Chapter 34—God’s Love for the Church
George’s Terrace, St. Kilda Road, Melbourne, December 23, 1892.
Dear Brethren of the General Conference:
I testify to my brethren and sisters that the church of Christ, enfee-
bled and defective as it may be, is the only object on earth on which
He bestows His supreme regard. While He extends to all the world His
invitation to come to Him and be saved, He commissions His angels to
render divine help to every soul that cometh to Him in repentance and
contrition, and He comes personally by His Holy Spirit into the midst
of His church. “If Thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who
shall stand? But there is forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be
feared. I wait for the Lord, my soul doth wait, and in His word do
I hope. My soul waiteth for the Lord more than they that watch for
the morning.” “Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is
mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem
Israel from all his iniquities.”
Ministers and all the church, let this be our language, from hearts
that respond to the great goodness and love of God to us as a people
and to us individually, “Let Israel hope in the Lord from henceforth
and forever.” “Ye that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts
of the house of our God, praise the Lord; for the Lord is good: sing
praises unto His name; for it is pleasant. For the Lord hath chosen
Jacob unto Himself, and Israel for His peculiar treasure. For I know
that the Lord is great, and that our Lord is above all gods.” Consider,
my brethren and sisters, that the Lord has a people, a chosen people,
His church, to be His own, His own fortress, which He holds in a
sin-stricken, revolted world; and He intended that no authority should
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be known in it, no laws be acknowledged by it, but His own.
Satan has a large confederacy, his church. Christ calls them the
synagogue of Satan because the members are the children of sin. The
members of Satan’s church have been constantly working to cast off
the divine law, and confuse the distinction between good and evil.
Satan is working with great power in and through the children of
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