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Testimonies for the Church Volume 4
feelings and ways of others. Many people may be brought together
in a unity of religious faith whose opinions, habits, and tastes in
temporal matters are not in harmony; but if they have the love of
Christ glowing in their bosoms, and are looking forward to the same
heaven as their eternal home, they may have the sweetest and most
intelligent communion together, and a unity the most wonderful. There
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are scarcely two whose experience is alike in every particular. The
trials of one may not be the trials of another, and our hearts should
ever be open to kindly sympathy and all aglow with the love that Jesus
had for all His brethren.
Conquer your disposition to be exacting with your son, lest too
frequent reproof make your presence disagreeable to him and your
counsels hateful. Bind him to your heart, not by foolish indulgence,
but by the silken cords of love. You can be firm yet kind. Christ must
be your helper. Love will be the means of drawing other hearts to
yours, and your influence may establish them in the good and right
way.
I have warned you against a spirit of censure, and I would again
caution you in regard to that fault. Christ sometimes reproved with
severity, and in some cases it may be necessary for us to do so; but we
should consider that while Christ knew the exact condition of the ones
He rebuked, and just the amount of reproof they could bear, and what
was necessary to correct their course of wrong, He also knew just how
to pity the erring, comfort the unfortunate, and encourage the weak.
He knew just how to keep souls from despondency and to inspire them
with hope, because He was acquainted with the exact motives and
peculiar trials of every mind. He could not make a mistake.
But we may misjudge motives; we may be deceived by appear-
ances; we may think we are doing right to reprove wrong, and go too
far, censure too severely, and wound where we wished to heal; or we
may exercise sympathy unwisely, and counteract, in our ignorance,
reproof that is merited and timely. Our judgment may be wrong, but
Jesus was too wise to err. He reproved with pity and loved with a
divine love those whom He rebuked.
The Lord requires us to be submissive to His will, subdued by His
Spirit, and sanctified to His service. Selfishness must be put away, and
we must overcome every defect in our characters as Christ overcame.
In order to accomplish this work, we must die daily to self. Said Paul: