God has blessed His people who have moved forward following His opening providence. He has brought out a people from every class upon the great platform of truth. Infidels have been convinced that God was with His people and have humbled their hearts to obey the truth. The work of God moves steadily on. Yet notwithstanding all the evidences that God has been leading the body, there are, and will continue to be, those who profess the Sabbath, who will move independent of the body, and believe and act as they choose. Their views are confused. Their scattered state is a standing testimony that God is not with them. By the world the Sabbath and their errors are placed upon a level and thrown away together. God is angry with those who pursue a course to make the world hate them. If a Christian is hated because of his good works and for following Christ, he will have a reward; but if he is hated because he does not take a course to be loved, hated because of his uncultivated manners and because he makes the truth a matter of quarrel with his neighbors, and takes a course to make the Sabbath as annoying as possible to them, he is a stumbling block to sinners, a reproach to the sacred truth, and unless he repents it were better for him that a millstone were hung about his neck and he were cast into the sea. {1T 420.1}

Gud har velsignet sit folk, som er gået fremad og har fulgt hans vejledende forsyn. Han har samlet et folk fra alle samfundsklasser på sandhedens stærke grund. Fritænkere er blevet overbevist om, at Gud var med sit folk og har ydmyget deres hjerter til at lyde sandheden. Guds værk går stadig fremad. Men trods alle beviser på, at Gud har ledet samfundet, er der og vil der vedblivende være nogle, som giver sig ud for at holde sabbaten, men dog vil optræde uafhængigt af samfundet og tro og handle efter eget skøn. De har forvirrede anskuelser. Deres splittede tilstand er et slående vidnesbyrd om, at Gud ikke er med dem. Verden stiller sabbaten og deres vildfarelser på samme trin og forkaster det hele. Guds vrede hviler over sådanne, hvis handlemåde leder verden til at hade dem. Dersom en kristen hades på grund af sine gode gerninger og fordi han følger Kristus, vil han få løn; men hvis han hades, fordi han ikke følger en fremgangsmåde, der gør ham elsket, hades som følge af sin ukultiverede opførsel og fordi han gør sandheden til et tvivlens emne blandt sine naboer og gør sabbaten så generende for dem som muligt, er han en anstødssten for syndere og en skam for den hellige sandhed og dersom ham ikke omvender sig, ville det være bedre for ham, om der var hængt en møllesten om hans hals og han var kastet i havet. Vejl f menigh bd 1 side 137-143]