Manuscript Releases, vol. 1 [Nos. 19-96]

Statements Relating to the Blind

[Release requested for use by the Christian Record.]

If you read the Old Testament Scriptures you will see that the Lord has a special care for the blind. He has a love exceeding the love of a mother for her afflicted children, and He has given special directions in regard to how they should be treated. Those who for several years in the past have made no difference between those who are blind and those who can see, have not obeyed the voice of the Lord.—Manuscript 30, 1890, 4, 5. (“Article Read in the Auditorium of the Battle Creek Tabernacle to a Large Assembly, at the General Conference of 1890” [1891?].) 1MR 384.4

We next visited Sister [Gurner], who is a widow. She has been thought by some to be a restless, complaining woman, and has been called a murmurer. But when I learned that she has not been able to read for twenty-eight years, I thought that instead of criticizing her, those of her sisters in the faith who have the blessing of eyesight should visit her and read to her as often as possible. Job says, “I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame” (Job 29:15). It is the duty of those who have sight to minister to the blind, so that the afflicted ones shall feel their loss as little as possible. We had a season of prayer with this sister, and the tender Spirit of the Lord rested upon us.—Manuscript 21, 1892, 16, 17. (“Diary Written at Preston, Victoria, Australia,” September 28, 1892.) 1MR 385.1

[Release requested for Publication in W. D. Ochs’ Talk before A.S.I. Group.]

When the laborers have an abiding Christ in their own souls, when all selfishness is dead, when there is no rivalry, no strife for the supremacy, when oneness exists, when they sanctify themselves, so that love for one another is seen and felt, then the showers of the grace of the Holy Spirit will just as surely come upon them as that God's promise will never fail in one jot or tittle. But when the work of others is discounted, that the workers may show their own superiority, they prove that their own work does not bear the signature it should. God cannot bless them.—Manuscript 24, 1896, 4. (“Unselfishness among Brethren,” September 9, 1896.) 1MR 385.2

White Estate

Washington, D. C.,

January 14, 1957.