Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 20 (1905)

Lt 188, 1905

White, J. E.

“Elmshaven,” St. Helena, California

July, 1905

Portions of this letter are published in CTr 198. +^Note

Elder J. E. White
Nashville, Tennessee

My Son Edson,—

I must speak to you concerning some things which have caused me trouble of mind. While at your place, I feared at times that your mind was becoming unbalanced, but hoped that if you rested you would realize a decided change. More recently some matters have been opened before me, and I was instructed to bear this message to you: 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 1

Your inclination to engage in manufacturing enterprises is a snare to you. You devise and plan, and, no matter what your financial circumstances are, you carry out what you have planned. Your salary and other means are appropriated to carry out your ambitious purposes, and then you are compelled to hire money and are often led to invest much more means in the enterprise you are planning than in your first conception of the plan was considered necessary. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 2

At times your movements of this character have scarcely borne the mark of a sound mind. You do not ask counsel of your associates for fear they will check your ambitious plans, but plunge deeper and deeper into debt, until the climax comes. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 3

I was instructed in regard to this phase of your experience when you were in Battle Creek. The experience you had there resulted in the breaking up of your business, but even this did not develop in you caution and a fixed determination to manage economically. You did not learn to bind about the edges of your expenses, but you repeatedly placed your neck under a yoke of galling obligations. You did not learn to use money discreetly. The same inclination was afterward manifested in your passion for boats. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 4

The freedom you have manifested in the laying out of money has not been pleasing to the Lord. By your speculations you are binding burdens on your own shoulders and framing a cruel yoke for your own neck. I wish that you might value more than you do the freedom that would enable you to say, “I owe no man anything.” [See Romans 13:8.] It has been your desire to do some great thing that would make you a benefactor to the cause of God, and to do this you have taxed mind and soul to the utmost; but your calculations have been perverted. Over and over again you have caused trouble and perplexity by your unreasonable enterprises. Yet you have not meant that this should be. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 5

There is danger in your going into business independently. There is more safety for you in being associated with others, where you have to give an account of your dealings, and where your true position is understood. Neither can you safely take the position of head manager. Your inclination to spend money is strong, and this will keep you at the foot instead of at the head. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 6

I was charged with instruction for you to have nothing to do with the food manufacturing interests; for this would have meant a great consuming of other men’s money. Your broadening plans, your purchasing of machinery would have resulted in positive failure. You did take heed to this instruction, and I thank the Lord for it. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 7

Your disposition to trade, and your easy way of parting with money, if rightly named, would be that of “spendthrift.” You are placing yourself in a most unenviable position: for to be called upon now to settle your debts would mean bankruptcy to you. And yet, if you are not withheld from it, you would even now plan for more machinery in your office. In your desire to create more facilities, you would hire money at a high rate of interest if you could not obtain it without; but this machinery will not run itself. Call a halt where you are, or dishonesty will find a place among your ambitious schemes. Cease to spread yourself out. Economy has not been revealed in your past management of the book business, and you will not make a success of your printing establishment. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 8

You are carrying a work that God now forbids you to carry. He would have you consider yourself reproved. Should your true financial standing be known by the bank, and your inability to meet your present obligations be understood, what would you do? 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 9

I was shown that it was a means of injury to you that when you were preparing your office, means was placed in your hands to get the facilities you required. Had you revealed economy and an unwillingness to launch out on borrowed capital, you would have done that which was right. Your present indebtedness should never have existed. You should have waited until money came in from your business before securing the facilities you desired. You should have demonstrated a reformation of character by saying, I will wait, not expecting conveniences, until I earn the means I need. I will put up with inconvenience rather than pay large interest on hired money. You need to sign the pledge just as verily as does the drunkard who uses liquor to gratify his appetite. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 10

The work that God has given you to do is a high and noble work, and your example is to be of a character to prove that you can be trusted. Your associates in business are to have reason for placing confidence in you that you will act with the integrity and honor of one who believes the truth for these last days. You are to be sanctified, not by profession of the truth, but by the possession of the sternest Christian principles. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 11

Your way to eminence will not lie through speculation or by drawing your bow at a venture. Such success would imperil your soul’s healthfulness. You are to reach success by using the talents God has given you in a reasonable and sensible way, and in accordance with Bible principles, by acting with true economy and by giving to believers and unbelievers a good example. If you have not the means, tell your workers to be patient with you, that the Lord has forbidden you to accumulate debts. Tell them that you will do all that is possible to acquire what is necessary, but that you are pledged to show yourself a man of principle, a man of economy, a man of good, stern common sense, gaining credit because you do not ask credit, working diligently, systematically, and intelligently. All this I am instructed to present to you as you can bear it. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 12

Your soul is purchased property, owned by the One who gave His life for you. You are to be deeply in earnest to keep that soul, purchased at so great a cost, free from every taint of dishonesty or prevarication of the truth. Then you will stand on vantage ground. You will have spare moments for your friendships; you will have an interest in cultivating the powers of mind and soul, and this should be your first consideration. You are to prepare that soul to enjoy a life that measures with the life of God—a life that Christ has purchased for you by the shedding of His own blood. You are to be made spotless and clean in this present life, being made partaker of the divine nature and escaping the corruption that is in the world through lust. You are to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, remembering that it is God that worketh in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. You are to work out a spiritual character, revealing purity and truth, and putting into practice the principles of the gospel of Christ. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 13

