Dear Brother Y: In the last view given
I was shown that you do not understand yourself. You have a work
to do for yourself which no one can do for you. Your experience
in the truth is short, and you
have not been thoroughly converted. You place a higher estimate
upon yourself than you will bear. I was pointed back to your
past life. Your mind has not been elevated, but has dwelt upon
subjects not calculated to lead to purity of action. You have
had habits which were corrupt, and which have tainted your morals.
You have been too familiar with the other sex, and have not possessed
modesty of deportment. You would be well suited were there greater
familiarity encouraged between men and women, much after Dr.
A's theory. Your influence at ----- was not good. You were not
a proper person for that place; your light and trifling conversation
disqualified you to exert a good influence. The character of
your music was not such as to encourage elevated thoughts or
feelings, but rather to degenerate.
For some weeks in the past your influence
has been improving; but you lack firmness of principle. You are
deficient in many things, and in some things you must know where
you fail. The follies of your youth have left their impress upon
you; you can never recover what you have lost through impure
habits. These things have so benumbed your sensibilities that
sacred things are not clearly discerned. You cannot, with your
present experience, resist temptation. You cannot endure trials.
You are not sanctified through the truth. You have taken hold
of the truth, but it has not taken hold upon you to transform
you by the renewing of your mind. You are a self-deceived man.
Oh, do not, I entreat you, remain deceived in regard to your
true condition! You have not felt deep conviction because of
your sins, and in humility sought the Lord with anguish of heart
that your transgressions might be blotted out. You could not
see that your ways were so sinful before God. Therefore the work
of reformation has not been wrought in your soul.
You have clothed yourself with a self-righteous
garment to cover up the deformity
of sin; but this is not the remedy. You know not what true conversion
is. The old man is not dead in you. You have a form of godliness,
but not the cleansing power of God. You can and do talk and write
smoothly, and as far as your words go, they may possibly be correct;
but the true language of the heart is not spoken. You are enough
acquainted with yourself to know this. Your case is perilous;
yet God pities you, and will save you if you fall all broken
at His feet, feeling your impurity and vileness, your rottenness
of soul, without the transforming power of God.
My brother, I do not wish to discourage you,
but to lead you to investigate your motives and acts as in the
light of eternity. Break away from Satan's snare. Do not, I beg
of you, lead any person to think of you in a more elevated light
than you can bear, for when this deception shall be removed,
and your true self appear as you are, there will be a reaction.
You do have convictions of the Spirit of God and feel the force
of truth when you listen to it; but these sacred, softening impressions
wear away, and you are a forgetful hearer. You are not established,
strengthened, and settled in the truth. You have thought it best
for your interest to adopt the truth, but you have not yet experienced
its sanctifying influence. Now we would entreat of you, be not
deceived, God is not mocked. It is not too late for you to become
a Christian; but do not move by impulse. Weigh every move well,
and deceive not your own soul.