Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 13 (1898)

Lt 14b, 1898

Haskell, S. N.

Balaclava, Australia

February 29 [March 1], 1898

Previously unpublished. Not sent. See Lt 14a, 1898.

Dear Brother Haskell,

I was much burdened last night. I was talking with you most earnestly and asked you why you carried the burdens of the meeting. There were Brother Baker and Brother Starr. These men were not attaining an experience that they might have. Both are workers; both God could work and would work if you would only give them a chance—not only at the weekday and night meetings, but interchange and give them a chance Sunday evenings. God will speak through them. Save yourself as much as possible. The Lord has signified that we have these men to take their share of the work, not to sit on the stand and to hear you preach. God has a work for them, a message for them, just as verily as He has a message for you to give to the congregations. 13LtMs, Lt 14b, 1898, par. 1

A variety of gifts are to be brought in and these brethren are not to be in connection with the work and sit and take so little part in the labor. You said, “I fear they could not keep up the interest.” Then One was in our midst and we had not seen Him before, and said, “They are the Lord’s servants. The Lord will work through them.” You must have respect and confidence in your brethren as chosen of God and precious. If you do not give them room to preach the Word but take the principal part of the burden on yourself, you make a mistake. But you should blend your talents with their talents else the work will not be as God would have it. Let them take up labor in places that need their help. But you are doing injustice to yourself and not showing due respect to your fellow laborers. You do not show that you have confidence in them. 13LtMs, Lt 14b, 1898, par. 2

You wear your strength unnecessarily. This is not the Lord’s doings. As long as you preach in this way, the work will not be a complete work. God does not require this at your hands. When your brethren preach the Word take that time to rest and repair up. You are wasting your strength. All the Lord’s servants have their lot and their place. They should unite and mingle their talents. Every man has his appointed work. It is not the man that is the power and efficiency, but God who has given to every man his talents who gives the success to the work. Man can take no glory to himself. The Lord alone giveth the increase. [Read] 2 Corinthians 9:10-15. 13LtMs, Lt 14b, 1898, par. 3

You had all the opportunity to use the men you had, and it would have been a blessing to them and you. But you thought they would not do as well as yourself. But the Lord could have used them and blessed them in doing a good work—not altogether as you have [done], but the Lord does not plan that one man shall alone use his special talent and his brethren do nothing. The first part of the meetings after the camp-meeting needed all the abilities that were in the men of God’s appointment. You felt too much that all depended on you. 13LtMs, Lt 14b, 1898, par. 4

The Lord does not want you ever again to do as you did in Stanmore, carrying the work and responsibilities chiefly yourself, while you had two ministers that needed to work. You did not use them, that in ministry the Lord would speak through them. Why? I ask, Why? Such matters of large responsibility demand a variety of gifts. It does not rest with you individually; it rested upon the three men close beside you. If you had given them their share of the preaching, it would have been altogether consistent and just and right and more in the order of God. 13LtMs, Lt 14b, 1898, par. 5

When you keep up a continuing labor as you did in Stanmore, you should sit down and count the cost of the tower you were building and see whether you are able to finish. If you fail, it is because you used your strength in a degree where there was not a necessity to do this. Oh, God, cannot Thy servants become wise? I see my mistake in exhausting my strength by long talking. I ask God to forgive me, for I need to preserve my physical, mental, and moral power, and I will change my course of labor. I know you feel—and so do I—that we must draw from the treasure house things new and old. And we put, I do at least, too much matter in our discourse. But the idea I wish to impress upon you is that when help is provided for you you must make the most of it, knowing that God can use the men whom He has appointed to give meat in due season. They must have their opportunity for the Lord to use them as you have your opportunity for the Lord to use you. 13LtMs, Lt 14b, 1898, par. 6

It is limiting the power of God to suppose that men, Brethren Baker and Starr, and others of God’s ministers, are so far deficient that they would kill the interest. Just try it. Show them it is not in the men and women, but in God behind the men who works the human agent. “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord.” [Zechariah 4:6.] There stands the two messengers before the Lord of Hosts represented by the two olive trees emptying the oil out of themselves unto the vessels that are prepared for them. The Lord will make the impression on the people, it is not you or me. The Holy Spirit’s work is to take of the things of God and show them unto us, so that we shall not glory in ourselves or in any man, but glorify in God. 13LtMs, Lt 14b, 1898, par. 7

We must take Christ as our Priest, as our Advocate—One who alone is able to represent the human fallen order to the Father and as One who can receive and pardon our transgressions. We must take Him as our King, enlisting in His service. We must seek to know His will and do it. Thus looking to and believing on Christ Jesus in all His completeness, we are His followers. We are Christians indeed. We will follow the Lamb of God whithersoever He goeth. We belong to His kingdom. We are His subjects, and He is our King. 13LtMs, Lt 14b, 1898, par. 8

We need an increase of faith, you need this, I need it. We are saved by the power of God through faith and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. You must not think that everything depends on your ability. 13LtMs, Lt 14b, 1898, par. 9

Now I must speak of a subject that causes me great pain. The last night I spent in Stanmore, I was told by my guide to hear what was being said. Sister Haskell was criticizing this one and that one of the ministers. She was speaking words that if the love of Christ was in her heart, she would never have uttered. But her words were demoralizing other ministers, and placing them in an unfavorable light, picking flaws and presenting their manners, their words, in an unfavorable light and presenting the matter as though these men did not do justice to the Scriptural subjects. 13LtMs, Lt 14b, 1898, par. 10

