Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 11 (1896)

Lt 155, 1896

White, J. E.

Sunnyside, Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

August 10, 1896

Previously unpublished.

[Edson White:]

Why am I so disturbed in mind in regard to you, my son? Why is it that a heavy burden lies on my heart, like a stone pressing it? I am in trouble, distressed. I ought not to be thus, for it means inability to sleep and such exhaustion that I can scarcely breathe. My dreams are not pleasant concerning you. Your spirit, your words, were complaining. Your pen was tracing words that were not dictated by the Spirit of God. You were complaining, and the root of bitterness has been springing up in your heart, whereby many would be defiled. You were writing, and a hand was laid upon your shoulder and words were spoken to you: 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 1

“Bring not railing accusations against anyone. All will react upon you and discourage you and will harm you, and will uproot faith in the work God has given you to do. You are stepping out of the plain path the Lord has marked out for you.” 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 2

The Lord has graciously warned you for your own soul’s peace, for the peace of those who are engaged in His work, not to enter into debt. There are to be great changes made in the Lord’s institutions. Your attitude must be of an entirely different character than that which you are now assuming. Make straight paths for your feet lest the lame be turned out of the way. Your spirit must change, not to bruise but to restore. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 3

What a work is before you if you keep yoked up with Christ! Walk and work under Christ’s yoke. Learn of Christ, who is meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest to your soul. It is a snare to you to engage in financial enterprises. It is a snare to you to step so quickly and readily under the yoke of dependence and slavery to the tyrant debt. It is not wise for you to encourage flattering hope of monies to come from any source at any time, at present or in the future. It is a curse to you, and will prove the ruin of your influence. Move not one step in uncertainty. Here is your great weakness. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 4

You are again passing over the ground where you have failed again and again. You bring burdens upon your fellow laborers that are all unnecessary. If you heed the warnings God has given you, you will have peace, but whenever you advance one step on this forbidden ground you are under Satan’s power of temptation. You are under a galling yoke and you then are blaming others of their neglect of duty to you, when it is your own devising and entering into the temptation of Satan that sets you in a track that brings discomfiture and unrest to you and leads you to accuse others unjustly. Things appear all wrong to you. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 5

When you engage in any enterprise that absorbs means, have that means first in your own possession. “Owe no man anything.” [Romans 13:8.] Hath not God wrought in your behalf and in behalf of His cause in which He has made you His agent to work under His directions? Has He not warned you, for your good and for the good of others, to keep in the straight line of duty that God may be honored? Whatever shame and reproach may fall upon you for neglecting to follow to the exact letter the directions given, will cause you sorrow and inconvenience. But that is not all. You involve others; you bring upon other souls burdens on your account and then open the door to temptations that hurt their soul and your soul. You are not to be discouraged, but are to consider that the army of God is fully able to go up and possess the goodly land, unless that army is disqualified by moral inability, which is disregard of light in warnings and instruction given of God, which is their sin in His sight. His name is dishonored when individual influence diverts means [that] is greatly needed in the cause and work of God in these last days of peril. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 6

Every human agent, if success shall attend his efforts, must not refer to the ample resources of the church for an excuse to invest means in any line that is not positively necessary, even if that means is in his own power to control. The church of God is to be constantly working for the ingathering of souls to strengthen the kingdom of God. They are themselves to walk in the self-denying, self-sacrificing footsteps of Jesus Christ our Leader. All should be binding about their individual wants and evidence to the world that the Lord’s treasury has a sufficiency to supply the necessity of the great missionary field because self-denial and self-sacrifice is woven all through their religious experience. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 7

The Lord saith He will accomplish His part with resources if His servants will not hedge up the way by diverting His resources into wrong channels. His name is dishonored by the empty treasury, which is wholly due to the selfishness of the human agents who do not consecrate themselves and their whole mind and hearts to be controlled by the great Master Worker. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 8

He knew what it was to hunger, to thirst, to be weary. He, the Majesty of heaven, declared, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.” Matthew 8:20. For our sakes He became poor that we through His poverty might be made rich. Shame and reproaches fall on Jesus Christ when there is, through selfishness in our churches, a disregard of the missionary work to be zealously carried forward nigh and afar off. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 9

