Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 10 (1895)

Lt 18, 1895

Corliss, Elder J. O.

Granville, N. S. W., Australia

September 13, 1895

This letter is published in entirety in 13MR 310-317.

Elder J. O. Corliss
Stanmore, Sydney, Australia

Dear Brother:

The Lord has not forsaken you, but you have not committed the keeping of your soul to God and waited patiently for Him. You have taken upon yourself burdens that should have been shared with your brother ministers. God has not required you to do this. Your human strength cannot endure so great a strain. The Lord has sent you counsel and warnings which, had you heeded them, would have saved you from your worn condition. 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 1

The Lord is not unjust to forget your labors of love, but you have mingled with your offerings strange fire, which God has forbidden you and every one of His workers to use. God is dishonored, the truth is brought into disrepute, the work of God is misjudged and reproached, because you have acted in your own unsanctified way, and not in God’s way. The honor of God, the salvation of souls, requires that you deny self, and restrain the uprising [of] passion; but in your unholy zeal you break both tables of the law. You have furnished arguments against the truth in unadvised speech and actions. 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 2

Your work is in Christ’s stead, to beseech men to be reconciled to God. You stand as His messenger, as a steward of the mysteries of God; and when your spirit does not reveal a calm, holy trust in God, stop just where you are, lest you speak unadvisedly. 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 3

Never in a single instance let your impetuous spirit triumph. Wherever you may go, in any place, in any country, self must die daily, and Christ must live and be revealed in you, else you dishonor God and the truth. Wherever you may go, you are under God’s jurisdiction; in all places and under all circumstances your liberty is to be exercised in strict accordance to the law of God. 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 4

All the stewards of God have a divine commission to preach Christ and Him crucified. You are not to speak from human impulse, but from the Spirit of Christ working in you to do God’s will and His pleasure. Amid the cloud of witnesses you are to be as one who has a message, weighty and important, to impart to sinners in the name of the Lord. God Himself marks the work of His servants. He gives no man authority to stir up the evil spirits that are waiting for an opportunity to accuse the people of God. We are not to give men an excuse for depreciating the truth. 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 5

The Lord God is exact and infallible in His comprehension. He understands the working of the human mind, the active principles of the human agents He has formed, just how they will be moved upon by the objects that come before them, and in what manner they will act under every temptation that can try them and in every circumstance in which they are placed. “The ways of man are before the [eyes of the] Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.” [Proverbs 5:21.] “The eyes of the Lord are in every place.” [Proverbs 15:3.] “He looketh to the ends of the earth, and seeth under the whole heavens.” [Job 28:24.] “The Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts.” [1 Chronicles 28:9.] He knows the things that come into our minds, every one of them. “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight; but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” [Hebrews 4:13.] 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 6

The messenger of God looked at a writing in your hand, and spoke these words, “You will not care to immortalize these things, for they are not true.” God pities the poor, self-deceived souls who are trampling upon His truth. Let the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest. Pity and deplore the blindness of the minds that are under the dominion of Satan, but restrain your own wrath and passion, and do not pass your judgment upon them. Leave in God’s hands the despisers of His truth. The right and liberty of passing judgment upon others is not given you. It was not given to Moses to pronounce judgment against rebellious Israel. The glaring weakness of His agents, as displayed by Moses, will bring its reward. 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 7

Those who reject and despise the truth of God are inspired from beneath. The Lord does not call His people to go into their assemblies, for the evil angels are present to excite unhappy feelings, to stir up the passions of human nature, to take advantage of the rising of self; and evil angels triumph. You have reviled the revilers, and have given occasion for those who are controlled by Satan to point to you as unsanctified and unholy. 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 8

Let no untruth go forth traced by your pen. The harm you have done to your own soul, and the dishonor to God, should go no farther. God’s workmen must continue to bear the blame of being troublers of Israel, but they are not at liberty to make such assertions true. Go not into the assembly of scoffers, sit not in the seat of the scorners, keep away from the gatherings of those who will make your presence an occasion to speak to you humiliating things, and will pour contempt upon your faith. Have no controversy with these men. You have not to do with the men only, but with Satan and his synagogue. When compelled to meet them, remember the Saviour’s words, “I send you forth as lambs among wolves.” [Luke 10:3.] The Lord must be your dependence; He will clothe you with a divine panoply, and His Holy Spirit will influence your mind and heart so that your voice shall not catch the notes of the baying of the wolves. 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 9

We are never to forget that we are representatives of Christ. We are to use no carnal weapons when unbelieving and deluded souls come among us. We are not even to insinuate anything against those who shall come into our assemblies. Not an unkind or discourteous word, defensive or offensive, should escape our lips or be traced by our pen. When reviled, we are not to revile again. “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” [1 John 5:4.] 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 10

