Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 5 (1887-1888)

Lt 43, 1888

Carpenter, Brother and Sister

Battle Creek, Michigan

November 15, 1888

Previously unpublished.

Dear Brother and Sister Carpenter:

I have been exceedingly [pained] at the condition of our churches in Mich. as it was several times opened before me while in Switzerland. The influences at some of the churches, as it was pointed out by my guide, was a detriment to them, bringing spiritual death into their midst. Otsego was one of these churches. The apostasy of Eld. [D. M.] Canright did not harm the church; but when Satan saw that his disaffection brought no particular discouragement, then he devised other means to accomplish his object. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 1

Your natures have never been brought into subjection to Jesus Christ and consequently your hearts are not in harmony with Him. The enemy has wrought through the sharp, unconsecrated elements in your nature to accomplish his ends. I shall speak plainly and tell you as Christ told Nicodemus that you must be born again, else you can never enter the kingdom of God. [John 3:3.] You would perhaps be as much astonished as was Nicodemus; but this is your case as it has been shown me. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 2

Neither of you has the Spirit of Christ; and unless you are entirely changed in heart, in thought, in spirit, and in character, you can never enter the city of God. You have cultivated a spirit of questioning and of cruel criticisms until you have, by your own course of action, driven the Spirit of God out of your hearts, from your family, and from your dwelling. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 3

What kind of education have you given your children? Bickering, strife, contention, downright quarreling concerning the ____ ____ ____ ____ [words illegible]. If we would learn of Christ, the soul must be cleansed of everything that defileth. All proud ____ ____ [words illegible] must be sacrificed and every faculty, every [thought] brought into captivity to Christ. Make no proud boasts. Cultivate the eloquence of silence. With the soul humbled before God, cut away all envy, all unkind, unchristian feelings, all the clamorous pretensions of self-sufficiency. Put on the robe of Christ’s humility and learn in His school precious lessons which you will fail to learn from any human source. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 4

You want every ray of light which God may impart through any of His agencies. Seat yourselves as children at the feet of Jesus to learn the truth as it is in Him. You should fear to pass judgment upon any new light upon the Bible until, upon your knees with humble hearts, you have searched its pages and sought wisdom of God to know what is truth. I hope you do not take it for granted that there is no more light or truth to be given to us, for I know this is not true. There are before us broad fields of truth yet to be explored, and every portion of these fields is to be ploughed and dug over with painstaking effort to find the truth—glorious, precious truth—which exalts Jesus, but humbles us to the place of learners. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 5

“Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility; for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: casting all your care upon him for he careth for you. Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered awhile, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you.” [1 Peter 5:5-10.] 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 6

Here is a work for the children of God to do individually—to fall upon the Rock and be broken. This is the very thing which you need to do. Search the Scriptures, not that you may find something to question, some difference of opinion which you can hold up as a battle-ax, but to find the truth. You delight in presenting those points with which your brethren are not in harmony. You should dwell rather upon those things upon which you can all agree. “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.” [Verse 6.] Have you done this? “Yea, all of you be subject one to another.” [Verse 5.] How much of this work have you been doing? May the Lord open your blind eyes to see how far you are from being like Christ. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 7

You need to be converted, and yet you claim to be Christians. Had your children had the right influence from father and mother, had sweet peace surrounded them in the home circle, they would today be obedient to the truth, serving the Lord. But while you claim to be Christians, the atmosphere of your home tends to produce fruit unto death. It is making skeptics and infidels of your children for they have no desire to be such Christians as you are. Were it not that God’s Spirit was appealing to their hearts, they would have been, ere this, despisers of the truth, driven from it by your criticisms and censures, and your contentions with them. You have managed the family so that your children fear you, but they do not love you as children should love their parents. You might have bound them to your heart from their earliest years by the silken cord of love. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 8

It was shown me, that you, Brother Carpenter, were exercising the same management in the church. The unchristlike atmosphere with which you have surrounded your soul unfits you for the position of teacher in the church. It is an atmosphere, not of heaven, but breathing of strife and dissension, poisonous, and charged with moral death like that which surrounds the enemy of all righteousness. It is as he would have it. The church in Otsego is inhaling this atmosphere, and it is far from prospering because of your influence in it. This influence is death to the church and death to the Sabbath school, and why cannot you see it? 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 9

I have been shown that no religious responsibilities should be committed to you, for you will endanger the spiritual interest of any church to such a degree that moral death will be the result of your administration unless there shall be a thorough transformation in you. You will start questions of controversy if you can, and you will dwell upon these points early and late. It is food for you to be on the opposite side of a question. You pride yourself on your aptness and sharpness and have trained your mind to do this special work which is of Satan’s own devising. He knows he is sure of you as long as you work in this line, and he will use you as a channel for his spirit. Your words and your work, which you think is a Christian work, disgust unbelievers, confuse the faith of believers, and dishearten them. You have worked at this business so long that you are a ready tool in the hands of Satan. You have trained your powers in this very unchristlike work until your brethren find it difficult to counteract your influence. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 10

Satan would just as soon you would profess the truth as not, for by so doing you can do the greater harm to those who believe it. If you were really sound in the truth and saw any other man following the course you are pursuing, you would be disgusted. You would say at once, “That man’s religion is vain; he is not a Christian.” [James 1:26.] The fruits that a Christian should bear are specified plainly and distinctly by Jesus Christ. Matthew 7:16-20. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 11

