Testimony for the Church — No. 26

Epistle Number Eight.

Dear Brn. G——: In the vision given me last January, I was shown some things in reference to you both. I was shown that you are not growing in spirituality as it is your duty and privilege to do. The greatness of the work and the opening providences of God should stir your hearts. Christ designed that his believing children should be the light of the world, the salt of the earth. The holy life and Christian example of one good man in a community, sheds a light that is reflected upon others. How great then should be the influence of a company of believers all walking in the commandments of God. T26 167.3

The preaching of the word is ordained of God, to arouse and convict sinners. And when the living preacher exemplifies in his own life the self-denial and sacrifices of Christ, when his conversation and acts are in harmony with the Divine Pattern, then his influence will be a powerful one upon those who listen to his voice. But all cannot be teachers of the word in the pulpit. The individual duties of different persons vary, and there is work for all to do. All can aid the cause by giving unselfishly of their means to help the various branches of the work, to furnish means for the publication of tracts and periodicals to scatter among the people, and disseminate the truth. Those who give money to promote the cause, are bearing a part of the burden of the work; they are co-laborers with Jesus Christ, for God has furnished men with means, on trust, that they may use them for holy and wise purposes. They are the instrumentalities Heaven has ordained for doing good, and these talents men are to put out to the exchangers. T26 168.1

Dear brethren, ever bear in mind that you are the stewards of God, and that he holds you accountable for the temporal talents he has lent you to use wisely for his glory. Will you not closely search your hearts and investigate the motives which prompt you to action? I was shown that your danger was in loving your possessions. Your ears are not quick to hear the Master's call in the person of his saints and the wants of his cause. You do not invest your treasure gladly in the enterprise of Christianity. If you desire a treasure in Heaven you should be securing it while you have the opportunity. If you feel safer to apply your means toward the greater accumulation of earthly riches, and invest sparingly in the cause of God, then you should feel satisfied to receive heavenly treasure according to your investment in heavenly stock. T26 168.2

You desire to see the cause of God progress, but you make little personal effort towards that end. If you, and others who profess our holy faith, could see your true position, and realize your accountability to God, you would become more earnest co-laborers with Jesus. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.” There can be no divided interest in this, for the whole heart and mind and strength is all that composes the man. T26 169.1

Says the apostle, “Ye are not your own, ye are bought with a price.” When the poor, condemned sinner was lying under the curse of the Father's law, Jesus so loved him that he gave himself for the transgressor. He redeemed him by the virtue of his blood. We cannot estimate the precious ransom paid to redeem fallen man. The heart's best and holiest affections should be given in return for such wondrous love. The temporal gifts you enjoy are merely lent you to aid in the advancement of the kingdom of God. T26 170.1

I speak of the tithing system, yet how meager it looks to my mind! How small the estimate! How vain the endeavor to measure with mathematical rules, time, money and love against a love and a sacrifice that is measureless and incomputable! Tithes for Christ! Oh, meager pittance, shameful recompense for that which cost so much! From the cross of Calvary, Christ calls for an unconditional surrender. T26 170.2

He promised the young ruler that if he sold all that he had and gave it to the poor, and lifted his cross and followed him, he should have treasure in Heaven. All we have should be consecrated to God. The Majesty of Heaven came to the world to die, a sacrifice for the sins of man. How cold and selfish is the human heart that can turn away from such incomparable love, and set itself upon the vain things of this world. T26 170.3

When selfishness is striving for the victory over you, bear in mind One who left the glorious courts of Heaven, and laid aside the robes of royalty for your sakes, becoming poor that, through his poverty, you might be made rich. Will you, then, disregard this great love and boundless mercy, by refusing to be inconvenienced, and to deny yourselves for his dear sake? Will you cling to the treasures of this life and neglect to aid in carrying forward the great work of truth? T26 171.1

