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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
will be a fearful thing, a terrible mistake which can never be corrected.
Young friends, shall the book of God be searched in vain for your
names?
God has appointed you a work to do for Him which will make you
colaborers with Him. All around you there are souls to save. There
are those whom you can encourage and bless by your earnest efforts.
You may turn souls from sin to righteousness. When you have a sense
of your accountability to God you will feel the need of faithfulness in
prayer and faithfulness in watching against the temptations of Satan.
You will, if you are indeed Christians, feel more like mourning over the
moral darkness in the world than indulging in levity and pride of dress.
You will be among those who are sighing and crying for the abomina-
tions that are done in the land. You will resist the temptations of Satan
to indulge in vanity and in trimmings and ornaments for display. The
mind is narrowed and the intellect dwarfed that can be gratified with
these frivolous things to the neglect of high responsibilities.
The youth in our day may be workers with Christ if they will; and
in working, their faith will strengthen and their knowledge of the divine
will will increase. Every true purpose and every act of right doing
will be recorded in the book of life. I wish I could arouse the youth
to see and feel the sinfulness of living for their own gratification and
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dwarfing their intellects to the cheap, vain things of this life. If they
would elevate their thoughts and words above the frivolous attractions
of this world and make it their aim to glorify God, His peace, which
passeth all understanding, would be theirs.
Humiliation of Christ
Did not our Exemplar tread a hard, self-denying, self-sacrificing,
humble path on our account in order to save us? He encountered
difficulties, experienced disappointments, and suffered reproach and
affliction in His work of saving us. And shall we refuse to follow
where the King of glory has led the way? Shall we complain of
hardship and trial in the work of overcoming on our own account,
when we remember the sufferings of our Redeemer in the wilderness
of temptation, in the Garden of Gethsemane, and on Calvary? All
these were endured to show us the way and to bring us the divine help
that we must have or perish. If the youth would win eternal life, they