Counsels to Walter and Laura
49
Your course of life has been of that character that all your good
is evil spoken of. You become soured, unsanctified, and unholy. In
order to gain that which you think is liberty you pursue a course which,
if followed, will hold you in a bondage worse than slavery. You
must change your course of conduct and be guided by the counsel of
experience, and, through the wisdom of those whom the Lord teaches,
place your will on the side of the will of God.
Stain on the Soul—But if you are determined to listen to no
counsels but your own, and you will work out every problem for
yourself, then be sure you will reap that which you have sown. You
will miss the right way altogether or else, wounded, bruised, and
dwarfed in religious character, you will turn to the Lord, humbled,
penitent, and confessing your errors. You will become tired of beating
the air.
Are you sure that your course is right? I know you are not; but
pride has taken possession of your soul. You are too giddy or too
reckless to take counsel. Remember, every action and every course
of action has a twofold character, be it virtuous or demoralizing. God
is displeased with you. Can you afford to pursue the course you are
pursuing? A stain is being imprinted upon your soul.—
Letter 47,
1889
.
Like Clay in Jesus’ Hands—I beg of you, Laura, to go to God for
wisdom. The most difficult thing you will have to manage is your own
self. Your own daily trials, your emotions, and your peculiar tempera-
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ment, your inward promptings, these are difficult matters for you to
control, and these wayward inclinations bring you often into bondage
and darkness. Your only course is to give yourself unreservedly into
the hands of Jesus—all your experiences, all your temptations, all
your trials, all your impulses—and let the Lord mold you as clay is
molded in the hands of the potter. You are not your own, therefore the
necessity of giving your unmanageable self into the hands of One who
is able to manage you; then rest, precious rest and peace, will come to
your soul. Lie passive in the hands of God.
Pictures in Heaven’s Record Books—Remember, your character
is being daguerreotyped [photographed] by the great Master Artist in
the record books of heaven, as minutely as the face is reproduced upon
the polished plate of the artist. What do the books of heaven say in
your case? Are you conforming your character to the Pattern, Jesus