Manuscript Releases, vol. 16 [Nos. 1186-1235]

St. Helena, California, August 1, 1907

I am passing through trials of mind, and my soul is distressed in me since the camp meeting in St. Helena. There is a special work to be done for the Lord's people that but few realize. The Lord is sending warnings to His people in the developments that shall come from the trying of the cases of fraudulent, guilty actions that have taken place with men in some connection with San Francisco and Oakland. This is to awaken the people to see that humanity without the law of God in the heart does not obey its principles. Man is trying [to get] his fellow man to bring in a supposed new order of things, but the heart is corrupt and utterly unreliable. God saith, “Woe unto you, lawyers!” There is not one of them obeying God's law that He came from heaven to make known, precept after precept. 16MR 127.3

I am full of sorrow for the people of God. They are having a trifling experience in true righteousness and true service to God. Not all connected with me are an honor spiritually. They are not in a position to do honor to my family. They are cheating themselves out of a true religious experience, trifling with eternal interests. They are not obtaining an experience that is of value to them in fitting their souls for the trials soon to come, and I am helpless to change the order of things. It does not seem to be in some of them to closely examine their own hearts, whether they are obtaining a fitness for the trials that are coming upon every soul, whatever his position or profession. The true religious experience they have not. I am distressed, for it is supposed that those of my household will feel an individual responsibility to keep their own souls in the love of God and be in their position a blessing to others. 16MR 128.1

I have a message for those who are professedly Christians but who do not realize their daily accountability to God. It is supposed my family will be of a very different order religiously. What can I do or say? They are handling sacred things daily, but I fear for their future unless they shall seek the Lord with all their heart. I may pray in the family, I may address the church to seek the Lord, but unless they will obtain a deep experience they will not be prepared to unite with the holy family in the heavenly courts. I fear for every one of my family, and therefore fear for myself. What can I say? What can I do? The shortage of coming into spiritual union with God make me afraid, and what can I say or do in my physical weakness? 16MR 128.2