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Appeal to the Church
415
Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind, and
cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his
old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your
calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye shall never
fall: for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into
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the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.”
We are in a world where light and knowledge abound, yet many
claiming to be of like precious faith are willingly ignorant. Light
is all around them, yet they do not appropriate it to themselves.
Parents do not see the necessity of informing themselves, obtaining
knowledge, and putting it to a practical use in their married life. If
they followed out the exhortation of the apostle, and lived upon the
plan of addition, they would not be unfruitful in the knowledge of
our Lord Jesus Christ. But many do not understand the work of
sanctification. They seem to think they have attained to it, when
they have learned only the first lessons in addition. Sanctification is
a progressive work; it is not attained to in an hour or a day, and then
maintained without any special effort on our part.
Many parents do not obtain the knowledge that they should in the
married life. They are not guarded lest Satan take advantage of them
and control their minds and their lives. They do not see that God
requires them to control their married lives from any excesses. But
very few feel it to be a religious duty to govern their passions. They
have united themselves in marriage to the object of their choice, and
therefore reason that marriage sanctifies the indulgence of the baser
passions. Even men and women professing godliness give loose rein
to their lustful passions, and have no thought that God holds them
accountable for the expenditure of vital energy, which weakens their
hold on life and enervates the entire system.
The marriage covenant covers sins of the darkest hue. Men
and women professing godliness debase their own bodies through
the indulgence of the corrupt passions, and thus lower themselves
beneath the brute creation. They abuse the powers which God has
given them to be preserved in sanctification and honor. Health and
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life are sacrificed upon the altar of base passion. The higher, nobler
powers are brought into subjection to the animal propensities. Those
who thus sin are not acquainted with the result of their course. Could
all see the amount of suffering which they bring upon themselves by