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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His
power.
The Lord made ample provision for you, that if you would seek
Him, and follow the light He would give you, you should not fall
by the way. The word of God was given to you as a lamp to your
feet, a light to your path. If you stumble, it will be because you have
not consulted your guide, the word of God, and made that precious
word the rule of your life. God has not given you as a pattern the
life of any human being, however good and apparently blameless
his life may be. If you do as others do, and act as others act, you
will at last be left outside the Holy City, with a vast multitude who
have done just as you have done, followed a pattern the Lord did not
leave them, and who are lost just as you will be lost.
That which others have done, or may do in the future, will
not lessen your responsibility or guilt. A pattern has been given
you, a faultless life characterized by self-denial and disinterested
benevolence. If you turn from this correct, this perfect pattern, and
take an incorrect one, which has been clearly represented in the
word of God as one that you should shun, your course of action will
receive its merited reward; your life will be a failure.
One of the greatest reasons for the declension of the church
at-----is their measuring themselves by themselves and comparing
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themselves among themselves. There are but few who have the
living principle in the soul and who serve God with an eye single
to His glory. Many at-----will not consent to be saved in God’s
appointed way. They will not take the trouble to work out their own
salvation with fear and trembling. The latter they do not experience;
and, rather than be at the trouble of obtaining an experience through
individual effort, they will run the risk of leaning upon others and
trusting in their experience. They cannot consent to watch and pray,
to live for God and Him only. It is more pleasant to live in obedience
to self.
The church at-----are filled with their own backslidings, and
they need not dream of prosperity until those who name the name
of Christ are careful to depart from all iniquity, until they learn to
refuse the evil and choose the good. We are required to watch and
pray without ceasing; for a snare is set in our path, and we shall find
some device of Satan when and where we least expect it. If at that