Section 7^{1[This section contains personal testimonies directed mostly to ministerial and institutional workers in the nineteenth-century Seventh-day Adventist Church. Ellen White designed that her counsel to specific individuals should benefit others as well, where similar conditions existed. She wrote: “When the Lord singles out individual cases and specifies their wrongs, others, who have not been shown in vision, frequently take it for granted that they are right, or nearly so. If one is reproved for a special wrong, brethren and sisters should carefully examine themselves to see wherein they have failed and wherein they have been guilty of the same sin.... In rebuking the wrong one, he designs to correct many .... He makes plain the wrongs of some that others may thus be warned, and fear, and shun those errors.”—Testimonies for the Church, 2:112, 113. Concerning the large number of letters in this section that are addressed to ministers of the gospel, the reader is referred to the Preface.]}—Counsels to People with Moral Problems

Chapter 19—A Housewife^{2[A married woman who had become infatuated with another woman's husband to the point of committing adultery.]}

Ruin of a Wife's Happiness—My spirit is stirred within me. I cannot hold my peace. Recent developments have caused me anguish of spirit and agony of soul; and then when I think of the misery of poor Sister J, whose happiness you have ruined forever, then I inquire, What will be your reward for these things? We are to be judged according to the deeds done in the body. We feel that it would be just and right for you to be brought to receive the punishment you so justly merit, but we remember the words of Scripture, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” That which you have sown you shall reap. Yes, you will reap a bountiful cup. No frost shall blight it; no mildew blast it; no cankerworm devour it. You have sown to the flesh; you shall reap corruption. A heavy retribution awaits you.TSB 130.1

Not only have you sinned against your family and cast a stain upon your children, the fruit of your body, which shall cleave to them like the leprosy, but you have plucked the joy, the happiness, from Sister J's fireside forever.TSB 131.1

Have you become so hardened that you have no fear of God, of the judgment, of eternity, when your acts, however secret, are to pass in review before God? Do you realize that your evil doings are faithfully chronicled in heaven, written in the book, and that the Word of God, the statute book, is to judge you in that day?TSB 131.2

Eternal Results of Unrepented Adultery—What did God command Moses to do with those who were guilty of adultery? They should be stoned to death. Does the punishment end there? No, they are to die the second death. The stoning system has been done away, but the penalty for transgressing God's law is not done away. If the transgressor does not heartily repent, he will be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord.TSB 131.3

I hear you have said, “I love Walter J.” What business have you to love Walter J, when he belongs to another? Will you ruin and break an innocent wife's heart for the sake of gratifying your guilty love?TSB 131.4

Unlawful Relationships in Families—What family is safe if others pursue the heaven-daring course you have? They might just as properly enter into my family, insinuate themselves into my husband's affections, and then tear him from me to satisfy their guilty love. Again I ask you, Are you so hardened that you have no fear of God, of His fierce anger, which will soon come upon the sinner, unmixed with mercy? You are willing to sell your soul cheap, disgrace your brother, disgrace your children, to satisfy your lustful heart.TSB 131.5

After you have gotten Walter J, what then? You have a man who fears not to break God's law, who fears not to break the heart of a kind wife who has borne him many children and laid them in the grave—a wife who has given him the warmth of her affections in youth—a wife he has lived with until they are on the decline of life! Think you after you get this Walter J for yourself entirely, after you steal him from the wife of his youth, he will ever remain constant and true to you who have accomplished so much evil to satisfy your guilty love?TSB 132.1

The truth found Walter J a hard case. It has done everything for him. Now he has no fear of God, no fear of transgressing His law. Evil angels take charge of his mind and yours, and then how constant and true and even will your love run? You have sowed to yourself misery, misery. Evermore will a guilty conscience haunt you. Is it possible now for you to retrace your steps? Is it possible that a merciful God would pity you yet?TSB 132.2

How dare you love Walter J, and add to your sin that of breaking his wife's heart? Oh, you have sold heaven very cheap. You have shown what is your choice. Your life has marked your choice, that of being outside the city, with dogs, sorcerers, adulterers, whoremongers, and those who love and make a lie.TSB 132.3

Please read Proverbs 6, twentieth verse and onward. Read Revelation, chapter 7.—Letter 12, 1864.TSB 132.4