关于太平洋出版社的工作和工人的特别证言
第01章 一般证言
真正意识到工作的神圣性
1. 关于太平洋出版社的问题，没有上帝所要求的那种信实。应该对工作的神圣性有更深的认识，每个人都应该忠于各自的工作部门。但有些人非常缺乏稳定性。当年轻男子对年轻女子表现出特别的关注，她们则转而鼓励这些关注和年轻男子的陪伴，以致玩忽职守，变得举止轻浮、疏忽大意时，还留他们在出版社工作，从而鼓励这种做法，就不对了;及至婚姻发生时，不应该支持任何炫耀。{PH152 5.1}
2. 我蒙指示看到在出版社工作的一些人没有真正的宗教意识。那些离开东部去太平洋海岸的人不应该在他们的日常生活和宗教生活中追求一种不值得仿效的做法。他们羞辱和误表了那些在东部从事圣工的人。他们的行为应该谨慎。他们的日常宗教生活很有缺陷。永恒的利益被置于世俗的利益之下。我看到在天国的账簿上，好几个现今在《时兆》出版社工作的人名下写着：“亏欠——被称在天平里，显出亏欠。”当审判者鉴察人心的眼目停留在这些不忠心之人身上时，他们就变得脸色苍白，惊恐万状。有些人并没有犯什么大罪，但他们没有让他们的光照在人前，以致别人看见他们的好行为，就归荣耀给上帝。你们在出版社里工作的人，若愿意，就可以利用宗教的特权，好叫你们有属灵的力量，为自己和别人的益处去进行属灵的操练。祷告聚会被忽略了，宗教职责未尽，良心倒享安逸。这种属灵的懒惰，对基督有什么好处呢?正因为如此，你自己的事业，或你所从事的机械工作，比上帝的服务还重要。{PH152 5.2}
宗教礼拜的重要性
3. 你可以认真地履行你的机械职责，然后，在没有兴趣或诚意的情况下，去参加宗教礼拜，表明你对这样的礼拜心不在焉。这样公开表示信仰的人怎能成长呢?不可能成长的。他们在宗教方面永远是侏儒，及至审判就位，案卷展开，他们的名字便归在懒惰仆人的名下，——被称在天平里，显出亏欠。{PH152 6.1}
4. 当只剩下一个昏昏欲睡、懒惰、背道的教会来支持工人所做的努力时，所讲的道是没有能力使人知罪回转的。只有当受到一班认真、祷告、作工的百姓支持时，基督使者们的努力才会取得成功。祷告聚会被忽视，而音乐会、歌唱学校和各种娱乐活动却得到忠实地光顾。“这只是一次祷告会，”教会肢体们经常重复这句话;我不能称他们为基督徒。当祷告会对他们没有吸引力时，激动人心的大众演讲却会引起教友们的兴趣并把他们召集出去。这揭示了教会真正的属灵状况。上帝不喜悦这种事态。属灵的和永恒的事不受赏识，世间暂时的事却被高举在具有永恒利益的事情之上。{PH152 6.2}
5. 祷告会总是会显明教会肢体们对属灵和永恒事物的兴趣。祷告会就像身体的脉搏;它显示教会真正的属灵状况。一个死气沉沉、背道的教会对祷告会毫无兴趣。没有深刻宗教经验的青年男女是虚荣、骄傲、轻浮的，在从事宗教活动时，无法感到满意。他们更喜欢把时间消磨在调情或阅读小说，或以其它方式取悦和满足本心的感觉上。{PH152 7.1}
人人都应作工人
6. 出版社里没有一个工人有借口不在上帝的教会里作工人。凡有能力在出版社工作的人是有能力在教会作工人的。各处都有宣教的工作要做。每一个在出版社里信奉基督之名的人都应该在教会里进行某种有规律、有系统的操劳。上帝要求每一个男人和女人都为推进祂的圣工而有所作为。每一个像太平洋海岸的出版社这样的机构都应该有规则和纪律，要求那些在出版社工作的人在教会作认真的工人。如果有人疏于参加晚上的聚会或安息日的聚会，就当查问，若没有正当的理由，就当敦促或劝告他们去参加这些对他们的属灵力量来说如此重要的聚会。没有这种属灵的力量，这些工人的影响就不会好，出版社的宗教气氛就不会正确。那些自称从事上帝圣工的人不应因为自己的工作而为忽视上帝的服务辩解。把这样的工作放在一边要比把上帝的服务放在一边好得多，因为上帝的力量和恩典是我们履行日常的职责所必不可少的，而且得到属灵力量的机会和特权若被轻视或忽视，就必使人背离上帝。背道的人不想从事上帝的圣工。{PH152 7.2}
7. 为了保持属灵的生命，工人们应当善用每一恩典的手段来积聚力量，不是作为旁观者，而是作为教会里的工人，在各部门尽必须尽的本分。凡在出版社工作，名为上帝儿女的人，都必须对敬拜上帝表现出尊重和兴趣。身体怎样需要暂时的食物，灵魂也照样需要属灵的食物，人人都应付出个人的努力，把自己与所提供的一切恩典的手段联系起来。他们能收集到自己心灵的每一线亮光都应得到珍惜，因为道德的黑暗到处包围着我们，正在蒙蔽所有人的道路，给人心留下其黑暗的印记，给品格留下其有害的影响。{PH152 8.1}
必需有圣灵
8. 特殊的品质和能力得到发展要么是为了善，要么是为了恶。为了使这些能力为了善而得到运用，就必须使它们处在上帝之灵的控制性影响之下;然后他们的为善影响才会被明显地感受到，无论它们的拥有者可能做什么，也无论他们在哪里。只要生命还在持续，每一个人每一天都在用言行举止给别人上一课，要么使他们受益，要么使他们受害。如果我们从许多人对这些神圣特权的忽视来判断，许多人并不认为主的服务是神圣而必要的。我们自己的工作必须做，但不能凌驾于永恒的利益之上。在现世的事务上忠心履行职责是必要的，但决不应取代宗教的虔诚，挤出应该给它的时间，以免属灵的力量衰退。{PH152 9.1}
心是如何变硬的
9. 人们可悲地背离了正确的原则。上帝的道宣布上帝使法老的心刚硬。当法老得到警告且有上帝的神奇能力彰显在他面前时，他却奋起反抗亮光，拒绝承认天国的君主，不肯顺从祂的要求，于是他的心就刚硬了。法老每一次拒绝上帝的灵，他的心就变得更加刚硬，更加难以感化，直到上帝之灵的约束性影响被消除了。法老不断地播下顽固不化的种子，就收获了顽固不化;他坚持自己那坚决顽固不化的精神，直到在红海中灭亡。{PH152 9.2}
10. 上帝并没有迫使法老沦丧。每一个人沦丧都是自取灭亡。当一个人转离上帝所赐的亮光，拒绝行在其间的时候，那亮光对他来说就变成黑暗了。当亮光再次出现在他面前时，就太昏暗了，他几乎认不出来了。当来自上帝的督责临到行非做错的人时，就有内心的激动和良心的觉醒。听者心里知罪，撒但也因祂的权能而战兢。人们离开上帝的家，决心抵抗骄傲、抑制私欲、克服贪婪。但他们却不在上帝面前谦心悔改，纠正以往的错误。他们不做出坚决的改变，也不恳求上帝的帮助，倚赖祂的力量，于是印象很快就消失了。他们有一段时间感觉到自己的处境，但没有意识到罪的穷凶极恶的性质。他们变得漠不关心，品格上旧有的缺陷就出现了，无论那是骄傲与虚荣、世俗与自私，还是小气不诚实、在贸易上巧取豪夺、肉欲，或贪得无厌。他们急匆匆地前行，好像在那短暂的良心觉醒期间浪费了时间似的。他们在这样故态复萌之后，可能听人斥责罪恶和不敬虔的行为，上帝的灵可能以非同寻常的热情停留在讲道的人身上，上帝的能力也在每一句话里，但他们却不怎么受感动;他们已经因压制自己的信念而变得刚硬了。{PH152 10.1}
一切都顺服基督
11. 商业利益、社交爱好、安逸、荣誉、名声，都必须服从基督的要求。我们常常以为自己为真理做出了很大的牺牲，但实际上并非如此。从我们的立场看，我们以为外邦人的大使徒在放弃财富、社会地位和崇高的荣誉称号，使自己与一班到处遭毁谤的特选子民同名称共命运时，是作出了牺牲，但他却说他将万事都当作有损的，为要得着基督(腓3:8)。他这样交易是失败了吗?他说他多受劳苦，屡次冒死，五次被鞭打，每次四十减去一下，他被石头打过，曾一昼一夜在深海里，遭地上的危险，海中的危险，城里的危险，旷野的危险，盗贼的危险，同族的危险;他履行使命时受劳累，受困苦，多次不得睡，又饥又渴，多次不得食，受寒冷，赤身赤露体(见 林后14:23-38);可是沿着这条路，却有下述话语从信心的老英雄那里一直传到我们这里：“因为我深信无论是死，是生，是天使，是掌权的，是有能的，是现在的事，是将来的事，是高处的，是低处的，是别的受造之物，都不能叫我们与上帝的爱隔绝;这爱是在我们的主基督耶稣里的”(罗8:38,39)。{PH152 10.2}