Then there was a council meeting and Sister Haskell was present. The criticisms she made in regard to the propositions which others made carried the minds into mist and fog. Then the words were spoken, “This is a most dangerous abuse of her God-given talents.” Then, after the meetings closed, I heard again words spoken by Brother Haskell that were unchristian and altogether displeasing to God. Words were spoken, and his spirit was such that prompted the words, that he will not care to meet their record in the judgment. 13LtMs, Lt 14b, 1898, par. 11

Again I was awakened from my sleep, and what did I hear? I heard words placing W. C. White in a low, contemptible light, and demeriting his position as a worker in the cause of God. Her words were like the scorpion’s stings. Her faculty of criticism has become a fine art. She can discern defects which she would write as thus, when God would write, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” [Matthew 25:23.] This is the element that made Satan in the heavenly courts so successful at making good and right things appear evil things, carrying the misrepresentations so decidedly against Christ Jesus and the law of His kingdom that a large number of the angels viewed the matter as Satan viewed it. His power was most seductive; his power was such as to mislead. There was the ridiculing of W. C. White and his propositions, [saying,] “Did you ever teach school?” as though as he had never taught school, he was not capable of giving advice and counsel. 13LtMs, Lt 14b, 1898, par. 12

Sister Haskell said things that astonished me. It was presenting a drawing of a picture before the mind of her husband and other minds in the same way that Sister Butler had done and which was the means of separating her [from her] husband by her so-called wonderful acute discernment and talking. These things placed her in a position where she could discern nothing clearly or receive any counsel that would help her and the stroke of God was upon her and that tongue silenced. 13LtMs, Lt 14b, 1898, par. 13

I had heard these words and seen the influence Sister Haskell had upon her husband’s mind. He thought his wife had correct understanding, great discernment, and could see beneath the surface and represent things in strong colors. Then the messenger of the Lord said, “These two, and yourself, united with your son, Willie, could have been a blessing to the school. The Lord has given them much light. If they remain humble and do not exalt themselves, then He will use them to His name’s glory. You needed help; the Lord signified these two would help you, but when His servant W. C. White came to take his place in the work, then there was a voice heard that did not voice all that either of them said. Then a spirit nothing less than criticism and accusing came in to discredit W. C. White, who had been engaged in the work for years in this country, whom God has used as His servant, whose labors He has blessed, and whom she was unacquainted with to pass her criticism and judgment upon in the most unchristlike manner. This has changed the spirit of both. The Lord will now change His purpose. You cannot do the work of God safely in connection with them. God would not have His work carried forward in the line it would go under such principles. Therefore you must work disconnected. 13LtMs, Lt 14b, 1898, par. 14

“The Lord has not seen in His servant, Willie White, any cause to change His attitude toward him. The Lord seeth not as man seeth. Let mother and son unite in the work and God will bless them, but you must not sanction any wrong. You must stand aloof in one sense from all dependence. Keep yourself free in spirit. The Lord cannot use Hettie Hurd Haskell as sole mind and administrator in the school, because she would connect with none of My servants that I would use to connect with this school. The curse of criticism, of presenting things in the light that is a misrepresentation, has become a habit and she sees not the evil and its results. The Lord has brought her purposely in His providence to connect with My servant Stephen Haskell and with My appointed agencies through whom I speak to carry an influence that her influence should not be made supreme. God designed to link up their talents together, that blending they would accomplish the work He designed, but when brought in connection with the very ones who could help her, she did not correct this overmastering spirit. You cannot bind up your interest with them in a special united effort. If she will treat one whom the Lord has used, one whose spirit is humble, who did not seek for supremacy but to inaugurate safe principles, in the way she has treated the servant of the Lord, she will show she has a spirit that lives and rules that God will not permit to leaven His people. 13LtMs, Lt 14b, 1898, par. 15

“Stephen Haskell has been a man whom God has pitied from his youth and loved him and has given him great light in his work; but if he shall encourage the spirit in his wife to rule, to carry things her own way, then the Lord will make both herself and her husband last and least. The Lord has been very wonderful to His servant because he would be a learner and receive the lessons He has given him through His own instrumentality. But when he will treat any of his fellow servants who have a knowledge of truth, purity, holiness, and the advancement of the work of God, then he knows not through whom I work.” 13LtMs, Lt 14b, 1898, par. 16

Again I was brought where the words were spoken by Brother and Sister Haskell against Willie White and also against fellow laborers in the work. The Lord was not pleased with the largest share of the labors falling on Elder Haskell. There were other gifts that should blend with his gifts; he could labor with his fellow-laborers, and unless his unwarranted suspicions should not be the top of the root of bitterness cut off, but the root taken out, he will imagine strange things, untrue things. His wife’s tact and her high self-esteem will lead her to compare her superior gifts with that of God’s chosen ministers. They feel they are a complete whole, but the Lord does not regard it thus. Brother Haskell feels little burden of organization in the different lines of work there. If he would just keep still where he has not talent, and not become an opposer of organization, but consider God has given talents to others that he has never possessed. Let others blend in their talents as laborers together in God. He must give his brethren standing room and a chance to work as well as himself, and consider the Lord recognizes their gifts and varied abilities as well and as fully as he recognizes his gifts; then the work would move harmoniously. 13LtMs, Lt 14b, 1898, par. 17

God would have all His servant’s ability recognized. Nothing is to be ignored by any man because he has not the quality of gifts another has, to despise the other’s work whom God uses and will use in His cause to the end of time. Elder Haskell, the Lord has a controversy with you because you ought to have known, if you did not, that He has given W. C. White his work to do just as verily and important in its place as He has given you your work to do. He recognizes that work which Sister Haskell measured by her measuring tape as being of no value in the work. Nevertheless, God will work through whom He will. 13LtMs, Lt 14b, 1898, par. 18