第36章 感情主义与做媒
§1
第36章 感情主义与做媒
§2
Chap. 36 - Sentimentalism and Matchmaking
§3
亲爱的K姐妹：在去年六月的异象中，我蒙指示看到你的性格坚定，意志果断，还有点顽固。你不愿受别人引导，但你渴望知道和遵行上帝的旨意。你关于自己受了欺骗；你并不了解自己的心。你认为自己的意志已经顺从了上帝的旨意，但在这件事上你的判断并不正确。你遇到了试炼，并且允许自己的思想集中在那些受挫的希望上。几年之前，你的生活经历了特殊的转变。你似乎有一种不安的精神。尽管你周围的环境里并没有什么需要忧虑的事，但你并不快乐。你并没有训练自己的思想集中在一些愉快的题旨上。只要你训练自己的思想循归正道，你就能在促进真理的事业上发挥强大的影响力。你的所有言行都应当尊荣你的救赎主，高举祂的爱，彰显祂的优美。【2T.247.2】[1]
§4
Dear Sister K: In the vision given me last June I was shown that you possess a firmness of character, a determination of purpose, savoring somewhat of stubbornness. You are unwilling to be led, yet you feel anxious to know and do the will of God. You have been deceived in yourself; you have not understood your own heart. You have thought that your will was in subjection to the will of God, but in this you have not judged aright. You have met with trials and have permitted your mind to dwell upon disappointed hopes. For some years back your life has taken a peculiar turn. There has seemed to be a spirit of unrest with you. You have not been happy, although there has been nothing in your surroundings which need to have cast so dark a shadow. You have not disciplined your mind to dwell upon cheerful subjects. You are capable of exerting a strong influence in favor of truth if you will only train your mind to run in the right channel. All your words and acts should be such as to honor your Redeemer, exalt His love, and magnify His charms. {2T 247.2}[1]
§5
你已陷入这个堕落时代非常流行的可悲错误中，这种错误对姐妹来说尤其严重。你过于喜爱异性。你喜欢和他们交往；你对他们的关注带有谄媚的色彩，你鼓励或允许他们与你亲密，而这不一定与使徒的告诫相符：“各样的恶事要禁戒不作”（帖前5:22）。【2T.248.1】[2]
§6
You have fallen into the sad error which is so prevalent in this degenerate age, especially with women. You are too fond of the other sex. You love their society; your attention to them is flattering, and you encourage, or permit, a familiarity which does not always accord with the exhortation of the apostle, to abstain from all appearance of evil. {2T 248.1}[2]
§7
你并不真正了解你自己。你正行走在黑暗里。你有给别人做媒。这是最不确定的事。因为你不知道人心，极有可能做很糟糕的事，从而在做媒时助长极大的反叛精神。撒但忙着影响那些完全不相配的人结合在一起。撒但在这件事上极其得意，因为他用此种方法比其它任何方法，都可以给人类的大家庭带来更多的痛苦和无望的悲哀。【2T.248.2】[3]
§8
You do not really understand yourself. You are walking in darkness. You have had something to do with matchmaking. This is most uncertain business; for you do not know the heart and may make very bad work, thereby aiding the great rebel in his work of matchmaking. He is busily engaged in influencing those who are wholly unsuited to each other to unite their interests. He exults in this work, for by it he can produce more misery and hopeless woe to the human family than by exercising his skill in any other direction. {2T 248.2}[3]
§9
你写了许多封信，这给你带来了极重的负担。这些信中也有一些关于我们信心和希望的话语；但除此之外，你的信件中还混杂着许多关于这人与那人是否将要结婚的询问和猜测，以及关于婚姻的建议。你似乎对于预期的婚姻相当了解，并且写信谈论这些事。这只会给你的心灵带来饥谨。“心里所充满的，口里就说出来。”你允许自己心里所想、口里所说都是有关爱情和婚姻的事，这样对你自己是极不公义的。你不快乐，因为你一直在追求快乐。这不是有益的事。当你认真地去尽自己的义务，并鼓励自己去帮助别人时，你便会得享心灵的安息。现在你的心思全都集中在自己身上。你需要藉着谋求减轻别人的挂虑来转离自己；在使别人快乐时，你就会得享心灵的幸福和快乐。【2T.248.3】[4]
§10
You have written many letters, which has greatly taxed you. These letters have dwelt somewhat upon the subjects of our faith and hope; but mixed with this have been close inquiries and guesses in regard to whether this one or that one was about to marry, and suggestions relative to marriage. You seem to know considerable about anticipated marriages, and write and talk upon these things. This only causes dearth to your soul. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. You have done great injustice to yourself in permitting your mind and conversation to dwell upon love and marriage. You have not been happy, because you have been seeking after happiness. This is not profitable business. When you seek earnestly to do your duty, and arouse yourself to minister unto others, then you will find rest of spirit. Your mind dwells upon yourself. It needs to be drawn away from yourself by seeking to lighten the cares of others; and in making them happy, you will find happiness and cheerfulness of spirit. {2T 248.3}[4]
