An Appeal to the Church
by
Ellen G. White
Though the current new movement SDA
church has excluded itself from such appeals as Ellen White made below in 1868, that same appeal is to all of us as individuals. This
appeal is more necessary now that when it was first made.
An Appeal to the
Church
Testimonies for the
Church Vol. 2, Chap. 59 October 2, 1868
I was shown the state
of God's professed people. Many of them were in great darkness, yet seemed to
be insensible of their true condition. The sensibilities of a large number
seemed to be benumbed in regard to spiritual and eternal things, while their minds
seemed all awake to their worldly interests. Many were cherishing idols in
their hearts and were practicing iniquity which separated them from God and
caused them to be bodies of darkness. I saw but few who stood in the light,
having discernment and spirituality to discover these stumbling blocks and
remove them out of the way. Men who stand in very responsible positions at the
heart of the work are asleep. Satan has paralyzed them in order that his plans
and devices may not be discerned, while he is active to ensnare, deceive, and
destroy. {2T 439.2}
Some who occupy the position of watchmen to
warn the people of danger have given up their watch and recline at ease. They
are unfaithful sentinels. They remain inactive, while their wily foe enters the
fort and works successfully by their side to tear down what God has commanded
to be built up. They see that Satan is deceiving the inexperienced and
unsuspecting; yet they take it all quietly, as though they had no special
interest, as though these things did not concern them. They apprehend no
special danger; they see no cause to raise an alarm. To them everything seems
to be going well, and they see no necessity of raising the faithful, trumpet
notes of warning which they hear borne by the plain testimonies, to show the
people their transgressions and the house of Israel their sins. These reproofs
and warnings disturb the quiet of these sleepy, ease-loving sentinels, and they
are not pleased. They say in heart, if not in words: "This is all uncalled
for. It is too severe, too harsh. These men are unnecessarily disturbed and
excited, and seem unwilling to give us any rest or quietude 'Ye take too much
upon you, seeing all the congregation are holy, every
one of them.' They are not willing that we should have any comfort, peace, or
happiness. It is active labor, toil, and unceasing vigilance alone which will
satisfy these unreasonable, hard-to-be-suited watchmen. Why don't they prophesy
smooth things, and cry: Peace, peace? Then everything would move on smoothly."
{2T 440.1}
These are the true feelings of many of our
people. And Satan exults at his success in controlling the minds of so many who
profess to be Christians. He has deceived them, benumbed their sensibilities,
and planted his hellish banner right in their midst, and they are so completely
deceived that they know not that it is he. The people have not erected graven
images, yet their sin is no less in the sight of God. They worship mammon. They
love worldly gain. Some will make any sacrifice of conscience to obtain their
object. God's professed people are selfish and self-caring. They love the
things of this world, and have fellowship with the works of darkness. They have
pleasure in unrighteousness. They have not love toward God nor love for their
neighbors. They are idolaters, and are worse, far worse, in the sight of God
than the heathen, graven-image worshipers who have no knowledge of a better
way. {2T 440.2}
Christ's followers are required to come
out from the world, and be separate, and touch not the unclean, and they have
the promise of being the sons and daughters of the Most High, members of the
royal family. But if the conditions are not complied with on
their part, they will not, cannot, realize the fulfillment of the promise.
A profession of Christianity is nothing in the sight of God; but true, humble,
willing obedience to His requirements designates the children of His adoption,
the recipients of His grace, the partakers of His
great salvation. Such will be peculiar, a spectacle unto the world, to angels,
and to men. Their peculiar, holy character will be discernible, and will
distinctly separate them from the world, from its affections and lust. {2T
441.1}
I saw that but few among us answer to this
description. Their love to God is in word, not in deed and in truth. Their course of action, their works, testify of them that they are
not children of the light but of darkness. Their works have not been wrought in
God, but in selfishness, in unrighteousness. Their hearts are strangers to His
renewing grace. They have not experienced the transforming power which leads
them to walk even as Christ walked. Those who are living branches of the
heavenly Vine will partake of the sap and nourishment of the Vine. They will
not be withered and fruitless branches, but will show life and vigor, and will
flourish and bear fruit to the glory of God. They will be careful to depart
from all iniquity and to perfect holiness in the fear (reverence) of God. {2T
441.2}
Like ancient Israel the church has
dishonored her God by departing from the light, neglecting her duties, and
abusing her high and exalted privilege of being peculiar and holy in character.
Her members have violated their covenant to live for God and Him only. They
have joined with the selfish and world-loving. Pride, the love of pleasure, and
sin have been cherished, and Christ has departed. His
Spirit has been quenched in the church. Satan works side by side with professed
Christians; yet they are so destitute of spiritual discernment that they do not
detect him. They have not the burden of the work. The solemn truths they
profess to believe are not a reality to them. They have not genuine faith. Men
and women will act out all the faith which they in reality possess. By their fruits
ye shall know them. Not their profession, but the fruit they bear, shows the
character of the tree. Many have a form of godliness, their names are upon the
church records; but they have a spotted record in heaven. The recording angel
has faithfully written their deeds. Every selfish act, every wrong word, every
unfulfilled duty, and every secret sin, with every artful dissembling, is
faithfully chronicled in the book of records kept by the recording angel. {2T
441.3}
Very many who profess to be servants of
Christ are none of His. They are deceiving their souls to their own
destruction. While they profess to be servants of Christ, they are not living
in obedience to His will. "Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves
servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto
death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Many, while professing to be
servants of Christ, are obeying another master, working daily against the
Master whom they profess to serve. "No man can serve two masters: for
either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the
one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon." {2T 442.1}
Earthly and selfish interests engage the
soul, mind, and strength of God's professed followers. To all intents and
purposes they are servants of mammon. They have not experienced a crucifixion
to the world, with its affections and lusts. But few among the many who profess
to be Christ's followers can say in the language of the apostle: "God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom
the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." "I am
crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:
and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of
God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." If willing obedience and true
love characterize the lives of the people of God, their light will shine with a
holy brightness to the world. {2T 442.2}
The words which Christ addressed to His
disciples were designed for all who should believe on His name: "Ye are
the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his
savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth
good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden underfoot of men."
A profession of godliness without the living principle is as utterly valueless
as salt without its saving properties. An unprincipled professed Christian is a
byword, a reproach to Christ, a dishonor to His name. "Ye are the light of
the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be
hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a
bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in
the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works,
and glorify your Father which is in heaven." {2T 443.1}
The good works of God's people have a more
powerful influence than words. By their virtuous life and unselfish acts the
beholder is led to desire the same righteousness which produced so good fruit.
He is charmed with that power from God which
transforms selfish human beings into the divine image,
and God is honored, His name glorified. But the Lord is dishonored and His
cause reproached by His people's being in bondage to the world. They are in
friendship with the world, the enemies of God. Their only hope of salvation is
to separate from the world and zealously maintain their separate, holy, and
peculiar character Oh! why will not God's people
comply with the conditions laid down in His word? If they would do this they
would not fail to realize the excellent blessings freely given of God to the
humble and obedient. {2T 443.2}
I was amazed as I beheld the terrible
darkness of many of the members of our churches. The lack of true godliness was
such that they were bodies of darkness and death, instead of being the light of
the world. Many professed to love God, but in works denied Him. They did not
love, serve, nor obey Him. Their own selfish interests were primary. With a
large number there seemed to be an alarming lack of principle. They were swayed
by unconsecrated influence and seemed to have no root in themselves. I inquired
what these things meant. Why was there such a destitution
of spirituality, so few who had a living experience in religious things? I was
referred to the words of the prophet: "Son of man, these men have set up
their idols in their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity
before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them? Therefore speak unto
them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Every man of the house of
Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumbling block of his iniquity before his
face, and cometh to the prophet; I the Lord will answer him that cometh
according to the multitude of his idols; that I may take the house of Israel in
their own heart, because they are all estranged from Me through their
idols." {2T 444.1}
The people of God were represented to me
as in a backslidden state. They have not an eye single to the glory of God.
Their own glory is prominent. They seek to glorify themselves and yet call
themselves Christians. Holiness of heart and purity of life was the great
subject of the teachings of Christ. In His Sermon on the Mount, after specifying
what must be done in order to be blessed, and what must not be done, He says:
"Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect." {2T 444.2}
Perfection, holiness, nothing short of
this, would give them success in carrying out the principles He had given them.
Without this holiness the human heart is selfish, sinful, and vicious. Holiness
will lead its possessor to be fruitful and abound in all good works. He will
never become weary in well-doing, neither will he look for promotion in this
world. He will look forward for promotion to the time when the Majesty of
heaven shall exalt the sanctified ones to His throne. Then shall He say unto
them: "Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you
from the foundation of the world." The Lord then enumerates the works of
self-denial and mercy, compassion and righteousness, which they had wrought.
