第76章 一封信
§1
第76章 一封信Chap. 76—A Letter
§2
亲爱的O弟兄：我已收到你的信，无需表达我心中因你最近的突然转向而感到的悲伤。当我回顾你以往的历史时，想起了你在科罗拉多州的经验，那时你的信心沦落到了低谷，后来你部分恢复了信心。你因虚假而野心勃勃的盼望而受到试探，远离我们的人而不是与他们在一起，你的失望，你保持沉默的可嘉行为，上帝的子民为你而发的祈祷和同情升达于天，而我不住地恳求乃是：“不要不管他，而要努力救他。他落入了圈套，松开了握住上帝的手。”{5T621.2}[1]
§3
Dear Brother O,I have received your letter, and need not express to you the sadness of my heart at the very sudden turn you have recently taken. As I review your past history I call to mind your experience in Colorado, your reflections while upon that rock where descent seemed impossible, and your subsequent partial recovery to the faith, your temptations through false and ambitious hopes to become greater away from our people than with them, your disappointment, your praiseworthy course of remaining silent, the prayers and sympathies of God’s people that were ascending to heaven in your behalf, and my constant pleadings: “Do not let him alone, but make efforts to save him. He is ensnared; he has lost his hold upon God.”?{5T 621.2}[1]
§4
我想起上次和你妻子一起出去的事，那时她还没去世。她的负担是在你和孩子们身上。她说对将来感到担忧，因为她的孩子和她丈夫的怀疑派观念。她说：“如果我死了，他放弃了信仰，使我的孩子们放弃安息日，那将是多么可怕的事啊！因为他曾领受了那么大的亮光和那么多的证据。因此我才坚持活下去。他心灵里没有那种深刻内在的工作，使他能在试探来临时岿然不动。怀姐妹啊，正是为了我丈夫和孩子们的灵命我才坚持活下去。而且就在此刻我想要告诉你，我感到非常难过，因为我原来没有以另一种精神接受赐给我和我丈夫的证言。现在我看出给我们的那道信息正是我们所需要的；要是我们接受了它，原会使我们俩处于比我们有段时间所处的更好、好得多的属灵境况。我俩都有属灵的骄傲；而且自从那时起我总想避开你；因为我以为你对我们没有信心或者说不信任我们。但在过去的几个月，这一切都消失了，我感到了在我以往的生活中曾有的对你同样的信任，同样亲密的同情与爱；但我知道我丈夫的感觉并不是这样，而且我跟他谈这些事没什么用处。我太虚弱了，不能把问题照我心中的看法如实摆在他面前，而他也太固执自己的看法和感觉；但我想要告诉你，我对证言和你的工作有绝对的信心，而且久已渴望告诉你这事，现在我感到自由了。你愿意饶恕我反对你的情绪和言语吗？我已使上帝的灵担忧，有时觉得祂已离弃了我；但现在我没有这些感觉了，我已经有一段时间没有这种感觉了。我从未象过去的几周那样认识到谈论疑惑的危险。我为我丈夫大大担心，因为他表示不信；我担心他会放弃一切，变成一个无信仰的人。唉，我多么希望能帮助他呀！”{5T621.3}[2]
§5
I remember the last time I rode out with your wife before she died. Her burden was for you and her children. She said she trembled for the future because of her children and the skepticism of her husband. “If I should die,” she said, “and he should give up the faith and lead my children to give up the Sabbath, how terrible it would be after he has received so great light and so many evidences! For this reason I have clung to life. He has not that deep, inwrought work in the?soul that will anchor him when temptations come. O Sister White, it is for the souls of my husband and children that I have clung to life. And I want to tell you right here that I am heartily sorry that I did not receive in a different spirit the testimony given me and my husband. I see now that the message to us was just what we needed; and had we accepted it, it would have placed us both in a better, far better, position spiritually than we have been in for some time. We were both proud in spirit, and since that time I have felt like shunning you; for I thought you had no faith or confidence in us. But during the last few months this has all disappeared, and I have felt the same confidence, the same close sympathy and love for you that I have had in my past life; but I know my husband does not feel thus, and it is of but little use for me to talk these things over with him. I am too weak to set matters before him as they are in my mind, and he is too firm in his ideas and feelings; but I wanted to tell you that I have implicit faith in the?Testimonies?and in your work, and have long been wishing for an opportunity to tell you this, and I shall now feel free. Will you forgive me for my feelings and words against you? I have grieved the Spirit of God and sometimes have felt that He had forsaken me; but I do not now have these feelings, neither have I had them for some time. I never realized the danger of talking unbelief as I have for a few weeks past. I fear greatly for my husband, for he expresses unbelief; and I fear he will give up all and become an infidel. Oh, how I wish I could help him!”?{5T 621.3}[2]
