Manuscript Releases, vol. 4 [Nos. 210-259]

MR No. 242—Place a Right Estimate Upon Eternal Things

The same men are not to compose your boards year after year. Changes should have been made long ago. God would have the church roll away her reproach, but as long as men who have felt fully competent to work without accepting counsel of God are kept in office year after year, this cannot be done. This state of things is leavening every branch of the work, because men do not feel their need of the guidance of the Holy Spirit. When men feel competent to pronounce judgment and condemn the Holy Spirit, they do a work for themselves which will be difficult to counteract. The whole head becomes weak, and the discernment so weak that it is apt to judge unrighteously. The Spirit still calls, but they do not hear nor heed the call of God.—Letter 6, 1895, p. 7. (To “The Brethren Who Shall Assemble in General Conference,” October 21, 1894.) 4MR 358.1

Better far would be the cross, the disappointment, the shattered earthly prospect, the neglect of friends, the disapproval of the world, than to sit with princes, and lose heaven. 4MR 358.2

One passion after another, one project after another, sways the heart, and expels the Holy Spirit from the soul. The love of the world is permitted to come in and take possession of, and rule the heart but the Lord Jesus would have us, as rational creatures, place a right estimate upon eternal things, so as not to lose eternity out of our reckoning.—Manuscript 52, 1896, 1. (Untitled, undated.) 4MR 358.3

If we could only realize that in every congregation there may be souls who are being called upon for the last time to repent! who, like the Jewish nation, have advanced step by step almost imperceptibly in resistance of the Spirit of God, until spiritual blindness has taken the place of the light they once enjoyed. Under a spirit of unbelief, envy, and criticism, the evidences they have had are no longer evidence, but a matter of questioning and doubt. Truth is misunderstood, and perverted to mean error.... 4MR 359.1

Those who resist the Holy Spirit of God, and provoke Him to depart, know not to what lengths Satan will lead them. “O, that thou hadst known, even thou, in this thy day, the things that belong unto thy peace.” Shall the words of Christ be irrevocably spoken, “But now they are hid from thine eyes?” When the Holy Spirit departs from the human agents, they will do those things which they once viewed in a correct light. They will follow step by step in the footsteps of Satan. Who then can strive with them to any purpose? Will the minister plead for them and with them? All their words are as idle tales. These souls have Satan close beside them to misconstrue the words spoken, and bring them to their understanding in a perverted light. They are misinterpreted by them; for when the Spirit of God is grieved away, every appeal made through the Lord's servants is meaningless to them. They will misconstrue every word. They will laugh and turn into ridicule the most solemn words of Scripture, which, if they were not bewitched by satanic agencies, would make them tremble. Every appeal made to those who are in need of help is in vain. They will not hear a word of reproof or counsel. They despise all the entreaties of the Spirit, and disobey the commandments of God which they have once vindicated and exalted. Well may the words of the apostle come home to such souls, “Who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the truth?” They have followed the counsel of their own heart until truth is no more truth to them.—Manuscript 28, 1897, 11-13. (Manuscript entitled “Judas,” undated.) 4MR 359.2

The Pharisees sinned against the Holy Ghost. Their talent of speech was used to abuse the world's Redeemer, and the recording angel wrote their words in the books of heaven. They attributed to satanic agencies the holy power of God, manifested in the works of Christ. They could not evade His wonderful works, or attribute them to natural causes, so they said, “They are the works of the devil.” In unbelief they spoke of the Son of God as a human being. The works of healing done before them, works which no man had done or could do, were a manifestation of the power of God, but they charged Christ with being in league with hell. Stubborn, sullen, ironhearted, they determined to close their eyes to all evidence, and thus they committed the unpardonable sin.—Manuscript 73, 1897, 4, 5. (“Our Words,” July 2, 1897.) 4MR 360.1

God will not trust His Holy Spirit to those who would work contrary to its deep inward earnest working. Young men who will indulge in intemperate habits, in smoking and tampering with the wine cup, will so corrupt the principles of the soul, that these objectionable things become one with their nature, a part of themselves, not only to demoralize themselves, but others. Low gratifications indulged, and indulged continuously, degrade the entire being. The taste for evil and love of coarseness becomes natural. Stain after stain gathers like leprosy upon the soul, until they are suddenly destroyed, and that without remedy. The sinner may repent, and Jesus may accept his contrition, and will pardon his transgression, but the influence of that time of evil-doing upon others can never be entirely counteracted.—Manuscript 126, 1897, 13, 14. (“The Training of Children,” November 15, 1897.) 4MR 360.2

The sin of foolish talk is common among those who claim to believe the most solemn truths ever given to our world. Because of this commonplace, frivolous talk, the Spirit of the Lord is grieved away. Improper conversation is the reason of such a lack of faith and power among the people of God.—Letter 47, 1897, p. 2. (To Brethren Daniells and Palmer, June 28, 1897.) 4MR 361.1

There are special communications which the Lord makes through His word and His Spirit which always agree; but some peculiar bias of mind, some cultivated traits of character, make it impossible for the Lord to work us by His Holy Spirit, because we think we know how to work ourselves.—Letter 147, 1897, p. 6. (To Edson White, September 12, 1897.) 4MR 361.2

Oh, how my heart longs to see the workers place themselves in positions where the Lord can pour out His Holy Spirit abundantly upon them, that they may give God all the glory of the increase, and not take any credit to themselves. Here is where the Spirit of God is quenched. Man is placed where God should be, if any good is accomplished. God has not received the glory, and man has been exalted, as the one who gave the increase.—Letter 150, 1897, p. 2. (To “Dear Children,” November 6, 1897.) 4MR 361.3

The Lord sustained me through the camp meeting. I attended some counsel meetings which called out from me the reason why the Holy Spirit does not work among us. It is the unbelief of God and the lack of confidence in one another. It is the work of the power of darkness to lead us to suspect our brethren and stand apart as criticizers. At one meeting I think I read and talked to the ministers for two hours. I needed to brace up all I possibly could to do the work the Lord had appointed me to do.—Letter 7, 1899, pp. 1, 2. (To Elder and Mrs. S. N. Haskell, January 22, 1899.) 4MR 362.1

Those who do evil with their gossiping tongues, who sow discord by selfish ideas and thoughts by any jealousies, evil surmisings, or covetousness, they grieve the Holy Spirit of God, for they are working at cross-purposes with God, instead of answering the purposes of Christ, instead of answering the prayer of Christ that His disciples may be one as He is one with the Father. They are working entirely in the lines the enemy has marked out.—Letter 20, 1899, pp. 7, 7a. (To Philip Wessels, February 3, 1899.) 4MR 362.2

If the Holy Spirit is rejected, all my words will not help to remove, even for the time being, the false representations that have been made, and Satan stands ready to invent more. If the evidence already given is rejected, all other evidence will be useless until there is seen the converting power of God upon minds. If the convincing impressions of the Holy Spirit made in the past will not be accepted as trustworthy evidence, nothing that can be presented hereafter will reach them, because the bewitching guile of Satan has perverted their discernment.—Manuscript 61, 1906, 1, 2. (“Hold Fast the Beginning of Your Confidence”, June 3, 1906.) 4MR 362.3