Sermon/Heaven’s Part in Life’s Conflict
Battle Creek, Michigan
February 1, 1890, Sabbath P.M.
This manuscript is published in entirety in 2SAT 57-70.
Ephesians 6:10-17. Now do we do it? Do we obey the very last verse that I have read? Do we take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God? 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 1
I wish to call your attention this afternoon to the importance of everyone understanding that we cannot keep ourselves; that God has angels. These angels from heaven communicate with the children of men, and not one of us by anything we may do can uphold or keep ourselves. We are where we are, kept every moment by the power of God. I have thought that we do not make of that [the] importance that we should—the ministration of heavenly angels. We do not take in this matter and present it in the church; we do not present it in our families; we do not talk [of] it as we ought, and thus keep in remembrance that every soul with whom we are connected has the guardianship of heavenly angels, sent forth to minister unto those who shall be heirs of salvation (Hebrews 1:14). I want you to consider this point, What should we do without them? I want you to consider what kind of a position we should be left in if we had not the ministry of holy angels. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 2
From my text we see that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood.” [Ephesians 6:12.] We meet the opposition of men, but there is someone behind that opposition. It is the prince of the powers of darkness with his evil angels that are constantly at work; and we want to consider, all of us, that our warfare is against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. Who is it that is ruling the world today? And who is it that have chosen to stand under the banner of the prince of darkness? Why, it is nearly the whole world at large. All the world that have not accepted Jesus Christ have chosen for their leader the prince of darkness; and just as soon as they stand under his banner, they have connection with evil angels. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 3
Either the evil angels or the angels of God are controlling the minds of men. Our minds are given to the control of God or to the control of the powers of darkness; and it will be well for us to inquire where we are standing today—whether under the blood-stained banner of Prince Emmanuel or under the black banner of the powers of darkness. We must make every preparation in our power in order to resist the enemy of souls. Every provision has been made; everything in God’s plan has been arranged so that man should not be left to his own impulses, to his own finite powers, to carry on the warfare against the powers of darkness in his own finite strength, because he would certainly fail if he were thus left to himself. I thank the Lord that we have a power provided for us. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 4
When Christ bowed on Jordan’s banks He encircled the race with His own human arm, while with His divine arm He grasped the throne of the Infinite. And what does that mean? It means that finite man who is connected with the earth is again united with God through the merits of Christ, and earth is again united with heaven. Jacob tells us about this. He went out from his home a poor, discouraged, sorrowful man. And on his way, in his discouragement and despair, he was in danger of separating from his God by Satan’s casting his hellish shadow between him and heaven. But that must be prevented. The God of heaven understood the case of Jacob better than he himself. In the night season he dreamed he saw a ladder whose base was planted firmly on earth, and the topmost round of which reached to the highest heavens; and God was above it, shedding His glory all along that mystic ladder. And the angels were traversing that ladder, ascending and descending upon the Son of God. Now we know that as Jacob went out from his father’s house so discouraged, God was flashing light and encouragement into his pathway. Read Genesis 28:12-17. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 5
Now, we want you to consider that Christ was the ladder, that Christ was the connecting link between heaven and earth, and that Christ stands as represented by that ladder, that the angels of God may communicate with man. And then what do we want? We want that living faith to believe that we are not alone. When once you impress upon the minds of the youth that there is One who is standing near them, and that He is beholding all their works, and that He is ready to help them in every emergency, do you think that they will so easily fall into temptation and sin? No, for we are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last times. In the Psalms David speaks of God’s being a refuge and a strong tower, a refuge and a fortress; unto Him we can run and we can be saved. How precious is the thought that God is our refuge and that He will be our helper in all times and in all places; and that in every emergency we have God with us; and He says that He will give His angels charge over us to keep us in all our ways. [Psalm 91:11.] But why can we not take this matter in? As we walk the streets or wherever we are, Satan is on our track. When Christ engaged to fight the battles for man on this little speck of a world, He engaged to stand as our substitute and surety, and God put all heaven into His hands, with all the facilities and all the powers that heaven could afford. Now heaven is open to man, and the light and the glory of heaven is imparted to him through the merits of Jesus Christ our Lord. Then in our God we have a helper, and we will trust in Him. We must constantly look in that direction, believing that the angels of God are round about us, and that heaven is in communication with us, because these heavenly messengers are ascending and descending upon the ladder of shining brightness. They are watching and guarding the children of men. They keep us from the influence of sin and sinning, and when the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord lifts up for us a standard against the enemy. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 6
