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I beseech you to place your children under the guardianship of those who will not neglect to train and educate them, for they are God’s property. The Lord has shown me again and again that parents must fashion the character of their children in their very earliest youth. Do you wish your children to regard outward appearance as of greater value than the culture of the soul?

Children are what their training has made them. Boys who lavishly spend money from their father's pocket, who learn to smoke, to drink wine, to play cards, who do not apply themselves to any useful occupation, have no foundation to build upon, and cannot become self-reliant and independent. Money which51 comes to the young with but little effort on their part will not be valued. Some have to obtain money by hard work and privation, but how much safer are those youth who know just where their spending-money comes from, who know what their clothing and food cost, and what it takes to purchase a home. There are many ways in which children can earn money themselves, and can act their part in bringing thank-offerings to Jesus, who gave his own life for them. Children should be educated to make the very best use of their time, to be helpful to father and mother, to be self-reliant. They should not be allowed to consider themselves above doing any kind of labor that is necessary. They should be taught that the money which they earn is not theirs to spend as their inexperienced minds may choose, but to use judiciously, and to give to missionary purposes. They should not be satisfied to take money from their father or mother, and put it into the treasury as an offering, when it is not theirs. They should say to themselves, “Shall I give of that which costs me nothing?”

Let children be taught to keep accounts. This will enable them to be accurate. The spendthrift boy will be the spendthrift man. The vain, selfish, self-caring girl will be the same kind of a woman. We are to remember there are other youth for whom we are accountable. If we train our children to correct habits, through them we shall be able to influence others. Every cent expended in candy, in little luxuries to please self, and to administer to our vanity, is money we shall have to render an account for before God. The Lord does not design that his children shall be self-caring, that they shall spend means for sashes,52 ribbons, bustles, and other worldly adornments. There are youth who are poor but possessed of ability, who, if they only had one-half the chance that others have, they would become men and women of moral worth, who would do and dare for Jesus’ sake. There are plenty of homeless, friendless children and helpless individuals who need the means expended for selfish gratification. Let the money spent for unnecessary articles of dress be employed in doing good for others, and youth who thus deny themselves for others’ sake will be accounted faithful stewards of the grace of God. We must not abuse our means by centering it on ourselves. Our children must not be a means of absorbing money from God’s treasury, to make an appearance, or to indulge appetite or inclination. We may have genuine pleasure in a right use of all our powers. We must be like Jesus, pure, simple, holy, and undefiled. The grandest use of money is not to have a selfish want for every dollar. The skill, health, and talents in physical, mental, and moral powers that God has given us should make us feel that we are the Lord’s almoners, to gather in means through the wise improvement of his intrusted gifts, to communicate blessings to others, not to make up tasteful nothings which cost time and money and which are of no real benefit to anyone. Let the taste be cultivated, and strength of body be given to make those things that are useful, not merely ornamental.

We want parents and children to be as springs of water, whose waters fail not. With eyes and senses we are to see where the desert places are, where the fields are that need to be watered, what wastes there are that need culture, to become gardens of the Lord.

May the Lord let you see and feel that you have a work before you that needs binding off carefully and thoroughly.

I commit this to you as light given me from heaven. ELLEN G. WHITE.

BURROUGH VALLEY, Cal., Aug. 1, 1888.

DEAR BROTHER: Several have said to me that Brother and Sister Daniels were in the habit of using tea, and when they were spoken to in regard to it they had stated that Sister White kept tea in her house, drank it herself, and advised you to drink it. It is difficult for me to believe that you have said this, although the same testimony has come from several.

You are not always as particular about your words as you should be; you make rash statements. The above declarations are not true. I learn that, to excuse your practice of using wine, you have stated, so I have been informed, that Brother and Sister White kept wine in their house, and to your certain knowledge used it. This, like the statement in regard to drinking tea, is not true. Will you please tell me why you make such rash statements? You claim to be my friend; do you imagine these statements will help my influence among the people? I do not use tea, either green or black. Not a spoonful has passed my lips for many years, except when crossing the ocean, and once since on this side I took it as a medicine when I was sick and vomiting. In such circumstances it may prove a present relief.

