White, J. E.; White, Emma
St. Helena, California
July 22, 1907
Portions of this letter are published in SD 228; LDE 115. +NoteOne or more typed copies of this document contain additional Ellen White handwritten interlineations which may be viewed at the main office of the Ellen G. White Estate.
Dear Children Edson and Emma:
Since the St Helena camp-meeting, I have been passing through a long period of feebleness and have not attempted to write much. But I have found plenty to do in reading over the matter that has been prepared for publication, and which is waiting to be put into print. I have begun to examine the manuscript prepared by Mrs. Stuttle for the Youth’s Life of Christ. My left eye causes me much suffering, but I have faith to believe that the Lord will heal my eyes. I will not yield my confidence in Him, but will believe, believe. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 1
My constant writing, from early morning until night, has worn upon me, and at times I suffer pain in my brain. Up to the time of our camp-meeting in St. Helena, I was writing all day, continuing my work in the evening by lamplight. Since the camp-meeting I have not written much by lamplight. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 2
The manuscripts which I have read over are the very things that are needed by our people at this time. I pray that the Lord will give me my precious eyesight, that I may be able to continue this work of examining these manuscripts. There are piles of my writings on every hand; for I have kept a diary of all my labors in Australia, and much of my experiences in America. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 3
Regarding the meetinghouse in Knoxville: I favor the proposal made by you and Emma and Hattie Belden. Knoxville has been presented to me as one of the places that should have been worked years ago. It behooves us all to do our very best to redeem the time. I will be heart and hand with you as you endeavor to change the neglect of the past by earnest effort. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 4
One week ago last Sabbath I spoke in the sanitarium chapel. Every seat in the body of the hall was filled, and the small room at the entry was crowded. A number of patients in wheel chairs filled the aisles, and small chairs were placed on the platform for the children, to give more room for the older people in the regular seats. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 5
I had special freedom as I spoke of the work to be done in the southern field for the colored people. I presented the importance of each family’s having a small box in which to place their donations to this field, showing how such a plan would teach every member of the family self-denial. By this method, not only the members of the family would be led to give their pennies and dimes, but visitors coming to the house, and learning of the plan of giving, would become interested in the cause, and they too would make their offerings. I made an earnest appeal for the work in the South, but since that effort I have been very weak, doing scarcely any talking or praying with my own family. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 6
We are certainly living in the last days. In the matters that are daily being unfolded in the papers regarding the corruption in San Francisco and crime in Montana, we can see a perfect revelation of the working of sin. Evil men have pledged themselves to take the lives of those who have stood in their way, or who would not become one with them in their work of robbery. For the sake of gain they have become the murderers of their fellow men. And this work of revelation is only the beginning of what is to be revealed in the future. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 7
I have been shown that all the warnings of Christ regarding the events that will occur near the close of this earth’s history are now being fulfilled in our cities. God is permitting these things to be brought to light that he who runs may read. The city of San Francisco is a sample of what the whole world is becoming. The wicked bribery, the misappropriation of means, the fraudulent transactions among men who have power to release the guilty and condemn the innocent—all this iniquity is filling other large cities of the earth and is making the world as it was in the days that were before the flood. Amid such evil the hope of the Christian must be in One who is omnipotent; his only safety is to hide himself with Christ in God. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 8
The Lord understands all about His work in the world; He knows every secret that we must wait for the future to unfold. At this time He calls upon His people to become truly converted. To those who are engaged in a work of controversy, He says, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season.” [2 Timothy 4:2.] The human agent is not to look to man to learn his duty. He is to place his strength and dependence on the strength and power of the One who can lead him from victory unto victory. The righteousness of Christ is to be our strength, our frontguard and our rearward. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 9
Time is rapidly passing, and wickedness is increasing. If we refuse to do the good we may do, we place ourselves in a perilous position. If we delay to enter the ranks of those who are workers together with God, we will find ourselves in the ranks of those who oppose truth and righteousness, who have turned away from the truth and are turned unto fables. The condition of this class is a sad one; for unless some power shall break the spell that is upon them, they will be lost, eternally lost. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 10
God’s people will be called to pass through trying experiences. Many will fall at their post, betrayed and condemned by their fellow men. In such times of trial they can remember that the Saviour suffered in like manner, passed over that very ground in their behalf. His followers will never be called to suffer more than He endured in order to win salvation for them. Let us work then as unto God. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 11
