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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
and conscience. Such preaching results in no lasting good, but it often
wins the hearts of the people and calls out their affections for the man
who pleases them. They forget that God has said: “Cease ye from
man, whose breath is in his nostrils.”
Jesus is waiting with longing desire to open before His people the
glory that will attend His second advent, and to carry them forward
to a contemplation of the landscapes of bliss. There are wonders to
be revealed. A long lifetime of prayer and research will leave much
unexplored and unexplained. But what we know not now will be
revealed hereafter. The work of instruction begun here will be carried
on to all eternity. The Lamb, as He leads the hosts of the redeemed to
the Fountain of living waters, will impart rich stores of knowledge; He
will unravel mysteries in the works and providence of God that have
never before been understood.
We can never by searching find out God. He does not lay open His
plans to prying, inquisitive minds. We must not attempt to lift with
presumptuous hand the curtain behind which He veils His majesty.
The apostle exclaims: “How unsearchable are His judgments, and
His ways past finding out!” It is a proof of His mercy that there is
the hiding of His power, that He is enshrouded in the awful clouds of
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mystery and obscurity; for to lift the curtain that conceals the divine
presence is death. No mortal mind can penetrate the secrecy in which
the Mighty One dwells and works. We can comprehend no more of
His dealings with us and the motives that actuate Him than He sees fit
to reveal. He orders everything in righteousness, and we are not to be
dissatisfied and distrustful, but to bow in reverent submission. He will
reveal to us as much of His purposes as it is for our good to know; and
beyond that we must trust the hand that is omnipotent, the heart that is
full of love.
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