Testimonies for the Church Volume 1 - A New You Ministry

say? They should set a right example before their children, and although the exampleof professed followers of Christ causes the children to think that their parents aretoo careful and severe in their restrictions, yet God will bless the efforts of theseconscientious parents. If parents do not take a decided, firm course, their children willbe borne down with the current, for Satan and his evil angels are working upon theirminds, and the example of unconsecrated professors makes the work of overcoming farmore laborious for them. Yet with faith in God and earnest prayer, believing parentsshould press on in the rugged path of duty. The way of the cross is an onward, upwardway. And as we advance therein, seeking the things that are above, we must leavefarther and farther in the distance the things which belong to the earth. While theworld and carnal professors are rushing downward to death, those who climb the hillwill have to put forth efforts or they will be carried down with them.The children of the world are called the children of darkness. They are blindedby the God of this world, and are led by the spirit of the prince of darkness. Theycannot enjoy heavenly things. The children of light have their affections set on thingsabove. They leave behind them the things of this world. They fulfill the command:Come out from among them, and be ye separate.” Here is the conditional promise:“I will receive you.” From the beginning, Christ has chosen His people out of worldand required them to be separate, having no fellowship with the unfruitful works ofdarkness. If they love God and keep His commandments, they will be far from havingthe friendship, and loving the pleasures, of the world. There is no concord betweenChrist and Belial.The prophet Ezra, and other faithful servants of the Jewish church, were astonishedwhen the princes came to them saying: “The people of Israel, and the priests, and theLevites, have not separated themselves from the people of279