We have the record of the Saviour’s life and death of humiliation and suffering. It is not possible that any human being could suffer more. “They crucified Him, and parted His garments, casting lots. ... And set up over His head His accusation written, THIS IS JESUS THE KING OF THE JEWS. Then there were two thieves crucified with Him, one on the right hand, and another on the left. And they that passed by reviled Him, wagging their heads, and saying, Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save Thyself. If Thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 12
“Likewise also the chief priests mocking Him, with the scribes and elders said, He saved others; Himself He cannot save; if He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him. He trusted in God; let Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him; for He said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified with Him, cast the same in His teeth. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 13
“Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Some of them that stood there, when they heard that, said, This man calleth for Elias. And straightway one of them ran, and took a sponge, and filled it with vinegar, and put it on a reed, and gave Him to drink. The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save Him. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 14
“Jesus, when He had cried with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the vail of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent; and the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, and came out of the graves after His resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 15
“Now when the centurion, and they that were with Him, watching Jesus, saw the earthquake, and those things that were done, they greatly feared, saying, Truly this was the Son of God. And many women beholding afar off, which followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering unto Him; among which was Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joses, and the mother of Zebedee’s children.” [Matthew 27:35, 37-56.] 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 16
Christ was nailed to the cross between the third and sixth hour, that is between nine and twelve o’clock. In the afternoon He died. This was the hour of the evening sacrifice. Then the vail of the temple, that which hid God’s glory from the view of the congregation of Israel, was rent in twain from top to bottom. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 17
Through Christ the hidden glory of the holy of holies was to stand revealed. He had suffered death for every man, and by this offering, the sons of men were to become the sons of God. With open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, believers in Christ were to be changed into the same image, from glory to glory. The mercy seat, upon which the glory of God rested in the holiest of all, is opened to all who accept Christ as the propitiation for sin; and through its medium, they are brought into fellowship with God. The vail is rent, the partition walls broken down, the handwriting of ordinances canceled. By virtue of His blood the enmity is abolished. Through faith in Christ Jew and Gentile may partake of the living bread. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 18
Christ was in the full strength of life when He died. After all the abuse He had suffered, the agony, caused by the nails driven into His hands and feet, the scourging, the crown of thorns and the long hours of hanging upon the cross, His life was strong within Him, and He cried with a loud voice. He heard every word of the taunts of His enemies. He heard also the appeal of the dying thief for pardon, and quickly came the response from the Sacrifice for all sin, “Verily I say unto thee today, Thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.” [Luke 23:43.] 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 19
The words of pardon to the penitent thief struck the death knell to Satan’s hope that he could overcome the royal sufferer. Through all the abuse and suffering that had been heaped upon Christ, not one word had escaped His lips that detracted from His holy dignity. When to the eyes of man He hung conquered and dying, He could speak words of comfort and hope to the one at His side who acknowledged Him as a Saviour. The sinless One, equal with God, had stood the test and trial, and Satan knew that his own death knell was sounded in the heavenly courts. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 20
“And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 21
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace are ye saved) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus; that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness to us through Jesus Christ. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast; for we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 22
“Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” [Ephesians 2:1-13.] 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 23
“Blessed be the Lord and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations.” [1 Peter 1:3-6.] 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 24
Observe why temptations are permitted to come to us: “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold which perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Christ: whom having not seen ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” [Verses 7-9.] 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 25
Read the whole of this first chapter of the First Epistle of Peter. It contains instruction of the highest value. The Word is open to all. Read with the understanding open to comprehend the importance of its lessons. To all who preach the Word, this message is sent: Study your Bible faithfully; and then commit the keeping of your souls, not to any human agency, but to the living God. Do not lift up your souls in self-importance; for God will surely humble those who exalt themselves. You need in every phase of your experience to be learners as God’s little children. All who minister in word and doctrine need to walk and work in meekness and lowliness of mind. 22LtMs, Lt 230, 1907, par. 26