Opposition to Faithful Warnings
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in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.” I commend these
words to you in the name of Jesus, who has given me my commission.
Do not reject them.
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You would never have rejected the Testimonies as you have, had
your wrongdoings not been reproved. You thought it would be easier
to sacrifice the Testimonies and close your eyes to the light God has
given you than to give up your tobacco and cease your life of levity
and joking with unbelievers. The cleansing process involves denial
and restraint which you have not moral power to endure; therefore you
think to excuse your sins by your unbelief of the light God has sent
you. Remember, you must meet all these things again; for they are
written in the book, with all the warnings and reproofs that God has
committed to me to give to you.
Brother J is to be pitied, for he has naturally a defective organiza-
tion. His hope is small. His unbelief and doubts control his judgment.
It is in his nature to place himself on the side of doubting and question-
ing. The only way to overcome this great evil is to cultivate opposite
traits of character. He should repress unbelief, and not cultivate it. He
should not express his doubts. He has no right to thrust the defects of
his character before others, to cause them sadness and discouragement.
If he must be affected with this sad evil, he should not embitter the
happiness of others by introducing his unbelief to chill the faith of
his brethren. He is inclined to pass over almost everything in every
discourse and exhortation from which he might draw comfort and
encouragement, and pick up something which he thinks will afford
an excuse for his questioning and criticism. The avenues of his soul
are thrown open and left unguarded for Satan to come in and mold his
mind to his purposes.
I was shown that your meetings are losing interest because God’s
Spirit does not attend them. The brethren and sisters are in complete
bondage because of these two men. They dare not exercise their
freedom and speak out their faith in the simplicity of their souls, for
here is Brother J, with his cool, severe, critical eye, watching and
ready to catch at any word which will give him a chance to exercise
the faculties of his unbelieving mind. Between these two, the Spirit of
God is grieved away from the meetings. When brethren manifest the
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spirit of the dragon, to make war upon those who believe that God has
communicated light and comfort to them through the Testimonies, it