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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
heart before God, and seek meekness and righteousness, that you
may be hid in the day of the Lord’s fierce anger.
Brother B, the Lord let His blessing rest upon you last spring; but
you did not see the relation which watchfulness and prayer sustain
to a progress in the divine life. You have neglected these duties,
and the result is that darkness has enshrouded you. You have been
in a state of uncertainty and distrust, and have frequently chosen
the society of those who are in darkness, those whom Satan uses
to scatter from Christ. You could live among the most corrupt, and
remain unstained, unsullied, if God in His providence thus directed
you. But it is dangerous for those who wish to honor God to find
their pleasure and entertainment with companions who fear Him not.
Satan ever surrounds such with great darkness; and if those who
profess Christ go unbidden into this darkness, they tempt the devil
to tempt them. If, in order to do good and glorify His name, the
Lord requires us to go among infernal spirits, where is the blackest
darkness, He will encircle us with His angels and keep us unsullied.
But if we seek the company of sinners, and are pleased with their
coarse jests, and entertained and amused with their stories, sports,
and ribaldry, the pure and holy angels remove their protection and
leave us to the darkness we have chosen.
Brother B, I wish to alarm you; I wish to arouse you to action. I
wish to entreat of you to seek God while He invites you to come to
Him that you may have life. Watch, pray, work,” are the Christian’s
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watchwords. Satan is vigilant in his efforts; his perseverance is
untiring, his zeal earnest and unabated. He does not wait for his
prey to come to him; he seeks for it. To wrench souls from the
hand of Christ is his determined purpose; yet professed Christians
are asleep in their blindness, insane in their pursuits. God is not in
their thoughts. A vigilant foe is upon their track; yet they are in no
danger while they make God their trust. But unless they do this,
their strength will be weakness, and they will be overcome by Satan.
Brother B, it is dangerous for you to yield to doubts. You must
not permit yourself to go any further in the direction in which you
have been going. You are in constant danger. Satan is on your track,
suggesting doubts and causing unbelief. Had you stood clear in the
counsel of God you could have had an influence for good over those
who love your society now.