obedience

I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live. Deuteronomy 30:19.

Those who are carrying forward the work of God must stand firm and steadfast, as faithful sentinels in the Lord's army. They must stand under the bloodstained banner of Prince Emmanuel.... The last message of mercy is to be proclaimed. Men and women are to be aroused to prepare for the great issues before them....

The reason why men and women today do not believe the truth is because it condemns their life practices. They see that the truth calls for a reform, and they fight it because they hate the work involved in sanctification....

He whose conscience is a sure guide will not stop to reason [i.e., rationalize away] when light shines upon him out of God's Word. He will not be guided by human counsel. He will not allow worldly business to stand in the way of obedience. He will lay every selfish interest at the door of investigation, and will approach the Word of God as one whose eternal interest is hanging in the balance.

There is a right side—the side of Him who declared, "I have kept my Father's commandments" (John 15:10). "The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul" (Psalm 19:7). There is a wrong side—the side of the one who in heaven rebelled against God. With his sympathizers he was expelled from the heavenly courts, and from his action we may understand that no matter how high a position a man may occupy in the church or in the world, if he is disloyal to God, if he accepts human laws instead of the laws of Jehovah, he can never enter heaven, for he is living in direct opposition to God. He will receive punishment in accordance with the power of influence which instead of being placed on the side of God was placed on the side of Satan. The greater the talents and influence given him, the greater will be his punishment. God will require at his hands the souls he has turned aside from truth to falsehood. Instead of leading them to God, he led them away from God, and their blood will be charged to him....

In the day of judgment those who have refused the light and have led others to honor the false sabbath will see the course Satan has pursued in causing men to transgress the law of God. They will see and fully comprehend the virtue of God's sign....

God's people have a serious, solemn work to do. He bids them, "Lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins" (Isaiah 58:1).

—Manuscript 27, May 6, 1900, "Obedience and Disobedience."