上帝要求你们在祂的各机构工作的人按照祂的计划而不是你们自己的计划做祂的工作。祂要求你们将自己完全奉献给祂。你们若是听从这个要求,这就必作你们今生的福气和永生的产业。现在有一段宝贵的时期,虽然短暂,却是分配给你们,用来悔改和改善的。{PC 407.1}
A. R.亨利弟兄和哈门·林赛弟兄啊,上帝对你们是认真的。你们的本分是清楚明白而且势在必行的。你们的心智需要培养,好叫你们能看出属天的事,选择属天的事,超越凡俗尘世。不要放过现在的机会而不予利用。你们若不听从上帝本着怜悯发给你们的警告,不用很久你们的信仰就会破灭。你们一路撒播了不信的种子。你们已那么久拒绝圣灵运行的证据,以致你们是否还会再一次认出来自天上的亮光,已经很成问题了。在你们看来,亮光甚至可能像黑暗,直至时候要到,那时众膝都要下跪,众口都要承认上帝。你们非但不认为自己的紧要责任是培养个人的敬虔,存有一种与你们所自称信奉圣洁信仰的宝贵性及你们的岗位责任相称的热心,反而让自己随波逐流,让不圣洁的想象和偏见控制了你们的冲动,直到你们的做法得罪上帝了。难怪你们会把别人带入同样的思路。难怪有些人既跟随了你们,就转身离开永恒真理的磐石根基,去像你们一样在沙土上建造了。你们变得像今日这样盲目乃是严重地抢夺上帝,因为你们拒绝了天上的亮光,轻视了上帝对你们的呼吁,竟然竭尽全力去证明它们是前后矛盾的,并且宣布它们不真实。你们的断言没有使它们不真实,但你们既抗拒上帝,你们的心就变得刚硬顽梗了。{PC 407.2}
我再次呼吁你们:你们现在愿意发热心并且悔改吗?你们已经在强硬的言辞和压迫弟兄们的措施上显出了热心。现在我劝你们在为时永远太晚之前拿出认真悔改的证据来。{PC 407.3}
那些尽管有所赐的亮光,还是与你们同负轭,把你们当作被上帝的灵充满、被舍己关怀祂圣工的精神激励之人的人,就使自己要为你们已发挥的和将发挥的反对真理的影响负责。你们既与上帝没有活泼的联络,那些安排你们负越来越多责任的人就有罪了。{PC 407.4}
已经导致了一种事态,以致上帝若不本着怜悯介入,就会给祂的圣工造成灾难。没有经验的人想到前景就不安。出于你们能给出的原因,上帝没有感动祂子民的心供应府库。何时你们藉着全心全意归向主来领受圣灵的恩膏,你们才会以全新的眼光看见自己。你们是有限的、错误的、不圣洁的人,竟以为上帝的子民是处在你们的管辖之下,要你们为他们作计划,并要他们满足你们的条件。你们那么努力要在你们的工作关系中建立的方针是得罪上帝的。祂从未证明任何这种安排是正当的:通过组织、纪律或规章,竟使那些已有证据表明自己不容易受圣灵感动的人,藉以用自己的权柄使别人也像他们那样漠视圣灵的工作。但这种安排却已盛行。你们已使你们不特别的喜欢的人辛苦难过,同时却使侍奉自我的人受恩待受尊崇。偏袒和伪善已经把上帝的灵从许多人心中驱逐出去了,使他们缺乏祂的恩典,像基利波山缺乏雨露一般。但愿你们不要再认为自己有特权控制上帝的产业了。{PC 408.1}
主必亲自翻转倾覆,整顿事态。祂对自己的工作有责任,祂并没有把管理祂子民的工作交在不圣洁的人手里。{PC 408.2}
人们难以认识到自己实在是软弱、无知、无效率的。野心勃勃的人很难以毫无疑问的信心和顺从接受上帝的理念和计划。有些人非常高估自己个性的重要性,他们刚愎自用的做法实际在说:我们不要上帝的道路,而要走我们自己的路。{PC 408.3}
时候已近,上帝凭祂的旨意将要显明那些管理祂工作的人怀有的是怎样的原则。这些人若不悔改,就要让他们离开圣工。可是,给他们的呼吁和警告对他们的心没有什么影响,就像基督的的信息对法利赛人没有什么影响一样,我为他们大大担心,惟恐他们继续走在与掌权的法利赛人一样的道路上,表现同样苛求和偏狭的精神:我担心同样的审判会临到他们头上,因为他们拒绝了主的责备,且已将他们罪孽的绊脚石放在他们眼前。{PC 408.4}
我的弟兄们,我奉主的名劝你们藉着悔改和认罪寻求祂。要让你们疏忽的罪和所犯的罪先到审判台前,好在你们的名下写下赦免,以致当祂显现的时候,你们可以被算为配站在祂面前。{PC 408.5}
怀爱伦(签名)
(写于1895年5月30日;抄写于1896年5月6日)由HER重新抄写)
God calls upon you who are connected with his instrumentalities, to do his work according to his plans, not your own. He calls for an entire consecration of yourselves to him. If you heed the requirement, it will be a blessing to you in this life and the inheritance of life eternal. There is now a precious period, though short, allotted to you for repentance and improvement.?{PC 407.1}
Brethren A. R. Henry and Harmon Lindsay, God is in earnest with you. Your duty is plain and imperative. Your minds need cultivation, that you may discern heavenly things, and choose them above the common and the earthly. Let not the present opportunity pass unimproved. Unless the warnings that God in his mercy is sending to you, are heeded, before a long time shall elapse you will make shipwreck of faith. You have sown the seeds of unbelief all along the line. And you have so long refused the evidence of the operation of the Holy Spirit that it is questionable whether you will ever again recognize the light from heaven. It may even appear as darkness to you, until the time shall come when every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess to God. Instead of regarding it as your imperative duty to cultivate personal piety, with a zeal proportionate to the preciousness of the holy faith you profess and the responsibility of your position, you have suffered yourselves to drift along, your impulses controlled by unholy imaginations and prejudices, until your course is an offense to God. What wonder that you lead the minds of others into the same channels? What wonder that some, following you, turn away from the rock foundation of eternal truth, to build, as you are building, upon the sand? It is a grievous robbery of God to become so blinded as you are today because you have refused heaven’s light, slighted the appeals that God has sent you, and have done your best to prove them inconsistent, and have declared them untrue. Your assertions have not made them untrue, but by your resistance against God your hearts have become hard and stubborn.?{PC 407.2}
