- A Word to the Reader
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- Introduction
- Chapter 6—The Loving Watchcare of Jesus
- Chapter 7—Christ Holds Control
- Chapter 8—Willing to Spend and Be Spent
- Chapter 9—Examine Yourselves
- Chapter 10—Good Angels More Powerful Than Evil Angels
- Chapter 11—What Are We Worth?
- Chapter 12—Angels Are Amazed
- Chapter 13—Importance of Receiving the Holy Spirit
- Chapter 14—In Every Place
- Chapter 15—When the Church Awakes
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- Introduction
- Chapter 19—What to Preach and Not to Preach
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- Chapter 21—Fanciful or Speculative Teachings
- Chapter 22—The Peril of Extreme Views
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- Chapter 25—The Foundation of Our Faith
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- Introduction
- Chapter 26—The Perfect Law
- Chapter 27—The Character of the Law of God
- Chapter 28—Satan's Enmity Toward the Law
- Chapter 29—Christ Our Only Hope
- Chapter 30—The Law and the Gospel
- Chapter 31—The Law in Galatians
- Chapter 32—The Righteousness of Christ in the Law
- Chapter 33—“Search the Scriptures”
- Chapter 34—The Word Made Flesh
- Chapter 35—“Tempted in All Points Like as We Are”
- Chapter 36—No Caste in Christ
- Chapter 37—“Even So Send I You”
- Chapter 38—The Temptation of Christ
- Chapter 39—First Temptation of Christ
- Chapter 40—Second Temptation of Christ
- Chapter 41—Third Temptation of Christ
- Chapter 42—The Revelation of God
- Chapter 43—Christ the Life-giver
- Chapter 44—The Risen Saviour
- Chapter 45—The First Fruits
- Chapter 46—A Divine Sin Bearer
- Chapter 47—The Truth as It Is in Jesus
- Chapter 48—The Divine Standard
- Chapter 49—Surrender and Confession
- Chapter 50—Come and Seek and Find
- Chapter 51—United With the Living Vine
- Chapter 52—Christ Our High Priest
- Chapter 53—Transformation Through Faith and Obedience
- Chapter 54—The Subject Presented in 1883
- Chapter 55—Presented as Old Truth in New Framework
- Chapter 56—A Truth Bearing the Divine Credentials
- Chapter 57—Christ the Way of Life
- Chapter 58—“Thou Hast Left Thy First Love”
- Chapter 59—Perfect Obedience Through Christ
- Chapter 60—Relation of Faith and Works
- Chapter 61—Christ the Center of the Message
- Chapter 62—Justified by Faith
- Chapter 63—The Pearl of Great Price
- Chapter 64—“The Darkness Comprehended It Not”
- Chapter 65—How to Meet a Controverted Point of Doctrine
Peril of Confusing the Spirit's Work with Fanaticism
There have been things written to me in regard to the movings of the Spirit of God at the last conference [1893], and at the college, which clearly indicate that because these blessings were not lived up to, minds have been confused, and that which was light from heaven has been called excitement. I have been made sad to have this matter viewed in this light. We must be very careful not to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in pronouncing the ministration of His Holy Spirit a species of fanaticism. How shall we understand the workings of the Spirit of God if it was not revealed in clear and unmistakable lines, not only in Battle Creek but in many places?1SM 130.1
I am not surprised that anyone should be confused at the after result. But in my experience of the past forty-nine years I have seen much of these things, and I have known that God has wrought in a marked manner; and let no one venture to say this is not the Spirit of God. It is just that which we are authorized to believe and pray for, for God is more willing to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him than parents are to give good gifts unto their children. But the Holy Spirit is not for the human agent to work; it is to work and use the human agent. That God did abundantly bless the students in the school and the church, I have not one doubt; but a period of great light and the outpouring of the Spirit is quite generally followed by a time of great darkness. Why? Because the enemy works with all his deceiving energies to make of none effect the deep movings of the Spirit of God on the human subject.1SM 130.2
When the students at the school went into their match games and football playing, when they became absorbed in the amusement question, Satan saw it a good time to step in and make of none effect the Holy Spirit of God in molding and using the human subject. Had the teachers to a man done their duty, had they realized their accountability, had they stood in moral independence before God, had they used the ability which God had given them according to the sanctification of the spirit through the love of the truth, they would have had spiritual strength and divine enlightenment to press on and on and upward on the ladder of progress reaching heavenward. The fact is evident that they did not appreciate or walk in the light or follow the Light of the world.1SM 131.1
It is an easy matter to idle away, talk and play away, the Holy Spirit's influence. To walk in the light is to keep moving onward in the direction of light. If the one blessed becomes negligent and inattentive and does not watch unto prayer, if he does not lift the cross and bear the yoke of Christ, if his love of amusements and strivings for the mastery absorb his power or ability, then God is not made the first and best and last in everything, and Satan comes in to act his part in playing the game of life for his soul. He can play much more earnestly than they can play, and make deep-laid plots for the ruin of the soul....1SM 131.2
The results after the working of the Spirit of God in Battle Creek are not because of fanaticism, but because those who were blessed did not show forth the praises of Him who called them out of darkness into His marvelous light; and when the earth is lightened with the glory of God, some will not know what it is, and from whence it came, because they misapplied and misinterpreted the Spirit shed upon them. God is a jealous God of His own glory. He will not honor those who dishonor Him. Some persons living in the light ought to have instructed these souls young in experience to walk in the light after they had received the light. I wish I had time to write more fully, but I fear I have not.—Letter 58, 1893.1SM 131.3