Henry, A. R.
“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
May 16, 1898
This letter is published in entirety in 1888 1663-1678. +NoteOne or more typed copies of this document contain additional Ellen White handwritten interlineations which may be viewed at the main office of the Ellen G. White Estate.
A. R. Henry:
“Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inherit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land, and not inhabited. Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” [Jeremiah 17:5-8.] 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 1
I have not been able to sleep tonight, for vivid scenes have come up before me, in figures and symbols. I have been shown the condition of the people of God who have trusted in man and made flesh their arms. The state of the Michigan Conference is pitiable, but it is not beyond remedy, if the people will turn to the Lord with all the heart. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 2
The present existing state of things was made to pass before me while I was at Salamanca, and I then gave my testimony before those assembled in the tabernacle. I did not speak my own words, but the words of the Lord. The power of God was upon me. Cautions, warnings, and reproof have been given to the men in responsible positions. If without delay these men had sought the Lord, He would have been found of them. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 3
Some did receive the message then, and since that time they have placed themselves under the banner of the great Leader. But those who did not walk in the light, who did not seek to do the Lord’s will according to His appointment, have brought disaster upon the cause and reproach upon the people to whom God has entrusted most solemn truth, which He would have them proclaim without faltering. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 4
God has shown His people what is truth. He has opened to them the books of Daniel and Revelation, which set forth the truth for this time. Those who have closed their ears and their understanding to this truth, have imitated the people who in Christ’s day would not receive the light. Evidence may be piled upon evidence, but men’s hearts may be so hardened by the deceitfulness of sin that evidence, though greatly increased, will prove nothing to them, because it is not proof they want, but their own way. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 5
There has been a strong resistance to the warnings and reproofs sent by God, among some who profess to believe the truth. Tonight my spirit is stirred within me, and at eleven o’clock I dress and take my pen to write the words given me for A. R. Henry. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doing. As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not, so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool. A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.” [Jeremiah 17:9-13.] 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 6
Oh, that all who have made flesh their arm and man their trust would even now in this their day realize their position, and cry to God in sincerity, “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved; for thou art my praise.” [Verse 14.] Will not the people turn to their God? 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 7
“Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now.” [Verse 15.] Taunts such as these have always been made, and will continue to be made. Those who make them are inspired by the same spirit that led the priests to taunt Christ as He hung upon the cross, saying, “He saved others, himself He cannot save. If he be the king of Israel, let him now come down from the cross, and we will believe him. He trusted in God; let him deliver him now if He will have him; for he said, I am the Son of God.” [Matthew 27:42, 43.] There hung the world’s Redeemer in His dying agony, put to open shame by His own people. What power was working on the minds of these teachers and leaders? 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 8
The same power that today is stirring the whole world with intense hatred against those who refuse to confederate with evil, but who reprove, rebuke, and exhort the wrongdoer, even to his face. The very same power has been working upon you, A. R. Henry, leading you to betray Christ as verily as it led Judas to sell Him for money. You are selling your Lord, and betraying His cause to His enemies, irrespective of consequences; and thus reproach is brought upon the truth. By so doing you demonstrate the truth of the warnings and admonitions that have been given you. You have just that measure of love and interest in the cause of God that you have revealed by your attitude toward it. Connected with others, you have made every effort to bring things under your control, and failing to do this, you would ruin the cause you professed to serve. Thus you show that you are doing the very work that the Lord revealed to me you would do. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 9
When dealing with men who needed all they could obtain with brain and pen to keep them from hunger and nakedness, you have followed principles of injustice. The Lord has left you and those who cherished the same spirit to reveal the motives that prompted you to action. Thus the testimonies of warning and reproof given you have been vindicated. The same spirit that led you to follow unjust measures when dealing with your fellow men has led you to work away from the principles that the Lord designs shall rule in His cause and work, principles that the office of publication at its establishment, was charged to maintain, until it should be no longer needed. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 10
Could your eyes have been opened as you with others sat in counsel, you would have discerned the unseen Watcher marking your words and noting the hasty, overbearing spirit which controlled your decisions, especially when something took place to arouse your combativeness. A sufferer from indigestion, you have brought the results of this into council meetings and board meetings. You have presided when, owing to your diseased imagination, you were not fit to preside. You were not always in this frame of mind, but at times were conciliating and conceding. Angels of God were present to help you when you did wish and strive to do the will of God. But the prejudice that was created at Minneapolis, and kept warm by being encouraged by those who were pursuing a course displeasing to God, set you and those connected with you in determined rebellion against truth and righteousness. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 11