Your words are not always wise. When you allow your own spirit to have sway, you lose the Spirit of God, and then it is that the strange fire is offered. Your imagination is deceptive, you arrive at false conclusions, and things appear to you in a perverted light. Your imagination is wrought upon by satanic agencies. Be careful not to trace a word of your suppositions, to be immortalized. 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 11

True faith and repose in God are always accompanied by the illuminations of the Holy Spirit, whose temple we are. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Christ, it is His representative. Here is the divine agency that carries conviction to hearts. When the power of His spirit is revealed through the servants of God, we behold divinity flashing through humanity. When accompanied by the Holy Spirit, the presentation of truth as it is in Jesus will be of more value than all the honor or glory of the world. 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 12

Let the unction from the Holy One pervade your whole being, and you will bear the impress of Christ. This is an armor that is proof against all the arrows of Satan. The safety of the messengers of truth is found in their possession of the meekness and lowliness of Christ. Jesus said, “In this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” [Luke 10:20.] The price of our high calling should be kept continually before us. As we look unto Jesus, self will sink into insignificance. 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 13

Let the messengers of God live the truth, and then—and then only—will they be epistles of Christ, known and read of all men. What kind of epistles did you, by your attitude and words, open before the revilers of truth? You gave the enemies advantage which they will claim as justifying all the falsehoods they have told. Your strange fire will dishonor your Maker. Your imaginary pictures were the presentation made to a tempted mind. Your forebodings were not correct. You must not exaggerate the enemy’s power. By providential experience you are to learn your own weakness, and not trust to yourself for one moment. Christ is our sufficiency. God would not have you exalt deceptive human judgment and human passion, which flashes forth from a highly wrought up spirit. 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 14

The providence of God places man in unexpected positions to reveal his own weakness, to make it manifest that his power is in God alone. At the time when a soul is bearing weighty responsibilities, God tests the human agent. If his faith is not wholly centered in God, the little strength he himself possesses becomes exhausted, and impatience and railing reveal the fact that he needs to set his feet upon the solid rock. Every soul engaged in the Lord’s work, who becomes spiritually proud, flattering himself that he has made great proficiency above his brethren, will be left to learn the truth of the case. All boasting is laid in the dust. 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 15

The lesson we have to learn is, that which John the Baptist had learned, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” [John 3:30.] Such discipline is painful to human nature, “nevertheless afterwards it yieldeth the peaceable fruits of righteousness.” [Hebrews 12:11.] “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.” [Matthew 5:13.] It is the dragon that is wroth; it is the spirit of Satan that is revealed in anger and accusing. Not a semblance of the dragon’s spirit must be seen in the life or the character of Christ’s servants. The testimony you bear is to be a testimony to the truth as it is in Jesus. 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 16

God’s servants, who have had great light and blessing from Him, are not to be like a blast of hail, to beat down and destroy. The salt that is to save from corruption is the confession of the truth, the revelation of the love of Christ. The magnifying of the law of Jehovah is not accomplished by breaking its principles. God cannot manifest His power to exalt the human agent; it is truth that is to bear away the victory. And Christ’s ambassadors must learn the lesson that sharp speeches and word thrusts bring no victory. 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 17

God would have His messengers, when they know the spirit of their opponents, keep on their own ground, and not go out of the way to learn what their opponents say of the truth. Satan inspires them when you come into their presence. Never say or do anything that would keep them away from your assemblies. Keep to your legitimate work. “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him, and he will show them his covenant.” [Psalm 25:14.] “The Lord sitteth upon the floods, yea, the Lord sitteth king forever. The Lord will give strength unto his people: the Lord will bless his people with peace.” [Psalm 29:10, 11.] “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.” “This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord.” [Isaiah 54:17.] “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come and make our abode with him.” [John 14:23.] 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 18

The Lord has declared that He will never leave thee nor forsake thee. When He revealed His character to Moses, He “passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth. Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty.” [Exodus 34:6, 7.] “His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men.” [Psalm 11:4.] “The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.” [1 Samuel 2:3.] “I the Lord search the hearts, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.” [Jeremiah 17:10.] 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 19

The Lord has given simple, plain warnings to those who flatter themselves that He is not exact to punish the wrongdoers who live in daily transgression of His law. But His Word is sure and steadfast. “God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.” [Ecclesiastes 12:14.] “He hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness.” [Acts 17:31.] “We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” [2 Corinthians 5:10.] 10LtMs, Lt 18, 1895, par. 20