上帝仆人的本分是不断作工，单单注目上帝的尊贵和荣耀。任何一个人如果没有尽心尽性地投入到上帝的工作中，其本人就不应受到尊重或景仰，除非他力求用自我牺牲的努力去推进主的工作。有人自视过高。他们说弟兄的坏话;在一件事做完之后，他们就回过头来说，假如要他们去做会怎样的不同。可是若真要他们设身处地去做的话，他们事先的考虑也不见得比弟兄们强。上帝看到那些说弟兄们坏话之人的生活中已经成为特点的错误和缺陷。{PC 356.1}
切莫坐到审判的席上。一切审判都是交给上帝儿子的。你的言语和行为受审判不是按照你看待它们的眼光，而是按照上帝无误的标准。你既与那些有怨气的人团结在一起，与他们交谈，倾诉你心中所有的反感和恶意，以及你所承受的打击伤害，你就犯了大错。上帝会让你对你在人心中播下的每一颗那类的种子负责。撒但必浇灌那种子，尽他所能地用一切苦毒怨恨、恶语中伤、忿怒和恶意，激励你们。{PC 356.2}
唉，任何一个人怎么能以为自己能既与基督和谐一致又沉湎于这种残忍邪恶的作为呢?凡是这么做的人，都是在离弃上帝的道，漠视那道，没能行出耶稣基督的教训。要严肃认真地谈论主我们的策士所说过的话：“有许多人，当他们自己的想法和意愿受阻时，就显出一种苦毒怨恨的精神。他们怀有和没有归主之人一样的情绪。他们伺机发怨言，从而为别人树立错误的榜样。当那日，上帝的道宣布：‘聋子必听见这书上的话;瞎子的眼必从迷蒙黑暗中得以看见。谦卑人必因耶和华增添欢喜;人间贫穷的必因以色列的圣者快乐。因为，强暴人已归无有，亵慢人已经灭绝，一切找机会作孽的都被剪除。他们在争讼的事上定无罪的为有罪，为城门口责备人的设下网罗，用虚无的事屈枉义人’(赛29:18-21)。”{PC 356.3}
这里有一个自称是圣经基督徒的人。然而如果一切都与他的想法不一致，他就看自己受了虐待。他觉得有理由用一点火星制造一场大火。另一位参与上帝圣工的弟兄认为他已受到不公正的对待。假使他受到了那样的对待，又怎么样呢?难道主不知道这一切吗?如果人不认识自己，是不足为奇的;因为“人心比万物都诡诈，坏到极处，谁能识透呢”(耶17:9)?{PC 356.4}
一种局面已经开始存在，不符合基督的命令。那些人不是基督徒，他们寻求邪恶，随时准备指责那些没有藉着迁就他们和用邪恶来实现他们的想法来达到他们所有期望的人，他们觉得有权论断弟兄们，曲解他们的动机。那些鼓励和支持不走主道的人，是在帮助撒但做他的工作。他们不是在吃基督，那天上来的粮。他们始终为自己活，自我已经成了他们的中心。只要他们能为首，就一切顺利。{PC 357.1}
我希望所有读我正放在纸上的这些话的弟兄们，仔细考虑我呈现在他们面前的内容。没有一个人为自己活。人无论采取什么做法，别人都会受影响。惟有上帝知道这种个人责任的程度。表面的影响可能具有欺骗性，真正的影响需要一个人的一切。无论老年人或年轻人所处的环境如何，他们都具有一种影响。他们的责任重大。没有一个人可以松懈、自我放纵、侍奉自我，还被认为配得永生。{PC 357.2}
决不要让你的舌头和声音去暴露和扩大你弟兄的缺点，因为上天的记录已将基督的利益与祂用自己宝血所赎之人的利益联系在一起。祂说：“这些事你们既做在我这弟兄中一个最小的身上，就是做在我身上了”(太25:40)。我们要学习彼此相待以诚，坚如钢铁地维护自己的弟兄。要注意自己的缺点。发现自己的一种毛病，胜似发现弟兄的十种过失。要谨记基督曾为属于祂的这些弟兄祈祷，求使他们合而为一，像祂与父合而为一一样。要竭尽所能按照基督的量度与你的弟兄们和睦共处，正如祂与天父合而为一那样。于是你的邪恶思想和邪恶言论就会止息。你就不会因他们没有充分显扬你的优点和向你表示特别的偏爱而苦待他们。那些为主传道的人会有真理和公义的精神。{PC 357.3}
“相爱如弟兄，存慈怜谦卑的心”(彼前3:8)。真道德的价值并不想以恶念、恶语和指摘他人为自己取得优势。一切妒忌、嫉恨、恶言，连同一切不信，都要从上帝的儿女中间除掉。{PC 357.4}
撒但热衷于使人在这一方面犯错。那些任意批评别人，用机灵巧妙的提问使人将离间的种子所产生的意见和话语发表出来的人，是在替撒但工作。他们会重复他们唆使别人所说的话。其实是他们把那些人狡猾地引到禁地。这些人似乎总是看到一些需要批评和指责的事。他们将一切不愉快的东西珍藏起来，然后影响他人。他们的舌头随时准备夸大每一件坏事。星星之火，可以燎原!他们散布他们的火源，将怀疑和不信任放在别人心中，弄虚作假，这是因为他们以错误的眼光看问题。他们就这样使邻舍和教会发了酵。{PC 358.1}
耶稣对祂的门徒说过：“你们要谨慎，防备法利赛人和撒都该人的酵”(太16:6)。祂的声音一直传到我们的时代：“要防备那作虚假陈述的舌头，它若不与那些不满的人，那些受试探以为自己受了虐待的人结盟，就不满足。‘自我，自我，自我’乃是他们的主题。他们已经变得猜忌和嫉妒，撒但已帮助了他们，将他的放大镜放在他们眼前，直到鼠丘在他们看来成了大山，他们就以为自己是世上最受虐待的人了。他们自己眼中有梁木，却很有兴趣挑出弟兄眼中的刺。”{PC 358.2}
成为控告弟兄的人，乐于诉说别人的不完美和错误，是邪恶的。那些自以为是上帝的宣教士却对那些在真道上软弱无经验的人动脑筋的人，可能会看到这种时候，他们若是归正了，就会希望抵消他们以往的工作。但要做到这一点并不容易。只有永恒才能揭示每个人一直在谁的一边作工，以及他们所行的善或恶。{PC 358.3}
难道仇敌的属性要在自称基督徒之人的生活行为中显明出来吗?难道穿上军装作上帝忠心哨兵，不肯讨任何一个人的喜欢，以谦卑的信心和真诚努力去做上帝交给他们的工作的人，要被那些不知道他们已献身从事撒但之工的人鄙视吗?那些这样论断别人的人要是自己吃上帝儿子的肉，喝祂的血，研究和实行上帝的道，就会好得多了。{PC 358.4}
对自己有很大见解的人往往会犯错，但他们不会承认这一点。猜忌和嫉妒是疾病，使人的一切机能失常。它们在天堂起源于撒但。他走上叛教的道路后，就能看到许多令人反感的事情。他堕落后，嫉妒亚当和夏娃的天真无罪。他引诱他们犯罪，变得像他自己一样，不忠于上帝。那些接受他的属性的人会诋毁别人，为了建立自己而歪曲和造假。这些人一般都是无法治愈的，因为凡污秽的都不能进入天国，所以他们不会在那里。他们会批评天使。他们会觊觎别人的冠冕。他们不会知道该做什么，也不会知道该谈些什么，除非他们能在别人身上发现一些错误，一些不完善之处。但愿这些人会因跟随基督而改变。但愿他们会通过在基督的门下学习而变得心里柔和谦卑。然后他们会出去，不是作撒但的传教士，去引起分裂和疏远，而是作为基督的传道士，与基督同工，作使人和睦的人，重建品格，而不是打伤和损毁品格。要让上帝的圣灵进来，驱逐这种不圣洁的情欲，它在天堂里一点也不能生存。要让它死。让它被钉死在十字架上。要向基督的属性敞开心门，祂是纯净、圣洁、无玷污、没有罪的。{PC 358.5}
“你要切切保守你心，因为一生的果效是由心发出”(箴4:23)。上帝的道告诉我们，内心应当得到保守，作为圣殿归于上帝。未归正的心被描绘为那恶者的居所，他带进一群邪恶的思想，激发本性的情欲。然而上帝的灵必须洁净心灵脱离一切的污秽。每一个房间都必须洁净。良心必须被圣灵苏醒。真理必须把握思想和行动。圣洁的警戒必须保持警惕，以侦察仇敌的接近。那睡着而让仇敌占据了他的房屋的人有祸了!{PC 359.1}
需要真归正，不是数年一次，而是天天如此。这种归正使人与上帝建立新的关系。旧事，与生俱来的脾气，遗传的品格特性都已过去，他就得以更新、归正和成圣。但这项工作需要继续进行，否则内心就会变得与上帝生疏;因为撒但只要存在，就会竭力实现他的意愿。人会不断遭遇罪恶的强烈暗流。他需要用忠心的儆醒和不住的祷告防守自己的心，否则防堤就会坍塌，像磨房的水流一样，与生俱来的和后天培养的罪恶倾向的暗流就会冲走一切防护设施。于是，旧有讨厌的品格特性就会维护自己的统治。更新了的心若不天天敷用圣道的盐，就无法维持它甜美优雅的状态。必须天天领受上帝的恩典，否则没有人能保持归正。{PC 359.2}
正是我们的救赎主在祂的生与死中所受的苦难，使堕落的人类有可能变得优雅和高尚。作为神圣的替身和中保，祂提升堕落人类的品格，并使他们的意念对上帝的意念有了健康的同情。那些与上帝的性情有分的人看到真诚意味着不断的屈辱、舍己和自我牺牲。那些有属灵眼力的人会看出上帝并不尊荣那些被世界尊荣的人，而是尊荣那些忠于原则的人。{PC 360.1}