At times you were strongly convicted that you ought to give up your opposition to truth, and pursue a different course, but you were too stubborn and too proud to yield. At Minneapolis all the evidence that was necessary to convince unprejudiced minds was given. But many went from that meeting with the record against their names, Weighed in the balances of the sanctuary, and found wanting. You did not then take your position as you might have done upon the evidence given, and your course has brought its sure result. Afterward, when you had more convincing evidence, you would not walk in the light. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 12
God is represented as weighing men, weighing their motives, their methods, their plans, their secret working and devising. He saw the sure outcome of your confederacy with others, and sent you and those united with you warnings concerning the true character and results of your work in connection with the Lord’s instrumentality. You and Harmon Lindsay have traveled much with Elder Olsen. He did not discern the spirit you were of, and therefore sanctioned many of your decisions, in the face of the warning that wrong principles were permeating the office. Both you and Harmon Lindsay sowed tares wherever you went. Sometimes you did this consciously and sometimes unconsciously, for the atmosphere surrounding your souls was far from being the atmosphere of heaven. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 13
Wrong and unjust plans were followed in dealing with God’s workers, and many of these workers were discouraged. Unfair, underhand scheming, opposed to true principles, were corrupting the office. There was constant devising and planning to obtain control of all the publishing business. Jealousy against the Pacific Press was fostered and cultivated. You intrigued to obtain control of this institution, although you may not recognize or acknowledge it by this name; but it was so. The conference taking on all the crippled institutions was a blind to obtain control of every interest, every institution, by the consolidation of all. God would not have this. He would have His institutions independent of each other, and yet in perfect harmony with each other. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 14
In your dealing, you have sacrificed Christian principles. The dealing with authors has been dishonest and supremely selfish. This has been presented again and again. God has been dishonored, and His law of ten holy principles, the transcript of His character, has been transgressed. The unseen Witness beheld all wrong methods and contrivances, and the secret, underhand working. His curse rests upon all such selfish, dishonest principles. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 15
When suffering under reproach, Hannah cried to the Lord, and the Lord heard her prayer, and gave her a son. Then she declared the glory of the Lord, saying, “The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed.” [1 Samuel 2:3.] Again, Isaiah says, “Thou most upright do weigh the path of the just.” [Isaiah 26:7.] Solomon declares, “All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirit.” [Proverbs 16:2.] And David writes, “Men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be weighed in the balances they are altogether lighter than vanity.” [Psalm 62:9.] 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 16
The motives that prompt us to action when men in responsibility are dealing with our brethren or with worldlings, must be according to the Word of God; for they are acting as God’s representatives. Not one of your council meetings, not one of your board meetings, but was attended by angels of God, who waited to impart wisdom and to co-operate with every principle sustained by the law of Jehovah. In His books the Lord traced every motion made in these meetings, which His eye could discern as clearly as though there were no other interest in the world. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 17
He weighs every motive, every action. He has been grieved that His character has been misrepresented. A plan of working not at all according to Christ’s plan has been followed. Men have been urged and induced by specious reasoning to agree to the terms of other men, and to sell their rights and publications. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 18
Men in positions of trust departed from veracity, and by their overbearing spirit and their arguments, they have prevailed over their fellow men. Their course has been a great injury to the workers in the office, and a still greater injury to themselves, because they have clouded their own discernment, and lost their spiritual eyesight. Thus the office established by sacrifice was fast becoming a cage of unclean birds. It was not an increase of light that was needed to cure these spiritual maladies, for the wrongdoers chose darkness rather than the light that discovers darkness. God did not acknowledge these wrongdoers as workers together with Him. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 19
Every right motive, every right principle violated, prepares the soul for scheming and dishonesty. Those who follow such a course are making crooked paths for their feet, by which the lame will be turned out of the way. God hates these crooked practices. Christ died that He might take away our sins. He did not come that He might save us in our sins. But crooked paths and crooked practices have been sought out by some professing to believe the truth, and all that ingenuity could suggest has been taken to injure the cause of God. These plans and devices have been working like unholy leaven, just as the leaven of the Pharisees worked when Christ was on earth. All this has been done against the Lord Jesus. He has been betrayed by the wrong course of action followed, and the synagogue of Satan has triumphed. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 20