Now suppose that when the devil came to Christ and said, “Cast thyself down from the pinnacle of the temple” [Luke 4:9], that He had done it. That would have been presumption; it would not have been giving God the glory, that according to the suggestion of the wily foe He should cast Himself down from the temple. No, that would not have been fulfilling His mission at all. The plan of salvation was such that He could not call to His aid divine power or place His life in unnecessary peril, or in any way place Himself in connection with the powers of darkness and respond to Satan’s temptations or in any way succumb to them, because He was working out the salvation of a fallen race. He was to place Himself just where man would be placed and give man an example of what he should do in like circumstances. Then when we consider that the Son of man, the Majesty of heaven, would not place Himself in any position to tempt the Lord, how inconsistent for fallen man to yield to the suggestions of Satan. There will be constantly temptations that will come to a church, large or small, no matter where it is; and the temptations will come just according to the circumstances. How is it with us? Are we standing with the whole armor on so that we can work in harmony with the angels of God who are working for us? If we separate ourselves from these angels by taking our own course of action, then we place ourselves where the wicked one can tempt us. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 7
We have been pained as we have had brought to our notice papers, advertisers of sorcery and witchcraft, the work of magicians and all this sort of thing, going on in Battle Creek. Who of you who profess to be children of the living God were presumptuous enough to place yourself anywhere near these powers of darkness? There is in these the manifestation of a power that is above human power; and where is it? It is not all sleight of hand. No, indeed. It is the power of Satan. And just as soon as you begin to bring yourselves in connection with these sorcerers and give them the least license, you dishonor the God of heaven and imperil your own souls. There is a large church here. Our college has brought in many families; and these families ought to feel before God that they have a responsibility to guard the fort. If they are unfaithful and refuse to stand at their post of duty, who will do this for them? If they have not spirituality, if they have not piety, if they have not devotion or discernment in regard to how they should conduct themselves and keep themselves separate from such influences as are continually arising in Battle Creek—right where God is at work and where His institutions are, where we may expect that the angels of God as guardians are around about us—those who will do nothing to help the church, why, just as soon as they can find a position outside of Battle Creek we shall say amen to it. Better not be a burden to the church in this place. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 8
Parents and guardians of families, had you decided when you came here that you would keep the fort? Had you decided that you would work in harmony with heaven, with the angels of God who are communicating with and guarding His people and who are pressing back the powers of darkness that they shall not have any control over those who shall be heirs of salvation? Are we working in harmony with the angels? This is the line of communication the Lord has established with the children of men. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 9
We have a college, a printing establishment, and a sanitarium here in Battle Creek. Have you considered the importance of every soul that comes into this church standing on the Lord’s side? Have you considered that you must take upon yourselves the whole armor of righteousness? There are constantly coming up things of this character, and we want to be prepared to meet them; we want to be prepared to stand. Having done all we can on our part, our doing cannot save us. But there is something that will save us, and that is the power of God. Connection with the power of God is our only salvation. There is not one of us but what ought to lay hold of the subject of justification by faith. It means ten times more, yes, a hundredfold more than many of us seem to realize. We are to feel that we have not a particle of dependence, not a particle of trust in ourselves; we are to trust in the living God, in His power, in His might, and in His grace to keep us, or we shall fall. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 10
Now we want to bring before you something in regard to the work that was done in Ephesus. That work was the burning of the magic books. You will see that in every place God works after the manner that He can best reach the people. When He came to reveal Christ to the Magi, He did not come to them as He did to the shepherds on the plains of Bethlehem. The wise men were reading the works of God in the heavens. “The heavens declare the glory of God” [Psalm 19:1], and God comes to them to educate them in the very manner that He could best reach them. He has a star, a wonderful star, to appear to them. Angels of God hover in the heavens in the shape of a star, and they see the star. As they begin to understand that something strange is taking place, they begin to move, and the star moves before them. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 11
Just so, as Paul comes to Ephesus to labor, many were there with curious arts. Read Acts 19:19, 20. Why did they not keep those books on hand? Because it would be a temptation to them. How is Paul to reach these magicians and those under their influence? How is he to reach that people of Ephesus where is that great temple of Diana, whose fame had gone out through all the world? The God of heaven came to Paul, and through the Spirit of God miracles were wrought. But there were some men there who tried to imitate the miracles, and the evil spirit fell upon them, and they were beaten and bruised because they took the name of Jesus to use in their sorcery. They cannot mix; they cannot mix at all. But the apostle reached this city through the mighty working of the power of God, that the people might see that there was a power above all the powers of the magicians, and it had effect upon them; therefore they burned their magical books. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 12
