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Testimonies for the Church Volume 5
Should every young man who professes the truth do as you have
done, what would be the condition of families and of the church?
Consider the influence of the disrespect you have shown for your
parents by your self-will and self-sufficiency. You are among the class
described as heady, high-minded. This infatuation has caused you
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to lose your interest in religious things and to think only of yourself
instead of the glory of God. No good can come of this intimacy or
attachment. The blessing of God will not attend any such willful course
as you are pursuing. You should not be eager to enter the marriage
relation and assume the care of a family before you have thoroughly
established your own character. I regard you as in great darkness but
unable to realize your peril.
The truth was reforming your life and character, and you were
gaining the confidence of the brethren; but Satan saw that he was
losing you, and therefore he increased his efforts to entangle you in
his wily snare and has succeeded wonderfully. The weakness of your
nature, hitherto undiscovered, is now developed. You do not see your
condition, although it is very apparent to others. Light does not come
to a man who makes no effort to obtain it. When you saw that your
brethren and sisters were grieved with your course, then it was time
for you to stop and consider what you were doing, to pray much, and
to counsel with men of experience in the church and gratefully accept
their advice.
“But,” say you, “should I follow the judgment of the brethren
independent of my own feelings?” I answer: The church is God’s
delegated authority upon earth. Christ has said: “Whatsoever ye shall
bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose
on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” There is altogether too little respect
paid to the opinion of members of the same church. It is the want of
deference for the opinions of the church that causes so much trouble
among brethren. The eyes of the church may be able to discern in its
individual members that which the erring may not see. A few persons
may be as blind as the one in error, but the majority of the church is a
power which should control its individual members.
The apostle Peter says: “Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves
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unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be
clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace
to the humble.” Paul exhorts: “Be kindly affectioned one to another