Letters and Manuscripts — Volume 8 (1893)

Lt 70, 1893

Forest, Brother; Stevens, Brother

On Board S. S. to Sydney, Australia

December 1893

Previously unpublished.

Dear Brethren,

Enoch walked with God. With whom are you walking? Have you given your whole heart to the Saviour who has given His life for you? The very atmosphere is laden with the poisonous malaria of satanic influences. He infuses into every mind, that is open to receive it, fascinations and ambitions that lead into a variety of amusements and engagements that shall induce disobedience to God, and bring the soul into his net where it is difficult to extricate it from the meshes Satan has woven. O, if all could only see and understand the multiplicity of working agencies to ensnare, deceive and delude souls to their own eternal ruin. Disobedience to God lies at the foundation of all sin. The Spirit of God works in all those who love and fear Him, for they are constantly aiming to keep His requirements, living by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. The flesh warreth against the spirit, and the spirit warreth against the flesh. Which will conquer? 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 1

My brother, this warfare is going on with you daily. You are now being tested and proved. With whom are you walking? Is Christ your companion? Do you cultivate thoughts of Him in whom your hopes of eternal life are centered? Is the god of this world, the object, the theme of your thoughts? One step at a time we are advancing to walk in Christ’s footsteps. Life is made up of little things, the repetition of simple acts; and that which we develop in character, in these commonplace things, is deciding our destiny for eternity. The character which we exhibit in our daily practical life testifies in the books of heaven whether we have any other gods before the Lord. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 2

If the affections center upon minor objects, we show before the heavenly angels, before the world, that God is not supreme with us. “Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience; among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace are ye saved;) and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. ... For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.” [Ephesians 2:2-6, 8.] 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 3

My brother, the Lord is testing and proving you. That which you esteem of greatest value, you will keep most in your mind and thoughts, and you will not hesitate to expend the most time and means [on them]. That which is the least value, in your estimation, will receive the smallest investment of your money, and of your thoughts. I present this to you to awaken your mind to consideration. That which you sow ye shall also reap. While your mind and affections are so fully occupied with temporal things, you weave your care, your anxious thoughts, your tact, your skill, your ability, time, strength, and study, into these things. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 4

You are laboring for supremacy in your cultivation of flowers and some specimens of fruit. While there is no sin in this kind of employment, there is sin which will imperil your soul in making these things of minor importance, supreme. The fruits of righteousness, bearing much fruit to the glory of God is the result of true living for the Master. The precious graces of the Spirit, cultivated as assiduously, as tenderly, as watchfully, as you cultivate your precious treasures in plants and flowers, would make you a deep, earnest, devoted, self-sacrificing Christian. The truth must accomplish much for the receiver. It sanctifies the soul, and thus the plants of the Lord’s care grow and flourish in the Lord. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 5

But, brother, what will all this jealous care, this constant study and education, amount to in the end? All perish with the using. There is altogether too much value placed on these inanimate, perishable things, and that to the neglect of your own eternal interest. The prayer of Christ for His disciples was, “Sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy word is truth.” [John 17:17.] You are regarded as a branch of the living vine to bear fruit after Christ’s order. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing.” [John 15:4, 5.] Suppose that you should study attentively your own case as a branch of the living vine in the light of the Scriptures. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 6

Christ has presented to you the truth in its purity; precious jewels of truth have been presented to you; treasures hidden, for which you are to seek. You have not put your mind and heart to the task of seeking for these treasures, not with one tithe of the earnestness and ambition that you have manifested in securing to yourself new and choice variety of shrubs and flowers. I open this before you as it has been presented to me, that you shall not always keep doing as you have done. Your course of action seems right in your own eyes, but it is not pleasing to God. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 7

The circulating vitality of the love of God, through every [part?] constitute you a true branch of the living vine, that you, being a branch of that vine, may bear rich clusters of precious fruit to the glory of God. This cultivation of the garden of the soul will require thought and study, and to be watered with the dews and showers and sunshine of the Sun of Righteousness; then the very best results will be attained, and then what? you will be as trees of the Lord’s planting. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 8

“Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the Lord shall be thy rereward. ... And the Lord shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not. And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places; thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breech, The restorer of paths to dwell in. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the Sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honorable; and shalt honor him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words; then shalt thou delight thyself in the Lord; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” [Isaiah 58:8, 11-14.] 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 9

There is a work for you to do that has been left strangely neglected. You are not justified to continue in a business one day after you embraced the light upon the Sabbath. Your works are a denial of your faith. You make yourself a transgressor. You have set the matter before your mind in every possible [way] to make it no offense to God. True, some one must bury the dead, but let it not be the men who are claiming to be commandmentkeepers, “in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.” [Philippians 2:15.] There is business done on the Sabbath that ought not to be done. Whatever may be your reasoning, unbelievers look upon the matter from a business standpoint. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 10

Now, my brother, had you been living and walking in the light which the Lord gave you one year since, in Napier during the camp meeting, you would, as a faithful steward of God, [have] been on the ground the very first of the camp meeting in Wellington. You would have considered your garden of the soul needed to be watered with the dew of heaven and the showers of grace, and you would have advanced spiritually. You have the third chapter of Malachi to study and practice, else the sure visitation of God will come upon you, and all who neglect to follow out through love and fear of God every specification in His Word, lest you be found committing robbery toward God. You cannot afford it. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 11

O, you have much to learn yet in regard to soul culture; the garden of the Lord needs your care in cultivating the precious plants of faith and love, and every grace of the Spirit. There are imperishable treasures that never fade or decay. Will my brother take pains to consider the way Christ has given His lessons for his instruction? Were Christ upon the earth, my brother, He would reproach you for your slowness of comprehension of the relative importance of the heavenly things above the earthly. He has left in our possession truths, but we little suspect their value. Truth is capable of continual expansion and to be seen by the diligent student in new and beautiful developments. While the mind is put to the tax to comprehend depth and breadth of the meaning of the sacred utterances of the Word of God, angels are by the side of the contrite soul who hungers and thirsts for knowledge. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 12

Every true lover of nature, and an earnest student [endeavoring] to search out its hidden mysteries, finds himself lost in vast gardens of richest plants and shrubs, and opening buds, and blooming flowers. He admires them as a whole, but then his interest deepens, and he would examine the precious flowers one by one, and become acquainted with their beautiful diversity; and they speak to him of God and of heaven. He looks through nature to adore the God of nature. The flowers of singular beauty and fragrance can be truly estimated and unselfishly enjoyed by the soul that becomes better acquainted with God. His miracles of marvelous beauty, given to the bud and opening flower [are] to be estimated and cherished as the tokens of the love of God to the human family, as symbols to be presented to our children of the heavenly, divine treasures of truth in the garden of God, the Bible contains the most precious. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 13

The Lord Jesus was the foundation of the whole Jewish economy. The interior truths cannot be comprehended by minds that consider gain is godliness, and who reach no deeper and higher for the interior truths which, as they merely glance at them, appear incomprehensible. A true understanding of the New Testament is the key, mercifully placed in your hands, to unlock the treasure house of the Old Testament Scriptures. Both are essential to be understood, else they will meet with great loss who do not sense the necessity of obedience, perfect conformity of heart, mind and soul, to the expressed will of God. The teachings of Christ was the seed bed, in the Old Testament; He has scattered the heavenly grains here and there, which have been by some faithful servants gathered up and cherished; by others, they have been misapplied and misplaced in the framework of error, to misinterpret God and His measureless love. Christ came to our world to rescue these precious plants of truth from the companionship of error, to reset them in their order and significance in the framework of truth, and bid them stand fast forever. It requires a skillful and persevering mind, that is determined to gain the eternal riches of truth, to gather up grain by grain the wheat among the chaff which has been made its companions, that the great doctrine of grace, mercy, and the love of God, link after link, may be strung upon the golden threads, to be seen after a time, transplanted into the soul of the human heart, where they may be watered and cultivated by the Author of truth, and yield in perfection, abundantly, the richest treasures, not only for the possessor to enjoy in the fact of possession, but for them to multiply by sowing them beside all waters. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 14

