Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 25 (1910 - 1915)

Lt 78, 1911

Haskell, Brother and Sister

St. Helena, California

September 28, 1911

Portions of this letter are published in Te 257, 259; PC 314.

Elder S. N. Haskell
63 Grant St.
Portland, Maine

Dear Brother and Sister Haskell:

I am thankful that of your own free will you decided to engage in the work at Portland, Maine. I know that you will put heart and soul into this work, manifesting the same earnest spirit that you have shown in your work in other places. I dare not ask you to continue to work in Maine during the cold winter months; for I realize that there are limitations to your strength and powers of endurance. Be guarded, I beg of you, regarding your health. I shall pray that you may be given strength to continue for a time your labors for Portland. 25LtMs, Lt 78, 1911, par. 1

If our people have allowed the enemy to come in and quench their faith and weaken their energies, I am sorry for them and for the people of Portland. 25LtMs, Lt 78, 1911, par. 2

In the years 1842 and 1843 there was a strong effort made in Portland, Maine, in behalf of the cause of temperance. This question has been again and again a living issue in Maine. I do hope that Portland will act its part in giving a loud cry for temperance. If our people can be made to realize how much is at stake, and will seek to redeem the time that has been lost, by now putting heart and soul and strength into the temperance cause, great good will be seen as the result. May the Lord save Maine from joining in the confederacy of evil for the support of the liquor traffic. 25LtMs, Lt 78, 1911, par. 3

Just as I am writing on this subject, a letter has come to me containing a draft for twenty dollars. I send this to you to help carry forward the temperance work in Portland. I am pleased that this means should come just now, because I greatly desire to help you in your efforts to establish a strong work in Portland. 25LtMs, Lt 78, 1911, par. 4

The Lord desires to see Maine stand in freedom from all enticement to liquor drinking, and refusing to come under the terrible influences of the saloons. I was shown that should poisonous drugs be dealt out again as pure wine, and satanic influences be allowed to come in to enslave the minds and bodies of men by drink, that I must do what I could to oppose the evil. I was shown that if the people of Maine should give license to liquor selling, God would be greatly dishonored. Many souls would be enticed to ruin, and satanic agencies would triumph. 25LtMs, Lt 78, 1911, par. 5

Drink is a fearful agency of hell. When once the habit of drink is formed, men are led on and on in the path of slavery and degradation. 25LtMs, Lt 78, 1911, par. 6

I rejoice that it has been my privilege to bear my testimony on this subject before crowded assemblies in many countries. Many times I have spoken on this subject to large congregations at our camp-meetings. 25LtMs, Lt 78, 1911, par. 7

The closing work on the book The Acts of the Apostles has kept me engaged lately. I am glad that this book is nearly completed. It will soon be ready for our people. If it has a good sale, I may be able to do more for the work in Portland. 25LtMs, Lt 78, 1911, par. 8

I have made some investments for Loma Linda to enable that institution to secure land, adjoining the sanitarium, that was for sale. Had this land been sold to unbelievers, and they had crowded in, the institution would have been placed at a disadvantage. I felt that we could not afford to run this risk. The land is now purchased, and to that extent we are safe from elements that might work trouble and confusion to our medical school. I could not rest until I had the assurance that we were safe from this possibility. This purchase may mean the keeping away from the institution a class of people who might have proved burdensome. Now that we have this land, a burden is rolled off my heart. 25LtMs, Lt 78, 1911, par. 9

My brother and sister, study carefully the first chapter of First Peter. Those who follow the instruction of the Spirit of truth in willing obedience will gain spiritual strength. Then study the first chapter of Peter’s Second Epistle, and consider the work of constant advancement that is before the believer in Christ. “Grace and peace be multiplied unto you,” the apostle declares, “through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. 25LtMs, Lt 78, 1911, par. 10

“And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 25LtMs, Lt 78, 1911, par. 11

“But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things ye shall never fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.” [2 Peter 1:2-11.] 25LtMs, Lt 78, 1911, par. 12