Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 15 (1900)

Lt 48a, 1900

Steed, D.

Geelong, Victoria, Australia

March 1900

Previously unpublished.

Dear Brother Steed:

I have words of counsel for you. There are in your character phases that need to be strictly guarded, else you will greatly mar your own happiness by allowing the enemy to represent things to you that are false, yet you decide they are truths. If a man feels it his place to be first, and is on every occasion, whether proper or improper, made to appear as a man of special importance, the enemy takes advantage of him and he becomes subject to temptations. At once envy and jealousy and evil surmising are aroused; the demon takes possession of him, and he is where God cannot impart His Holy Spirit to him. That man then reveals hereditary and cultivated traits of his character, and is only a grown child. Although a minister, he has not put away childish things. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 1

Every time you reveal the natural defects of your character—which make you hard, unforgiving, unkind, uncourteous, without Christian tenderness, and devoid of Christian sentiment—from the light God has given me, you should not consider that your preaching will be a success, for it will be unaccompanied by the Holy Spirit. You place yourself in that relation to your brethren that they cannot but know that God is not working you by His Holy Spirit. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 2

From the light God has given me, you are inclined to withdraw yourself from your brethren and choose to labor alone. This must not be, for the work would come forth from your influence defective in the place of being perfect. How can you entertain the selfish, unholy spirit you have done and yet consider yourself right, and competent to handle sacred things? Your wife too often sustains this defection of character in you, and when you are decidedly worked by the spirit of the enemy, she unites in sympathy with your aggrieved disposition, while as a Christian you should feel no grief at all. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 3

Now, my dear brother, can you think of preaching the Word of God when you imagine so many things that have no foundation? You are in no fit state to go into Dunedin. You need to stop just where you are, take yourself in hand, and reprimand yourself by the discipline of the Word. Your phase of character has been several times presented to me, and unless you are daily humbling yourself before God in the work of the ministry, you will be brought to a most severe experience, such as you have not yet had. The Lord will leave you to yourself, and this is the worst calamity that can happen to a man that has so high an idea of his capabilities. My message to you is, Do not attempt to enter upon any work in the ministration of the Word until you have overcome the temptations which you have entertained and receive the lessons of Christ. [Read] (Matthew 18) and practice these lessons as a learner in the school of Christ. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 4

“Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” There is only One who can help you, for you think you know best in all matters. Christ writes, “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 11:28-30.] When you undertake to manufacture a yoke for your own neck, it is, and always will prove, galling to the neck. When you abide in Christ you wear His yoke of submission. When you take yourself in hand and chastise yourself in the place of criticizing and accusing your brethren, the difficulties you charge to your brethren will be found to be the imagination of an unsanctified mind. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 5

In these moods you are not fit to open the Scriptures to others, and whenever this phase of soul-sickness comes, stop just where you are and severely chastise yourself. Humble yourself. Read (Matthew 18), for in this Christ is speaking to you. All of Christ’s words are for you, but you allow yourself to retain the defects of your childhood, and you give these defects great respect as though they were virtues. “And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore, shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. ... But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which shall believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depths of the sea.” [Verses 2-4, 6.] 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 6

If Satan can use your unsanctified imaginings to serve his purpose, to create difference of opinion in regard to matters that a sanctified mind would take no notice of, then dissension is created through the minister whose unhappy traits of character have been his great stumbling block, and he has made a stumbling block for others. Why should he who should seek to create unity work to create dissension? 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 7

In the very best state of your religious experience you are not to feel at liberty to enter a new and important field to work alone. This kind of work is not in the order of the Lord. Such a field as Dunedin should have the work begun with a camp meeting. Men should not go alone and commence work, and create prejudices, as they surely will, and spoil the field for the work and the entrance of the truth. When your mind and soul are diseased as now, it is best that you come apart and rest a while, and pray and commune with God, and open the door of the heart to the Holy Spirit, before you create more dissension and strife. Bring yourself to the cross of Calvary. Humble your heart before God. Stop your accusing. God forbids it. You are planting the seeds of faultfinding and jealousy in others, and creating a harvest of tares by your self-sympathy because you think your brethren do not esteem you as they should. Will this spirit, [when] indulged, increase their confidence in you [as] a man whom God is using? 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 8

