Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 2 (1869 - 1875)

Lt 16, 1873

Cramer, Brother and Sister

Battle Creek, Michigan

November 25, 1873

Previously unpublished.

Dear Brother and Sister Cramer:

I received a letter from you some months since requesting me to write out that which I had been shown in regard to you. I will try to do so. 2LtMs, Lt 16, 1873, par. 1

I was shown, Brother Cramer, that you were too self-willed and wished to have others bend to your views. I was shown that you loved your own opinion and were selfish in desiring to carry out your plans, irrespective of the views of your brethren. You did not have that respect and deference for the opinions of your brethren that you should. 2LtMs, Lt 16, 1873, par. 2

I was shown that the course pursued by your wife was not pleasing to God. She is not sanctified by the truth she professes to believe. She talks too much and makes her children her equals. 2LtMs, Lt 16, 1873, par. 3

The tongue is an unruly member. The tongue can no man tame. This is your sin. You talk too much. You find fault with others and you are in the habit of gossiping and tattling. You love to hear and to tell some new thing. This is a grievous sin in the sight of God, and must be overcome or you will be overcome with this sin and will be unfit for heaven. In much needless talk very much is said to the injury of others, the truth is not always told, facts are exaggerated and perverted, and much harm is done. If you carried a burden of the sense of the truth and of the solemnity of the times in which we live, you would talk less and pray more earnestly for grace to perfect Christian character. 2LtMs, Lt 16, 1873, par. 4

Sister Cramer, you need to be converted to the truth. You have but little sense of the sacredness of the truth and but little knowledge of its influence upon the heart. You will as surely fail of heaven as there is a heaven. Your children are not educated as they should be. You indulge their inclinations to dress and mingle with the world. In short, you do not in your life, in scarcely any respect, come up to the gospel standard. Christ is not in you. You need to be thoroughly transformed before you can be fitted for the truth to dwell in your heart. 2LtMs, Lt 16, 1873, par. 5

Sister Lockland has a work to do for herself that no one can do for her. She has not been the blessing to the church that she might have been. She talks too much and considers her judgment superior to the judgment of others. She does not have that control of her children she should have. She is more in harmony with the spirit of the world than with Jesus Christ. Sister Lockland, you encourage your sister’s children in vanity and pride. You might have an influence over them for good were you enjoying the presence of Christ and carrying out in your life practical godliness. Your conversation is mostly upon dress or commenting in regard to others’ deportment, dress, and influence. Sister Lockland and Sister Cramer need to seek good humble religion. They have not the genuine article. 2LtMs, Lt 16, 1873, par. 6