第10章 家中的改革
§1
第10章 家中的改革
§2
Chap. 10 - Reform at Home
§3
M弟兄：根据我蒙指示所看到的，你在蒙上帝悦纳之前有一番重要的工作要完成。你的自我太突出了。你的脾气急躁易怒，你在家中独断专横。M姐妹在家里既马虎又邋遢。她的天性中没有次序和整洁的成分。但是她在这些方面可以改进。M弟兄，你在家中独裁，批评指责你的妻子，却不具有你应当有的仁爱。你妻子虽然害怕你专横的精神，却没有做她所能做的，改正自己令家庭可厌可憎的错误习惯。【2T.84.2】[1]
§4
Brother M: From what was shown me, there is a great work to be accomplished for you before you can be accepted in the sight of God. Self is too prominent. You possess a hasty, passionate temper, and are arbitrary and overbearing in your family. Sister M is slack and untidy in her house. She has not the elements of order and neatness in her organization. Yet she can improve in these things. Brother M, you censure your wife, you are dictatorial, and do not have that love which you should have. She dreads your oppressive spirit, but does not do what she might to correct her wrong habits, which make home distasteful and disagreeable. {2T 84.2}[1]
§5
M弟兄，你没有明智审慎地对待自己的家庭。你的孩子们不爱你，反倒恨你。你的妻子也不爱你，因为你的行为举止实在没有可爱的地方。你是个极端的人。你对你的孩子严厉、苛刻、武断。你给他们讲论真理，却没有在自己日常生活中实行真理的原则。你没有忍耐、宽容和饶恕的精神。你长久放纵自己的意愿，稍受触动便大发雷霆，你看上去根本不愿作足够的努力去符合基督的心意。你没有忍耐、自制、温和与仁爱的能力。你必须努力获得这些基督徒的恩赐，否则决成不了一名真正的基督徒。你把你鼓励的话语、仁慈的行动全都留给外人，其实你自己的妻子儿女比他们更有权利获得这些。你要为自己的家庭培养温良的言语、和悦的面容、称赞和嘉许，因为这会对于你的幸福有实质的影响。决不要让苛责或怒语出口！要克服这种想要辖制人和只要可能就施行压迫的欲望。你有一种非常讨厌的，小气吝啬的精神。你对某些人自私吝啬，但对那些你希望高看你的人，却愿意牺牲一切，甚至是你自己家人特别需要的东西。你在这些事上慷慨大方，以便得到人的称赞和尊重。你选择对一些人表示慷慨，你若能因对他们所作的巨大牺牲而买得 天国，那你必定能得着了。只要能够高抬自己，你就不反对忍受极大的不便去帮助别人。在这些事上，你将薄荷与茴香献上十分之一，但却忽略了更重要的事，就是上帝的公义与慈爱。【2T.84.3】[2]
§6
Brother M, you have not taken a judicious course with your family. Your children do not love you. They have more hatred than love. Your wife does not love you. You do not take a course to be loved. You are an extremist. You are severe, exacting, arbitrary, to your children. You talk the truth to them, but do not carry its principles into your everyday life. You are not patient, forbearing, and forgiving. You have so long indulged your own spirit, you are so ready to fly into a passion if provoked, that it looks exceedingly doubtful whether you will make efforts sufficient to meet the mind of Christ. You do not possess the power of endurance, forbearance, gentleness, and love. These Christian graces must be possessed by you before you can be truly a Christian. You reserve your encouraging words, your kindly acts, for those who are not entitled to them as much as your own wife and children. Cultivate kind words, pleasant looks, praise, and approbation for your own family, for this will materially affect your happiness. Never let censure or fretful words escape your lips. Subdue this desire to rule and to place your iron heel wherever you can. You possess a most disagreeable spirit, a close spirit. With some you are selfish and stingy; for others whom you wish to think highly of you, you would sacrifice anything, even the very things your own family need. You are liberal in these cases that you may have the praise and esteem of men. If you could purchase heaven by a great sacrifice for those to whom you choose to be liberal, you would certainly obtain it. You do not object to being put to the greatest inconvenience to advantage others, if in so doing you can exalt yourself. In these things you tithe mint and rue, while you neglect the weightier matters, justice and the love of God. {2T 84.3}[2]
§7
你在自己的家中并不公正。你在家里有一番工作要做。你首先要让你妻子过得舒适幸福，其次考虑你儿女的状况，为他们提供丰裕的食物和舒适的衣着。然后，你要是能够，就要在不妨碍你妻子和儿女的情况下，去帮助那些最需要帮助的人，将你的关怀加给能够赏识的人；这样你的慷慨才值得赞扬的。但你首要的、最神圣的责任却是对家人的责任。你不应剥夺家人的需要去施惠于人。你的仁慈、慷慨要实行在你自己家中。让他们确实感受到你的慈爱、关心、照顾和爱心。这与你的幸福息息相关。不要再挑剔责骂你的妻子，因为这只会令你更加刚硬，使她如临地狱。【2T.85.1】[3]
§8
You are not just in your family. You have a work to do there. Make your wife comfortable and happy first; then consider the condition of your children. Provide them with comfortable food and clothing. Then if you can, without limiting your wife and children, help those who most need help, and bestow your favors where they will be appreciated; it will be praiseworthy for you to be liberal. But your first and most sacred duty is to your family. They should not be robbed for others to be favored. Let your benevolence, your liberality, be seen in your own family. Give them tangible proofs of your affection, interest, care, and love. This has much to do with your happiness. Cease finding fault and scolding your wife, for this only makes it much harder for you and makes a hell for her. {2T 85.1}[3]
