Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 20 (1905)

Lt 125, 1905

White, J. E.; White, Emma

“Elmshaven,” St. Helena, California

April 10, 1905

Portions of this letter are published in GH 04/1905. +^Note

My dear children Edson and Emma,—

I have letters written to you, but I fear they will not be copied in time to be sent to you today, so I will send you a few lines, with some copies of things that I have written. 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 1

I am in better health than I have been for several weeks, and I am thinking that it may be my duty to attend the General Conference. I will do this, if I am given light that it is my duty. I greatly hope that the work in Washington is moving forward in straight lines, and that means will come in speedily so that the buildings can be completed. 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 2

Over and over again I am instructed that there must be no hindrance in this work. 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 3

Please write to me, telling me what you are doing and how you are getting on. I have a word from the Lord for my son Edson. You are not to load yourself down with responsibilities. For a long time you have been in the midst of perplexities, and you must now compel yourself to give your brain rest. Place all your burdens upon the great Burden-bearer. Heed the invitation: “Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls; for My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” [Matthew 11:28-30.] Do not, I beseech of you, gather responsibilities to yourself. I am instructed, as the Lord’s messenger, to tell you to make God your trust and to leave your perplexities in His hands. He will bring to pass His will. Now is your time to find rest of soul. Let not your dependence be in man, but in God. You must every moment make Him your trust. You, and all the Lord’s people, have a work to do. We are to build the old waste places and raise up the foundations of many generations. The great issue regarding the law of God will soon be upon us. We are to work as those who are called and chosen of God. Our influence is to be united with that of the great Physician in repairing the breach and restoring paths to dwell in. We are to make a determined stand for the truth. Read the whole of the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 4

No one is to be idle now. O that those who have allowed continual differences to arise could see the loss they have thus sustained. Let us work on the plan given in the fifty-eighth of Isaiah. The instruction of this chapter shows what we are to do in co-operation with the great Master-worker. My son, do what you can to relieve the situation of the colored people of the South, and especially the situation of the colored people in Nashville. “Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness? to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?” [Verses 6, 7.] 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 5

This message is given me to give to others everywhere. God abhors selfishness. Let every one of us abhor it. Let us deal justly and mercifully with every line of the work of God. Those who change the issue, as had so often been done, to shun the doing of the work laid out in this scripture, will lose a most precious blessing. The Word of the Lord is sufficient. God calls us to action. Let us all take hold unitedly, with the will to do what God has said must be done. Success will attend those who co-operate with God all the time, not just once in a while, when it is for their advantage to do so. We are to regard it as a sacred privilege to work out the purposes of God. 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 6

“Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily; and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer; thou shalt cry, and He shall say, Here I am.” [Verses 8, 9.] What does this mean, but that obstructions will be placed in the way to hinder the advancement of the work which has been kept before the Lord’s people for many years? 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 7

Are the souls for whom Christ has given His life cared for as they should be? Are those whom He has entrusted with means moving consistently in relieving the oppressed? Are not the cries and complaints of the poor and needy entering the ears of the Lord God of hosts because His stewards are remiss in the work that they should do as His helping hand? Is not this evil in every church? “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice as a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” [Verse 1.] Let the present order of things be changed. 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 8

“If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity; and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday.” [Verses 9, 10.] 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 9

God will not permit selfish adoration of some, while others, striving with all their capabilities, are left unhelped and are deprived of the blessings that more favored ones have. 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 10

I call upon all to arouse to their responsibilities. The Lord Jesus has said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” [Matthew 28:20.] He takes observation and writes in His book the deeds of His children here below. He sees when His faithful ones are put in the hardest places and are permitted to do their God-given work under great disadvantages. He says, “Will I not judge for these things.” [Jeremiah 5:9.] 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 11

“And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” [Isaiah 58:11.] 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 12

These rich promises are to be fulfilled. The Lord will co-operate with men in all their works of reform. But their salvation depends on their cutting loose from the scientific falsehoods of Satan. 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 13

“And they that be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.” [Verse 12.] 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 14

The Christian world has been drawn into a fallacy and has been led to trample on the law of Jehovah. The message of the immutability of this law is to be proclaimed by all medical missionaries and by all ministers of the gospel. The foundation of many generations is the law of God, and in clear, decided tones the message is to be given that the breach which has been made in the law of God is to be repaired. 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 15

“If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on My holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father; for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” [Verses 13, 14.] 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 16

