Chapter 19—Entire Consecration
The following testimony was written in January, 1875, and its
truthfulness was acknowledged by Brother C, who said that it gave
him light and hope.
Brother C, you are backslidden from God. Your views of God’s
requirements have never been too well defined nor too strict. It is no
excuse for you to become remiss in duty and less vigilant because the
course of so many professed Christians is wrong. You have not been
consecrated to God. You have not felt your dependence upon Him to
keep you, and therefore you have been overcome and brought into the
slavery of doubt; the bondage of unbelief has chained your soul. You
do not glorify God in your life. Our faith sometimes looks to you very
questionable. The reason of this is in yourself. In the world, truth and
falsehood are so mixed that one is not always clearly discerned from
the other. But why has one who professes the truth so little strength?
Because he understands not his own ignorance and his own weakness.
If he knew this, if he were distrustful of himself, he would feel the
importance of divine help to preserve him from the wiles of the enemy.
We need to be active, working Christians, unselfish in heart and life,
having an eye single to the glory of God. Oh, what wrecks we meet
everywhere! what silent lips and fruitless lives! “This,” said the angel,
“is because of falling under temptation. Nothing mars the peace of the
soul like sinful unbelief.”
You should not give up in despair, thinking you must live and die in
the bondage of doubt and unbelief. In the Lord we have righteousness
and strength. Lean upon Him; and through His power you may quench
all the fiery darts of the adversary and come off more than conqueror.
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You may yet become sanctified through the truth; or you may, if you
choose, walk in the darkness of unbelief, lose heaven, and lose all.
By walking in the light and working out the will of God, you may
overcome your selfish nature.
You have been ready to give of your means, but have withheld
yourself. You have not felt called upon to make sacrifices which would
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