Haskell, S. N.
Norfolk Villa, Prospect Street, Granville, New South Wales
May 31, 1895
Portions of this letter are published in HP 66.
Dear Brother Haskell:
Willie read to me the letters sent to me and to him, and read to me the copies of the letters sent to Brother Prescott and to Brother Olsen. I was glad to hear from you, but not pleased to read between the lines that you were not in the cheerful, happy state of mind that it is your privilege to enjoy. I was conversing with you and saying, The Lord had given me a message for you. You are surely misjudging your brethren. You are not gathering strength and entertaining thoughts that will draw you close to your brethren, and answering the prayer of Christ with His disciples that there may be unity and express love one for another. Your suspicions are not correct. I am glad to relieve your mind in this respect. Your brethren have confidence in you, when you are harboring thoughts that they do not have confidence in you; and you certainly do them injustice. You cannot be surprised that their ideas are not exactly like your ideas in all things. Your desire to be alone is not healthful, not sound. We are a part of the great whole of humanity, and a portion of the great whole. We are to exert an influence over one another, and the Holy Spirit works that influence into its own service and proposes to sanctify and employ it as the chosen instrumentality, to cooperate with God in eradicating evils produced by its perversion. Man is to become an agent of unmingled good to every soul. I felt very sorry to read these letters to Brethren Prescott and Olsen. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 1
Have courage and faith in God. Press forward, looking to Jesus who is the Author and Finisher of your faith. It is when you get to looking at yourself, and imagining all evil things in reference to your brethren, your ideas become perverted and you lose your hold on Jesus Christ. The Lord has called you and chosen you to do His work. When looking to Jesus, receiving your orders from Jesus, you will be thoroughly imbued with His Spirit. You will not be so easily disturbed in mind, even if your brethren should in words and actions intimate your work was not perfect. The Lord has plainly stated that their work is not perfect before Him, and yet the responsibility rests on them to work. They cannot separate themselves from the work. While they shall most earnestly seek to do the will of God, they are to look to Him for grace and help, and the light of His countenance. Jesus knows it all. He knows our every weakness, and He is a tender, compassionate High Priest. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 2
“For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.” [Hebrews 2:10, 11.] Now I tell you in the Lord, not to worry and fret, and not only believe, but let the peace of God rule in your heart, and be ye thankful. There are many suppositions that you have in regard to your brethren that you feel injured over that are not correct. You think your brethren are hurting you. They love you, my brother. They express to me that your words to the people are in the power of the Holy Spirit, and they reach the hearts of the people. If they have sent for you to come to America, it is because your experience, and the way you present the truth, is just the kind of labor the people need. Now do please, do not suspicion your brethren without cause—that is, that they do not have confidence in you. You do them a wrong in thinking thus, and injure your own soul, and make yourself weak. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 3
By beholding you become changed into the same image upon which you look. If you are looking for slights and expecting your brethren are not having confidence in you, it is limiting truth in your mind, when it is not truth. You weaken your efficiency, and your brethren learning your suspicions are not true: it will lead them to think that you are really losing your balance of mind. Now do not hurt yourself and hurt your brethren. Be perfectly free, and have confiding confidence in your brethren, and it will meet with a response and be reflected back upon you again. It is the temptations of the enemy that suggest these temptations in your mind. Oh, do put them away! 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 4
Be cheerful and courageous, and leave a free and clear testimony. What greater evidence could the Lord give you than He has given you of His love? And now rest in that love; overcome this suspicion; I beg of you for Christ’s sake to think no evil. I want them, your brethren, to see in you just what the Lord means you shall be, a man of clear, sound mind. Do not, my brother, give way to weakness; give no sign of dotage, for God is your Redeemer. He wants you to stand above weakness. Call back your thoughts from dwelling upon yourself. You have a right to ask the Lord that your mind may be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 5
You must be all light in the Lord. Do not eat of any of the garbage that Satan presents before you of unbelief and distrust of your brethren. These conjectures and imaginings have long been cherished; they bring only weakness, but no strength. You love the truth, and you love Jesus, and Jesus loves you; but He has no love for sin. He wants every phase of sin put away. “Let him take hold of my strength that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.” Isaiah 27:5. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 6
