Testimonies Slighted
57
easy and unconcerned. I knew not what to do or what to say. I had
no confidence in the course which many were pursuing, for they were
doing the very things which the Lord had warned them not to do.
That God who knows their spiritual condition declares: They have
cherished evil and separated from Me. They have gone astray, ev-
ery one of them. Not one is guiltless. They have forsaken Me, the
Fountain of living waters, and have hewed out to them broken cisterns
that can hold no water. Many have corrupted their ways before Me.
Envy, hatred of one another, jealousy, evil surmising, emulation, strife,
bitterness, is the fruit that they bear. And they will not heed the testi-
mony that I send them. They will not see their perverse ways and be
converted, that I should heal them.
Many are looking with self-complacency upon the long years
during which they have advocated the truth. They now feel that they
are entitled to a reward for their past trials and obedience. But this
genuine experience in the things of God in the past makes them more
guilty before Him for not preserving their integrity and going forward
to perfection. The faithfulness for the past year will never atone for
the neglect of the present year. A man’s truthfulness yesterday will
not atone for his falsehood today.
Many excused their disregard of the testimonies by saying: “Sister
White is influenced by her husband; the testimonies are molded by
[64]
his spirit and judgment.” Others were seeking to gain something from
me which they could construe to justify their course or to give them
influence. It was then I decided that nothing more should go from my
pen until the converting power of God was seen in the church. But
the Lord placed the burden upon my soul. I labored for you earnestly.
How much this cost both my husband and myself, eternity will tell.
Have I not a knowledge of the state of the church, when the Lord has
presented their case before me again and again for years? Repeated
warnings have been given, yet there has been no decided change.
I saw that the frown of God was upon His people for their assimi-
lation to the world. I saw that the children of Brother-----have been a
snare to him. Their ideas and opinions, their feelings and statements,
had an influence upon his mind and blinded his judgment. These youth
are strongly inclined to infidelity. The mother’s want of faith and trust
in God has been given as an inheritance to her children. Her devotion