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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
power; but when part of them are united to the world, and many are
given to covetousness, which God abhors, He can do but little for
them. Unbelief and sin shut them away from God. We are so weak
that we cannot bear much spiritual prosperity, lest we take the glory,
and accredit goodness and righteousness to ourselves as the reason
of the signal blessing of God, when it was all because of the great
mercy and lovingkindness of our compassionate heavenly Father,
and not because any good was found in us.
We should ever exert an influence which will be sanctifying on
those around us. This saving, ennobling influence has been very
feeble at-----. Many have mingled with the world and partaken of its
spirit and influence, and its friendship has separated them from God.
Jesus has passed a day’s journey in advance of them. They can no
longer hear His voice of counsel and warning, and they follow their
own wisdom and judgment. They follow a course which appears
right in their own eyes, but which afterward proves to be folly. God
will not allow His work to be mixed with worldly policy. Shrewd,
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calculating men of the world are not the men to take leading positions
in this most solemn, sacred work. They must either be converted,
or engage in that calling which is appropriate to their world-loving
inclinations, and which does not involve such eternal consequences.
God will never enter into partnership with worldlings. Christ gives
everyone his choice: Will you have Me or the world? Will you suffer
reproach and shame, be peculiar, and zealous of good works, even
if hated of the world, and take My name, or will you choose the
esteem, the honor, the applause and profits the world has to give,
and have no part in Me? “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”
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