Faithful Reproofs Necessary
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Sinners who have not had the light and privileges that Seventh-day
Adventists have enjoyed will, in their ignorance, be in a more favorable
position before God than those who have been unfaithful while in close
connection with His work and professing to love and serve Him. The
tears of Christ upon the mount came from an anguished, breaking
heart because of His unrequited love and the ingratitude of His chosen
people. He had labored untiringly to save them from the fate that they
seemed determined to bring upon themselves, but they refused His
mercy and knew not the time of their visitation. Their day of privilege
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was ending, yet they were so blinded by sin that they knew it not.
Jesus looked down through the centuries even to the close of time,
and, taking in the cases of all who had repaid His love and admonitions
with selfishness and neglect, and all who would thus repay Him, He
addressed to them those solemn words, declaring that they knew not
the time of their visitation. The Jews were gathering about themselves
the dark clouds of retribution, and many today, in like manner, are
drawing upon themselves the wrath of God, because of opportunities
unimproved, the counsels and love of Jesus scorned, and His servants
despised and hated for speaking the truth.
There is no place on the face of the earth where so great light has
been granted as at-----. Even Jerusalem of old was not more highly
favored with the beams of heaven’s light shining upon the way that
her people should tread. Yet they have failed to walk, by faithful
obedience, in the full radiance of the light, serving God night and
day. A sickly, dwarfed religion is the result of neglecting to follow the
revealed light of the Spirit of the Lord. Energy and love increase as
we exercise them, and the Christian graces can be developed only by
careful cultivation.
Necessity of Family Discipline
The state of many in-----is truly alarming; especially is this the
case with a majority of the youth. Families have moved to the place
with the understanding that they were not to burden the church, but to
be a help to it. With a considerable number the result has been quite the
contrary. The neglect of parents to properly discipline their children
has been a fruitful source of evil in many families. The youth have
not been restrained as they should have been. Parents have neglected