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Chapter 10—Reform at Home
Brother M,
From what was shown me, there is a great work to be accom-
plished for you before you can be accepted in the sight of God.
Self is too prominent. You possess a hasty, passionate temper, and
are arbitrary and overbearing in your family. Sister M is slack and
untidy in her house. She has not the elements of order and neatness
in her organization. Yet she can improve in these things. Brother
M, you censure your wife, you are dictatorial, and do not have that
love which you should have. She dreads your oppressive spirit, but
does not do what she might to correct her wrong habits, which make
home distasteful and disagreeable.
Brother M, you have not taken a judicious course with your fam-
ily. Your children do not love you. They have more hatred than love.
Your wife does not love you. You do not take a course to be loved.
You are an extremist. You are severe, exacting, arbitrary, to your
children. You talk the truth to them, but do not carry its principles
into your everyday life. You are not patient, forbearing, and forgiv-
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ing. You have so long indulged your own spirit, you are so ready
to fly into a passion if provoked, that it looks exceedingly doubtful
whether you will make efforts sufficient to meet the mind of Christ.
You do not possess the power of endurance, forbearance, gentleness,
and love. These Christian graces must be possessed by you before
you can be truly a Christian. You reserve your encouraging words,
your kindly acts, for those who are not entitled to them as much as
your own wife and children. Cultivate kind words, pleasant looks,
praise, and approbation for your own family, for this will materially
affect your happiness. Never let censure or fretful words escape your
lips. Subdue this desire to rule and to place your iron heel wherever
you can. You possess a most disagreeable spirit, a close spirit. With
some you are selfish and stingy; for others whom you wish to think
highly of you, you would sacrifice anything, even the very things
your own family need. You are liberal in these cases that you may
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