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Testimonies for the Church Volume 8
I pray that those who have resisted light and evidence, refusing to
listen to God’s warnings, will see in the destruction of the Review and
Herald office an appeal to them to turn to God with full purpose of
heart. Will they not realize that God is in earnest with them? He is not
seeking to destroy life, but to save life. In the recent destruction the
lives of the workers were graciously preserved, that all might have an
opportunity to see that God was correcting them by a message coming
not from a human source, but from above. God’s people have departed
from Him; they have not followed His instruction, and He has come
near them in correction; but He has not brought extinction of life. Not
one soul has been taken by death. All have been left alive to recognize
the Power that no man can gainsay.
Let us praise the Lord that the lives of His children have been
so precious in His sight. He might have cut off the workers in their
heedlessness and self-sufficiency. But, no! He says: “They shall have
another chance. I will let the fire speak to them and will see if they
will counterwork the action of My providence. I will try them as by
fire to see if they will learn the lesson that I desire to teach them.”
When the Battle Creek Sanitarium was destroyed, Christ gave
Himself to defend the lives of men and women. In this destruction God
was appealing to His people to return to Him. And in the destruction
of the Review and Herald office, and the saving of life, He makes
a second appeal to them. He desires them to see that the miracle-
working power of the Infinite has been exercised to save life, that every
worker may have opportunity to repent and be converted. God says:
“If they turn to Me, I will restore to them the joy of My salvation. But
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if they continue to walk in their own way, I will come still closer; and
affliction shall come upon the families who claim to believe the truth,
but who do not practice the truth, who do not make the Lord God of
Israel their fear and their dread.”
Let everyone examine himself to see whether he be in the faith.
Let the people of God repent and be converted, that their sins may be
blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence
of the Lord. Let them ascertain wherein they have failed to walk in the
way that God has marked out, wherein they have failed to purify their
souls by taking heed to His counsels.
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