I have been shown the great mercy and infinite love of God in giving you another trial. There will be a positive necessity of your holding fast to the mighty Healer, that you may have physical and spiritual strength. You have poor health, but you are in danger of thinking that you are in a worse condition than you really are. You have not had power of endurance, because you have not cherished a patient, hopeful, courageous spirit. You yield to infirmities instead of rising above them. Temptations will assail you on the right hand and on the left, but by patient continuance in well-doing you may overcome the defects in your characters. I was shown that your feet had indeed taken hold on perdition, but God did not wholly forsake either of you. His matchless mercy in giving you another opportunity to prove your loyalty to Him calls upon you to walk with great humility and to guard self. You have petted and indulged yourselves so much that you need now to work in an opposite direction.
(4T 341.1)
MC
VC
You, Brother F, have been very selfish, and this has been contemptible in the sight of God. You and your wife have stumbled again and again over this evil. Your powers have been greatly dwarfed by self-gratification and self-indulgence. Neither of you is deficient in natural reason and judgment; but you have followed inclination rather than the path of duty, and have failed to repress the wrong traits of character and to strengthen weak moral power.
(4T 341.2)
MC
VC
Brother F, you are naturally an impatient, fretful, exacting man at home; and after a short acquaintance you show this out in new places. You frequently talk in an impatient, overbearing manner. This must all be repented of. You may now begin anew. God has in His boundless mercy given you another chance. Your wife has much in herself to contend against, and you should be on your guard that you do not throw her upon Satan’s ground. Fretting, faultfinding, and making strong statements must be given up. What time have you set to gain the victory over your perverse will and the defects in your character? With the advancement you now make, your probation may close before you have made the determined efforts essential to give you the victory over self. You will, in the providence of God, be placed in positions where your peculiarities, if existing, will be tried and revealed. You neither see nor realize the effect of your thoughtless, impatient, complaining, whining words.
(4T 341.3)
MC
VC