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Selected Messages Book 2
the wheat into the garner. I know that the Lord loves His church. It
is not to be disorganized or broken up into independent atoms. There
is not the least consistency in this; there is not the least evidence that
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such a thing will be. Those who shall heed this false message and try
to leaven others will be deceived and prepared to receive advanced
delusions, and they will come to nought.
There is in some of the members of the church, pride, self-
sufficiency, stubborn unbelief, and a refusing to yield their ideas,
although evidence may be piled upon evidence which makes the mes-
sage to the Laodicean church applicable. But that will not blot out the
church that it will not exist. Let both tares and wheat grow together
until the harvest. Then it is the angels that do the work of separation.
I warn the Seventh-day Adventist Church to be careful how you
receive every new notion and those who claim to have great light. The
character of their work seems to be to accuse and to tear down.
My brother, I would say to you, Be careful. Go not one step farther
in the path you have entered upon. Walk in the light “while ye have
the light, lest darkness come upon you” (
John 12:35
).
You complain of being treated coldly in Battle Creek. Did you
go with a humble spirit to those who are spiritual and say, “Will you
examine the Scriptures with me? Shall we pray over this matter? I
have not the light, I want it; for error will never sanctify the soul.”
Can you be surprised that they would not give you all that confidence
you might think they should, after the experience they have passed
through? Should not the words of Christ have any weight? “Beware
of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly
they are ravening wolves” (
Matthew 7:15
). “Lo here and lo there is
Christ” will be multiplied. Let the believers heed the voice of the
angel who has said to the church, “Press together.” In unity is your
strength. Love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. God hath a church,
and Christ hath declared, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against
it” (
Matthew 16:18
). The messengers the Lord sends bear the divine
credentials. I have tender feelings toward you, but come to the light, I
beseech of you.—
Letter 16, 1893
.
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