The churches that claim to believe we have the last message of warning to be given to our world are called upon by the greatest, the most self-denying Missionary that ever trod the earthly soil. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:29, 30. “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Mark 8:34. The Lord Jesus demands action and co-operation. This is His preordained order. There need not ever be a retrograde movement in this holy, aggressive work. This is the time when skepticism and disloyalty to Jesus Christ are prevalent and they are entering into churches. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 10

The pure, clean, unadulterated Bible truth must be preached with power. No man whose heart is divided can do this. It is the whole heart, soul, mind, and strength which God requires—moving forward and upward, constantly advancing in the path of self-denial and self-sacrifice. And the Lord will take care of the results. There are to be no backward steps taken. It is the Holy Spirit that removes the veil from the eyes that there will be a seeing of Him who is invisible. Then there will be the opening of the chambers of the mind to the Word of God and the opening of the soul temple to the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness. When the Lord is in the midst of His people there is strength, there is power, always. “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Mark 16:15. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 11

August 15

My son, I have counsel to give you. Never incur a debt. Look upon the temptation to do this as from the devil. I have hoped you had learned from the things you have suffered to keep clear from approaching on this forbidden ground. I had hoped, I have prayed, that the Lord would lift up for you a standard against the enemy upon this point, and yet from the way things are presented to me I greatly fear that your weakness on this point has not been overcome. The word God has given to you is to become a Bible student. You are to preach the Word, to be instant in season, out of season. You may love Christ; you may, if wholly consecrated, do a good work. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 12

You have had a rich experience in the trust and hope you have cherished in God. Why imperil your religious experience? Come close to the side of Jesus. Let every needless, cheap work be weeded out from your conversation. Let your endeavor be to maintain the general spiritual tone of Christian character, always aiming to reach the highest standard. Let nothing weaken your influence in your religious work. Do not venture into schemes that demand money and in this way become a bondman. Make every effort to keep working in God’s lines. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 13

I wish I could make my voice heard across the broad Pacific Ocean to your brethren, Do not injure and imperil the soul of Edson White by loaning him money. This borrowing money has kept him under the yoke of a species of slavery. Those who grant you the favor of a loan do not understand it proves no favor but a positive curse. Time is short. You want to preserve a healthful, wholesome influence every day and every hour. In this way you can prove yourself a vessel unto honor. Through the grace given you of Christ, you are to keep the consciousness of your own freedom in Christ Jesus, and that you are a laborer together with God. The saving grace of God will give you a clear evidence that your life is one with Christ Jesus. You know not how long your life may last. While your life is spared, carry with you peace, happiness, and joy. Christ’s joy, if abiding in you, will make your joy full. Your only safety is in living in the light of the presence of God. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 14

Cultivate the habit of earnest prayer. If you do this, you will be growing into the habit of unconsciously exerting a special, fragrant influence always on the Lord’s side. Is this too much for the Lord to require of His blood-bought heritage? Many believe truth in a general way, but they do not love the truth in all its principles. They have not that faith which works by love and sanctifies the soul. Assenting to the truth and not living the truth robs it of its practical force upon other minds. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 15

Christian workers, so-called, will honor God or dishonor Him. All who are in any way connected with the work of God must sanctify themselves to the pure and sacred and holy work. The hands must be clean, the heart pure, the intellect sanctified with a determined purpose of exerting every possible God-given capability, that they can truly be called Christian workers. They may labor safely with the lower classes when they are humble, devoted, and sanctified wholly through the truth. They can, if the love of God be in the soul, speak words that are simple, yet clean and holy and uplifting. God would require of us individually to do our best. How would thorough consecration to the work, cooperating with God, exalt and ennoble the most humble life! Edson, fight the good fight of faith, resist temptation. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 16

August 20, 1896

I was in a meeting in America last night. There were many assembled. I was moved by the Holy Spirit to bear a testimony to those assembled. I was speaking earnestly: 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 17

God cannot do more for His heritage than He has done to secure their salvation. God has Himself provided the agencies in human beings that they shall co-operate with Him in the great missionary work. His work is not to be accomplished in any haphazard way, or in a magical way. God calls for co-partners in His great work. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 18

