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The Publishing Ministry
they will counterwork the action of My providence. I will try them
as by fire to see if they will learn the lesson that I desire to teach
them.”—
Testimonies for the Church 8:101-103
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Perils of Leaders Who Exalt Their Own Will—I am instructed
that those who follow on in a wrong course, regardless of the lessons
taught by the burning of the Sanitarium and the Review and Herald
office, are revealing the stubbornness of Pharaoh. They are refusing
to be admonished by the judgments of Heaven, and are pressing on
without realizing that these things call them to search their hearts
closely and humble themselves before God. Unless they repent, the
Lord will surely repeat His judgments, as He repeated them to the
king of Egypt. God bears long with the perversity of men. He sends
them decided reproofs and clear light, but if they will not receive the
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warnings of God, if they persist in following their own will, their own
impulses, the Lord will send His judgments and will not pardon their
persistent determination to be like the people of the world....
I am sorry, so sorry that men will be willfully obstinate, as was
Pharaoh the king of Egypt and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon;
but so it is. Let all be warned by the messages sent from heaven
that when any man shall exalt his own ways and his own judgment
as supreme, he will come under Satan’s jurisdiction and will be led
blindfold by him until his spirit and his methods will conform to the
archdeceiver, little by little, until his whole mind is under the influence
of the spell. The serpent keeps its eye fixed upon a man, to charm him,
until he has no power to go from the snare.—
Manuscript 122, 1905
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What Lesson Is God Teaching Us?—We must learn the meaning
of the destruction of two of our largest institutions. We cannot afford to
look with indifference on these things. What lesson is God teaching us?
Is He not trying to show us the need of closely examining ourselves,
that we may see whether we be in the faith or not? Is He not trying
to lead us to give more thought to the subject of the time in which
we are living? The signs of the times fulfilling all around us show
us that the end of all things is at hand. Intense earnestness should
take possession of us. Our slumbering energies should be aroused
by persevering effort. Consecrated workers should go forth into the
field and move understandingly forward, clearing the King’s highway,
obtaining victories in new places.—
Letter 43, 1903
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