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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
the rich and the learned will have no influence over you. Pride, in
whatever form it may manifest itself, will no longer live in your heart.
But you have so long drunk of the turbid stream of worldliness that
you see no better way to live.
Again and again God has stretched out His hand to save you by
showing you your duties and obligations. These duties change in
character with the increase of light. When the light shines, making
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manifest and reproving the errors that were undiscovered, there must
be a corresponding change in the life and character. The mistakes
that are the natural result of blindness of mind are, when pointed out,
no longer sins of ignorance or errors of judgment; but unless there
are decided reforms in accordance with the light given, they then
become presumptuous sins. The moral darkness that surrounds you
will become more dense; your heart will become harder and harder,
and you will be more offensive in the sight of God. You do not realize
the great peril you are in, the danger there is that in your case the light
will become entirely obscured, veiled in complete darkness. When the
light is received and acted upon, you will be crucified to sin, being dead
indeed unto the world, but alive to God. Your idols will be abandoned,
and your example will be on the side of self-denial rather than that of
self-indulgence.
Brother and Sister P, had you heeded the Testimonies of the Spirit
of God, you would now be walking in the light, in harmony with the
people of God; but your unbelief has shut you away from great good.
Sister P has not risen up against the Testimonies, neither has she shown
confidence in them as from the Lord by obeying them. She loves
to have her husband praised and honored by the world; it gratifies
her pride, which is by no means small. You may each appropriately
inquire: “Why am I so slow to come out from the world and take
Christ for my portion? Why should I love and honor those whom I
know do not love God nor respect His claims? Why should I wish to
retain the friendship of my Lord’s enemies? Why should I follow their
customs or be influenced by their opinions?” You cannot, my dear
friends, serve both God and mammon. You must make an unreserved
surrender, or in the near future the light that shines upon your pathway
will go out in the darkness of despair. You are on the enemy’s ground.
You have voluntarily placed yourselves there, and the Lord will not
protect you against his assaults.