Earlier text: SELFISHNESS REBUKED.DEAR FRIEND F: I was shown that you were in danger of being under the full control of the great adversary of souls. Your experience at — was not good for you. Your stay at — hurt you; you became proud and vain. Persons were not wanting who unwisely petted and praised you, until you became vain, pert, and saucy. You have been opposed to restraint, have been headstrong, willful, and stubborn, and have made your parents much trouble. They have erred. Your father has unwisely petted you. You have taken advantage of this, and have become deceptive. You have received approbation which you did not deserve. You had your own head very much at —, and took liberties that should not have been allowed for a moment. When you or your sisters were reproved, you felt insulted, and reported the matter to your mother as though you had been abused. You exaggerated, and she was nervous, and easily excited and irritated if she thought her position and dignity were not respected. She was displeased that any one should dictate to her children, and she did not conceal her displeasure. She spoke improperly to those who should have commanded her respect. Your mother showed great lack of wisdom in taking your part, and censuring those whom she should have thanked rather than blamed. She hurt you, and did a work for you that she can never fully repair. You triumphed because you thought yourself secure from censure, thought that you could do as you pleased. Your mother’s eye was not always upon you, and if it had been, she could not have discerned your evil tendencies. At school you had a good and noble teacher; yet you felt indignant because you were restrained. You thought that because you were the daughter of559 G, your teacher should show a preference for you, and should not take the liberty to correct and reprove you. Your sisters also partook of the same spirit. You carried your complaints to your parents; they heard your version of matters, and sympathized with you more or less, and their feelings were stirred by your exaggerated reports. They injured you. You had not been as strictly disciplined as you should have been. Yet you were offended because you could not have your own way, but were compelled to yield to the decided, thorough manner of Bro. H’s instructions. While in school, you were sometimes troublesome, impudent, and defiant, and greatly lacked modesty and decorum. You were bold, selfish, and self-exalted, and needed firm discipline at home as well as at school. Your mind is impure. You were relieved from care and labor altogether too long. Household duties would have been one of the richest blessings that you could have had. Weariness would not have injured you one-tenth as much as have your lascivious thoughts and conduct. You have received incorrect ideas in regard to girls and boys associating together, and it has been very congenial to your mind to be in the company of the boys. You are not pure in heart and mind. You have been injured by reading love stories and romances, and your mind has been fascinated by impure thoughts. Your imagination has become corrupt, until you seem to have no power to control your thoughts. Satan leads you captive as he pleases. You are not happy. You do not love God or his people. You have a bitter spirit toward those who see your true character. You seem to blame them for the view they take of your case; but you are the one to blame. Your conduct has been such as to call forth cautions and warnings. You have only yourself to censure in this. You are a dangerous associate, and have done much harm by your influence in —. You have560 led, instead of being led. You have dishonored God, and are accountable to him for the work of evil which you have wrought by your influence. Your conduct has not been chaste, modest, or becoming. You have not had the fear of God before your eyes. You have so often dissembled in order to accomplish your plans that you bear a violated conscience. My dear girl, unless you stop just where you are, ruin is surely before you. Cease your day-dreaming, your castle-building. Stop your thoughts from running in the channel of folly and corruption. You cannot safely associate with the boys. A tide of temptation is roused and surges in your breast, having a tendency to uproot principle, female virtue, and true modesty. If you go on in your willful, headstrong course, what will be your fate? A new year has dawned upon us. What have you determined to do? What have you resolved shall be the record borne up to God by the ministering angels of your work from day to day? What words that you have uttered will appear in the page of the book of records? What thoughts will the Searcher of hearts find cherished by you? He is a discerner of the thoughts, of the intents and purposes of the heart. You have a fearful record of the past year, which is laid open to the view of the Majesty of Heaven and the myriads of pure, sinless angels. Your thoughts and acts, your desperate and unsanctified feelings, may have been concealed from mortals; but remember, the most trivial acts of your life are open to the view of God. You have a spotted record in Heaven. The sins you have committed are all registered there. God’s frown is upon you, and yet you appear destitute of feeling; you do not realize your lost and undone condition. At times you do have feelings of remorse; but your proud, independent spirit soon rises above this, and you stifle the voice of conscience. You are not happy; yet you imagine that if you could have your own way unrestrained,561 would be happy. Poor child! you occupy a position similar to that of Eve in Eden. She imagined that she would be highly exalted if she could only eat of the fruit of the tree which God had forbidden her even to touch, lest she die. She ate, and lost all the glories of