§6
O弟兄，当你告诉我说你妻子到死也不相信证言时，我没有反驳你；但我想你并没有告诉我实话。后来我确定你是在极大的黑暗中，因为我有一封她写给我的信，说她对证言有最充分的信任，知道它们论到你和她自己的事是真实的。我参加了在某地的帐棚大会，你也在场。你那时有了一种经验，若是你保持在上帝面前谦卑，象那时一样，那种经验原会对你有持久的价值。你那时谦卑了你的心并且屈膝，求我饶恕你关于我和我的工作所说的一些事。你说：“你一点儿不知道我把你说得多卑鄙。”我向你保证我愿意白白地饶恕你，就象我希望耶稣愿意饶恕我的罪与错误一样。你在那里当着几个人的面说你曾说过许多伤害我的话；那一切我都保证白白地饶恕你，因为那不是反对我。那些事都不是反对我；我只不过是一个仆人，传达上帝赐给我的信息。你所反对的并非我个人；乃是上帝藉着卑微的器皿传给你的信息。你伤害的乃是基督，不是我。我说：“我不希望你向我认罪。使你的心和上帝的关系完全摆正了，你我之间也就好了。”有些话写给你，你总的来说以太强的眼光来看了。后来你又仔细地读了那些话，你说它们看起来和初看时不一样了，万事就都和谐了。你说这次会见之后，你觉得以前从不知道什么是悔改，但你已重生了，第一次悔改了。你能说你爱弟兄们了，你的心是光明快乐的；你看出了工作的神圣性，是你以前从未看出的；你的信叙述了上帝的灵在你心里造成的深刻改变。{5T622.1}[3]
§7
Brother O, when you told me that your wife died disbelieving the?Testimonies, I did not contradict you; but I thought you did not tell me the truth. I afterward decided that you were greatly in the dark, for I have a letter which she sent me saying that she had the fullest confidence in the?Testimonies?and knew them to be true in regard to you and to herself. I attended the camp meeting in -----, and you were present. You then had an experience that would have?proved of lasting value to you if you had remained humble before God as at that time. You then humbled your heart and upon your knees asked me to forgive you for the things you had said about me and my work. You said: “You have no idea how mean I have talked about you.” I assured you I would just as freely forgive you as I hoped Jesus would forgive me my sins and errors. You stated there in the presence of several that you had said many things to my injury; all of which I assured you I freely forgave you, for it was not against me. None of these things were against me; I was only a servant bearing the message God gave me. It was not I personally that you were arrayed against; it was the message that God sent to you through the humble instrument. It was Christ that you injured, not I. “I do not want you,” I said, “to confess to me. Make all straight between your soul and God, and all will be right between you and me.” Some expressions that were written to you, you had taken in altogether too strong a light. And after reading them carefully again, you said they did not appear to you as they had, and everything was reconciled. You stated after this interview that you felt you had never before known what conversion was, but that you had been born again, converted for the first time. You could say you loved your brethren, your heart was light and happy; you saw the sacredness of the work as you had never seen it before; and your letters expressed the deep change wrought in you by the Spirit of God.?{5T 622.1}[3]
§8
可是我知道你会被再次带到战场，并在你以前曾失败的地方受试验。主对以色列人就是这样做的；祂对其历代的子民都是这样做的。祂会在他们从前失败的地方试验他们；祂会考验他们，如果他们在第二次的考验下失败了，祂会使他们再受同样的试验。{5T623.1}[4]
§9
