An Extract from a Letter Written to a Distant Female Friend

You speak of living among secesh. I am sorry that it is so. It is so strange that Northern men can sympathize with this terrible rebellion and the institution of slavery.

But have you never considered that there is a greater rebellion against God’s government by the inhabitants of the earth, which is winked at? Satan was the first rebel. He is the great leader of all rebellions. He rebelled against the laws of God’s government, framed by God himself, which were afterward written with his own finger upon tables of stone. Nearly all the human family have proved disloyal to the higher law, the ten commandments. We are laboring with all our energies to show the transgressors of God’s law their danger, and bring them back to their allegiance to the higher constitution and laws. The world is given to idolatry, and they have forgotten God, their Maker and Preserver. They openly transgress his law, trample on the Sabbath, and in thus doing break the fourth commandment of the decalogue. Instead of keeping God’s own rest-day, which he sanctified after he had rested upon it, and set it apart for man to observe and reverence, they honor a Papal institution. Oh, how the God of heaven has been insulted and despised. I pity the Sabbath-breaker who has soon to meet God over his broken law. No excuse will avail the transgressor then, for with the Bible and the almanac, every person of common abilities can tell just what day God sanctified and commanded him to observe, and when that day comes.

We have now an exhibition in our land of how serious a matter it is to lightly esteem, or rise up against, and prove disloyal to, the government or constitution of our land. And then consider how high a crime it must be to trample upon and despise the laws of God’s government, and bow to, and reverence, an institution of Papacy, framed by the Man of Sin, who exalted himself above God, and who is the great enemy of God. Is not this the highest and most heaven-daring rebellion? Does it not deserve the highest punishment? Will God take to heaven, and into his own glorious presence, those who are living in open violation of one of the plainest precepts of the decalogue? No, no. It can never be that he will take those who are living in rebellion to his holy law to heaven, among pure angels who delight to do his will, and obey the laws of his righteous government, for there would be a second rebellion in heaven. The indignation of heaven is aroused at man’s open and daring rebellion against God’s holy law.

The signs are fulfilling which give us unmistakable evidence that Christ is at the door. And just before he shall come in his majesty and glory to take vengeance on the rebellious, that all may be left without excuse, he will cause a proclamation of his law to go forth that every disloyal subject may return to their allegiance to his government and laws. If they continue in their rebellion they can find no more place in heaven than Satan found after he rebelled.

You may plead that you cannot keep the Sabbath because your friends do not keep it. Such an excuse you will not dare to plead before Him who suffered so much to redeem you. Matt. x 36. «He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me.»

Luke xiv, 26. «If any man come to me and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.»

Verse 33. «So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.» Many more passages of scripture I might refer you to, but you are acquainted with them. How many as they read these plain, close words of our Saviour, will pass them by unheeded! Others will look at them doubtfully, and turn away, saying, These are hard sayings; who can obey them? Did not our Saviour know that many would not obey his requirements? Did he who so loved us as to give his life for us, leave us any requirements or conditions of salvation which we could not obey? Oh, no, all his requirements are reasonable and just, and we can obey them.

Hate referred to in Luke xiv, 26, means a less degree of love. We are to have supreme love to God, and our friends are to be loved secondarily. Our love for husband, wife, brother, sisters, father, or mother, must be inferior to our love to God. Our love for these dear relatives must not be blind and selfish, and cause us to forget God. When these ties of relationship lead us to prefer their favor by disregarding the truth, we love them more than we love Jesus, and are not worthy of him. In that fearful time when we need an arm to protect and shield us, stronger than any human arm, stronger than the arm of father, brother, or husband, and shall call upon him that is mighty to save, he will not hear us. He will bid us to lean upon those whom we preferred before him, whom we loved above him, whom we would not forsake for him. He will say, Let them deliver you, let them save you. I gave you proof of my love. I left the glory of my Father, and all my majesty and splendor, and came into a world cursed with sin and pollution. For your sakes I became poor, that you through my poverty might be made rich. I bore insult and mockery, and died a shameful death upon the cross, to save you from hopeless misery and death. Yet this did not excite your love enough to obey me, and lead you to prefer my favor above the favor of earthly friends, who have given you but feeble proofs of their love. I know you not; depart from me.

God will test and prove his people. One sacred truth after another will be brought to bear upon their hearts, close and cutting, until their faith will be purified and tried like gold, until all their dross will be purged away, and Jesus will present them unto his Father without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. We must overcome through trials and sufferings, as Jesus overcame. We must not shun the cross or the suffering part of religion. The language of the heart should be, Let me know the fellowship of the sufferings of Christ. Let me suffer with him that I may reign with him. Ellen G. White

. —