Testimonies for the Church Volume 1 - A New You Ministry

I saw that you had mistaken notions about afflicting your bodies, deprivingyourselves of nourishing food. These things lead some of the church to think thatGod is surely with you, or you would not deny self, and sacrifice thus. But I saw thatnone of these things will make you more holy. The heathen do all this, but receive noreward for it. A broken and contrite spirit before God is in His sight of great price. Isaw that your views concerning these things are erroneous, and that you are lookingat the church and watching them, noticing little things, when your attention should beturned to your own soul’s interest. God has not laid the burden of His flock upon you.You think that the church is upon the background, because they cannot see things asyou do, and because they do not follow the same rigid course which you think you arerequired to pursue. I saw that you are deceived in regard to your own duty and theduty of others. Some have gone to extremes in regard to diet. They have taken a rigidcourse, and lived so very plain that their health has suffered, disease has strengthenedin the system, and the temple of God has been weakened.I was referred back to our experience in Rochester, New York. I saw that when welived there we did not eat nourishing food as we should, and disease nearly carried usto the grave. I saw that as God gives His beloved sleep, He is willing to grant themsuitable food to nourish the strength. The motive we had was pure. It was to savemeans, that the paper might be sustained. We were poor. I saw that the fault then wasin the church. Those who had means were covetous and selfish. If these had done theirpart, the burden upon us would have been lightened; but as some did not do their part,we were burdened and others eased. I saw that God does not require anyone to takea course of such rigid economy as to weaken or injure the temple of God. There areduties and requirements in His word to humble the church and cause them to afflicttheir souls, and there is no need of making205