But you say, What did they lose so much money for? Wasn’t that a waste? It was a precious waste. They would be safe so long as directly connected with God, but if the Spirit of God should not shine at all times with manifest power upon them, they would begin to want to go back to the study of something about those books and the beauty of their arrangement. You know how it is with spiritualism. It is just the same here. There is a wonderful power about it. Many were converted. I wish you to bear in mind that they were converted, and on account of their conversion they destroyed their magic books. They consumed them that every temptation might be cut off, that they might not again fall into their hands that they might be a temptation to go back to their sorceries in any future period. This is the way to do. Put up every bar before the enemy so that he will not tempt you and lead you away; for he is using every art to lead you into temptation. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 13
How is he working here in Battle Creek? Here come up these magicians, and there is an itching curiosity to go and see; and when they go to see they bring themselves into contact with them; and when they bring themselves in contact with them they are in direct communication with the powers of darkness. Then there is some lottery business connected with it, and one young man that goes there obtains a gold watch. What then? The watch may be genuine gold. It may be no fraud; but ah, there is a fraud back of that, and that is the snare. If he has gained this once, he will want to try it again. Oh, I would rather, if it had been a son of mine, have him lying in his coffin than sporting that gold watch. Then there are other boys. He shows his watch to them, and then there is an itching with them to try their luck in just the same way, and so they will attempt this matter themselves; then another will attempt it, and another. And so the influence extends from one to another, and the devil knows just how to play his game. He is playing a game for the souls of the youth here in Battle Creek. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 14
I am sorry to say that those who ought to be guardians in their homes, those who have families outside of the college, do not have that spiritual discernment which they ought to have in order to properly control those who are under their care. The college cannot manage the families of those who have guardians and fathers and mothers in this place. They cannot be looking after them. They can look after those in their own homes, but they cannot go out into the homes of boys and girls to see after families where there are guardians and parents to look after those children. Now we want to know what fathers and mothers and guardians are doing here in Battle Creek. Better by far move out of Battle Creek if you have no power of influence to control your children in Battle Creek. You had a great deal better get out on a little piece of land so hard and rocky that it will command labor every day from your children, that they will be taxed to the uttermost in the use of their muscles, in order to keep their minds and their bodies from being debased by the temptations and allurements of the enemy. When you neglect your God-given responsibilities, let me tell you that there are angels of God around you to watch your neglects, and a testimony is carried to heaven and registered in the books of heaven against you, and the result of all your weakness and folly will meet you. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 15
Now as to success of that youth that obtained that watch. Oh that it never had happened, will be his testimony in the future. Oh that he had never brought himself in connection with the powers of darkness. It is directly in connection with the powers of the devil, with principalities and powers; and it is the wicked one that is at work—Satan behind the scenes—and yet we do not perceive his power. Again, I understand that the boast was made that they had their greatest patronage from the west end of town. Now brethren, is it not time for us to awake? Is it not time that we had spiritual discernment? Is it not time that we were touching upon the things that concern our eternal welfare? Is it not time that men and women of God who claim to believe in the near coming of the Son of man in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory, should understand and not place themselves in any position of temptation? While we were laboring with all our souls, one of our brethren came into my room bowed down under a great burden of grief, exclaiming, “What shall we do? What can we do for the children and youth in Battle Creek?” Said I, “I carry that burden; I carry it day and night, and it is wearing me out. And now I believe God sees it all, and I must trust the burden to the Lord.” 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 16
I wish the church in Battle Creek were divided up into as many as four or five sections. I wish that the missionary spirit would get hold of them and they [would] feel like going out of Battle Creek into new places where they could lift the standard of truth, wherever they could work for the salvation of souls, and not throw their dead weight upon the church here at Battle Creek. But there are those that feel no responsibility and do nothing, even for their own families, except to help them downward. Oh, it is a painful picture. While the servants of God may be rising up and exhausting their vitality, and going down into the grave under the load and under the burden, there are those here who do not lift one ounce weight of the burden. They do not visit the sick, they do not find out the needy, they do not try to be a comfort and a blessing here and there to one another, and there is no spiritual vitality in them. They do not in the fear of God take care of their own families. The fear of the Lord does not circulate in their own homes. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 17
