Spirit Of Prophecy

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The Integrity of the Testimonies

The Tes­ti­monies Slighted

Healds­burg, Cal­i­for­nia, June 20, 1882.

Dear Brethren and Sis­ters in Bat­tle Creek: I under­stand that the tes­ti­mony  which I sent to Brother —–, with the request that it be read to the church, was with­held from you for sev­eral weeks after it was received by him. Before send­ing that tes­ti­mony my mind was so impressed by the Spirit of God that I had no rest day or night until I wrote to you. It was not a work that I would have cho­sen for myself. Before my husband’s death I decided that it was not my duty to bear tes­ti­mony to any­one in reproof of wrong or in vin­di­ca­tion of right, because advan­tage was taken of my words to deal harshly with the erring and to unwisely exalt oth­ers whose course I had not in any degree sus­tained. Many explained the tes­ti­monies to suit them­selves. The truth of God is not in har­mony with the tra­di­tions of men, nor does it con­form to their opin­ions. Like its divine Author, it is unchange­able, the same yes­ter­day, today, and for­ever. Those who sep­a­rate from God will call dark­ness light, and error truth. But dark­ness will never prove itself to be light, nor will error become truth. {5T 62.1}
The minds of many have been so dark­ened and con­fused by worldly cus­toms, worldly prac­tices, and worldly influ­ences that all power to dis­crim­i­nate between light and dark­ness, truth and error, seems destroyed. I had lit­tle hope that my words would be under­stood; but when the Lord moved upon me so decid­edly, I could not resist His Spirit. Know­ing that you were involv­ing your­selves in the snares of Satan, I felt that the dan­ger was too great for me to keep silent.  {5T 62.2}
For years the Lord has been pre­sent­ing the sit­u­a­tion of the church before you. Again and again reproofs and warn­ings have been given. Octo­ber 23, 1879, the Lord gave me a most impres­sive tes­ti­mony in regard to the church in Bat­tle Creek. Dur­ing the last months I was with you I car­ried a heavy bur­den for the church, while those who should have felt to the very depths of their souls were com­par­a­tively easy and uncon­cerned. I knew not what to do or what to say. I had no con­fi­dence in the course which many were pur­su­ing, for they were doing the very things which the Lord had warned them not to do.  {5T 63.1}
That God who knows their spir­i­tual con­di­tion declares: They have cher­ished evil and sep­a­rated from Me. They have gone astray, every one of them. Not one is guilt­less. They have for­saken Me, the Foun­tain of liv­ing waters, and have hewed out to them bro­ken cis­terns that can hold no water. Many have cor­rupted their ways before Me. Envy, hatred of one another, jeal­ousy, evil sur­mis­ing, emu­la­tion, strife, bit­ter­ness, is the fruit that they bear. And they will not heed the tes­ti­mony that I send them. They will not see their per­verse ways and be con­verted, that I should heal them.  {5T 63.2}
Many are look­ing with self-​​complacency upon the long years dur­ing which they have advo­cated the truth. They now feel that they are enti­tled to a reward for their past tri­als and obe­di­ence. But this gen­uine expe­ri­ence in the things of God in the past makes them more guilty before Him for not pre­serv­ing their integrity and going for­ward to per­fec­tion. The faith­ful­ness for the past year will never atone for the neglect of the present year. A man’s truth­ful­ness yes­ter­day will not atone for his false­hood today.  {5T 63.3}
Many excused their dis­re­gard of the tes­ti­monies by say­ing: “Sis­ter White is influ­enced by her hus­band; the tes­ti­monies are molded by his spirit and judg­ment.” Oth­ers were seek­ing to gain some­thing from me which they could con­strue to jus­tify their course or to give them influ­ence. It was then I decided that noth­ing more should go from my pen until the con­vert­ing power of God was seen in the church. But the Lord placed the bur­den upon my soul. I labored for you earnestly. How much this cost both my hus­band and myself, eter­nity will tell. Have I not a knowl­edge of the state of the church, when the Lord has pre­sented their case before me again and again for years? Repeated warn­ings have been given, yet there has been no decided change.  {5T 63.4}
I saw that the frown of God was upon His peo­ple for their assim­i­la­tion to the world. I saw that the chil­dren of Brother —– have been a snare to him. Their ideas and opin­ions, their feel­ings and state­ments, had an influ­ence upon his mind and blinded his judg­ment. These youth are strongly inclined to infi­delity. The mother’s want of faith and trust in God has been given as an inher­i­tance to her chil­dren. Her devo­tion to them is greater than her devo­tion to God. The father has neglected his duty. The result of their wrong course is revealed in their chil­dren.  {5T 64.1}
As I spoke to the church I tried to impress upon par­ents their solemn oblig­a­tion to the chil­dren, because I knew the state of these youth and what ten­den­cies had made them what they are. But the word was not received. I know what bur­dens I bore in the last of my labors among you. I would never have thus tasked my strength to the utmost had I not seen your peril. I longed to arouse you to hum­ble your hearts before God, to return to Him with pen­i­tence and faith.  {5T 64.2}
