Chapter 27—Young Sabbathkeepers
August 22, 1857, at the house of prayer in Monterey, Michigan, I
was shown that many have not yet heard the voice of Jesus, and the
saving message has not taken hold of the soul and worked a reformation
in the life. Many of the young have not the spirit of Jesus. The love of
God is not in their hearts, therefore all the natural besetments hold the
victory instead of the Spirit of God and salvation.
Those who really possess the religion of Jesus will not be ashamed
nor afraid to bear the cross before those who have more experience
than they. They will, if they earnestly long to be right, desire all the
help they can get from older Christians. Gladly will they be helped
by them; hearts that are warmed by love to God will not be hindered
by trifles in the Christian course. They will talk out what the Spirit
of God works in. They will sing it out, pray it out. It is the lack of
religion, lack of holy living, that makes the young backward. Their
life condemns them. They know they do not live as Christians should,
therefore they have not confidence toward God, or before the church.
Why the young feel more liberty when the older ones are absent
is: They are with those of their kind. Each thinks he is as good as the
other. All fail of the mark, but measure themselves by themselves, and
compare themselves among themselves, and neglect the only perfect
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and true standard. Jesus is the true Pattern. His self-sacrificing life is
our example.
I saw how little the Pattern was studied, how little exalted before
them. How little do the young suffer, or deny self, for their religion!
To sacrifice is scarcely thought of among them. They entirely fail of
imitating the Pattern in this respect. I saw that the language of their
lives is: Self must be gratified, pride must be indulged. They forget
the Man of Sorrows, who was acquainted with grief. The sufferings
of Jesus in Gethsemane, His sweating as it were great drops of blood
in the garden, the platted crown of thorns that pierced His holy brow,
do not move them. They have become benumbed. Their sensibilities
are blunted, and they have lost all sense of the great sacrifice made for
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