Chapter 119—The Husband’s Position
Dear Brother and Sister D,
While speaking in meeting Sunday afternoon, I could scarcely
refrain from calling your names and relating some things which had
been shown me. I saw that Brother D did not occupy that position in
his family which God would have him. Sister D takes the lead; she
possesses a strong will, which has not been subdued as God requires;
and in order to please his wife and keep her from despondency, Brother
D has yielded to her. Her judgment has swayed him, and he has not
been a free man for years.
When Brother D first engaged in the work of teaching the truth, he
was little in his own eyes, and God used him as His instrument. But I
saw that for some time in the past he has not humbled himself under the
hand of God. He has trusted to his own wisdom and weak judgment,
and Satan has been obtaining an advantage over him. Instead of relying
solely upon God, and staying himself upon His strength, he has had
his judgment perverted by the influence of his wife. She has stood in
a position to see, to hear, to understand, all that was going on around
her. Did she possess a sanctified judgment and heavenly wisdom, then
would she see through sanctified eyes, and hear through sanctified ears.
She would make a right use of her eyes and ears. She has not done
this. “Who is blind, but My servant? or deaf, as My messenger that I
sent?” God does not wish us to hear all that is to be heard, or to see
all that is to be seen. It is a great blessing to close the ears, that we
hear not, and the eyes, that we see not. The greatest anxiety should be
to have clear eyesight to discern our own shortcomings, and a quick
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ear to catch all needed reproof and instruction, lest by our inattention
and carelessness we let them slip and become forgetful hearers and
not doers of the work.
Brother D, for some time in the past your labors have not been as
wisely and successfully directed as formerly. Your course of action has
not borne the impress of God. Your wife has managed your temporal
matters and borne burdens which were too heavy for her to bear, while
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