第151章 致 C. 爱尔德里奇夫妇
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第151章 致 C. 爱尔德里奇夫妇
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Chapter 155—Untitled
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《信函》1894年第20号E-20-18941894年4月14日于格兰维尔威廉街
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William St., Granville, April 14, 1894
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亲爱的爱尔德里奇夫妇：
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Dear Brother and Sister Eldridge,—
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你们的情况压在我心头，——你们接受真理之后的属灵状况，以及你们目前的属灵状况。你们现在的原则不是应有的样子，或者说不是你们若赏识了公义日头的亮光，并且当其光线照在你们的路径上时便行在其中原会有的样子。爱尔德里奇弟兄啊，上帝使你参与祂已建立的机构的工作，是因为祂已惠赐你才干。那些才干若是得到圣化，就会成为祂的事业和工作的福气。但是如果没有上帝的圣灵赐福和鼓励你作为一个学习者取得进步，你就不会获得必要的经验，在每一个细节都需要忠心的工作中作一个明智的管理者。你若不把自己交给上帝训练和教导，就不能成功地充任你蒙召担任的职位。工人一方不可结成任何联盟来实现自己的目的；因为一个人必定会误导另一个人。{1888 1227.1}
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Your case is urged upon my mind,—your spiritual condition as it was after you accepted the truth, and as it is at the present time. Your principles are not now what they should be or what they might have been if you had appreciated the light of [the] Sun of Righteousness, and had walked in its rays as they shone upon your path. The Lord brought you, Brother Eldridge, in connection with his established institutions because he had blessed you with talents, which, if sanctified, would be a blessing to his cause and work. But without the Holy Spirit of God to bless and encourage your advancement as a learner, you would not obtain the experience essential for you as a wise manager in a line of work demanding faithfulness in every particular. Unless you should submit yourself to be educated and taught of God, you could not fill successfully the position to which you were called. There must be no confederating together on the part of any of the workers to carry out their own purposes; for one would surely mislead another. {1888 1227.1}
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你和弗兰克.贝尔登之间的联合并没有帮助你们二人当中的任何一个人获得对你们个人来说必不可少的经验。你们二人都蒙托付神圣的责任。你们二人都受着试验，在上帝的检验之下。这种负责的岗位要求在灵性上，在献身上帝上有每天每时的经验。就上帝而言是没有缺乏的，已经做好一切供应，你们可以各自领受完善基督徒品格所必需的能力。主并不希望我们的个性被摧毁；祂的目的不是要任何两个人有完全一样的品味和性情。人人都有自己的特点，这些特点不是要被摧毁，而是要按照基督的样式予以训练、塑造、成型。上帝将人本性的倾向和能力转入有利的通道。人若认识到事实上自己一切的能力都是来自上帝的天赋要予以利用，不是为了自私的目的，不是为了获得名誉或高工资，而是为了荣耀上帝、造福我们的同胞，他们就会利用上帝所赐的才能，使才干和能力得到发展。在上帝的训练之下，悟性要开启，好领受来自上帝的印记。真理的亮光要成为一种工作媒介，因为真正的信心生发仁爱并且洁净心灵。一切自私的目的都要从心灵中驱逐出去。真理若是得到充分接受，就会证明足以松软肥沃心田，使之准备好接受那位“农夫”不断撒下的种子，好为主收获庄稼。属天的感化力在运作，要增强和改善人的心智，使之能赏识崇高圣洁的权益。始终趋向上面，朝向天国的心智，会对与工作有关的人和事务形成正确的估计。在圣灵的支配之下，这种心智会从各方面看问题，且能做出正确的判断。{1888 1227.2}
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The union between yourself and Frank Belden did not aid either of you in gaining the experience essential for you individually. You were both entrusted with sacred responsibilities. You were both on trial, under the proving of God. This responsible position called for daily and hourly experience in spirituality, in devotion to God. There was no lack on the part of God; every provision had been made whereby you might individually receive the power essential for the perfection of Christian character. The Lord does 1228not desire that our individuality shall be destroyed; it is not his purpose that any two persons shall be exactly alike in tastes and dispositions. All have characteristics peculiar to themselves, and these are not to be destroyed, but to be trained, molded, fashioned, after the similitude of Christ. The Lord turns the natural aptitude and capabilities into profitable channels. In the improvement of the faculties God has given, talent and ability are developed if the human agent will recognize the fact that all his powers are an endowment from God, to be used, not for selfish purposes, not to get a name or to secure large wages, but for the glory of God and the good of our fellow-men. Under the training of God the understanding is to be opened to receive the impress from God. The light of truth is to be a working agent; for true faith works by love and purifies the soul. All selfish purposes are to be expelled from the soul. The truth, if fully accepted, will prove all sufficient to mellow the soil of the heart, making it ready for the precious seed to be sown continually by the Husbandman, that there may be a harvest for the Master. Heavenly influences are at work to build up and to improve the mind, enabling it to appreciate high and holy interests. The mind that is ever reaching upward, heavenward, will form [a] correct estimate of men and of the business connected with the work. Under the control of the Holy Spirit, it will look at a subject on every side, and will be enabled to judge correctly. {1888 1227.2}
