Nature and Influence of the “Testimonies”
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slighting and rejecting the testimony that I have given you to bear, it is
not you, but Me, your Lord, that they have slighted.”
If those who are headstrong and full of self-esteem go on
unchecked in their course, what will be the condition of things in
the church? How are the wrongs to be corrected which exist in these
strong-willed, ambitious ones? By what means will God reach them?
How will He set His church in order? Differences of opinion are
constantly arising, and apostasies often afflict the church. When con-
troversy or division comes in, all parties claim to be right and to have
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a conscience void of offense; and they will not be instructed by those
who have long borne the burden of the work and who, they have reason
to know, have been guided by the Lord. Light has been sent to dispel
their darkness, but they are too proud of heart to accept it, and they
choose the darkness. They despise the counsel of God because it does
not coincide with their views and plans, and favor their wrong traits
of character. The work of the Spirit of God, which would bring them
into the right position if they would accept it, has not come in a way
to please them, and to flatter their self-righteousness. The light which
God has given is no light to them, and they wander in darkness. They
claim that no more confidence is to be placed in the judgment of one
who has had such a long experience, and whom the Lord has taught
and used to do a special work, than in that of any other person. Is it
God’s plan that they should do thus, or is it the special working of
the enemy of all righteousness to hold souls in error, to bind them
in strong delusions that cannot be broken, because they have placed
themselves beyond the reach of means that God has ordained to deal
with His church?
The reproofs, the cautions, the corrections of the Lord, have been
given to His church in all ages of the world. These warnings were
despised and rejected in Christ’s day by the self-righteous Pharisees,
who claimed that they needed no such reproof and were unjustly dealt
with. They would not receive the word of the Lord through His servants
because it did not please their inclinations. Should the Lord give a
vision right before this class of people in our day, pointing out their
mistakes, rebuking their self-righteousness and condemning their sins,
they would rise up in rebellion, like the inhabitants of Nazareth when
Christ showed them their true condition.