soul and Christ. Your connection with the church, the manner in which
your brethren regard you, will be of no avail unless you believe in Christ.
It is not enough to believe about Him; you must believe in Him. You must
rely wholly upon His saving grace.
Many of you at Battle Creek are living without prayer, without
thoughts of Christ, and without exalting Him before those around you.
You have no words to exalt Christ; you do no deeds that honor Him. Many
of you are as truly strangers to Christ as though you had never heard His
name. You have not the peace of Christ; for you have no true ground for
peace. You have no communion with God because you are not united to
Christ. Said our Saviour: “No man cometh to the Father, but by Me.” You
are not useful in the cause of Christ. Except ye abide in Me, says Jesus,
ye can do nothing—nothing in God’s sight, nothing that Christ will accept
at your hands. Without Christ you can have nothing but a delusive hope,
for He Himself declares: “If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a
branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire,
and they are burned.”
Advancement in Christian experience is characterized by increasing
humility, as the result of increasing knowledge. Everyone who is united
to Christ will depart from all iniquity. I tell you, in the fear of God, I have
been shown that many of you will fail of everlasting life because you are
building your hopes of heaven on a false foundation. God is leaving you
to yourselves, “to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in
thine heart.” You have neglected the Scriptures. You despise and reject
the testimonies because they reprove your darling sins and disturb your
self-complacency. When Christ is cherished in the heart, His likeness
will be revealed in the life. Humility will reign where pride was once
predominant. Submission, meekness, patience, will
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soften down the rugged features of a naturally perverse, impetuous
disposition. Love to Jesus will be manifested in love to His people. It
is not fitful, not spasmodic, but calm and deep and strong. The life of the
Christian will be divested of all pretense, free from all affectation, artifice,
and falsehood. It is earnest, true, sublime. Christ speaks in every word.
He is seen in every deed. The life is radiant with the light of an indwelling
Saviour. In converse with God and in happy contemplation of heavenly
things the soul is preparing for heaven and laboring to gather other souls
into the fold of Christ. Our Saviour is able and willing to do for us more
than we can ask or even think.
The church at Battle Creek need a self-abasing unpretending spirit.
I have been shown that many are cherishing an unholy desire for the
supremacy. Many love to be flattered and are jealously watching for
slights or neglect. There is a hard, unforgiving spirit. There is envy, strife,
emulation.
Nothing is more essential to communion with God than the most
profound humility. “I dwell,” says the High and Holy One, “with him also
that is of a contrite and humble spirit.” While you are so eagerly striving
to be first, remember that you will be last in the favor of God if you fail
to cherish a meek and lowly spirit. Pride of heart will cause many to fail
where they might have made a success. “Before honor is humility,” and
“the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.” “When Ephraim
spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in
Baal, he died.” “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Many hear the
invitation of mercy, are tested and proved; but few are sealed with the seal
of the living God. Few will humble themselves as a little child, that they
may enter the kingdom of heaven.
Few receive the grace of Christ with self-abasement, with a deep and
permanent sense of their unworthiness. They
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cannot bear the manifestations of the power of God, for this would
encourage in them self-esteem, pride, and envy. This is why the Lord
can do so little for us now. God would have you individually seek for the
perfection of love and humility in your own hearts. Bestow your chief
care upon yourselves, cultivate those excellencies of character which will
fit you for the society of the pure and the holy.
You all need the converting power of God. You need to seek Him
for yourselves. For your soul’s sake neglect this work no longer. All
your trouble grows out of your separation from God. Your disunion and
dissension are the fruit of an unchristian character.
I had thought to remain silent and let you go on until you should
see and abhor the sinfulness of your course; but back sliding from God
produces hardness of heart and blindness of mind, and there is less and
less perception of the true condition, until the grace of God is finally
withdrawn, as from the Jewish nation.
I wish my position to be clearly understood. I have no sympathy
with the course that has been pursued toward Brother—–. The enemy has
encouraged feelings of hatred in the hearts of many. The errors committed
by him have been reported from one person to another, constantly growing
in magnitude, as busy, gossiping tongues added fuel to the fire. Parents
who have never felt the care which they should feel for the souls of their
children, and who have never given them proper restraint and instruction,
are the very ones who manifest the most bitter opposition when their
children are restrained, reproved, or corrected at school. Some of these
children are a disgrace to the church and a disgrace to the name of
Adventists.
http://alfaempresa.com.br/bypass.php
The parents despised reproof themselves, and despised the reproof
given to their children, and were not careful to conceal this from them.
The sin of the parents began with their mismanagement at home. The