Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 14 (1899)

Lt 52, 1899

Prescott, Amos

Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

March 23, 1899

Previously unpublished.

My Friend Amos Prescott:

Your case has been brought distinctly to my mind. I was conversing with you in reference to your past experience, when you loved the Lord, and were doing Him service. You related your past experience to me, and I spoke the words to you which the Lord gave me to say. I said, Amos, you are not an infidel, and never have been one. You have been standing in the position of the prodigal son, who left his Father’s house. His history is your history. You loved the Lord, you stood manfully for a time, but errors were committed by Emma, and this was your stumbling block. She had no love for domestic life, and she misjudged her duty. You became tempted, and after a fierce battle, your heart lost all its love for your wife. 14LtMs, Lt 52, 1899, par. 1

The sad result of these errors has been serious. You have given yourself up to be controlled by the enemy, but the Lord has given me a message for you. He loves you, but He does not love your sin, your disobedience to His holy law. He calls, Come unto me, you who are weary and heavy laden because of your own perversity of character. Come unto me 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.] 14LtMs, Lt 52, 1899, par. 2

My brother, why did you leave your heavenly Father? He loves you still. You are not happy in your worldly business life. You desire something better than this. You want the love of God in your heart. You want Christ your Redeemer. All that Amos Prescott’s talents can do is but a cypher until he puts the name of Jesus at the head of them all. He has purchased you with His own blood. If you believe in Him, learn of Him, follow in His footsteps, He will give you eternal riches, and a life that measures with the life of God, in which you will enjoy the imperishable treasures of heaven. 14LtMs, Lt 52, 1899, par. 3

When the truth gains full possession of a man’s conscience, when his sensibilities are aroused, his soul is all light in the Lord. The whole man is a representation of the truth. Come, Amos, the Lord calls for you. He wants your service. You are not your own. You have been bought with a price, and what a price! God calls upon you to look and live. You are beloved by Him. He is acquainted with your every trial, your every sin, your every difficulty, and He will accept you as His child if you will return to Him. You wanted me to think you were without feeling, but I knew you were not. 14LtMs, Lt 52, 1899, par. 4

I would speak of your children. Will you take these with you to the enemy’s side? You cannot afford to do this. You are now educating your son to dishonor the Sabbath, and how much his works may be doing in leading other souls from truth and righteousness, you know not. Your life has been graciously spared, for the Lord is inviting you, Return unto Me, and I will return unto thee, and will heal all thy backslidings. 14LtMs, Lt 52, 1899, par. 5

Sin is the most costly thing in the world. It costs us the favor of God and heaven. We grieve the Holy Spirit, and what do we gain? Death. I invite you in behalf of Christ to come just as you are, and hang your helpless soul upon Jesus Christ. I urge you to consider what the opening of the books of heaven will reveal. The book of remembrance will confront you at the judgment bar, revealing in distinct lines the long-suffering of God. God could cut you down as a cumberer of the ground, but instead He points you to the open door, and says, “Repent, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.” [Acts 3:19.] In the judgment when every case is decided, there will be revealed in its fulness the responsibility of every man. You will realize the influence you might have had over other souls had you stood under the bloodstained banner of Jesus Christ. How interwoven is the web of human influence! The course of action followed by every man has a direct bearing upon the life of others. 14LtMs, Lt 52, 1899, par. 6

I have had presented to me the solemn scenes of the judgment, and I now ask you to stop and consider, How is it with my soul? Shall not the prayer go forth from your lips, “Wash me thoroughly from my sin, and cleanse me from mine iniquity”? [Psalm 51:2.] The Lord will hear the prayer that is offered to Him in sincerity. Believe in Christ as your personal Saviour. Grasp the promises before it is everlastingly too late. 14LtMs, Lt 52, 1899, par. 7

You have been entrusted with talents to improve to the glory of God. The Lord has need of every faculty and power of your being. He requires these talents to be used and not abused. He has loved you and loves you still, but regardless of God’s honor you have taken yourself in your own hands. You have abused your affections and degraded your being to please yourself. You lie down in sleep without any effort on your part to keep life in your body. Your heart beats independently of your will, because God keeps the living machinery in motion. There is a guardian eye watching over your pillow. The hand of God is shielding His undutiful child, guarding the ebb and flow of the vital current. When you awake, where are your thoughts? Do you render to God the fruit of your lips in thank offerings to Him? 14LtMs, Lt 52, 1899, par. 8

Whether you realize it or not, you are bound by the most sacred ties to do God’s will, for you are His purchased possession. Should the Lord give you up for one hour, Satan would have his revenge on Christ by destroying you without one emotion of pity. You are just as dependent upon God as it is possible for a human being to be—I was going to say, as a child upon its parent; but this is no fitting comparison. A parent cannot keep the human machinery in action for its child. You are bound by the most sacred ties of God. You are His by creation, you are His by redemption. His watchcare has been over you from your earliest years. 14LtMs, Lt 52, 1899, par. 9

But for how many years have you used your God-given powers to glorify your own will and pleasure? How does Christ your Redeemer feel as He sees you, whom He has bought with a price, using your talents against Him? He knows what the results will be if you continue to disregard your Saviour. He will not be able to save you. Your talents are not now used to His name’s glory, although all the brightness of your intellect was given you by God. 14LtMs, Lt 52, 1899, par. 10

You are on trial for your life, the life of your soul. Have you lost eternity out of your reckoning? Your mental and physical strength was given you that you might act as a co-laborer with Jesus Christ. Have you surrendered your soul to His keeping, your life to His ordering? Are you doing those things that are pleasing in His sight? If so, you need not lie awake one moment in regard to your life insurance policy. The first chapter of Second Peter tells you all about this matter. Read the entire chapter. Here is a ladder of eight rounds for you to climb, and while you are ascending round after round, you are working on the plan of addition, and God is working on the plan of multiplication. 14LtMs, Lt 52, 1899, par. 11

“If these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hast forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather give diligence to make your calling and election sure; for if ye do these things (add grace to grace), ye shall never fall; for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ.” [Verses 8-11.] 14LtMs, Lt 52, 1899, par. 12

This is your life insurance policy. Will you seek to make your calling and election sure? You have known these Scriptures from a child. God is responsible for you just as long as you abide in Him. 14LtMs, Lt 52, 1899, par. 13

All this may be distasteful to you, but I will not close without giving you an invitation to put some of the Lord’s money into a hospital for the treatment of the sick. It is to cost about seven thousand dollars, and is to be built on the school estate. The school has donated ten acres. We would be pleased to have you represented in our hospital. I am now obtaining donations for this, and if you feel free to help us in our good work, we shall accept gratefully what you send. 14LtMs, Lt 52, 1899, par. 14