My dear brethren and sisters, every soul whose name is upon the church book who will disgrace the cause of God and themselves by going to such places as where those magicians hold forth is a subject of church trial. He ought either to be separated from the church or repent before the Lord and confess his backslidings. How do the angels of God, how does the universe of heaven, look upon these things? 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 18
God has been at the expense of sending His Son Jesus Christ to be a sacrifice for us, to die that man might have eternal life, and He has been at all this infinite expense to bring the angels of God in connection with men, that men should not fight the battle with the wily foe in their own strength. And while all heaven is interested in watching over the children of men that they shall not perish but have everlasting life, while they are sheltering and guarding them on the right and on the left, they take themselves right out of the hands of the angels of God and put themselves into the hands of the devil. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 19
Curiosity is something bewitching, as says the apostle, “Who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth?” [Galatians 3:1.] Do you think the devil is asleep? He is not asleep, he is wide awake, and he is on the track of every one of us. We are right upon the very borders of the eternal world. While some are at strife on little points of doctrine, oh my soul, they had better be fasting and praying and seeking God with all their hearts that they may find Him. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 20
I can tell you instance after instance that I know of, of men that have been warned and reproved, that have sat here in this house and listened to discourse after discourse; but in the place of being doers of the word, in the place of receiving the Word of God into good and honest hearts, in the place of working with all their might in harmony with heaven, they have hugged their sins to themselves. And then what? The seal of God could not be upon them, and when calamities came, when placed in perilous positions, those very ones have gone down into the grave; and they will not come up in the first resurrection. They will not see the King in His beauty. They were lost simply because they took their own way. They broke away from the Spirit of God and kept venturing and venturing, and tasting and testing the wiles of the devil. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 21
There was a man in Ohio who held sittings with the Spiritualists. He had communicated with them. But there came a time when the truth of God reached him and he commenced to break away. For some time he was with us in the truth. We had been holding tent meetings, but I think the power of the enemy came in through temptations in the night. His wife said that they had sent thirteen baskets full of provisions to support the ministers in the tent, and there were only just as many souls in the church as they sent baskets full of provisions. Well, said I, let us see; a soul for every basket. Jesus Christ would give the world for one of these souls. Jesus Christ would give His life and the whole world today, and now you are complaining that you have sent thirteen baskets full of provisions, and there are only thirteen souls saved. Well, that night we had a praying season, and the next morning we had a meeting a few miles distant. This man harnessed up our horse, and he said that after we started he would come on. But we did not see him all day, and we did not know what it meant. But finally, the next day, he came. We had had a most powerful meeting that day. He told us his experience, and said: “I went out to harness my horse, and as I would take the bit to put it in the horse’s mouth, a hand would take it and throw it across the barn; and when I would get the bridle and try it again, the hand would again snatch the bridle and throw it again across the barn. I worked the whole forenoon with all my might and main to get those bits into the horse’s mouth, but I could not do it; and finally, becoming exhausted, I had to give it up.” What power was that? The very same power that made those persons go down town to those sorcerers. Oh, what a scene it was to see men rolling on the floor and pretending to pick strawberries and all these things. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 22
How could you feel that the universe of heaven could look approvingly upon you who have heard the truth here from Sabbath to Sabbath? How, I ask you again, could they look upon us who united with such gross darkness? Brethren and sisters, let us keep from all such influences; let us show that our rebuke is upon them; let us by our efforts show, whatever things of like character come in here to engage the attention of the young, that we disapprove of them. And don’t let it be said that they get the greatest patronage from this end of town. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 23
God help us to be true to the institutions which He has established in our midst. Again, here are individuals working contrary to that which God has told us we should do. Why was that institution, the sanitarium, established here? It was to keep God’s people in connection with Himself. It was to be a means whereby we should come to Him when sick and suffering and distressed. But here come in strange doctors and do wonderful cures. Here one minister patronizes them, and he encourages another minister to patronize them, and the work goes on. And there are those things coming up in our midst that are leading to the very things which God has brought His people away from. This work has been going on in our very midst. True, physicians may cure some cases. It would be very strange if they did not. You know how these things will be exaggerated. But it has been opened to me again and again. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 24
We are nearing the end; we are nearing the judgment; and every power that can break up our unity, our harmony, our pressing together, is at work to hinder our sustaining those very institutions that God has established. Every influence that can be brought to bear to bring us in connection with tendencies that are evil will arise and Satan will use his power to confuse the minds. We want to stand as men and women of God. We want to stand with the institutions, the instrumentalities which God has brought into being. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 25
