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Appeal to the Church
403
would not be found among those who fall through the temptations
of Satan, no matter whom he might select as the medium.
A preacher may be dealing in sacred, holy things, and yet not
be holy in heart. He may give himself to Satan to work wickedness
and to corrupt the souls and bodies of his flock. Yet if the minds of
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women and youth professing to love and fear God were fortified with
His Spirit, if they had trained their minds to purity of thought and
educated themselves to avoid all appearance of evil, they would be
safe from any improper advances and be secure from the corruption
prevailing around them. The apostle Paul wrote concerning himself:
“But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by
any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a
castaway.”
If a minister of the gospel does not control his baser passions,
if he fails to follow the example of the apostle and so dishonors his
profession and faith as to even name the indulgence of sin, our sisters
who profess godliness should not for an instant flatter themselves
that sin or crime loses its sinfulness in the least because their minister
dares to engage in it. The fact that men who are in responsible places
show themselves to be familiar with sin should not lessen the guilt
and enormity of the sin in the minds of any. Sin should appear just
as sinful, just as abhorrent, as it had been heretofore regarded; and
the minds of the pure and elevated should abhor and shun the one
who indulges in sin, as they would flee from a serpent whose sting
was deadly.
If the sisters were elevated and possessed purity of heart, any
corrupt advances, even from their minister, would be repulsed with
such positiveness as would never need a repetition. Minds must be
terribly befogged by Satan when they can listen to the voice of the
seducer because he is a minister, and therefore break God’s plain
and positive commands and flatter themselves that they commit no
sin. Have we not the words of John: “He that saith, I know Him,
and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not
in him”? What saith the law? “Thou shalt not commit adultery.”
When a man professing to keep God’s holy law, and ministering
in sacred things, takes advantage of the confidence his position
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gives him and seeks to indulge his base passions, this fact should
of itself be sufficient to enable a woman professing godliness to see