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Christian Experience and Teachings of Ellen G. White
ground, yet on rushed the multitude, trampling over the fallen and
dead bodies of their companions. Everyone who reached the crown
possessed a share in it, and was loudly applauded by an interested
company standing around it.
A large company of evil angels were very busy. Satan was in the
midst of them, and all looked with the most exulting satisfaction upon
the company struggling for the crown. He seemed to throw a peculiar
charm upon those who eagerly sought it.
Many who sought this earthly crown were professed Christians.
Some of them seemed to have a little light. They would look wishfully
upon the heavenly crown, and would often seem charmed with its
beauty, yet they had no true sense of its value and glory. While with
one hand they were reaching forth languidly for the heavenly, with
the other they reached eagerly for the earthly, determined to possess
that; and in their earnest pursuit for the earthly, they lost sight of the
heavenly. They were left in darkness, yet were anxiously groping
about to secure the earthly crown.
Some became disgusted with the company who sought it so ea-
gerly; they seemed to have a sense of their danger, and turned from
it, and earnestly sought for the heavenly crown. The countenances of
such soon changed from dark to light, from gloom to cheerfulness and
holy joy.
[163]
I then saw a company pressing through the crowd with their eyes
intently fixed upon the heavenly crown. As they earnestly urged their
way through the disorderly crowd, angels attended them, and made
room for them to advance. As they neared the heavenly crown, the
light emanating from it shone upon them and around them, dispelling
their darkness, and growing clearer and brighter, until they seemed to
be transformed, and resembled the angels. They cast not one lingering
look upon the earthly crown. Those who were in pursuit of the earthly,
mocked them, and threw black balls after them. These did them no
injury while their eyes were fixed upon the heavenly crown, but those
who turned their attention to the black balls were stained with them.
The following scripture was presented before me:
“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and
rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay
up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth
corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: for where