Bro. and Sister F: I have been shown the great mercy and infinite love of God in giving you another trial. There will be a positive necessity of your holding fast to the mighty Healer, that you may have physical and spiritual strength. You have poor health, but you are in danger of thinking that you are in a worse condition than you really are. You have not had power of endurance, because you have not cherished a patient, hopeful, courageous spirit. You yield to infirmities, instead of rising above them. Temptations will assail you on the right hand and on the left; but by patient continuance in well-doing, you may overcome the defects in your characters. I was shown that your feet had indeed taken hold on perdition, but God did not wholly forsake either of you. His matchless mercy in giving you another opportunity to prove your loyalty to him calls upon you to walk with great humility and to guard self. You have petted and indulged yourselves so much that you need now to work in an opposite direction.
You, Bro. F, have been very selfish, and this has been contemptible in the sight of God. Your wife and yourself have stumbled again and again over this evil. Your powers have been greatly dwarfed by self-gratification and self-indulgence. Neither of you is deficient in natural reason and judgment; but you have followed inclination rather than the path of duty, and have failed to repress the wrong traits of character and to strengthen weak moral power.
Bro. F, you are naturally an impatient, fretful, exacting man at home; and after a short acquaintance you show this out in new places. You frequently talk in an impatient, overbearing manner. This must all be repented of. You may now begin anew. God has in his boundless mercy given you another chance. Your wife has much in herself to contend against, and you should be on your guard that you do not throw her upon Satan’s ground. Fretting, fault-finding, and making strong statements,342What time have you set to gain the victory over your perverse will and the defects in your character? With the advancement you now make, your probation may close before you have made the determined efforts essential to give you the victory over self. You will, in the providence of God, be placed in positions where your peculiarities, if existing, will be tried and revealed. You neither see nor realize the effect of your thoughtless, impatient, complaining, whining words.
Yourself and wife have another golden opportunity to suffer for Christ’s sake. If you do this complainingly, you will have no reward; if willingly, gladly, having the same spirit which Peter possessed after his apostasy, you will be victors. He felt a sense of his cowardly denial of Christ throughout his lifetime; and when called to suffer martyrdom for his faith, this humiliating fact was ever before him, and he begged that he might not be crucified in the exact manner in which his Lord suffered, fearing that it would be too great an honor after his apostasy. His request was that he might be crucified with his head downward. What a sense did Peter have of his sin in denying his Lord! What a conversion he experienced! His life ever after was a life of repentance and humiliation.
You may have cause to tremble when you see God through his law. When Moses thus saw the majesty of God he exclaimed, “I exceedingly fear and quake.” The law pronounced death upon the transgressor; then the atoning sacrifice was presented before Moses. The cleansing blood of Christ was revealed to purify the sinner, and his fears were swept away, as the morning fog before the beams of the rising sun. Thus he saw it might be with the sinner. Through repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, pardon is written, and the Sun of Righteousness sheds his bright, healing beams upon him, dispelling the doubt and fear that befog the soul. Moses came down from the mount where he had been in converse with God, his face shining with a heavenly luster which was reflected upon the343people. He appeared to them like an angel direct from glory. That divine brightness was painful to those sinners; they fled from Moses, and begged that the bright glory might be covered from their sight, lest it slay them if they came near him.
Moses had been a student. He was well educated in all the learning of the Egyptians; but this was not the only qualification which he needed to prepare him for his work. He was, in the providence of God, to learn patience, to temper his passions. In a school of self-denial and hardships he was to receive an education which would be of the utmost importance to him. These trials would prepare him to exercise a fatherly care over all who needed his help. No knowledge, no study, no eloquence, could be a substitute for this experience in trials to one who was to watch for souls as they that must give an account. In doing the work of a humble shepherd, in being forgetful of self and interested for the flock given to his charge, he was to become fitted for the most exalted work ever intrusted to mortals,—that of being a shepherd of the sheep of the Lord’s pasture. Those who fear God in the world must be connected with him. Christ is the most perfect educator the world ever knew. To receive wisdom and knowledge from him was more valuable to Moses than all the learning of the Egyptians.
