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| As a people we are to prepare the way of the Lord. Every iota of ability God has given us must be put to use in preparing the people after God's fashion, after His spiritual mold, to stand in this great day of God's preparation; and the serious question may be awakened in world-loving hearts, "What is eternity to us? How will my case stand in the investigative judgment? What will be my lot and place?" Many who suppose they are going to heaven are blindfolded by the world. Their ideas of what constitutes a religious education and religious discipline are vague, resting only on probabilities; there are many who have no intelligent hope, and are running great risk in practicing the very things which Jesus has taught that they should not do, in eating, drinking, and dressing, binding themselves up with the world in a variety of ways. They have yet to learn the serious lessons so essential to growth in spirituality, to come out from the world and be separate. The heart is divided, the carnal mind craves conformity, similarity to the world in so many ways that the mark of distinction from the world is scarcely distinguishable. Money, God's money, is expended in order to make an appearance after the world's customs; the religious experience is contaminated with worldliness, and the evidence of discipleship -- Christ's likeness in self-denial and cross-bearing -- is not discernible by the world or by the universe of heaven. {FE 311.2} |
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| The Christian soldier will be trained through daily tests to prove his fidelity. If in compliance with the conditions, efforts are constantly made to "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." then God will do all he has promised; we shall have our names registered in the Lamb's book of life, and in the investigative judgment, the True Witness says, I will not blot out his name out of the book of life." The names of the faithful will stand as sons and daughters of God, members of the royal family, children of the Heavenly King. I have been shown that there exists a lamentable ignorance in regard to the guile that lurks in the human heart, which constantly inclines to self-indulgence, to pride, to self-importance, to love of self-exaltation, to seek the praise of men. {PH167 6.1} |
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| I long daily to be able to do double duty. I have been pleading with the Lord for strength and wisdom to reproduce the writings of the witnesses who were confirmed in the faith and in the early history of the message. After the passing of the time in 1844 they received the light and walked in the light, and when the men claiming to have new light would come in with their wonderful messages regarding various points of Scripture, we had, through the moving of the Holy Spirit, testimonies right to the point, which cut off the influence of such messages as Elder G has been devoting his time to presenting. [REFERENCE IS HERE MADE TO TEACHINGS ON THE SANCTUARY QUESTION--AT VARIANCE WITH THOSE HELD BY SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTISTS THROUGH THE YEARS--WHICH DENIED THE FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY IN 1844 AND REPUDIATED THE MINISTRY OF CHRIST IN THE INVESTIGATIVE JUDGMENT.--COMPILERS.] This poor man has been working decidedly against the truth that the Holy Spirit has confirmed. {1SM 160.4} |
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| The work will be similar to that of the day of Pentecost. As the "former rain" was given, in the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at the opening of the gospel, to cause the upspringing of the precious seed, so the "latter rain" will be given at its close, for the ripening of the harvest. "Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord; his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." [HOSEA 6:3.] "Be glad then, ye children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God; for he hath given you the former rain moderately, and he will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain." [JOEL 2:23.] "In the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh." "And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." [ACTS 2:17, 21.] The great work of the gospel is not to close with less manifestation of the power of God than marked its opening. The prophecies which were fulfilled in the outpouring of the former rain at the opening of the gospel, are again to be fulfilled in the latter rain at its close. Here are "the times of refreshing" to which the apostle Peter looked forward when he said, "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out [ in the investigative Judgment ], when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus." [ACTS 3:19, 20.] {GC88 611.1} |
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