Holiness of heart will produce right actions. It is the absence of
spirituality, of holiness, which leads to unrighteous acts, to envy, hatred,
jealousy, evil surmisings, and every hateful and
abominable sin. {2T 445.1}
I have tried in the fear of God to set
before His people their danger and their sins, and have endeavored, to the best
of my feeble powers, to arouse them. I have stated startling things, which, if
they had believed, would have caused them distress and terror, and led them to
zeal in repenting of their sins and iniquities. I have stated before them that,
from what was shown me, but a small number of those now professing to believe
the truth would eventually be saved--not because they could not be saved, but
because they would not be saved in God's own appointed way. The way marked out
by our divine Lord is too narrow and the gate too strait to admit them while
grasping the world or while cherishing selfishness or sin of any kind. There is
no room for these things; and yet there are but few who will consent to part
with them, that they may pass the narrow way and enter the strait gate. {2T
445.2}
The words of Christ are plain:
"Strive [agonize] to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto
you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able." Not all professed
Christians are Christians at heart. There are sinners in Zion now, as there
were anciently. Isaiah speaks of them in referring to the day of God: "The
sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who
among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who
among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? He that walketh
righteously, and speaketh uprightly, he that despiseth
the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from
holding of bribes, that stoppeth his ears from
hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from seeing
evil; he shall dwell on high: his place of defense shall be the munitions of
rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure." {2T 446.1}
There are hypocrites now who will tremble
when they obtain a view of themselves. Their own vileness will terrify them in
that day which is soon to come upon us, a day when "the Lord cometh out of
His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity." Oh,
that terror might now lay hold upon them, that they
might have a vivid sense of their condition and arouse while there is mercy and
hope, confess their sins, and humble their souls greatly before God, that He
might pardon their transgressions and heal their backslidings! The people of
God are unready for the fearful, trying scenes before us, unready to stand pure
from evil and lust amid the perils and corruptions of this degenerate age. They
have not on the armor of righteousness, and are unprepared to war against the
prevailing iniquity. Many are not obeying the commandments of God, yet they
profess so to do. If they would be faithful to obey all the statutes of God
they would have a power which would carry conviction to the hearts of the
unbelieving. {2T 446.2}
I have sought to do my duty. I have pointed
out the special sins of some. I was shown that in the wisdom of God the sins
and errors of all would not be revealed. All would have sufficient light to see
their sins and errors, if they desired to do so and earnestly wished to put them away, and to perfect holiness in the fear
(reverence) of the Lord. They could see what sins God marked and reproved in
others. If these were cherished by themselves, they should know that they were
abhorred of God and were separated from Him; and that unless they earnestly and
zealously set about the work of putting them away they would be left in
darkness. God is too pure to behold iniquity. A sin is just as grievous in His sight in one case as in another. No
exception will be made by an impartial God. All who are guilty are addressed in
these individual testimonies, although their names may not be attached to the
special testimony borne; and if individuals pass over and cover up their own
sins because their names are not especially called, they will not be prospered
of God. They cannot advance in the divine life, but will become darker and
darker, until the light of heaven will be entirely withdrawn. {2T 447.1}
Those who profess godliness, yet are not
sanctified by the truth which they profess, will not change materially their
course of action, which they know is hateful before God, because they are not
subjected to the trial of being reproved individually for their sins. They see,
by the testimonies of others, their own case faithfully pointed out before
them. They are cherishing the same evil. By continuing their course of sin,
they are violating their consciences, hardening their hearts, and stiffening
their necks, just the same as though the testimony had been borne directly to
them. In passing on and refusing to put away their sins and correct their
wrongs by humble confession, repentance, and humiliation, they choose their own
way, and are given up to the same, and are finally led captive by Satan at his
will. They may become quite bold because they are able to conceal their sins
from others and because the judgments of God do not come in a visible manner
upon them. They may be apparently prosperous in this world. They may deceive
poor, shortsighted mortals and be regarded as patterns of piety while in their
sins. But God cannot be deceived. "Because sentence against an evil work
is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set
in them to do evil. Though a sinner do evil an hundred times,
and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them
that fear (reverence) God, which fear before Him: but it shall not be well with
the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because
he feareth not before God." Although
the life of a sinner may be prolonged upon the earth, yet not in the earth made
new. He shall be of that number whom David mentions in his psalm:
"For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt
diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. But the meek shall inherit
the earth." {2T 447.2}
Mercy and truth are
promised to the humble and penitent, but judgments are prepared for the sinful
and rebellious. "Justice and judgment are the habitation of Thy
throne." A wicked and adulterous people will not escape the wrath of God
and the punishment they have justly earned. Man has fallen; and it will be the
work of a lifetime, be it longer or shorter, to recover from that fall, and
regain, through Christ, the image of the divine, which he lost by sin and
continued transgression. God requires a thorough transformation of soul, body,
and spirit in order to regain the estate lost through Adam. The Lord mercifully
sends rays of light to show man his true condition. If he will not walk in the
light he manifests a pleasure in darkness. He will not come to the light lest
his deeds shall be reproved. {2T 448.1}
The case of N. Fuller has caused me much
grief and anguish of spirit. That he should yield himself to the control of
Satan to work wickedness as he has done is terrible. I believe that God
designed that this case of hypocrisy and villainy should be brought to light in
the manner it has been, that it might prove a warning to others. Here is a man
who was acquainted with the teachings of the Bible, and who had listened to
testimonies borne by me in his presence against the very sins which he was
practicing. More than once he had heard me speak decidedly in regard to the
prevailing sins of this generation, that corruption
was teeming everywhere, that base passions controlled men and women generally,
that among the masses crimes of the darkest dye were continually practiced, and
they were reeking in their own corruption. The nominal churches are filled with
fornication and adultery, crime and murder, the result of base, lustful
passion; but these things are kept covered. Ministers in high places are
guilty; yet a cloak of godliness covers their dark deeds, and they pass on from
year to year in their course of hypocrisy. The sins of the nominal churches
have reached unto heaven, and the honest in heart will be brought to the light
and come out of them. {2T 449.1}
From the light that God has given me,
fornication and adultery are estimated by a large number of the first-day
Adventists as sins which God winks at. These sins are practiced to a great
extent. They do not acknowledge the claims of God's law upon them. They have
broken the commandments of the great Jehovah and zealously teach their hearers
to do the same, declaring that the law of God is abolished and has no claims
upon them. In accordance with this free state of things, sin does not appear so
exceedingly sinful; "for by the law is the knowledge of sin." We may
expect to find in this company men who will deceive,
and lie, and give loose rein to lustful passions. But men and women who
acknowledge the Ten Commandments binding, who observe the fourth commandment of
the Decalogue, should carry out in their lives the principles of all ten of the
precepts given in awful grandeur from Sinai. {2T 449.2}
Seventh-day Adventists, who profess to be
looking for and loving the appearing of Christ, should not follow the course of
worldlings. These are no criterion for commandment
keepers. Neither should they pattern after first-day Adventists, who refuse to
acknowledge the claims of the law of God and trample it under their feet. This
class should be no criterion for them. Commandment-keeping Adventists occupy a
peculiar, exalted position. John viewed them in holy vision and thus described
them: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of
Jesus." {2T 450.1}
The Lord made a special covenant with
ancient Israel: "Now therefore, if ye will obey My
voice indeed, and keep My covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto
Me above all people: for all the earth is Mine: and ye shall be unto Me a
kingdom of priests, and an holy nation." He addresses His
commandment-keeping people in these last days: "But ye are a chosen
generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a
peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called
you out of darkness into His marvelous light." "Dearly beloved, I
beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from
fleshly lusts, which war against the soul." {2T 450.2}
Not all who profess to keep the
commandments of God possess their bodies in sanctification and honor. The most
solemn message ever committed to mortals has been entrusted to this people, and
they can have a powerful influence if they will be sanctified by it. They
profess to be standing upon the elevated platform of eternal truth, keeping all
of God's commandments; therefore, if they indulge in sin, if they commit
fornication and adultery, their crime is of tenfold greater magnitude than is
that of the classes I have named, who do not acknowledge the law of God as
binding upon them. In a peculiar sense do those who profess to keep God's law
dishonor Him and reproach the truth by transgressing its precepts. {2T 450.3}
It was the prevalence of this very sin,
fornication, among ancient Israel, which brought upon them the signal
manifestation of God's displeasure. His judgments then followed close upon
their heinous sin; thousands fell, and their polluted bodies were left in the
wilderness. "But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were
overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent
we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye
idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The
people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. Neither let us commit
fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty
thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also
tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of
them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things
happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon
whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh
he standeth take heed lest he fall." {2T 451.1}
Seventh-day Adventists, above all other
people in the world, should be patterns of piety, holy in heart and in
conversation. I related in the presence of N. Fuller that the people whom God
had chosen as His peculiar treasure were required to be elevated, refined, sanctified,
partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust. Should they who make so high a profession indulge in sin
and iniquity, their guilt would be very great. The Lord reproves the sins of
one, that others may take warning and fear. {2T 451.2}
Warnings and reproofs are not given to the
erring among Seventh-day Adventists because their lives are more blame-worthy
than are the lives of professed Christians of the nominal churches, nor because
their example or their acts are worse than those of the Adventists who will not
yield obedience to the claims of God's law, but because they have great light,
and have by their profession taken their position as God's special, chosen
people, having the law of God written in their hearts. They signify their
loyalty to the God of heaven by yielding obedience to the laws of His
government. They are God's representatives upon the earth. Any sin in them
separates them from God and, in a special manner, dishonors His name by giving
the enemies of His holy law occasion to reproach His cause and His people, whom
He has called "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a
peculiar people," that they should show forth the praises of Him that hath
called them out of darkness into His marvelous light. {2T 452.1}
The people who are at war with the law of
the great Jehovah, who consider it a special virtue to talk, write, and act the
most bitter and hateful things to show their contempt of that law, may make
exalted profession of love to God, and apparently have much religious zeal, as
did the Jewish chief priests and elders; yet, in the day of God, "Found
wanting" will be said of them by the Majesty of heaven. "By the law
is the knowledge of sin." The mirror which would discover to them the
defects in their characters, they are infuriated against, because it points out
their sins. Leading Adventists who have rejected the light are fired with
madness against God's holy law, as the Jewish nation were
against the Son of God. They are in a terrible deception, deceiving others and
being deceived themselves. They will not come to the
light, lest their deeds should be reproved. Such will not be taught. But the
Lord reproves and corrects the people who profess to keep His law. He points
out their sins and lays open their iniquity because He wishes to separate all
sin and wickedness from them, that they may perfect holiness in His fear
(reverence) and be prepared to die in the Lord or to be translated to heaven.
