Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 8 (1893)

Lt 3, 1893

Brown, Martha A.

Hastings, New Zealand

August 23, 1893

Previously unpublished.

Miss M. A. Brown

Long Point, Paremata, New Zealand

Dear Sister Martha,

I hope you do not think we have forgotten you for it is not the case. It was painful to my feelings not to have you with us, but I feared for your health, and I am very anxious that you should attend the next term of school. Now be very careful of yourself, for I do want you to have the advantages of education, and the next term of school, if the Lord will. So make every calculation for this. 8LtMs, Lt 3, 1893, par. 1

If you do not get hold of money, I will see that you are conducted through, and [you can] wait your time to return the same for some other one; I will do this cheerfully. I tell you this now, because I want you to go so much and believe it will be to your great advantage to go. You have been trying to do what good you can in a backhanded way, greatly to your own disadvantage. Now, the Lord will certainly favor you, and I feel almost as if you were my own child. I shall not lose interest in you. Distance will not change my feelings toward you. It will not be as the old saying, out of sight out of mind. 8LtMs, Lt 3, 1893, par. 2

And if your sister Belle will consent to go to the next term of school, I will do just the same for her as for you. I do want you to draw together in even cords. Counsel together, pray together, and the Lord [will] give you His favor and imbue you with His Holy Spirit, that you may be useful home missionaries for the helping of your mother in her work in the love of God. Act your part with fidelity <to be a true educator to the younger members of the family,> and the Lord will make you successful home missionaries in saving the precious souls of your brothers and sisters for whom Christ has died. In doing this you will be doing the very work which will be the will of God you should do. 8LtMs, Lt 3, 1893, par. 3

<Martha, you made a sad mistake when you went to Kaikoura. The Lord did not lay any such burden upon you. But now believe, and the Lord will> give you education and experience in self-control [and] adaptability to deal with human minds from a religious standpoint. In unity there is strength. In diversity there is weakness. 8LtMs, Lt 3, 1893, par. 4

I have light from the Lord that both <Martha and Belle> can now be improving the gifts of talents bestowed. The heavenly intelligences will work with your efforts if you will both come close to Jesus and seek most earnestly to know the way and the will of the Lord, and to do it you will not be driven as the waves of the sea hither and thither and tossed. The Lord wants you to come close to Him. With His grace in your souls you may be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. You may be clothed with the righteousness of Christ and resist temptations. 8LtMs, Lt 3, 1893, par. 5

My dear Martha, your experience has been of that character that it has made you sensitive and reticent. Now this may be overcome. The Lord knows all about the past and present and future and He wants you, Martha, to believe that the Lord loves you and will bless you. You may have confidence in Jesus that you will overcome, for Christ has said, No man shall pluck you out of His hand. [John 10:28.] I am now going to drive, will tell you all about it another time. 8LtMs, Lt 3, 1893, par. 6

4:15 p.m. Elder Wilson, Emily, and I have just returned from our drive. We found the roads much better than we expected. It is not settled weather yet. We passed a farm where the Maoris were trimming their evergreen pine trees, and their healthy fragrance was grateful to the senses. We saw a most beautiful rainbow, and [as we] looked, it began to expand until it spanned the heavens. We looked with pleasure upon the sight growing more and more lovely until its perfection seemed to me as the rainbow of promise about the throne of God. I have never seen anything more beautiful; it bears some <faint likeness to> the appearance of the rainbow encircling the throne of the Most High. 8LtMs, Lt 3, 1893, par. 7

I was reminded of (2 Corinthians 3:18), “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed in the same image from glory to glory; even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” O what precious revealings by beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord! This means that we are to contemplate His love, His self-denial, His great sympathy and His compassion and the infinite sacrifice He has made in our behalf. Contemplating this, talking of this, we become changed from character to character—more elevated, ennobled, beautified by the grace of Jesus Christ. Then let us keep His image before us as if looking in a glass we see it reflected before us. 8LtMs, Lt 3, 1893, par. 8

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.” [2 Corinthians 4:17, 18.] Do not any one of you, especially Martha, dwell upon the past. While you look at the rich promises of God you will become strong, in the strength which Christ is ever ready to impart. Forget the disagreeable things. 8LtMs, Lt 3, 1893, par. 9

I know some things <of the past.> I have had these things presented to me, some of them in clear lines. I have been shown how the enemy of all righteousness is striving for your soul. But Christ is looking with pitying tenderness upon you. He is saying, If thou wilt only believe, thou shalt see the salvation of God. “Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I (your Saviour) have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.” [Luke 22:31, 32.] Look unto Me. Behold Me, able to save to the uttermost all who come unto Me. All human wisdom and strength is as nothing. “Without me ye can do nothing.” [John 15:5.] All the qualities and capabilities of the mind are to be cultivated to the uttermost of our power, that we may do a better service for the Master. 8LtMs, Lt 3, 1893, par. 10

But take heed, that the mind shall not sink into discouragement and you become an easy prey to Satan’s representations and his charms. He has no hold upon you if you simply cling to the cross. While you hold your convictions firmly [and] walk humbly with God, in faith you then can present the truth in its beautiful simplicity as it is in Jesus; and God will water the seed sown. To be self-reliant is our duty which we owe to ourselves. You have been in a severe school. I deeply deplore those who could <not> better discern how to apply the balm to a wounded soul, but the Lord Jesus has seen your unselfish efforts to do something in His cause. Your earnest hungering to do the will of God has not been unnoticed of the Master. You have been the instrument in the hands of God of bringing souls to the light of truth. 8LtMs, Lt 3, 1893, par. 11

I am authorized to tell you that it has not been wisdom in you to borrow money to help pay for debts on churches, <to give away books and papers,> and you go insufficiently clad and obliged to work hard to earn a small sum to settle these debts. You have imperiled your health, and now you must be careful. But you have been misunderstood and misapprehended. Your talents are given you of God to do a different work than that you have been doing <outside of your family.> While there is no disgrace in doing house work, it is honorable employment, you have had your physical powers so overdrawn that there is no margin in the bank from which you can draw. Let nature have a time to recuperate her overtaxed forces. You will never recover the full strength of your physical powers, and your mental powers must be guarded. 8LtMs, Lt 3, 1893, par. 12

Your intense desire to see souls embrace the truth is known to God. The Lord knows all about your faithful performance of disagreeable duties. Satan has thought to entangle soul and body, but refuse to have the oppressor plant his feet upon your soul. Hold fast your integrity in the strength of God. He will redeem His promise. The Lord will vindicate your case if you will meekly trust in Him. You are oversensitive. You feel bruised and wounded because you have felt yourself inclosed in circumstances that you could not help. Well, God knows all about this, and He will bring you forth from the furnace as gold purified if you will only trust in Him. 8LtMs, Lt 3, 1893, par. 13

In much love. 8LtMs, Lt 3, 1893, par. 14