I did not use tea when you were with us. I have54 always used red clover top, as I stated to you. I offered you this and told you it was a good, simple, and wholesome drink. I remember that Sister Ings made tea for you several times by special request. You said you had a headache and must have something to help it, and you said tea always had helped you. I told her I did not like to have her do this, for it was contrary to my principles. I asked her where she got the tea, and she said that a family who were on a camping-trip had stopped here and a Mr. Wallace who was not a believer was with them, and the party had tea and made it for him, and when they had gone the tea was found here, and she supposed they must have left it. I have not bought a penny’s worth of tea for years. Knowing its influence, I would not dare to use it, except in cases of severe vomiting, when I take it as a medicine, but not as a beverage.

I have felt alarmed for you for some time because of your use of tea and wines. Of all others, you should touch not, taste not, handle not, anything like tea, coffee, wine, beer, brandy, or any stimulus. You are of a nature that you cannot safely use anything of that order. Your preaching to others is not in harmony with your practice. This is against you, and leaves a doubtful impression upon minds in regard to the ministry. Your case is presented before them, and the supposition in their minds is that other ministers indulge in these things, as you do yourself. To cover and excuse yourself, you have misled others by misstating me. I do not preach one thing and practice another. I do not present to my hearers rules of life for them to follow, while I make an exception in my own case. You are a man55 who should never use tea, coffee, brandy, or wine. Your nervous temperament will become unduly excited, and be followed by corresponding depression. It is perilous for you to educate your tastes and stimulate your nerves, for you are in serious danger of depending on these stimulants and working upon them. The habit of taking stimulants may become second nature and pave the way for you to become a drunkard. You may start back, and feel bitter towards me because I say these things to you, but let me tell you, you have accustomed yourself to these indulgences because you felt that you must have them for their immediate stimulating properties.

I have not tested the wine that you claim is not intoxicating. I have perhaps used half a pint in all, taking a spoonful with a raw egg, much as I hate the taste of wine. I would not care, even if I had not solemnly pledged myself not to use wine as a beverage, to make a daily practice of taking even one teaspoonful with a raw egg, for Satan is at work to encourage the use of tea, coffee, wine, and beer, that he may make us dependent upon these things, and encourage our resorting to them frequently, so that our appetite and taste will crave these stimulants. I tell you frankly that you would be much better in nerve and muscle if you made a decided change in your practice, not only in drinking stimulating drinks, but in eating so largely of meat. The animal powers are strengthened by indulgence in these things, and the moral and spiritual powers are overborne. I am not guilty of drinking any tea except red clover top tea, and if I loved wine, tea, and coffee, I would not use these health-destroying56 narcotics, for I prize health, and I prize a healthful example in all these things. I want to be a pattern of temperance and of good works to others. Will my brother practice as well as preach temperance in all things? If you do this, I do not believe you will be so changeable in your character. Your words will be more select and well chosen. You will not be careless in regard to your conversation. You will not be so depressed at one time and so hilarious at another, acting like a boy in place of an ambassador of Jesus Christ. I am seriously troubled for your soul. I know people are unwise in praising you and extolling you; should they read you as God sees you, they could not do this. I know that when you have apparent success you are elated, and you crave praise; and you get it from many, who, if their hearts were right with God, would not speak one word to flatter you. They would understand that it is not safe to pet and praise you, or any other poor, sinful mortal. The Lord is to be exalted by all his creatures. Finite man is not to attract admiration or praise, but do his work in humility. ELLEN G. WHITE.

HEALDSBURG, Cal., Aug. 3, 1888.

Since having the conversation with you in Fresno, I have thought much over the matter. While at Burrough Valley I had written you several letters, but after the letter you wrote to me I thought you were in no condition to rightly receive anything which would seem of a reproving nature, however much you needed it. I did not wish to expend my strength in vain.57 The letters written I will give to you when you are in a condition to appreciate them. I now send you these letters that were written, according to their date. I am sure that in your present state spiritual things are not spiritually discerned, and I greatly fear for your soul. Under temptation in your present state you will not stand the proving any better than have some who have apostatized. You love praise, and you are in danger, great danger, of losing your soul. What can I say to arouse you to your true condition? Your brethren have treated you unwisely in letting you have money time and again to get you out of a pressure of difficulties. This has been the worst thing they could do for you; it has hedged up the way so that you could not have a right understanding of yourself. It has closed your lips when they should be open to correct evils. It has influenced your decisions of men and their doings. It has bound your hands, and bound about your testimony, so that your labor and burden has been of a worldly character, and God has not been glorified. Unless you are balanced by the Spirit of God, you will make some very unwise moves, which will injure, if not destroy, your influence among the people. Then, not seeing yourself, not studying wisely from cause to effect, you will denounce your brethren as misusing you, when yourself is the one to be denounced, and not your brethren. ELLEN G. WHITE.