God rebukes, reproves, and corrects them, that they may be refined, sanctified,
elevated, and finally exalted to His own throne. {2T 452.2}
Elder Fuller has heard the testimony borne
in public, that the professed people of God were not all holy, that some were
corrupt. God sought to elevate them, but they refused to come up upon a high
plane of action. The corrupt animal passions bore sway, and the moral and
intellectual powers were overborne and made their servants. Those who do not control
their base passions cannot appreciate the atonement or place a right value upon
the soul. Salvation is not experienced or understood by them. The gratification
of animal passion is the highest ambition of their lives. God will accept
nothing but purity and holiness; one spot, one wrinkle, one defect in the
character, will forever debar them from heaven, with all its glories and
treasures. {2T 453.1}
Ample provisions have been made for all who
sincerely, earnestly, and thoughtfully set about the work of perfecting
holiness in the fear (reverence) of God. Strength, grace, and glory have been
provided through Christ, to be brought by ministering angels to the heirs of
salvation. None are so low, so corrupt and vile, that they cannot find in Jesus,
who died for them, strength, purity, and righteousness, if they will put away
their sins, cease their course of iniquity, and turn with full purpose of heart
to the living God. He is waiting to strip them of their garments, stained and
polluted by sin, and to put upon them the white, bright robes of righteousness;
and He bids them live and not die. In Him they may flourish. Their branches
will not wither nor be fruitless. If they abide in Him, they can draw sap and
nourishment from Him, be imbued with His Spirit, walk even as He walked,
overcome as He overcame, and be exalted to His own right hand. {2T 453.2}
Elder Fuller has been warned. The warnings
given to others condemned him. The sins reproved in others reproved him and
gave him sufficient light to see how God regarded crimes of such a character as
he was committing, yet he would not turn from his evil course. He continued to
pursue his fearful, impious work, corrupting the bodies and souls of his flock.
Satan had strengthened the lustful passions which this man did not subdue, and
engaged them in his cause to lead souls to death. {2T 454.1}
While he professed to keep the law of God,
he was, in a most wanton manner, violating its plain precepts. He has given
himself up to the gratification of sensual pleasure. He has sold himself to
work wickedness. What will be the wages of such a man? The indignation and
wrath of God will punish him for sin. The vengeance of God will be aroused
against all those whose lustful passions have been concealed under a
ministerial cloak. While professing to be a shepherd of the flock, he was
leading the flock to certain ruin. These dreadful results are the fruits of the
carnal mind, which "is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be." {2T 454.2}
I was referred to this scripture:
"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it
in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as
instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as
those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God." Professed Christians, if no further light is
given you than that contained in this text, you will be without excuse if you
suffer yourselves to be controlled by base passions. {2T 454.3}
The word of God is sufficient to enlighten
the most beclouded mind and may be understood by those who have any desire to
understand it. But notwithstanding all this, some who profess to make the word
of God their study are found living in direct opposition to its plainest
teachings. Then, to leave men and women without excuse, God gives plain and
pointed testimonies, bringing them back to the word that they have neglected to
follow. Yet those who serve their own lusts turn from all this light. They will
not cease their course of sin, but continue to take pleasure in unrighteousness
in the face of the threatenings and vengeance of God
against those who do such things. {2T 454.4}
I have long been designing to speak to my
sisters and tell them that, from what the Lord has been pleased to show me from
time to time, there is a great fault among them. They are not careful to
abstain from all appearance of evil. They are not all circumspect in their
deportment, as becometh women professing godliness. Their words are not as
select and well chosen as those of women who have received the grace of God
should be. They are too familiar with their brethren. They linger around them,
incline toward them, and seem to choose their society. They are highly
gratified with their attention. {2T 455.1}
From the light which the Lord has given
me, our sisters should pursue a very different course. They should be more
reserved, manifest less boldness, and encourage in themselves "shamefacedness
and sobriety." Both brethren and sisters indulge in too much jovial talk
when in each other's society. Women professing godliness indulge in much
jesting, joking, and laughing. This is unbecoming and grieves the Spirit of
God. These exhibitions reveal a lack of true Christian refinement. They do not
strengthen the soul in God, but bring great darkness; they drive away the pure,
refined, heavenly angels and bring those who engage in these wrongs down to a
low level. {2T 455.2}
Our sisters should encourage true
meekness; they should not be forward, talkative, and bold, but modest and
unassuming, slow to speak. They may cherish courteousness. To be kind, tender,
pitiful, forgiving, and humble, would be becoming and well pleasing to God. If
they occupy this position they will not be burdened with undue attention from
gentlemen in the church or out. All will feel that there is a sacred circle of
purity around these God-fearing women, which shields them from any
unwarrantable liberties. {2T 456.1}
With some women professing godliness,
there is a careless, coarse freedom of manner which leads to wrong and evil.
But those godly women whose minds and hearts are
occupied in meditating upon themes which strengthen purity of life, and which
elevate the soul to commune with God, will not be easily led astray from the
path of rectitude and virtue. Such will be fortified against the sophistry of
Satan; they will be prepared to withstand his seductive arts. {2T 456.2}
Vainglory, the fashion of the world, the
desire of the eye, and the lust of the flesh are connected with the fall of the
unfortunate. That which is pleasing to the natural heart and carnal mind is
cherished. If the lust of the flesh had been rooted out of their hearts they
would not be so weak. If our sisters would feel the necessity of purifying
their thoughts, and never suffer in themselves a carelessness of deportment
which leads to improper acts, they need not in the least stain their purity. If
they viewed the matter as God has presented it to me, they would have such an
abhorrence of impure acts that they would not be found among those who fall
through the temptations of Satan, no matter whom he might select as the medium.
{2T 456.3}
A preacher may be dealing in sacred, holy
things, and yet not be holy in heart. He may give himself to Satan to work
wickedness and to corrupt the souls and bodies of his flock. Yet if the minds
of women and youth professing to love and fear God were fortified with His
Spirit, if they had trained their minds to purity of thought and educated
themselves to avoid all appearance of evil, they would be safe from any
improper advances and be secure from the corruption prevailing around them. The
apostle Paul wrote concerning himself: "But I keep under my body, and
bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to
others, I myself should be a castaway." {2T 456.4}
If a minister of the gospel does not
control his baser passions, if he fails to follow the example of the apostle
and so dishonors his profession and faith as to even name the indulgence of
sin, our sisters who profess godliness should not for an instant flatter
themselves that sin or crime loses its sinfulness in the least because their
minister dares to engage in it. The fact that men who are in
responsible places show themselves to be familiar with sin should not lessen
the guilt and enormity of the sin in the minds of any. Sin should appear
just as sinful, just as abhorrent, as it had been heretofore regarded; and the
minds of the pure and elevated should abhor and shun the one who indulges in
sin, as they would flee from a serpent whose sting was deadly. {2T 457.1}
If the sisters were elevated and possessed
purity of heart, any corrupt advances, even from their minister, would be
repulsed with such positiveness as would never need a
repetition. Minds must be terribly befogged by Satan when they can listen to
the voice of the seducer because he is a minister, and therefore break God's
plain and positive commands and flatter themselves that they commit no sin.
