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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
hate stinginess. This is all right; but you go to the opposite extreme,
and your course has been marked with prodigality. Christ taught
His disciples a lesson in feeding the five thousand. He wrought a
great miracle and fed that vast multitude with five loaves and two
small fishes. After all had been satisfied, He did not then regard the
fragments indifferently, as if it were beneath His dignity to notice
them. He who had power to work so notable a miracle, and to give
food to so large a company, said to His disciples: “Gather up the
fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.” This is a lesson to us
all, and one which we should not disregard.
You have a great work before you, and you cannot afford to
waste another moment without taking hold of it. Brother P, I am
alarmed for you; but I know that God loves you still, although your
course has been wayward. If He did not have a special love for you
He would not present your dangers before me as He has. You have
engaged in jesting and sporting with men and women who have not
the fear of God before them. Weak-headed and unprincipled women
have retained you in their presence, and you were like a charmed
bird. You seemed fascinated by these superficial persons. Angels of
God were upon your track and have faithfully recorded every wrong
act, every instance of departure from virtue’s path.
Yes, every act, however secret you may have thought you were in
its committal, has been open to God, to Christ, and to the holy angels.
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A book is written of all the doings of the children of men. Not an
item of this record can be concealed. There is only one provision
made for the transgressor. Faithful repentance and confession of sin,
and faith in the cleansing blood of Christ, will bring forgiveness,
and pardon will be written against his name.
O my brother, had you made thorough work one year ago, the
past precious year need not have been to you worse than a blank.
You knew your Master’s will, but did it not. You are in a perilous
condition. Your sensibilities have been blunted to spiritual things;
you have a violated conscience. Your influence is not to gather, but
to scatter. You have no special interest in religious exercises. You
are not a happy man. Your wife would unite her interest with the
people of God if you would get out of her way. She needs your help.
Will you take hold of this work together?