In the night season I was talking with you concerning these matters, and
setting before you the inconsistency of the course under contemplation. I
advise you to exercise your ingenuity of mind in an effort to help your children
to understand the advantages of loving the Word of God. Show your children
that you are cooperating with the Lord in an effort to save their souls.
In the night season it was presented before me that if you should take
this strange step, the enemy of all righteousness would use this as a means
of ruining the respect that your children would otherwise have for you, and
would create in their hearts a feeling of contempt for you because of your lack
of good judgment. Satan is seeking to destroy your influence in the home and
in the church, and among unbelievers as well.
In past years we have had opportunity to observe several marriages of this
sort, and the results have always been of a character to create great misery in
the family life.
Now, my sister, I appeal to you to act like a woman of superior judgment.
Do, I beseech of you, preserve every jot of your influence, in order that you
may use it to the glory of God in giving wise counsel to your own children.
You are held accountable before God for the good influence you may now have
the power of exerting. For your own sake, and for the sake of your children,
cut this matter short.
In the night season I was saying, Give your children, as a true mother, an
example of living faith in God, and thus retain the respect and confidence that
otherwise you might forever lose.—Letter 26, 1910.
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Section II - Married to an
Unbelieving Spouse
5. The Christian Spouse’s Behavior
No Thought of Divorce. If the wife is an unbeliever and an opposer, the
husband cannot, in view of the law of God, put her away on this ground alone.
In order to be in harmony with the law of Jehovah, he must abide with her,
unless she chooses of herself to depart.—Letter 8, 1888.
A Christian Wife’s Obligations. I have some things to say to you from the
Lord.... The Lord has a work for you to do; it is not a public work, but a very
important one, a work in your own home, to be true to your position as a wife
and mother. No other can do this, your work.
The Spirit and the Word of God agree. Remembering this, let us read the
words of inspiration from Jesus Christ through Paul to Titus. He is charged to
speak “the things which become sound doctrine: that the aged men be sober,
grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience. The aged women
likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not
given to much wine, teachers of good things: that they may teach the young
women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet,
chaste, keepers at home, good,
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obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed”
[Titus 2:1-5].
A Wife’s First Duty—Her Home. With this Scripture before you, I ask,
For what are you spending your time in Battle Creek? Has God called you
to neglect your home? No, no. My sister, the Lord has shown me that you
are mistaking your duty. Your husband needs you; your children need their
mother. You have stepped out of the path where Jesus leads the way. He is
saying to you, “Follow Me,” and He will lead you in your own home duties,
which are now sadly neglected. The voice of the Lord has not bidden you to
separate your interests from that of your husband and children. Your first duty
is in the home. The Spirit of the Lord has not given you a work, or qualified
you to do a work, that is contrary to His own Word....
Counsel to a Mother. You have a great work, a sacred, holy calling to
exemplify the Christian graces as a faithful wife and mother; to be lovable,
patient, kind, yet firm, in your home life; to learn right methods and acquire
tact for the training of your own little ones, that they may keep the way of the
Lord. As a humble child of God, learn in the school of Christ; seek constantly
to improve your powers to do the most perfect, thorough work at home, both
by precept and example.
In this work you will have the help of the Lord; but if you ignore your duty
as a wife and mother, and hold out your hands for the Lord to put another class
of work in them, be sure that He will not contradict Himself; He points you to
the duty you have to do at home. If you have the idea that some work greater
and holier than this has been entrusted to you, you are under a deception. In
neglecting your husband and children for what you suppose to be religious
duties, either to attend meetings or to work for