Epistle Number Three

Dear Friend ——: I was shown that you were in danger of being under the full control of the great adversary of souls. Your experience at —— was not good for you. Your stay at —— hurt you—you became proud and vain. Men and women were not wanting who unwisely petted and praised you, until you became vain, pert, and saucy. You have been opposed to restraint, have been headstrong, willful, and stubborn, and have made your parents much trouble. They have erred. Your father has unwisely petted you. You have taken advantage of this, and have become deceptive. You have received approbation which you did not deserve.T19 74.2

You had your own head very much at ——, and you took liberties that should not have been allowed for a moment. When you or your sisters were reproved, you felt insulted, and reported to your mother as though you had been abused. You exaggerated, and she was nervous, and easily excited and irritated if she thought her position and dignity were not respected. She was displeased that any one should dictate her children. She did not conceal her displeasure. She spoke words which were not proper to those who should have commanded her respect. Your mother showed great lack of wisdom in taking your part, and censuring those whom she should have thanked rather than blamed. She hurt you, and did a work for you that she can never fully repair. You triumphed because you thought yourself secure from censure. You thought you could do as you pleased. Your mother's eye was not always upon you, and if it had been, she could not have discerned your evil tendencies.T19 75.1

At school you had a good and noble teacher; yet because you were restrained, you felt indignant. You thought that because you were the daughter of ——, he should show a preference for you, and should not take liberties to correct and reprove you. Your sisters also partook of the same spirit. You carried your complaints to your parents; they heard your version of matters, and sympathized with you more or less, and their feelings were stirred by your exaggerated reports. They injured you. You had not been as strictly disciplined as you should have been. Yet you were offended because you could not have your own way, but were compelled to yield to the decided, thorough manner of Bro. ——'s instructions. You were sometimes troublesome, impudent, and defiant, while in school. You greatly lacked modesty and decorum. You were bold, selfish, and self-exalted, and needed a firm discipline at home, as well as at school.T19 75.2

You are a girl that has an impure mind. You were relieved from labor and from care altogether too long. Household duties would have been one of the richest blessings you could have had. Weariness would not have injured you one-tenth part as much as your lascivious thoughts and conduct. You have received incorrect ideas in regard to girls and boys associating together, and it has been very congenial to your mind to be in the company of the boys. You are not pure in heart and mind. You have been injured by reading love stories and romances. Your mind has been fascinated by impure thoughts. Your imagination has become corrupt, until you seem to have no power to control your mind. Satan leads you captive as he pleases. You are not happy. You do not love God, nor his people. You have bitterness of spirit toward those who see your true character. You seem to blame them for the view they take of your case. You are the one to blame. Your conduct has been such as to call forth remarks of caution and warning from others. You have only yourself to censure in this.T19 76.1

You are a dangerous associate. You have done much harm by your influence in ——. You have led, instead of being led. You have dishonored God, and are accountable to him for the work of evil you have wrought by your influence. Your conduct has not been chaste, modest, nor becoming. You have not had the fear of God before your eyes. You have dissembled so often to accomplish the plans you have had in your mind, that you bear a violated conscience. Ruin, my dear girl, is surely before you, unless you stop just where you are. Cease your day-dreaming, your castle-building. Stop your thoughts from running in the channel of corruption and folly. You are not a girl that can safely associate with the boys. A tide of temptation is roused, and surges in your breast, having a tendency to uproot principle, female virtue, and true modesty. If you go on in your willful, headstrong course, what will be your fate?T19 77.1

A new year has dawned upon us. What do you determine to do? What have you resolved shall be the record borne up to God by the ministering angels of your work from day to day? What words that you have uttered will appear in the page of the book of records? What thoughts will the Searcher of hearts find cherished by you? He is a discerner of the thoughts, of the intents and purposes of the heart. You have a fearful record of the past year, which is laid open to the view of the Majesty of Heaven and the myriads of pure, sinless angels. You may have concealed your thoughts and acts, your desperate and unsanctified feelings, from mortals; but, remember, not from God. The most trivial acts of your life are open to his view. The sins you have committed are all registered. You have a spotted record in Heaven.T19 77.2

God's frown is upon you, and yet you appear destitute of feeling, or of realizing your lost and undone condition. You do at times have feelings of remorse; but your independent, proud spirits soon rise above this, and you stifle the voice of conscience. You are not happy; yet you imagine that if you could have your own way unrestrained, you would be happy. Poor child! you occupy a position similar to that which Eve did in Eden. She imagined that she should be highly exalted if she could only eat of the fruit of the tree which God had forbidden her even to touch, lest she die. She ate, and lost all the glories of Eden.T19 78.1

You should have suitable control over your thoughts. To obtain this will not be for you an easy task. You cannot accomplish it without close and even severe effort. Yet God requires this of you. It is a duty resting upon every accountable being; and you are responsible to God for your thoughts. If you indulge in vain imaginations, permitting your mind to dwell upon impure subjects, you are in a degree as guilty before God as if your thoughts were carried into action. All that has prevented the action has been the lack of opportunity. Day and night dreaming, and castle-building, are bad habits, and exceedingly dangerous. When once established, it is next to impossible to break it up, and change the order of the thoughts, and have them directed upon pure, holy, elevated themes. You will have to become a faithful sentinel over your eyes, ears, and all your senses, if you would control your mind, and prevent vain and corrupt thoughts from staining your soul. The power of grace alone can accomplish this most desirable work. You are weak in this direction.T19 78.2

