Name/Title
AU Lambert, Daniel Ira - 1892-06-19 letter to Joseph Hastings HarrisEntry/Object ID
1990.1.467Context
Ada, Ohio June 19, 92.
Mr. J. H. Harris.
Dear Friend:
This beautiful Sabbath morning finds me well and enjoying the blessings and privileges that are thrown around the student of Ada.
We have been having very warm weather for some time, but had quite a fine rain last evening which has cooled the air and made it much pleasanter.
Everything still moves off nicely at the O.N.U. Preparations are begun for commencement, which of course is expected to be fine. We are intending to stay for it this year.
I rec'd your letter and money for which I thank you, but am very sorry if it put you to any bother concerning it.
After I rec'd your first letter, in which you inquired concerning the money I answered and told you I would not need it before vacation; but I presume you had not rec'd it at the time you wrote.
I am sorry if it put you to any bother, for I was not needing it. It makes me feel so sad to think of one so near to me being confined to the sick room so long, thus perhaps having present arrangements spoiled to a certain degree, yet I fully believe that “all things work together for good to them that love God.”
While we can not always see that our afflictions are for our good, He has told us that they work out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.
Again He has told us that he purgeth the tree that beareth fruit that it may bring forth more fruit.
I cannot see why unless for the last reason named above you should be allowed to meet with the affliction you have just undergone.
There seems to be a peculiar characteristic in the nature of every individual, that is reached in few ways so completely, as when brought upon the bed of affliction.
Do not understand me to think that there were things in your nature that needed awakening, but only as I said above.
Christ often afflicts his most earnest and devoted workers in order that they may catch glimpses of the other world, and be better fitted to tell it to those about them. It is a school of training in which God often leads his children out into clearer conceptions of his love and works, and what each one ought to do. Through it he calls many to stand on the walls of Zion as watchmen.
Through it he makes a Moody, and many of our great men. May it not be possible that there is some great trust the Lord has to give into your hands? Let that be as it may; whatever may be your vocation in life, I have no doubt but what you will back every movement of it up by the love and grace given you by God, and that you will try to push his cause onward. But it seems to me there is some special work God has laid out for you to perform. I have always felt it, and so I feel now.
I know not what it may be. It may be to become a Moody. It may be in a direction entirely different from this, but it seems to me you are to become one of the leaders to whom the coming generation is to look for guidance.
But if nothing else results from your sickness, there must be one thought that surely ought to console you, and that is, that it is a preparation for the great future beyond.
This life is a school in which we are each preparing for the long eternity which is to follow.
It is only a little while until the struggling here will be over. We have only a few more lessons before we shall be ushered into the great beyond. And my dear friend, then, in the “misty sometime,” I fully believe that the trials which we have here borne; the things which our weak spirits here have spurned, and our disappointments which we have undergone by the afflictions and trials God has given us to bear, will flash upon us out of life's dark night, as the brightest jewels in our crowns.
Now if I have said anything that I ought not please just consider where it came from, for I know to whom I am writing and just say what I think.
I remember so well the last time we talked together, and of the feelings I had concerning our parting.
I feel as I said then that let what will come or go, I expect to be led by the Spirit of Christ, and am sure you feel the same.
Life is not very long at the most. We have only a little while to live and conform to Christ's will here, before the great transition into the world beyond. I only care to labor on in the way Christ would have me to go and then I know if I do, the future will be complete.
Hoping that you may soon be in perfect health again, and that I may still retain the same peace in your heart as before, and that God's holy comforting spirit may lead you constantly. I am as ever,
Your Aff. Friend
D. I. Lambert
Pray for me.