Eden. You should control your thoughts. This will not be an easy task; you cannot accomplish it without close and even severe effort. Yet God requires this of you; it is a duty resting upon every accountable being. You are responsible to God for your thoughts. If you indulge in vain imaginations, permitting your mind to dwell upon impure subjects, you are, in a degree, as guilty before God as if your thoughts were carried into action. All that prevents the action is the lack of opportunity. Day and night dreaming and castle-building are bad and exceedingly dangerous habits. When once established, it is next to impossible to break up such habits, and direct the thoughts to pure, holy, elevated themes. You will have to become a faithful sentinel over your eyes, ears, and all your senses, if you would control your mind, and prevent vain and corrupt thoughts from staining your soul. The power of grace alone can accomplish this most desirable work. You are weak in this direction. You have become wayward, bold, and daring. The grace of God has no place in your heart. In the strength of God alone can you bring yourself where you can be a recipient of his grace, an instrument of righteousness. Not only does God require you to control your thoughts, but also your passions and affections. Your salvation depends upon your governing yourself in these things. Passion and affection are powerful agents. If misapplied, if set in operation through wrong motives, if misplaced, they are powerful to accomplish your ruin, and leave you a miserable wreck, without God and without hope. The imagination must be positively and persistently controlled,562 if the passions and affections are made subject to reason, conscience, and character. You are in danger, for you are just upon the point of sacrificing your eternal interests at the altar of passion. Passion is obtaining positive control of your entire being—passion of what quality? of a base, destructive nature. By yielding to it, you will imbitter the lives of your parents, bring sadness and shame to your sisters, sacrifice your own character, and forfeit Heaven and a glorious immortal life. Are you ready to do this? I appeal to you to stop where you are. Advance not another step in your headstrong, wanton course; for before you are misery and death. Unless you exercise self-control in regard to your passions and affections, you will surely bring yourself into disrepute with all around you, and will bring upon your character disgrace which will last while you live. You are disobedient to your parents, pert, unthankful, and unholy. These miserable traits are the fruits of a corrupt tree. You are forward. You love the boys, and love to make them the theme of your conversation. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Habits have become powerful to control you; and you have learned to deceive in order to carry out your purposes and accomplish your desires. I do not consider your case hopeless; if I did, my pen would not be tracing these lines. In the strength of God, you can redeem the past. Your name is already a byword in—; but you can change this by using the powers which God has given you. You may even now gain a moral excellence, so that your name may be associated with things pure and holy. You can be elevated. God has provided for you the necessary helps. He has invited you to come to him, and has promised to bear your burdens and give you rest of soul. “Learn of me,” says the divine Teacher; “for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find563 rest unto your souls.” You have long been above this lowliness and meekness. You will have to learn this important lesson of the divine Teacher before you can find the rest promised. You have thought so much of yourself, of your own smartness, that it has led you to such affectation and vanity as to make you almost a fool. You have a deceitful tongue, which has indulged in misrepresentation and falsehood. O my dear girl, if you could only arouse, if your slumbering, deadened conscience could be awakened, and you could cherish an habitual impression of the presence of God, and keep yourself subject to the control of an enlightened, wakeful conscience, you would be happy yourself, and a blessing to your parents, whose hearts you now wound. You could be an instrument of righteousness to your associates. You need a thorough conversion; and without it you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity. You may imagine yourself free when following the lead of your own wayward, pernicious mind; but you are in the most degrading bondage. Without the principles of religion, you may consider yourself an object of envy; but all who are good and virtuous will regard your character with pity and your course with abhorrence. You can become a partaker of the divine nature, if you will escape the corruption that is in the world through lust; or by being a partaker of it, you may sink down in this corruption, and bear the impress of the Satanic. You have younger sisters whom you can bless with your influence. You can reflect a sweet, precious light in your father’s family, and make his heart glad; or you can be a dark shadow, a cloud, a storm which shall desolate. Your passion for reading is of such a character that if indulged it will pervert the imagination, and will prove your ruin. Unless you restrain your thoughts, your reading, and your words, your imagination will become hopelessly diseased. Read your Bible attentively, prayerfully, and be guided by its teachings. This is your safety. Keep clear of the boys. In their society, your temptations become earnest and powerful. Put marriage out of your girl’s head. You are in no sense fit for this. You need years of experience before you can be qualified to understand the duties, and take up the burdens, of married life. Positively guard