And yet I knew that you would be brought over the ground again and tested on the very points where you had failed before. Thus the Lord did for the children of Israel; thus He has done with His people in all ages. He will prove them where they have formerly failed; He will try them, and if they fail under the trial the second time, He will bring them around to the same test again.?{5T 623.1}[4]
§10
我每次想到你都会心痛；我的心灵确实忧伤。每一个灵魂都是宝贵的，因为是用耶稣基督的宝血买来的。我有时想，我们对于耶稣宝血的赎买——灵魂的得赎根本没有一个正确的估计。当我思考为救赎每个人付上的无限代价时，我想：“要是那个人最终失丧了怎么样呢？要是他拒绝在基督的门下学习，没能实行柔和谦卑，不愿负基督的轭怎么样呢？”我的弟兄啊，这一直是你最大的失败。你若少请教你自己，多以耶稣为你的顾问，你现在就会在耶稣基督的恩典和知识上刚强了。你没有与基督一同负轭；你没有被祂的灵充满。你的品格多么需要神圣的模子啊！{5T623.2}[5]
§11
My heart aches every time I think of you; my soul is sad indeed. Every soul is precious, because it has been purchased?by the precious blood of Jesus Christ. I sometimes think that we do not place anything like a correct value upon the purchase of the blood of Jesus—the redemption of the soul. When I consider the infinite price paid for the redemption of individual souls, I think: “What if that soul is finally lost? What if he refuses to be a learner in the school of Christ and fails to practice meekness and lowliness, and will not wear the yoke of Christ?” This, my brother, has been your greatest failure. If you had taken less counsel of yourself and made Jesus your counselor you would now be strong in grace and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. You have not yoked up with Christ; you have not been imbued with His Spirit. Oh, how much you need the divine mold upon your character!?{5T 623.2}[5]
§12
考虑到我们较多的优势，且知道我们必要按主所赐给我们的亮光和特权受审判，我们有许多要负责的。我们不能辩称我们在亮光上比那个已多年成了世上的惊奇与羞辱的民族受的恩待少。我们不能指望审判会对我们有利，因为象迦百农一样，我们已经升到天上。主已为祂守诫命的子民行事。那已从天上照在我们身上的亮光，若是曾照在所多玛和蛾摩拉，他们还可以存到今日；向这班子民彰显的奇事、知识和恩典，要是传达给了黑暗中的列国，我们不知道他们会超过这班子民多么远。我们不能确定当审判的日子，他们所受的，要比那些虽有真理的光照在他们身上象你所拥有的一样，却因某种说不清的原因转离了所交付他们的神圣诫命的人，要容易受多少。我们只能悲伤的把你的情况指作一个警告的灯塔。“自己以为站得稳的，须要谨慎，免得跌倒”（林前10:12）。主看人不象人看人。祂的意念和道路不是盲目、自私的人相信的那样或希望的那样。主看人的内心，在祂所造之人的里面运行并与之同工，使之立志行事去做凡祂所命令或要求他们的，除非他们拒绝祂的劝勉，不肯顺从祂的诫命。{5T624.1}[6]
§13
We have much to answer for, considering our superior advantages and knowing that we must be judged by the light and privileges the Lord has granted us. We cannot plead that we are less favored with light than that people who have been for ages an astonishment and a reproach to the world. We cannot expect judgment to be given in our favor because, like Capernaum, we have been exalted to heaven. The Lord has wrought for His commandment-keeping people. The light that has reflected to us from heaven was not granted to Sodom and Gomorrah, or they might have remained unto this day; and if the mighty works and knowledge and grace which have been manifested to this people had been made known to the nations in darkness, we know not how far in advance of this people they might now be. We cannot determine how much more tolerable it would be for them in the day of judgment than for those who have had the clear light of truth shining upon them as you have had, but through some inexplainable cause have turned from the holy commandment delivered to them. We can only point to your case with sorrow, as a beacon of warning. “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” The?Lord seeth not as man seeth. His thoughts and ways are not what blind, selfish men believe they are or wish them to be. The Lord looks on the heart and works in and with His creatures to will and to do whatever He commands or requires of them, unless they reject His counsel and refuse to be obedient to His commandments.?{5T 624.1}[6]
