Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 20 (1905)

Lt 179c, 1905

White, J. E.

“Elmshaven,” St. Helena, California

July 21, 1905

Previously unpublished.

Dear son Edson,—

I write to you at this time because I am greatly burdened. I want to call your attention to the counsels that the Lord has given you regarding the use which He would have you make of the talents that He has given you—talents of time, experience, and influence. There is a good work that you can do if you will give your talents to improvement. Time is short. We all need to use every jot of our ability in proclaiming the message of truth. Why, O why, should not every power of every one who claims to be a child of God be used in His service? Walk humbly, circumspectly before Him. The work is to go forward in Nashville and in many other places in the South. 20LtMs, Lt 179c, 1905, par. 1

I must also call your attention to the money that you have invested in your various supposed necessities. This is not as God would have it. You are pursuing a course that causes me great trouble of mind. When your barn burned, consuming your horses and carriages, I said, “Amen and amen. The Lord is working with Edson. He has taken his case in hand. I do not feel so great an anxiety as I have felt in the past.” I was relieved. I said, “If he will not heed the counsel God has given, what can I, even though I am his mother, do?” I saw you walking away from the counsel of your brethren and bringing great anxiety upon them by following your own devisings. 20LtMs, Lt 179c, 1905, par. 2

While you go forward unadvisedly, gathering responsibilities for the sake of helping the work, you are in fact retarding the work and making yourself the subject of criticism. You need the sanctifying, balancing influence of the Holy Spirit of God. If you would change your attitude and take counsel, as you always ought to, with men of judgment and experience, and then heed their counsel, it would be for your present interest and eternal good. I want you to realize that you are not walking wisely. You are giving occasion for others to speak of you as wearing the stamp of unreliable ability. You have talent. This God has entrusted to you, and it is to be used to His name’s glory. The many severe lessons and the plain cautions given you in the past, warning you not to gather responsibilities to yourself, ought to have saved you from your present experience. 20LtMs, Lt 179c, 1905, par. 3

I would that you could see how others are tempted on your account. How are you going to settle the thousands of dollars against you? With the large debts that you have, how can you go on investing money? Please stop and consider; for your course of action is affecting my work. I cannot see any possibility of saving you from the natural results of your course. It hurts me to have to write to you thus, but I cannot but tell you that your present financial embarrassment is the natural result of your moving without wise counsel and solid judgment. Can you be surprised if your brethren dread to share the responsibility of your movements? 20LtMs, Lt 179c, 1905, par. 4

I scarcely know what to say to you that will give you the help I earnestly desire you to receive. The light that is given me is that you must now move very guardedly. Do not get out of patience because there are those who feel a great anxiety on your account. Seek for counsel, and listen to it, as you have never listened to it before. 20LtMs, Lt 179c, 1905, par. 5

You have expressed your high appreciation of Brother Bollman’s talents, and I have felt very thankful to the Lord that you have so wise a counsellor. George Amadon has linked his interest with you, and his influence has been a great blessing to you. But I see you in trouble, and this trouble your own course has brought about. 20LtMs, Lt 179c, 1905, par. 6

You cannot hope to evade, by vague generalities, the authoritative claims that must be made on you. There is only one way out—an honest avowal of your true situation in response to inquiry. 20LtMs, Lt 179c, 1905, par. 7

Edson, stop launching out in manufacturing enterprises. Stop laying plans that call for more money than your income will supply. Stop, for Christ’s sake, stop. Your influence is a sacred trust, and it is to be carefully guarded as a gift from the Lord. What more can I say to you than I have already said? I ask you now to stop, and retrace your steps. Let me see that you appreciate the words of counsel sent you again and again in the past. 20LtMs, Lt 179c, 1905, par. 8

Let us now sound the clear, ringing note of the third angel’s message. This is the time to work for God. This is the time to honor and glorify His name. 20LtMs, Lt 179c, 1905, par. 9

“Lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness, springing up trouble you and thereby many be defiled.” “Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.” [Hebrews 12:12-17.] 20LtMs, Lt 179c, 1905, par. 10

The apostle James, writing by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, tells us that “every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of His own will begat He us, with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath.” [James 1:17-19.] 20LtMs, Lt 179c, 1905, par. 11

My son, be careful of your health. Recently I have been writing a special testimony to our sanitarium physicians regarding the diet question, entreating them to be true and sound and solid upon health reform. Some, even among our physicians, plead that they must eat meat; for other food does not agree with them. But what kind of a testimony can such physicians bear to the patients that come to them? How can they conduct health-reform, medical missionary sanitariums? 20LtMs, Lt 179c, 1905, par. 12

All this is a great burden on my soul. The truth must go deeper and still deeper than it has yet gone, refining, purifying, and sanctifying the whole man. The truth is to be proclaimed with power. To all connected with the work in and near Nashville, I would say, Be careful how you move. God’s angels are ascending and descending the ladder, bearing communications from God to His people. Read and practice the first chapter of Second Peter. There is now to be earnest heart searching on the part of all the workers in the Southern field. 20LtMs, Lt 179c, 1905, par. 13