The children of Israel were anciently commanded to make an offering for the entire congregation to purify them from ceremonial defilement. This sacrifice was a red heifer, and represented the more perfect offering that should redeem from the pollution of sin. This was an occasional sacrifice for the purification of all those who had necessarily or accidentally touched the dead. All who came in contact with death in any way were considered ceremonially unclean. This was to forcibly impress the minds of the Hebrews with the fact that death came in consequence of sin, and therefore is a representative of sin. The one heifer, the one ark, the one brazen serpent impressively point to the one great offering, the sacrifice of Christ. T26 171.2

This heifer was to be red without spot, which was a symbol of blood. It must be without blemish, and one that had never borne a yoke. Here again was Christ typified. The Son of God came voluntarily to accomplish the work of atonement, There was no obligatory yoke upon him, for he was independent and above all law. The angels, as God's intelligent messengers, were under the yoke of obligation, no personal sacrifice of theirs would atone for the guilt of fallen man. Christ alone was free from the claims of the law to undertake the redemption of the sinful race. He had power to lay down his life and to take it up again. “Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” T26 172.1

Yet this glorious being loved the poor sinner, and took upon himself the form of a servant, that he might suffer and die in man's behalf. Jesus might have remained at his Father's right hand, wearing his kingly crown and royal robes. But he chose to exchange all the riches, honor and glory of Heaven for the poverty of humanity, and his station of high command for the horrors of Gethsemane, and the humiliation and agony of Calvary. He became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, that, by his baptism of suffering and blood, he might purify and redeem a guilty world. Lo, “I come,” was the joyful assent, “to do thy will, O God!” T26 172.2

The sacrificial heifer was conducted without the camp, and slain in the most imposing manner. Thus Christ suffered without the gates of Jerusalem, for Calvary was outside the city walls. This was to show that Christ did not die for the Hebrews alone, but for all mankind. He proclaims to a fallen world that he has come to be their Redeemer, and urges them to accept the salvation he offers them. T26 173.1

The heifer having been slain in a most solemn manner, the priest clothed in pure white garments, took the blood in his hands as it issued from the body of the victim, and cast it towards the temple seven times. “And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.” T26 173.2

The body of the heifer was burned to ashes, which signified a whole and ample sacrifice. The ashes were then gathered up by a person uncontaminated by contact with the dead, and placed in a vessel containing water from a running stream. This clean and pure person then took a cedar stick with scarlet cloth and a bunch of hyssop and sprinkled the contents of the vessel upon the tent and the people assembled. This ceremony was repeated several times in order to be thorough, and was done as a purification from sin. T26 173.3

Thus Christ in his own spotless righteousness, after shedding his precious blood, enters into the holy place to cleanse the sanctuary. And there the crimson current is brought into the service of reconciling God to man. Some may look upon this slaying of the heifer as a meaningless ceremony, but it was done by the command of God, and bears a deep significance that has not lost its application to the present time. T26 174.1

The priest used cedar and hyssop, dipping them into the cleansing water and sprinkling the unclean. This symbolized the blood of Christ spilled to cleanse us from moral impurities. The repeated sprinklings illustrate the thoroughness of the work that must be accomplished for the repenting sinner. All that he has must be consecrated. Not only should his own soul be washed clean and pure, but he should strive to have his family, his domestic arrangements, his property and entire belongings consecrated to God. T26 174.2

After the sprinkling with hyssop of the tent, over the door of those cleansed was written, I am not my own; Lord, I am thine. Thus should it be with those who profess to be cleansed by the blood of Christ. God is no less exacting now than he was in olden times. The Psalmist, in his prayer, refers to this symbolic ceremony when he says, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.” “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.” “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit.” T26 175.1

The blood of Christ is efficacious but needs continually to be applied. God not only wants his servants to use the means he has intrusted to them for his glory, but he desires them to make a consecration of themselves to his cause. If you, my brethren, have become selfish and are withholding from the Lord that which you should cheerfully give to his service, then you need the blood of sprinkling thoroughly applied, consecrating you and all your possessions to God. T26 175.2

