Unity in the Church
409
his children and their aches and distressing pains will cry out against
his boasted wisdom, which is folly.
But what is more deplorable than all the rest is that he has, as it
were, left the door to perdition wide open for his children to enter
and be lost. The natures of his children will have to be changed, their
characters transformed and made over new, or there can be no hope
for them. Can angels look lovingly upon your family, Brother B? Can
they delight to dwell in your house? The building is good, but the
house does not make the happiness within. Those who live within the
walls make it a heaven or a hell. You do not respect the mother of your
children. You permit in them disobedience and disrespect.
You may say: “Why does Sister White come to me with this? I
have no faith in the visions.” I knew this before I attempted to write,
but I feel that the time has come for me to set these things before you.
[455]
I must tell you the truth, for I expect to meet in the judgment what
I have here imperfectly written. I have waited, hoping that I might
say something that would reach your heart and soften it for the very
words I have here written. But I have lost all hope in that direction, for
you are fortified with an armor as impenetrable as steel. You will not
accept of anything that does not meet your mind. I was shown that it
would have been better for the cause of present truth if you had never
embraced the Sabbath. Your conscience is not a very sensitive one;
you are blinded by the enemy.
I have given up all hope of doing anything for the church in-----
while you are a stumbling block to them. You once loved the truth,
and had you followed on in the pathway of truth and holiness you
would now have been an ambassador for Christ. You will have a
fearful account to give in the great day of God for your talents which
have been unimproved. You had good abilities. God lent these talents
to you for you to put to good account, but you have abused these
gifts. Had you used the ability that God had given you, on the right
side, you would have done much in winning souls to Christ, and
you would see in the kingdom of heaven souls saved through your
instrumentality. But you have scattered abroad instead of gathering
with Christ. Your brethren have been discouraged from trying to rise
and advance, because you, like an opposing body, counteract the good
they would do.