第49章 致总会会议
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第49章 致总会会议
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Chapter 49—To the General Conference
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《信函》1889年第24号B-24-1889亲爱的弟兄们：Dear Brethren,—
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我已经把主指示我的事摆在你们面前，我有一个警告要传给今天聚集在巴特尔克里克的这批人。你们处在危险之中，因为虽然你们制定计划、设计方法、实行提议，却不会成功，而会失败。我不敢不嘱咐你们仔细考虑所提出的每一个建议就让这次会议结束，让与会的人回家。要好好考虑所提出的每一个计划，不要匆忙表示赞同，象我听到有些悟性被蒙蔽的人口里所说的那样，其实他们并不知道自己表示赞同的那些观点和主张是什么性质。不要因那些看似无罪的提议而飘飘然，其实那些提议的结局是灾难，使人丧失上帝的眷爱。有危险存在，我敲响警钟。{1888 439.1}
§5
I have presented before you matters which the Lord has shown me, and I have a warning to give to this body now assembled in Battle Creek. You are in danger from the fact that plans may be formed, ways may be devised, propositions may be followed that mean, not success, but defeat. I dare not let this Conference close, and those assembled return to their homes, without bidding you to consider carefully every proposition that has been presented. Look well to every plan that has been proposed, and give not your Yea and Amen hastily, as I have heard from the lips of some men whose understanding is beclouded, and they know not what is the character of the sentiments and propositions they are saying Amen to. Be not carried away with proposals that appear innocent, when their end is disaster and a forfeiture of the favor of God. There is danger, and I sound the signal trumpet of warning. {1888 439.1}
§6
上帝呼吁你们自卑，服在祂大能的手下，承认并离弃你们的罪，他就必使你们升高。你们亲近上帝，祂就必亲近你们。传道人啊，你们无论高低贵贱，现在都没有工夫抱怨自己不成功的工作。要逃向耶稣，用活泼的信心持住祂，持住祂的能力，与祂和好。你们太渴望得到人的称赞了。“当趁耶和华可寻找的时候寻找祂，相近的时候求告祂。恶人当离弃自己的道路；不义的人当除掉自己的意念。归向耶和华，耶和华就必怜恤祂；当归向我们的上帝，因为上帝必广行赦免。耶和华说：我的意念非同你们的意念；我的道路非同你们的道路。天怎样高过地，照样，我的道路高过你们的道路；我的意念高过你们的意念”（赛55:6-9）。“因为那至高至上、住在永远、名为圣者的如此说：（注意这些话）我住在至高至圣的所在，也与心灵痛悔谦卑的人同居；要使谦卑人的灵苏醒，也使痛悔人的心苏醒”（赛57:15）。“救赎主以色列的圣者耶和华对那被人所藐视、本国所憎恶、官长所虐待的如此说：君王要看见就站起，首领也要下拜；都因信实的耶和华，就是拣选你以色列的圣者。耶和华如此说：在悦纳的时候，我应允了你；在拯救的日子，我济助了你。我要保护你，使你作众民的约；复兴遍地，使人承受荒凉之地为业。对那被捆绑的人说：出来吧！对那在黑暗的人说：显露吧！他们在路上必得饮食，在一切净光的高处必有食物。不饥不渴，炎热和烈日必不伤害他们；因为怜恤他们的必引导他们，领他们到水泉旁边。我必使我的众山成为大道；我的大路也被修高。看哪，这些从远方来；这些从北方、从西方来；这些从秦（原文作希尼）国来。诸天哪，应当欢呼！大地啊，应当快乐！众山哪，应当发声歌唱！因为耶和华已经安慰他的百姓，也要怜恤他困苦之民。锡安说：耶和华离弃了我；主忘记了我。妇人焉能忘记她吃奶的婴孩，不怜恤她所生的儿子？即或有忘记的，我却不忘记你。看哪，我将你铭刻在我掌上；你的墙垣常在我眼前”（赛49:7-16）。 {1888 439.2}
§7
God calls upon you to humble yourselves under his mighty hand, and to confess your sins and put them away, and he will lift you up. Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. Ministers, high and low, you have no time now to complain of your unsuccessful labor. Flee to Jesus, take hold of him by living faith, lay hold of his strength, and make peace with him. You have too great a desire for the praise of men. “Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he 440is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not as your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.” “For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: (mark the words) I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” “Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel, and his Holy One, to him whom man despiseth, to him whom the nation abhorreth, to a servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise, princes also shall worship, because of the Lord that is faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and he shall choose thee. Thus saith the Lord, in an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; that thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them; for he that hath mercy on them shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide them. And I will make all my mountains a way, my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall come from afar; and lo, these from the North and the West; and these from the 441land of Sinim. Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains; for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon his afflicted. But Zion saith, The Lord hath forsaken me, my Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.” {1888 439.2}