Because the testimonies reproved you, notwithstanding the fact that hope and encouragement were presented if you would receive Christ and be converted that He might heal your backsliding, you went farther than any man professing to be a Christian has ventured to go. You have left an example for all who are reproved to follow, if they will, and some in their enmity will try to carry out just what you have done. These deceived, deluded souls, unless they repent and are converted, will soon have to receive sentence at a tribunal from which there can be no appeal. They will then truthfully say, “Lord, thou hast searched me and known me: thou art acquainted with all my ways: thou knowest my thoughts afar off. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether. Thou has beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.” [See Psalm 139:1-6.] 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 21
The Lord is perfectly acquainted with your course of action. You have robbed His treasury to supply your exhausted funds by exacting high wages, although when of your own accord you connected with the office you understood that it could not pay its workers high wages. This was plainly stated, for I heard the words spoken, and heard you reply that you did not connect with the office from a financial standpoint. You then accepted the wages offered you. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 22
But while professedly working in the interests of this institution, you betrayed the cause of God into the hands of its enemies, and would now hurt it all you possibly can. The Lord sees all this. There is not a transaction that He does not behold. You may well inquire, “Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the light shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.” [Verses 7-12.] 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 23
Any money that you shall claim from the Lord’s treasury, more than that which other workmen in the highest positions of trust have received, will be the dearest money you have ever had in your possession. “I saw a great white throne,” John writes, “and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead small and great stand before God, and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it: and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.” [Revelation 20:11-13.] 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 24
I have presented these things to you that you may not provoke the Lord’s anger by adding any more to your wrong by appropriating for your own selfish purposes means that do not belong to you. Those who gave you their confidence, and sustained you, were given intimations of your purpose to injure and betray the cause of God, but they did not believe that you would do as you have done. They were afraid of you, and kept in association with you, fearing that by disconnecting with you, they would bring harm to the cause of God. The people of our faith did not know how the means they were investing to sustain the cause of God was being used, and now an empty treasury stares them in the face. This has been brought about largely through your suggestions and management when connected with those who did not see or understand your purposes. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 25
In order to carry out your plans, you have involved the cause of God in financial difficulties, and now notwithstanding the great injury you have wrought, you demand a large sum of money. God calls you an unfaithful steward. When that wave of selfishness passed through the office, when men exacted higher wages for their work than anyone should have received, light was given you in clear lines that the prosperity of the office depended on the unselfishness of those connected with it, that those who demanded such high wages would eventually oppress the hireling in his wages. They would use every means to secure books at little cost to the office, and thus accumulate means. Those who planned and devised to gain means in this way did not move in God’s order, but followed impulses inspired by Satan. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 26
God weighs every man in the scales of the sanctuary. Each one may have his own individual standard, but God’s holy, immutable law, in which there is no variableness neither shadow of turning, is the standard that all must meet. Read, and take heed, lest ye perish in the way of your own choosing: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself.” [Luke 10:27.] God requires the powers of heart and mind and body. All these are the Lord’s talents, lent by Him to human beings that they may be used to His name’s glory. Life itself is a talent of great value, for when health is once lost, it may be gone for good as far as this world is concerned. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 27
Just as long as life is granted to a human being, that human being, whether man, woman, or child, is under obligation to employ his entrusted talent in God’s service, keeping himself in the most healthful condition, that he may offer to God an acceptable sacrifice which is his reasonable service. When man by faith walks with God, he uses the great talent of life to the best advantage. As far as possible, he should keep mind, soul, and body in a healthful condition, that his discernment may be clear, that he may understand spiritual things. He must not be so devoted to common business things that he will make no difference between the sacred and the common, and like Nadab and Abihu neglect the special requirement that associates his service with a holy God. He is not to think that he is at liberty to use his own supposedly superior qualifications, without the holy fire, the vital, sanctifying element that makes his service acceptable to God. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 28
You have not preserved a vital connection with God. You have not had even a legal religion. “My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.” “I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof; but when ye had entered ye defiled my land, and made mine heritage an abomination.” This is a description to the life of what presents itself to us at the present time. “The priests said not, Where is the Lord? and they that handle the law knew me not: the pastors also transgressed against me, and they prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit. Wherefore I will yet plead with you saith the Lord, and with your children’s children will I plead. ... Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.” [Jeremiah 2:13, 7-9, 11.] 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 29