The far reaching principles of the truth taught by Christ never become exhausted. The one who searches for hidden treasures with humble contrition of soul will be put in possession of every essential truth for the present time. Every such soul follows on to know the Lord, Whom to know aright is life eternal. These diligent students will see that they cultivate tact, and strict temperance in all things, that they have all their habits after strict temperance practices [so] that wherever they may be, there shall not be a clouded brain from the use of the narcotic tobacco, or beer, or fermented liquors of any sort; that when the want of these things are missed, then they may hear and appreciate the words of Christ, “If any man thirst let him come unto Me and drink.” “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water, springing up into everlasting life.” [John 7:37; 4:14.] 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 15

Even with the inspired Epistles in our hands there is much more to be comprehended in the teachings of Christ to the patriarchs and prophets in the Old Testament, and to His disciples and apostles in the New [Testament]. New aspects of truth will dawn upon our comprehension if studied prayerfully; the far reaching principles of the ten commandments are not seen and appreciated, because the mind’s force is put upon matters of a temporal, earthly character. The words, customs, and maxims of the world are so interwoven with every thought and practice that the true sense of eternal realities sinks insignificantly lower than the temporal and common things with which the mind is made familiar. The ordinary spiritual vision cannot discern eternal precious things unless purified from dross, and the common. Earnest persevering energy is not cultivated to understand those things which are not of a perishable character, unless the mind is purged from its grossness; not when everything of eternal interest is cheapened, to be viewed in their mist and cloud of worldliness, with far less acuteness than they manifest in common things. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 16

Who will gain heaven? Only those who appreciate the love, the mercy, and the benevolence of God in His character, and practice His virtues. These will manifest to the heavenly universe, to the world, and to men an intensity of desire proportionate to the value of the object they are striving to obtain. My brother, you need an experimental knowledge of the Lord Jesus. You have too many idols you place in your affection before the Lord. When you turn to the Lord with all your heart, He will dethrone them all. You will know Christ, not by a casual touch, but by the touch of a living faith; and His presence and His love, filling your heart, will dethrone every idol and make your heart so full of love and devoted service to Jesus Christ, that in serving Him with an eye single to His glory, you will not be content nor satisfied in looking at the things which are seen; but your heart’s affections will lay hold of the things which are unseen, which are eternal. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 17

I have risen at four, and am sitting up in bed in _____ house in Auckland, in a little room upstairs. The Steamer arrived in Auckland the morning of the 14th and leaves today at nine o’clock p.m. Elder Olsen spoke last night in the Seventh-day Adventist church here. We meet early this morning (Sabbath), and all of us take part in the hours spent for meeting until the close, which will be twelve o’clock. It is a lovely day, and we praise the Lord for His goodness and love to the children of men. O, how I long to see those who claim to be, not their own, but Jesus Christ’s faithful soldiers serve Him as devotedly as themselves, and give Him the tact and service they give to things of minor importance. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 18

My brother, you missed a rich blessing at the camp meeting because you had gods whom you serve before the Lord, and I am so afraid that you will have so few thoughts of Jesus, and so little of His spirit of self-denial, that you will not see Him and He is when you need Him most, and Jesus will be a stranger to you, whom you know but very little about. I was so sorry for you and brother Stevens; that you seemed to be of one mind, and of one spirit, and while your thoughts were full of some projects of your own, you closed the door effectually to the sweet bright rays of the Sun of Righteousness; and self-complacency, so long cherished, reigns supreme. Your hearts and your minds were elsewhere. You received no blessing because you each had your idols set up in your heart. Although at great expense the heavenly feast of God was spread before you, and Christ was saying, “Come unto me; come for all things are now ready” you both refused to come. [Luke 14:17, 18.] O, my heart was so pained, for I hoped these meetings would be appreciated by you both. But this could not be until your soul temple was cleansed from every idol. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 19

The Lord calls for the heart’s affections; profession avails you, or Brother Stevens, nothing. God can do without either of you, but neither of you can do without God. As soon as you shall hear the voice of Jesus, in His knocking at the door of the heart, and let Him in, He will come in and He will sup with you, and you with Him. But as long as you choose other gods before the Lord, there is no room for Jesus in your hearts. As soon as you draw nigh to God sincerely, He will draw nigh to you. I wish that I could address you both separately, but this I cannot do now. That which I speak to one must answer for both. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 20

