Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 7 (1891-1892)

Lt 61, 1892

White, W. C.

Adelaide, Australia

October 4, 1892

Previously unpublished.

Dear Son Willie:

I am pleased to report I have had a most favorable night’s rest. Slept more than any time during the last nine months. Elder Daniells is faithful to see that I ride out every day. I was more than rejoiced to be able to speak to the people here in Adelaide with freedom, and all listened with close attention. I have the peace of Christ, and I am seeking every day to put my trust in the Lord; and I will rejoice in the Lord, for He is good and His mercy endureth forever. We are getting along nicely but that cat, she is a trouble. But then I should say nothing about that. 7LtMs, Lt 61, 1892, par. 1

I wish to present before you the great good that may be done if our brethren who attend the school, and especially our ministers, would have some interest and burden for the church at Fitzroy. It is not so much preaching that they need, but they need that which may appear little—help in various ways which means very much in the success of the work. 7LtMs, Lt 61, 1892, par. 2

Their missionary and tract society meetings are strangely neglected. This will not detract from the success and prosperity of the school, but will be a part of the great plan of God in educating these students how to work, blending practice with their education in this disciplinary process. Working and learning, in this the training process consists, in learning and practicing as they go. Light received, light imparted to others. It may be in a small way by those who are inexperienced, but I know no better way for you to fasten the instruction given to your students than to introduce them to missionary meetings, tract society meetings, and educate them as best you can in the simple methods of successful work in these lines. Thus teaching is confirmed by practice, and in this work all heaven will be brought near. 7LtMs, Lt 61, 1892, par. 3

I consider it will be a blessing to you who are connected with the school to show a decided interest in the prosperity of the church in Melbourne. They have had preaching, but there has been a vast deal of work in certain lines that they ought to have had, that they have not received, in education and training in the several branches of the work which are essential for the strength and vitality of the church. In no case must we be indifferent to the apparently minor interests in connection with the church. The greater comprehends the less, like pins and screws joining together the whole living, moving machinery. Ignorance as to how to work in the church now exists to a large extent. 7LtMs, Lt 61, 1892, par. 4

Tact and ingenuity and skill are to be put to use in the advancement and building up of the kingdom of Christ in our world. Orphans are around us everywhere. Ignorance and want exist in our very midst. The right kind of education is not in much sermonizing, but in teaching, in the inculcation of ideas. Sound principles must be brought into actual practice and must lay the foundation for true work in the church. 7LtMs, Lt 61, 1892, par. 5

The talent that can set the church at work is the great want for this time, and every student needs this practice as a part of his scholastic life. This part of the education has been sadly neglected in every country, in every district, in every church. Men have loved to preach and have not considered that there was real art in ministering. They have not learned the trade of doing personal labor. This work must be entered into as never before. Man must understand his personal relation to his fellow man and understand that Christ means that he shall improve his time in earnest prayer and studying the life of Christ, that he may be an able workman that needeth not to be ashamed. 7LtMs, Lt 61, 1892, par. 6

To be an able workman means more, far more, than to sermonize. The youth should be educated and trained to do wise planning and devising and qualify themselves how to best reach their fellow man. God cares for all souls, and they are the purchase of His blood. Many who have even come to the years of maturity will need to have the spirit of a little child and learn in meekness and lowliness of mind how to put their entrusted talents out to usury—how to trade on their Lord’s goods, to so display the goods of heaven, the precious truth of God’s Word, as to win souls of all classes of society. They need wisdom from God, ingenious planning, to reach souls. 7LtMs, Lt 61, 1892, par. 7

The intelligent, the refined, are altogether too much passed by. The hook is not baited to catch this class, and ways and methods are not prayerfully devised to reach them with truth that is able to make them wise unto salvation. But most generally the fashionable, the wealthy, the proud, understand by experience that happiness is not to be secured by the amount of money which they possess or by costly edifices and ornamental furniture and pictures. They want something they have not. This class are attracted toward each other, and it is hard to find access to them; and because of this, many are perishing in their sins who long for something that will give them rest and peace and quietude of mind. They need Jesus, the Light of Righteousness. There is a certain round of labor performed in a certain way that leaves a large class untouched. 7LtMs, Lt 61, 1892, par. 8

Now the Lord would have a missionary spirit awakened, far higher and deeper than has yet been manifested, and well-defined efforts put forth with a perseverance and energy worthy or proportionate to the grand, ennobling, elevating truths, the golden treasures of heaven, which we possess. We have been wonderfully deficient in this line of work. 7LtMs, Lt 61, 1892, par. 9

Then there is another class more easily reached. Many of them are more worthy than the wealthiest, for those who are rich have not all obtained their riches by strictest principles of integrity. There are those who would not sacrifice principle or strict honesty for any amount of means. This is the class that, if the truth is presented to them in wisdom, would receive it and be reliable workers together with God. The laborer together with God will, through the wisdom given of God, work in such a way as to draw these parties together in Jesus Christ. 7LtMs, Lt 61, 1892, par. 10

The rich, let alone without any efforts to save them, become shut up more and more to their own ideas, their own train of thought and associations. They lose eternity out of their reckoning, grow more proud and selfish, hard-hearted and unimpressible, suspicious that every one wants to get their money, while the poor are envious of the rich, who need pity rather than to be envied. Bring these all under the power of saving truth and the work of upbuilding the kingdom of God will go forward with much greater success. 7LtMs, Lt 61, 1892, par. 11

One thing is certain. We must educate every believer to have a true missionary spirit and [to] understand how to work intelligently in the missionary cause, for the prosperity of the church is dependent upon this branch of the work being successfully done. Improvements large and deep and far-reaching are essential to be made in the lines of missionary work, that it may go on to increase constantly in strength and efficiency, not gain in becoming more intricate, more difficult for the sincere, humble, true-hearted worker to handle, but ever maintaining its simplicity even as it increases in growth, for the health of our tract and missionary societies depends on their keeping humble and pure, and maintaining their simplicity. 7LtMs, Lt 61, 1892, par. 12