Have we not the words of John: "He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not
His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him"? What saith the
law? "Thou shalt not commit adultery." When a man professing to keep
God's holy law, and ministering in sacred things, takes advantage of the
confidence his position gives him and seeks to indulge his base passions, this
fact should of itself be sufficient to enable a woman professing godliness to
see that, although his profession is as exalted as the heavens, an impure
proposal coming from him is from Satan disguised as an angel of light. I cannot
believe that the word of God is abiding in the hearts of those who so readily
yield up their innocency and virtue upon the altar of
lustful passions. {2T 457.2}
My sisters, avoid even the appearance of
evil. In this fast age, reeking with corruption, you are not safe unless you
stand guarded. Virtue and modesty are rare. I appeal to you as followers of
Christ, making an exalted profession, to cherish the precious, priceless gem of
modesty. This will guard virtue. If you have any hope of being finally exalted
to join the company of the pure, sinless angels, and to live in an atmosphere
where there is not the least taint of sin, cherish modesty and virtue. Nothing
but purity, sacred purity, will stand the grand review, abide the day of God,
and be received into a pure and holy heaven. {2T 458.1}
The slightest insinuations, from whatever
source they may come, inviting you to indulge in sin or to allow the least
unwarrantable liberty with your persons, should be resented
as the worst of insults to your dignified womanhood. The kiss upon your cheek,
at an improper time and place, should lead you to repel the emissary of Satan
with disgust. If it is from one in high places who is dealing in sacred things,
the sin is of tenfold greater magnitude, and should lead a God-fearing woman or
youth to recoil with horror, not only from the sin he would have you commit,
but from the hypocrisy and villainy of one whom the people respect and honor as
God's servant. He is handling sacred things, yet hiding his baseness of heart
under a ministerial cloak. Be afraid of anything like this familiarity. Be sure
that the least approach to it is evidence of a lascivious mind and a lustful
eye. If the least encouragement is given in this direction, if any of the
liberties mentioned are tolerated, no better evidence can be given that your
mind is not pure and chaste as it should be, and that sin and crime have charms
for you. You lower the standard of your dignified, virtuous womanhood, and give
unmistakable evidence that a low, brutal, common passion and lust has been
suffered to remain alive in your heart and has never been crucified. {2T 458.2}
As I have been shown the dangers of those
who profess better things, and the sins that exist among them,--a class who are
not suspected of being in any danger from these polluting sins,--I have been
led to inquire: Who, O Lord, shall stand when Thou appearest?
Only those who have clean hands and pure hearts shall abide the day of His
coming. {2T 459.1}
I feel impelled by the Spirit of the Lord
to urge my sisters who profess godliness to cherish modesty of deportment and a
becoming reserve, with shamefacedness and sobriety. The liberties taken in this
age of corruption should be no criterion for Christ's followers. These
fashionable exhibitions of familiarity should not exist among Christians
fitting for immortality. If lasciviousness, pollution, adultery, crime, and
murder are the order of the day among those who know not the truth, and who
refuse to be controlled by the principles of God's word, how important that the
class professing to be followers of Christ, closely allied to God and angels,
should show them a better and nobler way. How important that by their chastity
and virtue they stand in marked contrast to that class who are controlled by
brute passions. {2T 459.2}
I have inquired: When will the youthful
sisters act with propriety? I know there will be no decided change for the
better until parents feel the importance of greater carefulness in educating
their children correctly. Teach them to act with reserve and modesty. Educate
them for usefulness, to be helps, to minister to others rather than to be
waited upon and be ministered unto. {2T 459.3}
Satan controls the
minds of the youth in general. Your daughters are not taught self-denial and
self-control. They are petted, and their pride is fostered. They are allowed to
have their own way until they become headstrong and self-willed, and you are
put to your wit's end to know what course to pursue to save them from ruin.
Satan is leading them on to be a proverb in the mouth of unbelievers because of
their boldness, their lack of reserve and womanly modesty. The young boys are
likewise left to have their own way. They have scarcely entered their teens
before they are by the side of little girls of their own age, accompanying them
home and making love to them. And the parents are so completely in bondage
through their own indulgence and mistaken love for their children that they
dare not pursue a decided course to make a change and restrain their too-fast
children in this fast age. {2T 460.1}
With many young ladies the boys are the
theme of conversation; with the young men, it is the girls. "Out of the
abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." They talk of those subjects
upon which their minds mostly run. The recording angel is writing the words of
these professed Christian boys and girls. How will they be confused and ashamed
when they meet them again in the day of God! Many children are pious
hypocrites. The youth who have not made a profession of religion stumble over
these hypocritical ones and are hardened against any effort that may be made by
those interested in their salvation. {2T 460.2}
There ought to be picked men at the heart
of the work, men who in every emergency can be relied upon to keep the fort,
men who are unselfish, abounding in generosity and all good works, whose lives
are hid in God, and who consider the better life of more value than food and
clothing. "Is not the life more than meat, and the body than
raiment?" God calls for faithful sentinels right at the heart of the work,
who will love souls for whom Christ died, and who will bear the burden for
perishing souls, looking forward to that recompense of reward which will be
theirs when they enter into the joy of their Lord and behold souls saved
through their instrumentality to live as long as God shall live, and be happy,
eternally happy, in His glorious kingdom. Oh, that we could arouse fathers and
mothers to a sense of their duty! Oh, that they would feel deeply the weight of
responsibility resting upon them! Then they might forestall the enemy and gain
precious victories for Jesus. Parents are not clear in this matter. They should
closely investigate their lives, analyze their thoughts and motives, and see if
they have been circumspect in their course of action. They should watch closely
to see if their example in conversation and deportment has been such as they
would wish their children to imitate. Purity and virtue should shine out in
their words and acts before their children. {2T 460.3}
I have been shown families where the
husband and father has not preserved that reserve,
that dignified, godlike manhood, which is befitting a follower of Christ. He
has failed to perform the kind, tender, courteous acts due to his wife, whom he
has promised before God and angels to love, respect, and honor while they both
shall live. The girl employed to do the work has been free and somewhat forward
to dress his hair and to be affectionately attentive, and he is pleased,
foolishly pleased. In his love and attention to his wife he is not as
demonstrative as he once was. Be sure that Satan is at work here. Respect your
hired help, treat them kindly, considerately, but go no further. Let your
deportment be such that there will be no advances to familiarity from them. If
you have words of kindness and acts of courtesy to give, it is always safe to
give them to your wife. It will be a great blessing to her, and will bring
happiness to her heart, to be reflected upon you again. {2T 461.1}
I have been shown also
that the wife has let her sympathies and interest and affection go out to other
men, who may be members of the family. She makes these her confidants, shows a
preference for their society, and relates to them her troubles and perhaps her
private family matters. {2T 462.1}
This is all wrong. Satan is at the bottom
of it; and unless you are alarmed and stop just where you are, he will lead you
to ruin. You cannot observe too great caution and encourage too much reserve in
this matter. If you have tender, loving words and kindly attentions to bestow, let
them be given to him whom you have promised before God and angels to love,
respect, and honor while you both shall live. Oh, how many lives are made
bitter by the breaking down of the walls which enclose the privacies of every
family and which are calculated to preserve its purity and sanctity! A third
person is taken into the confidence of the wife, and her private family matters
are laid open before the special friend. This is the device of Satan to
estrange the hearts of the husband and wife. Oh, that this would cease! what a world of trouble would be saved! Lock within your own
hearts the knowledge of each other's faults. Tell your troubles alone to God.
He can give you right counsel and sure consolation, which will be pure, having
no bitterness in it. {2T 462.2}
I am acquainted with a number of women who
have thought their marriage a misfortune. They have read novels until their
imaginations have become diseased, and they live in a world of their own
creating. They think themselves women of sensitive minds, of superior, refined
organizations, and imagine that their husbands are not so refined, that they do
not possess these superior qualities, and therefore cannot appreciate their own
supposed virtue and refined organizations. Consequently these women think
themselves great sufferers, martyrs. They have talked of this and thought upon
it until they are nearly maniacs upon this subject. They imagine their worth
superior to that of other mortals, and it is not agreeable to their fine
sensibilities to associate with common humanity. These women are making
themselves fools; and their husbands are in danger of thinking that they do
possess a superior order of mind. {2T 462.3}
From what the Lord has shown me, the women
of this class have had their imaginations perverted by novel reading,
daydreaming, and castle-building, living in an imaginary world. They do not
bring their own ideas down to the common, useful duties of life. They do not
take up the life burdens which lie in their path, and seek to make a happy,
cheerful home for their husbands. They rest their whole weight upon them, not
bearing their own burden. They expect others to anticipate their wants and do
for them, while they are at liberty to find fault and to question as they
please. These women have a lovesick sentimentalism, constantly thinking they
are not appreciated, that their husbands do not give them all the attention
they deserve. They imagine themselves martyrs. {2T 463.1}
The truth of the matter is, if they would
show themselves useful their value might be appreciated; but when they pursue a
course to constantly draw upon others for sympathy and attention, while they
feel under no obligation to give the same in return, passing along reserved,
cold, and unapproachable, bearing no burden for others and having no feeling
for their woes, there can be in their lives but little that is valuable. These
women have educated themselves to think and act as though it was a great condescension
in them to marry the men they did, and that therefore their fine organizations
would never be fully appreciated. They have viewed things all wrong. They are
unworthy of their husbands. They are a constant tax upon their care and
patience, when they might be helps, lifting the burdens of life with them,
instead of dreaming over unreal life found in novels and love romances. May the
Lord pity the men who are bound to such useless machines, fit only to be waited
upon, to breathe, eat, and dress. {2T 463.2}
These women who suppose they possess such
sensitive, refined organizations make very useless wives and mothers. It is
frequently the case that they withdraw their affections from their husbands,
who are useful, practical men, and show much attention to other men, and with
their lovesick sentimentalism draw upon the sympathies of others, tell them
their trials, their troubles, their aspirations to do some elevated work, and
reveal the fact that their married life is a disappointment, a hindrance to
their doing the work they had hoped to do. {2T 464.1}
Oh, what wretchedness exists in families
that might be happy! These women are a curse to themselves and a curse to their
husbands. In supposing themselves to be angels, they make themselves fools, and
are nothing but heavy burdens. The common duties of life which the Lord has
left for them to do, they leave right in their path, and are restless and
complaining, always looking for an easy, more exalted, and more agreeable work.
