Chapter 72—Unholy Ambition
Dear Brother and Sister N,
Although I have received from you no acknowledgment of my last
letter, I feel drawn out to write to you again. I have been shown your
danger, and cannot forbear to impress upon your minds the necessity
of walking humbly with God. You will be safe as long as you have
humble views of self. But I know that your souls are in peril. You
are seeking for a broader path for your feet than the humble path of
holiness, the royal way that leads to the city of God. You have too
much of self and too little of the meekness and lowliness of Christ.
You have much self-esteem and self-confidence, and little faith in
God. The discordant elements in your nature are largely developed.
Unruly passions have a controlling power. Pride and vanity seek for
the supremacy. I know that the enemy is tempting you sorely. Your
only safety is in entire conformity to the will of God. Submission
is necessary on your part; a complete consecration of yourselves to
Christ is your only hope of salvation. If you walk in humility of mind
before the Lord, then He can work with your efforts, and His strength
will be made perfect in your weakness. Christ is our Saviour. He has
said for your benefit and for mine: “Without Me ye can do nothing.”
Oh, will you have more of Jesus, and less of self?
Brother N, you are not naturally devotional and hence need to
make constant efforts to cultivate faith. It is easy for you to drop Christ
out of your experience. The Lord has given you His blessing in the
past, and how sweet it was to your soul! What comfort, what courage,
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it gave you! Your passion is to exalt education, but I speak the truth
when I tell you that education, unless balanced by religious principles,
will be a power for evil.
I am not willing to look on passively and see you go as others have
gone in the fatal delusion that Seventh-day Adventists are too narrow
in their ideas, are traveling in too obscure a path; that they must needs
have greater notoriety and rise to greater eminence; that the teachers in
our schools should give their powers more exclusively to the sciences
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