LETTERS by James White

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Apr 16, 1861

LETTERS.

By James White

“Then they that feared the Lord, spake often one to another.”

From Bro. Steward.

BRO. SMITH: As I read Bro. White's cause of discouragement in No. 6, Good Samaritan, my sympathies were greatly aroused; and I beg this opportunity to say that Bro. and Sr. White have my sympathies and prayers; for I have realized that they had more of the burden of this message to bear than any one else. I have the utmost confidence in their christian character and honesty of purpose, and I humbly pray that the Lord may bless them abundantly in their arduous labors of love to the world.

I hope they will not forget us in their Western tour. Be it known to all that our doors are open, and our heart is enlarged towards them. And as far as myself is concerned, I am willing to aid in bearing their burdens. I am willing to draw wood or carry water, or even be a door-keeper if I can but do good and enter the kingdom at last. I do feel some of the responsibilities that rest on me, and I beg an interest in all your prayers that I may have wisdom to move aright. I am sorry that I have done anything by which the cause of truth has been evil spoken of. It is not my wish to bring reproach on the cause of Christ, or to hinder the third angel's message. May the Lord speed on the message is my prayer. I hope Bro. W. will make his calculations to stay one or two weeks with us when he comes. He shall be heartily welcomed to the best fare we have. May the Lord prosper them.

T. M. STEWARD.

Mauston, March 24, 1861.

REMARKS. The above seems very kind; but it can be of no service to us until Bro. Steward takes his position with his brethren, and confesses where he has injured the cause and its true friends. He has professedly been with the body, but in fact has occupied a sort of middle-ground between the true friends of the cause, and those who retain the rebellious spirit of the once “messenger” party. Bro. S. drank in that poisonous spirit, and never can be free from it until he retraces every step taken in that direction, and commits himself fully with those who suffered by its wholesale slanders. Until he does, that old spirit of jealousy and fault-finding will soon kindle, and brethren cannot safely put confidence in him as a laborer.

All this talk about sympathy, and welcome to best fare, &c., amounts to but little in the face of facts. Bro. and Sr. White do not ask for sympathy, or help of any kind. Old friends seek opportunities to supply every want. All we need to free us from present depression is to see certain ministers, like Bro. S., taking a position to save themselves and the cause around them from ruin.

The Lord sent us to Mauston, Wis., last fall to bear a testimony for him. Some received it, others were held in check by the testimony, while a few rushed on and disgraced the cause, and one poor soul, who broke in upon us with wild shouts while preaching, is now in the Insane Asylum. It is true that Bro. S. (as he stated in his confession, or self-justification), wished us to let them alone, which was like the entreaties of

a freezing man to be left undisturbed. Thank God that some were saved from disgracing themselves and the precious cause. Bro. S. says in his confession, “The reason I advocated it, was not because I was established in it, but because I could not see anything trampled under foot regardless of feelings.” Here is a grave charge against Brn. Ingraham, Sanborn and White, which never should have appeared in print. The statement gives a false idea, which is as untrue as any untruth. There was not a lack of regard for the feelings of any one, unless regard for feelings be construed to be perverted sympathy which leaves errors uncorrected, and fanaticism unrebuked, and poor souls to rush on to insanity and to ruin.

Bro. S. invites Bro. and Sr. White to his house. It was in that house that we labored to help the very one now insane, but our influence was cut off by Bro. S. and his wife. What kind of a welcome could we feel in that house while that wrong remains unconfessed? At that time Bro. S. requested us to take Mrs. W.'s books away from his house. What kind of a welcome could Mrs. W. feel in that house, and her books shut out?

We are disgusted with such inconsistencies, and beg to be excused from laboring in connection with such men. This effort to occupy a sort of middle ground is our greatest discouragement from spending precious time in Northern Wisconsin. Any man to labor there after the blighting influence of wild fanaticism is to be pitied. But his lot is harder yet if he has to meet the blind, inconsistent course of those who attempt to take a middle ground.

Here I will give an extract from a note from Bro. C. W. Stanley of Lodi, Wis. “I am acquainted with all those that were in the fanaticism, and not one to my knowledge as yet acknowledge sister White's visions, or receive the straight testimony. The tendency is to reject all gifts.” Let Bro. S. look around upon the field of slaughter, and reflect upon the consequences of his course. If he did not directly help on the fanaticism, he hindered those who would have pulled souls out of the fire, and looked on until the work of death was finished. He and his have cause for the bitterest repentance. When they fully confess their havoc of the flock of God, and take their position with the body, then we can cheerfully labor with them, and do all in our power to make them happy. Until they do, we beg to be excused from following in their wake. True, M. R. S. has written what she regards a confession, but it is so lengthy, so explicit in the delineation of wild and groveling acts of fanaticism, and so lacking in real humility, that we could not publish it. A real sense of the injuries done the cause would produce brokenness of spirit. And in such a frame of mind a few words of real confession would send a thrill of joy and gladness to the many hearts which have been caused to bleed in consequence of the Mauston fanaticism.

J. W.