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Testimonies for the Church Volume 1
stepped in and controlled matters as he pleased. Reason and health
were sacrificed to this delusion.
God does not require His people to imitate Baal’s prophets, to
afflict their bodies and cry out and shout, and throw themselves into
almost every attitude, having no regard for order, until their strength
fails through sheer exhaustion. Religion does not consist in making
a noise; yet when the soul is filled with the Spirit of the Lord, sweet,
heartfelt praise to God glorifies Him. Some have professed to have
great faith in God, and to have special gifts and special answers to their
prayers, although the evidence was lacking. They mistook presumption
for faith. The prayer of faith is never lost; but to claim that it will be
always answered in the very way and for the particular thing we have
expected, is presumption.
When the servants of God visited-----and-----, this delusion was
sifted. Evidence was given that this work was spurious. But the spirit
of fanaticism was stubborn, and would not yield to the light there
given. Oh, that those who were in error had been corrected by God’s
servants whom He sent to them! Then and there God wished them
to acknowledge that they had been led by a wrong spirit. Then there
would have been virtue in the confession of their wrongs. Then they
would have been saved any further following out of Satan’s plans, and
would have made no further progress in this dreadful delusion. But
they would not be convinced. Brother G had sufficient light to take
his stand against that fanatical work; but he would not decide from the
weight of evidence. His stubborn spirit refused to yield to the light
brought him by the servants of God; for he had regarded them with
suspicion, and watched them with a jealous eye.
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I saw that the greater the light which the people reject, the greater
will be the power of deception and darkness which will come upon
them. The rejection of truth leaves men captives, the subjects of
Satan’s deception. After the Conferences at-----and-----, the subjects
of this delusion were left to still greater darkness, to enter deeper into
this strong delusion, and bring upon the cause of God a stain which
would not soon be wiped away. A fearful responsibility is resting
upon Brother G. While professing to be a shepherd he suffered the
devourer to enter the flock, and looked on while the sheep were torn
and devoured. God’s frown is upon him. He has not watched for souls
as one who must give account.