第23章 斤斤计较
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第23章 斤斤计较
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Chap. 23 - Closeness in Deal
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亲爱的H弟兄：我一直等待一个机会想写信给你，却一直受到阻碍。在我上次见异象之后，我感到有责任赶紧将主乐意启示我的事情写给你。我蒙指示看到你过去多年的经历，甚至是你结婚之前的经历。你在商业交易上有欺诈的倾向。你的占有欲很强，在交易上斤斤计较，这对你属灵的进步是有害的，并且大大伤害了你的影响力。你的父家是从世界的立场看待这些事情，而非出自我们神圣的主所提出的崇高尊贵的标准：“你要尽心、尽性、尽力、尽意爱主你的上帝；又要爱邻舍如同自己”（路10:27）。在此你已失败了。以任何方式在交易上吝啬不公都是令上帝不悦的。若不彻底的承认并离弃罪恶，上帝就不会放过这方面的错误和罪孽。【2T.152.1】[1]
§4
Dear Brother H: I have been waiting for an opportunity to write you, but have been hindered. After my last vision I felt it to be my duty to speedily lay before you what the Lord was pleased to present to me. I was pointed back and shown that for years in the past, even before your marriage, there had been in you a disposition to overreach in trade. You possessed a spirit of acquisitiveness, a disposition for close dealing, which was detrimental to your spiritual advancement and greatly injured your influence. Your fathers family viewed these matters from the worlds standpoint rather than from the high, exalted standard quoted by our divine Lord: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as thyself. In this you have failed. To deal in any way closely and unjustly is displeasing to God. He will not pass over errors and sins in this direction without thorough confession and forsaking. {2T 152.1}[1]
§5
我蒙指示看到你很久以前的事，看到你在这些事情上放任散漫的态度。上帝向我指出，你将大量非常恶劣、再豢养已无利可图，所以才准备作食物的牲畜拿到市场上出售，使它们的肉进入人的胃。 这些病畜中的一只在我们贫穷的时期有段时间也曾上了我们的餐桌，供我们这个大家庭食用。在此事上该受谴责的不止你一个人。你家里其他成员也难辞其咎。问题不在于我们或者世人是否应当购买并吃这些肉，而在于这事的本质令上帝不悦；你违犯了祂的诫命。你并没有像爱自己一样去爱你的邻舍，因为你们家不会吃这样的肉。你们会认为自己受了侮辱。一种贪婪的精神导致了这种偏离基督徒原则的行为，并使你堕落到做这种损人利己的交易。【2T.153.1】[2]
§6
I was pointed far back and shown the loose manner in which you regarded these things. The Lord marked the transaction of carrying to market that load of animals that were so inferior that they could not be profitable to keep, therefore were prepared for food and carried to market to be bought and introduced into the human stomach. One of these was placed upon our table for some time to feed our large family in the days of our poverty. You were not the only one to be blamed in this. Others of your family were alike guilty. It matters not whether it was designed that they should be bought and eaten by us or by worldlings. It is the principle of the thing which displeased God; you transgressed His command. You did not love your neighbor as you did yourself, for you would be unwilling to have the same thing done to you. You would consider yourself insulted. An avaricious spirit led to this departure from Christian principles, and caused you to descend to a species of trading which advantaged yourself at others disadvantage. {2T 153.1}[2]
§7
当五年前我蒙指示有关吃肉的问题，看到人们对他们正在吃的肉类食物知道得多么少时，主就把你的这种交易向我显明了。吃这些不健康的动物的肉会败坏血液，使人患病和发烧。我蒙指示看到世人每天都在做许多这样的事。而你，我亲爱的弟兄，却没有像主一样看明这是错的。你从未觉得这件事在你是个大罪。你生活中还发生了许多诸如此类的事，你将发现记录的天使已按时间顺序如实地记载了这些事，你若不藉着悔改和认罪改正这些错误，就必再次面对它们。【2T.153.2】[3]
§8
When the meat-eating question was presented before me five years ago, showing how little the people knew what they were eating for food in the shape of flesh meats, this transaction of yours was shown. The effect of eating the meat of these unhealthy animals is diseased blood, sickness, and fevers. Many instances of the kind were shown me as being acted over daily by worldlings. You, my dear brother, have not seen this wrong on your part as the Lord sees it. You have never felt that it was a great sin on your part. Many things of like character have taken place in your life, which you will find that the recording angel has faithfully chronicled, and which you will meet again, unless by repentance and confession you make these wrongs right. {2T 153.2}[3]
§9
我奉命等着观看。我蒙指示要直率发言，写出普遍的原则，并让你自己去应用。我蒙指示看到上帝不会经常指出祂百姓所犯的过错，但是却会让他们听到普遍的原则，严谨尖锐的真理。人人都应接受感化，看见、感到并明白自己是否有罪。你没有忠诚认真地对待自己的心灵。天使说：“我要考验他，试验他，我要行事与他相反，直到他承认这是上帝的手在对付他。”【2T.154.1】[4]
§10
I was bidden to wait and see. I was directed to speak plainly, give general principles, and leave you to make the application yourself. I was shown that God would not frequently point out the wrongs committed by His people, but would cause to be given in their hearing general principles, close, pointed truths, and all should be open to conviction to see, to feel, and understand whether or not they are condemned. You have not dealt closely and faithfully with your own soul. Said the angel: I will prove him, I will test him, I will walk contrary unto him, until he acknowledges the hand of God in thus dealing with him. {2T 154.1}[4]
