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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
of the soul. Stripped of its disguise, this is the work which our good
brother has been doing.
God has presented this matter before me in its true light. Brother
D’s heart is not right. It is defiled with bitterness, wrath, envy, jealousy,
and evil surmising, and it needs to be purified. Unless he changes
his course entirely, he will soon be a fallen man. Charity, or love,
“suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not
itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her
own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity,
but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth
all things, endureth all things.”
Suppose that Brother D leads the people to question and reject the
testimonies that God has been giving to His people during the past
thirty-eight years; suppose he makes them believe that the leaders
in this work are designing, dishonest men, engaged in deceiving the
people; what great and good work has he done? It is a work exactly
similar to that of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; and with all whom he
has influenced the result will be disastrous. He has thought that he
could not be in error; but does this work bear the signet of heaven?
No; Brother D has indulged a self-righteous spirit, which has almost
ruined him. Let him come upon an equality with his brethren; if he
has difficulties with them in regard to their course of action, let him
show wherein their sin lies.
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When Satan became disaffected in heaven, he did not lay his
complaint before God and Christ; but he went among the angels who
thought him perfect and represented that God had done him injustice in
preferring Christ to himself. The result of this misrepresentation was
that through their sympathy with him one third of the angels lost their
innocence, their high estate, and their happy home. Satan is instigating
men to continue on earth the same work of jealousy and evil surmising
that he commenced in heaven.
When Jesus was upon earth, the Jews were ever acting as spies
on His track. They gathered up every false report and charged Him
with one crime after another. They were constantly endeavoring to
turn the people away from Him. Was their course right? If it was,
then Brother D has not sinned, for he is doing a similar work. He
may now break the snare of the enemy; he may conquer this spirit
which leads him to exalt himself above his brethren. Let him seek