Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 23 (1908)

Lt 383, 1908

Brethren in Washington, D. C.

“Elmshaven,” St. Helena, California

May 29, 1908

Previously unpublished.

Brethren:

I write unto you in Washington, D.C. The Lord is not pleased with your spirit or your work. Not that everything is wrong, neither are all things correct and as God would have them. When men take the place as God and send forth their requirements, they sometimes command things to be done that dishonor the Lord Jesus. Now the Lord declares unto these men that they should copy a course of action similar to that which the disciples followed when they assembled together and prayed for the Holy Spirit, continuing their supplications. The time taken in this kind of exercise, confessing their sins, putting away their own devising according to their individual characters, and viewing the cities of the South and devising ways to ready the people—because the message must come to all kindred and people—would be time well spent. They are to weed out of their own characters all selfishness and all peculiar traits that will never, never give them a place in the city of God unless they repent in mind and heart and are converted through the sanctification of the truth. Then the Holy Spirit would give these men clear spiritual eyesight to discern the true requirements of God, and in the use of their pens and their tongues they would express the truth in their souls’ being converted to God. The same work would be entered into by every conference. They should be entreated to seek the Lord. There would be much less human devising and human forbiddings. The Lord’s Holy Spirit would come into the hearts of men in responsible positions in conferences, and the ministers and the officials, the physicians and the educators would be found pleading with the Lord Jesus to change their unconverted hearts by His Holy Spirit. And men would understand their human frailties, that they need the heavenly connection with Christ Jesus. Victories would be gained, and they would give the truth in purity. 23LtMs, Lt 383, 1908, par. 1

“And thou shalt be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.” [Isaiah 58:12.] I am to say to men who have so fully brought their own individual character into the sacred work of God, You need to repent; repent and be converted, else you will never find a place among the blessed. The truth for this time must first sanctify the receiver, then his work is pure and free from selfishness. This converting power of grace must be seen, else they can never find a place among the pure and the holy in the city of our God. Our social meetings need the transforming grace of Christ, need the character of the representation of the divine similitude. The work that should now be done is reformatory. The truth as it is in Jesus is truth that sanctifies the receiver. 23LtMs, Lt 383, 1908, par. 2

The education of our own people must reach a much higher standard of consecrated influence, thorough conversion, daily prayer, and the seeing Him who is invisible. The time is at hand when every religious theory shall be in the field, seeking to be recognized. I am now required to bear to all men and to all women who claim to be Sabbathkeepers the testimony I leave with you: that should I be taken from you by death, the testimony may have its influence. I speak to every man who has felt at liberty to bind about with his own humanly devised fetters. The workers of God hinder advancement in many places. Notwithstanding the Lord has been leading men to fulfil His instructions, there has been a forbidding to listen to the commission the Lord has given to go forth and to build up schools after the order of the schools of the prophets. God has given each a work to raise up the foundation of many generations—not to heed these forbiddings. 23LtMs, Lt 383, 1908, par. 3

They are to work according to the Lord’s instruction and let the angels of God act a part in all their labors. They are to accept of means to help them in various places where they shall labor to explain the Scriptures to men who do not understand the truth, and they are to encourage others to unite with them in the saving of souls and the fitting up of other believers to give themselves to the work of saving souls. The men in official positions are to reveal to all that they are themselves under discipline to Jesus Christ before they attempt to guide other minds. They are to be led by the Holy Spirit, praying and asking the presence and grace of God. 23LtMs, Lt 383, 1908, par. 4

Will men accept and take the place as god over the people? No, no. Let the Holy Spirit guide all men in all their individual duties, as Christ has taught them in His lessons when He was in our world. Christ is the Son of God, and His angels do His bidding; for He was even the Son of the Father who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son to experience in our world all the inconveniences to be passed through in fulfilling His missions, in suffering with humanity. Divinity and humanity were combined in order that the humanity of Christ might have an experience in passing through all the temptations Satan has devised against men; yet His divinity was not tarnished with a single mistake in a single instance. Satan assailed Him on every point and yet never expressed in his temptations the truth of his being the fallen angel. He appears in the likeness of an angel of light and not as a repulsive fiend. But Christ spent very many nights in prayer and in seeking help from the highest authority, His Father. His prayers were often ascending to His Father with strong crying and tears. Christ gave His life to humanity, and Satan was busily working through his fallen angels [and] human agencies to counterwork the works of Christ. The youth need to be diligently guarded, and if Christ felt His need, in humanity, of the strength and of the [last part missing.] 23LtMs, Lt 383, 1908, par. 5