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Testimonies to Southern Africa
Letter D
“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong
March 5, 1897
Dear Brother_____,
One thing is positive. You must either mingle more of the oil
of love, of tender compassion, with your work, your stiffness and
coldness must be melted away, or you will not win your way in such a
country as Africa. This country needs men who are as firm as a rock to
principle, and who have also the simplicity and love of Christ. These
can adapt themselves to the situation; they will not leave upon other
minds an impression of sternness, and coldness, and harshness. You
need to be baptized in the cheerful sunshine of the righteousness of
Jesus Christ, and have far less of the—what shall I call it?—the desire
to carry out your own opinions, when it would be better for you to
believe that your opinions can and should be modified
You need to have that love of Christ in your heart, and then you
will win your way, but when any wrong exists among your brethren,
you handle it in such a way that it creates in the one whom you think
wrong a spirit of resistance and defiance. You have not woven into
your work the love, the compassion, and the tenderness of Christ. Had
you done this, had you encircled_____with your love, had you bound
him to your heart with the tender bonds of affection, you would have
saved him. But you let him drift away, inwardly glad that you would
have no more perplexity over his case.
I am not writing this to condemn you, but to warn you. Let your
tongue be dipped in the oil of the love and grace of Christ. If this
love is an abiding principle in your heart, you will know better how
to associate with your brethren at all times. You will not stand off
so stiffly, and hold so firmly to your own ideas, irrespective of the
consequences.
A correct theory of the truth is excellent and essential; but the love
of God, which should baptize all theories, has a power to reach all
hearts. This love is what you need. You need the moisture of the dew
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of heaven, the melting, softening, subduing influence of the Spirit,
upon your heart. If you had lived in this atmosphere while you have
been in Africa, you would have worked as a co-labourer with Jesus
Christ, as a restorer.