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Testimonies for the Church Volume 2
with your heavenly Father. You have delivered your soul; their sin
no longer rests upon you; you are not now partaker of their sin. But
if they perish, their blood is upon their own head.
Dear friend, an entire transformation must take place in you,
or you will be weighed in the balance and found wanting. The
church at-----, especially talking women, have a lesson to learn. “If
any man [or woman] among you seem to be religious, and bridleth
not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is
vain.” Many will be weighed in the balance and found wanting in
this matter of so great importance. Where are the Christians who
walk by this rule? who will take God’s part against the evilspeaker?
who will please God, and set a watch, a continual watch, before the
mouth, and keep the door of the lips? Speak evil of no man. Hear
evil of no man. If there be no hearers, there will be no speakers of
evil. If anyone speaks evil in your presence, check him. Refuse to
hear him, though his manner be ever so soft and his accents mild.
He may profess attachment, and yet throw out covert hints and stab
the character in the dark.
Resolutely refuse to hear, though the whisperer complains of
being burdened till he speak. Burdened indeed! with a cursed
secret which separateth very friends. Go, burdened ones, and free
yourselves from your burden in God’s appointed way. First go tell
your brother his fault between you and him alone. If this fail, next
take with you one or two friends, and tell him in their presence. If
these steps fail, then tell it to the church. Not an unbeliever is to be
made acquainted with the slightest particular of the matter. Telling it
to the church is the last step to be taken. Publish it not to the enemies
of our faith. They have no right to the knowledge of church matters,
lest the weakness and errors of Christ’s followers be exposed.
Those who are preparing for the coming of Christ should be
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sober and watch unto prayer, for our adversary, the devil, goeth
about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour; whom we
are to resist steadfast in the faith. “He that will love life, and see
good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that
they speak no guile: let him eschew evil, and do good; let him seek
peace, and ensue it. For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous,
and His ears are open unto their prayers.”