HEALDSBURG, Cal., Aug. 10, 1888.

DEAR BROTHER AND SISTER DANIELS: I have not yet received the letter which I sent you from Burrough Valley.58 I requested that it should be sent to me. Will you please send it, for I am anxious to see the character of the letter I wrote to you, which brought the answer you sent me in return. I asked you to return it to me, or a copy of it, but probably you have forgotten all about it. I would be pleased to have you send me a copy of the letter which I sent you from Basel, Switzerland, for the Healdsburg church. Sister Daniels said that she had the letter, or a copy of it. I am anxious to hear from you. How is Sister Daniels? Was she very sick?

Up to this date, Brother Grainger has not returned from his tour. All are anxiously waiting for his coming, for the time to open the school is drawing near.

I have many things to say to you, but my writing presses me, so I suppose I must wait until the camp-meeting to speak to you of them. If I could find time, I would love to be at Fresno over Sabbath, and also I would like to spend some weeks in Burrough Valley, but it is not possible.

I hope you can be with us when W. C. White is here, which will be in about two weeks. Then you can see just how matters stand, and do your part to make everything right. This is your first duty, and may the Lord help you that you shall not have run in vain, neither labored in vain. You need to be strong in God, and in the power of his might, not strong in your own strength. It is time that you gave your brethren and sisters, and the world, an example of what a Christian minister should be, both in the pulpit and out of the pulpit. You are not safe unless you are daily learning meekness and lowliness of heart in the school of Christ. Every day we need the59 converting, transforming grace of Christ upon our souls. Every day we need the Comforter that Christ promised to send after he should ascend to his Father. He said, “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you forever; even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. . . . But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever things I have said unto you.”

I plead with God in your behalf, that the Spirit of truth may abide with you, that the work of the Comforter may be seen and realized by you. You said in your letter to me that you would not labor again until you were a converted man, for this you thought from what I had written was your duty. I can tell better what I said when I have seen that letter, but, my brother, whom I love in the Lord, this is the very point I urge upon you—and Christ promised the Comforter to “bring all things to your remembrance”—I want you to remember aright, and to represent all things in a right light to your own soul as well as to others.

I dare not take back anything I said in that letter, for I am sure it is truth, and if you only act upon it and not begin a tirade upon others, weakening your own soul; if you will indeed sit at the feet of Jesus and learn of him who is meek and lowly of heart, you will be a converted man, you will exemplify Christ in your life-work, you will not preach one thing, and practice something altogether different. All the graces you urge60 upon others will be presented in your own character. You will be Christ-like, having his divine mould upon you.

I do most sincerely hope and pray that you will see the necessity of bringing your living expenses within the limit of your means, so that you may not give to others a wrong example in your home life. The brethren who have placed their money in your hands, believing you to be in great need, should not long be kept waiting for its return. If anyone among us needs to practice economy and self-denial, it is yourself, for the money you have received from others should be returned as soon as possible. Brother Leininger’s family live in accordance with the principles of strictest economy. They did not have a carriage until I told them it was their duty to provide one for Sister Leininger. Brother Leininger had conscientiously decided not to build a convenient wood-shed and kitchen for his large family, because he did not feel free to invest means in personal conveniences when the cause of God needed money to carry it forward. I tried to show him that it was necessary for the health as well as for the morals of his children that he should make home pleasant, and provide conveniences to lighten the labor of his wife. Now, my brother, you would not think you could live as that family lives. You would not economize as that family have economized in order to save money in every way possible. You would think it your privilege to invest means in twenty ways for your own convenience where he would not feel that he could indulge in the gratification of self in one way. He binds about his inclinations and wants, while you use means freely, and61 although you have had repeated cautions and reproofs on this point, you will continue to pursue the same course, unless yourself and wife are converted.