The command concerning the observance of the seventh-day Sabbath is still binding upon all the inhabitants of this earth. God has set apart this day as a sign between Him and His people of their loyalty. God’s commandments never change; they are as enduring as eternity. The Lord has His messengers whom He bids to proclaim His law as changeless in its character. Those who obey this law will bear the seal of the living God. There is no sanctity in the first day of the week. The seventh day was set apart as a memorial of the work of creation. Every one is to look to God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, for light and guidance, and Him alone are they to honor. 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 17

“Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet and show My people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins.” [Verse 1.] The messenger must deal faithfully with the great deception. He must convince the people of their sins. They are called the people of God, the house of Jacob. They bear honorable title, but because of the high privileges bestowed on them they have become self-exalted. They are not to be flattered. Their defects of character, their failure to honor God by self-denial and self-sacrifice, according to Christ’s example, must be plainly revealed to them. 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 18

Said Christ, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.” [John 4:34.] “I seek not Mine own glory, but the glory of Him that sent Me.” [See John 8:50.] The people of God are to be aroused to a sense of their deficiencies and of the work that they must do. They are to break every yoke and make their prayers practical. “Lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” [Isaiah 58:1.] For the eternal interest of the people of God, their sins and their defects of character must be plainly pointed out. So long have they exalted themselves as supreme in wisdom that they are self-deceived. They have not on the robe of Christ’s righteousness; but it is not yet too late for them to repent and confess their sins and be converted and bring mercy, justice, and judgment into their lives. If they would receive the message and do the merciful acts of Christ, they would live a new life in Him, putting away all boasting, all falsifying, all evil speaking, and humbling their hearts before God, according to the instruction given by Christ in the Old and the New Testaments, remembering that in life and character they must be representatives of Christ. They would honor their Redeemer by daily living the new life—a life hid with Christ in God. 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 19

Practical Christianity means not working for God now and then, but continuously. It means being laborers together with God. A neglect to reveal this practical righteousness in our lives is a denial of the faith and of the power of God and makes of but little effect His principles of godliness. Such negligent Christians become faultfinders, at discord with their brethren and pronouncing judgment against many good works. They are spiritual paralytics. 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 20

Those who thus refuse to exercise for Christ the capabilities and powers of the soul are lukewarm Christians, neither cold nor hot, and they are nauseating to Christ. He cannot endure their unsanctified traits of character. Their lives bear the evidence: I do not care to confess my sins. The confession may never be made until it is made in awful agony, when it is too late for wrongs to be righted. 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 21

Those who allow themselves to be deceived by the enemy are held accountable by God for failing in a faithful discharge of duty. These unfaithful stewards have aided in strengthening the deception that God designed should be broken. The testimony to be borne is, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” [Verse 1.] There are those who are self-deceived, yet, for fear of hurting their feelings, their brethren permit them to go on, though feeling that their course is not in harmony with the will of the Lord. These deceived ones commit sins that they will not acknowledge to be sins. They may appear to be reformed in some things, but they are not doing thorough work in confession and repentance. Those who might have saved them, but did not, become in their turn like them. Sentiments of a misleading character are presented. Sins are committed that are not acknowledged as sins. 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 22

God said to Isaiah, “Show My people their transgression.” [Verse 1.] Let their sins appear as they are, whether or not they confess them, that the message of reproof sent them may be vindicated, and that God’s faithfulness in warning them and condemning their wrong course of action may be shown. Evidence is to be given to the evil worker that the Lord knows the course followed by those who refuse to repent and be converted, that others may shun a similar course of affronting God and setting a wrong example. Those who make no difference between those who serve God with the whole heart and those whom He has reproved become a snare and lose their power of discernment. 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 23

There are plain, decided testimonies to be borne under the power of the Holy Spirit to men who will not see and acknowledge their sins. Such ones are a snare to others, setting them an example that leads them to do likewise. And when the word of the Lord comes to His messengers, as it came to Isaiah, then wrong must be called wrong, and the right must be presented as it is presented in the fifty-eighth chapter of Isaiah. The reproof is to be given with the earnestness and faithfulness represented in the words, “Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.” [Verse 1.] 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 24

“Yet they seek Me daily, and delight to know My ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God; they ask of Me the ordinance of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.” [Verse 2.] The Lord sends His message to lay bare the deceptions of these ones, lest others, and among them those entrusted with large responsibilities, shall become unworthy of their trust. The reprover, the messenger of God, must speak with earnestness, as to ears that are deaf, because those addressed do not want to be convinced. They want to stand as wise men, who make no mistakes. But they are under the power of the enemy and bring in sentiments that are dishonoring to God. “Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and Thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and Thou takest no knowledge? behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure and exact all your labors. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness; ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day unto the Lord? 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 25

“Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? ... 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 26

“If thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday; and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.” [Verses 3-7, 10, 11.] 20LtMs, Lt 125, 1905, par. 27