604
Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
and receive as of God the Testimonies which reprove my sins, or shall
I reject the Testimonies because they reprove my sins?
“In many cases the Testimonies are fully received, the sin and
indulgence broken off, and reformation at once commences in harmony
with the light God has given. In other instances sinful indulgences are
cherished, the Testimonies are rejected, and many excuses which are
untrue are offered to others as the reason for refusing to receive them.
The true reason is not given. It is a lack of moral courage—a will,
strengthened and controlled by the Spirit of God, to renounce hurtful
habits.” [
Testimonies for the Church 4:32
(1876).]
“Satan has ability to suggest doubts and to devise objections to the
pointed testimony that God sends, and many think it a virtue, a mark
of intelligence in them, to be unbelieving and to question and quibble.
Those who desire to doubt will have plenty of room. God does not
propose to remove all occasion for unbelief. He gives evidence, which
must be carefully investigated with a humble mind and a teachable
spirit, and all should decide from the weight of evidence.” [
Testimonies
for the Church 3:255
(1873).] “God gives sufficient evidence for the
candid mind to believe; but he who turns from the weight of evidence
because there are a few things which he cannot make plain to his
finite understanding will be left in the cold, chilling atmosphere of
[676]
unbelief and questioning doubts, and will make shipwreck of faith.”
[
Testimonies for the Church 4:232, 233
(1876).]
Duty to Give Reproof
“If wrongs are apparent among His people, and if the servants
of God pass on indifferent to them, they virtually sustain and justify
the sinner, and are alike guilty and will just as surely receive the
displeasure of God; for they will be made responsible for the sins of
the guilty. In vision I have been pointed to many instances where the
displeasure of God has been incurred by a neglect on the part of His
servants to deal with the wrongs and sins existing among them. Those
who have excused these wrongs have been thought by the people to be
very amiable and lovely in disposition, simply because they shunned
to discharge a plain, Scriptural duty. The task was not agreeable to
their feelings; therefore they avoided it.” [
Testimonies for the Church
3:266
(1873).]