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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
One after another is leaving you, and passing to the grave. What
has been your influence over those who assembled in your social
gatherings? What has been said or done to lead souls to Christ?
Have you been instant in season, out of season, to do your whole
duty? Are you ready to meet at the bar of God those with whom you
have mingled in your social gatherings, especially that class who
have been thrown under your influence and who have died out of
Christ? Are you prepared to say that your skirts are clear of their
blood? I will mention one case, that of Q. Will no reproach fall
upon you from her, upon you who were surrounded with good home
influences, you who had every favorable opportunity to develop
good Christian characters, but who have felt no burden for souls?
Pride, vanity, and love of pleasure were fostered by you, and you
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acted your part in disgracing your profession and leading this poor
soul, who had been tossed about and buffeted by Satan, to doubt the
reality of the truth and the genuineness of the Christian religion.
Your frivolous conversation, in common with that of other of the
young people, was disgusting. There was nothing noble and elevated
in the turn your minds took. It was common chitchat and gossip, the
silly, vain laugh, the jesting, and the joking. Angels have written
the scenes you have acted over and over again. Notwithstanding the
most solemn appeals have been made to you, and you have been
reproved, rebuked, and warned, you are more censurable than other
youth. You have had longer experience and greater knowledge of
the truth. You have lived the longest at-----. You were among the
first to profess to believe the truth and to be Christ’s followers, and
your course of vanity and pride has done more toward shaping the
experience of the youth in that place than has that of any of the
others. Those who have been converted to the truth you have taken
by the hand, as it were, and united to the world.
Great guilt rests upon you and also upon your parents, who have
flattered your pride and folly. They have sympathized with you
when reproved, and have given you to understand that they thought
it uncalled for. You, Sister O, have thought yourself handsome.
Your parents have flattered you. You have sought acquaintance with
unbelievers. Aside from your profession, your actions have been
unbecoming a prudent, modest girl. But when it is taken into the
account that you profess to be a follower of the meek and lowly