Intimate Friendship With Worldlings
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I was shown you, my brother, taking the young with you to scenes
of amusement at the time of a religious interest, and also engaging in
singing schools with worldlings who are all darkness and who have
evil angels all around them. How does your feeble, dim light appear
amid this darkness and temptation? Angels of God do not attend you
upon these occasions. You are left to go in your own strength. Satan is
well pleased with your position; for he can make you more efficient in
his service than if you did not profess to be a Christian keeping all the
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commandments of God. The True Witness addresses the Laodicean
church: “I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would
thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither
cold nor hot, I will spew thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest,
I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and
knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind,
and naked: I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou
mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and
that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes
with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.”
You are blinded and infatuated. You have felt strong when you
were weakness itself. You can be strong in the Mighty One. You
can be an instrument of righteousness if you are willing to suffer for
Christ’s sake. You and your sisters may redeem the time if you will,
but it will cost an effort. Your younger sister is linked to one who is
not worthy of her affections. There are serious defects in his character.
He does not have reverence for sacred and holy things; his heart has
not been changed by the Spirit of God. He is selfish, boastful, and
loves pleasure more than duty. He has no experience in self-denial and
humiliation.
In forming friendship, great caution should be exercised lest an
intimacy be contracted with one whose example it would not be safe
to imitate; for the effect of such an intimacy is to lead away from God,
from devotion, and the love of the truth. It is positively dangerous for
you to be intimate with friends who have not a religious experience.
If either of you, or all three of you, follow the leadings of God’s
Spirit, or value your soul’s salvation, you will not choose as your
particular and intimate friends those who do not maintain a serious
regard for religious things, and who do not live under its practical