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Don’t Shun the Cross, October 12
And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that
believeth with an infidel?
2 Corinthians 6:15
.
In the last vision given, I was shown that you were anxious that your
children should have as much religion as will render them agreeable to all,
without incurring the censure of any. The restraining influence of the Spirit
of God has affected them but little....
When we profess to be servants of Christ we should no longer serve the
world, and should not have union or fellowship with those who reject the
truths which we deem sacred. I was pointed to
1 John 2:6
. “He that saith he
abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.” “Abide in
me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in
the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the
branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much
fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (
John 15:4, 5
)....
You cannot measure yourselves by the world or by the opinions of others.
Your only safety is to compare your position with what it would have been
had your course been continually onward and upward since you professed to
be Christ’s followers. Your moral character is passing in review before God.
You are weighed in the balance of the sanctuary, and, if your spirituality does
not correspond with the benefits and privileges conferred upon you, you are
found wanting. Your path should have been growing brighter and brighter,
and you bringing forth much fruit to the glory of God.
You are wanting, yet rest as unconcerned and well satisfied as though the
cloud went before you by day and the pillar of fire by night as tokens of God’s
favor. You reckon yourselves among the chosen, peculiar people of God, and
yet have no manifestations or evidences of the power of God to save to the
uttermost. You have not separated from the world as God requires His people
to be separate....
The people of God are in constant warfare to maintain their peculiar and
holy character, and under no condition or circumstance is the cross of Christ to
be shunned or laid aside.—
Letter 9, October 12, 1861
, a personal testimony.
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