Yet now when I send you a tes­ti­mony of warn­ing and reproof, many of you declare it to be merely the opin­ion of Sis­ter White. You have thereby insulted the Spirit of God. You know how the Lord has man­i­fested Him­self through the spirit of prophecy. Past, present, and future have passed before me. I have been shown faces that I had never seen, and years after­ward I knew them when I saw them. I have been aroused from my sleep with a vivid sense of sub­jects pre­vi­ously pre­sented to my mind; and I have writ­ten, at mid­night, let­ters that have gone across the con­ti­nent and, arriv­ing at a cri­sis, have saved great dis­as­ter to the cause of God. This has been my work for many years. A power has impelled me to reprove and rebuke wrongs that I had not thought of. Is this work of the last thirty-​​six years from above or from beneath?  {5T 64.3}
Suppose–some would make it appear, incor­rectly however–that I was influ­enced to write as I did by let­ters received from mem­bers of the church. How was it with the apos­tle Paul? The news he received through the house­hold of Chloe con­cern­ing the con­di­tion of the church at Corinth was what caused him to write his first epis­tle to that church. Pri­vate let­ters had come to him stat­ing the facts as they existed, and in his answer he laid down gen­eral prin­ci­ples which if heeded would cor­rect the exist­ing evils. With great ten­der­ness and wis­dom he exhorts them to all speak the same things, that there be no divi­sions among them.  {5T 65.1}
Paul was an inspired apos­tle, yet the Lord did not reveal to him at all times just the con­di­tion of His peo­ple. Those who were inter­ested in the pros­per­ity of the church, and saw evils creep­ing in, pre­sented the mat­ter before him, and from the light which he had pre­vi­ously received he was pre­pared to judge of the true char­ac­ter of these devel­op­ments. Because the Lord had not given him a new rev­e­la­tion for that spe­cial time, those who were really seek­ing light did not cast his mes­sage aside as only a com­mon let­ter. No, indeed. The Lord had shown him the dif­fi­cul­ties and dan­gers which would arise in the churches, that when they should develop he might know just how to treat them.  {5T 65.2}
He was set for the defense of the church. He was to watch for souls as one that must ren­der account to God, and should he not take notice of the reports con­cern­ing their state of anar­chy and divi­sion? Most assuredly; and the reproof he sent them was writ­ten just as much under the inspi­ra­tion of the Spirit of God as were any of his epis­tles. But when these reproofs came, some would not be cor­rected. They took the posi­tion that God had not spo­ken to them through Paul, that he had merely given them his opin­ion as a man, and they regarded their own judg­ment as good as that of Paul.  {5T 65.3}
So it is with many among our peo­ple who have drifted away from the old land­marks and who have fol­lowed their own under­stand­ing. What a great relief it would be to such could they quiet their con­science with the belief that my work is not of God. But your unbe­lief will not change the facts in the case. You are defec­tive in char­ac­ter, in moral and reli­gious expe­ri­ence. Close your eyes to the fact if you will, but this does not make you one par­ti­cle more per­fect. The only rem­edy is to wash in the blood of the Lamb.  {5T 66.1}
If you seek to turn aside the coun­sel of God to suit your­selves, if you lessen the con­fi­dence of God’s peo­ple in the tes­ti­monies He has sent them, you are rebelling against God as cer­tainly as were Korah, Dathan, and Abi­ram. You have their his­tory. You know how stub­born they were in their own opin­ions. They decided that their judg­ment was bet­ter than that of Moses and that Moses was doing great injury to Israel. Those who united with them were so set in their opin­ions that, notwith­stand­ing the judg­ments of God in a marked man­ner destroyed the lead­ers and the princes, the next morn­ing the sur­vivors came to Moses and said: Ye have killed the peo­ple of the Lord.” We see what fear­ful decep­tion will come upon the human mind. How hard it is to con­vince souls that have become imbued with a spirit which is not of God. As Christ’s ambas­sador, I would say to you: Be care­ful what posi­tions you take. This is God’s work, and you must ren­der to Him an account for the man­ner in which you treat His mes­sage. {5T 66.2}
While stand­ing over the dying bed of my hus­band, I knew that had oth­ers borne their part of the bur­dens, he might have lived. I then pleaded, with agony of soul, that those present might no longer grieve the Spirit of God by their hard­ness of heart. A few days later I myself stood face to face with death. Then I had most clear reveal­ings from God in regard to myself, and in regard to the church. In great weak­ness I bore to you my tes­ti­mony, not know­ing but it would be my last oppor­tu­nity. Have you for­got­ten that solemn occa­sion? I can never for­get it, for I seemed to be brought before the judg­ment seat of Christ. Your state of back­slid­ing, your hard­ness of heart, your lack of har­mony of love and spir­i­tu­al­ity, your depar­ture from the sim­plic­ity and purity which God would have you preserve–I knew it all; I felt it all. Fault­find­ing, cen­sur­ing, envy, strife for the high­est place, were among you. I had seen it and to what it would lead. I feared that effort would cost me my life, but the inter­est I felt for you led me to speak. God spoke to you that day. Did it make any last­ing impres­sion?  {5T 67.1}