Supposing themselves to be angels, they are found human after all. They are
fretful, peevish, dissatisfied, jealous of their husbands because the larger
portion of their time is not spent waiting upon them. They complain of being
neglected when their husbands are doing the very work they ought to do. Satan
finds easy access to this class. They have no real love for anyone but
themselves. Yet Satan tells them that if such a one were their husband, they
would be happy indeed. They are easy victims to the device of Satan, being
readily led to dishonor their own husbands and to transgress the law of God.
{2T 464.2}
I would say to women of this description:
You can make or destroy your own happiness. You can make your position happy or
unbearable. The course which you pursue will create happiness or misery for
yourself. Have these persons never thought that their husbands must tire of
them in their uselessness, their peevishness, their faultfinding, their passionate fits of weeping while imagining their case
so pitiful? Their irritable, peevish disposition is indeed weaning from them
the affections of their husbands and driving them to seek for sympathy, and
peace, and comfort elsewhere than at home. A poisonous atmosphere is in their
dwelling, and home is to them anything but a place of rest, peace, or
happiness. The husband is subject to Satan's temptation, and his affections are
placed on forbidden objects, and he is lured on to crime and finally lost. {2T
464.3}
Great is the work and mission of women,
especially those who are wives and mothers. They can be a blessing to all
around them. They can have a powerful influence for good if they will let their
light so shine that others may be led to glorify our heavenly Father. Women may
have a transforming influence if they will only consent to yield their way and
their will to God, and let Him control their mind, affections, and being. They
can have an influence which will tend to refine and elevate those with whom
they associate. But this class are generally
unconscious of the power they possess. They exert an unconscious influence
which seems to work out naturally from a sanctified life, a renewed heart. It
is the fruit that grows naturally upon the good tree of divine planting. Self
is forgotten, merged in the life of Christ. To be rich in good works is as
natural as their breath. They live to do others good and yet are ready to say:
We are unprofitable servants. {2T 465.1}
God has assigned woman her mission; and if
she, in her humble way, yet to the best of her ability, makes a heaven of her
home, faithfully and lovingly performing her duties to her husband and
children, continually seeking to let a holy light shine from her useful, pure,
and virtuous life to brighten all around her, she is doing the work left her of
the Master, and will hear from His divine lips the words: Well done, good and
faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. These women who are
doing with ready willingness what their hands find to do, with cheerfulness of
spirit aiding their husbands to bear their burdens, and training their children
for God, are missionaries in the highest sense. They are engaged in an
important branch of the great work to be done on earth to prepare mortals for a
higher life, and they will receive their reward. Children are to be trained for
heaven and fitted to shine in the courts of the Lord's kingdom. When parents,
especially mothers, have a true sense of the important, responsible work which
God has left for them to do, they will not be so much engaged in the business
which concerns their neighbors, with which they have nothing to do. They will
not go from house to house to engage in fashionable gossip, dwelling upon the
faults, wrongs, and inconsistencies of their neighbors. They will feel so great
a burden of care for their own children that they can find no time to take up a
reproach against their neighbor. Gossipers and news carriers are a terrible
curse to neighborhoods and churches. Two thirds of all the church trials arise
from this source. {2T 465.2}
God requires all to do with faithfulness
the duties of today. This is much neglected by the larger share of professed
Christians. Especially is present duty lost sight of by the class I have
mentioned, who imagine that they are of a finer order of beings than their
fellow mortals around them. The fact that their minds
turn in this channel is proof that they are of an inferior order, narrow,
conceited, and selfish. They feel high above the lowly and humble poor, such as
Jesus says He has called. They are forever trying to secure position, to gain
applause, to obtain credit for doing some great work that others cannot do. But
it disturbs the fine grain of their refined organism to associate with the
humble, the unfortunate. They mistake the reason altogether. The reason why
they shun any of these duties not so agreeable is found in their supreme
selfishness. Dear self is the center of all their actions and motives. {2T
466.1}
I was pointed to the Majesty of heaven.
When He whom angels worshiped, He who was rich in honor, splendor, and glory,
came to the earth, and found Himself in fashion as a man, He did not plead His
refined nature as an excuse to hold Himself aloof from the unfortunate. In His
work He was found among the afflicted, the poor, distressed, and needy ones.
Christ was the embodiment of refinement and purity; His was an exalted life and
character; yet in His labor He was found not among men of high-sounding titles,
not among the most honorable of this world, but with the despised and needy. I
came, says the divine Teacher, "to save that which was lost." Yes;
the Majesty of heaven was ever found working to help those who most needed
help. May the example of Christ put to shame the excuses of that class who are
so attracted to their poor selves that they consider it beneath their refined
taste and their high calling to help the most helpless.
Such have taken a position higher than their Lord, and in the end will be
astonished to find themselves lower than the lowest of that class whom their refined,
sensitive natures were shocked to mingle with and work for. True, it may not
always be agreeable to unite with the Master and become co-workers with Him in
helping the very class who stand most in need of help; but this is the work
which Christ humbled Himself to do. Is the servant greater than his Lord? He
has given the example, and enjoins upon us to copy it. It may be disagreeable,
yet duty demands that just such a work be performed. {2T 467.1}
Faithful and picked men are needed at the
head of the work. Those who have not had an experience in bearing burdens, and
who do not wish to have that experience, should not, on any account, live
there. Men are wanted who will watch for souls as they that must give an
account. Fathers and mothers in Israel are wanted at this important post. Let
the selfish and self-caring, the stingy, covetous souls, find a location where
their miserable traits of character will not be so conspicuous. The more
isolated such ones are, the better for the cause of God. I appeal to the people
of God, wherever they may be found: Awake to your duty. Take it to heart that
we are really living amid the perils of the last days. {2T 467.2}
I hope that the case of N. Fuller will
awaken you, fathers and mothers, to see the necessity of thorough work in your
houses, among yourselves and your children, that not one of you may be so
deluded by Satan as to regard sin as this poor, much-to-be-pitied man has done.
Those who have participated with him in crime would never have been left to be
deceived and ruined had they possessed a high sense of virtue and purity, and
cherished a constant and lively horror of sin and iniquity. While living under
and proclaiming the most solemn message ever borne to mortals, presenting the
law of God as a test of character and as the seal of the living God, they are
transgressing its holy precepts. The consciences of those who do this have
become seared and terribly hardened. They have resisted the influences of the
Spirit of God until they can use sacred truth as a cloak to hide the deformity
of their corrupted souls. This man has been terribly deluded by Satan. He has
been serving vicious passions while professing to be consecrated to the work of
God, ministering in sacred things. He has considered himself in health while
there was no soundness in him. {2T 468.1}
I have felt deeply as I have seen the
powerful influence of animal passions in controlling men and women of no
ordinary intelligence and ability. They would be capable of engaging in a good
work, of exerting a powerful influence, were they not enslaved by base
passions. My confidence in humanity has been terribly shaken. I have been shown
that persons of apparently good deportment, not taking unwarrantable liberties
with the other sex, were guilty of practicing secret vice nearly every day of
their lives. They have not refrained from this terrible sin even while most
solemn meetings have been in session. They have listened to the most solemn,
impressive discourses upon the judgment, which seemed to bring them before the
tribunal of God, causing them to fear and quake; yet hardly an hour would
elapse before they would be engaged in their favorite, bewitching sin,
polluting their own bodies. They were such slaves to this awful crime that they
seemed devoid of power to control their passions. We have labored for some
earnestly, we have entreated, we have wept and prayed over them; yet we have
known that right amid all our earnest effort and distress the force of sinful
habit has obtained the mastery, and these sins have been committed. {2T 468.2}
Through severe attacks of sickness or by
powerful conviction the consciences of some of the guilty have been aroused and
have so scourged them that it has led to confession of these things with deep
humiliation. Others are equally guilty. They have practiced this sin nearly
their whole lifetime and, in their broken-down constitutions and sievelike memories, are reaping the result of this
pernicious habit; yet they are too proud to confess. They are secretive, and
have not shown compunctions of conscience for this great sin. My confidence in
the Christian experience of such is very small. They seem to be insensible to
the influence of the Spirit of God. The sacred and common are alike to them. The common practice of a vice so degrading as the polluting of
their own bodies has not led to bitter tears and heartfelt repentance.
