Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 15 (1900)

Lt 195, 1900

Colcord, W. A.

“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

January 22, 1900

Previously unpublished.

Brother Colcord:

I have read your letter and will say in regard to the private portion, You know not the matter as it is. I know whereof I have spoken, and the words I have spoken are truth, without exaggeration. There is a species of blindness that is the work of the enemy. Such positions will never help your son. That there may have been lack of wisdom in managing such a case in whom the spirit of disobedience has worked so effectually, I do not deny or admit, for I do not think you would have done as well, placed here. It is possible that mistakes may have been made. But the enemy is working out his own plans through your son to bring about his own ends to cripple your influence and weaken your courage and imbue you the same spirit that rules your son. Certainly he is under the control of a tyrant, that he may carry out the worst results through the son who fears not God nor regards man. And while he is easily led into misconduct, he has a power of defiance and resistance to any influence to lead him into right conduct. You accept the words of a son as truth, and question the words of the very ones whom God owns and who love God and keep His commandments. Their course is denounced while you sustain your son as a boy that has been abused, misused, falsified. I take not the least stock in this, because I saw the truth, the inwardness of the matter. 15LtMs, Lt 195, 1900, par. 1

You will one day know that not one word was spoken to me, by anyone, of your son. But his habits, his practice, his workings in falsifying, denying things that were true and deceiving you and those of our people he was brought in contact with, are strengthened because you take his part and in thus doing strengthen the evil in him. I tell you plainly that I know that you are deceived, both yourself and your wife. Had you been of keener perception concerning the habits and practices of your son, had you been as keen to point out things that have transpired as you have been to point out that which you suppose is false representation of your son, your eyes would see things more clearly. 15LtMs, Lt 195, 1900, par. 2

I write to you because the enemy is not working in vain upon the young man, and you, as a father, let him take his own course as he pleases, and the enemy has all the opportunity to work his will, to weaken your physical strength. 15LtMs, Lt 195, 1900, par. 3