Testimonies for the Church Vol 1 - Lansing SDA Church

130 Testimonies for the Church Volume 1[135]I saw that young and old neglect the Bible. They do not make thatbook their study and their rule of life as they should. Especially are theyoung guilty of this neglect. Most of them are ready, and find plentyof time, to read almost any other book. But the word that points to life,eternal life, is not perused and daily studied. That precious, importantbook that is to judge them in the last day is scarcely studied at all. Idlestories have been attentively read, while the Bible has been passedby neglected. A day is coming, a day of clouds and thick darkness,when all will wish to be thoroughly furnished by the plain, simpletruths of the word of God, that they may meekly, yet decidedly, give areason of their hope. This reason of their hope, I saw, they must haveto strengthen their own souls for the fierce conflict. Without this theyare wanting, and cannot have firmness and decision.Parents would better burn the idle tales of the day and the novelsas they come into their houses. It would be a mercy to the children.Encourage the reading of these storybooks, and it is like enchantment.It bewilders and poisons the mind. Parents, I saw that unless youawake to the eternal interest of your children, they will surely be lostthrough your neglect. And the possibility that unfaithful parents willbe saved themselves is very small. Parents should be exemplary. Theyshould exert a holy influence in their families. They should let theirdress be modest, different from the world around them. As they valuethe eternal interest of their children, they should rebuke pride in them,faithfully rebuke it, and encourage it not in word or deed. Oh, thepride that was shown me of God’s professed people! It has increasedevery year, until it is now impossible to designate professed adventSabbathkeepers from all the world around them. I saw that this pridemust be torn out of our families.Much has been expended for ribbons and laces for the bonnets, forcollars [The question has often been asked me if I believed it wrong towear plain linen collars. My answer has always been No. Some havetaken the extreme meaning of what I have written about collars, andhave maintained that it is wrong to wear one of any description. I wasshown expensively wrought collars, and expensive and unnecessaryribbons and laces, which some Sabbathkeepers have worn, and stillwear for the sake of show and fashion. In mentioning collars, I didnot design to be understood that nothing like a collar should be worn,or, in mentioning ribbons, that no ribbons at all should be worn. E.