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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
being undermined. “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise: but
a companion of fools shall be destroyed.”
The young are in danger; but they are blind to discern the ten-
dencies and result of the course they are pursuing. Many of them are
engaged in flirtation. They seem to be infatuated. There is nothing
noble, dignified, or sacred in these attachments; as they are prompted
by Satan, the influence is such as to please him. Warnings to these
persons fall unheeded. They are headstrong, self-willed, defiant. They
think the warning, counsel, or reproof does not apply to them. Their
course gives them no concern. They are continually separating them-
selves from the light and love of God. They lose all discernment of
sacred and eternal things, and while they may keep up a dry form of
Christian duties they have no heart in these religious exercises. All too
late these deceived souls will learn that “strait is the gate, and narrow
is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”
Words and actions and motives are recorded; but how little do
these light, superficial heads and hard hearts realize that an angel of
God stands writing down the manner in which their precious moments
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are employed. God will bring to light every word and every action.
He is in every place. His messengers, although unseen, are visitors
in the workroom and in the sleeping apartment. The hidden works
of darkness will be brought to light. The thoughts, the intents and
purposes of the heart, will stand revealed. All things are naked and
open to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.
The workers should take Jesus with them in every department of
their labor. Whatever is done should be done with an exactness and
thoroughness that will bear inspection. The heart should be in the
work. Faithfulness is as essential in life’s common duties as in those
involving greater responsibility. Some may receive the idea that their
work is not ennobling; but this is just as they choose to make it. They
alone are capable of degrading or elevating their employment. We
wish that every drone might be compelled to toil for his daily bread,
for work is a blessing, not a curse. Diligent labor will keep us from
many of the snares of Satan, who “finds some mischief still for idle
hands to do.”
None of us should be ashamed of work, however small and servile
it may appear. Labor is ennobling. All who toil with head or hands
are workingmen or workingwomen. And all are doing their duty