You cherish unholy surmisings. You keep yourself strictly in view, when if you were praying and believing and receiving counsel from the Word of God, you would yourself see that you were keeping self so constantly before your mind that you could not behold Jesus the precious Saviour. It is by looking, by beholding Jesus and losing sight of self, that brings the bright beams of the Sun of Righteousness to the soul. This matter of guarding self so jealously lest you shall not be exalted as first man is the very worst thing you can do. It always leads to such developments of the traits of character that you are pronounced, in the kingdom of heaven among the heavenly intelligences, as the most unworthy, ready to destroy your best friends as you would your enemies if they do not always give you the preference. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 9

O, my brother, how long shall this spirit be cherished by you? How long will you give place to the attributes of Satan? The Lord is not pleased with you. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 10

Last night I was conversing with you, repeating the things that I have written, and I was pointing you back to the many times that you have passed through the most precious meetings sour in spirit, criticizing and finding fault with this thing and with that, and your soul growing more barren and more empty of the grace of God; and all because you imagined that you yourself did not receive that special esteem and attention that you craved. Your brethren in such important meetings have a large work to do and special burdens to bear, and if they should make some mistakes it is your appointed work to be cheerful, courteous, generous, thinking no evil, speaking no evil. A word spoken in the line of faultfinding and criticism sets in operation in other minds the unhallowed fires of ambition and envy and jealousy, so that their souls are injured by a spark sometimes beyond recovery. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 11

Your words should be right words, not keeping yourself before the minds of others as though you were a specialty and you were to be the subject of thought and attention. When you overcome these things you will stand on vantage ground, but you cannot be trusted until you see the injustice you are doing your brethren by entertaining ideas that they are slighting you. Lift your eyes to Jesus. Open the windows of the soul heavenward to God, and by beholding His face you will become changed into His likeness. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 12

I send you this because I have this night had presented to me your present spiritual dearth, which has been caused through your own thoughts. The pain brought upon your own soul your brethren are not guilty of, although you may ascribe it to them. Sympathizers will come in, and [then] other souls are dragged into the same slough, and disaffection takes place when there should be perfect unity. And you have been the one who has planted the seed of faultfinding and jealousies in the mind. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 13

For your own soul’s sake, for Christ sake, for the sake of your brethren who have trials enough to bear without your creating them, put away those miserable surmisings. Cease to give place to the devil. Use your God-given talents of speech not to advance yourself but to advance the glory of God. And let the peace of God rule in your heart and be ye thankful. Let the praise of God and not faultfinding come from your lips. Seek always to unify, not to cause dissension and strife among brethren. Sow the good seed in every heart which shall bear fruit unto eternal life. The Lord will work with you if you will be worked; but if you take yourself in your own hands and do not counsel with your brethren, you will surely have a hard time. Self is a poor adviser, and most always leads into by and forbidden paths. We are too near the end to develop a self-sufficient spirit. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 14

You sow the seeds of discord. You suggest things that have no foundation in truth, allowing the devil to make a workshop of your brain, to manufacture things against your American brethren that are not righteous nor just; and you weave in your threads mismatching the pattern so the web becomes evil. God calls you to be converted. You can manufacture a web that will be no honor to yourself, to your brethren, or to God, and the Lord is displeased with your manufacturing skill. You sow the seeds of discord and suspicion and strife by your words which are at times a savor of death unto death. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 15

Read (Colossians 1:25-29), chapter 2:12-17. That which ye sow ye shall also reap. It becomes us to know what kind of a crop we are sowing, whether tares or wheat. Do not pervert the true moral standard of the gospel. It is only in the deepest sense of our ruin that we learn to love Christ sincerely, and cherish proper gratitude to Him who gave His life for us. There is danger, decided danger to any soul, to pursue a wrong course and harm the flock of God either by precept or example. Those who live the more closely to the example given in the life of Christ are those who walk in greatest humility and humbleness of mind. O what lessons yourself and others will have to learn! 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 16

When Ephraim spake tremblingly, he exalted himself in Israel, but when he offended in Baal he died. Humility the true genuine article, works outwardly, from the heart cleansed and sanctified, in words seasoned with grace and the spirit sweetened by the perfume of Christ’s life. God will impart largely of His Holy Spirit, His deepest love, to the truly, sincerely humble, and those who possess the fragrance of the grace of humility will by faith claim much because they realize they can do nothing without Christ. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 17

