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Appeal and Warning
371
would only hear and follow His voice, rendering obedience to His
commandments, He would lead them above the mists of skepticism
and unbelief, and place their feet upon the Rock, where they might
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breathe the atmosphere of security and triumph.
While engaged in earnest prayer, I was lost to everything around
me; the room was filled with light, and I was bearing a message
to an assembly that seemed to be the General Conference. I was
moved by the Spirit of God to make a most earnest appeal; for I
was impressed that great danger was before us at the heart of the
work. I had been, and still was, bowed down with distress of mind
and body, burdened with the thought that I must bear a message to
our people at Battle Creek to warn them against a line of action that
would separate God from the publishing house.
Reproof for the Church
The eyes of the Lord were bent upon the people in sorrow min-
gled with displeasure, and the words were spoken: “I have somewhat
against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember there-
fore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works;
or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick
out of his place, except thou repent.”
He who wept over impenitent Israel, noting their ignorance of
God and of Christ their Redeemer, looked upon the heart of the work
at Battle Creek. Great peril was about the people, but some knew it
not. Unbelief and impenitence blinded their eyes, and they trusted
to human wisdom in the guidance of the most important interests of
the cause of God relating to the publishing work. In the weakness
of human judgment, men were gathering into their finite hands the
lines of control, while God’s will, God’s way and counsel, were
not sought as indispensable. Men of stubborn, ironlike will, both in
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and out of the office, were confederating together, [
See appendix.
] determined to drive certain measures through in accordance with
their own judgment.
Need of Spiritual Discernment
I said to them: “You cannot do this. The control of these large
interests cannot be vested wholly in those who make it manifest