Great Distress Coming
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I was shown God’s people waiting for some change to take place—
a compelling power to take hold of them. But they will be disap-
pointed, for they are wrong. They must act, they must take hold of
the work themselves and earnestly cry to God for a true knowledge of
themselves. The scenes which are passing before us are of sufficient
magnitude to cause us to arouse and urge the truth home to the hearts
of all who will listen. The harvest of the earth is nearly ripe.
I was shown how important it is that the ministers who engage in
the solemn, responsible work of proclaiming the third angel’s message
be right. The Lord is not straitened for means or instruments with
which to do His own work. He can speak at any time, by whom He will,
and His word is powerful and will accomplish the thing whereunto it is
sent. But if the truth has not sanctified, made pure and clean, the hands
and heart of him who ministers in holy things, he is liable to speak
according to his own imperfect experience; and when he speaks of
himself, according to the decisions of his own unsanctified judgment,
his counsel is not then of God, but of himself. As he that is called of
God is called to be holy, so he that is approved and set apart of men
must give evidence of his holy calling and show forth in his heavenly
conversation and conduct that he is faithful to Him who hath called
him.
There are fearful woes for those who preach the truth, but are not
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sanctified by it, and also for those who consent to receive and maintain
the unsanctified to minister to them in word and doctrine. I am alarmed
for the people of God who profess to believe solemn, important truth,
for I know that many of them are not converted nor sanctified through
it. Men can hear and acknowledge the whole truth, and yet know
nothing of the power of godliness. All who preach the truth will not
themselves be saved by it. Said the angel: “Be ye clean, that bear the
vessels of the Lord.”
The time has come when those who choose the Lord for their
present and future portion must trust in Him alone. Everyone pro-
fessing godliness must have an experience of his own. The recording
angel is making a faithful record of the words and acts of God’s peo-
ple. Angels are watching the development of character and weighing
moral worth. Those who profess to believe the truth should be right
themselves and exert all their influence to enlighten and win others to
the truth. Their words and works are the channel through which the