§14
你今生大部分的时间都用在提说你余生要批判并谴责的道理上了。哪个才是真正的工作呢？哪个是假的呢？我们能信赖你的判断吗？我们能信任你对圣经的解释吗？我们不能。我们会有危险被误导。你现在或你人生的将来任何时期都不能觉得你的脚是坚立在稳固的磐石上。我一直忍不住想到你的将来。真理对我来说乃是一个活的现实。我知道它是真理。上帝的话是可靠的。“人当以训诲和法度为标准；他们所说的若不与此相符，必不得见晨光”（赛8:20）。你的光要在黑暗中熄灭吗？{5T625.1}[7]
§15
The greater part of your life has been employed in presenting doctrines which, during the last part of your life, you will repudiate and condemn. Which is the genuine work? which is the false? Can we trust to your judgment? can we rely upon your interpretation of the Scriptures? We cannot. We would be in danger of being misled. You cannot now or at any future period of your life feel that your feet are standing on solid rock. I have been unable to keep from thinking of your future. The truth to me is a living reality. I know it to be truth. The word of God is sure. “To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” Will your light go out in darkness??{5T 625.1}[7]
§16
我正在写作增订版的《善恶之争》。其中包含了撒但的堕落和罪被引进我们世界的历史；我对生命之君基督和黑暗之君撒但之间的这场大斗争有了比以前更生动的认识。当我看到撒但的各种诡计要围攻毁灭犯错之人，并使他象他自己一样违犯上帝的神圣律法时，就愿上帝的天使能来到地上，呈现这事的极其重要性。因而我就对正在蓄意违背亮光和知识，不顺从上帝神圣律法的人极感关切。亚当和夏娃怎样相信了撒但的谎言“你们便如上帝”，这些人也照样指望藉着不顺从来升到更高的境界，获得某个更讨人喜欢的职位。我是如此心忧，以致在别人还熟睡时，我就花数小时祈祷上帝以大能作工，打破人心所受致命的欺骗，本着单纯领人到髑髅地的十字架。然后我使自己平静了下来，想到这一切的人都是由主耶稣的血买来的。我们可能爱这些人，但髑髅地证明上帝多么爱他们。这工作不是我们的，而是主的。我们只不过是祂手中的工具，要遵行祂的旨意，而不是我们自己的意愿。我们看到那些行事不顾施恩之灵的人，并为他们战兢。我们感到伤心，也感到失望，因为他们原来是不忠于上帝和真理的；但是当我们想到耶稣时，就更感悲伤，祂已用自己的血买了他们！我们愿意献出我们一切所有的去救一个人，但发现我们不能做成这事。我们愿献上生命本身去拯救一个人直到永生，但甚至这样的牺牲也不会做成这工作。在耶稣基督的生活、使命和死难中，那一个伟大的牺牲已经做成了。但愿人心会默想那牺牲的伟大！然后他们就能更好地理解救恩的伟大了。{5T625.2}[8]
§17
I am writing out more fully the volume of?Great Controversy?containing the history of the fall of Satan and the introduction of sin into our world; and I can have a more vivid sense of this great controversy between Christ, the Prince of light, and Satan, the prince of darkness, than I have ever had before. As I see the various devices of Satan to compass the ruin of erring man, and make him like himself, a transgressor of God’s holy law, I would that angels of God could come to earth and present this matter in its great importance. Then I feel so intensely for souls who are willfully departing from light and knowledge and obedience to God’s holy law. As Adam and Eve believed the lie of Satan, “Ye shall be as gods,” so these souls hope through disobedience to rise to greater heights, to gain some flattering position. I am so anxious that, while others are sleeping, I spend hours in prayer that God will work in mighty power to break the fatal deception?upon human minds and lead them in simplicity to the cross of Calvary. Then I quiet myself with the thought that all these souls are purchased by the blood of the Lord Jesus. We may have love for these souls, but Calvary testifies how God loves them. This work is not ours, but the Lord’s. We are only the instruments in His hands to do His will, not our own. We look at those who are doing despite to the Spirit of grace, and tremble for them. We feel sorry, and are disappointed, that they prove untrue to God and the truth; but we feel a deeper sorrow as we think of Jesus, who has purchased them with His own blood. We would give all our possessions to save one, but find we cannot do this. We would give life itself to save one soul unto life eternal, but even this sacrifice would not do the work. The one great sacrifice has been made in the life, the mission, and the death of Jesus Christ. Oh, that minds would contemplate the greatness of that sacrifice! Then might they be better able to comprehend the greatness of salvation.?{5T 625.2}[8]
