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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
chance for you to do so. This injures your own soul, retards your
spiritual advancement, and not only grieves and wounds those who
would be your sincere friends, but sometimes disgusts them, so that
your society is not agreeable and pleasant, but annoying. It is as
natural as your breath for you to consider the views and opinions of
others inferior to yours. You often greatly err here, for you have not
all that wisdom and knowledge for which you give yourself credit.
You often set your opinions up above men and women who have had
many more years of experience than yourself, and who are far better
qualified to direct and give words of wise judgment than yourself.
But you have not seen these disagreeable besetments, and therefore
have not realized the ill and bitter fruit they have produced. You
have long indulged a spirit of contention, of war. Your peculiar turn
of mind leads you to exult in opposites.
Your education has been deplorable; it has not been favorable
to your now having a correct religious experience. You have had
almost everything to unlearn and learn anew. You possess a hasty
temper, which grieves your friends and the holy angels, and wounds
your own soul. This is all contrary to the spirit of truth and true
holiness. You must learn to cultivate modesty in speaking. Self
must be subdued and kept in subjection. A Christian will not pursue
a course of bickering and contention with even the most wicked
and unbelieving. How wrong to indulge this spirit with those who
believe the truth and who are seeking for peace, love, and harmony!
Says Paul: “Be at peace among yourselves.” This spirit of contention
is opposed to all the principles of heaven. In Christ’s Sermon on
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the Mount He says: “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be
called the children of God.” “Blessed are the meek: for they shall
inherit the earth.” You will have trouble wherever you go, unless
you learn the lesson God designs you to learn. You should be less
confident and forward in your own opinion, and possess a teachable
spirit, that of a learner. “He that is slow to anger is better than the
mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” “He
that is slow to wrath is of great understanding: but he that is hasty of
spirit exalteth folly.” Says James: “Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: for the
wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.”