Testimony for the Church — No. 28

Epistle Number Three.

Bro. and Sr. ——: I have been shown the great mercy and infinite love of God in giving you another trial. There will be a positive necessity of your holding fast to the mighty Healer, that you may have physical and spiritual strength. You have poor health, but you are in danger of thinking that you are in a worse condition than you really are. You have not had power of endurance, because you have not cherished a patient, hopeful, courageous spirit. You yield to infirmities instead of rising above them. Temptations will assail you on the right hand and on the left, but by patient continuance in well-doing you may overcome the defects in your characters. T28 122.1

I was shown that your feet had indeed taken hold on perdition, but God did not wholly forsake either of you. His matchless mercy in giving you another opportunity to prove your loyalty to him calls upon you to walk with great humility and to guard self. You have petted and indulged yourselves so much, that you need now to work in an opposite direction. T28 123.1

You, Bro. ——, have been very selfish, and this has been contemptible in the sight of God. Your wife and yourself have stumbled again and again over this evil. Your powers have been greatly dwarfed by self-gratification and self-indulgence. Neither of you are deficient in natural reason and judgment, but you have followed inclination rather than the path of duty, and have failed to repress the wrong traits of character and to strengthen weak moral power. T28 123.2

Bro. ——, you are naturally an impatient, fretful, exacting man at home; and after a short acquaintance you show this out in new places. You frequently talk in an impatient, overbearing manner. This must all be repented of. You may now begin anew. God has in his boundless mercy given you another chance. Your wife has much in herself to contend against, and you should be on your guard that you do not throw her upon Satan's ground. Fretting, fault-finding, and making strong statements must be given up. What time have you set to gain the victory over your perverse will and the defects in your character? With the advancement you now make, your probation may close before you have made the determined efforts essential to give you the victory over self. You will in the providence of God be placed in positions where your peculiarities will be tried and revealed, if existing. You do not see nor realize the effect of your thoughtless, impatient, complaining, whining words. T28 123.3

Yourself and wife have another golden opportunity to suffer for Christ's sake. If you do this complainingly, you will have no reward; if willingly, gladly, having the same spirit which Peter possessed after his apostasy, you will be victors. He felt a sense of his cowardly denial of Christ through his lifetime; and when called to suffer martyrdom for his faith, the humiliating fact was ever before him, and he begged that he might not be crucified in the exact manner of his Lord, fearing that would be too great an honor after his apostasy. His request was that he might be crucified with his head downward. What a sense did Peter have of his sin in denying his Lord! What a conversion he experienced! His life ever after was a life of repentance and humiliation. T28 124.1

You may have cause to tremble when you see God through his law. When Moses thus saw the majesty of God he exclaimed, “I exceedingly fear and quake!” The condemnation of the law pronounced death upon the transgressor. Then the atoning sacrifice was presented before Moses. The cleansing blood of Christ was revealed to purify the sinner, and his fears were swept away as the morning fog before the beams of the rising sun. Thus he saw it might be with the sinner. Through repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, pardon is written, and the Sun of Righteousness sheds his bright, healing beams upon him, dispelling the doubt and fear that befog the soul. Moses came down from the mount where he had been in converse with God, his face shining with a heavenly luster which was reflected upon the people. He appeared to them like an angel direct from glory. That divine brightness was painful to those sinners; they ran away from Moses, and begged that the bright glory might be covered from their sight lest it slay them if they came near him. T28 125.1

Moses had been a student. He was well educated in all the learning of the Egyptians; but this was not the only qualification which he needed to prepare him for his work. He was, in the providence of God, to learn patience, to temper his passions. In a school of self-denial and of hardships he was to receive an education which would be of the utmost importance to him. These trials would prepare him to exercise a fatherly care over all who needed his help. No knowledge, no study, no eloquence could be a substitute for this experience in trials to one who was to watch for souls as they that must give account. In doing the work of a humble shepherd, forgetful of self, interested for the flock given to his charge, he was to become fitted for the most exalted work ever intrusted to mortals—that of being a shepherd of the sheep of the Lord's pasture. Those who fear God in the world must be connected with him. Christ is the most perfect educator the world ever knew. To receive wisdom and knowledge from Christ was more valuable to Moses than all the learning of the Egyptians. T28 126.1

Bro. and Sr. ——, I entreat of you to be in earnest, and come to God through Jesus Christ. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” He who spends his talents and his means in self-indulgence, in gratification of the lower passions, will reap corruption. His harvest is sure. His mind will lose its susceptibility and power. His intellect will be shattered, and his life shortened. God requires you to make more thorough efforts to subdue and control self. I was shown that God and angels are ready and waiting to help you in this important work. If you delay, if you are even dilatory, it may be too late. Your probation is lengthened, your character is now forming, and soon, my dear brother and sister, it will be stereotyped forever. Half-way work with you will not advance you one step toward Heaven. Indecision soon becomes decision in the wrong direction. Many decide to serve themselves and Satan, by not making determined efforts to overcome their defects of character. While many are petting sinful propensities, expecting to be overcomers sometime, they are deciding for perdition. You, Bro. and Sr. ——, in the name of Jesus Christ, may be victorious even now “in this thy day.” Do not plan and study for self. You cannot be wholly the Lord's while encouraging any degree of selfishness. Such great love as the Redeemer has shown you should be received with great humility and continual rejoicing. In order to be happy, control your thoughts and words. It will require a masterly effort on your part; nevertheless it must be done, if you are the acknowledged children of God. Be not weary in your effort. Satan is battling for your souls, and he must be disappointed. T28 126.2

