Example of the Ephesians
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angels, and learning lessons from them in the art of deceiving your
own souls and the souls of others?
What about the magical books? What have you been reading?
How have you been employing your time? Have you been seeking to
study the sacred oracles in order that you may hear the voice of God
speaking to you out of His word? The world is deluged with books
which sow the seeds of skepticism, infidelity, and atheism, and to a
larger or less degree you have been learning your lessons from these
books, and they are magical books. They put God out of the mind, and
separate the soul from the true Shepherd.
Mind Unfitted for Solemn Thought
The volumes you have read have been devised by the agents of
Satan to bewitch the mind with theories formed in the synagogue
of Satan, to show you how you may serve the evil one with satanic
dignity. How numerous are the books of infidel tendencies, which
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are calculated to unsettle the mind through specious doubts! Satan
has breathed his poisonous breath upon them, and a deadly, spiritual
malaria affects the soul that reads them.
What a mass of fictitious reading is there in the world, to fill the
mind with fancies and follies, thus creating a disrelish for the words of
truth and righteousness! The mind is thus unfitted for solemn thought,
for patient, persevering investigation of the Scriptures, which is the
guide book by which you are to be directed to the paradise of God.
Much is written in regard to gaining earthly treasure, as though
the wealth of this world would buy us a passport into heaven. What
volumes of history have been written, filled with the daring, presump-
tuous achievements of men whose lives do not throw one glimmer of
light upon the pathway that leads to the better country!
Misleading Books
How many books are there concerning war and bloodshed, which
mislead the youth! As they read, Satan stands at their side to inspire
them with the spirit of the warrior of whom they read, and their blood
becomes heated in their veins, and they are stirred up to do cruel
actions. How numerous are immoral books, which lead to unholy