Ellen White’s Assistants
177
I am astonished that you should for a moment give thought to
such a thing, and place your affections on a married man who had left
his wife and children under such circumstances. I advise you to lay
your thoughts and plans regarding this matter just as they are before
our responsible brethren, that you may receive their counsel, and let
them show you from the law of God the error into which you have
fallen. You have both broken the law even in thinking that you might
unite in marriage. You should have repelled the thought at its first
suggestion.—
Letter 14, 1895
.
To James Edson White, December 9, 1895...—But oh, the
heartache, for other things were developing and being made manifest
which had been a fearful strain on me. It was the intimacy between W.
F. C. and [Fannie]. I had presented before them all the dangers, but
they denied it. But at the meeting at Melbourne Fannie acknowledged
she loved W. F. C. and he loved her. I tried to present the matter
before them in its true bearing. W. F. C. had a wife living. Recently
she obtained a divorce. He had left her and been gone three years. But
Fannie told me she had been praying that if it was right she should
marry W. F. C. that his wife might obtain a divorce. What blindness
will come to those who begin to depart from a straightforward course!
These two had thought they could unite in marriage and they could
both unite in carrying on my work. The management of all my busi-
ness would be supposed to be in his hands. Not much, I told them.
Such a step would cut them off from me forever, both of them, because
[210]
W. F. C. had no moral right to [marry].—
Letter 123a, 1895
.
To W. F. C., April 9, 1896—I am greatly distressed as I review
the past, and as matters are brought to my notice by the Spirit of God.
I have a decided message to bear to you, Brother C. Special light in
regard to you and your family was not given me until about two years
ago. I was then shown that the attitude you manifested in your home
life was unchristian. You began your married life by accepting a false
sabbath, and by sailing under false colors. But a wife that was obtained
by selling principles of truth could not bring peace or happiness to the
purchaser. God was dishonored by your action in this matter, and His
truth was trampled in the dust.
When you gave up the Sabbath for your wife, she rejoiced that she
had gained a victory, and Satan also rejoiced. But when she accepted
a man who was willing to sell his Lord for her, she could not look