Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 21 (1906)

Lt 311b, 1906

White, J. E.

St. Helena, California

May 10, 1906

Previously unpublished.

My dear Son Edson:

When you intimated that W. C. White manipulates and changes my writings to suit himself, you did me more injury by such statements than any other person could do. Because of your relationship, your course in this matter is more injurious to me than that of any other person. You believe your own opinions, and you trust your own judgment more than you do the judgment of your mother, who has tried to encourage and sustain you in right thoughts and right feelings. 21LtMs, Lt 311b, 1906, par. 1

The time has now come for me to speak regarding this. In your brother, the Lord has given me one who has been found faithful, true, and reliable. I have reason to prize his counsel. He conscientiously consults me in regard to his work. If he should err in judgment, in common things, the Lord Himself would guide me in reaching a safe, clear decision. The Lord has given me my work in writing out the messages according to the light He gives me. The Lord has also instructed me that He will give W. C. White the spirit of wisdom in dealing with affairs that need to be dealt with by him with righteousness and justice. 21LtMs, Lt 311b, 1906, par. 2

Your course of action and that of Frank Belden have at times been a source of great grief to me. I have known of your uniting with the elements that are opposed to my work. I have had presented to me the dangerous elements of character that have been manifest in my nephew Frank Belden in criticizing and ridiculing W. C. White. 21LtMs, Lt 311b, 1906, par. 3

By your course of action, you have become in grave financial difficulties at various times. Yet W. C. White has always been in perfect harmony with me in suggesting ways and means to relieve you in these crises. Edson, I have spent time and means in an effort to set your work in a favorable light before the people. I have hoped to bring out a book telling of your experiences in the southern field. But under present conditions I dare not bring it out, as I had planned. I hope that your course may be such that I can conscientiously continue this work and complete it, but at present I cannot do this. 21LtMs, Lt 311b, 1906, par. 4

I am heartsick over your persistent course of enmity toward your brother, without cause, which has existed for years. I know that the Lord has chosen him for the work in which he is engaged, and that he is walking carefully and conscientiously in the fear of God, endeavoring to carry out the light that has been given me. I know that by your unbrotherly course you have grieved the Spirit of God and have placed yourself on the enemy’s side. I know that W. C. White has for you the tenderest feelings. If you will consider, you will see abundant evidence of this. Yet you relate yourself to him more as an enemy than as a friend and a brother. This must be answered for in that great day when the works of everyone shall be brought in review before God, unless your spirit shall change decidedly. 21LtMs, Lt 311b, 1906, par. 5

God has given to W. C. White his work, and by his own course of action he has gained the confidence of those who have had the benefit of his labors. I am now of that age where I cannot be sure of living much longer, and I cannot lave you with the impression that I sustain you in the feelings you have entertained toward your brother. The Lord has repeatedly shown me that you are cherishing feelings that should never find birth in the human heart. Satan triumphs that he can cause so much unnecessary suffering right in my own family. 21LtMs, Lt 311b, 1906, par. 6

When you are truly converted, you will see things in a correct light and will overcome these wicked feelings against your brother; else you can never see the kingdom of heaven yourself, nor, unless they repent, can those who have so gladly listened to your expressions in regard to one whom the Lord has chosen and has blessed as His servant. 21LtMs, Lt 311b, 1906, par. 7

Unless I tell you these things I shall not have done my duty. You have misjudged and have borne false witness against your brother. You have planted in the minds of others seeds of doubt in regard to the testimonies God has given me. You and Frank Belden have talked together and have strengthened one another in your unnatural feelings. Night after night I have prayed that the Lord would convict you of the injury you were, by your attitude and speech, doing to the cause of God. 21LtMs, Lt 311b, 1906, par. 8

W. C. White does not know that I am writing these things to you. But every word of this is true, and I wish you might see the wickedness of the unnatural relationship you maintain. 21LtMs, Lt 311b, 1906, par. 9

Please read in the second chapter of First John: “Again a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in Him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth. He that saith he is in the light and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him: but he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.” [Verses 8-11.] 21LtMs, Lt 311b, 1906, par. 10

Please study this whole chapter. (Verses 16-19) speak in unmistakable terms of conditions in these last days. 21LtMs, Lt 311b, 1906, par. 11

I want you to see how God looks upon the bitterness of spirit you have manifested toward your brother. I must now place him in a proper light before the people, as God has placed him; for the people must not be deceived in this matter. The cause of God must not be imperiled by the use that may be made of your influence as member of my family, in opposition to the work that needs to be done. 21LtMs, Lt 311b, 1906, par. 12

I do not feel at liberty to write you in reference to the perplexing questions you have to decide. If what I might say were according to your own mind, it would be gladly endorsed. But if it were not according to your mind, you would say, “Willie White’s mind is figuring here.” Thus you have placed yourself in a position where I know not how to help you. I am charged to say to you that unless there is a thorough conversion in yourself, the Lord will not justify me in giving the impression that you are endorsed and upheld by your mother. 21LtMs, Lt 311b, 1906, par. 13