Bro. and Sister F, I entreat you to be in earnest, and come to God through Jesus Christ. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” He who spends his talents and his means in self-indulgence, in gratification of the lower passions, will reap corruption. His harvest is sure. His mind will lose its susceptibility and power. His intellect will be shattered, and his life shortened. God requires you to make more thorough efforts to subdue and control self. I was shown that God and angels are ready and waiting to help you in this important work. If you delay, if you are even dilatory, it may be too late. Your probation is lengthened, your character is now forming, and soon, my dear brother and sister, it will be stereotyped344forever. Half-way work with you will not advance you one step toward Heaven. Indecision soon becomes decision in the wrong direction. Many decide to serve themselves and Satan, by not making determined efforts to overcome their defects of character. While many are petting sinful propensities, expecting to be overcomers sometime, they are deciding for perdition. Bro. and Sister F, in the name of Jesus Christ you may be victorious even now “in this thy day.” Do not plan and study for self. You cannot be wholly the Lord’s while encouraging any degree of selfishness. Such great love as the Redeemer has shown you, should be received with great humility and continual rejoicing. In order to be happy, you must control your thoughts and words. It will require a masterly effort on your part; nevertheless it must be done, if you are to be the acknowledged children of God. Be not weary in your efforts. Satan is battling for your souls, and he must be disappointed.
When you, Bro. F, first commence to labor in a place, you generally have the confidence of the people; but after a more thorough acquaintance, your defects of character become so apparent that many lose confidence in your piety. Reflections are thus cast upon all the ministers of the denomination. A short stay in a place would not injure your reputation. While engaged in earnest labor, pressed by opposing influences, your mind is absorbed in the work in which you are engaged, and you have neither time nor opportunity to think and reflect upon yourself. But when the work is over, and you begin to think upon self, as it is natural for you to do, you pet yourself, become babyish, sharp, and cross in temper, and thus greatly mar the work of God. You manifest the same spirit in the church, and thus your influence is greatly injured in the community,—in some cases beyond remedy. You have frequently exhibited childish contention, even while laboring to convert souls to the truth; and the impressions made have been terrible upon those who were witnesses. Now, one of two things must be done; you must either be a consecrated man at home, in your family, and in the church, at all345times tender and patient, or you must not settle down in a church; for your defects will be made apparent, and the Redeemer you profess to love and serve will be dishonored.
The faith of Moses led him to look at the things which are unseen, which are eternal. He left the splendid attractions of court life because sin was there. He gave up present and seeming good that flattered only to ruin and destroy. The real attractions, the eternal, were of value to him. The sacrifices made by Moses were really no sacrifices. With him it was letting go a present, apparent, flattering good, for a sure, high, immortal good.
Moses endured the reproach of Christ, considering reproach greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt. He believed what God had said, and was not influenced to swerve from his integrity by any of the world’s reproaches. He walked the earth as God’s free man. He had the love of Christ in his soul, which not only made him a man of dignity, but added the luster of the true Christian graces to the dignity of the man. Moses walked a rough and perilous path; but he looked to the things unseen, and faltered not. The recompense of reward was attractive to him, and it may be also to us. He was familiar with God.
The work is before you to improve the remnant of your life in reforming and elevating the character. A new life begins in the renewed soul. Christ is the indwelling Saviour. That which may be regarded as hard to give up must be yielded. The overbearing, dictatorial word must be left unspoken; then a precious victory will be gained. True happiness will be the result of every self-denial, every crucifixion of self. One victory won, the next is more easily gained. Had Moses neglected the opportunities and privileges granted him of God, he would have neglected the light from Heaven, and would have been a disappointed, miserable man. Sin is from beneath; and when it is indulged, Satan is enshrined in the soul, there to kindle the very fires of hell. God has not given his law to prevent the salvation of346souls, but he wants all to be saved. Man has light and opportunities, and if he will improve them, he may overcome. You may show by your life the power of the grace of God in overcoming. Satan is trying to set up his throne in the soul-temple. When he reigns, he makes himself heard and felt in angry passions, in words of bitterness that grieve and wound; but as light has no communion with darkness, and Christ no union with Belial, the man must be wholly for one or the other. In yielding to self-indulgence, avarice, deception, fraud, or sin of any kind, he encourages the principles of Satan in his soul, and closes the door of Heaven to himself. Because of sin, Satan was thrust out of Heaven; and no man, indulging and fostering sin, can go to Heaven; for then Satan would again have a foothold there.
