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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
It is not the work of a gospel minister to lord it over God’s heritage,
but in lowliness of mind, with gentleness and long forbearance, to
exhort, reprove, rebuke, with all long-suffering and doctrine. How
will the foregoing scriptures compare with your past life? You have
been cultivating a selfish disposition nearly all your life. You married
a woman of a strong, set will. Her natural disposition was supremely
selfish. You were both lovers of self, and uniting your interests did
not help the case of either, but increased the peril of both. Neither of
you were conscientious, and neither had the fear of God before you
in a high sense. Love of self, self-gratification, has been the ruling
principle. Both of you have had so little consecration to God that you
could not benefit each other. You have each wanted your own way;
each has wanted to be petted and praised and waited upon.
The Lord saw your dangers and time and again sent you warnings
through the Testimonies that your eternal interests were endangered
unless you overcame your love of self, and conformed your will to the
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will of God. Had you heeded the admonitions and warnings from the
Lord, had you turned square about, made an entire change, your wife
would not now be in the snare of the enemy, left of God to believe the
strong delusions of Satan. Had you followed the light that God has
given, you would now be a strong and efficient laborer in the cause of
God, qualified to accomplish tenfold more than you are now competent
to do. You have become weak because you have failed to cherish the
light. You have been able but a small part of the time to discern the
voice of the True Shepherd from that of a stranger. Your neglect to
walk in the light has brought darkness upon you, and your conscience,
by being often violated, has become benumbed.
Your wife did not believe and follow the light that the Lord in
mercy sent her. She despised reproof, and herself closed the door
through which the voice of the Lord was heard to counsel and warn
her. Satan was pleased, and there was nothing to hinder him from
insinuating himself into her confidence, and, by his pleasing, flattering
deceptions, leading her captive at his will.
The Lord gave you a testimony that your wife was a hindrance to
you in your labors and that you should not have her accompany you
unless you had the most positive evidence that she was a converted
woman, transformed by the renewing of her mind. You then felt that
you had an excuse to plead for a home; you made this testimony your