When the transforming grace of Christ shall take hold upon your heart, the fruit of that grace will be seen. You will not receive means from your brethren which you do not really need, you will not keep it in your possession, and live in a style in which I would not dare to live, and which others would feel condemned in following. It is as much your duty to bind about your desires and to deny your inclinations as it is my duty and the duty of others to abstain from the gratification of self. While you selfishly gratify appetite, you talk of poverty, of being perplexed for means; you borrow or receive gifts from your brethren, although it works against you and destroys your influence. As a minister of Christ, you cannot follow this course consistently; and as a lay member, if you give up preaching, you cannot do as you have done and be approved of God. You cannot afford to give to your children such an example, for it is not after the example of Christ.

Brother and Sister Daniels, I wish you could see the necessity of bringing yourselves to the habits of economy Brother Leininger has practiced. With all his little children, he thinks they must get along without a hired girl. I think they are straining the point here. You would not think for a moment you could do as they have done in order to save expenses. A practical knowledge of domestic duties would be the very best instruction your children could receive. Not one, or two, or three, but everyone who knows you, even62 your best friends, have spoken in regard to your great expenses, and I have said nothing. They have said, “I do not, I could not expend money as they do, and for the things they do.” I could not say to these friends that what they said was not true, for I knew it was. I have had the matter presented to me again and again. I have told you of these things in the fear of God, not to hurt you, but for your own good, and for the good of your children. I know that neither you nor your children will be among the overcomers around the throne of God unless you make a decided reform. You have attempted to reform. After I wrote you from Basel, Switzerland, you made statements of what you would do,—that you would never eat butter or meat. I knew enough of you and your appetite to consider this an unwise statement; for I felt sure you would break the strongest pledge on this point. You have indulged appetite to such an extent that after making such a decided change you would only go back stronger than ever to your old habits. This is why I wrote you, remonstrating against your radical resolutions in this matter. You moved impulsively, and not from principle, and all your family are in need of reformation. If you do not make decided changes in all of these things, you will enter into temptations of which you do not now dream. You will not be a savor of life unto life, but of death unto death. I write this in the fear of God, because I have a love for your soul.

In your letter to me you said that you thought it was your duty to take charge of your own children as well as to work to save the souls of other people’s children. Would that this might be done; but I am obliged63 to tell you that your training would not be the best training your children could have. Before you can bring up your children in the fear and admonition of the Lord, you need to have an element brought into your character which you do not now possess. You talk against our institutions, against our brethren, in the presence of your children; you advance ideas without a thought on your part, which leave an unfavorable impression on their minds, and which shape their destiny for this life and the future life. This work coming forth from your hands you must meet again in the judgment. Your unwise tenderness toward your children is cruelty of the worst kind. Could you see your words as they are in the books of heaven, you would be ashamed, for you speak without thought. This is why I said you must be converted, and I say it still from the light God has given me. How long do you mean to remain in this condition? How long will it be before you will humbly seek God? How long will it be before you will feel it your duty to act upon the light that God has given you? How long will you stand where you are, with every avenue of the soul open to Satan’s suggestions and temptations? Is it not time that you were in earnest? Is it not time for you to begin to heed the light that God has given you, in place of following your own mind and judgment? Is it not time for you to begin to practice the teachings you have given to others? May the Lord help you to work as you have never worked before. I feel alarmed for you, for I know that you will not long stand where you are. Seek the Lord, I beseech of you, while he is to be found. Yours with great solicitude, ELLEN G. WHITE.

BATTLE CREEK, Mich., July 28, 1889.

DEAR BROTHER DANIELS: Since writing you, as you will see in the letter of earlier date, I have carried a burden on my mind for you. Again last night your case was forced to my notice, and I was talking with you as a mother talks with her son. I said: “Brother Daniels, you should not feel it to be your duty to converse with young ladies upon certain subjects, even if your wife is present. You are encouraging in them the idea that it is all right to communicate to ministers the family secrets and difficulties that should be brought before God, who understands the heart, who never makes a mistake, and who judges righteously. Refuse to listen to any communications of private matters, concerning either families or individuals. If persons are encouraged to come to one man with their troubles, they will think it all right to keep up this practice, and it will become a snare, not only to the soul who communicates, but to the one to whom these things are confided.” I said: “God has not laid this kind of work upon you. Do not invite the confidence of either married or unmarried women. Take the young men and give them your special attention; pray with them and for them. Do not talk with them, or with young ladies either, upon the subject of marriage. This subject needs to be repressed rather than encouraged.”