There are some that think they are doing a wonderful missionary work. Their letters are going all over the country, and they are getting into college and into the sanitarium even. And these persons are holding out, oh, what wonderful things a certain one can do! What a wonderful work he is doing! There may be cases where that physician may seem to do the very same work as is done at the sanitarium, and imagination is everything; you may imagine that it is a great work that is being done, but it is not; time will show the character of it. There was a man here in Battle Creek, a man unworthy of the confidence of any of our people. Oh, that the inwardness of his life and character could be presented to every one of them. But many of them knew it, and still he was patronized. What is the matter? It is a bewitching power used to weaken and discourage the very ones we are trying to the best of our ability to keep separate from the world and unholy influences. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 26
Brethren and sisters, we need a great deal more of God. The angels of God are in our midst, and we want to put ourselves under their guardianship. We must be pressing together and sustaining one another. In the place of drawing one another down, in the place of beating on the wrong track, we want to work where God works; we want to exert a telling influence in behalf of God’s people, and we want to listen for the voice of God. We want to hear what it saith. How hard Balaam tried, oh, how hard he tried to use his power of magic to put his curse upon Israel. God says, You shall not do it. Angels of God were on the ground, and he could not do it. Balak would take him from one place to another that he might curse Israel, and he desired Balaam to curse only the uttermost part of them, but Balaam said, “How can I curse those whom God has not cursed?” [Numbers 23:8.] The blessing of God was upon His people, and prophecies were put into his mouth and forced from his lips by the power of God in favor of His people. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 27
We are now coming down to the last days, and the devil wants to shake and confuse the confidence of his people in these various institutions. He wants to bring persons where they will have a bad influence, where they have no love for the truth and things which we believe to be of God. And those that are doing that wonderful missionary work had better find out from whom they get their orders; they had better find out who has commissioned them to do this wonderful missionary work. We want to see that they are sailing under the proper colors. We want to see that they are laboring in harmony with the influence of the Spirit of God. Brethren and Sisters, we want to see you come to your senses. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 28
God says that the health reform in our midst is not what it ought to be. There is backsliding on this point. God has given us light in regard to how we should live. But these physicians say, “Why, you are living altogether different from what you ought to live. You ought not to be on this ground. You must live differently and eat differently.” And so they are leading right away from the path that God has been leading His people in all the way through. Brethren, how can the Lord let His blessing rest upon us when we are going right upon the enemy’s ground? Think of the case of Ahaziah’s making inquiry of the god of Ekron, and the results that followed, and you can but see how God regarded such things. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 29
We want to stand as a unit, and those who stand ready to quibble over little points of doctrine to maintain their ideas are not really converted. Just as soon as you are truly converted, this quibbling will cease. You need to go to God with your Bible, with fasting and prayer. God wants us to be united in bringing this people up to a right standard here in Battle Creek, for Satan is playing a deep game for their souls and many will be ensnared. The Lord wants every father and mother to work for their own household. He wants the converting power of God to be in your own families. He does not want you to let Satan plant his hellish banner right in your family, and you bow to that banner. He wants you to take your place as fathers and mothers. He wants you to teach your children concerning the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment and walk humbly with God. Teach your families that the angels of God are coming in and going out of your house and guarding and watching over the children of men. He wants you to tell them how they appeared to Peter, how they appeared to John, how they appeared to those who suffered in prison for the truth’s sake, how the Lord wrought in behalf of John, how He wrought in behalf of Paul, and of Peter, how the angels of God from heaven came right into the prison house and took their prey out of the hands of the enemy. God is constantly working in behalf of His people, and what credit do you give Him for it? 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 30
Angels of God are all around us. You do not discern them with your human vision. Satan and his angels are here in this house today. Oh, we want to know these things, and fear and tremble, and to think much more of the power of the angels of God that are watching over and guarding us than we have done hitherto. We want to place ourselves under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel. We do not want to be serving Baal. We do not want to be giving ourselves up to the powers of darkness. Angels of God are commissioned from heaven to guard the children of men, and yet they draw away from their restraining influences and go where they can have communication with the evil angels; and then the evil angels fasten impressions in their minds that they will never get rid of so long as they live, just as going to the theater, billiard hall, and all such places lead them from the path of God to stand under the black banner of the prince of darkness. Oh, that we might all obey the injunction of the apostle read 2 Corinthians 6:17, 18. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 31