your thoughts, your passions, and your affections. Do not degrade these to minister to lust. Elevate them to purity, devote them to God. You may become a prudent, modest, virtuous girl, but not without earnest effort. You must watch, you must pray, you must meditate, you must investigate your motives and your actions. Closely analyze your feelings and your acts. Would you, in the presence of your father, perform an impure action? No, indeed. But you do this in the presence of your heavenly Father, who is so much more exalted, so holy, so pure. Yes; you corrupt your own body in the presence of the pure, sinless angels, and in the presence of Christ; and you continue to do this irrespective of conscience, irrespective of the light and warnings given you. Remember, a record is made of all your acts. You must meet again the most secret things of your life. You will be judged according to the deeds done in the body. Are you prepared for this? You are injuring yourself physically and morally. God has enjoined upon you to preserve your body holy. “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, . . . and ye are not your own? for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.” Will not God judge you for debasing to lust the passions and affections, when he claims the wealth of your affections and your entire being to be devoted to his service? Again I warn you as one who must meet these lines in that day when the case of every one shall be decided. Yield yourself to Christ without delay; he565 alone, by the power of his grace, can redeem you from ruin. He alone can bring your moral and mental powers into a state of health. Your heart may be warm with the love of God; your understanding, clear and mature; your conscience, illuminated, quick, and pure; your will, upright and sanctified, subject to the control of the Spirit of God. You can make yourself what you choose. If you will now face right about, cease to do evil and learn to do well, then you will be happy indeed; you will be successful in the battles of life, and rise to glory and honor in the better life than this. “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.” DEAR SISTER I: Yesterday I had some time for reflection, and now have a few thoughts that I wish to present to you. I could not readily answer your question concerning your duty to travel with your husband. I had not yet learned the result of your accompanying him; therefore I could not speak as understandingly as if I had been acquainted with the influence you had exerted. I cannot give counsel in the dark. I must know that my counsel is correct in the light. Great advantage is taken of my words; therefore I must move very cautiously. After careful reflection, seeking to call up things which have been shown me in your case, I am prepared to write to you. From the letters you have written to me in regard to Bro. J, I fear that you are prejudiced, and have some jealousy. I hope this is not the case, but fear that it is. You and your husband are very sensitive, and naturally jealous; therefore you need to guard yourselves in this direction. We do not feel that Bro. J sees all things clearly. We think his wife is far566 from right, and has great influence over him; yet we hope that if all move in wisdom toward him, he will recover himself from the snare of Satan, and see all things clearly. Dear sister, we are determined to be impartial, and not have our words or acts in any way influenced by hearsay. We have no pets. May the Lord give us heavenly wisdom, that we may deal righteously and impartially, and thus meet the mind of his Spirit. We do not want our works wrought in self. We do not want personal feelings. If we think we are not specially considered, or if we see, or imagine that we see, positive neglect, we want the spirit of our forgiving Master. The people who professed to be his followers received him not, because his face was toward Jerusalem, and he gave no special indication that he was to tarry with them. They did not open their doors to the heavenly Guest, and did not urge his abiding with them, although they beheld him weary with his journey, and the night was drawing on. They gave no sign that they really desired Jesus. The disciples knew that he designed to tarry there that night, and they felt so keenly the slight thus given to their Lord, that they were angry, and prayed Jesus to show proper resentment, and call down fire from heaven to consume those who had thus abused him. But he rebuked their indignation and zeal for his honor, and told them that he came not to visit with judgment, but to show mercy. This lesson of our Saviour’s is for you and for me. No resentment must come into our hearts. When reviled, we must not revile again. O jealousy and evil surmising, what mischief have ye wrought! how have ye turned friendship and love into bitterness and hatred! We must be less proud, less sensitive, have less self-love, and be dead to self-interest. Our interest must be submerged in Christ, and we be able to say, “I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Christ has told us how to make everything easy and567 happy as we pass along: “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” The great difficulty is, there is so little meekness and lowliness that the yoke galls and the burden is heavy. When we possess true meekness and lowliness, we are so lost in Christ that we do not take neglect or slights to heart; we are deaf to reproach and blind to scorn and insult. Sister I, as the peculiarities of your case come clearly before me, I see a serious objection to your traveling. You do not take upon yourself the burdens that you should. You call forth sympathy from others, but do not give in return. You lay your whole weight where you are, and too frequently are waited upon when those who bear their own burden