When I went to Col­orado I was so bur­dened for you that, in my weak­ness, I wrote many pages to be read at your camp meet­ing. Weak and trem­bling, I arose at three o’clock in the morn­ing to write to you. God was speak­ing through clay. You might say that this com­mu­ni­ca­tion was only a let­ter. Yes, it was a let­ter, but prompted by the Spirit of God, to bring before your minds things that had been shown me. In these let­ters which I write, in the tes­ti­monies I bear, I am pre­sent­ing to you that which the Lord has pre­sented to me. I do not write one arti­cle in the paper express­ing merely my own ideas. They are what God has opened before me in vision–the pre­cious rays of light shin­ing from the throne. {5T 67.2}
After I came to Oak­land I was weighted down with a sense of the con­di­tion of things at Bat­tle Creek, and I, weak, power less to help you. I knew that the leaven of unbe­lief was at work. Those who dis­re­garded the plain injunc­tions of God’s word were dis­re­gard­ing the tes­ti­monies which urged them to give heed to that word. While vis­it­ing Healds­burg last win­ter, I was much in prayer and bur­dened with anx­i­ety and grief. But the Lord swept back the dark­ness at one time while I was in prayer, and a great light filled the room. An angel of God was by my side, and I seemed to be in Bat­tle Creek. I was in your coun­cils; I heard words uttered, I saw and heard things that, if God willed, I wish could be for­ever blot­ted from my mem­ory. My soul was so wounded I knew not what to do or what to say. Some things I can­not men­tion. I was bid­den to let no one know in regard to this, for much was yet to be devel­oped.  {5T 68.1}
I was told to gather up the light that had been given me and let its rays shine forth to God’s peo­ple. I have been doing this in arti­cles in the papers. I arose at three o’clock nearly every morn­ing for months and gath­ered the dif­fer­ent items writ­ten after the last two tes­ti­monies were given me in Bat­tle Creek. I wrote out these mat­ters and hur­ried them on to you; but I had neglected to take proper care of myself, and the result was that I sank under the bur­den; my writ­ings were not all fin­ished to reach you at the Gen­eral Con­fer­ence.  {5T 68.2}
Again, while in prayer, the Lord revealed Him­self. I was once more in Bat­tle Creek. I was in many houses and heard your words around your tables. The par­tic­u­lars I have no lib­erty now to relate. I hope never to be called to men­tion them. I had also sev­eral most strik­ing dreams.  {5T 68.3}
What voice will you acknowl­edge as the voice of God? What power has the Lord in reserve to cor­rect your errors and show you your course as it is? What power to work in the church? If you refuse to believe until every shadow of uncer­tainty and every pos­si­bil­ity of doubt is removed you will never believe. The doubt that demands per­fect knowl­edge will never yield to faith. Faith rests upon evi­dence, not demon­stra­tion. The Lord requires us to obey the voice of duty, when there are other voices all around us urg­ing us to pur­sue an oppo­site course. It requires earnest atten­tion from us to dis­tin­guish the voice which speaks from God. We must resist and con­quer incli­na­tion, and obey the voice of con­science with­out par­ley­ing or com­pro­mise, lest its prompt­ings cease and will and impulse con­trol. The word of the Lord comes to us all who have not resisted His Spirit by deter­min­ing not to hear and obey. This voice is heard in warn­ings, in coun­sels, in reproof. It is the Lord’s mes­sage of light to His peo­ple. If we wait for louder calls or bet­ter oppor­tu­ni­ties, the light may be with­drawn, and we left in dark­ness. {5T 68.4}
By once neglect­ing to com­ply with the call of God’s Spirit and His word, when obe­di­ence involves a cross, many have lost much–how much they will never know till the books are opened at the final day. The plead­ings of the Spirit, neglected today because plea­sure or incli­na­tion leads in an oppo­site direc­tion, may be pow­er­less to con­vince, or even impress, tomor­row. To improve the oppor­tu­ni­ties of the present, with prompt and will­ing hearts, is the only way to grow in grace and the knowl­edge of the truth. We should ever cher­ish a sense that, indi­vid­u­ally, we are stand­ing before the Lord of hosts; no word, no act, no thought, even, should be indulged, to offend the eye of the Eter­nal One. We shall then have no fear of man or of earthly power, because a Monarch, whose empire is the uni­verse, who holds in His hands our indi­vid­ual des­tinies for time and eter­nity, is tak­ing cog­nizance of all our work. If we would feel that in every place we are the ser­vants of the Most High, we would be more cir­cum­spect; our whole life would pos­sess to us a mean­ing and a sacred­ness which earthly hon­ors can never give.  {5T 69.1}
The thoughts of the heart, the words of the lips, and every act of the life, will make our char­ac­ter more wor­thy, if the pres­ence of God is con­tin­u­ally felt. Let the lan­guage of the heart be: “Lo, God is here.” Then the life will be pure, the char­ac­ter unspot­ted, the soul con­tin­u­ally uplifted to the Lord. You have not pur­sued this course at Bat­tle Creek. I have been shown that painful and con­ta­gious dis­ease is upon you, which will pro­duce spir­i­tual death unless it is arrested.  {5T 70.1}
