Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 14 (1899)

Lt 111, 1899

Lindsay, Harmon

“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

August 4, 1899

Previously unpublished.

Dear Brother:

I have a deep, earnest desire that you shall succeed, and that your wife, Annie, shall stand by your side, as she has not yet done, to help you in bearing responsibilities. She is but a child yet in experience and burden bearing. Philip and Peter can be a help to the family to bind them together, but they can only do this by rising in their God-given manhood, and for the sake of Him who gave His life for them, giving themselves to God. The Holy Spirit alone can work them to do His will. 14LtMs, Lt 111, 1899, par. 1

John is here, and I am glad of this. He wants his money and should have it. You can, and if you truly realize the situation, you will find means to release his money. Please see what you can do. If John will walk humbly with God, the Lord will lead and guide him. He has done right in coming, but he would have done far better had he come one year ago. This was the Lord’s will and time. Had you, his brother, had moral stamina to stand in God as a co-worker with Christ, you would have gone forward and upward from grace to grace, from victory to victory, taking others of the Wessels family along with you; but now the battles you have to fight will be much harder. Your helpless human nature turns from the combination of circumstances which have been brought about. 14LtMs, Lt 111, 1899, par. 2

The failure of Philip has not humbled him. He is not reconverted. But while we regret his disloyalty, we know there is hope for him if he will make an entire surrender of himself to God. If you and his mother had invested your means where it would have brought returns to God, Philip would have been better today, and you would have treasure in heaven that is imperishable. But you have caught the spirit of those who needed your wise counsel; you have substituted idols for the Lord. Sister Wessels’ mother-heart is bound up in her children, and when they call for means to help them out of difficulties she thinks she cannot refuse. But you should have had keen spiritual eyesight to discern what would be the outcome of this business, when Philip was casting off his obligations to the truth and transgressing the Sabbath of the Lord. 14LtMs, Lt 111, 1899, par. 3

In bolstering up Philip with money for his business, you and Mother Wessels have not been helping to save his soul, but you have been taking from the treasury of God that which He calls upon you to invest in it for the advancing of His work. Sister Wessels thinks that if John had remained behind, she could lean upon him. If John would have clear eyesight, he must lean upon God for support; but with the example of Philip before him, who ought to have stood true as steel to principle, what could he do? Your mother is not always judicious, Harmon, and when she becomes confused she needs you to advise her and see things in a correct light. 14LtMs, Lt 111, 1899, par. 4

What is money? What are temporal advantages but the means which God uses to see if you will co-operate with Him? But you have nearly lost God out of your life. Had you been left penniless to make your way, you would have put to the stretch all your God-given energies to make a success in life. Will you not now, with determined effort, bring your mind back to God even if you have to carry your wife with you at every step? 14LtMs, Lt 111, 1899, par. 5

You have battles to fight. By becoming a member of the Wessels family, you placed yourself where, if you had maintained a right influence, you would have been a great blessing to that family. You have inherited different traits of character from them. Your education in childhood and youth, your knowledge of the truth are different; and therefore you should have been a steward of large foresight, to exert an influence for good. But by your lack of growth, your failure to see the necessities of the cause and put to the tax every God-given talent, by your refusal to arise and shine, you have dishonored God when it was your privilege to be regarded as a success in any position in which you might stand. You have a knowledge of that which the Bible declares to be your birthright, but you have nearly sold it for a mess of pottage. 14LtMs, Lt 111, 1899, par. 6

Will you now repent? Will you trust in the living God, and make restitution to God by doing your best in the use of His talents? The hindrances you now have will always be hindrances, but you must rise above them. You must show a God-given purpose and no longer succumb to the inevitable. Put on, not pieces of the armor, but put on the whole armor of God. Fight manfully the battles of the Lord. God helps those who help themselves. God has not given you qualifications for a home servant, but to do special service for Him. He wants you now to take up your God-given work and redeem the time. Gain the respect of those around you by being in every sense a man of opportunity. The inheritance of money does not qualify men to act in positions of responsibility. God works through all who will be worked. 14LtMs, Lt 111, 1899, par. 7

Circumstances may arise that will weaken and discourage you, but never sink into a sleepy lethargy. Awake, my brother, I beg of you; awake and gather strength from God who is able to keep you unto the end. I have written to you, because you understand things better than other members of the family. This dear family, beloved of God, are becoming pleasure lovers. I feel a deep interest in your wife. She needs to have serious thoughts, that the conviction of the Spirit of God may take hold of her soul. O that she may turn to the Lord and be converted. I love Annie, and I want her to give her heart to God. I feel so distressed as I see the family growing to be lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God. The Lord has given them warnings, but they do not heed His voice. 14LtMs, Lt 111, 1899, par. 8

The whole danger of John was presented before me. As to placing his means in a sanitarium, he could have invested something one year ago which would bring returns to him. 14LtMs, Lt 111, 1899, par. 9

You have misapplied the means that were in your power. It was your privilege, my brother, to help us even more than you have done, that we might be placed on vantage ground to help others. Your entrusted talents, rightly applied, would have doubled in the work. You can thank God that you helped us here when the work was in great need. I desire that your wife shall see that it is her privilege to conduct herself so that she may not lose the reward. You and she can rise unitedly to be more faithful stewards for God. 14LtMs, Lt 111, 1899, par. 10

“We are laborers together with God,” the apostle says. [1 Corinthians 3:9.] God is the great worker, and if we place ourselves into working lines, the Lord will fulfill His part. But God does not want you and the Wessels family to invest your means in buildings. Your money is needed in the cause of God. You are not at liberty to tie up your talent in a napkin—in buildings—and bury it where it cannot do service for God. “Ye are God’s husbandry; ye are God’s building,” he declares. [Verse 9.] He works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure. 14LtMs, Lt 111, 1899, par. 11