Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 8 (1893)

Lt 23, 1893

Gribble, Carrie

Hastings, New Zealand

September 13, 1893

Portions of this letter are published in LYL 76-77; 1MCP 300-302; AH 53.

Miss Carrie Gribble
No. 1 George’s Terrace
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Dear Sister:

I have been awakened early this morning, at three o’clock. I was in earnest conversation with you in the night, and was saying, “Carrie, the Lord has a work for you to do.” I was presenting before you the perils of your past life which you have experienced. These matters, I said, have been opened before me, and for this reason that the Lord has not permitted you to follow your own course of action. 8LtMs, Lt 23, 1893, par. 1

I have felt the burden laid upon me to have a watchcare for your soul. You are in danger of making grievous blunders in following impulse. Your bestowal of your affections have been of that character in every case to have proved your ruin. 8LtMs, Lt 23, 1893, par. 2

God has saved you from entering into marriage relations with persons who were not in any way calculated to make you happy, and who were corrupt in morals and would have fastened you in Satan’s snare, where you would have been miserable in this life and imperiled your soul. Will not the past lessons be sufficient for you? Can you not learn this lesson, that Satan would spoil your life if you follow your own impulse? The Lord Jesus has purchased you with His own blood, and you are His property. You cannot dispose of yourself, as you shall see fit. 8LtMs, Lt 23, 1893, par. 3

You have not a nice distinction of character. You are altogether too free with your affections and would, if left to your own course of action, make a lifelong mistake. Do not sell yourself at a cheap market. Do not be free with any gentleman student. Consider that you are preparing to do a work for the Master, that in order to act well your part, and render back the talents to Him who has given them to you, and to hear the precious commendation from His lips, “Well done, good and faithful servant” [Matthew 25:23], you must take heed and not be careless of your associations. 8LtMs, Lt 23, 1893, par. 4

In order to act your part in the service of God you must go forth with the advantages of as thorough an intellectual training as possible. You need a vigorous, symmetrical development of the mental capabilities, a graceful, Christian, many-sided development of culture, to be a true worker for God. You need your taste [and] your imagination chastened and refined and all your aspirations made pure by habitual self-control, and to move from high, elevated motives. Gather all the efficiency [you can], making [the] most of your opportunities for the education and training of the character to fill any position which the Lord may assign you. You need so much a balance wheel in judicious counsel. Do not despise advice. Bear in mind that the school is not a place to form attachments for courting, or entering into marriage relations. 8LtMs, Lt 23, 1893, par. 5

You will be inclined to accept the attention of those who are your inferiors in everything. You must be made wiser through the grace of Christ. You must consider every step in the light that you are not your own; you are bought with a price. May the Lord be your Counselor. Do nothing to impair or cripple your efficiency. Deal faithfully with yourself; with painstaking effort discipline yourself. The grace of Jesus Christ will help you at every step if you will be teachable and considerate. 8LtMs, Lt 23, 1893, par. 6

I write you this now, and will write again ere long, for as the mistake of your past life has been set before me, I dare not withhold most earnest entreaties that you hold yourself strictly to discipline. Counsel with Brother and Sister Starr. You can do this safely, and with Brother and Sister Rousseau whom God loves. Be not led astray into any false paths and do not show a preference for the society of young men, for you will not only injure your own reputation and future prospects, but you will raise hopes and expectations in the minds of those to whom you show preference, and they [will] become as if bewitched with love-sick sentimentalism and spoil their student life. 8LtMs, Lt 23, 1893, par. 7

You and they are at the school for the purpose of obtaining an education to qualify you in intellect and character for greater usefulness in this life and for the future immortal life. Make no mistake in receiving attentions or giving encouragement to any young man. The Lord has designated that he has a work for you to do. Let it be your motive to answer the mind and will of God, and not to follow your own inclination and be bound up in future destiny with cords like bands of steel. 8LtMs, Lt 23, 1893, par. 8

You are now in your student’s life; let your mind dwell upon spiritual subjects. Keep all sentimentalism apart from your life. Give to yourself vigilant self-instruction and bring yourself under self-control. You are now in the formative period of character; nothing with you is to be considered trivial or unimportant which will detract from your highest, holiest interest, your efficiency in the preparation to do the work God has assigned you. Preserve every simplicity of action, but make your standard high for the harmonious manifestation and improvement of your mental faculties. Be determined to correct every fault. Hereditary tendencies may be overcome, the quick, violent outbursts of temper so changed that these manifestations will be, through the grace of Christ, entirely overcome. We are, individually, to consider that we are in God’s workshop. The raw material, the rough fabric is to pass through the refining processes essential that we may indeed be laborers together with God. 8LtMs, Lt 23, 1893, par. 9

You cannot divorce wisdom from this discipline. Do not get in a hurry. Be patient and persevering and a brighter future will open before you. It is your duty to remove every objectionable feature of character that you may be complete in Christ Jesus. You have a large fund of affection and will need to be constantly guarded lest you bestow your affection upon unworthy objects. The Lord make you wise unto salvation. 8LtMs, Lt 23, 1893, par. 10

Let your conversation and all your thoughts be trained. Character is formed for usefulness and duty by studying the life and character of Jesus Christ, who is our Pattern. With all the teachers’ faithfulness in education and the pupil’s diligence there must be combined the divine agencies. Keep ever in the society of modifying, transforming influences that will give correct ideas in regard to the formation of habits which will place you in the most favorable position to become useful in this life and complete in Jesus Christ that you may inherit eternal life. 8LtMs, Lt 23, 1893, par. 11

You cannot be too careful and too particular in all your ways. Let the influence wherever you are be of that character to help and bless others. God has a work for you to [do]. In no case put your neck under a yoke that will be galling all your life. Be true to yourself and true to your God, and you will have the favor of God, which is of more value than life itself. I pray the Lord to bless you abundantly. 8LtMs, Lt 23, 1893, par. 12