Many are ruined by their desire for a life of ease and plea­sure. Self-​​denial is dis­agree­able to them. They are con­stantly seek­ing to escape tri­als that are insep­a­ra­ble from a course of fidelity to God. They set their hearts upon hav­ing the good things of this life. This is human suc­cess, but is it not won at the expense of future, eter­nal inter­ests? The great busi­ness of life is to show our­selves to be true ser­vants of God, lov­ing right­eous­ness and hat­ing iniq­uity. We should accept grate­fully such mea­sures of present hap­pi­ness and present suc­cess as are found in the path of duty. Our great­est strength is real­ized when we feel and acknowl­edge our weak­ness. The great­est loss which any one of you in Bat­tle Creek can suf­fer is the loss of earnest­ness and per­se­ver­ing zeal to do right, the loss of strength to resist temp­ta­tion, the loss of faith in the prin­ci­ples of truth and duty.  {5T 70.2}
Let no man flat­ter him­self that he is a suc­cess­ful man unless he pre­serves the integrity of his con­science, giv­ing him­self wholly to the truth and to God. We should move steadily for­ward, never los­ing heart or hope in the good work, what­ever tri­als beset our path, what­ever moral dark­ness may encom­pass us. Patience, faith, and love for duty are the lessons we must learn. Sub­du­ing self and look­ing to Jesus is an every­day work. The Lord will never for­sake the soul that trusts in Him and seeks His aid. The crown of life is placed only upon the brow of the over­comer. There is, for every­one, earnest, solemn work for God while life lasts. As Satan’s power increases and his devices are mul­ti­plied, skill, apt­ness, and sharp gen­er­al­ship should be exer­cised by those in charge of the flock of God. Not only have we each a work to do for our own souls, but we have also a duty to arouse oth­ers to gain eter­nal life.  {5T 70.3}
It pains me to say, my brethren, that your sin­ful neglect to walk in the light has enshrouded you in dark­ness. You may now be hon­est in not rec­og­niz­ing and obey­ing the light; the doubts you have enter­tained, your neglect to heed the require­ments of God, have blinded your per­cep­tions so that dark­ness is now to you light, and light is dark­ness. God has bid­den you to go for­ward to per­fec­tion. Chris­tian­ity is a reli­gion of progress. Light from God is full and ample, wait­ing our demand upon it. What­ever bless­ings the Lord may give, He has an infi­nite sup­ply beyond, an inex­haustible store from which we may draw. Skep­ti­cism may treat the sacred claims of the gospel with jests, scoff­ing, and denial. The spirit of world­li­ness may con­t­a­m­i­nate the many and con­trol the few; the cause of God may hold its ground only by great exer­tion and con­tin­ual sac­ri­fice, yet it will tri­umph finally.  {5T 71.1}
The word is: Go for­ward; dis­charge your indi­vid­ual duty, and leave all con­se­quences in the hands of God. If we move for­ward where Jesus leads the way we shall see His tri­umph, we shall share His joy. We must share the con­flicts if we wear the crown of vic­tory. Like Jesus, we must be made per­fect through suf­fer­ing. Had Christ’s life been one of ease, then might we safely yield to sloth. Since His life was marked with con­tin­ual self-​​denial, suf­fer­ing, and self-​​sacrifice, we shall make no com­plaint if we are par­tak­ers with Him. We can walk safely in the dark­est path if we have the Light of the world for our guide. {5T 71.2}
The Lord is test­ing and prov­ing you. He has coun­seled, admon­ished, and entreated. All these solemn admo­ni­tions will either make the church bet­ter or decid­edly worse. The oftener the Lord speaks to cor­rect or coun­sel, and you dis­re­gard His voice, the more dis­posed will you be to reject it again and again, till God says: “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out My hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all My coun­sel, and would none of My reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; when your fear cometh as des­o­la­tion, and your destruc­tion cometh as a whirl­wind; when dis­tress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer; they shall seek Me early, but they shall not find me; for that they hated knowl­edge, and did not choose the fear of the Lord: they would none of My coun­sel: they despised all My reproof. There­fore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.”  {5T 72.1}
Are you not halt­ing between two opin­ions? Are you not neglect­ing to heed the light which God has given you? Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbe­lief in depart­ing from the liv­ing God. You know not the time of your vis­i­ta­tion. The great sin of the Jews was that of neglect­ing and reject­ing present oppor­tu­ni­ties. As Jesus views the state of His pro­fessed fol­low­ers today, He sees base ingrat­i­tude, hol­low for­mal­ism, hyp­o­crit­i­cal insin­cer­ity, phar­i­saical pride and apos­tasy.  {5T 72.2}
The tears which Christ shed on the crest of Olivet were for the impen­i­tence and ingrat­i­tude of every indi­vid­ual to the close of time. He sees His love despised. The soul’s tem­ple courts have been con­verted into places of unholy traf­fic. Self­ish­ness, mam­mon, mal­ice, envy, pride, pas­sion, are all cher­ished in the human heart. His warn­ings are rejected and ridiculed, His ambas­sadors are treated with indif­fer­ence, their words seem as idle tales. Jesus has spo­ken by mer­cies, but these mer­cies have been unac­knowl­edged; He has spo­ken by solemn warn­ings, but these warn­ings have been rejected.  {5T 72.3}
I entreat you who have long pro­fessed the faith and who still pay out­ward homage to Christ: Do not deceive your own souls. It is the whole heart that Jesus prizes. The loy­alty of the soul is alone of value in the sight of God. “If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong to thy peace!” “Thou, … even thou”–Christ is at this moment address­ing you per­son­ally, stoop­ing from His throne, yearn­ing with pity­ing ten­der­ness over those who feel not their dan­ger, who have no pity for them­selves.  {5T 73.1}
