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Testimonies for the Church Volume 1
I saw that young and old neglect the Bible. They do not make that
book their study and their rule of life as they should. Especially are the
young guilty of this neglect. Most of them are ready, and find plenty
of time, to read almost any other book. But the word that points to life,
eternal life, is not perused and daily studied. That precious, important
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book that is to judge them in the last day is scarcely studied at all. Idle
stories have been attentively read, while the Bible has been passed
by neglected. A day is coming, a day of clouds and thick darkness,
when all will wish to be thoroughly furnished by the plain, simple
truths of the word of God, that they may meekly, yet decidedly, give a
reason of their hope. This reason of their hope, I saw, they must have
to strengthen their own souls for the fierce conflict. Without this they
are wanting, and cannot have firmness and decision.
Parents would better burn the idle tales of the day and the novels
as they come into their houses. It would be a mercy to the children.
Encourage the reading of these storybooks, and it is like enchantment.
It bewilders and poisons the mind. Parents, I saw that unless you
awake to the eternal interest of your children, they will surely be lost
through your neglect. And the possibility that unfaithful parents will
be saved themselves is very small. Parents should be exemplary. They
should exert a holy influence in their families. They should let their
dress be modest, different from the world around them. As they value
the eternal interest of their children, they should rebuke pride in them,
faithfully rebuke it, and encourage it not in word or deed. Oh, the
pride that was shown me of God’s professed people! It has increased
every year, until it is now impossible to designate professed advent
Sabbathkeepers from all the world around them. I saw that this pride
must be torn out of our families.
Much has been expended for ribbons and laces for the bonnets, for
collars [
The question has often been asked me if I believed it wrong to
wear plain linen collars. My answer has always been No. Some have
taken the extreme meaning of what I have written about collars, and
have maintained that it is wrong to wear one of any description. I was
shown expensively wrought collars, and expensive and unnecessary
ribbons and laces, which some Sabbathkeepers have worn, and still
wear for the sake of show and fashion. In mentioning collars, I did
not design to be understood that nothing like a collar should be worn,
or, in mentioning ribbons, that no ribbons at all should be worn. E.