and yours also, are no more able to do this than yourself. You are too helpless for your own good, and the influence is not such as that of a minister’s wife should be. You need more physical labor than you have; and from what has been shown me, I think that you would be more in the line of your duty engaging cheerfully in the work of educating your daughter, and encouraging a love of domestic duties. You did not receive the education in this direction that you should have had in your girlhood, and this has made your life more unhappy than it would otherwise have been. You do not love physical labor; and when journeying, you fill the bill of an invalid, and fail to be helpful, and do what you can to lighten the burdens you make. You fail to realize that frequently the very ones who wait on you are no more able to perform the extra task than you are. You lean on others, and lay your whole weight upon them. I have no evidence that God has called you to do a special work in traveling. You have an education to obtain that you do not yet possess. Who can so well instruct the child as568 the mother? Who can so well learn the defects in her own organization and in her child’s, as the mother, while in the performance of the duties which Heaven has allotted her? The fact that you do not love this work is no evidence that it is not the work which the Lord has assigned you. You have not sufficient physical or mental strength to make it an object for you to travel. You wish to be ministered unto, instead of ministering to others. You are not helpful enough to offset the burden you are to your husband and to those around you. Those who cannot wisely manage their own child or children, are not qualified to act wisely in church matters, or to deal with wiry minds subject to Satan’s special temptations. If they can cheerfully and lovingly perform the part required of them as parents, then they can better understand how to bear burdens in the church. Dear sister, I advise you to make a good wife to your husband, and a good home for him. Rely upon your own resources, and lean less heavily upon him. Arouse yourself to do the very work which the Lord would have you do. You are inclined to be anxious to do some great work, to fill some large mission, and neglect the small duties right in your path, which are just as necessary to be accomplished as the larger. You walk over these, and aspire to a larger work. Let your ambition be aroused to be useful, to be a workman in the world instead of a spectator. My dear sister, I speak plainly; for I dare not do otherwise. I plead with you to take up life's burdens instead of shunning them. Help your husband by helping yourself. The ideas which you both hold of the dignity to be maintained by the minister, are not in accordance with the example of our Lord. The minister of Christ should possess sobriety, meekness, love, long-suffering, forbearance, pity, and courtesy. He should be circumspect, elevated in thought and conversation, and of blameless deportment. This is569 gospel dignity. But if a minister comes to a family where he can wait on himself, he should do so by all means; and he should by his example encourage industry by engaging in physical labor when he has not a multiplicity of other duties and burdens. He will not detract from his dignity, and will better relate himself to health and life, by engaging in useful labor. The circulation of the blood will be better equalized. Physical labor, a diversion from mental, will draw the blood from the brain. It is essential for your husband to have more physical labor, in order to relieve the brain. Digestion will be promoted by physical exercise. If he would spend a part of every day in physical exercise, when not positively urged by a protracted effort in a course of meetings, it would be an advantage to him, and would not detract from ministerial dignity. The example would be in accordance with that of our divine Master. We love you, and want you to be successful in your efforts in striving for the better life.
Steamer Keokuk, Mississippi River, Sept. 30, 1869. UNFAITHFULNESS IN STEWARDSHIP.
DEAR BRO. K: A few things which are pressing upon my mind, I feel a duty to write to Bro. L and yourself. I have related the substance of the matter before you; but as my mind is still burdened, I will write. I was shown that with you, I and mine have come to be first. You have had so great a care for yourself that the Lord has had no room to work for you. You have given him no chance. He has, in a great measure, given Bro. L. and yourself up to work according to your own judgment, that you might be convinced that your wisdom is foolishness. You have not worked for the interest of the widow and fatherless,570 as the Lord has especially enjoined upon his followers; neither have you made the cases of the Lord’s poor your own, by taking a special interest in them, nor have you sought to glorify God and magnify his name; therefore the Lord has suffered you and Bro. L. to pursue a course of your own choosing. He has permitted you to look out for yourselves. Your own selfish interests have been the foundation of your actions; and you will reap the harvest which you yourselves have sown. I saw that you would verily receive the reward that sooner or later follows the serving of your own selfish interest. “Give an account of thy stewardship,” must be heard by you. You are accountable to God for the work intrusted to you, which you have shamefully neglected in order to serve yourselves. Had you been seeking to show yourselves approved unto God, seeking the kingdom of Heaven and the righteousness of Christ, you would have been doing the works of Christ. The poor, the widows, the fatherless, would have called forth from you the tenderest pity and sympathy; you would have been interested in them, and treated them as