Chapter 26—Assurance to Those Facing Death

Messages of Comfort to a Daughter-in-Law Suffering Affliction

[Mary Kelsey White, the wife of Wm. C. White, and thus a daughter-in-law of Mrs. White, was from her very girlhood an earnest and talented worker in the Review and Herald, the Pacific Press, and our publishing house in Basel, Switzerland. She contracted tuberculosis while in Europe, and after an illness of three years died at Boulder, Colorado, at the age of thirty-three. Presented here are excerpts from messages written to her during the last year of this illness.—Compilers.]

Battle Creek, Michigan

November 4, 1889

Dear Daughter Mary,

We do not cease to pray for you, my dear child, and the goodness and mercy of God is so clear and distinct to me that every time I pray it seems as though the Saviour had you in His own arms and that you were reposing there. I have faith in your case. I do believe that the Lord has heard prayer in your behalf, and that He will work for your good and His own name's glory. He has said, “Ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). “Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive” (Matthew 21:22).2SM 246.1

I know that stormy times are before us, and we must know how to trust, how to lay hold on the Source of our strength. The Lord is good to those who trust in Him, and they shall not be overcome. I think of the words of the prophet in your case, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God: for I shall yet praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God” (Psalm 43:5).2SM 246.2

Mary, repose in God. Wait patiently for the Lord. He will be to you a present help in every time of need. The Lord is good. Praise His Holy name. God loves to have us trust Him, loves to have us have confidence in His promises. Only believe, and we shall see the workings of God.—Letter 71, 1889.2SM 247.1

Battle Creek, Michigan

December 6, 1889

Dear Mary,

We do not forget you, my dear afflicted child. We pray most earnestly for you every day. I have freedom in prayer. We do not forget Brethren [A. D.] Olsen and [J. G.] Matteson and others who are afflicted. We pray; it is all we can do. Then we leave you in humble trust in the hands of One who loves you with a greater love than a mother's. Cling to Jesus and put your entire trust in Him, for He careth for you and He will not withdraw His hand from you, but will lead you Himself.2SM 247.2

Dear Mary, how pleasant it will be to see the King in His matchless loveliness and be where there is no pain, no sorrow, no sickness, no sadness. I feel so clear that we shall be victorious, and I feel clear that the communication is opened between God and your soul. It seems so sure to me that you have the divine Presence and that Jesus is your constant helper. Oh, He loves you; He loves you, and is looking upon you with pitying tenderness. Never doubt Him for a moment. Commit your case to Him, having faith that He will do for you the very thing that is best for your eternal interest....2SM 247.3

I pray earnestly for you all every day. The Lord lives, the Lord hears and answers prayer. Look up, my dear child. Look up, be of good courage, trust wholly in the Lord, for He is your helper, your physician, your Saviour.—Letter 75, 1889.2SM 247.4

Battle Creek, Michigan

February 12, 1890

Dear Mary,

Sick and weak and lonely, I think of you in this light.... Mary, you have the best and most loving, compassionate Being, even the Sun of Righteousness, to shine upon you. Look up, look up. I feel that the rest in the grave would not be so bad a thing for me. I am so tired, so discouraged as I see so much self and so much of Satan's spirit and work. Then I look to Jesus, and I find peace only in Jesus....2SM 248.1

I lay you by faith on the bosom of Jesus Christ. He loves you. I know that you are not standing afar off from Christ, but you do draw nigh with full assurance of faith in lowly dependence upon the blood and righteousness of Christ. You accept salvation as the gift of His grace, believing the promise because He has spoken it. Look to Jesus; this is my only comfort and hope. The Lord has been leading you along a path of painful humiliation. You have been emptied from vessel to vessel. You have been led by Him step by step, deeper and still deeper into the valley, but only to bring you into close communion with Jesus in His life of humiliation.2SM 248.2

Is there a step, my dear beloved child, that Jesus has not trodden with you? Is there one pang of distress that He does not feel? Is there one sin that He has not carried, a cross He has not borne, a sorrow that he Has not sympathized with? He is touched with all the feeling of our infirmities. You are knowing what it is to fellowship with the sufferings of Christ. You are a partaker with Christ of His sufferings. You brave, self-denying child, God knows it all. He passes to you a cup into which He pours a drop of His own sufferings. He places the light end of the cross on your shoulders; He throws a shadow on your soul....2SM 248.3

Trust yourself in the hands of Jesus. Do not worry. Do not think God has forgotten to be gracious. Jesus lives and will not leave you. May the Lord be your staff, your support, your front guard, your rearward.—Letter 56, 1890.2SM 248.4

Battle Creek, Michigan

February 13, 1890

My Dear Child,

The Lord blesses you all and will comfort you and give you strong consolation and peace in Him. He wants you to rest in His hands passively, and believe that He will do all things well2SM 249.1

Be of good courage. Keep looking up. Jesus is the only hope of us all. He will not leave or forsake you. Precious are the promises of God. We will hold them fast. We will not let them go.—Letter 57, 1890.2SM 249.2

St. Helena, California

May 28, 1890

Dear Children,

I think of you and pray for you all. Oh, if Mary were only improving, how glad it would make my heart. The Lord will let His candle shine about you. He will bless and strengthen and support you, in this your time of trial and distress. The Redeemer is pitiful, full of tender sympathy and love. Now is the time to commit the keeping of the soul to God as unto a faithful Creator. What a blessed hope we have—a hope that grows stronger and stronger as trials and afflictions increase. Now show your trust in One who has given His life for you.2SM 249.3

Thank God, Mary, the light afflictions which are but for a moment, work for you a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. You know in whom you have believed and are persuaded that He is able to keep that which you have committed unto Him against that day. The trials may be severe, but look to Jesus every moment—not to struggle, but to rest in His love. He careth for you.2SM 249.4

We know that as trials press closer and closer, the hope grows stronger. The beams of the Sun of Righteousness shall shine into your heart with their healing power. Look beyond the clouds to the brightness, even the light of the Sun of Righteousness. Thank God that in the tempest of trial the anchor holds. We have an ever-living, ever-prevailing Intercessor, who is pleading our individual cases before the Father. The joys of an eternal reward have been purchased at an infinite cost.2SM 249.5

May the Lord comfort and strengthen and bless you is my daily prayer. Oh, when we see the King in His beauty, what a day of gladness that will be. We will rest in the rich promises of God. He will never fail us, but be to us a present help in every time of need.—Letter 77, 1890.2SM 250.1

Battle Creek, Michigan

June 16, 1890

Dear Willie,

I am anxious for you all, especially for dear Mary. I pray for her daily and I say nightly, I know the Lord keeps her in the hollow of His hand. Mary now can say in all confidence, “I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day” (2 Timothy 1:12).2SM 250.2

I have no doubts, no unbelief in the case of Mary. She is the beloved of the Lord. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (Psalm 116:15). Mary can say with Paul, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing” (2 Timothy 4:7, 8).2SM 250.3

What should we do without a Saviour in the hour that tries the soul? Ministering angels are round about us giving us to drink of the water of life to refresh our souls in the closing scenes of life. There is a pledge from Him who is the resurrection and the life, that those who sleep in Jesus will Christ bring with Him from the grave. The trump will sound, the dead will awaken to life, to die no more. The eternal morning has come to them, for there will be no night in the city of God.2SM 250.4

Mary has manfully struggled through temptations and trials; she hath done what she could. She has acted a part through the grace of Christ in molding the character of others by her words and by her deeds. She is dying in the faith, but her works live.—Letter 78, 1890.2SM 250.5