Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 11 (1896)

Ms 66, 1896

Diary, July 1896

Cooranbong, Australia

July 2-5, 1896

Portions of this manuscript are published in TMK 127.

Thursday, July 2, [1896]

Sunnyside, Cooranbong, N. S. W.

We are having cool, frosty nights. I could not sleep after half past twelve o’clock. Write I must, and relieve my mind of its burden. My spirit has no rest because of the existing state of things in Battle Creek, which affects every institution that has been brought into existence. 11LtMs, Ms 66, 1896, par. 1

Sent large mail to South Africa. 11LtMs, Ms 66, 1896, par. 2

Saturday, July 4, [1896]

Spoke to those assembled, numbering eighty, in the upper story of the new mill, from Ephesians 6:10-18. 11LtMs, Ms 66, 1896, par. 3

Sunday morning, July 5

Cooranbong

Heavy frost; very cold for this country. Quite a shell of ice on the water. We are having beautiful days. The sky is clear and the atmosphere bracing. I am not generally blessed with sleep until four o’clock a.m., but I [have been] able to sleep more than usual for a few nights past. I will thank the Lord my God for His great goodness and mercy and love expressed to the human family. 11LtMs, Ms 66, 1896, par. 4

I am impressed we should cultivate cheerfulness; and what does this do? It reveals to the world the peace and comfort that it is our privilege to claim. It is not honoring our Lord and Saviour to carry a shade of gloom. Many do this; but shall we change this aspect? 11LtMs, Ms 66, 1896, par. 5

“Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass: Because I will publish the name of the Lord; ascribe ye greatness unto our God. He is the Rock, his work is perfect; for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he. They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his children; they are a perverse and crooked generation.” Deuteronomy 32:1-5. 11LtMs, Ms 66, 1896, par. 6

“Not the spot of his children.” They do not possess the character of the sons and daughters of God, do not in spirit, in words, in actions, appear as the people who love God and keep His commandments. “Do ye thus requite the Lord, O foolish people and unwise? is not he thy father that hath bought thee? hath he not made thee and established thee?” verse 6. Read verses 7, 8, 9. 11LtMs, Ms 66, 1896, par. 7

“For the Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness; he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.” Verses 9, 10. 11LtMs, Ms 66, 1896, par. 8

The tenderness of God to His people, His unceasing care for them, the riches of the wisdom of the methods He has taken to lead them to Himself, demand our gratitude offerings expressed in most earnest devotion to serve Him with all humility of mind and contrition of soul. The Lord is gracious, and He would have His people represent His loving kindness by acknowledgment in cheerful thanksgiving to God. All who appreciate the favors of God will be a happy people. The silver and gold and treasures of every description which men have accumulated belong to the Lord, and He has a perfect right to the disposal of them. 11LtMs, Ms 66, 1896, par. 9