Again I entreat you to carry all solemnity with you into the pulpit. Do not talk at random, or act indiscreetly, but labor for souls as for those who must give an account. I know that our people are liable to be drawn to you, instead of depending entirely on Christ, and thus they will endanger their souls.

One thing alarms me: When you are cautioned or reproved, you act exactly as Elder Canright has acted for years. He rose up just as you do. He justified himself, and thought himself misjudged and abused. Because he pleased the tastes of the people, he regarded himself as all right. Why do you act so pettish when your course is questioned? Do you think there is no danger at all in your case? Are your eyes blinded that you fail to discern any danger? Because so many are foolish enough to flatter, praise, and extol you, does it bring you evidence that you are sinless? Because the Lord watches your footsteps, and, seeing that they may go in wrong paths, sends you counsel and reproof, or consolation, as the case requires, will you rise up against it? Who can know his own faults? You may make assertions, and they may be honestly made, but, after all, they may be made because you do not see your danger. Real, living, Christian principles that rule the heart at all times, and under all circumstances, will make you an overcomer and a living channel of light. It will be nothing short of a delusion to entertain the idea that you are in no danger. I tell you that you are in danger. You need to walk carefully and prayerfully before God. ELLEN G. WHITE.

BATTLE CREEK, Mich., Nov. 5, 1889.

BROTHER DANIELS: Your case has again been presented before me so clearly that I understand your danger, and I cannot hold my peace, for I have a care for your soul. I am not at liberty to tell you all that has been shown me concerning you; sufficient now is the fact that you have not an eye single to the glory66 of God; your course of action is not in harmony with the Spirit of Christ. If the Lord Jesus were working upon you at all times and in all places, the fruits of righteousness would appear; but the fruits you bear are frequently of such a character as to declare distinctly that your works are not wrought in God, that the Spirit of God does not have a controlling power to subdue and sanctify your nature, and place Christ’s mould upon you. Your powers have at times been unselfishly used to glorify God; but when your own spirit prevails, the very blessings God has given you are perverted to serve your selfish purposes.

How stands the record in the book of God in regard to your dealing in financial matters? “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much; and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.” Christ declares that a selfish use of our possessions in this world proves us unfaithful to God, and therefore disqualified for the higher, heavenly trusts. We are not to live an unactive life in heaven. The faithful steward will there be intrusted with much. “If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who shall commit to your trust the true riches? And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?” Christ has purchased us by the price of his own blood; he has paid the purchase money for our redemption; and if we will lay hold upon the treasure, it is ours by the free gift of the Son of God. In this probationary time we may show ourselves unworthy to have the heavenly gift intrusted to our keeping. Money is not ours; houses and grounds,67 pictures and furniture, garments and luxuries, do not belong to us. We are pilgrims, we are strangers. We have only a grant of those things that are necessary for health and life. But Satan places the temptation before us to desire many things with which the children of light should have nothing to do. Our temporal blessings are given us in trust, to prove whether we can be trusted with eternal riches. If we stand the proving of God, then we shall receive that purchased possession which is to be our own,—glory, honor, and immortality.

Money is not necessarily a curse; it is of high value, because, if rightly appropriated, it can do good in the salvation of souls, in blessing others who are poorer than ourselves. By an improvident or unwise use, as is evident in your case, money will become a snare to the user. He who employs it to gratify pride and ambition makes it a curse rather than a blessing. Money is a constant test of the affections. Whoever acquires more than sufficient for his real needs should seek wisdom and grace to know his own heart and to keep his heart diligently, lest he have imaginary wants and become an unfaithful steward, using with prodigality his Lord’s intrusted capital. When we love God supremely, temporal things will occupy their right place in our affections. If we humbly and earnestly seek for knowledge and ability in order to make a right use of our Lord’s goods, we shall receive wisdom from above. When the heart leans to its own preferences and inclinations, when the thought is cherished that money can confer happiness without the favor of God, then the money becomes a tyrant, ruling the man;68 it receives confidence and esteem, and is worshiped as a god. Honor, truth, righteousness, and justice are sacrificed upon its altar. The commands of God’s word are set aside, and the world’s customs and usages, which King Mammon has ordained, become a controlling power.

