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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
Said Christ: “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in
much.”
It is neither the magnitude nor the seeming insignificance of a
business transaction that makes it fair or unfair, honest or dishonest. By
the least departure from rectitude we place ourselves on the enemy’s
ground, and may go on, step by step, to any length of injustice. A large
proportion of the Christian world divorce religion from their business.
Thousands of little tricks and petty dishonesties are practiced in dealing
with their fellow men, which reveal the true state of the heart, showing
its corruption.
You, Brother A B, do not honor the cause of truth. The fountain
needs to be cleansed, that the streams may be pure. Your wife is
engaged too much in seeking spot and stain upon the characters of
her brethren and sisters. While seeking to weed the gardens of her
neighbors, she has neglected her own. She must make most diligent
efforts in order to build up a spotless character. There is the most
fearful danger that she will fail here. If she loses heaven, she loses
everything. Both of you should cleanse the soul-temple, which has
become terribly polluted. Your minds have become sadly perverted.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Be very jealous
and distrustful of self, but never let your tongues be used to express
the jealousy of your hearts in regard to another. A great work remains
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for both of you to do, to so humble yourselves before God that He
will accept your repentance. Hitherto you have been hearers but not
persevering doers of the word. You have admitted again and again
that you were wrong, but the carnal mind has remained unchanged.
You have made a little change under the influence of feeling, but
there has not been a reformation of principle. I saw that the time has
now fully come when action must be taken in your cases unless a
thorough change is wrought in your lives. The church of God must not
compromise with your coarse ways and low standard of Christianity.
One of you brothers is enough in a place. You are continually
at strife and war among yourselves, hateful, and hating one another.
But although you are a byword to those of the world with whom you
associate, yet you are so far distant from God that you cannot see but
that you are about right. You each need a nearer view of the character
of Christ, that you may discern more clearly what it is to be like Him.
Unless you all change your deportment, and entirely overcome your