Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 15 (1900)

Lt 160, 1900

Kellogg, J. H.

On the Pacific Ocean

October 18, 1900

Previously unpublished.

Dear Brother:

I am so sorry that Brother John Wessels has become my adversary. He has betrayed me. I hoped that he would so view the condition of things in Africa that he would be led to make a decided change in his own life, and through the sanctifying power of the truth become a laborer together with God in saving the members of his family. If he willed to do the will of God, a way would be prepared for him to work out the Lord’s plan in earnest Christian labor. 15LtMs, Lt 160, 1900, par. 1

I am more grieved than I can express at the condition of things existing in the Wessels family. I love in the Lord all the members of this family, and I am willing to do anything to save them. The case of each member is presented to me, but as circumstances now are, I have no words to speak to them. I hoped that the peculiar elements existing in this family would, through proper association and the influence of the Spirit, yield to the power of God. But the members of the family seem to be persistently tempted to resist or to endeavor to break away from religious restraint. Some cut themselves adrift because they think they will be fettered by the principles of truth. 15LtMs, Lt 160, 1900, par. 2

With their active minds, the members of the Wessels family could do a good work for the Lord if they would but enter His service with earnest, truth-loving hearts. If they will place themselves on the Lord’s side, He will help them to overcome. If they follow their own inclinations, they may now gain what they suppose to be valuable privileges, but they will one day see the real result of their course of action. 15LtMs, Lt 160, 1900, par. 3