Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 14 (1899)

Lt 105, 1899

Haskell, Brother and Sister [S. N.]

“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

July 30, 1899

Portions of this letter are published in 7MR 390.

Dear Brother and Sister Haskell:

You have left us, and we shall miss you very much. I awake at eleven o’clock, unable to sleep. 14LtMs, Lt 105, 1899, par. 1

We were assembled in a meeting, it seemed in Stanmore, and we were listening to one of authority who seemed to be counselling one and another of the ministers. He said to you, “The Lord has a work for you to do in America. You and your wife must link together in the work, strengthening one another. Give no occasion for any one to think that your imagination is at fault. In America, and in other places, you have often viewed in an untrue light your brethren’s ideas and feelings in regard to you, and this has led you to draw apart from them. This hurts you. It has hurt your influence wherever you have been. Your thoughts and suppositions, acted upon, have brought about the very state of things which you supposed existed. Give no place to the devil. Stand forth before the people as a servant having a commission from God. 14LtMs, Lt 105, 1899, par. 2

“Satan will seek to uproot your influence by misrepresentation of your brethren’s feelings. Come close to your brethren. You have been greatly blessed by the Lord. Do not impose upon your strength by doing too much. Your message God will give you. It is your privilege to stand under the power of the Holy Spirit’s influence. Your words, your course of action as a messenger from God, weighted with the burden of the most solemn truth for this time, will, with God’s help, help the souls who need help to set things in order.” 14LtMs, Lt 105, 1899, par. 3

The Lord has a message for you to bear. You are under His guidance and protection. Be of good cheer, and show that you have God to support you. Do not show the least weakness, and thus hurt your valuable influence. Be careful not to give one word to any that will lead them to think that your mind is weakened, for it is in reality only as you make it thus by imagining things that lead you away from yoking up with your brethren. 14LtMs, Lt 105, 1899, par. 4

Show a firm, undeviating trust in God. Be ever true to principle. Waver not; speak decidedly that which you know to be truth, and leave the consequences with God. Bear in mind that God tests the genuineness of your desire. Believe in the Word of God, and never cease to press your petitions to the throne of grace with sanctified, holy boldness. “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint.” [Luke 18:1.] Keep the standard by precept and example. Your testimony, in its genuineness and reality, God will make powerful in the power of the life to come. The Word of the Lord will be in thy mouth in truth and righteousness. 14LtMs, Lt 105, 1899, par. 5

You have not the least need to demerit yourself, even if you feel that others demerit you. These ideas have brought about consequences which need not have existed. You are to meet with people of perverted judgment. Long have they been without clear discernment, and some will manifest this lack in themselves; but this need not create any deficiency in you. None are rewarded according to their experience, but according to their humble, trustful faith in God. I know that the Lord will lead and guide you if you will have a faith and trust in Him. Be of good courage. Show yourself a man sustained in your work by the Lord God of heaven. Make no complaint that you cannot work with this one and that one, but yoke up with Christ, and as a true, bold soldier do the work He has given you. 14LtMs, Lt 105, 1899, par. 6