- It is the duty of God’s servants to work constantly with an eye single to his honor and glory. No man’s person is to be respected or looked upon with admiration if his heart and soul is not enlisted in the work of God, unless he seeks to carry forward that work with self-sacrificing efforts. There are those who think more highly of themselves than they ought to think. They speak evil of their brethren because after a thing is done, they can look back and tell how differently they would have done it. But their forethought would not have been any better than that of their brethren had they been in their place. God sees that faults and imperfections have characterized the lives of the very ones who speak evil of their brethren.?{PC 356.1}
Keep yourselves off the judgment seat. All judgment is committed unto the Son of God. Your words and your works will not be judged according to the light in which you view them, but according to God’s unerring standard. By uniting and talking with those who have grievances, by emptying your heart of all the hard feelings and wounds and bruises you have sustained, you have made great blunders. God will hold you accountable for every seed of that kind which you have sown in human hearts. Satan will water that seed, and inspire you with all the bitterness and evil speaking and wrath and malice that he can.?{PC 356.2}
O how can anyone suppose that he can be in harmony with Christ and indulge in this cruel and wicked work? All who do so are departing from the word of God, disregarding that word, and failing to act out the lessons of Jesus Christ. Talking with solemn earnestness the Counsellor has said: “There are many who, when their own ideas and will is crossed, reveal a bitterness of spirit. They cherish the same feelings as an unconverted man. They watch for an opportunity to complain, and thus set a wrong example for others. In that day, declares the word of God, “shall the deaf hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. The meek shall also increase their joy in the Lord, and the poor among men shall rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. For the terrible one is brought to nought, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off; that make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nought.”?{PC 356.3}
Here is one man professing to be a Bible Christian. But if everything does not harmonize with his ideas, he looks upon himself as abused. He feels justified in making a great fire out of a spark. Another brother in connection with the work of God thinks that he has?been treated unjustly. What if he has? Does not the Lord know all about that? It would not be surprising if the human agent did not know himself; for the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it??{PC 356.4}
A condition of things has been coming into existence that is not after the order of Christ. Those who look for evil, who are ready to charge those who do not meet all their expectations by accommodating them and carrying out their ideas with evil, who feel at liberty to judge their brethren and misconstrue their motives, are not Christians. Those who encourage and sustain persons who are not walking in the ways of the Lord, are aiding Satan by doing his work. They are not feeding on Christ, the bread from heaven. They have ever lived for self. Self has been their center. As long as they can be first, all goes well.?{PC 357.1}
I wish all my brethren who shall read the words I am placing on paper to carefully consider that which I present before them. No man liveth for himself. Whatever course of action the human agent may pursue, others are influenced. God alone knows the extent of this individual responsibility. Apparent influence may be deceiving; real influence requires all that there is of a man. Whatever the position of surroundings of old or young, they carry with them an influence. Their responsibility is great. No one can be lax, self-indulgent, self-serving, and be counted worthy of eternal life.?{PC 357.2}