How have they done this? By conforming to the spirit of the world. They have used God’s capital to make a show, and as an excuse, they say that it is to give character to the work. But by doing this, they have gone directly contrary to the light God has given them, directly opposite to His admonitions and directions. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 30
Is it because of the work in which you have engaged that you reach out your covetous, unsanctified hand to grasp all that possibly could be awarded to you for your supposedly valuable services? You are not sane upon this point. Without this highly prized ability, without your administration, the cause of God would today stand better in the sight of God and man. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 31
Warning was given that your long journeys with Elder Olsen were not called for. He would have done tenfold more good if he had not made flesh his arm by leaning upon unsanctified human ability. This is an offense to God. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 32
Our Redeemer has opened a fountain for the healing of the nations, and it is at infinite cost to ourselves that we forsake this fountain of living water for cisterns hewn out by human endeavor. These cisterns may contain a little of the water of life, but they are shallow. Our work calls for aggressive warfare. It is not money or position or expensive buildings that are essential in the work of God, neither is it achievements that win applause from men and administer to vanity. All these are human cisterns, which in a time of drought can hold no water. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 33
The Lord has appointed resources, and we are to accept His provisions. The water of life is open to all. All may come and drink. God is speaking to you, A. R. Henry. Your broken cistern is failing. Amid cares and disappointments, and mental and physical pain, your feverish thirst is not allayed; for you have forsaken the fountain of living water, and, like many others, have tried, in weariness of heart and brain, to hew out cisterns in the resisting granite of your own lives, in order to secure your own ends. There is a fountain near you if you have not made the distance long by forsaking the living waters. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 34
When the worship of God is the one devotion of your soul, you will love Him supremely, and your neighbor as yourself. You have gone through years of selfishness and departure from God’s ways. Has not your rebellion lasted long enough? By your influence the publishing house has been injured. You have transgressed a perfect, unchanging law. This law demands continuous, unswerving obedience. What record is written against your name? Have you kept the first four and the last six commandments? Have you loved God with a whole heart? Have you loved your neighbor as yourself? 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 35
God accepts no half-hearted obedience. He demands entire obedience to every precept of His law. A. R. Henry, you have a soul to save or to lose. Satan is playing the game of life for your soul, and he is winning his prey. Unless you change your course of action, unless you are converted, you will never see the kingdom of heaven. Can you afford to still pursue the course you have been pursuing for many years, irrespective of justice, mercy, or the love of God? You do not know yourself. If you put your covetous hand upon God’s means, it will be but a little while before you will wish that hand had been severed from your body rather than you had done what Satan tempted you to do. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 36
To men God has committed high and holy trusts, and He says to them, Go labor in My vineyard. [Matthew 21:28.] I would write more definitely, but if matters have been presented to you as they should have been, you have a knowledge of the tenor of the testimonies concerning the wrong principles which have entered into the management of the publishing house at Battle Creek and all our institutions. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 37
You do not know yourself. When you shall awake, when by falling on the Rock your stubborn resistance to the Spirit of God is broken, you will then say, “Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Lord; for in thy sight can no man living be justified.” [See Psalm 143:2.] There is no one living who fully realizes the grievous character of sin. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 38
Pure, uncorrupted motives and principles must become a controlling power in our offices of publication. At your Board meeting angels of God have covered their faces, that they might not behold the wrongs devised. Yet I have still an appeal to make. Stop where you are. You have no more right to the large wages you demand than have I or your brethren. If you obtain them by fraud, by carrying your case to worldly men, please read your Bible, and see what it says on this subject. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 39
These words are to a large degree applicable to Harmon Lindsay. What representation have you been giving to the world? Read your Bible, and see how far you have departed from its teaching. There is only one course to pursue with those who while connected with the work of God attempt to work on the principles upon which you have worked, who reveal in life and character pride, vainglory, avarice, covetousness, which would lead them to rob God, ambition, murmuring, bitterness, evil speaking. They must be separated from the work. They must not be allowed to continue in it year after year, to the injury of the cause of God, and to their own spiritual and eternal ruin. 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 40
I tell you now, my brother, that there is in your character alloy of so injurious a nature that it will destroy the value of the gold. You could not now pass through the gates of the city of God, because you have not reached His standard. You could not now be stamped with the impress of the divine similitude. Those who cannot pass the final review will be rejected as reprobate and worthless. Will you not now seek the Lord that you may find Him? 13LtMs, Lt 41, 1898, par. 41