§18
而今，O弟兄，你虽有那么多的大光，这样丰富的圣经真理的证据，却没有与那些最终将因真理夸胜的人一同前进上进。你现在站在那背道的魁首一边，要取消上帝的律法；他也必带领别人走上这条违背上帝神圣律法的道路，嘲笑我们的信仰。当审判就位，每个人都要照案卷上所记载的受审判时，那时你的情形将显为如何呢？你会看到这一个和那一个若是你没有用不信的气氛包围他们，没有藉曲解圣经的意思歪曲圣经，误导他们不再严格顺从上帝神圣的律法，原本会行在遵守上帝诫命之路上的人。那时你能愉快地看着这些面孔吗？你将听到那伟大审判者的声音说：“谁向你讨这些呢”（赛1:12）？{5T626.1}[9]
§19
And now, Brother O, you who have had so great light, such an abundance of evidence of Bible truth, go not onward and upward with those who will triumph with the truth at last. You now take the side of the first great rebel, to make void the law of God; and he will lead others in the same path of transgression of God’s holy law, to ridicule our faith. When the judgment shall sit, and everyone shall be judged out of those things written in the books, how will your case then appear? You will look on this one and that one who would have walked in the way of God’s commandments if you had not surrounded them with the atmosphere of unbelief, if you had not perverted the Scriptures by misinterpreting their meaning, and led them away from strict obedience to God’s holy law. Can you then look on these countenances with pleasure? You will hear the voice of the great Judge saying: “Who hath required this at your hand?”?{5T 626.1}[9]
§20
你现在的妻子在舍己、自我牺牲、与上帝交通、信仰真理上没有深刻的宗教经验。她会很容易从顺从上帝被带到犯罪的地步。你的儿女会遵行他们的父亲所带领的道路；除非某种特殊的天意安排要搭救他们，他们的不顺从和犯罪会成为你心灵的负担。审判全地的主使你面对那神圣的律法，其要求你并非不知道。你的品格你妻子儿女的品格都受那神圣的公义标准审判。你已带领他们犯罪了，上帝的圣律法要将他们的灭亡归咎于你。藉着撒但所十分熟悉的种种诡计，你已为今生及来生行事，设法使别人相信你在离开真理亮光上是一个诚实正直的人。你是这样的吗？不，不是的。那是一个欺骗，一个可怕的欺骗。当那日，你要怎样回答上帝呢？那时你必极其畏惧造你的主。你必设法为自己的行径编造某种原因，但每件事都似乎要规避你。你必有罪地且被定罪地站在那里。你可能会对我感到生气，因为我这样把情况说出来了，然而就是这样，每一个违背上帝神圣律法的人都会这样。{5T627.1}[10]
§21
Your present wife has had no deep religious experience in self-denial, in self-sacrifice, in communion with God, in belief of the truth. She would easily be led from obedience to God to transgression. Your children will follow where their father leads the way; and unless some special providence shall rescue them, their disobedience and transgression will be laid upon your soul. The Judge of all the earth confronts you with that holy law of whose claims you are not ignorant. Your character and the characters of your wife and of your children are judged by that holy standard of righteousness. You have led them to transgress, and their ruin the holy law of God charges upon you. Through various devices, with which Satan is fully acquainted, you have worked for time and for eternity, trying to make others believe you an honest man in leaving the light of truth. Are you so? No, no. It is a deception, a terrible deception. What can you answer to God in that day? You will then have a terrible dread and fear of your Creator. You will try to frame some excuse for your course, but every thing will seem to evade you. You will stand guilty and condemned. You may feel angry with me because I have thus put the case, but so it is, and so it will be with every transgressor of God’s holy law.?{5T 627.1}[10]
