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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
frenzy, your tongue uttering words of bitterness and unbelief against
the Bible and against the truth you once advocated. When Satan has
clamored for you, claiming you as his own, Christ has repulsed your
cruel and malignant foe with the words: “I have not yet withdrawn My
Spirit from him. He has two more steps to take before he will pass the
boundary of My mercy and love. Souls are the purchase of My blood.
The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; the Lord rebuke thee.”
I was then carried back in your life, and you were shown to me
when the truth found a response in your heart. The Spirit of God
convicted you of the course you should pursue, and you had quite a
struggle with self. You had been a sharp, scheming man. You had not
done by others as you would wish them to do by you, but had taken
advantage of them whenever you could. You had a close, stern battle to
fight to subdue self and mortify pride; and it was only through the grace
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of God that this work could be accomplished. Instead of effecting a
thorough reformation, you joined the truth to a patched-up character,
which would not stand the test of temptation. You did not begin by
seeking God with a broken and contrite heart, and making wrongs
right. Had you done this, you would not have stumbled and fallen into
the snare of the enemy. There was a mixture of selfishness in your
motives, which you yourself did not clearly see. Arguments drawn
from worldly interest, social position, and comparative respectability
influenced you and decided you not to make earnest, thorough work
before God and men. Reaching after the worldly standard marred the
sincerity and purity of your Christian character; and you failed to bring
forth fruits meet for repentance.
Zacchaeus declared: “If I have taken anything from any man by
false accusation, I restore him fourfold.” You could at least have made
efforts to correct your acts of injustice to your fellow men. You cannot
make every case right, for some whom you have injured have gone
into their graves, and the account stands registered against you. In
these cases the best you can do is to bring a trespass offering to the
altar of the Lord, and He will accept and pardon you. But where you
can, you should make reparation to the wronged ones.
Had the unbelievers with whom you have associated seen in you
the transforming power of the truth, they would have had an argument
in favor of Christianity which they could not controvert. You might
thus have reflected a clear, sharp light to the world; but instead of this