By faith walk through the hellish shadow of Satan and center your faith in your Advocate. “Rejoice in the Lord alway; and again I say, Rejoice.” Philippians 4:4. “And the peace of God ... shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7. “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” Philippians 4:8. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 7
If you do not now turn your mind from the suggestions of the enemy, it will become habit for you to construe the words of your brethren to mean demerit, when no such thing is in their thought. The Lord is your Helper. The Holy Spirit works in us by bringing vividly to mind the precious words of truth in God’s saving operation. The Holy Spirit has given you every reason to trust in Him. He presents the truth to your mind for others, makes the neglected Word quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. Have you not every reason to praise God, to look unto Him and live, and not feel that you are being watched as one not worthy? You are to grow in knowledge and human truth by beholding Him who is Truth. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 8
(2 Peter 1) is a precious chapter. “Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.” Verses 1-4. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 9
Now, my brother, your hand must be placed in the hand of God. You must not contemplate yourself, but Jesus Christ, whose you are. You are His purchased possession. You are not to feel you are required, because your brethren recommend you to do so, to go to America. You are to look to Jesus, your Leader, your General, and your Redeemer, who says, Follow Me. God hath bestowed upon us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, and through the great goodness and righteousness of Jesus Christ we are called unto glory and virtue. His divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. Now, having much rich provision, shall we complain and fret and worry ourselves into gloom and discouragement because we fancy human beings do not appreciate our work? No! No! NO! God is our assurance, our sufficiency, our exceeding great reward. Very tenderly hath God dealt with you, my brother, and He wants you to keep your trust in Him, and in His sons and in His daughters, members of His family. Look up, LOOK UP, higher and still HIGHER than human efficiency. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 10
But I tell you, my brother, whatever your ideas may be, your brethren have confidence in you, and you are not doing them justice to imagine that they want to lessen your influence. If they desired to do this they would not have sent for you to attend their general meetings in America. You need not go unless you want to go. But in the name of the Lord I entreat you to bind about this train of thought, else your brethren who love you and appreciate your labors will consider, [by] your unreasonable suspicions, that your mind is weakening. These things have been presented to me for years. Here is your weakness which you must overcome, for it hurts you, and it hurts your brethren; and if entertained, grieves the heart of Christ. Close that drawer which Satan opens that you may inhale his disagreeable odor. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 11
Hang in memory’s hall the abundant mercies of God and believe in Him as your personal Saviour. His promises are to you exceeding great by His divine knowledge and manifestation to you of rich grace, not to exalt you, but that you may exalt Him. You are to be imitating His characteristics, partaking of His divine nature. And when you entertain thoughts that your brethren are planning some way to lessen your influence, it is as I have told you in former letters—a device of Satan to make you miserable. Satan whispers those things to your mind, and they are to you a reality; but Satan exults in your discomfiture. Do not write any more such letters, with such suppositions and such propositions made known as in your letters just sent to your brethren. Do not pity and sympathize with yourself, for it brings no relief. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 12
There is need of men such as yourself in Africa. There are places enough where you can do much good, but this is not saying it makes it your duty to stay there. We greatly desire you to be in Australia. You can be a blessing to us here. But you must not come supposing you will have no trials. We all have things to meet not of a pleasant character, and all who engage in the work for God cannot devote time to study every phase of the mind as if they could read the consequence of every proposition upon the mind. But we must not act as if we were in slavery, in connection with our brethren whom the Lord leads and counsels. God loves them, and He loves you, and He loves me, and He wants us to be one with our brethren, and one with Jesus Christ. He wants us individually to put our trust in God. The aim and end of your life is to be a partaker of the divine nature. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 13
