Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 23 (1908)
Ms 126, 1908
Diary Fragments, January to December 1908
NP
1908
Portions of this manuscript are published in 6Bio 167.
January 15, 1908
“Elmshaven,” St. Helena Sanitarium
The past night I was speaking decidedly to a large number assembled in council meeting. I seemed to be in Washington. The meeting was one of special solemnity and interest. Every soul is to place himself individually in right relation to life and health and become a fruitbearing branch of the true Vine. I was bearing a very close, straight testimony. What a work is to be done! There will continue to be hindrances, and the wheels of true reform will be blocked. Light is sown for the righteous, and truth for the upright in heart. 23LtMs, Ms 126, 1908, par. 1
February 12, 1908
St. Helena, California
I have a special message for our people. A representation was given me. We are to awaken in this year 1908. We are claiming to be the Lord’s disciples. Do we work as the disciples worked? Are we fulfilling the words Christ gave to His disciples, “I send you forth as lambs among wolves”? [Luke 10:3.] “Be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.” [Matthew 10:16.] You cannot possibly be standing before the Lord Jesus today as His professed believers and yet manifest little concern for the welfare of fallen man. We have a work to do. You may be having benevolent thoughts, but what are you doing? Some can be reached by publication; others cannot. I ask you, Will you not now realize the time is passing and whole communities are unwarned? Personal effort will do much good. 23LtMs, Ms 126, 1908, par. 2
February 19, 1908
St. Helena Sanitarium, California
I have had a serious night. I had a very severe chill, and it seemed impossible for me to change the features of the case. After long, wakeful hours I wrapped up in my fur cape. Yet I felt no change. I had a hot water bag and a tumbler of hot gruel. I fell asleep, and when I awoke it was nearly three o’clock. I had writing that must be done, but thought I could not write. I put the log in the fireplace and soon had a cheerful fire from live coals, and my fears were gone. 23LtMs, Ms 126, 1908, par. 3
The representation given me was that the Lord had passed through my room and left me a blessing. I know that the spell was broken. Freedom came to me. I have written several letters and without taxing nerve, brain, and muscle. The Lord has left me a blessing. I feared much that the day would be lost to me, but I am now sure the Lord heard my earnest prayer and gave me sleep and representations in the night season—just the light that I needed to settle some important matters for good concerning the Paradise Valley question, which was set before me fully, and I am now forever settled on this point. 23LtMs, Ms 126, 1908, par. 4
Sunday, February 23, 1908
St. Helena Sanitarium, California
My rest during the night was broken. I left my bed before three o’clock. I am thankful for the rest I have had. I built my fire in my good fireplace, lifting the large logs and building the wood about the logs, and I thank the Lord for the strength He has given me. I praise His holy name. There is a most solemn work before us to be done, and Satan’s agencies will invent everything possible to absorb every class that will be drawn to them to observe what wonderful things they can do. 23LtMs, Ms 126, 1908, par. 5
May 8, 1908
Lodi, California
We are much pleased to be able to attend this meeting. These are intelligent people. There are good helpers in this meeting, and the messages given are impressing the people. This is a new settlement, and the work is going forward in right lines. There seems to be no contention. Christ is leading out a people. They are dependent upon God. They are to see and understand that the message to come to the people for this time is not a message that will create division. It is the third angel’s message, which is to become more and more definite and powerful and distinct in its influence, bringing all our churches upon a platform of the truth as it is in Jesus. This message, received and understood, will bear the right kind of fruit, bringing all into unity of faith, and differences of opinion will disappear under the Holy Spirit’s ministration. The third angel’s message is a sure, solid platform; and differences of opinion must be yielded to the working of this message, for the Lord is not glorified with strange voices. Difference of opinion must be yielded, that all the army of the Lord may present a united front. 23LtMs, Ms 126, 1908, par. 6
