Irwin, G. A.
“Sunnyside,” Cooranbong, New South Wales, Australia
June 27, 1900
Previously unpublished.
Dear Brother Irwin:
I had a letter written to you which I found was not copied because of an oversight. After having such a determined attack of illness, with so many things to think of, I cannot carry everything in my mind. We have many, many things to consider, and I am almost too weary to write. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 1
Today we received a good letter from Elder Starr. He is of good courage in the Lord. W. C. White received an excellent letter from Brother Lyndon, who is living in a hired house at Mt. Vincent. He holds meetings in the Good Templars’ hall, for which he pays a small sum weekly. He and his wife are becoming acquainted with their neighbors, and report a good interest in the truth. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 2
Brother Hare, Brother James, and others are holding meetings with small companies in different places. Brother James has become very much interested in the work at Martinsville. There is now quite a stir to make some arrangements to build a small house of worship at Morisset. At this place, some are quite interested. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 3
Brother Harker, a fine appearing young man from the school, has been holding meetings there on Sunday with the children. He has quite a large Sunday school. He has become very enthusiastic, and has been faithful in doing all he could do. He has raised twenty five pounds among our people for the meetinghouse. Brother Hare went with him to Morisset yesterday, and they secured a lot containing one third of an acre. This lot lies just this side of the station, to the left before reaching the top of the hill. They paid ten pounds for it. The students at the school are anxious to go up on Sundays and help build the church, but I do not understand how they can do such a work among those who keep Sunday. It will not be best to create prejudice. The building will be fourteen by twenty-four. This will accommodate all who come. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 4
The wife of the station master at Morisset has been teaching in the Sunday school there. But the station master is to be transferred to Sydney. We do not know who will take his place. His wife says that she will be a Sabbathkeeper. She believes that we have the truth. She will gladly turn over her Sunday School to our people. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 5
Mr. Walker, our bitterest opponent, has been trying to get donations to build a meetinghouse at Morisset. The people will help him if he will let them use the house for such gatherings as they choose. He refuses. We shall have the start of him in getting a house built in a short time. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 6
We do not want to ask this unbelieving, poverty-stricken people for donations. The sum which they could give would be such a mite that we would be better do it all ourselves and not be dependent on anyone. We can then control the meetinghouse ourselves. It will be built with boards placed upright and then batten with narrow strips. This is the best we can do. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 7
Two more meetinghouses are to be built, one at Martinsville and one at Dora Creek. At one time there was not a place in Martinsville where we could hold a meeting, except in the open air. Now, many dwelling houses are open to us. Invitations are sent to our people to hold meetings in private houses. The interest seems to be thoroughly awakened. At Dora Creek meetings are held every Sabbath, and also on Sunday afternoons when the weather is pleasant. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 8
After three years’ effort, we have at last prevailed in our petitions for a station at Dora Creek. The railway workers are sheltered under twelve tents, and a side track is being built. When the new station is finished it will be much better for us as regards transportation. We shall not ourselves reap the benefit of these improvements, but the settlers at Avondale will be greatly helped. This is a wonderful thing for the government to do after refusing [for] so long. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 9
We have now come to the place where we are to arise and build a sanitarium in this country. We shall repeat the experience we went through in building the school and the church in Avondale. We shall never have reason to be ashamed of that experience. Again we are to move forward according to the word of the Lord. This is the way God tests His people to see if they will harmonize with Him and co-operate with the self-sacrificing Redeemer. The sanitarium must go up under God’s direction. Let all who have any interest in the great and essential work of fitting a people for the great conflict remember that the Lord would not have one thread of selfishness drawn into the pattern. This is the great danger with those who stand in important places. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 10
God has bestowed various talents upon men to be put out to usury. He would have the money that is lying idle in certain banks put to use for His name’s glory. We now need all the money that we can obtain, that we may erect a sanitarium. In America stand sanitariums which cost eighty thousand dollars. One half of that would be all that we would require, and all that our ambitious hopes desire, for a suitable building here. But we see no possibility of securing this. One-third of that which has been invested in sanitariums in America, where there is every advantage, would greatly advance the work of God in this destitute field, although proper building material costs very much more here than the wood and the brick handled in America. But we will not wait longer. We will arise and build, if only the central part of the building can be put up. The most interested ones have pleaded for a large center. We would be glad to have a large center, but if we cannot get it, we will be thankful for and satisfied with a much less expensive structure. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 11
And now I will send you some items that have been outlined before me, and which I was instructed to present decidedly to our people in Australia. My Guide said, You are not to repeat the same work in Australia that has been done in America. Now is your time to build. I will put into the hearts of the workers a spirit of self-sacrifice and willingness to do this work. Men with unselfish minds and motives will engage in this work. There is no time to lose. Workers are to be called who will take hold of the work and carry it forward without counting the minutes that make an hour or the hours that will close their day’s work. Saith the Lord, Time is Mine; the minutes, the hours, are My property, and those who engage in My service should put love and willingness into the work of building. With all their minds and hearts they are to work to the best of their ability, and God will work with them. Those who have the true spirit of self-sacrifice will not measure their time so very exactly; they will not feel that they are to work but eight hours in the day. Said Christ, “Are there not twelve hours in the day in which men ought to work?” [See John 11:9.] 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 12
