Dangers of the Young
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nearness to Christ strengthens them to resist the efforts of our wily foe
to draw them from Christ.
I was shown that there was too much comparing ourselves among
ourselves, taking fallible mortals for a pattern when we have a sure,
unerring Pattern. The people of God should not measure themselves
by the world, nor by the opinions of men, nor by what they once were
before embracing the truth. But their faith and position in the world,
as they now are, must be compared with what they would have been
if their course had been continually onward and upward since they
professed to be followers of Christ. This is the only safe comparison
that can be made. In every other, there will be self-deception. If the
moral character and spiritual state of God’s people, do not correspond
with the blessings, privileges, and light, which have been conferred
upon them, they are weighed in the balance and found wanting. Angels
make their report, Wanting.
With some, the knowledge of their true state seems to be hidden
from them. They see the truth, but perceive not its importance, or its
claims. They hear the truth, but do not fully understand it, because they
do not conform their lives to it, and therefore are not sanctified through
obeying it. And yet they rest as unconcerned, and well satisfied, as
though the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, as tokens of
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God’s favor, went before them. They profess to know God, but in
works deny him. They reckon themselves as his chosen, peculiar
people, yet his presence and power to save to the uttermost are seldom
manifested among them. How great is the darkness of such! yet they
know it not. The light shines, but they do not comprehend it. No
stronger delusion can deceive the human mind, than that which makes
them believe that they are right, and that God accepts their works,
when they are sinning against him. They mistake the form of godliness
for the spirit and power thereof. They suppose that they are rich, and
have need of nothing, when they are poor, wretched, blind, and naked,
and need all things.
There are some who profess to be Christ’s followers, yet have
no labor in spiritual things. In any worldly enterprise they put forth
efforts, and manifest ambition to accomplish their object, and bring
about their desired end; but in the enterprise of everlasting life, where
all is at stake, and their eternal happiness depends upon their success,
they act as indifferent as though they were not moral agents, and