§9
你家中的事态若不改变，上帝的使者就不会住在其中。所需要的并不是你的钱财。可是你在受到责备时便以为教会需要你的钱财。你在这一点上受了欺骗。你在自己的钱财一直很慷慨，原因正是你想这可以让你获得救恩并在教会购得一席之地。你实在是错了！教会需要的是你，而不是你拥有的那点钱财。如果你愿意心意更新而变化，如果你愿意回转，就必须诚实地对待自己的心灵。这就是教会要的一切了。你已经欺哄了自己。若有人自以为虔诚，却不勒住他的舌头，这人的虔诚是虚的。你要按照上天能赞许的方式对待家人，你的居所就会因此有平安。你事事都需要为自己的家人做成。你给你的儿女作了坏榜样，你在家中批评、苛责，表现出一种暴躁易怒的精神，而与此同时你又讲论施恩的宝座、参赴聚会、并作见证支持真理。这些表现已使你的儿女轻蔑你和你所表白的真理。他们对你的基督教毫无信心。他们认为你是一个假冒为善的人，你的确是一个可悲地受了欺骗的人。你若无彻底改变，仍像行邪术的西门一样，以为圣灵是可以拿钱买的，你就不能进入天国。你欺诈的精神，你随时准备利用别人，你对有时与你交往之人的吝啬精神和他们因此对你的轻视，这一切你的家人虽然都看见了，但是他们一定会效学你不道德的行为。【2T.86.1】[4]
§10
Angels of God will not abide in your family until there is a different order of things. It is not your means that is wanted. Yet when reproved you have thought it was your means that the church wanted. You are deceived here. You have been too liberal with your means, for the very reason that you have thought this was to obtain salvation for you and buy you a position in the church. No, indeed! it is you that is wanted, not the little means you possess. If you would be transformed by the renewing of your mind and be converted, deal truly with your own soul. It is all that the church require. You have deceived yourself. If any man seemeth to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, that mans religion is vain. Treat your family in a manner that Heaven can approve, and so that peace may be in your dwelling. There needs to be everything done for your family. Your children have had your bad example before them; you have blamed, and censured, and manifested a passionate spirit at home, while you would, at the same time, address the throne of grace, attend meeting, and bear testimony in favor of the truth. These exhibitions have led your children to despise you and the truth you profess. They have no confidence in your Christianity. They believe you to be a hypocrite, and it is true that you are a sadly deceived man. You can no more enter heaven without a thorough change than could Simon Magus, who thought that the Holy Ghost could be bought with money. Your family have seen your overreaching spirit, your readiness to take advantage of others, your penurious spirit toward those with whom you sometimes deal, and they despise you for it; yet they will too surely follow in your footsteps of wrongdoing. {2T 86.1}[4]
§11
你的行为不正。行公义，好怜悯，对你来说是件难事。你用自己的生活羞辱了上帝的圣工。你为真理争辩，却不是本着正确的精神。你已阻挡了人接受真理，否则他们原是会接受的。他们指着自称守安息日之人的错误和缺点为自己辩解说：“他们并不比我好，他们会说谎、欺骗、易怒、夸大其辞、吹嘘自己，我可不想要这样的信仰。”于是，这些有缺点的安息日信徒未成圣的生活便使他们成了罪人的绊脚石。【2T.87.1】[5]
§12
Your deal is not what it should be. It is difficult for you to deal justly and to love mercy. You have dishonored the cause of God by your life. You have contended for the truth, but not in a right spirit. You have hindered souls from embracing the truth who otherwise would have done so. They have excused themselves by pointing to the errors and wrongs of professed Sabbathkeepers, saying: They are no better than I; they will lie, cheat, exaggerate, get angry, and boastingly talk of their own praise; such a religion as this I do not want. Thus the unconsecrated lives of these shortcoming Sabbathkeepers make them stumbling blocks to sinners. {2T 87.1}[5]
§13
你眼下的工作必须在你家里开始。你曾努力改善外观，但那种工夫太过肤浅了，只是表面工夫，不是内心的工夫。要使你的心归正，在上帝面前自卑，恳求祂的恩典帮助你。不要像假冒为善的法利赛人一样，作事全都为了使你在别人眼中显得敬虔公义。要在上帝面前打碎自己的心，要知道你决不可能欺骗圣洁的天使。你的言语行为在他们鉴查之下全都是赤露敞开的，你内心的动机、意图和目的在他们眼前暴露无遗，你最隐秘的事情也无法瞒过他们。因而，撕裂你的心肠吧，不要在自己并非公义时，急于使弟兄们认为你是公义的。你在家中要谨慎。你总是注意别人的错误，但今后不要再这样。你眼下的工作是克服自己的错误，与自己内心的强敌作战。你要公平对待孤儿寡妇。不要用脆弱浅薄的欺骗来掩盖自己的行为，影响那些你极希望会认为你正确的人，其实你的动机和行为并不带有你要加给它们的意义。【2T.87.2】[6]
§14