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在巴特尔克里克的出版社里，象在明尼阿波利斯总会上一样，出现了多种不同的影响。在上帝的天意中，这些影响乃是品格的一个试验。人们是愿意受人影响呢，还是愿意存敬畏上帝的心，考虑上帝的荣耀呢？他们会不会拿出真实深刻虔诚的证据，祈求并寻求上帝，以便对人对事有正确的评价，将一切好的都据为己有，拒绝把糠秕收到仓里呢？{1888 1228.1}
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In the offices of publication at Battle Creek, as in the Conference at Minneapolis, diverse influences arose. In the providence of God these are a test of character. Will men be influenced by men, or 1229will they have the fear and glory of God in view? Will they give evidence of real depth of piety, praying and seeking God that they may form a right estimate of men and of subjects, appropriating all that is good, and refusing to garner the chaff? {1888 1228.1}
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上帝计划在明尼阿波利斯那次大会上用祂的灵为凡愿意把自己的道路和意愿都交给祂的人大力作工。祂想使那个场合对于凡愿意受教的人成为一所极其宝贵的学校。无论他们自己多么软弱而不完全，他们若是意识到自己的软弱和自己在属灵上的无知，就会领受上帝的力量和启迪。在那个困惑的时期，他们若是不戏谑、玩笑、嘲笑人，反而恳切祈祷，努力促进和睦与团结，原会取得极其宝贵的胜利；原会使工作前进数年，并且拯救许多人。但他们却屈服于撒但的安排，在那个场合行出了邪恶的品性，结果在天上的案卷中有了这样的记录：“当重要权益处在危险中时靠不住。”{1888 1229.1}
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God designed to work mightily by his Holy Spirit in that Minneapolis meeting, for all who would submit their way and their will to him. He would make that occasion a most precious school for all who would be teachable. However weak and imperfect in themselves, if they realized their weakness and their spiritual ignorance, they would receive divine strength and enlightenment. In that time of perplexity, if instead of sporting, jesting, and ridicule, there had been earnest prayer and an effort to promote harmony and unity, most precious victories would have been gained; which would have placed the work years ahead, and saved many souls. But the giving up to Satan’s arrangements, and acting out Satanic attributes on that occasion, caused the record to be entered in the books of heaven, “Untrustworthy when important interests are at stake.” {1888 1229.1}
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上帝希望祂的子民始终通情达理，行事好像在全天庭众目睽睽之下。于是当分歧出现时，每一个人心头就会有一份责任的负担。敬畏上帝的心会导致严肃、操心和恳切的祷告，而不是轻浮、琐屑、玩弄字眼，开玩笑，讲笑话。人人就会深感结果有赖于他们自己个人的行为和决定。要是在明尼阿波利斯的弟兄们都存谦卑的心寻求了上帝，原不会有冲突，碰撞、粗鲁无礼的言语和不智的举动。然而能够受托重大权益的人们却想要显明自己的执行能力，引导船只穿过碎浪区到达海港。他们没有等候上帝的指导。{1888 1229.2}
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God would have his people sensible at all times, moving as under the eyes of the whole heavenly universe. Then when differences arise, there will be a burden of responsibility upon every soul. The fear of God will lead to solemnity, care taking, and earnest prayer, not to lightness and trifling, not to playing upon words, not to jesting and joking. All will be weighted with a sense of the consequences depending upon their own individual actions and decisions. If all the brethren at Minneapolis had been seeking the Lord with humility of mind, there would have been no conflict, no clashing, no 1230uncourteous words, nothing unwise advanced. But men who were capable of being entrusted with great interests, desired to reveal their executive ability in guiding the vessel through the breakers to the harbor. They did not wait for divine guidance. {1888 1229.2}
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我们离开明尼阿波利斯之后，还要一再地作战。时间浪费了，生灵沦丧了，生命陷于危险，全都因为人们觉得自足自负，没有仔细持守主的道路。试验的过程就每一个人继续进行着。每一举动都是在全天庭面前作出的。人们无论居何职位，心中一旦自高自大偏向虚妄，就被撇下去偏行己路而没有上帝的帮助。祂无法与他们合作。{1888 1230.1}
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After we left Minneapolis, the battle had to be fought over and over again. Time was lost, souls lost, lives imperiled, all because men felt sufficient in themselves, and were not careful to keep the way of the Lord. The testing process is going on with every individual. Every movement is made before the whole heavenly universe. Whatever position men occupy, just as soon as they lift up their souls unto vanity they are left to make their own way without the help of God. He cannot co-operate with them. {1888 1230.1}