In your own house you frequently find yourself baffled, disappointed in your hopes; you feel that you are not respected, unloved, and betrayed; and you will feel the very same in regard to the church. You create this state of things yourself. You are a self-seeking man and cherish pride and self-sufficiency. In conversation you set your ideas foremost as authority and doctrine. Said my guide, pointing to you, “Sir, you do not know what is the faith once delivered to the saints.” [Jude 3.] You are officious, uncharitable, unjust, and recriminative. Your spirit is charged with bitterness. In association with your brethren, you neither receive nor impart real good. You have no comfort in your own family because you create an atmosphere that is repulsive and satanic. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 12

You do not receive strength and blessing from God for He does not impart His grace to those who would abuse His mercies. The highest spiritual attainments are reached only when the soul is humbled in view of its great need. Man begins to comprehend himself when he takes his place at the feet of Jesus. When men turn their attention away from earthly things, and look heavenward, when they obtain glimpses of the heavenly glory, they discern more clearly the depths of the human heart and see the depravity of the soul. Will you heed this testimony, Brother and Sister Carpenter? Will you first be converted, then give to your family and to the church the example which God requires of all His children? 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 13

What an education your children have been receiving! The apostle says, “Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.” [Colossians 3:21.] There has been so little Christlike tenderness in your dealing with them that you have aroused in them a spirit of opposition and retaliation. You pick at them until you stir up the very worst feeling of their nature, and at times they have feelings almost of hatred toward you because you are so constantly wounding them. How can they love the Bible when you fling it at them in harsh denunciations? You are driving them away from yourselves and from God. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 14

Be careful, my brother and sister, what seed you sow, for that which you sow you will also reap. Your children are receiving a stamp of character which will be revealed when they stand at the head of their own families. Love has not been the law of the house, and their own domestic life will be very soon like the example which has been set them unless a thorough renovation of character shall take place in them. The objectionable traits of character which exist in the father and mother are given as an inheritance to their children; and the constant exercise of these unchristlike elements in the parents is repeated in the experience of the children. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 15

What a record you will meet when the judgment shall set and the books be opened! If it is not time for you to reform and to gain a Christian experience, will you tell me when the period will come that you will be fitted for heaven? I tell you in the fear of God that, could you carry into heaven the same wrong traits of character that you now possess, you would mar its peace and harmony. But this can never, never be. Unless you have a work done for you here in this life and become like Jesus here, you will have no part in the future, immortal life. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 16

You have a most earnest work to do for yourselves in the strength of Jesus. Confess heartily to your children and the church before it shall be forever too late for wrongs to be righted, and “be clothed with humility as with a garment.” Then you will have an experience that is of solid value. Your children will have strong temptations to meet, but they as well as yourselves may be overcomers. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 17

I feel so keenly over the wrong parents are doing their children in thus cherishing defects of character in themselves to be perpetuated in their children. Their hands and hearts are guilty of the blood of their children’s souls, their own offspring are ruined by the defects of the parents. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 18

Love should be the ruling element in the home, only kind, patient, loving words should be heard. The influence should be such that the children would not venture to speak an unkind or impertinent word to father or mother. Instead of this, a spirit has been manifested in your family that has provoked the children to wrath and discouraged them. Parents should teach their children by a consistent example that truth, honor, and courage, patience and meekness are the fruits that grow on the Christian tree and that scolding, loud-voiced commands, dissension, and strife are no part of religion. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 19

Any daughter who has been trained to observe the laws of kindness and love, which should be the laws of the household, will be tender and solicitous towards father and mother, and should she be called to be a wife, she will not be heartless, critical, and bickering, making her husband miserable and unhappy. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 20

Parents make a great mistake when they do not sympathize with their children in their joys and their trials. Gather your children to your hearts and bind them there by the silken cords of love. Control them with firmness, yet remember that justice has a twin-sister which is love. Let them see that you have the peace of Christ abiding in your hearts as the ruling element in your life. Do not give too many commands, do not lay down too many rules for some will surely be forgotten; but win the respect and confidence of the children by making them feel that you are their very best friend and that you delight to give them pleasure. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 21

Follow righteousness, faith, hope, charity. Do not let your course of action or instruction be such that your children will think that religion is of all things the most disagreeable. Angels are watching to see what spirit we manifest in the home circle. Shut out all prejudices and evil surmisings. A complete, harmonious, Christian character is to be developed and the brightest, spiritual attainments reached here in our precious hours of probation. But your characters may well be represented by a vine lying prone upon the earth, fastening its tendrils about rubbish and anything that it can grasp. You need to be converted. Let the Spirit of God come into your hearts and cut loose their tendrils and fasten them upon God. Then you will know what it is to have a holy, sanctified independence staid upon God. He is pure, and He is holy. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 22

While you are constantly looking for something to criticize in others, you are neglecting the plot of ground that belongs to you. If you love to dwell on the errors, mistakes, and failings of others, you will have plenty of this kind of work to keep you busy till the Lord comes. 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 23

“But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, drunkenness, revellings and such like: of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in times past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain-glory, provoking one another, envying one another.” [Galatians 5:15-26.] 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 24

Listen to Paul’s admonitions to the Philippians, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things.” [Philippians 4:8.] Here is advice inspired of Heaven. Will you receive it? Will you act upon it? Will you bring Christ into your hearts and reveal Him in your character? 5LtMs, Lt 43, 1888, par. 25