Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 21 (1906)

Lt 86, 1906

Butler, G. I.

St. Helena, California

March 8, 1906

This letter is published in entirety in 3SM 71-72 with TDG 76 and 10MR 343-344. +^Note

Elder George I. Butler

My dear brother:

I have written a long letter to you, and to our people in Nashville and Graysville, and to all the churches in the South. I am greatly burdened because of the disunion coming in among our people. Even the words of warning that the Lord has given to poor souls to save them are made a cause of contention. Why will they not receive them and work to the point of becoming one in Christ Jesus? Why will they not cease fighting against God and despising the messages He has sent? 21LtMs, Lt 86, 1906, par. 1

I feel deeply over these things by day and by night. During the past night I could not sleep after eleven o’clock. I have an intense interest that this testimony shall be received; for it belongs to all our people. You are well acquainted with my work. Before you were converted you believed the messages sent by God. You accepted the evidences that the Lord Jesus had selected me to do a special work and had entrusted me with communications for His people. You saw that the Lord had made a frail instrument a channel for the communication of light to His people, who were in need of reproof and instruction in righteousness. 21LtMs, Lt 86, 1906, par. 2

For half a century I have been the Lord’s messenger, and as long as my life shall last I shall continue to bear the messages that God gives me for His people. I take no glory to myself. In my youth the Lord made me His messenger, to communicate to His people testimonies of encouragement, warning, and reproof. For sixty years I have been in communication with heavenly messengers, and I have been constantly learning in reference to divine things, and in reference to the way in which God is constantly working to bring souls from the error of their ways to the light in God’s light. 21LtMs, Lt 86, 1906, par. 3

Many souls have been helped because they have believed that the messages given me were sent in mercy to the erring. When I have seen those who needed a different phase of Christian experience, I have told them so, for their present and eternal good. And so long as the Lord spares my life, I will do my work faithfully, whether or not men and women shall hear and receive and obey. My work is clearly given me to do, and I shall receive grace in being obedient. 21LtMs, Lt 86, 1906, par. 4

I love God. I love Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and I feel an intense interest in every soul who claims to be a child of God. I am determined to be a faithful steward so long as the Lord shall spare my life. I will not fail nor be discouraged. 21LtMs, Lt 86, 1906, par. 5

But for months my soul has been passing through intense agony on account of those who have received the sophistries of Satan and are communicating the same to others, making every conceivable interpretation in various ways to destroy confidence in the gospel messages for this last generation, and in the special work which God has given me to do. I know that the Lord has given me this work, and I have no excuse to make for what I have done. In my experience I am constantly receiving evidence of the sustaining, miracle-working power of God upon my body and my soul, which I have dedicated to the Lord. I am not my own; I have been bought with a price. And I have such assurance of the Lord’s working in my behalf that I must acknowledge His abundant grace. I love the Lord; I love my Saviour, and my life is wholly in the hands of God. As long as He sustains me, I shall bear a decided testimony. 21LtMs, Lt 86, 1906, par. 6

Why should I complain? So many times has the Lord raised me up from sickness, so wonderfully has He sustained me, that I can never doubt. I have so many unmistakable evidences of His special blessings, that I could not possibly doubt. He gives me freedom to speak His truth before large numbers of people. Not only when I am standing before large congregations is special help bestowed upon me, but when I am using my pen, wonderful representations are given me of past, present, and future. 21LtMs, Lt 86, 1906, par. 7

Elder Butler, how can I express the thought of the strength that my faith has gained from the experience of trusting the Lord and in venturing to do that which He has bidden me to do in writing and in standing before audiences large and small? These occasions are my witnesses that Christ is helping me. I endeavor at all times to speak in the simplicity that Christ gives me; and when on my feet before a congregation, I know beyond a question that Christ is revealed to me with such marked distinctness that there is no more excuse for doubt and fearfulness than if He stood revealed before the whole congregation. Truly I can say, “I know in whom I have believed.” [2 Timothy 1:12.] 21LtMs, Lt 86, 1906, par. 8

I feel so sorry for those who are being misled in their Christian experience, because they do not need to be. God is true. He says, “My grace is sufficient.” [2 Corinthians 12:9.] God is faithful who will not suffer any soul to be tempted above that he is able. God weighs every trial before He permits it to be allotted. He knows every circumstance, and He will give the light essential to resist temptation, unless the one tempted refuses to discern the truth because he does not wish to know. Then God leaves him to his own choice. If he chooses the darkness, he will have it. Every time he yields to Satan’s dictation, in order to maintain his own objectionable dignity, he is placed where he does not choose to know and to understand the truth. It is not God’s way that he wants, but his own way; for God’s way would not glorify self. 21LtMs, Lt 86, 1906, par. 9