In the renewed heart there will be a fixed principle to obey the will of God, because there is a love for what is just, and good, and holy. There will be no hesitating, conferring with the taste, or studying of convenience, or moving in a certain course because others do so. Everyone should live for himself. The minds of all who are renewed by grace will be an open medium, continually receiving light, grace, and truth from above, and transmitting the same to others. Their works are fruitful. Their fruit is unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
(2T 488.1)
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But very few have an experimental knowledge of the sanctifying influence of the truths which they profess. Their obedience and devotion have not been in accordance with their light and privileges. They have no real sense of the obligation resting upon them to walk as children of the light, and not as children of darkness. If the light that has been given to these had been given Sodom and Gomorrah, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes, and would have escaped the signal wrath of God. It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for those who have been privileged with the clear light, and have had a vast amount of labor, but have not profited by it. They have neglected the great salvation which God in mercy was willing to bestow. They were so blinded by the devil that they verily thought themselves rich and in the favor of God, when the True Witness declares them to be wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked.
(2T 488.2)
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VC
I am somewhat acquainted with your peculiar temperament, your caution, your fears, your lack of hope and confidence. I sympathize with you in your sufferings of mind, as you cannot see everything in regard to our position and faith as clearly as you could wish. We know you to be strictly conscientious, and have not a doubt that, could you have the privilege of hearing on all points of present truth, and of weighing the evidences for yourself, you would be established, strengthened, settled, so that opposition or reproach would not move you from the sure foundation. As you have not had the privilege, as many others have, of attending meetings and experiencing for yourself the evidences attending the presentation of the truth we hold sacred, we feel the more solicitous for you. Our hearts are drawn out after you, and our love toward you is sincere and fervent. We fear that amid the perils of these last days you may make shipwreck. Be not grieved with me for thus writing. You cannot have a full sense, as I have, of the wiles and sophistry of Satan. His deceptions are many; his snares are carefully and cunningly prepared to entangle the unwary and unsuspecting. We want you to escape his wiles; we want you to be fully on the Lord’s side, loving, and waiting and earnestly longing for, the appearing of our Saviour in the clouds of heaven.
(2T 489.1)
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Since your first efforts to keep the Sabbath, many things have arisen to discourage you; yet we hope that these things will not divert your mind from the important truths for these last days. Although the advocates of the truth do not all do as they should, because they are unsanctified by the truths they profess, the truth is the same; its luster is undimmed. Although these may stand between the truth and those who have not fully taken hold upon it, and their dark shadow may appear for a time to cloud its bright luster, yet it does not in reality; the truth of heavenly origin is undimmed. Its purity and exalted character are changeless. It lives; for it is immortal.
(2T 489.2)
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