§11
你有一种病态的幻想。你认为自己身患疾病，但这大半是出于你的想象，而非事实。你对待自己的态度并不真实。你喜欢和年轻男子交谈，并允许他们随便和你在一起，这种随便只应给予你的亲兄弟。我蒙指示看到你在某地的影响并非应该有的。你允许自己的思想堕落到低下的水准。你的言谈、嬉笑、妄语使你不配拥有基督徒的称号。你的举止不应是这样的。你看上去好像一个没有脊梁骨的人。你勾肩搭背斜倚在别人身上，这种姿势实在不是一位端庄的女士在别人面前所应有的。只要你这么想过，你就完全可以像别人一样行稳坐直。你的思想状态导致了你的懒散和害怕锻炼，其实这种锻炼会证明是你得恢复的一个最重要的方法。你若不放弃这种倦怠、恍惚的思想状态自己醒悟，趁着白天赶紧作工，你就永远不会恢复了。你不仅要有想象和计划，还要去做。你不要再思想那些浪漫的计划。你在自己的宗教信仰中搀杂了一种浪漫的、相思病的情感主义，而这决不能提拔你，只能使你降的更低。并非只有你一个人感染了这种情感主义，其他人也因你的榜样和影响而受害。【2T.248.4】[5]
§12
You have a diseased imagination. You have thought yourself diseased, but this has been more imaginary than real. You have been untrue to yourself. You have conversed with young men, and permitted a freedom in your presence which should only be permitted in a brother. I was shown that your influence at ----- was not what it might have been. You permitted your mind to take a low level. You could chat, and laugh, and talk cheap talk unworthy of a Christian. Your deportment was not as it should have been. You appeared like a person without a backbone. You were half reclining upon others, which is a wrong position for a lady to occupy in the presence of others. If you had only thought so, you could have walked as well, and sat as erect, as many others. The condition of your mind leads to indolence and to a dread of exercise, when this exercise would prove one of the greatest means of your recovery. You will never recover unless you lay aside this listless, dreamy condition of mind and arouse yourself to do, to work while the day lasts. Do, as well as imagine and plan. Turn your mind away from romantic projects. You mingle with your religion a romantic, lovesick sentimentalism, which does not elevate, but only lowers. It is not yourself alone who is affected; others are injured by your example and influence. {2T 248.4}[5]
§13
你是生性专心的。你若愿意训练自己的心，细想与你自己无关而具有属天性质的高尚题旨，你仍旧可以成为有用之人。你生活的大部分时间都浪费在梦想将来做某项大工上，然而眼前的责任，尽管在你看来可能很小，却一直被忽视了。你一直是不忠心的。主不会交托给你更大的工作，直到你看到眼前的工作并且甘心乐意地去做。无论什么工作，心若不投入进来，就会成为重累。上帝先赐给我们小的责任去履行以试验我们的能力。如果我们转离这些小责任，抱以不满和埋怨，上帝就不会将更大的责任委托给我们，直到我们高兴地接过这些小责任并且做好它们；然后才会交给我们更大的责任。【2T.249.1】[6]
§14
You are naturally devotional. If you would train your mind to dwell upon elevated themes which have nothing to do with yourself, but are of a heavenly nature, you could yet be of use. But much of your life has been wasted in dreaming of doing some great work in the future, while the present duty, small though it may appear to you, has been neglected. You have been unfaithful. The Lord will not commit to your trust any larger work until the work now before you has been seen and performed with a ready, cheerful will. Unless the heart is put into the work, it will drag heavily, whatever that work may be. The Lord tests our ability by first giving us small duties to perform. If we turn from these with dissatisfaction and murmuring, no more will be entrusted to us until we cheerfully take hold of these small duties and do them well; then greater responsibilities will be committed to us. {2T 249.1}[6]
§15
你受托的才干不是用来浪费的，而是要交给兑换银钱的人，好在主人来时可以连本带利地收回祂自己的东西。上帝并不是不加选择地分配这些才干的。祂已按照祂仆人们众所周知的能力分配这些神圣委托。“要照各人所行的。”祂的给予是公正无私的，并且期望得到相应的回报。如果人人都按着量给他们的责任各尽其职，那么他们受托的才干，无论大小，都会增倍。他们的忠诚要受试验，而他们的忠心要成为他们作聪明管家的积极证据，证明他们配受托真实的钱财，就是永生的恩赐。【2T.250.1】[7]
§16
