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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
minds of those who are older. Vice is stamped upon the features of
boys and girls, and yet what is done to stay the progress of this evil?
Boys and young men are allowed and encouraged to take liberties
by immodest advances of girls and young women. May God arouse
fathers and mothers to work earnestly to change this terrible state of
things, is my prayer.
I have been looking over the
Testimonies
given for Sabbathkeep-
ers and I am astonished at the mercy of God and His care for His
people in giving them so many warnings, pointing out their dangers,
and presenting before them the exalted position which He would
have them occupy. If they would keep themselves in His love and
separate from the world, He would cause His special blessings to rest
upon them and His light to shine round about them. Their influence
for good might be felt in every branch of the work and in every part
of the gospel field. But if they fail to meet the mind of God, if they
continue to have so little sense of the exalted character of the work
as they have had in the past, their influence and example will prove
a terrible curse. They will do harm and only harm. The blood of
precious souls will be found upon their garments.
Testimonies of warning have been repeated. I inquire: Who have
heeded them? Who have been zealous in repenting of their sins and
idolatry, and have been earnestly pressing toward the mark for the
prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus? Who have shown
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the inward work of God, leading to self-denial and humble self-
sacrifice? Who that have been warned have so separated themselves
from the world, from its affections and lusts, that they have shown a
daily growth in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ? Whom do we find among the active ones, that feel
the burden for the church? Whom do we see that God is especially
using, working by and through them to elevate the standard, and to
bring the church up to it, that they may prove the Lord and see if He
will not pour them out a blessing?
I have waited anxiously, hoping that God would put His Spirit
upon some and use them as instruments of righteousness to awaken
and set in order His church. I have almost despaired as I have seen,
year after year, a greater departure from that simplicity which God
has shown me should characterize the life of His followers. There
has been less and less interest in, and devotion to, the cause of God.