Oh what an infinite sacrifice was paid for our redemption! Look at the long fast of Jesus Christ in the wilderness of temptation. Look at all He endured, the agony of the cross, in order to save man; and then, I ask you, What shall we do on our part? God help us that we may come under the influence, the special influence, of the Spirit of God. Then He will let it come upon us with power. He will communicate light to us from heaven, and we will walk in the light, and live in the light as He is in the light. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 32
Burn the magical books; burn every last one of them; burn everything—yes, consume it—that will suffer a connection between you and the powers of darkness. “Come out from among them, and be separate, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you.” [Verse 17.] This is what we should want to do. We want to bow in reverence to the God of heaven. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 33
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We are coming right upon the time when Satan is to work with all manner of bewitching influences, and those that are charmed with them now, or give them the least countenance now, will be all ready to be swept right in to act a part with the devil then. Evil angels are working all the time upon the hearts of men. Satan is working with everyone who is not under the control of the Spirit of God. It is the lying wonders of the devil that will take the world captive, and he will cause fire to come down from heaven in the sight of men. He is to work miracles; and this wonderful, miracle-working power is to sweep in the whole world. It is now just beginning. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 34
I want to tell you another thing. The vials of God’s wrath and the sprinkling of them are already coming. What is the matter that we do not discern it? It is because the light of truth does not affect the heart. The Spirit of God is being withdrawn from the world. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 35
You hear of calamities by land and by sea, and they are constantly increasing. What is the matter? The Spirit of God is taken away from those who have the lives of men in their hands, and Satan is coming in to control them, because they give themselves to his control. Those who profess to be the children of God do not place themselves under the guardianship of the heavenly angels, and as Satan is a destroyer, he works through those men and they make mistakes; and they will get drunk and because of intemperance, many times, bring these terrible calamities upon us. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 36
And see the storms and tempests! Satan is working in the atmosphere; he is poisoning the atmosphere, and here we are dependent upon God for our lives—our present and eternal life. And being in the position that we are, we need to be wide awake, wholly devoted, wholly converted, wholly consecrated to God. But we seem to sit as though we were paralyzed. God of heaven, wake us up! Don’t you read the newspapers and see the casualties? And don’t you feel afraid to place yourself out of the guardianship of the holy angels, under the control of the evil angels by going right where they are? Will you invite them to connect with you? Can we afford it? Why, you insult the living God if you do; and you are not converted, whoever you may be, rich or poor, high or low, in office or out of office; it is an abomination in the sight of God. And not only is it an abomination in the sight of God, but it is an abomination in our land. Let us stand clear from all these things, that the converting power of God may come into our midst. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 37
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May God help us, brethren and sisters, to realize that this is missionary soil. We claim to be missionaries and workers for Christ; but while you are laboring, be sure that you are seeking to build up what God is building up. Be sure that you are working with all the powers of your being to build up the church, to establish it, and to bring all the piety and all the devotion that the Spirit of God will impart to you into the church that it may be a living church, and that you may be light bearers to the world. Who is a light to the world? Were those a light to the world who went in there and took their position with those sorcerers? What kind of a light was reflected from that scene? 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 38
Brethren and sisters, we must come up upon higher ground. We have talked it and we have pleaded it; and while we were talking truth, there was a party got up here, and another there, and another somewhere else. Satan was devising these means to draw away from God. It had this very influence. They did not think it, but it had this influence. Anything that the devil can devise, he will get up, that with his hellish influence he may come right into the soul. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 39
Brethren and sisters, you want [to have] on the breastplate of righteousness. There is little enough genuine conversion. There is plenty of selfish, hypocritical religion, there is plenty of deadness. Oh, we want to arouse a spirit of real piety, unselfish devotion, and true religion. We want to press all our forces against the powers of darkness that are gathering right here to take Jesus from our midst. Oh, I would rather that all our children had died in their infancy than to let the devil take them and put them into his ranks. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 40
Brethren, those that have experience, come to the front. You that have professed the name of God in Battle Creek, I call upon you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to come to the front. We want the help of every soul. If you have a jot of influence, give it. Don’t give your influence to tearing down. We need your influence to build up the cause of God, for I tell you the crisis is right upon us. We want now to be seeking God in our homes, with weeping and with fasting and with prayer. Shall we take hold of this work? Shall we take hold of it right? God help us to work where the angels work; God help us to work where Christ works; God help us to work where God works, that we may see the salvation of God. 6LtMs, Ms 1, 1890, par. 41