God and all the heavenly universe are working in behalf of the human family, and when the whole heavenly host participate with the workers on earth, let no custom or law retard and make the work a long drawn out enterprise; but work with interest and heart and soul. You have no time to lose. All around you are souls who are to be saved. I will help the disinterested workers. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 13
This world is dead in trespasses and sins. Prepare the way, call for the workers. I will put it into their hearts to work for me, with definite results. All that you do in business lines and in ministerial lines is presenting the living oracles of God. All this work has an eternal significance. The present moment is bound up with reality, and time and eternity are all connected with the ever-present Now. The things seen are temporal, but the things which are unseen require faith to make them appear and become a living reality. Everywhere, every moment, you must link the unseen with the seen, to make your faith in Christ complete. God is unseen; His laws are immutable, eternal, from everlasting to everlasting. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 14
The Lord further said to me, Make no contract with those who believe the truth to do the work which must be done, limiting the time to eight-hour service, on school buildings, the building of churches, or other institutions for the advancement of the cause of God, which require most diligent work, tact, ingenuity, and God-given ability, faith, and that perseverance which was manifested by Christ when He said, “I will not fail nor be discouraged.” [See Isaiah 42:4.] 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 15
“Come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” [2 Corinthians 6:17, 18.] This is the representation we are ever to keep before the people in the work we are called to do. Call upon the people who shall hear the truth which is brought to them at a great sacrifice. Show them that obligations are mutual. Let them help in the work. If God is ready to do so great [a] work in their behalf, why should they not surrender their hearts to God and work in His lines? 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 16
False religions, which are legion, must be exposed and cast out of their hearts, that they may have the truth in contradiction to error. There will be one continual contest, if the infatuation of false theories and false religion is discarded, and the infatuated idolaters lay down their arms and acknowledge the truth as it is in Jesus. The people must know what is truth; but the abundance of money devoted to one section means nothing else than deprivation of means to make even a beginning in another section, which is far more favorable and promising. The great work to be done is to present to the people in clear, straight lines what is truth. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 17
Only men and women who are fully consecrated can understand the inwardness and sacredness of God’s work. Not all who claim to be disciples of Christ are disciples. If we are God’s people, our work cannot be done selfishly. The Lord Jesus inquires, What could have been done more for My vineyard that I have not done in it? All who are laborers together with God can say the same words. And more; their expectations and sacrifice are even as Christ’s expectations in their unselfish labor. “Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?” [Isaiah 5:4.] Let not this be recorded of us. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 18
The Lord gives His chosen servants, upon whom He has placed the burden of the work, spiritual foresight and faculties strengthened and consecrated to the working out of His ordained plans. All who will enter into the spirit of the work, hiding self in Jesus Christ, will be one with Christ, working with unselfish motives, and manifesting not a grasping spirit, but a spirit of self-denial and self-sacrifice. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 19
The way for Christ’s second appearing must be prepared, and worldly schemes and practices are not to be adopted. The truly converted soul will not measure his time by set minutes or hours. In erecting all our buildings, the workers are working for the Master, and not for man. Let each worker consider that he stands before God, doing the work of Christ in self-denial and self-sacrifice. God foresees all the possibilities; He, the divine Worker, calls His workers, and forms a purpose that all shall be blessed by being imbued with His Spirit to make a success before the world. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 20
Men can make the way easy for God to control and work their will, that His work shall be accomplished in the world, but some men set themselves in their selfishness to demand high wages, without any thought that their decisions will affect the whole party of workers, without thinking that means are limited with which to accomplish just as much as possible in a short time. The Lord will bless a willing service for the Master. All who yield themselves to Him are as clay in the potter. It is a great thing for man to get an understanding of God’s work to be accomplished through human agencies, and to submit himself to be worked by the Lord. That which grieves the heart of Christ is that man, if guided and controlled by himself, is constantly working against Christ’s plans. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 21
The Lord makes His propositions for men to work on His buildings, in the future, as in the past they worked on the building of the church at Avondale. All workmen who will erect buildings upon a self-denying, disinterested principle will be united in the work, and will blend with Jesus Christ in His way. Having His mind, the work will advance and faith will increase. The Lord has signified to me that even the best of workmen, will work diligently and self-sacrificingly. Those should be employed who will thus labor for love to Jesus Christ. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 22
In building the church in Avondale, many gave a portion in donations, other gave their full time at a reduction of their usual wages. All the buildings that are essential should be of a character to make a favorable impression in behalf of a people who have been misjudged, falsified, and abused. In erecting buildings, the Lord would have workers engaged whose purpose is to do a work in missionary lines. God gave Himself, withholding nothing, to save perishing souls. And God calls for workers who will share a part in this self-denial. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 23
P.S. July 17. Since writing this letter the work on the building at Morisset has been going rapidly forward. Nearly forty pounds have been raised, and the building is completed, ready to be dedicated next Sunday. The building will be dedicated almost free from debt. 15LtMs, Lt 109, 1900, par. 24