"Says the True Witness: “I know thy works.” The motives, the purposes,
the unbelief, the suspicions and jealousies may be hid from men, but not
from Christ. The True Witness comes as a counselor: ‘I counsel thee to
buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white
raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy
nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou
mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous
therefore, and repent’”.
(Testimonies, Vol. 3. p. 256)
fire; it is the gold of faith and love, that has no defiling substance mingled with it.
The white raiment is the righteousness of Christ, the wedding
garment which Christ alone can give.
The eye-salve is the true spiritual
discernment that is so wanting among us, for spiritual things must be
spiritually discerned."
(Review and Herald, September 16, 1873)
"The message to the church of the Laodiceans is a startling denunciation,
and is applicable to the people of God at the present time."
(Testimonies, Vol. 3, p. 252)
"What greater deception can come upon human minds than a confidence that
they are right, when they are all wrong?
The message of the True Witness
finds the people of God in a sad deception, yet honest in that
deception.
They know not that their condition is deplorable in the sight
of God. While those addressed are flattering themselves that they are
in an exalted spiritual condition, the message of the True Witness
breaks their security by the startling denunciation of their true
situation of spiritual blindness, poverty, and wretchedness.
The
testimony, so cutting and severe, cannot be a mistake; for it is the
True Witness who speaks, and his testimony must be correct."
(Review and
Herald, September 16, 1873)
