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Testimonies to Southern Africa
with His requirements. But God will not be left without witness. The
one-hour labourers will be brought in at the eleventh hour, and will
consecrate their ability and all their entrusted means to advance the
work. These will receive the reward for their faithfulness, because
they are true to principle and shun not their duty to declare the whole
counsel of God. When those who have had abundance of light throw
off the restraint which the Word of God imposes, and make void His
law, others will come in to fill their place, and take their crown.
While many have reduced the Word, the Truth, the holy law of
Jehovah to a dead letter, and by their example testify that the law of
Jehovah is a hard, rigorous burden, while they say, We will lay off this
yoke; we will be free; we will no longer remain in covenant relation
with God; we will do as we please, there will be men who have had
very meagre opportunities, who have walked in ways of error because
they knew not any other or better way, to whom beams of light will
come. As the word from Christ came to Zacchaeus, “I must abide at
thy house,” so the word will come to them. And the one supposed to
be a hardened sinner will be found to have a heart as tender as a child,
because Christ has deigned to notice him.
[51]
Great is the work of the Lord. Men are choosing sides. Even those
supposed to be heathen will choose the side of Christ, while those
who become offended, as did the disciples, will go away and walk no
more with Him. And others will come in and occupy the place they
have left vacant. The time is very near when man shall have reached
the prescribed limits. He has now almost exceeded the bounds of the
long-suffering of God, the limits of His grace, the limits of His mercy.
The record of their works in the books of heaven is, “Weighed in the
balances, and found wanting.” The Lord will interfere to vindicate
His own honour, to repress the swellings of unrighteousness and bold
transgression.
What effect will the attempt of men to make void the law of God
have upon the righteous? Will they be intimidated because of the
universal scorn that is put upon the holy law of God? Will the true
believers in the “Thus saith the Lord” become wavering and ashamed
because the whole world seems to despise His righteous law? Will
they be carried away by the prevalence of evil? No; to those who have
consecrated themselves to God to serve Him, the law of God becomes
more precious when the contrast is shown between the obedient and