In our use of money we can make it an agent of spiritual improvement by regarding it as a sacred trust, not to be employed to administer to pride, vanity, appetite, or passion. We should ever remember that in the judgment we must meet the record of the way we use God’s money. Much is spent in self-pleasing, self-gratification, that does us no real good, but positive injury. If we realize that God is the giver of all good things, that the money is his, then we shall exercise wisdom in its expenditure, conforming to his holy will. The world, its customs, its fashions, will not be our standard. We shall not have a desire to conform to its practices; we shall not permit our inclinations to control us.

It is not best to pretend to be rich, or anything above what we are,—humble followers of the meek and lowly Saviour. We are not to feel disturbed if our neighbors build and furnish their houses in a manner that we are not authorized to follow. How must Jesus look upon our selfish provision for the indulgence of appetite, to please our guests, or to gratify our own inclination? It is a snare to us to aim at making a display or to allow our children under our control to do so. Notwithstanding two testimonies given you in regard to the management of your children, you have not corrected the errors that have been thus pointed69 out. You have placed your own stamp of character upon these children as a birthright, a sad legacy; then with all the light before you, you have indulged them until they reproduce your defects; they have the same desire for self-gratification, the same spirit of self-indulgence. In the training and education of children, a firm, kind, restraining influence is to be day by day exercised over them. Teach them, as did Abraham, to keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the fear of the Lord may be ever before them. Patiently instruct them to walk humbly with God. They should be trained to habits of industry, and not allowed to be indolent. Seek to strengthen everything that will make their character solid, well-balanced, and noble. Let every God-given faculty be developed for usefulness, not perverted by pleasure-loving, by indolence, or by wild liberty. Self-love, self-admiration, is a terrible curse. Teach your children to make the cause of Christ their first and highest consideration, and to deny their selfish desires, that they may do good to others. You as parents are standing under a weighty responsibility. Restrain your own inclinations in the expenditure of means, and give your children the precious lesson that outward display will not make the lady or the gentleman. It is the inward adorning, that meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price, that demands our earnest attention.

Elder Daniels, my heart is sad for you, for your wife, and your children, for I say to you in the fear of God, You are making a record that will be lasting as eternity; “and if ye have not been faithful in that which70 is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?” We are placed here as probationers, to prove whether we will, through the grace of Christ, develop all that the Lord exacts of us. We have been intrusted with great light in regard to the truths of his holy word, and with mental faculties susceptible of the highest cultivation. You are to love God supremely, and your neighbors as yourself. You are to prove yourself faithful even in the least temporal matters. If you disregard the plainest directions given by our Lord in his holy word, and by the testimony of his Spirit, and choose to walk in your own way, to follow the impulse of your own heart, you will be pronounced an unfaithful steward. If you prove yourself unfit to hold the smallest interests which your Master has placed in your hands here, how can God trust you with eternal interests? You may give your money quite freely to our institutions or to individuals, but does God honor you for this? If the money has been obtained unjustly, will he accept this offering at your hands? You may ease your conscience by saying, “I give to the cause what others have given me.” Tell these persons they should be stewards of their own means.

You do not know how to use money economically, and do not learn to bring your wants within your income. Your spendthrift habits are a snare to you. The Lord has warned you, but your habits of prodigality have taken such a hold upon you that his cautions and warnings have been alike unheeded. Your wife, while she may be a help to you in many things, does not help you as she should in this respect. In order to live the life71 of a true disciple of Christ, you must day by day deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow your self-denying, self-sacrificing Redeemer. You have not yet learned the lesson of meekness and lowliness in the school of Christ. You have an eager desire to get money, that you may freely use it as your inclination shall dictate; and your teaching and example have proved a curse to your children. How little they care for principle! They are more and more forgetful of God, less fearful of his displeasure, more impatient of restraint. The more easily money is obtained, the less thankfulness is felt.

I have been shown of God the sinfulness of the course you have been pursuing. You have engaged in mining and real-estate business, and while an acknowledged minister of the gospel, you have worked upon the minds of your brethren, and have influenced them to invest their means in real estate and in mining shares. You told them the investment would bring large returns; that they would more than treble their money, and could help the cause so much more. You represented that this was a golden opportunity which you did not want them to lose, and urged them to avail themselves of the advantages that God had placed right within their reach. With your powers of exaggeration, you represented the matter in such a light that many were deceived, and some lost their money, which should have gone into the cause of God.

