Chapter 31—Respect for Unbiblical Marriages
Separation Not Recommended—Dear Brother [C. H. Bliss]:
Your letter has been received and read. I have had acquaintance with
several such cases and have found those who felt conscientious to do
something in similar cases to the one you mention. After having stirred
things up generally, and torn things to pieces, they had no wisdom
to put things together to make matters better. I found that those who
were so zealous to tear things down did nothing to build them up in
right order. They had the faculty to confuse, distress, and create a most
deplorable condition of things, but not the faculty to make them better.
You have asked my counsel in regard to this case. I would say
that unless those who are burdened in reference to the matter have
carefully studied a better arrangement, and can find places for these
where they can be comfortable, they better not carry out their ideas of
a separation. I hope to learn that this matter is not pressed, and that
sympathy will not be withdrawn from the two whose interests have
been united.
No Hasty Movements. I write this because I have seen so many
cases of the kind, and persons would have great burden till everything
was unsettled and uprooted, and then their interest and burden went
no further. We should individually know that we have a zeal that is
according to knowledge. We should not move hastily in such matters,
[219]
but look on every side of the question. We should move very cau-
tiously and with pitying tenderness, because we do not know all the
circumstances which led to this course of action.
I advise that these unfortunate ones be left to God and their own
consciences, and that the church shall not treat them as sinners until
they have evidence that they are such in the sight of the holy God. He
reads hearts as an open book. He will not judge as man judgeth.—
Letter 5, 1891
. [
Just twenty years later W. C. White wrote another
correspondent:
“Mother has received during the last twenty years many letters
making inquiry regarding the matters about which you write, and she
184