I tell you plainly, God is displeased with your course. There are troubles before you that you do not discern and which may be avoided if you choose to follow wise counsel. Our Saviour has made you the object of His unwearied labors and tender solicitude, that you may be wise and not ruin your self. He yearns over you in boundless compassion and love, exclaiming: “How often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!” Luke 13:34. Your foolish heart has turned from the counsel of your best friends. (5T 126.1) MC VC

Because of earnest, faithful warnings to guard you against the mistakes of a lifetime, you have imagined you were a great benefit to the church. True, you are capable, in Jesus Christ, of being useful; but, notwithstanding this, the Lord and the church can get along without you. You can join the army of Christ’s followers if you will; you may share in its conflicts and triumphs. But if you choose not to do this, the self-denying army under the bloodstained banner of the cross will move on to certain victory, and leave you behind. If you choose to guide your own frail bark across life’s stormy waters you must answer for the presumption and be held responsible for the result. (5T 126.2) MC VC

If you could see how you have already become weak in principle, if you could see how your honor and honesty are imperiled, you would then see that God is not with you and that you ought not to stand in the place of responsibility you now occupy; you are unworthy. My heart is sad indeed when I know what you might have been had you yielded yourself wholly to God and then see the power the enemy has had over you. (5T 126.3) MC VC