you would wish your wife and children treated were they left dependent and afflicted to the cold mercies of the world, or of unfeeling, heartless professed Christians. There has been on your part a sad, unfeeling, heartless neglect of the unfortunate. You have served your own interest, irrespective of their great need. God cannot bless you until you see your sin in regard to these things. I saw that the Lord’s work has not been more sacred in your eyes than your own business. Eternal things have not been discerned. The Lord has sent warnings and reproofs to arouse you to a sense of your duty by letting you know what is expected of you; but you have not regarded these warnings. You have not realized that you were dealing with God. You have robbed God, and served yourselves. There are many who in good faith have sent in to the Office means which they had to make a sacrifice to obtain. Some, both men and women, have worked very hard, and consecrated to the Lord the means obtained by hard labor and the closest economy, and have sent it to the Office to advance the cause. Poor widows have sent nearly their whole dependence, trusting in God to take care of them, and the means has been consecrated with prayers and tears, yet sent with joyfulness, they feeling that they were aiding in the great work of saving souls. Poor families have sold their only cow, denying themselves and their little children of milk, feeling that they were making a sacrifice for God. They have put their means into the Office in good faith. Selfishness and mismanagement have helped to squander this means. God holds those accountable who have had the handling of it. “Give an account of thy stewardship,” will soon be heard. May the Lord help you to free yourselves from every blemish.
Battle Creek, Mich., Jan. 17, 1870. Dear Sister M: Your case is upon my mind, and I cannot forbear to commit to writing my convictions, from what I have seen in regard to you. I am satisfied that you are wandering in mist and darkness. You do not see things in the right light. You blind your eyes in regard to your own case by excusing yourself thus: “I would not have done this or that, if it had not been for certain influences of others which led me to that course of action.” You are continually finding fault with circumstances, which is nothing less than finding fault with providences. You are continually casting about for somebody or something to answer the place of a scapegoat, upon which you can lay the blame of572 having brought you into a position to feel and speak unworthy of a Christian. Instead of simply censuring yourself for your defects, you censure the circumstances and occasions which led you to develop the traits in your character which lie dormant or hid beneath the surface, unless something arises to disturb and arouse them to life and action. Then they appear in all their deformity and strength. You deceive yourself with the idea that these unamiable traits do not exist, until you are brought into positions which make you act and speak in a manner that reveals them to all. You are not willing to see and confess that it is your carnal nature which has not yet been transformed and brought into subjection to Christ. You have not yet crucified self. You sometimes pass along days and weeks without developing the spirit of evil which I have named impatience, and a dictatorial spirit, a desire to control your husband. Your loving to rule and to bring others to your ideas has nearly ruined yourself and him. You love to suggest and to dictate to others. You love to have them feel and see that you have the very best light, and are especially led of God. If they do not, you begin to surmise, to become jealous, to feel a spirit of unrest; you are dissatisfied and exceedingly unhappy. Nothing so readily arouses the evil traits in your character as to dispute your wisdom and judgment in exercising your authority. Your strong, overbearing spirit, which has appeared to slumber, is roused to its fullest energy. Self then controls you, and you are no more governed by candid reason and calm judgment than is an insane person. Self in all its strength wrestles for the mastery, and it will take the firmest mind to hold you in restraint. After your fit of insanity has gone by, then you can bear to have your course questioned. But you stand ready to justify yourself by the plea that you are so sensitive; you feel so deeply; you suffer so much. I saw that all573 this will not excuse you in the sight of God. You mistake pride for sensitiveness. Self is prominent. When self is crucified, then this sensitiveness, or pride, will die; until then, you are not a Christian. To be a Christian is to be Christlike, to possess humility, and a meek and quiet spirit that will bear contradiction without being enraged or becoming insane. If the deceptive covering which is about you could be rent asunder, so that you could see yourself as God sees you, you would no longer seek to justify self, but would fall all broken upon Christ, the only one who can remove the defects in your character, and then bind you up. “God gave direction to the Israelites to assemble before him at set periods, in the place which he should choose, and observe special days wherein no unnecessary work was to be done, but the time was to be devoted to a consideration of the blessings which he had bestowed upon them. At these special seasons, they were to bring gifts, free-will offerings, and thank-offerings, unto the Lord, according as he had blessed them. The man-servant and maid-servant, the stranger, the fatherless and widow, were directed to rejoice that God had by his own wonderful power brought them from servile bondage to the enjoyment of freedom. And they were commanded not to appear before the Lord empty. They were to bring tokens of their gratitude to God for his