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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
have been bought with a price, even if you perish because you will not
be saved in God’s appointed way.
Holy angels are watching with intense interest, to see if the indi-
vidual members of the church will honor their Redeemer, to see if they
will place themselves in connection with heaven and no longer defraud
the Lord, whom they profess to love, honor, and serve. God calls for
His own. You are His by creation, and doubly His by redemption. But
when you suffer the fires of unhallowed passion to light up the eye,
when you speak words that drive the holy angels from you, when you
think evil of your brethren, when you profane your hands with the
gains of ungodliness, you are yielding your members as instruments
of unrighteousness.
Brother-----, I saw that “Wanting” was written against your name
in the Ledger of Heaven—wanting in patience, in forbearance, in
self-control, in lowliness and meekness. The want of these heavenly
graces will surely close the gates of heaven against you. Your body,
your soul, your entire being with all its capabilities, God claims as His.
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That hasty, uncontrolled temper must be overcome. Spiritual disease is
the sure result of giving way to this fretting, complaining, murmuring
spirit. And this disease of soul will be your own fault. Cease to fret,
cease to be stubborn, cease to pet self, and be a noblehearted, valiant
man for God. Jesus loves you. Has He not made ample provision
for you, that you should have help when brought into difficult places?
“What,” He says, “could have been done more to My vineyard, that
I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring
forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?” The fruit Christ claims,
after the patient care bestowed upon His church, is faith, patience,
love, forbearance, heavenly-mindedness, meekness. These are clusters
of fruit which mature amid storm and cloud and darkness, as well as
in the sunshine.
Brother-----is joined to the church, but not to the Lord. He has a
dyspeptic religion. He is not right with God; he is filled with self. He
has lost much by uniting with individuals who have not the spirit of
Christ. He is lacking in almost every grace. He is useless to himself,
and a great stumbling block to the church. Dear brother, Satan has
controlled you to a great extent; your thoughts are unsanctified, your
actions are not in accordance with the spirit of a true Christian. You
have brought on your own disease; you must be your own restorer