The majority of professed Christian churches are not doing the very work dearest to the heart of Jesus Christ. They are not seeking most earnestly to bring man back to his loyalty to God in teaching obedience to His commandments. The light is shining in its full plenitude of resources in and through Jesus Christ, the great Master Worker. Human agents are to reach human agents through the most earnest sympathy and love. There is not one idler in the vineyard who, if he continues thus, will enter into the joy of our Lord. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 19

“The harvest truly is great, but the laborers are few.” [Luke 10:2.] We need daily conversion to God to qualify us individually for the work to be done in our world. The line is being drawn more distinctly between the loyal and true children of God, obedient to all of His commandments, and those who are making void the law of God by precept and example. We need to strengthen and to intensify our own conceptions of individual duty by earnest prayer and entire consecration to God, that we may shine as lights in our world, illuminate the darkness of the world, increase the faith, and awaken zeal in hearts that are cold and languishing. First we ourselves need to be perfectly converted, that we may afterward strengthen our brethren. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 20

Prayer—incessant, earnest, persevering prayer—is heard in heaven. We need our own souls disciplined for the honored position of being in co-partnership with Jesus Christ, in the work and companionship of heavenly angels. Truth that thrills the soul is to be presented—grand truths in simple language, short discourses right to the point. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 21

Who cares less and less for self and self-pleasing and is constantly enthused with the great desire that his Redeemer shall be glorified? Who can and will take in the situation and leave their pleasant homes and conveniences and go out into new places, triumphing over selfishness, which has such a power over minds as to paralyze their love for God and for their fellow men? 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 22

Cannot we discern the signs of the times? Cannot we see the end of all things is at hand? Cannot we see that, individually, self-pleasing must be overcome, that individually we must accept the yoke of Christ and learn His meekness, His lowliness, and find rest and pleasure in devoting our life to the service of God? Verily “the Lord hath need of them.” [Matthew 21:3.] 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 23

Let every one dress plainly, neatly, with economy. Much can be saved to extend the truth that is now expended in dress. Have you love to God, supreme love? Then it will surely be evidenced in good works to our fellow men. Employ your God-given talents to His name’s glory. Communicate that which you have received. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 24

September 8

I am so pained in my mind and heart I cannot sleep. It is now half past eleven o’clock, but the burden presses me heavily. I see you perplexed, and I see you excited. I see letters enclosed in envelopes and mailed. What is the matter? You were much excited. I was conversing with you and said, Edson, you are not to move rashly in anything. You are disappointed. If anyone has flattered you with hopes that you have not realized, it was not a wise thing for them to do; but have you not passed over the same ground with similar results? Why should you catch at a word and encourage yourself to expect that help from human beings which has led you into investing means again by borrowing? You need to hear what God saith unto you. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 25

Please read again the cautions given you. It is these disappointments, it is these expectations not realized, that have made you exceedingly unhappy. Then you write words and criminations that should find place in the fire rather than to be mailed. If you had heeded the Word of God, if you had been resolute and firm to resist temptation, never to put the yoke of debt upon your neck, then you would save yourself and your brethren great sorrow and many perplexities that will try the soul. You want to devote time and money to help forward the work where you are laboring. You are required of God to employ all your influence in doing the very work the Lord has made so successful in your hands. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 26

The judgments of God are in our world. We need to consider this is the beginning of the end. We are living in a most solemn period of this earth’s history. Do not spoil the work God would accomplish through you by any course of action that shall arouse the old prejudices in human minds, by giving them any evidence that you cannot be trusted in the use of means, that in handling means you will lose sight of everything but the projects you have created. Your work is to live the truth in character, to reveal the right spirit always, and give no place to the devil. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 27

Some time ago—nearly one year ago—a letter came to me from one of your friends that you sometimes spoke in haste and did not realize the effect of your words. You were conversing with someone. He did not agree with you on some points, and you said something in regard to how a testimony would be after him and show him what was right. This was repeated to some others, and they did harm with your words. They said, “When a testimony comes to me, I shall consider Edson has been writing to his mother, and then it comes to us in the name of a testimony.” 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 28

I entreat you to be very careful in regard to making any remarks of this character, because any such words would be placing a stumbling block in the way of souls tempted of the devil to have an excuse to discard the testimonies. What gentleness and courtesy, as well as a sanctified heart, is necessary at all times that we shall preserve a sweet, wholesome influence. And in and through Jesus you know by experience this can be done. 11LtMs, Lt 155, 1896, par. 29