§22
要始终把这个真理摆在你面前：“无论我在哪里，无论我做什么，上帝祢都在看着我。”我们的一举一动都不可能逃脱那位说“我知道你的行为”之主的鉴察。每一个人内心的最深处在上帝的视察面前也是赤露敞开的。每一个行动，每一个意图，每一句话，都被清楚地记了下来，似乎全宇宙只有这一个人，上帝的警醒注视和详细审查只在这一个人的行为上进行似的。因而我们岂要用藉口、用断言、用谎言在那立法者的眼前违背祂的一条律例并教训人这样行吗？我们要当着那审判者的面挑战祂的判决吗？这种厚颜愚勇似乎超过了人类最恶劣的冒昧。我的弟兄啊，你是我期望在审判的日子见到的人，我知道你不会为你最近的背叛有任何托词。{5T627.2}[11]
§23
Keep ever before you this truth: “Wherever I am, whatever I do, Thou, God, seest me.” It is not possible for the least item of our conduct to escape the observation of the One who says: “I know thy works.” The depths of every heart are open to the inspection of God. Every action, every purpose, every word, is as distinctly marked as though there were only one individual in the whole universe and all the watchfulness and scrutiny of God were employed on his deportment. Shall we then break even one precept of His law and teach others to do so, by evasions, by assertions, by falsehoods, in the very sight of the Lawgiver? Shall we brave the sentence in the very face of the Judge? In this there is a?hardihood which seems to surpass the worst human presumption. I know, my brother, whom I expect to meet in the day of judgment, that you will have no words of excuse for your late defection.{5T 627.2}[11]
§24
但愿我能在你面前也在我其他的弟兄们面前呈现始终感到上帝同在的必要性，这会约束你的生活，使你在人前的道德和宗教立场远为不同。我们必须达到一个更高的标准。每一个人在出去进来时，在一切的业务交易中，无论何时何地，都应带着这种意识行事，就是他的行动是在上帝和众天使的视察之下，而且要为永恒审判各人行为的那位主每一步都陪伴着他，观察他一切的行为，审查他一切的动机。一种上帝同在的意识和违背祂律例的危险要占据他全部的身心。如此就会在人里面、在社会中看到一番何等的改变，多少恶事就会留下不做啊！就会有惊呼发自历代以来的各阶层人士：“我怎能作这大恶，得罪上帝呢”（创39:9）？{5T628.1}[12]
§25
Oh, that I could present before you, and before others of my brethren, the necessity of an ever-abiding sense of God’s presence, which would put such restraint on your life that your moral and religious standing before the people would be far different. We must reach a higher standard. Every soul, in going out and coming in, in all business transactions, at all times and in all places, should act with the consciousness that he is moving under the inspection of God and heavenly angels, and that the Being who will judge every man’s work for eternity accompanies him at every step, observing all his actions and scrutinizing all his motives. A consciousness of the presence of God and the peril of violating His precepts would take possession of his entire being. What a change would be seen in man, what a change in society, what evils would be left undone! There would be exclamations from all ranks and among all ages: I cannot do this great wickedness, and sin against God.”?{5T 628.1}[12]
§26
谁将进入圣城的门户呢？“那些遵行祂诫命的人有福了！可得权柄能到生命树那里，也能从门进城”（启22:14英KJV版）。你我都知道这些诫命是什么。我爱你，你的妻子和你无辜儿女的灵魂。所以我给你写这封信。要谨慎考虑你的脚要行走的道路。我有更多的话要说，但不是现在。愿你高兴回复我，并照我请求的把含有那个梦的信寄回给我。{5T628.2}[13]
§27
Who shall enter in through the gates into the city? Blessed are they that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.” You know what these commandments are as well as I do. I love your soul and the soul of your wife and the souls of your innocent children, and this is why I now address you. Consider carefully the way your feet are tending. I have more to say, but not now. Will you please to answer me, and return to me the letter containing the dream, as I requested.?{5T 628.2}[13]
§28
以多多的忧伤、同情和怜爱谨上。[14]
§29
Yours with much sorrow and pity and love.[14]
§30
写于1887年4月20日。{5T628.3}[15]April 20, 1887[15]