When a man is earnestly engaged day by day in overcoming the defects in his character, he is cherishing Christ in his soul-temple; the light of Christ is in him. Under the bright beams of the light of Christ’s countenance, his entire being becomes elevated and ennobled. He has the peace of Heaven in his soul. Many give loose rein to passion, avarice, selfishness, and deception, and all the time excuse themselves, and lay the blame on the circumstances which brought around the trial to themselves. This has been your case. God permitted your surroundings to exist to develop character. But you could have made your surroundings; for by resisting or enduring temptation, circumstances are controlled by the might of the will in the name of Jesus. This is overcoming as Christ overcame. “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.”
Bro. F, God is merciful to you. Your life has been a mistake, nothing like what it might and should have been. There has not been in you genuine manliness, true elevation and purity of feeling. You have not had proper self-respect, and therefore have not had proper respect for others. You have not magnified Christ and the power of his grace. You have needed guardians all the way along through life. The same frivolity and fickleness, the same inconsideration and347lack of self-control, the same selfishness and impatience, which were seen in your conduct at an early period of your life, are developed in a marked manner now that you are past the meridian. This need not have been, had you put away childish feelings and childish temper, and put on the firmness of the man. You have favored yourself altogether to your injury. Your pains and infirmities have been magnified. You look at them, and talk complainingly of them, but do not look away to Jesus. Think how little you suffer, how little you endure, in comparison with the sufferings of Christ; and he was sinless,—the just suffering for the unjust.
A good tree will not produce corrupt fruit. Good conversation will accompany a good conscience, as surely as good fruit will be produced by a good tree. If a man is unkind and churlish in his family and to others connected with him, no one need to inquire how he will manage in the church. He will exhibit the same petulant, overbearing disposition which he shows at home. No man can have the spirit and the mind of Christ without being rendered better by it in all the relations and duties of life. Murmuring, complaining, and fretful passion are not the fruit of good principles. You will need to be instant in prayer, because you have not strengthened the high, noble, moral traits of character. This is to be done now by you. The work will be difficult, but it is positively essential.
While in Texas, you were hopeless, and felt yourself forsaken of God and man; but now that you again make a start, let the work of reformation be thorough, your repentance such as needeth not to be repented of. The best of your days, so far as health and vigor are concerned, are in the past; but with proper habits, a cheerful mind, and a clear conscience in reference to your present deportment, you may turn your defeat into victory. You have no time to lose. Your wife can help you in all your efforts in the harvest-field. If she is sanctified through the truth, she can be a blessing to you and to the cause of God, by conversing with others and being social.
Many falter and fall because of the indulgence of a perverse temper. Alexander and Cæsar found it much easier to subdue a kingdom than to rule their own spirits. After conquering nations, the world’s so-called great men fell, one of them through the indulgence of appetite, a victim of intemperance, the other through presumption and mad ambition.
God calls upon you to yield pride and stubbornness, and to let his peace rule in your hearts. A meek and quiet spirit must be cherished. Carry Christ’s meekness with you in all your labors. An excited temper and cutting censure will not impress the people or gain their sympathy. If we have the truth, we can afford to be calm and unexcited. Our language should be modest and elevated. The spirit you have cherished within has left its impression upon the countenance. Christ, enthroned in the soul-temple, will efface that fretful, peevish, unhappy look; and as the cloud of witnesses look upon a man reflecting the image of Christ, they will realize that he is surrounded by a pleasant atmosphere. The world will see that amid storms of abuse he stands unmoved, like the lofty cedar. That man is one of God’s heroes. He has overcome himself.
The largest share of the annoyances of life, its daily corroding cares, its heart-aches, its irritation, is the result of a temper uncontrolled. The harmony of the domestic circle is often broken by a hasty word and abusive language. How much better were it left unsaid. One smile of pleasure, one peaceful, approving word spoken in the spirit of meekness, would be a power to soothe, to comfort, and to bless. The government of self is the best government in the world. By putting on the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, ninety-nine out of a hundred of the troubles which so terribly imbitter life might be saved. Many excuse their hasty words and passionate tempers by saying, “I am sensitive; I have a hasty temper.” This will never heal the wounds made by hasty, passionate words. Some, indeed, are naturally more passionate than others; but this spirit can never harmonize with the Spirit of God. The natural349man must die, and the new man, Christ Jesus, take possession of the soul, so that the follower of Jesus may say in verity and truth, “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”
Self is difficult to conquer. Human depravity in every form is not easily brought into subjection to the Spirit of Christ. But all should be impressed with the fact that unless this victory is gained through Christ, there is no hope for them. The victory can be gained; for nothing is impossible with God. By his assisting grace, all evil temper, all human depravity, may be overcome. Every Christian must learn of Christ, “who, when he was reviled, reviled not again.”
