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72:2

@@@^“To punish those who were supposed to be evil doers, the church has had recourse to the civil power. Those who differed from the established doctrines have been imprisoned, put to torture and to death, at the instigation of men who claimed to be acting under the sanction of Christ. But it is the spirit of Satan, not the Spirit of Christ, that inspires such acts. This is Satan’s own method of bringing the world under his dominion. God has been misrepresented through the church by this way of dealing with those supposed to be heretics.” — @9Christ’s Object Lessons@7, p. 74 .

72:3

@@@^But as the church today is virtually everywhere in subordination to the state, and therefore utterly powerless to impose the penalty of imprisonment, torture, and death, as her predecessors frequently did, in punishment for supposed heresy, the threat of excommunication is consequently the highest price that the Denomination is able to impose upon any who would dare to awaken her sleepers. Likewise it is become her strongest weapon for persuading the awakened to retract and to lapse back into Laodicean slumber and sleep. Actually, though, this tyrannical practice is itself now deepening the realization, among the followers of Inspiration, that Satan’s subversive agents are in complete control of the Denomination, and are doing everything possible to cast out everyone who dares give heed to the Voice of Omnipotent God above the voice of idolized men, in spite of the fact that she ever roundly condemned other denominations for excommunicating nonconformists. Indeed we hear her loudly decrying such tyranny no further back that a bare fifteen years ago, when, in the following editorial, she declared:

73:3

@@@^But her now condoning in her own house the very evil which she so vigorously condemned in others, leaves her as unfit and useless for her Divine task as a dumb dog would be (Isa. 56:10) if put to watch its master’s house. She not only “will not bark” (@9Testimonies@7, Vol. 5, p. 211) but also will not even hear the voice of God, condemning her unholy practice, while He is strengthening the faith and fortitude of her “outcasts,” as prophetically uttered in the following passage:

74:2

@@@^Brethren, may you make the good and wise choice, make sure to stand on Mount Zion with the Lamb, ready to board Heaven’s flying saucer (@9Early Writings@7 pp. 287, 288) at the sound of the trumpet, the blast which will be heard round the world as God finishes His judicial work with His people and with His ministry and its headquarters — the General Conference.

2:2

@@@^M.B. p. 147 — “The people who listened to the words of Christ, were still anxiously watching for some announcement of the earthly kingdom. While Jesus was opening to them the treasures of heaven, the question uppermost in many minds was, How will a connection with Him advance our prospects in the world? Jesus shows that in making the things of the world their supreme anxiety, they were like the heathen nations about them, living as if there were no God, whose tender care is over His creatures.

3:2

@@@^Error, being the opposite of Truth, would have said, “Blessed is the ground for thy sake.” And instead of saying, “In @9sorrow@7 shalt thou eat all the days of thy life,” Error would have said, “In @9pleasure@7 shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.” In other words, while God pronounces a curse, Satan under the same circumstances pronounces a blessing. So it is that the world, naturally being tuned to Satan’s speech, expects to live in pleasure all its days. Nevertheless, it is having plenty of sorrow. Plenty of it.

4:3

@@@^What did God say, though? — “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread all the days of thy life; that is, for your own sake you are now to have hardship in making a living, and you might just as well reconcile yourself to it.” Although such was not man’s lot before he sinned, it became his lot as soon as he was taken out of the Garden, as soon as he earned the curse.

4:4

@@@^“But,” you ask, “why did God purpose that all of us should go through hardship and sorrow before we are taken back into Eden? If He is to take us back, why did He not do it in the beginning, in Adam’s days?” — The answer to all these questions is found in

8:1

@@@^Had God allowed Adam and Eve to remain in the Garden after they had sinned and continued to have access to the “tree of life,” He would have thereby perpetuated their sinful lives in their sinful state. What a terrible thing that would have been — sinners having to live for ever and ever! And had He spared them and their descendants from going through hardships and death, they could no more have come to realize what life of sin is, no, no more than could the prodigal before going through licentiousness, bankruptcy, hard labor and poverty.

