Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 20 (1905)

Ms 164, 1905

Diary

NP

December 28, 1905 [typed]

Previously unpublished.

“If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be. If any man serve Me, him will My Father honor. Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.” [John 12:26-28.] 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 1

“Thou art wearied in the greatness of thy way, yet saidst thou not, There is no hope; thou hast found the life of thy hand; therefore thou wast not grieved. And of whom hast thou been afraid or feared, that thou hast lied, and hast not remembered Me, nor laid it to thy heart? I have not held My peace even of old, and thou fearest Me not. I will declare thy righteousness and thy works; for they shall not profit thee. When thou criest, let thy companies deliver thee; but the wind shall carry them all away; vanity shall take them; but he that putteth his trust in Me shall possess the land, and shall inherit My holy mountain, and shall say, Cast ye up, cast ye up, prepare the way, take up the stumbling block out of the way of My people. For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.” [Isaiah 57:10-15.] 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 2

Upon this class the Lord has compassion. He says, Their course of action has grieved the Lord and grieved His people, yet if they will humble their hearts and confess and forsake their sins, I will not leave them to become the sport of Satan’s temptations. 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 3

“I will not contend forever, neither will I be always wroth; for the spirit should fail before Me, and the souls which I have made. For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him; I hid Me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart. I have seen his ways, and will heal him; I will heal him, and restore comforts unto him, and to his mourners. I create the fruit of the lips; peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the Lord, and I will heal him.” [Verses 16-19.] 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 4

“A voice was heard upon the high places, weeping and supplications of the children of Israel; for they have perverted their way, and they have forgotten the Lord their God. Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.” [Jeremiah 3:21, 22.] 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 5

What is the response from the erring?—“Behold, we come unto Thee, for Thou art the Lord our God. Truly in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains; truly in the Lord is the salvation of Israel. For shame hath devoured the labors of our fathers from our youth; their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God.” [Verses 22-25.] 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 6

To this prayer of humility the Lord responds: “If thou wilt return, O Israel, ... return unto Me; and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of My sight, then shalt thou not remove. And thou shalt swear, The Lord liveth, in truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; and the nations shall bless themselves in Him, and in Him shall they glory.” [Jeremiah 4:1, 2.] 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 7

“But the wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt. There is no peace, saith My God, to the wicked.” [Isaiah 57:20, 21.] 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 8

*****

Christ’s miracles and the words that He spoke had a great influence upon the people, but the unbelieving Jews worked constantly to make His work severe and trying. Their continual misrepresentations proceeded from hearts unhumbled, lifted up in self-glorification. The Jewish leaders’ powers to discern spiritual realities were perverted by the enemy of truth. 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 9

There are today those who are following the same path trodden by the Jews. Many, in the place of giving heed to the words Christ has spoken, are listening to fables and are gaining an experience entirely opposed to the teachings of Christ. 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 10

Christ came to this world in the likeness of human flesh to live in our behalf a perfect life and to overcome the temptations by which we are beset. He came that humanity might be placed on vantage ground through His example of purity, nobility, and obedience. He came as our Redeemer, to save every fallen human being. To those who receive and believe on Him, He gives power to become the sons and daughters of God, enabling them to obey the principles of righteousness. His messengers, angels of light, are sent to minister to those who shall be heirs of salvation. And Satan is on the ground, with the temptations that he employed in the garden of Eden to deceive Adam and Eve. 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 11

“Yet a little while is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you. While ye have the light believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. For he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth.” [John 12:35, 36.] We have these lessons before us. Those who array themselves decidedly against Christ are under the control of the father of lies. “Though He had done so many miracles among them, yet believed they not on Him.” [Verse 37.] If the great works that Christ did failed to convince the Jews of the divinity of His mission, we cannot suppose that the words spoken today by the ministers of Christ will convince of the importance of present truth those who have set their hearts to disobey or lead them in humble contrition of soul to confess their sins and become as God’s little children. 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 12

At times it seems as if my heart would break, as I think of the so-called “higher science” theories that are coming in. Of these theories, Satan is the alpha and omega. Men are grasping sentiments that exalt man, placing him where God should be. 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 13

“And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die; for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband, with her; and he did eat.” [Genesis 3:1-6.] 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 14

This same deceiving work is being carried on today by the originator of sin. He leads men to question the words of God. He presents flattering inducements to lead them into sin. It is God’s purpose that men and women shall be one with Christ, carrying out the will and way of God as His stewards. But evil angels come to them with Satan’s temptations, to work against God and His commandments. Ever since Satan was cast out of heaven, the powers of disobedience and transgression have been working to make the truth of no effect. 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 15

*****

“John bare witness of Him, and cried, saying, This is He of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me; for He was before me; and of His fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.” [John 1:15, 16.] 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 16

Every one who imparts the grace that Christ gives becomes a blessing to his fellow men and prepares himself to be a channel through which Christ can communicate His rich grace. 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 17

“Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.” [Verse 29.] Let those who desire to do a work as enduring as eternity magnify the Son of God, the Redeemer of the world. 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 18

I am charmed with the revelation of my Saviour given in the Word of God. Those who eat His flesh and drink His blood, those who make His Word a part of themselves, grow in grace. Christ looked upon a world subjected to the power of the enemy of all good. He saw men, endowed with powers for good, degraded by self-serving. Taking His stand in the highways of life, He sees their disappointment; He sees the busy crowds passing and repassing one another, in eager search for worldly riches, yet meeting failure after failure. He seeks to arrest their attention and to point them upward to the unseen world. With intense earnestness He cries, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal; for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. The light of the body is the eye; if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness.” [Matthew 6:19-23.] 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 19

He sees multitudes mistaking phantoms for realities. He sees men who should be engaged in His service following delusions that will result in a succession of failures. He seeks to direct them heavenward. He declares that the highest good is where God is. He calls upon them to secure the treasure that will endure forever. He urges that they shall respect their own reasoning powers and not leave out of their reckoning that eternity of bliss which it is their privilege to gain. 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 20

Christ has paid the price of the salvation of the whole world. He requires the members of His church to live up to the faith they profess. He urges them to subordinate the world to its true place, forbidding them to exhaust the powers of body, and mind, and soul, in an effort to secure worldly gain. All the capabilities of the being are to be subordinated to God, stamped with His image and superscription. “Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are His.” [1 Corinthians 6:19, 20.] 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 21

The Lord Jesus will give scope to the loftiest ideas of those who labor in connection with Him. Those to whom He has entrusted talents of means and influence must co-operate with the heavenly Father, regarding themselves as stewards of God’s goods and trading faithfully on their talents. They are not to live for themselves, but for God, and they are to increase their Master’s goods by putting them out to usury, using all their powers to increase the number that believe the truth. There are opened to them the gates of heavenly commerce, and they are offered the privilege of continually imparting and continually receiving the grace that Christ gives. This receiving and imparting gives security to our lifework. Thus we lay up treasure “where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through and steal.” [Matthew 6:20.] 20LtMs, Ms 164, 1905, par. 22