(Wednesday Forenoon, Feb. 10, 1897)
The following is but an abstract of Elder Jones's remarks. On account of many having arrived since the previous meeting, it was necessary to consume considerable time in rehearsing the points brought out on the preceding day. In addition to this, the speaker said that the trouble with us as a people was not that we do not nominally believe the Testimonies are from God; but what we need to know is how to believe them. If the only way that we have of expressing our belief in the Testimonies is by telling the people that we believe in them, our belief amounts to nothing. We thus open the way for the people to doubt the sincerity of our faith. If we really do believe the Testimonies, we will not need to tell the people so. Our lives will be a testimony to the faith that is in us.
There is a departing from God, and the temple needs cleansing just as it did in the days of old in Jerusalem. We have been brought into this condition by disregarding the Testimonies of the Spirit of God. But many of those who disregarded them believed in them, and at the time held those Testimonies in their hands, and did not suppose that they were disregarding them. Consequently, what we want to know is how to regard the Testimonies of the Spirit.
And we are not to think for a moment, when a testimony is given, and a man is named, that God is making an attack upon him to destroy him. The Lord's purpose is to separate him from the faults that are injuring him and hindering the work of God. It is to save the man and destroy the fault. God will not destroy or condemn a man unless he is inseparably connected with the sin. When this man turns his back on his wrong course, acknowledges the testimony, and puts himself right in the sight of God, he no longer stands in the position in which the testimony found him. That testimony may then be used as a warning for others, but must never be used to condemn the man who has recognized his wrong.
God's way is to make man something that he is not; to give man something that he has not. We cannot apply the Testimonies to others. No, nor even to ourselves from without. We must open the heart to God, to receive the testimony, that the Lord may implant the divine principle, giving us that which we have not, making us something that we are not, and thus himself by his Holy Spirit really making the application of the testimony. Then there will appear in our lives, there will be worked out in our actions, that which God has implanted within. That is accepting the Testimonies. Anything short of that is not accepting them.
The power which God implants, taken into the heart, will enable the man to stand under temptation, and in the midst of his weakness. It will give him that which he does not possess, and it will make him what he is not by nature.
When a man makes a failure in a position in which he is placed, we are liable to think that God has made a mistake in allowing him to be placed there; but this does not follow. God made no mistake in having Saul to be king of Israel; but Saul made a mistake in not becoming what God wanted him to be. He made a mistake in following his own ways and schemes, rather than listening to the voice of God. So also God made no mistake in making Jeroboam king over Israel. Although the purpose of God in separating the ten tribes from Judah was not carried out on account of the perversity of the people, yet God had a plan, but Jeroboam would not permit it to be carried out. God may call me or you to a position, and if we have some point of weakness which will prevent our usefulness, and God sends us a message, that message is to make us what he wants us to be, that through his grace we may stand where he wants us to stand. "Day by day men are revealing whether the kingdom of God is in 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 reform 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 [not to reform others, but 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 other hearts that will never be effaced. The influence will be carried to all parts of the world."
The work of reformation begins with self. I can make impressions upon other hearts only when I have reformed myself. God reaches others by reaching us, and reaches others through us. Turn to 2 Cor.1:3, 4:-
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
God comforts us that we may comfort others; God helps us that we may help others. We are brought in a place where we need the comfort of God, that we may be able to comfort others. He has others in mind when he comforts us. "And if we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation." If I am afflicted, it is for the consolation and salvation of some other man. I may not meet for years that man whom I am to comfort; but sometime I shall meet him, and the experience I have had prepares me to sit down by his side, or take him by the hand, and be a help and a comfort to him. He receives from me that which I have received from God, and he receives it that he may in turn communicate it to others, and these to others; and thus the influence of God's grace imparted to us extends to all the earth, although we may not move out of the State in which we live. Brethren, that is what God wants to do with us, and then our influence will be carried to all parts of the world.
Now to the question, How shall we take the Testimonies? Let us read how they have been really rejected when it was thought they were being accepted. Then we shall know how to avoid that mistake, and know how to accept them. Here I read of one whose "example has done much to unsettle confidence in the Testimonies." How did he do this?-"He himself has walked directly contrary to the light which God has given." But he did not suppose that he was walking directly contrary to them. He thought he was doing the right thing toward them. How, then, did he so miss the mark? Here is the answer: "The reproofs and warnings from the Lord have been evaded, and interpreted and made void by the devices of men."
How were they "evaded"? Here is the answer: "Why did you frame flimsy excuses?" "O, how ashamed should those be who have turned away from the counsel of God, and have tried to cover up the impression God would have made."
How were they "interpreted?" Here is the answer: They "put their own construction upon them, saying that they did not mean to do so."
And that was how the Testimonies were evaded, and interpreted, and made void, by those who thought they believed them, and who thought they were accepting them. Now, have you been evading them by flimsy excuses? Have you been interpreting them and making them void by putting your own construction upon them, saying they did not mean thus and so?"-Of course you have; you know you have. Then let us stop it this moment.
How, then, shall they be received? How shall we know what they mean? Here is the answer: "They meant just as stated." They mean what?-"Just as stated." Can you tell what they say?-Yes, easy enough. Then take them just as they say. Open the heart wide to God, that by his good Spirit he may implant there the principle that is in just what it says, then that principle will appear, it will shine in your life; then you have accepted the Testimonies. Then you know that you believe the Testimonies. Then there will be no danger of mistake about it. Others will know it, for you will make impressions on hearts that will never be effaced, and they will glorify God in the day of visitation.