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Life Sketches of Ellen G. White
down, but the roots have never been eradicated, and they still bear
their unholy fruit to poison the judgment, pervert the perceptions, and
blind the understanding of those with whom you connect, in regard to
the message and the messengers. When, by thorough confession, you
destroy the root of bitterness, you will see light in God’s light. Without
this thorough work you will never clear your souls. You need to study
the word of God with a purpose, not to confirm your own ideas, but
to bring them to be trimmed, to be condemned or approved, as they
are or are not in harmony with the word of God. The Bible should
be your constant companion. You should study the Testimonies, not
to pick out certain sentences to use as you see fit, to strengthen your
assertions, while you disregard the plainest statements given to correct
your course of action.
“There has been a departure from God among us, and the zealous
work of repentance and return to our first love essential to restoration
to God and regeneration of heart, has not yet been done. Infidelity has
been making its inroads into our ranks; for it is the fashion to depart
from Christ, and give place to skepticism. With many the cry of the
heart has been, ‘We will not have this man to reign over us.’ Baal,
Baal, is the choice. The religion of many among us will be the religion
of apostate Israel, because they love their own way, and forsake the
way of the Lord. The true religion, the only religion of the Bible, that
teaches forgiveness only through the merits of a crucified and risen
Saviour, that advocates righteousness by the faith of the Son of God,
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has been slighted, spoken against, ridiculed, and rejected. It has been
denounced as leading to enthusiasm and fanaticism. But it is the life
of Jesus Christ in the soul, it is the active principle of love imparted by
the Holy Spirit, that alone will make the soul fruitful unto good works.
The love of Christ is the force and power of every message for God
that ever fell from human lips. What kind of a future is before us, if
we shall fail to come into the unity of the faith?
“When we are united in the unity for which Christ prayed, this long
controversy that has been kept up through satanic agency will end, and
we shall not see men framing plans after the order of the world because
they have not spiritual eyesight to discern spiritual things. They now
see men as trees walking, and they need the divine touch, that they
may see as God sees, and work as Christ worked. Then will Zion’s
watchmen unitedly sound the trumpet in clearer, louder notes; for they