Many have a name to live while they have become spir­i­tu­ally dead. These will one day say: “Lord, Lord, have we not proph­e­sied in Thy name? and in Thy name have cast out dev­ils? and in Thy name done many won­der­ful works? And then will I pro­fess unto them, I never knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniq­uity.” Woe will be pro­nounced against thee, if thou loi­ter and linger until the Sun of Right­eous­ness shall set; the black­ness of eter­nal night will be thy por­tion. Oh, that the cold, for­mal, worldly heart may be melted! Christ shed not only tears for us, but His own blood. Will not these man­i­fes­ta­tions of His love arouse us to deep humil­i­a­tion before God? It is humil­ity and self-​​abasement that we need, to be approved of God.  {5T 73.2}
The man whom God is lead­ing will be dis­sat­is­fied with him­self because the light from the per­fect Man shines upon him. But those who lose sight of the Pat­tern, and place an undue esti­mate upon them­selves, will see faults to crit­i­cize in oth­ers; they will be sharp, sus­pi­cious, con­dem­na­tory; they will be tear­ing oth­ers down to build them­selves up.  {5T 73.3}
When the Lord last pre­sented your case before me, and made known to me that you had not regarded the light which had been given you, I was bid­den to speak to you plainly in His name, for His anger was kin­dled against you. These words were spo­ken to me: “Your work is appointed you of God. Many will not hear you, for they refused to hear the Great Teacher; many will not be cor­rected, for their ways are right in their own eyes. Yet bear to them the reproofs and warn­ings I shall give you, whether they will hear or for­bear.”  {5T 73.4}
I bear you the tes­ti­mony of the Lord. All will hear His voice who are will­ing to be cor­rected; but those who have been deceived by the enemy are not will­ing now to come to the light, lest their deeds shall be reproved. Many of you can­not dis­cern the work and pres­ence of God. You know not that it is He. The Lord is still gra­cious, will­ing to par­don all who turn to Him with pen­i­tence and faith. Said the Lord: Many know not at what they stum­ble. They heed not the voice of God, but fol­low the sight of their own eyes and the under­stand­ing of their own hearts. Unbe­lief and skep­ti­cism have taken the place of faith. They have for­saken Me.  {5T 74.1}
I was shown that fathers and moth­ers have departed from their sim­plic­ity and neglected the holy call­ing of the gospel. The Lord has admon­ished them not to cor­rupt them­selves by adopt­ing the cus­toms and max­ims of the world. Christ would have given them the unsearch­able riches of His grace freely and abun­dantly, but they prove them­selves unwor­thy.  {5T 74.2}
Many are lift­ing up the soul unto van­ity. No sooner does a per­son imag­ine that he pos­sesses any tal­ent which might be of use in the cause of God than he over­es­ti­mates the gift and is inclined to think too highly of him­self, as though he were a pil­lar of the church. The work which he might do with accep­tance he leaves for some­one else with less abil­ity than he con­sid­ers him­self to pos­sess. He thinks and talks of a higher sta­tion. He must let his light shine before men; but instead of grace, meek­ness, low­li­ness of mind, kind­ness, gen­tle­ness, and love shin­ing in his life, self, impor­tant self, appears every­where. {5T 74.3}
The spirit of Christ should so con­trol our char­ac­ter and con­duct that our influ­ence may ever bless, encour­age, and edify. Our thoughts, our words, our acts, should tes­tify that we are born of God and that the peace of Christ rules in our hearts. In this way we throw around us the gra­cious radi­ance of which the Sav­iour speaks when He enjoins upon us to let our light shine forth to men. Thus we are leav­ing a bright track heaven ward. In this way all who are con­nected with Christ may become more effec­tual preach­ers of right­eous­ness than by the most able pul­pit effort with­out this heav­enly unc­tion. Those light bear­ers shed forth the purest radi­ance that are the least con­scious of their own bright­ness, as those flow­ers dif­fuse the sweet­est fra­grance that make the least dis­play.  {5T 75.1}
Our peo­ple are mak­ing very dan­ger­ous mis­takes. We can­not praise and flat­ter any man with­out doing him a great wrong; those who do this will meet with seri­ous dis­ap­point­ment. They trust too fully to finite man and not enough to God, who never errs. The eager desire to urge men into pub­lic notice is an evi­dence of back­slid­ing from God and of friend­ship with the world. It is the spirit which char­ac­ter­izes the present day. It shows that men have not the mind of Jesus; spir­i­tual blind­ness and poverty of soul have come upon them. Often per­sons of infe­rior minds look away from Jesus to a merely human stan­dard, by which they are not made con­scious of their own lit­tle­ness, and hence have an undue esti­mate of their own capa­bil­i­ties and endow­ments. There is among us as a peo­ple an idol­a­try of human instru­men­tal­i­ties and mere human tal­ent, and these even of a super­fi­cial char­ac­ter. We must die to self and cher­ish hum­ble, child­like faith. God’s peo­ple have departed from their sim­plic­ity. They have not made God their strength, and they are weak and faint, spir­i­tu­ally.  {5T 75.2}