When you, Bro. ——, first commence to labor in a place, you generally have the confidence of the people; but after a more thorough acquaintance your defects of character become so apparent that many lose confidence in your piety. Reflections are thus cast upon the ministers of the whole fraternity. A short stay in a place would not injure your reputation. While engaged in earnest labor, pressed by opposing influences, your mind is absorbed in the work in which you are engaged, and you have not time nor opportunity to think and reflect upon yourself. But when the work is over, and you begin to think upon self, as is natural for you to do, you pet yourself, become babyish, sharp and cross in temper, and thus greatly mar the work of God. You manifest the same spirit in the church, and your influence is thus much injured in the community,—in some cases beyond remedy. You have frequently exhibited childish contention, even while laboring to convert souls to the truth, and the impressions made have been terrible upon those who were witnesses. Now, one of two things must be done; you must either be a consecrated man at home, in your family, and in the church, at all times tender and patient, or you must not settle down in a church. For your defects will be made apparent, and the Redeemer you profess to love and serve will be dishonored. T28 128.1

The faith of Moses led him to look at the things which are unseen, which are eternal. He left the splendid attractions of court life because sin was there. He gave up present and seeming good that flatters only to ruin and destroy. The real attractions, the eternal, were of value to him. The sacrifices made by Moses were really no sacrifices. With him it was letting go a present, apparent, flattering good, for a sure, high, immortal good. T28 129.1

Moses endured the reproach of Christ, considering reproach greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt. He believed what God had said, and was not influenced to swerve from his integrity by any of the world's reproaches. He walked the earth as God's free man. He had the love of Christ in the soul temple, which made him not only a man of dignity, but added the luster of the true Christian graces to the dignity of the man. Moses walked a rough and perilous path, but he looked to the things unseen and faltered not. The recompense of reward was attractive to Moses, and it may be also to us. Moses was familiar with God. T28 129.2

The work is before you to improve the remnant of your life in reforming and elevating the character. A new life begins in the renewed soul. Christ is the indwelling Saviour. That which may be regarded as hard to give up must be yielded. The overbearing, dictatorial word must be left unspoken, then a precious victory is gained. True happiness will be the result of every self-denial, every crucifixion of self. One victory won, the next is more easily gained. Had Moses neglected the opportunities and privileges granted him of God, he would have neglected the light from Heaven, and been a disappointed, miserable man. Sin is from beneath; when indulged, Satan is enshrined in the soul, there to kindle the very fires of hell. God has not given his law to prevent the salvation of souls, but he wants all to be saved. Man has light and opportunities, and if he will improve them, he may overcome. You may show by your lives the power of the grace of God in overcoming. Satan is trying to set up his throne in the soul temple. When he reigns he makes himself heard and felt in angry passions, in words of bitterness that grieve and wound. But as light has no communion with darkness, and Christ no union with Belial, the man must be wholly for one or the other. In indulging self, in avariciousness, in deception, in fraud, or sin of any kind, he encourages the elements of Satan in his soul, and closes the doors of Heaven to himself. T28 130.1

Because of sin, Satan was thrust out of Heaven; and no man, indulging and fostering sin, can go to Heaven, for then Satan would have a foothold there again. When a man is earnestly engaged day by day in overcoming the defects in his character, he is cherishing Christ in his soul temple. The light of Christ is in him. Under the bright beams of the light of Christ's countenance, his entire being is becoming elevated and ennobled. He has the peace of Heaven in his soul. Many give loose reins to passion, to avariciousness, to selfishness and deception, and all the time are excusing themselves and laying the blame on the circumstances which brought around the trial to themselves. This has been your case. You could have made your surroundings. God permitted your surroundings to exist to develop character. By resisting or enduring temptation, circumstances are controlled by the might of the will in the name of Jesus. This is overcoming as Christ overcame. “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.” T28 131.1

Bro. ——, God is merciful to you. Your life has been a mistake, nothing what it might have been and should have been. There has not been in you genuine manliness, true elevation and purity of feeling. You have not had proper self-respect, and therefore have not had proper respect for others. You have not magnified Christ and the power of his grace. You have needed guardians all the way along through life. The same frivolity and fickleness, the same inconsideration and lack of self-control, the same selfishness and impatience which was seen in your conduct at an early period of your life, is developed in a marked manner when past the meridian of life. This need not have been, had you put away childish feelings and childish temper, and put on the firmness of the man. You have favored yourselves altogether to your injury. Your pains and infirmities have been magnified. You look at them, and complainingly talk of them, but do not look away to Jesus. Think how little you suffer, how little you endure in comparison with the sufferings of Jesus Christ; and he was sinless,—the just suffering for the unjust. T28 131.2

