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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
company who are standing in the light will be sighing and crying for
the abominations that are done in the land. But more especially will
their prayers arise in behalf of the church because its members are
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doing after the manner of the world.
The earnest prayers of this faithful few will not be in vain. When
the Lord comes forth as an avenger, He will also come as a protector of
all those who have preserved the faith in its purity and kept themselves
unspotted from the world. It is at this time that God has promised to
avenge His own elect which cry day and night unto Him, though He
bear long with them.
The command is: “Go through the midst of the city, through the
midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that
sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst
thereof.” These sighing, crying ones had been holding forth the words
of life; they had reproved, counseled, and entreated. Some who had
been dishonoring God repented and humbled their hearts before Him.
But the glory of the Lord had departed from Israel; although many still
continued the forms of religion, His power and presence were lacking.
In the time when His wrath shall go forth in judgments, these
humble, devoted followers of Christ will be distinguished from the rest
of the world by their soul anguish, which is expressed in lamentation
and weeping, reproofs and warnings. While others try to throw a cloak
over the existing evil, and excuse the great wickedness everywhere
prevalent, those who have a zeal for God’s honor and a love for souls
will not hold their peace to obtain favor of any. Their righteous souls
are vexed day by day with the unholy works and conversation of the
unrighteous. They are powerless to stop the rushing torrent of iniquity,
and hence they are filled with grief and alarm. They mourn before
God to see religion despised in the very homes of those who have had
great light. They lament and afflict their souls because pride, avarice,
selfishness, and deception of almost every kind are in the church. The
Spirit of God, which prompts to reproof, is trampled underfoot, while
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the servants of Satan triumph. God is dishonored, the truth made of
none effect.
The class who do not feel grieved over their own spiritual declen-
sion, nor mourn over the sins of others, will be left without the seal of
God. The Lord commissions His messengers, the men with slaugh-
tering weapons in their hands: “Go ye after him through the city, and