Lt 169, 1899

Hickox, Brother and Sister [A. S.]

“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia

October 25, 1899

Previously unpublished.

Dear Brother and Sister Hickox:

God says, The erring ones may be recovered, the broken bones healed. I love the Lord, for His providences are so nicely arranged. In His providence God said to me, Call Arthur Hickox to be under your special supervision. God loves him, and wants to make him strong. He has had a strong, self-willed spirit, but I will heal him if he will place himself and his family in My care. By watchfulness and stern endeavor he may obtain the overcomer’s reward. If he will obey the dictates of an enlightened conscience he will have the advantage that Christ has secured for all the toilers who believe in Him. He must walk humbly with God. Let him and his wife look up, and encircling their children, say, I will not fail nor be discouraged. His Word shall be my guide, my instructor, my safeguard.14LtMs, Lt 169, 1899, par. 1

God will do much for all who will wear Christ’s yoke and learn of Him. The Word of God is the bread of life. It teaches men how to simplify life’s complicated experiences. It is an educator, endowing all the simple-hearted followers of Christ with the wisdom that comes from the Author and Finisher of our faith. Great possibilities are wrapped up in your little family. A continual self-denial and self-sacrifice is bound up with the Lord’s plan of diffusing true religion, and for the moral discipline of both Brother and Sister Hickox as God’s blood-bought heritage. Christ was made perfect through suffering, and it is through much tribulation that we shall enter into the kingdom of God.14LtMs, Lt 169, 1899, par. 2

Every soul must now be wide awake. God’s work will call more and more for men of keen, clear, spiritual eyesight. God has called Brother Hickox away from his own country and relatives because he could best mold and fashion him in this way. Brother Hickox is not to bind himself up with worldly enterprises.14LtMs, Lt 169, 1899, par. 3

Carrie and Arthur, the work of God is to be carried forward amid peril and cross-bearing. In God’s pure mercy, affliction and privation have been used to help you both to serve the Master. God chooses men with whom He can work amid affliction, poverty, humiliation, disappointment, blighted hopes. He will make you His instruments for the carrying forward of His work, His great plan of mercy. He has not left you nor forsaken you, but you took a trying path when you took yourselves out of the hands of God to plan and devise for yourselves.14LtMs, Lt 169, 1899, par. 4

The Lord says, “Come out from among them and be ye separate, and touch not the unclean; and I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters.” [2 Corinthians 6:17, 18.] You cannot heed the counsel of friends and acquaintances. You must stand free in God. Look your calling fairly and squarely in the face. Take up your work courageously. Hang your helpless souls on Jesus. Gird up the loins of your minds. Put on the armor of righteousness every day.14LtMs, Lt 169, 1899, par. 5

God bless you and your children, my brother and sister. I love you all in Christ Jesus.14LtMs, Lt 169, 1899, par. 6