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Contemplating Marriage
205
upward to heaven more rugged. You have now made your religious
progress tenfold more difficult than when you stood alone. It is true
you were lonely, for you had lost a precious jewel. But if you had
counseled with your brethren, and committed your ways to the Lord,
He would have opened the way for you to have connected yourself
with one who could have been a help to you instead of a hindrance.
If you will now humbly turn to the Lord with all your heart, He
will pity and help you. But you are just where you are shorn of
your strength, and are prepared to compromise your faith and your
allegiance to God to please your new wife. God pity you, for ruin
is before you unless you arouse like a true soldier of Christ and
engage anew in the warfare for everlasting life. Your only safety is
in keeping with your brethren, and obtaining all the strength you
can from them to remain in the truth. You are about to sacrifice the
truth for the sake of peace and happiness here. You are selling your
soul at a cheap market. It is now your duty to do all you can to make
your wife happy, and yet not to sacrifice the principles of truth. You
should exercise forbearance, patience, and true courtesy. By thus
doing, you can show the power of true grace and the influence of the
truth.
I was shown that the love of money is a snare to you. Money,
independent of the opportunity it furnishes for doing good, blessing
the needy, and advancing the cause of God, is really of but little
value. The little you possess is a snare to you, and unless you use it
as a wise and faithful steward in the service of your Master, it will
yield you little else but misery. You are close and penurious. You
need to cultivate a noble, liberal spirit and separate your affections
from the world or you will be overcome. The deceitfulness of riches
will so corrupt your soul that the good will be overcome by evil.
Selfishness and love of gain will triumph.
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If you, my dear brother, are saved, it will indeed be a miracle
of mercy. The love of the world is increasing upon you. Carefully
consider the words of Christ: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the
first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophets.” My brother, you have obeyed
neither the first nor the second of these commandments. You would