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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
may aid in perfecting its beauty and symmetry, so should the youth
turn to the Sun of Righteousness, that heaven’s light may shine upon
them, perfecting their characters and giving them a deep and abiding
experience in the things of God. Then they may reflect the divine rays
of light upon others. Those who choose to gather doubts and unbelief
and skepticism will experience no growth in grace or spirituality and
are unfitted for the solemn responsibility of bearing the truth to others.
The world is to be warned of its coming doom. The slumbers of
those who are lying in sin and error are so deep, so deathlike, that
the voice of God through a wide-awake minister is needed to awaken
them. Unless the ministers are converted, the people will not be. The
cold formalism that is now prevailing among us must give place to
the living energy of experimental godliness. There is no fault with the
theory of the truth; it is perfectly clear and harmonious. But young
ministers may speak the truth fluently, and yet have no real sense of
the words they utter. They do not appreciate the value of the truth they
present, and little realize what it has cost those, who, with prayers
and tears, through trial and opposition, have sought for it as for hid
treasures. Every new link in the chain of truth was to them as precious
as tried gold. These links are now united in a perfect whole. Truths
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have been dug out of the rubbish of superstition and error, by earnest
prayer for light and knowledge, and have been presented to the people
as precious pearls of priceless value.
The gospel is a revelation to man of beams of light and hope from
the eternal world. All the light does not burst upon us at once, but it
comes as we can bear it. Inquiring minds that hunger for a knowledge
of God’s will are never satisfied; the deeper they search, the more
they realize their ignorance and deplore their blindness. It is beyond
the power of man to conceive the high and noble attainments that are
within his reach if he will combine human effort with the grace of God,
who is the Source of all wisdom and power. And there is an eternal
weight of glory beyond. “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither
have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared
for them that love Him.”
We have the most solemn message of truth ever borne to the world.
This truth is more and more respected by unbelievers because it can-
not be controverted. In view of this fact, our young men become
self-confident and self-inflated. They take the truths which have been