You have been entrusted with talents not to be squandered, but to be put out to the exchangers, that at the Masters coming He may receive His own with usury. God has not distributed these talents indiscriminately. He has dispensed these sacred trusts according to the known capacity of His servants. To every man his work. He gives impartially, and expects a corresponding return. If all do their duty according to the measure of their responsibility, the amount entrusted to them, be it large or small, will be doubled. Their fidelity is tested and proved, and their faithfulness is positive evidence of their wise stewardship, and of their worthiness to be entrusted with the true riches, even the gift of everlasting life. {2T 250.1}[7]
§17
在1868年10月的纽约会议上，我蒙指示看到许多人现在无所事事，他们是可以成就善工的。呈现在我面前的一班人意识到自己有慷慨大方的冲动，献身的感想和行善的爱心；但同时他们却无所事事。他们有一种自满的感觉，自以为要是有机会，或者环境更有利，他们就能够也愿意成就一番伟大的善工；但他们却在等待机会来临。他们对可怜的小气鬼的狭隘思想嗤之以鼻，认为他对于穷人一毛不拔。他们看到他在为自己而活，不愿蒙召舍己向他人行善，用自己受托使用而不是滥用或让它生锈或埋在地里的钱财和影响去造福别人。那些埋头于小气自私的人要为他们吝啬的行为和滥用的才干负责。但那些有慷慨的冲动，天性敏于辨别属灵事物的人，若是无所事事，等着自以为未到的机会，却将自己的愿意与吝啬之人的不愿意相比较，认为自己的状况比心胸狭窄的邻舍更好的人，却要负更大的责任。这种人是在自欺。拥有才干却不运用，这徒增他们的罪责而已。他们若不善用自己主人的恩赐，或将其埋藏起来，他们的处境就比那些他们所轻视的邻舍更糟。对他们要有话说：你们知道主人的意思，却不去行。【2T.250.2】[8]
§18
At the conference in New York, October, 1868, I was shown many who are now doing nothing, who might be accomplishing good. There was presented before me a class who are conscious that they possess generous impulses, devotional feelings, and a love of doing good; yet at the same time they are doing nothing. They possess a self-complacent feeling, flattering themselves that if they had an opportunity, or were circumstanced more favorably, they could and would do a great and good work; but they are waiting the opportunity. They despise the narrow mind of the poor niggard who grudges the small pittance to the needy. They see that he lives for self, that he will not be called from himself to do good to others, to bless them with the talents of influence and of means which have been committed to him to use, not to abuse, nor to permit to rust, or lie buried in the earth. Those who give themselves up to their stinginess and selfishness are accountable for their niggardly acts and are responsible for the talents they abuse. But more responsible are those who have generous impulses and are naturally quick to discern spiritual things, if they remain inactive, waiting an opportunity they suppose has not come, yet contrasting their readiness to do with the unwillingness of the niggard, and reflecting that their condition is more favorable than that of their mean-souled neighbors. Such deceive themselves. The mere possession of qualities which are not used only increases their responsibility; and if they keep their Masters talents unimproved, or hoarded, their condition is no better than that of their neighbors for whom their souls feel such contempt. To them it will be said: Ye knew your Masters will, yet did it not. {2T 250.2}[8]
§19
要是你曾训练自己的心细想高尚的题旨，沉思默想属天的主题，你原能行许多善事。你原能对别人的心有一种影响，使他们转离自私的想法和爱世界的倾向，进入属灵的渠道。要是你的感情和思想都顺从基督的旨意，你就能够行善了。你的想象是病态的，因为你允许它奔入禁路，成了梦幻。白日梦和浪漫的空想已使你不配作一个有用的人。你已生活在一个幻想的世界里；成了幻想的烈士和假想的基督徒。【2T.251.1】[9]
§20
Had you trained your mind to dwell upon elevated subjects, meditating upon heavenly themes, you could have done much good. You could have had an influence upon the minds of others, to turn their selfish thoughts and world-loving dispositions into the channel of spirituality. Were your affections and thoughts brought into subjection to the will of Christ, you would be capable of doing good. Your imagination is diseased because you have permitted it to run in a forbidden channel, to become dreamy. Daydreaming and romantic castle-building have unfitted you for usefulness. You have lived in an imaginary world; you have been an imaginary martyr and an imaginary Christian. {2T 251.1}[9]
