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Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers
Let God’s word be the guide and the rule of life. Let that word,
expressing His revealed commands, be obeyed. God summons
everyone to put forth all his powers as a responsible being, to do His
plainly specified will. If you do this, you will show it. Grappling
with your own inherent defects of character, which are at war with
spiritual advancement, is proof that you are doing your part of the
work.
Let none say a state of feeling is upon them in undue attachments,
unlawful love, that they cannot break away from. It is a deception.
You cherish the evil; you strengthen it. You love it better than you
love truth, purity, righteousness. You do not take hold of divine help,
wrenching yourselves from hurtful and dangerous associations. You
tamely give yourselves to the working of an evil way, as though you
had no free moral agency. Study God’s word prayerfully, meet its
demands firmly, resolutely, as did Joseph and Daniel. Lay hold upon
the help God has promised you.
You Must Choose
Will God compel your obedience, will He compel your will?
Never. The Lord has furnished you with capacities, with intelligence,
with reason. He has sent from heaven His only-begotten Son to open
the way for you, and to place within your reach immortality. What
account can you render to God for your weakness, your disobedience,
your impurity, your evil thoughts and evil works?
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God has appointed means, if we will use them diligently and
prayerfully, that no vessel shall be shipwrecked, but outride the
tempest and storm, and anchor in the haven of bliss at last. But if we
despise and neglect these appointments and privileges, God will not
work a miracle to save any of us, and we will be lost as were Judas
and Satan.
Do not think that God will work a miracle to save those weak
souls who cherish evil, who practice sin; or that some supernatural
element will be brought into their lives, lifting them out of self into
a higher sphere, where it will be comparatively easy work, without
any special effort, any special fighting, without any crucifixion of
self; because all who dally on Satan’s ground for this to be done will