p. 30 | OLIVE M. PATTEN by Olive M. Patten

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 3, 1857

OLIVE M. PATTEN

By Olive M. Patten

From Sister Patten

BRO. SMITH : I have had some sense of my wretchedness and poverty for a few months past, and still earnestly desire to feel the rebuke and chastening of the Lord as deeply as I should. I want to be zealous and repent while Jesus intercedes, that all my sins may go beforehand to judgment. It seems to me there is a very strait gate, and narrow way to pass here, and we must make thorough work or we never shall go through.

Are not many of us, who say we believe the message to the Laodiceans is to us, still sliding along too easy, without laying it to heart, without feeling the importance of it as we should? It is true the message has done something for us, but has it been felt as deeply as it should have been? Has it produced the thorough reform that it calls for? Where is the

zeal, the deep earnestness of soul that such a rebuke from our dear Saviour demands? Truly we are on the enchanted ground. The spirit of the world, a lukewarm, indifferent spirit, has so long bound us that it needs a mighty effort to escape. O that our whole being may be stirred to take hold of the work in earnest now, to make a perfect consecration of all to God, to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God. We must obtain victory over impatience, pride, self-will, and every wrong word and action; for only he that hath clean hands and a pure heart will be able to stand.

O that we may fully understand and heed the counsel of the faithful Witness, and never rest till we do possess the true riches there offered, the gold tried in the fire, till we are clothed in white raiment, and have anointed our eyes with eye-salve that we may see. Has not Jesus long waited at the door of our hearts for admission? If any of us longer disregard the Saviour's knock, and his precious promise that if we open the door he will come in and sup with us and we with him, if we do not "clear away all the rubbish," and speedily give him the whole heart, we have reason to fear that he will wait no longer; that while the faithful sup with him, while they overcome and sit with him on his throne, we shall be left among the filthy, outside of the city.

At times I feel such a lack of that deep earnestness of soul that this time demands, that I would exhort myself as well as others, to awake, arise, and gird on the armor anew. We have had faithful exhortations to heed the Saviour's call and let him in, and I believe the whole-hearted will humble themselves greatly, will make strait paths for their feet now, and will soon move forward mighty in God; while those who are indifferent to such calls from the word and Spirit of God, will be left, will be spued out of the Lord's mouth. Why do we dally here? Why are we so stupid and slow to overcome, when our eternal destiny must be decided and fixed by the efforts we make while probation lingers? Soon he that is holy will be holy still, and he that is filthy will be filthy still. A short work will the Lord make upon the earth. O my soul, haste thee, linger not, "escape for thy life . . . lest thou be consumed." The scenes of this dark earth will soon be over. Have thy whole interest for the kingdom, thy treasure there.

A few lines from sister Chamberlain's letter express exactly what I want to say. "We shall soon hear the voice of God saying as unto Moses of old, Wherefore criest thou unto me? Speak unto the children of Israel that they go forward; and when the whole church moves, we shall see mighty works done in the name of the Lord. To bring this great move about, each one has something to do. We must set our own house in order." How forcible are the Saviour's words now, [Luke xiii, 24-27.] "Strive to enter in at the strait gate, for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able." It seems as though the prophets were speaking directly to us. Joel ii, 12, 13. "Therefore also now, saith the Lord, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping and with mourning, and rend your heart and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God." Zeph. ii, 2, 3. "Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment, seek righteousness, seek meekness; it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord's anger." We learn from Lev. xxiii, 27-30, that in the day of atonement, every one that would not afflict his soul should be cut off from among his people. Will it not be so in this day of atonement? "He that endureth to the end shall be saved." "He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment." In the strength of the Lord, I mean to be in earnest now, for I long for a part among the faithful.

Yours hoping to be one of the overcomers.

OLIVE M. PATTEN

Grotos, Mass., Oct., 1857.