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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
to occupy, bring upon myself the displeasure of God, and lose my own
soul. I had before me several cases such as I have here described, and
my heart shrank from the trying ordeal.
“I now entreated that if I must go and relate what the Lord had
shown me, I should be preserved from undue exaltation. Said the
angel: ‘Your prayers are heard and shall be answered. If this evil
that you dread threatens you, the hand of God will be stretched out
to save you; by affliction He will draw you to Himself and preserve
your humility. Deliver the message faithfully. Endure unto the end,
and you shall eat the fruit of the tree of life and drink of the water of
life.’” [
Testimonies for the Church 1:62, 64, 65
.]
At this time there was fanaticism among some of those who had
been believers in the first message. Serious errors in doctrine and
practice were cherished, and some were ready to condemn all who
would not accept their views. God revealed these errors to me in vision
[656]
and sent me to His erring children to declare them; but in performing
this duty I met with bitter opposition and reproach.
“It was a great cross for me to relate to the erring what had been
shown me concerning them. It caused me great distress to see others
troubled or grieved. And when obliged to declare the messages I
would often soften them down and make them appear as favorable for
the individual as I could and then would go by myself and weep in
agony of spirit. I looked upon those who had only their own souls to
care for and thought if I were in their condition I would not murmur.
It was hard to relate the plain, cutting testimonies given me of God.
I anxiously watched the result, and if the persons reproved rose up
against the reproof, and afterward opposed the truth, these queries
would arise in my mind: Did I deliver the message just as I should?
Could there not have been some way to save them? And then such
distress pressed upon my soul that I often felt that death would be a
welcome messenger, and the grave a sweet resting place.
“I did not realize the danger and sin of such a course until in vision
I was taken into the presence of Jesus. He looked upon me with a
frown and turned His face from me. It is not possible to describe the
terror and agony I then felt. I fell upon my face before Him, but had
no power to utter a word. Oh, how I longed to be covered and hid from
that dreadful frown! Then could I realize, in some degree, what the
feelings of the lost will be when they cry: ‘Mountains and rocks, Fall