They feel that their sin is against themselves alone. Here they mistake. Are
they diseased in body or mind, others are made to feel, others suffer. The
imagination is at fault, the memory is deficient, mistakes are made, and there
is a deficiency everywhere which seriously affects those with whom they live
and who associate with them. Mortification and regret are felt because these
things are known by others. {2T 469.1}
I have mentioned these cases to illustrate
the power of this soul-and-body-destroying vice. The entire mind is given up to
low passion. The moral and intellectual faculties are over-borne by the baser
powers. The body is enervated, the brain weakened. The material deposited there
to nourish the system is squandered. The drain upon the system is great. The
fine nerves of the brain, being excited to unnatural action, become benumbed
and in a measure paralyzed. The moral and intellectual powers are weakening,
while the animal passions are strengthening and being more largely developed by
exercise. The appetite for unhealthful food clamors for indulgence. When
persons are addicted to the habit of self-abuse, it is impossible to arouse
their moral sensibilities to appreciate eternal things or to delight in
spiritual exercises. Impure thoughts seize and control the
imagination and fascinate the mind, and next follows an almost
uncontrollable desire for the performance of impure actions. If the mind were
educated to contemplate elevating subjects, the imagination trained to reflect
upon pure and holy things, it would be fortified against this terrible,
debasing, soul-and-body-destroying indulgence. It would, by training, become
accustomed to linger upon the high, the heavenly, the pure, and the sacred, and
could not be attracted to this base, corrupt, and vile indulgence. {2T 470.1}
What can we say of
those who are living right in the blazing light of truth, yet daily practicing
and following in a course of sin and crime? Forbidden, exciting pleasures have
a charm for them and hold and control their entire being. Such take pleasure in
unrighteousness and iniquity, and must perish outside of the city of God, with
every abominable thing. {2T 470.2}
I have sought to arouse parents to their
duty, yet they sleep on. Your children are practicing secret vice, and they
deceive you. You have such implicit confidence in them that you think them too
good and innocent to be capable of secretly practicing iniquity. Parents fondle
and pet their children, and indulge them in pride, but do not restrain them
with firmness and decision. They are so much afraid of their willful, stubborn
spirits that they fear to come in contact with them; the sin of negligence,
which was marked against Eli, will be their sin. The exhortation of Peter is of
the highest value to all who are striving for immortality. He addresses those
of like precious faith: {2T 471.1}
"Simon Peter, a servant and an
apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us
through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and peace
be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto
life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory
and virtue: whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises:
that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the
corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all
diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge
temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to
godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these
things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor
unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and cannot see afar off, and
hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather,
brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do
these things, ye shall never fall:
472
for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you
abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ." {2T 471.2}
We are in a world where light and
knowledge abound, yet many claiming to be of like precious faith are willingly
ignorant. Light is all around them, yet they do not appropriate it to
themselves. Parents do not see the necessity of informing themselves, obtaining
knowledge, and putting it to a practical use in their married life. If they
followed out the exhortation of the apostle, and lived upon the plan of
addition, they would not be unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus
Christ. But many do not understand the work of sanctification. They seem to
think they have attained to it, when they have learned only the first lessons
in addition. Sanctification is a progressive work; it is not attained to in an
hour or a day, and then maintained without any special effort on our part. {2T 472.1}
Many parents do not obtain the knowledge
that they should in the married life. They are not guarded lest Satan take
advantage of them and control their minds and their lives. They do not see that
God requires them to control their married lives from any excesses. But very
few feel it to be a religious duty to govern their passions. They have united
themselves in marriage to the object of their choice, and therefore reason that
marriage sanctifies the indulgence of the baser passions. Even men and women
professing godliness give loose rein to their lustful passions, and have no
thought that God holds them accountable for the expenditure of vital energy,
which weakens their hold on life and enervates the entire system. {2T 472.2}
The marriage covenant covers sins of the
darkest hue. Men and women professing godliness debase their own bodies through
the indulgence of the corrupt passions, and thus lower themselves beneath the
brute creation. They abuse the powers which God has given them to be preserved
in sanctification and honor. Health and life are sacrificed upon the altar of
base passion. The higher, nobler powers are brought into subjection to the
animal propensities. Those who thus sin are not acquainted with the result of
their course. Could all see the amount of suffering which they bring upon
themselves by their own sinful indulgence, they would be alarmed, and some, at
least, would shun the course of sin which brings such dreaded wages. So miserable an existence is entailed upon a large
class that death would to them be preferable to life; and many do die
prematurely, their lives sacrificed in the inglorious work of excessive
indulgence of the animal passions. Yet because they are married they think they
commit no sin. {2T 472.3}
Men and women, you
will one day learn what is lust and the result of its gratification. Passion of
just as base a quality may be found in the marriage relation as outside of it.
The apostle Paul exhorts husbands to love their wives "even as Christ also
loved the church, and gave Himself for it." "So ought men to love
their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his
wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his
own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth
it, even as the Lord the church." It is not pure love which actuates a man
to make his wife an instrument to minister to his lust. It is the animal
passions which clamor for indulgence. How few men show their love in the manner
specified by the apostle: "Even as Christ also loved the church, and gave
Himself for it; that He might [not pollute it, but] sanctify and cleanse it; .
. . that it should be holy and without blemish." This is the quality of
love in the marriage relation which God recognizes as holy. Love is a pure and
holy principle; but lustful passion will not admit of restraint, and will not
be dictated to or controlled by reason. It is blind to consequences; it will
not reason from cause to effect. Many women are suffering from great debility
and settled disease because the laws of their being have been disregarded;
nature's laws have been trampled upon. The brain nerve power is squandered by
men and women, being called into unnatural action to gratify
base passions; and this hideous monster, base, low passion, assumes the
delicate name of love. {2T 473.1}
Many professed Christians who passed
before me seemed destitute of moral restraint. They were more animal than
divine. In fact, they were about all animal. Men of
this type degrade the wife whom they have promised to nourish and cherish. She
is made an instrument to minister to the gratification of low, lustful
propensities. And very many women submit to become slaves to lustful passion;
they do not possess their bodies in sanctification and honor. The wife does not
retain the dignity and self-respect which she possessed previous to marriage.
This holy institution should have preserved and increased her womanly respect
and holy dignity; but her chaste, dignified, godlike womanhood has been
consumed upon the altar of base passion; it has been sacrificed to please her
husband. She soon loses respect for the husband, who does not regard the laws
to which the brute creation yield obedience. The
married life becomes a galling yoke; for love dies out, and frequently
distrust, jealousy, and hate take its place. {2T 474.1}
No man can truly love his wife when she
will patiently submit to become his slave and minister to his depraved
passions. In her passive submission, she loses the value she once possessed in
his eyes. He sees her dragged down from everything elevating, to a low level;
and soon he suspects that she will as tamely submit to be degraded by another
as by himself. He doubts her constancy and purity, tires of her, and seeks new
objects to arouse and intensify his hellish passions. The law of God is not
regarded. These men are worse than brutes; they are demons in human form. They
are unacquainted with the elevating, ennobling principles of true, sanctified
love. {2T 474.2}
The wife also becomes jealous of the
husband and suspects that if opportunity should offer he would just as readily
pay his addresses to another as to her. She sees that he is not controlled by
conscience or the fear (reverence) of God; all these sanctified barriers are
broken down by lustful passions; all that is god-like in the husband is made
the servant of low, brutish lust. {2T 475.1}
The world is filled with men and women of
this order; and neat, tasty, yea, expensive houses contain a hell within.
Imagine, if you can, what must be the offspring of such
parents. Will not the children sink still lower in the scale? The parents give
the stamp of character to their children. Therefore children that are born of
these parents inherit from them qualities of mind which are of a low, base
order. And Satan nourishes anything tending to corruption. The matter now to be
settled is: Shall the wife feel bound to yield implicitly to the demands of her
husband, when she sees that nothing but base passions control him, and when her
reason and judgment are convinced that she does it to the injury of her body,
which God has enjoined upon her to possess in sanctification and honor, to
preserve as a living sacrifice to God? {2T 475.2}
It is not pure, holy love which leads the
wife to gratify the animal propensities of her husband at the expense of health
and life. If she possesses true love and wisdom, she will seek to divert his
mind from the gratification of lustful passions to high and spiritual themes by
dwelling upon interesting spiritual subjects. It may be necessary to humbly and
affectionately urge, even at the risk of his displeasure, that she cannot
debase her body by yielding to sexual excess. She should, in a tender, kind
manner, remind him that God has the first and highest claim upon her entire
being, and that she cannot disregard this claim, for she will be held
accountable in the great day of God. "What? know
ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye
have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore
glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's." "Ye
are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men." {2T 475.3}
If she will elevate her affections, and in
sanctification and honor preserve her refined, womanly dignity, woman can do
much by her judicious influence to sanctify her husband, and thus fulfill her
high mission. In so doing, she can save both her husband and herself, thus
performing a double work. In this matter, so delicate and so difficult to
manage, much wisdom and patience are necessary, as well as moral courage and
fortitude. Strength and grace can be found in prayer. Sincere love is to be the
ruling principle of the heart. Love to God and love to the husband can alone be
the right ground of action. {2T 476.1}
Let the wife decide that it is the
husband's prerogative to have full control of her body, and to mold her mind to
suit his in every respect, to run in the same channel as his own, and she
yields her individuality; her identity is lost, merged in that of her husband.
