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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
opponent it should be our earnest effort to present subjects in such a
manner as to awaken conviction in his mind, instead of seeking merely
to give confidence to the believer.
Whatever may be man’s intellectual advancement, let him not
for a moment think that there is no need of thorough and continuous
searching of the Scriptures for greater light. As a people we are
called individually to be students of prophecy. We must watch with
earnestness that we may discern any ray of light which God shall
present to us. We are to catch the first gleamings of truth; and through
prayerful study clearer light may be obtained, which can be brought
before others.
When God’s people are at ease and satisfied with their present
enlightenment, we may be sure that He will not favor them. It is His
will that they should be ever moving forward to receive the increased
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and ever-increasing light which is shining for them. The present
attitude of the church is not pleasing to God. There has come in a
self-confidence that has led them to feel no necessity for more truth
and greater light. We are living at a time when Satan is at work on the
right hand and on the left, before and behind us; and yet as a people we
are asleep. God wills that a voice shall be heard arousing His people
to action.
Instead of opening the soul to receive rays of light from heaven,
some have been working in an opposite direction. Both through the
press and from the pulpit have been presented views in regard to the
inspiration of the Bible which have not the sanction of the Spirit or
the word of God. Certain it is that no man or set of men should
undertake to advance theories upon a subject of so great importance,
without a plain “Thus saith the Lord” to sustain them. And when
men, compassed with human infirmities, affected in a greater or less
degree by surrounding influences, and having hereditary and cultivated
tendencies which are far from making them wise or heavenly-minded,
undertake to arraign the word of God, and to pass judgment upon what
is divine and what is human, they are working without the counsel
of God. The Lord will not prosper such a work. The effect will be
disastrous, both upon the one engaged in it and upon those who accept
it as a work from God. Skepticism has been aroused in many minds
by the theories presented as to the nature of inspiration. Finite beings,
with their narrow, short-sighted views, feel themselves competent to