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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
new victories by our experience in working. We gain activity and
strength by walking in the light, that we may have energy to run in the
way of God’s commandments. We may gain an increase of strength at
every step we advance heavenward. God will bless His people only
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when they try to be a blessing to others. Our graces are matured and
developed by exercise.
I was shown that while Brother B was at Battle Creek he was weak
in moral power. He had not been seeking to cling to God and preserve
his soul in purity of thought and action, and he was left to follow
his own mind and to receive impressions that were detrimental to his
spiritual interest. He met those who perverted the truth and was led by
them to believe things that were untrue; and as he had opened the door
to the enemy and received him as an angel of light, he was readily
overcome by temptation.
He became wickedly prejudiced and was suspicious of the very
ones in whom God would have him have confidence. He saw things in
a perverted light, and the meetings, which should have been to him a
great source of strength, were an injury. This was as Satan would have
it, that Brother B might lose confidence in the men whom God had
appointed to lead out in this work. He became at variance with them
and with the heart of the work. He was like a vessel at sea without
an anchor or a rudder. If he could not have confidence in those at the
head of the work he would have confidence in no one.
Brother B has but little reverence or respect for his brethren; he
thinks that his judgment and his knowledge and abilities are superior
to theirs; therefore he will not receive anything from them, nor trust to
their judgment, nor seek to counsel with them, unless he can lead and
teach them. He will act according to his own judgment, irrespective of
his brethren’s feelings, their griefs, or entreaties. When he separated
his confidence from the heart of the work, Satan knew that, unless
this confidence could be restored, he was sure of him. Brother B’s
eternal interest depends upon his accepting and respecting the helps
and governments which God has been pleased to place in the church.
If he follows a course of his own choosing he will eventually find
out that he has been altogether upon a wrong track and that he has
deceived himself to his ruin. He will take first one turn, then another,
and yet after all miss the true and only path which leads to heaven.
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