§8
谁也不要高抬自己，设法完成自己的想法而不与上帝的子民合作，不经他们认可。你们强硬的精神，你们的高傲言论与基督和基督的作风不符。你们岂能使自己的声音听闻于上呢，上帝已看到你们用凶恶的拳头打人。你们必须先具有上帝的认证，之后才能果断行动，推进上帝的圣工。我们怎样确实地信靠基督，遵行祂的旨意，不高抬自己，而是存谦卑的心行事为人，主也必照样确实地与我们同在。但祂藐视你们凶猛的精神，忧愁你们的心肠刚硬。要祈求祂赐给你们一颗肉心，一颗能感到他人忧伤的心，能体恤人类祸患的心。祈求祂赐给你们一颗心，不至于使你们转耳不听寡妇孤儿的呼求。祈求祂使你们对贫穷的人、软弱的人、受压迫的人有怜悯的心肠。祈求祂使你们能爱慕公义，恨恶抢夺，不偏待人，但要顾念贫穷不幸之人的情况。然后以赛亚58章所记载的应许才会实现在你们身上：“你心若向饥饿的人发怜悯，使困苦的人得满足，你的光就必在黑暗中发现；你的幽暗必变如正午。耶和华也必时常引导你，在干旱之地使你心满意足，骨头强壮。你必象浇灌的园子，又象水流不绝的泉源”（赛58:10,11）。{1888 441.1}
§9
Let not men exalt themselves, and seek to carry through their ideas without the co-operation and sanction of the people of God. Your strong spirit, your loud, contemptuous speeches are out of harmony with Christ and his ways. O, had you made your voice to be heard on high, God has seen you smiting with the fist of wickedness. You must bear the divine credentials before you make decided movements to shape the working of God’s cause. As surely as we believe in Christ, and do his will, not exalting self, but walking in all humility of mind, so surely will the Lord be with us. But he despises your fierce spirit, he is grieved with the hardness of your heart. Pray that he will give you a heart of flesh, a heart that can feel the sorrows of others, that can be touched with human woe. Pray that he will give you a heart that will not permit you to turn a deaf ear to the widow of the fatherless. Pray that you may have bowels of mercy for the poor, the infirm, and the oppressed. Pray that you may love justice and hate robbery, and make no difference in the bestowal of your favors, except to consider the cases of the needy and the unfortunate. Then the promises recorded in Isaiah 58 will be fulfilled to you, “If thou draw 442out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday; and the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.” {1888 441.1}
§10
但是你们需要为自己的脚把道路修直了，使瘸子不至差路。我们周围尽是在信心上瘸腿跛行的人，你们要帮助他们，不是藉着你们自己也跛行，而是藉着象受过考验和证明的人那样，站在如磐石般稳固的原则上。我知道有一项工作必须为上帝的子民做成，否则许多人就不会准备好领受那位天使的亮光。他从天上奉差遣而来，要因他的荣耀使全地发光。如果你高抬自己的心到虚妄的地步，说弯曲悖谬的话，秘密怀藏从明尼阿波利斯会议带来的苦毒的根，就不要以为你在晚雨降下的时候会成为尊贵的器皿，领受上帝的荣耀。每一个怀藏并培养这些纷争之根和具有非基督化精神的人，都必招致上帝的不悦。{1888 442.1}
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But you will need to make straight paths for your feet, lest the lame be turned out of the way. We are surrounded by the lame and halting in the faith, and you are to help them, not by halting yourselves; but by standing like men who have been tried and proven, and are firm as a rock to principle. I know that a work must be done for the people, or many will not be prepared to receive the light of the angel sent down from heaven to lighten the whole earth with his glory. Do not think that you will be found as vessels unto honor in the time of the latter rain, to receive the glory of God, if you are lifting up your souls unto vanity, speaking perverse things, in secret cherishing roots of bitterness brought from the conference at Minneapolis. The frown of God will certainly be upon every soul who cherishes and nurtures these roots of dissension, and possesses a spirit so unlike the Spirit of Christ. {1888 442.1}
§12
有一项工作要在每一个人心中作成，好使你们不至于撒播稗子。当守望者们的口被万军之耶和华从坛上取下来的红炭沾过的时候，号角才会吹出定音，与我们迄今所听到的十分不同。上帝有一个活见证给世界。这种乏味无生气的说教不符合上帝的命令。我呼吁你们居于负责岗位的人不要设法迎合世界的标准，了解世人的想法。不要说柔和的话，言虚幻的事（赛30:10）。基督说过：“保惠师，就是父因我的名所要差来的圣灵，”“要叫世人为罪、为义、为审判，自己责备自己”（约14:26；16:8）。主的传道人要“用百般的忍耐，各样的教训，责备人、警戒人、劝勉人”（提后4:2）。{1888 442.2}