When you see weakness cropping out in your thoughts and imaginings that, if entertained, would separate you from your brethren and lead you to regard them with distrust and suspicion in reference to yourself, put them away quickly. They are only the working of a designing Satan to make you appear like a feeble, demented man. You can rise above these things. You can rise [nearer] to God and closer to your brethren. God has evidenced to you that He loves you. Let these thoughts make you pleased, joyful, happy in such love, and lift you above the suggestions of Satan into a spiritual atmosphere. Service to God is not merely obedience to His requirements, but likeness to God. You are His child; vital is the relationship of Father and child, oneness of nature. “Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.” “These things I command you, that ye love one another.” [John 15:14, 15, 17.] 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 14
My brother, I write you in plain language because I cannot endure the thought that you will contemplate and act upon your suppositions until they are a living reality to you, and will [so] place you in connection with your brethren that there can be no freedom of speech between you, because you have no confidence in them, in their thoughts and movements toward you. Their very best efforts to make you happy, and to show their care of you, Satan will interpret to your suspicious mind as something objectionable, the very opposite of the truth. Will you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth put these things away? 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 15
It is you, my brother, that have a weak confidence in your brethren. You are to retain your individuality; you are at the same time to feel that you are not your own, but bought with a price. We are distinct individuals; but mortal sinful creatures as we are, Christ has made it possible, and our duty and privilege to be conformed to the divine image. His consciousness is to be ours, His blessedness ours, His feelings we are to manifest, and His excellence ours. Love your brethren, believe in your brethren workmen; and all this unrest will pass away, for it is you that must change before you will find rest and happiness among your brethren. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 16
Delivered from the corruptions of our own nature, having that faith that works by love and purifies the soul, we are blessed in God, and enjoy the society of our brethren. The divine sympathies are with us; our sympathies are with God and our brethren. The great [theme] of Christ in His teachings is to present the paternal character of God. That man, finite, may realize God’s purposes towards us, the essential oneness of believers in Jesus Christ and all bound up in Christ, is the essential teaching of Christ. You prevent your happiness. Satan magnifies little things and distorts the very best purposes of those who love you to mean otherwise than the truth, and they can be no help in your case until yourself change, and you are determined your brethren are not trying to differ from you and hurt you. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 17
I have now spoken these things so plainly that the evil may no longer continue but the last fiber be rooted out, for the unhappiness that gathers about your soul is more imaginary than real. Christ’s likeness in us is a grand truth, a practical truth. I am not merely a thing that God loves, made to be left the sport of Satan’s temptations; I am a child of God, begotten unto a lively hope, big with immortality and full of glory. We are to dwell in God, and God in us. Purity in us is like purity in God; love in my heart is a living principle, like the love in the heart of God; and all the treasures of heaven are at my command because I am redeemed by the blood of the Lamb. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 18
You are not to be a poor, cringing mortal, feeling yourself demerited by human beings, longing to get away alone. God wants you to walk in His light, in His love, to accept by faith the forgiveness of your sins, and by the regenerating influences of His Holy Spirit change your moral affections and make you complete in Jesus Christ. Stand in the moral excellence of His character. “Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” [Ephesians 6:10, 11.] 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 19
The Lord is acquainted with you, [with] every act of your life, and His blood cleanses from every sin. The Lord does not prompt you or any of His children to have a longing desire to sit by the grave of your wife. The living, THE LIVING—save all the powers of your mind, your soul, to do your God-given work. He wants no man or woman to stop and consider the dead. Time is passing, the end is near; we have no time or strength to stop and consider needless repinings. God has given you your work; do it faithfully, cheerfully, happily, not looking and expecting that men shall appreciate that work. They never will. But our eyes are to look to God. He knows every feeling of sadness; He knows every weakness; and He knows how to restore, how to heal. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 20