A good tree will not produce corrupt fruit. Good conversation will accompany a good conscience as surely as good fruit will be produced by a good tree. If a man is unkind and churlish in his family and to others connected with him, no one need to inquire how he will manage in the church. He will exhibit the same petulant, overbearing disposition which he shows at home. No man can have the spirit and the mind of Christ Jesus without being rendered better by it in all the relations and duties of life. Murmuring, complaining, and fretful passion are not the fruit of good principles. You will need to be instant in prayer, because you have not strengthened the high, noble, moral traits of character. This is to be done now by you. The work will be difficult, but positively essential. T28 132.1

While in Texas you were hopeless, and felt yourself forsaken of God and man. But now that you again make a start, let the work of reformation be thorough, your repentance such as needeth not to be repented of. The best of your days, so far as health and vigor are concerned, are in the past; but with proper habits, a cheerful mind, a clear conscience in reference to present deportment, you may turn your defeat into victory. You have no time to lose. Your wife can help you in all your efforts in the harvest-field. If she is sanctified through the truth, she can be a blessing to you and to the cause of God, in conversing with others and being social. T28 133.1

Many falter and fall through the indulgence of a perverse temper. Alexander and Caesar found it much easier to subdue a kingdom than to rule their own spirits. After conquering nations, the world's so called great men fell, one of them through the indulgence of appetite—a victim of intemperance—the other through presumption and mad ambition. T28 133.2

God calls upon you to yield pride and stubbornness, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts. The meek and quiet spirit must be cherished. Carry Christ's meekness with you in all your labors. An excited temper and cutting censure will not impress the people or gain their sympathy. If we have the truth we can afford to be calm and unexcited. Our language should be modest and elevated. The spirit you have cherished within has left its impression upon the countenance. Christ, enthroned in the soul temple, will efface that fretful, peevish, unhappy look; and as the cloud of witnesses look upon a man reflecting the image of Christ, they will realize that he is surrounded by a pleasant atmosphere. The world will see that amid storms of abuse he stands unmoved like the lofty cedar. That man is one of God's heroes. He has overcome himself. T28 134.1

The largest share of the annoyances of life, its daily corroding cares, its heartaches, its irritation, is the result of a temper uncontrolled. The domestic circle is often broken by a hasty word and abusive language. How much better were it left unsaid. One smile of pleasure, one peaceful, approving word spoken in the spirit of meekness would be a power to soothe, to comfort, and to bless. The government of self is the best government in the world. By putting on the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, ninety-nine out of a hundred of the troubles which so terribly embitter life might be saved. Many excuse their hasty words and passionate tempers by saying, “I am sensitive; I have a hasty temperament.” This will never heal the wounds made by hasty, passionate words. Some, indeed, are naturally more passionate than others; but this spirit can never harmonize with the Spirit of God. The natural man must die, and the new man Christ Jesus take possession of the soul, so that the follower of Jesus may say in verity and truth, “I live, yet not I, for Christ liveth in me.” Self is difficult to conquer. Human depravity in every form is not easily brought into subjection to the spirit of Christ. But all should be impressed with the fact that unless this victory is gained through Jesus Christ, there is no hope for them. The victory can be gained, for nothing is impossible with God. By his assisting grace all evil temper, all human depravity may be overcome. Every Christian must learn of Christ who, when he was reviled, reviled not again, T28 134.2

The work before you is no light task, no child's play. You have failed to go forward to perfection. But now you may begin anew. You may show by your life what the power and grace of God can do in transforming the natural man to a spiritual man in Christ Jesus. You may be overcomers if you will, in the name of Christ, decidedly take hold of the work. T28 136.1

There is one solemn statement I wish you to write upon your hearts: When persons have yielded to Satan's devices and thus placed themselves upon his ground, if they recover themselves from his snares through the mercy of God, they must come into close connection with him, daily crucify self, and be thoroughly transformed, in order to gain the victory and win eternal life. You both went a long distance from God. You have brought a great reproach upon his cause. Now you must be most zealously in earnest to overcome every defect in your characters, and by a life of humiliation, and trusting, pleading prayer, in faith, ask God for Christ's sake to cancel the past, so that the seeds of evil that you have sown may not be extended, and be treasured up as wrath against the day of wrath. T28 136.2

Now to go on in the same course, fractious in spirit, petting yourselves, babyishly talking of your infirmities, expatiating upon your feelings, and dwelling upon the dark side, will make you weak and spiritless. It was these things that made you easy subjects to Satan's devices. If you begin the same course you were pursuing when your feet began to slip, your case will be hopeless. If you break off your sins by repentance, and avoid the fearful consequences by taking refuge in a Saviour's intercession, pleading with God earnestly for his Spirit that you may be led, and taught, and quickened, you may reap life everlasting. Do not fail to unitedly, humbly, cast your helpless souls in faith upon the merits of Christ. T28 136.3

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