Counsels for the Church - Ellen G. White

this. Take time to pray, and as you pray, believe that God hears you. Have
faith mixed with your prayers. You may not at all times feel the immediate
answer; but then it is that faith is tried.
Christ Only Can Judge Man
Christ humbled Himself to stand at the head of humanity, to meet the
temptations and endure the trials that humanity must meet and endure. He
must know what humanity has to meet from the fallen foe, that He might
know how to succor those who are tempted.
And Christ has been made our Judge. The Father is not the Judge. The
angels are not. He who took humanity upon Himself, and in this world lived
a perfect life, is to judge us. He only can be our Judge. Will you remember
this, brethren? Will you remember it, ministers? Will you remember it,
fathers and mothers? Christ took humanity that He might be our Judge. No
one of you has been appointed to be a judge of others. It is all that you can
do to discipline yourselves. In the name of Christ I entreat you to heed the
injunction that He gives you never to place yourselves on the judgment seat.
From day to day this message has been sounded in my ears: "Come down
from the judgment seat. Come down in humility."
God does not regard all sins as of equal magnitude; there are degrees of
guilt in His estimation as well as in that of finite man. But however trifling
this or that wrong in their course may seem in the eyes of men, no sin is
small in the sight of God. The sins which man is disposed to look upon as
small may be the very ones which God accounts as great crimes. The
drunkard is despised and is told that his sin will exclude him from heaven,
while pride, selfishness, and covetousness go unrebuked. But these are sins
that are especially offensive to God. He "resisteth the proud," and Paul tells
us that covetousness is idolatry. Those who are familiar with the
denunciations against idolatry in the word of God will at once see how grave
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