1897

February 12, 1897

Extracts From Testimonies

EGW

“If the Lord is in the midst of your councils, beholding your order and love and fear, and your trembling at his word, then you are prepared to do his work unselfishly.”GCDB February 12, 1897, par. 1

“Man's way is to devise and scheme. God implants a principle.”GCDB February 12, 1897, par. 2

“Circumstances cannot work reforms. Christianity proposes a reformation in the heart. What Christ works within will be worked out under the dictation of a converted intellect. The plan of beginning at the outside and trying to work inward, has always failed and always will fail.”GCDB February 12, 1897, par. 3

“God's way is to give man something he has not.”GCDB February 12, 1897, par. 4

“God's way is to make man something that he is not;”GCDB February 12, 1897, par. 5

“Man's way is to get an easy place, and indulge appetite and selfish ambition. God's way is to work in power. He gives the grace if the sick man realizes that he needs it. Man is too often satisfied to treat himself according to the methods of quackery, and then vindicate the manner of his working as right.”GCDB February 12, 1897, par. 6

“Day by day men are revealing whether the kingdom of God is within them. If Christ rules in their hearts they are gaining strength of principle, power, ability to stand as faithful sentinels, true reformers; for there can be no reformation unless there is a thorough co-operation with Jesus Christ. Through the grace of Christ men are to use their God-given faculties to reform themselves. By this self-denying action, which the Lord of heaven looks upon with approval, they gain victories over their own hereditary and cultivated tendencies; then, like Daniel, they make impressions upon others that will never be effaced. The influence will be carried to all parts of the earth.”GCDB February 12, 1897, par. 7

“Many of the men who have acted as councilors in board and council meetings need to be weeded out.”GCDB February 12, 1897, par. 8

“Other men should take their places, for their voice is not the voice of God. Their plans and devices are not in the order of God. The same men have been kept in office as directors of boards, until under their own management and their own ways, common fire is used in the place of sacred fire of God's own kindling. These men are no more called Israel but supplanters.”GCDB February 12, 1897, par. 9

“Changes should have been made long ago. God would have the church roll away her reproach.”GCDB February 12, 1897, par. 10

“The same men are not to compose your board year by year; changes should have been made long ago. God would have the church roll away her reproach; but as long as men who have felt fully competent to work without accepting counsel of God are kept in office year by year, this cannot be done. This state of things is leavening every branch of the work, because men do not feel their need of the guidance of the Holy Spirit.”GCDB February 12, 1897, par. 11