I have been shown that the spirit of the world is fast leav­en­ing the church. You are fol­low­ing the same path as did ancient Israel. There is the same falling away from your holy call­ing as God’s pecu­liar peo­ple. You are hav­ing fel­low­ship with the unfruit­ful works of dark­ness. Your con­cord with unbe­liev­ers has pro­voked the Lord’s dis­plea­sure. You know not the things that belong to your peace, and they are fast being hid from your eyes. Your neglect to fol­low the light will place you in a more unfa­vor­able posi­tion than the Jews upon whom Christ pro­nounced a woe. {5T 75.3}
I have been shown that unbe­lief in the tes­ti­monies has been steadily increas­ing as the peo­ple back­slide from God. It is all through our ranks, all over the field. But few know what our churches are to expe­ri­ence. I saw that at present we are under divine for­bear­ance, but no one can say how long this will con­tinue. No one knows how great the mercy that has been exer­cised toward us. But few are heartily devoted to God. There are only a few who, like the stars in a tem­pes­tu­ous night, shine here and there among the clouds.  {5T 76.1}
Many who com­pla­cently lis­ten to the truths from God’s word are dead spir­i­tu­ally, while they pro­fess to live. For years they have come and gone in our con­gre­ga­tions, but they seem only less and less sen­si­ble of the value of revealed truth. They do not hunger and thirst after right­eous­ness. They have no rel­ish for spir­i­tual or divine things. They assent to the truth, but are not sanc­ti­fied through it. Nei­ther the word of God nor the tes­ti­monies of His Spirit make any last­ing impres­sion upon them. Just accord­ing to the light, the priv­i­leges, and oppor­tu­ni­ties which they have slighted will be their con­dem­na­tion. Many who preach the truth to oth­ers are them­selves cher­ish­ing iniq­uity. The entreaties of the Spirit of God, like divine melody, the promises of His word so rich and abun­dant, its threat­en­ings against idol­a­try and disobedience–all are pow­er­less to melt the world-​​hardened heart.  {5T 76.2}
Many of our peo­ple are luke­warm. They occupy the posi­tion of Meroz, nei­ther for nor against, nei­ther cold nor hot. They hear the words of Christ, but do them not. If they remain in this state, He will reject them with abhor­rence. Many of those who have had great light, great oppor­tu­ni­ties, and every spir­i­tual advan­tage praise Christ and the world with the same breath. They bow them­selves before God and mam­mon. They make merry with the chil­dren of the world, and yet claim to be blessed with the chil­dren of God. They wish to have Christ as their Sav­iour, but will not bear the cross and wear His yoke. May the Lord have mercy upon you; for if you go on in this way, noth­ing but evil can be proph­e­sied con­cern­ing you.  {5T 76.3}
The patience of God has an object, but you are defeat­ing it. He is allow­ing a state of things to come that you would fain see coun­ter­acted by and by, but it will be too late. God com­manded Eli­jah to anoint the cruel and deceit­ful Haz­ael king over Syria, that he might be a scourge to idol­a­trous Israel. Who knows whether God will not give you up to the decep­tions you love? Who knows but that the preach­ers who are faith­ful, firm, and true may be the last who shall offer the gospel of peace to our unthank­ful churches? It may be that the destroy­ers are already train­ing under the hand of Satan and only wait the depar­ture of a few more standard-​​bearers to take their places, and with the voice of the false prophet cry, Peace, peace,” when the Lord hath not spo­ken peace. I sel­dom weep, but now I find my eyes blinded with tears; they are falling upon my paper as I write. It may be that ere­long all proph­esy­ings among us will be at an end, and the voice which has stirred the peo­ple may no longer dis­turb their car­nal slum­bers. {5T 77.1}
When God shall work His strange work on the earth, when holy hands bear the ark no longer, woe will be upon the peo­ple. Oh, that thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace! Oh, that our peo­ple may, as did Nin­eveh, repent with all their might and believe with all their heart, that God may turn away His fierce anger from them.  {5T 77.2}
I am filled with pain and anguish as I see par­ents con­form­ing to the world and allow­ing their chil­dren to meet the worldly stan­dard at such a time as this. I am filled with hor­ror as the con­di­tion of fam­i­lies pro­fess­ing present truth is opened before me. The profli­gacy of youth and even chil­dren is almost incred­i­ble. Par­ents do not know that secret vice is destroy­ing and defac­ing the image of God in their chil­dren. The sins which char­ac­ter­ized the Sodomites exist among them. The par­ents are respon­si­ble; for they have not edu­cated their chil­dren to love and obey God. They have not restrained them nor dili­gently taught them the way of the Lord. They have allowed them to go out and to come in when they chose, and to asso­ciate with worldlings. These worldly influ­ences which coun­ter­act parental teach­ing and author­ity are to be found largely in so-​​called good soci­ety. By their dress, looks, amuse­ments, they sur­round them­selves with an atmos­phere which is opposed to Christ.  {5T 78.1}
Our only safety is to stand as God’s pecu­liar peo­ple. We must not yield one inch to the cus­toms and fash­ions of this degen­er­ate age, but stand in moral inde­pen­dence, mak­ing no com­pro­mise with its cor­rupt and idol­a­trous prac­tices.  {5T 78.2}
It will require courage and inde­pen­dence to rise above the reli­gious stan­dard of the Chris­t­ian world. They do not fol­low the Saviour’s exam­ple of self-​​denial; they make no sac­ri­fice; they are con­stantly seek­ing to evade the cross which Christ declares to be the token of dis­ci­ple­ship.  {5T 78.3}