The work before you is no light task, no child’s play. You have failed to go forward to perfection; but now you may begin anew. You may show by your life what the power and grace of God can do in transforming the natural man into a spiritual man in Christ Jesus. You may be overcomers, if you will, in the name of Christ, take hold of the work decidedly.
There is one solemn statement that I wish you to write upon your hearts: When persons have yielded to Satan’s devices, and have thus placed themselves upon his ground, if they would then recover themselves from his snares through the mercy of God, they must come into close connection with him, daily crucify self, and be thoroughly transformed, in order to gain the victory and win eternal life. You both went a long distance from God. You have brought great reproach upon his cause. Now you must be most zealously in earnest to overcome every defect in your characters, and lead a life of humiliation, and trusting, pleading prayer; in faith ask God for Christ’s sake to cancel the past, so that the seeds of evil that you have sown may not be extended, and be treasured up as wrath against the day of wrath.
Now to go on in the same course, fractious in spirit, petting yourselves, babyishly talking of your infirmities, expatiating upon your feelings, and dwelling upon the dark side, will make you weak and spiritless. It was these things that made you easy subjects to Satan’s devices. If you begin the same course you were pursuing350when your feet began to slip, your cases will be hopeless. If you break off your sins by repentance, and avoid the fearful consequences by taking refuge in a Saviour’s intercession, pleading with God earnestly for his Spirit that you may be led, and taught, and quickened, you may reap life everlasting. Do not fail to unitedly, humbly, cast your helpless souls in faith upon the merits of Christ.
UPRIGHTNESS IN DEAL.
BRO. G: In my last vision your case was shown me. I saw that you love the truth which you profess, but you are not sanctified through it. Your affections have been divided between the service of God and of mammon. This division of affection stands as a barrier in the way of your being a missionary for God. While professedly serving the cause of God, self-interest has marred your work and greatly injured your influence. God could not work with you, because your heart was not right with him.
So far as words go, you have been deeply interested in the truth; but when it comes to showing your faith by works, there has been a great lack. You have not correctly represented our faith. You have injured the cause of God by your manifest love of gain; and your love to trade and bicker has not been for your good, nor for the spiritual health of those with whom you are brought in contact. You are a sharp man in trade, and you often overreach. You have peculiar tact for looking out for the best end of the bargain, watching for your own good rather than that of others. If a man would cheat himself, and you were to be advantaged thereby, you have let him do it. This is not following the golden rule, doing unto others as you would wish them to do by you.
While engaged in the missionary work, you have at the same time manifested your scheming propensities in buying and selling. This makes a poor combination,351You should be one thing or the other. “If the Lord be God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.” “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” God will not accept your labors in the tract and missionary work while you are scheming to advantage yourself. You are in danger of counting gain as godliness. The tempter will present flattering inducements before you, to fascinate you, and allure you on to indulge a spirit of scheming which will kill your spirituality.
The world, angels, and men look upon you as a sharper, as a man who is studying his own interest, and securing advantages to himself without looking carefully and conscientiously after the interest of those with whom he deals. In your business life there is a vein of dishonesty that tarnishes the soul and dwarfs religious experience and growth in grace. You are watching with keen business eye the best chance to secure a bargain. This scheming propensity has become second nature with you; and you do not see and realize the evil of encouraging it.
Business which you may engage in fairly and squarely, advantaging others as well as yourself, would be all right so far as dealing honorably is concerned; but the Lord would have accepted your service, and used your powers, your keen perceptions, in securing the salvation of souls, had you been sanctified through the truth. The desire of the eye in the love of gain has warred against the Spirit. The habits and culture of years have left their deforming impress upon your character, and have been disqualifying you for God’s work. You have a constant, longing desire to traffic. If sanctified to the service of God, this would make you an earnest, persevering laborer for the Master; but, abused as it has been, it has endangered your own soul, and others also are in danger of being lost through your influence.