I leave my dead to sleep under the eye of God until the last trump shall call them from the dead to life and to immortality. The Lord does not want you or me to cherish any weak sentimentalism. We are to arm ourselves with the mind of Christ and work as Christ worked, [to] open our hearts to pity and yearning love for our brethren, and for all out of Christ. Oh man, be ennobled, elevated, strong physically and mentally in God’s nature, through or by faith escaping the corruption of this world through lust. Self must have no part in our life. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 21
We are sons and daughters of God. Satan is the destroyer and Christ is the restorer. He will make us partakers of His holiness. God does not make light of sin, but He seeks to rescue us from sin. There is not in Jesus Christ harsh, stern repulsiveness or resentment; and if we have the character of Christ we shall have His mold. There is no forcing us to holiness, but in His own likeness He wishes us to imitate His character, to admire Him—true, pure, generous, and loving. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 22
But I have no time to write more. Mail goes today. Come to Australia before you go to America. We all want to see you, and come with full faith that we believe in you and want to be benefited with your company in Jesus Christ. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 23
With much love. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 24
Please copy and send me a copy. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 25
I must add a few words more. God wants you to stand in His strength and freedom. You have despondent moods. We all have these trials, but the large aspects of God’s mercy in Christ overbalances all which is dark and forbidding. We must cherish hope and faith and trust in God. Our duties often have to be performed by faith. We cannot see reasons or properly calculate results, but we must move on. “Go forward,” is the word. All our life work laid out by God is surrounded by promises if we will take heed to them. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 26
My brother, let us come in a sacred nearness with God. You know what faith is. You have exercised faith, and you understand its efficiency. Believe, BELIEVE and trust in God, and do not shut the sunshine of Christ out of your heart. Happiness is composed of little things and great things, and as the little things are more general, we will make the most of little things in the right way; but do not mistrust your brethren in the little things. It is impossible for one mind to enter into another man’s mind and to discern all there is in that mind. We are to remember that we are to do our best in the sight of the whole universe of heaven, for we shall never misunderstand or be misunderstood by heavenly intelligences. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 27
We want to see you and to sit with you in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and we will have precious communication to each other. We want to evidence to our brethren that we are upheld by God; that we are not standing in the strength of finite man but in the strength of One who hath said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” [Matthew 28:20.] Our individual efficiency is in God. Let us not sow any weakness in these things. Let us give cause for our brethren to praise God for we are sustained by Him, and let us not depend upon human sympathy or human appreciation. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 28
If we would become like Christ and receive His fashion of character, we must in little things train the soul to daily progressive sanctification. We have no time to lose. Would you impress the seal to obtain a clear impression upon the wax, you do not dash it on by a violent action, but you place the seal carefully and firmly [and] press it down until the wax receives the mold. Just so the Lord is dealing with our souls. Grace—the grace of Christ—is working the human agent the same way of educating. The influence in our education is the Holy Spirit working us continually; not now and then, but constantly the new life is implanted by the Holy Spirit after His—Christ’s—likeness. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 29
Acts make habits, and habits constitute character. There is no fear of overlooking great things, but there is peril in overlooking and undervaluing little things. God is the God of the whole man, and the little things are essential. God is a God of the whole man and not a God of the part. He made all, He redeemed all, and He must be served in all, and then He will be glorified, and every breath, every sound, every touch will be peace and light and happiness. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 30
Now my brother, I shall pray that you may be strong in His strength, to reveal to saints and sinners that your peace is tuned to righteousness, that you put right construction on everything. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 31
Brother Haskell, I have written this by lamplight, yesterday and this morning. If you cannot read every word then send it back and I will copy and return you a clean copy. If you can read it, copy it for me, for some things presented themselves as I wrote that I wish to preserve; they have helped me while writing. I have much good matter just come from Melbourne. I have not time to copy. 10LtMs, Lt 25a, 1895, par. 32