My much respected brethren, you have not that earnest and unselfish devotion to the work of God that he requires of you. You have given your attention to temporal matters. You have trained your minds for business in order to benefit yourselves thereby. But God calls for you to come more closely into union with him, that he may mould and train you for his work. A solemn statement was made to ancient Israel that the man who should remain unclean and refuse to purify himself, should be cut off from among the congregation. This has a special meaning for us. If it was necessary in ancient times for the unclean to be purified by the blood of sprinkling, how essential for those living in the perils of the last days and exposed to the temptations of Satan, to have the blood of Christ applied to their hearts daily. “For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” T26 176.1

You should both do much more than you have done towards bearing the burdens of the work of the Lord. I adjure you to arouse from your lethargy, leave the vain idolatry of worldly things, and be in earnest to secure a title to your immortal inheritance. Work while it is day. Do not imperil your souls by forfeiting present opportunities. Do not make your eternal interests of secondary importance. Do not put the world before religion, and toil day after day to acquire its riches, while the peril of eternal bankruptcy threatens you. Every day is bringing you nearer to the final reckoning. Be ready to yield up the talents lent you with the increase gained by their wise use. T26 176.2

You cannot afford to sacrifice Heaven, or jeopardize your safety. Do not let the deceitfulness of riches lead you to neglect the immortal treasure. Satan is a wily foe and he is ever on your track, striving to ensnare you and compass your ruin. We are in the waiting time, let your loins be girded about, and your lights shining, that you may wait for the Lord when he returneth from the wedding, that when he cometh and knocketh you may open unto him immediately. T26 177.1

Watch, brethren, the first dimming of your light, the first neglect of prayer, the first symptom of spiritual slumber. He that endureth unto the end shall be saved. It is by the constant exercise of faith and love that believers are made to shine as lights in the world. You are making but poor preparation for the Master's coming, if, when he appears, you must present to him talents that you have buried in the earth, talents neglected, abused, misused, a divided love, serving mammon while professedly serving God. T26 177.2

You have both professed to be servants of Christ. How necessary that you should obey your Master's directions and be faithful to your duties. “Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” This love is without a parallel, giving to men the relationship of sons to God. Therefore the Father expects obedience from his children, therefore he requires a right disposition of the property he has placed in their hands. It is not their own to use for their personal gratification, but it is the capital of the Lord, for which they are responsible to him. T26 178.1

Children of the Lord, how precious is the promise! How full the atonement of the Saviour for our guilt! The Redeemer, with a heart of unalterable love, still sheds his sacred blood in the sinner's behalf. The wounded hands, the pierced side, the marred feet plead eloquently for fallen man whose redemption is purchased at such an infinite cost. Oh, matchless condescension! Time nor events can lessen the efficacy of the atoning sacrifice. As the fragrant cloud of incense rose acceptably to Heaven, and Aaron sprinkled the blood upon the mercy-seat of ancient Israel, and cleansed the people from guilt, so the merits of the slain Lamb are accepted by God today as a purifier from the defilement of sin. T26 178.2

Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation. There are stem battles for you to fight. You should put on the whole armor of righteousness and prove yourselves strong and true in your Redeemer's service. God wants no idlers in his field, but co-laborers with Christ, vigilant sentinels at their posts, valiant soldiers of the cross, ready to do and dare all things for the cause in which they are enlisted. T26 179.1

It is not wealth or intellect that gives happiness, it is true moral worth and a sense of duty performed. You may have the overcomer's reward and stand before the throne of Christ to sing his praises in the day when he assembles his saints, but your robes must be cleansed in the blood of the Lamb, and charity must cover you as a garment and you be found spotless and without blemish. T26 179.2

John says:—“After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; and cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.” “These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple; and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them. They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters; and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.” T26 180.1