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There is a work to be wrought in the heart of each one, that you may not sow tares. When the lips of the watchman are touched with a live coal from off the altar by the Lord of hosts, the trumpet will give a certain sound, very different from the sound we have hitherto heard. God has a living testimony for the world. This tame, lifeless sermonizing is not after God’s order. I appeal to you, men in responsible positions, do not seek to meet the world’s standard, to 443catch the world’s ideas. Do not speak smooth things, prophesying deceit. The Comforter, the Holy Spirit of God, whom “the Father shall send in my name,” said Christ, shall convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.” The ministers of the Lord are to “reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and doctrine.” {1888 442.2}
§14
我们有一个天国要争取，有一个地狱要躲避。我们有责任象那些已与上帝严肃立约的人一样，象已奉派作基督的使者，作上帝恩典之奥秘事的管家一样，忠心传讲上帝全部的训勉。要始终记得我们有这许多的见证人，如同云彩围着我们；因为天上的生灵正看我们是万王之王、万主之主的使者。我们有权利高举旗帜。那明白我们蒙召的尊严，我们工作的神圣性的主，命令我们以坚定的心传讲这信息。我们最好自卑，服在上帝大能的手下，否则祂必使我们降卑；但我们若谦卑谨慎地行在主面前，祂就必接纳我们。{1888 443.1}
§15
We have a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. We are under obligation as those who have made solemn vows to God, and who have been commissioned as the messengers of Christ, as stewards of the mysteries of the grace of God, to declare faithfully the whole counsel of God. Ever remember that we are surrounded, encompassed, with a great cloud of witnesses; for the heavenly intelligences are looking upon us as ambassadors of the King of kings and Lord of lords. We have a right to lift the standard high. He who understands the dignity of our calling, the sacredness of our work, commands that we declare the message with unshrinking heart. We may well humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, or he will humble us; but if we walk modestly and humbly before the Lord, he will accept us. {1888 443.1}
§16
有些人不蒙主喜悦，他们愿意取悦世人，同时却控告上帝正在使用的人，对他们应该非常尊重的人显出一种邪恶的不恭不敬。温柔的精神、仁慈、谦恭、温文尔雅，本是那些正在基督门下学习之人的特征，却已从许多自以为正蒙上帝使用之人的内心和生活中消失了。那真实见证者说：“然而有一件事我要责备你，就是你把起初的爱心离弃了。所以，应当回想你是从哪里坠落的，并要悔改，行起初所行的事。你若不悔改，我就临到你那里，把你的灯台从原处挪去”（启2:4,5）。如果有多得多的悔改和承认并离弃罪恶，更少的自足自负，更少的自夸，我们就会更清楚地看到属灵的事。上帝希望你们与祂自己有至关重要的联络，这样基督才会住在心里，心灵中才会燃起一种纯洁献身的热情。{1888 443.2}
§17
The Lord looks with disfavor upon those who would please the men of the world, while at the same time they accuse those whom God is using, and manifest a satanic disrespect toward those whom they should highly regard. The tenderness of spirit, the kindness, the courtesy, the refinement of feeling, that characterizes those who are learning in the school of Christ, has passed out of the heart and life of many who think that God is using them. The True Witness says, “I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. 444Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.” If there was far more repenting and confessing and forsaking of sin, and less self-sufficiency, and less self-boasting, we should see spiritual things more clearly. God desires that you come into vital connection with himself, and then Christ will abide in the heart, and a pure flame of devotion will be kindled in the soul. {1888 443.2}
§18
我们中间有了背离上帝的事。信徒尚未发热心悔改，恢复起初的爱心，达到回归上帝和新生的目的。背信之念侵入了我们的队伍，因为离开基督，接受怀疑论已成时尚。许多人心中的呼声是：“我们不愿意这个人作我们的王”（路19:14）。他们选择的乃是巴力。我们中许多人的信仰将与背道的以色列人相似，因为他们喜爱自己的道路，离弃主的道路。真宗教，就是圣经唯一的宗教，教导人只有藉着被钉而复活之救主的功劳才能得蒙赦免，倡导因信上帝的儿子而得称义。这种信仰竟遭到轻视，反对和嘲笑，被指责为导致狂热和盲信。要趁着改过迁善为时还不太晚之前找回自己；因为你们已经得罪了上帝。但只有耶稣基督的生命在人心中，只有圣灵所赐爱的积极原则，才能使人结出善果。基督的爱是人所传一切上帝信息的力量所在。我们如果没能在信仰上合而为一，那会有什么前途呢？ {1888 444.1}