You are not a blessing in your companionship with one another. You do not help each other with your reasoning. You both view many things in a perverted light. You both came to the meeting, more as spectators, than as those who were expecting to meet the Lord and receive His message sent by His messengers to you. Your eyes and hearts were not prepared to receive the precious treasures of grace and increased knowledge. Self and selfishness and perverted ideas closed tightly the doors of your hearts; and on the Sabbath day, the day you believe to be sanctified and blessed of God, to be employed to worship Him, you turned your face homeward, testifying that you had no interest in that grand, that blessed, convocation meeting. May God have mercy upon you both, and not give you up to blindness of mind. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 21

Brother Stevens, in the night season I was brought where I could see you and your associations. You needed to have the blessing and influence of the children of God in that meeting. You needed to get the grace of Christ to bury your affections for your idol, the pipe, forever, when it would never find a resurrection. The truth will never be seen in its preciousness to you, as saving truth, until your soul temple is cleansed from every thing that defileth. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 22

Your course of action from the time that you left home is all open to God. There was One, a Witness to all you said, all you did. The same Witness that was present at the feast of Belshazzar, in that feast to his princes and wives, and that Witness made His hand to be seen until His fingers traced over against the wall the fatal words in judgment against the king. Did you seek to honor God from the time that you left your home to attend the meeting? Did you gather up, Brother Stevens, the precious rays of light sent from heaven to shine in the chambers of the mind and the soul temple? Your wife and yourself were both called to a rich feast of the Lord, that blessing proffered might have made you both richer in knowledge and spiritual understanding, but you have lost it, because you had gods before the Lord. One idol cherished, your affection for your own flesh, may be made gods that will divert your minds from God, the only true God, who has purchased you by His own wonderful gift of Himself, “That you should not perish, but have everlasting life.” [John 3:16.] 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 23

You have presented before me that our brethren ought to have more business tact, and financial ability, [and] be wise in matters of business. I said to you that God wanted men who have sanctified ability of talent to be used in His service, and then God would accept the qualifications He had given them; because they used their talents of influence with a single eye to His glory. But if the truth was not received by these men, to sanctify their hearts and purify their every characters, they could not be used by Him as laborers together with God, for every earthly consideration must be subordinate to the matters of eternal interest. When Christ is all, and in all, to them the object of their love and filling the desire of their soul, then God can use them to His own glory, and if they will not appreciate the eternal above temporal, then they only exert an influence detrimental to the advancement of the truth and Christ’s righteousness. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 24

Now, my brother, Brother Forest and yourself have demonstrated that the words addressed to Nicodemus, are in every sense applicable to you both. “Ye must be born again.” [Verse 7.] You need a fresh conversion; both of you have idols which you serve and worship before the Lord. The temporal and earthly is exalted above the spiritual and heavenly. You both needed that meeting so much. It has passed into eternity with its burden of record. It stands in every transaction just as things occurred. Will you want to meet the same in the day when every case shall be decided according to their works? 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 25

Be careful, my brethren, not to take your way and your own course. Supposing we had, as a people, been composed of just sharp, wise businessmen as Brother Forest and Brother Stevens, please tell me, on such occasions, in such a meeting as we have had in Wellington, had they pursued the same course you have done as wise managers in a crisis, what would have been the result of that meeting? I tell you, unless businessmen who have Christ enthroned in their hearts shall connect themselves, heart and soul, and all they have and are, to advance His work, to build up His kingdom in the earth, we had better not depend on them but look to the Lord God, and let Him be our dependence and let Him be our trust. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 26

The tithe has been a vexed question with you, but as God has spoken in Malachi without any if’s or and’s about the matter, you had better come as obedient children dependent upon Him for all you have and give to Him that portion upon which He has laid His hand saying, This part is Mine. Place it in the treasury, with your gifts and offerings, “that there may be meat in mine house.” [Malachi 3:10.] I therefore entreat of you, as brethren whom I highly respect and love in the Lord, not to venture to rob God in tithes or in offerings; but let every soul who claims to believe in God comply with His requirements, “that there may be meat in mine house.” This is God’s way of carrying forward His work of sending the light of truth to all parts of the world, to those who are in darkness, that Christ Jesus may be uplifted to the world, and the saving truth be proclaimed to all nations. Why are the judgments of God in our land? Because He has been insulted, His love and requirements unheeded, and men have taken His entrusted gifts as their own productions, and used them as they pleased, and the work that ought to have been done has not been done in the world. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 27

