Prescott, W. W.
Granville, New South Wales, Australia
April 10, 1894
Dear Brother Prescott,
I received your letter, and was much interested in its contents. I have had little time to write. It is about two weeks since we came to this place, and through various circumstances we are not yet fully settled, but we are placed where we can live.
In regard to education, I cannot discern that your ideas are incorrect. When we consider that history is being made so fast, we can but be convinced that perils are fast crowding upon us, and we cannot deliver even ourselves from that which we must meet. All we can do is to seek heavenly wisdom from our only source of help. If by constant contemplation of the Author and Finisher of our faith, we grow into the similitude of Christ in character, we shall have our life hid with Christ in God. We are not to fold our hands in idle expectancy of the Lord’s soon coming, but we are to keep looking unto Jesus, hanging our helpless souls upon his merits, opening our hearts to the Holy Spirit’s moving, our petitions ascending to God for his fashioning hand to be upon us.
Unholy ambition will seek to secure a place in all our devising, but O, as never before, there is now the greatest necessity that in humility we sit at the feet of Jesus, and learn lessons from the greatest Teacher the world ever knew. One day at a time we must be working and praying, waiting and watching, calling upon God for wisdom at every step. We cannot walk in our own strength. If this has been perilous in the past, as we know it has been, it is doubly so now. It is no time to be off guard, for even one moment. Eternal interests are involved, and our faith needs strengthening; it must be growing in the place of decreasing and becoming dwarfed. We have not a moment’s time to serve or glorify self. Lift Him up, the Man of Calvary, and let every influence, every voice, point to Jesus, saying, “Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” [John 1:29.] It is none of self and all of Jesus that will give the right mold to our experience.
I feel deeply for the students of the school. My heart is drawn out for the youth. I see so large a work which they can do if they consecrate their life to Jesus. The Lord will give the youth power of influence as they lift their voice in the invitation, “Come, for all things are ready.” [Luke 14:17.] Every evil practice must be hated and overcome. Christ is to be formed within, the hope of glory. Then He will shine forth in the character.
I am rejoiced that some are working up, to give themselves unreservedly to the service of Christ. The opposing influences are at work; men, women, and youth, standing under the black banner of the power of darkness, moving under the inspiration of the power from beneath, are at work to seduce souls into forbidden paths. And God is waiting to inspire the youth with power from above, that all who stand under the bloodstained banner of Jesus Christ may work to call, to warn, and to lead souls into safe paths, and to plant the feet of many upon the Rock of Ages.
The Lord will reveal Himself to all who seek Him with the whole heart. “Ye are laborers together with God.” [1 Corinthians 3:9.] All who will be learners in the school of Christ will be accepted as workers. There will be the deep movings of the Spirit of God upon human hearts now and onward, as never before in our experience. But our brethren must be guarded now as never before. They need the eyes anointed with heavenly eyesalve, that they may discern all things clearly, and not accept and bring to the front that which will, in its tendencies, switch some poor souls off the track. Test everything before it shall be presented to the flock of God, for when persons see that they have been accepting as a “Thus saith the Lord,” words that were not from God, their faith will be unsettled; and they will be ready to doubt the words that come from God to them; some will no longer be reached by the warnings, invitations, and messages from heaven.
For this reason our brethren and sisters need to keep sharp, clear discernment. In messages that profess to be from heaven, expressions will be made that are misleading, and if the influence of these things be accepted, it will lead to exaggerated movements, plans, and devisings that will bring in the very things Satan would have current—a strange spirit, an unclean spirit, under the garments of sanctity, a strong spirit to overbear everything. Fanaticism will come in, and will so mingle and interweave itself with the workings of the Spirit of God that many will accept it all as from God, and will be deceived and misled thereby.
