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Testimonies for the Church Volume 1
Dear brother, unless there is a change in your Christian character,
you will fail of everlasting life; for our busy foe will lay his snares
for your feet, and if you are not near to God, you will fall into the
net. You feel restless and uneasy, and study is your element; but you
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sometimes fail in the subject. When you should be studying your own
heart, you are engaged in reading books. When you should by faith
be drawing near to Christ, you are studying books. I saw that all your
study will be useless unless you faithfully study yourself. You are not
acquainted with yourself, and your mind dwells but little upon God.
You are self-confident, and pass along without knowing that self must
die if you would be a successful minister of Christ. You lack sobriety
and gravity out of the pulpit. These things counteract your pulpit labor.
Ever since your case was first presented to me in vision, I have
seen a lack in you. Your mind is not elevated. You stand in the desk
and handle the most holy, sacred, elevating truths in an able manner;
but when treating upon the most solemn subjects, you often bring
in something comical to create a smile, and this frequently destroys
the force of your whole discourse. You handle solemn truths with
ease, but do not live them, and that is the reason why the heavenly
endorsement is lacking. Many whose ears you have pleased will talk
of the smart discourse, the able preacher, but are no more impressed
with the necessity of obeying the truth than before they listened to
it. They go on transgressing God’s law as before. It was the minister
that pleased them, not the truths which he uttered. You remain at so
great a distance from God that His power does not set home the truth.
You should live religion at home, and it would have an influence to
elevate your family, to elevate your wife. When at home you throw off
restraint and act like a boy; the weight of the truth and the burden of
the work do not rest upon you. You are not choice of your words or of
your example.
Your only safety is in studying yourself, your weakness and fail-
ings. Do not cease to guard yourself. Watch yourself more closely
when at home. Watch yourself when away from home. You neglect
your closet duties, lay off your armor, and give up to a spirit of reckless-
ness that drives angels from you and from your family. Do not neglect
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to search your own heart at home. Lavish not all your affections upon
your family. Preserve your heart’s best affections to devote to Jesus,
who has redeemed you by His blood. When at home, be fitting up