Again I appeal to you: Will you now be zealous and repent? You have shown your zeal in strong words and oppressive measures towards your brethren. Now I beseech you to give evidence of earnest repentance before it shall be forever too late.?{PC 407.3}
Those who, notwithstanding the light given, have yoked up with you as men imbued with the Spirit of God, and actuated by a self denying interest in his cause, make yourselves responsible for the influence you have exerted and will exert contrary to the truth. Guilt will rest upon those who have placed increasing responsibilities upon you, when you have no living connection with God.?{PC 407.4}
A condition of things has been brought about that, unless God in mercy shall interpose, will work disaster to his cause. Inexperienced minds are being troubled at the outlook. For reasons that you can give, God is not moving upon the hearts of his people to supply the treasury. When you shall receive the Holy Spirit’s unction by returning unto the Lord with full purpose of heart, you will see yourselves in a new light altogether. You who are finite, erring, and unsanctified, have supposed that God’s children were put under your jurisdiction, for you to plan for them, and bring them to your terms. The policy you have labored so hard to establish in your connection with the work is an offense to God. He has never justified any arrangement, through organization, discipline, or laws, whereby men who have evidenced that they are not susceptible to the Holy Spirit’s moving, shall use their power to sustain others in a like disregard of the Spirit’s work. But such has been the arrangement that has prevailed. You have made it hard for those whom you do not especially like, while others who are self serving have been favored and exalted. Partiality and hypocrisy have excluded the Spirit of God from many hearts, and left them as destitute of his grace as the hills of Gilboa were destitute of dew or rain. Let it no longer be regarded as your privilege to control God’s heritage.?{PC 408.1}
The Lord himself will turn and overturn, and set things in order. He has the responsibility of his own work, and he has not entrusted the management of his people to unsanctified human minds.?{PC 408.2}
It is hard for men to learn their real weakness and ignorance and inefficiency. It is hard for the ambitious heart to receive God’s ideas and plans with unquestioning faith and obedience. Some have very high ideas of the importance of their own individuality, and by their headstrong course are saying, We want not God’s way, but our own way.?{PC 408.3}
The time is near when God by his providence will make manifest what principles have been cherished by the men connected with the management of his work. Unless these men are converted, they will be separated from the work. But the appeals and warnings given have had no more effect upon their hearts than the messages of Christ had upon the Pharisees, and I greatly fear in their behalf, lest they shall continue to walk in the same path, manifesting the same exacting and intolerant spirit, as did the ruling Pharisees. I fear that the same judgments will fall upon them because they have rejected the Lord’s reproof, and have set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their eyes.?{PC 408.4}
My brethren, in the name of the Lord I counsel you to seek him by repentance and confession. Let your sins of omission and commission go beforehand to judgment, that pardon may be written against your names, that you may?be accounted worthy to stand before him when he shall appear.?{PC 408.5}
(Signed) Ellen G. White
(Written May 30, 1895; copied May 6, 1896.) Recopied, HER -