Now you have urged upon others the duty of confession, have you made confession of the wrong that you have done your brethren? Have you told them of your errors? Have you told them of your schemes to72 obtain means because your extravagant expenditures brought you into embarrassing positions? Have you fulfilled your promise, that if they did not realize the glowing expectations you had kindled, you would repay the money they had invested? Have you felt that you must confess your sin in diverting to city lands and mining stocks the means which should have been invested in the cause of God? You and your brethren who were engaged with you have a work of restitution to do. When you, Elder Daniels, can say, with Zaccheus, that if you have received aught of any man unjustly you will restore to him fourfold, then there will be evidence of a genuine work of the Spirit of God in your heart.

At the late camp-meeting at Oakland many came to me and inquired if there was nothing to be done in your case. The strong influence you had been exerting in behalf of these speculative enterprises, to the injury of the work of God, brought great trial and perplexity to our brethren. But notwithstanding the wrongs on your part that called for confession, you came to that meeting and held yourself aloof, neither seeking to right your wrongs, nor showing an interest in the work of God. You necessarily had some care of your wife, but this was no sufficient excuse. You needed all the help and blessing which the Lord was waiting to bestow upon you if you would seek him with humility of heart. If you were envious, dissatisfied, feeling that due honor had not been shown you, the Lord could do nothing for you. What conclusion could the people draw from your attitude at that meeting? Had you, as a humble learner in the school of73 Christ, tried to obtain all the help possible from your brethren and sisters, you would not at the close of the meeting have been barren and unblessed; you would not, when you left, have been under temptation, dissatisfied, and unhappy.

I am pained that you have entered upon another money-making scheme. You are teaching voice culture, and by your exaggerated statements, made with such a professed knowledge of the benefits of this exercise, many are deceived, and are led to give you their patronage.

The secret of all these movements is this: When you get into difficult places financially, on account of the extravagant expenses of your family, you set about extricating yourself by some of your inventions. You extort money from those who believe you to be so good a man that everything you say is truth and righteousness. Your method of dealing savors of dishonesty and perversion of facts; it is more like fraud than like honorable, straightforward integrity.

Now the fact that you hold credentials from the Conference, and are receiving pay from the money brought in by the tithing, makes the Conference responsible for your influence among the flock of God. The Lord will not hold them guiltless of your wrong course of action, and the *misrepresentations to which you have resorted to draw money from your brethren. Unless you change your course, I advise the brethren to withdraw your credentials, and not let you carry their influence to sanction your proceedings.

Your course is causing great perplexity among those best acquainted with you. You seem to have a power74 which many would think it is a sin to term anything but the power of God; but your influence does not tend to strengthen, stablish, settle them as to the operations of the Spirit of God. They see you acting in direct opposition to your own work and your own teaching, and that which they suppose to be a divine influence seems to be so blended with the perversity of your nature that they know not how to distinguish between the two. The Lord has shown me that you employ human influence to move upon minds. In your labors it is often the case that that which is attributed to divine power is from a human source; you yourself have at times been amazed that your brethren and sisters should regard you as moved by the power of God. You are deceiving and being deceived.

Your mind is not well-balanced. You are moved by impulse. You make statements in the pulpit, and then go away and contradict them in your conversation. You preach, but do not practice; you have good qualities, but you abuse them, because you do not train your powers to serve God only. You serve yourself, and attract the people to yourself. Your brethren and sisters are certainly deceived in you.

The worst of the matter is that you become impatient if any effort is made to correct these evils. Your pride is touched, and when your brethren seek to counsel and help you, you regard them as personal enemies, and count their reproofs and corrections as designed to work evil against you. You are not right with God. It is only when one unduly esteems himself that he imagines evil of those who would help and save him. God has borne long with your perversity. For years75 he has sent you messages of warning; he has called to you, and held to you as a mother to her erring son; and yet his goodness and mercy have been abused. In the place of heeding the testimonies of the Spirit of God, you have treated them according to the frame of mind you were in when you received them; and your heart is hardened by the very goodness and mercy of God.

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