She is a mere machine for his will to move and control, a creature of his
pleasure. He thinks for her, decides for her, and acts for her. She dishonors
God in occupying this passive position. She has a responsibility before God which
it is her duty to preserve. {2T 476.2}
When the wife yields her body and mind to
the control of her husband, being passive to his will in all things,
sacrificing her conscience, her dignity, and even her identity, she loses the
opportunity of exerting that mighty influence for good which she should possess
to elevate her husband. She could soften his stern nature, and her sanctifying
influence could be exerted in a manner to refine and purify, leading him to
strive earnestly to govern his passions and be more spiritually minded, that
they might be partakers together of the divine nature, having escaped the
corruption that is in the world through lust. The power of influence can be
great to lead the mind to high and noble themes, above the low, sensual
indulgences for which the heart unrenewed by grace
naturally seeks. If the wife feels that in order to please her husband she must
come down to his standard, when animal passion is the principal basis of his
love and controls his actions, she displeases God; for she fails to exert a
sanctifying influence upon her husband. If she feels that she must submit to
his animal passions without a word of remonstrance, she does not understand her
duty to him nor to her God. Sexual excess will effectually destroy a love for
devotional exercises, will take from the brain the substance needed to nourish
the system, and will most effectively exhaust the vitality. No woman should aid
her husband in this work of self-destruction. She will not do it if she is
enlightened and has true love for him. {2T 476.3}
The more the animal passions are indulged,
the stronger do they become, and the more violent will be their clamors for
indulgence. Let God-fearing men and women awake to their duty. Many professed
Christians are suffering with paralysis of nerve and brain because of their
intemperance in this direction. Rottenness is in the bones and marrow of many
who are regarded as good men, who pray and weep, and who stand in high places,
but whose polluted carcasses will never pass the portals of the heavenly city.
{2T 477.1}
Oh, that I could make all understand their
obligation to God to preserve the mental and physical organism in the best
condition to render perfect service to their Maker! Let the Christian wife
refrain, both in word and act, from exciting the animal passions of her
husband. Many have no strength at all to waste in this direction. From their
youth up they have weakened the brain and sapped the constitution by the
gratification of animal passions. Self-denial and temperance should be the watchword
in their married life; then the children born to them will not be so liable to
have the moral and intellectual organs weak, and the animal strong. Vice in
children is almost universal. Is there not a cause? Who have given them the
stamp of character? May the Lord open the eyes of all to see that they are
standing in slippery places! {2T 477.2}
From the picture that has been presented
before me of the corruption of men and women professing godliness, I have
feared that I should altogether lose confidence in humanity. I have seen that a
fearful stupor is upon nearly all. It is almost impossible to arouse the very
ones who should be awakened, so as to have any just sense of the power which
Satan holds over minds. They are not aware of the corruption teeming all around
them. Satan has blinded their minds and lulled them to carnal security. The
failures in our efforts to bring others up to understand the great dangers that
beset souls have sometimes led me to fear that my ideas of the depravity of the
human heart were exaggerated. But when facts are brought to us showing the sad
deformity of one who has dared to minister in sacred things while corrupt at
heart, one whose sin-stained hands have profaned the vessels of the Lord, I am
sure that I have not drawn the picture any too strong. {2T 478.1}
I have been bearing a very strong
testimony, both in writing and in speaking, hoping to awaken God's people to
understand that they have fallen upon perilous times. I have felt sick at heart
at the indifference manifested by those who should understand the workings of
Satan, and who ought to be awake and guarded. I have seen that Satan is leading
the minds of even those who profess the truth to indulge in the terrible sin of
fornication. The mind of a man or woman does not come down in a moment from
purity and holiness to depravity, corruption, and crime. It takes time to
transform the human to the divine, or to degrade those formed in the image of
God to the brutal or the satanic. By beholding we become changed. Though formed
in the image of his Maker, man can so educate his mind that sin which he once
loathed will become pleasant to him. As he ceases to watch and pray, he ceases
to guard the citadel, the heart, and engages in sin and crime. The mind is debased,
and it is impossible to elevate it from corruption while it is being educated
to enslave the moral and intellectual powers, and bring them in subjection to
grosser passions. Constant war against the carnal mind must be maintained; and
we must be aided by the refining influence of the grace of God, which will
attract the mind upward and habituate it to meditate upon pure and holy things.
{2T 478.2}
The body is not kept under by many
professed Sabbathkeepers. Some have embraced the
Sabbath whose minds have ever been depraved. And when they embraced the truth
they did not feel the necessity of turning square about and changing their
whole course of action. They have been for years following the inclinations of
an unregenerate heart, and have been swayed by the corrupt passions of their
carnal natures, which had defaced the image of God in them and defiled
everything they touched; therefore their entire future life would be all too
short, at the longest, to climb Peter's ladder of Christian perfection,
preparatory to their entering into the kingdom of God. But there are not many
who feel that they cannot be saved by a profession of the truth, unless they
become sanctified through the truth in answer to the prayer of our divine Lord
to His Father: "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy word is truth."
{2T 479.1}
Men and women who profess to be disciples
of Christ and to keep all the commandments of God will have to feel in their
daily lives the true spirit of agonizing to enter in at the strait gate. The
agonizing ones are the only ones who will urge their passage through the strait
gate and narrow way that lead to life eternal, to fullness of joy and pleasures
forevermore. Those who merely seek to enter in will never be able. The entire
Christian life of many will be spent in no greater effort than that of seeking,
and their only reward will be to find it an utter impossibility for them to
enter in at that strait gate. {2T 479.2}
I have been surprised to see how many
families are blinded by Satan so that they have no sense of his workings, his
wiles and deceptions, practiced in their very midst. Parents seem to be
stupefied by the paralyzing influence of the evil one, and yet think they are
all right. I have been shown that Satan seeks to debase the minds of those who
unite in marriage, that he may stamp his own hateful image upon their children.
Because they have entered into the marriage relation, many think that they may
permit themselves to be controlled by animal passions. They are led on by Satan,
who deceives them and leads them to pervert this sacred institution. He is well
pleased with the low level which their minds take; for he has much to gain in
this direction. He knows that if he can excite the baser passions, and keep
them in the ascendancy, he has nothing to be troubled about in their Christian
experience; for the moral and intellectual faculties will be subordinate, while
the animal propensities will predominate and keep in the ascendancy; and these
baser passions will be strengthened by exercise, while the nobler qualities
will become weaker and weaker. {2T 480.1}
He can mold their posterity much more
readily than he could the parents, for he can so control the minds of the
parents that through them he may give his own stamp of character to their
children. Thus many children are born with the animal passions largely in the
ascendancy, while the moral faculties are but feebly developed. These children
need the most careful culture to bring out, strengthen, and develop the moral and
intellectual powers, that these may take the lead. But the workings of Satan
are not perceived; his wiles are not understood. Children are not trained for
God. Their moral and religious education is neglected. The animal passions are
constantly strengthened, while the moral faculties become enfeebled. {2T 480.2}
Some children begin to practice
self-pollution in their infancy; and as they increase in years, the lustful
passions grow with their growth and strengthen with their strength. Their minds
are not at rest. Girls desire the society of boys, and boys that of the girls.
Their deportment is not reserved and modest. They are bold and forward, and
take indecent liberties. The habit of self-abuse has debased their minds and
tainted their souls. Vile thoughts, and the reading of
novels, love stories, and vile books excite their imagination, and just such
suit their depraved minds. They do not love work, and when engaged in labor
they complain of fatigue; their backs ache; their heads ache. Is there not
sufficient cause? Are they fatigued because of their labor? No, no! Yet the
parents indulge these children in their complaints, and release them from labor
and responsibility. This is the very worst thing that they can do for them.
They are thus removing almost the only barrier that prevents Satan from having
free access to their weakened minds. Useful labor would in some measure be a
safeguard from his decided control of them. {2T 481.1}
We have some knowledge of Satan's manner
of working and how well he succeeds in it. From what has been shown me, he has
paralyzed the minds of parents. They are slow to suspect that their own
children can be wrong and sinful. Some of these children profess to be
Christians, and parents sleep on, fearing no danger, while the minds and bodies
of their children are becoming wrecked. Some parents do not even take care to
keep their children with them when in the house of God. Young girls attend
meetings and take their seats, it may be, with their parents, but more frequently
back in the congregation. They are in the habit of making an excuse to leave
the house. Boys understand this, and go out before or after the exit of the
girls, and then, as the meeting closes, they accompany them home. Parents are
none the wiser for this. Again, excuses are made to walk, and boys and girls
assemble in the fair grounds, or some other secluded place, and there play and
have a regular high time, with no experienced eye upon them to caution them.
They imitate men and women of advanced age. {2T 481.2}
This is a fast age.
