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God Took Him, January 23
Genesis 5:21-24
Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
Genesis 5:24
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Enoch, we read, walked with God three hundred years. That was a long
time to be in communion with Him.... He communed with God because it was
agreeable to him, ... and he loved the society of God
Enoch was a marked character. Many look upon his life as something above
what the generality of mortals can ever reach. But Enoch’s life and character
... represent what the lives and characters of all must be, if like Enoch, they are
subjects to be translated when Christ shall come. His life was what the life of
every individual may be if he closely connects with God. We should remember
that Enoch was surrounded with influences so depraved that God brought a flood
of waters on the world to destroy its inhabitants for their corruption
We are living in an evil age. The perils of the last days thicken around us.
Because iniquity abounds, the love of many waxes cold....
Enoch’s case is before us.... He lived in a corrupt age, when moral pollution
was teeming all round him; yet he trained his mind to devotion, to love purity.
His conversation was upon heavenly things. He educated his mind to run in this
channel, and he bore the impress of the divine. His countenance was lighted up
with the light which shineth in the face of Jesus.
Enoch had temptations as well as we. He was surrounded with society no
more friendly to righteousness than is that which surrounds us. The atmosphere
he breathed was tainted with sin and corruption, the same as ours; yet he lived a
life of holiness. He was unsullied with the prevailing sins of the age in which he
lived. So may we remain pure and uncorrupted. He was a representative of the
saints who live amid the perils and corruptions of the last days. For his faithful
obedience to God he was translated. So, also, the faithful, who are alive and
remain, will be translated. They will be removed from a sinful and corrupt world
to the pure joys of heaven
Our present work is to come out from the world and be separate. This is the
only way we can walk with God, as did Enoch
[30]
37
Manuscript 16, 1887
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38
The Signs of the Times, October 30, 1879
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39
Testimonies for the Church 2:121, 122
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40
Testimonies for the Church 5:535
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