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The Great Controversy
them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.”
Ezekiel 3:7
;
2:7
. To the servant of God at this time is the command addressed: “Lift
up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression,
and the house of Jacob their sins.”
So far as his opportunities extend, everyone who has received the
light of truth is under the same solemn and fearful responsibility as
was the prophet of Israel, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying:
“Son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel;
therefore thou shalt hear the word at My mouth, and warn them from
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Me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die;
if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked
man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
Nevertheless, if thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it; if
he do not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast
delivered thy soul.”
Ezekiel 33:7-9
.
The great obstacle both to the acceptance and to the promulgation
of truth is the fact that it involves inconvenience and reproach. This
is the only argument against the truth which its advocates have never
been able to refute. But this does not deter the true followers of Christ.
These do not wait for truth to become popular. Being convinced of
their duty, they deliberately accept the cross, with the apostle Paul
counting that “our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;” with one of
old, “esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures
in Egypt.”
2 Corinthians 4:17
;
Hebrews 11:26
.
Whatever may be their profession, it is only those who are world
servers at heart that act from policy rather than principle in religious
things. We should choose the right because it is right, and leave
consequences with God. To men of principle, faith, and daring, the
world is indebted for its great reforms. By such men the work of
reform for this time must be carried forward.
Thus saith the Lord: “Hearken unto Me, ye that know righteous-
ness, the people in whose heart is My law; fear ye not the reproach
of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall eat
them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like wool: but
My righteousness shall be forever, and My salvation from generation
to generation.”
Isaiah 51:7, 8
.
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