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Testimonies for the Church Volume 3
sorely tried, but not in the same way. Everyone has his individual
tests and trials in the drama of life, but the very same trials seldom
come twice. Each has his own experience, peculiar in its character
and circumstances, to accomplish a certain work. God has a work, a
purpose, in the life of each of us. Every act, however small, has its
place in our life experience. We must have the continual light and
experience that come from God. We all need these, and God is more
than willing that we should have them if we will take them. He has
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not closed the windows of heaven to your prayers, but you have felt
satisfied to pass on without the divine help you so much need.
How little you know the bearing of your daily acts upon the history
of others. You may think that what you do or say is of little con-
sequence, when the most important results for good or evil are the
consequence of our words and actions. The words and actions looked
upon as so small and unimportant are links in the long chain of human
events. You have not felt the need of God’s manifesting His will to
us in all the acts of our daily life. With our first parents the desire for
a single gratification of appetite opened the floodgate of woe and sin
upon the world. Would that you, my dear sisters, might feel that every
step you take may have a lasting and controlling influence upon your
own lives and the characters of others. Oh, how much need, then, of
communion with God! What need of divine grace to direct every step
and show us how to perfect Christian characters!
Christians will have new scenes and new trials to pass through
where past experience cannot be a sufficient guide. We have greater
need to learn of the divine Teacher now than at any other period of our
lives. And the more experience we gain, the nearer we draw toward the
pure light of heaven, the more shall we discern in ourselves that needs
reforming. We may all do a good work in blessing others if we will
seek counsel of God and follow on in obedience and faith. The path of
the just is progressive, from strength to strength, from grace to grace,
and from glory to glory. The divine illumination will increase more
and more, corresponding with our onward movements, qualifying us
to meet the responsibilities and emergencies before us.
When trials press you, when despondency and dark unbelief control
your thoughts, when selfishness molds your actions, you do not see
your need of God and of a deep and thorough knowledge of His will.
You know not the will of God, neither can you know it while you live