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Testimonies for the Church Volume 1
appointed way, or to go on, maintain your willful course, and fall into
bewildering fanaticism.
You chose to have your way. And now you have only yourself to
blame. You profess to be a watchman on the walls of Zion, a shepherd
to the flock, yet you saw the poor sheep torn and scattered and gave
no warning. “Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the
house of Israel: therefore hear the word at My mouth, and give them
warning from Me. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely
die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked
from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die
in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand. Yet if thou
warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his
wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy
soul.” “Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous
sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned;
also thou hast delivered thy soul.”
Ezekiel 3:17-19, 21
.
The sin of those in Wisconsin who went into fanaticism rests more
heavily upon you, Brother G, than upon any other one. You were an
unfaithful watchman. You discerned not the evil, because you were
unfaithful. God sent His faithful watchmen who stood in the light
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and could discern the evil to warn you and the erring flock. Had you
then listened to the warning, a great amount of evil would have been
saved. Your influence would have been preserved. You would have
stood out of the way, that the testimony of the servants of God might
reach the distracted flock. The erring would not hear the voice of God
through His chosen servants. They made their spirit strong against the
warning of the watchmen sent to them, and strengthened themselves in
their unreasonable, self-deceived course. The shepherd would not hear.
He was offended because this fanaticism was handled so decidedly.
He perceived not the danger. He saw no haste in the matter. He had
sufficient light to decide, but was too willful and too suspicious of
God’s servants to yield to their testimony.
Brother G wished to wait until the fanaticism should develop,
and it went on just as Satan would have it, until it did develop with
terrible results. There were not reasonable, sensible manifestations to
characterize that work as being of God. The Lord’s servants executed
their mission, freed their garments from the blood of souls, and kept
themselves clear of the cursed influence, while you bear the fearful