Ellen G. White: The Baker Letter (Letter 8, 1895)

Dear Brother and Sister Baker:
In the night season I was conversing with you. I had a message for you, and was presenting that message. You were cast down and feeling discouraged. I said to you, The Lord has bidden me to speak to Bro. and Sr. Baker. You are considering your work as almost a failure, but if one soul holds fast to truth, and endures unto the end, your work cannot be pronounced a failure. If one mother has been turned from her disloyalty to obedience, you may rejoice. The mother who follows on to know the Lord will teach her children to follow in her footsteps. The promise is to father, mothers, and their children. (Acts 2:39) These dear children received from Adam an inheritance of disobedience, of guilt and death. The Lord has given to the world Jesus Christ, and His work was to restore to the world the moral image of God in man, and to reshape the character.
The truth is to be proclaimed in all places, and the human agents are to be co-laborers with Christ, building up a wall of security about the children, and cutting off as far as possible the strong current of evil. Parents who are thoroughly converted will seek the salvation of their children, training them to be sons and daughters of God. In doing this work in wisdom they are co-laborers with God.
My brother, my sister, you can help parents to educate and train their families. By your earnest appeals, show them that they can illustrate to the world the power and influence of a well-ordered, well-disciplined family. Thorough Christian influence in the home will demonstrate to the world that the greatest amount of good can be done by sanctified, parental example, and religious training.
The Lord will not judge you by the amount of success manifested in your efforts. I was bidden to tell you that your faith must be kept revived and firm, and constantly increasing. When you see that those who have ears will not hear, and that those who are intelligent will not understand, after you have done your best, pass on to regions beyond, and leave the result with God. But let not your faith fail.
There might be some improvement made in your delivery. Cultivate earnestness and positiveness in addressing the people. Your subject matter may be excellent, and just what the people need, but you would do well to mingle a positiveness with the persuasive entreaties...
There is a need of decided personal effort to reach the people in their houses. Present the plain “Thus saith the Lord” with authority and exalt the wisdom of God in the written word. Bring the people to a decision; keep the voice of the Bible ever before them. Tell them you speak that which you do know, and testify that which is truth, because God has spoken it. Let your preaching be short and right to the point, and then at the proper time call for a decision. Do not present the truth in a formal manner, but let the heart be vitalized by the Spirit of God, and let your words be spoken with such certainty that those who hear may know that the truth is a reality to you. Your manner may be educated, and your words may be of that character that they will voice the words of Peter: “For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” With just as much
assurance you may declare the message of God’s truth. Those who believe sacred, eternal truth, must put their whole soul into their efforts. We must be stirred to the very heart as we behold the fulfilling of prophecy in the closing scenes of this earth’s history. As our vision extends still further into the glories of eternity, the coming of Christ with power and great glory, and the scenes of the great day of judgment, we should not remain tame and unmoved. “I saw the dead,” says John, “stand
before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”
After a short discourse, keep fresh, that you may give a Bible reading on the points spoken of. Come right to the hearts of your hearers, urging them to present their difficulties to you, that you may explain the Scriptures which they do not comprehend. Throw off all appearance of apathy, and lead the people to think that there is life or death in these solemn questions, according as they shall receive or reject them. As you present testing truth, ask often, who is now willing, as they have heard the words of God, pointing out their duty, to consecrate their hearts and minds, with all their affections to Christ Jesus. “He that is not for me, is against me.” As the Lord lays out before us the stirring scenes to be enacted in the last great conflict, can we contemplate them without catching enthusiasm, ardor, and zeal, knowing that heavenly angels are by our side.
Come close to the people; get into the families when you can; do not wait for the people to hunt up the shepherd. Bear with you the confidence and assurance of faith which evidences that you are not trusting in idle tales, but in a plain “Thus saith the Lord.”
Be careful, exceedingly careful as to how you dwell upon the human nature of Christ. Do not set Him before the people as a man with the propensities of sin. He is the second Adam. The first Adam was created a pure, sinless being, without a taint of sin upon him; he was in the image of God. He could fall, and he did fall through
transgressing. because of sin, his posterity was born with inherent propensities of disobedience. But Jesus Christ was the only begotten Son of God. He took upon Himself human nature, and was tempted in all points as human nature is tempted. He could have sinned; He could have fallen, but not for one moment was there in Him an evil propensity. He was assailed with temptations in the wilderness, as Adam was assailed with temptations in Eden.
Bro. Baker, avoid every question in relation to the humanity of Christ which is liable to be misunderstood. Truth lies close to the track of presumption. In treating upon the humanity of Christ, you need to guard strenuously every assertion, lest your words be taken to mean more than they imply, and thus you lose or dim the clear perceptions of His humanity as combined with divinity. his birth was a miracle of God; for, said the angel, “Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring fort a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called theson of the Highest; and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his Father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing that I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, Thy Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy6 thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.”
These words are not addressed to any human being, except to the Son of the Infinite God. Never, in any way, leave the slightest impression upon human minds, that a taint of, or inclination to corruption rested upon Christ, or that He in any way yielded to corruption. He was tempted in all points like as man is tempted, yet He is called that holy thing. It is a mystery that is left unexplained to mortals that Christ could be tempted in all points like as we are, and yet be without sin. The incarnation of Christ has ever been, and will ever remain a mystery. That which is revealed, is for us and for our children, but let every human being be warned from the ground of making Christ altogether human, such an one as ourselves; for it cannot be. The exact time when humanity blended with divinity, it is not necessary for us to know. We are to keep our feet on the rock, Christ Jesus, as God revealed in humanity.
I perceive that there is danger in approaching subjects which dwell on the humanity of the Son of the infinite God. He did humble Himself when He saw He was fashioned as a man, that He might understand the force of all temptations wherewith man is beset.
The first Adam fell: the second Adam held fast to God and His word under the most trying circumstances, and His faith in His Father’s goodness, mercy, and love did not waver for one moment. “It is written” was His weapon of resistance., and it is the sword of the Spirit, which every human being is to use. “Hereafter I will not talk much with you; for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me” - nothing to respond to temptation. Not one occasion has been given in response to His manifold temptations. Not once did Christ step on Satan’s ground, to give him any advantage. Satan found nothing in Him to encourage his advances.
As teachers we need to understand that the object and teaching of our Lord was to simplify in all His instructions, the nature and the necessity of the moral excellence of character which God through His Son has made every provision that human agents should obtain, that they may be laborers together with Jesus Christ. This God requires, and to this end the ministers of the gospel should work, both in their education of the people, and in the ministry of the word.
There are many questions treated upon that are not necessary for the perfection of the faith. We have not time for their study. Many things are above finite comprehension. Truths are to be received not within the reach of our reason, and not for us to explain. Revelation presents them to us to be implicitly received as the words of an infinite God. While every ingenious inquirer is to search out the truth as it is in Jesus, there are things not yet simplified, statements that human minds cannot grasp and reason out, without being liable to make human calculations and explanations, which will not prove a savor of life unto life.

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