Ellen White’s Assistants
179
in the sight of God until you do all in your power to be reconciled
to your wife. You have a work to do in your family which cannot be
left undone. This I stated to you last September. Whatever position
[212]
your wife has taken, whatever course of recklessness and levity she
has pursued, this does not excuse you from acting a father’s part to
your children. You ought to go back to your home and do all in your
power to heal the breach, which you, a professed believer in the truth,
have done more than your wife to make.
When you placed your love upon another woman, even though
your wife had obtained a divorce, you transgressed the seventh com-
mandment. But you have done worse than this. You loved another
woman before your wife obtained a divorce, and you have said to one,
“How hard it is to be bound to a woman I do not love, when there is
one I love, yes, the very ground she walks on.”
Your course while in my family was not open and frank. The
transactions between you and the one upon whom you placed your
affections were carried on under falsehood and deception. In the guise
of false pretension, secret plans were carried out. The Lord opened
these matters before me, and I tried to change the order of things, but
the burden of soul was to you and others accounted a thing of naught.
At this time you were giving Bible readings, and taking a prominent
part in church work. My advice and counsel was not asked in regard to
this important decision. Had I been, I should have been spared much
pain that followed.
When I talked with you in regard to your freedom in the company
of young ladies, and told you that I could not have you in my family
while I went to Tasmania, your answer was that you had always been
sociable with young women, and had never thought that there was any
harm in it. I told you that I knew there was harm in this freedom and
that I could not feel justified in leaving you in my family while I was
absent.
[213]
When I told you that you could not remain in my family, you said
that after settling your accounts, which would take about a week, you
could go. But this matter dragged along, or was neglected, till about
two weeks before our return from Tasmania, and then in July we went
to Cooranbong.
This matter cannot rest here. I cannot be looked upon as keeping
you from your home and family. It was a mistake, I think, to bring