What can I say to arouse our peo­ple? I tell you not a few min­is­ters who stand before the peo­ple to explain the Scrip­tures are defiled. Their hearts are cor­rupt, their hands unclean. Yet many are cry­ing, Peace, “peace;” and the work­ers of iniq­uity are not alarmed. The Lord’s hand is not short­ened that He can­not save, nor His ear heavy that He can­not hear; but it is our sins that have sep­a­rated us from God. The church is cor­rupt because of her mem­bers who defile their bod­ies and pol­lute their souls.  {5T 78.4}
If all of those who come together for meet­ings of edi­fi­ca­tion and prayer could be regarded as true wor­shipers, then might we hope, though much would still remain to be done for us. But it is in vain to deceive our­selves. Things are far from being what the appear­ance would indi­cate. From a dis­tant view much may appear beau­ti­ful which, upon close exam­i­na­tion, will be found full of defor­mi­ties. The pre­vail­ing spirit of our time is that of infi­delity and apostasy–a spirit of pre­tended illu­mi­na­tion because of a knowl­edge of the truth, but in real­ity of the blind­est pre­sump­tion. There is a spirit of oppo­si­tion to the plain word of God and to the tes­ti­mony of His Spirit. There is a spirit of idol­a­trous exal­ta­tion of mere human rea­son above the revealed wis­dom of God.  {5T 79.1}
There are men among us in respon­si­ble posi­tions who hold that the opin­ions of a few con­ceited philoso­phers, so called, are more to be trusted than the truth of the Bible, or the tes­ti­monies of the Holy Spirit. Such a faith as that of Paul, Peter, or John is con­sid­ered old-​​fashioned and insuf­fer­able at the present day. It is pro­nounced absurd, mys­ti­cal, and unwor­thy of an intel­li­gent mind. {5T 79.2}
God has shown me that these men are Haz­a­els to prove a scourge to our peo­ple. They are wise above what is writ­ten. This unbe­lief of the very truths of God’s word because human judg­ment can­not com­pre­hend the mys­ter­ies of His work is found in every dis­trict, in all ranks of soci­ety. It is taught in most of our schools and comes into the lessons of the nurs­eries. Thou­sands who pro­fess to be Chris­tians give heed to lying spir­its. Every­where the spirit of dark­ness in the garb of reli­gion will con­front you.  {5T 79.3}
If all that appears to be divine life were such in real­ity; if all who pro­fess to present the truth to the world were preach­ing for the truth and not against it, and if they were men of God guided by His Spirit,–then might we see some­thing cheer­ing amid the pre­vail­ing moral dark­ness. But the spirit of antichrist is pre­vail­ing to such an extent as never before. Well may we exclaim: “Help, Lord; for the godly man ceaseth; for the faith­ful fail from among the chil­dren of men.” I know that many think far too favor­ably of the present time. These ease-​​loving souls will be engulfed in the gen­eral ruin. Yet we do not despair. We have been inclined to think that where there are no faith­ful min­is­ters there can be no true Chris­tians, but this is not the case. God has promised that where the shep­herds are not true He will take charge of the flock Him­self. God has never made the flock wholly depen­dent upon human instru­men­tal­i­ties. But the days of purifi­ca­tion of the church are has­ten­ing on apace. God will have a peo­ple pure and true. In the mighty sift­ing soon to take place we shall be bet­ter able to mea­sure the strength of Israel. The signs reveal that the time is near when the Lord will man­i­fest that His fan is in His hand, and He will thor­oughly purge His floor.  {5T 79.4}
The days are fast approach­ing when there will be great per­plex­ity and con­fu­sion. Satan, clothed in angel robes, will deceive, if pos­si­ble, the very elect. There will be gods many and lords many. Every wind of doc­trine will be blow­ing. Those who have ren­dered supreme homage to “sci­ence falsely so called” will not be the lead­ers then. Those who have trusted to intel­lect, genius, or tal­ent will not then stand at the head of rank and file. They did not keep pace with the light. Those who have proved them­selves unfaith­ful will not then be entrusted with the flock. In the last solemn work few great men will be engaged. They are self-​​sufficient, inde­pen­dent of God, and He can­not use them. The Lord has faith­ful ser­vants, who in the shak­ing, test­ing time will be dis­closed to view. There are pre­cious ones now hid­den who have not bowed the knee to Baal. They have not had the light which has been shin­ing in a con­cen­trated blaze upon you. But it may be under a rough and uninvit­ing exte­rior the pure bright­ness of a gen­uine Chris­t­ian char­ac­ter will be revealed. In the day time we look toward heaven but do not see the stars. They are there, fixed in the fir­ma­ment, but the eye can­not dis­tin­guish them. In the night we behold their gen­uine lus­ter.  {5T 80.1}
The time is not far dis­tant when the test will come to every soul. The mark of the beast will be urged upon us. Those who have step by step yielded to worldly demands and con­formed to worldly cus­toms will not find it a hard mat­ter to yield to the pow­ers that be, rather than sub­ject them­selves to deri­sion, insult, threat­ened impris­on­ment, and death. The con­test is between the com­mand­ments of God and the com­mand­ments of men. In this time the gold will be sep­a­rated from the dross in the church. True god­li­ness will be clearly dis­tin­guished from the appear­ance and tin­sel of it. Many a star that we have admired for its bril­liancy will then go out in dark­ness. Chaff like a cloud will be borne away on the wind, even from places where we see only floors of rich wheat. All who assume the orna­ments of the sanc­tu­ary, but are not clothed with Christ’s right­eous­ness, will appear in the shame of their own naked­ness.  {5T 81.1}
