Brother B, you are not a lover of hospitality, you shun burdens. You feel that it is a task to feed the saints and look after their wants, and that all you do in this direction is lost. Please read the above scriptures, and may God give you understanding and discernment, is my earnest prayer. As a family you need to cultivate liberality and to be less self-caring. Love to invite God’s people to your house, and, as occasion may require, share with them cheerfully, gladly, that of which the Lord has made you stewards. Do not give grudgingly these little favors. As you do these things to Christ’s disciples, you do it unto Him; just so, as you grudge the saints of God your hospitality, you grudge Jesus the same.
(1T 693.1)
MC
VC
The health reform is essential for you both. Sister B has been backward in this good work and has suffered opposition to arise when she knew not what she was opposing. She has resisted the counsel of God against her own soul. Intemperate appetite has brought debility and disease, weakening the moral powers, and unfitting her to appreciate the sacred truth, the value of the atonement, which is essential to salvation. Sister B loves this world. She has not separated, in her affections, from the world, and given herself unreservedly to God, as He requires. He will not accept half a sacrifice. All, all, all, is God’s, and we are required to render perfect service. Says Paul: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living [not dying] sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”Romans 12:1, 2. What a privilege is thus allowed us, to prove for ourselves, experimentally, the mind of the Lord and His will toward us. Praise His dear name for this precious gift! I have been shown that Sister B’s grasp must be broken from this world before she can have a true, safe hold of the better world.
(1T 693.2) 2 I
MC
VC
Brother B, you should move carefully and keep self under; be patient, meek, and lowly. A meek and quiet spirit is in the sight of God of great price. You should cherish that which God esteems of worth. A work must be accomplished for you both before you can meet the measurement of God. Work while the day lasts, for the night cometh in which no man can work. Stand in the clear light yourselves, then can you let your light so shine that others by seeing your good works will be led to glorify your heavenly Father.
Greenville, Michigan,
January 23, 1868.
(1T 694.1)
MC
VC
Your cases have been brought before me in vision. As I viewed your lives, they appeared to be a terrible mistake. Brother C, you have not a happy temperament. And not being happy yourself, you fail to make others happy. You have not cultivated affection, tenderness, and love. Your wife has suffered all through her married life for sympathy. Your married life has been very much like a desert—but very few green spots to look back upon with grateful remembrance. It need not have been thus.
(1T 694.2)
MC
VC