Lt 6a, 1900

Lacey, Brother and Sister [H. C.]

Sanitarium Farm, Thornleigh, New South Wales, Australia

January 4, 1900

Portions of this letter are published in UL 18. +^{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.}

Dear Brother and Sister Lacey:

I received your long letter last evening. I thank you for writing. I would not call you away from Toowoomba. Hold on, and on. Have you visited the people at whose house I stayed while at the camp meeting? I thought they might be interested. I would be pleased to learn how they liked my book. Keep working, my brother and sister, keep drawing from Christ, keep trusting in God. In the meekness of Christ compel the people to come in. This can be done by presenting before them a plain, Thus saith the Lord.15LtMs, Lt 6a, 1900, par. 1

You have no time to lose, my brother and sister. Pray for the impartation of the Holy Spirit, and believe that it is for you. Ask the Lord to break up the apathy of the people. Bring before them the evidence of Christ’s soon coming. The Lord lives, He has not forgotten to be gracious. He has a people in Toowoomba, but, O, search your own hearts, and prepare the vessel for the reception of the Holy Spirit. Do not be satisfied with your present experience. Sink the shaft deeper and still deeper into the mine of truth. The Saviour is willing to teach all who are anxious to learn of Him.15LtMs, Lt 6a, 1900, par. 2

Time is more precious than gold. Press your way into the surrounding settlements. As you go, do not hesitate to present the subjects of present truth. When Christ sent out the seventy, He sent them out two and two. Today in every worker who goes forth to labor in Christ’s name, there are two agencies, the visible, and the invisible. Your success depends on the presence of that invisible One. He says to you, “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can you, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing.” [John 15:4, 5.]15LtMs, Lt 6a, 1900, par. 3

Here are the conditions, Herbert. Do not be afraid to learn what it means to abide in Christ. Is it not possible that you may have a superficial experience, an experience that knows very little of an abiding Christ? “If ye abide in me,” Christ says, “and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit: so shall ye be my disciples.” [Verses 7, 8.] The words of Christ must abide in us, and give us sanctification of the Spirit. Those who have not had a personal knowledge of the power which has made us what we are should be the most diligent students, eating and drinking the words of eternal life. He who has an experimental knowledge of the Son of God, has life in Christ. He is a living stone, builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.15LtMs, Lt 6a, 1900, par. 4

We have not inherent in us that independent, personal spiritual existence called immortality. “He that hath the Son hath life,” Christ declares. [1 John 5:12.] I greatly fear that you have been coming short in that experience which is eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of God. No man can have eternal life unless he eats the flesh and drinks the blood of the Son of God, for in that very experience is eternal life. “The flesh profiteth nothing,” Christ declared, “the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life.” [John 6:63.]15LtMs, Lt 6a, 1900, par. 5

You must know the living Saviour as your Saviour. Can you take in the words I now write to you? The life of the true believer in Christ is a mystery. It is something that cannot be explained. It is the privilege of every believer in Christ to possess Christ’s nature, a nature far above that which man forfeited by transgression. He who sees the Son by faith and believes in Him is obedient to the commandments of God, and in this obedience he finds everlasting life.15LtMs, Lt 6a, 1900, par. 6

Let your mind think deeply, my brother. Let your spiritual sinew and muscle be put to the stretch. You are too lazy a Christian, I fear, to know the will of God and the sanctification through the truth. “God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” [2 Corinthians 4:6.] Climb, Herbert, climb for your life, round after round. You are too content with a surface work. You will not have a firm religious experience unless you dig deep, and build your house upon the Rock. Can you not see that opposing workers are in the field with you, unseen agencies, who are working for the same men at the same time? Satan works through the men who will be worked, blinding the perceptive faculties, paralyzing the senses with selfish ease and love of the world, and unless a special message direct from heaven comes to them they will not discern their peril.15LtMs, Lt 6a, 1900, par. 7

Human nature is vacillating. Men grasp the truth with their perceptive powers, but they refuse to separate themselves from the world. Men will not consent to be God’s peculiar people. They know the truth of the Bible, but they do not want to obey, and they turn from the truth. They act out their unbelief, and darkness comes upon their souls. Choosing their own way, they are left to be filled with their own devices. Truth is insulted, Christ ignored, and perdition will be their portion unless they turn and repent.15LtMs, Lt 6a, 1900, par. 8

Thus the conflict goes on, and Christ is securing the human souls. But while these opposing influences are at work to lead away from the truth, away from conviction, away from heaven into the broad path of self-gratification, the agents of God are to work to save the souls that are ready to perish. After wrestling with God in prayer, put on the armor, and engage in earnest labor for the conversion of souls.15LtMs, Lt 6a, 1900, par. 9

Let men see that with you truth is not a jest, but an eternal reality. You are to deal with principles as you have never dealt with them before. Scatter the seeds of truth with no sparing hand. Sow beside all waters. Have no prescribed limits which you will not pass, but with all the powers that God has given you. Then the people will know you as a man who believes the truth, and to whom truth is a reality. Let not your faith fail. Bring your mind to the point of decision to shake yourself free from all slothfulness and inaction to work for souls as one who must give an account.15LtMs, Lt 6a, 1900, par. 10

I must now stop. Remain where you are until you know that your work there is done. Then you can go with a clean soul and not with the blood of souls upon your garments. I think you are right in not letting go. Hold fast. Leave no means untried. Work, and watch, and pray, and walk humbly with God.15LtMs, Lt 6a, 1900, par. 11

In love.15LtMs, Lt 6a, 1900, par. 12