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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
without arousing me to see my lost condition. Now I am lost. If I
had been in their place and had seen one in a similar condition, I
would not have rested until I had made them sensible of their state
and pointed them to the only One who can save them.” You have
been good and pleasing servants of Satan while you have professed
to be servants of Christ.
Sister O, you have been so exalted by the esteem you have had
of yourself that you have had no just sense of the estimate observers
have placed upon your shallowness of character. They count you a
coquette, and you have justly earned this reputation. It would have
been much more profitable for you to have heeded the exhortation
of the apostle: “Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning;
... but let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not
corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is
in the sight of God of great price.”
Your parents have greatly failed in the education of their children.
They have suffered them to be released from burdens which it was
highly important for them to bear. Because they chose to please
themselves, they were permitted to remain in bed, dozing away the
sweetest and loveliest hours of the morning, while their indulgent
parents were up, toiling with life’s burdens. These children have
not learned to resist their inclinations, to wrestle against their own
desires; they have not learned to endure hardness. They have been
excused in a great measure from home burdens, and this has been an
injury to them. They have never learned the act of self-denial or self-
sacrifice. They would not submit to apply themselves to a task which
did not meet their taste. Their education is greatly deficient. Yet
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pride—vain, vaunting pride—fills their hearts. Sister O has thought
herself superior to her associates, that they were not worthy of much
attention and courtesy from her. With this she has a stubborn will
to do about as she pleases regardless of the wishes, conveniences,
and necessities of others. Her disposition is an unhappy one, which,
unless entirely overcome, will cause many a shadow to darken her
pathway and embitter the lives of her best friends.
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