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Testimonies on Sexual Behavior, Adultery, and Divorce
these to open the heart to unbelief, which causes the Spirit of God to
depart....
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It is Satan’s constant work to lead minds to deny the light. It takes
but a step to leave the straightforward path, and enter a diverging path
where Satan leads the way.—
Letter 33, 1888
(written March 21, 1888).
Healing From Sin’s Wound—Dear Brother M: I have had much
burden of soul in your behalf, but at the same time strong confidence
in God that He would on this occasion lead you to see your mistakes
and errors. I so much desire that you, for your sake and for Christ’s
sake, should so humble your heart by confessing your sins, that the
burden shall be lifted from your soul, and the prayers of your brethren
be united with your prayers, and you be healed from the wound sin
has made....
My brother, you have walked away from the light into dark places.
When I was laboring with you so earnestly, when in an agony of
distress in your behalf in _____, oh, why did you not there pity me as
well as yourself? Why did you not lift this soul-crushing burden from
my heart by acknowledging your sins? Why did you not consider Jesus
who was being by you pierced afresh and put to open shame? Why
did you deny Christ? Oh, my brother, my soul feels deeply for you! I
urged home upon you the light in which your case was presented to
me, and I am not exaggerating when I tell you that my soul was wrung
with anguish. Why did you stand back, as if unimpressed?
Need of True Repentance—Why did you justify yourself at every
point, and let this weight press heavier and heavier upon your own
soul, and bring so heavy labor upon me? Why manifest this cold, icy
hesitancy to acknowledge your wrongs? Is the high standard of God’s
holy law too severe? Is the self-denial, the lofty purity of thought that
is demanded, too much of a constraint, too irksome to be endured? No
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requirement is given you which it will not increase your happiness to
obey. I know you are suffering. I know you are not happy, and I suffer
with you, because you are a member of the body of Christ.
You have enjoyed the love of Jesus, the peace of Christ, in large
measure. Most terrible doubts and waverings are torturing your soul.
Why not submit to God? Why encase your soul in barriers that will
not let the light in? Will my brother see and appreciate the value of his
own soul and Christ’s work that the gift of eternal life might be placed