8:3

@@@^Because work is essential and because sinners by nature dislike work, the thorns and thistles were created to compel them to go to work for a living. If we leave the obnoxious weeds in the ground, and spend our time having fun, they will choke out the crops, and we, like the prodigal, will have famine. Thus, no work, no eat. God Who knows what is best for us has made it that we earn our living the hard way, to work all day long with but little rest.

9:3

@@@^In the Old Country we did not have machinery, but we never had to spray any vegetation. Why? — Because working without machinery the people were busy as it was. If they had had to fight pestilence too, and nothing with which to fight it, then they could have raised nothing and would have had to starve. Thus it is seen that if the machinery frees us of work, God sends the bugs to put us back to work.

9:5

@@@^Moreover, to the woman who sits down and does but little to keep up her home, God brings the bed bugs and roaches, the mice and the rats, the flies and the ants, the lice and the fleas, and the mosquitoes, too. These will put her to working inside and out if anything will.

10:1

@@@^Were it not for the pests, what would man be! God, you see, made all these things for a good purpose but in spite of the pests’ urging sluggers to get up and start moving, still some prefer to live as pigs! Why wait until He sends His great army of pests? Why not take His counsel, keep busy, and do what you can to make others happy, to make the world better than it is, to let it know that you are in it to do it good, not to be burden upon it? Then the angels will delight to encamp round about you, and the Lord Himself will come and sup with you.

10:2

@@@^If we make God’s business our business, His kingdom our home, then all the other things which we are striving for and worrying about will be supplied to us in great abundance. Let us, then, no longer be Christians outwardly and Gentiles at heart, but rather let us be without “guile in our mouths” and with “palms in our hands.”

10:3

@@@^Why did mankind have to wait six thousand years before he could return to Eden? — Because it takes that long to get a large enough number of repentant prodigals, prodigals who have come to themselves, who realize that it is better to be a door keeper in the Father’s home than to be sunk in so-called fun away from His home. God is not taking any of us back into Eden in the state of mind we were born with. No, no more than He took Adam back into Eden in his fallen state. All must come to themselves. “...Affliction shall not rise up the second time.” Nah. 1:9.

11:1

@@@^Moreover, when the children of Israel went into the land of Egypt, they made a fine living in Goshen. They lived like kings. Yes, they had even much better living than the best of the Egyptians. God knew, though, that if when the time neared for their deliverance they continued to live like kings, if everything continued to be as easy for them as it had been while Joseph was living, they never, never would make up their minds to go back to the promised land. So it was that Providential trying circumstances were brought to cause them to cry day and night for deliverance. Then they were ready to go. To make sure, though, that they all would leave Egypt, the Lord permitted the Egyptian taskmasters to lash their backs and to make their labor extra hard while Moses was in the land. Likewise must the love of the world be beaten out of us, too, if we are ever to start out for our Eden home.

12:2

@@@^@0@9Verse 3 — “Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.”@7@^If you indulge in “fun,” then your heart will someday be made sad, but if your heart is sad, it will be made glad. Only a fool chooses to be in the house of mirth. As for me, I would rather be in the house of mourning, “suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.” Heb. 11:25.

15:1

@@@^Had this counsel come from men, we would perhaps not need it; but it came from God, from Him Who has control of everything. He knows your life from the time you are born to the time you die. He knows what kind of life you are to go through. You may cause yourself to have to go the prodigal’s way, but how much better if you do not. The best for you is to go the Father’s way.

16:2

@@@^M.B., p. 148 — “Jesus, while He dwelt on earth, dignified life in all its details by keeping before men the glory of God, and by subordinating everything to the will of His Father. If we follow His example, His assurance to us is that all things needful in this life ‘shall be added.’ Poverty or wealth, sickness or health, simplicity or wisdom, — all are provided for in the promise of His grace.

19:4

@@@^@0@9Verse 3 — “To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.”@7@^The porter, the one in charge, opens the door only to those who have complied with the requirements for admission. In other words, the Lord is plainly telling us that no one may dodge the porter’s inspection and forever get by. And yet in spite of this warning, and in spite of the fact that to go through the door is even easier than to climb over the fence, some choose to take a chance stealing their way in — pretending to be in the “faith” thus getting into the sheepfold and hoping to take over or to get a following. It is, however, not possible to induce God’s true sheep to follow them for they know the true Shepherd’s Voice.