At times reason and conscience remonstrate, and you feel rebuked because of your course; your soul longs after holiness and the surety of Heaven; the din of the world looks repulsive to you, and you put it aside and cherish the Spirit of God. Then, again, your worldly propensity comes in, and overrules everything. You352will surely have to meet the assaults of Satan; and you should prepare for them by firmly resisting your inclination.
While the apostle Paul was immured in prison walls that were reeking with dampness, himself a sufferer from infirmities, he greatly desired to see Timothy, his son in the gospel, and leave him his dying charge. He had no hope of release from his bondage until his life should be yielded up. The wicked Nero’s heart was thoroughly Satanic, and at a word or a nod from him the apostle’s life would be cut short. Paul urged the immediate presence of Timothy, and yet feared he would not come soon enough to receive the last testimony from his lips. He therefore repeated the words he would speak to Timothy, to one of his fellow-laborers, who was allowed to be his companion in bonds. This faithful attendant wrote the dying charge of Paul, a small portion of which we here quote:—
“They that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil; which, while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.” “Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good; that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate, laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Thou therefore endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth entangleth353himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. And if a man also strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned except he strive lawfully.” A man may be avaricious, and yet excuse himself by saying that he is working for the cause of God; but he obtains no reward, for God does not want money that is obtained by overreaching or by any semblance of dishonesty.
Paul further urges Timothy: “Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me; for Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica.” These words, dictated by Paul just prior to his death, were written by Luke for our profit and warning.
Christ, in teaching his disciples, said: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it [pruneth it], that it may bring forth more fruit.” He who is united to Christ, partaking of the sap and nourishment of the vine, will work the works of Christ. The love of Christ must be in him, or he cannot be in the Vine. Supreme love to God, and love to your neighbor equal to that which you bear to yourself, is the basis of true religion.
Christ inquires of every one professing his name, “Lovest thou me?” If you love Jesus, you will love the souls for whom he died. A man may not bear the most pleasant exterior, he may be deficient in many respects; but if he has a reputation for straightforward honesty, he will gain the confidence of others. The love of truth, the dependence and confidence which men can place in him, will remove or overbear objectionable features in his character. Trustworthiness in your place and calling, a willingness to deny self for the purpose of benefiting others, will bring peace of mind and the favor of God.354but which was really loss. Every act of overreaching in deal will detract from your reward in Heaven, should you gain that home. Every man will receive his reward as his works have been.
You have no time to lose, but should make diligent efforts to overcome the marked traits in your character, which, if indulged, will close the doors of glory against you. You cannot afford to lose Heaven. You now need to make a decided change in your words and deeds, to overcome your avaricious spirit, and to turn your thoughts into the channel of sanctified truth. In short, you need to be transformed. Then God will accept your labors in his cause. You should be a man of such undeviating veracity that the love of gain will not seduce you, and no temptation overcome you. The Lord requires of all who profess his name a strict adherence to truth. This will be as salt which has not lost its savor, as a light amid the moral darkness and deception of the world.
“Ye are the light of the world,” says Christ. Those who are truly connected with God, by reflecting the light of Heaven will have a saving power in the church and also in the world; for the perfume of good deeds and truthful acts will make them of good repute, even among those who are not of our faith. Those who fear God will respect and honor such a character; and even the enemies of our faith, as they see the spirit and life of Christ exhibited in their daily works, will glorify God, the source of their strength and honor.
You, my brother, should have been truly converted to the truth and wholly given to the work of God years ago. Precious years, which should have been rich with experience in the things of God and in practical labor in his cause, have been lost. Whereas you should now be able to teach others, you have failed to come to the full knowledge of the truth yourself. You ought now to have an experimental knowledge of the truth, and be qualified to bear the message of warning to the world. Your services have been nearly lost to the cause of God because your mind has been divided; you have been357planning and scheming, buying and selling, serving tables.
The mildew of the world has clouded your perception and perverted your intellect, so that your feeble efforts have not been acceptable offerings to God. Had you divorced yourself from your speculating propensities, and worked in the opposite direction, you would now be enriched with divine knowledge, and would be a gainer in spiritual things generally, whereas you have been losing spiritual power and dwarfing your religious experience.
