Our High Calling

One to a Hundred, June 21

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. Matthew 18:21, 22. OHC 178.1

There is a great work before us. There are men and women straying from the fold of Christ, and as they become cold and indifferent, and lose all disposition to return, they will not run after you. You must take them where they are.... When you find a wandering sheep, call him to the fold; and leave him not until you see him safely enfolded there.... Go out for the lost sheep of the house of Israel. OHC 178.2

If there is any point on which you have committed one wrong, although he may have committed one hundred, take that which you have done out of the way and open the way for him to come back again. Perhaps that was the very thing that was keeping a soul away. In your humility, confess your one wrong, and perhaps it may touch him and lead him with weeping to confess his hundred wrongs, and to take them out of the way. Thus a soul for whom Christ died will be saved.... OHC 178.3

You may say, I have tried to save this one and that one, and they have only wounded me, and I am not going to try to help them any more. But do not become discouraged if they do not at once return to the fold. Reach out still for your fellow mortals around you. You shall reap if you faint not.^{46Manuscript 3, 1877 (formerly Undated Manuscript 141).} OHC 178.4

Press together. Do not make little wedges of slight differences of opinion, and drive them in to separate heart from heart, but see how you can love one another even as Christ has loved you. See how you can forgive those who trespass against you, even as you want your Father in heaven to forgive your trespasses. Then you can be definite in your requests; you can be bold in Christ; for Christ presents your requests to God with the heavenly credentials which are His own righteousness, and you can believe that Christ does hear, believe that He does bless, and say, “I am His, and He is mine.” ^{47Manuscript 12, 1891.} OHC 178.5