The work now before you must commence in your family. You have tried hard to improve outwardly; but the work has been too much on the surface, an outside work and not a work of the heart. Set your heart in order, humble yourself before God, and implore His grace to help you. Do not, like the hypocritical Pharisees, do things to make you appear devotional and righteous in the eyes of others. Break your heart before God, and know that it is impossible for you to deceive the holy angels. Your words and acts are all open to their inspection. Your motives and the intents and purposes of your heart stand revealed to their gaze. The most secret things are not hid from them. Oh, then, rend your heart, and be not overanxious to make your brethren think you are right when you are not! Be circumspect in your family. You are watching to see others wrongs, but do this no more. The work you have now to do is to overcome your own wrongs, to battle with your strong internal foes. Deal justly with the widow and the fatherless. Do not throw over your acts the flimsy covering of deception, to influence those whom you greatly wish would think you right, while your motives and acts will not bear the construction you would have put upon them. {2T 87.2}[6]
§15
要停止一切辩论，努力作一个使人和睦的人。爱人不要只在言语上，而要在行为和真理上。你的行为是要受审判检验的。你有真诚地对待自己的心灵吗？不要自欺。要记得上帝是轻慢不得的！那些拥有永生的人会竭尽所能整顿自己的家。他们必须从自己的内心开始工作，并且坚持到底，直到取得庄严的胜利。自我必须死去，基督必须住在你里面，且在你里面成为泉源，直涌到永生。你现在有宝贵的宽容时期，使你哪怕已到老年也要形成正确的品格。上帝现在给你一段时间，让你去弥补过去的损失。你靠着自己的力量无法去除你的错误和缺点；它们已在你身上增长多年，因为你没有看出它们的可憎，并靠上帝的能力坚决改正。你要藉着活泼的信心，紧紧抓住大能者施救的膀臂。你心骄傲、可怜、自以为义，你要在上帝面前自卑；你要俯伏在基督脚前，深深谦卑，让自己有罪的心灵全然破碎。你要全心投入预备的工作中去。不要休息，直到你确实能说：我的救赎主活着，因为祂活着，我也要活着。【2T.88.1】[7]
§16
Cease all contention, and try to be a peacemaker. Love not in word, but in deed and in truth. Your works are to bear the inspection of the judgment. Will you deal truly with your own soul? Do not deceive yourself. Oh, remember that God is not mocked! Those who possess everlasting life will have all they can do to set their houses in order. They must commence at their own hearts and follow up the work until victories, earnest victories, are gained. Self must die, and Christ must live in you and be in you a well of water springing up into everlasting life. You now have precious hours of probation granted you to form a right character even at your advanced age. You now have a period allotted you in which to redeem the time. You cannot in your own strength put away your errors and wrongs; they have been increasing upon you for years, because you have not seen them in their hideousness and in the strength of God resolutely put them away. By living faith you must lay hold on an arm that is mighty to save. Humble your poor, proud, self-righteous heart before God; get low, very low, all broken in your sinfulness at His feet. Devote yourself to the work of preparation. Rest not until you can truly say: My Redeemer liveth, and, because He lives, I shall live also. {2T 88.1}[7]
§17
你若失去天国，你便失去一切；你若得到天国，你便得到一切。我恳劝你，在这个问题上千万不要弄错，这里所涉及到的是永恒的利益，务要彻底。愿赐一切恩典的上帝光照你的悟性，使你能辨明永恒的事物，使你藉着真理之光发现自己的许多缺点，并做出必要的努力去除它们，结出宝贵的果子以致永生，替代这些邪恶、苦毒的果子。“凭着他们的果子，就可以认出他们来”（太7:16）。每一种树都是凭着它们的果实被人认出来的。这棵树上今后要结什么果子呢？你所结的果子将证明你到底是好树，还是基督对祂使者所说的：“把它砍了吧，何必白占地土呢”（路13:7）那种树呢？【2T.88.2】[8]
§18
If you lose heaven, you lose everything; if you gain heaven, you gain everything. Do not make a mistake in this matter, I implore you. Eternal interests are here involved. Be thorough. May the God of all grace so enlighten your understanding that you may discern eternal things, that by the light of truth your own errors, which are many, may be discovered to you just as they are, that you may make the necessary effort to put them away, and in the place of this evil, bitter fruit may bring forth fruit which is precious unto eternal life. By their fruits ye shall know them. Every tree is known by its fruit. What kind of fruit shall henceforth be found upon this tree? The fruit you bear will determine whether you are a good tree, or one of which Christ shall say to his angel: Cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? {2T 88.2}[8]