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Counsel to Women, May 13
A woman will be saved ... if she perseveres in faith and love and holiness,
with modesty.
1 Timothy 2:15
, T.E.V.
There is a higher standard for us to reach. We are not making all that advance-
ment that it is our duty or our privilege to make. How is it that we use the talent
that God has given us in temporal matters and not in His service? Ought we not
to have greater interest in eternal things than in those things which concern our
temporal wants?
We have heard desire expressed that husbands and families should come into
the truth. This is right; it should be a prominent wish. But do we do all our duty?
Do we make all the advancement that we should? Do we not come far short of
our duty in meeting the work of progression? Don’t be a spiritual dwarf. We love
to see infants and watch their baby ways, but the same ways would be disgusting
if retained until the child was two years old. So the Christian must grow. Be
conformed
to Christ, not
deformed
. Just feel as though you were anchored in
Christ. Let there be a solidity to the sisters who are alone. Avoid frivolity and
keep constantly watching.
The rich blessings of heaven are all ready to be showered upon us. Don’t be
selfish. With too many, all there is to religion is: Me and my family. They will
not go out of their way to help and bless any others. In such case, God cannot
bless them. It is when we are drawn out from self that God blesses us. He wants
us to be drawn out from ourselves. That which we sow, we will reap. If you sow
selfishness, you will reap selfishness, that is, you will have it fastened upon you.
Let us get out of self and talk of the mercies and blessings of God.
Let all the sisters feel that if they haven’t a husband to lean upon, they will
lean more heavily upon God. Every one of our sisters can be a living missionary,
and can bring light into every meeting. Do we act as though we were called from
darkness into marvelous light? or as if we were lugging along a heavy weight? We
must talk light and pray light, and light will come in. If only women in the church
[would] show that God can work through women. It was Mary that first preached
a risen Jesus.... There are richer blessings for those that have the harder conflict,
for Christ is a present help in trouble. But we must be divested of selfishness; be
acquainted with the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, and we
shall thus grow more and more like Jesus till the crown of immortality is placed
upon our brows.—
Manuscript 2, May 13, 1884
, “Sermon by Mrs. E. G. White.”
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