Seite 90 - The Retirement Years (1990)

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86
The Retirement Years
are to ask, “Is this union the will of the Lord?” May it not be His plan
for the increase of the helpfulness and usefulness of each?
For many years, because of his invalid wife, Elder Butler has been
shut away from the work, cut off from many privileges, prevented
from doing the work he might have done. He has cared faithfully and
tenderly for his wife, who was weak in mind and body, hampered by
affliction and infirmity. When she died, he buried her in sorrow, yet
not as a man who is without hope.
After his wife’s death, he began to plan for his sister, who has been
living with him for a few years, to visit her friends, as she had desired.
But the Lord saw fit to add another sorrow to his life. Very suddenly
and unexpectedly Sister Lockwood [Elder Butler’s sister] died.
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Elder Butler is a man who needs the softening influence of a good,
high-principled woman. The companionship of such a woman would
indeed be a great blessing to him. Considering his experience for the
last fifteen years, is it strange that he desires a younger person than
himself to love, to converse with?
You do not reason altogether correctly. Saith the Lord, “My
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways....
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher
than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” The Lord sur-
prises us by His manner of dealing.
Elder Butler is strong in physical and spiritual health. The Lord
has proved and tested and tried him, as He did Job, and as He did
Moses. I see in Elder Butler one who has humbled his soul before
God. He has another spirit than the Elder Butler of younger years. He
has been learning his lesson at the feet of Jesus. After caring so long
for his suffering, afflicted wife, he has come forth from the furnace
fire refined and purified. I respect and love my brother as one of God’s
servants.
I have no more to say, except that if your sister, being a Christian, is
led and taught by God, leave her with God. Do not by human wisdom
spoil the Lord’s plan and hinder His work. Elder Butler needs the help
of a strong, kind, intelligent woman, who can cooperate with him in
his sphere of usefulness, encouraging him and holding up his hands,
aiding him to do a good and acceptable work for the Master. If your
sister is that woman, she may feel honored in uniting with Elder Butler.
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