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The Adventist Home
I have long been designing to speak to my sisters and tell them
that, from what the Lord has been pleased to show me from time to
time, there is a great fault among them. They are not careful to abstain
from all appearance of evil. They are not all circumspect in their
deportment, as becometh women professing godliness. Their words
are not as select and well chosen as those of women who have received
the grace of God should be. They are too familiar with their brethren.
They linger around them, incline toward them, and seem to choose
their society. They are highly gratified with their attention.
From the light which the Lord has given me, our sisters should
pursue a very different course. They should be more reserved, manifest
less boldness, and encourage in themselves “shamefacedness and
sobriety.” Both brethren and sisters indulge in too much jovial talk
when in each other’s society. Women professing godliness indulge in
much jesting, joking, and laughing. This is unbecoming and grieves
the Spirit of God. These exhibitions reveal a lack of true Christian
refinement. They do not strengthen the soul in God, but bring great
darkness; they drive away the pure, refined, heavenly angels and bring
those who engage in these wrongs down to a low level
[333]
Women are too often tempters. On one pretense or another they
engage the attention of men, married or unmarried, and lead them
on till they transgress the law of God, till their usefulness is ruined,
and their souls are in jeopardy.... If women would only elevate their
lives and become workers with Christ, there would be less danger
through their influence; but with their present feelings of unconcern in
regard to home responsibilities and in regard to the claims that God has
upon them, their influence is often strong in the wrong direction, their
powers are dwarfed, and their work does not bear the divine impress
There are so many forward misses and bold, forward women who
have a faculty of insinuating themselves into notice, putting them-
selves in the company of young men, courting the attentions, inviting
flirtations from married or unmarried men, that unless your face is set
Christward, firm as steel, you will be drawn into Satan’s net
As Christ’s ambassador, I entreat you who profess present truth
to promptly resent any approach to impurity and forsake the society
16
Testimonies For The Church 2, 455
.
17
Testimonies For The Church 5, 596, 597
.
18
Medical Ministry, 145
.