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关于巴特尔克里克的出版社，主给了我一个负担。在帐幕礼拜堂的议事厅里，我向一大批聚集的人宣读了一个信息。同样的内容后来向出版社的经理们再次宣读了。我所能做的都做了。我把材料复制，并且交在了负责的人们手中，设法使上帝的旨意得到实施。然而时间过去了，却没有作出必需的改变。那个信息清楚列明了从来就不应该管理出版社的那些原则。它说明要是自私自利得到发展，要是人们在出版社接受高工资，主的福惠就不能伴随着出版社，直到这些事得到纠正。委员会的精神是不蒙上帝嘉许的。存在不圣洁的联盟，一个工人支撑扶持另一个工人。上帝不悦。让瓦片与瓦片争论吧，但那与造他的主争论的有祸了。{1888 1230.2}
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The Lord laid upon me a burden in regard to the publishing house at Battle Creek. In the council room at the tabernacle I read a message to a large number assembled. The same matter was afterwards repeated to the managers of the publishing house. All was done that I could do. I had the matter copied, and placed in the hands of responsible persons, to see that the will of the Lord was carried out. But time passed, the necessary changes were not made. The message laid out in clear lines, the principles that should ever govern the office of publication. It was stated that if selfishness should be developed, if the men in office should accept large wages, the blessing of the Lord could not attend the institution until these things should be corrected. The spirit of the councils was not approved of God. There were unholy confederacies, one worker upholding and sustaining another. God was displeased. “Let the potsherd 1231strive with the potsherds of the earth, but woe unto him that striveth with his Maker. {1888 1230.2}
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主当时正在测试考验人。唉，要是他们摆脱了自我，要是他们转离了自私的做法，并且，作为上帝特选的子民，决定实现祂智慧高尚的旨意，原会导致何等大的福气啊，不仅对他们个人，也对他们的家人，对教会和上帝所建立的机构。然而哀哉，他们不但没有听从上帝的声音，听从祂所赐的警告和告诫，反而听从了自己本心的建议和人口中的话语。他们就这样不仅危害了自己的心灵，也藉着他们的影响危害了别人的心灵。{1888 1231.1}
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The Lord was testing and proving men. O, if they had been divested of self, if they had turned from the course of selfishness, and, as God’s peculiar people, had chosen to carry out his wise and gracious purposes, what a blessing would have resulted, not only to the individuals themselves, but to their families and to the church and the institutions that God had established. But alas, instead of obeying the voice of God, listening to the warnings and admonitions he had given, they gave heed to the counsels of their own hearts, and to words from the lips of men. Thus they imperiled not only their own souls, but the souls of others through their influence. {1888 1231.1}
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甚愿他们曾在悔罪和痛悔中谦卑己心！那么上帝的荣光原会将其宝贵辉煌的亮光照在主的器具上，使每一个人的心都欢喜快乐。他们要是曾遵行祂的道路，遵守祂的律例，主原会坚定他们的职位，原会赐给他们祂的恩典和智慧。只要他们行事为人存谦卑的心，以基督为自己的模范，成功原会伴随着他们。他们的兴盛就不会象人的力量那样变化不定。唉，人们为何不照照上帝之道的镜子，好看清自己的品格呢？他们为何不在交友、形成亲密关系方面听从上帝的指示，以便形成和塑造品格呢？{1888 1231.2}
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O that they had humbled their hearts in penitence and contrition! Then the divine Shekinah would have poured its precious, glorious light upon the Lord’s instrumentalities, and every heart could have been made to rejoice. If they had walked in his way and kept his statutes, the Lord would have confirmed them in their position, and would have given them his grace and wisdom. Prosperity would have attended them just as long as they walked in humility, taking Christ as their pattern. Their prosperity would not have been as the fluctuations of human power. O, why do not men look into the mirror of God’s word, and read their character? Why do they not heed the divine instruction with reference to the friends they make, the intimacies they form, that mold and fashion the character? {1888 1231.2}
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主慈怜地看着爱尔德里奇弟兄。他作指挥官那么久，很难服从上帝的纪律。他看自己的道路是正确的，但他不能在上帝主持的机构中作指挥官，除非他先学会顺从。
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The Lord looks with pitying tenderness upon Brother Eldridge. He has been commander so long that it is very difficult for him to submit to be under the discipline of God. His ways seem right in his own eyes, but he cannot be commander in institutions where God presides, unless he shall first learn to obey. {1888 1232.1}
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怀爱伦 {1888 1232.1}Ellen G. White.