Never let your tongue and voice be employed in discovering and dilating upon the defects of your brethren; for the record of heaven identifies Christ’s interests with those he has purchased with his own blood. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren,” he says “ye have done it unto me.” We are to learn to be loyal to one another, to be true as steel in the defence of our brethren. Look to your own defects. You had better discover one of your own faults than ten of your brother’s. Remember that Christ has prayed for these, his brethren, that they all might be one as he is one with the father. Seek to the uttermost of your capabilities to be in harmony with your brethren to the extent of Christ’s measurement, as he is one with the Father. Then your evil thinking and evil speaking will cease. You will not become bitter and hard against them because they do not make enough of your merits and show special partiality to you. Those who are missionaries for the Master will have the spirit of truth and righteousness.?{PC 357.3}
“Love as brethren; be pitiful; be courteous.” True moral worth does not seek to have a place for itself by evil thinking and evil speaking, by demeriting others. All envy, all jealousy, all evil speaking, with all?unbelief, must be put away from God’s children.?{PC 357.4}
Satan works zealously to cause men to offend on this point. Those whose tongues are so free to utter words of criticism, the adroit questioner, who draws out expressions and opinions which have been put into the minds by sowing seeds of alienation, are his missionaries. They may repeat the expressions they draw from others as originating with the ones they so slyly led on to forbidden ground. These persons seem always to see something to criticise and condemn. They treasure up everything of a disagreeable nature, and then leaven others. Their tongues are ready to exaggerate everything evil. What a great matter a little fire kindleth. They scatter their fire brands, putting doubts and mistrust into other minds, falsifying because they view everything in a false light. Thus neighbors and churches are leavened.?{PC 358.1}
Jesus said to his disciples, “Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.” His voice comes sounding down the lines of our time, “Beware of that misrepresenting tongue, which is not content unless leagued with the disaffected, with those who are tempted to think that they have been misused.’ Self, self, self is their theme. They have become envious and jealous, and Satan has helped them, putting his magnifying glass before their eyes, until a mote looks to them like a mountain, and they think themselves the most abused persons in the world. With a beam on their own eye, they are very much interested in pulling the mote out of their brother’s eye.?{PC 358.2}
It is Satanic to be an accuser of the brethren, to delight to tell of the imperfections and wrongs of others. Those who suppose themselves to be God’s missionaries and yet work upon the minds of those who are weak and inexperienced in the faith, may see the time, if they are converted, when they will wish to counteract their past work. But it is not an easy matter to do this. Eternity alone will reveal on whose side everyone has been working, and the good or ill they have wrought.?{PC 358.3}
Shall the attributes of the enemy be revealed in the life practice of professed Christians? Shall men who put on the armour and stand as faithful sentinels for God, refusing to favor any man, and seeking to do the work God has given them to do with humble faith and sincerity, be despised by men who know not that they have given themselves to do the work of Satan? O how much better it would be if those who thus judge others would themselves feed on the flesh and blood of the Son of God, studying and practicing the word of God.?{PC 358.4}
