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The Acts of the Apostles
the work of some faithful minister, had his labors been appreciated!
But if the church permits the enemy of souls to pervert the understand-
ing, so that they misrepresent and misinterpret the words and acts of
the servant of Christ; if they allow themselves to stand in his way and
hinder his usefulness, the Lord sometimes removes from them the
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blessing which He gave.
Satan is constantly working through his agents to dishearten and
destroy those whom God has chosen to accomplish a great and good
work. They may be ready to sacrifice even life itself for the advance-
ment of the cause of Christ, yet the great deceiver will suggest to their
brethren doubts concerning them which, if entertained, would under-
mine confidence in their integrity of character, and thus cripple their
usefulness. Too often he succeeds in bringing upon them, through
their own brethren, such sorrow of heart that God graciously interposes
to give His persecuted servants rest. After the hands are folded upon
the pulseless breast, when the voice of warning and encouragement is
silent, then the obdurate may be aroused to see and prize the blessings
they have cast from them. Their death may accomplish that which
their life has failed to do.
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