With God at Dawn

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Destruction the Result of Disobedience, June 10

Obedience Follows New Birth

If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land: but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. Isaiah 1:19, 20. WGD 163.1

The want of respect for the counsel of a godly parent, is one of the marked sins of this degenerate age. There are many lives in our land that are dark and wretched because of one step taken in the dark. By one act of disobedience many a youth has blighted his whole life and weighed down a loving mother’s heart with anguish. God will not hold you guiltless if you follow in this course. By despising the counsel of a God-fearing mother, who would willingly give her life for her children, you are transgressing the fifth commandment. You know not where your steps are leading you. WGD 163.2

I again plead a mother’s claim, a mother’s love. There can be no baser ingratitude than that which marks the sin of disobedience to a Christian mother. In the days of your helpless infancy she watched over you; her prayers and tears were witnessed of Heaven as she affectionately cherished you. For her children she has toiled and planned, thought, prayed, and exercised self-denial. Through your whole life her true heart has been anxious and earnest for your welfare. And yet now you choose your own course; you follow your own blind, stubborn will, irrespective of the bitter harvest you will reap, and the sorrow you will bring her.—Testimonies for the Church 5:125. WGD 163.3

Disobedience has closed the door to a vast amount of knowledge that might have been gained from the Word of God. Had men been obedient, they would have understood the plan of God’s government. The heavenly world would have opened its chambers of grace and glory for exploration.—Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, 440. WGD 163.4