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pompous, dictatorial, uncourteous course of conduct, you will dishonor
the cause wherever you are; and it would have been better had you
never been born. The time has come for you to turn to the right or to
the left. “If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him.”
The deformed character developed in you is a disgrace to the Christian
name. No church will prosper under your rule or guidance, for you are
not connected with God. You are boastful, proud, and self-important,
and would mold others after the same pattern as yourselves.
The church of God has long been burdened with your unchristian
acts and deportment. God help you to see and feel that your eternal
interests demand an entire transformation. By your example others are
led astray from the pure, elevated path of holiness. Truly great men
are invariably modest. Humility is a grace which sits naturally upon
them as a garment. Those who have stored their minds with useful
knowledge, and who possess genuine attainments and refinement, are
the ones who will be most willing to admit the weakness of their
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own understanding. They are not self-confident nor boastful; but in
view of the higher attainments to which they might rise in intellectual
greatness, they seem to themselves to have but just begun the ascent. It
is the superficial thinker, the one who has but a beginning or smattering
of knowledge, who deems himself wise and who takes on disgusting
airs of importance.
You might today be men of honor and of trust, but you have all
been so well satisfied with yourselves that you have not improved the
light and privileges which have been graciously granted you. Your
minds have not been expanded by the Christian graces, neither have
your affections been sanctified by communion with the Life-giver.
There is a littleness, an earthliness, which stamps the outer character
and reveals the fact beyond doubt that you have been walking in the
way of your own heart and in the sight of your own eyes and that you
are filled with your own devices.
When connected with God and sincerely seeking His approval, man
becomes elevated, ennobled, and sanctified. The work of elevation is
one that man must perform for himself through Jesus Christ. Heaven
may give him every advantage so far as temporal and spiritual things
are concerned, but it is all in vain unless he is willing to appropriate
these blessings and to help himself. His own powers must be put to
use, or he will finally be weighed in the balances and pronounced