I have spent one-half hour talking with two of our brethren in regard to their disposing of their property and removing their families to the southern field for the purpose of doing missionary work, having a school, and preparing their children to work in various lines in the missionary work, such as cultivating farms, building humble homes, and teaching the people the art of building and the art of cultivating the soil. The time will come that all who live upon the earth will need to understand the cultivating of the land and the building of houses and varied kinds of business. We tried to tell them that the Lord is calling for talent to be brought into the southern field, and act in various lines of education. Shall it be that we shall go into the southern field and bear the truth to those who have not heard the truth? This class must not be discouraged. The youth educated in our large cities are in great danger because they are surrounded with every kind of objectionable influence, for the world is becoming as it was in the days of Noah. 23LtMs, Ms 126, 1908, par. 7
May 21, 1908
St. Helena, California
I have not been able to sleep after two o’clock. I am awakened with representations of the situation of those who have refused all cautions and made light of the warnings the Lord had given them which they would not heed, and the representations if they would heed and become humble doers of the Word. 23LtMs, Ms 126, 1908, par. 8
May 22, 1908
St. Helena, California
I thank the Lord this morning that my rest during the past night has been better than on Thursday night. I will offer my thanksgiving to God. I open my Bible to the first chapter of Mark. This chapter is very interesting to me. Read this chapter and understand it. Many pictures are made of Satan’s appearing to Christ, and let it be understood he appeared as an angel from heaven, and not as it is represented in even the pictures in some of our books as a disgusting fiend in his approaching the Lord Jesus. He had all the appearance of a most beautiful being and thus disguised hoped to overcome Christ in his temptations, for Christ’s long fast was about over. Ezekiel 28. 23LtMs, Ms 126, 1908, par. 9
July 5, 1908
St. Helena, California
This morning I am grateful to our Lord for the rest I have had in sleep the past night. 23LtMs, Ms 126, 1908, par. 10
August 1, 1908
“Elmshaven,” St. Helena Sanitarium, California
This morning, Sabbath, my heart is drawn out after the blessing the Lord hath promised to all that seek Him with their whole heart. Will we take the promises of the Lord? Will we cast our helpless souls upon Jesus Christ? If there ever was a period of time when all superfluity shall be turned from, it is at this period. 23LtMs, Ms 126, 1908, par. 11
November 3, 1908
St. Helena Sanitarium, California
This morning, November 3, I have not been able to sleep since three o’clock, but my mind is lifted up to my Saviour in prayer that we shall be so guided by heavenly wisdom as to make no mistake in the purchase of the place Buena Vista, Sonoma County, California. 23LtMs, Ms 126, 1908, par. 12
November 26, 1908
St. Helena Sanitarium, California
I was awake this morning at half-past two o’clock. I felt very deeply in reviewing the past years of my life. I am filled with gratitude to God that my faculties are preserved, that I speak to large congregations with distinct utterance and clear voice, and that the Spirit of the Lord attends the messages I bear to the people. The representations from the Word of the Lord make their impression upon human minds. The Lord makes the messages as impressive as at any period of my life. 23LtMs, Ms 126, 1908, par. 13
Last Sabbath I spoke to the assembly in Berkeley from Isaiah 58. I had a message for those who assemble in Berkeley. The appointment had been circulated, and there were more present than we expected. I had a burden to speak to those who would come out to hear me. I wished to meet those whom I hoped would be impressed with the message that the Lord gave me to give to the people who would hear and profit thereby. If they would receive the Word of the Lord, there would be a decided change in the experience of those who would heed the message. I had an intense burden to speak the Word to all who would assemble to hear. Isaiah 58:1-4, quoted. 23LtMs, Ms 126, 1908, par. 14
December 13, 1908
St. Helena Sanitarium
I am not strong, but I am doing much writing. I ask the Lord daily for more physical strength for the doing of the very things I dare not neglect. 23LtMs, Ms 126, 1908, par. 15
December 24, 1908
I have a message for the people of God who are living in this year 1908, December 24. My life has been spared to enter upon my eighty-second year. November 26 closed another year of my life, and I am grateful to my heavenly Father that the strength of my mind has been spared. These last years, since 1900, have been given to the work of labor as verily as I have labored in the past years. 23LtMs, Ms 126, 1908, par. 16