White, J. E.
Chicago, Illinois
April 9, 1889
Portions of this letter are published in FBS 2.
Dear Son Edson:
I am disappointed that I hear nothing from Battle Creek in regard to the house and what you are doing. 6LtMs, Lt 66, 1889, par. 1
I expected Frank Belden, as it has been stated over and over that he was to leave evening after the Sabbath, but he did not come. 6LtMs, Lt 66, 1889, par. 2
The meetings closed yesterday, and if I had not given out an appointment to meet Sabbath afternoon in [the] Scandinavian church, I would return tomorrow. I am pleasantly situated here, but I feel so anxious in regard to the books I cannot rest. 6LtMs, Lt 66, 1889, par. 3
I am so sorry you could not have been here. You needed the very meetings which have been going on here. Why did you not come, and why did you delay so long? If you give yourself wholly to the work, I believe this rubber stamp business will have to be given up. There is just enough of your own special work to occupy your time and prevent your doing the very work I have been laboring so hard to have you do. 6LtMs, Lt 66, 1889, par. 4
If Frank and you had both been here, as I fully believe you ought to have been, you would have obtained a rich blessing and been fitted up for the work. We have had a most precious meeting. The instruction given from Brother Jones was like apples of gold in pictures of silver. 6LtMs, Lt 66, 1889, par. 5
One thing I am settled upon, that Fannie [Bolton] is not the one to go with me. It is too great a tax for her to take the discourses and to write them out. As soon as I came here they fastened upon her to get out articles for the paper, but after a little I could not consent to it. And again, she feels so intensely that she becomes, by attending the meetings, much exhausted. 6LtMs, Lt 66, 1889, par. 6
I have a draft for $1,300, but if nothing yet has been done to the house, I will let it go as it is. I am sorry that Gerald moved out of it. Money is so hard to obtain that I feel almost condemned to use it in this way. I am not decided. I am sometimes sorry that I thought of doing anything about the house, for it seems that I am tying up my means where I cannot use it in the work of God. 6LtMs, Lt 66, 1889, par. 7