Manuscript Releases, vol. 3 [Nos. 162-209]

MR No. 208—Christ Is Our Example

We are forming characters for heaven. No character can be complete without trial and suffering. We must be tested, we must be tried. Christ bore the test of character in our behalf that we might bear this test in our own behalf through the divine strength He has brought to us. Christ is our example in patience, in forbearance, in meekness and lowliness of mind. He was at variance and at war with the whole ungodly world, yet He did not give way to passion and violence manifested in words and actions, although receiving shameful abuse in return for good works. He was afflicted, He was rejected and despitefully treated, yet He retaliated not. He possessed self-control, dignity, and majesty. He suffered with calmness and for abuse gave only compassion, pity, and love. 3MR 427.1

Imitate your Redeemer in these things. Do not get excited when things go wrong. Do not let self arise, and lose your self-control because you fancy things are not as they should be. Because others are wrong is no excuse for you to do wrong. Two wrongs will not make one right. You have victories to gain in order to overcome as Christ overcame. 3MR 427.2

Christ never murmured, never uttered discontent, displeasure, or resentment. He was never disheartened, discouraged, ruffled, or fretted. He was patient, calm, and self-possessed under the most exciting and trying circumstances. All His works were performed with a quiet dignity and ease, whatever commotion was around Him. Applause did not elate Him. He feared not the threats of His enemies. He moved amid the world of excitement, of violence and crime, as the sun moves above the clouds. Human passions and commotions and trials were beneath Him. He sailed like the sun above them all. Yet He was not indifferent to the woes of men. His heart was ever touched with the sufferings and necessities of His brethren, as though He Himself was the one afflicted. He had a calm inward joy, a peace which was serene. His will was ever swallowed up in the will of His Father. Not My will but Thine be done, was heard from His pale and quivering lips. 3MR 427.3

We long and pray that the grace of God may come into your hearts. We want you to make an entire surrender to God.... May God help you all to walk humbly and carefully is our prayer.—Letter 51a, 1874, pp. 2, 3, 4. (To “Dear Children, Edson and Emma White,” September 11, 1874.) 3MR 428.1

You believe in health reform, but you are in danger of placing before those under your care a poverty-stricken diet. The young appreciate good food, and we should not set before them tasteless dishes. It is not wise to prepare food in such large quantities that it must be left over to appear again and again on the table. It is wisdom to cook only a limited portion, for in warm weather food soon becomes sour, and in this condition it is unfit to enter the human stomach. 3MR 428.2

Your husband needs a liberal diet, and one that is wholesome and nourishing. Do not allow health reform to become health deform. If you will come up on a higher level, you can be a light to shine amid the darkness that is about you. I write you these things because you are in danger of making mistakes, and I desire that you shall work wisely for the health of the members of your family. No member of your family has spoken of this matter to me, but scenes have been presented to me in which I have been shown that the food you place upon your table is not always palatable.—Letter 184, 1908, pp. 1, 2. (To Mr. and Mrs. Hurlbutt, June 2, 1908.) 3MR 428.3

Released May, 1968.