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

January 31

Yesterday some of the company who have been entertained at our house made their departure. Brother Colcord, W. C. White and Sister Bree who has been attending school in Melbourne, all departed for New Zealand. Brother Lawrence, Brother Sisley, and Brother Rousseau leave today for Dora Creek. Doctor Kellogg and Sister Rousseau are still here. We shall keep a free hotel as long as we are living in Granville; for there is no other way to do. We shall have to have council meetings and committee meetings at our home, and those who come to these meetings must be entertained at our house and sit at our table. We like to have them here, but it is almost a constant draft upon us. 16MR 166.2

I hope that you will not let the things that have come out in the Sentinel dishearten you. It is Satan's purpose to dishearten you concerning these matters. But you must hold fast to the hand of infinite power. The Lord has greatly blessed you; do not in any way be affected when you think that thrusts are made at you. Solemn, serious times are upon us, and perplexities will increase to the very close of time. There may be a little respite in these matters, but it will not be for long. 16MR 166.3

I have letters to write that must go in the next mail to Battle Creek. Our brethren there are not looking at everything in the right light. The movements they have made to pay taxes on the property of the Sanitarium and Tabernacle have manifested a zeal and conscientiousness that in all respects is not wise or correct. Their ideas of religious liberty are being interwoven with suggestions that do not come from the Holy Spirit, and the religious liberty cause is sickening, and its sickness can only be healed by the grace and gentleness of Christ. 16MR 167.1

The hearts of those who advocate this cause must be filled by the Spirit of Jesus. The great Physician alone can apply the balm of Gilead. Let these men read the book of Nehemiah with humble hearts touched by the Holy Spirit, and their false ideas will be modified, and correct principles will be seen, and the present order of things will be changed. Nehemiah prayed to God for help, and God heard his prayer. The Lord moved upon heathen kings to come to his help. When his enemies zealously worked against him, the Lord worked through kings to carry out His purpose and to answer the many prayers that were ascending to Him for the help which they so much needed. 16MR 167.2

I am often greatly distressed when I see our leading men taking extreme positions, and burdening themselves over matters that should not be taken up or worried over, but left in the hands of God for Him to adjust. We are yet in the world, and God keeps for us a place in connection with the world, and works by His own right hand to prepare the way before us in order that His work may progress along its various lines. The truth is to have a standing place, and the standard of truth is to be uplifted in many places in regions beyond. 16MR 167.3

Be sure that God has not laid upon those who remain away from these foreign fields of labor the burden of criticizing the ones who are on the ground where the work is being done. You need not be so zealous to get into the hands of worldly men God's own money of which they have been robbing Him all their lives. Those who are not on the ground know nothing about the necessities of the situation, and if they cannot say anything to help those who are on the ground, let them not hinder but stand out of the way and give the Lord a chance to work with people. Let them show their wisdom by the eloquence of silence, and attend to their work that is close at their hand. I protest against the zeal that they manifest that is not according to knowledge when they ventilate their ideas about foreign fields of labor. When they shall be sent to their foreign fields it will then be time for them to attend to the work God has assigned them. 16MR 168.1

Let the Lord work with the men who are on the ground, and let those who are not on the ground walk humbly with God, lest they get out of their place and lose their bearings. The Lord has not placed the burden of criticizing the work upon those who have taken this burden, and He does not give them the sanction of His Holy Spirit. Many move according to their own human judgment, and zealously seek to adjust things that God has not placed in their hands. Just as long as we are in the world, we shall have to do a special work for the world, and yet not be contaminated with the spirit of the world. The message of warning is to go to all countries, tongues, and peoples. 16MR 168.2

The Lord does not move upon His workers to make them take a course which will bring on the time of trouble before the time. Let them not build up a wall of separation between themselves and the world by advancing their own ideas and notions. There is now altogether too much of this throughout our borders. The message of warning has not reached large numbers of the world in the very cities that are right at hand, and to number Israel is not to work after God's order. There is abundance of earnest work in cities that have not been worked. Let your pen and voice work to enlighten these souls in simple, stirring articles upon faith and love. 16MR 169.1

Just as long as we are in this world, and the Spirit of God is striving with the world, we are to receive as well as to impart favors. We are to give to the world the light of truth as presented in the sacred Scriptures, and we are to receive from the world that which God moves upon them to do in behalf of His cause. God has not closed the door of mercy yet. The Lord still moves upon the hearts of kings and rulers in behalf of His people, and it becomes us who are so deeply interested in the religious liberty question not to cut off any favors, or withdraw ourselves from the help that God has moved men to give for the advancement of His cause. 16MR 169.2

We find examples in the word of God concerning this very matter. Cyrus, king of Persia, made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it into writing, saying, “Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and He hath charged me to build Him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all His people? his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel” [Ezra 1:2, 3]. A second commandment was issued by Darius for the building of the house of the Lord, and is recorded in the sixth chapter of Ezra. 16MR 169.3

The Lord God of Israel has placed His goods in the hands of unbelievers, but they are to be used in favor of doing the work that must be done for a fallen world. The agents through whom their gifts come, who open up avenues through which the truth may go, may have no sympathy with the work, and no faith in Christ, and no practice of his words; but their gifts are not to be refused on that account. The Holy Ghost strives with hearts of the so-called great men of earth. He is drawing them until they have light, and when convicted turn from fables to the light of truth. 16MR 170.1

It is very strange that some of our brethren should feel that it is their duty to bring about a condition of things that will bind up the means that God would have set free. God has not laid upon them the responsibility of coming in conflict with the authorities and powers of the world in this matter. This business is not to close up the avenues. Let the Lord work in that line. The restraining hand of God has not yet been withdrawn from the earth. The four angels are holding the four winds. Let the leaders in the work bide their time, hide in Christ, and move and work with great wisdom. Let them be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves. I have repeatedly been shown that we might receive far more favors than we do in many ways if we would approach men in wisdom, acquaint them with our work, as though we had a right to expect them to help in the best and greatest enterprise in our world, and give them an opportunity of doing those things which it is our privilege to induce them to do for the advancement of the work of God.—Letter 11, 1895. 16MR 170.2

Ellen G. White Estate

Washington, D. C.,

September 2, 1986.

Entire Letter.