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Spiritual Gifts, Volume 4b
they would occasionally point to the letters on their garments with
great satisfaction calling for the others to have the same upon theirs.
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They were in the broad way, yet they professed to be of that number
who were traveling the narrow way. Those around them would say,
“There is no distinction between us, We are all alike, We dress, and
talk, and act alike.”
Then I was pointed back to the years 1843 and 1844. There was
a spirit of consecration then, that there is not now. What has come
over the professed, peculiar people of God? I saw the conformity to
the world, the unwillingness to suffer for the truth’s sake. I saw a
great lack of submission to the will of God. I was pointed back to the
children of Israel after they left Egypt. God in mercy called them out
from the Egyptians, that they might worship him without hindrance
or restraint. He wrought for them in the way by miracles, he proved
them, he tried them by bringing them into straight places. After the
wonderful dealings of God, and their deliverance so many times, when
tried or proved by God, they murmured. Their language was, “Would
to God we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt.”
I saw that many who profess to believe the truth for these last
days, think it strange that the children of Israel murmured as they
journeyed, and after the wonderful dealings of God to them, should be
so ungrateful, and forget what God had done for them. Said the angel,
“Ye have done worse than they.” I saw that God had given his servants
the truth so clear, so plain, that it cannot be resisted. Every where
they go they have certain victory. The enemies cannot get round the
convincing truth. Light has been shed so clear, that the servants of God
can stand up any where and let truth, clear and connected, bear away
the victory. This great blessing has not been realized and prized. If any
trial arises, some begin to look back, and think they have a hard time.
Some of the professed servants of God do not know what purifying
trials are. They make trials sometimes for themselves, imagine trials,
and are so easily discouraged, so easily hurt, self dignity is so quick to
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feel, that they injure themselves, injure others, and the cause. Satan
magnifies and puts things into the mind that, if given way to, will
destroy the usefulness and influence of such.
I saw that some had felt tempted to take themselves from the work,
to labor with their hands. I saw that if the hand of God should be
taken from them, and they left subject to disease and death, then such