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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
waste of our Lord’s money. It is defrauding the cause of God for the
gratification of pride. Our institutions are burdened with debt, and how
can we expect the Lord to answer our prayers for their prosperity when
we are not doing what we can do to relieve them from embarrassment?
I would address you as Christ addressed Nicodemus: “Ye must be
born again.” Those who have Christ ruling within will feel no desire to
imitate the world’s display. They will carry everywhere the standard
of the cross, ever bearing witness of higher aims and nobler themes
than those in which worldlings are absorbed. Our dress, our dwellings,
our conversation, should testify of our consecration to God. What
power would attend those who thus evinced that they had given up
all for Christ. God would not be ashamed to acknowledge them as
His children. He would bless His devoted people, and the unbelieving
world would fear Him.
Christ longs to work mightily by His Spirit for the conviction and
conversion of sinners. But, according to His divine plan, the work
must be performed through the instrumentality of His church; and her
members have so far departed from Him that He cannot accomplish
His will through them. He chooses to work by means, yet the means
employed must be in harmony with His character.
Who are there in Battle Creek that are faithful and true? Let them
come over on the Lord’s side. If we would be in a position where
God can use us, we must have an individual faith and an individual
experience. Only those who trust wholly in God are safe now. We
must not follow any human example or lean upon any human support.
Many are constantly taking wrong positions and making wrong moves;
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if we trust to their guidance we shall be misled.
Some who profess to be spokesmen for God are in their daily life
denying the faith. They present to the people important truths; but who
are impressed by these truths? who are convicted of sin? The hearers
know that those who are preaching today will tomorrow be the first to
join in pleasure, mirth, and frivolity. Their influence out of the pulpit
soothes the conscience of the impenitent and causes the ministry to
be despised. They are themselves asleep upon the very verge of the
eternal world. The blood of souls is upon their garments.
How are the faithful servants of Christ employed? “Praying always
with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit,” praying in the closet, in
the family, in the congregation, everywhere; “and watching thereunto