Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 25 (1910 - 1915)

Lt 40, 1911

White, J. E.

St. Helena, California

June 8, 1911

Previously unpublished.

Elder J. E. White
Nashville, Tennessee

My dear son Edson:

You have been much upon my mind during the past few days. The warnings given me for you have been repeated. Why will you give yourself so much to do? Why will you take on responsibilities that you are certainly unable to carry? When you walk in the way of the Lord, then wisdom will be shown in your management. As you obey the word of the Lord, sanctified wisdom will be revealed in your work. The influence of obedience to the instruction the Lord has given you over and over again will mold your life. 25LtMs, Lt 40, 1911, par. 1

The counsel of the Lord for you contains specific directions for the regulation of the life. The directions are pure and sensible, and obedience to them will give insight into divine things, and foresight into things to come. The messages of God’s Word, if received in the right spirit, mean the sanctification of mind and heart and thorough conversion to the Lord’s plans. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. This law is holy, just, and good. It bears not the shadow of a blemish, but is a transcript of the divine character. 25LtMs, Lt 40, 1911, par. 2

I am charged with a message for you that I cannot forbear giving you. You study out plans and projects, which in your own judgment are good, and enter upon them without finding out if you have means at your command to carry these plans to completion. You make plans that involve large expense in the employment of help; and after a beginning is made, more help is needed. And today, after all your experiences, you are being tempted to endeavor to show, at any cost, that your plans were laid in wisdom. This is sure to result in disappointment and to leave your enemies to take up the reproach against you that your work is a failure. 25LtMs, Lt 40, 1911, par. 3

You have your appointed work. Take up this work that the Lord has given you, and blessing will come to you. Through thorough conversion daily you are to be a humble servant of Jesus Christ. And when the Lord opens the way, you are to connect with men of wise judgment. 25LtMs, Lt 40, 1911, par. 4

We know that it is not our duty to unite with you in the carrying out of the plans you have devised. Thus our influence would be hurt, and the final outcome would be harm to you also. I am warned that we should be careful lest we dishonor God by helping you to carry out wrong plans, for in so doing we should be hindering the great work that is to be done. We have committed to us a sacred work that should advance the cause of truth. 25LtMs, Lt 40, 1911, par. 5

I plead with you to be sanctified through the truth as it is in Jesus and to walk humbly and intelligently with God. You are doing a great wrong to your mother and to your brother when you plan, as you have been doing, to enter into the manufacture of books. Were we to unite with you, we should be brought into great embarrassment. We have had an experience in this, and we know that it is unwise for you to make such plans. By this course you are robbing your own soul of spiritual growth. You refuse to reason from cause to effect. 25LtMs, Lt 40, 1911, par. 6

You need now, for your own soul’s salvation, to change your course of action. Do not depend on your own wisdom and judgment in the work of making books. The meekness and lowliness of Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is to teach us wisdom. You have lessons to learn of Christ. When you are genuinely converted, you will yoke up with your brother. There is a broad and sacred work for your united efforts. 25LtMs, Lt 40, 1911, par. 7

I am unutterably sad as I am led to view your case. Without making sure that you will be successful in obtaining the necessary means, you go right ahead as though you would somehow be sustained in your efforts. Then in your extremity you look to us for the loan of money to keep your work moving. I cannot advance money to you as I have done in the past. I have not the means, and we cannot uphold you in the borrowing of money on which you have to pay a large rate of interest. 25LtMs, Lt 40, 1911, par. 8

Your sick wife is not encouraged as she should be. Impressions are left on her mind that hurt her. She is led to think that your brother could help you more financially if he desired to do so. But he has not means of his own that he can use. His wife and children have worked hard to help him, so that they would not be a tax upon him. And he has gone as far as he ought in encouraging me to hire money and send it to you. 25LtMs, Lt 40, 1911, par. 9

I am not able to lessen my debts, greatly as I desire to do this. And I dare not continue to add to my already large indebtedness. When you feel that you must venture out into large enterprises, with the hope of hiring money from outsiders and paying the interest they demand, you should remember the cautions that the Lord has given to me for you and call a halt. I tell you that it is simply impossible for you to go on as you have been planning. I hoped that you would see your way clear to connect with my work. We hoped that you would regard this as a privilege, and to your advantage. But we shall not urge the matter. Now I am perplexed beyond measure regarding your future. 25LtMs, Lt 40, 1911, par. 10

Why will you cling to the work of manufacturing and selling books, when there is a work of so much greater importance that the Lord has called you to do? It is the preaching of the Word that should occupy your chief attention. In the decisions that you are making regarding this matter, your life is at stake. 25LtMs, Lt 40, 1911, par. 11

I testify to you that if you go on entangling yourself in these manufacturing enterprises, and great reverses and disappointments come, as they surely will, that it will cost you your life; and more, your soul is at stake. 25LtMs, Lt 40, 1911, par. 12

Night after night I lie awake thinking of these things. Time is short, and we are not doing what we ought to be doing to warn the people. What can I say to persuade you to let alone the things that are of lesser importance, and to give yourself to the very work to which you have been called of God? 25LtMs, Lt 40, 1911, par. 13