498
The Great Controversy
Notwithstanding the Bible is full of warnings against false teachers,
many are ready thus to commit the keeping of their souls to the clergy.
There are today thousands of professors of religion who can give no
other reason for points of faith which they hold than that they were
so instructed by their religious leaders. They pass by the Saviour’s
teachings almost unnoticed, and place implicit confidence in the words
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of the ministers. But are ministers infallible? How can we trust our
souls to their guidance unless we know from God’s word that they
are light bearers? A lack of moral courage to step aside from the
beaten track of the world leads many to follow in the steps of learned
men; and by their reluctance to investigate for themselves, they are
becoming hopelessly fastened in the chains of error. They see that the
truth for this time is plainly brought to view in the Bible; and they
feel the power of the Holy Spirit attending its proclamation; yet they
allow the opposition of the clergy to turn them from the light. Though
reason and conscience are convinced, these deluded souls dare not
think differently from the minister; and their individual judgment, their
eternal interests, are sacrificed to the unbelief, the pride and prejudice,
of another.
Many are the ways by which Satan works through human influence
to bind his captives. He secures multitudes to himself by attaching
them by the silken cords of affection to those who are enemies of
the cross of Christ. Whatever this attachment may be, parental, filial,
conjugal, or social, the effect is the same; the opposers of truth exert
their power to control the conscience, and the souls held under their
sway have not sufficient courage or independence to obey their own
convictions of duty.
The truth and the glory of God are inseparable; it is impossible
for us, with the Bible within our reach, to honor God by erroneous
opinions. Many claim that it matters not what one believes, if his life
is only right. But the life is molded by the faith. If light and truth is
within our reach, and we neglect to improve the privilege of hearing
and seeing it, we virtually reject it; we are choosing darkness rather
than light.
“There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof
are the ways of death.”
Proverbs 16:25
. Ignorance is no excuse for
error or sin, when there is every opportunity to know the will of God.
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A man is traveling and comes to a place where there are several roads