§11
我看到在某地与你家庭有关的人行事也不正确。你表现出一种吝啬的精神，诈取和不诚实的意味。你在对待同胞的事上若不彻底悔改，补救以往的过错，就不可能在那个地方发挥为善的感化力。你的光对于那里的人就是黑暗，你的影响就给那里现代真理的圣工带来极大的损害。你已经使真理蒙羞，你那斤斤计较的行为已经使你的名字成为人们的笑柄。你在体面交易上的标准上常常低于许多俗人。I长老在某地不会有任何益处。他的话就像洒在地上的水一样，因为他与你有联络，而且参加了这种吝啬的交易。他在许多方面变得象商业交易上的俗人一样。他是吝啬的，而且很快变得自私。他在许多事上的做法摧毁了他的影响力，不合基督传道人的体统。天使在1866年纽约州罗彻斯特的异象中说：“我的手要带来灾祸。他收聚，我却分散，直到他悔改以往的罪，并为永恒作洁净的工作。”每一个真实的基督徒都应当感到不可屈就世俗之徒斤斤计较的卑劣精神。【2T.154.2】[5]
§12
I saw that while in ----- those connected with your family did not move right. You manifested a close spirit, savoring of overreaching and dishonesty. You could have had no influence for good in that place until you had redeemed the past by an entire change of conduct in dealing with your fellow men. Your light was darkness to the people, and your influence while there was a great detriment to the cause of present truth. You brought reproach upon the truth, and your close dealing caused your name to be a byword among the people. You frequently fell below the standard of many worldlings in regard to honorable dealing. Elder I can do no good in -----. His words are as water spilled upon the ground, for the reason that he was connected with you and took part in this close trading. In many respects he became like a worldling in business transactions. He was close and was fast becoming selfish. His course in many things was calculated to destroy his influence and was not becoming a minister of Christ. Said the angel in the vision given at Rochester, New York, in 1866: My hand shall bring adversity. He may gather, but I will scatter until he redeems the past and makes clean work for eternity. Every true Christian should feel above condescending to the low, bartering, trading spirit of worldlings. {2T 154.2}[5]
§13
你并不是一个守财奴。你也喜欢直率大方地从事慈善的工作。但是你的错误就在这封信中提到的那种不爱邻舍如同自己的精神；在于当清晰有力的真理亮光已明白告诉你的责任时，你却疏于看明自己的错误并且改正错误。你是一个殷勤好客之人，上帝不愿让你受到那大骗子的欺骗，而愿直接来到你面前，说明你错在哪里，好使你可以抽身退步。祂现在正呼召你挽回过去的错误，上到更高的行动水平，让你的人生记录不被贪婪或自私的贪财所玷污。【2T.155.1】[6]
§14
You are not a miser; you love to be benevolent, free, open-hearted, and openhanded; but that which is wrong in you is the spirit mentioned in this letter, of not loving your neighbor as yourself; it is the neglect of seeing your wrongs and making them right when the clear, forcible light of truth has told you too plainly your duty. You are a lover of hospitality, and God will not give you over to be deceived by the great deceiver of mankind, but will come directly to you and show you where you err that you may retrace your steps. He now calls upon you to redeem the past, and to come up upon a higher plane of action, and let your life record be unspotted with avarice or selfish love of gain. {2T 155.1}[6]
§15
你若不将一切献给上帝，你在属世之事上的判断就必变为愚蠢。你和你妻子都没有将自己献给上帝。你们的属灵状况不是上帝所希望的样子。你们似乎麻痹了；但是你们二人还能为上帝和祂的真理发挥强有力的影响，只要你们用秩序井然的生活和敬虔的为人装饰你们的信仰表白。你们经常做事过快，然后变得急噪难耐，且以匆忙的态度要人帮助你们。这对你们在属灵上的进步是有害的。【2T.155.2】。[7]
§16
Your judgment in worldly things will become foolishness unless you dedicate all to God. You and your wife are not devotional. Your spirituality is not what God would have it to be. Paralysis seems to be upon you; yet you are both capable of exerting a strong influence for God and for His truth, if you adorn your profession with well-ordered lives and godly conversation. You frequently get in too great a hurry, and then become impatient and fretful, and order your help in a hurried manner. This is detrimental to your spiritual advancement. {2T 155.2}[7]
§17
时日短暂，你再没有时间可以拖延。为了你自己的灵魂，为了你朋友和邻舍的得救，为了所有受到你影响的人，你必须马上开始诚恳忠心地预备自己的心。始终力求活在光中，好使你的感化力能对那些在业务或一般交往中与你联络之人有成圣的影响。在耶稣里面有丰盛和完全。你可以从祂那里获得力量，使你能像照祂所行的去行，但你千万不能在感情上与祂有什么隔阂。基督所要求的是你整个的人，你的魂、身子和灵。当你做祂所要求你做的一切时，祂就会为你行事，并且用祂丰富的恩典祝福你，加给你力量。【2T.155.3】[8]
§18
Time is short, and you have no time to delay the preparation of heart necessary to labor earnestly and faithfully for your own soul, and for the salvation of your friends and neighbors, and all who come under your influence. Ever aim to so live in the light that your influence can be sanctifying upon those with whom you are associated in a business capacity or in common intercourse. There is fullness in Jesus. You can obtain strength from Him which will qualify you to walk even as He walked, but there must be no separation of affections from Him. He requires the entire man, the soul, body, and spirit. When you do all on your part which He requires, He will work for you, and bless and strengthen you by His rich grace. {2T 155.3}[8]