You are to watch yourself, your words, your works; for the world is watching you. Your business transactions and your temporal affairs are being criticized. Let your speech be always seasoned with grace. You are to show to the world your purpose to be a citizen of Paradise. Let no careless, irreverent expression come from your lips. What you say in the world will be marked with special consequence if it corresponds with what you say in the church. Your attitude, your words, your spirit are constantly making an impression upon those with whom you associate. An example of industry and frugality will discourage avarice and overreaching and the least untruthfulness in word or in action. Not a thread of dishonesty, even in secret, is to come into your plans. You are a minister of the gospel. Your associates are to know that through the grace of Christ you are what you profess to be. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 14

Satan is offering to every soul the kingdoms of this world in return for the carrying out of his will. This was the great inducement he presented to Christ in the wilderness of temptation. And so he says to Christ’s followers, If you will follow my business methods, I will reward you with wealth. Every Christian is at some time brought to the test which will reveal his weak points of character. If the temptation is resisted, he has gained precious victories. He must choose whether he will serve Christ or become a follower of the great deceiver and a worshiper of him. In Satan’s last bold attempt to overcome Christ, the Saviour met him with the words, “Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.” [Matthew 4:10.] Hitherto the Saviour’s response to his temptations had been in <vindicating> the affirmative; now He commands the tempter to depart, and Satan leaves Him, defeated where he had hoped for victory. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 15

Satan is the arch deceiver. The results to us of accepting his temptations are worse than any loss that can be realized, yes, worse than death itself. Those who purchase success at the fearful price of submission to the will of Satan will find that they have made a hard bargain. Everything in Satan’s trade is secured at a high price. The advantages he presents are a fearful, deceptive mirage. The promised high hopes he holds out are secured at the loss of things that are good and holy and pure. Let Satan always be confounded by the words, “It is written.” “Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord, and that walketh in His ways; for thou shalt eat the labor of thy hands; happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.” [Psalm 128:1, 2.] 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 16

I speak these words to all who love and fear God. He who stands prepared to do the works of righteousness will not be deceived by the allurements of the enemy. The angels of God are by his side restraining him if he will be restrained. His actions will be guided by an exalted sense of right. He will be enabled to distinguish between right and wrong, between truth, exalted truth, and error. Those who enter the kingdom of heaven will be those who have reached the highest standard of moral obligation, those who have not sought to hide the truth or to deceive, those by whom God has been exalted and His Word defended, those by whom principle has not been misapplied to vindicate the wiles of Satan. God seeks for men of incorruptible integrity to minister His Word and to engage in medical missionary work. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 17

Edson, if Satan succeeds in keeping you in this busy round of manufacturing work, he will gain just what he desires. Do not divorce your occupation from your religion. You are gathering responsibilities to yourself that give you employment, but not of the kind that God has given you to do. Your self imposed burdens will crowd your soul into deformity, and your work will bear the condemnation of God. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 18

God has an interest in every nerve and muscle of your being. Your talent of speech is a sacred talent. Let it be used always with grace. Guard your appetite, that it may be sound and helpful. Your soul is precious in the sight of God, for it is the purchase of the blood of Christ. It is to be educated and trained and disciplined, that it may be fitted to join the redeemed family in the courts of heaven. It is your privilege to be an overcomer and to hear spoken to you the words, “Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things; enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.” [Matthew 25:23.] 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 19

Now is your opportunity. You are to give yourself to the preaching of the Word and to preparing the books that are needed in the cause. You have lost precious opportunities of learning valuable lessons out of the Word. You have been busy here and there, but not always with the work of God’s appointment. God tells you now to surround your soul with a different atmosphere, that you may be the means of doing much good to the souls who are perishing. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 20

You have been on the losing side financially in carrying out certain projects of your own. You have bound upon your neck a burden which hampers all your spiritual powers. There are many in the South among our own people who need the help that you can give them. They are subject to Satan’s temptations. They pick up pleasing fables and hold them as truth. I warn you to be on your guard. There are moral icebergs among professed believers, men and women who never confess their wrongs because it is out of the line of their education to do this. Such will ever exert a harmful influence. Educate the young converts to keep away from such company. Through the study of sciences that are of satanic origin, they have frozen their souls. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 21

Now, my son, make your paths straight. Now is your time to make a decided reformation. Let nothing that anyone may say or do hinder you in this work. You cannot give yourself to commercial enterprises unless the Lord lays this burden upon you, and this He has not done. Bind up the inclinations that take you from the work of teaching the Word of God. Study your Bible, and teach its truths to the souls who are ready to perish. The Christianity that is spiritual and aggressive will, under the ministration of the Holy Spirit, accomplish a good work for Christ. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 22

There is a work of reformation to be done in the Nashville church. If the members of the Nashville church will unify, if they will humble their hearts before God, confessing their way out of darkness into the light, the Spirit of God will come upon His people. The believers at Nashville have been departing from God. Let them now stand up in their weakness and identify themselves as one with God. There is nothing in this world that I fear so much as the fact that I may not know all my duty and so fail to meet all the obligations I owe to God. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 23

I speak to the members of the church: Take hold of Christ by prayer and confession of sin. Tell them if they will do this, forsaking their sins, they will see the salvation of God. Learn of Christ; receive His grace, and receive to impart. Put on the whole armor of Christ’s righteousness. God has a constant claim on our service. He says to each believing soul, “Follow Me; and I will make you fishers of men.” [Matthew 4:19.] Let us clear the King’s highway. Let us cast out all evil from the heart and make diligent work of repentance, that God may accept our service. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 24

Help Elder Haskell; help Elder Butler, that their efforts may be a success. Your lives with all their capabilities belong to God. Consecrate yourselves to Him. Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you; and when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will lift up for you a standard against the enemy. Watch unto prayer. Humble your hearts before God, and see if He will not give you such a blessing, that you will not have room enough to receive it. May the Lord work mightily, is my prayer. 20LtMs, Lt 188, 1905, par. 25