The Church can never thrive where the thorns and thistles of mistrust are, and where brethren are picking flaws. Speak of the good qualities. Speak of their zeal for the Master, but do not put thoughts into minds that never would have had them if the suspicious person had not seen them. Let us see where God dwells: “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” [Isaiah 57:15.] 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 18

I am thoroughly in earnest. I see no way for you to carry on the work of the ministry until you see the need of humbling yourself before God and cultivating esteem and confidence in your brethren. How can two walk together except they be agreed? 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 19

My brother, you have a work to do in contrition of soul to repent of your uncourteous spirit. If ever you needed pardon of God you need it now. Why should you make so great a matter unworthy of notice? Please read Ephesians 4:1-6. The Lord Jesus calls for you to yoke up with Him and to co-operate with Him. (Ephesians 2:10): “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Those who manufacture trials for themselves the Lord will leave to have some keen, deep trials that will humble their poor souls in the very dust of humiliation. There is to be with you a cleansing of the soul temple. I thank God that it is not too late for wrongs to be righted. When you humble yourself before God and accept His mercy and His love and kindness, then will the Lord reveal Himself unto you. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 20

The great difficulties with families and with the church is the picking of straws in suspicion and in envy and in evil surmisings; and when a minister of the gospel gives a decided example in this line, he proves himself a great offense to God. God will not tolerate His people in dissension. This disposition to labor alone is not according to the plan of God. The Lord would through His Holy Spirit sanctify the perverse tendencies so that a transformation shall be formed. The only reasons for drawing apart, in individuals, is a desire to carry their own ideas without questioning. Such individuals consider themselves a perfect whole. Christ knew what was good for ministers and people. He ordained and gave the twelve disciples their commission, and sent them out two and two before His face. Two were to link together in the work. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 21

That [same] Christ liveth to make intercession for us. The perils of the last days are upon us. Soon a loud voice like a trumpet will proclaim, It is done. Mercy, sweet mercy, folds his wings and steps from the throne above the ark of God, and a voice is heard, “He that is unjust, let him be unjust still, and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still, and he that is holy, let him be holy still. And, behold, I come quickly, and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his works shall be. I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 22

“Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” [Revelation 22:11-17.] 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 23

It is not long that any of us will have to deal with suppositions. We will have to cope with eternal realities. “Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” [Verse 14.] 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 24

You as a minister of the Word, have a work that you should do with your utmost ability, in order to remove every vestige of the perplexities that you, by your conduct, have placed in the way of your ministering brethren and the flock of God. You may expect no strength or blessing from God until you have cleared out of the way the obstruction that you have formed from your own imaginations. You have allowed Satan to place his magnifying glass before your eyes, and every little thing is magnified to large proportions. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 25

My brother I feel pained as I write. When I think of the time of trouble that is just upon us, or I may say has begun, but as yet has not burst upon us to the full, O how my heart aches, ready to burst, when I see human beings who are dependent upon God every moment for His keeping power yet who chide and become irritable and sore over supposed deficiencies or neglect of their brethren, who are carrying the heaviest responsibilities. I have heard people say, Such a minister passed me by and never looked at me at all, while these very men have come to me for counsel, their souls bowed down as a cart beneath sheaves, not because they supposed themselves slighted, but because they could not see how to relieve the pressure of debt upon the work. They prayed as they walked. They were not looking at anything earthly, but to the great sympathizing Christ in the heavenly sanctuary. Every heart knoweth its own bitterness. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 26

The time has come when it is not worthy, or pleasing to our heavenly Father, to esteem ourselves that we let our poor, insignificant selves become the theme of our thoughts, and thus create division and dissension. It is high time God’s people act like a noble, consecrated, peculiar people, and that they encourage faith and love for one another, and confidence in one another. Above all things the Australians need to thank God that He so mercifully sent the American brethren to this country. The Lord knew what they needed. He knew that an experience must be brought into the ranks of Sabbathkeepers that would materially change the construction of character. In the place of becoming pettish when everything does not go according to one man’s ideas, the people have reason to thank God that they are not left with their own troubles and difficulties, their own ideas and plans. 15LtMs, Lt 48a, 1900, par. 27