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Testimonies for the Church Volume 8
I write to you as a mother would write to her son. I would help you
if I could. I would go to see you if I could feel it my duty to leave the
work here in Australia, but I dare not do this. You have built up hopes
and nurtured plans without due consideration of how the tower is to be
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completed. As one who knows, as one who has been permitted to see
the results of the work that you have taken upon you, I call upon you to
stop and consider. God knows your frame. He knows that you are but
dust. You will certainly need the counsel, not only of those who have
encouraged you to go on in the work which you deem so important,
but the counsel of men who, at the present time, are able to see more
clearly than you do the results that will follow certain undertaKings.
Cast not behind you as of no consequence the warnings that as yet
you do not understand. If you receive the messages of warning sent
you, you will be saved from great trial.
* * * * *
Extract from a letter written in 1899 from Wellington, New
Zealand—We are not to allow our perplexities and disappointments
to eat into our souls and make us fretful and impatient. Let there be
no strife, no evil thinking or evil-speaking, lest we offend God. My
brother, if you open your heart to envy and evil surmising, the Holy
Spirit cannot abide with you. Seek for the fullness that is in Christ.
Labor in His lines. Let every thought and word and deed reveal Him.
You need a daily baptism of the love that in the days of the apostles
made them all of one accord. This love will bring health to body, mind,
and soul. Surround your soul with an atmosphere that will strengthen
spiritual life. Cultivate faith, hope, courage, and love. Let the peace of
God rule in your heart. Then you will be enabled to discharge your
responsibilities. The Holy Spirit will impart a divine efficiency, a calm,
subdued dignity, to all your efforts to relieve suffering. You will testify
that you have been with Jesus.
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