Hickox, Brother and Sister
Stanmore, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
October 25, 1897
Previously unpublished.
Dear Brother and Sister Hickox:
Your letter is just received. I thank the Lord that His Holy Spirit is working with you both. I reach my hand, my brother and my sister, to clasp your hand, and express my joy that the Lord has wrought in you contrition of soul. He loves you both, and will accept your repentance. I will lay your letter before my ministering brethren, and then we will seek the Lord in this matter, and act in accordance with the light given. Go forward in the name of the Lord from victory to victory. I am so glad that self is not to master you to your ruin. The Lord will work you by His Holy Spirit. 12LtMs, Lt 60, 1897, par. 1
Brother and Sister Hickox, I have much that I would be pleased to say to you, but you are far away, and I am scarcely able to use the pen. You have surrendered your will to God; continue the surrender, for you will find that self will battle for the supremacy. And if God calls you, as Elijah did Elisha, to leave the yoke of oxen while plowing in the field, be ready to understand the message. Now that you have turned your face unto the Lord, you can in earnestness say, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” [Acts 9:6.] Labor now to be approved unto God. Keep the eye single to His glory. 12LtMs, Lt 60, 1897, par. 2
Only when self is crucified, and all things are done with an eye single to the glory of God, will you be safe. His claims, His homage, extend to the words, to the actions. The inward working of the Spirit of God will work outward. The words are to be considered before they are spoken. The spirit that moves to action will subdue everything unto the mind of Christ. As we are to give an account of all the deeds done in the body, the human agent is placed under a wonderful responsibility. 12LtMs, Lt 60, 1897, par. 3
In proportion as the Word of God is honestly entertained and obeyed, and becomes the governing law of your lives, will it impress with its potency and touch with its power every spring of action, every phase of character. We are to be engaged in elevating and purifying that part of our nature which constitutes us sons and daughters of God. In the great work of overcoming, the mind is to co-operate with God in fitting the human agent to do the highest service for Him. Your passions will need to be subdued every day. 12LtMs, Lt 60, 1897, par. 4
If you will follow Jesus, the Lord will manifest Himself to you in the very position you are now in. While seeking to free yourself from your present entanglements, you should increase your own powers, as a sacred duty you owe to God. Learn of the One who is meek and lowly of heart, and by diligence and fidelity in the work you are now doing, you will increase your capabilities of work, of happiness, of usefulness. Your influence is a sacred gift. It is not to be weakened, to become sickly and dwarfed. Bind it up with God, and it will not be misapplied. Influence is a talent. Your voice is a talent. Your intellect is a talent, and all these qualifications are in no case to be squandered. They cannot be misapplied without robbing God. Every talent should be consecrated and improved to the uttermost. But your passions must be conquered through the grace of God, or you will never overcome. 12LtMs, Lt 60, 1897, par. 5
Will not God judge the world in righteousness, and with a rigorous impartiality demand that His own entrusted talents be rendered back to Him with usury? We are not to venture to waste our Lord’s goods. We are to keep ever before us the words of God, “Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” [1 Corinthians 6:19, 20.] 12LtMs, Lt 60, 1897, par. 6
We are having a successful meeting here in Sydney. We feel constrained by the Spirit of God to urge every one to dig deep, and lay their foundation sure, to teach, by precept and example, temperance in all things, to endow the hours with such a sanctity that it will be regarded as a sin to waste them. My heart goes out for the young men and women who waste so many precious minutes and hours in indolence and apathy. Every hour of probation granted is God’s gift, to improve as He shall direct, that you may give back to God all His gifts with additions. 12LtMs, Lt 60, 1897, par. 7
“In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity, sound speech that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you. Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things: not answering again; not purloining, but showing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. For the grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.” [Titus 2:7-15.] 12LtMs, Lt 60, 1897, par. 8
My brother, the words spoken to Nicodemus come sounding down along the line to our time, and they come to you, “Ye must be born again.” “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” [John 3:7, 3.] The Lord said of Saul, “And the Lord gave Saul another heart.” [1 Samuel 10:9.] The Lord looketh upon the heart. 12LtMs, Lt 60, 1897, par. 9
“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. For in Christ neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature. And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.” [Galatians 6:14-16.] The Lord expects that those who accept so great and important a truth shall themselves be sanctified through the truth. My brother, the Lord is soon to come, and I tremble for you, because you have not been sanctified through the truth. Do not look to the imperfections of your brethren and flatter yourself that they are as faulty as you. God has not given them to you for you to copy their imperfections. 12LtMs, Lt 60, 1897, par. 10
As laborers together with God, you are to give a representation in your own character of the character of Jesus Christ. “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me,” said the great Teacher, “for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” [Matthew 11:29, 30.] You are to be a representation of Christ. All sin, all hasty, untempered speech is a misrepresentation of His character. If God’s ministers were humble men; if their lives were hid with Christ in God, the Lord Jesus would appear in their words and actions glorified. 12LtMs, Lt 60, 1897, par. 11