Now light has come to you both. Will you obey God? Or will you follow the imaginations of your own hearts? The Lord will arise and show how easily He can scatter the possessions of all those who dishonor Him. His hand is stretched out over the land, and we have only begun to see what will be. Men who have the truth should not feel at liberty, wise as they suppose they are, for there is One who is infinite in wisdom, who has told them what He requires of them, and [by] obeying they manifest a true wisdom. They may in their wisdom think to secure to themselves treasures, but they will take to themselves wings and fly away as the chaff. Fire and water are under the command of God, and He can destroy and He can scatter. The wisdom of the wise men, if not sanctified to God, will lead them to put their money into bags that are full of holes. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 28

“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 treasure 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 thy 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. No man can serve two masters: or either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 29

“Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not neither do they spin, and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For all these things do the Gentiles seek). For your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow; for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” [Matthew 6:19-34.] 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 30

Brethren, do not, I beg of you, feel all the time afraid that you will be expected to do something for the cause of God. This is the only saving bank that will never fail. Lay up your treasure in heaven. If God entrusted you with means, He expects you to be His almoner to help sustain His cause. This is putting out your talents to usury, where it will do good, where it will prepare the way of the Lord, that souls shall receive the knowledge of the truth. Money may be placed where it will not advance the cause of God one jot, or one tittle. O, how much better to put it in God’s treasury, in “bags that wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not.” [Luke 12:33.] 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 31

Bear in mind, my brethren, you are not only working for time, but for eternity. “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing His reproach.” “Make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ: to whom be glory for ever and ever.” [Hebrews 13:13, 21.] What will it amount to in the end, that I have lived and toiled, if I miss the way? If I have laid up treasure on the earth, it will pass away. If I have laid up treasure in heaven, I have enduring substance that will never fail; flood cannot wash away this treasure, fire cannot consume it. It is mine. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 32

“But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil; which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses. ... Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate; Laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.” [1 Timothy 6:6-12, 17-19.] 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 33

I beseech you to listen to what I say to you, for it is not I that speak, but the Lord that speaketh through His humble servant. Both of you have been very kind to me. I appreciate every favor done to me for Christ’s sake; and I do not want you should lose the reward. Eternal life is worth a lifelong, persevering, untiring, effort. God loves you both, but He is not altogether pleased with your course of action. He wants you to be laborers together with God. He wants you to be representative men, wholly on the Lord’s side, for He shares no divided hearts. Give to the Lord the whole heart, the whole soul, the entire affections. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 34

I am so sorry that the help that you might have received to do all this work of self-denial, the moral power that you might have obtained at the meeting, you did not receive, because you kept yourselves out of the channel of light. Now I beseech you, as God’s messenger, to give yourselves without reserve to God. Seek the Lord while He may be found, and the next meeting that shall be held in New Zealand, be on hand to be among the most interested ones. God expects this of His followers—brave soldiers to endure hardness in His service, as you have been willing to endure hardness and conflict in the service of the world, for temporal things. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 35

Truth will triumph. The third angel will bear away the victory. Will you triumph with it? Shall it advance, and you be left in the rear? Flee for your safe refuge, lay hold on the hope set before you in the gospel. Eternal life may be yours; press, press forward to the mark of the prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus. My heart yearns after you. I want you to lay aside every idol, and Christ will cleanse the soul temple from every defilement. Jesus has done everything that a God could do, for you and me, and the whole world; and if we miss heaven it will be a terrible loss to every one who does not gain eternal life. If we gain heaven, we have no time to lose. Look at the self-denial of Jesus. Look at His sacrifice for us, and can you withhold anything from Jesus who has died to bring all the eternal riches within your reach? Show [that] your interest for Jesus is greater, far greater, than your interest for any earthly thing. Show that [which] you prize highest, by your devotion and determined effort to secure it. “The Spirit helpeth our infirmities.” [Romans 8:26.] When you enter His courts, He requires that you lay upon His altar spiritual sacrifices. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 36

It is meeting time, I must go. In much love. 8LtMs, Lt 70, 1893, par. 37