12. 当殉道的冠冕即将压在他的额头上时，他被关在一个地牢里，被剥夺了可口的食物和舒适的衣服，和他的许多朋友分开了;但有一个、有时是两个人与他同在，领受上帝对他所说的话，要传给我们。然而当他第一次向暴君尼禄申诉时，他说：“没有人前来帮助，竟都离弃我”(提后4:16)。一个孤独的囚犯，为了他的生命在受审，被迫害，遭抛弃。但保罗认为他是在自己的宗教生活中做出重大的牺牲吗?有这些话从他传给我们：“我想，现在的苦楚若比起将来要显于我们的荣耀就不足介意了”(罗8:18)。他申明自己得到了最高的安慰：“我满得安慰;我们在一切患难中分外的快乐”(林后7:4)。这位信心的英雄留下了他那个时代工作的见证，永垂不朽。他用自己的宗教经验和他强大的智力塑造了他所生活之时代的时代特征。{PH152 11.1}
13. 保罗的一生是成功的。伟大的改革者保罗的影响和工作是永远不会消失的，它们是不朽的。他的基督徒品格闪耀着穹苍的光辉。保罗整个的基督徒生活都是为不朽的来生作准备。在黑暗的地牢里，这个为上帝被囚的人，满意地回顾了自己的一生，知道自己没有输掉比赛，他感叹道：“那美好的仗我已经打过了，当跑的路我已经跑尽了，所信的道我已经守住了”(提后4:7)。然后他注视着那些看不见的事，不朽的将来，那一直是他基督徒生活鼓舞人心的动机，他满怀信心地感叹道：“从此以后，有公义的冠冕为我存留，就是按着公义审判的主到了那日要赐给我的;不但赐给我，也赐给凡爱慕祂显现的人”(提后4:8)。{PH152 12.1}
14. 在对生命冠冕充满信心的期待中，这位伟大战士的战斗呐喊一路传到我们这里，似乎连死亡的胜利也抢夺了。那些敢于忠于原则，为上帝和不朽来生而活，不服从这个腐朽时代的形式、习俗和思想的人，将不会被世人所理解，正如基督不被世人所认识和理解一样。但他们在天上却得到理解;他们的名字被记录在羔羊的生命册上。{PH152 12.2}
怀爱伦
密歇根州巴特尔克里克，1879年11月7日。
PH152 - Special Testimonies Concerning the Work and Workers in the Pacific Press
《No. A. A General Testimony》
【True Sense of the Sacredness of the Work】
1. In regard to matters at the Pacific Publishing House, there has not been that faithfulness which God requires. There should be a deeper sense of the sacredness of the work, and each and all should be faithful in their several departments of the work. But there is a great lack of stability with some. When special attentions are shown by young men to the young ladies, and they in turn encourage these attentions, and the company of young men, involving neglect of duties, becoming frivolous and unguarded in deportment, it is wrong to encourage such a course of conduct by retaining them in the office in connection with the work; and when marriages occur no display should be countenanced.?{PH152 5.1}[1]
2. I was shown that there is not with a number of those at work in the office a true sense of religious things. Those who have left the east for the Pacific Coast should not in their daily and religious life pursue a course which is not worthy of imitation. They disgrace and misrepresent those who are connected with the work in the east. They should be circumspect in their conduct. Their daily religious life is very defective. Eternal interests are placed below the temporal. I saw that against the names of several now at work in the Signs Office was written in the ledger of heaven, “Wanting—weighed in the balance and found?wanting.” As the searching eyes of the Judge rested upon these unfaithful ones, their countenances became pale, and terror seized them. Some had not been guilty of any great wrong, but they had not let their light so shine before men that others, by seeing their good works, would reflect glory to God. You who are working in the office may avail yourselves of religious privileges if you will, so that you may have spiritual strength to put forth spiritual exercise for your own benefit and that of others. Prayer-meetings are neglected, religious duties are left undone, and the conscience is at ease. What does this spiritual slothfulness say in favor of Christ? Just this, that your own business, or the mechanical work in which you are engaged, is of more consequence than the service of God.?{PH152 5.2}[2]
【Importance of Religious Services】
3. You may work with earnestness in the performance of your mechanical duties, and then, without interest or earnestness, go to religious service, showing that you have no heart in such service. How can such professors grow? It is impossible. They ever remain dwarfs in religious things, and when the judgment shall sit and the books be opened, their names come under the head of slothful servants,—weighed in the balance and found wanting.?{PH152 6.1}[3]
