk myself. Many excellent testimonies were borne, but some whom we longed to hear from did not talk. I was so thoroughly exhausted I wanted the luxury of quiet, but could not get it. One after another must see me a few moments, and my time was so broken into I could not do much. 6LtMs, Lt 84, 1890, par. 1

A. T. Jones was present and spoke short and to the point. We thought [it] best to appoint a meeting in the afternoon of the same character as the one we had held Wednesday evening, the week past. Brother Eldridge had quite a long talk with me upon various things—books and writers and the present condition of things. He thought it would be best to have a second meeting, and deplored that these meetings of explanation could not have been held long ago. The same has been stated by others; but I explained that the state of their impressions and feelings was of such a character that we could not reach them, for they had ears, but they were dull of hearing; hearts had they, but they were hard and unimpressible. 6LtMs, Lt 84, 1890, par. 2

We had our meeting. Brother Jones talked very plainly, yet tenderly, in regard to their crediting hearsay and not, in brotherly love, taking the matter to the one talked about and asking him if the report were true. 6LtMs, Lt 84, 1890, par. 3

Willie, I talked as they had never heard me talk before. I went over again the transactions at Minneapolis and since that time, and I addressed plain remarks to Elder Smith. I told him that it was not so surprising that my brethren who had known but little of the work the Lord had given me to do should have temptations, but Elder Smith was not excusable. He had been acquainted with me and the character of my mission from his youth up, and he had seen my work, and it had been tested and proved by him for years; and that there should suddenly come a period of time when without any reason except the imagination of his own darkened, perverted understanding, he should so deliberately and coolly treat the Testimonies in a manner to make them of no effect, was a marvel to me. 6LtMs, Lt 84, 1890, par. 4

I had reason to expect my brethren would act like sensible men, weigh evidence, give credence to evidence, and not turn aside from light and facts of truth and give credence to tidbits of hearsay and suppositions—wonderfully cautious in regard to matters of testimony which they had not any reason to question, and open mind and heart to greedily accept and publish to others the mere words born of prejudice and envy and jealousy. 6LtMs, Lt 84, 1890, par. 5

I said to them that Brother Smith ought to have been the man to be standing and saying the very things I was saying, because they were truth, equity and judgment. He had not a particle of reason or foundation for his prejudice. Well, it was a solemn a meeting as I have ever seen. It made a deep impression. Suffice it to say the whole atmosphere is changed. There is now joy with Brother Dan Jones that I held to the point. He says he has made a fool of himself. Brother Eldridge says he feels subdued, like a whipped man, that all this maneuvering has been going on to meet obstacles that never had an existence. But I will write more. 6LtMs, Lt 84, 1890, par. 6

I am writing in Chicago [about March 22] in the same room I occupied when the meetings were in session. 6LtMs, Lt 84, 1890, par. 7

Brother Dan Jones says it would have been lamentable to leave Battle Creek without these two special meetings and the definite explanations made. He is a changed man. The Lord is at work. How Brother Smith will come out remains to be seen. 6LtMs, Lt 84, 1890, par. 8

A few days since, Sister Butler was stricken down with paralysis and was unconscious for days. Yesterday a letter came that she is conscious, yet helpless. One-half of her is helpless. She cannot yet talk. Elder Butler must be passing through severe trials; I pity him from my heart. 6LtMs, Lt 84, 1890, par. 9

I now ride out with Brother Starr and wife to see lots of land. 6LtMs, Lt 84, 1890, par. 10

Mother.

Love to Mary and children and household. 6LtMs, Lt 84, 1890, par. 11

Mother.