Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 21 (1906)

Lt 176, 1906

Prescott, W. W.

St. Helena, California

June 15, 1906 [typed]

Previously unpublished.

Brother Prescott:

I have a request to make of you. Will you send to Brother Joseph Leininger the Review and Herald without charge. He was once a man of means, and his whole heart was in the work. He believed the Lord was coming soon and that he must help the office of publication, the sanitariums, and the schools. Wherever there was a call for means, his hand was ready with aid. He was unfortunate in some business transactions, and he lost his all. On account of this, I also lost. But I never asked him to pay a penny of what I lost on his account. 21LtMs, Lt 176, 1906, par. 1

I called the church officers together and told them that he had secured for himself a few acres of land on which was an old house not fit to live in winter or summer. All he asked was enough to make the house comfortable for them to live in. I told the brethren that he had given freely of his means to the various branches of the work and that I had not accepted one cent of rent for my house, in which he had lived for years. 21LtMs, Lt 176, 1906, par. 2

He had a family, so I asked the brethren to build for them a two-story house, of good material. This they consented to do. Brother Leininger at first secured five acres of land, and he has since added two acres to this. It is good land. He has met with the loss of two horses lately, yet no complaint comes from his lips. 21LtMs, Lt 176, 1906, par. 3

His two boys are doing their best. One of them has been running the elevator here at the sanitarium, and the other one has had excellent success in selling our books. 21LtMs, Lt 176, 1906, par. 4

I have asked that the Signs of the Times be sent to Brother Leininger without charge, and I request you to send him the Review and such pamphlets as you send to me from time to time. Please put his name down as a permanent subscriber, and oblige me. 21LtMs, Lt 176, 1906, par. 5

I feel and know that the Lord has made me His special messenger to attend to such matters as this. This is one reason why I refuse to claim the name of “prophet.” I am commissioned to look after cases like this brother’s and see that their necessities are met; also those of our ministers who are becoming ripe in years, but whose influence must ever be appreciated. There are but few of the old pioneers left, and I must not allow them to be overlooked. I have linked my interest with them. May God help me to do my duty faithfully. 21LtMs, Lt 176, 1906, par. 6