§19
There has been a departure from God among us, and the zealous work of repentance and return to our first love essential to restoration to God and regeneration of heart has not yet been done. Infidelity to God has been making its inroads in our ranks; for it is the fashion to depart from Christ, and give place to skepticism. The cry of the heart has been, “We will not have this man to reign over us.” Baal, Baal, is the choice. The religion of many among us will be the religion of apostate Israel, because they love their own way, and forsake the way of the Lord. The true religion, the only religion of the Bible, that teaches forgiveness through the merits of a crucified and risen Saviour, that advocates righteousness by the faith of the Son of God, has been slighted, spoken against, ridiculed. It has been denounced as leading to enthusiasm and fanaticism. Take it back while it is not too late for wrongs to be righted; for you have sinned against God. But it is the life of Jesus Christ in the soul, it is the active principle of love imparted by the Holy Spirit, that alone will make the soul fruitful unto good works. The love of Christ is the force and power of every message that ever fell 445from human lips. What kind of a future is before us, if we shall fail to come into the unity of the faith. {1888 444.1}
§20
当我们达到基督所祈求的合一时，撒但的爪牙所挑起的长期争执就结束了。我们就不会见到人按照世人的规矩制定计划，因为他们没有属灵的眼光，不能看透属灵的事。他们现在看人好像树木在行走，他们需要神圣的触摸，好使他们可以看上帝所看的，行基督所行的。那时，锡安的守望者们就会以更清楚、更响亮的音调一致吹响号角；因为他们会看到刀剑来到，并且认识到上帝的子民所处的危险。{1888 445.1}
§21
When we are united in the unity for which Christ prayed, this long controversy which has been kept up through Satanic agency, will end, and we shall not see men framing plans after the order of the world, because they have not spiritual eyesight to discern spiritual things. They now see men as trees walking, and they need the divine touch, that they may see as God sees, and work as Christ worked. Then will Zion’s watchmen sound the trumpet in clearer, louder notes; for they will see the sword coming, and realize the danger in which the people of God are placed. {1888 445.1}
§22
我们现在没有时间站在违背上帝律法的人一边，用他们的眼睛看，用他们的耳朵听，用他们变态的感官去理解。我们必须团结在一起，努力争取成为一体，在生活上圣洁，在品格上纯洁。愿自称是永生上帝仆人的人不再向人的意见这个偶像下拜，不再作任何一种可耻私欲的奴隶，不再把摩押和亚扪的祭物所代表的一份污秽了的供物，一个被罪玷污了的灵魂带给主。{1888 445.2}
§23
There is no time now to range ourselves on the side of the transgressors of God’s law, to see with their eyes, to hear with their ears, and to understand with their perverted senses. We must press together. We must become a unit, to be holy in life and pure in character. Let us no longer bow down to the idol of men’s opinions, no longer be slaves to any shameful lust, no longer bring a polluted offering to the Lord, a sin-stained soul, which is represented by the offerings of the Moabites and Amorites. {1888 445.2}
§24
要以悔改代替不信和反叛。不要让这种顽梗盲目的状态持续下去，直到对我们要象对基督传道时藐视祂恩典的各城说：“哥拉汛哪，你有祸了！伯赛大啊，你有祸了！因为在你们中间所行的异能若行在推罗、西顿，他们早已披麻蒙灰，坐在地上悔改了。当审判的日子，推罗、西顿所受的，比你们还容易受呢！迦百农啊，你已经升到天上，将来必推下阴间”（路10:13-15）。（《信函》B 1889年第24号）{1888 445.3}
§25
O, shall not repentance take the place of unbelief and rebellion. Or shall this state of impenitence and blindness continue until it shall be said unto us, as to the cities that spurned the offered mercies of Christ in the days of his ministry, “Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon, which have been done in you, they had a great while ago repented, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it shall be more tolerable for 446Tyre and Sidon at the judgment, than for you”? “And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell.” {1888 445.3}