2T 121, 224
(Testimonies for the Church Volume 2 121, 224)
We are living in an evil age. The perils of the last days thicken around us. Because iniquity abounds, the love of many waxes cold. Enoch walked with God three hundred years. Now the shortness of time seems to be urged as a motive to seek righteousness. Should it be necessary that the terrors of the day of God be held before us in order to compel us to right action? Enoch’s case is before us. Hundreds of years he walked with God. He lived in a corrupt age, when moral pollution was teeming all around him; yet he trained his mind to devotion, to love purity. His conversation was upon heavenly things. He educated his mind to run in this channel, and he bore the impress of the divine. His countenance was lighted up with the light which shineth in the face of Jesus. Enoch had temptations as well as we. He was surrounded with society no more friendly to righteousness than is that which surrounds us. The atmosphere he breathed was tainted with sin and corruption, the same as ours; yet he lived a life of holiness. He was unsullied with the prevailing sins of the age in which he lived. So may we remain pure and uncorrupted. He was a representative of the saints who live amid the perils and corruptions of the last days. For his faithful obedience to God he was translated. So, also, the faithful, who are alive and remain, will be translated. They will be removed from a sinful and corrupt world to the pure joys of heaven. (2T 121.1) MC VC
You are in terrible darkness, and unless you arise in the name of God, and break asunder the fetters of Satan, and assert your freedom, you will make shipwreck of the faith. So great is the unwillingness of the Lord to leave you, and such is His love toward you, that notwithstanding your life has not been in accordance with His will, and your works and ways have been offensive to Him, the Majesty of heaven condescends to beg the privilege of making you a visit and leaving you His blessing: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock.” Revelation 3:20. The mansions in glory are His, and the joy of that heavenly abode; yet He humbles Himself to seek an entrance at the door of your heart, that He may bless you with His light and make you to rejoice in His glory. His work is to seek and to save that which is lost and ready to perish. He wishes to redeem as many as He can from sin and death, that He may elevate them to His throne and give them everlasting life. (2T 224.1) MC VC
Brother B, be entreated to arise and cast aside your doubts. What makes you inclined to doubt? It is your life of departure from God, your life of unconsecration, your jesting and joking. Your lack of sobriety is endangering your eternal interests. Christ is inviting you to turn from these follies to Him. You are not growing in grace and in the knowledge of the truth. You are not an honor to the cause. You are not becoming elevated, but are sinking lower and lower in the scale. You are not forming a character for heaven and everlasting life. (2T 224.2) MC VC
You are pleasing yourself, passing away time in frivolity which should be spent with your family, teaching your children the ways and works of God. The hours that you spend in company that does you only harm should be devoted to prayer and the study of God’s word. You should feel that a responsibility rests upon you, as head of your family, to bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. What account will you render to God for misspent time? What influence are you having over those who have not the fear of God before them? “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Matthew 5:16. May God anoint your eyes that you may see your peril. I feel deeply for you. My heart yearns over you. I long to see you coming up to the high standard that it is your privilege to attain. You can do good. Your influence, if exerted on the right side, will tell. Brother B, your footsteps are in the downward path. “Turn ye, turn ye,” “for why will ye die?” Ezekiel 33:11. (2T 224.3) MC VC