To a Young Minister and His Wife
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be called by their right name. All of God’s people should come nearer
to Him and wash their robes of character in the blood of the Lamb.
Then will they see sin in the true light and will realize how offensive it
is in the sight of God.
It seemed a small matter to our first parents, when tempted, to
transgress the command of God in one small act and eat of a tree that
was beautiful to the eye and pleasant to the taste. To the transgressors
this was but a small act, but it destroyed their allegiance to God and
opened a flood of woe and guilt which has deluged the world. Who
can know, in the moment of temptation, the terrible consequences
which will result from one wrong, hasty step! Our only safety is to
be shielded by the grace of God every moment, and not put out our
own spiritual eyesight so that we will call evil, good, and good, evil.
Without hesitation or argument, we must close and guard the avenues
of the soul against evil.
It will cost us an effort to secure eternal life. It is only by long and
persevering effort, sore discipline, and stern conflict that we shall be
overcomers. But if we patiently and determinedly, in the name of the
Conqueror who overcame in our behalf in the wilderness of temptation,
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overcome as He overcame, we shall have the eternal reward. Our
efforts, our self-denial, our perseverance, must be proportionate to the
infinite value of the object of which we are in pursuit.
You must not allow your sympathies for yourselves to shield you
and others in wrong because you see nothing in outward appearances
to condemn. God sees; He can read the motives and purposes of the
soul. I entreat you in the name of our Master, who has called us and
appointed us our work, to keep your hands off and leave us to do the
work that God has laid upon us. Keep your words of sympathy and
pity for those who really deserve them, those who are pressed by the
Spirit of God to show His people their transgressions and the house of
Israel their sins. Error and sin in these last days are embraced more
readily than truth and righteousness. The soldiers of the cross of Christ
are now required to gird on the Christian armor and to press back the
moral darkness that is flooding the world.
God will give both of you precious victories if you surrender your-
selves wholly to Him and let His grace subdue your proud hearts. Your
self-righteousness will avail nothing with God. Nothing should be
done by fits and starts or in a spirit of rashness. Wrongs cannot be