4. The preached Word will be powerless for the conviction and conversion of souls, while a sleepy, lazy, and backslidden church are all that are left to sustain the efforts of the laborers. The efforts of Christ’s ambassadors will be successful only when sustained by an earnest, praying, working people. Prayer-meetings are neglected, while?concerts, singing schools, and various entertainments are faithfully patronized. “It’s only a prayer-meeting,” is often repeated by church-members; I can not call them Christians. Exciting popular lectures will interest the church-members and call them out, when the prayer-meeting has no attraction for them. This reveals the true spiritual condition of the church. God is not pleased with this state of things. Spiritual and eternal things are not appreciated, while temporal matters are exalted above things of eternal interest.?{PH152 6.2}[4]
5. A prayer-meeting will always tell the true interest of the church-members in spiritual and eternal things. The prayer-meeting is as the pulse to the body; it denotes the true spiritual condition of the church. A lifeless, backslidden church has no relish for the prayer-meetings. Young men and women of no depth of religious experience; who are vain and proud and frivolous, can feel no satisfaction in engaging in religious exercises. They prefer to pass the time in flirtations or reading novels, or in other ways of pleasing and gratifying the feelings of the natural heart.?{PH152 7.1}[5]
【All Should Be Workers】
6. Not one of the workers in the office is excused from being a worker in the church of God. Those who are capable of engaging in labor in the office are capable of being workers in the church. There is missionary work to be done everywhere. Every one in the office who professes the name of Christ should be put into regular, systematic labor of some kind in the church. Every man and woman is required of God to do something for the advancement of his cause. Every institution like the publishing house on the?Pacific Coast should have rules and discipline, requiring those who work in the office to be earnest workers in the church. If there is a neglect in attending evening meetings or the meetings on the Sabbath, it should be inquired into, and if valid reasons are not given, they should be urged or admonished to attend these meetings, so essential to their spiritual strength. Without this spiritual strength the influence of these laborers will not be good, and the religious tone in the office will not be correct. Those who profess to be engaged in the sacred work of God should not excuse the neglect of the service of God because of their own work. Such work can be laid aside much better than the service of God, for his strength and grace are every day essential for the performance of daily duties, and the opportunities and privileges for spiritual strength can not be slighted or neglected without backsliding from God. Backsliders are not wanted to engage in the sacred work of God.?{PH152 7.2}[6]
