Lt 158, 1910

Cottrell, H. W.

Oakland, California

1910

Previously unpublished.

My Brother, Elder Cottrell:

I have a few words to write to you lest you may misinterpret my ideas and feelings towards you.25LtMs, Lt 158, 1910, par. 1

I will not leave you under impressions that are not true. I have supposed I should have seen you and had an opportunity to converse with you. Then I could explain matters to you and obtain some words of explanation from you. But as that opportunity has not come, I will now endeavor to express myself to you. I do not wish you to be laboring under a false impression that you do not err in judgment. I have sorrow of heart. You have acted a noble part in standing by Elder Haskell, and there have been some strange things that have developed in certain directions as we had to meet in the state of Maine. There was the fanaticism that we had to meet in Portland and in various places in New York, and it was from men that claimed that they were unfailing in judgment, that were claiming infallibility. We had to meet this strange presumption over and over again until the Lord gave decided testimony, Let them alone; you have done all you can do. And any man who claims that he is infallible is never to be placed in office, for he knoweth not what spirit he is of, and can never be trusted with responsibilities to deal with human minds. I therefore could not, from the light given me, accept your assertions. Your statements that the school was moved from Healdsburg too soon was falsehood, for the Lord is true and never makes a mistake. [Unfinished.]25LtMs, Lt 158, 1910, par. 2