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Chapter 23—Closeness in Deal
Dear Brother H,
I have been waiting for an opportunity to write you, but have
been hindered. After my last vision I felt it to be my duty to speed-
ily lay before you what the Lord was pleased to present to me. I
was pointed back and shown that for years in the past, even before
your marriage, there had been in you a disposition to overreach in
trade. You possessed a spirit of acquisitiveness, a disposition for
close dealing, which was detrimental to your spiritual advancement
and greatly injured your influence. Your father’s family viewed
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these matters from the world’s standpoint rather than from the high,
exalted standard quoted by our divine Lord: “Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all
thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.”
In this you have failed. To deal in any way closely and unjustly is
displeasing to God. He will not pass over errors and sins in this
direction without thorough confession and forsaking.
I was pointed far back and shown the loose manner in which you
regarded these things. The Lord marked the transaction of carrying
to market that load of animals that were so inferior that they could not
be profitable to keep, therefore were prepared for food and carried
to market to be bought and introduced into the human stomach.
One of these was placed upon our table for some time to feed our
large family in the days of our poverty. You were not the only one
to be blamed in this. Others of your family were alike guilty. It
matters not whether it was designed that they should be bought and
eaten by us or by worldlings. It is the principle of the thing which
displeased God; you transgressed His command. You did not love
your neighbor as you did yourself, for you would be unwilling to
have the same thing done to you. You would consider yourself
insulted. An avaricious spirit led to this departure from Christian
principles, and caused you to descend to a species of trading which
advantaged yourself at others’ disadvantage.
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