7. In order to retain spiritual life the laborers should improve every means of grace to gather strength, not as spectators, but as workers in the church, doing the duties which must be done in the various departments. There must be respect shown for, and interest in, the worship of God, and faithful attendance upon it, by all those connected with the office who have a name as children of God. As the body needs temporal food, so does the soul need spiritual food, and there should be individual effort put forth by all to place themselves in connection with all the means of grace that have been provided. Every ray of light they can gather to their souls should be cherished, for moral darkness surrounds us?everywhere, and is clouding the pathway of all, and leaving its impress of darkness upon the mind, and its baleful influence upon the character.?{PH152 8.1}[7]
【The Holy Spirit Necessary】
8. Peculiar qualities and powers are developed either for good or evil. In order to have them exercised for good, these powers must be under the controlling influence of the Spirit of God; then their influence will be sensibly felt for good, whatever their possessors may do, or wherever they may be. Each is giving by words and deportment a daily lesson to others, either for their benefit or injury while life shall last. The Lord’s service is not regarded by many as sacred and essential, if we judge by their neglect of these sacred privileges. Our own work must be done, but it must not be placed above eternal interests. A faithful discharge of duties in temporal things is necessary, but it should never take the place of religious devotion, and crowd out the time that should be given to it, lest the spiritual strength languish.?{PH152 9.1}[8]
【How Hearts Become Hardened】
9. There has been a sad departure from right principles. The Word of God declares that God hardened the heart of Pharaoh. This was done when, giving Pharaoh warnings and revealing God’s miraculous power before him, he braced himself up to resist the light, and refused to acknowledge the Monarch of heaven and yield to his requirements. Every time that Pharaoh resisted the Spirit of God his heart grew harder and more difficult to impress, until the restraining influence of the Spirit of God was removed. Pharaoh sowed continually the seeds of obstinacy, and he reaped obstinacy, and he kept up his?determined spirit of obstinacy till he perished in the Red Sea.?{PH152 9.2}[9]
10. God did not compel Pharaoh to be lost. Every man who is lost destroys himself. When a man turns from the light given of God, and refuses to walk in it, that light becomes darkness to him. When the light comes before him again, it is so dim that he scarcely recognizes it. When the words of reproof come from God to the wrong-doer, there is a stirring of heart, an arousing of conscience. The hearts of the hearers are convicted and Satan trembles for his power. Individuals go from the house of God determined to resist pride, mortify lust, and overcome avarice. But they do not humble their souls before God and repent, and make right the wrongs of the past. They do not make a decided change and plead with God for help, relying on his strength, and the impression soon wears away. They feel for a time the sense of their condition, but realize not the heinous character of sin. They become indifferent and the old defects of character appear, whether it is pride and vanity, worldliness and selfishness, or petty dishonesty, overreaching in trade, sensuality, or lust for gain. They go forward as eagerly as though they had lost time during the little arousing of conscience. They may, after this relapse, listen to the denunciations against sin and the works of ungodliness, the Spirit of God may rest upon the speaker with unusual fervor, and the power of God be in every word, but they are not much moved; they have been hardened by the stifling of their convictions.?{PH152 10.1}[10]
