Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 22 (1907)

Lt 382, 1907

Reaser, G. W.

Loma Linda, California

November 9, 1907

Previously unpublished.

Dear Brother Reaser:

I am instructed to say to you that you are not a thoroughly converted man. You do not possess the traits of character that qualify a man to bear large responsibilities acceptably; for you cannot meet the requirements of the work that needs to be done. You have yet to learn that your will and your way are not supreme. You have brought into your work an exaltation of yourself. 22LtMs, Lt 382, 1907, par. 1

The Southern California Conference is far behind in the lessons that they need to learn for time and for eternity. 22LtMs, Lt 382, 1907, par. 2

Today, this message was given to me for you: “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. You can not now be entrusted with the charge of souls. Tekel is written upon your works.” [See Daniel 5:27.] 22LtMs, Lt 382, 1907, par. 3

Your only hope for salvation is in dying to self. You are worshiping a false god. Self is your god, and you have carried self in a highly exalted manner. This has had a tendency to spoil, in the minds of the members of the conference, the high ideals of a true Christian. 22LtMs, Lt 382, 1907, par. 4

But you may turn to the light. God loves every human being. “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” [John 3:16.] Christ is the gift of God to the human race. Such is God’s estimate of the value of the human soul. Christ is the expression of the measure of God’s infinite love. God does not love us because Christ died for us; but it was because of His love for us that He gave Christ as a ransom for our sins. Christ died a most humiliating death through the hatred of the very men whom He had come to save. 22LtMs, Lt 382, 1907, par. 5

Christ was not only an expression of the Father’s love, but He was a channel to convey the love of God toward the human family. 22LtMs, Lt 382, 1907, par. 6

To be in office seems to you to mean to be a voice for the people. The pure and holy truths of the Word of God are not brought into your experience. Your will has been the controlling power. Unless you can learn lessons in humility, you should not be encouraged to hold official responsibilities in the work of God. You make it exceedingly difficult for those who differ from you in judgment. So far as pure and undefiled religion is concerned, you act like a blind man. Unless there is a decided change wrought in your character, you will never see the kingdom of God. If the testimonies I send you are cast aside, and you continue in your self-confident attitude as ruler of the minds and actions of those who are engaged in work in the conference; if you continue to uproot the confidence of the people in the testimonies that God has been sending to His people for more than sixty years, you will go deeper and still deeper into darkness. 22LtMs, Lt 382, 1907, par. 7

In your years of official service, there are valuable lessons that you might have learned. But because of your self-confidence, you have failed to learn the best methods of carrying on the Lord’s work. You have failed to show a proper respect to the ministers of God. You have failed to bring into your experience truth and sincerity. 22LtMs, Lt 382, 1907, par. 8

This conference must no longer have the example of a leader who will exalt those who please him and pull down those who cannot conscientiously follow his plans for them. By humility, you might have learned lessons that would have enabled you to bring the church up to a high spiritual experience. But your oppression of the Lord’s chosen workers reveals that you are unfitted to prepare a people to stand amid the perils of the evil times, which we have already entered. We are in the day of the investigative judgment, and there are lessons that you must learn quickly, or it will be too late. 22LtMs, Lt 382, 1907, par. 9

Read and study carefully, in Testimonies for the Church, Vol. VI, the chapter entitled, “Neglect by the Church and the Ministry,” beginning on page 296. Read also pages 305 and 306, of the same volume. 22LtMs, Lt 382, 1907, par. 10

“All who consecrate body, soul, and spirit to God’s service will be constantly receiving a new endowment of physical, mental, and spiritual power. The inexhaustible supplies of heaven are at their command. Christ gives them the breath of His own spirit, the life of His own life. The Holy Spirit puts forth its highest energies to work in heart and mind.” 22LtMs, Lt 382, 1907, par. 11

“Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily.” Thou shalt “call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am.” Thy light shall “rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday; and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” [Isaiah 58:8-11.] 22LtMs, Lt 382, 1907, par. 12

The world’s Redeemer came to our world to live the life of humanity, that humanity, through faith in Him, might lay hold of divinity, and thus escape the corruptions that are in the world through lust. The agencies of Satan are always at work to obstruct and to hinder the work that is necessary in order for men to be successful over the powers of darkness. Christ was tempted in all points like as we are, yet He did not fail nor become discouraged. Ever before His mind was the result of His mission. He knew that truth would finally triumph in the great contest against evil. 22LtMs, Lt 382, 1907, par. 13

To His disciples He has said, “These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace. Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” [John 16:33.] 22LtMs, Lt 382, 1907, par. 14