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Mind, Character, and Personality Volume 2
thus. His imagination is diseased, and he has so long kept his eyes on
the dark picture that if he meets with adversity or disappointment, he
imagines that everything is going to ruin, that he will come to want,
that everything is against him, that he has the hardest time of anyone;
and thus his life is made wretched. The more he thinks thus, the more
miserable he makes his life and the lives of all around him.
He has no reason to feel as he does; it is all the work of Satan. He
must not suffer the enemy thus to control his mind. He should turn
away from the dark and gloomy picture to that of the loving Saviour,
the glory of heaven, and the rich inheritance prepared for all who are
humble and obedient and who possess grateful hearts and abiding
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faith in the promises of God. This will cost him an effort, a struggle;
but it must be done. Your present happiness and your future, eternal
happiness depend upon your fixing your mind upon cheerful things,
looking away from the dark picture, which is imaginary, to the benefits
which God has strewn in your pathway, and beyond these, to the unseen
and eternal.—
Testimonies for the Church 1:703, 704
(1868).
The Fruits of Gloomy Forebodings—Your life is now miserable,
full of evil forebodings. Gloomy pictures loom up before you; dark
unbelief has enclosed you. By talking on the side of unbelief you
have grown darker and darker; you take satisfaction in dwelling upon
unpleasant themes. If others try to talk hopefully, you crush out in them
every hopeful feeling by talking all the more earnestly and severely.
Your trials and afflictions are ever keeping before your wife the soul-
harrowing thought that you consider her a burden because of her
illness. If you love darkness and despair, talk of them, dwell upon
them, and harrow up your soul by conjuring up in your imagination
everything you can to cause you to murmur against your family and
against God, and make your own heart like a field which the fire has
passed over, destroying all verdure and leaving it dry, blackened, and
crisped.—
Testimonies for the Church 1:699
(1868).
Overcoming Emotional Instability—You belong to a family who
possess minds not well balanced, gloomy and depressed, affected by
surroundings, and susceptible to influences. Unless you cultivate a
cheerful, happy, grateful frame of mind, Satan will eventually lead
you captive at his will. You can be a help, a strength to the church
where you reside, if you will obey the instructions of the Lord and not
move by feeling, but be controlled by principle. Never allow censure