§21
在这个时代，青年人的宗教经验中搀杂着许多这种低下的情感主义。我的姐妹，上帝要求你得以改变。我恳劝你提高自己的情操。将你的智力和体力奉献于侍奉你的救赎主，祂已赎买了你。你的思想感情都要圣化，好使你所有的行为都是在上帝里面行的。【2T.251.2】[10]
§22
There is much of this low sentimentalism mingled with the religious experience of the young in this age of the world. My sister, God requires you to be transformed. Elevate your affections, I implore you. Devote your mental and physical powers to the service of your Redeemer, who has bought you. Sanctify your thoughts and feelings that all your works may be wrought in God. {2T 251.2}[10]
§23
你陷在一个可悲的欺骗中。上帝原要你仔细省察内心的每一思想和动机。你要诚实地对待自己的灵魂。要是你的爱情没有像上帝要求的那样集中在祂身上，你原不会通过你的试炼。你有一种不安的精神不得解脱，除非你的思想改变；不再做白日梦，空想，而是做好眼前的工作。【2T.251.3】[11]
§24
You have been in a sad deception. God would have you investigate closely every thought and purpose of your heart. Deal truly with your own soul. Had your affections been centered upon God as He requires, you would not have passed through the trials you have. There is a restlessness of spirit with you which will not be relieved until your thoughts are changed; until daydreaming and castle-building cease, and you do the work of the present. {2T 251.3}[11]
§25
你在写信的时候，不要再给别人做媒，也不要再猜测你朋友们的婚姻了。婚姻关系是神圣的，但在这个堕落的世代，它却被用来遮掩各种各样卑劣污秽的事。婚姻被滥用，且成了构成末日征兆的一种罪行，就象洪水前的人们使婚姻成了一种罪行一样。撒但始终如一地忙着使没有经验的青年人仓促结婚。但我们越少以现在发生的婚姻为荣，越好。只有当婚姻的神圣性质和要求被人理解时，它才能得到上天的嘉许，结果对于双方才会幸福，上帝也会因此得荣耀。愿主使你在作这件事之前拥有能力。【2T.252.1】[12]
§26
In your letter writing, leave matchmaking and guessing about the marriages of your friends. The marriage relation is holy, but in this degenerate age it covers vileness of every description. It is abused, and has become a crime which now constitutes one of the signs of the last days, even as marriages, managed as they were previous to the Flood, were then a crime. Satan is constantly busy to hurry inexperienced youth into a marriage alliance. But the less we glory in the marriages which are now taking place, the better. When the sacred nature and the claims of marriage are understood, it will even now be approved of Heaven, and the result will be happiness to both parties, and God will be glorified. May the Lord enable you to do the work before you to do. {2T 252.1}[12]
§27
我即将写到这种披着宗教外衣正在进行着的错误和欺骗的工作。肉体的情欲已经控制了男男女女。人的心思已因思想和感情的颠倒和误用而堕落，可是撒但欺骗的能力已经蒙蔽了那些可怜被骗生灵的眼睛，以致他们自以为有属灵的心志，特别献身，其实他们的宗教经验是由相思病的情感主义构成的，而不是纯洁真实的敬虔和心灵的谦卑；他们的心思没有脱离自我，没有藉着造福他人和行善而得到锻炼和提高。“在上帝我们的父面前，那清洁没有玷污的虔诚，就是看顾在患难中的孤儿寡妇，并且保守自己不沾染世俗”（雅1:27）。真信仰能使人的心思高贵，鉴赏力文雅，判断力圣洁，使拥有它的人与天庭的纯洁和感化力有份；能使天使更近，并使你越来越远离这世界的精神和影响。---密歇根州巴特尔克里克【2T.252.2】[13]
§28
I am about to write upon this wrong, deceptive work which is carried on under the cover of religion. The lust of the flesh has control of men and women. The mind has been depraved through a perversion of the thoughts and feelings, and yet the deceptive power of Satan has so blinded their eyes that poor, deceived souls flatter themselves that they are spiritually minded, especially consecrated, when their religious experience is composed of lovesick sentimentalism more than of purity, true goodness, and humility of soul; the mind is not drawn out of self, is not exercised and elevated by blessing others, by doing good works. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. True religion ennobles the mind, refines the taste, sanctifies the judgment, and makes its possessor partaker of the purity and influences of heaven; it brings angels near, and separates more and more from the spirit and influence of the world.---Battle Creek, Michigan. {2T 252.2}[13]