126
Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
they know God; but in works they deny Him, being abominable, and
disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate.” “But there were
false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false
teachers among you, who privily [not openly] shall bring in damnable
heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon
themselves swift destruction. And many shall follow their pernicious
ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.”
The ones here referred to are not those who openly claim to have no
faith in Christ, but those who profess to believe the truth and by their
vileness of character bring a reproach upon it, causing it to be evil
spoken of.
“And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make
merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth
not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” “But these, as natural brute
beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that
they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it
pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting
themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you; having
eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable
souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed
children: which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray,
following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages
of unrighteousness.”
“These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a
tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever. For when
they speak great swelling words of vanity,” boasting of their light, their
knowledge and their love of the truth, “they allure through the lusts
of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped
[146]
from them who live in error.”
In this age of corruption when our adversary the devil, as a roaring
lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour, I see the necessity
of lifting my voice in warning. “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter
into temptation.” There are many who possess brilliant talents who
wickedly devote them to the service of Satan. What warning can I
give to a people who profess to have come out from the world and to
have left its works of darkness? to a people whom God has made the
repositories of His law, but who, like the pretentious fig tree, flaunt