“For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because ye were more in number than any people; for ye were the fewest of all people: but because the Lord loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand.... Thou shalt therefore keep the commandments, and the statutes, and the judgments, which I command thee this day, to do them.” Deuteronomy 7:6-8, 11. Please read carefully the whole of the seventh chapter of Deuteronomy, and think upon the word of the Lord. (TM 141.1) MC VC

Will you turn from a plain “Thus saith the Lord” after reading the history of Adam’s sin and fall? He fell because he discarded the words of the Lord and heeded the words of Satan. Will it pay to transgress? By transgression Adam lost Eden. By the transgression of God’s commandments man will lose heaven, and an eternity of bliss. These are no idle tales, but truth. Again I ask, On which side are you standing? “If the Lord be God, follow Him: but if Baal, then follow him.” 1 Kings 18:21. (TM 141.2) MC VC

“For the Lord shall rise up as in Mount Perazim, He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that He may do His work, His strange work; and bring to pass His act, His strange act. Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.” Isaiah 28:21, 22. Read Deuteronomy 7:6. Read the whole chapter, also chapters 1 and 8. These were presented to me as the words of the Lord. These things are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. (TM 420.1) MC VC

We are to have only those connected with our institutions who will hear the word of the Lord and appreciate and obey His voice. When a man will plead and urge to have his mind and his judgment to be supreme in any one of our institutions, you can have no greater evidence that that man does not know himself and is not qualified to manage. He will make mistakes and injure rather than restore. He does not know what responsibilities are involved in his relation to God or to his fellowmen. (TM 420.2) MC VC

“Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be?” 2 Peter 3:11. Those who walk humbly with God will not be striving to obtain greater responsibilities, but will consider that they have a special work to do, and will be faithful to their duty. In our institutions, great good can be done in educating by precept and example, in economy in all lines. If you, my brother, had learned in the school of Christ to be meek and lowly in heart, you would always stand on vantage ground. You have not an evenly balanced character. You cannot safely put confidence in your own judgment in all things. Man’s way is to devise and scheme; God implants a principle. Man is striving to make duty soft and accommodating to his own natural character; but life is a battlefield; life is a race which he has to run if he is victor.... (TM 420.3) MC VC