【All in Subjection to Christ】
11. Business interests, social endearments, ease,?honor, reputation, must be held in subjection to the claims of Christ. We often think we make great sacrifices for the truth, but we do not in reality. The great apostle to the Gentiles, we think, from our standpoint, made sacrifices when he turned from wealth, social distinction, and high honorary titles, to link his name and destiny with that of a peculiar people, everywhere spoken against, but he says he counted all things but loss that he might win Christ. Was he a loser by the exchange? He says he was abundant in labors, in deaths oft, five times he received forty stripes save one, he was stoned, was a night and a day in the deep, in perils by land and by sea, in the city and in the wilderness, from robbers and from his own countrymen; that he performed his mission in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness; and yet, sounding along the line, comes down to us from the old hero of faith the words, “For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”?{PH152 10.2}[11]
12. When the crown of martyrdom was about to press his brow, he was confined in a dungeon, deprived of comfortable food and clothing, and separated from his many friends; but one, or sometimes two, were with him to receive the words that God spoke to him to be handed down to us. But when his first answer was given to the tyrant Nero, he says, “No man stood with me, but all men forsook me.” A solitary prisoner, on trial for his life, persecuted and abandoned. But did Paul?think he was making a great sacrifice in his religious life? There come to us these words from him: “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” He affirms that he received the highest consolations: “I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.” This hero of faith left his testimony, enduring as eternity, upon the work for his time. He moulded the character of the age in which he lived by his religious experience and his powerful intellect.?{PH152 11.1}[12]
13. The life of Paul was a success. The influence and work of Paul, the grand reformer, can never perish; they are immortalized. His Christian character shines forth with the brightness of the firmament. The whole Christian life of Paul was a preparation for the future, immortal life. In the dark dungeon, a prisoner for God, he looked over his life with satisfaction, and, knowing that he had not been playing a losing game, he exclaims, “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.” Then fixing his eye upon the things that are unseen, the immortal future, which had been the inspiring motive of his Christian life, in confident assurance he exclaims: “Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.”?{PH152 12.1}[13]
14. In confident expectation of the crown of life, the battle-shout of this great warrior comes down along the lines to us, seeming to rob even death of its triumph. Those who will dare to be true to principle and live for God and the future immortal life, who will not submit to the forms, customs,?and ideas of this corrupt age, will not be understood by the world, any more than Christ was known and understood. But they are understood in heaven; their names are recorded in the Lamb’s book of life.{PH152 12.2}[14]
Ellen G. White.Battle Creek, Mich.,November 7, 1879.[15]
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