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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
We must live by faith on the Son of God. That is the meaning of the
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injunction: “Abide in Me.” The life we live in the flesh is not to the will
of men, not to please our Lord’s enemies, but to serve and honor Him
who loved us and gave Himself for us. A mere assent to this union,
while the affections are not detached from the world, its pleasures and
its dissipations, only emboldens the heart in disobedience.
As a people we are sadly destitute of faith and love. Our efforts
are altogether too feeble for the time of peril in which we live. The
pride and self-indulgence, the impiety and iniquity, by which we are
surrounded have an influence upon us. Few realize the importance of
shunning, so far as possible, all associations unfriendly to religious
life. In choosing their surroundings, few make their spiritual prosperity
the first consideration.
Parents flock with their families to the cities because they fancy it
easier to obtain a livelihood there than in the country. The children,
having nothing to do when not in school, obtain a street education.
From evil associates they acquire habits of vice and dissipation. The
parents see all this; but it will require a sacrifice to correct their error,
and they stay where they are until Satan gains full control of their
children. Better sacrifice any and every worldly consideration than
to imperil the precious souls committed to your care. They will be
assailed by temptations, and should be taught to meet them; but it
is your duty to cut off every influence, to break up every habit, to
sunder every tie, that keeps you from the most free, open, and hearty
committal of yourselves and your family to God.
Instead of the crowded city seek some retired situation where your
children will be, so far as possible, shielded from temptation, and
there train and educate them for usefulness. The prophet Ezekiel thus
enumerates the causes that led to Sodom’s sin and destruction: “Pride,
fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her
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daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.”
All who would escape the doom of Sodom must shun the course that
brought God’s judgments upon that wicked city.
My brethren, you are disregarding the most sacred claims of God
by your neglect to consecrate yourselves and your children to Him.
Many of you are reposing in false security, absorbed in selfish interests,
and attracted by earthly treasures. You fear no evil. Danger seems
a great way off. You will be deceived, deluded, to your eternal ruin