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Spiritual Gifts, Volume 4a
perish; we all perish.” They are at length compelled to believe the
unwelcome truth, that their fate is to die in the wilderness. After they
believed that it was indeed the Lord who had said they should not enter
the promised land, but should die, they then acknowledged that Moses
and Aaron were right, and that they had sinned against the Lord, in
rebelling against their authority. They also confessed that Korah, and
those who perished with him, were sinners against the Lord, and that
they had justly suffered his wrath.
The facts relative to Korah and his company, who rebelled against
Moses and Aaron, and against Jehovah, are recorded for a warning to
God’s people, especially those who live upon the earth near the close
of time. Satan has led persons to imitate the example of Korah, Dathan
and Abiram, in raising insurrection among the people of God. Those
who permit themselves to rise in opposition to the plain testimony,
become self-deceived, and have really thought that those upon whom
God laid the burden of his work were exalted above the people of God,
and that their counsels and reproofs were uncalled for. They have
risen in opposition to the plain testimony which God would have them
bear in rebuking the wrongs among God’s people. The testimonies
borne against hurtful indulgences, as tea, coffee, snuff and tobacco,
have irritated a certain class, because it would destroy their idols.
Many for a while were undecided whether to make an entire sacrifice
of all these hurtful things, or reject the plain testimonies borne, and
yield to the clamors of appetite. They occupied an unsettled position.
There was a conflict between their convictions of truth and their self-
indulgences. Their state of indecision made them weak, and with
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many, appetite prevailed. Their sense of sacred things was perverted
by the use of these slow poisons; and they at length fully decided,
let the consequence be what it might, they would not deny self. This
fearful decision at once raised a wall of separation between them
and those who were cleansing themselves, as God has commanded,
from all filthiness of the flesh, and of the spirit, and were perfecting
holiness in the fear of the Lord. The straight testimonies borne were
in their way, and caused them great uneasiness, and they found relief
in warring against them, and striving to make themselves and others
believe that they were untrue. They said the people were all right, but
it was the reproving testimonies which made the trouble. And when
the rebellious unfurl their banner, all the disaffected rally around the