When trees with­out fruit are cut down as cum­ber­ers of the ground, when mul­ti­tudes of false brethren are dis­tin­guished from the true, then the hid­den ones will be revealed to view, and with hosan­nas range under the ban­ner of Christ. Those who have been timid and self-​​distrustful will declare them­selves openly for Christ and His truth. The most weak and hes­i­tat­ing in the church will be as David–willing to do and dare. The deeper the night for God’s peo­ple, the more bril­liant the stars. Satan will sorely harass the faith­ful; but, in the name of Jesus, they will come off more than con­querors. Then will the church of Christ appear “fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and ter­ri­ble as an army with ban­ners.”  {5T 81.2}
The seeds of truth that are being sown by mis­sion­ary efforts will then spring up and blos­som and bear fruit. Souls will receive the truth who will endure tribu­la­tion and praise God that they may suf­fer for Jesus. “In the world ye shall have tribu­la­tion: but be of good cheer; I have over­come the world.” When the over­flow­ing scourge shall pass through the earth, when the fan is purg­ing Jehovah’s floor, God will be the help of His peo­ple. The tro­phies of Satan may be exalted on high, but the faith of the pure and holy will not be daunted.  {5T 82.1}
Eli­jah took Elisha from the plow and threw upon him his man­tle of con­se­cra­tion. The call to this great and solemn work was pre­sented to men of learn­ing and posi­tion; had these been lit­tle in their own eyes and trusted fully in the Lord, He would have hon­ored them with bear­ing His stan­dard in tri­umph to the vic­tory. But they sep­a­rated from God, yielded to the influ­ence of the world, and the Lord rejected them.  {5T 82.2}
Many have exalted sci­ence and lost sight of the God of sci­ence. This was not the case with the church in the purest times.  {5T 82.3}
God will work a work in our day that but few antic­i­pate. He will raise up and exalt among us those who are taught rather by the unc­tion of His Spirit than by the out­ward train­ing of sci­en­tific insti­tu­tions. These facil­i­ties are not to be despised or con­demned; they are ordained of God, but they can fur­nish only the exte­rior qual­i­fi­ca­tions. God will man­i­fest that He is not depen­dent on learned, self-​​important mor­tals.  {5T 82.4}
There are few really con­se­crated men among us, few who have fought and con­quered in the bat­tle with self. Real con­ver­sion is a decided change of feel­ings and motives; it is a vir­tual tak­ing leave of worldly con­nec­tions, a has­ten­ing from their spir­i­tual atmos­phere, a with­draw­ing from the con­trol­ling power of their thoughts, opin­ions, and influ­ences. The sep­a­ra­tion causes pain and bit­ter­ness to both par­ties. It is the vari­ance which Christ declares that He came to bring. But the con­verted will feel a con­tin­ual long­ing desire that their friends shall for­sake all for Christ, know­ing that, unless they do, there will be a final and eter­nal sep­a­ra­tion. The true Chris­t­ian can­not, while with unbe­liev­ing friends, be light and tri­fling. The value of the souls for whom Christ died is too great.  {5T 82.5}
He “that for­saketh not all that he hath,” says Jesus, “can­not be My dis­ci­ple.” What­ever shall divert the affec­tions from God must be given up. Mam­mon is the idol of many. Its golden chain binds them to Satan. Rep­u­ta­tion and worldly honor are wor­shiped by another class. The life of self­ish ease and free­dom from respon­si­bil­ity is the idol of oth­ers. These are Satan’s snares, set for unwary feet. But these slav­ish bands must be bro­ken; the flesh must be cru­ci­fied with the affec­tions and lusts. We can­not be half the Lord’s and half the world’s. We are not God’s peo­ple unless we are such entirely. Every weight, every beset­ting sin, must be laid aside. God’s watch­men will not cry, “Peace, peace,” when God has not spo­ken peace. The voice of the faith­ful watch­men will be heard: “Go ye out from thence, touch no unclean thing; go ye out of the midst of her; be ye clean that bear the ves­sels of the Lord.”  {5T 83.1}
The church can­not mea­sure her­self by the world nor by the opin­ion of men nor by what she once was. Her faith and her posi­tion in the world as they now are must be com­pared with what they would have been if her course had been con­tin­u­ally onward and upward. The church will be weighed in the bal­ances of the sanc­tu­ary. If her moral char­ac­ter and spir­i­tual state do not cor­re­spond with the ben­e­fits and bless­ings God has con­ferred upon her, she will be found want­ing. The light has been shin­ing clear and def­i­nite upon her path­way, and the light of 1882 calls her to an account. If her tal­ents are unim­proved, if her fruit is not per­fect before God, if her light has become dark­ness, she is indeed found want­ing. The knowl­edge of our state as God views it, seems to be hid­den from us. We see, but per­ceive not; we hear, but do not under­stand; and we rest as uncon­cerned as if the pil­lar of cloud by day, and the pil­lar of fire by night, rested upon our sanc­tu­ary. We pro­fess to know God, and to believe the truth, but in works deny Him. Our deeds are directly adverse to the prin­ci­ples of truth and right­eous­ness, by which we pro­fess to be governed.