Manuscript Releases, vol. 8 [Nos. 526-663]

MR No. 610—Character Transformed by Beholding Christ

As ministers of the gospel of Christ we need to study the example of our Master. How pitiful and courteous Jesus was. How tenderly He entered into the feelings of others. Touched with the feeling of their infirmities, He wept with those who wept, and with those who rejoiced He could rejoice. Such a character will not be without an influence on the characters of His followers. Those who educate their minds to dwell on the perfections of Christ will represent Him to the world.... 8MR 309.1

If your eyes were fixed upon Jesus, if you were contemplating His unsurpassed purity and excellence, you would see your own weakness and poverty and defects as they are. You would not regard yourself as holy. You would see yourself lost and hopeless, clad in garments of self-righteousness, like every other sinner. If we are saved, it will not be because of our superior intellect, our refinement of ideas, but through the grace of God. We have no garment of our own that will give us a position of honor at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Christ's robe alone, the garment woven in the loom of heaven, will give to the guests a worthiness to sit down at the marriage feast. Each must accept this robe, and it is offered to the lowliest who will believe in Him as his personal Saviour. The imputed righteousness of Christ alone can make the sons and daughters of Adam members of the family in heaven.—Manuscript 62, 1899, 1, 3. (“Judge Not,” April 18, 1899.) 8MR 309.2

We must have special help from the One who has light and help for us. God will help us to contemplate Christ in His divine fulness.—Letter 72, 1906, p. 7. (To Brother and Sister Farnsworth, February 19, 1906.) 8MR 310.1

Christian character is developed, not by a life of meditative abstraction, but by a life of earnest, unselfish effort. The time in which we are living calls for solid work—for work that is right to the point. We must meet the foe on the right hand and on the left. The lives of the combatants for the truth are not to be filled with bustle and excitement and display, to the neglect of personal piety. Vigilant watching is to be combined with earnest working. Every Christian grace is to be incorporated into the character. We are to be diligent “in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord.” (Romans 12:11.)—Manuscript 44, 1905, 6. (“An Appeal for Faithful Stewardship,” March 29, 1905.) 8MR 310.2

Released March 17, 1978.