To have fellowship with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, is to be ennobled and elevated, and made a partaker of joys unspeakable and full of glory. Food, clothing, station, and wealth may have their value; but to have a connection with God and to be a partaker of his divine nature, is of priceless value. Our lives should be hid with Christ in God; and although it “doth not yet appear what we shall be,” “when Christ, who is our life, shall appear,” “we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” The princely dignity of the Christian character will shine forth as the sun, and the beams of light from the face of Christ will be reflected upon those who have purified themselves even as he is pure. The privilege of becoming sons of God is cheaply purchased, even at the sacrifice of everything we possess, be it life itself.
My dear brother, you should set your face to be a man after God’s own heart. What others may venture to do or say that is not strictly in accordance with the Christian standard, should be no excuse for you. You must stand before the Judge of all the earth, not to answer for another, but for yourself. We have an individual responsibility, and no man’s defects of character will be the least excuse for our guilt; for Christ has given us in his character a perfect pattern, a faultless life.
The most persistent attacks of the enemy of souls are made upon the truth we profess; and any deviation from the right reflects dishonor upon it. Our chief danger is in having the mind diverted from Christ. The name of Jesus has power to drive back the temptations of358Satan, and lift up for us a standard against him. So long as the soul rests with unshaken confidence in the virtue and power of the atonement, it will stand firm as a rock to principle, and all the powers of Satan and his angels cannot sway it from its integrity. The truth as it is in Jesus is a wall of fire around the soul that clings to him. Temptations will pour in upon us; for by them we are to be tried during our probation upon earth. This is the proving of God, a revelation of our own hearts. There is no sin in having temptations; but sin comes in when temptation is yielded to.
If your aptness and skill had been as much exercised in saving souls, and in disseminating the truth to those who are in darkness, as it has been to get gain and to increase your earthly possessions, you would have many stars in the crown of your rejoicing in the kingdom of glory. There are but few who are as faithful in the service of God as they are in serving their own temporal interests. A resolute purpose is sure to accomplish the desired end. Many do not feel that it is essential to be as discriminating, apt, and accomplished in the work of God as in their own temporal business. The mind and heart of those who profess to believe the truth should be elevated, refined, ennobled, and spiritualized. The work of educating the mind for this great and important matter is fearfully neglected. The work of God is done negligently, slothfully, and in a most bungling manner, because so often left to the caprice of feeling, rather than to sanctified principle and holy purpose.
There is the greatest necessity that men and women who have a knowledge of the will of God, should learn to become successful workers in his cause. They should be persons of polish, of understanding, not having the deceptive outside gloss and simpering affectation of the worldling, but that refinement and true courteousness which savors of Heaven, and which every Christian will have if he is a partaker of the divine nature. The lack of true dignity and Christian refinement in the ranks of Sabbath-keepers is against us as a people, and makes the truth which we profess unsavory. The work of educating359the mind and manners may be carried forward to perfection. If those who profess the truth do not now improve their privileges and opportunities to grow up to the full stature of men and women in Christ Jesus, they will be no honor to the cause of truth, no honor to Christ.
If you, my brother, had studied the Holy Scriptures as faithfully as you have watched to get gain, you would now be an able man in the word of God, and able also to teach others. It is your own fault that you are not qualified to teach the truth to others. You have not been cultivating that set of faculties which will make you an intelligent, successful, spiritual worker for your Master. Such traits of character as acquisitiveness and shrewdness in worldly dealing have been exercised so much that your mind has been largely developed in the direction of buying and selling, and getting the best end of the bargain. Instead of establishing yourself in the confidence of your brethren and sisters and friends as a man who possesses true nobility of character, elevating you above all smallness and avariciousness, you make them afraid of you. Your religious faith has been used to secure the confidence of your brethren that you might practice your sharp dealing and make a saving. This has been done so much by you that it has become second nature, and you do not realize how your course appears to others. True godliness must mark all your future life and course of action, if you would counteract the influence you have exerted to scatter from Christ and the truth.
Your relation to God and your fellow-men demands a change in your life. In the sermon on the mount the injunction of the world’s Redeemer was, “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; for this is the law and the prophets.” These words are of the highest value to us, a golden rule given us by which to measure our conduct. This is the true rule of honesty. Very much is comprehended in these words. We are here required to deal with our neighbors as we would wish them to deal with us, were we in their circumstances.
Plano, Texas, Nov. 24, 1878.