“TAKE HEED THAT YE BE NOT CONSUMED ONE OF ANOTHER.”
By Wm. Covert
“What good does it do?” I frequently ask myself, when I learn that one friend of the truth is trying to destroy the influence of another, “what is the use of it?” Our friends may not do just right every time, but let us remember that we are as fallible as they are. We ask God to have mercy upon us; and we should remember that he will hear their prayers as well as ours. We are often pained to learn that little differences are talked about, and magnified in the minds of would-be friends of truth, when they should disappear before the genial warmth of their hearts, as the morning dew before the rising sun. The Saviour could pray for his enemies, when they were purposely harming him. Can we not manifest enough of his spirit to forgive a brother or sister, when a wrong is confessed and forgiveness asked for? Why should our valuable time be worse than wasted in biting and devouring one another? The enemy knows that he cannot make us disbelieve the truth; but he does not care for that if he can make us, by our course, injure the cause more than if we had rejected the theory of the message. Let us cultivate faith in God, cultivate faith in the message, and cultivate faith in the brethren and sisters; for there is a great work before us, in which we must be united. Every shot should be fired into the ranks of the enemy, not one at a brother or friend, lest ye consume one another. Wm. Covert.