You have become wayward, bold, and daring. The grace of God has no place in your heart. In the strength of God alone can you bring yourself where you can be a recipient of his grace, an instrument of righteousness.T19 79.1

Not only does God require you to control your thoughts, but also your passions and affections. Your salvation depends upon your governing yourself in these things. These traits, passion and affection, are powerful agents. If misapplied, if set in operation through wrong motives, if misplaced, they are powerful to accomplish your ruin, and leave you a miserable wreck, without God and without hope.T19 79.2

The imagination must be controlled, positively and persistently governed, if the passions and affections are subject to reason, conscience, and character. You are in danger, for you are just upon the point of sacrificing your eternal interest at the altar of passion. Passion is obtaining positive control of your entire being—passion of what quality? of a base, destructive nature. By yielding to it, you will imbitter the lives of your parents, bring sadness and shame to your sisters, sacrifice your own character, and give up Heaven and a glorious immortal life. Are you ready to do this? I appeal to you to stop where you are. Advance not another step in your headstrong, wanton course; for before you is misery and death. Unless you exercise self-control in regard to your passions and affections, you will surely bring yourself into disrepute with all around you, and will bring upon your character disgrace which will last while you live.T19 79.3

You are pert, and disobedient to your parents, unthankful and unholy. These miserable traits are the fruits of a corrupt tree. You are forward. You love the boys, and love to make them the theme of your conversation. “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” Habits have become powerful to control you; and you have learned to be deceptive in order to carry out your purposes and accomplish your desires.T19 80.1

I do not consider your case hopeless; if I did, my pen would not be tracing these lines. In the strength of God, you can redeem the past. Your name is already a byword in ——. But you can change the order of things, by using the powers God has given you. You may even now gain a moral excellence, and your name may be associated with things pure and holy. You can be elevated. God has provided for you the helps necessary for you to do this. He has invited you to come to him, and he would bear your burdens and give you rest of soul. “Learn of me,” says the divine Teacher, “for I am meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.” You have long been above this lowliness and meekness. You will have to learn this important lesson of the divine Teacher before you can find the rest promised. You have thought so much of yourself, of your smartness, that it has led you to such affectation and vanity as to make almost a fool of yourself. You have a deceitful tongue which has indulged in misrepresentations and falsehoods. O my dear girl, if you could only arouse, and your slumbering, deadened conscience could be resurrected, and you could cherish habitual impressions of the presence of God, and you keep yourself subject to the control of an enlightened, wakeful conscience, you would be happy yourself, and a blessing to your parents, whose hearts you now wound. You could be an instrument of righteousness to your associates. You need a thorough conversion; and without it you are in the gall of bitterness and the bonds of iniquity. You may imagine yourself free when following the lead of your own wayward, pernicious mind; but you are in the most degrading bondage. You may consider yourself an object of envy without the principles of religion; but all who are good and virtuous will regard your character with pity, and your course with abhorrence. You can be a partaker of the divine nature, if you will escape the corruption that is in the world through lust; or you may sink down in this corruption, by being a partaker of it, and bear the impress of the satanic.T19 80.2

You have younger sisters whom you can bless with your influence. You can reflect a sweet, precious light in your father's family, and make his heart glad; or you can be a dark shadow, a cloud, a storm which shall desolate. Your passion for reading is of that character which, if indulged in, will pervert the imagination, and will prove your ruin. Unless you restrain your thoughts, your reading, and your words, your imagination will become hopelessly diseased. Read your Bible attentively, prayerfully, and be guided by its teachings. This is your safety.T19 81.1

Keep clear of the boys. Your temptations commence earnest and powerful when in their society. Put marriage out of your girl's head. You are in no sense fit for this. You need years of experience before you can be qualified to understand the duties, and take up the burdens, of married life. Positively guard your thoughts, your passions, and your affections. Do not degrade these to minister to lust. Elevate them to purity, to be devoted to God.T19 82.1

You may become a prudent, modest, virtuous girl; but not without earnest effort. You must watch, you must pray, you must meditate, and investigate your motives and your actions. Closely analyze your feelings, and your acts. Would you, in the presence of your father, perform an impure action? No, indeed. But you do this in the presence of your Heavenly Father, who is so much more exalted, so holy, so pure. Yes; you corrupt your own body in the presence of the pure, sinless angels, and in the presence of Jesus Christ; and you continue to do this irrespective of warnings, irrespective of conscience, or the light given you.T19 82.2

Remember, a record is made of all your acts. You must meet the most secret things of your life again. You will be judged according to the deeds done in the body. Are you prepared for this? You are injuring yourself physically and morally. Your body God has enjoined you to preserve holy. “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, ... and 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.” Will not God judge you for debasing the passions and affections to lust when he claims the wealth of your affections and your entire being to be devoted to his service?T19 82.3

Again I now warn you as one who must meet these lines I now pen you, in that day when the cases of every one shall be decided. Yield yourself without delay to Christ; he alone can redeem you from ruin by the power of his grace. He alone can bring your moral and mental powers into a state of health. Your heart may be warm with the love of God; your understanding, clear and mature; your conscience, illuminated, quick; and pure; your will, upright and sanctified, subject to the control of the Spirit of God. You can make yourself what you choose. If you will now face right about, cease to do evil, and learn to do well, then you will be happy indeed; successful you will be in the battles of life, and rise to glory and honor in the better life than this. “Choose you this day whom you will serve.”T19 83.1

E. G. W.

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