Divine Credentials
67
The Fruitage of an Underhanded Work
It is essential that all shall know what atmosphere surrounds their
own souls, whether they are in copartnership with the enemy of righ-
teousness, and unconsciously doing his work, or whether they are
linked up with Christ, doing His work, and seeking to establish souls
more firmly in the truth.
Satan would be pleased to have anyone and everyone become
his allies to weaken the confidence of brother in brother, and to sow
discord among those who profess to believe the truth. Satan can
accomplish his purposes most successfully through professed friends
of Christ who are not walking and working in Christ’s lines. Those
who in mind and heart are turning away from the Lord’s special work
for this time, those who do not cooperate with Him in establishing
souls in the faith by leading them to heed His words of warning, are
doing the work of the enemy of Christ.
It is a most serious matter to go from house to house, and under
pretense of doing missionary work, cast in the seed of mistrust and
suspicion. Each one speedily germinates, and there is created a distrust
of God’s servants, who have His message to bear to the people. When
God speaks through His servants, the seed [of mistrust and suspicion]
sown has developed into a root of bitterness. The word falls upon
hearts that will not hear, on hearts that will not respond. No earthly or
heavenly power can find access to the soul.
Who is accountable for these souls? Who shall eradicate that
poisonous root of bitterness that has prevented them from receiving
the word of the Lord? A good sister or a brother planted the evil seed,
but how can that one restore the soul thus imperiled? The tongue that
should have been used to the glory of God in speaking words of hope
and faith and confidence in God’s workmen has turned away a soul
from Jesus Christ. Those who themselves despised the words of Christ,
and refused to hear His voice and to be converted, have leavened other
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minds with the leaven of evil surmisings and evilspeaking.
This is the day of the Lord’s preparation. We have no time now to
talk unbelief and to gossip, no time now to do the devil’s work. Let
everyone beware of unsettling the faith of others by sowing seeds of
envy, jealousy, disunion; for God hears the words, and judges, not by
assertions, which are yea and nay, but by the fruit one’s course of action