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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
than his Lord? The followers of Jesus will not be popular, but will be
like their Master, meek and lowly of heart. You are seeking to climb
to the highest seat, but will find yourselves at last in the lowest. If
you seek to deal justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly with God, you
will be partakers with Christ of His sufferings and sharers with Him
of His glory in His kingdom. The Lord has blessed you, but how little
have you appreciated His loving-kindness! How little praise He has
received from your lips! You may do a good work for the Master, but
not with your ideas as supreme. You must learn in the school of Christ,
else you can never be qualified to enter the higher grade, receive the
seal of the living God, enter in through the gates into the city of God,
and be crowned with glory, honor, and immortality.
Satan works in many ways where he is not discerned, even through
men and women who are in positions of trust. He will suggest to
their minds plausible errors of thought and action and speech that will
create doubt and work distrust where they think there is assurance of
safety. He will work upon dissatisfied elements to put them in active
operation. There will be a desire for greatness and honor. Envy will be
excited in minds where it is not supposed to exist, and circumstances
will not be wanting to call it into action. Doubts will be raised, and
flattering promises of gain will be offered if the cross is not made so
prominent. Satan will tempt some to think that our faith stands as
a barrier to great advancement and bars the way to reaching a high
worldly position and being called remarkable men and women.
In his first display of disaffection Satan was very cunning. All
he claimed was that he wanted to bring in a better order of things,
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to make great improvements. He led the holy pair away from God,
away from their allegiance to His commandments, on the same point
where thousands are tempted today and where thousands fall; that is,
by their vain imaginings. True knowledge is divine. Satan insinuated
into the minds of our first parents a desire for a speculative knowledge,
whereby he declared they would greatly improve their condition; but in
order to gain this, they must take a course contrary to God’s holy will;
for God would not lead them to the greatest heights. It was not God’s
purpose that they should obtain knowledge that had its foundation in
disobedience. This was a broad field into which Satan was seeking
to lead Adam and Eve, and it is the same field that he opens for the
world today by his temptations.