continual mercies and blessings bestowed upon them. These offerings were varied, according to the estimate which the donors placed upon the blessings they were privileged to enjoy. Thus the characters of the people were plainly developed. Those who placed a high value upon the blessings which God bestowed upon them, brought574 offerings in accordance with their appreciation of these blessings. Those whose moral powers were stupefied and benumbed by selfishness and idolatrous love of the favors received, rather than inspired by fervent love for their bountiful Benefactor, brought meager offerings. Thus their hearts were revealed. Besides these special religious feast-days of gladness and rejoicing, the yearly passover was to be commemorated by the Jewish nation. The Lord covenanted that if they were faithful in the observance of his requirements, he would bless them in all their increase, and in all the work of their hands. God requires no less of his people in these last days, in sacrifices and offerings, than he did of the Jewish nation. Those whom he has blessed with a competency, and even the widow and the fatherless, should not be unmindful of his blessings. Especially should those whom God has prospered render to him the things that are his. They should appear before him with a spirit of self-sacrifice, and bring their offerings in accordance with the blessings which he has bestowed upon them. But many whom God prospers manifest base ingratitude to him. If his blessings rest upon them, and he increases their substance, they make these bounties as cords to bind them to the love of their possessions; they allow worldly business to take possession of their affections and their entire being, and neglect devotion and religious privileges. They cannot afford to leave their business cares, and come before God, even once a year. They turn the blessings of God into a curse. They serve their own temporal interests, to the neglect of God’s requirements. Men who possess thousands remain at home year after year, engrossed in their worldly cares and interests, and feeling that they cannot afford to make the small sacrifice of attending the yearly gatherings to worship God. He has blessed them in basket and in store, and surrounded them with his benefits on575 the right hand and on the left, yet they withhold from him the small offerings he has required of them. They love to serve themselves. Their souls will be like the unrefreshed desert without the dew or rain of heaven. The Lord has brought to them the precious blessing of his grace. He has delivered them from the slavery of sin and the bondage of error, and has opened to their darkened understandings the glorious light of present truth. And shall these evidences of God’s love and mercy call forth no gratitude in return? Will those who profess to believe that the end of all things is at hand be blind to their own spiritual interest, and live for this world and this life alone? Do they expect that their eternal interest will take care of itself? Spiritual strength will not come without an effort on their part. Many who profess to be looking for the appearing of our Lord are anxious, burdened seekers for worldly gain. They are blind to their eternal interest. They labor for that which satisfieth not. They spend their money for that which is not bread. They strive to content themselves with the treasures they have laid up on the earth, which must perish. And they neglect the preparation for eternity, which should be the first and only real work of life. Let all who possibly can, attend these yearly gatherings. All should feel that God requires this of them. If they do not avail themselves of the privileges which he has provided that they may become strong in him and in the power of his grace, they will grow weaker and weaker, and have less and less desire to consecrate all to God. Come, brethren and sisters, to these sacred convocation meetings, to find Jesus. He will come up to the feast. He will be present, and he will do for you that which you most need to have done. Your farms should not be considered of greater value than the higher interests of the soul. All the treasures which you possess, be they ever so576 valuable, would not be rich enough to buy you peace and hope, which would be infinite gain, if it cost you all you have and the toils and sufferings of a lifetime. A strong, clear sense of eternal things, and a heart willing to yield all to Christ, are blessings of more value than all the riches, and pleasures, and glories of this world. These camp-meetings are of importance. They cost something. The servants of God are wearing out their lives to help the people, while many of them appear as if they did not want help. For fear of losing a little of this world’s gain, some let these precious privileges come and go as though they were of but little importance. Let all who profess to believe the truth, respect every privilege that God offers them to obtain clearer views of his truth, of his requirements, and of the necessary preparation for his coming. A calm, cheerful, obedient trust in God is what he requires. You need not weary yourselves with busy anxieties and needless cares. Work on for the day, faithfully doing the work which God’s providence assigns you, and he will have a care for you. Jesus will deepen and widen your blessings. You must make efforts if you have salvation at last. Come to these meetings prepared to work. Leave your home cares, and come to find Jesus, and he will be found of you. Come with your offerings as God has blessed you. Show your gratitude to your Creator, the giver of all your benefits, by a free-will offering. Let none who are able come empty-handed. “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of Heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.” TESTIMONY FOR THE CHURCH.