2T 100
(Testimonies for the Church Volume 2 100)
I was then shown a young girl of the same place, who had departed from God and was enshrouded in darkness. Said the angel: “She did run well for a season; what did hinder her?” I was pointed back and saw that it was a change of surroundings. She was associating with youth like herself, who were filled with hilarity and glee, pride, and love of the world. Had she regarded the words of Christ, she need not have yielded to the enemy. “Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation.” Mark 14:38. Temptation may be all around us, but this does not make it necessary that we should enter into temptation. The truth is worth everything. Its influence tends not to degrade, but to elevate, refine, purify, and exalt to immortality and the throne of God. Said the angel: “Will ye have Christ, or the world?” Satan presents the world with its most alluring, flattering charms to poor mortals, and they gaze upon it, and its glitter and tinsel eclipse the glory of heaven and that life which is as enduring as the throne of God. A life of peace, happiness, joy unspeakable, which shall know nothing of sorrow, sadness, pain, nor death, is sacrificed for a short lifetime of sin. All who will turn from the pleasures of earth, and with Moses choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of the world, will, with faithful Moses, receive the unfading crown of immortality and the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. (2T 100.1) MC VC