Men who have large opinions of themselves are often in error, but they will not confess this. Envy and?jealousy are diseases which disorder all the faculties of the being. They originated with Satan in Paradise. After he had started on the track of apostasy, he could see many things that were objectionable. After he fell he envied Adam and Eve in their innocency. He tempted them to sin, and to become like himself, disloyal to God. Those who accept of his attributes will demerit others, misrepresent and falsify in order to build up themselves. These persons are generally incurable, and as nothing that defileth can enter heaven, they will not be there. They would criticise the angels. They would covet another’s crown. They would not know what to do, or what subjects to converse upon unless they could be finding some errors, some imperfections, in others. O that such ones would be changed by following Christ. O that they would become meek and lowly of heart by learning in the school of Christ. Then they would go forth, not as missionaries for Satan, to cause disunion and alienation, but as missionaries for Christ, to be peacemakers to work with Christ in restoring, not to bruise and mangle character. Let the Holy Spirit of God come in and expel this unholy passion, which cannot in the slightest degree survive in Heaven. Let it die. Let it be crucified. Open the heart to the attributes of Christ, who was pure, holy, undefiled, without guilt.?{PC 358.5}
“Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issue of life.” The word of God tells us that the heart is to be kept as a temple holy unto God. The unconverted heart is represented as a habitation for the evil one, who brings in a whole brood of unholy thoughts, and stirs up the natural passions. But the Spirit of God must cleanse the soul from its defilement. Every room must be purified. The conscience must be quickened by the Holy Spirit. Truth must take hold of the thoughts and actions. Holy vigilance must keep guard to spy out the approach of the enemy. Woe unto that man who falls asleep and lets the enemy take possession of his house.?{PC 359.1}
Genuine conversion is needed, not once in years, but daily. This conversion brings a man into new relation with God. Old things, his natural temper, natural passions, and hereditary traits of character pass away, and the man is renewed, converted, sanctified. But this work needs to be continued, or else the heart will become estranged from God; for just as long as Satan lives, he will make an effort to carry out his will. The human agent will constantly encounter a strong undercurrent. His heart needs to be barricaded by faithful watchfulness and unceasing prayer, else the embankment will give way, and like a mill stream, the undercurrent of natural and cultivated tendencies will sweep away the safeguard. Then the old objectionable traits of character will assert their sway. No renewed heart can keep in a condition of?sweetness and grace without the application of the salt of the word. Divine grace must be applied daily, else no man will stay converted.?{PC 359.2}
It is the sufferings of our Redeemer in his life and death that makes it possible for fallen man to become refined and elevating. As the divine substitute and surety, he elevates the fallen race in character, and brings their minds into healthful sympathy with the divine mind. Those who are partakers of the divine nature see that true-heartedness means continual humiliation, self-denial, and self sacrifice. Those who have spiritual eyesight will discern that God does not honor those who are honored by the world, but those who are true to principle.?{PC 360.1}
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