Basic HTML Version
272
Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
You have been separating from the divine, and cultivating the baser
passions. The intellectual and noble powers of your mind have been
brought into subjection to the animal passions. You have not pursued
a right course for some time. You have not abstained from every
appearance of evil. It is not safe for you to pursue this course any
longer.
You have not loved your wife as you should. She is a good
woman. She has seen, in a small measure, your danger. But you
have closed your ears to her cautions. You have thought her jealous,
but this is not her nature. She loves you, and will bear with you,
and forgive and love you, notwithstanding the deep wrong you have
done her, if you will only press to the light and make clean work
of the past. You must have a thorough conversion. Unless you do,
all your past efforts to obey the truth will not save you nor cover
up your past wrongs. Jesus requires of you a thorough reformation;
then He will help, and bless, and love you, and blot out your sins
with His own most precious blood. You can redeem the past. You
can correct your ways and yet be an honor to the cause of God. You
can do good when you take hold of the strength of God and in His
[305]
name work—work for your own salvation and for the good of others.
Yours can yet be a happy family. Your wife needs your help.
She is like a clinging vine; she wants to lean upon your strength.
You can help her and lead her along. You should never censure her.
Never reprove her if her efforts are not what you think they should
be. Rather encourage her by words of tenderness and love. You
can help your wife to preserve her dignity and self-respect. Never
praise the work or acts of others before her to make her feel her
deficiencies. You have been harsh and unfeeling in this respect. You
have shown greater courtesy to your hired help than to her and have
placed them ahead of her in the house.
God loves your wife. She has suffered, but He has noticed
all, marked all, and will not hold you guiltless for the wounds you
have caused. It is neither wealth nor intellect that gives happiness.
It is moral worth. True goodness is accounted of Heaven as true
greatness. The condition of the moral affections determines the
worth of the man. A person may have property and intellect, and
yet be valueless, because the glowing fire of goodness has never
burned upon the altar of his heart, because his conscience has been