Little boys and girls commence paying attentions to one another when they
should both be in the nursery, taking lessons in modesty of deportment. What is
the effect of this common mixing up? Does it increase chastity in the youth who
thus gather together? No, indeed! it increases the
first lustful passions; after such meetings the youth are crazed by the devil
and give themselves up to their vile practices. {2T 482.1}
Parents are asleep and know not that Satan
has planted his hellish banner right in their households. What, I was led to
inquire, will become of the youth in this corrupt age? I
repeat, Parents are asleep. The children are infatuated with a lovesick
sentimentalism, and the truth has no power to correct the wrong. What can be
done to stay the tide of evil? Parents can do much if they will. If a young
girl just entering her teens is accosted with familiarity by a boy of her own
age, or older, she should be taught to so resent this that no such advances
will ever be repeated. When a girl's company is frequently sought by boys or
young men, something is wrong. That young girl needs a mother to show her her place, to restrain her, and teach her what belongs to a
girl of her age. {2T 482.2}
The corrupting doctrine which has
prevailed, that, as viewed from a health standpoint, the sexes must mingle
together, has done its mischievous work. When parents and guardians manifest
one tithe of the shrewdness which Satan possesses, then can this association of
sexes be nearer harmless. As it is, Satan is most successful in his effort to
bewitch the minds of the youth; and the mingling of boys and girls only
increases the evil twentyfold. Let boys and girls be kept employed in useful
labor. If they are tired, they will have less inclination to corrupt their own
bodies. There is nothing to be hoped for in the case of the young, unless there
is an entire change in the minds of those who are older. Vice is stamped upon
the features of boys and girls, and yet what is done to stay the progress of
this evil? Boys and young men are allowed and encouraged to take liberties by
immodest advances of girls and young women. May God arouse fathers and mothers
to work earnestly to change this terrible state of things, is my prayer. {2T 482.3}
I have been looking over the Testimonies
given for Sabbathkeepers and I am astonished at the
mercy of God and His care for His people in giving them so many warnings,
pointing out their dangers, and presenting before them the exalted position which
He would have them occupy. If they would keep themselves in His love and
separate from the world, He would cause His special blessings to rest upon them
and His light to shine round about them. Their influence for good might be felt
in every branch of the work and in every part of the gospel field. But if they
fail to meet the mind of God, if they continue to have so little sense of the
exalted character of the work as they have had in the past, their influence and
example will prove a terrible curse. They will do harm and only harm. The blood
of precious souls will be found upon their garments. {2T 483.1}
Testimonies of warning have been repeated.
I inquire: Who have heeded them? Who have been zealous in repenting of their
sins and idolatry, and have been earnestly pressing toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus? Who have shown the inward
work of God, leading to self-denial and humble self-sacrifice? Who that have been warned have so separated themselves from the
world, from its affections and lusts, that they have shown a daily growth in
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? Whom do we
find among the active ones, that feel the burden for
the church? Whom do we see that God is especially using, working by and through
them to elevate the standard, and to bring the church up to it, that they may prove
the Lord and see if He will not pour them out a blessing? {2T 483.2}
I have waited
anxiously, hoping that God would put His Spirit upon some and use them as
instruments of righteousness to awaken and set in order His church. I have
almost despaired as I have seen, year after year, a greater departure from that
simplicity which God has shown me should characterize the life of His
followers. There has been less and less interest in, and devotion to, the cause
of God. I ask: Wherein have those who profess confidence in the Testimonies
sought to live according to the light given in them? Wherein have they regarded
the warnings given? Wherein have they heeded the instructions they have
received? {2T 484.1}
I saw that great changes must be wrought
in the hearts and lives of very many before God can work in them by His power
for the salvation of others. They must be renewed after the image of God, in
righteousness and true holiness. Then the love of the world, the love of self,
and every ambition of life calculated to exalt self will be changed by the
grace of God and employed in the special work of saving souls for whom Christ
died. Humility will take the place of pride, and haughty self-esteem will be
exchanged for meekness. Every power of the heart will be controlled by
disinterested love for all mankind. Satan, I saw, will arouse when they in
earnest commence the work of reformation in themselves. He knows that these
persons, if consecrated to God, could prove the strength of His promises and
realize a power working with them that the adversary would not be able to
gainsay or resist. They would realize the life of God in the soul. {2T 484.2}
One family in particular have needed all
the benefits they could receive from the reform in diet, yet these very ones
have been completely backslidden. Meat and butter have been used by them quite
freely, and spices have not been entirely discarded. This family could have
received great benefit from a nourishing, well-regulated diet. The head of the
family needed plain, nutritious food. His habits were sedentary, and his blood
moved sluggishly through the system. He could not, like others, have the
benefit of healthful exercise; therefore his food should have been of the right
quality and quantity. There has not been in this family the right management in
regard to diet; there has been irregularity. There should have been a specified
time for each meal, and the food should have been prepared in a simple form and
free from grease; but pains should have been taken to have it nutritious,
healthful, and inviting. In this family, as also in many others, a special
parade has been made for visitors, many dishes prepared and frequently made too
rich, so that those seated at the table would be tempted to eat to excess. Then
in the absence of company there was a great reaction, a falling off in the
preparations brought on the table. The diet was spare and lacked nourishment.
It was considered not so much matter "just for ourselves." The meals
were frequently picked up, and the regular time for eating not regarded. Every
member of the family was injured by such management. It is a sin for any of our
sisters to make such great preparations for visitors, and wrong their own
families by a spare diet which will fail to nourish the system. {2T 485.1}
The brother referred
to felt a lack in his system; he was not nourished, and he thought that meat
would give him the needed strength. Had he been suitably cared for, his table
spread at the right time with food of a nourishing quality, all the demands of
nature would have been abundantly supplied. The butter and meat stimulate.
These have injured the stomach and perverted the taste. The sensitive nerves of
the brain have been benumbed, and the animal appetite strengthened at the expense
of the moral and intellectual faculties. These higher powers, which should
control, have been growing weaker, so that eternal things have not been
discerned. Paralysis has benumbed the spiritual and devotional. Satan has
triumphed to see how easily he can come in through the appetite and control men
and women of intelligence, calculated by the Creator to do a good and great
work. {2T 485.2}
The case above referred to is not an
isolated one; if it were, I would not introduce it here. When Satan takes
possession of the mind, how soon the light and instruction that the Lord has
graciously given, fade away and have no force! How many frame
excuses and make necessities which have no existence, to bear them up in their
course of wrong in setting aside the light and trampling it underfoot! I speak
with assurance. The greatest objection to health reform is that this people do
not live it out; and yet they will gravely say they cannot live the health
reform and preserve their strength. {2T 486.1}
We find in every such instance a good
reason why they cannot live out the health reform. They do not live it out, and
have never followed it strictly, therefore they cannot
be benefited by it. Some fall into the error that because they discard meat
they have no need to supply its place with the best fruits and vegetables,
prepared in their most natural state, free from grease and spices. If they
would only skillfully arrange the bounties with which the Creator has
surrounded them, parents and children with a clear conscience unitedly engaging in the work, they would enjoy simple
food, and would then be able to speak understandingly of health reform. Those
who have not been converted to health reform, and have never fully adopted it,
are not judges of its benefits. Those who digress occasionally to gratify the
taste in eating a fattened turkey or other flesh meats, pervert their
appetites, and are not the ones to judge of the benefits of the system of
health reform They are controlled by taste, not by
principle. {2T 486.2}
I have a well-set table on all occasions.
I make no change for visitors, whether believers or unbelievers. I intend never
to be surprised by an unreadiness to entertain at my
table from one to half a dozen extra who may chance to come in. I have enough
simple, healthful food ready to satisfy hunger and nourish the system. If any
want more than this, they are at liberty to find it elsewhere. No butter or
flesh meats of any kind come on my table. Cake is seldom found there. I
generally have an ample supply of fruits, good bread, and vegetables. Our table
is always well patronized, and all who partake of the food do well, and improve
upon it. All sit down with no epicurean appetite, and eat with a relish the
bounties supplied by our Creator. {2T 487.1}
A wonderful indifference has been
manifested upon this important subject by those right
at the heart of the work. The lack of stability in regard to the principles of
health reform is a true index of their character and their spiritual strength.
They are deficient in thoroughness in their Christian experience. Conscience is
not regarded. The basis or cause of every right action existing and operating
in the renewed heart secures obedience without external or selfish motives. The
spirit of truth and a good conscience are sufficient to inspire and regulate
the motives and conduct of those who learn of Christ and are like Him. Those
who have no strength of religious principle in themselves are easily swayed, by
the example of others, in a wrong direction. Those who have never learned their
duty from God, and acquainted themselves with His purposes concerning them, are
not reliable in times of severe conflict with the powers of darkness. They are
swayed by external and present appearances. Worldly men are governed by worldly
principles; they can appreciate no other. But Christians should not be governed
by these principles. They should not seek to strengthen themselves in the
performance of duty by any other consideration than a love to obey every requirement
of God as found in His word and dictated by an enlightened conscience. {2T
487.2}
In the renewed heart there will be a fixed
principle to obey the will of God, because there is a love for what is just,
and good, and holy. There will be no hesitating, conferring with the taste, or
studying of convenience, or moving in a certain course because others do so.
Everyone should live for himself. The minds of all who are renewed by grace
will be an open medium, continually receiving light, grace, and truth from
above, and transmitting the same to others. Their works are fruitful. Their
fruit is unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. {2T 488.1}
But very few have an experimental
knowledge of the sanctifying influence of the truths which they profess. Their
obedience and devotion have not been in accordance with their light and
privileges. They have no real sense of the obligation resting upon them to walk
as children of the light, and not as children of darkness. If the light that
has been given to these had been given Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have
repented in sackcloth and ashes, and would have escaped the signal wrath of
God. It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day
of judgment than for those who have been privileged with the clear
light, and have had a vast amount of labor, but have not profited by it. They
have neglected the great salvation which God in mercy was willing to bestow.
They were so blinded by the devil that they verily thought themselves rich and
in the favor of God, when the True Witness declares them to be wretched, and
miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked. {2T 488.2}
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