The book of wonders

and how much he complained of the loss of his honor, which I told you I would repair if he came forward as a man of honor to acknowledge every truth. Thus they must compare the communications with his letters, and then they will see on what conditions things stood.

“Now come to the beginning: when he first fell back in 1802, how he acted! What arts he used! He thought to gain his honor among men by destroying the truths put in his hands, and the very way he went to gain his honor at first was the way he lost it. So they must discern, at the last, had he come forward by my commands—either by writing to acknowledge all that had been put in his hands, confirming that he had received them and that all was true as you had listed, but saying he was sorry that through unbelief he had been persuaded to destroy them—if he would still acknowledge he had received them. Had he done this as I demanded of him, either by letter or by appearing, then I would have cleared his honor according to my promises and cast the blame on his faithless friends. They did not discern that in a cause like this, where anyone comes forward in the name of the Lord to prophesy in His name, the testimony of Jesus's coming is provided by the Spirit of Prophecy, which is now given to warn that the end is at hand. To prove the truth of the mission, the prophecies of events were ordered to be put in the hands of the ministers.

And now I ask mankind: how can a minister, who is an upright man standing between God and his people, justify himself before God and man if he refuses to take the letters so that he may find out the truth—whether the woman is visited by the Lord, who is the God of truth, or whether she is visited by the devil, who is the father of

lies? Here let men discern deeply in what manner the command was given; and then let them look to my Gospel and know what is written—

‘Do not believe every spirit; but test the spirits, whether they are of God or not:’
and know that I said the Spirit of Truth would come to guide you into all truths. Now where are the preachers of my Gospel, who profess to believe in my Gospel and its fulfillment, yet do not discern that these commandments are on record?

It is the duty of every minister to act as ********* acted at first; for if you had been visited by the devil, he would have had it in his power to stop your hand in the beginning. This is because the events you were ordered to put in his hands would not have taken place if they had not come from the God of knowledge and truth, who had the power to fulfill His words. Therefore, by his wisdom and his prudence, he would have soon found out if there was deceit, and in that way, he would have stopped your hand. This was the duty that every minister ought to have performed; because I warned them of false prophets and true ones. How else could the Spirit of Truth come to guide you into all truths and teach you things to come without prophecies being given? But how are these things to be sought out if the ministers, like careless shepherds, will give themselves no trouble to search out the truth and test the fruit? Then how is my Gospel obeyed by them? They can no more answer to my Gospel—claiming they act according to my commands and are faithful shepherds and teachers of the flock—while they refuse to search out the truth when it is in their power to do so. Such people can no more answer to the scriptures in the end than ********* could answer for himself when the truth was demanded